Fall 2018 – Week 3 in Review

Why does the anime do this to me. I feel like Run with the Wind, Gridman, and Tsurune could all easily have claimed the top spot in either spring or summer – here in fall, having all three of them at once just seems excessive. I know you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but couldn’t we have parceled out these horses a little more consistently throughout the seasons? My cup runneth over with gift horses.

Anyway, complaints about Too Much Good Anime aside, there sure is a whole lot of good anime this season. Tsurune finally made its debut this week, and stunned from start to finish with its gorgeous color work, efficient characterization, and generally compelling art design. Run with the Wind maintained its cheerful general excellence, while Gridman demonstrated that its “default mode” is still a show well worth celebrating. With the action spectacles also holding steady, this is looking to quite possibly be the best season of the year overall. It feels almost certain that over half of my current watching schedule will end up in my top ten of the year, with only winter’s formidable Evergarden-After the Rain-Universe-Laid Back Camp block offering much competition. I am thrilled to be enjoying this much anime, and eager to share all my enthusiasm with you. Let’s start with our running boys and run this week down!

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Fall 2018 Season Preview

Well folks, the fall season’s approaching, and I could not be happier to for once actually have good news. After two relatively light seasons in a row, it’s looking like fall will be delivering us a genuine bounty, offering a handful of obvious can’t-miss productions and plenty of other potential favorites besides. Contrary to what you might believe, I don’t really enjoy being negative about media – I’d much rather celebrate good things than sneer at failures, and this coming season offers plenty to celebrate.

As usual, my preview list here won’t be including every single coming show – you can check out anichart for that list, along with all their various synopses. Instead, I’ll specifically be highlighting the shows I’ve got high hopes for, and explaining whatever caught my attention, be that a strong staff, excellent source material, particularly impressive PV, or whatever else. The right execution can make any narrative compelling, and an intriguing premise doesn’t mean much if the staff can’t follow through on it, so I’ll mostly be leaning on production-side resources to guide me here. Starting from my most anticipated prospects, let’s run this exciting season down!

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