Spring 2018: Seasonal Highlights in Anime – Glass Reflection

I want you to keep something in mind for me, as a personal favour because it’s something that has affected me deeply for many a season. If in the near future – like the rest of this year or perhaps even into next year – if you hear someone in person or online say “This season seems kind of dry”, tell them from me, “Well, no shit! Because they saved all of the good stuff for this past spring!”

Spring 2018 has been one of, if not the best, seasons of anime in recent memory. It’s got almost too many good shows to keep up with! Most other seasons you can count the amount of noteworthy shows comfortably on one hand. And you’ll notice that back at the start of the season, I did not do my very traditional anticipated list for this season. Mostly that’s because I looked at the lineup and was like, “Yep, I give up! There’s too much!”

I would have either had to do a 45-minute anticipated extravaganza or risk cutting off shows that are still completely worthwhile. So I took the 3rd option. Let’s just wait it out ‘til past the midseason and examine things then because, hey, there’s a good chance that you all reading this haven’t kept up with the entire season anyway. Except you Gary! You know who you are.

So despite the start of this season being long past and most of these shows having been able to showcase exactly what they are all about, let’s take a gander at the Spring 2018 anime season and look at precisely what is worth your attention. This is a long list, so better strap in. Welcome to Glass Reflection, I’m Arkada. Let’s jam.

Winter Holdovers

Alright, so we are going to split this into three sections to make things easier on ourselves. First off, there are the holdovers from last season.

Darling in the Franxx is still going strong. And yes, I now know that it’s pronounced “Franks” and not “Fran-X”. Thank you for telling me…a billion, trillion times. I never claim to be good at pronunciation and offer no rebuttal or excuse. This sort of thing will happen again. Anyway. Franxx continues to please the whole “Trigger is the saviour of anime” crowd while making a series that continually flip-flops between being something I find absolutely remarkable, and something that I want to toss in a bin and light up with a flamethrower. It’s a bit of a controversial series in that way, but that’s one of the major reasons why someone like you might want to go and watch it to see what all of the hubbub is about. So if you haven’t seen it or even heard of it, then congrats on getting out from under that boulder you lived beneath! I have a First Reaction video that’s a bit dated now, but it still holds the first couple episodes’ worth of story and it gives enough of an overview that it’ll show you whether or not Franxx might be your thing.

Beyond that, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card is still continuing on its merry way. It is an absolute delight for me personally as the weeks drag on, but mostly I can really only recommend the series to fans of the franchise itself. While you can technically watch Clear Card on its own, it’s much better if you’ve seen the original series first. This isn’t personal opinion. Just straight facts.

Then there’s Grancrest War, one which I can’t actually speak much about because I’ve been avoiding it. To be clear, I’m not avoiding it because it’s bad or horrible, but considering it’s the spiritual successor to Record of Lodoss War – a series that I love so much that I have the TV series box set here on my shelf behind me – I’m anxious about how good this one will actually be. Sure, they are not directly connected story-wise, but considering they have the same creator and are tied to very similar settings, I’m hopeful for the best. I’ve just been waiting to marathon the series when it ends is all.

The last holdover of note is Yowamushi Pedal, specifically its 3rd season. This means that, since we are pressed for time, I’m going to pass over it with just a mention. By any show’s third season, you already know if you want to watch it, so there’s little point in me trying to sell you on it. Check out season one if you haven’t seen it yet. There will be links down in the doobaleedo.

So that is it for the holdovers. Let’s get into what makes this season special: its originals.

Originals

Now it is quite possible that a number of these flew under your radar because with sequels alone you might have been so busy that you filled all of your viewing timeslots. But that’s why I’m here. I’ve got 10 original shows from this season that might be worth it for you to go and check out, and hell, I’m still probably going to miss things. They might not all be amazing, but they all have their positive…quirks, if you will, and some of you might like a few of these over others.

Let’s start with Golden Kamuy. This is a show that entered my orbit of knowledge a while back, when I was recommended the manga incessantly. Now, having watched the show up until this point, I understand why it got so many recommendations. In a very quick explanation, Kamuy is the story of a former soldier from the Russo-Japanese War named Sugimoto, who – in order to provide for his family and one of his now dead comrades – starts to follow a criminal trail to a supposed stash of gold and riches. The map for this treasure is tattooed on the skin of a group of criminals.

He’s joined by a young girl named Asirpa who saved him from the wilderness and together (with her pet wolf) they search for more of the tattooed criminals. Honestly, the story of Kamuy is not anywhere near as interesting to me as its characters. Sugimoto holds the nickname of Immortal Sugimoto and his brash way of dealing with things, along with his insane luck, is a sight to behold. Combined with Asirpa’s honey badger attitude, the two make an amazing pair with some incredible chemistry. Looking forward to seeing the rest of this one.

I’m just going to skip over Magical Girl Ore, Uma Musume, Last Period, and Persona since I did separate reviews for all of them already. They have their niche and, if you fit into it, that’s great! But if their shtick is not for you, then you’re probably just going to pass them over. No harm, no foul.

Let’s instead move on to the duo of romance anime for this season: Wotakoi and Tada Never Falls in Love. Wotakoi is the more comedy-leaning of the two, starring a pair of otaku who share a workplace but hold different opinions on how socially acceptable their hobbies are. Hirotaka, a game otaku, has no qualms about playing games on his Switch out in the open during break times and fits into the more aloof role of leading male, while Narumi desperately tries to keep her fujoshi lifestyle hidden from her coworkers. The fact that the two of them knew each other during school makes this difficult for her, as he could inadvertently spill her hobbies at any moment (if he cared), but her secret is safe with his indifference. Of course, as the series progresses, we learn about the additional habits of their other nerdy coworkers and there is plenty of space for comedy and mischief that becomes the show’s bread and butter. Plus, the intro for this show is highly addictive.

Now Tada, on the other hand, is a much more feel-good sort of romance. Its leads are a photographer named Tada and a foreign transfer student named Teresa. They get thrown together due to the kind of quirky circumstances that make up the life of romance characters in these kinds of shows, and the plot largely is about the building of a relationship between both them and the rest of the school’s photography club. It might not have the same initial pop factor as other shows of this season, or as its main romance anime rival, but its lighter tone has been a highlight for me over the last number of weeks and I highly recommend checking it out.

Next up is Megalo Box, one of my personal faves of this season. Megalo Box is the 50th anniversary celebration of an anime series known as Ashita no Joe, or Tomorrow’s Joe. But despite that, you do not need to know anything about the old Joe to appreciate this new one, which is probably good because I doubt I could convince many people to actually sit down and watch a 50-year-old anime, regardless of how good it is. And it is. You should go watch it. But Megalo Box is the story about Joe, a low-life boxer from some kind of dystopian future, who is really, REALLY good at boxing. But the sport itself is dominated by the class society that he lives in, making it so that his chances of competing in the big national tournament are slim to none.

But Joe has some insane spirit – like, Kamina levels of fighting spirit – and he has a goal to not only fight in the big Megalo Box tournament, but to also win. Sure, on the surface, this story is not much more than your average rough and tumble underdog tale with boxing as its focus. However, the show’s absolutely dominating style is what sells it. The choice for both character designs and animation make it seem older and gruff. And the soundtrack…that will eventually be cycling through those lo-fi hip hop channels (or at least should be). You just want to cheer for Joe in every fight; it has that kind of character based magic... Yeah, if you aren't watching this show yet, you should. Period.

Next up is Comic Girls, a series that flew under even my radar to the point where I only watched episode one for the first time while writing the script for this video. And this honestly just pissed me off, because it instantly became one of my favourites and it annoys me that it got buried. It follows a group of manga artists who have been put together in a shared housing unit to hopefully better increase their manga work. This sort of storyline has been one that I’ve been seeing increasingly more of over the last number of years and I love that immensely. Stories about the inner workings of both anime and manga have truly become some of my favourites and if we ever come up with a sub-genre name for this sort of thing, I’ll proudly pronounce it as my favourite subgenre, surpassing even my love for Slice of Life and Mahou Shoujou. Comic Girls also has the creative support side of it that I find really helps me out when I’m feeling unmotivated in my own work. Watching these characters deal with the same creative problems that I am really does help me to overcome my own creative blocks. And hey, it’s the #1 original anime for Missouri, so it’s not unwatched by everyone. Some can appreciate its creative cuteness…

…unlike this second-to-last original series that I have to mention. This one’s production company makes it noteworthy despite it being legally unwatchable. Dragon Pilot, the new anime this season from Bones, is currently unavailable on any legal streaming site that I have access to. On the one hand, this displeases me because I don’t have the option to watch it and it seems right up my alley. But on the other hand, I have a watch list a million miles long this season as it is, so this might be for the best. I will watch it when it eventually becomes legally available sometime in the future, but for now…well, I’m putting it on hold.

The last original series I wanted to talk about is Hinamatsuri, because…boi, watch this series! Hinamatsuri is a comedy series about a young psychic named Hina who is teleported to a modern Tokyo from the…future? Alternate reality? I don’t know. The point is she gets dropped off Terminator teleportation-style into the home of Nitta, a member of the Yakuza. And under threat of destroying all of his priceless vases that he displays proudly in his apartment, he begrudgingly takes her in. The show’s story progresses by placing them into new circumstances that they have to learn to live with.

On top of their own already-complicated living situation – and it is absolutely hilarious – the series also spends a decent amount of time on the show’s amazing secondary cast. There’s the fellow psychic Anzu, who lives the life of a homeless person. Hitomi is the studious mature student who gets roped into becoming a bartender. And then there are all the various lives that intersect with them all as the show goes on. If it wasn't for the absolute myriad of other amazing shows out this season, Hinamatsuri would probably be an easy win for best of season for me. But unfortunately for it, we have so many other good choices that it’s probably tied with Megalobox for best original though. At least for that. But of course this season is also filled with some amazing sequels and spinoffs.

Sequels and Spinoffs

Not Tokyo Ghoul though. True, I have my problems with the series, but Re as a season has done nothing to grab me. I’ll probably finish watching it out of an obligation and to get people to stop badgering me about it the way they did for the last two Tokyo Ghoul seasons, but check out my FR on it for the initial thoughts I have with it and let’s move on.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a series that covers two bases for me. It shows us what a good Sword Art Online series can be like, because while the setting of the show has always been stellar, the characters that inhabit it (or more specifically one character), has always ruined the fun for me. It also shows what this franchise is like in the hands of a competent writer. Yousuke Kuroda is the one helming this, and he takes one of the settings from previous SAO seasons and adds in his own original characters for a completely original story.

In this one, the young Karen is forced to play a heavily action-oriented gun-based shooter because that’s the only game where her avatar is allowed to look like how she wished her IRL body was like. It still has many of the action staples that made the previous SAO seasons great despite being handled by a different production company, and I will be honest that the lack of Yuki Kajiura on the soundtrack front is noticeable, but it is something that I can live with. Honestly, I’m just glad that I finally have an SAO series that I can be happy watching and recommending without needing to put an asterisk beside it.

Next, there are two shows that I can quickly pass over, but don’t worry, these are the last of those. It should go without saying (at least on this channel) that My Hero Academia is worth your time. Its third season is no exception to that. In fact, if anything, Hero Aca 3 is showing what a long-running shounen of years past could look like when broken up into more manageable pieces instead of being railroaded into having a new 20-minute episode every week for years on end.

Also, Food Wars is in its third season, but for a variety of reasons I’ve never made it through season 1. I didn’t hate it or anything; I just don’t see much that gives me the motivation to continue watching it when there are other options out there. Still though, a lot of people are really big fans of Food Wars, so I don’t mind giving it a shout-out. Go check it out.

Finally, the last two shows of note starts with Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory. I did a video a while back where I gushed about this show’s entire existence and how stoked I was for it. I am still just as excited about it now as I was then, and it’s painful to not keep up with the series in Japanese on a weekly basis, as I’ve been following the dub instead. So if you need more reason to go watch Full Metal Panic, go watch me gush about it for 10 minutes.

The final series that I will be mentioning is the adaptation of Steins;Gate Zero. I won’t go rambling on about this as it would be very similar to my gush rant about FMP, but suffice it to say that the Zero adaptation continues the trend of making Steins;Gate one of the best visual novel to anime adaptations in existence. The original material was also some of the best you can play in the visual novel space. If you are interested in sci-fi, time travel, or hell just otaku culture, then stop this video – stop it right now! – and go watch the original Steins;Gate if you somehow haven’t by now. Then watch Zero as it airs. It’s seriously worth your time.

So there we go. There’s my official look at all of the things for the Spring 2018 season that I felt were worth mentioning! Just in time for me to start looking at the summer season to see what I’m anticipating, so please look forward to that. Until next time – ladies, gentlemen and others – stay frosty!

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