So, I had some pretty high hopes for a number of this season’s crop of anime. Some of those hopes have been dashed. A few have been justified. And some just fell onto the back burner.

And you thought there is never a girl online?

Out the entire crop, this one had the most tenuous hold on my interest, which faded within a few episodes of the same old thing. I followed it for a few weeks, a few episodes, and found it to be fairly boring, formulaic, occasionally stupid, and what is it with all these anime that revolve around characters with a fragile-to-nonexistent grasp on reality?

Basically, it just faded away from my attention. I lost interest. It didn’t seem like something worth investing any more of my time in. That sort of thing.

Very meh.

Big Order

It took me a couple episodes to realize that we had a main character with the super power of commanding people (and things) to do whatever he says, with the intention of conquering the world in order to protect his little sister. Sound familiar? Like Code Geass, perhaps? Sheesh! Was I slow on that uptake!

Still, Big Order held some promise for me, at least for the first few episodes. Then things kind of started losing steam, which, when that is what’s happening when there’s a nuke inbound on the protagonist, there is a problem. What really turned me off, though, was the fifth episode, where things very suddenly took a turn towards boring at best or disturbing at worst. Not only do we have romantic relationships which seem flat and forced and rushed, and not only do we have an apparent lesbian feeling up all the girls, but, the last straw, was when it was revealed to the audience that the main character and his little sister aren’t “biological” siblings, and then cut to a scene of the two of them in bed, in rather specific position that was clearly not an accident, followed by a trail of clothes leading to the shower.

Dropped this one faster than one could say, “drop.”

And that’s besides how boring and forced it was getting.

Bungou Stray Dogs

This one’s still a bit stronger than the first two I’ve mentioned.

I stand by my previous supposition of their creed: “This is a very tense moment… let’s tell a joke!”And there’s still nothing wrong with that! 😀

I think my single favorite scene thus far has to be when the gangsters attack the detective agency’s office and get thrown out the window. “FWING! FWING! FWING!” 😀

But I didn’t follow this one every week either. Unlike the first two, I haven’t dropped this one. I just have daily life to deal with and can’t watch everything right at this very instant. So this one’s on my list to binge sometime, and I already know I’ll love the first major chunk, so I have high hopes for the rest! 🙂

Flying Witch

This one is sort of in the area between And You Thought (etc.) and Bungou Stray Dogs for me.

There was such a complete lack of tension in the first few episodes that it completely slipped out of my interest. There was just nothing there to keep my attention riveted. Yet, I still like what I’ve seen. It was amusing, and seeing the supernatural interact with the everyday so easily was mildly intriguing as well.

So, like Bungou Stray Dogs, I will likely binge the whole thing some time. It’s just not particularly high on the priorities, ya know?

Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto

This one, I did follow every week! I believe the last episode is coming up in a day or two, and, surprisingly, there does seem to be an overall plot at work. Surprising because, while they’ve revisited plots from previous episodes, I was not expecting them to really develop any of the characters or have a plot that can be neatly tied up in a bow.

What was I expecting instead? In two words: unending laughter! From start to finish, I’ve hardly had a moment where I wasn’t howling!

If you need a good laugh, you really should watch the many antics of Sakamoto and his classmates!

Joker Game

This turned out, at least in the early episodes, to be an anthology of spy stories, following the doings and deceptions of a crop of Japanese agents sent out across the world just World War II was sparking up. I’m afraid the episodic nature of that dwindled my interest a bit, but I suspect there may be more to the series as a whole. As such, I’ll be binge-ing the whole thing all at once in the fairly near future.

I just have to say, this is a fairly unique show. It strikes me as an incredibly realistic depiction of spies and their clandestine conflicts. Most intriguing, that is!

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

…too …much… epic.

Seriously, I know they’re ripping off Attack on Titan, but they really needed to have a bit less with the epic appeal to emotion. No one and nothing can go at maximum speed forever. We need to slow down every so often, rest up, catch our breath. Part of what makes the “epic” of Attack on Titan work so well is, quite simply, the fact that they take the time to tell the story, let us get to know some of these characters, however (in preparation for killing them off) superficially. We get slow beats, so the characters and the world feel fleshed out and believable and real.

But Kabaneri takes us on a constant sprint, trying to keep everything “epic,” so it feels like the cliff-notes version at best and an over-exaggerated melodrama at worst. It gets pretty boring. Which is very disappointing because I really liked the first episode. I may finish the series sometime, but not for awhile.

My Hero Academia

I followed this one every week, always aquiver with anticipation!

Superheroes are all the rage right now. To create something that feels fresh and inspiring out of this veritable flood can be quite a daunting task. But that is exactly what My Hero Academia does, and job well done, I say!

The characters, the quirks (the superpowers), the costs and limits of their abilities, their personalities and goals, their interactions, the things they learn, the bond that forms between them, the enemies they face, the plot they’re all caught up it yet advance with their own actions… really, I’m just gushing about this anime!

I’ll have to do a proper review for the whole series when it eventually finishes, but suffice to say for the moment that this, like One Punch Man, is going on my list of Top Contenders for whenever I get around to doing a Countdown for my favorite anime. 😀

Shōnen Maid

This one flat-out slipped my attention after the first episode. Sorry, but I was just too busy! 😛 Still, it promises to be hilarious whenever I get around to it! 🙂

Twin Star Exorcists

Didn’t follow this one either after the first two episodes. It’s on my binge list to follow sometimes, but I was only halfway into it in the first place, so it didn’t get my weekly attention.

Ushio and Tora

This one, I have not watched at all, really. I am waiting for the entire season/series to finish, and then I’ll binge it all at once. I already know I like the show, so I can be patient. 😉

In Summary:
Out of nearly a dozen new titles, only two kept me following them every week, while others were put on the binge list for future viewing sometime maybe, and a couple were flat-out dropped. My hopes were not nearly fulfilled, alas, but what did deliver did very well! 🙂