Fall 2018 Season Guide (Updating)

LAST UPDATED 7 Sept 2018

Summer is almost over. Sucks, right?! It’s back to school time, or at least back to half-school, if you’re in one of the east coast cities experiencing high heat and humidity. In a couple weeks Summer will be officially over but the heat will likely linger.

So, is there anything hot to look forward to in the world of Fall 2018 anime? We guess…provided you like one or more of three things: Sequels, Spinoffs, and Shows with Obnoxiously Long Titles (or SOLTs). We’ll be checking out representatives from all three columns and let the cream rise to the top.

As usual, Bold titles mean we’re watching that show; non-bold means TBD, and crossed-out means dropped/skipped. This list will be updated as needed. As always, hit us up in the comments if you think we’re missing something, because we probably are. Thanks! —R.S.

Last Updated 15 Oct 2018

Braverade

Goblin Slayer
Golden Kamuy (2nd Season)
Ingress
Radiant
Sword Art Online: Alicization

---

sesameacrylic

Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja Nai
Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai
Yagate Kimi ni Naru
Zombieland Saga

---

MagicalChurlSukui

Banana Fish (Continued)
Iroduku: The World in Colors
Toaru Majutsu no Index III
TenSura
Tokyo Ghoul:re (2nd Season)

Banana Fish – 10 – Wounded Tiger

The youngest Lee brother sat out last week’s unpleasantness, but returns to Ash to tend to his wounds and also decides to lend him a hand in escaping from Dino’s mansion. Dino is away for the night demonstrating Banana Fish on a woman who is forced to kill her husband, a presidential candidate. Meanwhile Ash’s gang has joined forces with Shorter’s Chinese crew, led by Sing, and after gathering some intel, they hit the mansion the same night Dino is out.

Ash makes use of the key Lee slipped him by doing a bit of gymnastics, then frees Max and Ibe, head to the armory full of military-grade weapons. From there, Ash becomes the “devil himself”, mowing through Dino’s men on one side of the house while his allies burst in and take care of business from the other. Lee leaves Ash with one more gift: injecting Abe Dawson with a paralytic.

That means, after meeting up with his men, Ash tells them to all get the hell out before Dino’s cavalry arrives, then heads down to the lab, where Abe had been busy extracting Shorter’s brain. Dawson begs for his life, but Ash responds by emptying a mag into him, then burns Shorter’s body so he can pass over in peace.

That gesture leads to a misunderstanding with Sing, Shorter’s subordinate, who heard that Ash killed Shorter (but doesn’t know why). He picks the wrong time to demand vengeance against Ash, who makes quick work of Sing, but lets him run away.

Sing ends up running right into Lee, who takes him away in a helicopter and spots Ash in his red Italian sports car heading back into Manhattan. It was an ugly one, and came at a high cost, but it was good to see a win for Ash, even if it just meant getting his freedom back.

Steins;Gate 0 – 20 – The Darkest Timeline

Something went terribly wrong during Rintarou’s second attempt. As a result, he wakes up in a post-apocalyptic future where Akiba is in ruins, roving soldiers will shoot you as soon as look at you, and that gorgeous blue sky Steins;Gate is known for is nowhere to be seen. Worse still, Rintarou has never looked weaker or more haggard; not exactly the person you expect to be able to do anything about this situation.

Fortunately for him, he still has friends in this timeline. For someone like Suzuha, who grew up in this shit, she seems right at home. But I don’t think I’ll ever get used to a skinny Daru, not to mention Feyris and Rukako going commando (and by that I mean actually becoming commandos, not going without underwear). It’s your prototypical Dark Future, where everyone’s just trying to survive.

It’s tragic, then, that Rukako meets his end just as Rintarou wakes up, dying in Rintarou’s arms serving as a proverbial glass of cold water in the face. Losing Kurisu, Kagari, Mayuri, and now Rukako, Rintarou knows he can’t just sit around satisfied he’s still alive.

His body may be 2036, but his mind is 2011, and so he’s still got enough hope left in that head to make yet another go at finding the Steins Gate. Daru and Maho have managed to keep the Time Leap Machine in working order; he tells them to get it ready. Frankly, I can’t blame the guy: I wouldn’t want to spend one minute longer than I had to in such a drab hell.

Any future would be better than this one…unless of course he manages to find one that’s even worse, where rather than still having some his beloved friends around, he’s completely alone, and without the means to ever time leap again. I’m hoping he can score some kind of a win with his next attempt.

Overlord III – 09 – Paving the Way

Faced with the overwhelming, terrible power of Aura and Mare, Emperor El Nix can hardly ignore a demand to travel to the Tomb of Nazarick to apologize personally. Though El Nix is such a busy man, the ensuing trip ends up being a rare opportunity for an afternoon nap, as well as a quick assessment of his potential queens, from Princess Renner (“praiseworthy but somewhat sickening”) to an “old hag that stays young with magic.” Ah, to be an emperor…

But once he and his retinue arrive, they are immediately reminded how much more powerful Ains Ooal Gown is than them, from the Maids who can control the weather (and whip up some top-notch Tang) to a healthy supply of Death Knights (who are relegated to serving said Tang). Nix’s Head Wizard Flugel is both terrified and amazed, almost to the point of rejuvination. His laugher is both out of sheer awe and wonder, but also kind of an “Oh shit, we’re so screwed.”

Once Nix & Co. are finally given an audience, things are actually quite cordial until Demiurge (in an animalistic disguise) talks out of turn, taking offense to Nix thinking he can use honorifics as if he was on equal terms with Lord Ains. Ains uses Demiurge’s little diplomatic snafu as an excuse to forgive the emperor for allowing his lord to send Workers into Nazarick.

This comes as great surprise to the young but cunning emperor, and uses that to suggest an alliance, in which Ains would start up and rule a country, and the empire would assist in any way they can. Ains agrees to this almost too easily for Nix to believe, but decides he’ll take every concession he can get, especially from a would-be foe he has absolutely no change against.

Once the two parties part ways, El Nix is confused by the ease with which his head wizard decides to jump into a coach and accompany him back to the capital. Nix knows Flugel well enough to know he wouldn’t be able to resist sticking around to try to acquire some of the immensely powerful magic he witnessed during their parlay.

And El Nix is exactly right: behind his back, Flugel has already met with “Momon” and agreed to give him “everything he has” in exchange for becoming the student of a tenth-tier “god.” Not sure he can truly rely on Flugel, El Nix plans to bring all of the human powers together in an alliance against Nazarick, all while pretending to be a friend to Nazarick.

Everything’s all going according to plan…only it’s Demiurge’s plan being carried out, not Ains. Ains actually doesn’t really know quite where Demiurge is going, and since he’s the boss, he can get away with ordering Demiurge to explain everything…for now. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Demi knew how ignorant Ains was to his plan, and was moving against him.

Of course, I know better…Demi would never move against his lord…or should I say, Sorcerer King—the winner in the throne room brainstorming session for a new title for Ains once he has his own country to rule.

Tenrou: Sirius the Jaeger – 07 – Time to Know Everything

The big showdown to determine if Yuliy can beat both Kershner and Mikhail and protect Phillip is suddenly cut short when tank shells explode outside. Major Iba has arrived, and he’s brought a sizable contingent of infantry and armor. It’s a great and triumphant realization of Iba’s decision to temporarily trust V Shipping and assist however he can.

Kershner’s ranks are routed, so he retreats, leaving Mikhail to finish Yuliy off, but Mikhail won’t kill him, any more than Yuliy will kill Mikhail. After all, before they parted, it was Mikhail who told him to “live”, and that directive supersedes Mikhail’s loyalty to Kershner. Maybe (brotherly) love can conquer all!

Kershner reaches the roof of the mansion to find Willard there waiting for him. Willard tries valiantly but he’s ultimately no match for the high-ranked vamp, and ends up at swordpoint when Yuliy arrives. Little does he know Kershner and Willard have a history.

Indeed, it was Willard, so obsessed with the Ark of Sirius, who helped “lift the veil” on its location, Yuliy’s hometown of Dogville. After Willard witnessed Yuliy use the power of the Sirius in the snowy forest, he saved him and set him on a life driven solely by revenge.

Willard fully expects Yuliy to want to kill him shortly after he kills Kershner (in a pretty awesome badass way, if you ask me), since he’s partly responsible for a lot of the terrible stuff that happened in his life.

But Yuliy doesn’t kill Willard. The ten years weren’t just about revenge for him. Willard may have been a cause of his despair, but he’s also the only reason he’s still alive, and lived as long as he has.

In the aftermath, V Company will reimburse the Naoes for the damage to the estate, while Willard tells Yuliy more about the Ark of Sirius: it’s a kind of font of extremely valuable information and technology; no wonder the vampires are after it.

It’s hinted when we check in on Kershner’s boss Yevgraf (who flies around in his sick airship, as you do) that while the vamps are certainly not happy about having to rely on the Ark, some kind of illness is killing them, and the Ark is their onl hope.

As for Iba, he gets a chewing out and his unit is disbanded, but he’s given a new and even more crucial task: find and retrieve the Ark of Sirius for Japan. Later, Iba pays a visit to Willard at the bar, and Willard tells him where to start looking for said Ark: Sakhalin.

Willard and the Jaegers of V Shipping, their Japanese mission complete, are ordered back to London on the double, for debriefing and to await their next mission. They all seem eager to return to HQ, particularly Phillip, who calls London home.

But Yuliy won’t be joining them. His mission to find and protect the Ark is no longer V Shipping’s, so they must part ways. He books passage on the next ship bound for Sakhalin alone, and sets off to do what only he can do.

This is no longer about avenging his family, his home, and his brother. It’s about fulfilling the duty that is his birthright, as well as his responsibility as last living Sirius…unless, of course his Dad’s still hanging in there somewhere…

Attack on Titan – 44 – Eat Me, Save Humanity

As Rob Reiss prepares to instruct Historia to inject a serum that will transform her into a Titan so she can eat Eren, Hange and Levi’s team enters the cavern, sporting some unconventional tactics in order to level the playing field against Kenny and his intensively-prepared anti-personnel troops.

With a combination of surprise, gunpowder, signal flare smoke, and pure guile, Eren’s allies are able to get right on top of Kenny’s people; the hard part is having to make the decision to kill their fellow human beings for the first time.

The sequence is taut and intense, but doesn’t forget to show those tiny moments of hesitation that linger in the thoughts of Sasha, Jean, and Connie. Not surprisingly, there’s nary a shred of hesitation in either Levi or Mikasa.

Kenny himself enters the fray, and quickly finds his nephew Levi is a lot tougher than he gave him credit for, successfully wounding him in the midsection and forcing him to retreat almost as quickly as he arrives.

But his presence gives his second-in-command the opening she needs to deal a crushing blow to the Scouts: by getting the advantage over Hange Zoe and seriously wounding her. If she isn’t able to get back up, that’s a huge blow for the good guys (even if it’s been demonstrated that neither Hange nor anyone else is 100% good or bad here).

This season of Titan continues to be generous with its answers regarding what the heck is up with this world, filling in a few more of the many blanks that have lingered for nearly four dozen episodes. Rob is the source of more world history wisdom. Turns out most of society, due to the mind control of the Reiss Titans, don’t recall any history beyond 100 years…no doubt since an ignorance populace is easier to control.

The Founding Reiss Titan used its power to built the Walls that protect humanity, but also passed on all the knowledge that proceeded the boundaries of the rest of mankind; how the world as they know it was formed and how to preserve it. That is now Historia’s repsonsibility; she has to eat Eren in order to inherit Freda’s memories as well as her powers.

When an eavesdropping Kenny hears that only someone with the blood of the Reiss’ can inherit the full power and memories of their predecessor (meaning if he took the serum and ate Eren, it would be meaningless) he’s pissed.

More than having planned to betray Rob, he knew Rob knew he’d betray him one day, and even counted on it, but not until it was all but too late to do anything about it. Rob releases Kenny from his service, and Kenny in turn decides to make things interesting by removing Eren’s gag and cutting him so he’ll transform and give Historia a fight.

That would have likely been something quite awesome to behold…but something perhaps more interesting happens instead: Eren doesn’t transform. He doesn’t want to; he wants to die. He sees himself as the cause of all of the trouble they’ve been in up to this point, and more importantly, all of the people who died, who he lists in roughly the order in which they died.

With both Rob and Eren begging her to inject herself with the transformation serum and eat Eren, Historia seems stuck between a rock and a hard place…but there’s still the matter of what she, an individual, wants to do, even if her duty seems clear, while her victim is ready to die for the sake of humanity and correcting perceived wrongs, both his and those of his father.

But then she remembers Ymir, telling her whether she’s simply trying to do something “nice” (i.e. what she thinks everyone expects of her). She also rememebers that time on top of that castle, when Ymir, before transforming, tells her that all she wants is for Historia to live a life she’s proud of.

‘Tori can’t do that if she injects herself. She can’t do that if she eats Eren. She can’t do that if she exterminates the Titans. Rob calling what she’s becoming to be something akin to godhood is the last straw. She slaps the syringe out of Rob’s hands and it shatters on the ground.

Historia decides to free Eren, because she likes him a heck of a lot more than she likes the rest of humanity. As far as she’s concerned, they can all get wiped out by Titans—hell, she’ll even lend a hand, declaring herself both “humanity’s biggest enemy” and “the worst girl who ever lived”…neither of which are true. Humanity’s true worst enemy? Itself. Historia Reiss? More badass than bad.

Unfortunately, Historia is also her own worst enemy, as she breaks the syringe but then rushes to free Eren, leaving the puddle of MacGuffin transformation serum completely unprotected, ready to be lapped up by anyone. And not just anyone laps it up; Rob does, not long after telling Tori in no uncertain terms that he should never be the one to transform. We didn’t learn the reason why, but I imagine we will, very soon.

Hanebado! – 10 – Shuttlecock Tease

Finally, the long-awaited rematch between Nagisa and Ayano in the…wait, we’re not getting that this week? It’s just the boy’s matches? LAME. I won’t apologize for simply not caring about chunks of Hanebado! I feel to be padding, and a sure as hell don’t care any more about Yuu’s weird crush on Hayama or his and Isehara’s matches than I did before.

I do care about Ayano, so it’s good to see her deliver the only appropriate welcome to a mother who peace’d out and found a taller, blonder girl to be her daughter and successor: a nonexistent welcome. Ayano doesn’t say one word to Uchika the whole episode, and frankly, one word would be one too many.

You can lay into Ayano all you want for being such an awful, insufferably haughty jerk to Nagisa and everyone else, but her mother’s shunning is primarily to blame.

We don’t even meet Nagisa’s parents, but we can assume they’re better than Ayano simply because they’ve stayed in her life and presumably didn’t betray her. One wonders why none of the kids on the team seem to have parents or siblings to watch them play.

Isehara and Hayama proceed with their matches, and it’s all a bit of a yawnfest, honestly. It’s just another version of the “hard work means something” and “you don’t have to have the most talent to play” trope. Isehara is talented—and handsome—but he loses anyway, just as Hayama does even though he works his ass off and has the enthusiastic support of his team

As for Yuu—Ebina Yuu; we finally get her last name, ten episodes in!—her crush dies shortly after Hayama loses, or possibly even during his match, but not because she thinks he sucks. Rather, her desire to support her came out of her own inadequacies. Now that he showed her there’s still value in fighting on despite not being any good, she’s content to part ways with a hearty thank you and goodbye.

This is honestly the boringest way things between them could have ended, which serves to fully justify my lack of enthusiasm for their plotline all along.

With the boys out of the way, all that remains is the final between Nagisa and Ayano…and if it doesn’t take place next week, I’m honestly going to skip the episode! Ayano is either intentionally or unintentionally continuing to provoke Nagisa into a “practice” match with her, as a kind of dry run to the finals, because she finds no one else (save the Olympics-caliber Coach Tachibana) a worthy opponent.

Nagisa doesn’t necessarily rise to the provocations; she wants to play in the finals with Ayano for a different, more personal reason. This isn’t about revenge, it’s about redemption. Nagisa acknowledges that she gave up in the All-Japan Juniors; she lost more to herself than Ayano. So she doesn’t see this as fighting Ayano, but fighting the person she was back then. It didn’t have to be Ayano.

As for Ayano, her mom mentioning she knows about her match with Connie, and her mom’s sudden offer to take her away from Japan (presumably to be a real family along with Connie), may yet create a psychological hitch in Ayano’s match with Nagisa. It’s not much, but especially with her troublesome knees, Nagisa will need all the help she can get.

Happy Sugar Life – 08 – How We Got Here, Where We’re Going

Now the picture of Matsuzaka Satou is that much more complete. Room 1208, the cage in which she now keeps Shio, was once the apartment where a loner artist resided. He didn’t want anything from Satou except for her to pose, and let her talk about whatever she wanted.

In the minimalist first half, it’s just Hanazawa Kana as Satou talking. The artist responds, but we only hear static, and never get a good look at him. It doesn’t really matter who he is, but what he wanted. He wanted Satou to remain incomplete and unsatisfied, so he could keep drawing her.

That changed when, one day, for reasons unexplained, Satou brought Shio to 1208. Before long, she started to feel something around her she felt for no one else; she became complete; satisfied. In other words, everything the artist didn’t want.

So he tried to get rid of Shio in the most reckless fumbling way: trying to choke her to death when Satou was out of the room. Of course, she enters, and the atelier becomes a violent murder scene.

Since Shio was a witness to it—albeit likely dazed/disoriented by the choking—it sure looks like the creepy figure she’s drawn in the closet is Satou herself. Shio carries the trauma every day, and it occasionally surfaces. That’s a problem!

Taiyo comes to a kind of revelation: he needs to give up on Shio and try to become a normal guy again. He’s content to keep the wanted poster in his pocket as he puts the pieces of his past life back together, not letting the trauma of the abuse he endured further mire him.

Unfortunately, his resolve to reform is brittle, and Satou finds him at the perfect time to shatter it, offering Shio’s still-warm sock to prove she’s serious about letting the “knight” meet the “angel” and let her “purify” him. All he has to do is get rid of the person trying to take Shio away from her.

I first thought Satou wanted Taiyo to get rid of the teacher, but I rethought that conclusion when Asahi gets a call from someone offering him a clue as to Shio’s whereabouts. I immediately thought that this was the first step in the plan Taiyo is carrying out for Satou.

Complicating matters is that Asahi is the one who finds Shouko at her lowest point, cursing herself for rejecting Satou when Satou needed her most and wanting to “disappear.” Asahi assures her she’s a kind and good person—the type of person prone to always laming themselves.

Asahi comforts Shouko and cheers her up, and they now seem to be friends, since she’s still by his side when he gets that phone call. If Asahi is Satou’s target via Taiyo, I doubt Shouko will escape uninvolved.

Grand Blue – 08 – Operation Blueballs

The Okinawa diving trip ends up being further off than I expected, with the tennis winnings only covering travel expenses. The rest of the trip is out of pocket, which means Iori and Kouhei need to make more money. Shinji hooks them up with a part-time moving company job, but compared to him they’re weaklings and can’t keep it up without destroying their bodies.

They assume Ryuu is selling his body in some fashion to make money, but Azusa assures them that’s far from the case, and proves it when she takes them to the very normal, classy, and surprisingly affordable bar where he works—and apparently has pretty customers falling for him almost nightly.

Iori and Kouhei want in, and the proprietor lends them some uniforms, but while they look the part, they prove absolutely inept at mixing drinks, taking their names too literally and putting actual screwdrivers in poor Aina’s drinks, then crushing all of her idealized dreams by basically being awful klutzes.

We never learn whether they make any money dicking around behind the bar, but we do know the proprietor incorrectly believes Iori and Kouhei are a couple, since the particular answers to the questions he asks Iori could apply to either Kouhei or Chisa (who unfortunately gets a real short shrift this week).

In the second segment, we’re back to the Fellowship of the Losers, who forgive Iori when he promises them he’s never touched Chisa despite presumably “dating” her. Instead, they all focus their hate on Mitarai, who hasn’t hung out or drunk with them in a while, suggesting he may be involved with a woman (and thus no longer a loser).

Iori confirms this when he calls Mitarai and hears a woman in the background Mitarai is definitely trying to have sex with. Honestly, Mitarai is an idiot, because if you want to have sex with anyone, you turn your goddamn phone off.

He doesn’t, and pays the price, as they all arrive at his house and proceed to bar his bliss with his unnamed but very pretty childhood friend. From the delivery of porn videos, to the fake LINE messages from another girl, to Kouhei using his “mixed voice” talent to sound like multiple other girls outside his door, the Losers throw everything they have at Kitarai, resulting in the girl getting dressed and leaving, telling him never to contact her again.

Despite him being thoroughly and completely cockblocked, the mere fact he was even in the position to sleep with a girl makes the lads see him as a traitor to ostracize…except for Iori, who still senses a “Loser” in him. That sense turns out to be true when Kitarai has one potential last chance to mend things with the girl, and instead asks her to introduce him to her friends.

She beats the crap out of him and sends him flying, and as his bloodied body flies across the full moon the other Losers raise their hands in the air. Iori’s trust in him is validated, while the doubts of the others is rebuked. Even if they hadn’t interfered that night, Kitarai likely would have found a way to muck up the great thing he had going on.

I may have harped on the overly amplified jealousy of Iori’s friends, but it was actually pretty fun this week since it was directed at someone who deserved it, i.e. someone who is actually with a girl, not pretending to be, like Iori is with Chisa. Mind you, that doesn’t mean I don’t want Iori to try to actually date Chisa! He just has to, for one, learn when to turn his dang phone off.