Oh, hello there! We’re now in Week 11 and quickly approaching Week 12 of the Spring 2022 season, which means saying goodbye to a bunch of one-cours and nearing the midpoint of a couple of two-cours.
It also means, of course, that a whole mess of new Summer series and sequels await us in just a couple weeks’ time. We’ll try to make sense of the onslaught of new and familiar names, and hopefully whittle our watch list down from 14-15 to 8-10 shows (including carryovers).
This might be the latest (as in most tardy) season preview we’ve done, except for the early years when we’d just watch whatever whenever. It looks to be a full season full of new and old faces and a couple of bombshells. But let us not tarry: read on!
The leaves haven’t come close to changing or falling and there’s probably still a heat wave or two in the offing, but that isn’t stopping us from plucking fifteen of the fifty or so anime that will air in the Fall and adding them to out tentative watchlist, as we tend to do this time of year. Aside from 86 and Mushoku Tensei’s second season, there’s a lot of all-new stuff to check out.
“Pleasure Boats On a Summer Evening Near Ryogoku Bridge”, by Kitagawa Utamaro, 1802-1804.
Summer Comin’. As usual, we’re a little late in listing out the series we’ll be taking a look at. As you can see, there’s plenty of choices, and many of the titles are as long as the days are going to get.
Assuming 86 and Tokyo Revengers take a season off before their second cours, only MagicalChurlSukui will be watching carryovers of existing shows or sequels to existing ones. Both Braverade and sesameacrylic’s Summer lists contain all-new shows; no sequels or spinoffs.
We don’t know if that’s ever happened before, but as usual, we’ll be trying to whittle our total watchlist down to around a dozen, which means dropping seven or eight of the titles below if they’re not worth watching or otherwise redundant to our anime needs of the moment.
As usual, boldtitles below are the shows to which we’ll be paying particular attention, and titles may be added or subtracted as needed. That means non-bold shows aren’t guaranteed to be reviewed, just checked out.
We’ve approached the halfway point of the Winter 2021 anime season, which is usually the time for us to start taking a gander at what’s on the horizon for the Spring. The biggest title on our list so far is the third and final season of Fruits Basket, which should be something.
We’ll be watching and reviewing all Bold titles below.
We’re about to enter our twelfth year on the interwebz, and it will be hard to top the eleventh for pure strangeness. We’re not sure if we’ll get much snow this coming Winter (we didn’t get much last Winter) but the metaphor of a fresh blanket of snow providing a blank canvas for the year still fits.
As usual, we’re simply listing shows that are either from franchises we follow or new shows that look interesting based solely on the promo art and talent involved. As such, we’ll surely be adding and subtracting from this list as we draw closer to showtime. Recommendations are welcome!
So far it’s slim pickings this coming Fall—not surprising considering the state of the world. Only a handful of new anime are listed on MAL’s Fall 2020 list, and some of those are sequel seasons to shows we’ve either never seen or are too far behind to attempt to catch up.
Regardless of the number of shows we’ll ultimately be watching, we’ll be implementing an all-new 5-star rating system more akin to Anime News Network than the MAL’s 1-10 scale:
While some among the staff have long been proponents of the 1-10 scale, in practice there are rarely any episodes we’d rate 1-5, since it only takes one or two such episodes to cause us to drop the show entirely. We’ll see how it goes.
This list will be updated if and when we pick up or drop any additional shows. If you have any recommendations, let us know in the comments and we’ll take them under advisement. And as always, thanks for reading, and take care!
Poem by Empress Jitou from the series One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse, Hokusai, c. 1839.
We usually come out with a new season guide roughly halfway through the current season, so we’re running a little late. Depending on the state of Japan (and incidentally, the world) in July, many of the shows on this list may be further delayed or postponed…or they may all air on time! Only time will tell.
For now, here’s a brief look at the shows that have piqued our curiosity. We’ve only listed shows that have been confirmed to air or carry over this Summer. While sequels to heavy hitters like Re:Zero, SAO and Oregairu are set to (finally) air, we’ll also be checking out as many new and original shows as time allows.
This list will be updated periodically. If you have any recommendations, let us know in the comments. And as always, thanks for reading!
Here we are, at it again. We’re halfway through Winter, so its time to prepare for Spring by taking a gander at what’s headed our way when the weather starts getting warmer.
There arewere many huge shows returning (now postponed due to covid-19) and quite a few intriguing new ones airing. Only four sequels are locks so far: Railgun T Part 2, Kaguya-sama: Love is War 2, Food Wars 5, and Fruits Basket 2. We are currently reviewing 11 shows, right around usual.
Koishikawa in the Morning after a Snowfall, Hokusai, c. 1830-1835
It’s right up there in the site description: Purveyors of Fine Anime Reviews and Ratings Since 2010. That means 2020 will be our tenth year in operation (technically our eleventh, but we didn’t start in January 2010). A decade might as well be a century on the interwebs, and all we can say is we’ve been both blessed and cursed with the time and the means to do this as a hobby for so long.
We’ve watched a lot of shows in the last decade—the 100 best of which we’ll probably be posting listicles for in due time—but before that, it’s time to do our thing we do when the current season is around half-over: present the shows we’ve penciled in for viewing next season, which will also mark Decade Number Two.
Those shows are below. We’ll update this list as we add or drop shows. Leave any recommendations you might have in the comments and we’ll take them under advisement!
Lots of huge sequels/continuations air this Fall, which will make it tough for us to check out all-new shows. Here’s what’s on our radar so far. Chances are we’ll stick with most of these, and we’ll see if there’s any time for more.
Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Sudden Shower in the Summer, c. 1849-1851
Spring is almost over, and with the warmer weather comes a fresh batch new anime, including some very familiar franchises (Fate, Index, DanMachi). We’ll be watching and writing about some of those shows when July comes around.
As usual, Bold titles mean we’re watching that show; non-bold means TBD, and crossed-out means dropped/skipped. Additional Spring 2019 shows may carryover; we will add them to the list below if/when their Summer cours are officially confirmed.
A reminder: we don’t read any manga, novels light or dark, or video games the below shows may be based upon—RABUJOI is an anime-only blog. This list will be updated as needed. If you think we’re missing something, let us know in the comments.
Tsuchi-yama, Spring Rain, in The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road, c. 1834
Winter is almost over, and with the (hopefully) warmer weather comes a fresh batch new anime, including some very familiar titles. We’ll be watching and writing about some of those shows when April comes around.
As usual, Bold titles mean we’re watching that show; non-bold means TBD, and crossed-out means dropped/skipped. additional Winter 2019 shows may carryover; we will add them to the list below if/when their Spring cours are officially confirmed.
A reminder: we don’t read any manga, novels light or dark, or video games the below shows may be based upon—RABUJOI is an anime-only blog! This list will be updated as needed. If you think we’re missing something, let us know in the comments.
RABUJOI - An Anime Blog 