Fall has hardly been a stellar anime season, it’s true.  But I think it’s also true that it’s been better than it looked like it was going to be when I wrote the Check-in post in late October.  Part of that is the emergence of SSSS.Gridman as a legitimately outstanding series, worthy of potential year-end consideration, and a revelation for Trigger.  Part of it is the rehabilitation of Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu, that rarest of shows that I dropped from coverage only to pick up again a few weeks later.

Those aren’t the only pleasant surprises of the season, though.  There are a couple of other shows I’m still watching and enjoying a lot and while no, I’m not going to start blogging them again (though Tenshura is a two-cour, so I suppose anything’s possible), I did want to comment briefly on them as both are well worth your time.

The first of these is Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken, and I’m hardly uncovering any secrets with this one – it’s going to be a big hit on disc, and it’s already a massively popular light novel with a manga version now selling nicely too.  The most notable thing here, really, is that this is an isekai LN adaptation – and if those aren’t two strikes with me for a series, I don’t know what are.  But it’s not only a low bar that makes Tensura look good – it’s actually pretty darn good, period.  8bit has done a really nice job with the production for starters – and it’s worth noting that this is a lesser-known studio that’s quietly compiling a very impressive track record in the last couple of years with the likes of Miira no Kaikata and Shounen Maid.

The common thread between those series and Tensura is heart – all of them are loaded with it.  I don’t want to rehash the whole Goblin Slayer ugliness, but it’s impossible not to be struck by the tonal and philosophical contrast between these two shows given the parallels – two massively popular LN adaptations featuring goblins which premiered virtually simultaneously.  Tensura is a virtual plea for inter-species brotherhood, with goblins and ogres cast in sympathetic roles. It’s also quite funny (Gobuta is one of the funniest characters of the season), with a sweetheart of a protagonist whose main character traits are empathy and kindness.  Frankly, it’s surprising this series is as popular as it is, given its pipeline.

The other series I want to give a bit of praise to is Gaikotsu Shoten’in Honda-san.  I might chalk up my appreciation for this half-length show to a “horses for courses” appeal, but it actually seems quite popular too – though nowhere near as much as Tensura.  The mangaka behind this series goes only by the nom de plume of “Honda”, and he apparently is indeed a bookseller who publishes a manga about a mangaka who works at a bookstore.  No attempt is every made to explain why he’s a skullface – or indeed, why his co-workers are jack-o-lanterns, helmet-heads or paper bag wearers.

See, I worked at bookshops small and large for years – as a bookseller, shipper/receiver, department head, and manager.  And it’s striking that the experience seems almost unchanged in Japan – almost every note rings true for me (like the rampant unease of the day the sections get reassigned – I break out in a cold sweat just thinking about it).  Bookstores are bookstores, I guess – it transcends time and hemispheres – though of course shops of the type depicted in this series are almost extinct in America, but still omnipresent in Japan (the Japanese love their bookshops, and I love that about them).  This show is silly, absurd, and quite irreverent – but also unerringly accurate in the world it depicts (though I’ll have to take its word when it comes to the inside jokes about Japanese publishing houses).