Fall 2019 looked pretty good going in, and it looks pretty good now. But I’m thinking like a swimmer taking a deep breath while I’m above the surface, because it may need to sustain me for a while.

Despite the fact that two big guns (Hi Score Girl II and Chihayafuru 3) have premiered extraordinarily late and another (Pet) has been pushed back to Winter, Fall 2019 has started off pretty well. It doesn’t have the feel of an outstanding season like Spring 2007 or 2012 – the great shows aren’t quite great enough or numerous enough – but certainly it’s the best season of 2019 by a good margin. None of the top contenders have bombed, and the pack of moderately interesting prospects below them have performed more or less as expected.

The problem here is that after a decidedly weak first nine months of 2019, the string of series announcements for 2020 has been as grim as any I can remember. Almost nothing besides (especially) an isekai LN adaptation or Cute Girls Watching Paint Dry has been announced for months, pretty much guaranteeing that Winter 2020 will be awful and digging a deep hole for Spring to climb out of. You always hope the strong seasons – and even strong years – represent a trend, but since the plateau of 2012 they’ve mostly been aberrations.

Still, this is a post about Fall 2019, so let’s take our successes where we find them. Nothing quite cracked the “Elite” category this time – a couple of series were close, and still could – but the next two levels are pretty well-represented. Probably the most notable element is how few series I’ve actually dropped – almost everything I was interested in enough to preview has proved at least watchable. If more of those shows were “Very Good” or “Outstanding” rather than “Still Watching” we’d be talking about a seriously good season, but it’s still nice to have them around.

As far as surprises to the upside, Mugen no Juunin: Immortal is the obvious candidate, though its clear lack of budget is worrying (as is the amount of material it plans to cover in two cours). The heavy hitters – Boku no Hero, Hoshiai no Sora, Kono Oto Tomare et al – are all hitting heavily. Chihayafuru has some really strong material coming up soon, and my #1 expectations show of fall – Hi Score Girl II – has barely gotten started with the final arc. The sleepers have been pretty good, if not exceptional. If I could point to one legit disappointment so far it would be Kabukichou Sherlock, but it’s too early to punt yet, especially as the second episode was good enough to suggest at least a tiny possibility of better things to come.

And so, on to Fall 2019:

 

The Elite

None

 

Outstanding

Hoshiai no Sora 
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: A
Comments: This series has been one of the sasuga standouts of Fall 2019, given the talent behind it. Hoshiai no Sora came out of the gate looking like a fairly low-key sports series, but with Akane Kazuki at the helm the dramatic ending of the first episode was right in-character. Gifted storytellers telling the story they want to tell deliver a product almost unrecognizable compared to the calculated and marketing-driven fast food which comprises most TV anime in 2019. If there’s any surprise here it’s that Hoshiai seems to have a pretty decent budget to go along with it’s massively talented staff.

Kono Oto Tomare! 2nd Season
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A-
Comments: It’s borderline whether to include Kono Oto Tomare! in the check-in at all, given that it’s a true split-cour. But I’ll take any opportunity to flog this perennially underrated series, which has jumped into its second season without missing a beat. For straight-up character development this is one of the best animeof the past couple of years, and it’s barely touched on the best material from the manga.

Hi Score Girl II 
Episodes Watched: 1
Grade: A-
Comments: In all honesty I should probably give this one an “incomplete”, since the premiere just aired. But Hi Score Girl II is a sequel, I know where it came from and where it’s going, and the first episode gave no indication whatsoever that this won’t continue to be an outstanding adaptation.

Boku no Hero Academia Season 4
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A-
Comments: Strictly as a matter of personal opinion, it might be difficult for Boku no Hero Academia to keep this grade for its entire run based on what it’s going to be adapting. But so far so good. Better, in fact, since the change in directors to Mukai Masahiro has been a breath of fresh air for Bones’ longest running series ever. With just a bit of tiredness creeping into the material itself, the busier and more “Bones” visual style Mukai is phasing in has given HeroAca a jolt of new energy that’s been most welcome. And adding Miki Shinichirou in a really meaty role certainly doesn’t hurt either.

 

Very Good

Beastars
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B+
Comments: Beastars is a tough nut for me to crack, both as a viewer and writer. It’s absolutely a fascinating piece of fiction, and I quite like what Orange is doing with it visually. But it’s definitely a series that keeps the audience at arm’s length by design, and treads so heavily in symbolism and metaphor that processing what you’re seeing is a full-time job. But the upside of that is that no fall series is making me think more than this one, and the experience of watching it is totally unique.

Chihayafuru 3 
Episodes Watched: 1
Grade: B+
Comments: Another late starter that probably should be “Incomplete”. But like Hi Score Girl, Chihayafuru is a series I know like the back of my hand, both what’s been adapted and what’s still to come. I had mild concerns we might see a downtick in production quality with Madhouse not having quite the stature they did a few years back, but the premiere betrayed no evidence of that. Apart from that this is a known quantity – it’ll be infuriating and often utterly compelling, and nothing else in my timeline will divide the audience more.

Mugen no Juunin: Immortal 
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B
Comments: One can already tell that the pacing is too fast and the budget pretty tight in this adaptation of Samura Hiroaki’s revered manga. But it ranks this highly because Hamasaki Hiroshi is doing a phenomenal job directing it – truly, the visuals here are anime as art. I have concerns about whether even Hamasaki-sensei can overcome all the hurdles in his path, but this post is called a “Check-in” for a reason – it reflects the season so-far, and there’s no denying Immortal has been a haunting and captivating ride.

 

Worthwhile

Shin Chuuka Ichiban!
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B
Comments: As someone who went into this series with almost no experience with the Chuuka Ichiban franchise, I’m surprised how much I’ve been enjoying it. Certainly the production itself is more than solid and that helps, but the material itself is robustly entertaining. It’s a good cooking show, it’s a good shounen, it’s just good, period. And it’s educational to boot – who knew poison brown frog tasted like dove?

Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: There’s nothing too complicated going on with Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy. It’s just a fun screwball comedy about a bunch of social misfit boys and the girl continually roped into playing their straight man. It works because it’s not mean in the slightest, and the writing clearly comes from a place of affection for the characters. It doesn’t seem in any way interested in going deeper than that which obviously limits the upside, but for what it is, Chuubyou certainly works as a good-hearted diversion.

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: See above, really. Mairmimashita Iruma-kun is a very different comedy than Chuubyou tonally, but the reason why it succeeds is largely the same. What I like here is that the protagonist – a genuinely decent and kind soul – continually falls ass-backwards into increasing influence and popularity despite being in totally over his head. That makes this show a departure from most anime comedies in this genre, in a totally positive way.

 

Still Watching

Radiant Season 2
Episodes Watched: 4 
Grade: B-
Comments: Radiant has gotten off to a pretty solid start this season, no surprise since it’s focusing on manga rather than original material. The pacing has been markedly slower too, which is fine apart from the proceedings playing as a bit sedate so far. I’m certainly going to be watching although at this point, probably won’t be blogging unless the material takes a turn towards the exceptional.

No Guns Life
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B-
Comments: Another Madhouse offering, No Guns Life most stylistically resembles something from their glory days. So far it’s an enjoyable, workmanlike seinen with a premise that’s looking quite familiar in anime lately. The “extended” plot is working well enough so far and none of the major characters are annoying me to an unbearable degree, so I’ll give it a little more time to show what it has to offer.

Babylon
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: Babylon was another of those Vinland-style triple premieres, followed by a two-week hiatus. It’s not my favorite way to experience a new series to be honest as I tend to forget much of what I watched, though the Vinland Saga opener was so memorable it wasn’t a big problem there. Babylon is interesting, no question, though to be honest I’ve found Suzuki Kiyotaka’s faux-avante garde directorial style to be rather pretentious and distracting – sort of the opposite of what Hamasaki is doing on Immortal. Also the fact that writer Nozaki Mado’s Seikaisuru Kado was an interesting paranormal premise that totally ran out of ideas is less than encouraging.

Ahiru no Sora 
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C+
Comments: This basketball manga adaptation has enough fans to make me really want to like it more than I do – a good traditional sports anime is always a joy, but basketball is especially desperate for one. Ahiru no Sora has been entertaining and competent enough, but so far I’ve found there to be nothing exceptional about it – it’s pretty formulaic to be honest. Bearing in mind that long-running shounen often take a while to find their stride I’ll let the rope play out on this show for a bit and hope for better returns.

Kabukichou Sherlock 
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C
Comments: It’s only out of respect for writer Kishimoto Taku – an excellent adapter whose last original series was 91 Days – that I haven’t dropped Kabukichou Sherlock already. The first and third episodes were frankly bad, and the middle one was hardly a masterpiece. Whatever Kishimoto and director Yoshimura Ai are going for here, it’s not working – Kabukichou is overly mannered, comedically tone-deaf and not especially smart. That really sucks given that it’s a two-cour series from Production I.G..

 

Dropped:

Keishichou Tokumubu Tokushu Kyouakuhan Taisakushitsu Dainanaka: Tokunana

 

So with that, here’s this season’s blogging prospectus:

Monday:
Definitely Blogging: Vinland Saga
On the Bubble: Babylon

Tuesday:
Definitely Blogging: None

Wednesday:
Definitely Blogging: Beastars, Chihayafuru 3
On the Respirator: Ahiru no Sora

Thursday:
Definitely Blogging: None
On the Respirator: Radiant Season 2, Ahiru no Sora

Friday:
Definitely Blogging: Hoshiai no Sora
Probably Blogging: Mugen no Juunin: Immortal
On the Bubble: No Guns Life, Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy

Saturday:
Definitely Blogging: Boku no Hero Academia 4
On the Bubble: Shin Chuuka Ichiban!, Mairimashita! Iruma-kun
On the Respirator: Kabukichou Sherlock

Sunday:
Definitely Blogging: Hi Score Girl II, Kono Oto Tomare! Season 2, Gegege no Kitarou (2018)

Manga: Otoyomegatari (not currently being translated), Hunter X Hunter (hiatus)

Watching For Now: Dr. Stone