So far Fall 2021 has mostly followed expectations, which is a state of affairs that’s not especially unusual in an increasingly predictable anime environment.  Whether that’s a good or bad thing in any given season, of course, depends on what your expectations were.  For me Fall 2021 looked middling, more or less – so I’m sure you can do the math.

If nothing else I’ve sampled a lot more shows than I did in summer, so my pool of blogging options is a lot deeper.  Once you get past the expected pillars, though, what you’re left with is a whole lot of question marks. It looks like my main sleeper for fall is going to come good, which is always a nice bonus. But on balance this may be a season where the bubble gets a serious workout, and digest posts form part of the eventual schedule.

Will any fall series wind up on the year-end top 10 list – one of the best measures of a season’s quality?  Based on the fact that Ousama Ranking is two-cour and thus ineligible for 2021, that doesn’t leave a lot of options beyond Blue Period (whose length still hasn’t been confirmed, but I’ll be shocked at this point if it’s multi-cour).  But there are a couple of series I could see sneaking in there.

 

Onward, then, to Fall 2021:

The Elite

None

 

Outstanding

Ousama Ranking
Episodes Watched: 2
Grade: A
Comments: It’s early days yet with Ousama Ranking, obviously.  But this series is clearly a labor of love from one of the finest studios in the business – a bittersweet fairy tale with tremendous emotional resonance and a sense of whimsy.  What happens with Wit given their financial struggles is a big concern – I don’t consider this production (at least at its current level) safe by any means.  But if it’s allowed to run its 23-episode course undisturbed (hopefully Wit has many episodes already in the tank) this one has a chance to be pretty special.  It’s clearly a labor of love for the studio, and the ability to make such a strong emotional impact this early in a series is very rare indeed.

Blue Period
Episodes Watched: 5
Grade: A-
Comments: The visuals and direction with this adaptation aren’t superlative, which is the only thing separating it from greatness at this point.  Mind you they’re perfectly fine and occasionally more, so this is still one of the best series of the year so far. The authenticity and natural flow this story possesses is really striking, and even for someone like me who’s less than an expert where art is concerned it’s a fascinating journey.  There aren’t a lot of anime (or any entertainments) I’d call deep but it applies to this series – it tackles some very complex themes with intelligence and dexterity.

 

Very Good

Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B+
Comments: This is the aforementioned sleeper. And a true sleeper it was, as I had no firm basis to believe it would be any good.  So far it is, with a tightly-directed and attractive adaptation that reveals a series somewhat sweeter and less edgy than the premise might have suggested.  Good romcoms and good workplace comedies are exceedingly rare in anime these days, and so far Senpai ga Uzai is very good indeed so far, with a strong Working!! vibe that I find very winning.

Heike Monogatari 
Episodes Watched: 5
Grade: B
Comments: Heike Monogatari is the classic glass half-full/glass half-empty series if ever one existed.  It’s a character-driven historical drama with a lovely art style – though the cut-rate animation is pretty noticeable as every battle (and this story is loaded with them) is reduced to narration and stills.  But as an adaptation it’s basically a travesty – a spectacular source material savagely trimmed and radically dumbed down for a modern audience. All of the nuance and most of the pathos is gone (along with a lot of the cast and plot) but it’s certainly still better than 90% of what’s out there in anime.

Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B
Comments: It strikes me in watching Komi-san Can’t Communicate that it’s very lucky this show wound up in the hands of a genius director like Watanabe Ayumu.  ‘Cause I’ll tell you what, there’s a lot about it – the gimmicky visuals, the characters, the premise itself – that could have been annoying as hell in lesser hands.  I’m still not sure whether I actually like the story and cast or not, but the finished product is striking – it’s the slam-dunk best-directed series of the season so far for me.  At first I was put in mind of Watanabe’s Koi wa Ameagari no You Ni because Komi-san so resembles its lead, Akira.  But it’s actually another Watanabe series with a lead named Akira, Nazo no Kanojo X, that Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu most resembles with its high-school surrealism mindset.

 

Worthwhile

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen 
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B-
Comments: I came into this season having skipped the last several episodes of S1 and not having seen the “Mugen Train” film.  As such I’m selfishly glad the TV version is recycling that story – finally, a cash grab I can get behind.  As for what we’re seeing, it’s fine – much as I remember Kimetsu no Yaiba.  Which is to say nicely blended traditional and CGI animation, straightforward and modestly interesting plot development, and some annoying characters and performances.  Mercifully the latter has been a relatively modest factor so far in Mugen Ressha-hen, which is why I’ve been able to stick around.

 

Still Watching

Saihate no Paladin 
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B-
Comments: Every season seems to have an isekai LN adaptation being sold as different from all the rest.  They pretty much all lose me sooner or later but so far Saihate no Paladin is a reasonably good candidate.  It’s pretty slow so far, but that beats trying to explain the entire plot starting with the title.  And it’s light on tropes to this point, which doesn’t hurt.  So in sum, it’s doing a good job avoiding giving me reasons not to watch it.  That’s not the same as giving me reasons why I should want to, though, and that’s the necessary next step.  The third episode was the best so far, a good sign.

Takt Op. Destiny 
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B-
Comments: The first three episodes of Takt Op. Destiny have been all over the map quite frankly.  On balance there’s been more good than bad, but I still don’t really have a handle on just what this series is.  It’s all a bit tropey and modern for my tastes, but so far it looks good and the music is always worth listening to (easier when you’re using Beethoven and Gerschwin) so onto the bubble it goes.

Platinum End
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B-
Comments: The simple fact is there’s a lot of talent involved in Platinum End, both in terms of the source material and the adaptation.  The former certainly became a hot mess, but the anime has a chance to flatten out some of those monumental blunders – and so far, it’s doing a good job of making the series’ best section even more entertaining.  The real test will come later (when the manga really went south) but for now, Platinum End is a solidly entertaining pulp thriller in the vein (perhaps a little too obviously) of Mirai Nikki.  I’m having fun watching it, and that’s enough for now.

Muteking the Dancing Hero
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: I find this sequel to a somewhat obscure 70’s tokusatsu anime to be pretty fun.  Muteking’s somewhat bizarre take on a future San Francisco is amusing to me as a former resident, and there’s an unforced randomness to the whole exercise that I quite like.  This show is sneaky weird, in a good way.  There hasn’t been much dancing so far though, which is a bit of a letdown given the title.

Megaton-kyuu Musashi
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C+
Comments: Amidst a large but largely bland mecha lineup, I find Megaton-kyuu Musashi to be relatively pleasant.  It’s obviously pitched at kids (it comes from the creator of Youkai Watch and Inazuma Eleven) but it’s as much a paean to Saturday morning mecha shows (and we know it’s not kids who are nostalgic for those) as anything.

Digimon Ghost Game
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C+
Comments: In much the same way the first two “Build” series (but not so much the ones since) were to Gundam, I find Digimon Ghost Game to be a nice break from the rigidly genre-faithful entries in the franchise.  With a premise that feels like a spinoff, it’s free to have a little more fun with the tropes and play with the narrative structure.  Digimon as a mystery of the week series works pretty well, as it turns out.

Mieruko-chan
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C+
Comments: I kind of want this to work, because there’s something sort of interesting in Mieruko-chan’s premise, and the series is nicely animated with an attractive design style.  So far it mostly isn’t working for me, partly because of some of the most crass and inelegant fanservice you’ll ever see (though that did tone down a bit after the second episode).  Supernatural thrillers can be a very interesting anime genre, and this one has potential, especially as the nuances of what Miko sees become more apparent.  But the storytelling so far is really clumsy, and that’s a lot to overcome.  That said the fourth episode really delivered, and suggested that there may be something more here if the anime can only tease it out.

Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C
Comments: For a series from Madhouse directed by Koujina Hiroshi, Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu has been pretty disappointing.  It’s a flat-out slapstick comedy and with those, the metric is pretty simple – it’s either funny enough, or it isn’t.  So far, it isn’t.  And also, the characters spend way too much time shouting.

Gyakuten Sekai no Denchi Shoujo
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C
Comments: To be honest I totally forgot about this show and didn’t even notice when it premiered.  I’ve since caught up, and while this story of saving the world through otaku passions in a post-apocalyptic alternative Tokyo has its funny moments, it’s been nothing special.  Again, with the talent involved – the director is Andou Masaomi and the writer is Uezu Makoto – I would have hoped for more.

Dropped:

Taishou Otome Otogibanashi, Kyoukai Senki, Sakugan, Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru, Deep Insanity: The Lost Child.

 

Here, then, is this season’s blogging prospectus:

Monday:
Probably Blogging: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen
On the Respirator: Mieruko-chan

Tuesday:
Definitely Blogging: None

Wednesday:
On the Bubble: Takt Op. Destiny

Thursday:
Definitely Blogging: Heike Monogtari
Probably Blogging: Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu (Netflix, irregular release schedule)

Friday:
Definitely Blogging: Ousama Ranking
On the Bubble: Platinum End

Saturday:
Definitely Blogging: Blue Period (Netflix, irregular release schedule)

Sunday:
Definitely Blogging: Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi
On the Bubble: Saihate no Paladin, Digimon Ghost Game

Manga: Otoyomegatari, Hunter X Hunter (hiatus)

Watching For Now: Megaton-kyuu Musashi, Mutaking the Dancing Hero, Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu, Gyakuten Sekai no Denchi Shoujo.

 

One more thing before I wrap.  Of course you’ve heard me say it before, but the need for financial support for LiA is greater than ever. Everything has gotten more expensive again this year, and it gets more and more difficult to justify the time I have to put in to make the site one I feel proud of.  I know times are tough right now but if you’re inclined to consider helping out, please visit one of the links in the sidebar. Patreon patrons, Paypal subscribers or one-time contributors  – you all have my everlasting gratitude.

Please check out the LiA YouTube channel for manga recommendations, from the vault anime, Japan journeys and more!