Whatever else Fall 2024 turns out to be, it’s one hell of a busy anime season. There’s a tremendous volume of watchable shows, and that always makes blogging decisions more complicated. Bigger isn’t always better, and I would always take elite quality at the top over volume of mediocrity. But on the whole this looks to have enough quality to go down as a good season, even if it lacks the multiple standouts requisite to call it a great one.

Thematically the story of this season is exactly what it looked like at preview time. To a larger extent than normal at least, this season headlines with shows about adults. And/or serious topics. Some at the very leading edge of that (like college-aged) but post-high school anyway. Many of my absolute favorite anime are about teenagers and younger, but there’s no question I consider this a positive development. Anime about grown-ups (especially centered around marriage) are way less common than they should be, and there can never be too many series about substantial topics.

Broadly speaking I think we can say things have gone relatively close to plan. The shows expected to be good are good, there are no huge surprises or disappointments, and the sleepers have pretty much pulled their weight. Overall the weight is concentrated in the middle rather than at the top, but that too is pretty close to what I expected.

 

Onward, then, to Fall 2024:

The Elite

None

 

Outstanding

Chi.: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite
Episodes Watched: 5
Grade: A
Comments: Chi Chikyuu has largely done what I hoped it would. That is, tweak the parts of the manga that didn’t quite click for me and tell a very interesting and serious story with more flair and elegance. Madhouse has brought their A game for this show and as rarely as we see it these days, that can go toe-to-toe with pretty much anybody’s. I still have some concerns with the material which lead me to think this series won’ t reach the level of a true masterpiece, but it’s the best new show of the season so far.

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan – Kyoto Douran
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A-
Comments: The major question hanging over this adaptation of the Kyoto Arc is how long it will be. If it’s 21 eps and done that’s inviting disaster in my opinion, but we’ll see. So far Liden has adapted the manga at pretty much the same pace as the first adaptation (three cours) did. And with “Kyoto” it’s pretty hard to screw it up outside of a total botch job which you’d never get from Lidenfilms. At this point I’d put this one in the same category as their Houkago no Insomnia adaptation – solid, very competent, without adding in a lot of flair or flourish. As with Insomniacs with a great source material that’s fine, even if it doesn’t fully soar the way a more ambitious take might.

Natsume Yuujinchou Shichi
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A-
Comments: At this point the Natsume Yuujinchou anime is about as “sasuga” as you can get. Even without having read the manga there are really no surprises, but surprises aren’t what most people are watching this show for. The only variable is the mix of wistful youkai-driven episodes and more traditional conflict-resolution human (Natori) ones, which fluctuates a little from season to season.

Very Good

Dandadan
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B+
Comments: Dandadan is a good manga, but it absolutely needed a knockout adaptation if it was really going to work as anime. This series is all about spectacle and absurdity and breathless energy, and the hard part is that sort of thing can’t be expressed on-screen in the same way a mangaka does it. Fortunately Science Saru has really brought their A game so far, and it has a chance to be the Tengoku Daimakyou of 2024 – a very good (though this is not quite as good) manga which levels up in anime form thanks to a brilliant treatment.

Ao no Hako
Episodes Watched: 5
Grade: B+
Comments: Ao no Hako, by contrast, is a very good manga that didn’t necessarily need a great adaptation to work. And I would say what it’s getting is in fact a very good treatment by CloverWorks – nothing on the level of what they did for Nige Jouzu no Wakagami, but then it doesn’t lend itself to that sort of stylized adaptation. This is just extremely faithful (visually and narratively) and entirely competent. It’s a good story – it will drive me nuts before it’s done, but I’m prepared for that.

Kekkon Sure tte, Hontou desu ka
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B+
Comments: 365 Days to the Wedding was one of my top sleepers of the season. And while it’s pretty great, people are still sleeping on it. It shares a director (Ikehata Hiroshi) with Tonikaku Cawaii, and may be joining it as the best marriage-themed anime of the 2020’s (admittedly a small field). The two series are quite different though – this one much more about the idea of marriage itself, and what it represents to young adults in modern Japan. This show is very good, no question about it  – smartly written, funny, and superb at observational drama.

Ooi! Tonbo Second Season 
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B
Comments: Ooi Tonbo really hasn’t skipped a beat with its change of venue and cast. We’re in the big city (relatively speaking) of Kagoshima now, Igaiga is back on Hinoshima, and the focus is on Tonbo learning to be play real golf on real courses. And how to be a competitor, which when you’ve only ever played for fun and never even kept score may be an even bigger adjustment. So far so good, but I still think Igaiga is really going to be a big loss on the character development side.

Ranma ½ (2024)
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B
Comments: MAPPA is coming through with a spirited and smart reboot of the Rumiko classic, one of the first I anime I ever watched. Ranma ½ doesn’t easily lend itself to blogging, necessarily, but I’m certainly enjoying it more than I would have guessed. Bringing back most of the original cast turned out to be a very smart decision.

 

Worthwhile

Negaposi Angler
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B
Comments: Negaposi Angler is clearly the class of this category, and not far from cracking the one above. It’s quirky and distinctive, certainly good things for an original anime to be. The themes at its heart – fatal illness, depression, addition – could hardly be darker. But the overall tone of often whimsical and irreverent. It’s an interesting contrast that doesn’t always work, but does enough of the time to make this series a worthwhile entry in the pre-season sleeper category.

Trillion Game 
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: Part of this season’s trend towards shows about working adults. Trillion Game takes on a topic we don’t see often in anime, entrepreneurialism – something that doesn’t have the same profound cachet in Japanese society that it does in many Western countries. Especially America, which is where a lot of what we see here feels like it could be happening.

Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun Part 2  
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B-
Comments: This series could never be mistaken for something other than what it is, an omake for the main series. But if you like the premise and characters, as obviously I do, it’s still a fun diversion. I’m more than ready for January’s long-overdue second season, though.

 

Still Watching

Raise wa Tanin ga Ii
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C+
Comments: I’d certainly like to like Raise wa Tanin more than I do. The manga has an excellent reputation and the premise is not without a fair bit of interest. But on the whole I find it pretty hard to connect with this show. I’m mostly hanging around out of curiosity whether or not the series’ perspective is as messed up as I sometimes suspect it is.

MF Ghost 2nd Season
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C+
Comments: The racing is still great, and the two main characters are fine when Ren has her clothes on. Pretty much everything else about MF Ghost is seriously cringe.

Ao no Miburo
Episodes Watched: 2
Grade: C+
Comments: Another series I really want to like more than I do. It’s a great premise – a Shinsengumi origin story focused on the moral ambiguity of the Boshin War and events leading up to it. But the writing so far is pretty broad, and there have been hackneyed and manipulative emotional payoffs in each of the first two episodes. I really, really hope this one surprises me.

Tsuma Shougakusei ni Naru
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: C+
Comments: I liked this one enough to put it on the Patron Pick ballot, but I sense I’m getting pretty close to the drop zone. It does, to its credit, generally avoid the cringy turns a series with this premise could have taken. But the whole thing is just a bit too silly for the tone of the series, and I’m honestly not sure what point it’s trying to make.

Hoshifuru Oukoku no Nina
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C+
Comments: Nina the Starry Bride is certainly a pleasant watch, if quite formulaic. It’s based on a jousei manga but you’d swear it was from an above-average light novel if you didn’t know better. Utterly generic plucky heroine fantasy but with broadly likeable characters and not too much in the way of histrionics.

Touhai: Ura Rate Mahjong Touhai Roku
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C+
Comments: Touhai is just completely ridiculous but I kind of like that about it. It’s like a Fist of the North Star spliced onto a Mahjong anime, all with ultra-cheap animation. What can I say, it makes me laugh and the story is kind of interesting.

 

Dropped:

Kimi wa Meidou-sama, Uzumaki, Youkai Gakkou no Sensei Hajimemashita!, Gokoun ni Ittara, Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi

 

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

Monday:
Definitely Blogging: Natsume Yuujinchou Shichi
On the Respirator:: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii.

Tuesday:
None

Wednesday:
Definitely Blogging: Sengoku Youko: Senma Konton-hen

Thursday:
Definitely Blogging: Dandadan, Ao no Hako, Kekkon Sure tte, Hontou Desu Ka, Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan – Kyoto Douran
Probably Blogging: Negaposi Angler
On the Bubble: Trillion Game

Friday:
Definitely Blogging: Ooi! Tonbo 2nd Season

Saturday:
Definitely Blogging: Chi.: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite
Probably Blogging: Ranma ½ (2024)
On the Bubble: Ao no Miburo

Sunday:
None

Manga: Otoyomegatari, Hunter X Hunter

Watching For Now: Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun Part 2, Tsuma Shougakusei ni Naru, MF Ghost 2nd Season, Hoshifuru Oukoku no Nina, Touhai: Ura Rate Mahjong Touhai Roku

 

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