Traditionally, spring is the strongest season of the anime year. But if that’s the case in 2020, we might be in some trouble.

Before I look at the Spring 2020 anime season from a content standpoint, we may as well address the elephant in the room (if you imagine the room is the entire civilized world).  Yes, COVID-19 – better knows as the Coronavirus – is here.  And there are plenty of impacts to be felt already, above and beyond Corona beer sales plummeting (note: not a joke).  Almost all of them are more important than how it affects anime.  Nevertheless we’ve already seen those effects, and I think it’s safe to say we’ll see more.

The main way COVID-19 may impact anime is the way it already has – production delays.  So far this is mostly due to anime’s increasing dependence on China for outsourced production, but with Japan looking at weeks or months of travel restrictions and even that most un-Japanese of phenomena, closed workplaces, episode and even series delays (of which we’ve already seen two three from the original spring schedule) will almost certainly become more common.  Anime production generally has no buffer zone in its scheduling to begin with, which doesn’t help.  This is a crisis impacting Japan across every sector – schools are closed early for spring break, and the J-League and NPB are facing either cancellation of their games or playing them in empty stadiums.  Much of this comes down to a last desperate attempt to save the Summer Olympics, the cancellation of which would be an unimaginable financial blow to the country.  I suspect it’s doomed to fail, but we shall see.

What about the other phenomenon I’ve talked about in these preview posts of late – the decline in overall production slate?  That seems to have stablized for now – this spring has 44 new series including ONA’s, which exactly matches Spring 2019.  That’s a long way off 2018’s 69 and 2017’s 68, but as with winter we’re holding steady rather than declining.  This level of production seems to be the new normal for now, which for reasons already discussed in this space has its positives and negatives.  It does mean that there’s less overall oxygen in the room than there used to be, so every announcement of a new isekai or CGDCT McAnime means one less production slot available for something interesting.

Looking at Spring from a content standpoint, the ground looks pretty fallow from here.  Coming on the heels of an indifferent (charitably) winter that sets 2020 up as a rough start to the decade, especially considering that Spring is often the strongest season of the year.  There are no sure-fire standouts here among the new shows – prospects certainly, but no non-sequel that has me really excited like Vinland Saga or Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (the early frontrunner for 2020’s year-end list, with no obvious challengers on the horizon).  We do have some good sequels, with Major 2nd heading that group, but it’s a middling bunch on the whole (for my tastes).  In terms of volume, it again looks pretty middling – I’m previewing 16 series, but an awful lot of them are blind leaps.

One series on this schedule strikes me as especially intriguing for what it represents, and that’s Kami no Tou (known to most fans worldwide as Tower of God).  I’ll get into the details of my view on the series shortly, but as a highly-popular manhwa from LINE WEBTOON, Naver’s hyper-successful – and free – streaming service, its arrival could be a portent of things to come for anime.  And indeed we’ve already seen a few more manhwa announcements since, including another WEBTOON title.  Japan’s bias against Korea and Koreans is well-known, but manhwa and K-pop are also lucrative and popular here.  I suspect we’re going to see a lot more manhwa adapted in coming years, especially if Tower of God proves to be profitable.

Genre-wise, it’s another relatively vanilla batch of series mostly representative of the safe and unambitious style dominating production today.  There are a couple of oddballs to spice things up, but I don’t see any overarching trends here apart from one – game adaptations are definitely the fastest-growing sector of the production slate.  We seem to get more and more of them by percentage every season, and I have to say that so far I haven’t been much impressed.  If the cream has already been skimmed off the top, I worry about what’s still on the way.  On the plus side it’s an above-average representation for seinen, with the trend of old series getting adapted out of the blue continuing.

 

With that, let’s move on to the preview.  As usual, the poll is in the sidebar – please go vote!

 

 

Highest Expectations:

Major 2nd: 2nd Season  – OLM: (PV) Thus far Mitsuda Takuya’s Major (I you consider “2nd” a continuation of the same series) has seen everything adapted eventually.  A true institution in Japan, Major will probably continue to receive adaptations for as long as Mitsuda-sensei can produce new chapters.  He’s not getting any younger and he’s already had a couple of health-related (though relatively brief) hiatuses, but he’s only 54, so he figures to finish this series eventually.  And it’s hard to imagine any part of it not eventually coming to the screen.

Major 2nd is quite a contrast to the original – Goro’s son Daigo is no generational talent like his father, but a normal boy with insecurities about how he stacks up (or fails to stack up) against his father’s legacy.  I love the dynamic here (even the acknowledgement that Goro sucks as a dad) and with Watanabe Ayumu in charge, there’s almost no way for this series not to get the very best out of the source material.  Pretty much as close to a sure thing as you’re going to get in anime – if this series is your bag, you’re going to be a very happy camper.

 

 

Mid-table:

Kami no Tou – Telecom Animation Film: (PV) As I noted in the forward, Kami no Tou is one of those series that has importance for what it represents as much as for what it is.  But the truth of the matter is I’d be interested in this one even if that weren’t the case, because the manhwa is genuinely engaging.  It’s also desperately in need of a team of editors working round-the-clock for at least a month, because creator SIO (Slave. In. Utero) is about as undisciplined a writer as you’ll find.  But the part the anime is adapting (theoretically) should consist mostly of the manhwa’s strongest material.

While there are still some big unanswered casting questions (GATOR), on balance Tower of God is looking a lot less of a dumpster fire than I expected.  It has a legit studio and will apparently be at least partly non-CGI.  The staff isn’t bad, and it dodged the Kaji Yuuki bullet for Bam (though there’s another character in the danger zone as yet uncast).  The preview looked relatively good.  In short, I’m kinda pumped.  The first 50 chapters or so of this series are really compelling – good world-building, engaging protagonist, lots of action.  It was originally sold to me as a series in the mold of Hunter X Hunter and while I get why people say that, in time it became clear to me that the resemblance was skin-deep at best.  Nevertheless I like Bam and much of the cast of turtles, and I like Tower of God a lot – though in the unlikely event the franchise eventually gets a long adaptation, some really hard choices are going to have to be made because the manhwa really goes off the rails after that great start.

Kingdom 3rd Season – Studio Signpost: (PV) Kingdom as much as any series not named Berserk is a poster child for how much damage bad production values can do to an adaptation.  Hara Yasuhisa’s military epic is one of the most awarded, beloved and commercially successful manga of the 21st Century.  But the first two seasons at Pierrot – especially the first – were some of the ugliest and cheapest anime around.  It employed a ton of CGI, and badly, and the characters were frequently comedically off-model.  Pierrot is capable of great work, but their balance sheet seems to be driven by a lot of lowest-bidder adaptations that are some of the worst anime you’ll see production-wise.

Well, do have a new studio in Signpost, though all they’ve done so far is the Nobunaga dog series (as well as our third director in three seasons).  The preview was inconclusive and I’m not going to tempt fate by saying “it couldn’t get any worse”.  But I’m hopeful, and even through the brutal assault on the eyes in S1-2 Hara’s writing still shone through.  Kingdom is a violent and bleak story, as befits the setting and time, but it does have interesting and nuanced characters to latch onto.  It’s been six years (good God – really?) since S2 and some of the details are a little fuzzy, but this is a substantial and well-written series that’s very much worth your time.

Fugou Keiji: Balance:Unlimited – CloverWorks: (PV) After three known quantities we now enter the leap of faith portion of the preview.  There are several shows clustered near the top of this category for me and I don’t think there’s much difference in how I’d rank them at this point.  Fugou Keiji has a few points in its favor, though.  Strong director (Itou Tomohiko) and writer (Kishimoto Taku), decent studio, and it’s based on a novel.  Add in that the author is Tsutsui Yasutaka (Paprika, Toki o Kakeru Shoujo) and you have a series with a lot of obvious potential.

Anime has been positively overrun with detective stories lately, so this show doesn’t have novelty to bank on.  This one (which had a genderswapped live-action TV adaptation in 2006) focuses on a genius detective and his shallow and materialistic partner working in a police division where known troublemakers are stashed away.  Above and beyond that I don’t know much – it’s really just a matter of putting faith in the pedigree.

Arte – Seven Arcs: (PV) Novelty, on the other hand, is definitely an arrow in Arte’s quiver.  A historical seinen set in Florence during the 16th Century, the series focuses on the appropriately-named title character and her request to overcome the imposed limitations she faces due to her age and station and become an artist.  The staff and cast look pretty good, and Ookubo Kei’s manga is generally well-regarded, so this is another pedigree bet for me.  The manga is ongoing and not obscenely popular, so figure this one to be a one-cour advertisement for the source material.

Listeners – MAPPA (PV) Our first original series on the list.  The biggest name associated with Listeners is Satou Dai, best known as the creator of Eureka Seven, though it has quite a notable staff generally including director Andou Hiroaki.  The bulk of Andou’s work has been on CGI shows, though MAPPA is primarily known for 2D works – it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.  We don’t know all that much about the story apart from the fact that it involves a mysterious girl with an audio jack in her body, the history of rock and roll, and (reportedly) mecha.  Basically an interesting wild card.

Nami yo Kiitekure – Sunrise (PV) With his most well-known series Immortal wrapping up its second anime adaptation, mangaka Samura Hirokai sees his currently serialized Nami yo Kiitekure get its turn.  It’s the story of a woman who hears the drunken outburst she makes to a radio employee on the air the next day and winds up being duped into hosting a talk show.  Thematically it’s hard to imagine a more radical departure for an author but hey, that’s fine.  I haven’t read the manga but on balance it doesn’t seem to be regarded as anything great – though I’ve learned you can’t trust that sort of evidence.  Nothing on the staff list stands out as especially noteworthy.  So all in all expectations are modest, but it’s a seinen by a writer who clearly has talent, so that alone makes it a prospect.

Yesterday wo Utatte – Doga Kobo (PV) Another seinen, this time the story of an adrift young man who takes a job at a konbini after college.  Eventually he meets his ex-girlfriend and her pet raven and his life starts to get weird.  Another seinen adaptation (that’s good) of a manga that seems generally to be viewed as middling.  Nothing stands out in the staff, again.  But see above – I’m always more hopeful with seinen (or jousei, though we hardly ever see one) adaptations even if the sources aren’t universally beloved.  Yesterday wo Utatte is also another case of a really old seinen manga – over 20 years in this case – getting an anime for some reason.  It is a little long for a single cour at 11 volumes but at least it’s finished, so we should get a definitive ending.  Some sleeper vibes happening here.

 

 

Modestly Interested:

Fruits Basket 2nd Season – TMS Entertainment: (PV) Most of the bloom is off the rose for me with Fruits Basket.  That makes me quite sad as it was one of my formative series as an anime fan, but it’s not a development that surprises me all that much.  People change a lot in almost two decades, and I had a pretty good notion of just how much Akitarou Daichi had done to elevate the material in the first adaptation.

That said, we are at least moving into totally new material, so comparisons with the Deen version are no longer part of the deal.  And I’m certainly curious to see how TMS fares here, as there’s some very good content remaining in the manga in addition to the sort of stuff that Daichi smoothed over.  There’s no way I could not watch Furuba at this point, but as for coverage I’m not so sure as there are episodes upcoming that I’d probably skip if I weren’t covering it.

Gleipnir – Pine Jam: (PV) It’s another seinen!  And on paper Gleipnir should be higher on my expectations list.  A seinen with the excellent Yoneda Kazuhiro directing, produced at Pine Jam, one of the most ambitious young studios in the game?  Unfortunately I think the manga (a guy who can turn into a giant stuffed dog and the girl who exploits him) is kind of dumb and while I’d expect this staff to get the most out of the material. in the end it is what it is.  If this is better than mediocre it’ll be a welcome surprise.

BNA (Brand New Animal) – Trigger: (PV) I’ve really liked exactly one Trigger show – SSSS.Gridman, which is the most unlike anything else the studio has produced.  As a Gainax fan I have to keep coming back every time Trigger releases a new series, but their aesthetic generally flat-out whiffs with me.  BNA is another one written by Nakashima Kazuki, but that’s no longer a net positive for me at this point.  The director is Yoshinari You, most known these days for the agreeable but forgettable Little Witch Academia.  This original features animals acting like people and even a wolf protagonist, so comparisons to Beastars are inevitable – we’ll see if they’re in any way warranted.

Appare-Ranman! – P.A. Works: (PV) I haven’t seen much from PAW outside Morimi Tomihiko that’s interested me in recent years.  But there’s enough history there that I always give their new ones a shot, and so it is with this original.  It certainly looks odd – a genius Japanese engineer and a cowardly samurai enter a cross-country race in an extremely fantastical version of late-19th Century America.  Hashimoto Masakazu is both writing and directing, which doesn’t tell us much one way or the other based on his resume.

Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro – LIDENFILMS : (PV) Woodpecker Detective’s Office (have I mentioned anime is obsessed with detectives?) is based on a 1999 novel.  In the novel real-life poet Takuboku Ishikawa runs a detective agency in 1909 Tokyo, and partners with real-life linguist Kyousuke Kindaichi to investigate ghost sightings in Asakusa’s Juunikai (Japan’s first skyscraper and the most famous place in Tokyo at the time).  This is a complete shot in the dark for me, but the Juunikai has always fascinated me for the elemental hold it had on the Japanese psyche.  Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro strikes me as this season’s most likely candidate for that eponymous Housekishou/Mayonaka/Kyoto Teramachi Sanjo no Holmes/Youkai Apato/et al slot on the schedule.

Kakushigoto – Ajia-do: (PV) Pretty much a shot in the dark here.  Kakushigoto is the story of a guy who writes an ecchi manga and tries to hide it from his young daughter.  That could be modestly amusing but it’s a minefield too.  Mangaka Kumeta Kouji is the only reason I’m here, basically – he’s done some decent work.

Tsugu Tsugumomo – Zero-G: (PV) I know what I’m getting with Tsugumomo in its second season, and I’m under no illusions that it will be greatness.  But this ecchi fantasy is better than you might think based on the lowbrow tone – it has a fairly well-structured mythology and there’s actually a modicum of depth to the characters.  At least there’s no mystery here, and as long as you go in with your eyes open and your prudishness closed you might enjoy this show a fair bit.

Koukaku Kidoutai: SAC_2045 – Production I.G., Sola Digital Arts: (PV) I suppose any Ghost in the Shell sequel directed by Kamiyama Kenji and Aramaki Shinji should be ranked much higher.  But I’ve never quite gotten the G.I.T.S. love, and Kamiyama’s transition to full-CGI projects has pretty much left me cold.  And I have to be honest – the trailers look like crap.  I’m kind of embarrassed for everyone involved, but maybe this series will grow on me.  Mostly out of loyalty to the director of my favorite anime ever I’ll give SAC_2045 a shot.

 

Will Definitely Blog: Major 2nd: 2nd Season, Kami no Tou, Kingdom 3rd Season 

Sleepers: Yesterday wo Utatte, Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro

 

OVA:

Well, this is a first – there’s not a single OVA/Special this season to make the preview.  It’s a dying format, so that was bound to happen sooner or later.

 

 

Theatrical:

The growth in volume of theatrical releases, by contrast, continues.

Violet Evergarden Movie – 04/24/20: (PV) Violet Evergarden isn’t my cup of tea to be honest.  It looks great but I don’t feel anything for it beyond that.  But it’s here not because I follow the franchise, but because it represents Kyoto Animation’s first new release since the unimaginable tragedy which befell the studio last year.  This film was originally scheduled for a January release but I hardly think anyone is going to begrudge KyoAni a three-month delay under the circumstances.  Whatever one may feel about a specific project, I think anime fans should take every opportunity they can to support this iconic studio as they slowly begin the long, painful journey to recovery.

Cider no You ni Kotoba ga Wakiagaru – 05/15/20: (PV) Another Satou Dai project, this one from Signal.MD and Sublimation.  Like Listeners it’s music-themed and a romance, though not with any obvious sci-fi or fantasy element that I can see.  One interesting element here is that 15 year-old kabuki actor Somegorou Ichikawa is starring as the protagonist, Cherry.  He’s the scion of a prestigious centuries-old kabuki family and inherited the “Somegorou” name at the age of 11.

Given – 05/16/20: (PV) The most notable thing about Given for me was its unfulfilled potential.  Maybe the movie can take the story places the series never did.  I liked it, but a music-themed romance with very little actual music or romance was ultimately an unsatisfying experience.

Nakitai Watashi wa Neko wo Kaburu – 06/05/20: (PV) A pairing of Okada Mari and Satou Junichi seems likely to produce an over-sentimental debacle (or just plain debacle, as was the case with M3).  Still, Okada is always an interesting lotto ticket and I always like Satou better when he’s directing someone else’s material rather than writing the story.  The conceit here is a girl who turns into a cat because it’s the only way to catch the eye of the boy she likes.  I think the less said about that as a premise the better, but too much potential for random insanity exists to ignore this one completely.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 – 06/27/20: (PV) Yes, the day is finally here (almost).  Perhaps anime’s most essential and influential cultural phenomenon, Evangelion winds people up like nothing else in the medium.  This will be Anno Hideaki’s third stab at ending the story (of course Sadamoto Yoshiyuki took his own stab at in the manga too – and those are just the “official” versions).  I still like the much-derided original TV ending the best, personally.

3.0+1.0 (you’re not wrong, that’s incredibly pretentious) has been almost 8 years coming as the perpetually-slow Anno dealt with other projects.  1.0 was basically a recap but after 2.0 I had some hope for the Khara film series – that one was truly excellent and offered a take on the mythology that felt fresh and essential.  But 3.0 was IMHO a disaster – a confusing, misguided and tedious mess of a film that left me feeling as if the entire franchise had been diminished by its existence.  Frankly I have little expectation that Anno will suck out on the river with 3.0+1.0 – I’ll be surprised if it works artistically.  But it’s Eva, and that makes it important.  And since no series is more fundamental to my early development as an anime fan, it’s certainly important to me.