Spring 2019 Anime Worth Watching
Feeling buried under all the new anime content season after season? Well the new spring anime season is upon us, so here’s some stuff worth watching if you’re lost in the sea of shows. Also in case you were sleeping last season, here’s some Winter 2019 Anime You Should Watch too!
I’m not going to pretend this season is as wildly amazing as winter, but that doesn’t mean everything is garbage.
Carole and Tuesday: A sci-fi anime that tells the story of a pampered rich girl named Tuesday who runs away to the big city to pursue her love of music and starts a band with a streetwise girl named Carole. Aka, the music lesbian one directed by the Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo guy. IF YOU ONLY WATCH ONE NEW SHOW THIS SEASON, MAKE IT THIS ONE! It by far has the most amazing visuals, easy to connect with story, and obviously the best music…and this is after just one episode. It’s one of those shows you can tell will be memorable from the first five minutes!
Hitoribocchi: A startlingly accurate high school comedy, in which a girl with extreme anxiety must learn to make friends at her new middle school in order to get her one friend from elementary school to talk to her again. It is sweet, hilarious, and very on the nose considering pretty much everyone who watches anime has been this type of person at some point.
Fruits Basket 2019: In case you hadn’t become anime trash yet in 2001: after the death of her mother, stereotypical protagonist Tooru Honda starts living in a tent in the woods…only to be taken in by the mysterious Sohma family…who can turn into animals from the zodiac when they’re hugged by a member of the opposite sex. It’s the remake of the 2001 anime that basically introduced an entire generation to the concept of shoujo. In an age of revamping every property from your childhood to hit you with a nostalgia bomb, this one is pretty well deserved…because this time they’re going to follow the manga! Tooru’s a little less annoyingly air headed this time, and it’s as beautifully animated as you’d expect!
Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba: A shounen anime following a young boy and his sister who is possessed by a demon, who must find a way to turn her back to normal after their entire family is slaughtered. It’s pretty basic so far, but there is a lot of potential. Apparently the manga is very hyped up, and it’s easy to get invested in the characters’ safety. And it’s made by Ufotable so…at least it will look interesting.
Kono Oto-tomare! (Stop this Sound!): After his senpais graduate, Takezou Kurata becomes the only member of his high school Koto club, and the only other member who wants to join is a delinquent who annoys the hell out of him. What’s Koto you ask? It’s a traditional Japanese stringed instrument that no one really cares about of course! It’s a standard high school comedy/drama where the animation budget has been spent on shots of the characters picking the Koto strings. But it’s still fun and sweet with a focus on an instrument I know nothing about…and don’t try and convince me the two main characters aren’t into each other.
Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin (Midnight Occult Civil Servants): A comedy/detective show about a government branch that works out the disputes of various supernatural creatures. So far, it runs in the same vein as The Morose Mononokean, but it’s a little early to tell how seriously it will take itself. If nothing else, watch it for the adorable size difference between an enormous angel and an Edward Elric sized Tengu who are in a forbidden relationship. I don’t know if they’ll come back, but I’m into the world the show has created.
RobiHachi: A sci-fi buddy comedy about a laughably hopeless loser who blasts into space while running away from debt collectors. Little did he know, he accidentally brought one of the collectors with him, and now the two must embark on a journey to the perfect city of Isekandar…which is most likely just a well advertised tourist trap. Also the ship turns into a giant robot. It’s a fun, if a bit ridiculous, romp that is extremely reminiscent of Space Dandy. It is all a technicolor mess of “what the hell is going on?”… but in a fun way! And speaking of technicolor messes that make you question your sanity…
Sarazanmai: I don’t even know what the plot of this one is. It has the gay cops you’ve probably seen around the internet…and also kappas that go up people’s butts to get some sort of “desire organ”…? It basically feels like a really outrageous magical boy show where the main characters transform into kappas to… fight evil kappas and make people reveal secrets before they regain their human forms I guess. Yeah it’s a wild ride, and it’s definitely not for everyone. But it has some of the best animation this season, and I encourage people to give it a chance, even if it’s just to understand why the internet is screaming about it.
Second Seasons and Continuations
Dororo: I mentioned this in my winter anime post, and I’m talking about it again because it’s getting 24 episodes, and EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH IT! So in case you missed it the first time, it’s a dark and surprisingly feelsy remake of the original 1969 manga about a warrior whose limbs and organs were traded to demons when he was a baby. So in typical anime fashion he must travel across the country killing demons to get his limbs back with the help of a lovable scamp named Dororo. There is lots of action, family drama, humor, and a very compelling story about good and evil. The main character doesn’t even speak until almost halfway through the anime, and he was still the most interesting main character of the winter season. It’s an early contender for anime of the year, so PLEASE DON’T SLEEP ON IT!
The Rising of the Shield Hero: Another leftover from the winter season, it’s…an isekai…wait, wait, I PROMISE IT’S WORTH WATCHING…about a hero who is framed for a crime and must walk the line between redemption and revenge while still doing his job as a hero and saving people who have scorned him. Also the other heroes who are supposed to be saving the world…kind of fuck everything up all the time, and he has to fix everything. Apparently there’s a controversy around the show because of the first episode and the crime he is framed for. All I have to say is…just watch the show past the first episode, and make your own decision. It’s a fun action/adventure story that keeps you interested all the way through.
Bungo Stray Dogs season 3: An action/drama detective anime about a mysterious organization filled with superhuman detectives who protect the city from all sorts of threats. Think Kekkai Sensen but in Japan. Okay, confession time: the first two seasons were good, with amazing animation and likable characters…but I remember almost nothing about the actual plot, so I probably won’t watch this right away. But it’s definitely worth mentioning because of the massive fandom and love everyone has for this show.
Ace of Diamond act 2: It’s the shounen baseball anime! I really don’t know how to else do describe it. I love sports anime, but this one can fall into the trap of making small things drag on forever. Still, I love this team and I want to see them succeed!
One Punch Man season 2: The long awaited second season of One Punch Man! The story of a man who’s a hero for fun and can defeat any foe with a single punch. I know we’re all upset that it switched from Madhouse to J.C Staff, and while yes that means the action isn’t as amazing, the rest of the time it just looks…different…not bad. I think if we go too hard on the studio change, it makes it seem like there was nothing special about OPM besides its animation. Can we just give it to Bones next season? They seem to know what they’re doing with Mob Psycho 100.
And we’re still waiting on Attack on Titan season 3 part 2, but hopefully it will be as well animated as usual and make sense of the jumbled mess the manga became.
Also I know this came out last season, but I would like to formally apologize for not including in my winter list…
The Promised Neverland: A horror/thriller anime focusing on the children of Grace Field House, an orphanage where everyone is a happy family and there are definitely no deep dark terrible secrets about what happens to the children who leave the house at all…right? It’s the one where characters have tiny mouths. This is my other contender for anime of the year because holy shit this was amazing. Like…I had to go read the manga immediately after finishing it amazing. If you haven’t given it a try or didn’t watch it because the characters just look so stupid…don’t make the same mistake I did and cast it aside. Also it just started airing in English on Toonami, so why not include it with this season!? It’s just that good!
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