Another season means another batch of anime to watch, love, and lampoon. As always, there’s going to be anime that suck big ones and anime that everyone will love. I’m here to help you find anime that you’ll love so you won’t waste your time with another fanservice show.
Bakuman- The first anime I watched this Fall was the anime adaptation of Bakuman, originally created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the guys behind Death Note. The story starts with Moritaka Mashiroa, boy down in the dumps because he wants to draw manga, but because of what attempting to be a mangaka did to his uncle, he's decided to opt for a cushy, safe job in an office cubicle. This all changes when he encounters Akito Takagi, an optimistic classmate who loves manga as well and wishes to write manga one day. His art skills suck, though, so he offers to team up to become a great mangaka team. After initially declining, Moritaka accepts once the girl of dreams states her wishes to become a voice actress and she agrees to voice act in the anime adaptation of their manga. In a surprise twist, our main character actually asks her for her hand in marriage. She accepts, but she adds a very stupid condition to the agreement that I won't spoil here.
The two main characters are certainly interesting enough, though Moritaka will annoy you at first with his very depressing outlook on life until he lightens up a little bit. What worries me is that the manga has a rather misogynist reputation, and the marriage proposal scene certainly hints at that. Still, I recommend checking this show out at least for the premise that will probably resonate with anyone who's wanted to write comics or any story at a young age.
Star Driver- Watch this show now! I should elaborate, of course, but I'm 3 episodes into this series and I'm already convinced that this will be the best anime this Fall. It's certainly got all the right credits to qualify. First of all, this show is made by Studio BONES, the guys who made great shows such as Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, and Darker Than Black. They're known for spending their animation budget well and creating top-notch animation, and that holds true for this show. Second of all, the story was penned by the guy who wrote for the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, which is one of the greatest allegorical anime ever written. The similarities between this show and Utena are astounding, and I might as well call Star Driver a gender bent Utena with giant robots, which is a compliment. Speaking of robots, the duels between the giant robots are simply spectacles that must be viewed. Even if you don't care for learning about the character's motivations, what the Order of the Glittering Stars is really after, or why the main character is as thin as twig, the robot fights will keep you hooked, unlike Utena's sword duels that were somewhat impressive but not impressive enough to hold the anime up on its own. Whether you're a fan of Utena or not, definitely check Star Driver out. You'll definitely find something in the show worth watching.
Soredemo Machi wa Matteiru- Now comedy is a very subjective thing. I'll admit that what I find funny will not be everyone's cup of tea, and that the comedy genre is definitely not my favorite. But I was surprised by the number of comedies that I found myself enjoying this season. I found four comedies that so far are actually witty and don't rely on too much fanservice to draw in viewers. Soredemo Machi wa Matteiru, or Soremachi as I will refer to it as to make it easier to remember, is my favorite comedy this Fall. Produced by Shaft -- not the Blaxploitation pop culture icon --, the story follows Hotori, a dim-witted high school girl who works at a Maid Cafe. You would think that a show revolving around maids, a common Japanese fetish, would lead to a lot of fanservice, but this is not the case so far. The cafe is rather small and consists of only 2 employees: Hotori and her boss, an old lady who recently changed the theme of the cafe to maids to stay hip with the current trends. The maid outfits are not provocative at all, and the first episode makes some fun jokes about fanservice clichés such as how clumsy girls are supposedly cute. Another maid joins the cafe, bringing more zaniness to the main cast. The 3 maids work well together. Hotori is lazy and dumb with the occasional bright idea, the old lady is wise and snarky, and the new girl is hard-working and serious.
The only major complaints I have are that Hotori's stupidity can be annoying sometimes, and the eye catches are too random for my tastes. I still say check this anime out if you want a decent deconstruction of maid tropes and the like.
The World God Only Knows- This was an anime that a lot of people were hyping up. Apparently the manga version is very popular. The premise is about this guy, Katsuragi, who has beaten and mastered every dating sim known to man. He knows everything about courting virtual women, but he holds no interest in real women. Hearing about his exploits as a dating god, a demon sends him a message challenging him to the ultimate dating game: real life. He accepts thinking that the message is just a hoax, but he ends up being forced to seduce and kiss various real women in order to catch the escaped souls from Hell inside of them. Think of Pokémon, but replace catching all Pokémon with catching women's hearts.
I can see this show becoming formulaic fast, but for now it's an absolute joy. I'm sure that various nerds and otaku will be able to identify with our protagonist's preference for the virtual world over real life, and watching him be baffled at the fact that not all tropes apply to real life is glorious. The idea that someone obsessed with dating games might use that obsession to get acquire real women may be too unrealistic for some, but I say look past that and enjoy the humor.
Kuragehime- The noitaminA block has presented some of my favorite shows this year: Tatami Galaxy, House of Five Leaves, and Shiki. The shows shown on the block are stylistically and written differently from most anime, and Kuragehime continues that trend. Kuragehime focuses on Tsukimi, a girl obsessed with jellyfish who bunks with other female nerds who are obsessed with stuff such as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms or dolls. Together, they call themselves “The Nunz” (sic), and they despise stylish hipsters. It’s nice to see an anime that focuses on nerds who are obsessed with things besides anime, manga, or video games, and female nerds to boot. This is not a show that shows a bunch of women to sexualize them, but instead draws very homely and almost realistic looking women. I say almost because this show has a unique art style that helps it stand out from the rest of the crop.
The first episode focuses on our heroine’s encounter with a stylish “princess”, the kind of person that she used to idolize as a child before she became a fujoshi, which literally means “rotten girl” and is an offensive term used to describe female otaku. She ends up bringing this beautiful woman back to her apartment, despite the rest of her friends obviously not being pleased with this. At the end, we discover that this lady is not quite a lady, but I won’t spoil the end for you. Watch this anime if you want to watch something extremely different from the rest of the anime crop this fall, and please check out the rest of the noitaminA anime if you like this one.
Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt- I felt dirty just watching this. From the title you might infer that this is a porn title, but it’s not. The anime focuses on two angels named Panty and Stocking who were sent to Earth to battle monsters, and they can’t return to Heaven until they’ve collected enough tokens held by the monsters. The plot’s simple enough, but this show is just full of shit. No, really. The first episode is literally overflowing with poo, because the first monster is made of crap. But the poo monster is not the problem. The problem is that Panty is obsessed with sex, constantly beds every man that she comes across, and constantly makes jokes about sex. Stocking is a Goth obsessed with sugar, and she’s more tolerable than Panty but she’s given much less screen time than Panty. Garterbelt, the black priest who tells the angels what to do, is the only likable character, but he’s not on screen enough to save the show. The unique animation style is the only thing saving this show. Japan basically made its own Nickelodeon show. The characters all have that angular and cartoony style that many Americans are used to. It’s good that Japan is willing to try new styles, but when the main protagonists aren’t very likable and you’re showing minute-long scenes of them taking a dump, you’re not going to get many fans. There will be people who don’t mind the extreme toilet and sex humor, of course, but this anime is definitely not for those wanting likable protagonists and more intelligent humor.
Squid Girl- Now this is more like it. A squid girl, a humanoid girl with tentacle hair and other squid abilities, has had enough with humanity polluting the ocean, so she’s decided to conquer the world to fix this problem. Unfortunately, she finds out that conquering 6 billion people might be too hard, so she ends up working for a beach side restaurant. The ridiculous premise reminds me of Sgt. Frog, another great anime comedy, and like Sgt. Frog, the concept of a weird creature constantly trying to conquer the world and constantly failing at it continues to evoke laughs. The titular Squid Girl is naïve but likable, even though she’s kind of a villain protagonist. You can pity her because no one takes her world domination plans seriously and because she’s not monstrous in the slightest. It's silly and cute enough to work. This is another good comedy that’s on this fall, and comedy fans should definitely be eating this stuff up.
That’s all the anime I’ve seen this fall. Go check out this anime if you’re interested, and comment on my preview, please.
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