I’ve been too tired to write about my favorite anime from Winter 2019, i.e. the top 5. While my dear readers are patiently waiting for them, I thought to myself that I would quickly scribble about what I’m watching in Spring 2019. There are nine anime in total–one less than I watched last season. So, I’d like to invite my dear readers to comment below about what anime should be my tenth. (Nine is the elvish number for luck, but ten strikes me as a nice round number.) You can make multiple suggestions, but whatsoever anime is mentioned by the most people is the one which I will add.
At any rate, I’m continuing to watch four shows from previous seasons:
- Bungo Stray Dog
- Dororo
- Karakuri Circus
- The Rising of the Shield Hero
The following are the five new ones premiering this season:
- Afterlost
- Ao-chan Can’t Study
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- Fairy Gone
- Wise Man’s Grandchild
To tell you the truth, all of the five new ones I picked up strike me as superb. Wise Man’s Grandchild has a very similar setup and mood to That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime; but, I don’t mind one bit. I really enjoyed “the Slime anime,” and I’m happy to have a similar anime take it’s place until the next installment of that wholesome anime comes out.
Afterlost and Fairy Gone strike me as having some splendid action and intriguing settings. I’ve always been a fan of action, adventure, and fantasy, and those two shows–even though I’m not quite sure where they’re going–float my boat. I must congratulate Hulu for partnering with Funimation, which has allowed them to stream Afterlost, Fairy Gone, and Wise Man’s Grandchild. These three anime are worth the subscription fee, and I hope to catch up on more episodes of Ranma 1/2 and Rinne.
I love demon slaying shows. (As an aside, one of my favorite video games is Onimusha Warlords. No matter how many times I beat the game, slaying demons remains as fun on each replay as the first time.) So, there’s no surprise that I instantly gravitated to an anime titled Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. It’s a cross between a vampire anime and Claymore, and I have enjoyed every moment of it thus far. The animation is also superb, though I think that the characters faces are a bit too rounded for my liking.
If you haven’t watched Claymore and you love the demon-slaying genre, you need to place this on the top of your anime to-do list.
Ao-chan Can’t Study is my comedy short for the season. I love all the misunderstandings which come out of how Aoi has been traumatized by reading her father’s erotic novels. This leads to her having wild fantasies about the relationship between her and her would-be boyfriend. It’s hilarious to watch, and has less fanservice than you might fear.
Alright, that’s what I’m watching. What are my dear readers looking at, and what should I add to this list?
Medieval Otaku 
It’s funny how one of the “Related” articles at the bottom of this post is “Biting off More Anime than I Can Chew”. Careful what you wish for. X) Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu might be funny… if you can stomach the kawaii. Hehehe. I suppose there’s some moderately interesting options out there, but frankly, I prefer thoughtful analysis over bulk content. Give us a good Christian analysis of what these crazy Japanese animators are making 6+ hours of footage to say.
For those interested, you can find a list here: https://www.livechart.me/spring-2019/tv
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Thanks for your recommendation! I went ahead and looked at Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu. The show is pretty funny and I’m watching it now. It can get overly cute, but I find myself identifying with the main character: I think that I used to be about that shy–“exactly” might be a more precise qualifier than “about” to tell you the truth. 🙂
I’ll see what I can do about writing more essays on Christian ideas and anime. There is one topic which caught my attention in Shield Hero, and I might even be able to bring in Dostoyevsky’s Devils on the topic.
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Diamond in the rough, eh? And here I recommended it as a joke. XD Maybe I’ll have a… peek.
I’m not familiar with Dostoyevsky’s Devils, so perhaps alittle extra detail in your article on that story would be nice. 🙂
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I’m enjoying Kono Oto Tamare! a school comedy/drama about the traditional instrument of the Koto, It’s the usual story – the club is about to shut down if they don’t get new members and a rag tag bunch end up coming together to work wonders, but it is funny and touching at the same time. 🙂
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Thank you for the recommendation! I’m going to add that show as something to watch later since I instantly fell in love with Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu. It sounds like Kono Oto Tomare has some good comedy.
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Glad to see you are enjoying Afterlost and Fairy Gone. Those 2 seems to be getting a pretty lukewarm reception among the anime fans and I think they are both really good and deserve much better. Specially Fairy Gone feels like one of those ambitious, unique anime originals that we used to get in the last decade (at least for me, clearly anime’s Golden Age, specially the period 2002-2008) like Wolf’s Rain or Red Garden. It’s really difficult to find 2 cour original series these days like that, so I’m really glad we are getting Fairy Gone and Carole and Tuesday (which I also recommend, as long as you don’t mind fansubs) in the same season.
Apart from FG, Afterlost and C&T I’m also really enjoying Midnight occult civil servants. If you haven’t watched it, try to imagine a cross between Acca 13 and xxxholic and you’lll be close. Pretty original and enjoyable and one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard this year.
As for the rest, I thought I was going to enjoy Yaiba Demon slayer much more than I did, really. The setting and overall atmosphere are pretty cool but I can’t help thinking all the time that it’s a Shonen Jump show after all (you guessed it, I’m not a big fan of WSJ stuff…) you know, annoying MC, totally out of place humor…etc. Actually, seeing the pic you posted I think I would be much better off re-watching Claymore, which I love 😉
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Yeah, original anime have almost gone the way of the dodo. Anime is becoming more like Hollywood in their aversion to taking chances on original stories. (The magical high school anime is their version of a superhero movie.) So, I’m happy to see P. A. Works taking a chance on Fairy Gone. Hopefully, more fans will watch it. But, I suspect most bloggers favor anime airing on Crunchyroll, which might be part of the reason for Fairy Gone and Afterlost’s lack of popularity.
I do miss the Golden Age. Anime did take a nose-dive in quality after 2008, and I don’t think that it really recovered until 2014. You can read this old opinion I wrote on Spring 2012: https://medievalotaku.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/anime-spring-season-2012-only-two-worthy-shows-review-of-jormungand/.
I might not have been in the mood for Midnight Civil Servants. I very much enjoyed both ACCA and xxxHolic, and describing MCS as a cross between the two strikes me as accurate.
Claymore made #41 on my top fifty anime list. That might not seem too high, but I’m only 35 anime short of having watched 600. 🙂 Yaiba Demon Slayer probably won’t even come close, but the fights are excellent so far–despite the annoying protagonist.
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Thanks for your reply! Glad to see I’m not the only one that thinks anime took a nosedive after 2008 (at least for me, the last truly great year anime-wise), but it’s series like Fairy Gone that keep the flame burning, at least for me. Let’s hope with the involvement of Netflix and Amazon (after all, Vinland Saga is coming in Summer in Amazon and that one looks absolutely amazing, and my favorite series of 2018 by far was Hero Mask, a Netflix original) we’ll be getting more and more truly unique and ambitious shows.
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Haven’t been watching anime lately. Decided to check this post while checking if you had already covered Kimetsu no Yaiba, which I had gained some interest in mostly because of the music (read: LiSA singing the opening theme with such beautiful power) I blindly dove into and have been listening to while at work (and yes, I have graduated from university and gotten myself a job). Got pulled in some more by this post because of the interesting premise of Ao-chan Can’t Study. Welp, that interest in watching anime is coming back a bit more, it seems.
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The best part of Kimetsu no Yaiba might be the music. Ao-chan is hilarious for how Ao’s warped understanding of sexuality interferes with her relationship with Kijima. It leads her to the extremes of wanting to avoid all romance to being annoyed that Kijima doesn’t try to go for a home run. Many other people probably fall into the same mindset due to the proliferation of the Sexual Revolution–one of the worst philosophies to ever be devised!
Congratulations on graduating university and entering the work force!
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Is that so? Well, with KnY’s premise, which reminds me of Tokyo Ghoul’s (and funnily enough, Natsuki Hanae is voicing the male lead, though it’s the guy’s sister and not the guy himself who’s the unwillingly turned), things are bound to get real dark, yeah? I honestly have some reservations about spending time with such stories, though, as I’ve been finding myself of the belief that humans having some monstrosity inside in the form of sin is already a given and that having that belief without faith in the God-given goodness of humanity would only turn it into a cynical excuse to commit more sin.
As for Ao-chan, I now see it as a pure story about dirty people. Sure, the main characters are pervy, but as far as I saw through the anime, the plot isn’t cynical about it. Stupid ecchi romcom things happen, and I laugh as hard as I usually do because of them (Special mention goes to that one jingle Ao’s father did), but the way things go afterwards doesn’t try to convince me to be empty and lustful like the usual ecchi madness does. I think one striking example of that is the development of Ao’s relationship with her father, which I have a lot to say about but need more thought put into it for now. Seems like I should try to make a review about the anime, then, hahaha! Anyway, basically, I’m really glad that it understands and acknowledges how really horny people are today without condoning disorderly desires. I guess that’s what you saw in the anime, then, Medieval? 😀
Oh, and speaking of work, as of this writing, I’m afraid to say that I’m already long resigned after around a month of employment due to health and personal reasons. Thank you very much for your words, though, Medieval. I didn’t have a great start, and I still have a lot to figure out, but I’m sure that things can and will get better, especially with God’s help. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask for prayers. Also, this is sort of a tangent, and I don’t know if I’ve informed you already, but you’re among those listed in the Acknowledgments section of my BA Creative Writing thesis, which is a Catholic short story collection. 🙂
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Ah! I’m sorry to hear that you have been sick and needed to resign from work. I will certainly pray for you and ask St. Joseph to find you new employment and better health. I’m happy to have been of service to you for your thesis!
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You’re very welcome always, and thanks very much again. Oh, and considering the time, Happy All Saints’ Eve from the Philippines!
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A belated Happy All Saints’ Day to you!
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[…] for why I kept on reading, well, in the first place, my fellow Roman Catholic blogger Medieval Otaku recommended this series through its anime adaptation, which served as my gateway. I would’ve qualified the previous […]
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