We’re well into the fall anime season and it’s full of lovely things. The second season of Haikyuu!! is here, for a start, and it’s exactly as wonderful as season one. Noragami Aragoto is kicking into high gear with the start of a widely-anticipated arc for its return to TV, and the Monogatari juggernaut is rolling again with Owarimonogatari. We’re also getting a solid dose of wacky, weird, and just plain strange, from a manic 1960s revival in Osomatsu-san to the time-jumping mishmash of Concrete Revolutio. And then there’s the (not one, but two) anime featuring boys breaking into impromptu musical numbers, and the (not one, but two—really, you can’t make this up) harem anime featuring pink-haired girls with flame powers. I watched all of these and more, dear readers, in order to pick the best of the best for your 2D consumption. With simulcasts a click away, there’s no reason to wait. Settle down with your pumpkin spice latte and check out these three top picks for fall season.
One Punch Man
In a modern Japan plagued by monsters, super villains, and aliens that appear suddenly and cause huge amounts of destruction, Saitama (voiced by an excellent Makoto Furukawa) was just an everyday guy who dreamt of being a hero. Determined to overcome his own limitations, he put himself through grueling training to achieve his dream—and unfortunately, it was a little too effective. Saitama can take even the most powerful enemy out with only one punch, and that makes hero work, well…pretty boring. Overcome with superhero ennui, Saitama spends his days sitting around his tiny apartment, clipping coupons for supermarket sales, and waiting for an opponent strong enough to break up the painful monotony of his existence. Along the way he meets new allies like the cyborg Genos (Kaito Ishikawa), who begs to be taken as his disciple, and a slew of colorful and comical enemies.
This action comedy was undoubtedly the most hyped show of the season, and from what I’ve seen in the first three episodes, justifiably so. One Punch Man began life as a webcomic drawn by the artist ONE in what is presumably the Japanese equivalent of MS Paint. When the series took off, mangaka Yusuke Murata (Eyeshield 21) proposed a collaboration, redrawing ONE’s series for publication in Young Jump Web Comics, where, being no slouch himself, Murata made the series notorious for detailed art and flip book-style panels like this. Luckily for old fans and new viewers alike, director Shingo Natsume (Space Dandy) and Madhouse (Hunter x Hunter 2011, Death Parade) are pulling out all the stops for this adaptation, treating us to plenty of gorgeously animated and creatively choreographed fight scenes in between absurd episodes from Saitama’s comically mundane existence. If a hilarious take on superhero tropes mixed with bouts of all-out sakuga battles sounds like your thing, One Punch Man is a must-watch this season.
For fans of: Gintama, Tiger & Bunny, My Hero Academia, Samurai Flamenco
Watch it now on Hulu and Daisuki
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Three hundred years after a disastrous conflict between Earth and Mars called the Calamity War, Mars has been colonized and terraformed, but suffers poverty and unrest under Earth’s rule. Mikazuki Augus (Kengo Kawanishi), our protagonist, is a member of a company of orphans that have found employment operating mobile workers for the private security firm Chryse Guard Security (CGS). When CGS is hired to provide bodyguards for Kudelia Aina Bernstein (Yuka Terasaki), the daughter of a prominent Martian politician and advocate for independence, Mikazuki’s squad is picked to accompany the young lady on a diplomatic mission to Earth. Before they can set off, CGS is attacked by forces that want to stop Kudelia and suppress the Martian revolutionaries. Abandoned by their commanders, Orga Itsuka (Yoshimasa Hosoya), the leader of the orphans’ squadron, struggles to hold their attackers back as Mikazuki fires up their last resort: a Calamity-War era mobile suit that just happens to be—you guessed it—a Gundam.
Iron-Blooded Orphans is, of course, yet another entry in the venerable science fiction/mecha Gundam franchise—but don’t worry, no knowledge of Gundam is required to enjoy this standalone series. In fact, while Iron-Blooded Orphans may walk and talk like your run-of-the-mill Gundam series, there’s a somewhat unusual creative team lurking behind this one: director Tatsuyuki Nagai (Toradora!, Ano Natsu de Matteru) and writer Mari Okada (Aquarion Evol, Nagi no Asukara), who are probably best known for their collaboration on the tearjerker drama AnoHana. How this will affect the course of the series remains to be seen, and they’ve got a full two cour (24 episodes) in which to make their mark on the franchise. In the meantime, Iron-Blooded Orphans is hewing close to the usual Gundam formula—space politics, child soldiers, a princess advocating peace, and the all important giant robots—and doing it pretty darn well. The first three episodes have introduced a cast of intriguing characters and a plot that feels fresh despite the familiar trappings. I’m guessing this will be a fun one to follow weekly as events unfold, so whether you’re a Gundam veteran or you’re not sure if Ramba Ral is a person or a location, now’s the time to jump in.
For fans of: Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, After War Gundam X, Turn A Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, Gundam Reconguista in G, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Aldnoah.Zero
Watch it now on Crunchyroll and Daisuki
Subete ga F ni Naru: The Perfect Insider
Moe Nishinosono (Atsumi Tanezaki) is a spoilt heiress and college student that spends her days hanging around the office of Souhei Saikawa (Yasuyuki Kase), an associate professor who was her father’s student and mentee. Saikawa is fascinated by the work of genius programmer Shiki Magata (Ibuki Kido), a twenty-nine-year-old recluse who has been isolated on a remote island research facility since she was accused of murdering her parents at the age of fourteen. Knowing about Saikawa’s interest in Magata, Nishinosono proposes a group trip to the island with other students from the university in hope of meeting Magata in person. Once there, Saikawa and Nishinosono get caught up in a series of mysterious and dangerous events.
This atmospheric mystery is based on a 1996 novel of the same name by Hiroshi Mori, and has seen several adaptations in the last decade and a half, which I suppose must speak to the quality of the material. This particular iteration is helmed by Mamoru Kanbe (Elfen Lied, Sound of the Sky) at A-1 Pictures (Sword Art Online, Your Lie in April), and sports original character designs by the acclaimed mangaka Inio Asano (Oyasumi Punpun, Solanin). So far The Perfect Insider has all the moody intellectualism I would expect from a classic Noitamina entry, a timeslot that in its heyday produced such shows as Paradise Kiss, Eden of the East, and The Tatami Galaxy. Still, I can’t say I’m quite sold on it yet—Nishinosono is a difficult character to like, and much of the first episode was spent sitting around talking in dimly lit rooms—but I’m willing to give The Perfect Insider, with its muted colors and subtle character interactions, a long leash here. This is your pick of the season for those looking for something a bit esoteric and artsy with a side of murder mystery.
For fans of: Zankyou no Terror/Terror in Resonance, Steins;Gate, Un-Go, Shiki
Watch it now on Crunchyroll
Nothing here catching your eye? Check out the full fall roster here, and be sure to let us know what you’re watching this season in the comments!
Kelly Quinn is trying really hard to get the new Gundam opening out of her head. Tell her how bad her taste is on Twitter.
I’m kind of looking forward to the movie adaptation of Project Itoh’s novel Harmony. I read (a translation of) it a month or two ago and quite enjoyed it, and would love to see what they do with it in anime form.
@ghostly1 – It does sound intriguing, although I haven’t read the novel. Sadly I think it’s a theatrical release, so it may be a while before it makes its way over here.
I’m not finding a lot to watch this season.
As far as Hulu, One Punch Man is fun but doesn’t make me want to watch every week. I also tried to watch K again, because of all the pretty, but it was as incomprehensible as ever.
My CR queue holds Mr Osomatsu, which is extremely funny off and on, and OK in between and one of my 2 don’t miss new animes; Taintei Team KZ because it’s short and a mystery, but after 3 eps I realized how much this is for little kids, and probably won’t watch more; The Perfect Insider and Beautiful Bones. The Perfect Insider really bored me the first episode, but the subsequent ones really got interesting to me since hey, mystery fan! It’s my other “won’t miss” new show. Beautiful Bones is an iffy one- I’m sticking with it a couple more eps to see if it pulls out an interesting long term arc, otherwise I won’t watch more.
My Funi queue has Concrete Revolutio, which is becoming meh even though I like the animation style; Dance with Devils which makes me giggle like crazy; Noragami of course, which is even better this season; and Utawarerumomo (the original) so I can then watch the sequel season on now on CR.
Usually at this point in a season I have about 20 things queued to sample and 5-6 shows I love. Right now it’s 9 in queue and 2 I love. Boooo. But fall season is often like this for me.
(I’ve never been able to get into Haikyuu!!, probably because I hate volleyball with a passion.)
(And that Attack on Titan Highschool is a snore.)
I was afraid your top three were all not going to interest me as Gundum I have never liked as it always seemed to focus to much on the robots and not enough on the politics for me and was always really generic. The first couple episodes of Unicorn made me laugh out loud. I do like Aldonoah Zero though, how much of that was the trope inversion in the first couple episodes I don’t know. However your last entry THAT sounds like a show I will watch. Give me ALL the moody intellectualism. Talking in rooms with action only a sideline (like say second Ghost in the Shell movie or From the New World) hell yes. Muted colors with a mystery but played down (like in Habinai Renmei still my favorite anime show of all time) hell yes. Comparisons to Steins Gate OH HELL YES! So is the new monogatari not enjoyable? I loved the others surprised it didn’t make this list. Recently after being blown away by Fate zero been going back to watch the original fate stay night which while not as good is still very interesting. Gate was good last season and looking forward to it being continued.
Actually, Iron-Blooded Orphans is something of a departure for Gundam shows; it’s the first series set on Mars (a couple of others have mentioned Mars colonies, but this is the first time we’ve actually seen one), and it has a much grungier look than is typical of recent series –these aren’t the polished military-industrial types who build bleeding-edge mobile suits, these are the refugees dealing with beat-up thirdhand relics (the “hero” Gundam was actually being used for spare parts before they had to throw it into action).
It has a very Firefly-esque “Unification War” feel to it. The two lead heroes are almost Mal & Zoe.
@@@@@shellywb – Thanks as always for commenting! I agree that there’s not too much out there this season – usually I try to pick 5 or so new series for these reviews and I could really only come up with three I could wholeheartedly recommend!
In terms of what I look forward to most each week, it’s probably Haikyuu!!, Noragami, and One Punch Man this fall. I’m also watching Osomatsu-san, which I find very Gintama-ish (it’s being directed by a Gintama veteran, so no surprise there), and carrying on with Concrete Revolutio for the style, same as you, though it’s really such a hot mess. I’m gonna go ahead and admit here that I’m watching both Dance with Devils and Starmyu and have absolutely zero regrets. Agreed that Beautiful Bones is iffy – I’ve watched two episodes and while I like the mystery aspect, I’m not that into anime Temperance Brennan and her high school sidekick. It’ll probably be dropper for me unless the next episode is significantly more impressive. I didn’t bother with K or the Attack on Titan spinoff, so good to hear I’m missing nothing there. At least you have time to catch up on your backlog this season!
@@@@@dwcole – Glad to hear you found something that caught your interest! I think Gundam can definitely be hit or miss depending on what series you watch—there’s such huge variation between them. I will say that if you liked Aldnoah.Zero, Gundam IBO probably feels more similar to that than to any other Gundam series so far.
I do really hope The Perfect Insider delivers! Noitamina has been an almost unbroken string of disappointments for the last few years; it’d be extra nice to have a win there. Honestly I’m not watching Owarimonogatari at the moment because I still need to watch Tsukimonogatari, but I haven’t heard anything negative about it—the main reason you don’t see it is that I try to restrict these reviews to new series that people might not know about yet. Are you watching the Deen Fate/stay night then? I’ll confess I never made it through that one myself, through I did watch the Ufotable adaptation earlier this year.
@@@@@Cybersnark – I hadn’t thought of the Firefly comparison before, but you are right about the similar feeling of general scrappiness and grunge. I wonder if when they get into space (and you know they will soon) it will start to feel more Gundamy. Then again, with this creative team, who knows what we’ll get in the end! I don’t know about Mika and Orga being similar to Mal and Zoe though—I see what you’re getting at, but…no spoilers here, but let’s say after the latest episode I have MANY questions about their relationship.
I would recommend Young Black Jack which is on Cruncryroll. If you like the character this is a well thought prequel. I like the credits that show the classic Tezuka character designs and there modrn equivalents.
hmm I am not sure what you mean by the deen or the ufotable adaptation. I don’t keep up with the companies all that much. I first watched fate zero the one set before the original 1996 (I think) series that was done by the same people doing the current fate stay night series that takes an alternate path I think. Currently watching the 1996 series. I thought Aldonoah Zero was silly and predictable until the second episode when it admitted not only that the princess was still alive to us but to the other characters. It then unfortunately became somewhat generic until the end of the first season and the end of the second. Good but not great. Interesting you focus on lesser known shows. A more objective look at quality would interest me more. If what I haven’t heard of isn’t any better than what I have no reason for me to hear about it. Something is good because it is good not simply because it is “indie”.
You should catch up on Tuskminoi is a very good addition perhaps better than the earlier ones.
@juan Sanmiguel – Thanks for mentioning Young Black Jack, it’s definitely an interesting one. I’m still not sure about it myself – I wish it had the more semi-supernatural weirdness of Tezuka’s original. Also strange coincidence that it’s airing at the same time as Osomatsu-san; ‘tis the season of 60s/70s revivals, apparently! The ED credits with the character design comparisons is actually my favorite part of the show so far, very cool idea.
@dwcole – It’s not really that I focus on lesser known shows (One Punch Man is hardly unknown) so much as I focus on new ones over sequels/prequels/2nd seasons.