The Story

An upcoming season of anime can change dramatically in a hurry. That title that was hotly anticipated can quickly cool off, while the one you initially overlooked because the synopsis sounded underwhelming now has everyone buzzing. With a lengthy list of anime rolling in this Fall, there’s a good chance that a handful of them may slip under the radar, resulting in you playing catch up halfway through the season as the community swears a series that seemingly came out of nowhere is anime of the year.

The solution to this? Good watch list preparation. What follows are a few picks we feel are undervalued for the Fall 2018 anime season – series that aren’t on AniChart’s top 15 in popularity but carry enough upside to possibly find themselves on your watch list by season’s end.

So, you’re excluding the top 15 most popular right? What exactly are those?

For quick reference and at the time of writing, the top 15 this Fall (based on AniChart) are:

1,Sword Art Online: Alicization

2.Fairy Tail (2018)

3.Tokyo Ghoul:re 2

4.Toaru Majutsu no Index III

5.Goblin Slayer

6.JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Ougon no Kaze

7.Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken

8.Yagate Kimi ni Naru

9.Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara

10.SSSS.GRIDMAN

11.Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl-senpai no Yume wo Minai

12.Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet

13.Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja Nai

14.Radiant

15.Ulysses: Jeanne d’Arc to Renkin no Kishi

Keep in mind, these rankings are subject to change as we move closer to the Fall season.

Gotcha, let’s move on to the undervalued shows

Gladly…

 

Akanesasu Shoujo

(position: 35)

 

Starting things off is a series that is flying disgustingly low. Akanesasu Shoujo is currently the 35th most popular upcoming Fall anime, meaning there are 34 titles more anticipated than it. Let that soak in for a second, 34. In an average season, Akanesasu Shoujo would easily be a bottom 10 title, barely escaping that label here as Fall 2018 happens to be on the bigger side (49 TV works this time around as opposed to the typical low to mid-40’s). So why is it so far down on the chart? Well, DandeLion Animation Studio doesn’t exactly instill confidence. Not only is their resume tiny, but the four projects they have listed aren’t exactly groundbreaking (raise your hand if you even watched RoboMasters last Fall season let alone liked it). The premise’s ambiguity in conjunction with its rather banal cover art only adds to its repellent – not offering enough for a potential viewer to stop scrolling on the chart and further explore.

However, the upside in this pick rests on Kotaro Uchikoshi, an applaudable creative mind behind the Zero Escape series. Kotaro is billed with Akanesasu’s concept, so there’s hope here. Script-wise, Shougo Yasukawa (Food Wars) is holding down that front which is reasonable, and upon checking out the trailers, it looks decently crafted for the most part as well. All in all this series has enough juice to end up with a higher ceiling than most give it credit for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NpwYeIMsEg

 

Release the Spyce

(position: 18)

 

For sure higher than Akanesasu Shoujo, but at 18 Release the Spyce still falls outside of the top 15, despite having enough promise to end up as a top 10 title when everything shakes out. The conversation around this series is full of parallels to Princess Principal, a title coming into Summer 2017 that was initially overlooked by the bulk of the community as well. Personnel-wise, Spyce isn’t as strong as Principal: Akira Sato is pretty untested as a Director and Takahiro (Akame ga Kill / Yuki Yuna is A Hero) is behind the concept and series comp. To ice this cake, Lay-deuce certainly isn’t 3Hz.

Be that as it may, Spyce’s trailer still looks every bit the part of an anime that can break out. The sequencing feels fluid – with responsive, energetic characters that bounce nicely off the world they inhabit. The narrative looks a lot more intriguing in practice than on paper which is always a positive flag and the whole bit is wrapped in a nice backing track. Spyce is bound to turn at least a few heads, but we would be surprised if it garners larger praise than that over Fall’s first 3 weeks.

 

Zombieland Saga

(position: 33)

 

We literally had to refresh AniChart 5 times to make sure this was correct. Zombieland Saga is indeed ranked 33rd as we write this, a ranking that’s likely to shoot up fast as we actually start sinking into October. Reason being, regardless if it crashes and burns it will still draw interest. Zombieland Saga is just a cluster of viewer magnets; Idols, zombies, MAPPA, Cygames etc all seasonally timed to play nice with Halloween to inevitably give it another popularity spike. We have little reason to believe that Zombieland will stay put at 33 given its inherent ingredients. And with those ingredients, plus taking a quick look at the synopsis, it has a shot at being an entertaining watch. Nothing that will have people shouting it’s a gem, but enough should be going on where it plays out bigger than its current position and can fill a niche roll on your watch list. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o20pAQMZjiQ

 

Sora to Umi no Aida

(position: 27)

 

Here it is, the anime that has all the building blocks to slip through your fingers – only to emerge later in November as fanart on your timeline and recommendations on YouTube. At 27, Sora to Umi no Aida is easy to miss. The show is basically dead center on the chart and its handful of moe girls standing there smiling on its artwork is generic enough to not even bat an eye at. If you somehow do manage to give it a look, the synopsis seals its fate:

Are you hyped yet? As stupid and absurd as the plot sounds, that thinking is probably what’s going to do a lot of would-be viewers in. Sora’s staff is reasonable enough to at least carry this ridiculous plot to a spot of dry land and TMS Entertainment is due for a bounce back after Senjuushi and Tsukumogami Kashimasu this Summer. Being a mobile game adaptation certainly isn’t in Sora’s favor, but the show is riding on low to questionable expectations so the chance that its real quality surprises the viewers who do invest into it are fairly high.

 

The Bottom Line

It doesn’t hurt to be thoroughly prepared. Keeping an eye on key shows at the bottom of the chart not only diversifies your list – opening you up to trying anime you may have otherwise left on the table – but it acts as an insurance policy to replace any title that you anticipated more – yet ended up falling flat and dropped. 

 

 

“QUOTE OF THE WEEK”

–A comment in a Goblin Slayer anticipation thread after it was made clear there would be gratuitous amounts of rape. Pat yourself on the back White Fox you reeled in another one.

 

 

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Scheduling Note

Scheduling Note 

With the Summer season essentially at an end and now heading into the infamous transitional week 13, Seasonal Prattle will be on vacation until the start of the Fall season (Sep 30th). Please visit back the following week as we cover the Fall!

 

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