The Spring preseason is upon us, a time in the community that thrusts more than 40 fresh new anime works to the forefront for everything from speculation to the creation of preview guides, “What I’ll Be Watching” blogs/videos and of course “Top Upcoming Anime” pieces that have an array of variations.
Among those eyeing Spring’s anime, there’s us here at Seasonal Pratlle, who have taken a preliminary look into this next season’s offerings in addition to its conversation. We did a bit of digging, listening, and reading, as we made our trip across all corners of the community to see how Spring’s impressions were shaping up. It’s early, but here’s what stood out so far:
1. The Spring anime you absolutely want on your watchlist is Carole & Tuesday. Despite flirting between positions across the bottom half of Spring 2019’s top 10 most popular anime on virtually every chart (often clocking in at 10 or 9), make no mistake the vibe around Carole & Tuesday is it’s going to be an early front runner for AOTS. Beyond its lavish PV that highly suggests that it will have the production tools and polish to readily compete for the role, having Shinichiro Watanabe behind it heavily favors that it will be a quality product from a functional standpoint as well. I’ve already seen various conversations and anticipation entires singing the show’s praises and potential, making its leg up in pre-air reception a very real force that can translate to early glowing reviews. Don’t be surprised come April 11th if this show’s compliments are booming only after a single episode.
2. My feeling is that there isn’t a big “controversial” anime this season so we should be able to avoid all the arguing, judging and just general toxicity that comes with that territory as a community. Mind you, the team here at Seasonal Prattle has only taken a preliminary look at the upcoming Spring season, and while I specifically dug into things a bit deeper than that, I could still be wrong. However, from my findings and the rest of the team’s, we’re not seeing another “Shield Hero” or “Goblin Slayer” type work that’s an easy target for an uproar emerging.
3. Turning our attention to Spring’s biggest work popularity wise, One Puch Man season 2 is already being projected as trash and thus, has a huge chance to be seen as a failure as it’s fighting a steep uphill perception battle right from the word go. It’s kind of a shame given the positive sparks the series created years ago that the word around OPM s2 is notably negative mainly due to J.C. Staff’s handling as opposed to Madhouse. With bigger critics routinely taking jabs at it on Social Media, paired with straight forward threads such as “One punch man season 2 will become trash, can’t wait to see the fans reaction” popping up all over its discourse, it’s easy to see this show being dead on the arrival to the community at large. Look for One Punch Man s2 to take heavy criticism over its first few opening episodes, and then possibly warm up as viewers who hung around through the negativity adapt to the changes and get a fuller perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0glqBjvku84
4. Sticking with One Punch Man season 2, its level of anticipation is actually pretty ridiculous at a deeper look. It currently has more people listed as “planning to view it” on MyAnimeList than either Shield Hero, Mob Psycho 100 season 2, Dororo, Kaguya-Sama or The Promised Neverland’s total listed engagement after nearly a full season by a healthy margin. Just to give more perspective on how massive the second coming of One Punch Man is, it’s currently more than three times anticipated than the next closest show, Attack on Titan 3 part 2, and we all know how popular AoT is as a property.
5. Comments have been all over the place, but after reading a bunch of different takes around Kono Oto Tomare!, I would be surprised if it doesn’t slide up the charts from 15~ early into the season. It seems to have the right mix of cautiously optimistic fanbase due to Platinum Vision taking it on and workable, beloved source material to create some splashes in April – early May.
6. Speaking of anime floating around the middle of the pack, Sarazanmai is also one to keep an eye on. Depending on what chart site you use, this anime can be seen anywhere from just outside the top 10 to about 16~. Regardless of where it’s currently at, Ikuhara teaming up with MAPPA to deliver it is bound to turn heads and compel some of the community’s more notable critics to give its fair share of attention. Highly doubt it stays put at its current rank.
7. Despite its positioning as a consistent top 5 anime coming in, don’t expect Kenja no Mago to stick. The trailer shows spurts of visual competence and its level of anticipation can make you believe that something worthwhile is there, however, its conversation so far from those familiar with the source would suggest anything but. Sounds like it might be this season’s “How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord “ from last Summer, where it will float around at the top of the charts but ultimately be a pretty mediocre ride at best when it’s all said and done.
8. Another nugget on one of Spring’s top anime: A lot of critics seem to be pretty warm to Kimetsu no Yaiba, but a bunch of its optimism is almost always tethered to Ufotable’s potential to elevate it. I get the feeling that the material may not be all that inherently great in comparison to the recent crop of Shounen Jump titles that have been adapted, so it will be interesting to see how far it can actually push on its own merits and how much lifting Ufo has to do here.
9. Out of all the TV shorts and after some digging around, I get the sense that Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai will have the biggest splash. Its material has enough comedic snap moment to moment to keep it rolling and its cast is appealing in proper doses. It helps that it airs on Saturdays too as it can bankroll attention easier given that tends to be a day where viewers are more likely to be free and online.
10. Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu moving up? Bocchi is already a regular top pick on most charts, but it could see even more spotlight moving forward into April. The discourse around pockets of the show is actually really reassuring for its potential success in anime form, appearing to have more tools of the intangible variety under the hood than one would think. How much it can rise early in Spring is hard to pinpoint, but as it stands now, expect some early movement when it gets started.
11. Last thing: Shoumetsu Toshi is going to be sneakily good for a smartphone game adaptation. If you take a look at any given chart, you can see Shoumetsu Toshi dancing around the middle of the list, and even at times, weirdly close to the top ten for a work that has limited discourse around its anime. Limited as it may be, that discourse is strong and very optimistic that Toshi’s storytelling can fair better than the slew of underwhelming smartphone game turned anime before it. Time will ultimately tell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zMOyQb8HTw
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