The series I’m most excited about that are returning in 2019 #12daysofanime

I guess today is the last day of this thing. Merry Christmas. For the last day I wanted to take a quick look at the returning series that I’m excited for next year. There aren’t tons of series but there are still a few. So here are the returning series that I’m most excited for in 2019.

Chihayafuru is a series that I watched a couple of years ago and I loved it, the only problem is that it ends in the middle of an arc. This is a good series about a girl named Chihaya who becomes a professional karuta player in order to pursue her childhood friend. It makes a game that has never been that well received outside of Japan look very interesting and I hear that it has helped the sport out a little. I’m so happy that season 3 is coming this year.

I’ve known that Mob Psycho 100 would have a second season since the first season was both really good and well received. I don’t think I need to really explain why I’m excited for this series. I just can’t wait to see Mob be a totally normal teenager.

My Hero Academia season 3 is coming in the fall of 2019 and I’m super excited for it. This is a world that really interests me; partly because of the social importance of quirks in this world and also because of the varied ways that people deal with the way their world works. I’ve already written a post about the corrupted hero system and I really want to write multiple more posts about this series. Its so interesting.

The final series I want to talk about is the new Fruits Basket reboot. This is an important series to me since its one of the first manga that I ever read its entirety. I didn’t watch the original anime though, mainly because it never got finished. I can’t wait to re-experience this series.

So those are the series that I’m most excited about that are returning in 2019. Again merry Christmas. I hope to have a post done sometime soon detailing my plans for 2019.

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A Little Post on Tsurune #12daysofanime

Tsurune is a drama from this season that I started watching a little late but enjoy anyway. I guess that’s a common motif of this season since over half of the series I’m watching I started partway through the season. I am enjoying this series so far.

This is a good quiet series with plenty of emotional moments and from the past two episodes it is clear that it covers a couple heavy things. There is one character who annoys me a little, that being Kaito Onogi, but even he has become an interesting character as the series goes by.

One of the parts I like most about this series is how its a series about growing up, but not only centered around the guys in high school but also around their instructor Masaki Takigawa. If you haven’t started watching this series yet and you like this type of series, I highly recommend giving it a try.

A Little Post on Openings #12daysofanime

Since I am running out of both ideas for posts and days where I need to decide on post topics I figured I may as well write a little bit about some of my favourite openings and why I like them.

One of the main reasons I like an opening for a series is because of the song. There are several openings that I like mainly for the song. There is Peace Sign from My Hero Academia, Rain from FMA, and several more. Also an honourable mention goes to the Mob Psycho 100 opening which is super catchy but not something I would want to listen to all the time.

Another reason why I tend to like openings is because of the visuals and symbolism of at least a few of the shots. This is why I enjoy all the March Comes in Like a Lion openings, Re:Call from Twin Stars Exorcists, and several others. I’m just the type of person who enjoys seeing metaphors that are obvious but not too obvious.

So those are just a few of the openings that I have enjoyed thus far. I know I will find more. This season I refused to ever skip the opening for Bunny Girl Sensei for instance and last season there was Fatima from Steins;Gate 0. I can’t wait to see what openings 2019 brings.

Characters I’ve Liked #12daysofanime

One of the things I’ve noticed about this year in anime are the multiple characters who are relatable through experiences that I don’t often see in fiction either due to them being thought of as not that dramatic or because they are often overlooked. In a couple of these instances the experiences are from characters are from groups that have never seemed to be well represented in anime in the past and were made a bit of a joke.

Anyways today I thought I may as well write about a few of these characters, just briefly. I still have a couple of things I have to do tonight after all.

The first of these characters is Minato Narumiya from Tsurune. While this series has yet to conclude, its depiction of target panic is pretty good. Target panic is basically that cycle of self doubt and worthlessness that you get when doing anything, however in this case it has to do with archery. The thing I like about this is that his experiences are similar to those of many other people. I’ve felt this way before many times. It also shows how this is a condition that can be beaten and that it doesn’t mean the end of doing something that you enjoy.

Another character I’ve liked a lot is basically all the characters from Bunny Sensei, but I already wrote about them so I’ll move on. Anyways what I like about them is how they encapsulate common high school experiences universally.

The final character I’ll write about is Shirase Kabuchizawa from A Place Further than the Universe, who I’m adding to this list mainly so that not all the characters are from this current season. Her character arc where she refuses to give up no matter what anyone says in order to travel to a place where she could feel closer (and maybe find) he mother was well written and led to some of the most memorable, heartwarming, and emotional scenes from this series.

Anyways those are just some of the characters I’ve liked this year.

A Post About my Favourite Arc in Hunter x Hunter #12daysofanime

A couple of weeks ago I finished watched Hunter x Hunter. I enjoyed almost every minutes of it. I figured I might was well write a little post about it now while I’m still doing the #12daysofanime thing. This post is also late because I had to hand in a report today and there was still some work I had to put into it. If only I didn’t have school so close to Christmas, but hey, at least I don’t have to worry much about school until the new year.

Anyways this post will probably spoil the chimera ant arc of Hunter x Hunter. If you don’t know what a chimera ant is or you are at this arc but haven’t reached its conclusion you should probably not read the rest of this post.

You and Me: The problem with reviews #12daysofanime

A little over a month ago I discovered a cute slice of life anime about a group of high school boys who are close friends. The series I’m talking about is You and Me, and most of the episodes focus around simple moments in their day to day lives. There is even a little bit of really good romance mixed in. This is a quiet series in the same vein as series such as Natsume’s Book of Friends, and it is a good series to find in a collection of loud emotional series such as Violet Evergarden and My Hero Academia. By loud I mean that they contain a lot of dramatic moments and not that they are bad. These are two of my favourite series from this year.

The one problem with You and Me is related to a review that was written on Crunchyroll. Occasionally reviews are written by Crunchyroll employees with the intention of bringing some less popular but still pretty good series out into the open. This is great because a lot of these series deserve to be watched, however the review of You and Me claimed that the series was boring. It’s not, it’s just slow paced and doesn’t contain a whole lot of action. The problem with this review that these reviews are where some people discover series such as this one and the fact that this review claimed that the series was boring just because it wasn’t an emotional rollercoaster and instead a breath of fresh air was off putting. People tend to stay away from series that they hear are boring because they want to get something out of watching them. This could be entertainment, education, or something else They don’t want to watch a series that will waste their time.

I believe that the person who wrote this review is a person who usually watches either shonen or another action packed genre. I think that this is a problem with anyone who reviews anything for a large audience. It can be fixed by either only reviewing the genres that you enjoy or by pointing out that it is something unlike what you normally enjoy.

Anyways if you haven’t watched this series and like Natsume’s Book of Friends I highly recommend it for you.

Thunderbolt Fantasy: Not actually an anime, but whatever #12daysofanime

This year has been a good year for Thunderbolt Fantasy. Last winter there was a movie that was part recap and part a quick look at the relationship between two characters that was only mentioned briefly in the first season. The recap part of the movie was done really well and ended with a quick look at the new characters who were going to play a part in the second season. It also ended with a making of video during the credits which showed just how much work it is to film many of the action scenes in this series.

Then this season the second season is being released and it is everything I had hoped it would be. It is a very different story from the first season but it still has many twists and turns and surprises in store. Like I’ve already said this season is all about consequences and follows Shang bu Huan as he tries to protect the Sorcerous Index and ends up making a mistake that he needs to clean up the mess that was created. In many ways a lot of the characters are archetypal characters. You have the lazy hero, the trickster, and the paladin just to name a few. However the fact that most if not all the characters are based off of archetypal characters is not a bad thing, in fact most of the characters are much more than just flat recreations of archetypes.

I have seen some people say that they were off put by the style of this season, that is that this isn’t actually an anime but instead a puppet show, however Thunderbolt Fantasy is actually really good. Like I’ve said a few times already for other series, if you have yet to watch this series you should definitely watch it. You should start at the first season though as that is the best starting point.