New Anime Season part 1 · 12:15am April 7th
Train to the End of the World
What’s it about? A tech company accidentally warped reality. Some of the few humans that haven't been turned into animals include a group of schoolgirls that ride around in their own train searching for a missing friend.
Hints at yuri subplot. Lots of detail. CGI moments obvious but not terrible. Wacky and dynamic. Already the sleeper hit of the season.
Tonari no Youkai-san
What’s it about? In a world where such things are normal, an old housecat evolves into a youkai, and consults with his god neighbors to figure out what his new life means.
The animation and tone is darned near Ghibli. I had read the manga, and this is a great adaptation.
The Fable
What’s it about? A hitman and his handler take a year off, but find it harder than expected.
Seems mundane on the face of it, but hidden depths are likely. Doesn't get the gun aspects totally correct, but pays a lot more attention to it than most shows. Reminds me of Monk for some reason.
Highspeed Etoile
What’s it about? A futuristic racing series, set to have tension with AI drivers taking the field.
The CGI is not very good, so I’m surprised that the car animation is actually decent. I have no idea who the main character is. For all that, though, the show spends more time actually racing than any other racing series in recent memory, and that's all I really want in a, y'know, racing series.
Overall, I'm in for at least one more episode of all of these shows.
And now down into the manga.
List organized in rough order of my most to least favorite.
Below are those manga that I recommend.
Tsumiki Ogami & the Strange Everyday Life
Modern fantasy werewolf school life.
Very cute. Character design is a little weird with the ears and tail. I wish there was more romance.
I'm a Mom
Zom Mom.
Wholesome action survival? Color me surprised.
Below are those manga that I conditionally recommend.
Killing Ghosts
A government employee and his demon partner kill monsters.
Lots of action. Art is decent but not quite as good as it aspires. Despite being manhua and full color, it's drawn like a manga. Bones of a great plot here, but needs a little more character depth and plot detail. Ecchi.
I'm the Only One for Miyaji Miyuki
A girl makes frivolous childhood promises to get married to various friends. Years later, she may have forgotten, but all of them haven't.
I prefer the author's other, non-harem work. That said, other than the harem, there doesn't seem to be anything else wrong with this.
I Want To Go North
Girls small talk after school.
Oneshot. Seemingly set somewhere in Europe. Subtext. It would have felt a little more nuanced if it was longer, but does decently.
Barrel
A woman infiltrates a rival gang, and is put in charge of bodyguarding the boss' mentally ill daughter. They catch feelings.
The rare manhwa that is almost too short; I feel like a little context is missing. Even still, it wasn't bad, though I have no idea what the title is supposed to mean. Nudity.
Reincarnated in a Different World with My Yandere Girlfriend
A guy gets murdered by a yandere. They both get isekai'd and reincarnated. This really complicates his fantasy harem, because he has to figure out which girl she has become.
While I admit this type of plot normally wouldn't have interested me to begin with, I feel like it could have used a little more comedy or something to actually add character to the plot. It's a unique idea, but not executed as well as it could be.
A Childhood Friend Who Only Appears Tsundere-Like On The Surface
Anti-joke.
If this was more than a one-page-per-chapter ecchi, it might be pretty good.
Below are those manga that I do not recommend.
Hot Search is Flooding! I Just Want to Lie Flat, Instead I Get a Black Red Night
In a book, a woman becomes a top idol by repeatedly being reincarnated. Another woman gets isekai'd into the book, and decides to ride to success on the main character's coattails.
Kind of dumps you in the middle of the plot. We could have been missing one chapter or ten chapters' worth of context, hard to tell. I have no idea what the title is trying to convey.
Oh my god that last one.
Gotta watch out for those mimics
I'm a bit surprised by how few of the ones I wanted to watch have started yet. Fable hasn't shown up on my sites yet. Train was not at all what I expected. The synopsis made it sound more serious, and I was expecting something like Girls' Last Tour. This is really trippy, but I liked it a lot. The way they ended by naming the number of stops on the way made it seem like it'll be structured by that. Not necessarily one stop per ep—maybe they'll do several at times, maybe they'll skip some, maybe some will be multi-ep arcs—but that stands to make it seem almost like Star Trek or Doctor Who where there's a unique setting with its own rules each time. Might watch that cat one after the season if it seems good.
Other ones I started so far:
A Condition Called Love. Pretty standard high school romance, but I do like the MC a lot. She doesn't get love and is resigned to never feeling it, but she'll give the popular guy a shot and see if something develops from it.
Spice & Wolf. As they subtitled it "The Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf," it seems like this abbreviated run is not only a reboot, but only of the first part of the story. Multiple seasons ahead? That'd be unusual for an anniversary project. So far, it's just a direct copy.
Bartender: Glass of God. And this is also a nearly straight remake. The circumstances of the bartender himself have changed a little, and there's a new angle of some corporate types trying to recruit him to work in their bar. Wonder if that'll go anywhere. The way episodes play out is pretty much the same, though it focuses more on the characters and less on the technicalities of making drinks.
Laid-Back Camp season 3. What's to say, it's cute slice of life about camping. Picks right up where S2 left off.
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night. Since you expressed some interest in this, I'll give a quick rundown of how the first ep went. As an elementary school student, Mahiru was a gifted artist and won a contest to have a drawing of hers made into a mural on a wall in Shibuya. She wanted to show it to her friends, but before realizing what it was, they made fun of it, so she ended up not telling them and later erased her signature from it. Now in high school, she's given up on art and wanders the town at night while talking to her friend on the phone, wondering who she is. Then she finds someone defending that mural, and the two get to talking. The other girl was booted from an idol group but has made a new name for herself doing anonymous covers of her old songs, and she wants Mahiru to do art for her group. When I first looked up the show, Wikipedia didn't have an article on it and MyAnimeList's was very vague, but Wikipedia has one now, and apparently two other girls will join as musicians. So it sounds like it'll be somewhat similar to Bocchi or the upcoming Girls Band Cry. One ep and all, but I thought it was good.