New anime first episode reviews

Every new anime season I put together a spreadsheet of all the shows I'm interested in checking out at least one episode of. The list usually starts between 15 and 20, but then gets whittled down to usually around 9 shows I actually intend to keep up with. This season the list has 22 shows on it, and was whittled down to… 18. 13 of which are completely new shows.

Suffice it to say this season is packed to the brim with potentially good shows to watch. So as a sort of supplement to the anime preview I wrote for Polygon, I thought I might give my current impressions from the first episode of the new shows I've watched so far that I intend to keep watching.

Adachi and Shimamura

A gay romance story about two very different high school girls who end up spending time together while skipping the same class period everyday. It has a very different tone than I was expecting, as it is very focused on introspective thoughts of the two of how they view themselves and the world around them. It is surprisingly not very dramatic.

Streams on Funimation on Thursdays.

Akudama Drive

This episode does A LOT, all to set up the last minute or so of the episode when you get a hint at what the show will actually be. Which unsurprising, given it's written by the creator of Danganronpa, seems like it'll a death game (or death game adjacent). But this episode does a great job of giving you enough information on the characters and the setting (which is like a modern anime interpretation of 00s/90s Western cyberpunk, which itself was an interpretation of 80s/90s anime and manga), that you just want to learn more about them regardless of the story.

Streams on Funimation on Thursdays.

GranBlues

This is a five minute long nonsense show, which is exactly what it needed to be. And basically only for people that know things about GranBlue Fantasy.

Streams on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

Higurashi: When They Cry - New

This show falls into a strange place as I want to watch more of it, but it's apparent that this isn't just a remake of the original Higurashi anime. It's like a new game plus. So although I want to see more, I feel like I need to watch the original first before I get to this one.

Streams on Funimation on Thursdays.

Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima

I'm not sure I enjoy this show for what it is, but it's fascinating to watch because if you try to think about it for more than 5 seconds your head will explode. All weapons in Japan are replaced with psychic attack microphones that people use to rap battle. (I know I said these were only episode one reviews, but in episode two a guy straps a bunch of illegal hypnosis microphones to himself like a bomb vest to rob a bank… like… what?!) Honestly what I want is Desus & Mero to watch this show.

Streams on Funimation on Fridays.

Ikebukuro West Gate Park

I remember sometime after watching Durarara! learning that it was inspired by a book called Ikebukuro West Gate Park, so now finally seeing it as it's own anime I'm starting to realize all of the other shows that clearly took inspiration or were referencing the original book. It is also just a good and interesting show so far, and I'm curious to see how things develop.

Streams on Funimation on Tuesdays.

Iwakakeru - Sport Climbing Girls

Of all the shows listed this one is the most likely one to get cut first. The first episode is good/fine, but nothing about it necessarily grabbed me. It might be just I have a high bar for sports shows at this point seeing as Haikyu is also airing this season, and Farewell My Dear Cramer is getting a series soon, where I need a bit more than the main character happens to be good at this sport they've never done before for a tangentially reason. I will say that the show does get big points for actually letting the girls be muscular, and also not being incredibly moe.

Streams on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.

Jujutsu Kaisen

I read some of the manga for Jujutsu Kaisen a while ago, and it's a good story with good characters, but the animation and direction on this show is really elevating the material a lot. It manages to really capture the tonal swings of incredibly creepy monsters to goofy humor. Also the action scenes so far are great. I'm hoping they can keep up this kind of quality for the whole series.

Streams on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

Moriarty the Patriot

This might be my favorite new show. Turning Sherlock Holmes' arch-nemesis into an anti-hero vigilante is an interesting concept alone, but the first episode really sells the sort of detective show-like structure except that at the end he isn't trying to prove it to police. I'm just really intrigued to see what else they do with it, especially given it's going to be two cours.

Streams on Funimation on Sundays.

The Gymnastics Samurai

This show feels like Yuri on Ice's goofy gymnastics cousin, which I mean in the best way possible. It's about someone maybe a bit too old for their sport still trying to make it happen, but also he's a single dad to a really good daughter, has the coolest anime mother-in-law, and is seemingly going to train this ninja obsessed but incredibly talented younger gymnast that also seems like his biggest fan. It strikes a really good tone, and I'm looking forward to watching more of it.

Streams on Funimation on Saturdays.

Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You

I really like Hayate the Combat Butler a lot, so hearing the creator had a new manga and it was being made into an anime I was already on board. Although when it comes to anime romcoms the typical tropes of the guy being weirdly (intended to be comedically) unsure about doing very small romantic gets old very quick for me. Luckily Tonikawa seems to get it's comedy not from that, but by deflating romcom tropes by making the punchline they're already married so it's not really a big deal (except when it still is). It starts pretty slow though, but I'm hoping as it goes along it builds into something a bit more interesting.

Streams on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

I didn't really have an eye on this show until I saw the trailer, specifically the backgrounds in the trailer, which are gorgeous. The show itself, it turns out, is also extremely good. Although the first episode sort of unfolds as I expected it to, the message/take away from it was a lot more interesting and nuanced than I anticipated from it. It's also really well animated, and so I'm pretty excited to see where it goes from here.

Streams on Funimation on Fridays.

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

I figured they would lead with the new character and then fill in some of the backstory about what happened between the end of Inuyasha and the start of Yashahime, but that clearly wasn't the case as the first episode was very Inuyasha heavy with very little on the new cast. Episode one feels more like an episode 0, and my guess is episode 2 is probably going to be a better starting point for people with little to no knowledge of Inuyasha.

Streams on Crunchyroll and Funimation on Saturdays.

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