Spring is a season of new beginnings! As an upcoming college graduate this spring, a new beginning is definitely coming for me as I become an functional member of society (I hope). It’s also the time of year when everyone is coming out of their caves to taste the sunshine and hear the birds sing and see the flowers bloom in glorious colors! And also time for some new anime!
In anime, the Spring season is not always one of the strongest, but we, the anime viewers, always hope there will be a series or two to help us through the pesky spring fever.
I don’t go over all the upcoming series for this coming season, just the ones that look hopeful. To see the full chart, head over to @animucharts on twitter.
While I tend to check out at least the first episode of mostly all the new anime each season, these are a few of the titles that have me more interested:
RDG: Red Data Girl 
This was the first series to catch my eye, though the jury is still out whether this series will develop into something worth watching, even after I watched the pre-air of the first episode over at Nico-Nico Douga.
The set up does present a few opportunities for success, though. The main girl seems to possess some sort of weird powers (that eventually causes her to shut down all the school’s computers on accident during a simple school assignment), and by living in a shrine almost all her life and being sheltered for most of it, really has little understanding of life outside of what has been dictated to her. Her friends try to encourage her to be more “normal” and others ridicule her for being weird.
Though, even in her small attempt to change (by cutting her bangs, which, actually is a really big deal in her situation. Hair is srs bsns in Shintoism.), it’s revealed that her life and the life of a boy she knew when she was younger are being controlled in order for to fulfill some grand and rather idealistic destiny woven together by people who are not very present in the lives of these two kids.
But neither the main girl or the guy want anything to do with it and in all honesty, the story is already taking an eerie tone concerning this (it’s hard to explain unless you see it, though).
As a side note, I did some searching and the only connection with the title and real life Japan is that a Red Data Book is a record made of endangered species, animals, usually, in Japan.
Shingeki no Kyojin 
Translated as “ Attack on Giants/Titan.” This is a title I hear a lot of people getting hyped up about and while I haven’t read the manga, I’ve heard interesting things about it that would certainly make this a unique series.
Simply from basic research and my poor Japanese skills translating the unsubbed previews, the story is based around humans who live in a walled city, away from the rest of the world. In the “outside world” exist humanoid giants (some with skin and some without), who happen to eat humans.
Things are pretty okay-ish since the wall around the city is about 15 meters tall and keeps out the giants who are known to be at the most 15 meters tall, until an abnormally 60 meter tall one shows up and breaks down the wall.
I think the most exciting part about this anime so far (that I’ve seen clips of already from the PV) is the human’s use of the Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear, which is basically really powered up grappling hooks in order to maneuver around and battle the giants.
While the story set up seems to be solid, I’m cautious about how the characters will be, since I’ve heard little to nothing about the main characters, I can’t say for sure whether they will be able to keep the story going forward.
I’m keeping my hopes up, though, because some of this footage looks awesome!
Ginga Kikoutai: Majestic Prince 
This one being on my to-watch list is surprising. I’m a person who doesn’t really watch much if any sci-fi anime, much less mecha sci-fi anime, but here I am, getting excited about it. Actually, after my love developed for Star Driver, I pretty much give anything with “Ginga” and “Majestic” in the name a chance because it might be fabulous and after seeing the preview, I have higher hopes for this anime.
Not much has been released on this series beyond a summary and a preview.
Basically, the story is in the future, when mankind has already expanded into space (colonized and such). This is great and wonderful until they start getting attacked by the Empire (some type of aliens, I believe) from Jupiter and just when humankind is on the brink of extinction, they launch a project that has a team of people to pilot combat devices known as AHSMBs (giant robot-esque devices?).
But what sold me on this series is the characters, the team of pilots who each have a unique and quirky personality and have to somehow get along with each other in order to save humanity. That seems like a rather over-used idea, but really, I have a soft spot for lovable characters, even if the story is not very dynamic. XD
Other series to keep a look out for:
Karneval 
Regardless of the fact that this looks like it will end up tricking me like K Project did (which was pretty awesome looking until you actually watch it, then it’s not…that’s great.) But unlike K, this one actually has some source material (a manga) to work off of, so I can’t lose hope yet!
Basically, the premise is a guy searching for someone important to him and a pick pocket meet up by chance (or so they think!) and suddenly become wanted by the government and find themselves trying to escape from the powerful defense agency, called “Circus”. The show seems to have an Alice in Wonderland feel (probably comes with the idea of “circus”).
Arata Kangatari 
Why did I include this? Actually, the style doesn’t look like what I’d normally watch or recommend to people, but since it’s based off a manga of the same name by Yuu Watase (creator of Fushigi Yugi), it can’t be that bad. From the preview, it seems like it’s going to follow a similar sort of story style as FY, so it may be worth checking out if you enjoy Watase’s work. :3
Joujuu senjin! Mushibugyou 
The animation and art on this looks so amazing, but I can find nothing on it except for a short preview showing five classy looking samurai fighting a giant beetle in Edo-era Japan. It’s a short shounen series from as far as I can tell. I include it since it looks awesome and seems like something Crunchy Roll would pick up, but who knows.
Whatever series you all decide to pick up this season, hopefully it will be an enjoyable one to welcome you into the warmth and fun times of summer!
Feel free to share what series you are looking to watch (or continue to watch) this coming season!