Hey, otaku! As I’m sure you know, a week from today the NFL kicks off the opening day of its annual draft, in which college players from around the country are selected to play professional football.
I’m kidding of course—I know that you had no idea that it was next week. Most of you probably don’t even really understand what the draft is. And that’s okay, because with the exception of just a few of us, we don’t either. But that isn’t stopping us from having our own fantasy anime draft!
Five of our staff members and two confirmed guests—Kurt, a foremost blogger of anime fanart on Tumblr and Tommy, football and anime fan extraordinaire—will select anime over four rounds of a live draft. They can pick any anime series (and only TV series) that are currently airing and that have yet to air. A winner will be determined at the end of the next winter anime season, so when choosing future series, teams want to be confident that they will air within the next year to count toward their final score. Point totals are determined by adding scores from the top three of the four anime on each roster, based on a composite average between Anime Planet and MAL’s scores for the series.
While you won’t be able to join us in the draft room, you will be hearing the results all day long next Thursday through our Twitter account. Expect LOTS of surprises—it should be fun!
And as a little preview, here are some of the picks I expect to go early in the 2018 Anime Draft (note that the parenthetical number following the series is how I rank that series on my initial big board):
The Studs
Gintama: Shirogane no Tamashii-hen 2 (1) – You can’t get more consistently high-ranking than Gintama, which is my top pick among these anime that should go one through four in the draft, though it might fall to second behind…
Steins;gate 0 (2) – Off to a great start, this series could end up being the highest scoring anime from this draft, though there’s a long way to go to determine whether it rises or falls
Food Wars, season 3 (3) – Beloved on both AP and MAL, Food Wars is probably the most consistent performer of all, if slightly below the above two in potential
My Hero Academia, season 3 (4) – The biggest discrepancy for this series is that it is ranked second among all draftees on AP, but far below the top three candidates on MAL
Spring 2018 Series
Seven Deadly Sins, season 2 (5) – I have this series rated up at number five, but I could see it getting drafted as low as eight…if it falls below that, someone is getting an absolute steal
Megalo Box (6) – The safety of drafting the new series this season is that we already have early scores for them…and barring a major drop in quality, we know that shows like Megalo Box will end up with strong scores when everything is settled in a year’s time
Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory (11) – Scores are relatively high right now for this series on AP, but will MAL catch up, or might all the scores drop?
Wotakoi (18) – I don’t know if anyone has a strong beat on this series…it could sink someone’s ship if taken too early, or make a season if it becomes Mr. Irrelevant (the name given to the last pick of the draft)
Continuing Series
One Piece (9) – There’s safety in knowing that the score for a long-running series should stay relatively the same in year’s time.
Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Hen (10) – CCS may be an exception to that safety rule, with very high potential; it’s current ranking is nothing to write home about, but manga fanatics say that the show is going somewhere really good, and that could boost this series
Detective Conan (20) – Don’t forget about the boy genius—perhaps a steal in round four?
Big Gain (or Big Pain)
Attack on Titan (7) – The next season of Attack on Titan should come in our time frame, but I remember this arc being, well, kind of boring—how will the AP and MAL scorers react to it?
Sword Art Online: Alicization (15) – SAO has plenty of detractors, but the next series could help a team if it scores well like the recent film, which would merit a pick in the top ten
One Punch Man 2 (24) – There’s no doubt that OPM 2 is worthy of a top three pick, maybe even number one, if it airs within our time frame—but will this long-awaited series get scheduled in time?
Chihayafuru (29) – Ditto for Chihaya and friends, though I would slate it around number five if it qualifies
Good luck to all the teams next week! We’ll break down their picks here on blog, but as I mentioned, you can follow along all day on our Twitter. And let us know, who would you pick first in the draft?
Rachel likes Clear Card too 🙂 😉
It’s a good series!
Yeah I watched a couple episodes with her
CCS: Clear Card for the win! 🙂
🙂 #oneofyourfavoriteanimes
Welcome back 🙂
Absolutely I want to see Steins;Gate 0 get the top spot! I cannot wait to see what lies in store for the anime!
Although I think it’s a smarter pick to select Gintama first, I’m with you—I’d love to see Steins;gate 0 go first!
One contender, which you seem to have missed is SAO Alternative. I know it’s a bit of a dark horse, but the SAO fans are a vocal bunch, and this is an interesting twist on it. Though being SAO it could just tank because people love to hate the franchise.
It’s definitely a dark horse! And you know what? Even though I’m not a fan of SAO in general, I’m really enjoyed Alt GGO! And I’m willing to bet it gets drafted—I just don’t have it on my big board (top 30) because the ratings so far have been low. But who knows, if continues to be good, it might work its way up!