So after a little nudge, I started doing that thing I do at the end of a season, looking into upcoming titles and watching trailers for the approaching season, and I've started mentally laying odds on which shows I'd bet on watching all the way through. Kind of like an anime bookie, except instead of betting on the winner, I'm just betting on which ones will cross the finish line.
Sword of the Demon Hunter could fall in my personal like zone. The art looks good. Action with fantasy elements, time travel...yup. I like to have at least one Kaiju #8 or Hell's Paradise or Chainsaw Man or Solo Leveling style dark fight fest with a plot per season, and this looks like the most likely candidate from where I'm typing.
Alya Hides Her Feelings in Russian could be good if it isn't a one joke premise. I didn't have a lot of modern day romance anime that I liked in Spring 2024. The MC in A Condition Called Love was more heart worming than heart warming to me, and I couldn't make it past an episode and a half.
Dahlia in Bloom could have promise. I also like to have at least one chillaxin' slice of life type anime, and even though this one appears to be an isekai, it's about someone taking the trade/lifestyle player approach and the art looks good. It looks like it might have the qualities that I liked about The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent. while not taking the MC's mousy freak out routine to an annoying extreme.
And No Longer Allowed in the Other World could be a chicken dinner if it lives up to the subversive Isekai premise.
That's really about it in terms of the ones that I'm excited about. There are a couple of projects by creators of anime that I liked well enough. I enjoyed Hyouka but it wasn't a compulsive, compelling kind of enjoyment, and How to Become Ordinary looks to be cut from the same cloth. I genuinely admired Tower of God and found it interesting, and I'm definitely in for a second season, but that said, I didn't connect all that deeply to any of the characters. The same goes for Our Last Crusade. The creator behind that story also did Gods Games we Play, and I tend to love the ideas but just like the execution alright, which is why I'm not all that excited about Why Nobody Remembers My World either. If the past is any indication, I'll watch it, and I'll think it has good world building and plot, but I'll find it oddly bland and predictable in characterization.
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My predictions:
Nanare Hananare (Narenare: Cheer for You!) will be the highest quality show of the season, but far from the most popular.
Be a Vegetable, Be a Flower!
Gimai Seikatsu (Days With My Stepsister) will be the best romance with the least annoying MMC, but again will not be the most popular in its category.
Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan (My Deer Friend Nokotan) will be the funniest show of the season, but we will have to "sail the seven seas" to watch it.
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