Only the smallest of crashouts contained within.
I’m not going to sugar coat it. This season is rough. What has happened to you, anime industry? There’s almost nothing original, almost no action shows, and the cheat power reincarnation things that we were assured were on their way out years ago are growing in quantity and decreasing in quality, which isn’t a thing that I thought was possible. And that’s including the sequels. Actually, no. This paragraph to this point was copy-pasted from a previous post. Good on you if you recognized that. And still relevant up to that point. The sequels, instead, are all shounen stuff, with actually relatively few cheat power reincarnation sequels. But it’s also where all the decent studios ended up. Here’s the list.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Frieren
Hell’s Paradise
Oshi no Ko
Fire Force
Nube
Blue Wolves
Fate
Chained Soldier
My Hero Academia
Golden Kamuy
MF Ghost
Medalist
No Way I’d Be Your Girlfriend
Time for Torture
Falling For You
I’m including Fate there because it’s reached the point of Pretty Cure or Cardfight Vanguard for me where it just gets a new iteration every 18 months and yet manages to always be the same thing despite different window dressing. Unusually, there are a couple things in the sequel list that I managed to finish the first season without totally despising them, but I can’t say I’m champing at the bit to continue with Nube at least. Some brainless fanservice action sounds pretty good about now, especially given… well, let’s jump straight into this disaster. I’ll also note that Crunchyroll had a special pseudo-con in early December where they screened a bunch of first episodes from this season, which I’ve chosen to entirely ignore, but some technically have had very early premieres.
All Fantasy is an RPG, All Protagonists Cheat
The Unskilled Man Who Was Kicked Out of the Hero’s Party – A Former Swordsman Who Became an Enchanter due to the Party’s Needs Becomes the Strongest
https://kiyou-bimbou.com/
Studio: Gekkou
Genre: Garbage
Premieres December 31st
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Yep. This is how we’re starting this season as well. With this goddamned crap. The cheat powers in an RPG world but NOT reincarnation, because there’s too many and they need to be separated somehow. The only positive thing to say is that it’s apparently light on the revenge and just harem crap where he’s immediately picked up by a bunch of giant boobed idiots to fawn over him and be awed by him being the expert and master at everything despite it claiming he’s ‘only’ a jack of all trades simply because he’s A++ at literally everything and not S rank in a single thing. Well, I guess the promos are also better produced than most of this horrible season, but the monsters are janky-ass CGI as usual. So congrats to it for being probably the highest budget cheat power show this season and still going to be sub-mediocre IF that. There’s nowhere but down from here.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Sludge wrapped in a ribbon.
Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004
https://yushakei-pj.com/
Studio: Studio KAI
Genre: Actionish
Premieres January 3rd (hour long premiere, broadcast resumes on the 15th)
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Yeah, yeah. “What if hero, but being a hero was BAD.” Another one of the Suicide Squad setups where ostensibly everybody’s eeeevil but actually not at all and are just consigned to fight monsters because they’re too good at robbing nobles, or helped a suicidal goddess off herself, or my favorite, the assassin who only kills people he isn’t paid to kill. Wrap your head around that one. Then drape over it all the usual anime cheat power crap. They’re all immortal, have various super powers, and since he’s the protagonist, he gets a pet slave goddess wearing half a doily and a pair of stockings. It was originally meant to air in October, but got delayed, and it’s Studio Kai (Nube, 7th Loop Villainess), so the mediocrity in its promos, particularly close-ups of eyes and then explosions, are probably as close to action as it’s going to get. Its weird broadcast schedule in January is the most exciting part of it. Then again, it is just fairly generic fightin’ fantasy, and this season has so much further down to go.
Preseason Swing Rating:
At least SOMEBODY is getting stabbed.
Kunon The Sorceror Can See
https://kunonanime.jp/
Studio: Platinum Vision
Genre: Extra Garbage
Premieres January 4th (2x episode premiere)
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Well, not actually. He’s blind, but he’s a super duper ultra special genius wizard and invents special seeing water magic at like age 5, and so becomes the most respected yada yada yada harem of maids at magical high school tournament. He also quickly abstracts “water magic” into fine molecular control and eventually invents a construction company based on mass production of insta-houses. Just add mana. I’m not joking. Though it seems like that doesn’t come until the sixth plus volume. Yes, it goes on THAT long. One tenth of a point for not being reincarnated. That’s all I’m giving it. Why are so many of these getting double length premieres anyway? Haven’t we suffered enough?
Preseason Swing Rating:
Look at my special eyes.
I was Told “Do You Really Think Someone Like You Could Defeat the Demon King?” and Kicked Out of the Hero’s Party, So I Want to Live Normally in the Capital
https://omagoto.com/
Studio: ACGT
Genre: Goo People
Premieres January 8th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
The ever rare kicked from the party revenge fantasy that’s all girls. Her power is that she ‘inverts’, giving her 0 stats, literally, so she’s kicked out the party god put her in, finds a cursed sword that is meant to liquify people, but because she reverses it, it gives her 9999 in everything instead. I think that’s supposed to be the hook, but it’s still status screen crap, and the promos are barely PG at most, which is a little surprising to me since about the only things I see people saying about the LN are “I thought this was cheat power, not yuri” and “wow, this is super gory.” Neither are promising, but they’re at least different from the more standard “Another cheat power… AND I LOVE IT!”
Preseason Swing Rating:
Trash fires can be used to warm yourself sometimes.
Lead is Female, Therefore Pink and Melodramatic
Diary of a Strange Land
https://ikoku-anime.com/
Studio: Shuka
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 4th
Show Premise:
Introvert author adopts orphaned teenage niece.
Random Thoughts:
Also known for reasons I can’t begin to understand as “Journal With Witch.” It’s 2025. There’s no excuse for this. Titled as it is because both people keep saying that observing the other is like being in a foreign land. It’s hard to even say it’s entirely drama, only in the sense that there’s nothing else to call it. Not so much between them, as it just dances around both are awkward and the kid’s mother was despised by the rest of the family, which it makes sure to say “totally not your fault,” and everybody shrugs and leaves it. Removing all emotion from your drama doesn’t seem like a winning formula to me, but here we are.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Wallow in grief like a normal person.
For You in Full Blossom
https://hanakimi-anime.com/
Studio: Signal.MD
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 4th
Show Premise:
Girl has crush on high jumper, stalks him, cross-dresses and moves from America to attend his all-boy’s school.
Random Thoughts:
Uhhhhh huh. All those American high school girls into professional high school… high jumpers. Apparently the manga is fairly well regarded, but for someone not steeped heavily in shoujo, it looks like just a throwback to when crossdressing to have a harem was all the rage in the Ouran/Otoboku days. The main dude immediately finds out, so he’s constantly blushing and stammering over her, and his rival for her attention has a ‘mysterious’ attraction to her as well, but everybody does the usual anime thing of dragging everything out until they can confess and get married off screen in the final volume. Just with some particularly dumb and weird stalker nonsense at the start. For international high school high jumpers. Who lost their high jumper groove. …Yeah.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Distracted by regional cartwheel finals.
You and I are Polar Opposites
https://sh-anime.shochiku.co.jp/seihantai_anime/
Studio: Lapin Track
Genre: Dumb Faces
Premieres January 11th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
A Jump rom-com. Ew. Those never go well. She’s an extrovert. He’s in introvert. You know, like literally EVERY high school romance thing. Reverse the genders for shoujo. Not the fanservicey kind either. The yelly and overreaction kind, which is what all the promos start and end with. Where they say “I like him,” and so the next two pages are people going “OH MY GOD THEN YOU SHOULD ASK HIM OUT.” “WHAT!? YOU CAN’T JUST DO THAT!” “WELL EXCUSE ME FOR BEING SOCIALLY AWKWARD.” I’m exhausted just typing it. She makes stupid faces. Everybody overreacts. He stands there like a beached manatee, probably emitting the same smell as one too.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Anime that is all faces, coming soon.
In the Clear Moonlit Dusk
https://uruwashi-anime.com/
Studio: East Fish Studio
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 11th
Show Premise:
Pretty boy asks out boyish girl.
Random Thoughts:
Please don’t make me explain the title wordplay. It contains a name, and an analgous ways of saying “I love you.” It’s sappy and punny. And here’s the reverse, but drama cranked up instead of ‘comedy.’ Also, no budget because East Fish is a horrible studio (Touhai, Mail Order 40 Year Old, etc). It’s generic shoujo. She’s a wallflower. He’s the popular boy. They’re both referred to as “princes,” and therefore they should chastely date. They’re awkward and stammer and blush but they Do Their Best™… at being completely blaisé and sedated. It’s making the stupid faces and yelling overreactions almost seem preferable just for having some kind of content, even if annoying.
Preseason Swing Rating:
The shih tzu of romantic drama.
Unsettling Relationships With Monster Boys
The Darwin Incident
https://darwinsincident.net/
Studio: BELLNOX FILMS
Genre: Making PETA Seem Cool
Premieres January 6th
Show Premise:
Human-chimp hybrid goes to high school.
Random Thoughts:
This is essentially Planet of the Apes, except repackaged for Japan, so now he’s a shy teenager who goes to high school to be shy around the cute nerdy girl who likes him. It does spiral fairly quickly into crazy totally-not-PETA terrorist attacks where he’s the ‘good’ humanzee against the evil ones and whatnot, which the promos do very much focus on, so hopefully it’ll skip the high school faff, but we know anime never does that. Bellnox is a new Kadokawa Studio, but they’ve all been fairly poor for everything but CGI so far. Also, I don’t feel like high school super monkey really sells the whole Apes Together Strong thing.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Isn’t he just grown up Shin-chan?
The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!!
https://maomusu.com/
Studio: EMT Squared
Genre: Almost Comedy
Premieres January 7th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
A relatively inoffensive gag manga that’s mostly them saying “if you’re a demon, then… kill this human sacrifice!” so she goes “but I want to help them instead” and everybody faceplants from the craziness of that. And then again when the monster is won over by her cuteness and accepts her sandwich instead of a tasty virgin. A setup and punchline that still somehow requires 10-15 pages. They are not long chapters, nor is there any overall narrative. I also say relatively because quite a few of the main recurring babysitters are fanservice friendly, either from giant chests or wearing nothing but a couple belts and a pony tail.
Preseason Swing Rating:
One not nasty virgin.
The Invisible Man and Human Woman – The Two Will be Married Soon
https://tomeiotoko-ningenonna.com/
Studio: project No.9
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 8th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
What makes this especially stupid is that she’s blind. It tries to make a big deal out of her being able to recognize him despite being invisible, BUT SHE’S BLIND. What exactly does blind mean here then? Anyway, this tries to be cutesy, but is the typical awkward overreactions to everything. “S-S-S-S-Should I ask him out!? SQUEEEE!” You have werewolves, elf barristas, and invisible dudes, and we’re wibble wobbling over our feelings instead of exploring any of the comedy or drama potential that would come with an actual relationship that goes beyond sipping coffee together and sitting on a couch simultaneously.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Weird number of blind protagonists this season.
DARK MOON – The Dark Moon: Altar of the Moon
https://darkmoon-tba.com/
Studio: TROYCA
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 10th
Show Premise:
Girl with super powers goes to vampire high school.
Random Thoughts:
The Korean webtoon version of Twilight. So she’s going to vampire high school with her boy harem of vampire dudes all fawning over her, and their rivals, the werewolf fraternity, also fawning over her. Which, actually now that I think about it, I don’t actually know much about Twilight, so maybe that is exactly how Twilight is too. Don’t educate me. She’s the obviously the moon child of destined legend, and just can’t figure out all her feelings over the pretty boys and their dark charms. At least go full CW drama and have lots of sex and stabbings. Someone really needs to do a deep dive into the whole anime/manga culture and explain to me why everything has lost all ambition and effort. Seize the moment. Go for the glory. I mean, I know why they don’t. Because they’re badly written and are scared to ever change a formula that captured even the tiniest amount of success.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Stick to Netflix, Alucard. There is only despair here.
Spending Your Time in the Weirdest of Ways
The Daily Life of Part-Time Torturers
https://goumonbaitokun.com/
Studio: diomedea
Genre: Not-Comedy
Premieres January 4th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Bizarrely, this is a four panel comic manga, with the usual four panel comic gag of someone making a shocked face in the last panel as the punchline. It is meant as actual torture, though it’s never shown (at least in the manga), just them covered with blood and complaining about washing his hands so the other can go “PLEASE WASH MORE THAN THAT.” Not exactly dark humor, or humor for that matter. The entire premise gives me the ick. Ha ha. Those silly gestapo. They’re just like you and me. Aren’t the stasi just the silliest? If the jokes would work if they were just butchers, tanners, or medieval plague doctors, then why are we choosing this… and then not even actually engaging with the premise. Commit one way or the other, you cowards. Equivocating gets the worst of both worlds.
Preseason Swing Rating:
As if either would be a good world anyway.
Could You Please Clean This?
https://kinishite.com/
Studio: Okuruto Noboru
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 5th
Show Premise:
Dry cleaner has amnesia.
Random Thoughts:
You might not expect it from the title and premise, but this is a pretty trashy fanservice thing. Baths and showers must be taken nonstop for maximal cleanliness, and she immediately ‘befriends’ the local high school boy and is repeatedly falling on top of him, almost kissing him, getting into wardrobe malfunctions, etc. The content besides that? The same as food or tourism things, but with laundry or cleaning tips. Sounds like a blast, guys. Definitely something that needed to not just be an anime, but have romantic overtures between a laundromat owner and the local teenager.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Clean me, lady.
I Make a Living Playing Death Games.
https://shiboyugi-anime.com/
Studio: Studio DEEN
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 7th (hour long premiere)
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
“Death game” is a stretch, as it’s Squid Games type things like tag or hide and seek, with 2-3 per volume, everyone’s doing it for the money for the entertainment of rich people, most survive, and there’s extra magic science to make sure they can still pretend like people are being injured in some way and then reset it to nothing. Only girls allowed, and they have to cosplay. So, we’re making no bones about things. Promos are completely unanimated, which is pathetic even for Deen. I think we’re a decade late to the death game fad, and three decades for the maid one.
Preseason Swing Rating:
What ever happened to just being in a PMC?
High School! Funny Face Club
https://kimengumi.com/
Studio: Seven
Genre: Comedy
Premieres January 9th
Show Premise:
Dudes with funny faces go to high school.
Random Thoughts:
A revival of a slapstick series from the 80s, and the old OP is one of the most 80s things ever. Really shows how little comedy has changed in anime over the decades. People make a silly face in a high school club was enough to make a show 40 years ago, and we’re right back to do the same thing. At least it does look particularly gaggy, though I can only take so much slapstick that’s people faceplanting because… something happened. Which is about half the jokes in the promos. The other half being making funny faces.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Just looks like a bunch of allergic reactions to me.
Harems, Because Gender Parity is Taboo For Some Reason
Which Tamon is It Now!?
https://tamon-anime.com/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Comedy
Premieres January 1st
Show Premise:
Pop star isn’t like his stage persona.
Random Thoughts:
He’s neurotic and a downer, and she does his laundry, so he pressures her into being his personal attendant while she constantly internally narrates about how much of a super fan she is, in case anybody has forgotten the premise in the three pages since it was last brought up. Obviously the entire rest of the boy band has to get involved and be taken care of as well, squabbling for her attention. Also, yes, that is her entire personality and character. She does housework, and is an idol fan. Girl power!
Preseason Swing Rating:
Amy has somehow become a symbol of female empowerment.
Tune in to the Midnight Heart
https://mayochu-anime.com/
Studio: Gekkou
Genre: Boobs
Premieres January 6th
Show Premise:
Boy joins all-girl radio club.
Random Thoughts:
Full on harem, complete with multiple sisters that openly want to bang him. Another of the yelly flavor too. They’re all the school idols and so everybody screams at him while he overreacts right back. I guess it’s sort of a throwback in that he’s the meddler type who declares them all failures and that he’s going to ‘fix’ them, but I somehow am not enthused about that. At least everybody’s relatively confident and assertive, even if the premise of them all being aspiring vocal careerists in wildly different fields brought together by… a high school club that involves a microphone, where he’s certain one of them is a secret DJ he embarrassed himself to. On the phone. Years ago. As far as harem pasts go, that’s… well, I guess not even that bad as I think about all the things predicated on sandbox marriage proposals or having seen their panties one time.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Jiggly things assaulting microphones.
It Can’t be a Romantic Comedy with Childhood Friends
https://anime-osalove.com/
Studio: Tezuka Productions
Genre: Boobs
Premieres January 6th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
I’m going to explain the hilarious premise here. Despite the title, they’re all childhood friends and it’s a romantic comedy. Well, at least it thinks that it is. And yes. All of them are his childhood friend. The entire damn harem. Eventually, it introduces a new foreign girl, as you do, and she turns out to also be a childhood friend. Props for committing to the bit. OBVIOUSLY, it’s trashy fanservice where literally all of them are sneaking into his bed so they can glomp all over him and then flash their panties on the way out while he goes “Gee, that sure was a platonic lapdance, and a just-friends tonsil inspection with her tongue.” But it’s a MANGA instead of a light novel. Bringing back the classics. Maybe next season a dude can inherit a hot spring inn filled only high school girls.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Remember when every third show was about having 20 incestuous sisters?
The Daily Life of a 29 Year Old Adventurer Between Jobs
https://anime-29sai-dokushin.com/
Studio: HORNETS
Genre: Creepy Boobs
Premieres January 7th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Boy, that sure is a young girl on the cover. There’s definitely no way th– I’ll stop pretending there. Despite it claiming to be one of those adopt-an-orphan-and-heartfelt-whatever things, she’s a succubus who accidentally ‘grows up’ at night and gets horny. Maybe that’ll be cut from the anime, but we look through the rest of the cast and… succubus in bikini, elf girl, dwarf girl, comic relief masochist, maid girl. Yeah, you get the picture. It can make whatever overtures it wants about being cute girls go on baby’s first adventure. The manga at least definitely ain’t. But is the alternative any better? Baby’s first RPG… with world’s most generic dude in the background? Oh boy. Can fantasy anime please find an iota of creativity?
Preseason Swing Rating:
Rat wizard. There. Use that as your premise. Free of charge.
The Misanthropic Teacher of a Demi-human Class
https://jingai-kyoshitsu-anime.com/
Studio: Asread
Genre: Animal Boobs
Premieres January 10th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
This one’s claim to fame is that the light novel it’s adapted from was written by a corporate VTuber. Really plumbing the depths here, aren’t we? It gets worse, even without noting the obvious that 90% of the characters are overly gropey high school girls. They all have truly exasperating pun names about on the level of Robin Byrd or Hugh Man. I’d say leave the writing to the professionals, but I’ve seen what they produce. So maybe just writing bad oldschool brain dead fanservice really is the best we’ve got. It’s not even like this specific schtick hasn’t been done a dozen times in different flavors, from Seton to Killing Bites to Kemono Friends. What’s one more to add to the pile?
Preseason Swing Rating:
Dinosaurs once again not invited.
Finally, We Come to the Mountain of Reincarnations
The Fate of the Other World Depends on the Company Slave
https://iseshachi.com/
Studio: Studio DEEN
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 6th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Officially translated as “bean counter” instead of slave, but I think the accuracy here is worthwhile. Another in the “realist saves medieval kingdom by telling them to invest in infrastructure and maybe don’t be QUITE as racist” subgenre of reincarnation things which have fallen out of style. This one’s BL, explicitly, with him working too hard and needing the dramatic hugs of his prince to fix him, which is sort of different, but not really. And it’s Deen, so extra double not different, for BL or for godawful reincarnation crap.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Oh no, my innocence.
There was a Cute Girl in the Hero’s Party So I Asked Her Out
https://yuukawa-anime.com/
Studio: Gekkou
Genre: Boobs
Premieres January 6th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
I’m actually surprised as I think about it that of all the various demon lord dating magical girl things, reincarnated cheat power hasn’t been done yet. Regular magic girl? Tons. Sentai? Tons and a half. Hot lady is the demon lord? Tons on tons. Demon lord is a werebeast who marries an orphan, or even yanks someone from Earth? Sure. Actually, I’m sure I’m just blanking on something at this point. Anyway, it really just is another one of those, except with a cheat power guy as the ‘demon king’ who is such because he has bat wings. And society calls him evil. Twenty years on from dudes being framed as ruffians for having blonde hair or scary eyes. Speaking of ancient history though, this one is kind of funny because the LN ended ignominiously after three volumes… back in 2015. That’s ancient by LN standards. It began while Sword Art Online was just exploding. Six years later, publishers were apparently hurting for this kind of content somehow, and decided to ‘adapt’ it into a manga and now here we are. What a profoundly stupid origin story.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Hey, girl. Wanna check out my dungeon?
Reincarnated Noble – I was Born Blessed so I’ll Become the Most Powerful
https://kizoku-tensei.com/
Studio: CompTown
Genre: Boobs
Premieres January 8th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
The only even slightly interesting thing about this is that one of the throwaway antagonists sort of looks like a pirate. Or maybe they’re simply meant to be French. It can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. That’s the extent of the creativity. Otherwise, it is every single stupid garbage reincarnation cheat power thing, complete with status screens declaring him to have the highest numbers and is therefore the best. He of course has a harem that’s half maids and the rest are demihumans that exist to power him up. Literally. That’s his cheat power. He get the power of everybody who swears fealty to him. Great. Glad they barely bothered animating it, same as their last reincarnation show about a dude being headhunted into another world. Which one specifically was that? All of them.
Preseason Swing Rating:
At least these goblins no longer wear track suits.
Recommendations for a Peaceful Aristocratic Vacation
https://odayakakizoku-pr.com/
Studio: SynergySP
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 8th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Also known by the official translation as “A Mild Noble’s Vacation Suggestion.” Of course it is. One of the reincarnation into another world things where nothing happens and the dude just wanders around and is like “Wow, this is totally neat. And stuff.” Exciting. Its hook is that girls aren’t allowed. Not literally, they’re allowed to be background characters, but only dudes get to be nobles and have vacations. And have names. And talk. Is that really what was missing here? Too many catgirl girlfriends?
Preseason Swing Rating:
Free me from this nightmare.
Hell Mode – The Hardcore Gamer Dominates Another World with Garbage Balancing – The First Summoner
https://hellmode-anime.com/
Studio: Yokohama Animation Lab
Genre: Please Stop
Premieres January 9th
Show Premise:
Good lord.
Random Thoughts:
Good god. Stretching to find anything distinguishing, and I guess the monster design hews much closer to Dragon Quest than most? The monsters are all weirdly cutesy, even when occasionally sporting a bleeding hole instead of an eye. Still status screens. Still cheat power. Still eventually end up in a goddamned high school tournament, because all roads lead to the same place no matter where we begin, and since it’s another damn cheat power reincarnation with literal CCG mechanics in the promo, it begins life neck deep in the grave.
Preseason Swing Rating:
How about introducing Formula One to another world instead?
I was Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling – I’m Aiming for Nothing Less than Becoming the Strongest
https://doratama-anime.com/
Studio: Felix Film
Genre: AAAAAAAAAGHHH
Premieres January 10th
Show Premise:
No more.
Random Thoughts:
Same as all the other cheat power reincarnation things. He looks at the status screens, has numerical levels and stats, has the power to get whatever powers he wants, and picks up a demihuman slave or three to be his harem, but totally not since he’s an innocent non-human who’s taking innocent baths with them in the just-friends hot spring. Whether the character is a sword, chimera, skeleton, or human, it’s always the same. I hate it here. I look back at some old season previews on occasion when it feels like the bile has reached a tipping point, and man… you go to 2017 or 2018 and there’s only a couple shows about going to another world at all, let alone having cheat powers. Sure, there’s more weird crap like “gets super powers for wish tournaments by hand holding”, but doesn’t that sound so much better than another forty reincarnation cheat premises?
Preseason Swing Rating:
Becoming older and bitterer by the second.
The Fun Territory Defense of a Carefree Lord – Using Crafting Magic to Turn a Nameless Village into the Strongest Citadel in the World
https://okiraku-ryousyu-anime.jp/
Studio: NAZ
Genre: Free Me From This Hell
Premieres January 10th
Show Premise:
Please stop.
Random Thoughts:
Even for stupid, dumb premises, this one is painful. He’s considered a super genius, the envy of all, right up until the magical scanner says he can’t shoot fireballs, only manipulate solid matter at will, so he’s banished in disgrace with nothing but his slaves and servants to a remote village which his rich family owns, where he uses his magic to… construct future siege weaponry. And reinforced titanium. And rice cookers for authentic European onigiri. So on and so forth. I’m not nostalgic for the early isekai craze when it would do things like “I can only control lettuce, but when you think about it, isn’t everything at least 1% lettuce?” but at least that was slightly creative. This is just incomprehensible nonsense making up nonsensical rules so it can claim that cheat powers are not, but then they are, as they obviously were all along. And not even being funny or creative about it. Reincarnate someone into a world where the size of one’s mustache is their power level and the hero has to win with nothing but a really, really thick goatee, or whoever has the widest sunhat is the strongest. Just do something different.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Invent something fun, you boring dolt.
Radical High School Fightin’ Team Force Super Alpha
Armored Warriors Samurai Troopers
https://www.samurai-trooper.net/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Action
Premieres January 6th
Show Premise:
Dudes with magic armor fight other dudes with magic armor.
Random Thoughts:
AKA Ronin Warriors in the west. Meant as a sequel to the 80s series, which was fairly childish sentai. As in there was an entire episode based around them being unable to beat a dude because he had six arms. But he didn’t actually have six arms, he was just moving his two arms really fast so it looked like he did. Note, that he couldn’t actually move fast while fighting. He could only move his arms quickly to make it appear as if he had four extra ones, and as soon as that was revealed, because his kid sidekick took a polaroid of him, he was instantly undone. The main character said “Aha. Now I know your trick” and snatched a sword right out of his hand, thus vanquishing him. This is, astonishingly, the only original show this entire season, so I feel like it needs to be treasured for that. However, Sunrise has handed it off to the Gintama director, so lord knows it ain’t going to be one of their Cross Ange or Valvrave style of amusing train wrecks that they seem to have abandoned making any more and is likely just going to be… more of Samurai Troopers.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Oh boy, unearthed corpses.
Arne’s Case Book
https://arne.asmik-ace.co.jp/
Studio: Silver Link
Genre: Comedy
Premieres January 7th
Show Premise:
Vampire boy solves mysteries.
Random Thoughts:
An episodic series of RPG Maker little ‘adventure’ games, that actually got the first chapter localized about five years ago, and then they gave up. Despite the ultra-goth cover… of the game, not the anime, the game hews much closer to Phoenix Wright in style and humor. The promos are a mixed bag, some being edgelord vampire doing generic vampire poses, except all PG and not even to Castlevania levels of scary, others being yelly slapstick. It’s not pushing a strong identity in either direction, and especially not on the production front. Can’t say I’ve been a fan of recent anime slapstick trends, though it is one of Silver Link’s better directors, and this season is dire enough that a pie to the face of a vampire and his weird fangirl isn’t even in the bottom half of the worst possible things to come of it.
Preseason Swing Rating:
I legitimately can’t remember the last evil anime vampire.
Dead Account
https://dead-account.com/
Studio: SynergySP
Genre: Action
Premieres January 10th
Show Premise:
Dudes fight social media ghosts.
Random Thoughts:
The premise is less weird than it seems, but points for effort. Ghosts possess people’s social media accounts, kill them if they’re not dead already, and keep running the social media accounts. To harvest emotions or something. Only radical teenagers with cyber super powers can kill them. Which is to say that it is actually completely generic shounen super power stuff. Everyone has a themed power that they use to, uh, slay the evil Facebook profiles that turn into monsters once accused of being evil. So they all get together and go to rad teen fighting high school where they do their training and certifications, as one must always have, and the evil Twitter accounts are quickly left behind to feud with the evil versions of themselves. Social media is pretty damn innately evil to start with. I don’t know why we have to drag innocent revenants into it, or how pulling a large hammer out of your cellphone counts as a superpower. Pretty Cure has been doing that since around 2006. It does remind me of Gachaman Crowds’s exhortation that the world would be a better place if we all used Facebook a little more. How’s that worked out, guys? Maybe I’d be more enthused if most of the action in the promo wasn’t stills and closeups of yelling faces with speedlines.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Pretty sure they ain’t slaying goatse.
Kaya isn’t Scary
https://kayachan.com/
Studio: East Fish Studio
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 11th
Show Premise:
Psychic kindergartener hunts ghosts.
Random Thoughts:
Essentially Dark Gathering, In/Spectre, or Mieruko again, but aged down and with way less fanservice. Sort of horror, mostly body grotesquery, that some kid always just punches away. I’d say less of a budget too because the promos look quite dire, but I don’t recall any of those as being anything better than very poorly animated. This is a prime time show too, so expect even less in the way of anything gory. Or scary. Or funny. If you want to do haunted children, or dolls, or whatever, this is all old hat by now. The internet can come up with way more disturbing things than shaded eyes or melting faces.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Case in point.
Hero? No. Scum
https://yushanokuzu.com/
Studio: OLM
Genre: Action
Premieres January 10th
Show Premise:
Magic dude fights magic dudes, and apprentices magic girls.
Random Thoughts:
Unusually clever wordplay in the title using the old Simpsons Lionel Hutch punctuation trick to alternatively be read as “Scum Hero,” or localized as “Scum of Hero,” because why not throw away the one clever thing you have going. Okay, maybe not THAT clever. It’s one of the now out of style light novel fighting harem setups like Black Bullet or Assassin’s Pride where the protagonist is some washed up ne’er do well who becomes the semi-unwilling teacher/babysitter of a pack of high school fightin’ girls because he’s just grumpy, not actually edgy. Promos do seem unfortunately mediocre, but it is a very veteran director of quite a few things from ages ago that I have some fond memories of being creatively directed (eg Macademy, Oretsuba) until he got sucked into the forever prison of running Yokai Watch for most of the last ten years. I doubt it’ll be GOOD, but look at the competition this season. All it has to be is marginally tolerable. And OLM is nothing if not mediocrely tolerable.
Preseason Swing Rating:
At least this slop has some flavor.
Villainesses Unjustly Accused of Crimes
The Holy Grail of Eris
https://eris-seihai.com/
Studio: Ashi Productions
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 8th
Show Premise:
Villified noble girl teams up with villainess ghost.
Random Thoughts:
I’ve more than had my fill of villainess shows after last season and don’t feel like making that mistake again. It’s all the usual stuff. Jilted by fiance and accused of a crime she didn’t commit, but saved by a SECOND framed villainess (ghost) instead of a pretty boy, but also a dark skinned totally bad boy (who happens to be pretty). I’m not even sure you can say a ghost is something new when half of these reincarnated villainess things regularly have them go out of body to explain things they shouldn’t know. They’re paying one more voice actor at least, and doing TWO villainesses instead of one. That’s double the villainess. Can’t wait for twin villainesses. Unless I stab myself in the eyes first.
Preseason Swing Rating:
When is one of them going to be a pirate?
The Champignon Witch
https://champignon-pr.com/
Studio: Typhoon Graphics
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 9th (2x episode)
Show Premise:
Mushroom witch girl is literally made of poison.
Random Thoughts:
This takes a bit of a turn quickly. It starts with her being shy and awkward because she can’t touch people and there’s a cute boy in town whose soul she accidentally repeatedly kidnaps to be her playmate, into being revealed to be the redeemed prophecized world ending devil who now has to raise the next generation prophecized world ending devil baby to not destroy the world or the League of Poisonous Witches will kill them both, into ghost flashbacks about the royal family’s twisted web of sketch, persecution, and trysts. Which is to say, a whole lot of internal fussing over ‘connecting’ with people, ie touching them, which she can’t… without gloves, and physical touch is the only thing that counts as intimacy, apparently, with occasional breaks to rant incomprehensibly about the apocalypse that may or may not exist depending on the quality of a socially unadjusted witch’s babysitting. Or the gay king’s ghost’s secret affairs and eviler witches that steal magic through sex. At least it’s genuinely weird. That’s better than not, if only by a little.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Its fungi verisimilitude is questionable at best.
The Villainess is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom
https://akudeki-anime.com/
Studio: Studio DEEN
Genre: Drama
Premieres January 11th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Reincarnated into her dating game as the villainess, unjustly framed and rejected by her fiance in front of everybody, whisked away by the not-actually bad boy to another palace where everybody loves her, blah blah blah etc etc etc. Boy, overusing that this season. My brain is definitely turning to mush by all this repetition. I do try to look for ANYTHING distinctive, if just to point and laugh at what they’re trying to pitch as the unique selling point, but man, I’m struggling here even more than usual. I’ve got absolutely nothing. Every single season has 2-3 of these and they manage to be even less distinctive than the cheat power reincarnation schlock. And the repetition grinds me down, both for these and the reincarnation/cheat power stuff until my brain is simply mush. Again, I look back at the season previews I wrote 10 years ago, and I can say with confidence that the array of shows and the creativity that went into the elevator pitches has cratered.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Done caring. Here’s a puffball.
Wrapup:
*ahem* Crashout finished, and I assure you, it is the children who are wrong, says the person running an over ten year old independent anime blog here in the year of 2025. That other post I’ve been writing about some minor personal stuff (minor as far as the blog is concerned) and something a little more interesting is still coming, now that I’ve finished this behemoth of a enthusiasm sapper, I can turn more attention towards that. Season starts in a few days. I’m sure there will be early premieres that I missed here and there, plus that awful vampire show’s last episode tomorrow. Happy holidays, and may god have mercy on this season.
