Aaah, the season of all election ads and lunacy.
Stick a fork in “girls in a hobby club” shows, because they’re clearly done. It’s all cheat power reincarnations and RPG worlds, all the time. Especially when it comes to sequels/continuations, because as we wind our way through the once again double digit new iterations of them, recall the list below of sequels/continuations that also contains another six to eight, depending on how strict you want to define it. Idol shows have nearly been defeated though. Just the tentpole franchises hanging on for dear life, and because they have gachas to sell.
Re:Zero
Appraisal Skill
Demon Lord Retry
Sword Art Online
Commonplace to Strongest
Shangri-La
Spirit Chronicles
Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon
Blue Lock
Bleach
Dragon Ball
Blue Exorcist
Kamonohashi Ron
Kenshin
Love Live
Idolm@ster
Seven Deadly Sins
Prince of Tennis
Tonbo
MF Ghost
Good lord, that’s a long list. It’s a packed season, and yet, only a whopping two shows are originals. I guess three if you count the Dragon Ball one where they’re being sent to another world and turn into their childish GT forms. It hurts my brain even thinking about it. And yet, somehow, that’s being aired at midnight, so not directed at the 10 year olds. Anyway, onward straight to the disappointment.
Cheating At Cheat Powers
A Loner’s Guide to Other Worlds – All the Cheat Skills Were Taken
https://bocchi-kouryaku.com/
Studio: Passione
Genre: Cheat Stupidity
Premieres September 26th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
All the cheat skills were taken, so he just gets literally every other skill, plus maximum luck, so… you know… totally not cheat skills because he just has all the other skills. God, these are tiresome. And wouldn’t you know it, but all the other people with cheat power are horny girls who all secretly had crushes on him all long. It’s Passione, so it’s going to be cheap fanservice. And yet, the first episode aired, and it had close to no girls at all. Just the dude monologuing while it popped up status screens so he could yell about them. Brilliant.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Join the amalgamation.
The Healer Who Was Kicked Out of the Party Is Actually the Strongest
https://sonochiyushi.com/
Studio: Studio elle
Genre: Being Tiresome
Premieres October 5th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
You guessed it. He can only use the most basic healing spell, so he’s kicked out, but it turns out he can use the spell better than literally every other person in the world, and has top level strength, dexterity, intelligence, and endurance. But everybody spits on him for only knowing the one spell. Except for the one plucky heroine who he saved years ago and inspired to become just like him who wants to join his party. And his old party immediately regrets it when a normal healer shows up and explains to them how OP the protagonist actually was. This is all in the first 15 pages. Stop making this goddamned show, anime industry. Just stop. At the very least, stop making it the white mage. How about a tiefling or bard who wants to solve everything with their extreme blowjob skills?
Preseason Swing Rating:
Still no pirates with cheat powers, I can’t help but notice.
The Holder of the Unfortunate “Word Warrior” Class Runs the World’s Strongest Guild
https://wajutsushi-anime.com/
Studio: Felix Film
Genre: Actionish
Premieres October 7th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
*rubs temple* Anime, why? He trained to be the absolute best and is a hyper talented martial artist, but the gods decreed that he has the ‘talking’ class, which only lets him buff other people, therefore he’s considered the worst and weakest. Of course he is. Ignore the gun. Having a gun isn’t a cheat power. Except that it is. At least he’s not reincarnated, and the promo is obnoxiously well animated and action packed, and apparently the story moves at too fast a clip for the standard audience, which I’d call a win. At least as far as these goddamned things are concerned. Felix Film is a pretty terrible studio though (MF Ghost, Aharen), so I’m deeply suspicious.
Preseason Swing Rating:
The third most Kirito Kirito.
Magical Teenagers From Decades Past
This Grieving Soul Wants to Retire – The Ways That the Weakest Hunter Trains the Strongest Party
https://nageki-anime.com/
Studio: Zero-G
Genre: Action?
Premieres September 29th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Despite the far too long title, this has more in common with various porn games than the cheat power light novels you’d expect. In other words, the protagonist is a useless jackass who sends all his largely overpowered childhood friends to do everything while he ‘humorously’ cowers and ends up getting all the credit, and everybody just wants to sex him up all the more for it. So I want to be harsh, but I can’t say that I’m not a connoisseur of those kinds of games, so I’m stuck. At least, back in the day. The promos actually look… okay, if you’re just looking for a slapstick fanservice action comedy, though Zero-G is not a good studio, so even that’s probably too optimistic.
Preseason Swing Rating:
I’m aware of my sins.
MagiLumiere Co
https://magilumiere-pr.com/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Action
Premieres October 4th
Show Premise:
Girl gets a job working for a magical girl company.
Random Thoughts:
The weird part here is that it’s a Jump thing when everything about the premise screams gacha stuff. It’s almost identical to premises like Engage Kiss or Takt Op in that the world is constantly beset by random monsters and corporatized magical girls have to deal with them, so here’s corporate nonsense instead of that. Even the dudes are in magical girl skirts for no real reason. Except it’s Jump, so there’s 7,000% more exposition from the peanut gallery than needed and everybody wants to Do Their Best. It’s also JC Staff, and the promos are really not looking like it’s a show they’re putting much effort into, even as little talent as they have these days. So many speedlines. So, so many speedlines.
Preseason Swing Rating:
At least they’re magical girls with high artillery.
Mechanical Arms
https://mecha-ude.com/
Studio: TriF
Genre: Action
Premieres October 5th
Show Premise:
Kids have sentient alien mecha arms.
Random Thoughts:
You might remember this from a Kickstarter back in 2016, which became a pilot in 2019, and now, five and a half more years after that, is an actual series. As such, it’s one of the whopping TWO original shows this season, three if you count that Dragonball thing where they go to another world and turn into kids airing at midnight instead of Sunday morning like you’d expect. Aaaanyway, being an original, and an auteur driven thing at that which has been in the making for almost as long as this blog has existed, there’s only the promos, which do include an entire pilot episode that’s now around five years old. I think I might have watched it once? Hopefully it’s decent because I want more auteur action stuff, but something about the pet arms makes me roll my eyes and screams unserious kid’s show. I do hope I’m wrong.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Now that’s what I call power fisting.
Ranma 1/2
https://ranma-pr.com/
Studio: Mappa
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 6th
Show Premise:
Magical transexual fights the animorphs.
Random Thoughts:
It’s Ranma. Everybody at least sort of knows what Ranma is, even if it’s just Akane yelling, which is about 90% of her character. I admit to having watched at least a few seasons of the original many, many years ago, but like that other Rumiko Takahashi thing that got revived, I’m not sure I actually see the point of a redo with an extra 5% fidelity to the source. This is a trend in anime that I continue to not understand at all. It’d be one thing to see a different take on it truly updated for the times like your standard zillion Spiderman or Batman iterations, but just a straight re-adaptation? Why are we trying to squeeze blood from this stone? Even if it’s ‘good’ what is there to say about a redo that’s older than most of the people watching it?
Preseason Swing Rating:
Technically illegal in most Republican states.
Relationship Shows That Shouldn’t Have Relationships
The Story About How We Went to a Mixer and No Girls Were There
https://goukon-anime.com/
Studio: Ashi Productions
Genre: Gender Relations
Premieres September 29th
Show Premise:
Three dudes go to a mixer and freak out because all the girls are transvestites.
Random Thoughts:
It’s basically Trans Panic: The Anime. The three girls work at a host bar as transvestites, immediately introduce themselves as such, and that makes the three cis dudes freak out nonstop because the girls are as aggressively flirty and touchy as your standard yaoi predators, filling them with sexual confusion. I like girls who are cute! How can I be attracted to a girl wearing PANTS!? Would it even be better or worse if it was gay panic instead of trans panic? This is not a question that will keep me up at night.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Reject gender norms, embrace the bananafly.
Blue Box
https://aonohako-anime.com/
Studio: Telecom Animation Film
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 3rd
Show Premise:
Teenagers live together.
Random Thoughts:
Oh, sure, there’s some vaguely sports things that they both want to go to nationals, but it’s really just the standard boy-girl move in together and both mince around about their hormones until Jump cancels it, where they hastily wrap things up. Oh, right. It’s Jump. At least it’s not the ultra trashy fanservice kind of Jump, but if there’s anything worse than Jump comedies, it’s Jump soap operas. Relationships? Pfft. We’re never advancing anything, either towards nationals or relationships. 165 chapters and counting. Gotta get through pre-regionals, brushing a hand, pre-qualifiers, accidental almost kiss, qualifiers, misunderstanding with random other girl, post-qualifiers, exhibition, exhibitionism, and oops, stay tuned for next season in 2026, if it’s not canceled.
Preseason Swing Rating:
No nut nationals.
Are You Really Getting Married?
https://365-wedding-anime.com/
Studio: Ashi Productions
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 3rd
Show Premise:
Coworkers pretend to be engaged to prevent being relocated.
Random Thoughts:
This is the kind of ‘romantic’ ””comedy”” that’s about 5% silly faces, 5% overreacting, and 90% morose narrating. Or what most people call slice of life, if your idea of drama is no conflict ever happening, everybody inoffensively agreeing on absolutely everything and getting along, and nothing racier than a glimpse at an earlobe. I’m feeling tapped out on my limited reservoir of tolerance for this kind of thing after Pseudo Harem, and not sure that more of the same, but with even less of a gimmick, and protagonists whose character sheets are “insert personality later” will drag me back in. Like Pseudo Harem, the source is pretty short and has the predictable ending, so at least it… well, ends.
Preseason Swing Rating:
All cherries will be remaining intact.
My Wife Became a Fifth Grader
https://tsumasho-anime.com/
Studio: Studio Signpost
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 6th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Oof. OOOOFF. Supposedly it’s a dramatic and touching tale of dealing with grief when the wife’s ghost pops up in some random 10 year old, but all the promos, and especially the live action adaptation’s promo shot of how cute it is for a 10 year old to be handing a 50 year old man his boxed lunch while all the neighborhood women smile happily at the scene… I’m not getting sentimentality and deep thoughts. You could’ve done this with a cat, you know. Or a laser printer. Or a blender. And avoided all the issues. But that’s why it’s not a guinea pig, refrigerator, or whatever. The obvious issues ARE the unique selling point, aren’t they?
Preseason Swing Rating:
A dog is not fine.
Murai in Love
https://murainokoi-anime.com/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 6th
Show Premise:
Dude asks his teacher out.
Random Thoughts:
Oh goodie. Another one of these horrible toxic relationships that glamorize stalking and harassing people. She has a crush on some dude in a game, so he changes his entire persona to look and act like the character, filling her with ‘hilarious’ conflicting feelings. Now with the added bonus of creepy age differences. Which everybody thinks is just the cutest. They’re so adorbs and silly how he stalks and obsesses over her. In the best case, you could call it a very standard toxic shoujo romantic comedy, but I don’t want to be that charitable.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Might’ve been passable if she was a Wario fan.
Boob Isolation Corner
Amagami Family’s Matchmaking
https://amagami-anime.com/
Studio: Drive
Genre: Boobs
Premieres October 1st
Show Premise:
Dude moves in at shrine and forced to marry one of three sisters.
Random Thoughts:
Your throwback trashy fanservice flavor of show, where the dude can’t go three steps without tripping over one girl’s boobs only to pull down the skirt of the second while faceplanting into the third’s crotch. The first chapter is literally him tripping three times in a row and groping each one in turn while the others walk in on it. Maybe it’s meant to be ironic, because nothing could have THAT little effort put in. And yet, here we are. Doing exactly that. I don’t think there’s even any extra gimmick like he’s trying to be a monk or has magic powers. He’s just… kicked out of his orphanage and shows up to shack up with some local horny girls.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Learn how to tumble already.
Acro Trip
https://acrotrip-anime.com/
Studio: Voil
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 2nd
Show Premise:
A magical girl fan helps the incompetent evil organization to make them less of a pathetic joke.
Random Thoughts:
A shoujo gag comedy where every chapter is about 8 pages for a couple silly faces and a single gag with girls who have eyes large enough to pass for dinner plates and dudes with chins that could be knives. …Perhaps I’m hungry right now. Anyway, the thing that stood out about its promos to me was how almost all of the shots were reaction faces against powerpoint filler backgrounds. Better than that one a year or so back with the same premise, but softcore porn? Who knows! And if you’re wondering what studio Voil is, it’s essentially the reanimated corpse of Geno (defunct as of 2022), which was the reanimated corpse of Manglobe (bankrupt in 2015). Not a run of successes, and I don’t see this one lasting long either.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Help! I need funding to make even more terrible shows!
You Are a Maid.
https://kimihameidosama-anime.com/
Studio: Felix Film
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 5th
Show Premise:
Dude adopts an assassin as a maid.
Random Thoughts:
This would be a slapstick kind of thing, though the jokes are particularly lazy. “What cleaning tools can you use.” “I can cut with knives.” “THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEAN!” Those kinds of hilarious non-sequiturs with yelled overreaction, over and over. With plenty of blushing and fanservice too. I guess if you were really missing the days of stuff like Mahoromatic when every third show had a maid, and every third maid was secretly an assassin or killer robot, but we already did that to death, not to mention the post-modern ‘parodies’ of it like Maid Guy, some ten to twenty years ago. This isn’t a new take on any of it so much as just unearthing a lost relic from a bygone age. Why can’t what’s unearthed be girls with guns for once? That’s got plenty of fanservice too, you know.
Preseason Swing Rating:
A fad old enough to legally drink.
Elevator Pitches That Needed a Second Editing Pass
Negative Positive Angler
https://np-angler.com/
Studio: NUT
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 3rd
Show Premise:
Dying kid takes up fishing.
Random Thoughts:
I’m sorry, but WHAT. This is an original show, and the promos make it seem like a weird gag comedy around fishing, if not for the opening line about having terminal brain cancer. Which is a hell of a thing to try to make a GAG COMEDY over. Ha ha. Kids dying. And he’s deep in debt and being chased by loan sharks. What a goof. Time to enjoy the springtime of youth, before the cold embrace of death. This is one of only two original shows of the entire season, and I feel like you might want to go back to the drawing board here unless the whole premise is immediately shown to be a gag itself.
Preseason Swing Rating:
A fun comedy for the whole family.
The Tale of a Girl Who Couldn’t Become a Wizard
https://mahonare.asmik-ace.co.jp/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 4th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
It’s worse than you think. She’s not allowed to become a wizard because that corrupts you and makes you sterile, so she’s told she’s TOO perfect and great and amazing to be a wizard and should be having babies instead. Seriously. This is the actual premise. And now has to choose between her feelings for booooys and doing her best despite the magic class being all bullies who look down on the muggles for not being as good and having careers like them. Really picking some winners this season, aren’t you JC Staff? Maybe they’re making some major changes to the source, but given the sugary sparkly promos, I doubt it.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Yay, girl power.
Orb: On the Movements of Earth
https://www.anime-chi.jp/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 5th*
Show Premise:
People are prosecuted for heliocentrism.
Random Thoughts:
This is a very strange manga. Not to spoil too much, but it’s a series of separate stories all about people becoming fascinated by/discovering that the Earth revolves around the sun and then being persecuted by the inquisition for it. Often gruesomely. Which is already an really odd thing to base an entire story around as opposed to a golden idol, Ark of the Covenant, or whatever, but cloaks itself in extremely verbose philosophical ramblings about how much they are sacrificing for the glory and allure of… knowledge in general, I guess? Science? Except not really scientific. The pursuit of being scientific. Um… yeah.
Preseason Swing Rating:
AAAAAAHHHHH SCCCIIIIEEEENNNNCCCEEEE.
Science Adventure Survival
https://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/survival/
Studio: Toei Animation
Genre: Edutainment!
Premieres October 5th*
Show Premise:
Kids learn science.
Random Thoughts:
You could describe this as anime Magic School Bus, although there’s no red haired maniac teacher. Just a bunch of kids being thrown into randomhostile enviornments like the human body, a mushroom spore colony, the jurassic era, etc, and learning valuable education while yelling loudly. Oddly, this comes from a Korean comic. Not sure what that means exactly, except that I can’t read anything that I glanced at. But I think I got the gist.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Today we’re visiting streptococcus!
Very, Very, Very Sparkly Boys
Nina of the Starry Kingdom
https://hoshi-nina-anime.com/
Studio: Signal.MD
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 7th
Show Premise:
Slave girl is forced to pose as a dead princess to be a hostage to an enemy kingdom.
Random Thoughts:
Very standard shoujo romance drama. Everybody’s a bad boy court intrigue plotter who is instantly won over by the heroine’s innate pluck, verve, and beauty while she weathers all hardships with a can-do attitude and good spirit. The Mary’est of Sues with an entire harem of royalty fussing over her for attention. The promos are all her sparkling and glitzing, usually against blindingly pink or white backgrounds, about while everybody else broods broodily. Same as ever.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Gaze into the eyes of the abyss.
Haigakura
https://haigakura.jp/
Studio: Typhoon Graphics
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 7th
Show Premise:
Dudes hunt demons.
Random Thoughts:
Technically, that’s the premise. But it’s actually much more like Touken Ranbu where after the first bit where they actually fight some random monster in modern Japan, they spend 99% of their time hanging around the manor getting into ‘wacky’ hijinks with all the other excessively pretty boys dressed in the finest court-style costumes and the local fluffy animal people. Meaning that unless there are some major deviations, do not expect any demons or hunting from this girl-less boy-harem of supposed demon hunters.
Preseason Swing Rating:
No beards allowed.
The Blue Wolves of Mibu
https://miburoanime.com/
Studio: Maho Film
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 19th
Show Premise:
Dude wants to join the secret police.
Random Thoughts:
The Wolves of Mibu are the group that eventually become the shinsengumi, so it’s kind of historical fiction, but not really and with an absurd shounen bend, replete with all the usual bad overreaction gags nonstop. The protagonist is some fanboy kid who wants to Do His Best™, which is mainly delivered by him tearfully yelling that he wants to Do His Best while his jaw unhinged and becomes 80% of his face. Which is also how most of the gags are delivered. Unless that adaptation takes some drastic liberties, don’t expect much swordplay or action either. Promos look as poorly made as all Maho Film shows as well.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Stasi inu.
Even More Reincarnating as Reincarnation
I Will Go Down in History as a Villainess – The Eviller I Become, The More the Prince Loves Me!
https://rekiaku-anime.com/
Studio: Maho Film
Genre: ‘Comedy’
Premieres October 1st
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Back to the villainess things. Now more frequent than idol shows, but still haven’t surpassed the cheat power fantasy things as I remember people saying they could years ago. Reincarnated into her favorite game as the villainess, everybody is her harem, including the game’s original heroine, but she’s actually the nicest and most selfless and best person ever, so on and so forth. I cannot even tell the difference between these PVs any more. You could show five in a row, and I would not be able to tell you how to differentiate them. Why are all of these even more devoid of any creative thought than the cheat power stuff? Because they’re not as saturated yet? These games don’t even exist! You’re parodying something that never existed! Why not parody actual otome games? Because then you’d have to know something about them? You’d have to actually play one?
Preseason Swing Rating:
I long for the ‘creativity’ of someone being cursed into a frog.
Goodbye Dragon Life, Hello Human Life
https://dragonlife-anime.com/
Studio: SynergySP
Genre: Tiresome
Premieres October 3rd
Show Premise:
Dragon is reincarnated as a human.
Random Thoughts:
Still has all his super dragon powers. He immediately amasses a harem of mostly demi-human buxom ladies devoted to him because he’s the only one who treats them ‘right.’ We’ve had liches, demon kings, more demon kings, wizards, heroes, more demon kings. So sure, a dragon is definitely replacement noun that will refresh the formula here and make it all brand new. Maybe you should stick to Beyblade, SynergySP.
Preseason Swing Rating:
About as spicy as raw flour.
The Do Over Damsel Will Win Over the Dragon Emperor
https://yarinaoshi-reijyou.com/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Lazy Writing
Premieres October 9th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
Remember that show from two years ago called something like “I’m the Villainess So I’ll Win Over the Last Boss?” This is literally the same thing, written by the same person. Different studio, I guess, but is JC Staff a step up from anything these days? The only change is that she’s reincarnating as herself instead of in a game, but otherwise, it’s an almost scene for scene redo of the other thing. Fiancee who will kill her, so she proposes to the first guy she finds who happens to be the local ‘evil’ overlord, who’s actually misunderstood and is immediately entranced by her. Creativity, thy name is certainly not Sarasa Nagase, but I guess if you can get paid for doing a Find/Replace on character names, more power to you. Oh wait, this time she has a talking dragon pet. Well, there you go. Totally different.
Preseason Swing Rating:
About the level of dragon that’d put up with this.
Overlord 2099
https://2099.world/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 12th
Show Premise:
Slain overlord is revived on Earth in 2099.
Random Thoughts:
More of a comedy than action or story oriented, and I’ll admit that a reincarnation thing taking place in a cyberpunk setting at least FEELS sort of new. At the same time, the most depressing comment I saw about this was from the author; that he was rejected before because cyberpunk was too hard to understand, so he changed a bunch of things to be the standard ‘understandable’ fantasy RPG stat sheets instead. Which the promos show off. I’m under no illusion that JC Staff would have made a good cyberpunk show (and the promos are really cheap and unimpressive), but we could’ve at least had a genuine go at it without all the godawful RPG world tropes infesting every goddamned show.
Preseason Swing Rating:
100 years too early for the squid takeover.
The World’s Most Tiresome People Commit Crimes
Trillion Game
https://trilliongame-anime.com/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 3rd*
Show Premise:
Dudes start a company.
Random Thoughts:
This is one of those Japanese mega-companies that does literally everything in every business, which is just an excuse to have them do a bit on banking, then mobile games, then oil drilling, then television producing, then yam farming, then probably cuckoo clock repair, etc. It wants to be a kind of heist-like thing where they cheat at hackneyed competitions to outdo the baddie competitor organization(s), mostly just the one, but it’s almost entirely completely nonsensical babble that strains even the most tolerant credulity. Like a plan to pretend being a priest doing a purification in the middle of a hack-off that’s actually scattering chaff in the air to disrupt local wifi. Not quite Macguyver level here. Not even sure if it’s Metal Gear Solid level of understanding of how anything actually works or the level of credulity of all involved to go along with it.
Preseason Swing Rating:
I have no idea what this is or why I saved it.
Frozen Tiles – Underground Mahjong Tournaments
https://tohai-anime.com/
Studio: East Fish
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 4th
Show Premise:
Dude plays mahjong for the yakuza.
Random Thoughts:
The title’s mahjong wordplay. Don’t bother me about it. The premise is just Akagi, but the art style and characters made much more generic. Highschool dude with a couple teenage girl sidekicks instead of people with excessively pointy features and a flopsweat every three seconds. You’d think at some point they’d do a gambling thing about a casino game besides mahjong. How hasn’t there been a poker anime? It doesn’t even have to be actually about poker. Maverick is great. Um, right. Who is this studio again? Oh, the one that did Hananoi The Stalker. Great.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Why don’t we ever raid any tombs in anime too for that matter?
I’d Rather Be Someone Else in My Next Life
https://raisewataningaii.com/
Studio: Studio DEEN
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 7th
Show Premise:
Girl is forcibly engaged to a yakuza dude.
Random Thoughts:
Also known as Yakuza Fiancee because the title is just a bit vague. I guess it’s supposed to be a dark comedy by how she randomly overreacts and makes exaggerated faces, but mostly it’s a creepy abusive jackass who gets off when she yells at, threatens, or helps him beat up various people, or otherwise shows how super duper serious she supposedly actually is. Who all happen to be more evil than he is. The kind of organized crime group that only fights other criminals and high school bullies, not shaking down the local neighborhood, dealing drugs, or trafficking people. Deen really seems to be phoning in the art-style too, or going really hard for that cheap Golgo 13 70s look. I’m not sure which is more damning. Just letting Deen have your show is already a major black mark.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Wait, wrong corny organized crime type.
Mixing Body Horror and Humor
Dandadan
https://anime-dandadan.com/
Studio: Science SARU
Genre: Action
Premieres October 3rd
Show Premise:
Teenagers fight aliens and demons.
Random Thoughts:
The latest Hot Thing® from Jump, which is already a red flag for me, but also means a lot of loudly overreacting and especially heavy on the puerile humor. It may be most of the season before they get away from the monsters focused on stealing teenager genitalia. It is Science Saru, which means that the animation style and direction will be more notable than most shows, but it’s still Jump, and about 98% of Jump gives me hives and/or deafens me. I did just survive Elusive Samurai, another Jump thing, so maybe trends have finally turned the corner. *checks promo* Oh, it’s literally ALL yelling. Great.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Invasion of the ball snatchers.
Mushroom Pup
https://kinokoinu-anime.com/
Studio: C-Station
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 3rd
Show Premise:
Depressed dude adopts mushroom dog.
Random Thoughts:
Potemayo, except sappy instead of slapstick. Vaguely dog shaped, but acts like a standard anime child, getting into hijinks that make everybody smile with how adorable it is. Fine, I guess, but not engendering any feelings of “must watch.” Come, view a morose dude lazing around the house while a dog shaped creature that we’re calling a mushroom has vague shenanigans. No, not crazy shenanigans. We’re too mature for that. Restrained, calm, sedate shenanigans that won’t raise anybody’s blood pressure. Don’t see how that’s a winning elevator pitch.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Could have been more upsettingly shaped.
Puniru is a Cute Slime
https://puniru-anime.com/
Studio: Toho Animation Studio
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 6th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
A fanservicey comedy based mostly around the girl glomping him and either him being absorbed into her or her exploding into a giant puddle of goo over everything so he can yell “You’re not cute at all!” I only say mostly because it does take a very shotgun approach to its gags with the slime girl morphing almost every chapter into all manner of weird archetypes, as well as a mountain of one-off gag characters with punny names. It’s not high brow nor complex humor. Which maybe is fine, but we’ll see the delivery, I guess. The manga at least is a lot more varied than just silly faces, though maybe that’s just the constant light body horror making it a real question whether each faceplant into a chest is going to result in blushing or grotesquery.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Light amount of confusing vore.
I Got a Job Teaching at a Demon School!
https://youkaigakkou.com/
Studio: Satelight
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 8th
Show Premise:
See title.
Random Thoughts:
They’re demons. And he did not expect them to be demons. And he overreacts. Loudly. Constantly. Without cease. But also has the magic power of ultimate demon eradication or something. As ever, Satelight only puts effort into its flagship original shows while the adaptations are just there to keep the lights on, and this appears to be no exception. Another generic gag comedy about a bunch of demon teenagers. He’s obsessed with girls’ sailor school uniforms too, so even got that skeevy angle going for it.
Preseason Swing Rating:
Goblin erasure continues.
Wrapup
I know I say this every season, but my god, is it depressing how many reincarnation, RPG world and other things there continue to be. What ever happened to all the wacky extra dramatic and stabby teenage Sunrise shows? I really miss those goofy things. Hell, I’ll even take mecha these days, which is also something that’s been thrown to the wayside. With only two originals, and not actually that many action shows, I can’t say that it’s a promising season, especially if that Kickstarter thing flames out. I’m hoping for some surprises, but I’m not expecting any.
