Your Winter 2019 Anime Guide

13 responses to “Your Winter 2019 Anime Guide”

1. 

   transientmind

   July 4, 2019 at 12:25 pm

   Gotta say, I was skeptical about last season’s Rise of Shield Hero and its ‘yet another story about being transported to a gamified fantasy world’ setting, but it did some really novel and interesting things with it in a much more mature way than I’ve yet seen. I ended up completely hooked and very grateful for its 25 ep run.

   If we can get more shit like that, I’ll be a fucking ecstatic outdoor accommodation enthusiast.
   (No. ‘Hot Mom’ is not going to fucking cut it.)

   Bit pissed off that Danmachi 2 is only Hidive. Between that and the Funimation subscription service, fragmentation across streaming services (I’ve got Netflix, Prime, Crunchyroll, Funimation and Animelab so far) and just straight-up not in Australia, shit’s going to drive me back to piracy again.

   Anyone know if Vinland Saga is related to the (surprisingly good) Viking relationship/resource/time-management game Dead in Vinland?

   Reply
   1. 

      zimmy

      July 4, 2019 at 1:36 pm

      I’ll chime in since I’ve fallen into a real isekai hole lately, finding them rather relaxing even if most really just aren’t great.

      Arifureta is pretty highly rated, though personally it’s first novel (And therefore the start of this season) was a pretty high watermark that it hasn’t really captured again. The tone shift that we’re likely to get in the middle of the season may be enough to turn you off but it has it’s moments.

      I’d do anything for my daughter always seems pretty highly rated but I hadn’t read the book. Similarly I’d heard decent things about Maou-Sama Retry but it’s first episode was maybe the most generic of the generic isekai I’ve seen in a while, I’d hold off and see if buzz gets any better.

      I’ve also heard good things about Mum’s Multi Attack, though this is the first time I’ve seen it pitched as a “hot” mum so I may have missed something. The pitch I’d always heard was that the MC had all this knowledge of other worlds and is the usual fan insert knowledge base but that his mother got the cheat powers and was the actual overpowered one. That dynamic was one I was hoping would be interesting in the anime.

      Cheat Magicians seems pretty highly rated too, but I didn’t think there was much translated of it so I never really looked into it.

      Now that I’ve had a chance to rant about my guilty isekai fetish I’ll also add that the first episode of Astra Lost in Space seemed really interesting, looking to see more of it. Seems somewhat like a cross between Battlestar Galactica and Lord of the Flies.

      Reply
   2. 

      rock_m

      July 4, 2019 at 1:58 pm

      Theres been a fair glut of isekai resurgence lately… the only 3 decent ones in my books are slime, overlord and shield hero…

      For something utterly different theres the up coming ascendance of bookworm which is more slice of life

      Reply
   3. 

      scree

      July 4, 2019 at 5:54 pm

      @gorzilla talked me into watching shield hero and Slime and I loved the way it approached it.

      Shield hero
      To come from nothing helped make him realise these are real people, unlike the other heroes who seem to treat it like a giant game still. To Naofumi, it is no game. Hopefully Trash and Bitch learned their lesson (probably not but we can dream.) From what I have heard, the anime Naofumi is a better character than the manga or light novel one.
      I also want to add, Naofumi may be the strongest hero, but he’s also had to work the hardest. It was not given to him and he is great at leading his team. The other heroes had things handed to them and they are weak as anything as a result.

      Slime
      The way that Rimuru uses diplomacy rather than trying to be the strongest is a great way to approach things. And even when he isn’t the strongest, he tricks people into working for him. He’s just a all round good slime =D

      I have no interest in anything this time round. Kinda sick of all the iSekai and become the strongest bullcrap.

      Reply
   4. 

      gregorvorbarra

      July 4, 2019 at 10:34 pm

      Arifureta may appeal to you as it’s not your standard isekai power fantasy. I don’t want to say too much to avoid spoilers, but let’s just say he winds up with a LOT of enemies, including (more or less) BOTH sides in a holy war. Not sure that they will get that far in season one, however, but he also goes through a fair bit of punishment to get there.

      The “hot mum” one misses the point (other than in the title) that the protagonist’s mother winds up with a wildly overpowered attack compared to him, leaving the “hero” feeling pretty deflated. I found the manga fairly uninspiring though, as beyond that one “joke” it’s not particularly interesting.

      Reply
      1. 

         transientmind

         July 10, 2019 at 8:08 am

         The trailer for Arifureta didn’t do it for me, but I’ll look at anything with an endorsement.

         Shame it doesn’t seem to be available in Australia. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to ‘source’ anime outside of my stream subscriptions. Used to rely on baka subs and nyaa eu, but hell if I know where to get them now.

         Reply
   5. 

      pylgrim

      July 8, 2019 at 12:44 am

      Anyone know if Vinland Saga is related to the (surprisingly good) Viking relationship/resource/time-management game Dead in Vinland?

      Not related, as far as I can tell. They share a name because “Vinland” is the name Vikings gave to the pseudo-mythical lands across the big ocean to the West of Scandinavia (aka North America). Vinland Saga is highly recommended, btw, the manga is breathtaking and the anime seems to be as faithful an animated adaptation as it could be hoped.

      Reply
2. 

   namiwakiru

   July 4, 2019 at 1:16 pm

   When I first came across the 7Seeds manga I assumed it was a romance saga wearing a science fiction mask but I was actually impressed at how brutal and unique the world and story was.
   It’s still got elements of the romance genre but it didn’t skimp on the survival, horror and action elements and I used to wonder why nobody had picked it up as an anime or live action series, it seemed like a slam dunk.

   I was a little excited to see the anime on Netflix but so far it’s felt a little rushed and raw.
   I’m only 3 episodes in so I hope it finds its legs soon and stays true to the manga.

   (Also it almost impossible to mobile browse Kotaku at the moment, it crashes every few minutes, bloody infuriating)

   Reply
   1. 

      agret

      July 4, 2019 at 8:24 pm

      Mobile browsing is going fine for me. Chrome Beta on Android Pie. My phone has 8GB ram though so maybe that’s why it’s no worries.

      Reply
3. 

   rock_m

   July 4, 2019 at 2:00 pm

   Uchi no Musume has anime this season? Cannot wait for that one!

   Reply
4. 

   stormo

   July 4, 2019 at 6:20 pm

   “One day, a schoolboy gets a love letter with a pair of neatly folded panties from a pervy admirer.”

   I can’t think of a sentence that would make me less interested in an anime.

   Reply
5. 

   Schming

   July 4, 2019 at 8:47 pm

   Astra Lost in Space is currently available on AnimeLab

   https://www.animelab.com/shows/astra-lost-in-space

   Reply
6. 

   jacka

   July 6, 2019 at 1:41 am

   Vinland Saga looks interesting. Any of you folks who’re more up with the anime thing have any thoughts on whether that’s likely to be worth a look?

   Reply
   1. 

      pylgrim

      July 8, 2019 at 12:48 am

      I was very surprised to see Vinland Saga here; I thought that it would have appeared in my radar long ago. I’ve been following the manga for a while and I cannot recommend it enough. Beautifully illustrated, painstakingly researched for historical accuracy and with a really good story, it’s definitely one of my top 5 manga. The trailer seemed like a competent and faithful recreation even if it could not possibly hope to match the level of detail and raw beauty of the drawn pages.

      Reply