Spring 2016 – Anime Recommendations Part 1

Written by Bananaowns

Images courtesy of Project No. 9, Studio Wit, and Studio Pierrot

It’s about five weeks into the new anime season, so it’s time for a set of recommendations.  By this point, I have my watch list for the season.  I ended up dropping just two shows.  Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto was an entertaining watch, but every episode so far has been pretty much the same thing.  The initial charm and comedy wears off after about three episodes of viewing Sakamoto’s shenanigans.  I also dropped Ace Attorney.  I haven’t played any of the games so it never really clicked with me.  I have split these recommendation pieces into two parts, showcasing three this week and three next week.  So if I don’t cover a show this week that you’re a fan of, then I recommend checking out next week’s piece before commenting. I’m Bananaowns and this is an Otaku Youth anime feature.

And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online?

This show was supposed to be my guilty pleasure of the season, but it is way better than I expected.  The story stars Hideki Nishimura, an avid gamer, as he meets his party members in real life for the first time.  Surprisingly, he discovers that they are all girls and attend the same school as him.  However, it’s not a harem show.  The series focuses on his growing relationship with Ako Tamaki, his in-game wife.  So far, the overall plot of the series has been getting Ako acclimated to a non-Otaku lifestyle and this plot is surprisingly sweet.  The animation itself is very well done.  The scenes that take place in a game are of a higher quality though.  The highlight is the excellent character design.  I absolutely love how each character looks.  This coupled with the excellent voice acting creates a highly entertaining show that is one of my favorites of this season.

Twin Star Exorcists

This show is one of the more generic ones that I am watching, but it has heart.  The world features exorcists that fight demons known as the Kegare.  Each exorcist has a variety of special powers that allow them to battle these demons.  Now the twist with this show lies with story structure.  The main characters Rokuro and Benio are not destined to destroy the Kegare, rather their child is.  They are destined to marry and have a child who will basically be the exorcist messiah.  The problem is these two characters hate each other.  So naturally, I assume the plot will feature them growing closer as they have more experiences together.  As for the animation, it has a lot of stylized action scenes that make the action stand out quite a bit.  At certain times, it’s like a page of a graphic novel that has come to life.  Overall, this show is rather generic, but has enough differences to make it worth watching.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

Initially categorizing this as an Attack on Titan rip-off was a mistake.  While there are some basic similarities, this show is actually quite different.  Humanity is under siege by zombie like creatures known as Kabane.  Kabane can infect humans by biting them, creating more Kabane.  So humans are forced to live in walled cities and travel between them through armored trains.  The story places a large focus on Ikoma and the mysterious Mumei as they escape a Kabane attack.  The animation of this series is absolutely gorgeous.  The action scenes are so well done that they are a visual treat.  The character design is a throwback to the slightly realistic designs of many anime from the 1990’s.  When you add in the music by Hiroyuki Sawano, this anime is an absolute treat.  I would say it’s tied for my favorite show of the season right now.

You can check out And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online? on Funimation, Twin Star Exorcists on Crunchyroll and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress on Amazon Prime.  I’ll be back next week to cover the next three shows that I am recommending for this season and one of them will make you feel like becoming a hero.