Anime winter season 2016-2017

The new anime season will soon start, here are my picks from the winter line up of shows to watch.

There’s two sequels I plan to follow, am looking forward the most to the second season of “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!”, the absolutely hilarious isekai anime parody full of oddball, quirky characters that form what is no doubt the funniest dysfunctional adventure party ever to set foot in a fantasy world. While I was not initially keen on this show when it first began to air, quickly came to appreciate it after watching it with the correct mindset.

Another sequel I definitely will not miss is the second season of “Tales of Zestiria the X”, the first season of this anime based on the “Tales of Zestiria” rpg game that even focused a few episodes on “Tales of Berseria” too was a fun adventure show, albeit all fairly run-of-the-mill and not terribly original.

From the few slice-of-life shows scheduled to air this season, am keen on watching “Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-Bu”, the promotional video of this anime about a group of high school girls and their bicycle club looked promising. After last season’s “Long Riders!” was sorely lacking due to poor production values, am hoping this anime will be better and live up to its potential.

Even though it has its share of flaws, always enjoyed the “Amagami SS” anime, especially its omnibus format where each set of three to four episodes focused on a different heroine, allowing better storytelling compared to typical ren’ai adaptations. Hence, am looking forward to “Seiren”, the new original anime by the character designer who also worked on Kimikiss and Amagami. “Seiren” is announced to have three arcs, with each story focusing on a separate heroine.

Will give the “BanG Dream!” anime a try, even though it may turn out to be an average idol genre series, it piqued my interest as the characters will form a pop music band, no doubt because the overarching project will also feature a real girls band bringing live performances.

From the various comedies slated for this new season, plan to try “Gabriel DropOut” and “Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon”.
Am especially curious to discover “Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon”, it has the potential to be a terrific comedy considering the original manga is by Cool-kyou Shinja, the artist who created gems like “Komori-san wa Kotowarenai!” and “Danna ga Nani wo Itteru ka Wakaranai Ken”. Plus, studio Kyoto Animation have proven they can excel at animating eccentric comedies with “Nichijou”.

The plot synopsis and promotional video of “Gabriel DropOut” suggest this series could be a fun comedy full with quirky characters. Somehow this anime looks to me like like it would be result of mixing “Himouto! Umaru-chan” with “Hataraku Maou-sama!”.

Based on the visuals, initially dismissed “Youjo Senki” until I saw the promotional trailer which convinced me to give this show a try. Another anime that also mixed magic with a world war era setting was last season’s “Shuumatsu no Izetta”, a show that was surprisingly better and darker than I had expected, so have high hopes for “Youjo Senki”.

Although am unfamiliar with the manga it is based on and its basic plot synopsis does not reveal much, the promotional video of “Kuzu no Honkai” made me curious about this drama so plan to give the first few episodes a try.
Another romance show in a school setting scheduled for the new season is “Masamune-kun no Revenge”, although judging by its visuals and trailer, expect this series will likely be a more typical anime and am not sure it can provide a compelling story with interesting character interactions like “Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru”.

Unfortunately, was not able to get into “Chaos;Head”, so am not sure I will be able to follow or truly enjoy its upcoming sequel “Chaos;Child”. Considering the anime adaptations of the science adventure visual novel series from 5pb and Nitroplus tend to be a hit or miss for me, having adored “Steins;Gate” but being sorely disappointed in “Robotics;Notes”, am curious what this new anime will offer.

Which anime are you watching this winter?