Hey all, and welcome to the Spring 2018 Premiere Retrospective! If you haven’t been here before, here’s the deal: my work at Anime News Network means I end up watching and reviewing nearly every single new premiere in a season. That normally adds up to somewhere between thirty and forty premieres, and given a solid percentage of those premieres tend to be shows I wouldn’t inflict on my worst enemy, it seems like a worthwhile idea to rank these episodes to aid future travelers. As usual, I’m not implying these rankings are “objective” or anything, and obviously my own tastes will dictate a great deal of how things shake out. I also should stress that a show ending up somewhere further down the ranking isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I grumble about it, but in truth, the majority of anime are perfectly watchable, and will likely appeal to an audience who finds their premise intriguing. You can check out the full list of ANN reviews here, and I’ll be grouping my own critiques into vague tiers below. Alright, that’s enough preamble. Let’s rank some shows!

All-Stars in Any Genre (But Mostly Action Apparently)

Megalo Box

In a season that’s exceedingly generous to action fans in basically every respect, Megalo Box stands at the clear top of the action heap. Megalo Box was designed as an anniversary project for the classic Ashita no Joe manga, but you don’t need any familiarity with its source to appreciate this terrific first episode. Boasting beautifully ornate and gritty art design, an iconic, boiled-down-to-its-bones underdog story, and dynamically composed action highlights, Megalo Box is a terrific boxing expedition that seems to land somewhere between Hajime no Ippo and Redline. Megalo Box is quite possibly the best-looking show of the season, and the confident telling of this first episode leaves me eager to follow its blood-splattered road.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes

The original Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of the most acclaimed anime productions of all time, and though obviously one episode can’t tell us if this revival will measure up, so far it certainly hasn’t done anything wrong. This episode’s mix of quiet worldbuilding, tactical back-and-forth, relationship building, and general beauty give me plenty of confidence that Die Nue These will do right by this story, and given I’ve already read the first Galactic Heroes novel, I’m personally thrilled to see its theatrics in action. If you’re in the mood for wry men ponderously deciding the fate of millions of soldiers, Galactic Heroes is the place to be.

Lupin the 3rd: Part Five

The action medlee continues with Lupin the 3rd, whose newest adventure marries the aesthetic beauty of Part Four to a story that’s fully wrapped up in the weirdness of the digital age. It remains to be seen whether Lupin can settle gracefully into a story with hackers and smartphones and “find Lupin” game apps, but so far, this production’s mix of distinctive art design, sumptuous animation, and daring capers is pulling it off with style. If you’ve any fondness for the master thief, his newest adventure is absolutely worth a glance.

Comic Girls

I’m generally not the biggest fan of cute girls in a club-style slice of life, barring occasional outliers like K-On!, but I can still certainly recognize the form done right. Comic Girls is exactly that – endearing, consistently funny, possessing just a hint of sharpness, and genuinely interested in its protagonists’ fortunes as young comic artists. The show probably won’t win too many new fans to the genre, but if you’re a slice of life aficionado, this is the can’t-miss show of the season.

High-Tier Picks With Wide Appeal

Hinamatsuri

Comedies are always fairly personal recommendations, and anime comedies even moreso, but Hinamatsuri’s mix of strong character acting, terrific comedic timing, and general charming absurdism all help make it one of my top picks this season. The show’s pairing of a yakuza lieutenant and a spacy psychic girl make for a surprisingly natural dynamic, but the endearing found family material so far is playing second fiddle to the gags. Fortunately, those gags are great – Hinamatsuri finds comedy in visual absurdity, comedy in deadpan vocal delivery, comedy in abrupt jumps of timing, comedy in pretty much everything. Describing a joke will never convey that joke’s effect, so you’re just gonna have to take my word for it that Hinamatsuri is a pretty darn funny show.

Sword Art Online Alternative

I wasn’t really a fan of the original Sword Art Online, but this spinoff, set in the Gun Gale Online shooter universe, definitely impressed me. Dispensing with the original’s shoddy melodrama and threadbare worldbuilding, this spinoff instead simply revels in the tactical excitement of competitive online games. Strong banter and a keen understanding of grounded conflict give Alternative much the same appeal as watching a really great streamer, with all the dramatic advantages of a scripted narrative. If you wished more “trapped in a game” shows actually felt like games in any meaningful way, Alternative is definitely worth a glance.

Kakuriyo

Centered on a girl who finds herself spirited away to become the bride of an oni innkeeper, Kakuriyo’s first episode just kept unveiling new layers of itself all throughout. I wasn’t sold on the predatory “be mine” romance aspect, but this show’s illustration of an evocative spirit world, along with its generally compelling layouts and visual direction, still kept me intrigued throughout. And the concluding revelation that heroine Aoi will end up running a spirit world cafe essentially tied everything together, establishing a sturdy platform for a low-key romantic drama with welcome dashes of fantastical slice of life. Kakuriyo feels like an extremely balanced breakfast.

GeGeGe no Kitaro

In a season heavy on sequels, spinoffs, and revivals, Kitaro clocks in as my fifth-best of them, offering a successfully modernized take on a classic ghost-hunting franchise. Kitaro’s character designs and opening sing-along paint it as a very retro production, but its dynamic layouts, relatively propulsive narrative, and well-executed battle scenes give it a far wider appeal. Also, this episode basically opens by dunking on Logan Paul for being such an awful shithead, and that’s always an artistic choice I can get behind.

Yotsuiro Biyori

With Comic Girls holding up the cute girls and comedy end of slice of life, it falls to Yotsuiro Biyori to maintain the peaceful, atmospheric end of the genre. This first episode does a perfectly fine job of that, quickly introducing us to a quiet cafe and establishing its soothing atmosphere. The show’s relatively mature cast and clear sense of space help it stand out, but ultimately, this is pretty standard iyashikei stuff – if you’re looking for a quiet escape this season, Yotsuiro Biyori is the place to be.

Persona 5: The Animation

Persona 5’s adaptation essentially does the best it can with an impossible task. The opening few hours of Persona 5 the videogame are ridiculously busy, convoluted, and slow, and at least the first two of those qualities certainly make it to the anime intact. Fortunately, those early hours are also dramatically intriguing and visually electrifying, and Shin Sekai Yori’s director Masashi Ishihama manages to effortlessly capture those qualities, too. This episode doesn’t necessarily present the hardest sell, but it does its best to get through the least drama-friendly segment of an ultimately thrilling narrative, all while demonstrating the clear talents of its terrific director.

Respectable Genre Picks for the Discerning Consumer

Golden Kamuy

Golden Kamuy’s rip-roaring tale of an early 20th century quest for gold made it an eminently consumable manga, and going into this season, I expected it to land near the top of my own pile. Unfortunately, a generally conservative adaptation dragged down by lousy CG animals ends up draining a lot of the wind from its sails. This is still a perfectly engaging story, but right now it’s a fun story in spite of its execution, not because of it.

Real Girl

Real Girl falls into that classic “shitty teenagers learn to be not quite so shitty” genre that I tend to love, but it’s unfortunately also marred by crappy visual execution, along with a script that can’t quite measure up to genre highlights like Oregairu and Hyouka. Still, its two leads establish some reasonable complexity across the course of this premiere, and the show’s psychological insight is sturdy enough to make it worth a glance. I suppose the most damning thing I can say for Real Girl is that this is precisely the sort of show I like, but I don’t think this one is executed quite well enough to hold my interest.

Tada Never Falls In Love

Tada was another of my top picks heading into this season, based largely on its romcom premise and the direction by Nozaki-kun veteran Mitsue Yamazaki. This episode provides some of the wit and charm I was hoping for, but leaned a bit too heavily on stale, obvious gags, and also failed to establish any chemistry between its ostensible romantic leads. Still, all the tools are here, so if Tada can build up its characters a bit more, it could turn into one of the season’s stars.

My Hero Academia S3

To be honest, My Hero Academia the show doesn’t belong this low, and My Hero Academia Season Three Episode One doesn’t belong this high. The fact is, My Hero Academia is a great show that just so happened to start its third season with a crappy filler episode. I’m compromising by putting it down here, but in point of fact, MHA will absolutely be one of the shows I stick with this season, and the upcoming material promises to be some of the most thrilling to see finally animated. It’s nice to have you back MHA, but please quit it with the recaps.

Strictly Functional Genre Exercises

Dances with the Dragons

We’re arriving now at the point where excellent aesthetic craft is a major luxury, and all I expect from these shows is “do they succeed moderately well in their central function.” Dances with the Dragons central function is, unsurprisingly, offering fights between heroic warriors and giant dragons. In that function, it does indeed succeed moderately well.

Caligula

Alright, I just established all that “succeed in their function” stuff, but I was actually mostly impressed by Caligula for how it succeeded in spite of its function. The last few minutes of this episode are RPG adaptation fantasy action gobbledigook, but the fifteen leading up to it are a very successfully atmospheric portrait of paranoia, a sequence that gracefully builds up a terrific sense of creeping dread. A shame the plot has to go and happen afterwards.

Gundam Build Divers

Alright cool, we’re back to the strictly functional stuff. Divers carries on the Build Fighters legacy by taking all the classic gundams you love and removing them from any sort of stakes-driven conflict or character drama, instead having kids pilot them through toy battle tournaments. If you really like robot fights and don’t mind if your story doesn’t care about anything but robot fights, maybe give Build Divers a shot.

Magical Girl Ore

“What if I was a magical girl, but turning into a magical girl actually meant turning into a big muscular dude” is the question Magical Girl Ore serves to answer, and answer that it does. Ore is an extremely standard “aren’t the assumptions of magical girl shows kinda silly” production, and given that I am already aware of the fact that magical girl shows rely on some silly contrivances, I didn’t really get too much out of this first episode. Perhaps someone who is not aware that mascot characters and transformation sequences do not occur in real life would have a better time than me.

Passable Shows in the Right Light

Libra of Nil Admirari

Libra is a relatively standard otome-based “girl stumbles into a secret organization full of hot dudes” production, with only its alternative history period setting and relatively active heroine really helping it stand out. Sometimes that’s enough!

Major 2nd

Major 2nd is a baseball sports drama aimed at a relatively young audience. This one’s big unique variable is its sympathetic portrait of a young boy crumpling under the weight of expectations, but the first episode already kinda got through that, so I’m guessing it’ll all be pretty standard storytelling from here. Couple that with deeply mediocre execution, and you have a perfectly mediocre show.

Devils’ Line

Devils’ Line seems to want to be a thoughtful vampire story about what it means to be a monster, but its “crawling in my skin”-tier opening song and deeply uneven execution make that look like an uphill battle. I genuinely enjoyed the parts of this episode focused on the difficulty of living with an “addiction” like vampirism, and there was some solid fight animation, but this season is just too stacked with good action shows to recommend a show like this.

Umamusume

Umamusume is about girls who are also horses and I refuse to expend any more energy attempting to discern whether that sounds awesome or not for you.

The Few, the Proud, the Worst Shows of the Season

Cutie Honey Universe

If you find Go Nagai less obnoxious than I do (or love Hiroyuki Imaishi and want to learn where he discovered all his bad ideas), maybe give Cutie Honey a shot. All I can say is that I couldn’t enjoy Devilman Crybaby even with one of my favorite directors on board, and Universe certainly doesn’t have a Yuasa at the helm.

Gurazeni

If your favorite part of baseball is comparing the salaries of various athletes, boy do I have the show for you.

Fist of the Blue Sky

This was a peaceful land once, in the Before Times. Before the coming of the Treenecks, and the end of all things.

Alright, that’s it for me! All told, this is an extraordinarily middle-of-the-road season – very few all-stars, but also no show I disliked so much I gave it a straight one out of five (though I did miss Magical Girl Site, which I’m lead to believe would likely have received that honor). Personally, this season is kinda lousy for me; all the top shows are action-oriented, which isn’t really my scene, and there are basically none of the intimate character dramas I watch this stuff for. But hey, seasons come and go, and there’s always plenty of backlog to get to. I hope this breakdown helped you a little, and wish you well in enjoying one more season of wonderful cartoons!

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