This Season's First Impressions

The start of a new season is almost always a good thing. The problem is that all the anime that we have been following and loving up until now have ended. Leaving us all back a square one with no idea what to watch. Since short summaries are often not enough, i've decided to watch a few of them and give you my impressions of them in the first 1-2 episodes.

Continuing:

Hunter X Hunter

 Hunter X Hunter is the story of Gon, a 12 year old boy who sets of to become a hunter in order to find his father that let to be a hunter himself when Gon was born.

HxH can be surprisingly dark at times at it really hits you by surprise and is a very entertaining, multilayered story that keeps you addicted, beware.

HxH is now well into the 100’s episode mark and has continued to be a very entertaining watch with the Chimera Ant arc really bringing HxH into a quality of fighting anime that we have not seen in quite a while. There is currently some debate at where the anime will end. With the current arc to end in around 12-13 episodes and the manga to continue on for not much longer after that. The manga has also been in hiatus for around two years with no end in sight, so there is little chance of it continuing for much longer.

Hunter X Hunter is a fantastic watch and I would recommend that you pick it up if you have not already.

Nisekoi

Nisekio is the story of Raku, a high schooler who has grown up as the son of a mob moss in Japan. Raku soon finds himself in a complication as he is forced into a relationship with Chitoge the daughter of an opposing gang’s boss in order to prevent a war between the two gangs. The premise of the story revolves around a locket that Raku received as a child. He also promised the locket to a girl he promised to marry one day and she subsequently posses the key for his locket. The problem is that he can’t remember who it is.

Nisekoi is becoming a massive hit and for a good reason. The show is unbelievably funny taking a very old and worn out concept and breathing new life into it in the funniest possible way. The characters are all very likeable and relatable, so much so that its hard to pick a favourite character (although personally Shu makes the show IMO). The show is running for 20 episodes with around 14 already done at the time of writing this. With plenty of source material to go and an immense fan base, there is no doubt that there will be another season in the future.

Nisekoi is another anime I recommend you pick up, I promise you will enjoy it.

This season:

Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to

I haven’t really seen much anime that was based around the story of a mangaka since Bakuman. Let me just tell you now, this is NOT trying to be like Bakuman. This anime is a short weekly comedy and is an enjoyable watch. The episodes only go for around 12 minutes and it keeps you entertain throughout. The premise of the story is about a mangaka (manga artist) and his daily antics with his assistant. The MC is likeable, relatable and very funny, setting up almost all the jokes by himself.

My first impressions of this are good, its entreating, light hearted and overall enjoyable to watch and I will most likely watch it for the rest of the season.

Black Bullet

Prior to its anime announcement, the manga for Black Bullet was gaining more and more popularity and thus it has been announced for its first season that will span over approximately 24-25 episodes.

Black Bullet is set in the near future were humans have been defeated by large parasites known as Gastrea. Humanity has escapes into a small area where they are for the most part, protected from the Gastea.

The main character is Rentaro, a boy working for an agency involved with disposing of the Gastrea when the infiltrate the population. The main character’s partner is Enju, both of them a bestowed with a certain power. Shortly into the story they are suddenly tasked by the government to prevent the destruction of Toyko.

Upon first watching it I was getting some very Attack on Titan type vibes coming from the show, but as I watched more, I saw that it was much more than that and it left me with enough questions and interests to immediately want to see the next episode. The show is certainly interesting with generally nice animation, interesting character and an intriguing story line is enough to make watch this weekly, and I recommend you do as well.

Soul Eater Not! 

As a big soul eater fan myself, I had pretty low expectations of this when going into it. After watching the first episode however, I felt my opinion of it had completely changed. Soul Eater Not is set in the same universe as Soul Eater as prequel to the original series. The MC in an underclassmen with the main characters of the original series being the upperclassmen. The series is a spin off with a  more slice of life, personal battle type of theme to it than the original. There are three main characters currently with several side character which I can see potential in. The animation is nice, it has a very different art style from the original which some may or may not like, but it is by no means bad.

Is hard to tell exactly just yet, but Soul Eater Not looks to be an enjoyable series that will keep you entertained whether you have or have not watched the original series.

Blade and Soul 

After watching the first two episodes of Blade and Soul I’ve found myself quite impressed. For the first 10 minutes of the first episode I assumed it was going to be a typical fanservice filled demon girl clone anime, but I was drawing my conclusion too quickly. The main plot of the show is about Aruka who is an assassin for the Clan of the Sword who's goal is to find a woman who killed her master. This woman Jin Valel is the leader of a huge organisation who posses demon like powers and kills without feeling. The story keeps you interested with its introduction of intriguing characters and unexpected events between them. Blade and Soul is slightly more violent than I had imagined it would be and can take you back a bit when you first experience it for the first time. The animation in Blade and Soul is very, very good and is particularly noticeable in the fight scenes. I recommend that you pick up this anime, it may not be to everybody’s tastes, but it’s a generally enjoyable watch.

Fairy Tail S2

Fairy Tail is set in a world called Earth Land where there exists a mage guild called “Fairy Tail” in the town of Magnolia. The story revolves around Lucy Heartfillia a 17 year old girl who wishes to join Fairy Tail and by chance meets Natsu Dragneel who is a member of the guild and invites her to join.

The long awaited continuation of the Fairy Tail anime is finally here! I was personally very excited about the return of the anime as the manga has recently prove itself to be one of the best mangas in shouen. Often competing with and over taking the big three in terms of chapter quality in some weeks.

Upon its return the anime has shown that it will continue with the quality of anime that it was previous to going on hiatus. Season two picks up midway through the Tournament arc where season to stopped when it caught up to the manga. As of now the manga is around 70-80 chapters ahead of the anime so no fillers in sight at this point. The animation is just as fantastic as ever, if not better and is a real testament to the company producing it to be able to make this quality weekly.

I’m personally a little biased towards Fairy Tail as it is one of my personal favourite animes. It’s an anime to watch for a good time, its not really all that serious its just something can enjoyably watch and have just have fun watching. Season two seems to be continuing this trend and it looks to be a good time overall.

This season looks to be a good one so far. Although personally, at this point I haven’t seen anything new that really catches my eye just yet. Keep an eye out for the 5 episode mark as that if often when you can tell the good series' from the bad ones, and what popular will start to make it big.