Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of The Anime Pulse. 2015 is now officially behind us and 2016 has arrived! I went through and looked at the Winter anime season and thought that the year was kicking off with a bang… then a series of announcements hit one after another and because as such, 2016 could possibly become one of the greatest anime years in recent times. It’s been a very long time since I’ve this many notable anime shows in one year.
So what is slated to air that will make this year so great? Let’s take a look!
D.Gray-man
I have to start here. D.Gray-man has held a soft spot in my heart because it was the first series that I picked up and watched on my own. When I was just starting to get into anime, my friend would do all the recommending and I would just sit there and watch. Not wanting to rely on him all the time, I decided to start venturing out on my own and looking for shows that might interest me. The first show I came across was D.Gray-man and just after a few episodes, I was hooked. In fact, I liked the show so much that I hailed at as my favorite anime of all time, thinking no show would be able to dethrone it from my favorite’s list. Another sequel that I will detail next did, however, dethrone this show.
Needless to say, I am ecstatic that D.Gray-man is not only returning, but it is picking up where it left off. I am a bit worried about what Katsura Hoshino said in an interview because she did state that it is a continuation, but she also said it would be a new anime. I’m not sure if she was referring to the fact that it will be just that… a new season, or if she was possibly eluding to an original story. I really hope it’s the former and not the latter because I really want to see it follow the source material… especially after Hoshino went through a period where her art suffered due to an injury she sustained to her hand. Seeing a studio animate it just might help me understand what happened a bit better. Regardless, I’m just happy it’s back!
Steins;Gate 0
5pb and Nitroplus adapted Chaos;Head and Robotics;Notes and both were pretty terrible. Steins;Gate, however, was a complete and total masterpiece and many are hailing it as one of the greatest animes ever created. Maybe it’s because I really love the notion of time travel, or maybe it was the highly engaging story, but everything fired on all cylinders for me with this show and this was the anime that dethroned D.Gray-man as my all-time favorite and no anime, no matter how good, has come close to replacing Steins;Gate atop of my favorites list. Who knows? Maybe one day a show will come along and do just that, but the feeling I got from watching this show.. the amount of curse words I muttered, or in some cases, screamed when the episode ended and left me wanting more immediately… all of that has not been replicated yet. Sure, there have been some shows where I wanted it to be next week straight away, but not to the level of Steins;Gate made me wish. Every episode that ended was like a dagger through my heart causing me pain, misery, and sorrow in anticipation for the next episode.
I am looking forward to this sequel more than D.Gray-man. If I understood the alternate 23rd episode correctly, we are going to an alternate future where Okarin didn’t save Kurisu. This is the future where Okarin was driven to build the time machine so that he could go back and save Kurisu. It was one of the aspects of the show that never got explained… until now. This should be one hell of a story!
Berserk
It hasn’t aired since 1997 and I know what you’re going to say: “but it got that movie adaptation last year!”
Yes… yes it did, but it was still the same anime from 1997, so I’m not counting that. 19 years later we are FINALLY going to get a proper second season of this show and yes, we will be going into the Black Swordsman arc! I, believe it or not, haven’t read the manga on this one so I don’t know what to expect. You’d think that after all this time that I would actually read it since it’s been around forever, but, alas… I haven’t. I guess that won’t set me up for disappointment so easily should they veer off the path, but when you have a franchise like Berserk on your hands… there’s really no way you could mess it up… just so long as it’s not produced by JC Staff! HEYO!
Attack on Titan
The anime that I called this generation’s Dragonball Z is returning for its second season. This one I AM reading the manga for and I can’t wait to see everything animated… especially the wrestling match that happens in it. If you haven’t read the manga, it’s a slight spoiler, but now you know what to look for when that time comes! There should also be some pretty huge reveals, but the question remains where will season two end? I know that the manga will not finish before the anime wraps up after twenty-something episodes, so where will the stopping point be this time? I have a few ideas, but will refrain myself due to spoiler reasons. I do know that Hajime Isayama has announced that the manga is coming to an end, but by the time that it does end, it’ll be around 2018 since we’re only getting a chapter per month. So don’t worry, we still have some time left with the manga.
Rewrite
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a fan of Jun Maeda and KEY. KEY has produced some of the most emotional visual novels in the world. Air, Kanon, Clannad, and Little Busters are on that list. Rewrite is the “youngest” of that list and it is finally getting an anime adaptation. I haven’t played the visual novel, but I did familiarize myself with the story and this should be amazing! It is a bit weird as it takes place on The Moon and does involve different timelines (which are routes in the VN), but the main character has the power to rewrite or alter his body which is pretty interesting. Also, Jun Maeda is involved and not only has he helped write all of the aforementioned, he also wrote and produced Angel Beats and, most recently, Charlotte. I know Charlotte was a bit of a letdown, but Charlotte was a recent work of Maeda and Rewrite is a time-tested work that people are already familiar with and love so it’s all in the hands of 8bit not to ruin the adaptation.
She and Her Cat
This one just got announced about a day or two before the writing of this column. You might be wondering just what in the holy hell this is… well I’ll tell you what this is. This is a work of my favorite anime director Makoto Shinkai. The original was a rather short anime film only lasting about five minutes. Now, it is being developed into a full-fledged television anime! This will be the first time Makoto Shinkai has done a television anime since ef-A Tale of Memories and ef-A Tale of Melodies. Makoto Shinkai is known for crafting some of the most profound and tragic love stories you have ever seen. If it’s not about love then he’s finding other ways to pluck away at your heart strings. Also, last year, I did the Makoto Shinkai series where I re-watched and reviewed all of his works. Just do a search for Makoto Shinkai on The Outerhaven if you’re interested in getting a background on him. You may not have heard of all of his works, but I bet you’ve heard of 5 Centimeters per Second. That was his first major hit in the anime film world. I’m really looking forward to this one!
Those are just some of the anime that will be coming later this year that I’m really looking forward to; however, there are a lot of anime shows in the Winter 2016 season that also add to this impressive list such as the second season of Assassination Classroom, the third arc of the second season of Durarara!!, Ajin, the second part of the first season of GATE, and Dimension W. We’re also going to be getting a sequel to Danganronpa this year, a POSSIBLE second season to One-Punch Man (although that has been confirmed as of yet), the second season to Arslan Senki, and a sequel to Chaos;Head which is titled Chaos;Child. This last one I have a mixed bag of emotions on because the visual novel was great… the adaptation… not so much. I’m hoping 5pb and Nitroplus can rectify the mistakes they made and deliver a home run this time around.
Add in the third season of Sailor Moon Crystal, the fourth season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, a remake of Samurai Jack, a possible adaptation of Fate/stay night‘s third route, and a second season to Terra Formars and you have quite the catalog of shows that could create one of the most epic and memorable years in anime to date.
Agree? Disagree? Did I glance over any shows that you are looking forward to? Let me know by sending me a message! You can do so by mailing joshpiedra@theouterhaven.net or send me a DM on Twitter @PulseIn
Until next time,
Ja ne!
