2020 Winter Anime Season Roundup

This post is probably going to be a bit briefer than the one I wrote for last season. Mostly because I’ve been a little better about actually following up on the seasonal anime series I’ve been watching here on my blog. Helped by the fact that I seem to have managed to find a bit of a groove again when it comes to a weekly upload schedule.

As we’re already starting the Spring season, and I’ve not watched anything yet except Digimon, I’ll just follow up all the shows mentioned in the Winter 3 Episode Rule series and link to any and all relevant articles I’ve already written on that show. Here’s a link to all of my impressions of the series I tried and which ones I kept on top of.

New Series:

Keep Your Hands off Eizouken!

I know a few people on my social media feed that adored this show. And I understood why, it was bright, imaginative and promoted positive messages about doing what you love. Which is why I feel bad about falling off this show about half way through.

I don’t know what it was, but I just kept thinking I’d come back to it, and then before I knew it the series was over. At this point, I think it’s just going to stay half watched. Unlike most of the world, my time is still limited as I have the misfortune of still working through a nightmarish combination of retail during a pandemic.

I don’t have a bad thing to say about Eizouken, and yet something about it just got away from me. I don’t really have anything else to say except sorry to those who loved this show.

In/Spectre

Man, how could a series with such great visual design and such a great premise turn into the dullest procedural detective show I’ve ever seen. I finished the series because there were things I really liked about In/Spectre, mostly surrounding the cast, who were all actually really likeable. There was something very real about how, despite everything going no around them, they’d take a moment every now and then to get hung up on their personal melodrama. But when it came to the actual plot of the series I was in yawnsville.

This post goes into further depth explaining my frustrations with In/Spectre.

Somali and the Forest Spirit

I liked this show a whole lot. Here’s the link to my review of the series.

Seton Academy: Join the Pack!

It’s with a mild sense of shame that I enjoyed this show and saw it through to the end. But here’s the post of my review of the full season and my justification of going through all the way to the end while not finishing Eizouken.

Continuing Series:

Ahiru No Sora

I’m fully invested in this series and these characters now. It’s long running format has really worked in its favour. I wrote about piece about how anime can inspire interest in things you wouldn’t otherwise give a crap about using Ahiru No Sora as a talking point. Here’s the link to that post.

My Hero Academia:

There’s too much to get into for this one.

In short; it was a series that grew and improved as it went on. By the time it was over, I was very happy with it.

I also watched season 3 of Castlevania… does that count?

I don’t think any of the new shows from this season are going to stay with me in any powerful way. My favourite two of the ones listed are the two continuing shows. Not to throw shade on the series I did watch, but of them, Somali was probably the highlight. I have no clue what kind of shows we’re getting for this upcoming Spring season, but I have a feeling I’m going to be a little swamped.

With Disney+ coming out, I can start a new project I’ve been thinking of doing for a long time, I hope it doesn’t conflict with the Spring anime season, but only time will tell. Watch this space I guess.