The new season is upon us, despite what the weather tries to say, and I don’t just mean spring outside but the newest anime season has begun as well. Though dubbed “the season of sequels” (with new seasons of several series including Baby Steps, Ace of Diamond, Highschool DXD, Fairy tail and Nisekoi) this season does have a few nice additions to the lineup. Personally I’m looking forward to a couple of series that I have been/still read regularly.
The first new anime that I’ll be watching is Kekkai Sensen, also known as Bloody world war. It’s a series created by Nightow Yasuhiro, who some might recognize as the creator of Trigun. His work never fails to impress. The series is about a crime fighting organization “Libra” and their battles in Jerusalem’s Lot, formerly known as New York City. Jerusalem’s Lot was created in a single night when a portal to the “Beyond” opened, and now it is a paranormal melting pot of monsters, magic and the everyday mundane city life. It’s up to Libra to prevent the horrors of this city from spreading to the outside world. It starts by focusing on Leonard Watch, a young photographer who came to Jerusalem’s Lot to help his ailing sister. A mysterious entity gave him the “Eyes of God”, granting him a variety of ocular powers, at the cost of his sister’s sight.
The series had a lot of action & cool characters including a vampire using holy relics and an invisible werewolf. The one thing the series didn’t have though, was a lot of chapters. The series started as a one-shot and had a reboot as 3 chapters before completion. It makes me wonder how long the anime will be and how they will add to the plot and story to hopefully give it a long life.
The second series I’m dying to see is Shokugeki no Soma. Often talked about because of its borderline hentai reaction scenes, its a great cooking series that shows many techniques of many different food styles from around the world. The series is about Yukihira Souma, whose dream is to become a full-time chef in his father’s restaurant and surpass his father’s culinary skill. But just as Yukihira graduates from middle schools his father, Yukihira Jouichirou, closes down the restaurant to cook in Europe. Although downtrodden, Souma’s fighting spirit is rekindled by a challenge from Jouichirou which is to survive in an elite culinary school where only 10% of the students graduate. The first twist comes in us finding out his dad is actually one of the world’s best cooks and has cooked for VIPS the world over, and that he is an alumni of the school he is forcing his son to go to.
The reactions to people eating the delicious food comes in the way of their imagination imagining them interacting with the food. This reaction ranges from riding away on a horse with beef to being molested by squid. It is very reminiscent of Yakitate Japan! which also had over the top reactions that actually ended up physically changing the characters who ate them, including turning one character into Dhalsim from StreetFighter who then proceeded to levitate an island. The only flaw I ever had with the series was they never show the recipes that were used in the story, unlike other cooking series like Addicted to Curry or Mister Ajikko. Hopefully the cooking will be easier to follow in the anime.
The Next series I’ve been wanting to see is Owari no Seraph. You can’t go wrong with vampires, sorcery and fighting (Twilight doesn’t count). The artist is also known for both Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu & Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi. Both very kick ass series with good plot and fighting scenes. The plot is about how one day; a mysterious virus appeared on Earth which killed every infected human over the age of 13. At the same time, vampires emerged from the world’s dark recesses and enslaved mankind. Enter Hyakuya Yuuichirou, a young boy, who along with the rest of the children from his orphanage, are treated as livestock by the vampires. Yuu’s dream of freedom is granted at the cost of his best friend and the other children as he manages to escape and join other humans who fight against the vampire menace. In order to fight them they implore the power of ‘cursed weapons’ that run the risk of overtaking their bodies and minds.
So far in the manga they have introduced many vampire families, including some famous names such as Bathory. The weapons range from swords to bows and each have a unique ability attached to them. There is of course many things happening behind the scenes and corruption and betrayal on both sides of the conflict. I look forward to the action scenes and the crazy visuals that will accompany the higher level powers and weapons.
The final series I will bring up for now is Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka, usually just put as DanMachi for short. It’s a series with spin-offs and a 4-koma that has a lot of potential. It takes place at the huge labyrinth city, Orario, which is the gateway to the huge underground maze commonly known as the “Dungeon”. Its strange name causes excitement, a place to gain honor, and maybe even a romance with a pretty girl. A place where people hold their breath, hoping to gain all they wish for, a place where a solitary young man meets a little “god”. It follows Bell as he tries to conquer the dungeon and survive for the sake of the poor Goddess of his Familia. After a very bad near death experience on a very early floor, Bell is rescued by a beautiful and skilled swordswoman. The traumatic experience triggers a unique skill with the boy that helps him to level up faster.
The story feels like an odd rpg and has some decent writing with good character development, having a lot of pretty girls is of course a plus. It reminds me of the grind in several games and feeling the joy of progressing and leveling up, meeting random characters and npcs and trying to gain favor of the towns’ people as you try to reach this end game no one knows about. I worry about a series with such a crappy main character, but I can put up with that as long as they don’t ruin the rest of the cast.
Those series aside I’m also going to consider Arslan Senki, since it’s by the same guy who made Full Metal Alchemist. I only recently started reading the manga so I’m not sure about it yet, but I think it will be a nice dark horse this season.
