What Anime Am I Watching This Season?

A new season is upon us, so the thought on everyone's mind is: what should I be watching this season? I'm usually pretty picky, so I only found a few shows that caught my interest this season, as opposed to none for the last. So I'll just go through the ones I am watching now.

1: Tate no Yuusha

I was on a Digibro binge a while back, and this was one of the few light novels he said he wanted to become an anime. After watching the first episode, I can see some of the reasons why. Usually in a story based on summoning someone to another world as a hero, they end up being an overpowered wish-fulfillment character. In this series, not only is the hero an outcast in the normal world, but he is seen as the weakest of the summoned heroes, forcing him to stay in an outcast status. The twist partway through the episode, while predictable, perfectly exemplifies the types of problems people like him will experience. The openness of the plot is perfect to allow plenty of character drama, while his adaptable skills might be the source of good action scenes later. This is the one I'm keeping my eye on the most. Unfortunately, it's airing slower than the other entries on this list.

2: Mob Psycho 2

The best description I have for Mob Psycho 2 so far is... interesting. I've found many people saying that the end of the first season was a bit overblown and the like seeing something more chill, but I just see this as a sort of restart, allowing the plot to regress to the beginnings of season 1. Those episodes were some of the more lighthearted, comedic episodes of the series, so I don't fault it, but for people who binge both series, the tonal shift may be jarring. I like the comedy either way, so I'm completely fine. One would expect that Mob would utterly fail giving a speech, but at least the writers know the tropes, and how to subvert them in new and interesting ways.

3: Boogiepop wa Warawanai

This is another show whose light novel was enjoyed by Digibro. I was hoping the anime would be as good as he praised the light novel / manga for being. I don't have a source to compare it to, but it just seems like a confusing mess. A lot is left vague, There's no time to get to know the characters before they do something significant, and I completely don't understand the significance of the high-school drama scenes. It seems to be in such a rush to tell the story that I can't keep up and the impact of important events are completely lost. The show also tries to use directorial shorthand to fill in gaps in information, but it is either too vague or too subtle to actually bring more understanding. It sounds like a fun story and I'm sure that, given more time, it could be one. At the breakneck pace they're telling the story now, I doubt it will be very enjoyable.

4: Date a Live 3

You may not know, but I have watched both seasons of Date a Live. I was at first interested in the idea of a show parodying the standard visual novel, and the first season did that pretty well. I have absolutely no recollection of the second season except for the fact that best girl Kurumi was not as psychopathic as the first season. If you just jumped from the end of season one to episode one of season three, that is basically my experience right now. I'm not sure how qualified I am to judge this season because of that, but so far it's not bad. After watching the first episode, it seems to be going for a murder mystery sort of thing, which usually turns out bad, but maybe the self-awareness of the writers will come through in the end. I'm not holding out for good storytelling or fights or anything; I just want to see if I can have a good time.

5: Dororo

I actually haven't even finished the first episode of this. The first few minutes failed to hook me, so I went on to other things. I was very interested by the plot synopsis, so I'll likely come back to it once a few episodes air, but I can't make any claims about it now. If it focuses a lot on Buddhism, I'll likely take a pass, but depending on the genres it chooses to inhabit, I may come back.