Anime that I’m watching this Season

For quite a while now, I’ve been watching Anime. While at first, I’d only go for shows that have been full aired already, I have grown more and more accustomed to following each of the different seasons and checking out shows that weren’t completely out yet, one week at a time. This had a bit of a thrill to it as you would always have a week or so until the next episode and could hence think about it or speculate with friends on what could happen next – unless of course, there is some sort of source material available, i.e. a manga or a light novel. At the same time, watching airing anime had the benefit that you weren’t able to binge the show, basically securing some sleep during the night.

Alas, I thought I’d talk about the shows I’m watching in 2021’s Winter Season.

Because of the current on-going pandemic, there have been quite a few anime that got delayed from the autumn season to the winter season. This results in this season being packed with a lot of new seasons:

• Beastars Season 2
• Log Horizon Season 3
• Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season
• Yakusoku no Neverland Season 2
• Dr. Stone: Stone Wars
• Horimiya
• Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Season 2 Part 2
• Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken Season 2

The shows that I’m most excited about are Log Horizon’s third season as well as Beastars’, Horimiya’s, Re:Zero’s and Slime Datta’s second season. Having been a huge fan of Log Horizon when it first came out and when the second season aired, I’m kind of worried that my taste in shows may have changed too much to appreciate the third season… but as far as the other shows go, the first seasons haven’t been too long ago. A while back, I finished the Manga that Beastars is based on and as far as Slime Datta goes, I’m up-to-date in the main manga and the spin-offs. Re:Zero’s first of part of the second season hasn’t been too long ago either, so I’m rather excited about seeing it get continued so soon, already. As far as The Promised Neverland goes, I both liked and disliked the first season and am hoping that it gets better in the second season with this rather open-world setting… The Stone Wars Arc that is getting adapted in Dr. Stone’s second season is quite cool but I’m mostly watching it to see how the animation is done and what differences there are to the Manga.

When you keep up with the manga, it’s quite interesting to see how it all turns out in the anime-adaption, which is quite interesting. As far as Slime Datta’s concerned, I noticed that there are some differences in the directions that the show got taken into back in Season 1 since it’s all based on the light novel. The manga takes a different approach, so that’s also more than interesting.

Speaking of differences from Manga and Anime, Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? aka So, I’m a spider, so what? also got its anime-adaptation this season and from episode 1 onwards, I’ve already noticed differences in the manga- and anime-adaptation. Since the show is based on the light-novel (that I haven’t read), there is actually new stuff in there that I, as a manga-reader, don’t know about. Very lovely indeed. The animation is great. The soundtrack is great. I’m looking forward to the next 23 episodes that are yet to come out, although I am a tad worried about the CGI that is being used for the spiders. While the main-character is rather cute, the mother has been quite hard for me to bear, especially with my arachnophobia.

I loved Horimiya’s previous show when it first came out in 2012 and followed the Manga for a while in 2011, so I was surprised to see a new show this season! The original show only featured four episodes that have been rather sweat and adorable. The first few episodes that have aired have been lovely as well, depicting the Japanese concept of honne and tatamae rather well – honne being a person’s true feelings and desires and tatamae being the person’s behaviour and opinions one displays in public. The show is about Hori and Miyamura who both act differently at school contrary to how they act at home, which is something that I can relate to. They get to know each other over time and, well,… it’s a RomCom and I have a soft spot for those. I like the dynamic of the characters and loved how it all turned out in the manga when I first read it. I may have to revisit that one, though, as I hardly remember anything from it. For now, I’ll just enjoy the ride, though. 

Apart from that, there is obviously Shingeki no Kyojin’s “Final Season”, although I doubt that it’s really the end since it’s not only very popular but also since the 16 episodes are nowhere near enough to adapt everything. I liked the first season a bit and then it got kinda boring and predictable… the second season was alright… then it got a lot better. Now, I’m kind of hooked on this season because of the approach it has taken and I’m thinking of continuing the manga again past the point where I stopped reading. I was up-to-date at one point and then stopped reading to not spoil this season too much after it was announced. Alas, I already know a lot of stuff up to the [redacted] which should be revealed next episode. I like this season and am alas following it, although I’m keeping my expectations super low to not get underwhelmed by it, just like how I did it with the last season… and that worked back then and so far I’m really liking it.

And well, there’re also some shows that are just “so bad that they are kinda good again” like Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shounen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari… it’s just so stupid that I love it again. 

Oh, and World Trigger got a second season but I have yet to finish the first season before I start that one… 

At last, there’s Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi aka Redo of Healer… and I hate it. I hope the anime goes into a different direction than the manga and I already cannot recommend the show based on what I’ve seen so far. 

Either way, that’s basically what I’m watching. The last show is more of a “watching it to complain about it with a friend” show while everything else is actually quite good. This season is quite great with the exception of the last show I mentioned. 

Do you follow anything from this season? Let me know!

Cheers!

This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well. If you find this post on a website other than Indiecator.org, please write an e-mail to me. Thank you!