Welcome to the Winter 2019 Anime OT! Will Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 sustain the quality of the AOTY 2016 winning show (before we migrated to ResetEra) that was Mob Psycho 100 Season 1? Will Kemono Friends Season 2 somehow capture the same magic that Season 1 did? All this and more will be revealed as the season plays out.
The following are some of the potential highlights for this Winter season of anime. Like always, some of these could turn into duds and unforeseen gems in this season could have been looked over.
1. Mob Psycho 100 II
Director: Yuzuru Tachikawa (Mob Psycho 100 Season 1 Director)
Studio: BONES
Streaming Service (US): Crunchyroll, Funimation (Dub)
Trailer
BONES is once again being adapting more (and possibly the rest of) of our old place's AOTY for 2016, Mob Psycho 100. While it may not hold up to the unprecedented standards of animation that was the first season, MP100 II should still be the animation highlight of the season. Will it attempt to rush through and adapt the whole series is still iffy with what has been seen with the PV's and promotional art. But either way, this new season will cover a personal favorite arc of mine and should help cement why MP100 is One's better work for anime viewers only.
2. Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima (Shirobako & Girls und Panzer TV + Movies Director)
Studios: GEMBA and Wao World
Streaming Service (US): HIDIVE
Trailer
Now you may be asking yourself, why the hell is this on the highlights list? The reason is because it has Mizushima directing and Yokote doing the series composition teaming up once again to do a project. These two worked together to bring us Shirobako! While this could turn into a giant dud, it could also be the unexpected hidden gem for this season.
3. Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue.
Director: Kaoru Suzuki (DIVE!! Director)
Studio: Zero-G
Streaming Service (US): Crunchyroll & Funimation (Dub)
Trailer
While I'm not expecting great things direction wise, if the show follows the source material well enough we should expect a comfy and lighthearted anime. And what's wrong with more cat anime?
4. Boogiepop and Others (2019)
Director: Shingo Natsume (One Punch Man S1 & ACCA: 13 Director)
Studio: Madhouse
Streaming Service (US): Crunchyroll & Funimation (Dub)
Trailer
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Boogiepop is once again is getting an anime adaption but this time it will start from the beginning of the light novels. So those new to the franchise can start with this show with no worries and enjoy the mystery/psychological light novel adaption that helped influence the LN medium.
5. Dororo (2019)
Director: Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Hunter X Hunter (1999) Series Director & Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Director)
Studios: MAPPA & Tezuka Productions
Streaming Service (US): Amazon Prime Video
Trailer
Once again Tezuka's darkest work Dororo is being adapted into an anime as a collaboration between MAPPA and Tezuka Productions. The hype for this project is both from the pedigree of the source material, alongside Furuhashi being at the helm directing this Samurai show.
6. Rinshi!! Ekoda-chan (2019)
Directors: Akira Shigino (Osomatsu-kun 1988 Director), Akitarō Daichi (Fruit Basket Director), Gisaburō Sugii (Night on the Galactic Railroad Director), Hiroshi Nagahama (Flowers of Evil & Mushishi Series Director), Koji Morimoto (Dimension Bomb & Magnetic Rose Director), Masayuki Kojima (Made in Abyss Director), Osamu Kobayashi (BECK Director), Ryousuke Takahashi (Armored Trooper Votoms Director), Shin Misawa (Initial D Director), Takeo Takahashi (Spice and Wolf 1 + 2 Director), Tomomi Mochizuki (Twice Spica & House of Five Leaves Director) and Yoshitomo Yonetani (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma 1-3 Director)
Studios: 12 Currently Unnamed Studios
Streaming Service (US): Crunchyroll & Funimation (Dub)
Trailer (Slightly NSFW)
First thing that may catch your eye is not the fact that you most likely never heard of this show, but the giant list of directors and 12 unnamed studios working on this show. This is our "artsy" highlights for the season, it is a collaboration work where one studio, one director and one voice actress (there are also 12 voice actresses for the main character) each do their own episode. This project has pulled in a variety of different directors with unique and diverse stylings to each create their own vision for one episode of the show. This may be an uneven show due to its nature, but from an artistic standpoint it should be an interesting experiment to see what results these acclaimed directors produce.
7. Kemurikusa
Director: TATSUKI (Kemono Friends S1 Director, Series Composition, Script, Storyboard and Episode Director)
Studio: Yaoyorozu
Streaming Service (US): Amazon Prime Video
Trailer
After being thrown to the curb by Kadokawa, director TATSUKI is leaving his Kemono Friends behind and moving onto a new show based on a concept he co-created back in 2012. Has he brought the creativity and love that saved Kemono Friends from being a disaster onto this new project? Only time will tell.
8. The Promised Neverland
Director: Mamoru Kanbe (Elfen Lied)
Studio: CloverWorks
Streaming Service (US): Crunchyroll, Funimation, HIDIVE & Hulu
Trailer
Another season, another Shounen Jump manga getting an anime adaption. If you want an interesting mystery anime with tinges of psychological and horror themes, then The Promised Neverland should scratch that itch well enough.
9. The Price of Smiles
Director: Toshimasa Suzuki (Heroic Age Director)
Studio: Tatsunoko Production
Streaming Service (US): Crunchyroll
Trailer
We need to highlight a Mecha show each season….and I don't see any others to do so. On the bright side, it has a director whose work has been mostly mecha focused and it's Tatsunoko's 55th anniversary project so it should have been given ample production time.
10. Kaguya-sama: Love is War
Director: Mamoru Hatakeyama (Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū Director)
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Streaming Service (US): Crunchyroll, Hulu & Funimation (Dub)
Trailer
Fear of a bad adaption is what many of us manga readers feel when an anime adaption gets announced. Such is the case when it came to Kaguya-Sama's anime announcement, since this has been a generally beloved manga in the community for the quality of comedy the manga has produced. While PVs have been…less than inspiring so far, one can only hope that director Hatakeyama is able to pull this RomCom adaption off.
11.Endro~!
Director: Kaori (Yuyushiki Director)
Studio: Studio Gokumi
Streaming Service (US): Crunchyroll & Funimation (Dub)
Trailer
This has always been here, ignore the man behind the curtain. If you wanted more Yuru Yuri then Endro~! will scratch that itch with a fantasy spin/JRPG spin on that formula. And yes, the Mangaka of Yuru Yuri designed the characters for this show.
12. How Clumsy you are, Miss Ueno
Director: Tomohiro Yamanashi (Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor Key Animation)
Studio: Lespirt
Streaming Service (US): HIDIVE
Trailer
If you want a ecchi romcom that's mostly comedy, then Ueno will attempt to scratch that itch in fifteen-minute intervals. This will most likely be my guilty pleasure watch of the season. The manga is dumb, but it hits the absurdist level of comedy that just works.
F1:Kemono Friends Season 2 - Will the show follow its predecessor and become a hit? Or will it be a soulless husk with the creative mind behind it forced out? Find out next week on Kemono Friends 2: The Kadokawa Experiment!
F2: Manaria Friends - Manaria Friends is our second Friends show in our mini Friend's section! After…4 years or so, this show is finally being released as a short anime tv series. The show is set somewhere in the Rage of Bahamut universe and yes, Dragon Girls are included.
Resources:
ResetEra Anime of the Year 2018 Results
ResetEra Anime of the Year 2018 Results Full Spreadsheet Doc
ResetEra Anime of the Year 2018 Voting Thread
ResetEra Anime of the Year 2017 Results
The Rest of What's Airing Winter 2019 Anime Season
Winter Season Show OT Threads: (PM me your thread if you create an OT for a specific show for this season)
Discussion Ground Rules:
- Please do not discuss piracy.
- Please keep it work-safe.
- Please do not be stupid.
-DONT POST ANITUBER VIDEOS (In Particular the big name ones Gigg, Mother's Basement, Digi etc..(Those three in particular endorsed the scams of Flying Colors and/or Otakucoin) and almost always tend to only go for low hanging fruit subjects with little discussion to be gained from posting them. The ones that actually go into potentially interesting subjects and have a better insight into the actual anime industry tend to be smaller and are okay to post as long as they aren't click bait type videos).
Last edited:
