This post was originally gonna be all about Bikini Warriors until I discovered its episodes are only five minutes long. RIP my 20 paragraphs of completely founded praise. ;_;

 

Cheat Sheet

If you actually wanna read this, I’d open the image up in a new tab or something.

For anyone keeping track, yes, this is the final part of the preview series. Don’t worry though, I’ll bring up the sequels and shorts airing this season in another post or two.

 

 

 

The Series

Overlord

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/290121/overlord_ch1_by_ak-scanlations/2

Light Novel: http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/p/knights-and-magic-author-amazake-no.html

Animation Production: MADHOUSE

I’d love to evaluate the quality ceiling on this series, but only two chapters into the LN, I’ve already grown too bored to see where it might go. Nothing fucking happens.

Honestly, the book reads like if Aria and Log Horizon had a kid, but they kept it locked inside a house where all it did was observe the fucking place. Like… I can understand the need for exposition, but there’s a line between useful information and psychological torture.

Even if you cut off all the fat from the writing, the characters you’re left with are literally just NPCs with preset personalities. Every time they interact with each other or the MC it makes you fucking wish he went back to examining just how fucking skeletony his body actually is. Christ on a stale fucking Triscuit.

I doubt there’s any way Madhouse could pace this series intelligently and stay remotely true to the LN (or the manga, which is equally as boring), so I hope they’re just adapting the series cuz they wanna make a He-Man prequel. But unfortunately I think their intentions are far more impure than that. My only recommendation for this show other than “don’t get your hopes up” is “don’t fucking bother”.

 

 

Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou

Manga: http://kissmanga.com/Manga/Monster-Musume-no-Iru-Nichijou/001?id=114614

Light Novel: N/A

Animation Production: Lerche | Seva

Have you ever thought, wow, this romcom would be so much more convenient if I could effortlessly fap to it? Well never fear, cuz Monster Musume’s got your back.

Now, I know some of you are thinking, “But Dark_Sage, isn’t that what ecchi is about? What makes this shit special?”

See, while ecchi tend to be fap-worthy romcoms, every single one of them is dragged down by a protagonist that deserves to have his testicles embedded into his lungs as he suffocates to death thanks to his own ineffectual manhood. Whereas in Monster Musume, the protag is consistently bearable, meaning you don’t need to hate yourself as you grind into your computer chair. Ipso facto, this occupies a space all to itself in the anime realm, and it deserves to be recognized as such.

Still, Lerche and Seva are relatively unproven, so this could turn out to be shit. But for a series that translated so well into manga form from what were just one-page one shots… Gotta say I’m actually raising my hopes for this one.

 

 

Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan (Sky Wizards Academy)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/289566/kuusen-madoushi-kouhosei-no-kyoukan_ch1_by_chinjufu-scanlations

Light Novel: N/A

Animation Production: Diomedea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2D59uJEojs

Pop quiz! Does this look like the kinda series you’d like?

If so, you fail the taste test. If not, you just saved yourself some time.

Targeting the paste-eaters who liked Mahouka, Kuusen does its best to fulfill this season’s quota of brainless high school superpower harem shounen. Not a single facet of this budget shitfest is unique in the least. Offensive in its mediocrity, the sheer audacity of its existence is a greater crime against literature than the burning of a thousand Libraries of Alexandria. I mean, Jesus, the first chapter is titled “The Strongest Traitor”. That’s like Chu3-level shit.

Escapism is understandable. Hell, I get that people like to turn their brains off every once in a while considering how often I’m on 2chan instead of writing. But with so many fucking options out there that aren’t cancerous, choosing this path can only lead to a bad end. Please, for the sake of humanity, avoid this.

 

 

Himouto! Umaru-chan

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/164687/himouto-umaru-chan_ch00–v2-_by_no-group

Light Novel: N/A

Animation Production: Doga Kobo

Remember how bad Plastic Memories was? Well combine that Doga Kobo shitfest with Puchimas and you’ve got this recipe for disaster.

Sure, if you’re capable of being entertained by anime furbies this cartoon’s gonna speak to you. But goddamn can I not fucking handle that kinda eye cancer, and I find it hard to believe there’s even a target audience for this bullshit. I hope Doga Kobo goes broke.

 

 

Gakkou Gurashi!

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/182408/gakkou-gurashi_v1_ch1_by_norway-scan/2

Light Novel: N/A

Animation Production: Lerche

“What if we could make Highschool of the Dead boring?” thought Japan. And so they did.

If the concept of zombie apocalypse slice-of-life didn’t already make you revile in disgust, the glacial pacing of the story will. After forcing myself through two volumes of the story, hoping to find the point when it finally figured out what it wanted to say, I had to give up the hunt.

Sure, maybe hands more gifted than the original creator’s could cobble together a decent story from this wreck of a premise, but the script was written by the fuckwit who somehow made the anime adaptation of Gunslinger Stratos — a series with psychopaths and jetpacks — boring.

Steer fucking clear.

 

 

Kangoku Gakuen (Prison School)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/22130/prison-school_v1_ch1_by_ems-team

Light Novel: N/A

Animation Production: J.C. Staff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeGiyH3w8kQ

After 100 tissues chapters of the manga, I’m confident in saying there’s not nearly enough budget in that PV to make me even consider recommending the anime over the manga to anyone but the blind. The manga is as much a masterpiece for its interesting characters as it is for how they’re portrayed. And while I’m confident J.C. Staff can get the facial expressions right…

…I’m not at all confident in the necessary level of ecchi being attainable on fucking broadcast TV:

Should Kangoku Gakuen manage to live up to its roots, this may just end up being the greatest ecchi anime of all time. If not, it should still be a decent romp, but nothing to reminisce about. And when it comes to anime, the most likely scenario is rarely the best.

 

 

Chu Feng: BEE (School Shock | Young Bee)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/5743/school-shock_ch1_by_maelstrom-unto-vivians-antyhign/2

Light Novel: N/A

Animation Production: Unknown

As cool as the PV looks, the amount of faith I have in something being created primarily for the Chinese mainland is fucking nil. Well, at least it would have been if I hadn’t read the manga (or manwha, if you Nippon Banzai purists wanna cause a scene). Unlike most of its Japanese contemporaries, Young Bee doesn’t shy away from having its main characters kill off the bad guys, helping it climb above the bog standard releases I’m used to suffering through.

Government/societal criticism ain’t exactly downplayed either, so maybe I’ve been misinformed as to what actually flies over in China proper. Mark me down as cautiously optimistic for this one. I’d love to be pleasantly surprised for once.

 

 

 

tl;dr

Excellent (9-10/10):

• N/A

 

Good-ish (7-8/10):

• Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou
• Kangoku Gakuen (Prison School)
• Chu Feng: BEE (School Shock | Young Bee)

 

Meh (5-6/10):

• N/A

 

No more, please (1-4/10):

• Overlord
• Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan (Sky Wizards Academy)
• Himouto! Umaru-chan
• Gakkou Gurashi!