Anime Lovers

Fall is almost here and with it a new, promising slate of anime titles. After a somewhat slow summer, it’s time to get back into watching copious amounts of new and returning shows. We got a chance to take an early look at some of the new titles that are coming to Crunchyroll this season: Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World, Yakuza Fiancé (the first episode), the first three episodes of AND AND AND and the premiere for Shangri-La Frontier Season 2. My colleague Jay wrote a great overview of the Shangri-La Frontier panel at Anime NYC (with an overview of the first episode), I suggest you check it out as I’ll be focusing on the remaining three titles here.

Re:Zero

As we learned ahead of the Anime Expo, Season 3 of Re:Zero begins with a 90-minute episode. I was genuinely excited when I read the announcement but after watching the episode I’m not sure the pacing worked in the anime’s favor. The majority of the episode is spent on very tame fan service and while slow moments were a good way to build up to the big revelation at the end, it takes quite a bit for us to get there.

My biggest gripe with Re:Zero over the years has been the character development. Unfortunately, I can say that hasn’t been fixed in this season (based on this episode anyway) and it’s even gotten a bit worse with every woman, besides Ram, fawning over Subaru. The problem is not his ever-growing harem, it’s the way these characters dwindle down to stereotypes we’ve been seeing in so many works.

Still, I keep watching it and maybe it get better in that regard, someday, if not now. Time-skip in the premiere without us having to go through ten re-do arcs definitely sparked my hopes. Studio WHITE FOX had some staff changes in between seasons, but this episode didn’t feel too different compared to the previous ones, even though character designs went through some slight changes.

Yakuza Fiance: Raise Your Partner

Nothing could have prepared me for Yakuza Fiance: Raise Your Partner. I went in blind, all I knew was: girl, boy, arranged marriage between yakuza families. Maybe not even that in that much detail. At first I wasn’t pleased because I thought the leads would be forced to live together and then they would fall in love and spend two to three seasons trying to get married while dealing with random obstacles, but then something happened. As it turns out, the male lead’s only desire is to get stepped on. I don’t even know where to begin, just watch it. Completely wild by today’s standards.

This anime also has a unique art style: it’s very shojo manga-coded and each character has a color that almost represents their aura. The animation is not very flashy and the movements often feel stuff, but considering that the main focus is on the drama between the leads you probably won’t even notice it.

AND AND AND

I initially had hopes for The First Encounter coming to my local cinemas, but that did not happen. With the premiere only two weeks away I had resorted to waiting, even though deep down I knew AND AND AND was the only thing I was truly looking forward to.

And it did not disappoint. I knew the first from the first volume and I wasn’t particularly worried about there being any issues with there. As far as the animation went, the trailers looked amazing and Science SARU’s unique style set quite high expectations. And they were really met: everything from the incredible angles and use of colors was perfect (a big chunk of the second episode was black and white, but it never once looked dull).

The voice acting (I saw the Japanese version) was incredible. Natsuki Hanae works well with somewhat clumsy, earnest characters and Okarun is a perfect fit for him. Shion Wakayama’s performance blew me away, at times she sounded so raw and spoke with a rage only a teenager knows. AND AND AND will be one of the top shows this season, that much is certain.

And this would be my first impression of these three titles that are coming to Crunchyroll this fall. As I said, AND AND AND definitely has the highest chance of becoming the anime of the season, but there are quite a few good adaptations coming and it’s best to watch them all before making any definite statements.

Anime Corner received advanced screening copies of the aforementioned titles.