It feels like an eternity since I did the last one…

The Usual Spiel

• If a show doesn’t appear here, it may show up if it gets favourable ratings before I begin the summer 2019 season.
• Bold is Crunchyroll, underlined is Funimation (or my local sublicensor) and strikethrough is locked behind the paywall at Sentai/HiDive or Amazon/Netflix. Notably, my local sublicensor got bought out by Aniplex, so I doubt there’s enough that isn’t already on Crunchyroll and/or Funimation by the time it gets there as well, but HiDive/Sentai Filmworks seems to be handing over shows to anyone after waiting a few weeks (which is why Sentai shows still have a chance of being covered in a timely manner). This list’s simulcast details are current as of posting, so the situation will definitely change as we get through the premieres.
• Ratings are most hyped to least.

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Continuing

• Fruits Basket – My memory of the manga was worse than expected, but I’ve been listening to Jacob Chapman’s audio drama of the series to accompany it and…wow, the anime is doing a great job of adapting the manga, if the audio drama is anything to go by.
• Demon Slayer – The collab is ongoing. However, with Astral sleeping insane amounts a day, Ply dropping out for reasons unknown and Moya lagging behind, I don’t know if we’re going to keep up.

Newcomers

• Astra: Lost in Space – I’ve read some of the manga and talked about it. Flesh it out in the right places and it’ll be good stuff. *chef’s kiss emoji*
• Dr Stone – I’ve read a few chapters of the manga and the premise is fun.
• Fire Force – By the Soul Eater dude. It could succumb to standard shonen perviness…
• DanMachi season 2 – I’ve seen s1, why not?
• Kochoki – Wakaki Nobunaga – We have far too many anime about Nobunaga already, but the visuals of this one seem reasonably interesting…
• Cop Craft – I like the premise, but after skipping pages of archived forum backlash over Millepensee regarding a certain Berserk, I’m…not so sure about this anymore.
• Ensemble Stars! – I’ve heard of the game, but since I’ve never tried it, it sits in the shadow of Idolish7. Not to mention the characters look younger than your typical idols (even though the highest possible age of a character seems to be 30 for a teacher and 18 for a student, both of which are reasonable)…so it’s kind of awkward when you think the character is a shota and they’re not.
• Machikado Mazoku – It’s got a magical girl.
• Given – The fact the music-making BL ended up in this list is enough to say something about this season…to be honest though, I don’t want to learn about rugby or explore BL through it, so Try Knights was never an option.
• Maou-sama, Retry! – I’ve noticed a trend in bishonen I like – quite a few have long hair…the titular “demon lord” has long hair…do you see how I ended up going, “Oh, alright!” to this show? Well, even if I don’t like Akira, I might still like his alter ego Zero.
• Arifureta (From Commonplace to World’s Strongest) – I keep confusing this with other female-led Shousetsuka no Narou series that I am excited for, notably Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?…probably because there’s a certain girl – whose name, from quick research, appears to be “Yue” – that appears on the visuals more than the protag.
• To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts – I was reluctant to check this one out because of Fairy Gone‘s terrible reception, but it has MAPPA’s name on it.

Might Get Back To

• Vinland Saga – I heard good things about this manga. Curse you, Amazon…!
• Star Mu 3 – I wasn’t able to watch the first two seasons until way after they debuted, so I haven’t even touched them.

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Oh well. I’ve been trying to clean out my backlog in recent months due to starting Chibi Tamago and the haste in which I had to catch up on simulcasts after going to Japan (I still need to get back to RobiHachi, now that I’ve heard it has connections to Boueibu), so now I have my chance.

What are you checking out for summer 2019? Plus, is it just me, or is there less anime this season than usual…?