Winter 2019 Anime: First Impressions

A new year, a new month, and most importantly, a new season of anime. Here, I shall be sharing my initial impressions of each show I have chosen to watch for this season.BanG Dream! 2nd SeasonBanG Dream! returns for a 2nd season, and this first episode was pretty much a introduction to each of the five main bands, giving viewers an idea of what each one is about. Poppin’ Party, Afterglow, Roselia, Pastel Palettes and Hello, Happy World – it was a delight to see them all performing. Of course, with the focus being on the five bands, there wasn’t much else happening. However, I enjoyed this episode a lot, simply because of the performances.

Mob Psycho 100 IIMob returns with a rather sweet first episode to kick off his second season. Of course, what I’m particularly looking forward to is seeing what will happen when the progress towards Mob’s explosion hits 100%; that is when the really interesting stuff happens.

Pastel MemoriesBasically a bunch of otaku girls cleaning up a storage area and getting far more invested in the manga and other such stuff they find; I really quite enjoyed the first episode. Then it casually dropped the fact that the girls can travel into the worlds of different manga, right at the end of said episode. I’m quite keen to see what will come of that premise. The first world we’ll be seeing? Well, it will pretty much be Is the Order a Rabbit?

WATATEN!: an Angel Flew Down to MeMuch like UzaMaid!, this one will not be for everyone. However, I enjoyed WATATEN!‘s first episode. It had some pretty amusing moments, and the characters are all cute.

Magical Girl Spec-Ops AsukaThe adaptation of the Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka manga is off to a good start. Some people are surprised to discover it is so dark, but I knew that would be the case. I’ve been reading the manga, after all.

Bermuda Triangle ~ Colorful PastraleThis was a fun first episode, introducing us to the five mermaids who will be our main characters. It was fairly laid back, and Canon is adorable. Amusingly, we get some BanG Dream! with this, as the opening theme is provided by none other than Pastel * Palettes.

ENDRO!The first episode of ENDRO! was an incredibly fun time. I absolutely loved every minute of it. Cute girls going on adventures in a fantasy setting, referencing JRPGs. All things I like a lot.

Katana Maidens ~ Mini TojiYou know you’re off to a good start when the three pairs of main characters are acknowledged as couples. Mini Toji is to Katana Maidens what Girls Band Party! Pico is to BanG Dream!; fun shorts featuring the characters doing silly stuff. As someone who enjoyed Katana Maidens ~ Toji No Miko, this is a fun time.

The Magnificent KOTOBUKIThe first episode of The Magnificent KOTOBUKI didn’t exactly blow me away, but it hasn’t put me off watching it either. It was fairly decent, I suppose. Some music, or dialogue, or something other than the sounds of the planes during the dogfight would have been nice. There wasn’t actually much going on during the first episode; just the introduction of the Kotobuki Flight Squadron and the aforementioned dogfight.

Kemono Friends 2
The first episode of Kemono Friends 2 was actually pretty decent. I know there are some out there who will pass it up due to Tatsuki no longer being involved, but I am not one of those people. Having Serval back on my screen feels great, though I do have to deal with Kaban being MIA, for now at least.
Instead, Serval is accompanied by Caracal and not-Kaban – or, rather, Kyururu. This first episode did make a reference to Kaban, so there is a chance she may show up later on. For now, though, Serval and Caracal are on an adventure to try and get Kyururu back to her home, wherever that may be.
It was a fun episode, which did set up a couple of mysteries. I look forward to seeing how all that plays out.

Now, there are actually a few shows missing from this list that I said I was going to watch. First is Kemurikusa: the reason that isn’t here is because the first episode didn’t really draw me in, and I don’t feel it is worth bothering with an Amazon Prime subscription for it alone.
Circlet Princess and Hulaing Babies were another couple of shows that I intended to watch, but at the time of writing no streaming sites have picked them up. If somebody picks them up then I will start watching them, but for now I’ll just go without.

There is one last show that I shall definitely be watching this winter, and that is Mysteria Friends. However, it doesn’t start airing until January 20th, so it’s a little too late to include here. I’ll probably tweet my initial impression of it or something.

I’m also considering picking up The Price of Smiles. Perhaps I’ll wait for the third episode and watch all three one after the other before I make a final decision there.

Going back to stuff I have actually watched, my top picks this season are ENDRO!, BanG Dream! 2nd Season, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka – of course, they are all shows that I will be covering. If you asked me to round that out to a top five, then I would throw in Bermuda Triange ~ Colorful Pastrale and Kemono Friends 2. Pastel Memories is pretty good, too.