Blue Reflection Ray: Boring, disjointed and creepy. The use of CG for all moving objects including people creates an uncanny valley effect. It looks like anime but it isn't. If the plot were any good it could make up for this, but instead we just have a bunch of silent, motionless, empty scenes that say nothing and do nothing. In fact, when something important is about to be said it's literally covered up by a passing train. When the story takes pains not to be told you know there's something wrong. And the random mecha attack at the beginning has nothing to do with the rest of the series and ends up being both bizarre and pointless. Fail.
86: A good start. It reminds me of Schwarzesmarken and Valkyria Chronicles. Perhaps a bit of 1984 and Hunger Games mixed in. I don't expect anything special from this series but it's an original setting and concept which lets it rise above the competition. Pass.
Shadows House: Speaking of original settings and concepts this one takes the cake. A Victorian age mansion full of 'shadows' and 'living dolls' who serve them. I've never seen anything like it, and the art style is grand enough to totally immerse you into this new world. There are a lot of mysteries here to serve -- for instance, are the 'living dolls' really dolls? Or kidnapped humans? Or perhaps the actual shadow's selves and the shadows are the fake identities? Who knows. I doubt we'll know much even by the end of the anime, because it's adapting an ongoing series. But hopefully we'll know a bit more than we do now, like how all these weird things originated and why. Pass.
Slime Taoshite 300-nen: I've read the manga so I know everything that's going to happen in this anime, and I came in thinking it would be okay. But it exceeded my expectations by a great deal. It's the same story, it's following the manga exactly, but the addition of color, motion, detail, voice and music is so huge. It feels like a totally different story! It's leveled up to max! They really went all out on the production value, totally different from Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear. Maybe I'll get used to it, or maybe I'll have to add it to my top anime rankings. . .Pass.
Tokyo Revengers: This reminds me a lot of Boku Dake ga Inai Machi. A guy with a lame life is given the incredible power of time travel and uses it to save an unfortunate girl from his past. The only difference this time is that the guy is lamer than ever, the girl is a little bit older than last time, and for some reason the problem is juvenile delinquents instead of a serial killer. I'm not fond of juvenile delinquents or stories that waste any time on them. (Do they still even exist in Japan, or are they an urban legend at this point?) But I am fond of Boku Dake ga Inai Machi. So overall as a weaker clone it still makes muster. Pass.
Fumetsu no Anata e: A story about a rock which became a wolf but retained the power of immortality, then met a boy who inscrutably died of a disease in the middle of the arctic (he was all alone so where did he catch the disease from????), then the rock-wolf became a rock-boy, still with the power of immortality. So this immortal boy will then brave the arctic with no risk and no need for intellect or anything because it's immortal. It doesn't even need to eat. So this no-risk situation for a no-mind rock will be the rest of the story. Fail.
Osananajimi ga Zettai ni Makenai LoveCome: There's way too much violence in this series. Assault, property destruction, and slander all occur like it's commonplace and acceptable. Also, he shouldn't string Kuro along by taking advantage of her as she throws herself at him by never definitively turning her down. This is supposed to be a love comedy, which are happy themes, and yet everything that happens in the episode makes you feel queasy and uncomfortable. Fail.
That's everybody. A disappointing spring season that really only had the successes I expected it to have. No literal dark horse like Uma Musume this time.
Currently the weekly airing anticipation rating looks like this:
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