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Friday, July 15, 2022

1/5 of the top 200 anime are still in production:

160 series are nothing but memories, but 40 remain.  The future is 1/5 the size of the past.  Technically, Pretty Cure and Naruto are still in production, but what is being released isn't great anime anymore so they no longer count.

Let's look at how promising the sequel works of the 40 survivors are.  Let's group it by tiers:

Of Little Interest:

Code Geass Z:  I have no idea what the plot to this series could be, but it feels like anything they do will only tarnish Code Geass' legacy, just like Hanyou no Yashahime and Higurashi Sotsu did.

Dragon Ball:  A full cg movie about Gohan and Piccolo is all that's been announced for this series.  If it wanted to adapt the manga further that would be great, but as things stand meh.

Uma Musume:  Some sort of unorthodox oav's are being made, not sure what to make of it.

Madoka Magica:  I hope this coming movie redeems how horrible the 3rd movie was, but what are the odds?

Mildly Heartening:

Prince of Tennis U-17:  The best Prince of Tennis is long behind us, what's to come is mostly nonsense, but it is a lot of episodes for a famous series.

Bastard!! 2nd cour:  The first cour was a retread of content covered by the oav's, but maybe the 2nd cour will cover all new ground?

DanMachi S4:  This series is touch and go, with highs and lows.  Will season 4 be a high or a low?  Will there be a season 5 and 6?

Hataraku Maou-sama S2:  With 21 volumes of material to cover, what do they hope to accomplish with one 12 episode season after all this time?

Hero Academy S6:  I only really liked S4.  Though I suspect there will be a S7 and S8 as well, so eventually that much material adds up.

Grisaia:  The spinoff series about all new characters continues, but what made Grisaia truly great was the original cast.

Shingeki no Kyojin Final part 3:  I didn't much like the ending to this manga.  Eren dies, betraying everything he said he believed in so that the heroes could pull off a come from behind win.  That doesn't feel earned.

Luminous Witches:  We're getting a long ways away from the original purpose of this show, the war with the Neuroi.

Solid:

One Pace:  At the rate of a few episodes of Wano per year, it's hard to get excited.  But the source work is still good so eventually the end product should be good too.

Sword Art Online Progressive movie 2:  On its own this wouldn't contribute much to the franchise, but I hope it's a harbinger for more Progressive movies to come, and eventually a new Unital Ring tv anime.

Fate Kaleid Liner movie 3:  Will this be the final movie to end the franchise?  The manga would have to actually reach its conclusion first, which sure is taking a while.

Rurouni Kenshin:  I assume the new anime will be about the ongoing Hokkaido arc.  But it could be the Enishi arc, which would be much more exciting.  Or it could be yet another reboot of the Kyoto arc which would be ridiculously stupid.

BanG Dream:  Many more ova's and movies from this franchise await, but they're all in cg, so it isn't as good as it should be.

Interesting:

The Eminence in Shadow:  A great source work to adapt, but with only 12 episodes it won't amount to much.

Ken Tensei:  Ditto.

Extreme Hearts:  Only 12 episodes so how good can it really be?

KonoSuba:  Two seasons have been announced now, but for a mediocre work, so it kinda averages out in terms of excitement level.

Spice and Wolf:  I have a great deal of respect for this series, but another 12 episodes won't do much to cover this sprawling epic.

Hibike! Euphonium:  Kyoto Animation has to recover from that cataclysmic fire and make as beautiful animation as it did in the previous seasons.  Can it?

Edens Zero:  The first season was pretty rocky, hopefully the quality of the story picks up from here.

Princess Principal:  I love these movies, but they are pretty short and they sure take a while to come out.

Girls und Panzer:  Ditto.

Important:

Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest:  Depending on how much of this series they adapt it could be a huge contribution to anime as a whole.

Love Live!:  Between the new Sunshine isekai and the rapidly approaching debut of Superstar S2 we're in good hands.

Idolm@ster:  This series clearly doesn't want to fall behind Love Live!

Sailor Moon Cosmos:  One last arc, two movies to go for a proper adaption of Sailor Moon.  I've waited all my life for this.

Vinland Saga:  It's going to be fun watching the tonal shift from the first season, from raider to humble slave farmhand.

Youjo Senki S2:  How will they get back on track after all the filler in the movie?

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear S2:  I doubt a second season will do much but add more fluffy fun.

Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko:  Ditto.

Yama no Susume S4:  The first regular length edition of Yama no Susume, this should be a huge lift to the quality of the series as a whole.

Shadows House S2:  I hope they can reveal the mystery of Shadows House by the end of the season.  I doubt they'll ever make a S3 so this is our last chance.

Master Class:

Spy x Family 2nd Cour:  After an incredible start the story continues in October.  Hopefully the anime won't end there though.  Once the manga gets a little further down the road, I expect a season 2.  This has been a worldwide sensation after all.

Utawarerumono S3:  The third game in this trilogy is the best of the trilogy.  The anime adaption of it is going to be a masterpiece.  It's so horrible that we're missing the voice of Haku for it, Keiji Fujiwara's death will forever taint this product.

Kimetsu no Yaiba:  I expect many more seasons to come after the Swordsmith Village arc.  The ending of this manga is perfect so I expect the anime to be too.

Bleach:  The ending to this manga was pretty awful, but we're still talking about massive amounts of new Bleach content before that moment.  All of it just as good as what came before.  And hey, maybe the anime will make an improved version of the ending, now that the author has had years to come up with a better idea than that stupid 'silver arrow'?

On the Horizon:

We're still waiting to see the Macross Delta movie that came out in Japan long ago.  A new Precure season could be better than the current one.  Maybe Koutetsujou will get a sequel some day?  If some of the series listed above are well received, maybe they'll get sequels that will make their length and thus quality more meaningful.  Honzuki no Gekokujou did say 'to be continued.'  There are some great stories out there I've read that haven't had any anime adaption announcement yet, but they're recent works so they still have a chance.

Out of these 40 upcoming additions, about half of them are going to happen this year.  Which means we're going to rapidly go from '1/5' of anime is still alive to '1/10'.  There's lots of stuff to look forward to this year, but after that. . . 

Overall the trend I'm seeing is anime fading away into irrelevancy as a hobby and video games picking up the slack.  Only four truly vital anime left to come?  But plenty of video games -- Dragon Quest XII, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Star Ocean Divine Force, Tales of Arise, Xenoblade Chronicles 3. . . Fire Emblem Three Houses has given me as much fun as the last couple years of anime.

Because I have to rewatch all great anime to prove it's great, anime will live on a year or two longer than its final air date for me.  It's a harsh standard to meet, so it will be a relief when new great content stops coming out and I can finally catch up with what's already been released.  It would let me fulfill a longstanding oath.

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