Part 2 of our guide features the much anticipated anime adaptation of The Promised Neverland and… not much else. Surely we will find some suprises as we always do, but hard to say for now. Let us know what you think, and we’ll have some first looks up for you soon.​

If you missed Part 1 of our guide, check it out here.
You can also listen to our season preview podcast here.

The Promised Neverland

Yakusoku no Neverland

Manga Adaptation by CloverWorks Air Date: 1/10/2019

Director: Mamoru Kanbe Series Composition: Toshiya Ono

Arguably the most broadly anticipated new show of the season, The Promised Neverland is the latest big name Weekly Shonen Jump manga to make the leap to TV. The story centers on three orphans living a seemingly perfect life until they discover the truth surrounding them. I don’t know much about it personally, but it looks like a prison break show starring kids? I’ve heard a lot of positive things from the rest of the GLORIO crew and others so this is one to keep an eye one.

Revisions

Anime Original by Shirogumi Air Date: 1/10/2019

Director: Goro Taniguchi Series Composition: Makoto Fukami

Five friends are transported to future Japan to pilot mechs and save the past. Sure, why not? Well I’ll tell you why: 1. it’s all CG. Watching the trailer it looks like they’ve gone through great effort to make it look as much like a traditional anime as possible, but no one has quite figured out how to shake that uncanny valley look yet. 2. it’s a Netflix show, so we probably can’t legally watch it for another six to nine months. We’ll all forget it exists by then. Goro Taniguchi deserves better.
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Girly Air Force

Light Novel Adaptation by Satelight Air Date: 1/10/2019

Director: Katsumi Ono Series Composition: Shingo Nagai

This is the first of two “Girls in Fighter Planes” shows this season, so we’ll see if this becomes a trend like airsoft a few years ago. The name pretty much says it all: it’s robot girls flying some kind of techno-magic jets. Shockingly this is not a gacha game but I have to imagine that is the goal based on the character art. There’s not much else to go on but I’ll be shocked if this turns out to be anything memorable.​

The Quintessential Quintuplets

5-Toubun no Hanayome

Manga Adaptation by Tezuka Productions Air Date: 1/11/2019

Director: Satoshi Kuwabara Series Composition: Keiichirou Oochi

Dude picks up a tutoring job and discovers his students are hot quintuplet sisters who hate studying. Hilarity ensues??? The trailer looks pretty unremarkable and the quintuplet thing just seems like a gimmick to make this seem different than a billion other harem shows. At least the technical production looks nice and they did put out for some top notch voice talent, so if you just want some cute anime girls here you go.​

Grimms Notes the Animation

Game Adaptation by Brain’s Base Air Date: 1/11/2019

Director: Seiki Sugawara Series Composition: Hiroshi Yamaguchi

It’s a gacha game featuring cute anime versions of traditional fairy tale characters. I got a deadline here so NEXT!
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Domestic Girlfriend

Domestic na Kanojo

Manga Adaptation by Diomedea Air Date: 1/12/2019

Director: Shouta Ihata Series Composition: Tatsuya Takahashi

Our hero is in love with his teacher but ends up sleeping with another girl out of frustration. Then his dad comes home and reveals he has a new wife with two daughters, his teacher and the girl he just had sex with. What a coincidence! That dumb setup sure makes it hard to take this show as seriously as it seems to be demanding of us, seeing as the trailer is the most sexually frustrated teen angsty thing I’ve seen since Scum’s Wish. I’ll gladly eat my words if I’m wrong, but this looks bad.
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Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka

Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka

Manga Adaptation by Liden Films Air Date: 1/12/2019

Director: Hideyo Yamamoto Series Composition: Norimitsu Kaihou

Three years ago, a squad of magical girls defeated an evil force and saved the world. Now the bad guys are back, and it’s up to the girls to defend earth once more. The twist? THEY HAVE GUNS AND IT’S BLOODY AND STUFF. The concept is actually OK, but watching the trailer the execution just seems… uninspired. I mean, it looks like they just literally handed guns to some factory standard magical girls. I think we can do better than that.
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Bermuda Triangle: Colorful Pastrale

Anime Original by Seven Arcs Air Date: 1/12/2019

Director: Junji Nishimura Series Composition: Michiko Yokote

Mermaid idols who spend most their time just hanging out. I also expect this to be a gacha game someday. NEXT!​

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Kaguya-sama wa Kakurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen

 

Manga Adaptation by A-1 Pictures Air Date: 1/12/2019

Director: Shinichi Omata Series Composition: Yasuhiro Nakanishi

Voted “most likely to be the C-list rom com that wins over Jel and Marlin”, the premise of this has potential: two top geniuses at a school for geniuses fall in love but are too proud to confess to each other. Instead, they play elaborate mind games with each other to try and make the other one confess first. I’ll admit I’m still a little burned by last season’s like minded Boarding School Juliet and the message that “love is a weakness” is dangerous territory to tread. I’m assuming the point of the show will be debunking it, but that would require the author having the skills to handle it. I’ll give it a shot, but I’m skeptical.​

Endro!

Anime Original by Studio Gokumi Air Date: 1/13/2019

Director: Kaori Komori Series Composition: Takashi Aoshima

This appears to be a “cute girls doing cute things show” except the random club activity is SLAYING THE DEMON KING. Unfortunately descriptions of the show explicitly say this is not a priority, and the trailer ends with shots of prototypes for the PVC figures of the girls. So you can probably see where this is going. It’s too bad because it could be a fun concept, I’m just not seeing any evidence they will take advantage of it.​

The Magnificent Kotobuki

Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai

Anime Original by GEMBA Air Date: 1/13/2019

Director: Tsutomu Mizushima Series Composition: Michiko Yokote

The second girls in airplanes show sounds a lot better than the first: a group of lady mercenary fighter pilots scraping by out in the wastelands is great setup. Unfortunately it’s being handled by GEMBA, who’s only credit is the recent ugly CG version of Berserk so yeah… to rub salt in the wound, it’s being made by a lot of the key staff from Shirobako which had people wondering if this could have been the in-universe anime series from that show. Too bad this isn’t being made by Musashino Animation (or P.A. Works), I’d actually be looking forward to it.​