First Look: All Out!!

The anime industry needs another group of schoolboys to sell their merchandise, and it seems the sports genre is popular right now. With no swimming, basketball or volleyball this season, it’s rugby’s time to shine.

First Look: Flip Flappers

Cocona is an ordinary middle school girl in an ordinary town, but one day she runs into the mysterious Papika, a sky-surfing girl accompanied by a fussy robot. Together they’re spirited away to the world of Pure Illusion, a mysterious alternate dimension full of whimsy and danger.

First Look: Yuri!!! On ICE

Anime Original by Mappa Streaming on Crunchyroll Premise Yuri Katsuki is a professional figure skater. After an embarrassing loss in one of skating’s top tournaments, he gets in a rut and ends up moving back to his hometown. Determined to shake his depression, his renewed passion unintentionally draws the attention of his idol, world champion Victor Nikiforov.

The Catch-Up: Fall 2016

After the Wrap-Up and the Roundup, it’s time for the Catch-Up! Because it’s a bit silly to write a ‘first look’ post on shows that aren’t technically new, the Catch-Up gathers our brief impressions on new seasons of existing shows and reminds readers what we thought about their earlier installments. The Fall season is bringing us new episodes of Sound! Euphonium, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Ajin, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and Glorio Blog favourite BBK/BRNK. What’s remained the same and what’s new or different? We’re here to help you find out.

First Look: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid

Emu Hojo is both a trainee doctor and also a lover of video games. These two sides to his life come together in an unexpected way one day when he discovers the existence of a deadly virus threatening humanity, known as the Bugster. Now he’ll have to battle the viruses’ monstrous manifestations as the gaming doctor, Kamen Rider Ex-Aid!

Actually, it’s about Medics in Games Journalism.

First Look: ViVid Strike!

Fuka Reventon is an orphaned girl who struggles to get by and often resorts to street fighting. Found beaten up and abandoned by Einhardt Stratos, a member of the Nakajima gym, she’s offered the chance to join their martial arts team and come face to face with a friend from her past.

First Look: www.Working!!

Daisuke Higashida is forced to get a part-time job after his dad’s company goes out of business. With his options limited, he decides to apply at the local Wagnaria, which as a chain, and in a remarkable moment of sensibility in an utterly senseless show, is a totally different restaurant from the original. Here, he meets some one dimensional weirdos that you hope will be fleshed out but probably won’t, and has a beatific vision of St. Valentine. Not lying about that last part, by the way.

First Look: Magical Girl Raising Project

Koyuki Himekawa’s dreams come true when her favourite mobile game grants her the opportunity to become a real-life magical girl. Keen to try out her new powers helping people and gathering ‘Magic Candies’ to enhance her abilities, Koyuki soon finds out she’s not the only magical girl in town. Though soon, she might be…

First Look: Izetta, The Last Witch

During Totally-Not-World-War-II, the princess of Totally-Not-Switzerland works to protect her country from Totally-Not-Nazi-Germany. This includes saving and befriending the eponymous Izetta, whose magical powers will almost certainly be the key to ending the war.

First Look: Time Bokan 24

The 24th Century Time-Space Administration Bureau has a mission – to travel through time and find the ‘True History’ of every era, disproving the false lies that have been printed in the history textbooks. Ordinary 21st Century middle schooler Tokio is somehow roped into this crazy quest and together with his partner Karen and their motley crew they’ll have to save history from the bad guys.

First Look: Tiger Mask W

Under the leadership of the mysterious Miss X, the Global Wrestling Monopoly is coming to Japan to take down its biggest stars. They’re led by a mysterious masked man known only as Tiger the Dark. Japan’s only hope is its own wrestling superstar, the legendary Tiger Mask!

First Look: Magic-Kyun! Renaissance

Kohana Aigasaki is a new transfer student at Hoshinomori Private Magical Arts High School, where teen Artistas – people whose magic allows them to create sparkly, sparkly art – are taught how to create even better sparkles and maybe also get into show business.

The Wrap-Up: Summer 2016

If you go about doing a season preview, it is only obvious you also close off on a season review. In The Wrap-Up, all of our contributors get to shine a spotlight on the show they thought to be the very best of the past few weeks, as well as reflect back on the preview to see which shows let us down the most. When you watch currently airing anime or tokusatsu, eventually the question will rise which of these shows can rank amongst the medium’s true classics. Regardless of who covered what, this is where we single out the cream of the crop, and decide which shows from the past season deserve to stand the test of time.