First Look: Banana Fish

Ash Lynx is the 17-year old leader of a New York street gang. Coming across a dying man in an alleyway, who speaks only the words “banana fish” and a street address in California, Ash becomes caught up in the machinations of mob boss Dino Golzine, just as Eiji Okumura, an assistant-photographer from Japan, arrives in New York to carry out a report on street gangs.

First Look: Mr. TONEGAWA Middle Management Blues

Before he met Kaiji, Tonegawa Yukio spent his days watching over operations at Teiai Corporation. However, the president of the company is bored and throws a spanner into his day-to-day, making him organise a ‘game of death’ . It’s up to Tonegawa, and the subordinates he manages, to keep the president happy.

OP/ED Op-Eds: The Best of Spring 2018

Remember when this post came out around the midway point of the season? Well, it sure is the midway point for me, because I am behind on everything! In any case, those of us who do actually watch anime have informed me that this season has been a bit of a dud in the music…

First Look: Jushinki Pandora: LAST HOPE

The development of revolutionary energy technology led to a mass apocalyptic event created by “Evolution Fields,” which have caused biological organisms to merge with technology, leading to monstrous evolution and devastation. In the wake of this apocalyptic event, humans desperately fight against both these monsters and each other for survival.

First Look: Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory

Jumping in right where we left off 13(!) years ago with The Second Raid, Kaname Chidori is once again the target of various military conspiracies and PMC ambushes. Teletha “Tessa” Testarossa’s estranged brother, Leonard, has returned to kidnap Chidori and do various shady bad guy things. Once again, Chidori’s bodyguard/classmate/boyfriend Sousuke Sagara steps up to the plate to deal with it all, preferably while in a giant robot.

First Look: Doreiku – The Animation

The SCM is a device that lets its wearer enslave anyone also wearing an SCM, lest you defeat them in a competition first. While Eiya Arakawa enters a bizarre contract with a Yuuga, a thrill-seeking weirdo keen to try out the device, a girl named Lucie uses hers to serve the man who raped her his just desserts. Yup, this is that kind of show.

First Look: Golden Kamuy

Sugimoto “The Immortal” Saichi is a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War who’s desperate to make some quick cash to help his deceased friend’s widow. Hearing a rumor about a stash of hidden Ainu gold in the Hokkaido wilderness, he teams up with a young Ainu girl named Asirpa on a bloody quest to find it. But they’re not the only ones after the gold. Between mutinous army platoons, political revolutionaries, and the most violent and dangerous criminals Northern Japan has to offer, the duo have their work cut out for them.

First Look: Piano Forest

Ever since he was small, Kai has been playing an abandoned piano in the middle of the forest – one which doesn’t play for anyone else. Shuhei, a new classmate, is the son of a famous pianist who aims to follow in his father’s footsteps. United by the piano in the forest, their paths intertwine.

First Look: Libra of Nil Admirari

In order to help her family, Tsugumi has agreed to marry a man of her father’s choosing whom she has never met. However, before this can happen, Tsugumi’s younger brother tries to commit suicide. The reason: he had in his possession a cursed book that has a strong emotional effect on whoever reads it. Tsugumi is then introduced to the Imperial Library Intelligence Asset Management Bureau, otherwise known as Fukurou, whose job it is to hunt down such cursed tomes.

First Look: Magical Girl Site

Aya Asagiri’s life is a living hell, much like watching this show. Things get better for Aya when a mysterious site offers her magical powers in the form of a toy gun. For us, things just get worse.

First Look: Comic Girls

Kaoruko “Kaos” Moeta is a high schooler trying to make it as a professional manga artist. When her latest work gets released to scathing reviews, her editor suggests she move into a dormitory for female mangaka.

First Look: Captain Tsubasa (2018)

Ōzora Tsubasa has loved playing football (soccer, whatever) since he was a kid, even having his life saved by one. Now aged 11, he’s moved to the city of Nankatsu to attend elementary school, as well as further his football career.

OP/ED Op-Eds: The Best of Winter 2018

This season, eight cute shows entered the ring in a fight to the death. One will reign victorious, but not in this feature, as our overview of the best theme songs of the season has no love for any of the combatants in The Roundup‘s cute show battle royale extravaganza. What do we have, then?…