Goodness gracious, everytime I turn around it’s time to either say goodbye or say hello to some damn anime around here. Load up on pumpkin spice and Thanksgiving favorites my friends because it’s time to welcome in the fall boys. There’s actually a large amount of anime airing this season, but because a large portion of them are season two or three to series I missed out on, my list is fairly short again. Thank you, Kami-sama.

Tokyo Revengers Tenjiku-hen

Uh, listen I’ll be honest. I’ve been tainted by the massive disappointment expressed by the manga-reading portion of the fanbase. People are saying this series had one of the most drastic fall-offs in manga storytelling. I shit you not, I’ve been seeing people say something “Tokyo Revenged” itself as a verb meaning the series or person in question went from being pretty decent to complete ass. Apparently this arc is the last calm before the storm in terms of quality, but really I’m already worried about losing interest as we just seem to keep repeating similar story beats over and over again, and Takemichi’s dumbass eternally stays a few steps behind the audience. Luckily I’ll have Kinky to watch this with to power through, but I’m afraid this series has gone from an easy recommendation to a reserved “well, if you really love middle schoolers pretending to be gangsters, I guess…”.

Shy

The main character of this shit may be Shy, but I won’t be. The three episodes of this series did jack shit of convincing me why it’s worth a watch. The characters are generic heroes we’ve seen a million times over, the plotline is barebones basic so far, the superpowers aren’t that unique or fresh, and we spend a lot of time on repetitive anime stereotypes. The animation is by far and away the most impressive aspect, as I did think the show was looking extra crispy. However, it ain’t crispy enough for me to justify continuing watching this. If I hear one more hero protagonist say “I want to work hard to get strong and save EVERYONE!” I’m going to blow my brains out. Dropped for me, but those who are still loving the superhero craze may enjoy it.

Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri

After Undead Murder Farce last season, I was shocked to see another mystery anime on the docket for this fall after proclaiming that anime mysteries are rare. What I should have said is that good anime mysteries are rare, and this series proved my point exactly in three episodes. This shit is so close to being an enjoyable watch for me. However, it’s held back by copious amounts of “comedy” and light-hearted jokes, the inclusion of a supernatural power whose rules aren’t defined, and mysteries that go by so fast and offer limited information so that it’s hard to solve alongside the main characters. Episode three slowed down the pace of the mystery as it introduced the first multi-episode storyline, and I thought the series was about to improve. It almost did too. But unfortunately, the way it slowed down the pacing was by injecting a ton more jokes into the episode that had that generic anime comedy feel. Oh my goodness, a woman went into the men’s hot springs area by accident! Haha, how humorous! Ah and how can I forget that we just HAD to include an organization of detectives who act as Espada and are trying to track down the main characters? Overall this shit was close, but no cigar. I got my fill of good mystery writing from Undead Murder Farce and I will drop this one moving forward.

Overtake

I picked this racing shit up as a joke under the agreement that Kinky would check out MF Ghost and report back to me. Somehow, someway, this fucking formula racing series has had an amazing start. Solid directing, clean animation (minus the CG pls forgive them), and intriguing characters have set this series apart from other niche/hobby focused anime. These early episodes have struck an amazing balance between explaining the details of the sport and its intricacies while also building characters and progressing the plot. I’m dumbfounded at how much I care about a cameraman in a show about cars going fast. So far this is my favorite of the season and if you’ve ever been interested in racing but didn’t know where to start, this shit should definitely be on your radar.

Under Ninja

There’s dry humor, and then there’s desert humor, and boys I hope you packed some water because we’re headed to the sands. One of my friends recommended this to me before it got an anime, and I can see why. It’s a very unique experience that sets it apart from other series. From the constant jumping around of timelines and characters to the ridiculous plotline and abilities, this story about two ninja factions is anything but conventional. Some may argue it’s a bit too out there and I think I may end up joining that club if a season two is announced. So far this seems like a perfect one season wonder to offer something different to anime fans, without risking going on for too long and falling into the trap of stagnation. We’ll see if this project can find the right balance of progress for twelve episodes.

Sousou no Frieren

To be completely real, I actively tried to dislike this anime when I turned it on. Why? Because it fucked me over by releasing four episodes early. While everything else is chilling around episode three or four right now, this series is already on episode seven. Unfortunately for my schedule, I couldn’t help but enjoy it. This series is very reminiscent of Mushoku Tensei as it's a fantasy adventure that focuses more on the journey of life and character interactions rather than action. Some fights and conflicts are present, however they are absolutely not the main focus. Instead we center our story around Frieren, an elf with an incredibly long lifespan who is interested in magic spells and learning more about humans. The character writing has shown extreme promise in these first few installments and I’m afraid I’m hooked. Time to put my ass into high gear and catch up to the current episode. 

Undead Unluck

I went back and forth whether to check this out or not, but I’m glad I finally did. This is about a guy who can’t die and a girl who brings bad luck working together to fulfill their goals. Fantastic animation and a classic group of Espada have kept my interest, especially since our main characters’ goal at the moment is to actually join the Espada instead of taking all of them down. I hope they succeed in that mission because it’s a lot more original than the anime trope of fighting an organization of numbered bad guys. So far this has been a fun ride to sit back and relax with, I just hope we can keep the energy going throughout the season.

Apart from having to bust ass to catch up to Sousou, this is shaping up to be another relaxed season for me. Thank god I dropped so many anime returning back for additional seasons this go around. That means there’s plenty of extra time to deal with the holiday festivities. What anime are you watching this fall? Are you diving back into a lot of the sequel seasons or are you focusing on new series? What are you enjoying or disliking so far? Bust out the sweaters, heat up some soup, and say hello to Fall Anime 2023 in the comments below!