Autumn Streaming 2023 has been filled with surprises – mostly pleasant ones! A latecomer, The Apothecary Diaries, turned out to be one of the strongest debuts all year and Frieren started strong and has continued to maintain its high standards. Yet this season also brought us the final episodes of what has evolved into one the most divisive fan-favourite shows of the last decade: Attack on Titan. And what of the ‘other series’, some continuations like Jujutsu Kaisen and The Ancient Magus’ Bride, others brand-new titles like OVERTAKE! and The Yuzuki Family’s 4 Sons ? Which series impressed our writers at Anime UK News?
Demelza
Hotly Anticipated
At the start of the Autumn season, I talked fondly about Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions, a series which continued to be a firm favourite for me and now has a Season 2 on the way! But rather than talk about Ron again, I’ve decided to switch focus to Tearmoon Empire – another of my hotly anticipated.
This series follows the story of Mia, a selfish princess who is publicly executed by guillotine after leading the empire to ruin. However, instead of dying, Mia finds herself waking up in the past as her twelve-year-old self. Gifted with an opportunity to do her life over, Mia strives to avoid a future that ends with her being guillotined!
So far so generic I’m sure I hear you say, particularly as this fits firmly in the ‘villainess’ genre that’s oh-so popular right now. However, while Tearmoon Empire is about Mia avoiding a bad end, it’s a lot more comedic in how it achieves that. As a 12-year-old, Mia is quite spoiled and not used to involving herself in the politics of the country. So she often slips up and says things she shouldn’t in her haste to avoid a bad end, but due to having highly talented people around her (who respect her in this timeline), her proclamations are often misunderstood! These misunderstandings lead to a far better outcome than would have otherwise happened, so it all works out somehow and it’s fun to see the way the situations play out.
Based on a popular light novel series (15 volumes and counting!) and adapted to TV anime by studio Silver Link there’s a good pedigree here. The team have taken bits of both the light novel and later manga adaptation (largely for Mia’s facial expressions) and brought it to life wonderfully. As someone who reads the source material, I was pleased with how this has turned out and I think newcomers to it will find plenty to enjoy as well. There’s a bright colour palette, a likeable cast of characters and a story that’s easy to engage with. Certainly, if you like these kinds of stories I’d recommend checking this one out!
Returning Champion
As with my original choice for ‘Hotly Anticipated’, I won’t bore you with more commentary on The Eminence in Shadow. It stayed excellent, there’s more of it to come in the form of a movie and it remains a series I am fond of. Instead, let’s talk about Spy x Family Season 2. We reunite with our cast just as Anya’s family seems as if it’s on the rocks. Yor is in a bad mood having gotten hurt in a fight, but Loid thinks it’s his fault and tries to cheer her up with a date. Unfortunately, Yor is in so much pain that she struggles to enjoy it and Loid thinks he’s simply making everything worse! But Anya and Franky are tailing them and quickly set a plan in motion to fix everything.
Most of Season 2 is made up of relatively short stories showing the daily lives of our cast, but once we get to Episode 5 we begin the main arc. Yor has been tasked with guarding Olka Gretcher and her son, the sole survivors of a crime family who are on the run and aiming to escape to a neutral country. To do this, they’ll need to board a cruise ship. While this is a work trip for Yor, Loid and Anya win a trip on the cruise in a raffle so they’re not far from the action! Because of her family being in attendance (and the events of Episode 1) Yor begins to worry about continuing her job where she ends up with inexplicable injuries and that leads to difficulties on the mission, particularly when Gretcher is targeted by thugs on board.
As we’ve come to expect from Spy x Family, this longer storyline is filled with comedic antics due to Anya, but it’s also heartfelt and doesn’t shy away from the realities of the situation Yor and Loid are in, given their jobs. This is Yor’s arc, where we finally get to spend a substantial amount of time digging into her feelings. Loid and Anya certainly have a part to play, but they end up largely sidelined which frankly is fine. Yor deserves this time in the spotlight and it’s rewarding for us viewers.
And all of this is, of course, helped by the excellent production. The combination of studios CloverWorks and Wit Studio provides us with some wonderful animation (and some of the best fight scenes of the Autumn anime it has to be said), while group (K)NoW_NAME provide some great music. I wouldn’t say it’s the group’s best work, but toward the end of the season, it kicked up a notch.
Unexpected Diamond
For my ‘Unexpected Diamond’, I previously picked Shangri-la Frontier, which is continuing into the Winter season. And while that has remained one of my favourites this season, a bigger surprise for me as Autumn went on ended up being The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You.
This one tells the story of unlucky in-love Aijo Rentaro, who has asked out one hundred girls and been rejected every single time. In desperation, he prays for guidance and then learns from god that all his rejections are due to a cosmic error! To set things right, god makes adjustments to ensure Aijo gets to go on one hundred dates but something goes wrong and now one hundred girls are destined to be his soulmate! Worse still, should Rentaro reject any of them, the girls are fated to die in horrible accidents! Now girls are asking Rentaro out left and right, starting with classmates Hakari Hanazono and Karane Inda.
On paper, this series should be everything I dislike. It’s one big harem series with no good reason for the girls to fall in love. However, 100 Girlfriends prides itself on its comedy and fourth-wall-breaking gags. Each of the girls ends up being an archetype of some kind (Karane is a tsundere and we meet a quiet bookworm, a stellar student and a mad scientist as things go on), but they’re very well written. It’s clear the author is very knowledgeable about these tropes and puts a lot of work into making sure the characters fit their archetypes without being shallow. As the series continues, it’s hard not to fall in love with Rentaro and his girlfriends. While the premise is set up in such a way where his destined soulmates are just going to fall in love at first sight, it has to be said that Rentaro works quite hard to put any of their fears or troubles to bed and it feels as if he deserves these relationships far more than I expected.
And unlike this season of Girlfriend, Girlfriend, here in 100 Girlfriends all of the girls are supportive of Rentaro dating more than one of them at once. They build firm friendships with one another, helping each other keep the relationship fair and generally being far more respectful than I could have ever anticipated. Given the series is based on a manga with 16+ volumes currently out in Japan, I’m sure it comes as no surprise to learn that this title also has a second season in the works – which I for one can’t wait to see.
Tearmoon Empire, Spy x Family and The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You are all available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Sarah
Hotly Anticipated
My New Boss is Goofy (Crunchyroll) from A-1 Pictures continued to be a heart-warming watch to the very end. While it has undeniable BL overtones (and it wouldn’t have hurt if it had just acknowledged them), it was more about the way Momose (badly traumatized by an abusive boss to the point of developing stomach problems from stress) is gradually healed by the kindly and nurturing nature of his new boss Shirosaki who just so happens to be ‘goofy’ (a word I still hate, America, and would rather replace by a blend of ‘distracted, oblivious, absent-minded’.
Hakutou, the white kitten the two rescue, is the real star of the show and his tsundere attitude combined with his cute appearance (and the studio animate him in a very lifelike way) make for many cherishable sequences. The gentle (sometimes eccentric) humour balances out the fact that it deals realistically with a serious problem still encountered in the workplace and the two themes work well together. Delightful and insightful from start to finish.
Returning Champion
And donghua Heaven Official’s Blessing Season 2 (Crunchyroll) continues to amaze and delight with its beautiful artwork, attractive music and intriguingly different adaptation of the (now) famous danmei series by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (currently available from Seven Seas). This story of gods and powerful ghosts – more specifically the kindly-intentioned but unlucky prince Xie Lian and his encounters with one of the Four Calamities, the ghost king, Hua Cheng – first appeared from Chinese studio Bilibili in 2020 and now we’re being treated to the second season.
Unexpected Diamond
OVERTAKE! from TROYCA and Kadokawa more than fulfilled my hopes that it would bring the various character predicaments and challenges it had set up to a satisfying conclusion. It didn’t shy away from exploring the unresolved trauma still blighting freelance photographer Koya Madoka’s life and career – but, to its credit, the flashbacks were starkly effective, (even more chillingly so, given recent events in 2024) heightening the impact on the viewer. And it quietly developed the friendship between Koya and the young F4 racing driver Haruka, not forgetting the father-and-son team running Komaki Motors on a shoestring because they love what they’re doing. Their rivals, the well-resourced team at Belsorriso, are also sympathetically developed, bringing some surprise revelations along the way. The racing scenes on the track continue to be excitingly and convincingly portrayed until the final flag comes down. It’s an engrossing, well-paced and believable watch from start to finish; highly recommended, even if you (like me) haven’t come across F4 before. Just watch it; it’s good!
… and Just Unexpected
Kawagoe Boys Sing – Now or Never. What to make of this? It looked so attractive from the initial description. Headmistress of a prestigious school challenges her orchestral conductor grandson Haruo Hibiki (who’s just been thrown out of his job for behaving atrociously to his players) to form a boys’ choir and win at the upcoming national choral competition. Supported by the long-suffering school music teacher Rika Iijime (who does all the hard work and accompanies on piano too!) Hibiki grudgingly agrees (Grandma will help him to get back to professional conducting if he succeeds) and gathers an unconventional bunch of personalities from the school students. There’s a lot here that’s promising as a premise and yet the music side, the whole point of the series, surely, is pathetically awful and disappointing. If you’re going to create a show about singers, then for heaven’s sake, commission some decent music for them to sing! Hibiki is – mostly – portrayed as unsympathetic and self-obsessed to the point of parody with some unexpected redeeming moments. The characters look good (Ebimo, credited with the original character design is also responsible for the character designs for High Card) but I have to wonder whether the increasingly bizarre plot has been put together by AI?
Oh – and one of the strangest ‘cute’ (but not-cute) mascot creatures in recent anime – a honey badger named Ratel which appears to be the headmistress’s pet. Ratel has not been seen in more recent episodes. I wonder why…
My New Boss is Goofy, Heaven Official’s Blessing, OVERTAKE! and Kawagoe Boys Sing – Now or Never are available to stream on Crunchyroll.
HWR
Returning Champions
Dr. Stone: New World’s second cour was quite the treat as Senkuu and company face off with the greedy Minister Ibara, who possesses a device named ‘Medusa’ which can turn people to stone at will.
This leads to a tense second half to the story as our heroes duke it out with Ibara and his strongest warrior, Moz, to get possession of the device and figure out its origins, opening up the conclusion of the storyline in the process.
I’ve been championing this series for a while now in these articles and that’s because the series has maintained my interest, but has also remained engaging and is gearing up for what looks to be a great finale.
Dark Gathering was my choice for unexpected diamond back when the first cour wrapped, and this second half has been solid as well, continuing the supernatural horror-happenings and how the protagonists Keitarou Gentouga, Eiko Houzuki and Yayoi Houzuki deal with the various scenarios and try and save anyone caught in the middle.
I mentioned, too, that this was a suitable watch during October and it certainly fit the mood nicely, especially with horror-focused anime being a rarer breed amongst the isekai boom. My only irk with the second run of episodes this season was that the final episodes and their content weren’t quite as strong as what came before in other stories, but I still enjoyed them overall, and am very much hoping for a second season in the future.
Unexpected Diamond
At the start of the season I highlighted a duology of racing anime as a nice surprise to have in the same season, and though MF Ghost was fairly entertaining, OVERTAKE! was the winner of the race, so to speak, becoming one of my favourites this season as well.
An original anime project, OVERTAKE! and its more behind-the-scenes approach to storytelling allowed for some real depth to its characters, especially the lead, freelance photographer Koya Madoka, as he befriends high school F4 racer Haruka Asahina during a session at the Fuji International Speedway.
The two gradually form a bond that allows them both to open up in different ways, and also confront some past work-related traumas along the way, all whilst being inspired by the racing setting which allows for some tense moments as said races get underway. The dramatic elements of the story worked well, and Madoka’s past traumas were well-handled, delving into the ethics of photography but also the consequence of bottling said trauma and how it can have long-lasting effects. This was worth watching for the racing aspects alone, but the deeper story made it all the better.
DR. STONE New World Part 2 and OVERTAKE! are available to stream on Crunchyroll, whilst Dark Gathering is available on HIDIVE.
Rui
Hotly Anticipated
I’m probably cheating by praising The Apothecary Diaries again because it’s continuing into the Winter season, but it really has been a breath of fresh air amongst all of the lesser adaptations in recent years. The music is excellent and the artwork is beautiful, but more than anything the characters come across as genuine, three-dimensional beings as they awkwardly navigate their way through political intrigues, unfamiliar social structures and medical mysteries every week. I love almost all of the characters, even the crummy ones, and while I think I’ve figured out some aspects of the overarching storyline there’s enough unexplained that I’m still impatiently waiting for the next episode so that I can learn a little more! I’ve also become a big fan of the opening theme, Hana Ni Natte by Ryokuoushoku Shakai. The Apothecary Diaries is definitely my show of the season.
Returning Champions
No contest for me here: the second season of Heaven Official’s Blessing has been a solid adaptation all season long and it has continued to hold my interest throughout the autumn, supported by genuinely impressive movie-quality visuals. I’m so glad that it’s found a home on more mainstream platforms like Crunchyroll (and hopefully Netflix after a delay, like the first season?) because it deserves to be available to as many viewers as possible. The other sequels in my watchlist have been a more mixed bag; The Faraway Paladin has been a serviceable fantasy romp, while Spy x Family has continued to provide the glossy, uneven storytelling that comes with constantly switching focus between the grab-bag of genres it covers. I still enjoy Hypnosis Mic but it’s very much a ‘switch your brain off and enjoy the craziness’ kind of show, whereas Heaven Official’s Blessing is the real deal. I have to pay attention to everything that happens because everything that happens actually matters, and for that reason I feel much closer to the characters and story than the others.
Unexpected Diamond
While I chose to highlight 16bit Sensation: Another Layer in the preview article, I have to confess that I haven’t managed to watch the last few episodes yet – and given how strange the plot became at points, it wouldn’t feel right to praise the show without knowing whether or not it sticks the landing. So instead, I’m going to be thoroughly unoriginal and join in with the enthusiasm for OVERTAKE!, an excellent marriage between hot-blooded motorsport and off-track drama. At first I assumed that the F4 elements would be the sole highlight and at best we’d get to dive into the hero’s struggles to stand up to the pressures of the sport, but it became clear very early in the show’s run that it wasn’t afraid to explore the darker side of being a person in the public eye as well, and I appreciated its mature, realistic approach to some often-harrowing themes. While it could easily have been a throwaway action show and found an audience all the same, the team behind it had higher aspirations and ended up making something much more memorable.
I’d like to give Migi & Dali a special mention as well, for being far and away the weirdest experience of the season, in a positive way (I didn’t stick with Kawagoe Boys Sing – Now or Never like Sarah)! Migi & Dali definitely works best in small doses rather than being marathoned, but I went in not knowing what to expect and very much appreciated how it somehow managed to be on par with early JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure in its shameless insanity.
The Apothecary Diaries, Heaven Official’s Blessing, and OVERTAKE! are all available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Cold Cobra
Returning Champion
Not a great deal drew me in this season, at least nothing that hasn’t already been talked about here, but what I will talk about is the end of a show that technically started in the previous season but really got its momentum up, and boy that momentum didn’t stop, though maybe it should’ve at least slowed down a bit!
Yes, Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season was split into two parts, though the second part made up the majority of episodes, and they were really quite the stark contrast to each other. The first part focused on a flashback arc with super-over-powered Satoru Gojo and series antagonist-before-he-was-bad Suguru Geto and told a concise and focused story both on Gojo becoming more comfortable with his power at the expense of failing a major mission and a good look at how Geto fell to the “dark side” and became our lead antagonist (well… sort of…) The other 18 episodes however return to the present and focus on “Geto” and his group of powerful Curses developing a plan to seal away Satoru Gojo as his overpowered nature is the only thing holding them back. It, too, is a simple plot with possibilities but what happens instead is that plot gets resolved a few episodes in and in its place is a non-stop roller coaster ride of large-scale epic battle after epic battle, with many characters getting gravely wounded only to appear again later for another epic battle and another, until by the end I was, to my surprise, getting bored of the admittedly still really well animated fighting (so full credit to the animation team, who were sadly by all accounts treated horribly during this show’s creation…)
Basically ‘The Shibuya Incident Arc’ is a good example of too much of a good thing becoming a bad thing, especially spread over 18 weeks; there really was a sense of “okay that’s all well and good but when is the plot going to actually move forward?” Now, I know I’m Mr. Shonen Anime on this website, have been since I started, so I’m not saying you can’t enjoy it, hell given how much I loved Dragon Ball Z in my late teens/early 20s (and therefore still do today through the power of nostalgia!) I’m just as guilty for loving a show that’s very nearly all fighting and little plot, but all I can say is that for me this was too much, especially since I felt none of the characters really evolved much, if at all… well, the ones that lived anyway. So no real plot advancement until the very last episode of the season, where we got a good long lore-drop/set-up for the next arc, and few if any meaningful character developments beyond “this character is dead now” means the whole 18-episode arc felt like well animated fights for the sake of well animated fights. Again, fair enough for some, including me twenty years ago no doubt, but for me right now it was all a bit all flash and no substance and therefore something of a disappointment.
Jujutsu Kaisen is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
