If you’re a busy person, you don’t have time to waste on giving every anime each season a fair shake. So if you are looking to sate your otaku anime lust after the Fall 2016 season is over by cherry picking the good shows, then you are in the right place. So what ended up being worth a watch this season?
*Note – This is only for new series. Naturally, if you are a fan of shows that received new seasons like Natsume’s Book of Friends, Haikyuu, Ajin, Gundam, ect. You should go watch those.
Best Fall 2016 Anime
Drifters
While helping his uncle flee the battle of Sekigahara, Shimazu Toyohisa manages to mortally wound Ii Naomasa and halt his pursuit. Unfortunately, it was at the cost of his own life. As he tries futility to stumble home, Toyohisa finds himself transported to a long hallway full of doors, where a man named Murasaki sends him to a new world. In this world, he and other historical figures are known as Drifters and have been transported there for reasons yet to be discovered.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – As Hirano’s follow up to Hellsing, people expected something close to Hellsing Ultimate, and they get that. However, as things go on, you find this world looking more and more like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and that’s not a bad thing either. Really, I watched it because I love personification of historical characters. If you like that or the unique art of Kouta Hirano, then Drifters is a fine watch.
Yuri on Ice
After a crushing defeat at the Grand Prix finale, Yuuri Katsuki returns home no longer as Japan’s most promising figure skater. With his window for skating success closing, he assesses his options. After a video of Yuuri doing a performing a routine by five-time world champion Victor Nikiforov goes viral, he suddenly finds the champion on his doorstep, offering to be Yuuri’s mentor.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – Called “Yaoi on Ice” by many fans for its strong yaoi overtones, which should have been apparent at the words “figure skating,” why is everyone going crazy over Yuri on Ice? Is there really so many Fujoshi out there? Perhaps, but more likely is that it actually has a plot you can get behind. Your typically yaoi is convoluted in plot and filled with needless drama, but this isn’t about the boys. Weirdly, it is about the skating, and yet even non-sports anime fans are incensed by it. The fluid animation helps, but the likable characters drive it home. If you can ignore the man action, it is an anime that can surprise you.
Keijo
Although a talented gymnast, Nozomi Kaminashi needs money to help her family. So instead of going to college, she enters the world of Keijo, a gambling sport where girls stand on a small floating platform and try to push the other off. The catch is, the girls can only use their butt or bust to assault opponents.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – It was as if someone planned this season where you have Yuri on Ice and its strong yaoi overtones and then to counter it you could go watch some super sonic butt and boob action. Keijo’s plot isn’t important, and they make that apparent. They know what you are there for, and they give it to you. Still, they know what sort of show they made, and they own it. So go watch some girls booty bump each other and enjoy every over-the-top moment of it.
March Comes in Like a Lion
After becoming a professional Shogi player in middle school, Rei Kiriyama, now 17, has recently started to live on his own. However, while talented, many problems from his past continue to haunt him. Although he tries to push everyone away, he has recently started to bond with a family of three sisters that force Rei into their family as if he were their own.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – It may sound like a sports anime, if you can call Shogi a sport, but March Comes in Like a Lion is very much a slice of life show with Shogi accents. You watch the characters pasts come out, you feel for them, and then you learn a little bit about Japanese chess. If you are into slice of life, you’ll love it. If you want to watch for some hardcore Shogi action, you will be disappointed most of the time.
Magical Girl Raising Project
There’s a rumor going around about a new game called the Magical Girl Raising Project. The rumor states that one in thousands who play it have a chance to become a magical girl, and the rumors turn out to be true. This chance allows them to have supreme beauty, strength, and other abilities so that they can help humanity. However, when 16 magical girls end up in one district, the administration announces that only half may remain. At first it is a race to get the most magical candy, but as time goes on, the game twists into something much darker.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – People expected Madoka Magica (or at least Yuna Yuki Is A Hero), but instead they got Hunger Games, and that’s not a bad thing. You watch a slew of unique magical girls go from friendly competition to brutal deadly betrayal. Some deaths are far too sudden for the seeming importance of the characters, but I guess death is like that. It’s a good watch if you like the suffering of cute things, though.
Poko’s Udon World
Souta Tawara is a web designer that has been working in Tokyo. However, when he returns to his small town to visit family, he discovers a young boy alone and with a supernatural secret. Upon the confrontation, Souta decides to quit his job and take care of this boy dubbed Poko. This anime follows their daily adventures in the Kagawa Prefecture, the Udon Kingdom.
Why It Is Worth Watch? – Last season it was Sweetness and Lighting, before that is was Barakamon, and long before that it was Usagi Drop, it seems like little kids are becoming the new chill series for many. Poko’s Udon World is more Barakamon that anything, featuring a high energy kid, normal sort of adult, and a whole interesting rural world for them to explore with just a little supernatural twist to shake things up. It’s one of those series to cheer you up when you need it.
Flip Flappers
Paprika and Cocona hold the keys to open the door where they can meet from their different times in a dimension called Pure Illusion. In this dimension, they search for the Shard of Mimi which is said to grant any wish. However, finding it will not be easy.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – This is one of those series that you pass up because a synopsis that ends up horribly tedious because there is no really good way to describe the plot. This leaves you only able to describe it in the most mundane terms, as I did above. However, Flip Flappers is your artistic choice for the season. It has beautiful animation that uses vibrant colors and is paired with a wonderful music score. The story itself assumes you are intelligent enough to fill in the blanks as it does jump around quite frequently and rarely explains anything, but mostly, you watch it for the eye candy that it is.
Did you enjoy anything else in the Fall 2016 season you think merits being up here? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
