Winter 2015 Anime Preview: Part 1, Self-Insertion is Cheaper

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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This one’s for the fellas. Ladies, you can watch.

 

Dog Days”

DogDays

Animation Production: Seven Arcs (Dog Days, Asura Cryin’, White Album)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/133153/dog-days_v1_by_cxc-scans (The anime isn’t based on this manga, but if you wanna read a 1-volume adaptation, here it is)

Sink’s (real name, no lies) been transported to a dimension populated with nubile, oversexed animal girls. He finds himself in the midst of a giant pillow fight between two rival factions, and must decide which girl will provide him the honor of sitting on his face — a tough decision for a middle schooler!

This season will focus on that guy from Utwarerumono, Mew Mew Strawberry, and the chick you thought about getting a figure of but then decided not to because “eh”.

If you haven’t seen the other ones, feel free to start here; you won’t be missing anything. (But don’t actually do that, cuz this series sucks.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAw_3wlR6H0

 

 

Absolute Duo

Generic Anime #12

Animation Production: 8 Bit (Busou Shinki, Rail Wars!, Walkure Romanze)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/169387/absolute-duo_by_village-idiot/3

Light Novel: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Absolute_Duo

AbDuo

If this script would go the exact same way were you to be the main character, either Japan’s gotten really good at reading minds, or you need to get a more unique personality.

 

 

Juuou Mujin no Fafner (Infinite Fafner)

Juuoumujin no Fafner

Animation Production: Diomedea (Astarotte no Omocha, Gingitsune, Squid Girl)

Manga: http://raw.senmanga.com/Juuou-Mujin-no-Fafnir/01/1/ (raws only)

The world’s strongest assassin, Yuu, just wants to be left alone. But when a bunch of girls with dragon powers appear, he finds himself forced into a government school where all the girls are gathered to fight each other! When he sees a dragon girl bathing naked, she has no choice but to become his wife… and his sister turns out to be one of them too! Who will save all these silly girls from themselves?! Well, Yuu, obviously.

Will Yuu make it through high school life unscathed? Probably not, but I can promise that post-high school life is better. Well, not much better, but better enough.

 

 

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata (Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend)

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata

Animation Production: A-1 Pictures (Valkyria Chronicles, Persona 4 the Golden Animation, Galilei Donna)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/228984/saenai-kanojo-heroine-no-sodatekata_ch1_by_village-idiot/3

Protag-kun wants to make his own anime game. The only problem is that he has no talents of his own. So he’s come up with a master plan:

Soda Takeda

If this sounds familiar, put down that pirated copy of RPG Maker VX Ace and put this on your watch list. Based on how enjoyable the manga was, you may just get something useful out of it.

 

 

Seiken Tsukai no World Break

Seiken Tsukai no World Break

Animation Production: Diomedea (Campione!, Polyphonica Crimson S, Akuma no Riddle)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/256339/seiken-tsukai-no-world-break_ch1_by_extras/2 (I got through all of ten pages. Can you last longer?)

The main character was a badass hero in a past life — wielder of the Holy Sword and the strongest swordsman alive. But in his current life he’s just an ordinary student! Well, an ordinary student in an academy for people with super powers! But still, he doesn’t take school too seriously — and he even dyes his hair — cuz man, he’s just the coolest. Also, all the ladies love him and want to be his sister or — record scratch — his lover! Or… both?! Ooh la la!

In this installment of “we didn’t know the radiation would have this effect”: Seiken Tsukai no World Break. Let’s World Break!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJWJwVxv83Q

 

 

Shinmai Maou no Testament (The Testament of Sister New Devil)

Shinmai Maou no Testament

Animation Production: Production IMS (Date a Live II, Inari Kon Kon, that shitty Twintail show that you’ve already forgotten about)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/180474/shinmai-maou-no-keiyakusha_ch1_by_village-idiot/2

Light Novel: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Shinmai_Maou_no_Keiyakusha

Brown-hair McNoPersonality has found himself in such an awful situation! His dad has remarried and now Brown-hair has to deal with constant sexual advances from his new sisters. Like you, he’s a virgin by choice, but all these cute girls are going to make it tough for him to stay chaste! So unlucky!

Oh, and he’s even unluckier because it turns out his step-sisters are demons… which is going to make it tough for him as the strongest member of the “Hero Clan” to stay out of the millenia-long struggle between heroes and demons! Can’t he just retire in peace?

Well, until this all blows over, guess he’s just gonna have to save the world. Sometimes it’s hard being the generic protagonist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhLK-hkz6NA

 

 

Isuca

Isuca

Animation Production: ARMS (Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero, Sekai de Ichiban, Wizard Barristers)

Manga: http://bato.to/read/_/10697/isuca_v1_ch1_by_crap-scanlations/7

The main character is just your ordinary high school/middle school boy, with one small twist — he has magical powers he never knew about! You Shinichiro discovers this after unintentionally finding himself the helper of a girl who’s secretly in love with him — and she’s also a magician! Wow, convenient! He helps her out with the chores and cooking because — get this — she can’t do those things even though she’s a girl! Isn’t that crazy? Also every girl he meets falls in love with him because, man, he’s just such a nice guy!

How many girls can you get by being beta? Watch to find out.

 

 

Tokyo Ghoul Root A

Tokyo Ghoul - ReD

Animation Production: Pierrot (The Last: Naruto the Movie, Creamy Mami)

Manga: http://bato.to/comic/_/comics/tokyo-ghoul-r3056

Kaneki Ken is just your ordinary bookworm… until one day when he meets a cute girl and finds himself with magical powers. Now he’s trapped in a struggle between two different worlds, but he can relate to both when nobody else can! What a special fucking snowflake!

In Root A, he’s been awakened to his true strength after he was pushed to the brink of death. But will it be enough to save the now-helpless Rukia?

 

 

 

Summary:

With this season, Japan’s shown more contempt for its audience than even fansubbers are capable of. Sometimes I wish I had enough self-control to not watch this shit.

Excellent (9-10/10)

  • Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
  • Tokyo Ghoul √A

Good-ish (7-8/10)

  • Shinmai Maou no Testament
  • Isuca (this one has a cat girl, and cat girls can make anything good)

Meh (5-6/10)

  • Absolute Duo
  • Seiken Tsukai no World Break
  • Juuou Mujin no Fafner

Masochists Only (1-4/10)

  • Dog Days” (I lied; sometimes even cat girls can’t save a series)

 

24 thoughts on “Winter 2015 Anime Preview: Part 1, Self-Insertion is Cheaper”

    • 3. Should have only 20 others to get through, so ~10 per post makes sense to me:

      Tantei Kageki Milky Holmes TD
      Yuri Kuma Arashi
      Kamisama Hajimemashita
      Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love!
      Kantai Collection: KanColle
      Soukyuu no Fafner: Dead Aggressor – Exodus
      Koufuku Graffiti
      The IDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls
      JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Stardust Crusaders – Egypt Hen
      Ansatsu Kyoushitsu
      Death Parade
      Durarara!!×2 Shou
      Aldnoah.Zero 2nd Season
      Shounen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 50
      Rolling☆Girls
      Kuroko no Basket 3rd Season
      Yoru no Yatterman
      Junketsu no Maria
      Sengoku Musou
      Go! Princess Precure

      Reply
      • Are you really previewing sequels as well, D_S?

        I assumed you’d just ignore stuff like Fafner: Exodus (’cause the prequel’s old) and Aldnoah S2 (’cause season 1 sucked people should know what it’s about already).

        Reply
        • At this point, I’m leaning toward yes, but it really depends on where the writing takes me. I often have an idea of what I’m going to do, and then find I need to go a different direction. You should see how many half-completed posts are lounging around in the Drafts and Private sections of the post dashboard.

          Reply
  1. These ratings seem so… arbitrary. Also, this preview’s actually managed to dispel some of my hype for the new season. I’m glad there’ll at least be good two-cour series to continue with, but the new shows seems so few and so bad.

    Reply
    • That’s because except for Saekano and Dog Days”, I didn’t directly state how enjoyable I thought the series would be.

      If you got the impression that they most seemed similar in tone/content/quality/etc. then I wrote the post right, cuz the protagonists are all bland, self-insert males in shows with uninspiring premises. Of course, there’s more to what makes a series than that, but I intentionally left that piece out in order to make a point.

      Reply
  2. >What a special fucking snowflake!
    My sides.

    B-but which self-insert should I pick? There’s so many! Damn you, Japan! Making my life even more difficult, you know I can’t self-insert to 10 guys at a time ;_;

    Also, kinda dissapointed you didn’t make a D joke with Fafner, the damn girls are called “D”.

    Reply
  3. Can’t self insert cause I lack D.
    I’m surprised, you seem to have pretty good taste. Let’s see how well we really match after you post the other two parts.

    Reply
  4. How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend sounds like it could be pretty good. Looking forward to it now.

    Putting Isuca in the “good” category is a mistake. ARMs anime are never good.

    Reply
    • Hmm… yeah, I suppose linking to LNs would be a good idea. Thanks for the advice. I’ll update this post and do so going forward.

      Edit: post updated.

      Reply
    • I mean, it’ll be closer to the 9 side of the scale, but I already read the manga, so an original series is more interesting to me anyway.

      Reply
    • S2 is gonna be original, but the author himself is involved in the writing.

      Which might mean he’s changing his mind on the very second half of his own manga he himself wrote. Especially considering how it ended.

      Reply

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