Summer is in the rear-view mirror at this point, and a new wave of fall anime is here to perplex, affront, and occasionally delight us. While there isn’t quite as much spooky, season-appropriate material as you would like, aside from one frighteningly bad adaptation, there’s still plenty to enjoy, including a breakaway newcomer and a pair of throwbacks for the old heads. Let’s break down the best anime of the fall.
Dishonorable Mention:
Following an excellent premiere that tricked me into believing it was possible to make a competent anime adaptation of a Junji Ito manga, the second episode of Adult Swim’s Uzumaki crashed and burned in spectacular fashion. Looking at the credits between the two episodes, it seems the original animation team was sacrificed to an eldritch god so their corporate overlords could make a few more bucks or something, and this very much shows in the lackluster visual execution, which couldn’t be more night and day from what we got up front. I feel tricked, hoodwinked, and I daresay bamboozled.
Honorable Mentions:
Blue Box is a cute romance/sports story that isn’t particularly groundbreaking outside of its unusual genre pairing but largely makes up for this familiarity with sharp visuals and amusing character dynamics. We follow a pair of teen athletes who, after bonding in the school gym over mutual practice sessions, find themselves pushed together by extraneous circumstances. Even if its characters are a bit by the books (aside from the delightful gremlin Hina), the impressive aesthetic execution heightens both its sports sequences and will-they-won’t-they shenanigans, making this a nice watch so far.
Despite a grim start, Negative Positive Angler is already proving to be an affirming series about combating depression with an unlikely pastime: fishing. After receiving a crushing medical diagnosis, our protagonist crosses paths with a group of anglers whose passion for their hobby helps brighten his day. By highlighting the potential fun of fishing and the power of community, this one is off to a strong start.
Although Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online hasn’t gotten off to the best debut in its second season, its previous high points have earned enough goodwill for me to stick with it because it somehow made me enjoy a spin-off from a series I have nothing but abject disdain for. Considering the long gap since the last season, this first episode put us into the thick of things way too quickly, but hopefully, it will slow down soon and showcase the hilarious moments that made its previous run so much fun, like how the main character has a pink P-90 that she calls “P-chan.”
5. 365 Days to The Wedding
While a couple of shows this season surprised me, 365 Days to The Wedding is a frontrunner among them, and much of this comes down to how it sells a somewhat ridiculous premise through its likable leads. We follow Takuya and Rika, a pair of office workers in a travel agency who have a hard time communicating with their peers—the former is socially anxious and slow to respond, and the latter scares people off with an unreadable expression despite wanting to connect. However, after the news breaks that their company is planning on sending one unmarried employee from their office to the Alaska branch, these two decide to pretend they’re getting hitched to avoid being reassigned to the other side of the world. While it’s a very contrived setup, what makes it work is how specific these characters come across, both in their quirks, which make it hard for them to socialize, and in their hobbies that help them feel like unique characters. Add in a characteristically excellent performance from Saori Hayami as Rika, some solid visuals, and good comedic timing, and you have a charming romance story with a lot of potential.
4. Dragon Ball Daima
Hey, have you ever heard of Dragon Ball? You know, one of the most seminal, cross-culturally influential manga/anime of all time by the late, great Akira Toriyama? We’re getting more of it this season, and at least from the first episode, Dragon Ball Daima channels the humor, spunk, and creativity that made the original so beloved. This spin-off is set after the Buu saga but before Dragon Ball Super, meaning it’s somewhat geared at former Saiyan enthusiasts like myself who dropped off after Dragon Ball Z. The premise is that after Goku and friends best Buu, this weird little guy named Gomah becomes the new king of the Demon Realm, and wishes on the seven Dragon Balls to turn the good guys back into children—essentially, this acts as a thinly veiled excuse to at least visually return many of these characters to the pre-time skip Dragon Ball days.
If there’s one immediately noticeable aspect, it’s that this series looks much more visually impressive than many of the post-DBZ offerings from Toei Animation, boasting smoothly animated fight scenes and character designs that stay close to Toriyama’s art. But perhaps what’s drawn me back in the most is how it captures the goofy comedy that defines the early run of the manga, as Gomah and his minion bumble through their machinations like mustache-twirling villains. From how it smartly recaps previous events to bring us up to speed, to its delightful tone that reminds me of the OG series, Daima’s premiere does a great job bringing back old fans while honoring the work of an all-time great.
3. Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
Combining anime melodrama with a fictionalized rendition of late Middle Ages to early Renaissance Europe, Orb: On the Movements of the Earth captures the brave recklessness of scientific discovery with aplomb. We follow Rafal, a condescending child prodigy who believes that as long as he stays in line and spoon-feeds those around him what they want to hear, he can have his run of things. However, when he meets Hubert, a scholar persecuted by the church for his research on heliocentricity, Rafal becomes obsessed with proving this theorem despite the imminent danger it brings. While the series avoids outright placing itself in real-world history, it’s obviously riffing on Galileo’s discoveries and persecution by the Roman Catholic Church—in this more extreme rendition, the heliocentric model is a heretical theory that invites torture or even being burned alive at the hands of the inquisition. However, despite showcasing these inquisitors’ brutal handiwork in some tough-to-watch scenes, so far, the series avoids feeling overly morose by delighting in the sometimes absurd, irrational lengths people will go for knowledge, as Rafal deviates from a safe path to pursue something that intrigues him for reasons he can’t fully understand. Between how potently it conveys scientific curiosity and studio Madhouses’ confident visual execution, Orb is shaping up into an exciting historical thriller.
2. Ranma ½
As someone without an ounce of nostalgia for Ranma ½ (it was a little before my time) and who bounced off the recent remake of Urusei Yatsura, I was surprised by just how much I was taken by this latest Rumiko Takahashi adaptation, which through its physical comedy and expressive animation has almost entirely won me over. Based on Takahashi’s popular manga, which was already adapted into a several hundred-episode anime in the ‘90s, this latest version from MAPPA once again follows Ranma Saotome, a teenage boy who fell into a cursed Chinese hot spring that causes him to transform into a girl when he’s exposed to cold water. I went into the series expecting these gender-bending antics to, most charitably interpreted, not work at all anymore, but I was surprised that most of the jokes aren’t anywhere near as out-of-pocket as I thought they’d be. Instead, there’s a delightful dynamic between Ranma and his fiancé/fellow martial artist Akane (they’re set up in an arranged marriage that neither is happy about), as the two square off in amusing back-and-forth exchanges that frequently end in spars. The animation here easily sells both visual absurdity and action-movie-cool, as Ranma and his dad, who is cursed to transform into a panda bear, square off in the opening sequence or when Akane uses her karate skill to pummel dozens of annoying suitors. Sure, there’s a very ‘80s edge to some of the dated gender relations stuff going on, but the gags mostly avoid feeling mean-spirited, and the colorful, retro art style packs a punch. Sometimes, the oldies hold up, and the new coat of paint on this one makes sure of that.
1. Dan Da Dan
Dan Da Dan was undoubtedly the most anticipated newcomer of the fall, but its first few episodes came in with such crackling supernatural energy they still managed to blast through these already high expectations. We follow Momo Ayase and Okarun, an unlikely pairing who find themselves sucked into a world of ghosts and aliens—she believes in the former, while he’s obsessed with the latter. If one thing is clear from these initial episodes, it’s that the series is in good hands with Science Saru, a studio that’s consistently proven their ability to deliver wildly creative, off-the-wall animation. Specifically, this premiere ends in a kaleidoscopic battle that’s one of the most dazzling sequences I’ve seen so far this year, and the next two episodes kept up this pace with some similarly frenetic scuffles. Even when the screen isn’t filled with explosive displays of telekinesis, Momo and Okarun are portrayed with lively, exaggerated expressions and gestures that convey their personalities, like when the former struts down the halls of her school like a cartoon gangster.
This pair already has great chemistry, and while the “cool girl” and “lonely dorky kid” duo is classic male wish-fulfillment cliché, it doesn’t come across that way here at all so far, in large part because they both are likable and immediately well-defined. This is especially the case for Ayase, whose sense of justice, willingness to throw hands, and hilarious fixation on Ken Takakura as her moral center (this would be like if an American teen girl was weirdly obsessed with Al Pacino) make her a genuinely great protagonist. If there’s one thing holding me back from a blanket recommendation, though, it’s that the first episode culminates in a scene of sexual menace directed at Ayase that feels unnecessary and out of line with the rest of the show’s buoyant tone—I’ve heard that this isn’t much of a factor in the source material after this point, but it’s still a bit of a bummer. That said, if the series can avoid these elements going forward and maintain its explosive pacing, it will be tough to beat this season. Oh, and it helps that its opening is an absolute scorcher.
Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to playing and watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves film, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Twitter @eli_gonzalez11.