The new anime season is upon us, and as usual, I’m rolling up my sleeves and wading in, watching various shows so I can tell you which ones are worth your time. Some of the series I’ll be keeping my eye on include:
- The Harukana Receive beach volleyball anime because 100% guaranteed beach episodes.
- Joshiochi, because the idea of girls falling through the ceiling onto my head appeals to me.
- One Room, a new season of the odd POV anime in which the “we” are the main character, with females talking to the camera, which is our viewpoint. Mainly because Kantoku did the character design.
Another show I’m enjoying is Yama no Susume season 3, aka Encouragement of Climb, the anime cute girls doing cute things climbing mountains to help find themselves and form friendships. It’s a super cute show, and great as a placeholder until Yuru Camp gets a second season.
Yama no Susume was interesting to me as an anime industry watcher because it was the first anime (that I noticed) show that made use of the super short 3-minute episode format that was so popular a few years ago. Having such a short run time basically meant each episode was practically over once you watched the opening and closing themes, so there was no time for fans to form emotional bonds with the characters. These short shows, I was sure, would fail to grab fan “mindshare” and never get figures or other merchandise, or second seasons. I was largely right: most of the short shows didn’t make much of a splash, and the only one to get figures that I can think of were Oshiete! Galko and Tawada on Monday. There is some happy news however: the third season of Yama no Susume has been upgraded to 13 minutes per episode!
It’s our favorite time of the month when we get to show everyone the new J-List Box snack boxes we’ve prepared. Each box is filled with delicious things to eat (and drink), hand picked by our staff, and you get a card explaining what everything is, too. This month’s snack box includes a bottle of Coca-Cola Clear, too! Order your box now!
