It’s that time again – a new anime season is just around the corner, and I’m looking for help to decide what to watch weekly.
I’ve already narrowed down the anime I most want to watch this autumn to 11 series, a number that’s always in danger of rising the more I look over the various chart and listing sites! But, I definitely have room for a 12th. Here are three that didn’t quite make the cut – vote for your favourite, and the winner will join my lineup!
Here’s some info on the series, in alphabetical order, plus my brief comments about them. Or, skip to the bottom of the post if you just want to vote. 😛
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16bit Sensation: Another Layer
“Devote your youth to developing a lovely bishoujo game that will make players fall in love!”
Meiko Uehara, a college student, began working part-time at a computer store in 1992. However, behind the scenes, the shop was an erotic game maker specializing in bishoujo games. Meiko, a talented artist, is suddenly hired as a substitute graphic designer after the staff flees, even though she has never drawn an R-18 illustration before.
Will she be able to complete the eroge successfully?! With a 16-bit PC as her partner, her career as a creator begins.
What none of the translated synopses anywhere seem to mention (but that’s clear from the trailer) is that the protagonist time slipped back to 1992 from the present! That, the fun reaction faces and the early 90s technology appeal to me. Seems like a fun workplace comedy. 🙂
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Bokura no Ameiro Protocol (Our Rainy Protocol)
The story centers on Shun Tokinoya, a second-year high school living with his mother and younger sister. After his father’s death in an accident and his sister’s injury, he quit the game he was passionate about, and now works at an esports café called “FOX ONE.” He spends all his time studying and working part-time while hanging out with his childhood gaming friends. Suddenly, he learns that “FOX ONE” has a huge amount of debts. In order to repay the debts, Shun and his friends aim to win the “Xaxerion Championship” and win the prize money. With a sense of guilt, Shun jumps back into the world of online games, and is confronted by Bakuretsu-kun, who used to play the game with him.
Back in 21st Century, tech-wise! The first Japanese esports anime, I believe, though the Chinese Quanzhi Gaoshou has been around for a while and is very popular. Judging by the trailer, Ameiro Protocol seems to be more focused on the characters and their lives than on the gameplay itself.
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Haruka Asahina is a 16 year old high school boy racing F4 cars while staying at Komaki Motors, an auto-body shop in Shizuoka prefecture. Komaki Motors is a family-run shop that regularly competes in F4 with the team comprised of: owner Futoshi Komaki who is also a mechanic, his daugter Mako Komaki and now Haruka Asahina. Because this is a family-run business, they receive no support usually from any major manufacturers. Haruka Asahina boldly confronts the top teams head-on to get the attention of these revered companies, in hopes of making it to the podium himself.
Part of me wishes this was MF Ghost, but I’ll save that for after I finally get around to its predecessor, Initial D! 😛 Autumn’s other motorsport anime is an original story with a director whose previous works I’ve enjoyed, Aoki Ei (Aldnoah.Zero, ID:INVADED), and character designs from Shimura Takako (Hourou Musuko, Aoi Hana).
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Vote for whichever one you want me to add to my list, and I’ll share my thoughts on that and the rest of my lineup in my usual mid season and end of season rankings. Poll closes in about a week~
AngryJellyfish's Blog 
Difficult vote. Both the first and second pick have things going for them and strikes against them. I chose 18bit probably purely on the nostalgia potential.
It’s a pretty stacked season, in any case.
A very stacked season indeed! I’ve already given up on my initial plans to only watch 12 series, it’s more likely to be 16 now, unless any of their first episodes disappoint.
[…] you to all who voted in last week’s poll! We had a fairly clear winner from early on, this […]
[…] As voted for by my blog readers, thanks once again to everyone who took part! 16bit Sensation hasn’t gone quite the way I expected, with Meiko only spending an episode in 1992 before traveling back and forth between the present and different points in the 90s. Each visit felt too brief, I wanted to see more of the tech, of the Alcohol Soft team at work, or of Meiko interacting with them in general. Seemed like I’d finally gotten my wish in 1999… then the plot massively thickened! I’m concerned about the impacts her meddling with have on the present, too. This is getting more complex and interesting every week. 😀 […]