Spring 2024 Mid-Season Rankings

Now this is more like it! I have so much more hype for my spring anime lineup compared with last season’s, but miraculously managed to keep my list to a sensible number (by my standards, at least). Be sure to let me know in the comments what other good anime I’m missing out on, I know there will be several!

One series I am watching, but that I’ve not included here, is the very late starting Boku no Hero Academia 7. Doesn’t feel fair comparing it to the others based on half the number of episodes aired, but it’ll join the list for my end of season rankings. 🙂

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13: Kaii to Otome to Kamikakushi

Sumireko is a bookshop clerk and author, whose recent works haven’t sold well; she wishes she could return to her childhood days, when her writing won awards and praise. One night, her wish unexpectedly comes true, after a poem from a mysterious tome causes her body to revert to a child! But this ability comes with serious side effects… fortunately, her co-worker at the bookshop named Ren isn’t all that he appears to be. Sensing something is wrong, he soon identifies the book as the cause – though that doesn’t mean Sumireko will give up her new powers willingly!

I was hoping for scary supernatural adventures from this, similar to the recent Dark Gathering, but not a lot has happened in the 6 eps so far. Instead, there’s been a far more focus on fanservice… and even there, many manga fans complain about the high censorship! Still, the character interactions are fun, and it has its spooky moments, I’ve had much worse than this prop up the bottom of my rankings.

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12: Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! S3

Following the events of the 2019 movie (which I didn’t know existed, still haven’t watched, and hear might be transphobic?), isekai’d protagonist Kazuma has been left traumatised to the point where he decides to give up on worldly desires, and live a new life as a monk! But the nearest strict temple is a long journey away, and his friends tag along for the journey, trying to talk him out of the decision. Will an encounter with an injured girl en-route cause him to change his mind, or only serve to strengthen his resolve?

The first of many threequels this season! It’s been over 7 years since S1 and S2, which I remember finding hilarious, but either my sense of humour has changed since then, or the writing just isn’t as good this time around (judging by reviews and posts on other sites, it’s probably the latter). Every now and then the dark, dumb humour hits, and when it does it is brilliant, but it’s not happening often enough in S3, and there’s certainly not enough going on story-wise to make up for it.

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11: Sentai Daishikkaku

13 years ago, Earth was invaded by aliens – who were defeated in less than year, after a sentai team known as the Dragon Keepers wiped out their leaders, leaving only the immortal but weak Dusters behind! However, the Keepers have grown to enjoy their fame and status as humanity’s guardians, so they force the Dusters into an unfavorable truce: every week, they must send a new monster for the Keepers to defeat, to convince the public that the war is still ongoing. ‘Fighter D’ has had enough of being treated as a joke, and signs up to join the Keepers… with a view to destroying them from the inside.

An interesting deconstruction of the usual sentai tropes! I especially like this justification for the continual ‘monster of the week’ battles, where the ‘bad guys’ never learn anything from their defeats, because it’s all staged. Suffers from its similarity (character motivations aside!) to this season’s #2 though, which outclasses it in virtually every criteria.

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10: Kuroshitsuji: Kishuku Gakkou-hen

Weston College is an illustrious private boarding school, where tradition is valued above all else. But recently, many pupils have stopped visiting or writing to their families – including a relative of Queen Victoria, who tasks Ciel Phantomhive with resolving the issue. He and his demon butler Sebastian infiltrate the college, but as a new transfer, Ciel cannot meet with the headmaster or visit other dorm houses. Therefore, he must first ingratiate himself to the upperclassmen and prefects, in order to move up their strict social hierarchy and aid his investigation.

It has been a while~ A mysterious setting for the new series, it was fun to see the protagonists in a new environment, with many of the usual school anime tropes. 😛 The plot so far has been ridiculous, but fun. Then there’s the change in studio – CloverWorks’ animation is certainly brighter and sparklier, though I wish they’d lay off the blur filters!

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9: The Fable

‘Fable’ is a professional hitman, feared throughout the underworld for his skill. However, his boss fears that he’s killed a few TOO many, and orders him to lay low for a year to let the heat die down, along with his driver/assistant. Set up with fake names and IDs in faraway Osaka, and given roughly 50 million yen in pay, the two must now learn to live as ordinary civilians. But there’s a catch – should Fable kill anyone during this time, then he himself will be hunted down.

Tezuka Productions continues to deliver dark, gritty seinen anime with English titles! At least The Fable looks better animation-wise than My Home Hero and Under Ninja, but it’s still very stiff. The deadpan humour is getting far more laughs out of me than Konosuba’s rapid-fire gags though, and the dangerous yakuza action mixed in alongside it has been interesting too. The pacing is slower than most of the season’s other anime, but it’s slated for 25 episodes, so it’s got plenty of time.

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8: Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?

Schoolgirl Yoka happens to win the unwanted prize of launching Japan’s new 7G network, but when she presses the big golden button, the world is warped in more drastic ways than expected: distances between towns and cities suddenly expand, and the people living in those places are forever ‘changed’ physically! 2 years after this incident, Shizuru lives in rural Agano, where all adults have turned into talking wild animals. After learning that her friend Yoka is still alive in faraway Ikebukuro, she and three other girls climb aboard a train and set off on a journey into the unknown, seeking to bring her home.

As voted for by blog readers and Facebook friends, thank you again to anyone who took part. As predicted, there was more to the series than the preview material let on, but the reveal was far weirder than I was expecting! Some of the station stops have been a lot more exciting than others (the recent zombie one felt weak), but on the whole it’s been a fun and wild ride so far, and the characters are great.

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7: Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid S3

This third and final season of Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid continued directly on from where S2 left off. It has stuck to its usual pattern of silly comedy mixed seamlessly with more serious plot developments, as our unnamed Duke protagonist finished up at magic school, and now makes preparations to finally lift the curse causing all that he touches to die.

Largely follows the same format as previous series, providing a level of comfortable familiarity… for the most part. Maybe it’s the hormones starting to kick in, but the show’s goofy romance and cheesy musical numbers are hitting me in the feels far harder than ever before, it is all JUST SO ADORABLE! As is its lovely signature style of 3D animation~

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6: Hibike! Euphonium S3

Hibike! Euphonium follows protagonist Oumae Kumiko’s story as part of Kitauji High School’s Concert Band Club, from her first year in S1 until her third and final year in this series. It has been a LONG time since S2, so I didn’t remember all the finer plot points or character relationships, but ep 1 covered the important parts and introduced a bunch of new, fun first years… plus one mysterious transfer student.

It now falls to club president Kumiko to recruit and mentor new members. She’s had to deal with a bunch of club drama, pass auditions to play at events, and on top of all this she’s under increasing pressure to come up with career or further education plans, while having no clear goal in mind. Fantastic character writing, with more depth than Shinigami Bocchan, and the animation from KyoAni remains stellar.

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5: Yuru Camp S3

Yuru Camp is a slice of life series about schoolgirls camping. No real plot, just beautiful scenery, chill music, and plenty of educational segments about various camping gear – whether it’s bought, made, or literally two pieces of wood being rubbed together to start a fire. Highlights of S3 include a ton of suspension bridges, and last week’s trippy ‘Retrospective Camp’ – looking forward to part 2 of that!

This has far less depth and drama than its other mid-table threequel buddies, objectively I feel like I should be rating it lower… but it is THE ultimate anime to switch off and relax to, just 23 minutes of guaranteed smiles, no brain power required. And I really appreciate it for that! The change in studio and character designs took a little while to get used to, but the new look is nice in its own way.

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4: Spice and Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf

Lawrence is a travelling merchant in a medieval fantasy world. One day, his trade route takes him through the village of Pasloe, during their harvest festival. Though the area has long worshipped a wolf deity named Holo, who supposedly watches over their wheat harvest, few still believe in her due to the spread of Church teachings and advances in farming technology. And so, no longer feeling needed, the very real wolf spirit Holo sneaks into Lawrence’s wagon and hitches a ride out of the village! After revealing herself to him, she asks him to take her back to her homeland in the distant north.

Spice and Wolf was one of the first anime I ever watched weekly, I’ve been following the light novel since it first got licensed in English, and I read the manga too, so it’s felt like a constant companion for the last 16 years. Would have preferred another threequel, but this 4th retelling of Holo and Lawrence’s meeting has been a delight, and I hope it does well enough to spawn more anime covering material that the first two adaptations didn’t reach. Animation looks solid (CG horse aside), and Kevin Penkin’s OST is sublime.

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3: Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai

Kouzuki Mahiru is a highschool girl, and former artist. When she was younger, her jellyfish art was chosen to be made into a mural in Shibuya… but once she showed the mural to her friends, they mercilessly made fun of it, causing her to give up her passion. One night, she meets Yamanouchi Kano, a former idol who left her group after a scandal and the online trolling that followed. Unlike Mahiru, Kano continued to make music under the pseudonym JELEE, an act of rebellion against her critics. Kano is a fan of the mural, and invites Mahiru to join JELEE and provide art for her videos.

I stopped reading the synopsis at ‘Jellyfish’, I felt obliged to pick this up whatever it was about. 😛 The fact it turned out to be good was a nice bonus! Similar to Hibike! Euphonium, with its teen drama and themes of finding yourself, but the smaller close-knit cast (and yes, probably the fact it’s shiny and new) put it slightly ahead. Top production from Doga Kobo, who’ve really levelled up since Oshi no Ko!

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2: Kaijuu 8-gou

In a world where kaiju are real, young friends Hibino Kafka and Ashiro Mina’s lives are changed when their school and homes are destroyed by these giant monsters. They vow to join the Japan Defense Force, an elite military team tasked with eliminating kaiju – but while Mina achieves this and quickly rises through their ranks to become a celebrated captain, Kafka’s application is rejected. He now works cleaning and removing the huge kaiju corpses. After a new co-worker encourages him not to give up, Kafka decides to give the application another shot… but then, things take an unexpected turn.

My lineup this season is weirdly low on the action series I usually crave, so this AAA adaptation of a popular shounen manga was always going to do well. It might not be that original, or come close to the depth of character development that some of my lower ranked series achieve, but it has the flashiest fight scenes by far. Aside from maybe:

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1: Dungeon Meshi

Dungeon Meshi is still here! The only continuing series from winter sees off all new competition. I’ve already gushed about this anime in past posts so I’ll keep my thoughts brief: superb mix of action and comedy, production values are in a tier of their own, and now it even has a catgirl. It didn’t feel like the main party needed any new characters, but Izutsumi feels like a natural fit already, I love the edits adding her into to the OP and ED animation. It’s the little details like that which make this series an easy #1.