When someone talks about “Anime” or an “anime season” we are usually left perplexed and dumbfounded. The nearest recollection of anime we usually have is watching the Spanish dubbed Dragon Ball Z in the family couch when we were children. If you were like me, you might have had a few cousins watching it with you, imitating Goku whenever he said the iconic “kame hame ha”. Pokemon was a staple in many kids’ days, but most of us didn’t really venture into to the highly diverse and artistic genre of animation beyond that. To better understand these two concepts, explaining them is in order.
Anime is a highly popular genre of entertainment that is seen by people all over the world! It’s a genre of animation that mostly focuses on fantastical themes, with its characteristics being over the top emotions, smooth or rough animation, and its particularly Japanese themes. It hails from Japan and dates back to 1917 on the eve of World War I. During this time, Japan was a rising nation that was seen as steep competition for many in the west. With its advanced and rapid development of entertainment and technology, it is to this day one of the most important bastions and examples of culture preservation, development, and economic resilience. Inside the anime system, there are anime seasons. Specific animes come out during actual seasons like summer, spring, etc. Like the flowers that bloom in spring, every anime is unique in its own way.
1. Mahou Shoujou Ore
Mahou Shoujou Ore was first teased back in 2012, as an animated rendition of the popular manga that precedes it. Manga is basically a Japanese comic book, but the main difference is that you read it back to front! This anime is part of the magical girl genre, which usually focuses on the journey of girls as they fight crime or complete missions as superheroes. It is known for having specific tropes that make it what it is really cute girls fighting the forces of evil, in extremely frilly outfits that just make you wish for a second you were them. Now, ponder and think about that for a while….Okay good.
Now, we have to say that this anime takes this whole concept and throws it out the window. In the first episode, we are faced with a hilarious anime that is a huge parody of these tropes and many more, such as the idol anime trope, shonen anime tropes, and many more. The main twist of the series that is a magical girl turns you into a muscular bodybuilder! In this form, our main characters fights bad guys that pose as adorable stuffed animals who then turn into very tall and buff stuffed animals in their real forms! Its entertaining, funny, and will keep you filled with satire goodness.
2. Hoozuki no Reitetsu: Second season
Okay, imagine this: Parks and Recreation, but set in Japanese hell. If that isn’t making you run over to Crunchyroll to watch it, I don’t know what will! This anime also shows one of the most popular anime genres: a slice of life! Slice of life anime is just that, a style of anime that focuses on the characters’ daily lives as they do their everyday tasks. This anime, just like Mahou Shoujo Ore, is different from the rest because of one special quirk! This anime takes place in hell as it is portrayed in the Shinto religion, with its characters being the deities of said religion!
Hoozuki no Reitetsu is one of those animes that will have you on the floor with its relatable comedy and its charming characters right on the first episode. We will follow them as they perform their godly mundane tasks and have a lot of laughs on the way.
3. Wotaku Ni Koi Wa Muzukashii
No list is complete without a little romance, and this anime serves up heaping servings of it! This anime, originally a web manga series, is based on the adventures of two high school mates who meet up later when life pushes them into the same working place. Both these characters are your typical freaks, Hirotaka Nifuji, a complete and utter gaming freak and Narumi Momose, who can’t get enough of Yaoi manga and spends most of her time dreaming about boys love while she has heaps of work due. We follow them as they have their own “The office” moments with each other, every day being a new comedy-filled day for these two. And who knows? They might just end up discovering that they are made for each other!
4. Hinamatsuri
We promise this is the last comedy anime, we just can’t get enough of them this season. This anime follows the adventures of a mystical, telekinetic girl and a member of the Japanese mafia or as they are famously named the Yakuza. Another “slice of life”, Hinamatsuri is filled with all kinds of magical happenings and heartwarming moments. I mean, what else can you expect from an anime where one of the main characters lands in a metal ball via a ceiling portal? Even the whole concept doesn’t make sense! You have to trust us, this anime is truly something else!
Even though this anime is mostly comedy, it shows us that you can’t judge a book by its cover and that everything is not as it seems. These characters, even when they are causing discord in the streets of Japan, show us multiple facets of themselves that add wonderful things to their characters! The anime is a great example of absurdity inside of anime, the kind that makes you laugh with just how ridiculous everything is!
5. Megalo Box
For our last anime, we’re going to end with something different. Megalo Box is from the sports genre, a kind of anime whose main theme and progress is marked by a sport. This anime is centered around boxing in particular, but it’s so much more than that. In this anime, we follow our protagonist Junk Dog (we know, but stay with us) in a steampunk-type. Junk Dog is part of a criminal chain that dedicates itself to winning matches of Megalo Box, a new style of boxing that uses multiple human augmentations, by cheating in every match. That is until our main protagonist meets someone that finally beats him in the first round. This person reveals himself as the Great Megalo Box champion Yuuri, who challenges our protagonist Junk Dog to rise from his petty state and meet him in his boxing rink. Our protagonist is overwhelmed by the excitement , and the anime follows his progress in his quest to beat Yuuri.
The charm of this anime is in its vintage art style that reminds its viewers of anime as it was in the 90’s and early 2000’s. The moody and harsh atmosphere were a staple in that kind of animation. It’s, for many, a breath of fresh air in respect to modern anime, which closely resemble each other in their art style. We highly recommend this amazing throwback!
This has been our list for our top 5 animes of the season and why you should look out for them! We hope this list has been informative to everyone and that it was as fun to read as it was to write! We hope you have a killer spring season and that you watch a lot of anime to add to the seasonal magic! See you next time!