10 Promising Anime Series to Look Forward to in 2018

VIOLET EVERGARDEN

Violet Evergarden has wowed anime enthusiasts for a few months now with its gorgeous trailers that have depicted strikingly detailed characters, stunning backdrops and settings, and a soundtrack composed of a prominent assortment of string instruments and piano. Scheduled to premiere Jan. 10, the anime will follow the emotional story of the light novel of the same name.

The story follows Violet Evergarden, a girl who is an Auto Memory Doll. These dolls are mechanical beings that were initially created by a scientist who wished to give his blind wife a companion to assist her. However, the dolls are eventually rented out to others who require obedient servants, and the military begins using them as disposable soldiers. Violet, who has just returned from war after her Major was apparently killed, believes she is now useless with her master KIA, and should be disposed of. A man named Claudia Hodgins, who created a postal company, buys her. Claudia sees Violet as a human being, not a machine, and tries to help her understand her new place in the world after the war, and the emotions she discovered while serving under her Major.

This anime may seem to follow the same beats of shows we’ve seen before, like Chobits or Black Bullet, and it does to an extent. But the anime is shaping up to be an artistic masterpiece, both in its animation and its music. If the anime follows the same story as its source material, it will also delve into themes of how society mistreats soldiers after war. This story should pull on the heartstrings, so if you enjoy a good tearjerker, then you’ll want to watch Violet Evergarden. The series will stream on Netflix.

HAKATA TONKOTSU RAMENS

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens will also be premiering in January, and it centers on the city of Fukuoka. Fans of Durarara!! will want to watch this show, as it, in the same way, centers on the strange happenings of a single city and how those events seemingly connect to one another. It also features a similar musical style. The smooth jazz of the show’s end credit segment is already quite popular.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens’s unique setting is appears quite ordinary on the surface. In truth, it hides a vast criminal underbelly of assassins, selfish detectives, revenge seekers, informants, torture specialists, and thieves. Fukuoka is the city to go to if you need someone dead. With multiple contracts out on different people, the city has become a battleground of a diverse assortment of killers. If the anime follows the structure of its light novel and manga, then it will shift its focus between different characters, allowing audiences to explore the vast criminal element that plagues a city of evil.

If you want to watch Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, the show will be debuting on Crunchyroll. A simuldub will also be premiering on Funimation if you’d rather catch the show in English.

SLOW START

Both 2016 and 2017 proved that cutesy anime that feature all-girl casts, like New Game! or Hinako Note, are somehow perfect for exploring relatable problems that everyone faces, like professional rivals and stage fright. It looks like that trend will be continuing into 2018 with Slow Start.

The show follows Hana Ichinose, a student who’s just starting high school as a freshman. She makes plenty of friends, and seems normal enough to everyone around her. But she has a secret: she’s sixteen. Yes, Hana is one year older than all of her peers because she enrolled in high school late. Hana’s first year of school is spent trying to maintain the illusion that she’s the same age of her classmates.

Slow Start is primed to explore the unnecessary stresses placed upon students that either struggle with school, or face unseen circumstances that impede their school life. Hana isn’t dumb. She’s just starting a year later than most students. However, she fears, as most teenagers would, that the truth would cause everyone around her to think she’s stupid or incompetent.

Slow Start will stir up long forgotten memories of your own struggles to hide your insecurities when it came to school, and encourage audiences to rethink how much pressure we put on kids to succeed in education. It will only broach these subjects though. Most of the show will be a go-happy romp of cute anime girls doing cute anime things. It’ll make you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. Despite its title, Slow Start will start before many other 2018 anime, beginning to stream on Crunchyroll on Jan. 6.

WOTAKU NI KOI WA MUZUKASHII

Every year, more and more kids who were nerds or geeks their entire lives discover that they’re all grown up and in need of a job. Those nerdy and geeky passions don’t go away though, and it becomes a balancing act between being a “normal professional” in public and a closet geek in private. This lifestyle was explored brilliantly in 2017’s Recovery of an MMO Junkie, but it’s getting an even deeper look in 2018’s Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzakashii.

The anime will focus on two main characters: Hirotaka Nifuji and Narumi Momose. The former is a video game crazy otaku who shuts himself away from society when he’s not needed at work. The latter is a fujoshi, a woman who’s obsessed with intense sexual fantasies between two men. The two meet after choosing to work at the same company, and realize they were both friends back in middle school. They realize their hidden passions are a bond they share, and they get along well enough even after being apart for years. They decide to start dating.

In the original manga, the relationship is far from perfect, but it explores real issues that nerds and geeks face in the public eye. Society still doesn’t see much worth in some of the more fanatical extremes of gaming and anime culture, and Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzakashii perfectly captures the feelings of isolation and shame this stigma can produce. The two main characters may only encompass the video game and sexual fantasy aspects of geek culture, but they both soon meet other otakus, each embodying a different aspect of geek and nerd culture, who are also hiding in plain sight.

The show also does a phenomenal job highlighting the shared bonds that adult gamers and anime fans instinctively share, and broaches the subject of whether or not such a bond is all two people need to maintain a relationship. If the anime follows the manga, you’ll shed more than a few tears watching this show, but you’ll have your fair share of laughs too. This anime is perfect for any geek or nerd who’s learning to find their place in the professional world, or who’s seeking comfort from the isolation that such passions can occasionally create.

ALICE IN DEADLY SCHOOL – THE ANIMATION

Fans have waited years for a continuation to the High School of the Dead anime. Sadly, at this point, I think it’s safe to say that it’s never coming. However, Alice in Deadly School – The Animation may be able to fill the gaping hole that High School of the Dead left.

The show’s premise is pretty straightforward. A zombie outbreak occurs at an all girls’ school and infects most of the students, faculty, and staff. A few of the students are able to survive, and barricade themselves on the roof of their school building. It’s there that they must create their own small society, and work together to survive until they can be rescued.

The zombie outbreak survival story is one that’s been done into the ground, but shows like High School of the Dead were able to make a name for themselves for their unique spins on the formula. Alice in Deadly School continues this tradition with an entire girl cast, an arrangement that’s not prevalent in most zombie narratives. All of the characters are also very young, even younger than the high school students from High School of the Dead. If anything, Alice in Deadly School plays out like an all-girl variation of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Girls react to government and conflict very differently than boys though, so Alice in Deadly School handles that narrative a bit differently.

There’s currently no information tied to when the anime will release, or where audiences will be able to find it. It is slated for 2018 though, so keep your eyes open for it. Be prepared to be a little horrified by the show’s content too. These are little girls trying to survive against a horde of cannibalistic humans after all.