Top 5 Anime Sequels We Can’t Wait to See in 2018

AMANCHU! ADVANCE

The original Amanchu! didn’t have the most unique collection of plotlines. Its cute humor isn’t difficult to find in other slice of life anime either, although Amanchu! does a much better job with visual gags than most shows do. Amanchu! really shines when it comes to visuals. The show is strikingly beautiful and well-animated, with some shots of the ocean that are absolutely gorgeous. It’s rare for an anime’s visuals to be so well-drawn that I’d stop the show mid-episode just to marvel at the scenery.

Amanchu! follows the story of Futaba Ooki, a shy, introverted girl who moves to a new town. It’s at her new school that she meets the hyperactive Hikari Kohinata. Hikari loves scuba diving, and convinces Futaba to join the Scuba club with her, even though Futaba doesn’t even know how to swim. The adventures these two girls embark on comprise most of the episodes of the show, but every so often the anime switches focus back to teaching Futaba the wonders of scuba diving.

Much like Dagashi Kashi, Amanchu! is very educational. Audiences learn a lot about scuba diving over the course of the show, and the level of absurd humor makes the learning fun. Hikari’s blank stare when she’s enjoying something is a running gag of the show, and will make audiences laugh out loud every time.

A second season comes as a surprise. Although fans of Amanchu! have been clamoring for more since the end of the first season, the show itself wasn’t widely popular as it was originally airing. Most of the fandom sprung up around the show months after the final episode. It’s awesome to see that Amanchu! made enough money to warrant another go, and I guarantee that Amanchu! Advance will prove even more popular than its predecessor. I’m just excited to be transported to that beautiful world again. Outside of The Ancient Magus’ Bride (which is itself a fantasy anime), there hasn’t been any anime in recent memory that’s been able to create such fantastical imagery from such an ordinary setting.

MADE IN ABYSS 2ND SEASON

Made in Abyss is a masterpiece. It’s one of those anime that comes along every once in awhile and wows anyone who watches it. It somehow manages to counteract its chillingly dark and bloody setting with brief moments of lighthearted humor or love, before yanking the characters back into despair. It contains one of the best-built fantasy worlds of 2017 and captures the audience’s attention right of the bat before presenting them with the depths of the horror of human depravity. This is a show that sticks with you. You don’t necessarily want to talk about it after watching it, but it feels impossible to stop thinking about it.

The show follows Riko, a 12-year-old girl who journeys into the Abyss, a deep hole in the Earth that affects explorers with a curse when they try to leave. The deeper one descends, the worst the effects. Riko’s mother, who journeyed to the deepest depths of the Abyss, never returned. Riko is joined on her journey by Reg, a robot in the shape of a young boy. Reg cannot remember anything about himself, but he comes equipped with a powerful energy beam that can destroy practically anything it comes across. These two delve deeper and deeper into the Abyss, encountering monsters and curses that will chill audiences to the bone.

Pretty much nothing is known about the show’s second season, except that it will continue where the first season left off and it is scheduled for 2018. There’s little doubt that the show’s second season will continue on the first season’s momentum, and be a safe bet for nomination for 2018’s Anime of the Year.