Gintama: Silver Soul Arc
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
It’s a bitter sweet day in the world of anime. Gintama is reaching its final arc in Gintama: Silver Soul. The entire Gintama series has more than 200 episodes under its belt and has garnered a massive fanbase with each and every one. From the very start Gintama was a bit of a surprising anime for anyone who hadn’t already read the manga. An anime about aliens in feudal Japan, a negative attitude towards swords that has samurai living with little to no respect from others, and a goofy errand boy that still possesses the heart of the samurai just wasn’t supposed to be this good. Here we are 10 years later still eagerly following Gintoki Sakata and the gang on an adventure that is filled with just as much hilarious wackiness as it is intense action and epic battles. In this arc, Utsuro’s plan to spark a deadly war that would ultimately destroy earth has been unveiled and the clock is ticking for anyone who wants to stop him. Our familiar heroes are forced to look for aid from unlikely sources, but their strength alone simply won’t be enough to put an end to Utsuro’s devastating death wish.
Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
Cardcaptor Sakura is an incredibly popular manga series that earned its own anime adaptation back in the 90s. Ever since then, the fanbase behind this tiny magic girl has been massive. For those who are new to the Cardcaptor Sakura franchise, Sakura is a 10-year-old girl who stumbled upon a discovery that would change her life forever. Sakura accidentally released and scattered a mystical collection of cards known as the Clow Cards all over the world. Turns out these cards are pretty special. They are magical cards and each one possesses incredible powers and has a mind of its very own. It’s up to Sakura to retriever these cards and capture them in the book she accidentally released them from all while still trying to navigate the complications of being a young girl dealing with school, family plights, and more.
Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card actually picks up with Sakura preparing for middle school and believing that her Clow Card journeys are over for now since she managed to capture all the cards. She soon discovers that that’s not the case. Yet another discovery will change the trajectory of Sakura’s life. The Clow Cards are now blank and completely powerless. She now has a new adventure, a new way to capture, and a new motive pulling the brave young girl deeper and deeper into a fantastical mystery.
A Place Further Than The Universe
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
A Place Further Than The Universe, or Sora yori mo Tooi Basho, has a plot that sounds incredibly simple at first. It’s a series about two young girls who are embarking on a journey to the Antarctic. Once you start looking into the details, however, there is a certain glimmer of promise behind this adventure anime. The first episode only features two protagonists so far but both of these young women have very different motives for wanting to travel to the Antarctic. For Mari Tamaki this adventure is all about living life to the fullest. She is driven by curiosity and wonder and even seems to have something internally that she hopes to prove to herself. Shirase Kobuchizawa, on the other hand, is motivated by her mother’s disappearance in the Antarctic. She has even spent a long time working hard and saving up money just so she could go to the last place where her mother was seen.
The first episode has only introduced these two girls but the trailer for the show revealed two other female characters who are likely to become prominent figures in this anime as well. So far A Place Further Than The Universe is off to a great start with character development despite the fact that it feels like the series cut corners a little bit in terms of setting up the plot. If this anime introduces more dynamic leads and takes advantage of having a setting as unique as the Antarctic, it could be a strong new entry for the Winter 2018 lineup.
Fate/EXTRA Last Encore
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
Fate/EXTRA Last Encore is an anime adaptation of the Fate/Extra video game that takes place in a parallel universe to Fate/Stay Night. Shaft will be the studio in charge of the adaptation, which is enough reason to believe that Fate/EXTRA Last Encore is in good hands. With popular series like Ef and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica coming from the studio, it’s hard to believe that the Fate/EXTRA Last Encore anime will fall short in delivery.
There’s some added pressure on Shaft for this adaptation since the Fate/Stay anime series has been incredibly successful so far. In this parallel universe, viewers follow Hakuno Kishinami as he awakens with no memory in quite a serious predicament. He is being forced to fight in a tournament that he doesn’t even understand. Despite having little knowledge of what’s going on, he still understands that the prize on the line is one he must get his hands on. The winner of this tournament is granted one wish but emerging victorious will be a lot more challenging than our protagonist could have ever anticipated.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of the Commandments
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
The Seven Deadly Sins is a popular anime with several of its characters earning a cult-like following of their very own. Both Ban and Meliodas have huge fanbases that have filled the internet with various forms of fan art and fan fiction. Once you get introduced to the quirky cast in The Seven Deadly Sins, however, you start to understand why people can’t help but fall in love with these personalities. Sure, Meliodas is often unreasonably powerful in a way that can make moments bland and predictable but overall he’s still a lovable, strong, goofball protagonist who means and does his best. Then there is the far less predictable Ban who probably has one of the largest fanbase out of the bunch.
Revival of the Commandments will be bringing back the whole crew in this popular shounen, or shonen, anime. It’s safe to say this second season will be bringing more epic battles, a healthy amount of comedy, and plenty of fan service for all who have enjoyed The Seven Deadly Sins series so far.
Violet Evergarden
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
The old saying goes that there’s “nothing new under the sun” and that certainly seems true in the world of anime. With such a vast library of anime that have been created throughout the years, it’s hard to find a plot that hasn’t been done before. While Violet Evergarden still has some familiar tropes, the manga series overall is filled with fresh ideas. This universe is home to auto-memories dolls, which are mechanical dolls being used to record people’s emotions and speech. While more people have been finding use for the dolls recently, they were originally created with the sole purpose of helping the inventor’s blind wife write a book. Violet Evergarden is one of the newer versions of these auto-memories dolls, which have now been given military functionality as well.
This touching manga deserves a beautiful anime adaptation that explores human emotions and consciousness in a fresh way and if the Violet Evergarden anime style is any indication of the overall production, this is one adaptation that’s destined to be a hit.
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (Season 2)
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
While most people would love to have super powers one day, Saiki Kusuo has been given the gift that everybody except him wants. Saiki has psychic powers that he’s been keeping under wraps for quite some time but now that he’s become a 16-year-old high school student, his fight to live a normal life has become particularly difficult. With the ability to always know what people are thinking, Saiki Kusuo’s life has been void of many experiences that are common for a man his age. Well now that the craziness in his life is ramping up, he’s ready and willing to match it with some quirk of his very own as he struggles to keep his secret.
This hilarious anime is released in short five-minute episodes that pack a ton of laughter into such a short amount of time. If you love over the top anime with a focus on comedy-laced commentary on the complications of growing up, you should marathon season one right away and be prepared to pick things up with season two of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
Darling in the Franxx
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
Darling in the Franxx is a brand new series slated to release on Jan. 13 that takes place in the distant future. This isn’t some utopian future where technological advancements have led to the betterment of all mankind or where innovation has created a better life for all. The land has been ruined and has forced mankind to flee to the skies instead.
The mobile fort city that has been established is called Plantation and many of its youth come into the world with only one purpose — to pilot robots called Franxx. Franxx pilots are tasked with fighting back against giant lifeforms known as Kyoryu and carrying out any other mission that is assigned to them. The value of their existence is based solely on their ability to pilot the Franxx but not all of these young pilots are happy those conditions. Darling in the Franxx takes viewers into this unique world while also exploring the complications of a pilot daring to want more out of life.
Overlord II
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
Overlord is back for season two and it’s already off to a great start. For anyone unfamiliar with the series, it’s the story of a young gamer who has decided not to log out of a virtual reality game even after it was publicly shut down. Momonga remained in the game alone but something strange started to happen. All of the NPCs in the game seemed to evolve and start developing personalities of their very own. Now Momonga has decided to focus his energy in the game on becoming a powerful ruler of all the NPCs now in the game with him.
The first episode of season two does an okay job of trying to reintroduce viewers to the series. It’s not a particularly strong start for the series but this episode also seemed to purposefully avoid going too deep into the new season’s main arc. Instead viewers are reminded of the various personalities that make up the Overlord cast just as the show prepares viewers to dive into a new chain of events. Overlord II keeps the same beautiful animation style of the first season and fingers are crossed that it will keep the same great pacing and clever storytelling as well.
Beatless
Top 10 Best Anime of January 2018 You Should Watch
Beatless is yet another anime series set in the future that spends its time exploring the complications of human interaction with advanced AI. The series is a bit of a boy meets girl story that seems poised to go far deeper than a generic romance between teens. Arato Endo is a 17-year-old boy who has a unique run in with a new type of being that blurs the lines between human and machine. This being is Lacia. She is only one of the many mysterious beings that have emerged in this age of AI that surpasses human intelligence. But it’s when she crosses paths with Arato that her presence in this world becomes particularly interesting. Lacia comes to Arato’s aid, saving the young man’s life and forcing him to make a decision about where he stands in the great debate about these new AI and whether they can truly live in harmony with humans. To be fair, it’s an anime that can easily go into a very cliche direction but so far Beatless has managed to at least handle some of these familiar tropes in a way that feels particularly endearing.
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