2018 has already been an incredible year for anime with the success of shows like My Hero Academia, Megalobox, Darling in the Franxx, Steins;Gate 0, and more. There’s still a lot of the year left, however, and Crunchyroll has some particularly interesting series on the way. It should be noted that we don’t currently know everything that’ll be hitting the service, as most of the fall programming has yet to be announced.
Attack on Titan Season 3
Attack on Titan quickly became a worldwide phenomenon after the release of the first season, and the property has enjoyed huge popularity to this day with multiple manga spinoffs, video games, merchandise, and more. Now after an excruciating one-year wait fans can finally dive back in and see what happens to Eren, Mikasa, Armin and the rest of the Cadet Corps.
Details on the third season are still a little scarce, but there will apparently be more of a focus on humans fighting each other, rather than just humans versus Titans. Unlike the second season, the third is set to have a full run of 24 episodes. Anime fans will have their hands full when Attack on Titan premieres on July 10, especially considering the mega-popular My Hero Academia is only halfway through its third season.
Overlord III
Anime that take place within MMORPGs have become quite popular in recent years, thanks in no small part to the success of Sword Art Online. Overlord is a bit different, however, as the MMO the show takes place in, Yggdrasil, actually creates its own reality where NPCs start to develop emotions and minds of their own. Momonga is a veteran high-level player, and as Yggdrasil is shutting down he refuses to log out. As the MMOs reality takes shape, Momonga is unable to log out and he decides to use his incredible abilities from in-game to become Yggdrasil’s new overlord.
Overlord III takes place right where season 2 left off , and the show is continuing the trend of Momonga being an all-powerful, unstoppable hero. The stage looks set for another massive war in the world of Overlord, and season 3 is sure to have plenty of drama and violence. Overlord III will start streaming on Crunchyroll in July.
Cells at Work
If you took Osmosis Jones and combined it with a ridiculous anime, you’d get Cells at Work. Based off of the manga of the same name, Cells at Work turns the white, red, and other cells in your body into anthropomorphic anime characters. The show focuses on a white blood cell called “U-1146” and a red blood cell called “AE3803,” as they fight off different foreign invaders within the human body.
Early trailers and previews show an absolutely ridiculous anime with some pretty slick combat animation to boot. Even better, like the manga, the anime will take time to explain how the bodily functions on display actually work. If you’re looking for something different, Cells at Work should scratch that itch when it starts streaming in July.
Phantom in the Twilight
Phantom in the Twilight presents a bit of a twist on the slice of life genre, providing a more fantastical setting for the everyday happenings. The show is set in modern-day London, but takes place in a world where “Shadows” are born from human’s fear and anxiety. A young girl arrives in the city to study abroad, but is caught in a supernatural incident and stumbles into “Cafe Forbidden.” There she meets a group of young men who protect the boundary where humans and shadows meet.
The show presents an interesting blend of action anime and slice of life, as the group simultaneously protects the human realm from shadows while also working at the midnight cafe. Phantom in the Twilight will begin broadcasting in July.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime uses the trope of an average person getting transported to a magical world, but with a twist. Instead of turning into some legendary hero, Mikami is an everyday salaryman who is one day killed by a robber and transported to an alternate world and turned into a slime monster.
As Mikami adjusts to his new life, his decisions start having a lasting impact on the monster community and the entire world in general. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime looks like a fun subversion of typical anime tropes, and based simply on concept alone it gets points for originality. The show will start airing on Crunchyroll this fall, although there’s currently not an exact date.
RErideD – Tokigoe no Derrida
RErideD is the latest mind-bending time travel anime, and it starts in the year 2050. A young engineer named Derrida Yvain grows to fame due to his development of the “Autonomous Machine DZ” at Rebuild, a manufacturing company founded by his father. Derrida and his colleague Nathan discover a flaw in the machine, but are blown off by their boss. The two are suddenly attacked by unknown forces and Derrida falls into a coma, only to wake up 10 years later and find a world devastated by a massive war.
RErideD is actually an original anime not based on a preexisting property and is directed by Takuya Sato, the man also responsible for directing the beloved time travel anime Steins;Gate. Additionally, original character designs are done by Yoshitoshi ABE, the character designer of Serial Experiments Lain. There’s some serious talent behind RErideD, and the fact it’s an original show means the narrative will be a complete surprise. The show is scheduled to air sometime this fall, with an exact date coming later.
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