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Welcome to Anime News Network's Fall 2021 Preview Guide! Here's how it goes: our team of critics write up their impressions instantly, to be posted here as they go along. Each critic will cover as many shows as they can handle, giving you alternate takes on most every show.
The guide is ongoing, organized by series and updated multiple times a day. Throughout the next week or two, we'll be updating as often as possible with new perspectives on new episodes from our team of critics. New reviews will be posted as soon as they're written, with each critic's name being added to the roster beneath the show's title. Check back a couple of times every day during the guide, and you're likely to see new shows pop up with multiple takes to enjoy!
Please remember that this is a preview guide. It is designed to give you a taste of the first episode of a show with a preliminary opinion and a few thoughts on whether or not the show has potential. These are not intended to be blanket judgments of these series as a whole. All reviews use the same ratings scale: 1-5, with 1 being the lowest.
Click on the survey at the top of each show's page to vote for your personal score and see how other people scored the show!
When beating the crap out of other people just isn’t enough, Baki turns to a giant ape for help getting stronger.― Narrator Disclaimer: Baki The Grappler is not intended to illustrate martial arts in any meaningfully realistic way. Check with your doctor before continuing physical activity with broken bones and ruptured limbs.Baki The Grappler is a primer in unrealistic bloodsports. It's both amazi...
From Akira to Tokyo Revengers, Jerome discusses how much is real and how much is a fictional trope.― Alex asks: "I've seen a lot of anime and manga that portray large groups of kids from middle school to high school in gangs that are affiliated with a particular school. Do such gangs exist, and how much impact do they have on society?" I love this question. Thank you for sending it in. You're not a...
This is the perfect moment to examine how Yūji Kaku built his dark fantasy on the bones of real Edo-period history.― With Season 2 of Hell's Paradise (Jigokuraku) now ongoing as of January 2026, this is the perfect moment to examine how Yuji Kaku built his dark fantasy on the bones of real Edo-period history. The Yamada Asaemon were real, and the irezumi kei was an actual criminal punishment—the ser...
Aoki also composed soundtracks for Akuma-kun, Patalliro!, more anime― The Nikkan Sports and Anime! Anime! news websites reported on Monday that composer and arranger Nozomi Aoki died on February 20. He was 94. Folk singer Chiharu Matsuyama first announced the news on the Matsuyama Chiharu On the Radio radio program on March 8. Aoki arranged many of Matsuyama's early songs in the late 70s. Aoki was b...
All in all, The Water Magician is proof that subverting clichés just for the sake of it does not make an entertaining story.― *Note: This review contains major spoilers for The Water Magician. As someone who has seen more isekai anime than they can count, watching The Water Magician is a uniquely baffling experience. At its most basic, it's built on the premise of an isekai genre-savvy protagonist, ...
This is not a series that will make it clear everything will be all right, as it doesn't offer solutions to its problems, even by the very end.― BEASTARS is such a fascinating series on paper, with themes and setups that are beginning to seem more commonplace. Using anthropomorphic, furry characters as an allegory for real-world issues can have mixed results, especially when the separation between s...
Short starring Asuka premiered at "Evangelion:30+;" festival on February 21― The website for the Evangelion franchise announced on Saturday that “Evangelion 30th Anniversary Special Screening,” the new anime short that premiered at the "Evangelion:30+;" festival on February 21, will officially stream on Sunday, March 8 at 12:00 a.m. (Saturday, March 7 at 10:00 a.m. EST). The video will debut on khar...
Steel Ball Run is easily Jojo’s most bizarre adventure yet.― Even by Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (JJBA) standards—which, to be clear, is an absurdly high bar to clear—Steel Ball Run (SBR) is absolutely, positively, aggressively, relentlessly, and lovably capital-W Weird. As vast as it is, the world of manga simply doesn't get wilder than this. Dare I say, SBR is easily Jojo's most bizarre adventure yet...
It's all Pokémon all the time as Jean-Karlo looks back on three decades of history and what we can expect from the game-changing franchise in the future.― Welcome back, folks! It's a hectic week, and as I type this, I'm fighting off a very stubborn head cold. One thing that disappoints me: it was Chun Li's birthday this past weekend! Normally, I like to dedicate a section of the column to discussing...
Kalai looks at Netflix's past and current reports to find what anime everyone is really watching.― 2025 proved to be a big year for anime, as global box office performance and streaming views compete head-to-head with Hollywood-produced content. Streaming giants, Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video have been investing in their anime library and even chasing those audiences in other avenues, suc...
A-1 Pictures produces anime based on fashion manga― A-1 Pictures announced on Friday it is producing a television anime adaptation of Yukino Sonoyama's Bless manga that will debut in 2027. Shōtarō Kitamura (Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!) is directing the anime at A-1 Pictures, and Takayuki Kikuchi (episode director for Solo Leveling, Kaguya-sama: Love is War) is the assistant director. Fukurou ...
