Summer 2020 First Impressions

Hey, y’all. Yata here. On top of FGJ’s home country still completely fucking up this whole pandemic response thing, it’s officially Too Fucking Hot™ out, and you know what that means: summer is here! Normally staying indoors and bingeing some anime sounds like our idea of a fun time, but the mood turned sour twofold over the last few weeks; Haru has been feeling ill for the better part of a month and while his doctors have run tests concluding that what’s ailing him isn’t COVID-19, his top priority right now is getting rest and not stressing himself out over writing words about cartoons.

The second issue is that the anime industry itself got set back from when this crisis had its wave over in Japan last season. As a result very few shows—I haven’t run the numbers, but probably the fewest we’ve seen in about a decade or close to it—are airing weekly for the next 3 months, and that’s before taking into account how transparently mediocre most of the surviving batch is, or how two of the biggest hype-titles of the summer dropped in non-weekly formats. Masaaki Yuasa and Science SARU’s new adaptation Japan Sinks 2020 went live all at once, and I loved it so much I intend to give it a proper article of its own, so expect that within a few weeks. Studio Wit’s new title Great Pretender also seems cool, and I say “seems” because I actually haven’t gotten around to it yet; its first half came out in arc-length increments, but it likely won’t leak the second half until the fall, so I’m tempted to hold off for now and just watch it then.

What remains are slim pickings, but if there’s anime airing, someone’s gotta cover it, and here I am to answer the call. What’s worth tuning into weekly between now and September? Hell, what’s even airing, like, at all? Buckle up, ’cause it’s time for some first impressions.

Spring 2020 Mid-Season Thoughts

As the world continues to be a mess, this season’s anime—the ones that haven’t halted production, at least—continue to be pretty damn good. Between the sticky summer weather beginning to rear its head and the crazies taking to the streets from ill-informed sociopathy, this is a damn good time to stay indoors and watch some fuckin’ anime, and that’s what we at FGJ have been up to. However, Haru’s been under the weather lately and needed to prioritize getting rest, so this is a solo Yata mid-season update, with all the rambling, big words, and unproofread self-fellatio you’ve come to expect from the site’s Most Chaotic One. The brand lives on. Buckle up for some aggressively positive takes.

WINTER 2020 FINAL THOUGHTS

How long has it been since I’ve had the blog all to myself?

[checks notes]

Almost 5 years, apparently. How the time flies.

Anyways, quite a bit’s happened since For Great Justice’s last update. I took off for a return trip to Japan, while literal all-hell proceeded to break loose back home before I’d even landed at Kansai Airport. Whereas most of the world is now gripped in the middle of a paralyzing pandemic, and Yata has his hands full training his store’s new surge hires – in addition to his latest vroom-vroom project – you guys are stuck with Just Harubruh for our blog’s sendoff of the Winter 2020 anime season! While I did manage to cover one of the shows he reviewed, you have my apologies if you swung by hoping for more Yata content with regards to Chihayafuru and the rest of his share of the winter anime workload. I took my sweet time trying to slap this rickety-ass writeup together, but hey, better late than never, and better this than nothing at all, right?

right? ._.

Anywho, let’s dive in!

Winter 2020 Mid-Sesaon Thoughts

If we at For Great Justice have anything to say about it, the world ain’t gonna end from freak viruses or pathetic presidential candidate discourse before we get through the upcoming stacked spring anime season, but even that’s getting a little too ahead of ourselves. It’s still winter, and winter has its fair share of gems to celebrate and duds to discard. It’s been about a month since we last chatted, so without further ado, Yata and Haru are back to update you on what we think about this season’s roster just past the halfway point.

Winter 2020 First Impressions

Between long-awaited greenlit adaptations and surprising sequel announcements, 2020 is already looking like a mighty exciting time to be an anime fan, and while the rest of the world is uh…mostly continuing to be a shitshow, not all of these shows are shit! Kicking off the year in style, Yata and Haru are back with their first impressions on 20 seasonal premieres. Which ones have passed the litmus test all easy breezy? Which ones we did we low-key accidentally not save our writing for? (Asteroid In Love. It’s Asteroid In Love. Haru’s sticking with it, though.) And which ones are getting thrown straight in the fire? Find out below on For Great Justice’s first seasonal rundown of the new decade!

Summer 2019 First Impressions

Right off the heels of one of the weakest overall seasons in recent memory, anime is back and summer is bringing the heat! By the end of this past spring, I think we here at FGJ had finished a combined like…6 shows? In comparison, we’re covering triple that in this loaded round of first impressions. But how many are we sticking with—and which ones? Some obvious choices and some oddball surprises alike made the cut. Let’s run ’em down!

Spring 2019 Final Thoughts

For better or worse this past season will go down as one of the overall weakest since we started FGJ, but there were still a handful of shows Yata and Haru watched to completion and even (*gasp*) enjoyed. Which ones made the cut? Which ones flopped? Is anyone really prepared for next season yet or are we all deluding ourselves? The answers to those first two questions below on this seasonal final thoughts installment of For Great Justice.

Spring 2019 Mid-Season Thoughts

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s an extremely underwhelming mid-season update in terms of quantity. This time around, Yata’s the only one participating and he’s only watching…four seasonals. As such, this rundown will be brief, but it’s better than nothing. Find out what some of this spring’s most renowned titles and an outlier or two have been up to on this short and sweet For Great Justice update.

Spring 2019 First Impressions

Thunderstorms are blowing through and allergies are ramping up, which can only mean one thing: spring is here, and with it, a whole new slate of anime to check out! This time around, notable premiering titles include Sarazanmai, Carole & Tuesday, and…

[checks the charts]   oh.               wow.

Okay, no beating around the bush, there’s not a whole lot else to watch this season, but that didn’t stop the two of us here at For Great Justice from giving most things a chance anyway and picking up a few surprises. Which other series struck our fancy? Which will be relegated to the Seasonal Anime Broiler? And is Sarazanmai really worth the hype? (spoiler: yes). Find out below on this batch of first impressions!

Fall 2017 Mid-Season Thoughts

The holiday season is imminent and we’re trudging through the end-of-the-year work rush, but it’ll take a little more than that to stop Yata & Haru from scribbling together some updated thoughts on (most of) this fall season’s hit series. Which ones are exceeding our expectations? How are the numerous sequels of the season faring? And most importantly, which shows are we letting go of now that we’ve given them a fair chance? The answers may surprise you – read on!