The winter anime season has pretty much finished out, while new and returning shows for the spring season have mostly all begun. I try to wait until all shows have been announced on Crunchyroll’s line-up at least before I make my list and while there is still one show that’s TBD, I don’t think I’m going to be changing my mind. And if I do, well, it’s too late now. Even so, I’ve been waiting a long time for One-Punch Man and Bungou Stray Dogs to return and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba made a really solid debut.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is originally a Japanese manga series by Koyoharu Gotōge with an anime adaptation by Ufotable, directed by Haruo Sotozaki and produced by Hikaru Kondo.
Our protagonist is Tanjirou Kamado. Following his father’s death, Tanjirou supports his family by selling charcoal. Despite their hardships, his family lives a content, happy life. That is, until demons attack and slaughter his family, save for his sister, Nezuko. It’s not as simple as two siblings surviving a demon attack though, Nezuko has been turned into a demon, but she still retains some human thought and emotion. With no other options left, Tanjiro becomes a demon slayer in hopes to turn his sister human again and avenge his family.
Bungou Stray Dogs (Bungō Sutorei Doggusu) Season 3
Bungou Stray Dogs is a Japanese manga series written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa, which has been serialized in the magazine Young Ace since 2012. It was adapted into an anime by Bones Inc., it’s directed by Takuya Igarashi and written by Yōji Enokido.
Bungou Stray Dogs has many unique characters in it, but it mainly follows 18-year-old, Atsushi Nakajima and the eccentric, suicidal Osamu Dazai. Kicked out of an abusive orphanage and plagued by an ability he can’t control, Atsushi meets Dazai, who eventually coerces him into joining the “Armed Detective Agency” – a group of other gifted persons who work to solve mysteries carrying out missions assigned by the mafia.
Just because I feel like I need to throw this out there, one of the coolest aspects of this series is that many of the characters possess, not only names derived from famous literary authors and characters of renowned works, such as Atsushi Nakajima, Agatha Christie, Rampo Edogawa, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, but even character skills have names where the defined ability follows suit, such as The Scarlet Letter, No Longer Human, and Light Snow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PpGVoqOLNM
One-Punch Man (Wanpanman) Season 2
Four years later, our long wait is finally over.
One-Punch Man is originally a Japanese superhero webcomic created by ONE that has been adapted into an ongoing manga series, still written by ONE, but illustrated by Yusuke Murata, as well as an anime series directed by Shingo Natsume (season 1) and Chikara Sakurai (season 2), and written by Tomohiro Suzuki.
One-Punch Man is the story of Saitama, a man who’s a “hero for fun” as he puts it. Saitama is no ordinary superhero though. He is facing an existential crisis as he has become so strong that he defeats every opponent with just one punch. In his search for a worthy opponent, Saitama gains the attention of Genos, a cyborg, who becomes his pupil despite Saitama’s initial rejection of the idea. Saitama and Genos eventually join the Hero Association and as official heroes, the duo can legally work to keep the world safe, encountering monsters and heroes of all kinds along the way. And hopefully, Saitama will finally be able to find a true adversary.
Make sure you check out these anime and more, now streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll!
