I'm Overpowered in a Fantasy… Without Reincarnating!

My Daughter Who Left For the Capital Reached S Rank
https://s-rank-musume.com/
Studio: Typhoon Graphics
Genre: Drama
Premieres September 28th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
While not SUPER fanservicey, it is a show about one dude and like six different teenage girls all technically unrelated to him, all bustling around him constantly while he sits there like a toad. Nor should you expect any adventuring, no matter what the idiotic RPG ranking convention or the like is. This is more of the *sigh* slice of life kind of fantasy drama where they mince and fret over whether or not they can do their best despite never truly struggling or failing at anything. Why couldn't Japan get really into D&D instead? At this point, I'd rather see phantom dice rolling constantly than hear about yet another ranking system.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Bottle up the Electra complex, please.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
https://frieren-anime.jp/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Comedy
Premieres September 29th* (120 minute premiere)

Show Premise: 
Elf goes on a journey to revisit the soul of a former human companion.

Random Thoughts:
I couldn't survive that one idol show's 90 minute intro episode, I don't know that I'll make it through a 120 minute one. And spoiler, as if the title didn't make it clear, the dude she's visiting dies, although with a confirmed afterlife you can walk to, death is more like moving to the next town over. This is, as you can obviously tell, largely a lowkey comedy. Which, sure, is often more my style, but there's not a whole lot going on otherwise. An entire chapter goes past waffling over what to buy someone for their birthday only for a couple characters to go "Oh, he's an idiot" as the punchlines. Some attempts to wrench at the heartstrings here and there are going to come down to execution. The promos certainly ooze budget, though I still keep looking at that 120 minute intro with utter dread and it screams to me that the pacing is going to be… laborious, to put it mildly.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Why don't they just cast Arise?

Ragna Crimson
https://ragna-crimson.com/
Studio: Silver Link
Genre: Action
Premieres September 30th* (60 minute premiere)

Show Premise: 
Dudes fight dragons.

Random Thoughts:
You could technically put this in the obligatory reincarnation area too, as its schtick is his future self comes back and gives all his memories/latent powers to him to go fight uber dragons for future-past revenge. It is cliches out the wazoo, posing as darkish fantasy where everybody is monstrous and fighting the DARKNESS WITHIN but also chibi yelling scenes for 'comedy.' So just like most Jump 'dark' action shows, though this isn't Jump. The PVs were very underwhelming, but this is one of Silver Link's better action directors and they do put effort into the most random things. Not sure if this will be one though, and it seems like a mindless popcorn show even if they do. Nothing wrong with that, but again, the promos aren't flexing any animation muscle to make me think it'll be anything special.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Dragons here being a very malleable species.

Berserk Gluttony – Only I Can Break Past the Concept of Levels
https://bousyoku-anime.com/
Studio: ACGT
Genre: Adventure
Premieres October 4th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
Oddly, there isn't a ton of revenge in this power fantasy revenge story. The protagonist is mostly fairly noble even, though certainly does relish in reading all of his enemies skills and browsing their stat sheets to determine how much he can toy with them before messily killing and 'eating' them. Yes, browsing the stat sheets. It's one of those. Not breaking any new ground here, right down to the whole harem of other themed sin girls who latch onto him. ACGT was never great, but they've certainly been worse the last few years and it's rarely a good sign when all the action in your promos is speedlines and stills. Perhaps avoids the most abhorrent revenge fantasy tropes, but I doubt the rest is going to be able to carry it.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Maybe they can be really daring and make him a slime.

Don't Worry, I Can Totally Fix Her

A Girl and Her Guard Dog
https://ojoutobankenkun.com/
Studio: Project no.9
Genre: Drama
Premieres September 28th

Show Premise: 
Yakuza's daughter goes to school with her bodyguard.

Random Thoughts:
The first of THREE Project no.9 shows this season. How on Earth are they getting so much work? They're awful and only do bad fanservice. Well, it's going to get worse before it gets better. This is a shoujo romantic comedy which is creepy as hell when you find out it's a dude in his mid-twenties 21 Jump Street-ing it up so they can make doe-eyes at each other. Even if it was just a 15 year old girl nursing a crush on the mobster who raised her, that'd be bad enough, but yeah, nothing weird at all here about a 26 year old dude having a romance with a girl 11 years younger than him while hanging out with her friends. Half your age plus seven, my man.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Get over it, Japan.

The Family Situation of the Unreliable Witch
https://dekoboko-majo-anime.jp/
Studio: A-Real
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 1st

Show Premise: 
Witch who looks young raises witch who looks older than her.

Random Thoughts:
A gag comedy, in the sense that every 3 panels is punctuated by somebody making a silly face and yelling an explanation that what has been said or done is unusual. And boy howdy, is there plenty of yelling in the promos. You know how much I love that. At least few of the jokes past the start are about how large the daughter's chest is, though instead it's that she has the brain of a jealous six year old, and that the mother looks like a six year old. Neither are treading new ground as far as anime comedies go. 

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Behold the absurdity.

I Took In a Noble Girl Whose Engagement was Annulled and am Teaching Her Her to Do Forbidden Things
https://ikenaikyo.com/
Studio: Zero-G
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 4th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
By forbidden, it means things like? eating cake, or reading a book, or going to a hot springs, or wearing a flower in her hair. Because this is one of those things where an exploted, abused waif is taken in by the demon lord who is the only person to see her innate perfection, except instead of being an angsty dude with a lion for a head, it's a gag comedy. I suppose it's at least not fanservicey and has little in the way of romance, so steering further away from the standard pitfalls that this subgenre is rife with. Not steering towards actual character development or meaningfully confronting her not-trauma though, so don't expect much in the way of story either.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Teach her about ferret ballooning, why don't you?

You Have Experience, I Do Not; The Story of Our Relationship
https://kimizero.com/
Studio: Engi
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 6th

Show Premise: 
Teenagers date.

Random Thoughts:
He's Billy Wallflower, a golem born bereft of all personality. She's Chesty McSexObject. Cruelly objectified and unrespected by her past boyfriends, but now that she randomly stumbled into the dude, who says things like "Gee. It sure is swell just holding your hand and not having sex before marriage," she is head over heels for what a Nice Guy he is, and ashamed that she could ever be so unchaste. It thinks of itself as a comedy, but with a healthy bit of soap opera nonsense all over the place, like it goes all haremy pretty fast with a twin that had been his previous crush and everybody getting all indecisive and squirmy over the not-feelings they have after like a week of dating. I've had longer and deeper relationships with Chinese takeout left in the fridge.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

I AM A VERY NICE GUY

No Girls, or Plots, Allowed

Firefighter Daigo – Orange Salvation
https://meguminodaigo.com/
Studio: Brain's Base
Genre: Drama
Premieres September 30th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
I think the funniest part of this is seeing people that expect it to be in any way realistic. It's as realistic as sports anime. The dude has a 100% rescue rate, and becomes a world famous fireman superstar with the goal of eradicating all natural disasters in the world. But his coworkers are troubled by that, because then they'd be out of jobs! But no matter how reckless or against the rules the protagonist goes, he always saves the day and everybody loves and respects him for his PASSION. That's the level of realism that the manga goes to. And yes, this did have a movie some twenty years ago. It wallows in the same shounen tropes and cliches as all that sports stuff. It is most definitely not realistic in any sense of the word, not even as much as corny western emergency response shows like… uh… 911? Rescue Me?

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Nobody wants a squirtle firefighting show either, but it would make money.

The Four Yuzuki Brothers.
https://yuzukisan-anime.com/
Studio: Shuka
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 5th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
Their parents died, so now they mince over who cares the most about the others and who's trying the hardest to show their love for the family even though they sometimes don't 100% agree on absolutely everything. It ain't a comedy, and the drama never goes past who temporarily doesn't appreciate how much the others care about the rest of the family. I'm already bored thinking about it and it hasn't even started.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Each is more identical to the last.

My New Boss is an Airhead
https://do-tennen.com/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 7th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
This is one of those long form not-comedies where the punchline is the title. I like cats. Look over there. There's a cat. Oh, that's not a cat. It is a stump. My boss is such an airhead. Except stretch that out for three more pages. Not panels. Pages. Comedy! There's probably something going on in the demographics with all these things moving away from clubs to generic office workplaces, but the core remains the same. Except for that this one is all dudes.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

The white rice and plain eggs of anime.

Dog Signal
https://www.nhk.jp/p/ts/L5K8YJ2GK2/
Studio: Fugaku
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 22nd

Show Premise: 
Dudes train dogs.

Random Thoughts:
Supposedly this is an educational manga, so let's check in on that. The first dog literally mauls the hell out of the dude. Upon encountering the trainer randomly on the street, said other dude snaps his finger and the dog instantly begins obeying him perfectly, so the trainer puts a leash on the dude and forcibly walks him around in public on his hands and knees to teach him what it's like being a dog on a leash. I must've missed the episode of the Dog Whisperer where Cesar Millan mastered the force and then got into S&M. It's closer to a particularly weird BL thing that has dog training factoids pasted in at random points with little relevance to anything happening. Educational? Perhaps, but not in the ways you'd expect.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Please wait warmly while we research this on Wikipedia.

Dudes Pitching Overpriced Crap

MF Ghost
https://mfg-anime.com/
Studio: Felix Film
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 1st

Show Premise: 
Street racers street race.

Random Thoughts:
This is technically a spinoff/sequel to Initial D, which indirectly blessed us with multi track train drifting, so we can do it a solid in return by glancing at this. What I really like about this is the optimism of a 2017 manga. The year is now 202X, and electrical cars have so completely replaced the internal combustion engine that there's a retro racing league for only gas powered 'classic' cars made in 201X, which has taken the entire nation by storm and is the most popular sport in the world… centered in Japanese streets, of course. It is more Initial D, and while I've not actually watched any of that, I am confident that I understand it well enough to steer clear. Ha! Driving term!

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Behold the wonder of the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Overtake!
https://komaki-motors.com/
Studio: Troyca
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 1st

Show Premise: 
Racers race.

Random Thoughts:
This is an original show that has nothing but a promo of some CGI racecars and a dude going "I'm gonna race," so there's not a lot to go on. It is being directed by Ei Aoki though, who? how to put it? is an eclectic dude (Wandering Son, Ga-Rei Zero, Rakkyo, Aldnoah Zero, Id:Invaded). Yes, listing his resume is about all I've got here. I doubt it'll be as… uh… ambitious? as any of those, but he's certainly a dude who makes unusual shows. Still, it's a racing show. And not the kind with rocket launchers. …Probably.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Perhaps the cars are secretly wendigos.

Paradox Live
https://paradoxlive.jp/animation/
Studio: Pine Jam
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 3rd

Show Premise: 
Boy bands have magic rap battles.

Random Thoughts:
Yet another one of these goddamned things, even directly competing with Hypnosis Mic, the exact thing it's cloning, though there's certainly no lack of female versions either. Maybe if you went full Symphogear, without the subsequent seasons sucking, we could talk. The only sort of unusual thing here is that it's NOT pitching some match-3 or rhythm gacha game, but a series of drama and boy band CDs, stage plays, radio shows, etc. Somehow they haven't yet gotten around to modern day gouging.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Come on, let's do ragtime boxing.

Bikkuri-Men
https://anime-bikkuri-men.jp/
Studio: Shin-Ei Animation
Genre: Ugh
Premieres October 5th

Show Premise: 
Children fight over collectable stickers.

Random Thoughts:
You know how Cracker Jacks come with cheap garbage? Imagine if all you could get was a sticker. Now imagine that these stickers were somehow the hottest collector item imaginable and started causig riots. And it got so bad that the government had to have hearings on the deleterious effect they were having on society. And so Cracker Jacks responded by tripling the number of stickers in each package, thereby solving the scarcity problem forever. That's more or less the story of Bikkuriman, a Japanese snack, which is such a cultural rock that, like Dragon Quest, they occasionally threaten the Japanese economy with their hubris. Every few years, they used to spin up a new anime to advertise this nonsense, and after a 15 year hiatus, the circle of time returns it to television. You'd think it'd be a kid's show airing in the morning, but nope. 11pm, following Goblin Slayer. Exactly the perfect place to broadcast your show advertising the collectable stickers that come with your sugar wafers. No wonder Japanese game devs keep trying to make NFTs a thing.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Oh no. My NECCOs got slurped!

Kawagoe Boys Sing
https://boys-sing.com/
Studio: Telecom Animation Film
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 9th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
There have been some really awful idol themes over the years, but "they live in Kawagoe" has got to be close to the absolute nadir of the genre. Well, since it's apparently written by some local literary group, maybe it's just some tourist advertisement in disguise, not too dissimilar from Zombie Land Saga, except that they didn't have "Idol Zombie" sitting on the backburner that they could retrofit into a local tourism pitch. It's not based on anything, and there's virtually no promo stuff to go on, so… uh… boys in Kawagoe. 

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Featuring Kawagoe's most famous product… a potato.

It's Not Reincarnation if It's a Video Game

Shangri-La Frontier: A Garbage Game Player Plays a Good Game
https://anime.shangrilafrontier.com/
Studio: C2C
Genre: Ugh
Premieres October 1st

Show Premise: 
Dude plays VR MMO.

Random Thoughts:
See, because he has mastered crappy games, he knows how to exploit the popular game, which nobody else knows how to do. Which is definitely the way games work. Play The Cheetahmen for 200 hours and that makes you a Street Fighter grand master. It is, of course, a power fantasy web novel where the dude instantly stumbles into… *sigh* the vorpal bunny society that gives him special powers nobody else has. Yes, literally vorpal bunny. In English. What is this, 1995? I will say that the promos are obnoxiously well animated, but I doubt that's enough to salvage this very, very tired kind of show.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

I'm still mad about Magical Destroyers.

I'm a Fan of the Villainess
https://wataoshi-anime.com/
Studio: Platinum Vision
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 2nd

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
She's reincarnated as the heroine of a game, but wants to hook up with the 'doomed' villainess instead, so uses her game knowledge to change her fate. Yep. Another one. But with two girls! That's completely different. Except that it's not at all. All you've done is swap which of the heroine and villainess is the reincarnee. The promo is mostly yelling to show how comedic the whole situation is, but there's no shortage of cherry petals exploding from every touch either.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

These games you're 'parodying' never existed, Japan!

The Chronicles of an Old Dude Playing a VRMMO
https://toaru-ossan.com/
Studio: Maho Film
Genre: Urgh
Premieres October 2nd

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
Unlike the SERIOUS players of the game, he takes a bunch of 'useless' skills with low power levels, like cooking, archery, and smithing, but it turns out that he gets to combine them and ergo is actually the BEST and the envy of all! Again, this is definitely how video games, and especially video game players work, particularly in the most popular games. Nobody ever sinks 1-2 hours into Minecraft just doing some random supposedly non-optimal thing just for giggles, which is the amount of time to show someone is obsessed beyond sense. Even if you swallow this premise… archery is a useless skill in a fantasy world? Archery? Couldn't you at least come up with something like jai alai? Promos look quite poorly animated, and the comedy is largely yelling. His harem is, of course, various demihuman princesses, don't worry about that.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

+3 to Interpretive Dance.

Our Rainy Protocol
https://bokuame.com/
Studio: Quad
Genre: Drama?
Premieres October 7th

Show Premise: 
Dude and his harem play not-League of Legends.

Random Thoughts:
It's an original with only a few shots of people standing in the wind, moving a mouse, and sitting at computers. That sure is… e-sports? I'm not even actually sure what the game they're supposedly playing is supposed to be a knockoff of, except that it involves what appears to be four people. Oh, and one of the harem members only plays the game while wearing a sentai mask. And yet, it appears to be trying to be some kind of mostly serious melodrama. Who knows. Or better question, who cares? The least fanservicey thing Quad has made was that Kuroitsu from Monster Development show, so don't set your hopes high. They are not a good studio.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
ggez no re.

Obligatory Glut of Reincarnation Nonsense

The Demon Sword User of Holy Sword School
https://seikengakuin.com/
Studio: Passione
Genre: Boobs
Premieres October 2nd

Show Premise: 
Demon lord reincarnates and goes to school.

Random Thoughts:
Somehow avoiding "see title" as the description by the actual premise being even more generic. But actually, it's even more generic than that, because he became the demon lord after being kicked out of the hero's party and reincarnating once before. Also note that 'sacred swords' in this case are just random magical weapons. I like the one that's a shoulder mounted beam cannon. Oh, and of course he immediately enslaves… excuse me, CONTRACTS the main heroine, and there are like three more maids running around in the harem. Everything about this was born from jetsam. A perfect fit for a studio like Passione that does virtually nothing but trashy T&A.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Obviously featuring a nutless wonder.

A Returner's Magic Should Be Special
https://returners-magic.com/
Studio: Arvo Animation
Genre: Stop Reincarnating
Premieres October 7th

Show Premise: 
Dude travels back in time to prevent the apocalypse.

Random Thoughts:
Okay, but this is just cheat power with a different name, which becomes more and more transparent as he invents new forms of magic that multiply power levels more than actually has anything in the way of knowledge of the future, let alone does anything with it. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but definitely not promising is that Arvo (Irina, Monster Girl Doctor) still doesn't seem to have any animation strength judging by the promos. So it boils down to yet another reincarnated dude with cheat powers, back to hit on girls half his age. Hooray.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

It's been HOW many volumes and the apocalypse is still on?

The Story of the Tearmoon Empire – A Reincarnated Princess's Change of Heart Story Beginning from the Guillotine
https://tearmoon-pr.com/
Studio: Silver Link
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 7th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
The second of the two obligatory villainess reincarnee shows of the season, and they are not getting any more creative. This seems to think that the heroine not wanting to die is a huge twist. People, that's literally ALL of these cliched things. Nor is this some ongoing quest. She saves the whole kingdom from its series of disasters in the first volume because it was just an unexpected famine that they responded to by executing some farmers or something, and by the third novel, it's inventing extra time travelers from alternate futures with new magical doom prophecy diaries to re-re-save the kingdom with nothing but a detailed account of the disasters to come and how to prevent them. Really puts that sports almanac silliness into perspective, doesn't it, McFly?

Preseason Swing Rating: 

I swear, Mario and Luigi handled time travel better than any premise this season.

Cook Pig Liver
https://butaliver-anime.com/
Studio: Project no.9
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 7th

Show Premise: 
Dude is reincarnated as a pig after failing to cook pig liver.

Random Thoughts:
You'll never guess it, but there's a race of exclusively female slaves in this fantasy world, of which the heroine is a member of. The second of the Project no.9 shows of the season, and the animation ain't improving. The LN is exceedingly fanservicey in between lamenting the plight of this race even as it objectifies and sexualizes them in between panty and boob jokes. The promos don't have really any fanservice, but they don't have much of anything at all except repeating the premise. A dude was reincarnated as just a regular pig. But not a realistic horrifying one. No wild hogs here. Just a moderately scaled up piglet. How wacky when usually they are reincarnated with cheat powers. If we explain this four or five times, someone might laugh out of sheer awkwardness.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

This seems like a job for Nutman.

I Will Survive Using Potions!
https://toaru-ossan.com/
Studio: Jumondou
Genre: Japan, Please
Premieres October 7th

Show Premise: 
Girl is reincarnated with potion-based cheat powers.

Random Thoughts:
She actually has made multiple cheat power wishes and got a few extra ones for free. That's the kind of story we're dealing with here. More of this tiresome twaddle. Of the "I just wanted a peaceful life" variety. Not wanting to be a full comedy. Definitely not wanting to be serious. This studio has always been horrible (This Healer is Annoying being the most recent show), and the promos look awful. What really stands out is the color scheme of the fantasy world. It is HARSH on the eyes and looks like someone messed up the contrast dials. Why is the sky purple? Why are all the walls lime green? Why is that stone house burgundy with a royal blue roof? Are people in this world constantly having LSD trips, or is this just how life is?

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Do not trust the tea.

Modern Magical Martial Mayhem

SHY
https://shy-anime.com/
Studio: 8-bit
Genre: Action
Premieres October 2nd

Show Premise: 
People are super heroes.

Random Thoughts:
This is basically a cross between the super hero and magical girl setting with a lot of standard cliches pulled from both. Also, Model UN, as every country gets exactly one superhero. What is most promising to me is that the intro is the titular character completely screwing up her debut, getting people hurt, and going through some classic Spiderman formulative arcs. Trying, failing, but picking themselves up and determined to do better, that's the kind of hero I love seeing, though certainly a well-trodden road, as uncommon as it is for anime. The crippling shyness and anxiety that is her personality, not so much. The promos are also quite action packed, though animation is rather mediocre. Nothing all that interesting about staff or studio. Both ups and downs there. Please don't suck.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Putting all my fruit in this basket.

Bullbuster
https://bullbuster.jp/
Studio: Nut
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 4th

Show Premise: 
Dude makes cost-efficient robots to fight giant monsters.

Random Thoughts:
Remember Godzilla: Singularity Point? Like that, this has decided that the twist on fighting giant monsters needed is to instead focus on the bureaucracy behind it. Large robots and monsters exist, but mainly offscreen while the characters instead deal with what bank to take a loan out from, or whether to crowdfund their latest idea. I cannot say that I see the appeal in any way whatsoever, and the promos are the most generic bunch of random people gesturing at thin air. Did a bunch of accountants get asked to pitch ideas lately or something? I don't get it. 

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Just use child labor for your mecha like everybody else.

The Kingdoms of Ruin
https://hametsu-anime.com/
Studio: Yokohama Animation Lab
Genre: Action
Premieres October 6th

Show Premise: 
Apprentice witch dude wants revenge on anti-witch kingdom.

Random Thoughts:
Witches here are born from a magic tree, all female, and enslaved by the super science humans. So basically just bog standard anime elves. Oh, and the human capital city is named New Nightmare. We like to dabble in subtlety here. Yokohama is an atrocious studio (Legend of Mana, that Invincible Saint show last season), so while the promos seem fairly average, I have little hope of the actual show living up to that standard. The source is apparently pretty gratuitous with the violence and killing off nearly every character but the main three every arc, despite the main heroine being a prissy hippy love-everybody-no-matter-what slave, which just sounds incredibly dumb to me, but ain't that the norm for our messiah complex heroines?

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Gimme an android that just wants to shake everything to death instead.

Undead Unluck
http://undead-unluck.net/
Studio: David Production
Genre: Action
Premieres October 6th

Show Premise: 
Teenagers with un-powers fight.

Random Thoughts:
They don't have super powers. They have super un-powers. Which are the same thing, but more gimmicky and with stupider names, like 'unrepair', the power to stop wounds from healing. And that's not even one of the more nonsensical ones. Par for the course for Jump. Same studio and team as Fire Force. The promos are pretty action packed, but David Production's modus operandi is to go hard on the first couple episodes and by episode 3, the budget will have totally collapsed. It's Jump regardless, with all the godawful over-exposition neverending screaming nonsense that entails and hyperconvoluted settings that have three times as much development as the characters that exist in them, and yet always boil down to two highly regimented organizations fighting over who gets to play god. It's been a long time since I've been able to stomach shounen. I don't think this will be what pulls me in.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Yarr.

Not Very Intriguing Intrigue

Kamonohashi Ron's Deranged Deductions
https://kamonohashiron.com/
Studio: diomedea
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 2nd

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
Another Jump thing, and it's another one of those where the detective is a serial killer who specifically targets murderers. And since this is Jump, he does so using his VULCAN MIND POWERS. Literally just stares hard at them and yells "KILL YOURSELF, LOSER" and they fall into a hypnotic trance at being so out-maneuvered, out-thought, and out-witted by this stallion of an alpha male that they must obey. This is after the obligatory slobbering rage the second their master plan is explained to them. Mostly though, it's the hapless assistant yelling and explaining how clever this mystery is. A bunch of businessmen died by drowning but nowhere near a lake, which as we all know, is the only way for somebody to drown. What a mystery! Oh, the killer used a sink. Another brain-buster solved. Great work, Poirot.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
So basically a smug internet troll.

Migi & Dali
https://migitodali.com/
Studio: Geektoys
Genre: Uh…
Premieres October 2nd

Show Premise: 
Adopted twins pretend to be one person.

Random Thoughts:
I don't really know what to make of this. It seems like it's trying to be sort of a weird absurdist thing where they're doing crazy-ass gymnastics and running around naked to keep up the illusion that there's only one of them, with their greatest antagonist being an overly curious saint bernard that just wants to play. Except that it's all in service of a melodramatic revenge plot against some other rich family, and not to spoil things, but at one point, the evil family captures one of them, dresses him up like a baby and keeps him in a crib in an attempt to make him confess what he's up to. Maybe it's just written by a crazy person and attempts to understand it lie the way of madness. I have no idea which way it's going to be presented, but these kinds of things rarely gain any traction.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
The greatest foe.

Under Ninja
https://under-ninja.jp/
Studio: Tezuka Productions
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 5th

Show Premise: 
Dude is a ninja.

Random Thoughts:
This manga is also incredibly strange. I… think it's supposed to be an absurdist comedy, but it's very deadpan and seems to take itself seriously. There's a sequence where a dude grabs an assassin's sword to win the fight against invisible ninjas, gruesomely slicing off his fingers on purpose, then whips out his dick and starts pissing all over the place. The entire time, the extended peanut gallery is narrating how he's using the secret ninja big dick technique to intimidate men and fill the minds of women ninjas with his dick. This goes on for pages upon pages, well past what would've been a joke and back into confusion about whether the author might actually believe in literal dick waving to cow your enemies like some kind of demented internet men's rights fanfic. 

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Far from the stupidest fighting technique Japan's come up with.

The Apothecary Diaries
https://kusuriyanohitorigoto.jp/
Studio: OLM
Genre: Drama
Premieres October 21st (90 minute premiere)

Show Premise: 
Apothecary girl works at the royal court.

Random Thoughts:
Frankly, if we're moving away from girls randomly being managers to boy bands to instead being part of the royal harem while solving crimes, I'm considering that a win in genre drift just for the fewer idol shows. The promos make it clear with the chibi-fied reactions that this will not be the most serious of shows, and the source novels are definitely more court intrigue, fawning over the pretty boys, and general royals melodrama over murder mystery. OLM's a solid studio at least, and the promos do seem to be pitching the gruesome poison-based murder mysteries, so perhaps it'll be decent on that front. There are a buttload of these shows lately though, and I don't know that there's a lot that's going to stand out here, and I'm not a huge mystery fan to begin with. 

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Please do not eat the mandragoras.

Very, Very, Very, Very, Very, Very Horny Girls

16bit Sensation – ANOTHER LAYER
https://16bitsensation-al.com/
Studio: Studio Silver
Genre: Edutainment
Premieres October 4th

Show Premise: 
Girl learns about 90s porn games.

Random Thoughts:
The title of the manga is "16bit Sensation: The Girl Game Made By Me and All Of You." I have no idea what "ANOTHER LAYER" refers to, and I cherish my ignorance. I'm a bit curious why in the promo they're using 5.25 floppies, but also holding up a copy of Kanon. Even VNs had long, long outgrown them. Do… Do they think Kanon was released on 400 floppies? Remember the World God Only Knows? This was a doujin by that guy which is essentially just 10 edutainment chapters, each taking place in a different year in the 90s, mostly just discussing either some facet of game making, or a game from that year that he thought was particularly noteworthy. It's unlikely to actually directly adapt that, or if it does, it's going to be the slowest thing ever. Also, it's not reaching deep here, with stuff like "Did you know there used to be mouse balls?" Yes, you zoomers. Bask in the craziness of… mouse balls, floppy disks, and using proto MS-Paint. 

Preseason Swing Rating: 

You've got mail!

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
https://hyakkano.com/
Studio: Bibury Animation Studios
Genre: Boobs
Premieres October 8th

Show Premise: 
See title.

Random Thoughts:
Speaking of the World God Only Knows, here's baically the same thing, without the VN angle. Ugh. Jump supposed rom coms. Pure fanservice with the same tired screamed jokes, almost all either explaining what the cliche is that they're using, or repeating the last sentence but at twice the volume. Since it's 'romance' instead of 'action', that just means cheesecake shots of girls sweaty and flushed with their chests thrust out against a simpering wonderbread dullard instead of a peanut gallery explaining the specific flavor of super power at exhaustive length. Both obviously have the randomly screamed interjections nonstop and pacing that makes you wonder if the heat death of the universe will come first, and this is no exception. Announcement of a cliche is neither subversion nor a joke. And that's in between the parts that are literally just them rubbing themselves all over the protagonist because they've been magically date raped to be part of the harem.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Take a risk. Put Dr. Eggman in the harem.

The Vexations of a Shut-in Vampire Princess
https://hikikomari.com/
Studio: Project no.9
Genre: Fanservice
Premieres October 7th

Show Premise: 
Weak vampire is put in charge of army.

Random Thoughts:
Kind of a weird one. Almost universally, people seem to think that the gag comedy start and premise of this suck goats, and then it somehow turns into a bloody fighting thing, proceeding to ping pong between the two each volume. A lot of comparisons to Disgaea, except all girls with plenty of highly sexualized blood drinking to power them up going on between them. And the promos certainly have plenty of naked girls stretched out, flushed and panting, or just plain in the bath, because this is the third of the Project no.9 shows. The main character also just thinks she's the weakest but is actually the strongest. We're not THAT daring when it comes to story or characters, after all. Maybe if it's better written than that very similar Magical Revolution show, which is not a high bar to clear, but I wouldn't be surprised if it just goes all in on the trashy fanservice instead.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
O+ for her pleasure.

Stardust Telepath
https://hoshitele-anime.com/
Studio: Studio Gokumi
Genre: Comedy
Premieres October 9th

Show Premise: 
Girl meets telepathic alien.

Random Thoughts:
A four panel affair, but wants to be emotional and melodramatic, so every third set of four has the girl having an existential crisis or explosion of cherry petals when another girl interacts with her instead of making a silly face. Same as usual though. Awkward girl narrates nonstop about how awkward she is. Manic pixie girl barges in and says "Let's be friends!" which causes an explosion of color, blushing, moaning, and other totally not sexual oral expulsions. And don't worry, the promos have excessively detailed lips, flushed cheeks, and moist, shimmering eyes to make sure nobody misses how focused this is on friendship and doing their best.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
And exulting the empire!