Welcome to the fall season of anime! This season brings with it a ton of returning shows, some fan-favorites and a whole slew of brand-new shows that might just become your new favorite anime.
We decided it’d be helpful to check out the first episodes of each of the new shows and pull all of our thoughts together.
Check out the first impressions for Cautious Hero, AZUR LANE and more below, and don’t forget to peep the video above for the rest of Part 1 of our fall season reactions! Part 2 coming soon.
Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious
We may be getting ahead of ourselves, but this *might* just be the comedy of the season. It’s an isekai tale as old as time.
A cute goddess summons a hero to help her save a world that has a particularly high difficulty level and surprise, if the name didn’t give it away, this hero is over-powered, but extremely, exceptionally, overly cautious.
When we say “overly cautious,” we mean this guy has to prepare for everything. Our hero Seiya is obsessed with maxing out his stats for even the most normal of tasks. But you know what, those abs are sexy (pronounced sechshee). This, of course, drives the goddess Ristarte insane over the course of the first episode.
The studio does an incredible job with the art style and these visual gags are just *chefs kiss.* We already KNOW that our phones are going to be FULL of Rista’s face this season. We know it. We’ve accepted it. We’re ready for more episodes.
Watch Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious on Funimation!
Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia
This is the first full series for Fate/Grand Order. While tons of people are familiar with the hugely-popular Fate franchise, some might now be. Remember all of those names you learned of old dudes and ancient gods in history class? COOL. Well, now they’re all hot.
To sum things up, a bad guy creates fake holy grails and goes back in time to hide them, and our main characters Mash and Ritsuka have to go back and either fix whatever havoc the fake grails are causing in that time period — or destroy them altogether.
For returning fans, this new series has a fresh new look and in just Episode 1 we see Gilgamesh. Cue your freak out. We meet some a major new faces in the first episode and the unfolding events hint that we’re gearing up for an epic battle in the episodes to come.
Watch Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia on Funimation!
AZUR LANE
Next up is another show based off of one of the most popular and successful mobile games in the world. So… you know boats? Big, military boats. And you know girls? Cute, adorable girls. Now, take those two things, put them together, and you get AZUR LANE.
Set in a world where a unique advancement in military technology was developed after the arrival of aliens knows as sirens, the four largest military groups in the world form an unprecedented military alliance, known as AZUR LANE. As tensions rise, as they tend to do in war, the factions split and the story follows the Eagle Union as they rally their allies to take on the turned Red Axis.
If you’re familiar with shows like KanColle and Strike Witches, AZUR LANE is right up your alley and Episode 1 brings us just what we love: cool ass fights and cute girls. Oh, and the main character is literally the USS ENTERPRISE, and she has a bald eagle. We’re losing our minds!
Watch AZUR LANE on Funimation!
Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit
When we first heard about this show, we expected more fantasy, but the buddy cop vibes are super strong and we’re certainly not mad about it. The look and feel of the show has a very jazzy, sketchbook vibe with muted tones, which makes for an interesting visual palette cleanser amongst a huge season lineup of returning shows and brightly colored isekai.
That being said, the cop vibe here is strong, but the fantasy is still there. And the wide range of characters means there’s definitely something for everyone.
While it’s just the first episode, these characters all play interestingly off one another. We’re excited to see how the gang balances out.
Watch Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit on Funimation!
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