I was browsing my anime planet account the other day to look back on 2024 and I realized that I watched very little throughout the year. I knew I watched less anime than previous years, but I was surprised it was as little as it was. I did end up getting into more manga though, so you trade one for the other. There will likely not be a top 10, but I will definitely write a post about my favorite things in 2024 which will include anime. For now, I just want to take the time to talk about some of the shows I did end up watching this season. There were some good shows in there after all, not all of which were equally popular. There were also some great sequels that you should watch, but I’m not going to review those. I’m talking about Re: Zero, Danmachi, Bleach and Blue Lock. So with that out of the way, let’s have a look at four shows I watched in fall that I would recommend for you as well!

Dandadan

Alright, I highly doubt I’m the first person to recommend this show to you, but I’m still putting it on here because it’s just so very silly. Ayase Momo is a high school girl who just got dumped by her boyfriends. Sulking over this, the headstrong young woman sees a boy in another class – Takakura Ken – being bullied by his classmates. She sits in front of him to protect him from the bullies and after she leaves he follows her. The two get a poor first start with Ken being an alien otaku and Momo believing in spirits but not in aliens. They butt heads for a bit but end up challenging each other to disprove the existence of the other’s beliefs. This results in Ken running into a spirit called Turbo Granny and Momo being abducted by aliens who want to “steal her banana organ”. A possessed Ken ends up saving Momo, and the two need to work together to get out of the predicament they’re in. This results in them becoming good friends and Momo referring to him as “Okarun” as a play on “Occult-kun”.

What makes Dandadan work so well is that it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. It’s funny, it’s dumb and it can be all over the place tonally, but due to how fun the characters are and how incredibly it’s animated, it just works really well. Adding to this mix some interesting secondary characters and a banger opening theme by Creepy Nuts, we get a very fun shonen anime that doesn’t overstay its welcome and feels fresh and original. If you’re still not convinced, give a listen to the opening theme: Dandadan.

Negative Positive Angler

I almost wrote this one off when I saw the description, but although I don’t like fishing in real life at all, I do like how cozy it can feel in stories, so despite my reservations, this was a late addition to the shows I watched in fall. Tsunehiro has been rolling in debt for a while now, with life not going quite the way he wanted it to. On top of being addicted to gambling, being out of a job and having loan sharks chase him through the streets, he also finds out that he’s sick and has less than two years to live. Down on his luck and being chased through the streets, he ends up jumping off a bridge and into the water where he’s saved by a group of fishers who were passing by. Because they were on their way to a fishing spot, he ends up being stuck with them for a little while before they return back to the shore. When he gets dropped off at home, he finds out that his apartment complex was demolished and he missed the notice. With no future, no money and nowhere to go, he’s given a room to stay at the house of one of the fishers, Tsutsujimori, and starts working at the convenience store that the group of fishers work at too, learning about fishing in the process. 

The strengths of this show lay in its colorful cast and the way Tsunehiro slowly starts to grow out of his shell and get over his depression. As he does so – admittedly slowly – he comes to fall in love with fishing more and more, and we learn a little bit more about the people around him and what their lives are like. Towards the end of the show we learn more about Takaaki Tsutsujimori’s past and the show resolves itself nicely. This show sets out to do something, does it competently and then wraps everything up nicely. A great watch in a season filled with “second act” anime that don’t really conclude yet. 

365 Days until the wedding

I’m a sucker for a good romance story and even more so when it involves an actual adult cast instead of teenagers stumbling over their every word and action. Although to be fair, the adults in this show aren’t exactly much more competent at communication than most teenagers, but they’re still a small step above. Rika-san and Ohara-kun both work at a travel agency. Unfortunately, the agency has decided to send one of their employees to Alaska to set up a new department. They will prioritize single people because that means no partner will be left behind/have to move. So to avoid being shipped out across the globe, Rika and Ohara pretend that they are getting married. Rika is probably the most obviously non-diagnosed autistic person I’ve seen in anime at all. She plans things out to perfection, has no social skills at all, gets tired quickly and hyper focuses on her interests. I have personal beef with how media often tends to show the most extreme versions of autism and calls it representation. Yes, I’m looking at you, Sheldon Cooper. Bazonga. 

Despite their awkwardness and their differences, the two grow closer as they have to pretend to be married. It’s a slow and painful process full of tumbles and getting back up. There are also coworkers who might suspect their marriage of being fake. I want to take some extra time to highlight a side plot that I really enjoyed. One of their other coworkers – and a friend of Ohara – comes across a girl who is an equally big fan of the idol group he likes. He himself is a bit of a chubby and awkward guy with little luck with women, but when the quite beautiful girl shows up to their meetup they hit it off and things seem to be going quite well. It’s when he asks her out on a date that things go wrong. She brings him to pick up her child with her and he is too surprised to be able to say the right things, which means she doesn’t want to start dating him. It’s a harsh scene, but it really highlights how important these things can be to different people, and since he clearly wasn’t ready for a commitment like that yet, things didn’t quite go the way he planned. This show is pleasant, and Rika’s clear autism just resonates with me on a level I did not expect from a short seasonal anime. I highly recommend this one.

Yakuza Fiance

And finally, let’s move from a cute romance to a much less cute romance. Yoshino is the granddaughter of a powerful yakuza and to strengthen relations with another yakuza family, she ends up becoming betrothed to Kirishima Miyama, the grandson of said yakuza family. At first the guy seems nice, but he quickly reveals to be a twisted and violent masochist. But it’s not like Yoshino is a pure butterfly either, having no issues beating someone up and manipulating the men around her. These two dance around each other but clearly something about the way they think matches as Kirishima rapidly falls in love with Yoshino who at first wants to get him to fall for her just to dump him later on, but as the story continues they do grow closer.

What I find unfortunate about this series is that it stops where it does. The entire first season is filled with setup for an incoming clan war and even internal struggles and in the later episodes we also get some insight into the darker sides of the friendly looking yakuza boss. They’re always charismatic when they want to be but hide a psychotic side behind that smile. Yoshino and Kirishima team up to deal with a human trafficking ring and the story picks up speed in the second half but like I mentioned, it feels like it stops right before it can really take off. I still recommend you to check this show out if you have a free afternoon. And that’s really about it. I haven’t watched much else lately. I did finally watch Kiki’s delivery service which was great, and I am starting Trigun – the original one from the 90s – after finishing this post, so there’s enough anime for me on the horizon. I’ll also return next week with my favorite things of the past year, so look forward to that. Thanks for reading!