It’s that time of the year again, so enjoy our First Impressions of the 2020 spring anime season that just started~

Thanks to Kill la Kill, I’ll almost always be interested when Trigger comes out with a new anime, so it was an easy decision to pick up BNA. Between this and Beaststars, it seems that anthropomorphic animal person anime is in style lately, but unlike Beaststars, this seems to be about the volatile relationship between humans and beastmen. It didn’t take long for violence to flare up between the two sides, with our dear protagonist (and tanuki girl), Michiru, caught in the middle.

Even in the supposed safe haven of Anima City, there’s already some backstabbing and shady dealings going on, and I’m expecting a whole lot more of that in future episodes. Like all Trigger anime, BNA isn’t lacking in style points, and although we only got a glimpse of it in this first episode, I’m expecting the action to be over-the-top and chaotic, just how I like it. Also, I got some Zootopia vibes for a minute, and since I love that movie, I’ll at least keep watching for a bit. That said, I don’t always finish non-yuri shows that I pick up, so BNA has some work to do in order to win me over. The first six episodes of this anime dropped all at once, so I should find out pretty early on if this is worth my time. For old times’ sake, let’s hope that Trigger once again saves anime~

THIS. This is what I’ve been waiting for. The first season of Kaguya-sama was a huge surprise, so if there was one thing I was sure about for this season, it was that this was going to fun. Lo and behold, the second season of Kaguya-sama hit the ground running and is already in midseason form. Like before, episodes consist of several segments, and just like before, all of the segments in this episode produced plenty of laughs.

Kaguya and Shirogane are still trying to get the other to admit that they’re in love, and even though their tactics are genius, of course they continue to backfire in the funniest ways. After more than a dozen episodes now, you might think the the comedy and (ill-fated) romance would start to grow repetitive or predictable, yet that doesn’t seem to the case yet. As far as romcoms go, this series is probably one of the best that I’ve seen, and I especially liked how this first episode incorporated the entire cast of characters. It’s only like five characters, but they’re awesome and their chemistry is great, so I’d just put them all together as much as possible. And even the great narrator is back!

In case you’re wondering, Kaguya and Chika got married… in a board game, so that explains that pic. It’s just for a laugh, so for anyone who’s not familiar with this show, that’s not a good representation of what to expect (but the pic was too good not to include). A yuri blog can’t be the best place to heap praise on a het romcom, but I can’t help it. This series is hilarious, and even though it’s only one episode, there’s no reason to think that season two won’t (at least) be just as good as the first season.

I don’t know why I picked up this show. Probably had to do with it coming from MAPPA, but more or less, this original anime seems to be about “players” using mechs and the power of rock music to fight monsters. Seems kind of strange but intriguing. This first episode spent the majority of its run time getting us acquainted with the two main characters, Echo and Myuu, but business picked up at the end, and this became a lot more interesting to me.

A lot of the time, music anime seems like it’s just idol anime, so I like that the musical aspects are pretty different than what we’re used to. Thus far, the role of music hasn’t been totally explained, and the two main characters seemed decent at best, yet I think this anime has some potential. I’m not a big fan of mecha anime, but besides in Listeners, I can’t say I’ve ever seen an amp transform into a mech before, so this might not be your typical mecha anime. In another subpar anime season, I might as well give this one a shot. And did I spot Prince in the ED?

First off, I should probably mention that I don’t like baseball at all. Never have, never will. That said, I did use to watch college softball on TV, but baseball (and variations of it) just isn’t for me. Anyway, I wasn’t really expecting a lot from Tamayomi (except for some yuri subtext), but I don’t think this first episode made a very good first impression on me. As expected, Studio A-CAT doesn’t impress with their production values… or much else.

Compared to something like Harukana Receive, the first episode of Tamayomi seems like it might be more serious about sport than that anime (even though it’s far more saccharine), but to me, this seemed pretty cliché and boring. Like the recent Koisuru Asteroid, the two main characters, Tamaki and Yomi, reunite after many years and made a promise when they were young. Seems pretty typical, yet I had practically no interest in either Tama or Yomi. In fact, I liked the twins more than the two main characters. This whole setup just seemed overly cute and bland for my tastes, and I think the same can be said about the characters.

At least there was some subtext in this first episode, and that might end up being what makes me keep watching. I’m ultimately not really expecting anything more than some strong friendship vibes between Tama and Yomi, however, this season seems mediocre enough that that might not be too bad. There have been a decent amount of girls-centric sporty anime in recent years (Harukana Receive, Kandagawa Jet Girls, Hanebado!, etc.), but at first glance, I’m not confident that Tamayomi has as much going for it as those shows.