![\"AClass\"](\"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/AClass.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWe\u2019re a couple of weeks into the winter anime season, which means it\u2019s time to start making some early calls on what\u2019s worth watching. Rather than putting together an almighty list of the best new shows with an average of just two episodes to go on, I figured I\u2019d organize things by interest instead.<\/p>\n
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If you like explosions and action scenes\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n The safest bet for action fans this season seems to be Durarara!! X2<\/em>, if only because of its pedigree. It\u2019s been a while, but the original still stands out as a stylish mix of eccentric characters and super-powered fight scenes. Whenever it managed to fire on all cylinders, Durarara<\/em> easily tapped into that inexplicable sense of \u201ccool\u201d that defines so many popular titles. If this sequel series can recapture that magic, it\u2019ll be a hit.<\/p>\n Speaking of sequels, the new season of Tokyo Ghoul<\/em> seems to be going down well with that show\u2019s fans. I never got around to finishing the first season, though, so I\u2019ll have to sit that one out. Kantai Collection<\/em> has a shot at being this season\u2019s dark horse in the action genre, but a lot of its appeal depends on viewers having played the game it\u2019s based on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If your dungeon needs a few more dragons\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite its obnoxious title, Maria the Virgin Witch<\/em> looks like a potential hit for fans of the fantasy genre. The first episode serves up some compelling characters and an interesting mix of outright magic and historical fiction. If it can maintain that writing quality over the course of the season, it should do just fine.<\/p>\n Log Horizon<\/em> continues to do its thing, though I\u2019m dozens of episodes behind on that one. I\u2019ve also heard some good things about Yona of the Dawn<\/em>, which continues into this season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you need a weekly dose of comedy\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Assassination Classroom<\/em> is the early favorite here, with a charismatic cartoon mutant teaching a class of problem teens. Koro Sensei is perhaps my favorite new character of the season, and he\u2019s carrying the show single-handedly at the moment. It\u2019s got a handful of issues to iron out, but Assassination Classroom<\/em> promises to be a stupid amount of fun.<\/p>\n Two riskier bets are Saekano<\/em> and Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE<\/em>, both of which have plenty of potential but could just as easily wear out their premises within a few weeks. Their first episodes made me laugh, so I\u2019ll give \u2018em a shot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you enjoy having your brain explode\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Death Parade<\/em> just might make up for this season\u2019s lack of new Mushi-shi<\/em> episodes. It\u2019s a tough series to explain without spoiling the fantastic pilot episode, so I\u2019ll just stop here and tell you to watch it. Yurikuma Arashi<\/em> is also drawing a fair amount of buzz, but I\u2019ll be keeping that one on the shelf until I get a chance to watch some of its director\u2019s earlier work.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There, that should be enough anime to consume every second of your free time for the next ten weeks. Enjoy!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This Week in Anime\u00a0is hastily cobbled together by Paul Jensen. You can follow his ramblings about anime and manga on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>. Check back every Monday for new articles.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey there, Internet. It\u2019s been a while, mostly because I\u2019ve been reworking the structure of this column (again). As I spend more and more time writing for sites other than my own, I\u2019ve had less of an opportunity to put stuff together for this column. The good news is that I\u2019ve worked out a format [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1651,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions\/1651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}