All right, folks. It’s time for a kinda-sorta follow-up to the recent Galvanic Post where we outlined our plans for the Fall Season. We have a lot to cover, so let’s get to it.

Schedule

All right, now here’s the breakdown of EvilBob’s recap schedule for the Fall Season.

Sunday – SSSS.Gridman
Monday – N/A
Tuesday – Golden Kamuy 2nd Season, Akanesasu Shoujo
Wednesday –Conception
Thursday – Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu mama.
Friday – N/A
Saturday – Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san, Uchi no Maid ga Uzasugiru!, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

As for my own schedule, there isn’t much in the way of change to it. Basically, everything I went over about my own schedule before is the same. And now, onto the Tourname-

…Rules. Tournament Rules.

Tournament Rules

So let’s talk about our little seasonal anime tournament and elaborate more on the rules and how it’ll function, just to give you a better idea of what to expect. We’ll go in order with every stage, starting with…

Selection Battle

AKA The hardest part of this entire tournament. This will be the part we bleed over. Four of the shows on our list… will perish. Or at least get kicked out of the tournament. We’ll probably still be watching them, but that’ll be the end of their coverage on the site, barring some outstanding circumstances. But we’ll talk more about that in a little bit. This stage ends after we review the first third of each show (so basically at the end of the month) and cut four shows based on what we think has the best chance in the next round. Get all that?

Trade Period

This is where we trade our well-trained athletes to the opposing team, for giggles. Kidding. It’s basically a period where, if we’re not content with one of the shows on our own list, we can trade them. We can only make one trade, however. The risk is, of course, that we’re only having this period after the first third of the season. Meaning we may end up trading something before it hits its stride. And if it does so later, we may effectively give our opponent a strong weapon against us. Will there be any trades? I guess we’ll all find out when that time comes, won’t we?

Brackets

At this point, the first culling has been completed and it’s on to the second. This is where the battle begins. Where the weakest will fall and the strongest will survive. Uuunless we screwed up. More on that later. During this period in the tournament, we decide which series will go at it in the brackets. It’s down to the final eight and to make things more interesting, the brackets are decided at random.

Lifeline

And this is the part where we sheepishly admit we done goofed. This takes place halfway through the Brackets stage. It’s something like the trades from the prior stage. How this works is simple. If there’s a show we’re unhappy with in our lineup and another one that we’ve kicked from the running but are still watching and enjoy, we can sacrifice one to save the other. Think of it as… equivalent exchange. Yes. We did just make that reference. But we may only do this for one show.

Semifinals

Here’s where things get really interesting. Halfway through the final third of the season, the lists turn on one another again. The victors of the quarterfinals from both sides will face off, leaving only one survivor from each side.

Trash Talk

And this is when we tell our rival who’s boss and how badly they (Bob) are going to lose.

Finals

This is the battle of Champions. Where only the strongest dwell. It’s survival of the fittest. Two anime enter, one anime leaves.

Revel in Victory

This is where the winner (Voyager) gets to exercise those bragging rights to his friends for picking the best anime of the season.

New Season

New season, new tournament! When Winter comes around, it’s back to the top and with a new set of rules. But that’s a story for another time.

Keep or Cull!

EvilBob: Oh, he thinks he’s cute.

Voyager: B—h, I’m adorable.

EvilBob: …I should’ve expected that.

Voyager: Ya should’ve.

EvilBob: So. Next, let’s have a little fun. We’re going to try and predict which of our anime will move on past the first round of eliminations. I know these are just the first episodes, but I want to see how off my predictions will be. I’ll go first.

EvilBob’s First Round Predictions

SSSS.Gridman Keep!
Golden Kamuy 2nd Season Keep!
Conception Cull!
Uchi no Maid ga Uzasugiru! Cull!
Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san Cull!
Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu mama. Cull(?)
Akanesasu Shoujo Keep(?)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind Keep!

So yeah. These are what I think are my four strongest and weakest, just based on the first episodes. There are a couple where future episodes may sway me a liiittle bit, but I’m pretty sure Golden Kamuy and JoJo’s are all but locked in, at this point. Let’s see Voyager beat that combo.

Voyager’s First Round Predictions

Toaru Majutsu no Index III Keep!
Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai Keep(?)
Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken Cull(?)
Yagate Kimi ni Naru Cull(?)
Radiant Cull!
Release the Spyce Keep!
Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara Keep(?)
Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet Cull!

I don’t need to look too far to beat EvilBob’s golden little combo. Three words. Certain Magical Index. AKA, the anime we’ve been waiting nearly a decade for. But I digress. This was, uh… this was a bit trickier for me because, that one aside, my list is pretty close to even. Yagate Kimi ni Naru and Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara are both really good in really similar ways, for example. And Seishun Buta Yarou is turning into a real dark horse of the season. I have absolutely no idea what my final four will end up looking like. But it’s exciting to think about.

Semifinal Predictions

Voyager: So. Who do you think is going to the semifinals?

EvilBob: Oh. Well, I think SSSS.Gridman has a real shot. It’s Trigger. When they strike, they strike gold. Buuut they miss pretty hard if they don’t. Golden Kamuy is pretty much guaranteed, though. You?

Voyager: Probably Index. But like I said, Seishun Buta Yarou is looking really strong. And we shouldn’t exactly turn our noses up at Release the Spyce. I mean… look who’s making it.

EvilBob: Yes. We know. You never shut up about it. And if you ever denounce it on Twitter again, I will be worried… again.

Voyager: heh.

Grand Final Predictions

Voyager: Index.

EvilBob: Excuse you? I think what you meant to say was Golden Kamuy.

Voyager: …

EvilBob: I mean… there had to be a reason they made you wait almost a decade for season three, right?

Voyager: Yeah. It was called A Certain Scientific Railgun. Which got two even more highly rated seasons and has a third on the way. Also an Accelerator spin-off. A franchise doesn’t exactly stick around like that if it’s not good in some capacity, so…

EvilBob: …True. Speaking of which, there’s also the possibility of JoJo’s, getting in there.

Voyager: …right. Buuut there are also the dark horses. I am not exaggerating when I say I think Seishun Buta Yarou could wind up being one of the best titles of the season.

EvilBob: Yeah, but so can Gridman.

Voyager: Well. It appears we’re at an impasse.

EvilBob: So it would seem…

Voyager: Well then. May the better man win.

EvilBob: Not to worry. I intend to.

Voyager: …cheeky.

Poll Winners

And now for the winners of the Polls. So it looks like for the remainder of the season, I’ll also be covering Noragami along with my actual seasonal pick-ups. It’ll be nice watching through that one again. And after I get these other Full-Series reviews out of the way, it’s all eyes on Kill la Kill! That’s gonna be fuuun. Look forward to it!

One More Thing!

We don’t presently have a name for our little tournament. (All the good mashups of “anime” and any word synonymous with “fight” are taken ;-;) so we figured we open this one up to you all! If ya have a suggestion, drop us a comment or a tweet and we’ll consider it! The best we’ve got right now is “AniMatchup” as a working title and… meh. Just felt a bit weak to us. We’ll keep working on it, but hope to hear some fun suggestions!

Conclusion

And that’s the long and short of it, internet. That’s the schedule for the season, the breakdown of how the tournament will work, our predictions for how the tournament is going to go, and the winners of the polls. All in all, this is going to be an eventful season. What would you like to see take home the gold? Let us know, down below. Thanks for reading, as always! Keep up the Awesome!

Take Care,
C. Voyage