Fall season 2016 short anime reviews

Before I write about a few of this season's animes, let me tell you one thing: the best anime of this season is going to be Natsumes Book of Friends. I have very little doubt in that. But I already reviewed that anime (though not this season) - you can find it here.

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru
This anime is about a couple of famous historical swords turned into young men to protect history from the attacks of the "historical revisionists". They are sent to certain incidents in Japanese history, but it's not enough to teach you about what actually happened at these points in Japanese history.
To be honest it feels more like someone had fun imagining the swords as boys and so tried to make up a plot to justify it. As a result the character design is very diverse and creative. But so many people got introduced so fast that I really got confused.
Otherwise it's actually quite nice to see the more day-to-day life at the mansion. As long as you don't try to remember who is supposed to be the former sword of who.

Nyanbo!
Nyanbo look like cats made out of little boxes but are actually aliens. They can't be seen by humans and they try to repair their spaceship.
The episodes are only about five minutes each. It looks interesting how they managed to include the Nyanbo in real environment.
It's cute sometimes, but most of the time rather unremarkable and boring. More than this, at times it's really stupid and sexist.

3-gatsu no Lion
This anime about a professional Shogi player teen starts out really weird. Later on it becomes more like what you'd expect, but it still has these strange surreal parts. I don't like the way the people are drawn that much (especially the mouths), but the backgrounds are really amazing.
Though I often like calm animes, I just don't understand this one. Of course, I don't understand shogi, but I also don't find the comedy parts funny - somehow I just don't "get" this anime.

Nobunaga no Shinobi
This is another short anime, with each episode only lasting about 3,5 minutes.
Chidori is a ninja girl who starts service for the samurai Nobunaga. There's lots of name-dropping of - I assume - famous historical persons. It's drawn in a very cute style, and I'm not sure how that fits with the rather violent setting.

Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari
Udon are a kind of noodles. Souta's family owned a Udon restaurant but he went to Tokyo to work as a web designer. After his father died, he comes back to clean out the house. There he meets a little kid. Thinking it's a lost child, he wants to take it to the police - but on the way, he discovers that it's actually a shapeshifting Tanuki.
Souta looks a lot like Handa-sensei from Barakamon - adding to the similar storyline the theme of food that seems to be so trendy recently. The tanuki can be a little annoying in his human child form, but really adorable in his animal form.
If the little boy doesn't become annoying, this might be one of my favourite new animes this season.

Fume wo Amu
This anime is about the editorial departement for a dictionary. Yes, a dictionary. Apparently in Japan there are different dictionaries, each with its own style and the people in this anime want to make a new one.
In my opinion, they try a little too hard to make dictionary editing look exciting with heroic speeches, special effects and dramatic background music. It's really a bit ridiculous.
The song of the ending credits is very nice, though.