If there is a prevalent theme that appeared last season, it's adult trauma. I really think this season might be one of the most grown up seasons of anime we've had in a while. I don't really count Frieren into the mix because in terms of being an elf, I think Frieren is still a teenager. Apothecary Diaries also doesn't have as much adult trauma in it because the main character is a teenager. But there were plenty of shows that had young adults or older who work adult jobs and have some problems with relationships. These are four that looked at adult trauma by doing something realistic even in some fantastical settings.
The Power of Hope ~Precure Full Bloom~
This is a show where, at the time, multiple former magical girls are now young adults with career jobs. They are working and struggling with their jobs because the world isn't as simple as they were beforehand. For instance, this show started with Nozomi now being a teacher and trying to make one of her students' lives easier so the young girl can continue to dance. The young girl's dad's business recently failed which means that this family is moving to a place where their school's don't have a dance club. Nozomi tried to find a solution for this family, but she is road blocked on every avenue besides influencing that girl to continue dancing wherever the young girl ends up.
The entire show is like that. Doctors having trouble with their patients, actors struggling to give the role they are assigned a personality, authors struggling to find motivation to write their next piece, and there are even some talks about marriage and relationships. It really shows how these girls are struggling to find the optimism they used to have as magical girls when they were in highschool. I find it so fascinating to see these young women finding some of that spark and motivation that society has slowly been taking away from them by transforming to their magical girl forms of yesteryear. There is more going on in the show, but this is the heavier aspect that really hit home for me.
Overtake!
Let's discuss the horror and trauma of one of the adult protagonists Kouya Madoka. A photographer in the recent time period of the show cannot take singular pictures of people. This is a man who, when we see a flashback later on in the series, is the guy who was married and put so much of himself into his job of photography that he wouldn't let anything get in his way. That ended for Kouya when he accidentally took the photo of a young girl while searching out the wreckage of a tsunami. That one shot and the entire incident in itself damaged him to the point where his former energetic self only appears in small moments in his attachment of learning what F4 racing is and how he can possibly help one group that is struggling for funding.
One part of Overtake! Is Kouya finally making a comeback from his trauma After his one photo damaged his reputation and his life despite no one else knowing the context of the scene besides him and whoever was there, there is the entire fate of criticism from the journalism and depression he needs to get over. The one photo he took of the other protagonist, Haruka Asahina the F4 racer, is where he starts to recover. The two's fate is connected to Haruka finally making his way to the podium after a race and Kouya taking the picture of Haruka on the stand. I don't think that Kouya has completely recovered his ability to take pictures of people at the end of the Overtake, but it does allow him a path to move forward.
Bullbuster
Obviously, this is an anti large business show in the form of a mecha series of robots fighting against giant creatures on an island. The first part of the series features a smaller company called Namidome completely lost at where the aliens are coming from and monetary problems limiting the power this company can do in helping the island's inhabitants. Then it all connects together when Shiota Industries is about to absorb Namidome which gives the company all the resources they would need, but that comes with twists. The major twist being Shiota manipulating the press and their science division to them being the cause of the monsters in the first place. The crew of Namidome had to work together physically and legally to destroy Shiota physically and legally.
The cast of Bullbuster isn't that strong, but everyone is affected by this entire incident behind Shiota Industries. The biggest one is Arumi Nikaidou who not only lived on the island, but is one of the only people who has the largest emotional stakes in the whole affair. For instance, the people in Namidome do not realize the full emotional stakes and real people that are affected by people being displaced from their home being in places they don't belong. Our opening protagonist Tetsuro Okino is one of the people who is insensitive because he cares more about the robot he built to fight monsters instead of getting any focus on the emotional weight he is stepping on. So here the trauma of not caring stepping over real people's lives that are in the balance.
Conclusion
I am skipping over a few series like Daigo that focuses on young firefighters with one more than motivated to save lives or otherwise he will be crushed by his own guilt. Frieren is another one focusing on an elf over a thousand years old and is finally discovering what feelings are. The main focus is how many series that aired this last season that had real adults, young or otherwise, that were through it. I could even mention how Soaring Sky! Precure which had a focus on a millennial sort of adult antagonist going through a lot and Ageha as a young adult preschool series, but that is a series that at 48 episodes in length, isn't only Fall 2023's series. I'm just happy there are so many series that focus on adult struggles and drama recently. I hope it keeps going because it feels so refreshing in a world where teenagers get a larger focus.
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