The summer anime season is fast approaching on the heels of
one of the most diverse seasons I’ve seen in a long time. That’s not really
high praise coming from me: the spring 2015 season is the first time
I’ve made an effort to keep up with more than just a handful of shows. Diversity doesn't necessarily equate to quality, and the spring
season stretched all across the board. It had some real top tier
shows (Blood Blockade Battlefront, Heroic Legend of Arslan), some out and out
disappointments (Unlimited Blade Works springs to mind as it limps toward the
finish line) and a whole host of shows sitting square in the middle of the road
(Seraph of the End, Punch Line). Not a lineup of masterpieces, but a decent
selection that I was satisfied to keep up with.
Given the low expectations I had going in to spring, the
summer lineup actually looks quite promising. There aren’t a whole lot of
triple-A shows here, at least not ones that jump out of me, but there’s quite a
few that look good enough to latch onto and enjoy to the end. I’ve seen a
few bloggers lamenting that the summer's offerings are looking a bit weak, but I’m
still new to this and thus any new season is a source for potential excitement.
So here’s my preview, with the shows listed from least anticipated to most
anticipated.
Million Doll: This really is the bottom of the barrel in
terms of shows to follow. Normally I see the word “idol” in a show’s premise
and immediately write it off, but the idea of a girl trying to boost a singer’s
popularity through blogging seems interesting enough that it’s at least worth a
first look. The real question is whether the show will hold true to that
premise or if it will veer off into the usual anime pandering.
Premiers on July 6.
Jitsu Wa Watashi Wa: This is a pretty standard anime
premise: the usual harem nonsense with a fantasy element thrown in, the element
here being that the main girl is a vampire. It really isn’t much to build a
show on, which means it has the potential to be either the standard harem
snooze-fest or a fairly amusing one-off. As with the preceding shows, the
premise and designs look good enough to at least warrant a first look, though
I’m not expecting much.
Premiers on July 6.
Classroom Crisis: This is the first show on this list to
really grab hold of my expectations. Though I’m normally not one for slice of
life shows, the premise of depicting daily life in a “near future” coupled with
some really good looking character designs has me hoping that this one will be
worth following all the way to the end. Science fiction shows that lack the
usual action/adventure element tend to be somewhat dull affairs (such as last
season’s
Plastic Memories) but the premise of young people adapting to life in
the working world is solid enough to hold my interest if the writing is good
enough.
Premiers on July 3.
Gatchaman Crowds insight: This is apparently a sequel,
though I’d never even heard of the first season before I ran through the shows
for this season. The premise as I understand it is that the protagonist is a
part of a group that works to defend a futuristic society using powered armor
to fight evil. An action premise like that reminds me of past shows such as
A
Certain Scientific Railgun, which I enjoyed enough to give this a shot.
Gatchaman apparently has some prestigious names attached to it (I’m not well
versed in the industry enough to be namedropping specific people at this point)
so even if the writing isn’t the best the production values might be enough to
carry the show.
Premiers on July 4.
Working!!!: Another followup to a show I didn’t watch,
Working!!! seems to be a similar setup to Classroom Crisis, with young people
adjusting to working life. This is a theme that is becoming more and more
prevalent in anime and the most interesting thing about such series is the
attitude they ultimately take toward what it means to transition from childhood
to adulthood. I don’t know how much mileage I can get out of it having not
watched the first cour, but it’s one of the more respectable looking shows in
this lineup and these days anime can use all the respectability it can get.
Premiers on July 4.
 |
| So many warning signs. |
Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan: I have a penchant for
picking up shows I know are going to be crap but can’t help but hope they at
least have some good visuals. A light novel adaptation (warning sign #1),
Kuusen Madoushi centers around an “aerial wizard” who was once known as the
“Black Master Swordsman” (warning sign #2) but is now despised as a traitor by
everyone, though I’m sure he really doesn’t deserve any of that hate (warning
sign #3). He’s assigned as an instructor to a squadron of three quirky girls
(warning sign #4) and oh god why am I still even considering this. It’s such a
formulaic recipe for the standard anime Gary Stu that I have no hopes for it at
all. It’s only on this list because it’s a good case study for everything that
tends to go wrong with light novel stories and hey, maybe the fight scenes are
good. Probably not though.
Premiers July 8.
Aoharu x Kikanjuu: When I first read about this show I wrote
it off without a second glance, but the chance glimpse of a promotional image
featuring the characters decked out with rifles and survival gear brought me
back. Evidence of my incredibly high anime standards, no doubt. The main
character is a girl posing as a boy (no idea why) who gets thrown into a series
of “survival games.” I really don’t know what said games entail; right now I’m
just spurred on by the prospect of some good shoot-outs and the colorful cast
any good survival show should bring to the table.
Premiers July 2.
Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace: This is one of the more
interesting shows in the chute for this season. It is apparently based on the
works of Edogawa Ranpo, a prominent 20
th century mystery writer.
Though I don’t know anything about Edogawa’s work, this is one of the classier
premises to come out of anime lately and it’s a NoitaminA production, which
guarantees a decent amount of production values. My attention span with mystery
series is usually pretty weak, but I’m hoping that the show is strong enough to
hold me to the end. It’s refreshing to see an adaptation of actual literature
rather than the usual light novel crap, so if this is successful maybe we’ll
see similar adaptations in the future.
Premiers July 3.
Overlord: I’ve never been a fan of fantasy shows that take
place in a virtual reality environment. It strikes me as a bit of a cop out, an
excuse to avoid real world-building and straight facedly employ video game
mechanics as plot devices. It’s just lazy writing (Is It Alright To Pick Up
Girls in a Dungeon recently highlighted this by cutting out the middleman and
flat out asking us to believe in a world where character levels and stat
building are quite real without even the excuse of a video game to back it up)
and can lead to the most tedious kind of wish fulfillment nonsense. That being
said, Overlord focuses on a gamer who chooses to remain inside a game world
even after the game in question gets taken offline. The dead game’s NPC
denizens begin developing minds of their own and the stranded gamer decides to
seize control of the world for himself. It’s an interesting enough premise but
one that depends entirely on whether the show holds true to that premise and
doesn’t divert to the dull pandering that is so common in this genre.
Premiers July 7.
Rokka no Yuusha: Rokka no Yuusha sports some decent visuals
and a pretty solid fantasy premise. A boy named Adoretto sets out to be one of
six heroes destined to save the world, only to show up as the seventh potential
hero. A good party setup can make for entertaining, if formulaic, anime as long
as most of the party members are fleshed out and likeable. The most interesting
part of this premise is that the group suspects that one of their number is a
traitor. I think Rokka’s success will hinge on how it handles this last plot
point: a good execution that makes full use of its characters could really
elevate it into something great, while a
mediocre payoff will consign it to the large pile of good but forgettable fantasy
shows that have cropped up these past few years.
Premiers July 5.
Gate: Jietai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri: Though Gate does
not look like a particularly good show by any stretch of the imagination, I’ll
admit that I’ve been looking forward to it for quite some time. I love military
shows and that’s a genre that is so rare in anime these days that I’ll take
whatever I can get. Here a portal to a fantasy world opens up in Japan and the
Japanese Self Defense Force sends a small contingent of soldiers in to
investigate, probably to determine how marketable the denizens of this
alternate dimension are. I don’t expect great things from Gate, but it caters
to my niche interests enough that I’m in for the ride if only to see what the
show does with the premise. Bonus points if the series ends with those meddling
Americans trying to chuck a nuke through the portal, because that’s what the US
likes to do in anime.
Premiers July 3.
Ushio to Tora: Having seen some of the preview designs, I
can’t say that I’m blown away by Ushio’s aesthetic. That being said, I’ve
ranked it so highly because it is based off a very well regarded manga and it’s
been a long time since I’ve enjoyed an urban fantasy shounen series. I foresee
it being a show that a lot of people will like and I’d hate to miss out on the
potential fun. As I understand it, the protagonist inherits a family heirloom
that allows him to control a rambunctious spirit. This being an anime,
shenanigans ensue. It’s not the most original premise, but I firmly believe
that even the most derivative stories can be perfectly good as long as their
written well enough. Here’s hoping Ushio turns out to be a solid and enjoyable
fighting series.
Premiers July 3.
Chaos Dragon: Like Gate, Chaos Dragon is another show I’ve
been looking forward to for quite some time more for the zany premise than
anything else. As I understand it, Chaos is the result of several big name
writers and directors getting together for a tabletop RPG and writing a story
out of the game that ensued. While this is perhaps one of the more
self-indulgent development backgrounds I’ve ever heard, adventure fantasy anime
are generally entertaining even when they aren’t particularly good. I must also
admit that I’m a sucker for anything with Gen Urobochi’s name slapped on it
(Which seems to be everything these days, but I have yet to learn my lesson.)
Like so many other shows this season, I can’t really predict how the story will
go or whether it will amount to anything lastingly good, but I expect I’ll
enjoy the series one way or another regardless of what its general reception
is.
Premiers July 2.
God Eater: I really don’t have much background with the God
Eater video game series. Some of its characters cropped up in Project X Zone, a
crossover game I played a while back, and I remember that they sported the
bizarrely cool weaponry that only anime can deliver. The setting is a
post-apocalypse of some kind, though that never seems to hamper anime
characters’ ability to dress up in the usual zany outfits. This show’s real
calling card is that ufotable is the studio behind the animation, which all but
guarantees some stellar production values. It’s great to see the studio
branching out from its usual Type-Moon exclusiveness and hopefully we’ll be
seeing ufotable offerings more frequently in future seasons. I will say that
the visuals are a bit off-putting, but maybe it will just take a couple
episodes for them to grow on me.
Premiers July 5.
Gangsta: And here’s the number one standout for the season,
a premise that incorporates guns and crime and intrigue into one great looking
package. There really aren’t enough anime that feature so many things that I
love all together, which makes the rare show like Gangsta that much more of a
treat. It is based on a highly regarded manga and from what I’ve seen the production
values are great. I don’t think I’ve seen a show like this since Jormungand
ended and hopefully it can deliver the same great action and characters I
expect from this kind of premise.
Premiers July 1.
So there's my full list of anime to look out for this coming season. I definitely won't be blogging all of them to the end, but hopefully I'll latch on to a few that give me more to talk about than just episode summaries. If I've missed any good shows or misrepresented any of the ones listed above, feel free to mention them in the comments.
