Typically I find the Winter and Summer cycles of anime are nothing compared the Fall and Spring cycles. There are fewer quality shows and fewer shows overall. For example, last summer I only found High School of the Dead and Occult Academy worth watching, and both of those shows were pretty flawed. However, this Summer season is certainly atypical, with a huge palate of promising shows. It almost feels like Spring season all over again. This is a quick run down of what I’ve marked as worthy.
Keep in mind that my taste is pretty skewed towards shows with high production values, action, and a strong (or cute…or both) heroine (tsundere is fine). I usually avoid shows heavy on fanservice, harems, shows based on games, or appealing to the pedobear demographic.
Kami-sama no Memo-chou
So I’ve heard this is kind of like GOSICK in modern times? I avoided GOSICK despite Victorique (who seems awesome) because of the weak storytelling and my hope is this show avoids that. I’m cool with mysteries and adorable female leads. The teddy bears are so cute!
Sacred Seven
This is on a short leash, and I’m mainly interested because Sunrise shows are ridiculous to the point of hilarity. If this show doesn’t follow through, it will be dropped. (Tiger and Bunny is close to this fate.)
Ikoku Meiro no Croisee
The main character is insanely adorable. Besides that everything reeks of boring.
Kami-sama Dolls
This show has some promise, with lots of fights and action. Generic I know, but I have no clue what to expect besides that. The OP was pretty snazzy though.
Usagi Drop
The show I am looking forward to the most. It appears to have a fairly realistic premise with some compelling characters. noitaminA occasionally has strong offerings and I expect no less from this.
NO.6
The other noitaminA show, I got some Jyu-oh-sei vibes from this, which is never a good thing. The main characters are a bit too “bromantic” for me, but it’s worth an quick glance.
Blood-C
I didn’t get into Blood+ until past halfway, when Saya became emo-sexy, but the show was decent enough. I acutally expect to drop this show early on because it doesn’t seem to change the Blood storyline all that much and I already sat through that meh tale once before.
Mawaru Penguindrum
No one has any clue about this show. It seems to come from a strong pedigree (ties to Utena) and production team, but all I know is penguins are involved. Worth a look to see what it’s all about.
Dantalian no Shoka
This show looks like a typical fantasy story. Guy find magical girl and they do a whole bunch of battles, save the world, find new spells, etc. I don’t know, it might be fun or not depending on the cast of characters.
The best part of summer season is the continuing of Hanasaku Iroha, which was my favorite Spring show and has done nothing to fall from its perch since episode 1. Now that P.A. Works has figured out that they can’t tell coherent stories in 13 episodes, maybe they can weave something great out of 26. Hanairo has certainly kept my expectations high. It has this uncanny ability of making mundane day-to-day chores some of the most compelling entertainment.
It’s shaping up to be a very loaded Summer season, and one of the busiest anime Summers I’ve seen. We’ll see if there’s gold (or even useful scrap metal) in this dirt pile of shows, but at least there is pretty much something for everyone.
I’ve been swamped with RL and don’t anticipate blogging much if at all. I’ve barely kept up with anime as it is, but will continue this blog in hibernation without actually pulling the plug.
