Top 25 Summer Season shows: Top 25-21

Having made several videos last season and kind of being too busy and lazy to make another one this season, I decided to go back to where I kicked off things, which means: I get to write something on my blog again! Great! However that also means that it’s still going to be a lot of work since I now can talk about all the shows I want to watch this season without having to record and edit every single bit. But let’s cut to the chase! The spring season is almost over already and with the summer now approaching, it is once again that time to talk about all the shows that I am going to watch and yes I am actually going to go in depth about every single one I plan to watch, plus one more show to make it a round number….obviously that last show will make it first on the list as:

25: Bakumatsu Rock:
The story is set in the Bakumatsu era, at the end of the shoguns’ rule over Japan in the middle of the 19th century. The Tokugawa shogunate uses the brainwashing Heaven’s Songs by the top idols in Shinsengumi to subjugate the country and its people. In this Japan, writing or singing any songs besides the Heaven’s Songs is a capital offense. Sakamoto Ryouma and the other rockers rise up and change the world with rock ‘n’ roll for freedom and justice. (Source: ANN)

There is 3 things turning me off for this…for once, the fact that it is a historical Anime! I honestly have never before seen a historical Anime, that has been done right in any way! While I have to say as well, that I also haven’t seen a lot, there is close to no historical Anime that I heard good things and I honestly don’t think that this one is going to change this! Being adapted from an Otome Music game, this show has almost nothing positive to offer! I’m not the biggest fan of reberse Harem, which to be honest shouldn’t come as a suprise, considering I’m a guy, and again: This show won’t change this. The third thing that gives this thing the rest is studio DEEN being attached to it. Studio DEEN have proven themselves to be able to make really really good shows such as Higurashi, but even more has it proven that it also is able to produce absolute shit shows. It has not only happened once, that an actually rather good sourcematerial has been absolutely slaughtered by DEEN. The PVs however, do not look all to bad and especially the music which supposedly is going to be the main focus of the show, sounds really good! The animation is typical DEEN standard, meaning that it is not too good, but at the same time definitely not bad either. With all those factors, Bakumatsu Rock is a show that I’d honestly rather stay away from and that I if at all, would only watch for the sake of being able to say how bad it was! It doesn’t really look like a show I’d enjoy and if I won’t enjoy it, I honestly won’t want to watch it!

24: DRAMAtical Murder:
The story takes place many years in the future where the game “Rhyme,” a virtual fighting game, is incredibly popular and people possess “AllMates,” convenient AI computers. Aoba leads an ordinary life, working at a junk shop and living with his grandmother on the island of Midorijima. Unlike his friends, he doesn’t participate in Rhyme, nor does he belong in a gang. However, when rumors of people disappearing spread, Aoba finds himself needing to unravel the mysteries behind the island in order to protect his everyday life.

(Source: MU)

Going to an Otome game, to a little more extreme version of Shoujo games…the boys love! DRAMAtical Murder is adapted from a Boys Love game released by nitroplus, the same company that also released Steins;Gate, Chaos;Head and Robotics;Notes. While the DRAMAtical Murder’s premise in itself doesn’t sound all to interesting, the fact that gets me interested in the show, is just how popular the game is. Of course, you might argue, that is because of the Boys Love aspect and the Yaoi fangirls loving that aspect of it, but everything Boys Love that happens in th game apparently only ends right at the end, which clearly indicates, that the Boys Love aspect of the game definitely is not it’s main focus. I don’t think the team working on this will have huge difficulties in writing it that way, that it can live without any gay sex. In total this show is nothing that gets me hyped or even remotely close to that. It gets me interested, but no more than that. I am interested in how it is going to turn out, but at the same time it’s nothing I absolutely can’t wait for.

23: Rail Wars!
The “dream railway paradise entertainment” story is set in a parallel world where Japan did not privatize its national railways. Naohito Takayama is an ordinary high school boy who dreams of a comfortable future working for the top-rated Japanese National Railways. He is assigned as a trainee in the Railways Security Force full of odd characters such as Sakurai, a troublemaker who hates men. On top of that, an extremist group called “RJ” plots to privatize the Japanese National Railways. (Source: ANN)

Rail Wars is an Anime that to be honest, at first had me worried…it looked incredibly weird and like something I really didn’t know what to expect of. The premise was original but not very interesting and seeing as I never heard of the studio behind it before I honestly wasn’t very excited for this. After seeing the first Preview though, I really had to admit, that it honestly looked a lot better than I expected it to! The premise seemed well used, the animation was actually being great and the characters seemed fun enough to stick around with for a whole season. However after seeing the second Preview I lost all the hype that had built up over the course of the few days between the releases of the two. The show now seemed like a pointless fanservice show whose character suddenly looked a lot less interesting and the story generally seemed to be a lot more generic! I’m honestly hoping, that it is going to be more like the first Preview than the second Preview, as otherwise, I probably won’t be able to enjoy it!

22: Jinsei:
The story centers around Yūki Akamatsu, a boy who joins the staff of his school’s second newspaper. The editor-in-chief Ayaka Nikaidō immediately assigns him to the life (jinsei) advice column. Three girls — the science representative Rino Endō, the liberal arts representative Fumi Kujō, and the physical education representative Ikumi Suzuki — answer requests from students about whatever is troubling them. (Source: ANN)

Jinsei is a very mixed bag for me…being a huge fan of Slice of Life shows in general, I am very much looking forward to what this has the potential to be! It has the potential to be a very interesting show that raises some really interesting questions. It might not be the most original premise, but it definitely is a premise that could go anywhere and who’s quality in the end depends on what staff behind it does with it, and this is what gets me worried. Being animated by studio feel, a studio that really didn’t shine a lot, but mostly just has a really bad reputation for giving us shows like Highschool DxD and Kenzen Robo Daimidaler. Jinsei really doesn’t look like the kind of show that would be animated by that studio. It sounds like a fun slice of life, that may or may not eventually dig a little deeper into the drama but nothing that goes full on fanservice like DxD or Daimidaler. That being said, there is another recent show by studio feel, that wasn’t all that fanservicy and in total actually pretty great! I am very much hoping that this is going to be just as good and it definitely has the potential to, but as we all know having the potential doesn’t always mean that it actually turns out to be great and with a studio like feel behind it, it really could go anywhere!

21: Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?
Now that he enters his high school career, Satomi Koutaro begins his life living alone in an apartment that only costs him 5000 yen per month, an extremely cheap deal even for this small apartment. There’s a catch: the apartment is apparently haunted by a cute ghost that has driven its prior occupants away. Next thing he knows, not only is there a ghost trying to drive him out of his new home, but magical girls and other unique female characters turn this small apartment into a battleground of sorts. (Source: AniChart)

Do you guys still remember Nanana? Last Season? A show that I didn’t really talk about in my preseason thoughts but still ended up watching and actually turned out to be one of the greatest shows that season! Nanana was a hidden gem that had a really likeable characters, a well written story and was overall just a great show! Well guess what: it’s back…kinda…Rokujouma no Shinryakusha is basically the Nanana of this season! The premise is almost exactly the same with a little insanity and a magical girl added to it, but the question to this simply is: Will it be able to deliver? Judging from other shows that copied popular shows such as Yu-Sibu which got released only one season after the original airing of Hataraku Maou Sama or all the tons of moe shows that got released right after K-On, I would say, that the success rates honestly are rather low and that is what stops me from getting really excited for this one. Having seen the Preview though, I have to admit, that this is actually looking a lot more interesting than it should! It looks like a fun comedy show that might just as well be absolutely hillarious or at least enjoyable and with some of the people attached to this, that might just as well happen! Especially the director, the man that also directed shows such as Nourin, an incredibly funny slice of life show, or WataMote which in general had good comedy but set in the wrong setting, a setting I personally couldn’t laugh about. I honestly thing that this might end up being one of the shows that turns out to be rather funny despite it’s flaws, but it’s status as a Nanana copy just keeps me from getting legitimately hyped for this.

see you in part 2!

Midseason thoughts: Atelier

Being adapted from a game that only got published recently, I honestly had very low expectations for Atelier, seeing how previous game adaptations such as Devil Survivor 2 and Hyper Dimension Neptunia turned out to be rather bad and while there certainly are a few exceptions such as the highly acclaimed Persona series, most video game adaptaions follow exactly that kind of formular and end up being rather disappointing or at least generic! Atelier really doesnt change anything about that and only strengthens my thesis of most Video Game Adaptations being rather bad!

Atelier is about our two main characters Escha and Logy, who are alchemists and work for the government to make the living conditions of the small village they live in better and make the people around them happy. And that’s literally it!
The show works on a very episodic level that tends to have the same structure everytime. Escha and Logy are doing their work, a problem comes up, they try to solve it, are able to do so in the end by some miracle and everyone is happy. Unfortunately that kind of episodic system doesn’t have a lot of variety and gets repetitive very quickly! While there are a few hints towards something bigger coming up and Atelier tries to foreshadow something, it so far didnt break out of it’s original way of doing things and sticked to it every episode I saw so far! This leads to the show getting boring and predictable very quickly. Unfortunately though, this is not where the flaws ends just yet! The characters for Atelier are incredibly one-dimensional and dont have any real personality to them other than a single trait! They are likeable but not even nearly enough to compensate just how boring they can be at times and that is a huge problem considering they seem to be supposed to carry the whole show. That may work in the game as it is rather focused on the gameplay but as an anime it’s absolutely inexcusable! While some of the episodic stories are still quite interesting, they completely lose all of their impact due to the weak character cast! For the presentation, just as for everything else, Atelier isn’t too outstanding! While the animation is certainly not below average, it doesn’t stand out in any way shape or form! It’s really not too fluent or beautiful but it doesn’t necessarily need to be. The character designs though, are really well done and look extremely beautiful! Especially Escha’s design is very original and definitely did leave me quite impressed! For the Soundtrack so far, there has been nothing standing out at all! Both the Opening and Ending are very standard and nothing too abnormal. The Soundtrack, while fitting well isn’t too groundbreaking either. In total, Atelier hasn’t been all too interesting so far and overall seemed very generic in many aspects. There’s really not a lot that keeps it from being completely average and as such I can say you might want to check one episode and if you do not like it, feel free to drop.

 

Mekaku City Actors: First Impressions (3 episodes)

This Post is going to be SPOILER FREE! There won’t be any plot points, that go beyond the things said in the Synopsis! It is not necessary to have watched the episodes I am talking about, however it might give you a better understanding of what exactly I am saying if you did!

To start off the first Impressions that are to be uploaded, we have the Anime, that got the most attention before the season started! Mekaku City Actors is Shaft’s and Akiyuki Shinbou’s newest show! It is about a group of teenagers calling themselves the “Mekakushi Dan” or the “Blindfold Organization” in English, that each have a special power involving their eyes.
Mekaku City Actors, for those who didn’t know, is adapted from a Manga, that was adapted from a series of Vocaloid songs called the Kagerou Project. It received a lot of hype due to the Manga’s popularity and the fact that it is done by Shaft! Has it lived up to that hype so far? Well let’s find out!

Mekaku city actors without a doubt is one of the most popular Anime for the current anime season! It caught a lot of people’s interest by using a cool concept and throwing an even cooler Animation style on it without even having to think whether it fits or not. And that is exactly where it’s problem lies! The director for the Series is noone less than good old Akiyuki Shinbou, well known for his work on the Monogatari Franchise, Nisekoi and basically any other Shaft show that has ever existed! I have to be honest here and admit, that I actually really like Shinbou’s style and the way he does the shows he does, however when it comes to this particular show, I just can’t defend him! The show doesn’t work with his style at all and has to be modified at several points to actually work somewhat well! The dialogues are being dragged out way too long and the situation sometimes even play completely different then it’s Source Material and while I usually wouldn’t mind that, Mekaku is different! Akiyuki Shinbou completely changes the feeling of the show and makes it seem like a simple Monogatari Clone, which is disappointing as I was one of the people that were really hyped for it! It doesn’t seem like it’s own show anymore, but rather like just ANOTHER Shinbou Anime. That alone doesn’t make it a bad show though, as Monogatari itself is one of my absolute favorites and if Mekaku feels that way it must be similarly good right? Not really! The best thing about Bakemonogatari and it’s followers, are the amazingly well written and interesting characters, as well as the incredibly intelligently written dialogues! In Mekaku none of that is really there! While the characters are likeable and the dialogues certainly aren’t bad, they aren’t groundbreaking either and they are not even close to where Monogatari is. That makes it feel like the show is trying really hard to be Monogatari, but just fails horribly at it! That at least is for the first two episodes! Episode three of Mekaku city Actors is a lot more focused on moving forward it’s plot while still developing their characters, than it is on showing off Shinbou’s style! The episode was a lot more fun than the ones before and while I did end up enjoying episode 1 and 2 to a certain extent (Shaft fanboy ftw), episode 3 was on a whole new level and I really hope they continue the way episode 3 left off!
In total Mekaku City Actors has been rather disappointing and while it still managed to entertain me, it really didn’t live up to the expectation I had for it. Episode 3 did look a lot better than the previous ones though, so hope is not dead yet and I really do hope that this show will pick up within the next few episodes, as I personally do really love the Manga! I would recommend giving this one the three episode rule and see for yourself if you are able to enjoy Mekaku City Actors, even though Akiyuki shinbou is way too present. Also if you did drop it after one episode I would recommend trying out episode 3 as it certainly is a huge change in style! Feel free to redrop it after that, but what is coming from now on, might be completely different from what the first two episodes showed us!

First Impression: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

This first impression is still SPOILER FREE! It doesn’t go beyond the things said in the Synopsis! However I still would recommend to watch the episode before reading this since it will make things a bit clearer (I am not gonna give a summary!)

Not quite sure what to think of this relationship yet to be honest…

So after the ending of ImoCho a few weeks ago, the Anime industry decided it needed a new Incest Anime and here we go…However other than certain other shows, this show isn’t all about the Relationship between the two siblings which even only got hinted and is not even canon, but as it seems it will deal with different subjects such as bullying and discrimination as well! I am quite interested in how it is going to turn out, considering how popular the Light Novels for this are and so far it doesn’t look half bad! I was really concerned about this one, as it is by Studio Madhouse, the Studio that also did last Seasons Mahou Sensou and completely failed at doing so! The studio recently really hasn’t been all that good and most of the stuff they released have been rather flawed…However having heard rather bad things about this show as well, I am pleasently surprised about how this turned out! The first episode looks rather interesting, as it builds up the world and introduces the characters. I do like the setting and I hope they will use it the right way, even though I kind of see the Main character syndrome coming already! My current problem with the show is that even though they already got some of the characters into rather bad positions I kind of feel like they rushed that and did it at a point, where I couldn’t care for any of the characters yet. Speaking of the characters, they all seem to be quite boring and so far I am not too fond of the main protagonist as he seems quite blant to me, which is never a good thing. Another thing that does kind of bother me is the incest. Now I don’t have a problem with incest in Anime per say, even though I don’t necessarily like it either, but I feel like the romantic-ish relationship between the siblings does feel very forced and seems to be simply existing for the sake of it being incest! The Animation is on usual Madhouse level, meaning it does look beautiful and is very fluent! The Soundtrack does sounds nice when it needs to as well, but rather generic in the Slice of Life Moments. In total I feel like this show could go either direction! If the characters actually get developed and depth added to it, this show might turn out to actually be good, but if not it will probably just end up being another Madhouse Trainwreck!

First Impression: Captain Earth

This first impression is still SPOILER FREE! It doesn’t go beyond the things said in the Synopsis! However I still would recommend to watch the episode before reading this since it will make things a bit clearer (I am not gonna give a summary!)

Fucking love this Mech Design!

BONES IS BACK! BONES IS BACK GUYS AND ITS F*CKING GLORIOUS! I was really hyped for Captain Earth after seeing the Trailers and I have to say, that this has not disappointed! The First Episode of Captain Earth did an amazing job at introducing us to the world and the characters we’ll be following for the next 26 weeks! The story seems rather generic for a Mecha Anime, but to be honest I don’t really care about that! Even though only the Main Character has really gotten a lot of screen time so far, his screen time was really well used and I really enjoyed the atmosphere that was built up throughout the entire episode, even though I felt like some of the scenes and faces did kind of destroy it! I do think that I will be able to identify with Daichi rather well and I do really like him as a character so far! Also…Kamiya Hiroshi is gonna be one of the main characters…FUCKING HYPED…Sorry couldn’t stop my fanboying right there…Another factor that made me really enjoy this show is for once the Animation, which looks bloody brilliant as it has been done by Studio Bones who have really talented animators and the OST so far sounds really good as well, especially one Track that stood out to me as one of the best I have heard in a long time! So far this Anime does look really interesting and I am very hyped to see more of this! THANK YOU BONES!

8.5/10

First Impression: Akuma no Riddle

This first impression is still SPOILER FREE! It doesn’t go beyond the things said in the Synopsis! However I still would recommend to watch the episode before reading this since it will make things a bit clearer (I am not gonna give a summary!)

 

That Opening was love at first sight :3

Akuma no Riddle was one of the Anime I was the most hyped for this season! With it having amazing artwork and a pretty intriguing Synopsis, I was really hoping for this to be a really good show and this first episode certainly didn’t let me down! I really enjoyed the different characters that got introduced and their interactions were I lot of fun to watch! Especially Haru is a lot of fun to watch and even though she seems to be quite cliched, I really enjoy her character! There was a good amount of foreshadowing already, though I would even go as far as saying that it was a little to much, since I do have my own little conspiracy already after episode 1 (which I am not going to tell you because Spoilers!) but to be honest that doesn’t bother me too much! The main focus of the show seems to be on the characters and that is something I really like! The character cast may be huge but to be honest I did enjoy basically everyone introduced, though I do hope it doesn’t fall into the same trap as Danganronpa of not taking a closer look at them due to their probably inevitable death! I did enjoy watching the Direction as well, while it was nothing too out of the ordinary, everything looked in place and even though I didn’t expect it, the Animation done by Diomedia, a studio that really isn’t popular, is rather good and fluent! After seeing the studio attached to it, I originally didn’t think it would look good at all but it ended up being pretty eye-catching though that is probably due to the character designs for the most part! About the OST I am rather conflicted! It did fit the show really well, but they seem to be falling back on some rather generic tracks. Not that I mind that, but it sometimes is really noticable! The only other problem I have with the Soundtrack is that they seemed to be reusing one of the Songs for the entire episode, which after some time did get a little annoying! However the Opening and Ending made up for that as they both sound AND look bloody amazing! In total I thought the first episode of Akuma no Riddle was really good and I certainly did enjoy it a lot! I am really hyped to see more!

8.5/10

First Impression: Selector Infected WIXOSS

This may become a little darker I feel like…

Let’s kick this Season of with one of the Anime I was most hyped for to get released! Being based on a card game, Selector Infected WIXOSS wouldn’t have caught my interest if it wasn’t for a few things about that make it stand out! While I do not have the best experiences with Cardgame Adaptations and they usually end up bekng kids shows, this show caught me off guard with a Seinen Tag! Seinen is a Genre I really wouldn’t have expected to exist as a Tag to a show that originally was only a Card Game. With the Directing also being done by the same person that did Steins;Gate, which is one of my favorite Anime overall, this show turned out to be more and more interesting! Having now seen the first episode, I have to say, I am not blown away, but I certainly thought it was quite nicely executed! It did a quite good job at introducing us to the characters and the World. The character interactions were really interesting to see and the characters so far are really likeable. There already is some slight foreshadowing and I am wondering what this is going to turn into! My personal favorite of the episode must have been the first minute, which I thought to be really well executed! If WIXOSS stays as well written as episode 1 was, I think this might end up being a pretty decent show and I might really enjoy it! I just hope it doesn’t fall flat on it’s face and become a trainwreck!

8/10