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!