Don't get me started on my spring anime picks, which I have made no progress with whatsoever. Fortunately, I was a little bit more diligent in checking out the anime offerings of the Japanese TV summer season. Even if it did take me at least three to four episodes to determine which titles would be a part of my summer anime picks.
The season's crop of titles were good for the most part, featuring a pretty balanced mix of genres and themes, though I have to admit that I'm feeling partial to the slice of life and comedy titles like Gin no Saji and Servant x Service. The season-appropriate sports anime Free! looks like there will be a lot of exciting competitive scenes to look forward to. Of course, you can't have an anime season without a way-out-there concept like the one featured in Danganronpa (the stuffed bear principal is all kinds of annoying and creepy). The summer anime season also features a handful of sequel or follow-up seasons, with The World God Only Knows: Goddesses Arc and Recorder to Randoseru Mi at the top of my must-watch picks, even if I already follow the former's manga version.
Here is my list of selections from the Japan anime summer season. All of the summaries and images below are from My Anime List.
Servant x Service
About the staff of the health and welfare section of of the ward office of a certain city. Newcomers Hasabe Yutaka, Yamagami, and Miyoshi Saya, and their supervisor Ichimiya Taishi go through the everyday quirks of working at their office.
Gin no Saji
Yugo Hachiken dreams of life separated from his family, so he takes the initiative by enrolling in an agriculture school. He thinks, with his talent in studying, no problems will arise no matter what kind of school he attends. He is proven wrong very quickly. Raised as a city boy, he is forced to uncover the inconvenient truth about agricultural life. Enjoy the story of Hachiken, as he tries to keep up with his new friends, farmers' heirs who are already accustomed to the harsh world of farming. With no clear goals or understanding of farming life, how will Hachiken survive this new, cruel reality? The story of a sweat, tear, and mud-stained youth begins!
Uchouten Kazouku
In Kyoto, there are three kinds of residents: humans, tanuki, and tengu. Shimogamo Yasaburou is the third son of the Shimogamo tanuki family. His father, Souichirou, had been the head of Kyoto tanuki community until he was eaten by the human members of "Friday Club". While taking care of an old tengu, fighting with other tanuki, and playing with a psychic human girl, Yasaburou approaches the truth of his father's death.
Free!
The story revolves around Haruka Nanase, a boy who has always loved to be immersed in water, and to swim in it. Before graduating from elementary school, he participated in a swimming tournament along with his fellow swimming club members, Makoto Tachibana, Nagisa Hazuki, and Rin Matsuoka. After achieving victory, each of the boys went their separate ways.
Time passed, and in the middle of their uneventful high school lives Rin appears and challenges Haruka to a match, showing Haruka his overwhelming power. Not wanting it to end like this, Haruka, gathers together Makoto and Nagisa once again and brings a new member named Rei Ryugazaki to create the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club in order to defeat Rin.
Blood Lad
Staz is the vampire boss of a section of the demon world, but he has little interest in human blood. He's more infatuated with Japanese culture. When he learns that Yanagi Fuyumi, a Japanese teenage girl, accidentally wanders into the demon city, he jumps to the occasion. However, while Staz deals with an intruder on his turf, the oblivious Fuyumi is killed by a monster and becomes a wandering ghost. The disappointed Staz vows to her that he will find a way to bring Fuyumi back to life.
Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyo (Dog & Scissors)
A nonsense comical mystery. Harumi Kazuhito is a high school boy who loves books and is a fan of novelist Natsuno Kirihime. One day, he finds Kirihime writing at a cafe, about to be shot by a robber. He protects her from the attack but is killed instead. Through the supernatural power of a book-worm, he is reincarnated as a dachshund dog. Kazuhito (as a dog) writhes in a painful bookless life, when a sadistic woman carrying a pair of scissors offers him help. She is Kirihime herself.
Makai Ouji: Devils & Realist
The story revolves around William, an aristocratic family's progeny with rare intellect. One day, his uncle lost his possessions after his business failed. Fearing that his family's name has been tarnished, William returns home and searches with his family's butler for anything that can be converted into cash. A search of the premises yields an underground room left by an ancestor. In the room is a magical seal, and William unintentionally summons a devil. The summoned devil Dantalion reveals that William is the designator who can choose the acting ruler of the demon world.
Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi
God abandoned the world on Sunday. As a result, nobody in the world can die or reproduce. A little girl, Ai, is the gravekeeper for a village. She has prepared 47 graves for the eventual deaths of every member of the village. Later, a boy who identifies himself as "Hampnie Hambart, the 'Man-eating Toy'," which is coincidentally the name that Ai's mother left behind as the name of her father, arrives in the village and slaughters everybody. Just what is going on?
Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei
A group of 15 elite high school students are gathered at a very special, high class high school. To graduate from this high school essentially means you'll succeed in life, but graduating is very difficult. The school is presided over by a bear called Monokuma, and he explains to them that their graduation hinges around committing a murder. The only way to graduate is to kill one of your classmates and get away with it. If the other classmates discover the identity of the killer, the killer is the only one executed. However, if they fail to catch the killer, only the killer graduates and the others are annihilated. Which of the 15 will survive the bloodbath to come?
Love Lab
The Fujisaki Girls Academy is known for their school body being composed of very proper students. The most prominent one of them is Maki, the student president who is admired by her classmates for her calm and polite demeanor. On the other hand, Kurahashi Riko is also admired but for having a very forward and boyish personality. Riko accidentally walks in on Maki while she's practicing kissing with a pillow and learns that she isn't what everyone thinks she is. Riko is forced into keeping Maki's secret and join her in practicing all aspects of romance like holding hands and more.
Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C3-bu
Yura Yamato has just arrived at the high school division of Stella Women's Academy, when Sonora Kashima invites her to join a club called "C³". Sonora is the third-year student who became the new head of this club for military survival games. The other members include two second-year students (part-Japanese Karila Hatsuse and G36K-wielding Honoka Mutsu) and two other new students (Rento Kirishima whose family runs a Japanese sweets shop and the really short Yachiyo Hinata).
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai: Megami Hen (The World God Only Knows: Goddesses Arc)
After releasing fourteen girls from the grasps of runaway spirits by making them fall in love with him, Keima has proven himself to be the Capturing God of both the 2D and 3D worlds! But a new challenge awaits as Diana, the goddess possessing Keima's neighbor Tenri, tasks him to find her siblings, and his only clue to their whereabouts resides with past conquests who still retain their memories. Now Keima is on the hunt in hopes that these divine beings might finally release him from his contract with Hell. But with the shadowy organization known as Vintage out to kill these girls, it becomes a race against time to put a stop to their plans and restore these goddesses to their former power!
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Ilya
Spin-off of Fate/stay night with Illyasviel von Einzbern as the protagonist, living an alternate life as a school girl.
Monogatari Series Second Season
Adaptation of the second season of the Monogatari Series.
Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun second season
Second season of Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun.
Recorder to Randoseru Mi
Third season of Recorder to Randoseru.
Tamayura: More Aggressive
The second season of Tamayura: Hitotose.
Genshiken Nidaime
The third season of Genshiken.
Senki Zesshou Symphogear G: In the Distance, That Day, When the Star Became Music...
The second season of Senki Zesshou Symphogear.
Happy viewing!!Labels: Anime, Must-Watch, Summer, TV
