Here is my list of selections from the Japan 2014 summer anime season. All of the summaries and images are from MyAnimeList, except for the Sword Art Online II and Fate Kaleid Liner PRISMA ILYA 2wei! summaries, which came from Anime News Network.
Sword Art Online II
One year after the Sword Art Online incident was resolved. Kazuto Kirigaya is adjusting to a normal life once again as best he can. He thinks all that death is finally behind him, until he is approached with some startling information. In the wildly popular pro-shooter MMO Gun Gale Online, an ominous player has shot players in the game and the same players mysteriously turned up dead in real life. Kazuto feels himself being pulled in as if by the shadow of SAO and agrees to investigate. He must now tread back into the dark world of his past with the help of the troubled, ice-cold sniper Shinon as he searches for the player who only refers to himself as "Death Gun".
Free! Eternal Summer
The Iwatobi Swim Club returns! As their third year begins, Haruka, Makoto and Rin are still swimming strong, but choosing plans for their future looms, and as friends both new and old make their way into the picture, rivalries will take root once again. Will the team make it out stronger than before or sink under pressure?
Akame ga Kill!
In a fantasy world, fighter Tatsumi sets out for the Capitol to earn money for his starving village, and finds a wold of unimaginable corruption, all spreading from the depraved Prime Minister who controls the child Emperor's ear. After nearly becoming a victim of this corruption himself, Tatsumi is recruited by Night Raid, a group of assassins dedicated to eliminating the corruption plaguing the Capitol by mercilessly killing those responsible.
Zankyou no Terror
In an alternate version of the present, Tokyo has been decimated by a shocking terrorist attack, and the only hint to the identity of the culprit is a bizarre video uploaded to the internet. The police, baffled by this cryptic clue, are powerless to stop the paranoia spreading across the population. While the world searches for a criminal mastermind to blame for this tragedy, two mysterious children - children who shouldn't even exist - masterfully carry out their heinous plan. Cursed to walk through this world with the names Nine and Twelve, the two combine to form "Sphinx", a clandestine entity determined to wake the people from their slumber and pull the trigger on this world.
Tokyo Ghoul
The suspense horror/dark fantasy story is set in Tokyo, which is haunted by mysterious "ghouls" who are devouring humans. People are gripped by the fear of these ghouls whose identities are masked in mystery. An ordinary college student named Kaneki encounters Rize, a girl who is an avid reader like him, at the cafe he frequents. Little does he realize that his fate will change overnight.
Aldnoah.Zero
In 1972, the Apollo 17 mission discovered a hypergate to Mars on the surface of the moon. Soon, a war breaks out between Earth and Mars, and Martian soldiers begin to descend from the sky, riding steel giants, intent on exterminating humanity.
Barakamon
As a punishment for punching a famous calligrapher, young handsome calligrapher Handa Seishu is exiled to a small island. As someone who has never lived outside of a city, Handa has to adapt to his new wacky neighbors, like people traveling on a tractor, unwanted visitors who never use the front door, annoying kids using his home as a playground, etc. Can this city guy handle all the crazy hardship?
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
Sakura Chiyo confesses to her crush, Nozaki-kun, but he mistakes her as a fan! Unable to convey her feelings, what happens when he invites her to his house?
Love Stage!!
With a father who's a singer, a mother who's a movie star, and an older brother Shougo who's the lead vocalist for the super-popular band "The Crusherz", Sena Izumi, an otaku college student, is the only dull one born into this super famous and talented family. He loves "Magical Girl LalaLulu" and is working hard to become a mangaka, but one day he winds up appearing in a TV commercial he just can't turn down. There, he's reunited with Ichijou Ryouma, the super-popular young actor he costarred with on a project ten years prior.
Ao Haru Ride
Yoshioka Futaba has a few reasons why she wants to "reset" her image & life as a new high school student. Because she's cute, she was ostracized by her female friends in junior high, and because of a misunderstanding, she couldn't get her feelings across to the one boy she has ever liked, Tanaka-kun.
Now in high school, she is determined to be as unladylike as possible so that her friends won't be jealous of her. While living her life this way contentedly, she meets Tanaka-kun again, but he now goes under the name of Mabuchi Kou. He tells her that he felt the same way as she did when they were younger, but not things can never be the same way again. Will Futaba be able to continue her love that never even started from three years ago?
Re: Hamatora
It has been three months since the incident at Yokohama. Things have been settling down at Cafe Nowhere. Murasaki and Hajime have teamed up and started investigating again. After an unforeseen reunion, Art holds Nice at gunpoint. What are his real intentions? What will become of the connection between Art and Hamatora?
Fate Kaleid Liner PRISMA ILYA 2wei!
It has been a month since Illya and Miyu became magical girls and sealed all of the Class Cards. Rin and Luvia have been forced to remain in Japan to clean up the aftermath, such as the now-unstable magic in the area's ley lines. While helping with the cleanup, the seal on Illya's mysterious innate magic goes bersert and she loses control of her transformation. By the time she has realized what happened, a mysterious girl who looks eerily like Illya appears, apparently bent on bringing destruction down on the original whose heart she seems to have spawned from, and making matters worse she holds the power of the Archer Class Card, with which Illya holds a special bond within her body.
Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus
The TV series will adapt the Noah's Ark Circus Arc, picking the manga story back up from the point at which they diverged. This arc immediately follows the Curry Contest Arc in the manga, which ended at episode 15 in the first season of the anime.
Persona 4: The Golden Animation
Adaptation of Persona 4's remake video game, Persona 4 The Golden. The story retells the events of the original while featuring a new character, Marie.
Happy Viewing!!Labels: Anime, Must-Watch, Summer, TV
