Weekly Recap for the Summer 2016 Anime Season – Week of 7/4

This post is by guest writer Liam O’Loghlen.

I know I’m not the only anime fan who thinks the summer season tends to be the least interesting, both for its tendency to have proportionately less interesting shows and the tendency to historically have less shows in general. Of last year’s crop the only two I sat through to the end were Gatchaman Crowds Insight and Charlotte, the latter of which I reviewed and didn’t take very kindly to.

But thank the almighty skeleton lords of Japanese animation that things are looking up this year — enough that I decided to watch a dozen episodes of anime over the week, including the continuation of JoJo, and nail it down to half a dozen of my top picks to keep an eye on for now. Among these shows I’ve watched are some of the most popularly anticipated shows, as well as the ones I found most personally appealing. Those that made the addendum aren’t ruled out of coming back, and shows that I haven’t watched or that haven’t aired yet aren’t ruled out either, but for now here are my picks for summer 2016, for the week of 7/4.

Top Picks

Sweetness and Lightning

From its first episode I’ve come to already feel that anime needs more stories like Sweetness and Lightning; warm and earnest stories about genuinely good people who try their hardest, with single parents who just want to make their children happy and children who are unbelievably adorable because they walk and talk and react like real children. (STATUS: My comfort food pick for the season, and it just might pluck at my heartstrings in the long run)

Orange

Orange is based off of a manga of the same name that’s endured immense popularity and acclaim in Japan; and suffice to say this first episode is utterly gorgeous, effortlessly consolidating a stylistic premise with richly layered intimate human drama. (STATUS: A must watch, which may even entice me enough in the long run to dig into its source material)

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable continues into this season with the introduction of everyone’s favorite sociopathic manga writer Rohan Kishibe and his stand Heaven’s Door, still consistently hitting the mark its mind-blowingly wonderful adaptation of what is arguably the peak of JoJo’s unrelenting flamboyant craziness. (STATUS: Already been eagerly keeping up with this week after week as a huge fan of the original Diamond is Unbreakable manga, incredibly excited to keep watching)

Love Live! Sunshine!!

Love Live! Sunshine!! is the long awaited successor to the monolithic Love Live! School Idol Project franchise, and it impresses confidently coming out of the gates with fine-tuned ultra camp light drama that just might outdo the original in the long run. (STATUS: As somewhat of a sucker for the original Love Live! odds are very strong that I watch this one to the end, and with the way it’s looking it’ll be a blast)

Thunderbolt Fantasy

Thunderbolt Fantasy is an incredibly daring and weird Japanese-Taiwanese co-production heralded by renowned writer Gen Urobuchi of Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero fame, and it’s a dizzying hot-blooded spectacle of stop motion puppetry with a dash of CGI that’s sure to raise some eyebrows and blow people away with the sheer possibilities of animation that it showcases against the relatively stylistically conservative nature of much of Japanese animation. (STATUS: As a big fan of genuinely experimental animation and as a big fan of Gen Urobuchi this has my attention, eager to see where this goes and to see if Urobuchi can also bring thematic meat to this in the long run)

New Game!

New Game! is a slice of life about plucky newbie game dev Aoba Suzukaze and her life in the gaming industry, not giving the profound insight into creative identity that a series like Shirobako did but still offering a kind of light fuzzy workplace comedy that appeals to me personally. (STATUS: Although I would put much of the addendum above this in sheer quality and engagement I’m actively keeping up with this on the basis of it being a cozy “me” show, but it’s a hard one to recommend if you’re not into cutesy slice of life or light workplace humor like I am)

Addendum

Amanchu!

Amanchu! is a new series from Kozue Amano of the highly revered Aria series fame; and it entrances with its soaking meditative atmosphere, its light whimsy sense of humor and its endlessly endearing positivity. (STATUS: Given I’ve already got two comfort food picks in Sweetness and Lightning and New Game! this unfortunately didn’t make the cut, but depending on how things are shaping up I might continue this one anyway)

ReLife

ReLife follows 27 year old life failure Arata Kaizaki who gets involved in an experiment where he’s regressed to a 17 year old and made to relive an entire year in high school, and in its first episode it carries that admittedly corny concept well with a lot of genuine warmth and humor in illustrating him both as a fish out of water and as a somewhat worldly adult. (STATUS: ReLife won’t be getting my weekly coverage but it’s actually already been released in its entirety on Crunchyroll, meaning I might marathon it in the near future and give my thoughts collectively on the series)

Mob Psycho 100

Of all the big names attached to shows this season Mob Psycho 100 might have the biggest in ONE of last year’s major smash hit One Punch Man; and this adaptation manages to consistently be even more visually loose and wild and experimental than One Punch Man’s spectacle but unfortunately still finds itself undercut by the same sense of humor I find rather so-so. (STATUS: Mob Psycho 100 is the kind of show I’d personally be more interested in marathoning once it’s over, but given consistent hype it might be worth picking up again)

DAYS

DAYS is a new soccer shounen series from Studio MAPPA that I was optimistic about, and from the starting line it managed to meet by best expectations with a down-to-earth-ness and a promise of heart-pumping intensity that could rival sports shounen classics like Hajime no Ippo. (STATUS: This is another kind of series I think I would prefer to watch all at once, so for now it’s being left off the list)

Dropped

Handa-kun

Handa-kun is the prequel spin-off series to Barakamon, which was the first anime I ever reviewed for this site and an anime that I look very fondly on; and sadly as I expected from a high school spin-off it contains none of the thematic strength and grace of the original and all of the cheap loud anime punchlines, occasionally slightly chuckle-worthy but all in all quite frankly just not really worth my time. (STATUS: Not interested at all in continuing at this point, but as a fan of the original series there’s a slim chance I’ll find the time to watch this eventually)

Rewrite

Rewrite hails from the land of Key visual novels as part of the ranks of such popular series as Clannad and Kanon, and its tedious double-length premiere turns out to be a cliché-ridden mess of nonsense monologues and obnoxiously loud slapstick and cutesy paper-thin damsels and all sorts of other stuff I haven’t a care in the world for. (STATUS: In all brutal honesty I’m not the least bit compelled to ever touch this series again)

And so those are my initial picks of the season. There was plenty of good stuff to see here, but my highest hopes go to Sweetness and Lightning and Orange, with Thunderbolt Fantasy also trailing behind as a potential dark horse. Things could change dramatically as the season progresses, but either way I’m expecting lots of quality anime over the next twelve weeks.

What Do You Think?

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