- 6KShares
This post is by guest writer Liam O’Loghlen.
The summer 2016 anime season wasn’t a spectacular one, but for a summer anime season it wasn’t too bad, with plenty of good stuff. The biggest surprise was that my top picks weren’t quite what I expected them to be, and that the shows I expected the most out of didn’t deliver as much as I wanted. So let’s count down my top five picks for the summer 2016 anime season.
Love Live! Sunshine!!
Love Live! Sunshine!! had some pretty big shoes to fill from its monolithic predecessor Love Live! School Idol Project. But not only does it fill those shoes, it defiantly outgrows them.
Love Live! Sunshine!! shamelessly treads on some very similar narrative beats, but it does a lot of things a lot better than the original series. It demands more coherency and impact with its light drama beats, and over its run it builds on the gags and endearing moments and all the usual camp dramatics of Love Live. The result is a cast of characters that not only manages to be sillier than the original, but also more genuine in their conflicts.
Unfortunately it also falls into the same trap the original Love Live consistently did by pushing for moments that are a little too self-serious for a series that typically balances between tight western animation-esque comedy and small scale conflicts. But to Sunshine‘s credit, those moments are considerably less prominent and don’t stop the series from ending on a lovably ridiculous note.
If you were a fan of the original, then this is a sequel well worth your time on all fronts, and even if you haven’t seen the original this is a very tight fun little show that might just surprise you.
Mob Psycho 100
Mob Psycho 100 was the ultimate dark horse of my summer anime season. It’s a series I didn’t have much hope for given my ambivalence towards ONE of One Punch Man fame, and I had no real desire to keep watching even after an impressive first episode. But the hype train was too tantalizing to look away.
I still don’t care much for ONE’s light cynical jabs at society, because I never feel his anxieties are articulated well. I care even less for his tongue-in-cheek snarking about more sincere action shounens, and just generally don’t find his broad sense of humor all that funny. But Mob Psycho is undeniably visually stellar, both from an aesthetic point and from a point of building a powerfully robust sense of atmosphere to back its conflicts.
Whereas One Punch Man played to a particular kind of spectacle that was limited to its ridiculously big action scenes, Mob Psycho is consistently visually inventing, even experimenting with hand painted animation cells to incredibly raw chilling effect. It also helps, despite ONE’s distaste for traditional action shounens, that Mob Psycho is in fact a very good traditional action shounen — it continually builds on engaging stakes to back up its impressive tonal chops.
As a character work Mob Psycho is a little uneven, but the core conflict between Mob and his younger brother is very solid thus far in the story and Reigen alone is one of my favorite characters in anime this year. If you want a good action shounen, or if you just want to see one of the best visual powerhouses of the year, Mob Psycho 100 is an easy recommendation.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, also known as Part IV, continues the JoJo saga from last season. I consider Part IV to be the peak of the JoJo franchise, and one of my all time favorite mangas.
Although this season was delving into some of Part IV’s weaker content, it was still incredibly fun and wacky and satisfying from episode to episode. It also had the first battle with Yoshikage Kira, which is easily among JoJo’s most intense and insane parts. Its characters are also consistently goofy and endearing, even more so than other JoJo parts, and its occasional time off indulging in its signature twisted slice of life comedy never gets old. If you’ve stuck it out this long with JoJo this will all be a treat for you. Even better, there are still 13 more episodes to come next season. JoJo just keeps on rolling.
Sweetness and Lightning
Sweetness and Lightning didn’t consistently deliver the kind of heartfelt poignant story of a single parent trying to make his daughter happy that I wanted it to, and even as a cutesy slice of life it was the victim of a slightly stagnant formula. But for all its shortcomings, Sweetness and Lightning still managed to be a show of great warmth and optimism.
I want to see more shows like this that focus on adult characters and their grounded everyday happenings and conflicts. I want to see more shows like this where kids are earnestly kid-like, brimming with adorably fun curiosity and silliness. More than anything, I want shows like Sweetness and Lightning that can acknowledge that the world isn’t a perfect place and still be sincerely good without reservation.
For the most part, Sweetness and Lightning is just a cutesy mundane slice of life show about a dad cooking with his daughter, but its upbeat spirit is genuine and admirable. This is one for the enthusiasts of cute things and slice of lifes, and I count myself one of them. I would gladly sit through another series like Sweetness and Lightning.
Orange
Orange was a sad disappointment. On paper, I feel it should’ve been exactly my kind of series, a melodrama with plenty of heart and sincerity. But on execution, things fell apart.
Suffice to say this anime adaptation is pretty bad, starting off impressively but turning into a series of crude off-model blobs and stale conservative shot-framing by the second half. For the most part it failed to sell its emotional core because it couldn’t make it all that deeply felt. I think I would get more out of its source material, but even considering that Orange’s dialogue and narrative are both built on a wonky foundation.
As it comes to a close it tries to clean up its act, but it’s too little too soon and its attempts to impress only arouse mild enthusiasm. Orange wasn’t a complete failure of a drama, but on the whole it’s hard to say it was a success. This is a recommendation for only the most hardcore of anime melodrama fans, but even then I would much more strongly recommend a series like Toradora! or Your Lie In April if you’re part of that crowd.
And that was my top five. The fall 2016 season is shaping up to be a more impressive showing with higher caliber top picks, and I look forward to seeing where they go and discussing them when this is all over. Until then, I hope you all find some good anime.
- 6KShares
- 6KShares