I had initially planned on ending this column altogether, but alas here I am, returning for more anime to review. A lot had happened during the winter season that meant I needed a serious break from writing. Blame personal stuff like family and being in hospital. I’m well enough now, though, so I’m back and here to stay. Sorry.
If you’re a new reader of TheOASG, I’m the simulcast writer, and I cover shows airing in Japan right now. Of course I can’t handle every single one, and thus I pick out a handful that have especially caught my eye. In past shows for this site, I’ve had shows which I loved and adored, while others have driven me totally crazy.
Anyways, I have already taken a look at what the summer 2016 season has to offer, and I’m actually looking forward to it all, which makes a very pleasant change.
Food Wars! – Shokugeki no Souma: The Second Plate
Begins: Saturday. July. 02.
I only recently caught up with the first season. At that time when it airing, I think I was already immersed in another food porn-related show (Koufuku Graffiti), so this was put aside. But now I’ve seen it, I just have to watch more. Practically perfect Souma with his super-special skills in the kitchen who puts other celebrity chefs to shame, with Erina no doubt acting more tsundere, Megumi being the cute hanger-on (and a very good one, at that), and then there’s Takumi……oh my god! This is going to be great all over again.
I’m anticipating that Souma will have to square off against even more chefs, all of which with their own quirky characteristics, and all of whom being eager to have him expelled just because he’s not a rich kid like they are (either that, or just out of pure spite and jealousy). But I’m anticipating this will go on into the fall season too. I have no problem with that, of course.
Love Live! Sunshine!!
Begins: Saturday. July. 02.
Now that μ’s and A-RISE are well and truly over (although the pairings will live on forever), we have another 9 girls who are aiming to be school idols. This time we’re at the seaside, at a private school, in a completely different city. The format seems to be the same as before, though. 3 first-years, 3 second-years, 3 third-years…all coming together to form one group: aqours.
Making an adaptation from the mobile game Love Live! School Idol Project was rather difficult, I believe. The school was to close, and thus needed outside attention for it to remain open. So the second-years Honoka, Umi and Kotori chose to be school idols. Soon after that, first-years Maki, Hanayo and Rin joined in, while the whole time, all of them were fighting against the school council president, who wanted to shut down the project, despite having a history of singing and dancing herself.
I have absolutely no idea on what kind of story will end up in this show, as they have been very quiet about it all. It’ll just be boring if we get exactly the same thing, I’ll say as much.
While I will always choose The Idolm@ster girls over the Love Live and Aikatsu girls, I’m eager to see what the hype around this is about. I absolutely loved the chemistry between all 9 girls in Love Live! School Idol Project, so here’s hoping more of the same will appear here.
orange
Begins: Sunday. July. 03.
This is not the kind of silly and generic slice-of-life school show that appears every season; this one genuinely looks interesting and classy. Instead of the poor wife-like girl who is desperate to confess to the mysterious transfer student, orange touches a lot more on fantasy. If anything, I predict this will be more like what Kokoro Connect wanted to be like; for the characters to be under very bizarre circumstances and to bring them all together more than they anticipate, and to get them to value life more.
Well this show does feature a timid girl (Naho) and a transfer student (Kakeru)……Naho receives a letter written by herself 10 years in the future, telling her of the regrets she made in life. And thus Naho works to right those mistakes. Having not read the manga or watched the live-action movie, I know little about this. This could be another Butterfly Effect story, like what the games Life is Strange and Until Dawn are like, and what Erased was sort of like.
I might be completely wrong though, however this show has caught my attention for a good long while; remarkable in of itself considering I gave up on school romance shows long ago.
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!!
Begins: Wednesday. July. 06.
Don’t laugh. I’m watching this to deliberately make fun of it, since the previous seasons have just been so ridiculous, they’re good. In case you don’t know, I run my own anime blog where, occasionally, I marathon a show non-stop knowing it’ll be awful, and recount my horrors. Luckily this show will be nothing like that; I guess I’m doing this to see a much lighter side to my hobby and pastime…… and remember that I shouldn’t take all shows super-seriously.
A very successful spin-off of the Fate franchise, we have one of the original character as a silly youngster plucked from her ordinary school life to be a magical girl. The previous shows have gone in all sorts of directions; from slapstick comedy, to rather lewd ecchi that can be a little uncomfortable to watch. And after a history of watching many magical girl shows that were meant to be serious (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Madoka Magica, Pretty Cure), watching this is almost a parody to all that. However, the PVs for this haven’t really given much away. I have noticed that one of the major characters, Miyu, is mysteriously absent, so could this season be all about Illya and Chloe in action? Considering what we found out about who Miyu really is and all in season 2…
Probably not. We’ll all just end with more slapstick comedy, colorful action, and questionable ecchi that’ll make this R-rated.
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak Academy
Begins: Monday. July. 11 (Future Arc), Thursday. July. 14 (Despair Arc)
I love Danganronpa. Not because of the antagonist Monokuma, but of the assorted crazy and dysfunctional characters that end up caught up in the Hope’s Peak Academy mess. The 2013 anime adaptation of the first game, Trigger Happy Havoc, wasn’t very well executed in my opinion. It felt too rushed and didn’t develop the characters very much at all, especially the MC Makoto and his mysterious and highly intelligent sidekick Kyoko, who both needed a lot of background attention. I first heard about this adaptation last year. I had actually hoped this would be released in the winter season, but hey…another show that was delayed. This time it’s going to be different; the studio only has the events of both Danganronpa games to work on.
Out of all the shows I’m doing this season, this might well be the toughest since it’s split into two: one arc takes place after the events of Trigger Happy Havoc, and the other takes place before the events of the second game, Goodbye Despair. So many characters to get to know all over again. I don’t mind if it stretches into the fall season though; as a fan, I’d be eager to see what happens to them all, maybe even if the show isn’t that great.
But if anything, this show is for the Danganronpa fans only, so this suits me down to the ground. And since Funimation adapted the original anime show, I’m guessing they will do the same for both arcs here. Plus there’s the pure and adulterated Kyoko love I have. I’ll potentially get to see her in a suit. A suit! And there’s the adorable Hiyoko/Mahiru pairing I love too.
Rewrite
Another Studio Key adaptation; here’s hoping it’ll be nothing like Charlotte! Saying that though, we have another MC with a supernatural power, and investigates more girls with other supernatural powers. I’m going to cross my fingers, touch wood, avoid stepping on drain covers and walking through ladders on this one, and I’ll be putting £1/$1/€1 in a jar for every time I reference Charlotte. And the proceedings will go towards maintaining OASG. So Justin is potentially going to be a rich man!
Unlike Clannad, Air, Kanon and Little Busters!, I haven’t played the Rewrite game, so I don’t really know that much, aside from the usual ‘one-male-with-5-or-6-girls’ format.
But this time KyoAni or P.A Works aren’t doing this; this time, it’s Studio 8bit, most known for Comet Lucifer and the Infinite Stratos harem shows. So either this is going to be seriously good, or this will seriously suck. But I’m very curious nonetheless. I do like Studio Key, after all. Kanon has always been my favourite game of theirs. Then there’s Planetarian, which is also being adapted this season (only in an OVA format).
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And so, these are my choices for the summer season. Apparently Berserk is getting a re-haul this season, possibly with heaps of CGI to impress us youngsters, and Accel World and Aikatsu are all getting movies. KyoAni’s movie A Silent Voice doesn’t interest me in the slightest (as I didn’t like the manga one bit), and the second movie in the Kizumonogatari trilogy comes out too. Perhaps when all three of those movies have been translated, I can review them properly.
Oh, but there is the small matter of me going absolutely crazy when Final Fantasy XV comes out on September. 30. But that’s for another time…
I’m happy to be back again. Aside from this column, I have my summer cons to go to, one of which I’ll be covering here.