Summer 2018 Anime: 1 Month In

Hello and welcome, all three people who read this thing! I haven't done a post talking about anime in a while (it's been almost three months!) I did say on my first post ever on this site that I would cover anime, and I really don't think I've held up much in that regard. It's not like what I have used this blog for was a waste, by any means. I just could stand to talk a little more about my absolute favorite hobby! So here I go, as I take a dive into what's turning out to be another great season!

2018 for anime so far has been quite an amazing experience, with winter having lots of slice of life for me to consume not too long after having finished K-ON! and finding new love for the genre and just about anything with adorable anime girls in them. Spring was great too, with Wotakoi being one of my favorite anime this year and one of the best romance shows I've seen and other stunners like Megalobox and Steins;Gate 0 sprinkled throughout. I did end up putting a few shows on hold however, but there's was still lots of stuff that interested me enough to continue to now or finish. Does summer live up to the high expectations set in place by the rest of 2018? So far, I think it's doing a fine job of that!

I had stuck very close to the shows I had planned on watching when looking at the seasonal guide beforehand, a recent phenomonon of mine. I wanted to keep to thing that looked super super good that I felt like I could watch for the whole season. What deviations I did make from my planned seasonal watch list I ended up dropping anyway, and I might as well get those out of the way first before getting into the cool stuff. Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs was a pretty typical supernatural harem comedy, with not much to impress me. There were some jokes that landed, but lots more didn't and felt too heavy on jokes that were already getting tired in 2008.  I guess it's cool that a more typical harem show has come out for the big fans of the genre, as harems that weren't tied to battle shows or fantasy adventures have become a bit of a rarity lately, but this didn't have enough in terms of characters or production to really grab me in. The other drop so far was the little-known space adventure series The Journey Home, a story of a chironomid bug and their friends trying to make it onto earth. The CGI is very fluid, and Gurihiru has some appealing character designs. There's also nothing really like it this season, but the focus on exposition dumping and uninteresting characters made this show feel like a bit of a chore that I wasn't really anticipating another episode of. It does say something about this season when even the shows I dropped weren't even completely godawful! That's a good sign in my book.

Now onto the stuff I believe I'm watching to the end. Keep in mind that many of the shows I'm listing I'm not caught up with, but I have at least seen the first two episodes of (with the exception of one show that just started in the last week that only has one episode as of this writing. I admit I've been falling behind, but that happens every season and is but a natural result of watching as many shows as I am. I won't be talking about any leftovers from past seasons either. First I'm going through the shorts this season rapid-fire to get those out the way first. Even though I haven't even seen the Cinderella Girls full length anime, I'm still enjoying the latest Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Gekijou season. It's short, sweet and I love the character designs, as there truly seems to be a character for everybody to latch onto and adore. Working Buddies 2 continues to be a neat little show of two cats working different odd jobs, as well as having a really fun twist for the third episode that I don't wanna spoil here. One Room, a show about literal self-inserting as you play pretend that you hang out with anime girls from a first person perspective, is back for season 2. I'm liking this just as much as season 1, and I don't mind 4 minutes of wish fufillment a week. Yamishibai came back for season 6 and it's Yamishibai alright. You love horror, you might be down for these shorts. Oshiete Mahou no Pendulum: Rilu Rilu Fairlu is a very calming 12-minute iyashikei show about a girl getting transported in and out of a land of fairies in a book. The animation in the fairy world is...rough, to say the least. I got over that pretty quickly when I saw how colorful everything is and how soothing it is. It's the only iyashikei this season, so it's an even more welcome addition to my season lineup. Hopefully fansubs don't die out too quick. Last but not least is the third season of Yama no Susume, a show I had been catching up on in anticipation for season 3 about schoolgirls going mountain climbing. It's just as wonderful as season 2, and I love that I get to see more of the adorable Honoka from towards the end of the second season. It's the best short of the season, by far.

Onto the full lengths! I'll be splitting these shows up by genre. Some I'm fully caught up with, but many I'm a little behind on.

Action: Sirius the Jaeger may very well be my favorite show of the season, even if I was starting to feel a tiny bit weary at the more exposition heavy fourth episode. The 1930's setting is really cool, and when there's fights, the fights are amazing. This vampire-fighting show is one I look forward the most each week. It isn't disappointing so far! Speaking of cool, Banana Fish has cool in spades. It's got cool oozing off it's setting and atmosphere, as well as it's badass action scenes. I'm certainly getting a "retro action OVA'' vibe from this like I did MAPPA's last work Garo Vanishing Line. Most importantly, I really wanna find out just what the hell that term "banana fish" even means. Cells at Work has one of my favorite color palettes of the season, one with lots of bright reds and light blues. There's lots of fun fight scenes and situations at play, and certainly educational too. Little can match up to it in terms of pure fun this season (and before anyone asks, yes the platelets are great.) Gintama is back from a quick break for a second part to the Silver Soul arc. I loved the first part's mix of drama and comedy into a total thrill ride, even though this season seems a bit more dramatic than last. I'm still on board though, Gintama all the way!

Comedy: There are several pretty fun choices for comedy this season. There's the demonic Jashin-chan no Dropkick. It's really fun to watch these different supernatural creatures just hanging out around the MC's house without much of a care in the world. The faces feel more 90's or 2000's in their design (maybe it's something about how angular the faces are?)  All the girls seem very cute, especially the gothic lolita main character Yurine. I really liked how the first episode was approached with the transition from Yurine summoning Jashin directly to a whole bunch of demons just hanging around Yurine's apartment having hot pot, that took me by surprise. My brother thought before the show came out that it would be more along the lines of Maid Dragon, seeing Jashin and Yurine on the poster and the brief description. It seems to be much more focused on getting big laughs than the mix of light drama and more soothing comedy of Kyoto Animation's slice of life hit. Another stark difference was how the characters were introduced. Maid Dragon took its time to introduce everyone and this show prefers letting the audience see how these characters interact with each other after settling in and maybe considering going back to see how they ended up there. I'm still having a really fun time with it. There's Next, Chio's School Road is another fun gag series involving vignettes chronicling Chio, an orange-haired gaming fanatic on her way to school. Every day seems to bring up new challenges for her to get there on time. This sounds like a show that could getting tiring pretty quickly in 24-minute chunks. Thankfully the challenges for Chio's journey to class are always hilarious. If it keeps being as funny as episode two and makes the situations varied it'll certainly be a highlight in a comedy-packed season. Ongaku Shoujo, an idol show with a lead who can't even sing. It seems to be idols doing some idol stuff. I really like the character designs, especially Uori's and it's a nice way to spend 24 minutes. Sunohara-sou no Kanrinin-san is a pretty breezy slice of life may-as-well-be-a harem with a middle school boy moving into a dorm with older women. It's got some bright pastel colors and a very cute gyaru in the cast, so I'm all in. Grand Blue is a really funny series about college parties, underage drinking and supposed diving. Episode two was the funniest of the episodes with the room decorating jokes. Watching this show is a load of fun and I would love to party with these guys. It's got some really funny reaction faces too. Speaking of reaction faces, Asobi Asobase is definitely one of the finer comedies around this season. I'll admit that I got fooled by the OP and poster and thought I would've gotten a Manga Time Kirara-style cute girls doing the absolute cutest things, maybe getting some yuri undertones along the way. What I got was something a little raunchier, focused on providing fodder for 4chan reaction image folders than the calming nature of many shows with a similar setup. I'm really enjoying the character dynamics on this one and how it deviates away from many of its kin in its approach. It's got this nice looking pastel artstyle too. High Score Girl is my second favorite anime this season, one that could possibly crawl up the ranks depending on how Sirius fares the next few weeks. I was a little weirded out by the CGI, but I got settled into it well after the first episode. Having a rom-com centered around 90's videogaming is honestly one of the most creative premises this season, and I love the dynamic between the two main characters and how Akira uses her body language to play off of Haruo. It's also thanks to this show that I found this awesome group who did the opening theme, sora tob sakana. They're this at the surface typical idol group that swaps out a more traditional J-Pop sound for a math rock approach. They have a really good self-titled debut I highly recommend if idols or math rock are up your alley. Back to High Score Girl, I am shocked about how quickly it pulls the timeskip card in comparison to other shows, with the aftermath of the tearjerking third episode. It's not a detriment to the show at all, just something that took me by surprise. I was hoping to find a romance show I could enjoy as much as I did Wotakoi after I saw the last episode of it and I was shocked to see how soon that day would come. Too bad there's gonna be people who aren't watching this because of Netflix doing what they do best and holding the show until it's complete and they have a dub for it but I hope people can find it and watch it because there isn't much better for anime romances this year than it.

Drama/Horror: I'm not actually sure what to think of Happy Sugar Life's first two episodes. There's crazy and there's yuri? I'll keep watching out of pure intrigue. I liked the three volumes of the manga that I could read for it, so I was shocked at the announcement for Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation to get a TV anime. It's a decently obscure Shounen Jump mystery/horror manga from the mid-2000's about a pair of spiritual detectives tracking down and banishing ghosts under Magical Law. The adaptation turned out decently well., getting what made the manga exciting right here in full color and animation. Moving away from horror into the dramatics, the number three spot for the anime of the season contender is.... Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight! A great premise handled excellently by some of the best directing of the season. When I saw the show on preseason charts, I assumed would be Love Live with performing arts (not a bad thing by the way!) What I got was something more dramatic with some crazy awesome performance arts fighting and a talking giraffe. Everything is better with a talking giraffe. This show is one of the most entrancing of 2018 for sure. The wait for episodes kills me inside.

Mecha: Even though I didn't quite finish any of them, I really liked what I've seen of the various Zoids series that came out throughout the years, so Zoids Wild definitely took me by surprise when it got announced for an anime after going dormant for so long. It's a pretty OK kids mecha show. I wouldn't mind getting a Wild Liger model kit. I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, maybe watching past episode 2 will give me more to say. Planet With is a fascinating project this season. Satoshi Mizukami's designs carry over well into animation, I'll admit that the main reason I wanted to watch this, other than for Mizukami having his hands over it, was because of Ginko's kinda cute design. What I'm staying for now is an intriging tale where you're not quite sure who's quite good or bad, or why the main character is fighting, leaving some interesting questions in between episodes. This show definitely has me guessing about what's coming next.

Sports: There's three different sports shows I'm watching this season, that all seem to go in different directions. First is Harukana Recieve, the Manga Time Kirara adaptation of the season about a girl named Haruka who moves to Okinawa and starts playing beach volleyball. Next is Hanebado!, about a girl slowly settling back into badminton after cutting off from it in middle school. Last is Free!: Dive to the Future, with the cast of the first two seasons as they move onto adulthood. Besides the different sports,  the three shows all seem to have different approaches to a sports narrative. Harukana leans the most on the comedic side of things, with a greater focus on fanservice and showing off just how cute these girls are. The girl is also a newbie to her sport as opposed to the other sports anime leads. Hanebado's lead isn't new, she was just hesitant to get back to playing. Hanebado also leans towards drama. Free also goes for drama but with an all male cast and having better animation than Harukana (it's about as good or better than Hanebado.) The lead is also the most experienced of the three, Haruka having been swimming since middle school as the show focuses on his college years. Which one is best? I'm going with Free, but Hanebado comes close.

Since I'm done with all the new stuff I'm watching I may as well start talking about plans for the future. Simply put, the way I watch anime in my day to day will be changed. Last week, I was putting more episode data in for my Kitsu.io list. Looking at that list, I had a realization. "I'm watching 55 fucking anime!" It just then, scrolling through my list of close to 500 shows I put on hold for later just how truly huge my viewing habits have become. So I had an idea. Let's not watch 55 fucking shows next season! As it turns out, it could be easier than I thought. I've been looking intensively at live guides for each anime announced for the fall season. Instead of just picking up whatever I come across, the 5-10 coolest looking shows are what I pick up, a far cry from the 30 new shows I picked up this time. I'm changing my strategy for a few reasons. For one, there isn't as much cool stuff next season, but the stuff that looks good looks really damn good. Next, I'm starting to watch some, and I can't believe I'm saying this...shows that aren't anime. DUM DUM DUM! Seriously, I do watch some cartoons and the odd live action series every so often (I'm watching Preacher right now!) I've just been meaning to watch more J-Drama, especially ones based on manga I've read or anime I've seen. I tried a handful a few years ago but never really finished any of them, and I wanna get back in the game. Most importantly, there's college. It's coming up fast, and the workloads will be heavy. There will inevitably be a cutback in any hobby time, anime included. It's not to say I don't love anime. It's the opposite, I love it more than I ever have before and I appreciate just how it has showed me things I never would've delve into otherwise more than before! It's also leading to my last reason for this switch. Backlog! Less focus on seasonal shows, more focus on shows I've been meaning to watch or finish throughout the 6 years I've been watching anime. I think this will be a refreashing change for me, i think. Oh, and I'll be sure to blog about these shows too. So what's your favorite shows from this season if you're watching anything? What sounded the most interesting from this that you wanna check out? Lemme know in the comments. Sayonara~