As June approaches its end, so does the Spring season. It’s been a great season all things considered, and one of the few in which I truly enjoyed the shows I’ve dropped. Every season comes to an end however, and with it comes the beginning of a new one. Summer looks less promising than Spring this year, but I’m sure there’s plenty of good shows to be found once we take a look.
I won’t be summarizing the shows I’m looking at for this. Shows will generally be listed in order from most interested to least interested, and I’ll only be talking about the ten shows I’m most interested in. Well then, let us begin.
Amanchu
Amanchu is by far the anime I’m most excited for this season, and may be the most hyped I’ve been for any show in my three years of watching anime. The manga is by Kozue Amano, the mangaka behind the masterpiece known as Aria. Similarly, the director is none other than Junichi Satou, the director of Aria’s adaptations himself. Much like Aria, Amanchu is a slow-paced iyashikei which promises to heal anyone who watches it. This show would have to go out of its way to ruin its potential to be anything less than a 9 for me.
Amaama to Inazuma
This show looks cute as hell. Slice of life is my favorite genre, and cuteness is something that I love to see done well. Shows about children inherently lend themselves to being cute, and when done well the relationship between a child and their guardian can be excellent. From what I’ve seen in the PVs, Amaama to Inazuma looks like it’s completely capable of pulling off this relationship. The director isn’t particularly well known, but the show clearly has the potential to be fantastic. It could end up as one of my favorites if all goes well.
New Game
Coming in at my third slice-of-life show in a row is New Game, a Cute Girls Doing Cute Things show. It looks as if it’ll fit within its genre well, as the character designs are already incredibly appealing and do a good job at making all of the characters look cute while at the same time keeping them from all looking like children. The series’ composer previously made the music for K-On!, a show known for having a good OST. The director’s only major role is directing GJ-bu, a show I dislike quite a bit, which brings my hope down some, but with Dogakobo animating it we can at least be sure that the show will look fantastic throughout its run.
Love Live! Sunshine!!
Love Live isn’t a perfect show, or even a great one. Love Live can’t really be called anything more than good. However, what it lacks in pure quality it more than makes up for in enthusiasm. Love Live is one of the most fun shows I’ve ever watched, and I love it for that. I don’t expect Sunshine to be a masterpiece, or to be any better than the first one. If Sunshine manages to just keep up with the original Love Live, it will be a success.
Battery
Batter isn’t a very hyped show. It’s understandable, as the director previously made the universally panned Pupa. Furthermore, sports anime just isn’t popular among the mostly male anime communities that I frequent. However it looks to have quite a bit of promise. Baseball is my favorite sport, so that endears me to it, but more important than that is the character designer. The characters were initially drawn by Takako Shimura, one of my favorite mangaka. I doubt her trademarks will show up in this show, but her being the designer was enough to get me to start Aldnoah.Zero, and a show with a much better premise can’t hurt to try.
Handa-kun
A prequel wasn’t exactly what I was looking for when I asked for more Barakamon, but it will more than suffice. This shouldn’t have any of Handa’s development, and the lack of Naru will be a major blow to the series. That said, manga readers have ensured me that this takes a much more comedic approach, with far less depth. That works perfectly, as seeing Handa before he was forced to forge a new path for himself will hopefully make future watches of Barakamon that much more meaningful, while also keeping me laughing at the same time.
Orange
I love good Shoujo anime. Shirayuki-hime and Yona are two of my favorite 2015 anime, and Ore Monogatari was fantastic as well. When I saw that this show had a highly regarded manga I was already excited, and when I saw it had Steins;Gate’s director I became even more hyped for the series. He’s never adapted a shoujo manga, which gives me a bit of pause, but the premise is already intriguing, and with a director who’s pulled off a time-related show before I have high hopes.
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!!
As the first and only show on this list that’s an adaptation of something I’ve already read a significant amount of, I know what to expect from 3rei. Despite having a number of scenes that I wish weren’t in it, Illya is one of my favorite ongoing manga and is probably the most fun part of the Nasuverse I’ve found so far, though I haven’t yet watched Carnival Phantasm. 3rei is the best part of the manga, and the possibility is there for that to be true of the anime as well. If they can avoid loading it with filler and cut it off at a good point, this could be one of my favorites of the season, but if it’s treated like Hertz it’ll be one of my least favorite.
91 Days
There aren’t too many anime about the Prohibition-era United States. In fact, the only one outside of this that I can think of is Baccano! Revenge stories aren’t usually my kind of thing, but this setting lends itself to that kind of story in a unique way. The director has made a number of popular series, so there’s no real need to worry on that front. My expectations aren’t very high for this, but my hopes are, and hopefully my hopes are fulfilled.
Mob Psycho 100
Rounding out the ten shows I’m most interested in this season is Mob Psycho 100, the manga of which is drawn by ONE, original creator of One Punch Man. One Punch Man wasn’t amazing for me, while it looked great and was at times funny, it failed to make any emotional impact on me, and this kept me from being drawn it. However I have read that the writing is much better for Mob Psycho, and if this is the case I may be able to get into this series much more easily than One Punch Man. The director made the well-regarded Death Parade, a show which I’ve seen paraded as an example of good direction multiple times. I have no idea what to expect of this show, and it could very easily turn me off. I would hope however, that it doesn’t do so, as I’m willing to give it a chance to be great.
Well, those are the show I’m most interested in. There are some others I plan on trying out, and I’m sure I’ll pick up a show or two on word of mouth, as I do every season. Spring likely won’t be as good quantitatively as Spring was, but with this many good slice-of-life shows on the horizon, especially in the form of Amanchu, it’s still a season with much promise.
Floating into Bliss 