Final Thoughts: Summer 2011

Final Thoughts: 2011 Summer Anime Season

Hey peoples! Well, it is that time again. A new anime season has started, and with that, the old one has finished. So I want to give some quick thoughts on what I watched last season. I’ll have the list of what I’m watching for the Fall 2011 anime season up soon, but for now, enjoy what has come to pass.

Double-J: Double-J was…weird. But an enjoyable weird. The art style was different, the jokes were hit or miss, but over all I enjoyed it. But I can defiantly see why others would not. I am someone who loves to see the more experimental stuff, the show that might not fit into what everyone was expecting, but is still enjoyable. Whether or not the experiment was a success is up to you, but I think I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that frog manga that Ichirou was drawing.

Yuru Yuri: This was the random moe-moe anime they show just about every season. But you know what? I liked it, and I really shouldn’t. It was pandering to an otaku audience. It was jokes about girls likening girls, and cute moe-moe blobs of characters I have seen done better in K-ON!. But for some reason I loved this show. It always made me laugh, the characters were bright, colorful, and most importantly, fun to watch, and it was just a nice show. I dislike the concept of moe, but god damn it, I keep falling for shows that are nothing but moe. *sigh* Next anime please,

Kamisama Dolls: When I first saw this show, my first thought was that it was a darker spiritual successor of Shingu Secret of the Stellar Wars. And I can still see that comparison, but it is, at least, different from that. This show had a lot of great characters, and an interesting concept, but I felt that it was still lacking something. The pacing was a bit off, the fan service was awkward and random, and timing of the comedy or dramatic bits could give a person whip lash. But it was solid, and I think it will become a better show in its second season, whenever that will be.

Morita-san wa Mukuchi: This show was three minute ray of sunlight once a week. It is a small simple show that is just nice to watch. The key is that it doesn’t overstay its welcome. A show like this would become annoying and dull if it was the length of a regular show. But because it is only three minutes, it is able to keep me interested, yet still wanting more. There is now a second season of this show, and I am incredibly happy because of that.

Nyanpire the Animation: Nyanpire got annoying. It was another short anime series, episodes only lasting a few minutes, but after a while it became grating. It wasn’t anything bad, it just lost what made it good.
I would recommend watching the first few episodes of the series, but it might get annoying after a while. But there was one thing that always made me happy, the ending theme. Dear god that ending theme was amazing in its insanity. Also, Double-J’s ending was good too. Just thought I would bring that up,

Usagi Drop: This might be a bit of a spoiler, so go ahead with caution. While watching Usagi Drop, I had heard a spoiler that the show would have an incredibly depressing and just cruel ending. I heard that the manga ended that way, and that this was staying awfully close to the manga. (I have yet to read the manga, so I have no clue if that has an incredibly depressing and cruel ending.) So when I watched the last episode, all I could do was try and figure out how they were going to hurt the small family that I had been watching grow and change over the past three or so months. And you know what? It didn’t happen. It had a sweet ending, the ending I was expecting. A happy ending. And I felt trolled. But I loved this show. It was nice, and normal. I felt as if these characters could really exist. The stress of that ending did not detract from  the show at all, I completely recommend this show.

Dantalian no Shoka: If this show had come out a season or two later, I would have called it a clone of Kami-sama no Memo-chou, just with more magic stuff. But it isn’t, so I can’t. what I can say is that this show was not fun to watch. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it was dull and the main characters were just annoying. Ok, I admit that Huey was a good nice guy character, but he had no personality, he was just there to do pull out the books. But god I hated Dalian. She was annoying and greedy and was the type of tsundere I just end up hating in a show. And the ending, dear lord the ending. One of the shows saving graces was its supporting cast. They were at least interesting. If they were to make a second season of this show, I would hope that they would follow the other people with book princesses, like the book police, or the mad scientist. At least then they might be able to make a lick of sense of that ending. Dear god that ending.


Kami-Sama no Memo-chou: This was a good detective show. It was the complete opposite of Dantalian. The characters were interesting, the stories were deep and realistic, and you really felt for the characters. This is one of the few series that made me tear up at the ending in a long time. I think it was one of the best series of the season. This was a show about broken and hurting people coming together to try and do something, anything good, even if it is only a little. It is a show about people, not characters. I loved this show.


Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!: The first season of this show was great. And the second season was able to keep up with it. I liked the advancement of the relationships, the lessened focus on Akihisa’s sister, and the bits of back story they put in. This is one of the few shows that can make me cheer and root for the main characters doing something horrible, like peeping on the girls in the hot springs. They made it seem like some deep battle for justice against an immovable enemy, and it made you cheer. I am looking forward to  the next season.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee: This was another simple series. It was very slice of life, with interesting characters and just nice stories. But it didn’t seem to have any staying power. Towards the end I just got bored with the series. I still liked it, I just wasn’t into it anymore. Which is really unfortunate, because I genuinely  liked it. It was just boring.

So that was the 2011 summer anime season. Had some good and some bad. Look forward to my fall 2011 season first impressions coming soon. Maybe even later today. Until next time, have fun watching.