Summer 2014 Anime Season: First Impressions

First Impressions: Summer 2014 Anime Season

For a better look at the chart, click this.

In the middle of the burning hot summer, a new anime season slowly rises, and gives us many new shows for us to watch and enjoy. So these are my first thoughts on the summer 2014 anime season. Let’s get started, there are a good number of shows. 

Bakumatsu Rock- During the time of the Shinsengumi and the Arrival of the Black Ships, idols became incredibly popular apparently. So popular that they were carefully controlled and used by the government for propaganda, keeping the poor and needy still poor and needy while making the rich richer, and possibly even brainwashing the masses. But then came ROCK. With an electric guitar on his back, a red haired man takes the capital by storm with his loud passionate music! Will he bring the people over to the sounds of funk or will he also fall to the appeal of idols and singing without heart? This show is super ridiculous.  It is stupid and dumb and possibly the greatest thing ever made by man. The main character is dumber than a rock and the rest of his band are completely cliché for the three-five man band style of show. And there is this ridiculous mystical element about having the soul of rock that is a literal power that rips the handsome men’s shirts off for the adoration of the women fans. This show is so stupid and so ridiculous that it is just fun to make fun of. It is so bad it’s good. I hope it stays that level of bad though, any worse and it will just be tedious to watch. If you like terrible rock shows, watch this. 

Free! Eternal Summer- The return of last year’s much beloved Free. It is still as shippy and still as filled with muscle bound beautiful men as the first season. This season though we are starting from the perspective of these characters looking towards the future. The main trio of Haru, Makoto, and Rin are all at the age where they have to start looking to the future, and start making those decisions. I believe this will be the driving theme and force for this season, and at the end of the day I like it. It is interesting to see these characters look at their futures and what they want to do with their lives. They are young and still have plenty of time to make the final decisions, but to start thinking about those decisions is a hard thing to do. As someone who has experienced it I know, it is hard to start thinking about the future while you are surrounded by friends and life is easy and fun. I can’t wait to see what they all decide to do. In a clever thematic bit, the ending theme is all about the characters doing some sort of job, Mako is a fireman and Rin a police officer/possible stripper, Rei is a scientist, Nagisa is an astronaut, and Haru is a chef. In an odd sort of way, these jobs make a lot of sense for the characters and I kind of hope the ending theme will be foreshadowing for the characters actual jobs. I love Free and I am enjoying its second season so far, so if you liked the first you will love this. Go watch it.

Glasslip- A coming of age drama about five teenagers, with a sixth one entering the fray to mix up the delicate balance these friends have made for themselves over the years. It is also boring as all hell. The problems with slice of life shows like this is that you both need to establish a status quo and then ruin it or mix it up though to be fair establishing a status quo can be really boring to watch. But Glasslip goes a step further by trying to shake up its status quo while establishing it. As a positive, this shows the cracks and blemishes that hide under the friendship, and how those cracks are being brought up to the surface because of the new guy. But we know nothing about the group to begin with! This show is just kind of boring and I will probably not be keeping up with it.

Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen- There are two warring nations, each with mecha capabilities and some advanced technology. On one side there is a small unit of soldiers who are not on the front lines, but one rookie mecha pilot wants to fight for his homeland. When the unit comes across a civilian transport being attacked by the enemies, the rookie jumps into the fray, and finds the civilians are transporting a much more advanced mecha then either side are using, and the rookie takes possession of this mecha to fight the enemy.  There is a lot to like about this show. The characters are interesting and the show does a good job of painting both sides in the conflict as very realistic. Neither one is good nor evil, just opposing sides in a large war. Unfortunately I am just not feeling this show this season. I am sure it is a good show, but after some of the huge mecha shows that have come out in past years, I am just not feeling a show like this. There is honestly nothing wrong with the show, it is just not for me this season. Watch it if you like mecha shows with great potential though, it is definitely a show I might come back to in the future.

Lets Rock!

Rail Wars!- In an alternate world where Japans rail lines were never privatized, which is an AU I was never expecting to come across, Japans railways are not privatized. This means that every part of the railways, including all their workers, are part of the government. The show follow four people who are new to the job, taking different jobs in the world of trains. This includes security, station manager, and other train based jobs. I have to admit, the first episode of this was really boring.  It was a fan serviced filled bore that was basically a high school anime but with a train theme. And it looks like the show will continue to be that, only replace high school club with train based job. I think I was expecting something more exciting, with people working for the railways fighting train pirates or people fighting for the privatization of the railways, or just something. But as it is, I am going to drop it. When I heard about this show I was excited for its potential, but I just ended up disappointed.

Locodol- Have I ever mentioned I really like terrible idol shows? In a small Japanese city in the middle of nowhere, a government official has stumbled upon the idea of creating a local idol unit to both give the town some notoriety and increase the tourism to the small burg. One of the members of this group is an average high school girl and niece of the government worker. She is kind of tricked into becoming an idol, but after seeing how happy she and her partner made the people at the event, she decides to stick to it. The show is about the burgeoning idol unit trying to help their small city and the events and stuff they do, while getting used to the whole local idol life. I really like this show. It is sweet and simple and cute. I love the idea of small town idols, singing and doing events to promote the small town and its fixtures. The fan service does get a bit tiring, but the cute lesbian shipping that the show is putting forth does kind of balance it out for me.  I am really excited for the simple little show and I will have a great time watching it.

Sailor Moon Crystal- I probably mentioned once or twice but I loved Sailor Moon as a kid and from that show sparked a love and appreciation of Magical Girl anime as a genre. So I was hyped when I heard there was going to be a remake of the show, but with updated art and graphics and everything. And after a year or so of delays and waiting the show is here, and I have to admit, it was worth the wait. The story is the same as before, a young women gets given the powers of Sailor Moon, in order to protect the world from evil and find the lost Moon Kingdom’s princess. She eventually meets and teams up with four other girls who all have similar powers and the same mission. Of course there is more to it than just that, but it has a very monster of the week format, allowing for the overall plot of the show to be more in the background and only appear when needed. This time though the show will be focusing more on the manga’s story, which was essentially the same as the old anime but more focused and with a lot less filler. I am excited to see where it goes with that. I also like the art style, it is different from the original but it doesn’t take anything away from it old anime either. I look forward to more Sailor Moon, and enjoying a classic anime all over again. 

I really do love pointless idol shows...

Shounen Hollywood- A show about male idols this time! There is an old theater house that once had an amazing idol group, but they broke up under mysterious circumstances. Now, a new group of teens all work there and are chosen to become the new Shounen Hollywood. And that is about it. The show seems kind of boring. It seems to be going for a much more realistic storyline about idols, but I don’t think realism and idols is a good mixture. From what I’ve heard the real industry can be very toxic and frankly creepy. It is like the boy bands of the late 90’s all over again. But anime doesn’t have to show the reality of it. It can be a fantasy wonderland of up and coming stardom and innocence. It can be all about the dancing and singing and everything else doesn’t matter. Making it real, at least to me, doesn’t make the show more appealing. This show just didn’t click for me. If you like generically handsome boys you will probably like this show. To the shows credit, the last joke had me laughing my ass off. But other than that this show is a drop.

Sword Art Online 2- UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH. I sometimes hate when I watch the first full season of a show, it makes me feel obligated to watch the rest. Unless it is really bad or I just truly despise it, I will usually watch season two. So that means I have to watch more SAO. So, after the events of the last series a new game has taken over the competitive MMO scene, a game based around gun play.  What makes the game so popular is that people can actually make a living off of it, actually being able to convert in game currency to real world money. But when a few people are shot in the game and dies in real life, the person in charge of investigating it goes to Kirito, the main character, and asks him to investigate the murders… for some reason. Also there is a new girl who likes to use sniper rifles, and Kirito uses a sword in a gun based game. First of all, I believe this plot is stolen from one of the .hack series, or at least mirrors it very closely. Second, there is little reason for Kirito to be going into this game except for the fact that he is the main character. They could have had any other character do this job, hell they could have an actual task force for these kinds of things, which would be interesting. They could have even had Kirito just be a player in the game and making money off of it, and then gets involved. But having him be asked to go into the game just seems lazy or contrived. Third though, is that stuff about this show seems to have potential. Yeah the main plot has been done before, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done again and given a fresh spin. And the game itself seems interesting. There could be a whole show about people who make real world money off of this game and their lives and their in game interactions and it could be really interesting and fun. But we get the series we are given, and what we are given just seems boring. It isn’t as bad as the second half of the first season, which literally stole all the good will I had built up for the show in its first half, but it is still boring. I hope the series does better, it tightens up the story and gives Kirito some actual depth of a character, but yeah, I am only sticking with this for my bad show quota.

Barakamon- This is arguably the best show to come out this season. A calligraphy artist is called out by a museum director, who calls his art boring and passionless. The artist responds by decking the old man in the face. In order to cool off and focus on his art, the artist moves to a small island town, where the bus only comes twice a day, everyone leaves their doors unlocked, and everyone knows your name. There instead of peace and quiet he finds annoying small children. But through the people that he will live with now, including the villages little scamp, he will learn that passion needed for his art. I already love this show. It starts off will just an incredible right hook to the face of an old man and goes up from there. What really sells this show is its incredibly comedic timing and its really great character growth. All the jokes are just really funny, and the little girl might just steal the show. And the main character is going through a change. It is very apparent in just the first episode, but I think that was just to let the audience know that there will be change and growth and that the character ending the series will be very different from the one at its start. I really like this show, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. If you can, go watch this great slice of life series. 

He is much more of a dork then this promo implies.

Sabagebu!-  As the new girl walks to her new school for the first day, she is accosted, but saved by a girl wielding two Desert Eagles. She later sees that girl at school and learns she is both the biggest idol at the school, meaning all the other girls want in her pants, and the president of the survival game club. The president then tricks the new girl into joining the survival game club, which of course is filled with weird people. This is a straight up wacky comedy in the form of a girls being nice to each other anime, with the exception of our main character is an unrepentant asshole, and because of that she is amazing. Asshole characters are really hard to do, because they’re jerks who people should hate. Making one comically likably is really hard to do, but this show succeeds, so far at least. I am really digging this show so far. It is dumb and simple and bit fan servicey but it knows what it is and decides it doesn’t care what people will think, and have a girl get beaten with a natto roll. If you like kind of bad anime, or moe girls doing things anime, you will like this show, like I do.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun-A girl finally gathers all her courage to ask out the boy she has liked for a while, and after stumbling over her words, she gets his autograph. Confused, she tries again and gets invited to his place, and asked to help him with his manga. In turns out the guy she loves is a shoujo manga artist and an acclaimed one at that, though no one believes him because of his tactless demeanor and staunch face. And that fact that he is male. So now she works as his assistant, coloring in pages and helping give ideas for shoujo manga, while also trying to find the perfect moment to tell him that she is in love with him. This is a pretty cute show that tries to dissect the shoujo anime/manga genre while also reveling in it. I’ve always enjoyed the romantic shoujo clichés and archetypes, though the actual stories do tend to be a bit boring. And so far I am really enjoying this show. The characters are fun and lively and I have always been a big fan of shows that are about the production of manga in some way, though to be fair shows like that usually tend to be kind of bad. But this one is good and if you like shoujo anime and clichés and fun cheesy romance watch this show!

DRAMAtical Murder- I almost have no clue what this show is about. In a future looking world, gangs have sort taken control of the streets, but it isn’t in a gang war fair kind of way. And a virtual reality/fighting game has become really popular. One dude, who is friends with many gang members but is not affiliated with any gangs, and has hair that is sensitive to the touch, gets pulled against his will into a battle inside the fighting game. He then acts strangely, acting like he has played the game before, and even his opponent recognizing him as a player. The show itself is based on a video game that is half dating sim half something else. I don’t really know, I’ve never played the game before and only saw random stuff online about it, like character arts and something about a dog. But as it is so far, it has presented some interesting mysteries and I am into it so far. It is just kind of weird. The ascetic of the show just seems wishy washy at the moment. It is like there is something that has yet to fully click for the show for me, but give it time and I think it will make that final click. I am going to keep up with this show for now, and let it play out.

In the face! With a natto roll.

RE: Hamatora- So the second season of this show starts with everyone mourning the fallen main character, Nice, from the previous season, apparently dead from the gunshot noise in the last season. But the Hamatora detective agency must keep on doing work, and ends up saving a Minimum user who uses lights to make illusions. But when things go crazy, Nice comes back, to the surprise of no one watching. He had hidden himself so that he could investigate the one who tried to kill him, the non-minimum user Art, who is now evil and I am assuming crazy. Art now is stealing people’s abilities to make everyone equal, and taking the sins on to himself, by which I think he means taking their powers for his own use. But he doesn’t have to kill them like the dude form last season. So basically it is the same as last season, heavy handed social commentary, people with powers that need to do something to use their powers, and kind of not great comedy. I am interested in Art’s turn to the dark side, because right now it seems like something out of left field. But give it time, they might actually explain it, and make it an interesting component for the show. Real quick though, they showed Art’s apartment, and it is filled with weapons and explosives, but it also had one spear. I am very interested in why he has a spear, I want to know the story behind that.

Yama no Susume Second Season-The return of the much beloved, at least by me, micro series about girls who like to climb mountains. But this time the episodes are longer then 3-5 minutes, actually being about 15 minutes long this time around. It is the same as last time, a group of girls who all love mountains and climbing them hang out, talk shop, and even climb and hike up mountains. There isn’t really a lot to say about this show. To its credit the quality has gone up along with its run time, and it is always nice to see more of characters you like. But it is still the same simple but fun show I loved a year ago. And I am excited to see more of it.

So that is the 2014 summer anime season. There are a bunch of shows that seem really great to watch, and some things I am not exactly excited for. But either way I can’t wait to see how they all play out. So until next time, have fun watching. 

Lets look to the future!