Well, what do you know? I’m actually doing a re-ranking of anime…early! No delays until the end of the summer, I’m getting it done right now! This basically also constitutes what I’ll be watching for the Summer Season.
Overall, it’s been an interesting season. If nothing else, a pick me up from the surprisingly dreadful Spring season, and there are at least some shows that everyone will be able to love and enjoy. Probably. Anyways, for the most part, I’m usually somewhat accurate with my compendiums, but my summer rankings…were off. By a lot. Out of the 20 new shows I ranked, only two managed to actually stay where they were, and some shows I won’t be watching any more moved up because some shows I ranked at the top failed for me. So let’s get to ranking all of the new shows so far.
But First…What Else I’m Watching This Season
Yep, might as well share what sequels, shorts, or series based off existing franchises I also picked up are before I get to the meat of the post, so that list consists of:
The World God Only Knows: Goddesses
Genshiken Second Season
Rozen Maiden Z
Senyuu 2
Yami Shibai
Gatchaman Crowds
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya
Now, let’s get these rankings started….
Page 1: 20-15
Page 2: 14-10
Page 3: 9-1
20. Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku
Title: Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku (Chronicles of The Going Home Club)
Genre: Slice-of-Life
Studio: Nomad
Director: Hikaru Sato (First Director Work)
Series Composition: Go Zappa (NAKAIMO, A Bridge to the Starry Skies, Koihime Musou)
Original Creator: KUROHA
Official Website: http://www.ntv.co.jp/kitakubu/
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Original Rank: 18th
Watched: 2 episodes
My Original Take: “It looks like one of those gag 4-koma shorts you get every once in a while, so that means it might be a short, and then also wouldn’t be on this list. But I can’t confirm that. That’s nothing compared to the fact that the same writer who did NAKAIMO is on this list, and that is not good.”
My New Take: A) it wasn’t a short B)Well, kudos for at least getting Go Zappa right, except little did I realize it would somehow be worse than NAKAIMO. Ok, sure, I knew eventually NAKAIMO would fall flat on its face at some point, but it did have a hook. Unfortunately, the only hook this anime provided was me talking about my adventures of always going home after school. It then proved it wasn’t going to maintain my interest by bringing in anime reference jokes. I have a weakness for that apparently so to have screwed up the way Kitakubu did is pretty impressive. My goal was to watch all 3 episodes of every new anime. Kitakubu turned out to be poor enough to get me to dismiss it before that.
Status: Dropped
19. Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C3-Bu
Title: Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C3-Bu (Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3)
Genre: Military
Studio: Gainax
Director: Masayoshi Kawajiri (First Director Work)
Original Creator: Ikoma, Tomomoka Midori
Official Website: http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/stella/
Streaming: Crunchyroll|
Original Rank: 11th
Watched: 2 episodes
My Original Take: “Poor Gainax. Everyone’s pretty much called their death sentence and gotten them to reminisce about the good old days. I’m not quite that ready to do so. It does help that they have a good adaptation to work with, and C3-Bu might be it. Yeah, the trailer didn’t advertise much, but it’s girls and guns. That’s always a good thing right?”
My New Take: Damnit Gainax. I put my faith in you and this is what you do to me? You put me to sleep! First episode consisted of somehow nothing happening in a span of 22 minutes, with me coming across Rento and that bad voice acting, and even the airsoft battle, which should have been compelling enough to push me through the episode, didn’t even work for me. I was ready to call the episode over and done with like normal, until I realized I had to do an impression on it. I started to make excuses: well I am watching this at like 2 AM, I’m starting to get tired, maybe this isn’t as bad as I think it is. So I said I’d watch the episode again in the morning or when I’m less tired basically. I still wanted to fall asleep! So naturally, I did not have expectations for episode 2, and aside from the refined battle at the end of the episode, it consisted of nothing happening with an aesthetic I can’t seem to get attached to. So yeah, it was not good for me, and that means it would not be good to continue further.
Status: Dropped
18. Danganronpa
Title: Danganronpa The Animation
Genre: Action, Mystery, Horror, Supernatural
Studio: Geneon
Director: Seiji Kishi (Humanity Has Declined, Persona 4: The Animation, Devil Survivor 2)
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu (Devil Survivor 2, School Days, Kamisama Dolls)
Original Creator: Chunsoft, Spike
Air Date: July 5, 2013
Official Website: http://www.geneonuniversal.jp/rondorobe/anime/danganronpa/
Streaming: Funimation, Hulu
Original Rank: 7th
Watched: 3 episodes
My Original Take: “…The problem is Seiji Kishi and Makoto Uezu’s at it again. They’ve been in a major slump, and I’ve been hearing nothing but bad things about Devil Survivor 2 (Man do I look bad for ranking it #3 in my Spring Compendium). And with their recent works not being too spectacular, I can only expect Danganronpa to be screwed up again. But the premise is cool and the trailer’s interesting. I BELIEVE IN SEIJI KISHI!”
My New Take: *facepalm*
Yep, I think it’s official: don’t hire this same team to adapt video games and turn it into anime. Just don’t do it. Now, I should probably admit that while I seem compelled to watch the battle survival genre stuff, the only one that I felt actually executed it with some competence was Future Diary. Battle Royale’s book got better in the second half, but it’s mostly forgettable (or maybe it was the awful translation. Which is getting a re-do I hear), the movie was at best ok, and the sequel — oh right, we don’t talk about the sequel.
Anyways, I think you get the point. So in knowing all this, I’m usually compelled to see who actually survives these things in the end, and for Danganronpa, it tries to tie this in with it also being a mystery series. It fails horribly. In episode 1, the entire episode worked for me despite some of the videogame ness (trailer of the game, some of the text bubbles, etc) because it had an interesting style and some oddly designed characters that I genuinely liked (hi Sakura!). My only concern is exactly how would they explain the mysteries and exactly how would they depict most of the scenes? Well episodes 2 and 3 showed the anime is nothing more than a glorified let’s play version of the video game, with no tension, no real mystery solving, and lots of poorly exaggerated characters with stills. It doesn’t use sound right, tries to build up too many characters, and does this in a fashion that only frustrates me since this can be way better than what’s going on right now. I’m still curious as to who will survive in this 13 episode adaptation. I’m almost certain I’ll be reading blogs to find that out.
Status: Dropped
One more thing: At least I watched this show long enough to get to this awesome ED:
17. Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou
Title: Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou (Dog & Scissors)
Genre: Comedy, Supernatural
Studio: Gonzo
Director: Yukio Takahashi (First Director Work)
Series Composition: Toshizo Nemoto (Inu X Boku SS, Tokyo Majin, Towanoquon)
Original Creator: Shunsuke Sarai
Official Website: http://inuhasa.jp/
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Original Rank: Same
Watched: 3 Episodes
My Original Take: “…the premise is comical, but comical in the sense that it makes absolutely no sense. Then you watch the trailer, and proceed to want to jump out your window. It looks bad, seems typical, and very unremarkable. How did this get green lit into an anime again? Well, whatever the case, I’m guessing this anime will have to prove to me it knows what it’s doing. But I won’t hold my breath.”
My New Take: Hey, I had to get something right. At least this didn’t turn out to be the worst anime of the Summer Season. But it does just enough awful things that make no sense to declare it forgettable in a couple years. Granted, the awful things came in the 3rd episode, which made about as much sense as a guy in a business suit running to work with toast in his mouth. As I said originally, looks typical, unremarkable, blah, blah, blah. Will take back the getting green lit part, but it’s just another anime that does nothing funny or is entertaining. Well, the ED animation is funny.
Status: Dropped
16. Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist
Title: Makai Ouji Devils and Realist
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Supernatural
Studio: Studio Pierrot, Dogakobo
Director: Chiaki Kon (Arcana Famiglia, Hanasakeru Seishounen, Junjou Romantica)
Series Composition: Michiko Yokote (Air Master, Red Data Girl, Genshiken, Joshiraku)
Original Creator: Madoka Takadono, Utako Yukihiro
Official Website: http://makai-ouji.com/
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Original Rank: 19th
Watched: 3 episodes
My Original Take: “…and the staff behind it doesn’t exactly excite me. You all know why my aversion to otome adapted anime/shows with lots of guys started with Arcana Famiglia, and the director for that show is directing this one. And then you have Michiko Yokote, who’s a part of some show called Air Master, which I’d like to forget about quickly, and Red Data Girl, which didn’t exactly excite me when I watched its first episode, and apparently has not excited anyone else now that it’s over. Easily an anime I don’t think is going to be all that good.”
My New Take: Well, again, I pretty much called that. Makai Ouji is not as bad as I thought it’d be compared to the 4 I’ve ranked before it, but this anime has nothing to interest me. Has pretty boys (in fact a ton of them), dabbles with fantasy, and actually has a main character I can get behind sometimes. But there’s nothing to keep me interested in what the story’s about, and well, the action is not all that well done to me. So overall, it’s right about what I thought it’d be, but there can be some fans for this anime.
Status: Dropped
15. Brothers Conflict
Title: Brothers Conflict
Genre: Romance, Harem
Studio: Brains Base
Director: Jun Matsumoto (Persona -trinity soul-, Night Raid 1931)
Series Composition: Natsuko Takahashi (Moyashimon, Nura: Rise of The Yokai Clan, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Yuyushiki)
Original Creator: Atsuko Kanase
Official Website: http://www.bc-anime.com/
Simulcast: Funimation, Hulu
Original Rank: 20th
Watched: 3 episodes
My Original Take: “Why hi otome adaptation #29393432. Hi you used to be a reliable studio but you sold out for more cash Brains Base. Seriously, is this actually going to be good? Well so far, the track record for keeping up with these types of shows for the past few years since I’ve started this blog has been zero.”
My New Take: And make this yet another one that lowers the count. Ok, if nothing else, it did prove it has a cool ED song:
But aside from that, it retains the same problems I always seem to have with these shows: blank slate heroine, lots of characters (that are supposed to be hot), what’s the story going to be. And as far as I know, it’s just going to be our heroine choosing which brother’s she going to have the hots for in the end, and who’s going to fight for screen time. Somewhere along the way of this 13 episode series, it’ll find a way to not integrate all of them, and then go with an ending that’s either going to make people cry or make people cry in the manner of “WHY JAPAN, WHY???” Besides that, with no real goal aside from that, it’s basically going to be Photo Kano, sans giving the protagonist an episode with every love interest. I think.
…I should finally get started with UtaPri shouldn’t I?
