2017 Summer Anime Preview
Crap, it's July already? Yeah, I haven't even finished most of the Spring series. Still, technically the "first" summer series already started, and even not technically as of tomorrow the summer anime season begins in full, so before that happens here's my picks for the season. Annoyingly I likely won't finish most of these either.
Note: I get all my summaries and information from LiveChart. Be sure to check them out, they do an excellent job of keeping up with all the anime announcements, and allow you to decide mark whether you're interested or skipping shows from a particular season. When you skip, the show vanishes from the chart, which I always think is a hilarious but not mean-spirited way of saying "fuck you" to a show you don't like. Anyway, on with the article!
Premiering: June 24th.
What It's About: On a spring day when the cherry blossoms have started to fall, the naïve princess of a small country, Lion begins her days at a school in Hokkaido. The school houses a special facility run by ALCA that trains Logicalists who protect the peace of the world. Lion has a lot of unique classmates in Class 1-S, including Nina, a Logicalist. This is the story of the energetic and adorable days the Logicalists-in-training spend together. It’s time to Trance! (Source: Crunchyroll)
My Thoughts: As a fan of card game-based anime series, I decided to give Luck & Logic a try a while back...or at least, I meant to. But "stuff" kept happening and I kept getting distracted--now here we are looking at what I initially thought was the second season but wound up being a spin-off. So once again I've decided to live up to the site's name and just start here and see what happens.
Premiering: July 2nd.
What It's About: The fourth season of the Symphogear franchise, a universe where bad-ass young girls in magical girl armor beat up on evil monsters that can turn humans to ashes with a single touch, while singing songs a la Macross. There's lots of emotional drama moments, but you watch for the music, the gorgeous animation, and the sheer levels of ridiculous awesome like a suplexing a spaceship. (Yes, seriously.)
My Thoughts: Symphogear takes the coolest parts of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and the songs and cool concerts from Macross--two of my favorite franchises of all time--and fused them. The result? A new favorite franchise, set in one of my favorite genres: heroic bad-ass girls. I'm actually behind on this series, as I just started last year and I'm still working my way through the third season. So since the series premiere is sometime tomorrow, I guess I've gotta spend the weekend marathoning it. Oh no, a weekend marathoning something I love. How horrible. :(
Seriously though, I'm so hype this series is still getting love. There's a concert featuring some of the main characters (who are actual pop stars) at the beginning of every season, and every year the animation budget gets better and thus the concert becomes more impressive. GX's concert was some Macross Frontier-level performance, which makes sense given they're both animated by the same company, and I can only imagine what heights they'll reach this year.
Premiering: July 2nd.
What It's About: A mecha otaku is reincarnated into another world as Ernesti Echevalier, also known as Eru. In this world exists huge humanoid weapons known as Silhouette Knights. Dreaming of piloting those robots, Eru, with childhood friends, Archid Walter and Adeltrud Walter, aim to become Knight Runners, pilots of these Silhouette Knights. (Source: MyAnimeList)
My Thoughts: Who doesn't want to watch the adventures of a trap mecha pilot in fantasy world?
Seriously though, as far as I know there hasn't been a mecha/fantasy series since Broken Blade back in 2011? And this looks like it takes itself far less seriously and leans into the sheer ridiculousness of giant robots existing in a medieval fantasy time period more. It's based of a light novel though and those can usually be pretty shitty, so it remains to be seen whether or not this is going to be good. I'm willing to give it a try, though. I don't think we'll have a Dunbine-quality series on our hands, but the show appears to be unafraid to be as much fantasy as it is mecha, which is usually my complaint.
Premiering: July 3rd.
What It's About: Set in 2045, humanity struggles to survive in a world overrun by mysterious invaders called the Irousu. The Earth's only hope lies with the students of Shinjugamine Girls' Academy, a school where Star Guardians train to fight the Irousu. Together, these brave girls work to develop their skills to fight against the invaders… provided they can pass class first! (Source: Sentai Filmworks)
My Thoughts: I was gonna skip this. I promise I was. I try to keep the amount of CGDCT (cute girls doing cute things) series down to a minimum. But between the cool-looking Sentai outfits, even cooler-looking weapons, and what looked like the potential for extravagant futuristic concerts (which I'm apparently a sucker for), I just couldn't bring myself to do it. They even have teleport tubes--I got a big Power Rangers vibe off the trailer, so while I'm telling myself I'm just going to try the first episode, the reality is unless it's just the worst dreck since Chaos Dragon I'll probably end up finishing this and claiming its one of my favorite of the season.
Premiering: July 5th.
What It's About: At last, the Sanzou Party has arrived in India. In this foreign land, where the anomaly's influence runs rampant, their battles only heighten in their violence. And also awaiting them is their tragic fate from 500 years ago—what will they find at the end of their long and treacherous journey? (Source: manga synopsis via MyAnimeList)
My Thoughts: Saiyuki's the latest in a long line of older properties attempting to make a comeback in the 2010's: it started with Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball, but now it's extended to smaller series like Saiyuki, Pretty Girl Sammy, Patlabor, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Irresponsible Captain Tylor of all things, which I'll get to later. Saiyuki was known in the mid-2000's for being an action anime series that had blatant popularity with women, due to its dashingly handsome main cast. Still, it was action-packed and had a decent story to sucker in the guys too, so it managed to win on both sides.
But Saiyuki Reload Gunlock happened well over a decade ago and the landscape of anime has unquestionably gone through major changes, so I'm curious as to if it can reach similar levels of popularity in a world where anime aimed at women are generally far more obvious in their intentions, being downright reverse harems or yaoi-focused, or if they just change with the times themselves and be shameless about their intentions. As someone who both kinda liked Saiyuki in the past and loves that some of the older "classic" anime are being brought back and revised for the audience of today, which is much larger and more diverse than it was in the early 2000's, I've kind of got to give this series a try.
Premiering: July 8th
What It's About: Chronos Rulers are those who fight the time-eating demons that appear when people wish they could turn back time. The Chronos Rulers fight a time-manipulation battle against these demons. (Source: Anime News Network)
My Thoughts: Impossibly stylish main cast? Check. Cool, jazzy music? Check. Jaw-dropping animation that will probably not be consistent across the entire series? Double check. Will this series have no/a weak plot? Most likely. But I'm in anyway--I need a good mindless action series where characters beat up monsters because it looks cool.
I know it sounds ridiculous but sometimes you just want a reason to veg out. More importantly, actually having a plot could easily be to the show's detriment if its tryhard and not actually good. Divine Gate ruined all the good things it had going for it with its awful, pretentious poetry and attempts to be "deep". Just punch people in the face and (maybe) have a logical reason for doing it and you can gain some notoriety for 13-24 weeks.
Premiering: July 8th
What It's About: Mahmut is a young Pasha serving on the general's council of Turkey. The clouds of war are gathering over his country. With Turkey's council split between the warmongers and the pacifists, Mahmut begins his quest to keep the peace at any cost. As he finds himself deeper and deeper in the politics of the ancient world, new enemies and allies surface. Who will prevail? What will Mahmut do if war proves to be inevitable? (Source: MyAnimeList)
My Thoughts: I found out about the manga for this a few years back while aimlessly surfing the endless rabbit hole that is TV Tropes. It's basically Magi with the supernatural elements taken out and the strategy cranked way up. The manga itself was well-written, and this is my pick for best series of the season and dark horse pick for what will be one of the most popular shows of the summer with everyone else. Animated by MAPPA I know the art will be gorgeous for the duration of the series, and with no announced number of cours I'm hoping it can last longer than a single season and really get ingrained into the minds of the community and get the recognition it deserves.
Premiering: July 9th
What It's About: The "spy action" series follows five girls in 19th century London, a city within the Albion Kingdom divided into east and west by a large wall. The girls serve as undercover spies enrolled as students at the prestigious Queen's Mayfair school. The girls make use of their individual abilities to remain active in the underground world of disguise, espionage, infiltration, and car chases. (Source: Anime News Network)
My Thoughts: Take one of my favorite time periods+areas and sprinkle in some spycraft and what looks like a lot of violence and action, and you've probably got me sold. It brings my "moe girl series" count up to three though, so if the actual story isn't up to par I might have to drop it. I hope not though--this looks kinda cool.
Premiering: July 11th
What It's About: It is long after the United Planets has declined, and the Empire has been destroyed. People have scattered all over the galaxy and lead peaceful lives on various planets. Banjou Tylor works in garbage disposal above the atmosphere of one of these planets, when he comes across a robot ship and finds a girl frozen in ice within. Suddenly, forces that are after the girl begin to activate all throughout the galaxy, as it is revealed that the girl is actually Goza the 168th, the harbinger of the galaxy's doom. Banjo and Goza set out on a journey to revive the United Planets, but nothing goes as planned. (Source: aniDB)
My Thoughts: This series is a semi-sequel to Irresponsible Captain Tylor, a comedic space opera anime from the early 90's, and yet another of those come back series. Now even though this is going to be one of those five minute short series, now we're at the point that you can start unreasonably requesting remakes/sequels to some of your lesser-known favorites. (My list is Flame of Recca, Mahou Sensei Negima, and Air Gear--what's yours?) Because while the original show was and is fairly well-received by critics...it's not really anything anyone remembered like that. I only know it because I'm an anime super-nerd that's obsessed with 90's anime series--most people who watch this probably aren't even going to know it is a sequel!
Still, while I don't necessarily think a Tylor revival was warranted, I'm supporting it because eventually I'll start getting remakes of shows I really loved...hopefully. Let's just hope the writing is on the same level of the original. ICT was about a guy who thinly walked the line between being a lazy, tactical super-genius who didn't want anyone to know and the luckiest idiot you could imagine. It was clever because just when you thought you knew he was one or the other, something would happen that would leave you undecided again. If this show can't pull that off, it won't be a worthy successor.
Premiering: July 22nd
What It's About: Makoto, Adi, and Chloe have been saved by the Avengers from the evil organization Hydra, who were tampering with their genes. Even though they have immense superpowers, they are just kids and thus start training as ‘Future Avengers’ under the real Avengers. Together with the strongest superhero team in the world, the kids start to stand up against evil, until they become true heroes themselves. (Source: MANGA.TOKYO)
My Thoughts: This is totally going to be another Marvel Disk Wars, but I'm going to give it a chance anyway because I love seeing our superheroes through the eyes of another nation, for the most part. And with the way Marvel is reaching out for crossmedia stuff lately, who knows? Maybe soon they'll get a legitimate Marvel superheroes anime on the air.
Premiering: July 22nd.
What It's About: After THE REFLECTION, some of the people in all parts of the world are discovered with super powers. Some become heroes, and others villains. How did the Reflection happen? What was the cause of it? With many unsolved mysteries, the world is lead into turmoil. (Source: Studio Deen)
My Thoughts: For one, I'd love to know just how much Stan Lee is involved in this series. He's done the narration for the promotional videos, but is he actually creating some of the story for this? Because that'd be awesome. Setting all that aside though, though this is going to look like something of a rip-off next to My Hero Academia, even though the aura of it is distinctly more Concrete Revolutio. As for me, I'm just excited to see more superheroes in anime format.
And I mean, the last time we got Stan Lee's ideas in an anime, they didn't end up too bad.
And there you have it: the eleven series I'm going to try and keep up with this season, on top of the five series that I had already running. Will I be able to keep up? Definitely not, but it'll be fun trying! I'll see you guys back here periodically with anime updates on completing Spring series, and then back in September for the Fall list. But what series are you looking forward to? Let me know in the comments.
Note: I get all my summaries and information from LiveChart. Be sure to check them out, they do an excellent job of keeping up with all the anime announcements, and allow you to decide mark whether you're interested or skipping shows from a particular season. When you skip, the show vanishes from the chart, which I always think is a hilarious but not mean-spirited way of saying "fuck you" to a show you don't like. Anyway, on with the article!
What It's About: On a spring day when the cherry blossoms have started to fall, the naïve princess of a small country, Lion begins her days at a school in Hokkaido. The school houses a special facility run by ALCA that trains Logicalists who protect the peace of the world. Lion has a lot of unique classmates in Class 1-S, including Nina, a Logicalist. This is the story of the energetic and adorable days the Logicalists-in-training spend together. It’s time to Trance! (Source: Crunchyroll)
My Thoughts: As a fan of card game-based anime series, I decided to give Luck & Logic a try a while back...or at least, I meant to. But "stuff" kept happening and I kept getting distracted--now here we are looking at what I initially thought was the second season but wound up being a spin-off. So once again I've decided to live up to the site's name and just start here and see what happens.
What It's About: The fourth season of the Symphogear franchise, a universe where bad-ass young girls in magical girl armor beat up on evil monsters that can turn humans to ashes with a single touch, while singing songs a la Macross. There's lots of emotional drama moments, but you watch for the music, the gorgeous animation, and the sheer levels of ridiculous awesome like a suplexing a spaceship. (Yes, seriously.)
My Thoughts: Symphogear takes the coolest parts of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and the songs and cool concerts from Macross--two of my favorite franchises of all time--and fused them. The result? A new favorite franchise, set in one of my favorite genres: heroic bad-ass girls. I'm actually behind on this series, as I just started last year and I'm still working my way through the third season. So since the series premiere is sometime tomorrow, I guess I've gotta spend the weekend marathoning it. Oh no, a weekend marathoning something I love. How horrible. :(
Seriously though, I'm so hype this series is still getting love. There's a concert featuring some of the main characters (who are actual pop stars) at the beginning of every season, and every year the animation budget gets better and thus the concert becomes more impressive. GX's concert was some Macross Frontier-level performance, which makes sense given they're both animated by the same company, and I can only imagine what heights they'll reach this year.
What It's About: A mecha otaku is reincarnated into another world as Ernesti Echevalier, also known as Eru. In this world exists huge humanoid weapons known as Silhouette Knights. Dreaming of piloting those robots, Eru, with childhood friends, Archid Walter and Adeltrud Walter, aim to become Knight Runners, pilots of these Silhouette Knights. (Source: MyAnimeList)
My Thoughts: Who doesn't want to watch the adventures of a trap mecha pilot in fantasy world?
Seriously though, as far as I know there hasn't been a mecha/fantasy series since Broken Blade back in 2011? And this looks like it takes itself far less seriously and leans into the sheer ridiculousness of giant robots existing in a medieval fantasy time period more. It's based of a light novel though and those can usually be pretty shitty, so it remains to be seen whether or not this is going to be good. I'm willing to give it a try, though. I don't think we'll have a Dunbine-quality series on our hands, but the show appears to be unafraid to be as much fantasy as it is mecha, which is usually my complaint.
What It's About: Set in 2045, humanity struggles to survive in a world overrun by mysterious invaders called the Irousu. The Earth's only hope lies with the students of Shinjugamine Girls' Academy, a school where Star Guardians train to fight the Irousu. Together, these brave girls work to develop their skills to fight against the invaders… provided they can pass class first! (Source: Sentai Filmworks)
My Thoughts: I was gonna skip this. I promise I was. I try to keep the amount of CGDCT (cute girls doing cute things) series down to a minimum. But between the cool-looking Sentai outfits, even cooler-looking weapons, and what looked like the potential for extravagant futuristic concerts (which I'm apparently a sucker for), I just couldn't bring myself to do it. They even have teleport tubes--I got a big Power Rangers vibe off the trailer, so while I'm telling myself I'm just going to try the first episode, the reality is unless it's just the worst dreck since Chaos Dragon I'll probably end up finishing this and claiming its one of my favorite of the season.
What It's About: At last, the Sanzou Party has arrived in India. In this foreign land, where the anomaly's influence runs rampant, their battles only heighten in their violence. And also awaiting them is their tragic fate from 500 years ago—what will they find at the end of their long and treacherous journey? (Source: manga synopsis via MyAnimeList)
My Thoughts: Saiyuki's the latest in a long line of older properties attempting to make a comeback in the 2010's: it started with Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball, but now it's extended to smaller series like Saiyuki, Pretty Girl Sammy, Patlabor, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Irresponsible Captain Tylor of all things, which I'll get to later. Saiyuki was known in the mid-2000's for being an action anime series that had blatant popularity with women, due to its dashingly handsome main cast. Still, it was action-packed and had a decent story to sucker in the guys too, so it managed to win on both sides.
But Saiyuki Reload Gunlock happened well over a decade ago and the landscape of anime has unquestionably gone through major changes, so I'm curious as to if it can reach similar levels of popularity in a world where anime aimed at women are generally far more obvious in their intentions, being downright reverse harems or yaoi-focused, or if they just change with the times themselves and be shameless about their intentions. As someone who both kinda liked Saiyuki in the past and loves that some of the older "classic" anime are being brought back and revised for the audience of today, which is much larger and more diverse than it was in the early 2000's, I've kind of got to give this series a try.
What It's About: Chronos Rulers are those who fight the time-eating demons that appear when people wish they could turn back time. The Chronos Rulers fight a time-manipulation battle against these demons. (Source: Anime News Network)
My Thoughts: Impossibly stylish main cast? Check. Cool, jazzy music? Check. Jaw-dropping animation that will probably not be consistent across the entire series? Double check. Will this series have no/a weak plot? Most likely. But I'm in anyway--I need a good mindless action series where characters beat up monsters because it looks cool.
I know it sounds ridiculous but sometimes you just want a reason to veg out. More importantly, actually having a plot could easily be to the show's detriment if its tryhard and not actually good. Divine Gate ruined all the good things it had going for it with its awful, pretentious poetry and attempts to be "deep". Just punch people in the face and (maybe) have a logical reason for doing it and you can gain some notoriety for 13-24 weeks.
What It's About: Mahmut is a young Pasha serving on the general's council of Turkey. The clouds of war are gathering over his country. With Turkey's council split between the warmongers and the pacifists, Mahmut begins his quest to keep the peace at any cost. As he finds himself deeper and deeper in the politics of the ancient world, new enemies and allies surface. Who will prevail? What will Mahmut do if war proves to be inevitable? (Source: MyAnimeList)
My Thoughts: I found out about the manga for this a few years back while aimlessly surfing the endless rabbit hole that is TV Tropes. It's basically Magi with the supernatural elements taken out and the strategy cranked way up. The manga itself was well-written, and this is my pick for best series of the season and dark horse pick for what will be one of the most popular shows of the summer with everyone else. Animated by MAPPA I know the art will be gorgeous for the duration of the series, and with no announced number of cours I'm hoping it can last longer than a single season and really get ingrained into the minds of the community and get the recognition it deserves.
Premiering: July 9th
What It's About: The "spy action" series follows five girls in 19th century London, a city within the Albion Kingdom divided into east and west by a large wall. The girls serve as undercover spies enrolled as students at the prestigious Queen's Mayfair school. The girls make use of their individual abilities to remain active in the underground world of disguise, espionage, infiltration, and car chases. (Source: Anime News Network)
My Thoughts: Take one of my favorite time periods+areas and sprinkle in some spycraft and what looks like a lot of violence and action, and you've probably got me sold. It brings my "moe girl series" count up to three though, so if the actual story isn't up to par I might have to drop it. I hope not though--this looks kinda cool.
What It's About: It is long after the United Planets has declined, and the Empire has been destroyed. People have scattered all over the galaxy and lead peaceful lives on various planets. Banjou Tylor works in garbage disposal above the atmosphere of one of these planets, when he comes across a robot ship and finds a girl frozen in ice within. Suddenly, forces that are after the girl begin to activate all throughout the galaxy, as it is revealed that the girl is actually Goza the 168th, the harbinger of the galaxy's doom. Banjo and Goza set out on a journey to revive the United Planets, but nothing goes as planned. (Source: aniDB)
My Thoughts: This series is a semi-sequel to Irresponsible Captain Tylor, a comedic space opera anime from the early 90's, and yet another of those come back series. Now even though this is going to be one of those five minute short series, now we're at the point that you can start unreasonably requesting remakes/sequels to some of your lesser-known favorites. (My list is Flame of Recca, Mahou Sensei Negima, and Air Gear--what's yours?) Because while the original show was and is fairly well-received by critics...it's not really anything anyone remembered like that. I only know it because I'm an anime super-nerd that's obsessed with 90's anime series--most people who watch this probably aren't even going to know it is a sequel!
Still, while I don't necessarily think a Tylor revival was warranted, I'm supporting it because eventually I'll start getting remakes of shows I really loved...hopefully. Let's just hope the writing is on the same level of the original. ICT was about a guy who thinly walked the line between being a lazy, tactical super-genius who didn't want anyone to know and the luckiest idiot you could imagine. It was clever because just when you thought you knew he was one or the other, something would happen that would leave you undecided again. If this show can't pull that off, it won't be a worthy successor.
Premiering: July 22nd
What It's About: Makoto, Adi, and Chloe have been saved by the Avengers from the evil organization Hydra, who were tampering with their genes. Even though they have immense superpowers, they are just kids and thus start training as ‘Future Avengers’ under the real Avengers. Together with the strongest superhero team in the world, the kids start to stand up against evil, until they become true heroes themselves. (Source: MANGA.TOKYO)
My Thoughts: This is totally going to be another Marvel Disk Wars, but I'm going to give it a chance anyway because I love seeing our superheroes through the eyes of another nation, for the most part. And with the way Marvel is reaching out for crossmedia stuff lately, who knows? Maybe soon they'll get a legitimate Marvel superheroes anime on the air.
What It's About: After THE REFLECTION, some of the people in all parts of the world are discovered with super powers. Some become heroes, and others villains. How did the Reflection happen? What was the cause of it? With many unsolved mysteries, the world is lead into turmoil. (Source: Studio Deen)
My Thoughts: For one, I'd love to know just how much Stan Lee is involved in this series. He's done the narration for the promotional videos, but is he actually creating some of the story for this? Because that'd be awesome. Setting all that aside though, though this is going to look like something of a rip-off next to My Hero Academia, even though the aura of it is distinctly more Concrete Revolutio. As for me, I'm just excited to see more superheroes in anime format.
And I mean, the last time we got Stan Lee's ideas in an anime, they didn't end up too bad.
And there you have it: the eleven series I'm going to try and keep up with this season, on top of the five series that I had already running. Will I be able to keep up? Definitely not, but it'll be fun trying! I'll see you guys back here periodically with anime updates on completing Spring series, and then back in September for the Fall list. But what series are you looking forward to? Let me know in the comments.
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