Summer 2016 Anime: Thoughts So Far

I reckon it’s about halfway through the summer season of anime for this year, so I’ll be sharing my thoughts on what I’ve been watching – and I’ve picked up at least one more show since my ‘First Impressions’ post, whilst being forced to stop watching another one, for a little while at least…
I did, at one point, have at least one full episode of anime to watch for each day of the week, but Crunchyroll’s schedule changed around and another show just stopped airing because the people in charge weren’t satisfied with it or something to that effect.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at how this season has been shaping up.

Love Live! Sunshine!!
I’m perfectly fine with Aquors being inspired by μ’s, and I don’t even mind similarities between certain characters. However, I’m not too keen on the plot that this one has chosen to go with. The reason for this is that Love Live! Sunshine!! has plenty of stuff that allows it to stand out on its own – or at least, that’s what I feel, anyway.
It was always going to get compared to its predecessor, and taking that particularly route with the plot really doesn’t help it step out of the shadow of μ’s.
Still, watching the girls strive to become school idols has been fairly enjoyable, with some of the more unique characters (Yohane, anyone?) helping to make Love Live! Sunshine!!… well, shine.

NEW GAME!
This series has been quite an enjoyable mix of workplace comedy and cute girls doing cute things. I’ve particularly enjoyed seeing Aoba work hard on her character models, as she works under a boss who pushes her to give her best. Said boss, Ko, is also a pretty great character, and I’ve been enjoying her interactions with Rin – it seems rather evident that Ko and Rin are an item.
The other characters have their charms, too – I’m particularly fond of quiet girl Hifumi, who in turn seems to be rather fond of Aoba as seen in the image above.
There’s never really any drama in this series, for better or worse. It is slice-of-life, but it might be interesting to see how the characters react in a tough situation – we’ve had a passing mention that it’s common for projects to get cancelled, but I feel as if that particular avenue will go unexplored in this series. Still, very enjoyable for what it is.

Show By Rock!! Short!!
So they did stick with the chat show format, which seems to be every other episode. Shingan Crimsonz’s table tennis episode was arguably the best so far, though I also liked the stuff featuring A and Un. Ultimately, though, these shorts are just teasers for Show By Rock!!‘s second season.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei!!
This is definitely much better than the previous two seasons – we’ve actually got a plot going on, and there’s been some pretty great action scenes. I imagine there’s plenty of more battles to come, which are always a joy to watch. It’s definitely going to be good seeing Illya and/or her allies find some way to counter Darius Ainsworth’s abilities – with Tanaka presumably being the key.
It’s also been great seeing Illya Install other Class Cards, though I suspect Saber is going to most screen time when it comes to battles. It also manages to retain the yuri stuff from previous seasons, thanks to Kuro’s method of restoring her energy. Though saying that, Tanaka has also had an intimate moment with Illya, too.

Mahou Shoujo? Naria Girls
Pretty lacklustre. I don’t mind CGI, but when the characters constantly clip into their clothing and each other, and the lip flaps don’t match, it’s not very good. This problem is also compounded by the skits the characters perform – I haven’t found any of them funny. They just feel unfocused, particularly with the characters just talking over each other.
You know it’s a problem when the best part of your anime is the still-shots…

Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars
So someone somewhere was dissatisfied with this, or something along those lines. Due to this, only four episodes have aired, and we have to wait until September for the rest. The thing is, I didn’t really see anything wrong with it – it was perfectly fine, and I like the relationships between the characters and the giant robot battles.
It’s less than ideal that the broadcast was delayed, but if it makes it better in the long run, then I’ll just put up with it.

Amanchu!
So far this has mostly been about Teko preparing to dive together with Pikari – pretty slow-paced stuff, but for me it hasn’t quite hit the same relaxed tone as last season’s Flying Witch. Regardless, I’ve been enjoying this, and I think that moment in episode 6 where Pikari was embarrassed by Teko’s words was adorable. Watching Teko’s growth has been pretty great, and there’s a lot of detailed stuff in there when it comes to diving. I look forward to seeing some actual deep-sea diving, but Teko has some work to do before she gets there.

Thunderbolt Fantasy
Not strictly anime, but hey, I might as well include it here. This has been a fun adventure so far, and I really like all the different personalities gathered together. Fight scenes are great, though there are still some moments of not the greatest CGI. It’s not too hard to look past that, though, and just enjoy Thunderbolt Fantasy for what it is.

Time Travel Girl
I wasn’t too sure on this one at first, but I stuck with it and it’s actually turned out to be not too bad. I do prefer the time travel stuff to the school stuff, but fortunately the focus is on the former. As for characters, I prefer Mari to Waka, but Mari’s dad might just be the most interesting – even if we haven’t really seen too much of him so far.
I won’t deny that this show does manage to be educational, too – we get to see famous experiments being performed, and there’s also the ‘Mari and Waka’s Quick Science’ segment at the end of every episode.

Qualidea Code
The past couple of episodes of this series have definitely been raising flags, and I’m somewhat concerned about the fates of Maihime and Hotaru (favourite characters) – this would normally be a non-issue, but something occurred earlier on that was pretty out of the blue. Still, this show has been fairly enjoyable.

Ange Vierge
This show set up a conflict between Exceeds (not the ones from Fairy Tail) and Ouroboros, and does nothing with it. Instead, the focus is on battles between good Exceeds and those who have been turned to the dark side, as it were. I don’t mind this, as it does allow for the development of the main characters.
This approach has resulted in Ange Vierge being somewhat formulaic – one of five worlds is in danger, we learn about one of the good characters’ first meeting with Amane, and then good character fights bad character from said world.
Whether this will keep up for all of the worlds or not, I don’t know.
Action sequences are quite good, and I still think it’s pretty great that Saya wields a lightsaber. I also like Elel’s power – she is able to use the abilities of her friends.

Mob Psycho 100
I’ve found this to be fairly interesting. It’s pretty much Mob’s everyday life, though with events that cause a build-up to an explosion. At the time of writing, Mob has ‘exploded’ twice, and it’s been incredibly spectacular both times.
Mob’s brother has also stepped into the spotlight as of episode 6, and I look forward to seeing what happens to both brothers as they deal with various circumstances.

Now for stuff that started in previous seasons.

Ace Attorney
For the best Ace Attorney experience, play the games. This adaptation’s all right, but it’s all too willing to reveal the true culprits at the beginning of each case, whereas in the games you have to piece that stuff together by yourself – the latter is a far more rewarding experience.

Dragon Ball Super
Continuing Future Trunks’ story, we’ve had some hints dropped as to the identity of Black. It’ll also be interesting to see whether Goku or Vegeta gets to battle him, or if Future Trunks will become strong enough to have that honour himself – I would love to see the latter be the case, but considering how Dragon Ball Super has practically been all about Goku and Vegeta, I have my doubts. Also, it’s hilarious seeing Beerus bowing down to the King of Everything.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
I believe the main antagonist for this part has been introduced, and he’s definitely a strange one. Some episodes have more bearing on the plot than others – the one with the ghost girl was important, but the one with the restaurant not so much for example. It is a chance to see a variety of Stand powers, I guess. Being set pretty much exclusively in Morioh means this isn’t really an adventure, but there’s definitely a JoJo (about 3 of them, more accurately), and some bizarre stuff does happen.

Maho Girls PreCure!
I’m back to waiting for fansubs for this again – we had almost caught up, and then the new Pretty Cure All Stars film came out. I’m fairly certain the next episode I’ll be watching will be a certain character’s final one, thus allowing the plot to move on and hopefully meaning that Cure Miracle and Cure Magical will gain enough power so they can move beyond putting up token resistance against their enemies. For the moment, Cure Felice has been stealing the spotlight. It’ll be nice to see all three Cures fight alongside each other on equal terms. We also have more to learn about that new foe that appeared.

One Piece
After catching up with the Blackbeard Pirates, the Revolutionary Army and introducing Whitebeard’s ‘son’, the Zou arc has started. At the moment Luffy and his companions haven’t even managed to climb up the elephant’s leg. Some interesting stuff happens on Zou, including the One Piece being mentioned once again – but I’m more interested in the stuff that happens with Sanji after that. Let’s just hope things are more condensed than they were during Dressrosa…

Well, that’s just my thoughts on what I’ve been watching this season. For the most part, it has been really enjoyable. I would have to say my top three shows are currently New Game!, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei!!, and Love Live! Sunshine!!. Of course, that could change, since I am enjoying Amanchu! a lot as well.
Guess we’ll just have to wait until the end of the season and my Summer 2016 Anime Awards to see what really stood out for me, huh?

Anyways, that’s it for my thoughts, but feel free to share your own about this season.