Last summer, the anime Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan (pictured above) took the world by storm. However, there is much, much more to the Japanese animation industry than a bunch of teenagers saving the world from titans (we hope). Anime are based off of every source material possible, ranging from mangas to light novels to games and (in one case) an animation demo that somehow boiled over into an actual anime. This summer, like every season, there’s a heckuva ton of them coming out–over forty starting in a month, as well as all the shows that are continuing from the spring season, plus all the movies and OVAs. In fact, there’s so many that this article could go on for a page and a half and still only describe about half of them. From all of those animes though, we’ve decided to highlight several (read: many) animes that have been floating around on Tumblr or the general anime community.
Akame ga Kill! (Action, Adventure, Fantasy) – “Tatsumi is a fighter, but also a country noob who’s finally getting a glimpse of the city…but he’s just been robbed by a pretty girl. Figures. But since another pretty girl offered to take him in, the world can’t be all that bad, right? Wrong. The nice pretty girl’s soon going to be visited by a group of assassins (which includes the pretty girl that robbed him), and then after a bit of plot, they’re suddenly the good guys in a city with major governmental corruption. What to do?”
Although the premise may seem a bit strange, this one is definitely an anime that has promise. Based off of a manga, the plot so far seems pretty consistent and interesting. Although there’s been a couple animes that have slapped assassin labels on their characters and haven’t done much with it (Nisekoi, Akuma no Riddle, I’m looking at you), the plot has had a lot of character deaths, and complex political and social situations that are played quite nicely. DO NOT WATCH if you want to avoid blood, violence, and potential psychologically messed up characters.
DRAMAtical Murder (Action, Sci-fi, Psychological) – “Set in the far future, there is a popular fighting game (there’s always at least one, isn’t there) called “Rhyme”, and society has these things called “AllMates”, extremely helpful AI computers. Main character Aoba, who lives on Midorijima Island along with his grandmother, is the suave guy who doesn’t do Rhyme, and isn’t in a gang. But when people start disappearing, and rumors start flying about, he decides he needs to figure out the mysteries about the island in order to protect his everyday life. *insert slew of character intros here*”
This is actually based off of something called a visual novel, which is pretty much a choose-your-path video game, with voiceovers and such. The plot is elaborate enough, the music pretty good, and the characters have enough development that I’d say that it should be a decent anime–but then again, adapting an entire video game, multiple plots-paths and all–could be slightly problematic. Danganronpa, another anime from last summer, had to squeeze its entire visual novel into 12 short episodes, which brutally cut down the amount of character development and didn’t really show the entire potential of the source material. Fingers crossed for this one.
Fate/stay night(2014) (Action, Fantasy, Historical) – “There’s a duel-to-the-death called the Holy Grail War that’s been going on for a while. Seven teams of Magus and Spirit Servants face off in mortal combat to be the last one standing. Why bother? Because the one who survives gets access to an all-powerful wish granting machine. Our young and naive protagonist, Shiro, accidentally summons a spirit warrior named Saber, and now he’s got his inexperienced butt into this whole mess as well. Cue the back-stabbing and the assassinations already–treachery’s the name of the game, but somehow, someway, he’ll survive this thing. Right?”
Based off of a popular visual novel, there was an Fate/stay night anime adaptation that was not well-received by the fanatic fandom. Compared to the hugely successful Fate/Zero (its prequel), Fate/stay night was, to put it kindly, not. The source has three different paths already, but this remake follows a completely new route. The anime is being produced by the same studio that directed Fate/Zero, so the expectations are higher.
Free! Eternal Summer (Sports, Comedy, Slice of Life) – After the events of the original Free! anime (season one), the Iwatobi swim team (Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, Nagisa Hazuki, Rei Ryuuzaki) settle back into their normal lives while angsty Rin Matsuoka decides to put the past behind him and repair his friendship with the gang. As he decides to follow his original ambition of becoming an Olympic swimmer, there’s a new competition that threatens the Iwatobi Swim Club as they continue their swimming training.
Well, last summer, this was one anime that I was pleasantly surprised by. Although the plot of make-a-swim-team-to-beat-the-rival seemed pretty silly and pointless, the fluid animation, soothing soundtrack, and campiness of the “swimming anime” made me a fan. Although the plot was a simple one, they pulled it off very well as a slice of life. I’m excited to see how they’ll build upon the finale from last year, and (hopefully) how they’ll be able to pull off this season.
Glasslip (Slice of Life) – Protagonist Touko Fukami is seventeen years old, and wants to become a glass artisan. One summer, she meets five other teenagers, and we assume that they become great friends and have lots of internal drama and such.
There isn’t a lot of info on this anime; it’s an original production from P.A. Works, which is famous for its other slice-of-life Nagi no Asukara, featuring lots and lots of drama. What we can expect from it at the moment is lots and lots of beautiful scenery, but the plot and characters are a bit dicey at the moment.
Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus (Fantasy, Supernatural) – Set in Victorian-era Europe, a young boy named Ciel Phantomhive made a deal with the devil: his soul, for revenge on his enemies. Now the head of the Phantomhive Corporation, he deals with its various business affairs, as well as various underground work for the Queen of England. The devil, his partner, acts as his butler, taking on the name Sebastian Michaelis. And begin the many, many arcs of plot that will someday lead to the culmination of the reasons behind his parent’s murder.
There’s already been two anime series done for the Kuroshitsuji manga, also known as Black Butler. However, the first one (Kuroshitsuji) deviated from manga canon about halfway through the run, and the second (Kuroshitsuji II) was with characters only in anime canon, so the third anime will be picking up where the first one diverged from the source material. It will be adapting the Noah’s Ark Circus Arc, which is a very interesting one. It has plenty of plot, and with the steady quality of the animation from A-1 Pictures, it should be a decent anime to watch–if you’ve caught up on the plot from either the first anime or the manga.
Sailor Moon: Crystal (2014) – A remake of the iconic Sailor Moon anime.
Literally nothing to say here. It is a true remake, which means that it will be keeping the same plot from the manga and the first anime (which followed the manga canon), and the only difference will be the animation. The development of new animation technology (over 20 years’ worth) promises to keep the animation style as close to the manga style as possible, and considering the key visuals that have been released, they look a heckuva lot closer to the original style than the bold, 90’s style cartoon style–although that, along with the English dub, is iconic in its own right.
Shingeki no Kyojin – Okay, there’s technically no anime series coming out yet. But because of the huge success of the original anime series, they’re remaking the series into two movies. The first, Shingeki no Kyojin Zenpen ~Guren no Yumiya~ will be opening this winter, while the second, Shingeki no Kyojin Kōhen ~Jiyū no Tsubasa~ will be coming out next year. With new dubbing, cleaned up animation, and more angsty kids killing titans, this is obviously a money-making scheme, but we’ll enjoy it anyways.
Space☆Dandy: Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame, Space☆Dandy follows the misadventures of alien hunter Dandy and his lackadaisical crew. What the characters lack in brains or marksmanship is made up with their amazing piloting skills and sheer goofiness.
The second season will be airing throughout this summer, The series frequently breaks the fourth wall and features an omniscient but highly unreliable narrator, and along with its stylized art style and crazy plot, its definitely an interesting watch. If you enjoy bizarre, off-the-wall humor with a side of sexuality, Space☆Dandy is the anime for you.
Sword Art Online II – A continuation of the hugely popular original series, this run will feature the “Phantom Bullet” arc from the light novel series.
Rounding up the last of our selections is Sword Art Online, which was a huge hit a couple years back. With fantastic fight animation, amazing music, and a compelling plot, it started to fall a bit flat with the second half of the 25-episode series, when it started to lose its plot and tension. But the worst part of this anime was its characters. The main character, Kirito, is extremely overpowered, and while that makes for some pretty epic scenes, it doesn’t really get together with the idea of “good character development”. The main girl, Asuna, went from a feisty, strong-willed fighter to a damsel in distress, with no character development through the first arc and downright degradement in the second. Let’s not even mention the fact that every girl in the series practically throws herself at Kirito. Readers of the original source material, a light novel series, are stating that the arc that will be adapted is significantly better than the second half of the first anime.
Technically, there’s so many parts to an anime that there’s no way to say confidently that one will be good or better than another. A lot depends on individual preference, and then the music, animation, voice actors/acting, plot, pacing, and characterization can really make or break an anime. And with over 40 series (plus the continuation of several more) means that there’s a lot more variety than the nine or so animes that we’ve gone over in this one.
by Claire Kim and Caroline Wang
