Behold! A title as small as this season's line-up!
Reminder: Any and all statements made in this post are solely representative of my current mindset. All thoughts and criticisms given are likely to change as I have more time to consider the final product. In other words, this is little more than my raw personal opinion at the season's end. Why anyone would want that opinion is beyond me but, regardless of whether I get it or not, this is my summary of the Summer 2019 season of anime.
Opening Statement: While I was fully aware that I wasn't really watching a whole lot this season, it's still a bit of a shock to see how small this Season Summary really is. It puts into perspective just how much COVID affected the anime industry and the workflow that had dozens of studios pumping out an anime every season. Now, sure, I probably could have spent that time picking up some of the shows I decided to drop last season like Soma or just worked on catching up on my backlog more than my current pace of not at all. But with my miraculously getting a full-time job in wake of this mess and my general desire to destress after each day with my MMO of choice--Final Fantasy XIV--I've suddenly found it a lot harder to keep up with all the shows I want to. Heck, there's a whole new season of Aggretsuko and that show TRIGGER put out last season, BNA, that I need to get around to watching on Netflix but just haven't yet. On a positive note, though, I can at least say that I loved pretty much everything I watched this season. Even the "tolerable" series worked to scratch some itches or offer that catharsis we all need a little more of these days. What's more, it's looking like next season is going to be a return-to-form for the industry. We'll see how many shows I can find the time for as I try to figure out how to manage my new work/life balance but, on the whole, I'm feeling pretty confident about this next season and the industry as a whole in this crazy new normal.
The Good:
It's not spoliers if there's no context.
So, as always, let's start this list off right with the seasons' strongest and overall best shows, and what better place to start than the fan-favorite, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 2. While I'll admit that I have some mixed feelings about Re:ZERO, as a whole, I won't deny that this second season got me really excited for whatever comes next. As typical as this stance might sound for the second season of a popular series, I found it particularly impressive considering my generally negative feelings toward the show and visceral displeasure with the season's first episode. Yet, while Re:ZERO might function as the "suffering porn" as I've heard so many people call it, its approach to character development, introspection, and worldbuilding are wholly unlike anything else this industry has offered in recent years. While, yes, it might be easy to shun Subaru for his incel attitude and, yes, the season does Rem dirty from the word "go," it always managed to reel me in with its simple but effective approach to pacing. What all this back-and-forth means, in the end, is that I was very pleased with this new season and recommend it to those who aren't yet caught up.
Protect the goodest girl, no matter the cost!
Possessing a lot of the charm, action, and themes of a TRIGGER anime paired with a setting and premise strongly reminiscent of Attack on Titan and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, it's no surprise that the original anime Deca-Dence managed to take the season by storm. Driven to near-extinction by the viscous Gadoll, the last remnants of humanity have taken shelter in the mobile fortress Deca-Dence and fight for the day that they might be free to reclaim their planet. Determined to become a soldier like her father, Natsume stubbornly pushes her ex-soldier boss, Kaburagi, to teach her how to fight the Gadoll. Luckily for her, there's a lot more to her dour mentor than meets the eye. For starters, he's one of the few Tankers to know the true purpose of their massive fortress home. In other words, all you're going to get from me is the base premise because this is one of the few shows I'm going to say people need to watch. Though, since I suppose I have to offer some concession for those wanting my feelings on the show, I'll simply say that I feel like it was anime's answer to Ready Player One and I love that.
Add "gun slap fights" to the list of amazingly stupid concepts.
As if one great original anime wasn't enough, the return of Appare-Ranman! from its Covid hiatus meant that I got to enjoy some high-octane action alongside a racing anime that was equal parts awesome and silly. Having already described the series as a very anime take on Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races, I found myself a bit disappointed but also glad that the series ended up developing into something far more character-driven than that initial reaction implied. Over the course of the Trans-America Race, we get to meet all the racers and are given ample reason to like them beyond their initial visual gimmicks. Their backstories might not be the most creative thing about the show but it was enough to put me in a headspace where I'd be happy to see any of them win the race when all was said and done.
The Bad:
"Guess I'll die."
Honestly, The Misfit of Demon King Academy was an absolute treasure to watch. With so many legitimately good shows coming out each season, I'm rarely able to find the time or patience these days for something I know will be absolute garbage. Thanks to some friends who share my love of riffing terrible shows, though, I actually managed to watch this trash fire from start to finish and, ho boy, it's something special. I don't think I've ever seen a power fantasy series quite this extra. From killing a dude with his heartbeat to putting me in a place where I had to legitimately wonder if the two female leads crushing on Anos qualified as incest or selfcest, Misfit proved to be an entirely different level of terrible than what I usually suffer through. And that doesn't even begin to cover the show's sloppy animation and background art that, I shit you not, sparked a 30-minute argument between two of my friends as they tried to make sense of the poor framing and lighting in a single scene. As amazingly extra as it is, though, Misfit also pushed quite of few of my buttons and would have been utterly intolerable if no one was there to share in my suffering.
The Tolerable:
An admirable goal, to be sure.
Fond as I am of the moe club genre, the fact of the matter is that 98% of the shows that come out are only going to be tolerable at best and Houkago Teibou Nisshi was not the exception to that rule. The gags were fairly repetitive. The characters were typically one-note cutouts of the tropes we all know by now. The only real appeal this show has is its fishing gimmick that is clearly meant to draw the same appeal as Yuru▲Camp. Yet, as true as all those statements are, I was personally glad to see the show overcome the initial gripes I had before it went on hiatus. Rather than being continuously hazed into the world of fishing, the series instead focuses on Hina growing into the pastime. While, yes, she needed to be roped into it at the start, the challenge of catching new and different kinds of fish leads her to fall for fishing hook, line, and sinker.
It's really too bad that only the fight scenes are this show's only point of quality.
Now that the initial hype has died down and it's safe to actually talk about God of Highschool, I'm just going to admit that I felt that it was just a return-to-form for your basic Chinese-made anime. Put plainly, its story was an absolute mess and I had no reason to care about the cast. While Mori, Mira, and Daewi were certainly charming at the start, I wasn't nearly invested enough to care when Mira tries to marry herself off in the show's 4TH EPISODE. Get this forced, melodramatic, soap opera bullshit out of my fight anime. And it's that specific reaction that killed my engagement from that point on. Visually, God of Highschool is fantastic and its fight choreography is some of the best I've ever seen and was an absolute joy to watch. Without a real story to back up those scenes, though, I just couldn't be bothered to really care beyond waiting for the next big fight. From what I've heard, though, those problems lie purely on the shoulders of this rushed adaptation rather than the source material.
The Ongoing:
Criticism of modern surveillance much?
Honestly, there isn't much I can say about Digimon Adventure (2020) that wouldn't be a repeat of my thoughts from last season. The series has, more or less, panned out like I said it would. This adaptation's focus on character drama and worldbuilding shows that it wants to craft a bigger and better story than the story they made two decades ago. The only real bit of news to offer is that I'm honestly impressed with the show's sound design. From the use of kaiju noises to express just how big and dangerous their current foe is to the sheer hype factor of its two, main insert songs "Be the Winners" and "X-treme Fight," it's clear that this production team knows exactly what they're doing. So, on top of just enjoying this new adaptation, I'll be curious to see what else I pick up and latch onto as the series goes on.
Christ, this show is gorgeous.
Despite it having something of an over-hyped false start for me, I can't deny that I am eagerly awaiting the last arc of The Great Pretender to hit American Netflix with the English Dub. From its stylistic vaporwave-esque background art to its fantastic cast of female characters, The Great Pretender has had me hooked for it's last and presumably greatest heist art yet. Similar in many ways to Black Lagoon, the series' approach to dramatic character revelations and development lends a lot of depth to its fast-paced heist arcs. The reason I specifically love the show's female characters, however, is the simple fact that neither Edamura nor Laurent have gotten the same attention to detail and focus as their female counterparts, Abby and Cynthia. At the start, we got a solid look into Edamura's past and the events that led him to conartistry but the why of it all has still been left mostly open. In the meantime, Edamura has mainly been forced into the same role as Lagoon's Rock as the nice, wishy-washy member of the team who only exists to push the rest of the cast into their moments of development. Presumably, this quiet detail, among many others, will be answered in the last arc that promises dig deeper into the history and motivations of the show's reigning king of confidence, Laurent. And, since Laurent claimed that he knew the truth behind our dear Edamame from the beginning, we can assume that that little secret will come out as well when all is said and done.
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