You know, I'd thought to make the joke that this is a rare picture of me in the wild but then I realized
that this dude has nothing on my sweet quarantine beard and mustache combo.
Reminder: Any and all statements made in this post are solely representative of my current mindset. All thoughts, criticisms, and scores given are likely to change as I have more time to consider my thoughts, feelings, and context of 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:
When I said I might be taking a bit of an extended break to mentally recover from all the nonsense I had to deal with in the wake of the Facebook ban, I never expected I'd find myself unable or outright unwilling to write anything for a whole season. Luckily, my lack of writing doesn't mean I've lost my desire to gorge myself on anime. I might be growing pickier with age and find myself infinitely more willing to drop series than I was a few years but I still love this medium more than anything else. So, since I have so many opinions on the shows I watch, I might as well put those thoughts to work once again. And, on that note, what better place to start than a summary of the season I spent resting my hands and brain? As before, we'll start off with my thoughts on the "good" shows of the season and work my way down to the "downright terrible" and the (dis)honorable mentions that I either dropped or didn't bother to watch for any number of reasons.
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The Good:
Starting off as strong as we possibly can, let's get this rundown going with what was, hands-down, my favorite show of the season: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!). Fueled by its ability to showcase both the cast and the staff's passion for creativity and animation, Eizouken is one of those series that I found to be absolutely infectious. As the dorky Asakusa, the determined Mizusaki, and the shrewd Kanamori all worked toward their goal of making anime and let their imaginations run wild, it was hard not to find myself just as enraptured in their fantasies as they were. Even though the series general art style is blocky and simplistic, the flow of the animation, the use of color, and the steady increase in quality as the characters' dreams became their reality made this series an absolute joy to watch. All too easily, this show could be chalked up as another CGDCT (cute girls doing cute things) series but the quality of these characters and their disparate but united passion for making anime make their low-stakes journey one that had me grinning from ear to ear the whole way through. If you are a longtime fan of the anime world, you'll find a lot to love about this love letter to the industry and the myriad talents and obsessions that make it possible. If you don't fall into that camp, though, this is one of those series you just have to watch if you enjoy watching passionate people explain and show off the things they love.
More or less following that same concept of gaining enjoyment from watching passionate people succeed at the one thing they love more than life itself, Smile Down the Runway (Runway de Waratte) takes that energy and applies both it and the generic shounen formula of the underdog beating impossible odds to the world of fashion. In many ways, the general flow and execution of Runway mirrors that of Eizouken but takes those same ideas and cranks the drama and stakes up several notches. While, yes, the characters of Eizouken do meet some resistance from the authority figures in their lives and deal with familial strife, their troubles are molehills in comparison to the mountains Runway's characters overcome. Chiyuki, the series main female lead, makes for an infinitely more compelling character as we see her go through the roller coaster of stubborn determination and self-doubt as she tries to make a name for herself as a professional model despite being several inches shorter than the industry standard. Ikuto by comparison, though, is the star of this drama as he is forced to sacrifice so much more than Chuyuki just to pursue his dream of being a fashion designer. Unlike the relatively well-off Chiyuki, Ikuto's journey is constantly threatened by financial struggles and his own good nature as he's forced to weigh his dreams against the possibility of making sure his younger sisters will have the chance to go to college and pursue their own dreams. And, if that wasn't bad enough, he's forced to deal with all this while his mother is stuck in the hospital with an illness she might never recover from. Yet despite all their trials and tribulations, the series does a fantastic job of showcasing how this pair of characters and so many others can work together to make their disparate but intrinsically dreams come true.
Tackling yet another underrepresented industry in the anime world The Case Files of Jeweler Richard (Housekishou Richard-shi no Nazo Kantei) servers as something of a dramatic primer to the world of gem appraisal with some almost Sherlockian undertones. Focused on the perspective of a college student and sardonically styled "hero of justice," Nakata Seigi, we are introduced to the world and intrigue that goes hand-in-hand with gemstones and the hidden meanings that can be derived from their color and history. Over the course of each episode, both Seigi and his foreign employer, the beautiful and enigmatic Richard Ranashinha de Vulpian, work to help their clients through their personal struggles using the language of jewelry. From the familial struggles born from the ring Seigi's late grandmother simultaneously loved and hated to the history that Richard would rather keep secret from his new employee and friend, the series offers a lot of character-driven drama for both the cast and audience to unravel but never falls wholly into the melodramatic. Rather than playing up the drama for shock value, the cast actually manage to get through their problems with a degree of maturity and levelheadedness that only serves to make them and the larger story they share that much more endearing.
Much like the short OVA series that followed the main series, Heya Camp△ (Room Camp) basically exists as a means to tiding the comfy-loving fanbase over until we get a proper second season. Throughout this short-form series, the girls of the Outdoor Activities Club engage in a fun little tour of the Yamanashi area to show Nadeshiko some of the region's most notable landmarks--a concept I'm sure the actual city's tourism department really appreciated. All-in-all though, this series is just some more Laid-back goodness that I will always appreciate but would have appreciated more if we'd gotten some more time with the series other star, Rin.
Ok, let's be totally serious for a second. Do I really need to cover my thoughts on My Hero Academia Season 4 (Boku no Hero Academia 4)? I mean, it's not like everyone doesn't already know that this was far and away one of the best seasons this series has had to date, covering both the Overhaul Arc and the School Festival Arc. While, yes, it wasn't quite as impactful to the larger story as the Kamino Raid, this season offered some prime moments of letting the students of UA come into their own a little more and felt that much for personal for it. What's more, we got a fantastic balance of watching this group of kids just be kids and some of that high-octane action we've come to expect. If there's really any personal statements I have on the season, it'd simply be that I loved how the series adapted the story of Gentle Criminal and actually managed to make his quirk not look absolutely stupid.
Alight, now we move on to what I consider the worst best series of the season and the best worst series of all time: Interspecies Reviewers (Ishuzoku Reviewers). In case you lived under a rock for the past season and managed to miss the series of news pieces that basically listed how many streaming and TV services dropped this series before it ended, Interspecies Reviewers is the anime industry's newest and best attempt at breaking down the boundary between anime and hentai. Set in your basic Dragon Quest-like fantasy world, the story follows the human hero Strunk, the shameless elf Zel, and the temporarily fallen angel Crim as they try out every species-specific and gimmick brothel this world has to offer. Bizarre and offensive as that premise might sound, though, the series actually manages to be a laugh riot as it offers both the crude, sexy humor you'd expect and some legitimately thoughtful parodies on the behaviors of all the fantasy races we've come to know and developed fetishes for over the past couple decades.
The Tolerable:
Easily the lesser of the three shows this season that can be described as "Passionate People Doing the Things They Love," Asteroid in Love (Koisuru Asteroid) suffers from sticking a bit too close to the basic formula of your average CGDCT club series. While the shared dream of the show's focal characters, Mira and Ao, to find and name an asteroid gives the show a bit of intrigue, the simple fact of the matter is that nothing really comes of it. Like so many other CGDCT shows, the series sets things up with a fairly engaging gimmick and maybe some hints at a romance in the future, as the name even suggests in this case, only to get mired in your basic high school club antics. From barbecue trips to school festival preparations, this series ticks every box. Yet, bog-standard as the show might be, I'll admit that it did still blindside me with some fairly interesting developments. Rather than simply going through the school year and having the characters panic in the end to make their ambitious dream a reality, the series instead lets a whole year go by and show the girls coming to terms with the fact that life keeps happening after high school. This realization, in turn, helps them see that their dream is something they'll have to work toward and maybe change as they grow older--an unusually stark and realistic message for a CGDCT series.
I'll be honest; there's not a whole lot I can really say about Isekai Quartet 2 other than it's just more of the self-indulgent mash-up of the 4 kings of the isekai genre. Sure, the addition of Shield Hero's main cast and the brief nod at the fact that the main duo of Overcautious Hero (Shinchou Yuusha) are also trapped in this school-like world too spiced things up a little bit but didn't really add much. With the new duo showing up as a teaser at the very end and the cast of Shield Hero being used about as frequently as the member of the B cast from each series that are relegated to Class 2, it's safe to say that nothing about the weird formula the first season established has changed. The staff and writers are still, clearly, having a riot of a time imagining how all these characters might interact and making their own fantasies a reality--look no further than the scene of Rem kissing Ram while wearing Subaru's trackshirt to prove that point.
Maybe it's just my wishful thinking, but part of me feels like I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. (Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu.), otherwise known as Bofuri, is what SAO Alternative: GGO could have been if it wasn't connected to the world of SAO. Rather than going for the angsty teen drama like so many other MMO anime or the romantic angle we got with Recovery of an MMO Junkie (Net-juu no Susume), Bofuri goes for pure comedy as we watch the concept of the MMO power fantasy driven into the ground. Due to being both the main character of the series and because the MMO she picks up is a horribly designed mess, the series follows the journey of Maple, a total newbie to MMOs, as she quite literally stumbles into power-up after power-up that turn her into a god-like being capable of going toe-to-toe with the game's pro players. As humorous as Maple's stupid rise to power is, though, the show's main appeal comes from its wholesome moe goodness paired with the sheer insanity that is Maple's problem-solving abilities. For example, in a fully-immersive where literally anything is possible, why not weaponize the developers' inability to consider the possibility that players might get frustrated just try to eat the things that are trying to kill them? It's that kind of nonsense logic that fuels this series ability to grab and hold the attention of its audience. With that said, it should also be stated that your ability to stay interested in the show is going to hinge on how long you can tolerate the one joke the series has to offer.
While this series might satisfy a particular genre niche for me personally, there's no real way to get around the fact that Somali and the Forest Spirit (Somali to Mori no Kamisama) is an incredibly mediocre series. Following the Kino's Journey-like adventure of a golem nearing the end of its lifespan and a human child through a world in which humans are hunted down and eaten as a delicacy by the world's more monstrous residents, it's easy to see from the start that this is going to be one of those series that will do it's best to drag some tears out of you. What we actually end up with, though, is a series that hinges on humanity being unbelievably thoughtless in its racist persecution of the monstrous races and the only logical response to that hatred being, "Well, guess we're going to have to eat people now." In other words, this is a series that begs you not to think too much about how insanely thoughtless it's worldbuilding is while simultaneously shoving it down our throats. If you do possess the ability to turn off any critical thinking, though, there's also no getting around how innately charming this world is. From it's cute and creative character designs to the sheer array of colors and fauna on display, the series looks like a children's fairy tale in action. So, if nothing else, it can be said that this is a fantastic show to just sit back and watch happen.
Also suffering from a fantastic and creative aesthetic and a less imaginative plot, Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun) takes the classic concept of the 7 supernatural Wonders that tend to crop up in any school and turns it into a series that doesn't really seem to know what it wants from its cast or where it wants to take them. Following the misadventures of the love-obsessed but also loveless Yahiro Nene and the leader of the 7 Wonders, a puckish spirit that calls himself Hanako (named after the classic legend of the wish-granting ghost that inhabits any women's restroom), the series is mainly taken up by Hanako trying to tame the other Wonders after a mysterious force makes them go rogue and Nene trying to solve the mystery that is her ghostly companion. Whether it's the intense but brief action sequences, the half-baked "will they-won't they" romance, or the overall mystery of who Hanako is, the main problem with this series is that it does everything in half-measures and tries to keep things engaging with coy, noncommittal hints at the larger plot. Still, as frustrating as the show might be with its attempts at being enigmatic, I can't deny that it's character designs and overall aesthetic are drop-dead gorgeous and do wonders with the manga panel-esque transitions the series employs to express brief gags or highlight subtle character motions. In other words, for all its faults, I can't deny that this series is artistically one of the most novel series I've ever seen.
The Downright Terrible:
Speaking of artistic successes and storytelling failures, ID: INVADED is a series that made the genius decision of front-lining all of its creative potential and animation budget in the first episode, leaving nothing for the rest of the series that can only be described as a combination of Inception and Law & Order that operates with the same brand of fast and loose law enforcement seen in Psycho-Pass. Considering how the show is predicated on the existence of a nonsense technology that can allow police to solve serial killer cases by jacking cooperative serial killers into the subconscious of those that are still at large, I feel it's fair to say and easy to tell that this is going to be a convoluted, nonsensical, contrived mess of a series. To be fair, though, even though this original series is a conceptual train wreck that only gets worse with time, I can't deny the fact that it was somewhat entertaining to watch. Watching the cast try to interpret the mental hellscapes of serial killers rendered through a functionally magical technology into something rational somehow manages to be equal parts intriguing and laughable. As you might expect, though, ID does eventually go off the rails as the main protagonists, who somehow are and aren't serial killers, square off in "You activated my trap card"-brand action sequences with the main villain who, by this point, has committed suicide in real life and set his plan on becoming the unsung hero of mind-jacking crime-solving at the cost of unraveling the very fabric of reality into action. This is, in other words, a Grade-A garbage fire that I both loved and hated from start to finish.
While admittedly not a dumpster fire in the same sense as ID, In/Spectre (Kyokou Suiri) is no less of a failure of a story simply because it cannot seem to reconcile any of its individually compelling parts into any kind of unified whole that isn't an absolute mess. On the one hand, you have the series initial couple of episodes that are, in their own right, a perfect encapsulation of what this show should have been. We're greeted with the amusingly dysfunctional relationship between Iwanaga Kotoko and Sakuragawa Kurou that is showcased through some quality relationship banter that would give Bunny-Senpai a run for its money. While teasing each other back and forth Iwanaga unveils the monstrous nature of Sakuragawa and, in doing so, ropes him into helping her track down and deal with a rogue youkai. This simple enough premise allowed the series start to lean on previously existing works like The Mystic Archives of Dantalian (Dantalion no Shoka) or GOSICK while also capitalizing on the chemistry between its clearly more mature and well-thought-out characters. Just as soon as that arc ends, however, the series gets a bit too big for its britches and, instead of turning on simple but effective action, hones in on the stupidly contrived nature of Iwanaga's detective capabilities to turn the series into a who-done-it conspiracy that goes nowhere and just doesn't feel good. Namely, with the story of the water god being curious over the case of a body being dumped in their lake, the series dedicates several episodes to Iwanaga explaining what might have been the killer's motivation and ending without anything remotely approaching an actual explanation. This pointless arc is then followed by the main story of the series that basically turns what should have been a compelling action/mystery with a murderous ghost of unknown origin into a battle with the public subconscious to just make it go away. All of this is, of course, made worse by the vile back-and-forth of verbal abuse and manipulation that Iwanaga and Sakuragawa devolves into the minute his ex and "ideal woman" cousin are thrown into the equation. So, rather than being an amusing dumpster fire like ID, In/Spectre resolves into being a disappointing one.
The (dis)Honorable Mentions:
Does anyone here remember King's Game? Machiavellian death game that hinged on a mobile phone? No? Well, in Darwin's Game the ever-popular and ever-not-my-jam death game genre meets some mobile game nonsense, superpowers, and a main pair that gave me flashbacks to Big Order. While I'll just come out and say that I didn't watch this series because it's just not even remotely in my wheelhouse, I'll admit that the first episode offered a solid glimpse at some quality action and some tense drama that could easily expand into an enjoyable show. Based on what I've heard from others, though, this show isn't good so much as it is a stupid, silly, cathartic romp that fans of shows like Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) will love.
Now, I won't deny that I did play and have watched some of Nekopara. What I'll also admit, though, is that I needed to stop after a point because it's never a good time when you keep reminding unconsciously reminding yourself that this is a franchise predicated on a young girl adopting a ton of catgirls that her brother can legally have sex with, unlike her. This was, unfortunately, a fact that kept popping up in my mind throughout this series because the anime also goes for its own creepy angle as the main catgirl love interest of the series, Chocola, decides to adopt and become the surrogate mother of a young stray catgirl who is accepted into the fold without much fuss. Also, I won't lie, the anime just kinda bored me to tears after a few episodes. I at least hope that legitimate Nekopara got more out of this series than that godawful OVA from a year or two ago.
Originally created as Sony's attempt at tapping into the Sanrio market of cure animal mascots, Uchitama?! Have you seen my Tama? (Uchitama?! Uchi no Tama Shirimasenka?) is a series I sardonically started watching with the hope that it'd be better than the Nekopara anime. Unfortunately, it was not if for no reason other than it ran way too long and should have just been a series of shorts rather than an actual series. The personification of Sony's cat and dog characters are fun and charming and, if nothing else, did their job of making me aware of their merchandise. Yet, the longer the series ran on, the more and more I found the cast to be a bunch of one-note gags that got dull fast. Were this a season that wasn't already chock-full of quality shows, I might have watched it to the end but since this was a season that gave me some really strong contenders for "Best of the Year" right off the bat that just wasn't going to happen.
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