My Anime Summerseason watch list

posted in: Anime Seasons, Featured | 22

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A new season has started, a few more weeks ago, I wanted to publish this post a lot earlier, but it turned out longer than expected. I always need some time to mentally digest the shows I’ve followed in the old season before I start with the new stuff. I’ve taken a look at quite a few shows, but not everything I’ve started turned out as expected and I dropped some shows. Anyway not everything is bad in this Summer season, here are the shows I’ve enjoyed so far, Blood C, Ikoku Meiro no Croisée, Nekogami Yaoyorozu, Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!!, The iDOLM@STER, Mawaru Penguindrum, Usagi Drop, Rou Kyuu Bu!, Mayo Chiki! My impressions are based on the 4-5 episode aired episodes of each show I’ve seen so far.

dont forget the vote at the end of this post 😉

Blood C

This 12 episode long show was made by studio Clamp and Production I.G, the story centers around Saya, a beautiful tall grown girl with braided black hair and glasses, it seems like I created the characterdesign haha anyway, she’s really pretty. She is a happy and kind girl, who is acting slightly worldly innocent in a few situations. Saya can be quite clumsy and is easily distracted by her surrounding. Together with her father she lives at the Ukishima Shrine in a very rural village.

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She lives her daily live as a teenager, but at night she has to take over the task of her passed away mother, she slays terrible and ugly monsters, who eat the people of the rural village since ancient times. The only weapon against them is a sacred katana which only Saya can use.
She manges to kill the monsters, but she never stays unharmed, which is quite painful to watch, poor Saya :(. The fact that Saya is a young girl and no tough superhero, can be seen after the fights. Aside from her wounds, she always appears emotional disturbed and her body is shivering.
The fights are full of action and look epic, even though its very bloody and hard, in general I try to to avoid such scary shows, but somehow I like that part of Blood C. Albeit the show isn’t scary all the time, there are also calm and funny moments, at least before sunset *Buuuh*.

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Blood C features an appealing animation art and one of the nicest looking school uniform designs I’ve seen so far. One of the strange things of this show is that Saya always fights in her school uniform and damages them regularly, I learned that these uniforms are expensive in japan, why doesn’t she use a battle suit. It’s also strange that Saya doesn’t own a bike, when she always arrives late at school and has to walk a lot around the village to search for scary monsters.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée

My first reaction after a few seconds of watching was “No! not again an old boring europe setting I don’t want this anymore”. Btw have you enjoyed the story of Gosick, aside from the cute Victorica? I didn’t liked most of the second half, too dark and too fragmented storytelling 🙁 .

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Back to Croisée, before I completely lost my interest I heard the light steps from a cute little angel called Yune dressed in a vivid kimono, she looked so enchanting, I said to myself in case I also like her voice Im completely done for haha. Yune is a 13 year old girl who comes from japan and for what reason ever Yune is accompanying an old bearded man called Oscar who took her along to Paris. Both start to live at the house of Oscars nephew Claude who owns a small iron workshop in the shopping district. At first Claude isn’t very amused about the new guest and the idea of his uncle to let Yune live with them. After a few obstacles which appear caused by cultural differences, Claude gets used to Yune and Yune gets slowly used to Claude and the new environment.
To spice things up there is a spoiled and rich girl called Alice whose family owns the shopping district. She is interested in japanese things and a quite spoiled brat, but means no harm.

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Ikoku Meiro no Croisée is a slice of life anime without detectives or stuff like that, it somehow has a cozy atmosphere like Aria the animation, the whole shopping district where this story takes place appears very lively, together with the music and the architecture, this show manages to create the charm of an old european city. The daily life of the three is quite enjoyable and also the lighthearted comedy is nice. I can somehow identify myself with Claude and his attitude.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu

This show was made my studio AIC+ and centers around the cat godess Mayu who was banned from the realm of gods after playing several dumb tricks, now she she lives on earth at the house of Koyama Yuzu, who is running an antique shop. In the neighbood live more earthbound gods. In the anime we follow the mainly funny and happy daily life adventures of Mayu and her friends.

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This shows feels a little bit inspired by Touhou, well I don’t know enough about Touhou to cover my comparision, but the characterdesign shows some similarities and gives off a certain feel.
This anime is good to start your day, the lighthearted slice of life mixed with comedy plot is easy to digest and the opening song is really nice and catching, when you watch this show at night you’ll probably fall asleep XD. Necogami is no great show, but the likeable characters with their interesting characterdesigns and the interactions between them make it at least entertaining.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!!

This 12 episode long show was made by the studio J.C. Staff. It is originally based on a pachinko slot machine, a few years ago there was a two episode long Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel OVA where Haruka Minazuki and Aoi Kannazuki are two students at St. Cherine academy, both are the magical girl duo Twin Angel who fight against thieves and weird supervillains. Of course this concept isn’t new, but I really like this new adaption of Twin Angel, it doesn’t take itself too serious and shows a few parody elements here and there. I like the oldschool anime flair of Twin Angel, it somehow reminds me of shows like Samurai Pizza Cats and Sailor Moon.

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This show features three of my favorite voice actressess. The main characters Kurumi, Aoi and Haruka are voiced by – Kugimiya, Rie, Noto, Mamiko(Sawako) and Tamura, Yukari(Nanoha) could I ask for more ^-^. Of course I could ask for more, but this shows is nice. It’s funny, nearly 1/4 as weird as Tantei Opera Milky Holmes and has cute characters in cute outfits and the action is nice.

The iDOLM@STER

This show was made by studio A1 – Pictures and shows us the daily adventures of the staff of 765 pro a idol managing agency and their 13 aspiring idols. A new producer has arrived and as to be expected at first everything at 765 pro is chaotic and somehow messed up, but that can be quite entertaining. The main selling point of this show is the variety of female characters, a nice mixture of cute and funny individuals. So far this anime takes its time to portray each of the 13 girls in a sufficient way and screentime. Its fun to watch and the animation art looks very good.

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I somehow dislike the idol industry, the girls somehow sell themselves and always have to pretend that their are cheerful and friendly anyway this anime is brave enough to show the downsides of being an idol at some parts, like staging at lame locations and appearing on stupid TV shows.

Mawaru Penguindrum

This 24 episode long show was made by studio Brains Base and the story centers around the siblings Kanba, Shouma and Himari who are living together in the house of their passed away parents. Himari has something like a tumor and the doctor gives her only a few more weeks to live. After a trip to the aquarium Himari collapses and dies in the hospital, but then a miracle happens and Himari is brought back to life. Later we learn that the penguin hat they’ve bought at the souvenir shop of the aquarium is a extraterstial liveform who keeps Himari healthy and alife.
When the penguin hat takes over Himari’s body she transforms into an arrogant and sassy penguin queen and if Kanba and shouma won’t obey her, their sister Himari will die for real.

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This sounds all quite sad but Mawaru Penguindrum is no sad show, I can hardly put it into words, but this anime is totally funny and the way of storytelling is different, very creative and mainly unpredictable. The characters and the setting are very interesting and additional to that the animation style looks simply awesome with the very colorful and playful design. You could also say that this show has a real psychadelic look with all the signs and colorful things everywhere. This show is probably my favorite in this season, its so creative and the plot appears very promising.

Usagi Drop

This 11 episode long show was also made by studio Production I.G, the story centers about Daikichi, a 30 year old guy whose life will totally change soon. At the funeral of his grandfather Daikichi learns, that his grandfather had an illegimate child, called Rin. Her father passed away and also her mother left her behind. Now Rin has nobody who could  take care of her, even nobody of the relatives wants to give her a home. They even consider to give her into public care, Daikichi doesn’t want that to happen and so he takes her into his home. Daikichi has to reconcile Rins needs, his work and his life, but he manages to be a good spare dad for his new family member.

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Usagi Drop spares us with the random loli, oni-chan crap, Daikichi really wants to give Rin a good home and take good care of her. Rin behaves like a real child, when you have smaller children in your family, you’ll probably notice that Rin is a realistic character as well. I like the attempt of this show to act in a more mature way than most other animes these days. The relationship between Rin and Daikichi is very nice and heartwarming, I really their daily life adventures.

Also the opening song “Sweet Drops” from Puffy is done very well, a beautiful song.

Rou Kyuu Bu!

This 12 episode long show was made by studio Magic Capsule and Studio Blanc. The story centers around the the highschoolboy Subaru, his aunt is the advisor of the female elementary school basketball team and somehow forces Subaru to be their trainer for at least 3 days.
The members of the team are happy about having a trainer, because they want to teach the male basketball team a lesson. As I’ve read the description of the anime I thought that Subaru would be a girl, but I was wrong and so the show takes a quite different direction than I’ve expected.

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A few of Subaru’s friends and other people make fun of Subaru because of his job as elementary school basketball trainer, they call him prince lolicon and whatnot. At first Subaru isn’t that enthuisastic about being the trainer of a female elementary school basketball team, but after he learns about the circumstances of the team and why they want to win, he gives his best to help the girls with improving their skills. After some time Subaru shows traces of affection torwards Tomoka, the ace of his team. Im curious about how the story will go on.

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I dislike seductive acting lolis in anime, but in case of Rou Kyuu Bu! they are mainly acting in a cute way. I try to ignore them the inappropriate scenes. I keep watching this show because  the girls are cute, I like basketball, the show has funny moments, the characters are interesting.

Mayo Chiki!

This show was made by studio Feel and TBS, the main characters are Kinjirou who always gets nosebleed when a girl touches him and Subaru who works as a butler. Subara is only allowed to keep working as a butler at the Suzutsuki household when nobody at school notices that Subaru is actually a girl. One day Kinjirou accidently discovers that Subaru is a girl and the chaos begins.

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Suzutsuki Kanade the boss and friend of Subaru forces Kinjirou to keep silent about this incident, but in return she wants to help him with overcoming his so called gynophobia. Well in fact she is only teasing him for her personal joy in the first place. As the sadistic girl she is Kanade puts Subara and Kinjirou into embarrasing and risky situations who could even expose Subaru’s true gender, but thanks to that both become very close soon. The show has a harem flair to it and a few girls try to approach Kinjirou in a more or less violent fashion during the first few eps.

This show is a bit silly sometimes, some things doesn’t really makes sense, but its very funny, entertaining and the fanservice is quite nice. One point I have to mention, is the animation art of this show, it looks very well done, crisp and clean, also the design of the eyes looks great.

That was my “little” watch list for this season, with the ongoing shows from last season and the new shows Im at my limit with the shows Im following. I initially watched a few more shows but I couldn’t bring myself to like Sacred Seven, the same can be said about Gainax’s Dantalian no Shoka where I’ve expected a lot more and Kamisama no Memochou is on hold for the time being.

Which shows of summerseason 2011 are you watching?  What are your favorites so far?
If you have any suggestions how I could improve my Anime Season post please let me know.

[poll id=”3″]

22 Responses

  1. GREW

    I’m watching almost everything from this season:
    Did you forget Baka to Test 2nd? Great show.

    But I like:
    Baka to Test 2nd,
    Dantalian no Shoka
    Ikoku Meiro no Croisée
    Kamisama no Memo-chou
    Kamisams Dolls
    Mayo Chiki!
    Natsume Yuujinchou San
    Nekogami Yaoyorozu
    Nurarihyon no Mago: Sennen Makyou
    Sacred Seven and Usagi Drop

    I also watch some other series.

    • wieselhead

      Hi Grew oh that many shows ^^
      I will watch Baka to Test 2 later, at the moment I can’t find the time for following another show.

  2. exilehero

    I really haven’t gotten around to watching anything that has come out recently. I’m still watching stuff that started last season and are continuing, like Steins;Gate and Kaiji.

    Though, after reading your descriptions I’m really interested in Twin angel and the Penguin one. I’ve also already read a big chunk of the Usagi Drop manga so I’m not sure if I want to watch the anime.

    I really like the designs of Mayo Chiki! and Blood C, maybe I’ll give them a try.

    • wieselhead

      Ah I see, the 20+ long shows from last season are still nice. I love watching exorcist, Hanasaki Iroha and Steins;Gate
      well my long list is rather difficult to handle, I picked too many shows.

      Im not sure if you’d like Twin Angel, most people seem to hate it ;P Penguin is pretty cool. In terms of Usagi Drop I would say its one of the best this season, but its rather short.

      I love Blood C even the monsters nearly make me wet my pants XD

  3. tanoshimini

    Wow, a very nice and detailed review as usual. I use to do anime review episodes but that took a long time^^”

    I dropped Ikoku Meiro no Croisée as it wasn’t my type of show. Although the slice of life is great, I’m just not a fan of the european settings as of late in anime. Like dantallian no shoka

    I haven’t checked out Blood C^^” but saya reminds me of hanekawa tsubasa from bakemonogatari

    Mayo chiki is probably my favourite show of this season. It’s funny , although the plot is stupid, it’s been executed really well.

    I think I have dropped Usagi drop, despite being a huge fan at the start. I think the cause of this was because I finished reading the manga and know the ending. I was displeased with the ending and hence probably affected my reason to watch it^^” stupid reason, I know!

    Rou Kyuu Bu! looked interesting but only have seen a few eps and it seemed pretty cool.

    Mawaru Penguindrum is a very peculiar show, it somehow reminds me of SHAFT. I’m surprised it’s actually a 24 eps as i thought it would just be a silly 12 eps anime lol.

    I saw the first episode of iDOLM@STER and it was interesting but not my type of show^^” although the animations are lovely.

    Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!! and Nekogami Yaoyorozu, I have not checked out, as it doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea^^” maybe if I have time in the future, I’ll give it a shot.

    I really can’t wait for this Fall, so many good anime I’m looking forward to. I looked forward to it more than this summer season^^” It seems the anime we have watched are totally opposite! besides mayo chiki and Mawaru Penguindrum

    Heck, I’ve posted too much!

    • wieselhead

      the longer the better, thx for your impressions.

      thx yeah it definetely took some time to finish this post.

      I also don’t really like the old european setup, it feels so outmoded.
      Haha Saya is hanekawa, in cat mode she could probably fight better.

      Mayo is funny and ecchi, only the male character should fight back more, the girls really need a lesson XD Well, Kanade turns me on somehow.

      Maybe theres no reason for watching Usagi Drop when you already know the ending and didn’t liked it. From my point of view it is nice to watch and the father daughter like relationship is so nice and heartwarming.

      Ro-Kyuu is cool when you don’t mind the loli stuff too much, its an interesting story so far.

      Very well noticed, normally SHAFT makes such shows, but when you look closely it is much more playful and creative. Good that they didn’t try to press this show into 12 episodes.

      iDOLM@STER is nearly the same like working! only with idols and more girls

      Im biased when it comes to Twin Angel I love its simplicity, cute girls fighting criminals 🙂

      Fall will be awesome again, with new FSN + Shana 3 ^^

    • wieselhead

      At least watch Usagi Drop and Mawaru Penguindrum from this season
      haha I hope these are no tsundere sister 😀

  4. Fabrice

    I wish i had time to watch as must anime i intented to in the beginning, however with work and uni im kinda lagging behind, i only managed to start watching penguin, kamisama no memouchou, dantalian and usagi drop =/

    • wieselhead

      Oh too bad Well its not like Im watching anime the whole day ^^, I only watch anime at night or early at the weekend. But yeah its hard to keep up with so many shows in a season + the old ones.

  5. Miette-chan

    Yeah, someday I will start this season, need to go watch Baka Test and Ikoku Meiro no Croisée. Now you made me interested in Nekogami Yaoyorozu, I wanna go see if it really has that Touhou feel.

    Still, should stop dilly dallying and get to watch some of these shows.

    • wieselhead

      Oh I thought I was the only late one in starting this new season, but from all the comments it seems like Im one of the ealier ones ^o^

      Haha you know more about Touhou, please tell me if I was wrong with my assumption 😉
      No need to hurry Miette .

  6. BioToxic

    I’m not watching much from this season. Mayo Chiki is the only one I come back to weekly. It’s amusing enough but nothing special. I like Kanade and her little schemes. I’m watching Baka Test 2 in bursts this season as well.

    I’m also continuing with Stiens;Gate this season (UK AoD streams have finally caught up, it only took them the whole first half). It’s been fricking awesome so far.

    From your reviews I think Blood C could be interesting to watch. I’ll keep it in mind if I decide I want something new to watch.

    I’d like to give R-15 a go at some point, but again UK AoD streaming is dragging its heels. It’s like they’re deliberately pushing customers away with delays, false statements and pathetic excuses.

    Fall season looks much better as others have said. We’ll get some eroge adaptations to enjoy :D.

    • wieselhead

      Kanade is the devil, but damn she’s so hot in that role ;D I should marathon Baka Test 2 later.

      Steins Gate is really awesome so far Im sad its over soon.

      I really like Blood C, its scary and nice at the same time, its really scary when you are bad with horror, like me.

      Rather watch Manyuu Hikenchou than R-15 ^o^

      Yeah we will get Mashiro Iro Symphony and Fate/Zero hopefully there will be figures made from Mashiro Iro characters like Amaha Miu and Sena Airi, their gk’s are beautiful.

  7. Yi

    Yay! You’re watching all three of my favorite series this season (Croisee, Penguin, Usagi). Usagi especially. Isn’t it just soooo heartwarming? I love it!

    • wieselhead

      Haha yes there are a few great shows this season. Penguin is just awesome, so visually enchanting and the playful look and storytelling is very nice.
      Usagi Drop is a wonderful show for the heart. Daikichi is such a nice spare Dad for Rin, he’s so cool and careful. And Rin is a smart and funny child.

    • wieselhead

      Oh have you started too many shows in that season? Im also looking forward to march, even though Im enjoying most shows from my list a lot.

  8. Nopy

    So far I’m really enjoying Mawaru Penguindrum, Usagi Drop, and Mayo Chiki. I’m also watching Dantalian no Shoka and Kamisama Dolls, but they haven’t turned out as good as I was hoping.

    • wieselhead

      The two shows Mawaru Penguindrum and Usagi Drop are really great. For me Mayo Chiki’s selling points are great animation quality, nice fanservice and the overall evil and sensual Kanade

      Then I can pass on both shows without regrets ^_^

  9. Arctic_Kitsune

    Ha! Nice review!

    Enjoying Ikoku and wanting more of it. I like it for it’s cultural meshing of Japanese and French culture, and for Yune’s silly antics in trying to adjust to the french scenery. Voted for this in your poll.

    Thanks for reminding me about watching more of Blood C and Nekogami. Those two I forgot about, but somewhat like this season.

    Not really interested in the other Anime as they’re just out there for my tastes..

    • wieselhead

      thank you
      Croisee was really nice with the pretty surrounding, so cozy and pretty.
      Alice became one of my favorite in the second half, she was so refreshingly crazy
      thx for voting ^-^

      Blood C is a bit weird at the moment, I hope there will be a satisfying end.
      Necogami became more interesting in the second half, I like it.

      This season had no real blockbusters aside from Usagi Drop, Penguin Drum and Croisee.
      The other ones weren’t really bad, but also not really great.

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