Looking Forward:

There are four newbie shows that still have the potential to make my top anime rankings airing:  Gamers!, Tenshi no 3p, Action Heroine Cheer Fruits and Princess Principal.

Gamers! and Tenshi no 3p have the advantage of being from established respected authors.  At the same time, this is a disadvantage though.  Unless these shows prove that they have some value unique to themselves and aren't just a rehash of older, already ranked material, I have no incentive to add them to my 'must-see' top 200.  If Tenshi no 3p were a new idea, it would already be in, but since Ro-Kyu-Bu! already exists I don't see much point to Tenshi's existence.

Princess Principal is amazing in terms of music and visuals, but the plot is still suspect.  I just can't wrap my head around the bizarre setting, or whether the story really can be great just by showing what a badass Ange is for the next ten episodes.  Is that really enough to be must see?

Action Heroine Cheer Fruits is the show with the most potential to achieve greatness.  Every episode so far has been fantastic, with a great mix of humor and sentiment.  My only worry is this show is such a dark horse that I really can't tell where it will go next or if the quality so far has just been a fluke.  This is an anime original project.  They envisioned it first as an anime and were well into the production cycle before a manga adaption was released just a week before the anime started.  Which means no one has any clue what this show is doing or how it managed to be so good.

There's nothing famous about the people making this show.  The director isn't famous.  The company animating the project isn't famous.  The voice actors aren't famous.  There's no reason why this show should be so good, except that it is.

I'm leery of awarding a show like that greatness until I'm absolutely sure -- like with Kemono Friends, I couldn't believe my own eyes until around episode eight.

The drama of the summer season continues until I decide if these four shows are great or good, and until I decide which out-of-contention shows are good or just mediocre.  But these are just minor details.  It's actually more interesting to look ahead to the fall season from here.

After watching the comicon trailers for the CW shows, I'm more convinced than ever that Flash and Supergirl are no longer watchable.  However, Arrow looked exciting and Legends of Tomorrow looked fun, so I'm looking forward to those two starting this October.

The fall anime season will also be interesting.  UQ Holder!, Yuuki Yuuna, Love Live Sunshine 2, Wake Up, Girls! Shin Sho, and Fate/Apocrypha will of course be good.  Dieas Irae, Mahoutsukai no Yome, Imouto Sae Ireba and Idolm@ster Side M might be good.  And then there are always dark horses like this season's Action Heroine Cheer Fruits.

In August, Netflix's Defenders series will be released.  It's possible Punisher will be released this fall.

Utawarerumono 3 comes out this September, not long now.  Little Busters! comes even sooner, the English version is slated for release this August.  Manga Gamer has finished both translating and editing Imouto Paradise 2, so it should be out soon too.

Megaman 9 and 10, the only Megamen I haven't played, come out for PS4 August 8th.  On August 13th, Owarimonogatari Ge, the conclusion of the stellar Bakemonogatari series, will air.

For all my desire to rush to 2018 where I can watch Fairy Tail again, there's still plenty to look forward to in 2017.  Three video games, two visual novels, a new anime season, the current anime season, superhero tv, football, etc, etc.

There's 1/3 of the year remaining, so we just have to make the best of this Fairy Tail-less world.