Oda Nobuna no Yabou: For the trillionth time, heroes of the Sengoku period (1600's Japan) have incarnated in female form in order to maximize the cuteness of history. These girls all act as exotically attractive as possible to cater to every imaginable preference, and a lone boy gets to be at the center of it all. Other than the art being genuinely fantastic, there is nothing that could recommend this story for viewing. Sengoku Collection is already airing. One Sengoku period comedy where everyone is a girl is surely enough per week.
Joshiraku: This is an interesting anime. The author being the well established Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei's creator, it's no wonder that the dialogue is snappy and cutting in this new series as well. I also really like getting to see a portion of Japan that's constantly referred to but never actually focused on, their speech only comedian acts, where if you tell a good joke you get another cushion. That the girls are of working age rather than school age is also a new twist. All that being said, I don't see how the series can be good because it's pointless. There's no human drama. It can't even be called a story at this point. Maybe avante garde art is wise enough to know that all those trappings of the past, protagonists, antagonists, conflicts, troubles, plot twists and climaxes are a thing of the past, but I'm still a stick in the mud who kind of likes things to go somewhere at some point.
Dog Days': Dog Days returns, and keeps to the same spirit it's always had, a cute and cheerful world of pastel colors and everyone being way too happy and carefree. As always there's random added in ecchi content for no particular plot-centered reason, because sex sells and the anime industry is running a business here. But that can be overlooked. The story is still fun to watch because everyone is just so happy and nice and cool it's infectious. Dog Days is sort of like some crazy mint julep tropical Hawaiian punch. It's not meant to taste good, it's just meant to give your tongue an adventure. If you don't expect too much from Dog Days you'll never be disappointed.
Rinne no Lagrange 2: Rinne no Lagrange maintains it's annoying and admirable parts. It's annoying because seemingly all of the aliens are psychopathic. It's admirable because the main character, Madoka, still tries to salvage something out of the mess everyone else always makes. However, I'm tired of average series like this and Mouretsu Pirates. The opening and ending, the main selling points of the original season, were no good at all this time, either. In fact, none of the openings of any of the shows this season have been any good. Pretty disappointing, when there were so many good ones just this spring.
With this, we've essentially covered the entire summer anime lineup. Judging by the first episodes alone, let's put a ranking on them and also draw a line between 'shoe in,' 'will watch a little longer,' and 'don't bother.'
Shoe In:
1. Smile Pretty Cure
2. Hunter x Hunter
3. AKB0048
4. Tari Tari
5. Hyouka
6. Sword Art Online
7. One Piece
8. Space Brothers
9. Naruto
10. Kokoro Connect
11. Ginga E Kickoff
12. Yuru Yuri
13. Dog Days
14. Arcana Famiglia
15. Sengoku Collection
Will Watch a Little Longer:
16. Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru
17. Koi to Senkyou to Chocolate
18. Natsuyuki Rendezvous
19. Jinrui wa Suitai
20. Joshiraku
Don't Bother:
21. Rinne no Lagrange 2
22. Campione
23. Oda Nobuna
24. Kishi no Area
25. Kuroko no Basuke
26. Accel World
27. Hagure Yuusha
28. Bimbou-gami Ga
29. Muv-Luv
30. Chitose Get You
Really Don't Bother:
Anything Else.
A shame Fairy Tail is still in filler, but it can't be helped, the anime caught up with the manga. The spring season ended with 19 watchable series and only 11 actually good ones. Summer is already looking better. Here we have 20 possibly watchable series and fifteen reliably good ones.
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