Sounan desu ka?: I knew this would be a good series because the manga is good, but the fact that it's a low budget short (half length episodes) adaption limits it. It will only ever be a 'good' series like this. Pass.
To the abandoned sacred beasts: Reminiscent of Berserk, our hero must fight giant malevolent sentient beasts and eventually get his revenge on his former military comrade who hurt his woman. I guess ripping off a great series is a decent enough formula for success. Pass.
Kanata no Astra: An extremely promising series with a good setting, good plot and good characters. If this is done well the sky's the limits. I really like minimalist stories that reduce the population to a reasonable size, making everyone matter individually no matter their specs. You don't have to be Goku to be a hero if you're one of only 9 people in the world. Everyone in this story now has a chance to shine. Pass.
Maou-sama Retry: Another isekai story, another cute maiden in distress plopped directly in front of the suddenly reincarnated and superpowerful Earthling. I'm a sucker for isekai, even below-average ones like this, so I'll go on watching all the same. I wonder why they decided to animate this particular isekai though. There seem to be so many more deserving, more renowned titles they could have chosen. . . Pass.
UchiMusume: I already read the light novels and the manga for this series, so I knew it would be a good but not great anime coming in. The animation quality seems sub-par, but the strength of the story carries the content all the same. Latina is definitely cuteness incarnate, and Dale does a great job taking care of her. Pass.
Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo: A group of middle school girls become interested in the opposite sex and don't know how to properly channel their feelings. A story about the chiisana nayami of everyday girls living an everyday life. Pass.
Joshikousei no Mudazukai: A group of girls attend an all-girls high school and their eccentric characteristics lead to various comic results. So long as the comedy remains fresh this series is worthwhile, so it's just a question of how long the jokes don't repeat themselves. Pass.
Dr. Stone: Survivalism is the in thing this season. Kanata no Astra, Sounan desu ka?, and now Dr. Stone. They all put people in stranded environments and make them live off their wits, throwing away the eight billion people on Earth so that they can tell a minimalist story about a chosen few whose actions suddenly matter again. It feels like everyone on Earth is sick of this overpopulation crap and wants to return to small village life. My own book took the exact same path so I can totally sympathize. Pass.
Enen no Shouboutai: You would think this would be an easy pass. It's by the maker of Soul Eater, it has a huge budget, lots of hype. . .and it sucks. There's absolutely no reason people should be fighting fire demons with firefighting equipment, uniforms or vehicles. You need magicians to fight demons, and they should dress and equip themselves as magicians. The whole fire fighting theme is stapled on for no reason, it's totally random, stupid and pointless. Then you have these stupid add-on priests who do nothing but pray during the fight, despite the fact that their prayers don't do anything and there is no God. Then on top of that the fire fighting squad is constantly squabbling, hitting each other and destroying property when they aren't out fighting demons, so there's no rapport either. The only good thing about this show is the cool looking fire. The animators obviously poured their hearts into this show, but what's the use when the plot is so bad? Such a shame. The first show of the summer season to fail, and the one you'd least expect to do so. Fail.
Granbelm: The ugly, sd (super-deformed) robots are the first problem with this show. How can you have a mecha-based series when you don't even try to make the mecha look appealing? Couldn't this series at least try to match Gundam? In Gundam at least people are fighting for a sensible reason. In this series they're just fighting for the heck of it. A no stakes fight with nothing to lose and nothing to gain, just endless pointless action. So boring. Any Gundam series would be more profitable. Fail.
There are still lots more series yet to start airing in this quality-packed summer season, so I'll deal with them in a future first impression installment. For now, eight new watchable shows is a fantastic start.
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