So, the Summer 2016 Anime Season is around the corner - and holy shit a lot of stuff is airing. And most of it is comprised of adaptions and sequels. Well, I guess Trigger can't be expected to save anime every season.

The list of anime coming out, along with their air dates, can be found here and, alternatively, here.

This season has a lot of great stuff coming out. And a lot of... not so great stuff. The five most popular series coming out, based on the MAL chart rankings, are as follows.

1. Shokugeki no Souma Season 2: I don't think anyone is surprised that this is the most popular show going into the season. I would be incredibly surprised if they manage to screw this up.

2. Nanatsu no Taizai: Seisen no Shirushi: The latter episodes of the original series left me incredibly disappointed. I'm not expecting much out of this new four episode series.

3. ReLIFE: The story of a deadbeat twenty seven year old who gets turned into a teenager again. Actually seems a bit interesting.

4. Orange: Time travel shenanigans continue for another straight season. About a girl who receives a letter from her future self warning her about future events. I'm honestly kind of burnt out on time travel, but it seems interesting.

5. Berserk (2016): Hey, you guys know that manga you really love? You know how you always wanted the rest of the story adapted? Well here it is, finally, after nearly twenty years... and it looks like shit. I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to let the guy responsible for Teekyuu get his hands on Berserk, but seriously, I have no words to describe how unexcited I am for this. I'm still gonna watch it but holy shit, wtf, it looks horrible.


So, what're you guys planning to watch this season? What are you most excited for?

 

Summer's a season of sequels for me.

What I'll definitely be watching:

1. Shokugeki no Souma. This is the point I'd quit following the manga, so I'm going in relatively blind.
2. Arslan Senki 2. First season was pretty good, so hopefully the continuation is as well.
3. Active Raid 2. Was apparently not for everyone when the first half aired, but the combination of office comedy + mecha shenanigans was right up my alley.

What I'll give a try:

1. RElife. Read the manga and stopped out of boredom. We'll see if this keeps my interest more.
2. Mob Psycho. OPM was good, so I'll check this one out too.
3. Handa-kun. Might be funny, might not be.
4. Taboo Tattoo. Vaguely recall checking out the manga years ago.
5. Nejimaki. Probably discount Arslan.
6. Hitori no Shita. Urban fantasy is hard to really do wrong, IMO.

Things I definitely won't be watching:

 

Oh lord, as I'm going down this list I am not feeling incredibly enthusiastic.

I'd like to check out Arslan, but I don't think it was available legally for me, so I passed on that one.

Seems like they might be good?:
Hitori no Shita: the outcast
orange - The very basic concept seems interesting, but the show itself is probably going to be silly shoujou and I don't want that.
QUALIDEA CODE
Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars - Please don't turn shoujou. There's no tag for it, so I'm hopeful.
ReLIFE - Manga's good. This should be decently fun.
SERVAMP
TABOO TATTOO
Tales of Zestiria the X - Maaaybe? Wary of video game adaptations.


Continuing -
Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - Oh god I love this show.


Side notes -
Special "fuck you" for the continued Light Novel anime bait where everything is "Guy goes to magic/mech school and has a harem."

Gonna watch at least one episode of Puzzle Dragon X, just because I enjoy the game. It's going to be awful.

Accel World, my guiltiest of pleasures, is getting a movie. Yay.

One Piece movie, fuck yeah!

 

I'll probably watch the first few episodes of everything just to see if anythings good. Only really looking forward to Shokugeki season 2.

However I am intrigued by the remake of D. Gray-man.

 

Well I'm only really excited for Love Live Sunshine... Go on, laugh.

Shows I'll give a shot:
- Re: Life
- Orange
- Mob Psycho
- Rewrite
- New Game (Doga Kobo really impressed me with Sansha Sanyou)
- Amanchu

I'll be watching Shokugeki and Prisma Illya as sequels.

This season definitely seems like a step down from the previous one, but I think I said the exact same thing last time. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised again.

 

Rewrite is a very good visual novel - and with its author doing the rewrite (heh) for the anime, it could well be better as an anime.

There's nothing quite like Rewrite, honestly - it's really worth watching.

 

I'm actually pretty excited about the coming season.

Shokugeki no Soma - epic hyped for this, for obvious reasons. Been the anime I've been looking forward to the most since I finished season 1.

ReLIFE - Looks like it could be really fun if they do it well. Actually focus on the complete differences in maturity, thought processes and mental age. I loved Erased earlier this year, but one thing I thought was a bit disappointing was that the protag interacted a bit too easily with little kids.

Tales of Zestiria - I've never really played or watched anything in the Tales franchise, and I'm told this wans't the best game. But, it's being adapted by ufotable. That's enough to get me interested.

Berserk - I have waited so long for this. Like Pure Infinity, I'm not sure the studio who are doing it are the right choice. They did the Initial D First Stage movie remake, and they go for this over-the-top stylistic comic book style. When you're going for a grimdark fantasy, that's not what you want. Why couldn't just they bring in the studio who did the Golden Age movie remakes...

Days - art style looks similar to Giant Killing. And I need another soccer anime. Could be good. Let's hope it's not another Knight of the Area.

Re: Zero - Continuing because despite it being such a typical fantasy harem anime, I adore it so much more than it deserves. One of my favourite anime of the year, in fact.

Will also probably try:

Mob Psycho 100 - Same author of One Punch Man. So could be fun.

Orange - Probably meh, but could be good

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya - Still need to finish third season. Its a whole bunch of in-your-face loli fan service, but in between all of that, there's some genuinely epic fights.

Hitori no Shita - Looks like your typical B-grade anime premise, but some of these actually turn out alright.

Arslan Senki - still need to watch season 1. The first episode was a bit off putting, but people seem to rate it well. I'll get around to it at some point.

Nanatsu no Taizai - ditto

 

Going to be watching:
Shokugeki no Soma S2
Amaama to Inazuma
Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga aru!
Tales of Zestiria X

 

I read the orange manga a while ago. If the anime gains a lot a popularity I might see the first episodes. Other than that, "Mob Psycho 100" seems interesting.

 

Holy shit, Tales of Zestiria's animation is amazing.

And Berserk's is terrifying.


This is like the opposite of what I wanted. But whatever, Zestiria looks like it might be better than I thought, so that's okay.

 

These past few episodes of Re:Zero have really been annoying me in regards to Subaru. Most of the time throughout the series I have liked him well-enough, but recently he has become so fucking annoying. Specifically, in every scene he is either talking to or about Emilia. His sick stalker-ish obsession with her is grating. He never has a real conversation with her; he's always putting on an over-the top act whenever he's with her. He has an inflated sense of importance and thinks he is the key to everything regarding Emilia's happiness. Not to mention how easily he breaks is promises with her and disregards everything she says. Don't even get me started on him butting in every single time she has private business. I was hoping he'd learn his lesson after she told him off, but he didn't. Apparently I'm so supposed to feel sorry for him or something.

At this point in the show, the Subaru /Emilia stuff is just awful for me. I don't know why he is so obsessed with her, but the character deserves better than him anyway. For anyone who has read the source material, please tell me this aspect of the show stops being so terrible.

All of the episodes have shown that Subaru can have normal conversations with Rem, Ram, Rom, Beatrice, Felt, Crusch. and Reinhard. With them he can have actual conversations while being himself and not be a lunatic jackass.

All that ranting aside, I have liked the show. Individually I like all of the characters. Even the ones just introduced like Crusch and Priscilla. I hope they have a bigger part in the future.

 

Subaru is supposed to be acting that way, though. It's realistic. He's a socially awkward NEET who's thrown into a deadly world and he's fucking useless. He's been through a shitload of trauma and he's breaking down because he's actually straight dying over and over.

I don't really like him either, at the moment, but I really like that they're continuing on with this rather than have him acting completely unrealistic based on the situation.

 

Don't you think that its incredibly telling that this is the case?

I'm guessing that his obsession with Emilia is not natural at all but somehow a curse.

Its been mentioned for awhile now that everyone seems to hate the witch. Isn't it possible that she might have tried to do something about that by bringing someone from another world who would love her?

Perhaps the stench of the witches curse on him isn't his coming back but rather his obsession with Emilia.

 

No, you're not. His awkwardness and horrible decision making regarding her has been actively called out as such by her and recognized by others. His tryharding at making her happy because of the first loop's Emilia/Satella show that he really is unfit for her, (The IF chapters have him run away with Rem and have kids and all that, it's adorable). He would do better with someone else, she would do better with someone else, but as much as I love this anime, the author's world and subversion of tropes (source material introduces a lot of stuff we haven't seen in the anime yet), she's the heroine and it'd be hard to do without her.

It does, actually. He gets better, but also worse at some points. It's really a wild ride for him, if you care to take a look:

Spoiler

Later, something happens to Rem, and he kills himself attempting to save her. Someone shows him pictures of worlds where things "continued" after his death and shows Emilia finding his corpse next to Rem, despairing and angry.

He would go so far for everyone that's precious to him. But because of love or whatever twisted reason, he seems to be way too obsesses about Emilia.

It might actually be an effect of the Witch of Envy.

 

While it may have been exaggerated a bit, I actually really like the way the plot is going, and how Subaru's tantrums are playing into it. I don't think the anime is trying to portray it in a way such that you feel sorry for him - especially after Emilia cuts ties with him even after he gets the shit kicked out of him and ends up injured in bed again.

He comes to this world thinking of it as if its a video game. He has a power that really, makes his choices and action determine the course of events in the world. He's come across two obstacles so far which, as he claimed, were only solved because of him.

Then he's gone through all the trauma too. He's had to deal with all the girls forgetting half of their interactions with him. He's been killed multiple times. He's been tortured by Rem and still found it in himself to forgive her. He can't tell anyone about it. And the biggest thing is he's had to deal with the overwhelming stress of feeling like he has the responsibility to fix everything alone.

All that pain, all that effort seems worth it because he saved the girl. And I think he's probably put Emilia on a pedestal as the prize.

With all that, it seems completely understandable that he views himself as the protagonist of the story. Furthermore, it's understandable that he stops viewing people as people to interact with and more like puzzles to solve.

So he's caught by surprise when Emilia basically tells him to stay out of her business. He's the protagonist right? How could the protagonist possibly stay out of something so important? Clearly, he's the only one who can make things right, yeah?

When she finally holds him to account for showing absolutely no respect for her, you can see his frustration come out. After all he's achieved and all he's suffered for her, she's cutting ties?

It's completely understandable, but that's still not a defense to his actions. But it makes him human, and I hope this leads to some positive character development for him (and I really hope the anime doesn't try to turn around and justify it).

 

I got near 100% in Zestiria and I had no idea what the fuck the prologue episode was about. Are they doing a different story?

Also... Berseria MC in credts wut?

 

91 Days had a great first episode, definitely on my hype list for the rest of the season.

 

After reading everyone's thoughts on it, I thought I'd give Re:Zero a shot. I made it through episode 7 before coming back here and reading these last few posts.

I don't know how you all do it. Like, I hate Subaru so much it's starting to make me re-assess my thoughts on Ikari Shinji.

I can't sympathise or care about him, or any of the other characters in the show. If that's the 'point', him being an unlikable, two-dimensional, tonally inconsistent waste of space, I'll go back to my original point; I don't know how you guys do it.

I certainly fucking can't.

I think at this point if there actually is some 'curse' that explains away some of this shit, that'd actually be worse. I'd be way more forgiving with shitty writing. I at least expect that from shitty harem anime.

 

This episode was just Ufotable showing off what they can do in terms of effects and how good Ai Kayano is as a VA I think, more than anything else, as it's labelled as a prologue.

As for the Berseria MC, I just googled and apparently Berseria shares the same world with Zestiria, most likely trying to make a connection and promote Berseria by including her in the anime.

Having said that, the episode was as you'd expect from ufotable, stunning animation, and some great fight sequences. Looking forward to seeing where it goes!

Of the first episodes I've seen so far Zestiria, 91 Days, orange, and Alderamin on the Sky are the ones I think I'm going to stick with from the new shows. Three episode ruling D.Gray-man, Regalia, Servamp and Taboo Tattoo. Already dropped Ange Vierge, Hitori no Shita, Qualidea Code, Rewrite, and ReLIFE.

Any other ones people would recommend giving a try at this point?

Hoping the ones I stick with prove to be worth it this time (as opposed to Joker Game, and Kabaneri, which I'm still disappointed in).

 

Not sure what to make of Orange. Nothing really happened, and the only mystery of the show (how the fuck is she writing to her past self) doesn't seem to be the focus at all.

Alderamin was surprisingly more entertaining in anime format than when I tried the manga. Might give reading it another try, after this.

Taboo Tatoo's fight scenes look like they could potentially be amazing. Looking forward to more of it.