I say summer, you say drought. Thank god for the recurring anime that are coming back this season cause so far I haven’t seen many of the new boys looking that promising. Maybe it’s simply due to the fact that last season was filled with banger after banger, but for whatever reason it looks like I’ll have an easy time keeping up with the few anime that I’m gonna stick with. Regardless, let’s take a look at the anime. Keep in mind that these are merely first impressions and are bound to change over the course of the season.

Fumestu no Anata e Part II

With Vivy now out of the way, I can easily claim this is the best anime airing right now. The quality of the writing is simply rock solid and there hasn’t been much to complain about across the entire first part. I’ll warn you this is a big boy anime so if you’re expecting some typical tropes or mindless fun, you’ll be out of luck. If you’re in the mood for a serious ride though, I have no problem saying to hop on the bandwagon (of the small amount of people who are watching this anime). Yes, even if you didn’t pick up the first half of this season. There’s still plenty of time to catch up considering how this summer is shaping up. This is dangerously close to masterpiece territory and we aren’t even close to the finish line yet.

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S

Pssst. Come over here. I got a secret for you. But you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay? You swear? Alright. So… I haven’t seen a single fucking episode of the first season of this anime, but god damn seeing all the amazingly cute Kanna clips had me being a jealous cuck all those years ago. Not willing to make the same mistake twice, I hopped on this season and blended in with the community. I’m excited to tell you guys that as long as you know the general premise of the show, you can pretty much dive in headfirst and not feel lost. In fact, apart from not knowing how a few characters were first introduced into the story, it doesn’t feel like I’ve missed anything even though I skipped the entire first season. That’s the perk of a comedy anime baby. The animation quality and content has had a strong start in my opinion and this has quickly risen in my list to being an instant summer favorite. God bless this cast of kooky characters.

The Detective is Already Dead

God I’m torn as hell on this one. On one hand I love some detective shit and the first episode was a fun ride with a piece of gorgeous animation during the middle. On the other hand, I’m worried that they fucked up and killed the best character WAY too soon which means every subsequent character will pale in comparison. This is a light novel and you can feel it. The light novel aspects seep into your bones from the fourth wall breaking comedy to the laidback MC who’s just so cool but also ends up doing the right thing cause that’s how cool he is. Still I don’t think the anime is bad or anything, honestly it’s too early to tell for sure. I’d say if you like detective stuff then give it a try but BE WARNED this is no Fumetsu, we have tropes and questionable logic a plenty.

Vanitas no Carte

Ladies. What do we like? Correct, hot boys. But what do we prefer over hot boys? Huh? Guys with caring hearts? Fuck no, the answer is hot vampire boys. This anime tells the adventures of Vanitas and Noe who are using an ancient magical grimoire to cure afflicted vampires of an evil curse. We got Bones in the house on animation so you can rest easy that it’s been good so far. As long as you don’t mind a little vamp fanservice this has been a nice low-brain power action/drama. Honestly I probably would have been way more hyped if this aired during fall for October, but it is what it is. Right now it’s pretty mid but we’ll see if the characters and mystery deepen enough for it to stick the landing to an interesting ending.

Shiroi Suna no Aquatope

I’m just waiting for this anime to make one more mistake, one more fuck up so I can head on out. I’ll admit I got pulled into this because one of the main girls had a dream of being an idol and that dream got shit on, so now she’s working at an aquarium (the other girl's dream is to be said aquarium’s director). I’m interested to see where it’s going, and what point it’s trying to make. Will idol girl ever get a second chance or will she learn that other jobs/career paths are interesting too? That being said, while I’m vibing with that idea, I don’t care much to learn about aquariums or the other characters which are currently taking up a lot of screentime. I might drop off this one soon cause I’m getting the feeling that this is not gonna be very memorable, but we’ll see.

Sonny Boy

What the fuck? This one was a late starter so I’ve only seen one episode. At that time Kinky and I were theorycrafting so hard we should have gotten paid or something. I have no clue where this anime is heading. A class of kids are transported into an empty dimension where nothing but they and their school exists. Many are also given powers and some quickly scramble to form some authority to control the school with rules. Make sense? Don’t worry, most of that becomes way more confusing and also not even true by the end of the episode? Chill, I'm confused too. Needless to say I’ll need to see way more before issuing a verdict. All I can say for now is anime like this tend to either be masterpieces or pretentious garbage and very few land somewhere in the middle. Crossing my fingers for a positive result.

Uramichi Oniisan

If you told me I’d be watching an anime about a depressed, failed gymnast who has turned to working on a children’s television show to pay the bills who has to constantly remind himself that life is worth living to stay alive... I’d be real iffy. If you then told me it was a comedy slice-of-life, I would have called you a liar right then and there. Regardless, here we are. I need this anime to do one thing for me. Pretty please. At SOME point, I’m not saying it has to happen in these initial few episodes, but at SOME point please get serious and tackle some of these issues with tact. The difference between a solid comedy and a great comedy is that a great comedy still makes you love the characters and themes of the show. Grand Blue was a hilarious anime in my opinion, yet at the end of the day the show was seriously pushing you to try new activities and experience all that life has to offer, even if it can be scary to try new things. I hope that by the end of Uramichi Oniisan, I can walk away with a moral in tow and not five wheelbarrows of memes that “man life sucks xD sorry kids it just does :0”. We’ve got plenty of time for setup. Now I must pray they’ll do something with it.

P.S. My favorite ending of the season so far, DREAM ON everybody

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sotsu

Huh? Where do I even begin? This is a hard one to talk about without spoiling shit. In essence, so far this part has been explaining a bunch of events that happened in the first part that came out recently by offering a new perspective. Does it make sense? I guess. Do I care about what’s going on? Not really. I will say I’m interested to see how it ends though that’s not saying much either. The most useful information I can give you is that this is unlike any common talking point that you’ve heard about Higurashi. I’d argue it’s not scary, intense, or horrific. So far this part has felt way more like a cat and mouse game but with far less interesting characters than Light and L. I refuse to watch this by myself. It’s become a “watch with another person to meme on it” exclusive. I’m still watching it though. That’s more than most anime I suppose.

Phew, that wraps up these initial impressions. Now if you know some great anime this season that I or others need to check out, don’t hesitate to leave your own impressions. As one guy I can’t check out absolutely everything after all. Additionally if you’re fuming mad right now because I didn’t enjoy an anime you’re loving, don’t worry I’ve still got time to revise and update opinions on the anime I mentioned. What anime are you watching this season? Are you using this season to catch up to not currently airing shows? Dive into the water to stay cool and leave a comment below!