We do have an interesting range of stuff this season, from loli basketball anime all the way up to teenage girls slaying demons. So here's my opinions on what to watch in the Summer 2011 anime season, be warned though - there are some spoilers.
--------------------------------------UPDATES-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12/07/2011 - Added Hanasaku Iroha, Blood-C, Ro-Kyu-Bu!
14/07/2011 - Added Kamisama Dolls, R-15
16/07/2011 - Added Usagi Drop
17/07/2011 - Added YuruYuri
18/07/2011 - Added Kamisama no Memochou
19/07/2011 - Added Mayo Chiki! Feature completed.
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Rating: 8
Hanasaku Iroha is a continuing anime from last season, being upped to 26 episodes. It follows a sixteen year old girl, Ohana, as she works in her grandmother's ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). It's a coming-of-age show that puts the colourful cast through a series of events as they grow.
The first "season" as it were, mainly focussed on Ohana getting used to her new surrounding after moving from Tokyo, and her relationship with her family, new friends, and her potential boyfriend Koichi.
So coming off the back of a highly emotional episode, we jump into the typical beach episode, with fanserice-y bikini and bath scenes. The main part of the plot of this episode is the girls' school staying at a ryokan, which provides an interesting insight to how Ohana and one of the other main girls, Nako, is putting so much into their work at the inn.
The quality of the animation is standard top-notch stuff, while the music adds to the atmosphere. The voice actors provide very convincing roles, especially those that voice the main girls.
What I like about it is the whole thing about character development and how they change as the series goes on.The character's experiences do change them, and in a sense its the overall plot of the anime, as the girls' main goal is to simply become better people.
Hanasaku Iroha is a show I've been enjoying watching, and I'm sure others will enjoy it too. Hopefully we'll get this nice piece of animation licensed for a UK release in the future.
Streaming: NicoNico Douga
Rating: 8
Blood-C, the newest re-imagination of the Blood series, from CLAMP and Production-IG, is one of the first series to be streamed on NicoNico Douga, who seem to be really pulling out all the stops with streaming lately.
My only experience prior to this was the OK live action movie based on the series; which has got me interested in it I have to say, as I've been wanting to get into the proper stuff for a while now. So, when this was announced I knew I had to give it ago.
And I can report that I was pleased with the first episode. Saya is portrayed as a clumsy shrine maiden, who lives alone with her father. She's often late for school, as she gets distracted by a multitude of various things on the way, be it a cat or helping an old granny. She seems to be friends with the owner of the local café next to the shrine, going there as both she and her father can't cook. Saya's classmates seem to be a weird bunch, and from one guy's glances, he either knows something about her or fancies her - one or the other. The character design for the teacher surprised me a little; with the long white coat, miniskirt and long legs, she would be more at home in a hentai OVA.
That aside, we also see Saya attempting to take down a demon. Thinking of how the plot of the first episode progresses, we may be looking at a monster-of-the-week show here, a format CLAMP have visited before in one of their staple series, Cardcaptor Sakura, although the first series was more card-of-the-week - anyway, same kind of thing.
Visually, the fight scenes contain a lot of blood - when it starts flowing, oh boy does it flow. Still, a most enjoyable fight scene at that.
Additionally to all of this, there's a little bit of a mystery going on around Saya, and a mystical light in her dreams. What could this light be and what does it hold for Saya? We'll have to watch to find out.
Blood-C is shaping up to be a very enjoyable series, with insane action and a little bit of mystery even though the first episode was slightly light on plot details.
Streaming: Unavailable in UK
Rating: 6
Ro-Kyu-Bu! seems to be a typical sports anime, using lolis to seemingly increase the audience base. Yup, it's all loli-tastic here; firstly with the details that the main character, Subaru, was on the high school basketball team - until it got disbanded because the captain was alleged to be a lolicon. Obviously disgruntled that he can no longer competitively play a sport he is so passionate about, and shocked by the fact the captain was a lolicon, he decides to give up basketball. That is until his aunt signs him up to coach the girl's basketball club at an elementary school - of which she is the advisor.
I've seen two episodes of this now, and I think it's decent enough to watch. I actually like the opening theme to this one - it's really quite a catchy song sung by the voice actresses of the girls. You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk-Fl4WE-F0
Tomoka, the pink haired girl pictured, is the female lead and a young basketball ace, whose brilliant skills saw her doing a Michael Schumacher in taking all the glory for herself, which earned her a lot of bad peer reviews. When we meet her however, she's realising that you can just play for fun, as the other girls around her teach her that it's not just about winning and losing.
I get the feeling if these girls were older and not lolis, there would be a love thing going on between the two leads, who both love the sport beyond belief. Indeed, that's what I thought in a scene in episode 2, which involved bringing the girl round to his house for some basketball practice.
With some interesting characters with plenty of room for development, this is going to be an interesting one to follow, but don't expect it to be the best thing ever - although it is quite a fun show.
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Rating: 8
From the initial opening sequence of Kamisama Dolls, you may be slightly confused due to the plot of things - I know I was - but thankfully you get to know why we seem to have huge monsters destroying stuff in a few moments.
The series seems to revolve around the titular dolls, which can be summoned by "Seki", special people who control them. They are said to be gods, but to me they resemble legendary Pokémon. They remind me most of the Regi trio from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. From the opening episode, we can see they have huger power that is difficult to control; and in the wrong hands they can be deadly.
Our protagonist is Kyohei Kuga, who has come from a small village to study at a Tokyo university. As a character, he seems to have the potential to become a strong protagonist, keeping various secrets about his past that start to come to light when an old adversary comes to call. He's actually quite typical of any anime hero, with a younger sister to protect, a love interest, and a mysterious guy from his past who perhaps wants him dead.
Both his sister and said mysterious guy are seki, having the ability to control the mysterious kamisama dolls. Out of the two, I myself am more interested in the mysterious guy - just who is he in relation to Kyohei, and what is his overall motive? I don't know yet, but I can't wait to find out.
Kyohei's sister, Utao, seems to be the one we'll be seeing the mistakes and peril from, as she's still in training. Indeed, there a couple of incidents in this first episode that I found quite thrilling to watch.
Kyohei's love interest, Shiba, seems like she's going to be a key character in the series, as she is in someway affiliated with all the stuff going on around the Kamisama Dolls, however distantly. She also introduces some light comedy, as it is obvious Kyohei has a thing for her, and his fumbling around is hilarious to watch. She also fits the big breasted archetype if anyone is interested in that.
So that's Kamisama Dolls. It seems to be a very interesting series, with quite a lot of sci-fi elements, so I'll be recommending this one for people to pick up on.
Streaming: Unavailable in UK
Rating: 5
R-15 is probably the maddest series on this season in my opinion, and while hilarious in places, it's not the best of what's on.
The plot concerns Takuto Akutagawa, a first year high school student who is a genius writer; however he doesn't write your average science fiction, fantasy or horror - but erotic fiction. Yes, the young lad's a porn author, and as a result does not have the best of relationships with people. Most people call him a pervert and expect him to start fondling their breasts or something - which is in fact mostly true, as when his fantasies take him, even classmates aren't spared their modesty.
You can see why I said this was mad. Avoid watching this with parents or younger siblings around, as the first episode opens with a full on (and thankfully censored) teacher to schoolgirl hentai scene. Well, that certainly got my attention. What normal anime would start with a bloody hentai scene? So it's safe to assume this show is NOT normal.
Anyway, the show itself follows the boy's life in this academy for geniuses school, where the brightest pupils study and I guess do whatever they are geniuses at. Notable characters are the lad who's a maths god, the lass who's a photo fiend, and perhaps the most important of all, a lass who who whistles out lively tunes on her clarinet or whatever she plays.
And so far so typical - we have the love interest of the show, the pink haired clarinet playing girl who has a major affect on our lead male. Instead of writing about sex and rape and whoever knows what, when she's near him he has the most passionate urge to write something clean. This comes as a surprise for our camera holding girl, who assumes the lad is ill or something and strangely rages at him for not writing porn instead of complimenting him for writing something clean for once.
Our leading man's antics are fun to watch, but with the plot in hand this is going to appeal to a rather restricted audience. Although if you enjoy the thought of watching a pervert write porn, go ahead and give it a go.
Streaming: Anime on Demand
Rating: 9
So, we next come to Usagi Drop, the series that's up for the best this season. Does it deliver? Oh yes, definitely.
The first thing you notice when you start watching Usagi Drop is the art style. It takes a more artistic approach, similar to what Wandering Son did - and it looks absolutely beautiful. The backgrounds are colourful and detailed, while the characters are well drawn. Definitely the best looking this season. even the opening just screams "Look at me, I'm gorgeous!" It features an extremely colourful scrolling wheel world, various animals, including the all important bunnies of the title. The song is Sweet Drops by the epic J-Pop duo Puffy (aka Puffy AmiYumi), and it just so fits everything about the show.
The first episode is a slow paced introductory one, giving us the main background to the story, and introducing the main characters. the story concerns hard working thirty year old Daikichi Kawachi, whose grandfather has passed away, leaving behind an illegitimate child, the six year old Rin Kaga. Towards the end of the first episode, Daikichi decides to take care of Rin, who he has bonded with considerably throughout this initial episode.
Rin herself seems to be a quiet, shy girl, who seemed to know her father (Daikichi's grandfather) very well; shown in her refusing to place the flower given to her in his coffin, going outside to pick bluebells instead, our dead guy's favourite flower, and Rin's namesake.
Seeing our two main characters bond through this is quite touching, as it seems that Daikichi is the only one who truly connects with the girl. The other family members were actually in favour in sending her to a children's home rather than take the girl in.
Usagi Drop looks like it is going to be a great series, combining beautiful animation and a touching story to be the best thing to watch this season.
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Rating: 5
And welcome to yet another schoolgirl club anime, on the back of epics lie Haruhi and K-On! How does it match up to those two great shows? Not that well to be honest.
YuruYuri concerns four middle school girls who use the school's tea ceremony club room as the clubroom for their own "Amusement Club". The main character of the tale is Akari Akaza, who serves up the first few laughs before we get stuck into the main character and plot introductions, where not a lot really happens.
The main humour in this opening episode comes from Akari's older sister, who has stopped letting Akari into her room recently. A wander in from one of Akari's visiting friends shows us why - Akari's sister has some sort of lolicon/incestuous/yuri/whatever you wanna call it thing for her. Now we know who's been stealing Akari's pantsu!
That aside, we head off to school for the usual round of intros, where we are introduced to the previously mentioned Amusement club, ran by Akari's two childhood friends we have just seen, Kyouko Toshinou and Yui Funami. The thing about the club is that members can do whatever amuses them, from lazing around to reading. Akari is discontent with this however, feeling that a club without an aim is boring. However, things turn exciting when the traditional mascot moeblob character appears.
A girl in Akari's class walks in halfway through wanting to join the tea ceremony club, and ends up getting involved with the amusement club until the tea ceremony club gets more members. Chinatsu Yoshikawa is a cute pink haired girl who fascinates one of the older girls, as she reminds her of one of her favourite manga characters. This premise seemingly would set her up to be the cute club mascot, very much like Mikuru in Haruhi. However, luckily she dodges her way out of doing cosplay for the moment.
While having a decent sounding voice cast and good looking animation, an average first episode for YuruYuri hopefully doesn't mean it's not going to improve, however it doesn't set high hopes either.
Streaming: Unavailable in UK
Rating: 8
Kamisama no Memouchou has been said by some to be Gosick in a modern setting. In a sense that is what it is, as it's the similar kind of show.
The story follows a seemingly ordinary high school boy, Narumi Fujishima, who somehow finds himself joining up with a gang of NEETs, headed by the mysterious Alice - a highly intelligent hikikomori girl who solves mysteries sitting on her bed looking at an endless wall of monitors.
The first episode shows our protagonist once again settling in to a new school, as his family move around a lot due to his father's work or something. At school, he becomes the sole member of the computer club, until he meets Ayaka Shinozaki, who is the sole member of the gardening club. She also works at a local ramen shop, and has a few interesting friends. She introduces Narumi properly to the bunch of NEETs that he actually met earlier on, when he witnessed the events that would see him being the key to the first case. We have ex-boxer and heavy gambler Tetsu, military otaku Shōsa and the other guy Hiro.
Narumi is somehow roped into an argument over who would take up a bowl of Ramen to this "Alice" who lives above the ramen shop, and of course, it's him - and this serves as his introduction to the girl, who thanks to access to all of his records, knows everything about him. She then proceeds to rope him into this case as her assistant.
The content of the first episode is actually pretty shocking. Being set in the modern day allows for modern day mysteries, and for one that does lie close to Japan's heart. I'm determined not to give too much away on this one due to its shock factor, but as you can probably guess from the first few minutes, this first episode centres on teenage prostitution.
Ending with some shocking revelations that does become obvious after piecing stuff together through the episode, the opener of Kamisama no Memochou ends on a high. If it continues like this, it'll have me watching until the end of this season.
Streaming: Unavailable in UK
Rating: 5
Mayo Chiki! is a rather bizarre romantic comedy type thing. The plot revolves around Kanjirou Sakamachi, a high school student who has a phobia of women with a reaction commonly seen in ecchi series, but used here for a different reason: he gets nosebleeds whenever he's touched by anything remotely female, stemming from abuse from his wrestler mother.
After getting such a nosebleed, Kanjirou heads to the guy's toilets where he meets Subaru Konoe in the strangest of manners. Subaru is a fantastic butler who serves the beautiful, rich and "I'll wear a different dress to all the rest" Kanade Suzutsuki. The guy is handsome and has tons of fans, the most fervent establishing their own Illuminati style cult around him. However, in the guy's toilets, Subaru's deadly secret is revealed - she's actually a girl, and now has to kill Kanjirou for finding out, as she'd lose her job otherwise.
This is where Kanade steps in and groups the two together so that the secret can't be revealed.
The premise of the story would actually set it up to be an interesting show, however the opening episode is just so dull it's hard to not switch off or just ignore the rest of the series. There are some good moments, such as the battle between Kanjirou and Subaru, but most of it just falls flat on its face.
The second episode did seem to be better however, being more funny and actually fulfilling the romance part, with Kanade seemingly trying to develop a relationship between Kanjirou and Subaru, while Kanjirou's sister (who doesn't know Subaru is a girl) sees her dressed as a girl; at first thinking of Subaru as a cross dressing pervert and her brother gay, somehow comes out as saying she's in love with Subaru five minutes later. Like, how did that happen?
A distinctly average series with various plot holes and unexplained developments, don't come here looking for a great romantic comedy - but as a standard ecchi series with a crossdressing character, at least it'll appeal to someone.
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