Summer 2016 [late] final thoughts

It’s basically Halloween and I’m talking summer series. Way to go.

91 Days – Probably the series I liked the most this season, but it doesn’t say much given the fact that summer 2016 was not actually that impressive. Story was nice, but it didn’t have the development that it deserved. Main character was damn annoying and kinda useless, but I like what Nero came to be. I like series where the side character gets more attention that the protagonist. The story was exactly what you would expect from a series taking place in the prohibition era. Sadly, my enthusiasm faded little by little when I realized that the show really lacks the suspense I was hoping to get by the end of each episodes. Overall, good, but I wouldn’t re-watch.

Cheer Danshi! – dropped at episode 3. It pretty much lacks whatever it needs to keep me interested. Might’ve been to soon to judge it, but it kinda reminded me why I didn’t like Free! And it doesn’t even have the pretty boys. Bland and boring, the background drama with their little accidents and the troubled past didn’t do much either.

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! LOVE! – dropped at episode 2. Same characters, same jokes, same monsters and it is not enough for me to keep focused. First season was nice and entertaining, it managed to lift my spirits. Another 12 episodes of the same old thing would have been too much and I don’t even know why would have I thought it was a good idea from the very beginning.

 

D.Gray-man Hallow – I was honestly thinking of dropping it after the first 2 episodes because they changed everything. Let alone the animation and voice acting, it felt like the characters didn’t even look like themselves anymore. I somehow managed to get past that and it was a kinda strange experience because I was reading the manga while watching the anime and I was always in the same spot. I would just read two chapters of the manga at work and then go home and see it animated. It’s weird and nice at the same time. Anywhore, not much to say about this one. I love D.Gray-man so I’m pretty biased. They followed the manga pretty well, except for the few chapters they skipped in the beginning. And also Johnny, I feel like the anime didn’t get Johnny as much credit. But yeah. Once you get past the voice acting and horrible looking first episodes, things get better.

Hatsukoi Monster – Dropped, but more like smashed on the ground. This shit is outrageous and needs to die. Please go away.

Handa-kun – I would say stalled, but the truth is, I don’t plan to watch this anytime soon. Imagine how bad of a first episode you had to have to make me not want to watch anything anymore. It was boring, uninteresting and mostly Handa-fee. Also, highschool-Handa seems nothing like adult-Handa. Which doesn’t please me.

New Game! – Nothing like Shirobako, nothing too bright, nothing too realistic, nothing too much. It’s basically a light-hearted sort of comedy, kinda childish and kinda annoying, but doing its job. I wasn’t that impressed with this one and, had I known it was going to be so not out of ordinary, I would’ve probably skipped it. I don’t regret watching it, but I can’t deny I could’ve spent my time in a better way.

Orange – Oooh, Orange, how many expectations I had. The story itself had so much potential. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to have the time to develop it properly. Let aside the fact that, at times, the entire show looked like crap on toast, the story could have been driven to a different outcome, if only they had a few more episodes. Main character is annoying as fuck just because she is way too stupid to be alive. Same goes for Kakeru and this is why they go so well together. Suwa, on the other hand, went high up on my list and he is honestly one of the coolest characters I had the pleasure to watch in a long time. All in all, Orange was good just because it had an interesting story, but it certainly lacked in other departments.

ReLIFE – Once again a series that could deliver so much more than it did. I was expecting a more mature approach, a different view on the high school life. Instead, it’s the same old fuckery as always, with high school drama, stupid characters, stupid romances and stupid conflicts. It also had a little bit of pedobear in it, you can’t deny that. As for the ending, I’m not sure if it saved the series (in a pedo kind of way), or just destroyed it even further (weird as fuck grown ass woman is incapable of being a normal high school student). Would I recommend it? No.

Sweetness and Lightning – Finally reached the last title of the season. Sweetness and Lightning is a very nice and chill sort of family series focused on food. Definitely something you can relax on when you have 25 minutes to spare. But it had a few downsides, the most important of all being fucking Tsumugi. That little kid so annoying, she almost drove me mad. I felt like throwing rocks whenever she opened her mouth. The relationship between Kotori and the professor was another things that made me uncomfortable. The thing that I disliked the most, however, was the lack of Yagi. Yagi was my favourite characters in this series and he clearly deserved more attention. Other than that, I’m really glad it doesn’t have more episodes, because I was getting kind of tired of eating at 3 AM, even though I wasn’t hungry.