2020 Summer Three-Episode Check-In
Summer might be a small season, but that only makes its standouts shine all the brighter. Some for their ingenuity, some for… other reasons.
Summer might be a small season, but that only makes its standouts shine all the brighter. Some for their ingenuity, some for… other reasons.
Just because several spring shows were delayed to summer and fall doesn’t mean there wasn’t some absolutely dynamite anime this season!
From delayed titles to unexpected twists, this is shaping up to be one unusual season.
Gibiate is not, how you might say, good. I can’t wait to watch more of it.
Mr Love looks, at this stage, to be a fairly standard sci-fi otome series with all the pacing and compression issues you might expect from a shift in mediums from game to anime. If nothing else, it certainly looks gorgeous, so if you want a night in with some schlocky sci-fi full of Handsome Boys you might be in luck.
A brtual, viseral series that brutally looks at trauma and disaster in a time when the real world is coping with ongoing trauma. from a pandemic and disaster.
The power dynamic between the two leads is so far oddly and satisfyingly balanced (aside from the “girl kicks boy” slapstick), and there is a potentially really interesting undercurrent of character development and social themes amidst the corny comedy.
I feel like the writers have placed Sakurai as the “blank slate” sort of character that the audience is meant to project themselves onto, and they succeeded… with the perhaps unintended consequence that, in empathizing with Sakurai, I could not stand Uzaki.
Deca-Dence is proof-positive that sufficiently powerful execution trumps novelty.
This premiere may not be of any use as entertainment, but as a narcotic? It’s the best thing on the market.
The slapstick is top-notch, but the actual tournament part of this tournament fighter is a slog.
I gotta say, if you’ve seen one anime scientist banging a desk and hollering about how humans lose their will to live if they lose their interest in sex, you’ve seen them all. That aside, I surprisingly didn’t hate this premiere. In fact… I kind of liked it.
Monster Girl Doctor is a show that I’m going to keep watching because I really want to see some character growth… and because I like monster girls, okay?
A charming “magic meets idols” premiere that lays the foundation for a fantasy-themed idol anime that I hope to follow until the end. However, that does mean thinking about Japan’s own idol industry while watching.
This is a beautiful action premiere that sets the stage for its conspiracy plot and the oddball team-up of its leads, and I will absolutely watch at least two more episodes. That said, I still have to put on my Feminist Killjoy Hat for a few minutes and talk about fantasy oppression metaphors.
I’ve heard plenty about Dorohedoro’s wit and charm punctuated by graphic ultraviolence, about the ensemble cast and their dynamics, about just how danged good it is. As of the first episode, it’s hard to say if it lives up to its reputation, but it’s certainly on track to fulfill my expectations.
Drifting Dragons is a strange series to review. It’s a Polygon Pictures production, the first one that actually uses bright colors instead of a pallet roughly similar to wet concrete and mud. It was just released from Netflix jail, so it’s now entirely available streaming. But the most unusual thing about it is how adding layers of context change the viewing experience.
Spring has sprung and brought a bounty of titles! Even with a few shows losing their luster, there’s a wealth of weird, wild, and downright adorable options at our fingertips.
As if to balance out the light lists of 2019, the new year roared in with so many quality shows we almost didn’t have space to recommend them all. Here are the team’s top picks for Winter 2020.
Our hearts are overwhelmed with all the great lady protagonists this season.