Summer 2018 - Final List Part 1

in #anime5 years ago

Aaaand it is done, this season is basically over now. The season where a lot of surprising originals and new titles made distinguishing presence in a season that many thought would be bland compared to the preceding seasons, but boy, could they be more wrong than that.

It is not only about new shows, this season also brought us back some of anime’s most renowned titles like Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) and Overlord, both at their third season and closed the chapter for the leftover series of Spring season, Boku no Hero Academia 3 (My Hero Academia 3) and concluded the story of Steins; Gate 0.

This season covered a lot of grounds from heart thumping, blood pumping action series, intense rivalries and beautiful friendships featured in sports series, exploring new worlds and discovering things you never knew would excite you in adventure series but this season’s silver lining without a doubt, would be it’s abundance in good comedy shows, that I will advise not to watch in succession for your own welfare lol.

Now let’s talk about the best shows that Summer 2018 season has blessed us with! Let’s volt in!

Note: Again, I am not listing the shows in any particular order but I will be dividing the list into three or four posts so as not to overwhelm the readers and so that I can prepare for the next 2/3 with more time. The list is based on my preference so if anything doesn’t sit well with anyone reading this, then you can voice out your opinion in the comments below, juts keep it cool though. Well that’s it let’s keep this going!


1. Planet With

Genres: Action, Mecha, Sci-Fi

Studio: J.C.Staff

Planet With? More like Planet Weed, seriously, this show is whack but this is the kind of show that I would be totally recommending when someone asks me for an anime show at its most natural state as a form of medium. Why you ask? Well I think this show has the qualities of anime shows I watched when I was starting out and what ultimately turned me into a real anime fan, a fun adventure filled with adrenaline pumping action scenes featuring mechas and other worldly creatures that freed me from the grasps of reality and allowed me to be totally engaged in a world where abnormality is the norm and made feel like a little kid again, a kid with simplistic dreams and needs, untainted by my own and this world’s evils, a kid that is contented to be on the side of justice during pretend play. Man, I am getting old and sappy lol.

This show almost got under my radar because very few are talking about it, heck even anime pages rarely mention this one so I am labeling this as the hidden gem of this season. This show has an interesting premise but due to the 12 episode limit it got, the ending somehow felt a bit rushed but still remained a top contender for this season in my opinion.

The show is the story of a boy named Souya Kuroi and his companions Sensei and Ginko as they save the world from… (here we go again) Alien lifeforms, yeah pretty overused now but read on further because there’s a cat(ch). Ok, bad pun.

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** SPOILER ALERT **
Although the premise is on the overused side now, the show was able to spice things up by making our protagonist an alien too. To clear things up, Souya was originally from a race called Siriusian that got annihilated by the Dragon when their race tried to invade other planets. To cut things short, Souya was saved by Sensei and Ginko and was brought to Earth but things started to get awry when mysterious weird looking objects started appearing on Earth but to make things more complicated a group that was dubbed as Earth’s protectors appeared to take on the incoming danger brought about by the mysterious objects that were called Sealing devices. But that is not the end to it, Souya and the gang started to attack the Earthlings that protected the Earth to get their source of power. It became a 3-way fight between Souya, the Earthlings and the alien invaders that are later on revealed to be a part of the same group as Sensei but belongs to a different faction (Souya’s group is on the Pacifist faction, the other ones are in the Sealing faction).

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That is a bit hard to follow at first but as the show pushed through, things started to connect and that is this show’s strong suit, giving enough to give the viewers an inkling of what is gong on and keep them invested, but not too much info to put the pieces together early on the game. Another good point about this show is that there is actually no right or wrong, it is just different ideals crashing against each other and even I, as a viewer, can somehow get the point that each party involved are trying to get across. Though in the end I will ally to the side with the best grills so there’s not much space for bargaining lol.

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If you want a fun, wild ride that is screaming of anime in every part of its run this is my go to anime for you. It has a lot of cool mecha action fight scenes too, not to mention that the designs (both the characters and the mechas) are refreshingly unique for my taste, this may sound preposterous but I will say it nonetheless, this is the show that comes closest to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in all of the mecha shows that came after it.


2. Asobi Asobase (Asobi Asobase: Workshop Of Fun)

Genres: Comedy, School

Studio: Lerche

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Asobi Asobase is this season’s nah scratch that, Asobi Asobase so far is the most hilarious comedy show this year or maybe this decade for that matter * Insert change my mind meme here *

C’mon, if you are still not watching this and you have a soft spot for comedy shows then you are totally missing something great with this one. My claim may sound exaggerated since this year alone we’ve got strong contenders for that spot like Hinamatsuri or the other shows airing alongside this one like Grand Blue and Chio’s School Road but I will still hands down give it to Asobi Asobase.

The show tells nothing but the everyday life of the three girls of the Pastimer’s club and their encounters with supposedly normal events that develops to really bizarre situations in and out of their school. It is a bit hard to explain and try to sell a comedy show since I can’t say anything aside from the fact that it seriously made me laugh my guts out every single episode that it aired but if I will be forceful on a single show this season, then this will be the one I will be forcing down everyone's throat who are reading this.

There are as many ways to make someone laugh as there are stars in the sky, but sometimes some jokes will go stale overtime due to overuse and at times the poor delivery of it hinders the further enjoyment that one could have derived from a punchline, but that is not the case with Asobi Asobase, IT. WAS. MASTERFULLY. DONE. props to the people behind it, to studio Lerche and most importantly to the Voice Actors/ Actresses of the show especially the voice of Hanako Honda, Hina Kino, that was a stellar performance and totally deserves recognition (hope that her vocal chords are still intact though). I don’t know if a new season would be made for this (which I am totally wishing for) but it definitely deserves one and I would keep my eyes peeled for any news about that. This is my personal favorite show this season by the way, sorry Overlord and Shingeki no Kyojin but basing it on overall enjoyment, this takes the cake, ez.

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3. Shoujou Kageki Revue Starlight

Genres: Music, School

Studio: Kinema Citrus

Wakarimasu

A show that I discovered too late to include in my first list, fell flat in the middle to include in my mid-season list but ended on a strong note to finally be here on my final list. All is well that ends well.

This one is strong on its initial episodes because of its surprise factor that I think was still not used in the past, correct me if I’m wrong on this one. I was contemplating for the first half of the show whether to continue watching it because I have a feeling that it is shaping to be a copy paste idol anime show but then things happen and I was like, “The heck just happened? Am I still on the same show?”.

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The show is about Stage girls and their life fighting to be the top star but wait there’s more, they are literally fighting for it. Well not that they are trying to kill each other but that really came as a surprise for me, they are wielding swords, knives, bow and arrows and other weaponry and try to defeat other Stage girls while singing/ performing and it struck me as a real creative use of the premise. The stage changes as if to compliment the flow of the battle and the fights are choreographed real good too and the way they declare victory with the catchphrase “Position zero” is also a nice way to end the duel.

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That is how I initially felt, but during the middle, the show became a little stagnant for me and Hikari’s attitude didn’t help either because I am not fond of bitchy attitude when their reason for doing so is still in the dark (but it got cleared up in the end, hence the inclusion). The show picked up the slack during Nana’s episode and increased the depth of the show’s underlying mystery, the ending song even played without vocals so I got a little Madoka Magica vibes from that episode alone but turns out that it isn’t as grim as I thought it would be, and if that is a plus or a minus is something I would leave to your own discretion.

Overall the show did well, it caught me by surprise (even among this season where surprising viewers is a commonplace it stands at the top of the list when it comes to surprise element) got a bit slow in the middle but ended up strong. The show has good selection of songs that accompanied well animated battle scenes so give it a try if you want to see some unique way of portraying a battle featuring anime girls.

They have a talking giraffe by the way, which is the weirdest thing I’ve seen this season, the fact that it looks normal is what made it more bizarre for me.

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This is the firs part of my list and I won’t make promises on when would I post the next one but I will endeavor to have it ready by next week in the least. So that’s it, I will be signing off for now, see you again next time!

Ciao~

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I have seen many clips of Asobi Asobase on Facebook and it legit is funny lol definitely weird but funny

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It's presence is strong on social media, probably the strongest this season beating even shows that are on their 2nd or 3rd season. Another indication of its influence is the increase in its manga's popularity as well, it is currently listed under hot when I have only heard of it this season. That's quite a feat imo.

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Okay, you're focusing more on the ignored jewels of the season, no?

I mean, I agree with Planet With being cool, though as you said it's a shame that the final episodes went by FAST, a little rushed but overall well done. What I loved the most about Planet With was the wacky ideas and design of the aliens: A cat spaceship and a dog spaceship, c'mon!!! that's so crazy!!!

Asobi is Asobi, definitely, it's bad for the health, too much laughing caused me back pain and pain in the jaw too, and just like you said, Hanako is SO, SO, SO damn funny, OMG!!! props to the voice actress indeed. Their three personalities just meld together in one crazy way, not to mention the other supporting characters, like the girls from the shogi club or Olivia's brother, the president and vicepresident. I still laugh when I remember the vicepresident's makeup episode, that was hilarious.

And Starlight gets a prop from me due to originality. I thought it was ANOTHER idol anime but it's about stage acting combined with a bit of mahou shoujo and some complex stuff (Nana's episodes got deep). I'd liked it due to originality and good animation but it's no masterpiece either in my opinion.

I'm suprised you didn't include Island in the list, maybe you haven't watched it yet? that one REALLY went under the radar at least in my normal circle of friends despite being awesome from episode 5 onwards.

I guess you could put it that way, I am trying to put Planet With and Starlight on the spotlight since, for me, they deserve more recognition especially the former.

Yes, Planet With didn't hold back on its weird designs but it totally paid off because it made it more unique and memorable, instead of trying too hard to make cool looking machines they used a different approach and that connected well with its absurd cast and its wild ride of a story haha.

The vice president episode though would be nightmare fuel for sure and I couldn't agree more, I can't remember how long since I laughed that much from a show, I was a big fan of the genre but I can only come up with a few shows that can stand its ground when it comes to purely making me laugh out loud despite the large number of shows I've seen under the genre. And bless Hanako's VA, looking forward to her future roles.

Starlight as you've said has the originality element but sadly it fell short to be a truly remarkable show but still had a good run. Had they decided to take the dark path instead of making it a friendship thingy, I think things would have gotten really dang good that they could have snatched the top spot this season.

As for Island, I was still unable to finish it because I gave up on it half way through, but it is still under my watch list so I will be looking at it again after I am done with other shows on my list.


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Thanks once again :)

Oh, pick #1 planet weed XD seems rad. Skipped the spoilers, thanks for the warning. Haha. And it's crazy you name dropped TTGL XD.

I have been feeling like we are having less of that pump these days that is why I can't help but emphasize the show to that extent lol.

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