The summer has hit. It’s time to look at that one season series I’m still watching and those non-seasonal shows that I added on top of it all. More actual seasonal shows well make an appearance. Not now though.

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Seasonal Anime

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Fruits Basket 2 Episode 13

I can’t help but admit that I found this episode frustrating in a lot of ways. Especially this time considering that the goofy antics of the student council room were pushed a little too far before anything big of exciting happened. The most interesting moments were between Kyo, Arisa, and Saki in the beginning because it was refreshing to see these great characters after so much time away from them? Instead, we got to spend some annoying time with Yuki and the very verbose and annoying student council?

It’s a big thing for Yuki stretching himself out more and learning to like more people, but I still don’t like these people a lot. Ok, that’s not fair. The most interesting person in there is Machi who has some subtle issues and is very quiet in what she does. Everyone else is just way too loud. Miki is a little too into Yun Yun and everything, Manabe at least gets some depth after not doing much, but Sakuragi is just too strict as his only character trait. Yuki and Manabe’s fight meant a lot for both from an understanding stand point. Manabe was still a huge jerk.

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Non-Seasonal Anime

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Amagi Brilliant Park Episode 7

This episode was the weakest one. Not because it was not interesting or had some good jokes, but it felt like a little too much? This is the pirate episode that started simple enough with a fun premise and then it exploded when an actual pirate ship came out and a lot of craziness came out. There were some great moments with Kanie leading canon shots against the enemy pirates, the girl announcing what living mascots were saying, Sento being best girl, and such. It was just all muddled together one way or another. Very visually exciting for Kyoto Animation though.

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Dorohedoro Episode 1

What an interesting introduction into a newer and strange world. I liked it. A place called hole that looks like crap, sorcerers showing up to test their abilities through dimensional doors, a guy with a crocodile face looking to get his normal face back, and a skateboarding and strong girl named Nikaidou helping the guy out while cooking food at a restaurant. There is just a lot to unpack here and I am just having a lot of fun doing that. Also, the fights were super interesting and brutal. It’s such a strange thing to watch fingers being broken in front of you because that doesn’t happen in a lot of fights. There is obvious cg and things, but it all works. A very well produced and interesting first episode.

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Princess Principal Episode 7

A slower episode that explores Dorothy’s life and everything else? Yes please. This is an episode centered around Dorothy with Beatrice as the characters where Dorothy vents to her. It’s a very fun relationship. Too bad, this episode isn’t fun. In order to find a code, Dorothy ends up working in a morgue for a little bit. That’s also where her dad works. The dad that used to be beat her up as a kid because of his robotic arm, dad. All of that relayed emotionally to Beatrice over the course of it. Of course, there is more than that too. (Oh, Ange and Princess do have a moment about their relationship with others too.)

The nature of Dorothy’s relationship with her dad being on display is only one minor thing here too. Like, her dad is walking against her also and Dorothy surprisingly knows that. So, she finds the code, copies it, then lets her dad know about it. That could have been a starting point for that relationship to come back but since her dad is involved with some dark forces and ends up dead, that never happens. The fact that Dorothy and Beatrice never know about it at the end of the day. It doesn’t matter for her, but when he does find out oh crap.

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Love Live! Sunshine!! Episode 1

Yes, this was a random choice and I am happy with it so far. I’ve not watched just a dedicated idol series before and it’s time to try one I suppose. Chika is starting up an idol unit at her school with her friend You, so a lot of time is dedicated to Chika’s hijinks in starting the club with the class president, meeting cool people like Riko who just transferred into her class like fate, and such. A love of wind imagery like the winds of change and fate. Really fun and insightful episode in a lot of ways. Excited to see some cool songs and fun imagery after this happened

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Dai-Guard Episode 1

Oh hey, this was a different start to a mecha episode then I expected. Adult characters in a rundown PR job for one with a giant robot that isn’t moving named Dai-Guard as a tourist attraction. A very classic, super robot looking one. With a robot on display, that means that a monster has to attack. So, a monster called an Heterodyne that looks like an Angel from Eva appears and our protagonist Akagi somehow ropes two of his coworkers into piloting the old thing to fend it off. You know, despite the protag’s higher ups complaining about all the budget in running a robot.

This episode was pretty clunky in execution, but there is something special about how this show does things. I think there is something to be said about a show trying something different and always struggling at first I suppose. I’m sure that this show has some interesting things to say to older mecha fans as well as being a response to Evangelion like a lot of mecha series from the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Fun times for sure. That’s to figure out for next time I suppose.

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Bamboo Blade Episode 1

Whatever it was when I was jumping into this series, it was not that. Usually a sports series centers itself on a team, right? So sense Bamboo Blade is a girl’s sports anime, it would focus on the girls and then coach later. Nope. The episode itself starts with the coach Tojari Ishida of the Kendo club after making a bet with his “cobbled together” women’s kendo team against his superiors. We also see how pathetic and poor he is alongside how petty he is. Then the girls come later. That was pretty fun. I’m glad the girls call the guy out on his petty attactions even if he won’t change for now. I hope he does.

The girls in the club are pretty fun in their own way though. I suppose we didn’t see much of one of newer male group members other than how enduring she is to her boyfriend, but the current president Kirino Chiba seems pretty determined to train well and get a good team together. Tamaki Kawazoe, a girl who loves just and doesn’t want to do Kendo at school because she does it at home is pretty fun too. Especially with her getting ready to defeat some bullies. That’s going to be fun. Very interesting first episode.

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