Anime season Summer 2018 review

In this post I will be giving a review of the summer 2018 anime season chart. It’s meant to be more of a quality review and not a descriptive review, meaning I try to give objective characteristics as to why an anime might be good or bad, independently of the content itself. I’d recommend to have the chart on hand and look both at the chart and this post for maximum efficiency.

I’m only covering the anime that got released THIS season, anime that are leftovers, OVAs or movies won’t be covered because the post would be endless otherwise, really exceptional movies might get separate reviews however.

This review uses a relative score comparison, meaning that they’re compared to others in the same season, I find that it’s more fair than trying to make absolute comparisons against some of the most iconic anime ever. You might find that some are missing from the list and one is mentioned below with no score; and while I try to be thorough I’m only human, please understand.

Without further ado:

Angolmois: Genkou Kassenki

This show is about a group of samurai and cast-offs that are exiled to an island and forced to fight for the people there for their survival because the island is under attack by the Mongols. The animation is top-notch, boasting some seriously awesome drawings and a spectacular soundtrack; HOWEVER, the show itself is lacking in several core points. The protagonist isn’t as fleshed out and interesting as in other anime, he just fights because he’s a warmonger, that’s it. The series just follows him and the other exiled and some samurai of the island as they use guerilla tactics against the invading Mongols, there is no interesting long term strategy or grand plan, just them surviving the assault.

Overall score is an 8 out of 10. Excellent animation & soundtrack that gets wasted on mediocre storytelling. It’s a real shame that the villain is a ton more interesting than the protagonists, most of the show is a big drama about treason, betrayal, alliances, temporary friendships and so forth…

Asobi Asobase

The funniest anime in YEARS, hands down the best anime this season. Asobi Asobase tells the story of three girls in school and their crazy adventures as the game investigation club. The animations are a bit… unique and the soundtrack isn’t exactly spectacular, but does its job, and it does it well. However, even if it were sticks on the screen it would still be ridiculously funny; the opening movie is misleading, as well as the first 10 minutes of the show. You can very easily think that it’s a drama or slice of life anime, but then the fun starts and doesn’t stop. It’s not recommendable to eat and watch it at the same time or you may very well choke or spit the food while laughing.

I give it an overall score of 10 out of 10. The animations are REALLY funny and the jokes are exceptional and if you’re a hardcore fan you will find many references here. I can’t recommend this one enough if you want to laugh.

Backstreet Girls: Gokudolls

This is another funny anime, not exceptionally funny, but it can give you more than a few chuckles. From the very beginning the joke starts and it’s good, the only problem is that after a while the joke gets boring. In order to avoid spoilers I’m just going to mention that it’s about a couple of Yakuza that are forced to become idols. The anime is funny, but by episodes 5 or 6 it starts getting old and stale.

Overall score 7.5 out of 10. Not bad, can give you more than a few laughs, the lower score is given because it gets stale and repetitive after a while. Even when repetitive I would recommend it anyway, because the jokes are really exceptionally funny, so, like a bad joke, even knowing it’s a bad joke you can’t help but laugh, that’s the kind of anime gokudolls is.

Baki

If you love martial arts and street fighting then Baki is for you. Exceptional drawings, and I mean EXCEPTIONAL, good soundtrack and good, nah, scratch that, EXCEPTIONAL animation makes Baki an anime worth watching from a technical perspective. Now, the show is about Baki, a teenager champion of the clandestine martial arts tournament and how he and the other top fighters of this tournament face a group of fugitive prisoners who just want to fight stronger people and want to know “defeat”.

Overall score is 9.4; Baki is probably the BEST serious anime that is airing this season, though Baki himself is a bit dumb and not exactly the most likeable protagonist ever… if I had to sell this anime to anyone I would do so by referencing HOW the fights are shown, it’s not just a couple of dudes duking it out, it’s WAY more than that and it makes the show a TON more interesting.

Banana Fish

This one is serious, perhaps too serious… or at least they tried to make it so. You see, Banana Fish is about a drug aptly called: “Banana Fish” that gives people hallucinations and can serve to brainwash them. So far, so good, it’s a great premise, the animation isn’t half bad the music is fine, the ambience is well made too; the only problem is that… they went overboard.

It all revolves around a mafia don who is gay and wants to get his hands on one of the protagonists whose name is “Ash”. Ash lived a hard life, since he’s a pretty blonde boy his father pretty much sold him into prostitution and he grew to be the leader of a gang… okay, nothing exaggerated there, many bad things in the world, what they DO exaggerate is that fact. It’s like the gay don just wants to have them all, the other protagonist is a boy who is a reporter and is relatively weak and hasn’t much of a relation to them in the beginning but still is Ash’s friend, doesn’t matter; he wants to f**k him too and do some really maniac stuff to Ash like kill friends in front of him and worse.

I find it hard to score this one, REALLY hard because it’s complicated pinpointing the main theme and seeing through many of the obviously forced situations, to the point where it seems like they’re breaking character. It’s not bad however, I think somewhere around 7.3 out of 10.

Chio-chan no Tsuukaguro

As a friend tells me: “This season is the ABC of funny anime” and the C refers to Chio-chan, another really funny anime airing this summer. The road to school of Chio, as translated in English, relates the story of Miyamo, a hardcore gamer, and her friends as she goes to school. Lots of funny and crazy circumstances surround her, and just from the beginning you will be laughing at her ideas and actions. On the visual and audio side the quality is actually quite decent for an anime based on jokes.

Overall score would be a 9 out 10. A good one to watch this time around, Miyamo’s wacky ideas and the people that she meets and the decisions she takes are just too much… specially if you’re a gamer or you’ve played at least some of the classics and can understand the references.

Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa

If you’ve seen Kaiji, the pariah, then you’ll immediately recognize the drawing style, and if you haven’t stop reading and go watch Kaiji. Kaiji is definitely one of the best anime I’ve seen and I would have expected a tad more from the same people, but NO. While this anime isn’t too bad, it’s definitely not a big thing either. It shows the life of Tonegawa while managing things at the Teiai financial corporations and the problems he face every day with his subordinates.

A score of 4 out of 10 would be fair if you haven’t watched Kaiji yet, maybe 5.4 if you’ve seen Kaiji before and understand some of the references, not too good overall.

Free! Dive to the Future

This is the continuation to the Free! Series about swimming competitions. It’s highly recommended to watch the previous seasons in order to meet the characters and understand what this show is about, because they don’t make much of an effort to explain it for newcomers. As told before: it’s an anime about swimming, more specifically about the life of the members of a swimming club at the Iwatobi high school. The good points are that the members of the club are all sexy and hot and show their six packs for the girl fans and that the animations of the competitions themselves are pretty eye candy.

Okay, this is kind of a sport show for girls so I find it hard to like it, however I enjoyed the first original season, this one I just find it lacking in comparison, and with so many other great ones to watch, I have to give it an acceptable 6.1 out of 10 score.

Gintama. Gin no Tamashii-hen 2nd season (final season?)

This is the unknownth season of Gintama… I lost count a long ago. This time around it seemed this was the final season, until it didn’t seem so again and then it did so again; will this one be the end?

Gintama is a gag anime, some episodes are really good, some are really bad; it’s overall a good anime nonetheless. This season, maybe because they were giving the idea of the finality of the show is pretty serious in comparison to the average. This seriousness fitted this season quite well and it gave an excellent sense of closure to the samurai war. Many loose ends and many unfinished or hidden elements were explained during a really epic climax.

Despite how serious the anime is this time around, it’s still Gintama, so expect a lot of gags and jokes, both good and bad. Score if you’ve watched Gintama so far: 8.7 out of 10; the sense of closure and the big climax to everything that had happened before really helps to bump score up. In fact if you haven’t watched Gintama before the show is not for you and it’s not exactly good to jump in either, I would give it a 7.1, though this may be because I’m already used to Gintama and their wacky style.

Grand blue

Grand blue promotes itself as an anime about diving… in reality however it’s another funny anime, though geared toward young adults. The show starts with a warning to go easy on alcohol and parties, that the show is fiction and that all characters depicted are 20 years old or more… yeah, like if anyone cared about those things. But the warning needs to be said, because there is ton of (censored) nudity, adult jokes, drinking, cheating and other irresponsible things surrounding Iori, our protagonist and his life with two (hot) cousins on the diving club’s favorite place.

In stark contrast to other gag anime, Grand Blue does have really good animations, high quality drawings and more than acceptable soundtracks, plus the jokes are REALLY funny too. Overall score of 10, it’s a tie with Asobi Asobase; it’s too difficult to pick a winner between them to be honest.

Hanebado!

Badminton sport anime with top tier animation, pretty girls and a protagonist with some serious personality issues… that pretty much sums up Hanebado. However I would probably not be fair by doing so; Hanebado sports a true top notch animation that can be seen as early as the opening song which is also totally cool!

Hanebado, like any good sports anime has a ton of drama and many interesting events happening off the field. In this case our protagonist Hanesaki has some serious issues with her relationship with her mother and Badminton. Without going too deep into spoiler territory, she is the child of a Badminton champion and learned with her, becoming really good playing, but her mother didn’t exactly give her the attention she wanted and left the country. This gave her a complex that only becomes worse later on when she meets…

Anything more would be a spoiler, so if you’re interested give it a try, it’s actually quite good. Overall score: 8.2 out of 10.

Happy Sugar Life

Think of an obsessed yandere that kidnaps a kid and voila! You get Happy Sugar Life. If you aren’t familiar with the term yandere it’s used for girls who are lovely and possessive but also possess some kind of maniacal side to them, often hurting and killing those close to the protagonist and in some cases the protagonist himself. In this case our yandere is a pink haired school girl who kidnaps an elementary school student and keeps her at home to receive her “pure” and “innocent” love.

I thought this one would be MUCH better than how it really is, I find it hard to give explanations for the poor score without giving spoilers. The cause lies in the fact that I strongly believed this to be a nice idea for a change with decent potential early on but really poor execution and some really ridiculous setups make this anime a poor choice of your time. The only real thing they’ve got going for themselves is the good drawings and the animations… so I’m giving it a score of 5.2 out of 10.

Harukana Receive

Hanebado is more of a serious sport anime while Harukana Receive is more of a relaxing one. Harukana focuses on beach volleyball and how the two protagonists train to play against the reigning champions, who are friends to them. Beach volleyball has a ton of boing boing, so it’s no surprise that this anime has a decent amount of fanservice. The great good points of this anime is the slice of life elements and how it pulls you inside and MAKES you relax, cozy and happy.

This mere capability of allowing relaxation and happiness make this anime a valuable one this time around. It has nice animations and drawings and the characters are lovely and charismatic; unfortunately that’s pretty much everything it’s got to offer. I give it a decent score of 6.8 out of 10 because of this lack of additional elements to enjoy in the anime.

Hataraku Saibou

This anime is about our human body and the cells working inside of us. It’s really interesting and somewhat original, with great animations and an engaging storytelling. Most of the show focuses on the red cells (blood cells) and the most known antibodies, the white cells. They depict the human body as a city where the cells work energetically; the plackets work constructing and repairing the city, the blood cells transport oxygen and food and the antibodies fight invasions.

My description might sound a bit boring, but in reality the show is packed with action as they explain the different pieces of the body and all the cells inside us in a very easy to understand manner. The body presented in the show must live someplace very unhealthy because it’s constantly getting invaded by viruses, infections, cancer and so forth.

Overall score of 8.9 out of 10; really GOOD one this time around, remember that the score is relative and it has tough competition in the top places. If you want someone to learn biology and about our bodies I doubt there is an easier way to understand.

High Score Girl

Made for retro gamers using a somewhat unique style. It’s the story of a boy in elementary and high school and two girls as they play arcade games (mostly Street Fighter II) and their relationships in a weird love triangle. The greatest selling point is one of the heroines: Ono, and how she beats the crap out of the protagonist in Street Fighter II and their weird relationship after all.

It’s never mentioned that Ono is a mute girl, but I’m starting to think it’s the case and if it’s actually the case it would justify plenty of her actions and how she expresses herself and would add quite a bit of value to this unique anime.
It’s a mixture of drama, Slice of life and comedy focused on arcade games… definitely not an anime that will enter the annals of history but decent enough to spend a few hours. Revised Score 6.9 out of 10

Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria

Yet ANOTHER anime about a student protagonist living in Tokyo that gets summoned to another world and bla, bla, bla…

Okay, it might sound I’m biased, and I really am because so far NONE of the anime about being summoned to another world after Re:Zero has been worth anything, AND this isn’t the exception. This anime has decent animations and a bronze age setting with some supernatural powers focused on Einherjars, at some point in the show they say it has some relation with Nordic Mythology… for your fans of Nordic Mythology out there, I’m sorry in their behalf. The anime has bad quality ecchi and harem scenes, the protagonist isn’t lovable nor charismatic, the heroines are bland too; it’s a hodgepodge of stuff done wrong at multiple levels. Again the only saving points here are the animation, drawings, etc…
I’m giving it a really biased score of 2.8 out of 10, even Tonegawa makes less mistakes than this one.

Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu

See the review above, Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V. I wonder how they manage to always fail miserably at making these kind of anime where the protagonist gets summoned to another world. In this case the protagonist is an overpowered player who suddenly gets transferred from his seat in front of the PC to inside the body of his character. Perhaps unsurprisingly it’s a harem with ecchi scenes poorly done with some fights between him and other not so powerful contestants.

Unlike Hyakuren no Haou the main selling point of this anime is the ecchi scenes, to the point they force it even when it’s not really correct to do so. The animations are actually quite good and the protagonist is more likable and charismatic than in the one above, but still… Score of 5.3 out of 10 because of the animations and fanservice.

Explaining better: It’s bad overall, but if you’re bored and want to see some fanservice and some great animations then it’s passable.

Island

I find this one difficult to judge because it’s a drama with slice of life elements that really picks up the slack later on. The story is about two people fated to be together but separated as well, time travels, deaths, love, hate, and many things twirl and twist here.

It starts slowly, really slowly, introducing the characters, explaining the role of the island, the legend of both Setsuna and Rinne and all the other supporting characters and their role in the history. It’s almost impossible to avoid spoilers without telling anything else but it DOES pick up the slack of the first episodes. They managed to work many elements with incredible details and wove it all together, in fact there is a moment where they change the entire opening video for the relevant 2 episodes.

It’s a drama, it’s a slice of life, it’s definitely not for everyone, but for those who decide to sit down and enjoy the slow pace many good surprises await. Overall score of 7.77 as it really was a lucky hit for me since I didn’t expect all the turns of events that occurred and how they connected.

Jashin-chan Dropkick

Yet another comedy anime, but it’s not like it can even compare to the others this season. Jashin-chan is about a woman demon who has a serpentine lower half and gets summoned by a witch. In order to go back to hell she must dispose of the witch who summoned her, but the witch is too powerful and smart for her so she is constantly killed and tortured while joking about it. Amongst the support characters there is also a minotaur, a medusa, an angel who is poor and lives like a homeless and others.

Not much to say honestly, just watch the first three minutes and you’ll have a good idea of what’s going to happen for the rest of the episodes, it’s even worse than backstreet girls in that regard. Due to this gag anime getting stale REALLY quick I’m giving it a 5.3 out of 10 score.

Kyoto Teramachi Sanjou no Holmes

This is a shojo anime about the life of a girl and her handsome Kyoto employer who works as an appraiser in an antique store as he easily solves pretty much unsolvable puzzles and how they fall in love. It’s a poorly done romantic drama that isn’t really worth the time, honestly. The worst part is the fact that they try and focus on how Holmes is really smart and solves some tasks and challenges from an imitator who tries to outsmart him but they do so really poorly.

I’m not going to keep talking about this really bad anime that some girls may enjoy due to the beautiful and perfect boy, but for those it’s better to watch Free!. Score of 3.3 out of 10.

Lord of Vermilion Guren no ou

A mess of a shonen anime; they start by showing some scenes of fights and the main characters and then make a flashback to properly start the anime. Obviously this is pretty normal and it’s cool, the only problem is that the main characters’ abilities are poorly explained and everything behind what’s happening is REALLY POORLY explained, even by episode 10 a lot of questions aren’t answered and they will probably be kept unexplained. The fights aren’t all cool either, and the protagonist isn’t exactly charismatic nor likable either.

However not ALL is lost, they do have great drawings and an adequate soundtrack as well as a passable background story… they just screwed it big time with the storytelling. Score of 4.4 out of 10.

Muhyo to Rouji no Mahoritsu Soudan Jimusho

It started a bit late this season and it’s definitely not for everyone but it’s not exactly bad either. The greatest point against it is its speed, it starts and evolves too slowly, introducing Muhyo and his partner, some of the cases and picking up the pace by episode 5.

The idea of magic law isn’t new, but the spirits and how they actually judge and execute the law IS pretty original. Muhyo doesn’t directly exorcise evil spirits, instead he summons a servant from hell that will serve as executor for the crime they’ve commited, and if Muhyo summons the wrong demon he gets punished instead.

It’s a mixture of mind games and classic shonen with some drama sprinkled in. Not for everyone, but not a bad one either; score of 6.4 out of 10

Overlord III

Third season of the popular anime Overlord. This time around Overlord goes back to its roots a little and focuses on what made great the first season. Great animation and an original perspective and storytelling is what made this anime popular in the first place. If we make a cold and neutral analysis we can easily see that the background history isn’t all that spectacular and that other anime have better battles or story, yet Overlord’s storytelling is interesting and Ains is a very charismatic protagonist.

The score for this third season is 8 out of 10.

Phantom in the twilight

We start with two girls who are best friends and who get separated by two opposing factions of “Umbra”. Umbras are pretty much anything supernatural: vampires, ghosts, werewolves, etc… The protagonist whose name is Ton is welcomed into a faction who worked with her grandmother and has a vampire, a werewolf, a ghost and another person who is similar to a chinese zombie (think of darkstalkers).

This is an inverse harem anime but it’s actually quite nice for those who like these kind of histories. The protagonist is very charismatic and the storytelling is a lot better that others in the same category. Score of 5.8 out of 10; definitely not for everyone and not the best either, just better that others in the same category.

Planet With

This anime is about a boy and two aliens who live with him as they face other aliens who want to pacify the earth and how they face each other. The first episodes open a little abruptly and it’s really confusing but quickly becomes a good shonen battle anime. I don’t want to spoil much about what happens but the protagonist’s past is pretty interesting and the battles resulting from such a past are interesting.

It starts slowly and it’s a bit confusing at first but picks up the slack later so I’m giving it a score of 7.5 out of 10 due to originality, storytelling and good battles.

Satsuriku no Tenshi

It’s complicated to give a good review about this anime because it’s so complex and it’s got so many things hidden on layers upon layers. They define it as horror, thriller, mystery and psychological anime… I describe it as confusing, simple as that. At episode 10 some things are explained and start making sense but even so, waiting until the anime is beyond half its duration to start making some sense is not exactly good.

It’s about Rachel, a 13 year old who’s got some loose screws and Zack a serial killer who’s also got some loose screws and a group of judges who have loose screws too. It’s a damn asylum and even if the anime finishes with a majestic explanation of all that happened it won’t erase how bad these 9 episodes are…
Score of 3 out of 10 for confusing, poor narrative, messy characters, lack of horror for an horror anime, lack of thriller for a thriller anime, etc...

Senjuushi

They had great ideas when making this anime but the execution kind of went the wrong way entirely. It’s about people, robots or dolls who are summoned by a master of the resistance group facing the empire. It’s so poorly done in so many aspects that I find it hard to be objective reviewing it. Imagine a group of boys whose names are equal to rifles of the past who fight with muskets against tanks and people armored and with machineguns and top tier military equipment but have some supernatural power called absolute noblesse that makes them superior.

Just by watching the opening of the first episode you can get a very good idea of what’s in store for you, it doesn’t get better, it gets WORSE after… score of 1.2 out of 10

Shichisei no Subaru

Another Sword Art Online clone, this time focused on elementary students and how they were separated in high school and reunited again inside the game. You see in the first episode one of the main figures of the group died in the game and died in real life as well, but several years later when the protagonist logins again she sees her alive inside of the game.

This is the detonator for many events occurring afterwards that will change their relationship and put the six friends’ friendship to the test. Overall it’s not bad, both the storytelling, background story and animations are cool enough, but the characters’ relationships aren’t exactly something enjoyable. Maybe it’s just that I’m biased because of other better anime representing this idea better like Sword Art Online but I’m giving it a score of 6.1 out of 10.

Shingeki no Kyojin season 3

The long awaited third season of SNK. Assuming you’ve watched the previous two seasons then you can expect a great spike in quality as the third season as they reveal many shocking truths and action is non-stop. Fluid animations, excellent soundtracks, fantastic storytelling and a great backstory to back it up makes this third season a jewel to enjoy.

Score of 9.2 out of 10… I’m trying to avoid giving spoilers for those that haven’t enjoyed it yet but it’s really as good as many claim, and this third season is even better than the second one.

Shoujo kageki revue starlight

This anime caught me by surprise, really exceptional animation and an engaging cast made this anime an interesting one to watch this season. It’s about professional stage acting and how the two main protagonists evolve as they share experiences and fight in a revue organized by a Giraffe and yep you read that right, they’re organized by a Giraffe.

It’s incredible how the characters interact with each other and evolve in the revue clashing their feelings and emotions. Maybe it’s not something for everyone but those that enjoy drama and slice of life anime might find themselves surprised by revue starlight. Score of 6.6 out of 10.

Sunoharasou no Kanrinin-san

An original anime to say the least… Imagine a kid in high school who is really small and frail but that wants to be treated as a man but is really feminine and starts living in a dormitory with a busty, lovely and motherly landlord. He then meets other girls in the dormitory, including the sister of the landlord, the president of the student council and others and lives happily with them as they babysit him and joke around.

I suppose it’s technically a harem, but in this case the protagonist it’s not a cool dude who attracts girls like a magnet due to masculinity but instead a frail boy who attracts their motherly side. Score of 4.8 out of 10 because it does have some redeeming qualities.

Tenrou: Sirius the Jaeger

Really good animation and exceptional battles between vampires and vampire hunters. It’s a great anime whose only failure is that it just uses every cliché idea ever written. Vampire against vampire hunters, the family who gets separated and the older brother who gets converted into a vampire and is forced to fight against his brother, the master who slaughtered their village but ends up adopting the younger brother and training him to become a great vampire hunter and use to the fullest his Sirius potential.

So… if you’ve seen some anime before you can pretty much guess what’s going to happen and that does kill the emotion and the thrill somewhat but it’s nevertheless a great anime for those who love shonen and battle manga. I’d give it a 7.1 out of 10.

Tsukumogami Kashimasu

It’s a drama and slice of life about a brother and sister who lend items who are tsukumogami, basically items who have a life of their own. By lending these items to other people and then listening to the rumors and the conversations the tsukumogami have after being lent they help solve other people’s problems.

There isn’t much more than this so I’d give it a really poor 1.7 out of 10.

Ongaku Shoujo

It’s another anime based on idols, I’m not exactly keen on this genre but I’ve watched other anime that belongs in the same category and Ongaku Shoujo isn’t exactly original nor spectacular so I didn’t watch anything beyond the first episode. Score Unknown.

Final Words

This post ended up being a lot longer than I expected, even with less than 200 words per review there were 34 reviews to be made and this ended up taking a lot more time than what I would have expected, two full weeks to be more precise…
I tried to avoid spoilers as much as I could even when I was REALLY tempted to, like in the case of Island, High Score Girl and Planet With but this only made writing the reviews even more HARDER…
Well, I won’t prolong this post even further, if you’re interested in more quality content regarding anime/manga and some related stuff you can check out our community in Steem: @akibasteem and our discord server: https://discord.gg/7JQruwm

Mata ne!
Eilder Jorge

^{All images are taken from the [chart]http://anichart.net/Summer-2018 at anichart.net}