Part 3 of our Summer 2015 Anime Guide is basically a formality for me to talk about my most anticipated show of the season, Gatchaman Crowds Inisght. Hopefully the surreal, colorful look at life in the Social Media Age will be the sequel we never knew we needed. As for the rest of it, well, despite what Gee tells me about Prison School I can’t say we saved the best for last. But, who knows? Maybe Bikini Warriors and Pillow Boys will turn out to be new anime classics! Take a look and let us know what you think looks watchable.
Also, make sure you check out Part 1 of the guide here and Part 2 here.
Blue Spring x Machine Gun
Ao Haru x Kikanjuu
| Manga Adaptation by Brains Base Air Date: 7/3/2015 |
In the grand tradition of Upotte!, C3-bu, and Sabagebu!, it looks like anime’s obsession with survival games carries on with Blue Spring x Machine Gun. The twist here is it stars a girl dressed like a boy, an incredibly handsome host, and his childhood friend who now draws porn manga. Throw in some airsoft guns and it sounds like a great Wednesday night to me! I’m having a hard time gauging the tone from the trailer as a good deal of it looks like comedy but the intense theme song and splashes of action feel like it’s also trying to be cool. Considering two out of the three survival game series I mentioned turned out to be surprisingly good, I’d say this is at least worth a look. |
Gatchaman Crowds Insight
| Anime Original by Tatsunoko Productions Air Date: 7/6/2015 |
Gatchaman Crowds was an under appreciated gem when it aired back in 2013, taking a different path than its other Tatsunoko revival project cousins, Casshern Sins and Yatterman Night. Rather than appropriating its source material into a bleak apocalyptic setting, Crowds is bright and flashy and thoughtful, questioning the value of helping others, acknowledging god, and playing games on Facebook. The second season brings back the team with a few newcomers as they battle an anonymous internet organization that uses red Crowds. I’d explain what “Crowds” are but you’d be better off just watching the first season and seeing for yourself. There’s no new trailer oddly enough but there is an “episode 0” that recaps the first season and gives us a few minutes to start season 2. As of writing there’s no subs available (legit or otherwise) so in the meantime I’m just linking the cool new OP song that plays over the credits. Now go watch season 1! |
Bikini Warriors
| Figure Line Adaptation by Feel Air Date: 7/7/2015 |
We have come full circle. Now we are getting anime based on scantily clad, impossibly proportioned warrior woman figures instead of the other way around. I suppose this will be of interest to the skeevy figure collecting crowd as it features notable skeevy artists like Saitom and Tony Taka but let’s be honest: this is just an animated commercial. I’m also not sure why they stole the Dragon Quest logo, but that’s probably the least of Bikini Warriors problems. Watch the trailer for a laugh, but be prepared to immediately need a shower afterwards. |
School Live!
Gakou Gurashi!
| Manga Adaptation by Lerche Air Date: 7/9/2015 |
The adorable Yuki loves being a member of the School Life Club, a group the stays overnight at school and plans all kinds of fun activities! The thing is they have to stay at school as they are possibly the sole survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Poor Yuki is too traumatized to realize the truth while the rest of the club goes about the business of staying alive. Not gonna lie, that sounds like an amazing premise for some black humor and I’m kind of hoping this turns out good. It’s a little hard to stomach the ultra moe designs and voices in the trailer and I worry they are going to put way more emphasis on the cute girls doing cute things aspect then tapping into any disturbing comedic potential. But if they do manage to properly use the context of their situation then this could be fun to watch. |
Sky Wizards Academy
Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan
| Light Novel Adaptation by Diomedea Air Date: 7/9/2015 |
Here’s the cool part: Giant magic robo bugs have forced humans to live in flying cities and wizards train to fight them. Not so cool part: Our story centers on a fallen hero once known as the “Black Master Swordsman” (I can’t make this up) is assigned to teach a team of powerful but incompetent girls who will undoubtedly fall in love with his cool logic and invincible fighting skills. Just watch the trailer and the story writes itself. If it wasn’t for the existence of Shimoseka (which we mentioned back in Part 1) I’d pick this for worst of the season, so as is let’s say it’s my pick for the runner up. |
Prison School
| Manga Adaptation by J.C. Staff Air Date: 7/11/2015 |
The only reason I’m giving Prison School the time of day is because Gee may have read the manga and kind of sort of possibly liked it a little, which means if you are offended by the above trailer I’m blaming him 100%. As the name implies, a group of boys attend a very strict all girls school for some reason and end up in the school prison (because they have one of those apparently) and I guess get beaten by a Queen’s Blade character with a riding crop. Looks gross to me, but I also want to know what is up with that one guy’s tiny face??? |
Venus Project: Climax
| Game Adaptation by Nomad Air Date: 7/12/2015 |
In future Japan, idols don’t just sing and dance, they battle with their live performances. Basically, this is a Rhythm game RPG commercial. There’s no trailer yet so I’m linking to the game and it is not encouraging. If the source material is full of boring designs, dull music, and poor production values it doesn’t bode well for the anime itself. Of course they could take a ton of creative license and turn it into something cool as we’ve seen with some other game adaptations, but I’m not getting my hopes up. |
Pillow Boys
Makura no Danshi
| Fake Body Pillow Adaptation??? by Feel Air Date: 7/13/2015 |
What is Pillow Boys? Is it an actual anime or is it the second coming of Sleeping with Hanako? All we know is each episode will feature a different type of cute boy and you will get to experience what it’s like to sleep next to (which is very different than “with”) them. I normally wouldn’t add something like this to the season guide but it’s so bizarre I had to mention it, plus the opening theme will be performed by The Really Talented Guy Who Did The Nozaki-kun OP and I wanted an excuse to link that video. Enjoy! |
Gatchaman for me from this list. The female armour trope and Black Master Swordsman made me cringe on biological levels that defy description.
The Black Master Swordsman thing made me think about making a Kirito joke but we bash SAO around here enough as it is.
I agree so much with your thoughts, jelx. Gatchaman Crowds Insight was an unappreciated gem of Summer 2013. But then again it was the year of Attack on Titan.
[Laughs] Nope, I don’t find Prison School offensive. If anything I find the art style of the manga and everything about the series amusing and interesting. As for Pillow Boys, the hell, the premise sounds absolutely ludicrous. I look forward to see what happens with Pillow Boys.
Correction: Gatchaman Crowds (2013)
I think some people gave up on Crowds because the first few episodes kind of trick you into thinking the show is about one thing and they don’t watch long enough to see it’s really about something completely different. I will keep trying to get people to watch it though!
I got inspired to write an analysis on the show’s message(s) thanks to your post. Should be up on my blog tomorrow. Perhaps your right. Another reason I think people did not hit it off as much with the series is many people mention they are not really sure how to interpret the series. That makes me sad since this is also coming from seasoned anime bloggers who I follow. And if even seasoned anime bloggers cannot explain the anime to others, of course, other individuals wont discover the series. With anime the best way to introduce an anime to others is if others can easily decide on the overall message or story in a concise way. If not your not going to interest anyone into trying an anime series. Too bad, really, since Gatchaman Crowds has quite the messages about modern society.
Please do! This series should not need to be passed up.
I really liked Gatchaman Crowds! Can’t wait for insight.
I’m one of those that just didn’t get Gatchaman and definitely doesnt think it was clever. I watched it through to the end, suffering and scratching my head…utterly confounded. Can anyone tell me wtf happened to the cube thingys?
The only thing on this post that interests me is Blue Spring……Sabagebu was a total surprise and joy to watch so ill give this a go.
Other than that thanks for the thourough Summer guide!
I’ll save you the trouble and say Blue Spring x Machine Gun is nothing like Sabagebu:
https://theglorioblog.com/2015/07/09/first-look-blue-spring-x-machine-gun/
Besides Crowds, School Live is also very much worth watching. It is definitely not what it seems. I will say no more.
Cheers Jelx. Ill give School Live the 3 ep treatment!
Bikini Warriors is better than most of the commercials I am forced to watch on TV 🙂