We like to speak truth here at The Glorio Blog and I’m kind of sad to say our fifth anniversary season (more on that later, hint hint) is not looking so great. Granted the Summer season has long been the home of low budget cash grabs designed for anime nerds seeking shelter from the sun, so I guess nothing new there. That said, looking for surprises is half the fun (also a hint) and I’m sure we’ll find a few.

For better or worse the most notable show in part 1 of our guide is latest Type Moon joint, Fate/Apocrypha. Personally I’m always hit or miss on the franchise so we’ll see how that goes. Amazingly I’ve got my eye on Restaurant to Another World despite the fact that it literally has “isekai” in the title. I could see that having a similar laid back vibe to recent sleeper Interviews with Monster Girls. As always we’ll have plenty more shows to look at in the next few days, let us know what you plan on checking out.

Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler

Manga Adaptation by MAPPA Air Date: 7/1/2017

Director: Yuichiro Hayashi Series Composition: Yasuko Kobayashi

Anime is well known for odd spins on the high school setting but at this point they might just be pulling words out of a hat and seeing if they can make something out of it. Kakegurui is about a high school where the students gamble instead of doing normal school things. Sure, why not. At the very least I think I prefer the more mature character designs and uhhh intense… atmosphere of the trailer than the more overly cute approach you might expect from something like this. I’m not saying it will be good, and I’m also concerned about MAPPA attempting three shows in one season (more on that later), but at least we’ll give it a look.

Fate/Apocrypha

Light Novel Adaptation by A-1 Pictures Air Date: 7/2/2017

Director: Yoshiyuki Asai Series Composition: Yuichiro Higashide

So after consulting with our resident Type Moon expert Iro, I can tell you a few things about this: It’s based on a series of light novels that were based on an artbook for a failed MMO, it’s an alternate world take on the Fate franchise so it’s not really related to the mainline story, and it continues to feed anime’s fetish for Jeanne D’arc. If for some reason you are not familiar with Fate, it’s basically a series of battle royales featuring mages that summon historical figures to fight as their servants. That’s pretty much what’s going on here, but given the thin source material I’m not expecting more than maybe some cool fight scenes. But hey, at least we’ll get to see anime William Shakespeare.

Knight’s Magic

Light Novel Adaptation by 8-bit Air Date: 7/2/2017

Director: Yusuke Yamamoto Series Composition: Michiko Yokote

Alright strap yourselves in for this super original idea: a boy who likes mecha dies and goes to another world where he gets pilot magical armor that looks a lot like mecha! Woo! This is probably light novel trash but to be fair the trailer looks well made, action packed, and not too skeevy minus some hints at the inevitable harem. So it’s possible that it won’t be bad per se, but it may end up committing the greater of sin of being boring. Might be worth a try but I’m out the second he walks in on a girl changing.

Katsugeki! Touken Ranbu

Game Adaptation by ufotable Air Date: 7/2/2017

Director: Toshiyuki Shirai Series Composition: Hikaru Kondo (script)

If you want to do a case study on what a difference the studio makes to an anime, this is a good one to try. It’s rare enough to have the same source material adapted twice, let alone in such a short period of time, so it’s almost impossible not to compare this to Dogakobo’s take from less than a year ago. While that version had all the cute animation and comedic timing you’d expect from that studio, this deadly serious, action packed ufotable version predictably looks like the a prequel to Fate/Stay Night. You’d think they were completely unrelated. As to whether or not it will be good well, it’s adapting a free to play game about anthropomorphized famous Japanese swords so set your expectations accordingly. At least it will be pretty?

Battle Girl High School

Game Adaptation by Silver Link Air Date: 7/3/2017

Director: Kazuo Miyake Series Composition: Yousuke Kuroda

Ever since Magical Warfare I’ve been amused at how some shows get so lazy they don’t bother coming up with a title. Of course, it’s an immediate red flag. If the creators weren’t inspired enough to name it something unique there’s probably a reason. As you might have guessed, Battle Girl High School is about a high school that trains girls to battle the forces invading Earth. I’m sure there will be some arbitrary reasons why only teenage girls can do this while wearing really terrible prom dresses and swinging weapons larger than their tiny bodies. And hey, did I see a hint of idol dancing in that trailer? This show has nothing else going for it so I guess one extra desperate attempt to grab that otaku money isn’t going to hurt anything.

Cleanliness Boy! Aoyama-kun

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

Manga Adaptation by Studio Hibari Air Date: 7/3/2017

Director: Kazuya Ichikawa Series Composition: Midori Gotou

Aoyama like soccer but he hates getting dirty. So he uses obsessive compulsive cleanliness to somehow be really good at it? Sounds like a sports anime alright. I’m sure you could pick one of many examples (I’m going to say Kuroko’s basketball) of sports anime based on finding weird ways to circumvent being conventionally “good”, and that seems to be what they’re going for here. The trailer has me wondering what the ratio of comedy to hot blooded competition will be, and if it leans more toward comedy I might be in the mood for that.

Love and Lies

Koi to Uso

Manga Adaptation by Liden Films Air Date: 7/3/2017

Director: Seiki Takuno Series Composition: Natsuko Takahashi

In this lovely pastel colored dystopian future, the government assigns you a marriage partner at age 16. But what happens when you are passionate youth in love with someone else? That’s actually pretty dark when you think about it, and I could see this being some kind of heavy, Scum’s Wish-lite drama that demands to be taken seriously… which I would try to do but I can’t get over those EYES. Dear god I know this is anime but why are they so huge???

Refined Daily Life at the Youkai Apartment

Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou

Manga Adaptation by Shin-Ei Air Date: 7/3/2017

Director: Mitsuo Hashimoto Series Composition: Yasunori Yamada

Through a series of unfortunate events, Yuushi ends up living in apartment overrun by supernatural creatures. Hilarity ensues? Honestly I have no idea what else this show is about and the trailer doesn’t seem to give much away, but given that it’s categorized as slice of life that might be all there is to it. I’m down for good slice of life with a supernatural twist, but it always comes down to execution for those types of shows. So I’m not going to make any predictions until we see it.

Restaurant to Another World

Isekai Shokudou

Light Novel Adaptation by Silver Link Air Date: 7/4/2017

Director: Masato Jinbo Series Composition: Masato Jinbo

Alright everyone, stop holding your breath because this is a spin on the “other world” genre that might actually be decent? Rather than dumping a horny teenage boy into an RPG full of cute girls, this take is actually set in a restaurant in the real world. It’s completely normal during the week but when the weekend rolls around it closes to general public and welcome guests from the fantasy world. The trailer looks laid back and charming and *gasp* is the main character an adult? Sounds pretty good to me.

703X: Fastest Finger First

Nana Maru San Batsu

Manga Adaptation by TMS Entertainment Air Date: 7/5/2017

Director: Masaki Ouzora Series Composition: Yuuko Kakihara

When I was in 9th grade my history teacher did a game called “Rapid Trivia” every Friday in which he’d ask the class random questions and whoever answered the most won. I went undefeated until the finals where the champions from each class met and I lost to a cute girl who consistently raised her hand faster than me. So hey, twenty years later they made an anime about it! I guess I have to watch this now.