My Top 15 Summer 2015 Anime: Early View & Pickup!

This summer is packed with many interesting anime especially in slice-of-life genre. We have reached almost half of the season and here, I will share my early view on Top 15 summer anime that I picked up.

Most summer anime have reached 4-5 episodes by the time this post is written. We will go with alphabetical order instead of ranking. I'm lazy to rank them.

1. Akagami no Shirayuki-hime (Snow White with The Red Hair)

The story is about Shirayuki, a girl with a unique hair color and a pharmacist. She ran away from her country's prince after the prince proposed her to be his concubine. She met Zen, the neighboring country's prince and was saved by him. Like typical shoujo anime, those two got attracted with each other but more to a friendship level than love couple level. In fairy tale, the prince will propose to the girl and get married and then, lived happily ever after but not in this Snow White tale. Unlike in Cinderella, Zen can't recklessly take Shirayuki as his wife due to her social status which can offend some nobles.

Shirayuki decides to be a Court Pharmacist so that she can shorten distance between her and Zen and be a help to him. This story is all about how both of them develop their relationship despite of the difference in social status and how Shirayuki proves her value as pharmacist in certain situations.

2. Charlotte 

 

One of the most anticipated anime for this season. Latest work from Jun Maeda, the person who's responsible in creation of Clannad, Angel Beats, and Little Busters. Those who have watched one of those three anime or Jun Maeda's fans shall not miss to catch this new anime. With P.A. Works as the studio responsible for this anime production, the animation quality is certainly satisfying. 

Charlotte is about a group of special-power high schoolers in their mission under pretense as Student Council Body to search for other special-power high schoolers in other schools either to encourage them to stop using their powers or to transfer into their school for protection against scientists that want to use special-power users as guinea pigs. So far, the episodes are about them searching for special-power users and give warning to those users about risks in using the powers. It has revealed what happens to those who got caught by scientists as guinea pigs. The person would end up insane and mentally unstable. Wait..... Are the scientists not aware of human rights' law? This is anime. Anything goes. 

3. Classroom Crisis

This anime tells about members of A-TEC division of a space aeronautics mega company called Kirishina Corp. which comprised of special class students and their homeroom teacher who's also a genius engineer. The challenge that they face in their engine research and against upper management. Things got hectic when they got new Division Chief named Kiryu Nagisa who happen to be their new classmate appeared with a task to disband the division as ordered by his brother. 

I rooted for Nagisa in this anime. I like his personality as a businessman and as a chief. For A-TEC Division especially the homeroom teacher, Sera Kaito, I don't like them much. It's admirable to see their passion in science but the way they spending money like crazy, low office management skill, lack of respect to Nagisa as their chief really makes me irritated. In an episode, Nagisa almost blew up a 20 billion Yen deal because of the division members' irresponsible acts. Nagisa has an ambition to become the company's CEO and it seems like he's using the division to overthrow his brother. I can't wait to see how he will fight his brother for the company's top position using A-TEC Division in many senses.

4. Dragon Ball Super

There is no need for introduction. Everybody know Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Piccolo, Krillin, and other Z Fighters. In last few years, we got remastered version of Dragon Ball Z named Dragon Ball Kai. This year, Dragon Ball fans all over the world are joyed with a new sequel of Dragon Ball named Dragon Ball Super. This series ties in last two Dragon Ball movies, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'. This is a must watched anime and shall not be missed. 

5.  Gakkou Gurashi

My first thought when I watched the first episode, "Hmmm.... Just a group of girls in their high school life. Chatting with friends, got laughed by classmates when teacher gives punishment and etc." I continued with this thought until the last 5 minutes of the episode. All of the classroom situations in the last 20 minutes were just an illusion of one of the main girls, Yuki. It turns out that except for 4 girls, 1 female teacher, and a dog, all other persons in the school have turn into zombie. I repeat, ZOMBIE! Don't be fooled by its opening theme and cute girls. This anime is a zombie anime. But it's not as serious as Highschool of The Dead or other zombie anime. The story told how those girls live in their school building with zombies lurking outside of the school. It's cute to see what they're doing. Happily having their meals, harvesting their crops on the rooftop, and planning for club activities. It's rare to see them crushing the zombies' heads unless there are zombies entering their area. This anime is really good for those who want to see cute girls in unusually life surrounded with zombies.

6. Gangsta.

Looking for mafia actions and mature storyline? This anime might be for you. Meet Nick and Worrick, two men who handle dirty jobs for mafia and police in a rotten town filled with mafia, hoodlums, prostitutes, and dirty cops. Nick is a fearsome deaf swordsman and his skills are highly regarded by mafia boss and police. Worrick uses gun when partnering with Nick in their dirty jobs but his main job is as gigolo.

7. Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There!

 

Imagine that there is a world beside us and a gate to the world is suddenly opened in a middle of a busy city in Japan. Armies of humans, ogres, goblins, and dragons attacked the civilians and a massacre happened until JSDF (Japan Self Defense Force) came to save the day. Those armies were helpless against the modern weaponry. Japan government decide to explore the new world through the gate. JSDF was tasked with a mission to explore the new world and our main characters are a part of the force. Do you remember an anime called Outbreak Company? Gate is a more serious and real version of that anime if there is existence of another world. You can guess why Japan government decide to explore that new world instead of sealing the gate. For RESOURCES, of course! The current story progress is quite slow but suitable for an anime that scheduled for 2-cour broadcast. Hopefully, there is no rushing on the plot.

8. Himouto! Umaru-chan

I'm a fan of comedy & slice-of-life genre. Himouto! Umaru-chan doesn't disappoint me and never failed to amuse me. Umaru is a perfect girl in school but in her home, she's totally opposite of what she shown outside home. Sleeping, gaming, watching anime, eating junk food, and leaving all houseworks to her dear Onii-chan. Luckily, Umaru has two forms: Normal Form and Chibi Form. Normal Form is for outdoor and Chibi Form for indoor. Umaru Chibi Form is so adorable and her behavior is very childish in this form. It will be very unpleasant to see Umaru behaves like that in her Normal Form.

9. Jitsu wa Watashi wa

A boy who can't lie named Kuromine Asahi knows his crush's true identity as a vampire which is supposed to be a secret. So he decide to keep her secret. Then, he will somehow start gathering his unusual female friends group made up of a vampire, an alien, a wolf girl, and an eccentric girl. The story is a typical romance comedy anime with a supernatural setting. If you have watched Rosario to Vampire anime before, you will not be surprised with its setting except that it's less ecchi than Rosario. 

10. Joukamachi no Dandelion

This anime's setting is pretty unique. It sets in a fictional kingdom where the king and his royal family live like a common people in a normal neighborhood. The king has castle but the castle's purpose is as his workplace only. His nine children attend schools like normal people and interact with their schoolmates like normal people without any special treatment. The king decides that there will be an election to be held and citizens will vote for their next ruler. The siblings' activities are being monitored and broadcasted nationwide. The fun part is to see how the royal siblings with each of them has different type of superpower appeal to the citizens to get vote. The citizens are also having fun watching the royal siblings and casting their votes in everyday pre-elections.

11.  Non Non Biyori Repeat

There is no doubt that this anime is my No. 1 anime in this season. This is 2nd season of Non Non Biyori anime that broadcasted in 2013. The story mainly told about four female students with none of them in the same grade enjoying their daily life in a rural area in Japan. As someone who grew up in late 90's and early 2000's, watching those girls' activities make me reminiscent of my childhood. What those girls do in their free time are exactly what the last generation kids did when surrounded with nature and how kids in the old days enjoy themselves without any gadget involved. The soundtracks really match with the background and you will never get enough with the girls playing around especially the youngest Ren-chon. A must see anime for those who are into comedy and slice-of-life genre.

12. Overlord

Familiar with Sword Art Online and Log Horizon? Overlord is as same as those two anime. A player got trapped in a game world. But Overlord makes itself distinct than Sword Art Online and Log Horizon. The main character (MC) of Overlord who got trapped in the game world doesn't have anybody that share the same fate with him (at least, for now). He's surrounded by his NPCs (Non Playable Characters) created by his friends when it was a game in his guild building. The NPCs although have their own will now fully realized that they were created by game players and all of them pledged their loyalty to the MC as a Supreme Ruler. The MC shows himself as a reliable and dependable ruler capable of leadership and analyzing situations. The MC concludes that the world he ends up in is not the game world that he knows of but a different world. Despite searching for a way to get back to the real world, our MC decided to conquer the world with his guild and make his name and guild's name resounded through the entire world. That's something worth to see.

13. Prison School

Four boys enrolled themselves in a boarding high school that recently changed its status from girls school to mixed school. They are the only boys in the entire buildings and they are perverts. They got caught by Underground Student Council when peeping girls' bathing. They are punished to going through 1-months prison sentence in a prison building located in the middle of the school building. To make things worse, the Underground Student Council President despise boys and she makes some accusations against the boys to make sure that they cannot leave the prison. To get themselves out of the prison and enjoying a high school life that they dreamed of, they have to devise a plan to overcome the president's plan. This is R-rated anime and it shows many violence and S&M scenes in it.

14. Ushio to Tora (TV)

This is a new anime adaptation of a classic manga that ran from 1990 - 1996. It's about a boy named Ushio who possess a youkai-killing spear, Beast Spear and his partner, Tora, a youkai who initially want to eat him as revenge for being sealed for 500 years. Ushio's mission is to kill youkai that threaten humans lives. I remember reading its manga when I was in primary school. I guess it holds some sentimental value to me which makes me want to watch the anime.

15. Working!!!

An anime that makes me wait for it since last year. The 3rd season of Working anime series which is about Wagnaria Family Restaurant's employees in their daily work lives of providing good services to customers while some of them need to deal with eccentricities of certain co-workers. I hope this new season will adapt all remaining chapters of its original manga source and resolve relationship issues between some of the employees. The original manga has concluded last year.


This concluded my second time reviewing anime series. Thanks for sticking with my amateurish review. (^o^)

Feel free to put your comment. d(^-^)b