Summer 2019 Review
Hi, here’s a ranked list of all the shows I finished from the Summer 2019 anime season. Overall it was a fun season for me, but we really only got two great shows, so there’s not much to miss. Stay tuned to the end for a bonus movie!
1. Vinland Saga (First half)
Vinland Saga is great, no way about it. There’s nothing in it that’s bad. There’s some CGI, sure, but it’s blended well into background shots and some early dynamic rowing shots. Sound design, character, world, story, animation, art—they’re all excellent. Every episode immerses you into the setting, with all the details in their places. The fight scenes are brilliantly choreographed. There are a lot of moving pieces, but nothing feels contrived. I’m not sure how else to sing its praises. There’s a lot of blood, so that can be a negative; it’s also historical fiction, so maybe you don’t like that. But otherwise you need to watch Vinland Saga.
2. Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.
O Maidens in Your Savage Season is a wonderful piece of art. It stumbles a little in its execution and focus, but honestly I think that fits the theme so much that it doesn’t detract from its overall quality. If you want to watch some adolescents figure out what the heck it is they want, this might be the best way for you to do that. The music is excellent, the art is great, the voice acting is superb, the directing is phenomenal, the shot composition is interesting, and the animation is often good. The characters are nuanced, and they each have their own issues that pull the plot in sometimes unsavory directions. But the ending is good, and the show is definitely worth your time.
3. Enen no Shouboutai (First half)
Fire Force is conflicting for me. Not necessarily in the ways that it is for some people—I for instance don’t find the “fan service” that bad at all; it’s usually just a quick gag, and then the show moves on. I take more issue with the disparity between the possibilities of this interesting, unique world and the actual things that take place in it. Need some higher-ups to be more powerful than the new recruit? Instead of maybe having more experience or better control over their magic fire powers, instead they are just stronger and have a better flame. It’s so boring. They literally fight fire with fire in this show, and the world could be so much more interesting than that. Fire is the unique thing about Fire Force (as anyone could probably tell you) but a lot of the superpowers that exist are just variations of each other, and even the most important differentiator (2nd vs 3rd generation) doesn’t really impact the show in the first cour.
I guess maybe I’m just disappointed that Fire Force is like a generic shounen in many ways. Because it’s actually interesting and unique in a lot of other ways! The animation is fantastic but janky, the pacing is really weird sometimes, the art and character designs feel fresh, and the direction and shot composition are surprising. Then there’s the just plain good parts: the background art is amazing, the soundtrack is good, and the OP and ED are bangers. If you like a good shounen, there’s no reason not to watch Fire Force, and if you’re looking for something interesting, it might also be worth a try. Just don’t expect a masterpiece.
4. Granbelm
Granbelm is a really interesting show. It’s an anime-original with fully-hand-drawn magical-girl mech combat and a full, complete story. It’s flown so far under the radar, and that’s such a shame. There’s a lot of cool animation, some really great sound design, and a really pretty art style. As for the rest of the show . . . everything else is at least good! Sure, some characters are a bit melodramatic but, spoiler alert, it turns out it’s pretty damn justified! Everything makes sense, unless you have a disagreement with Shingetsu’s core beliefs, and that disagreement is analogous to a real world one that people still have! There’s just so much to this show, it makes me sad that so few people gave it a chance. Let me just tell you, the ending is good. It’s worth it. Give it a shot!
5. Dr. Stone (First half)
Basically, the manga is better. All the anime really adds to the picture are colors, voice acting, and a soundtrack (the soundtrack is excellent, though). But it also loses the detailed linework of the manga. There’s just so little animation in an average episode of Dr. Stone. It actually makes me pretty sad, because the story is so much fun, and there’s plenty of people who will watch anime but not read manga. Hopefully they stick around despite its shortcomings; they’ll continue to be rewarded with zany science advancements and reaction faces. But if you can read, give the manga a try.
6. Nakanohito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]
This show is so weird. It’s not particularly good in any respect, except for its ensemble cast and its… weirdness. Like, it has a nice cast of realistic, nuanced, quirky characters and then sets out to defy your expectations. They bounce off of each other, learn about each other as the show goes on, and get noticeably closer by the end of the show. I personally enjoyed discerning how their favorite types of video games matched their personalities. That’s really the best part about Nakanohito Genome, but I want to talk about spoilers, so skip the rest of this paragraph if you care about that. The setup is like a death game, with Alpaca-in-a-suit making them play games that theoretically threaten their lives in order to accumulate views, but the twist is: nobody dies. They actually have to cooperate in order to complete most of these games. The conflicts arise either between characters, or from them trying to get home and/or uncover the mystery of their kidnapping. So that’s funny. Many episodes end up being heartwarming by the end. The biggest problem is the end of the show, though. There isn’t one. The source for this is a web manga that started in 2014 and is still going, so there’s the rub. Oh well! It was entertaining for me at least. Also, here’s a nice review that has a more positive view of the show.
7. Kimetsu no Yaiba
Back in the 4th week of Spring 2019, I voiced my concern about some negative aspects of Demon Slayer in spite of the insane strengths of the show’s visuals. It turns out those problems never went away, and more kept cropping up. People really like this show’s animation, but there are so many scenes with little of it. People really like Nezuko, because why don’t you, but there are so few scenes with her. I can’t give this show a pass based on a few exceptional moments, when there are so many issues everywhere else. Here, allow me to share some of them with you (minor spoilers):
Unnecessary hyperbole. Overimportant coincidences. Pseudo-scientific explanation of what should be magic, and consequent lack of explanation for demon magic. Spending minutes talking during fight scenes. Overexplanation of character thoughts and motives. Miscellaneous pacing problems. Tanjiro can smell and Zenitsu can hear character traits. Shinobu has poison that kills demons, and can develop an antidote for magic spider venom on the spot—why doesn’t she share that poison? It’s just made out of wisteria, anyone could fucking use it. And these are just the ones I wrote down earlier! I know there are more, smaller nitpicks I could find if I went back looking for them.
Anyway, Demon Slayer looks really good. The aesthetic is strong. The sound and music design also help. But I can’t forgive its other sins on that alone. Honestly, the last couple episodes are making me consider rating Demon Slayer at “fine” out of 10, strangely enough (They’re just training episodes! Why did I like them so much!), but I’m sticking to my guns and giving it “average” for now. Not at all because over 70% of MAL users have given it a 9 or 10, no sirree.
8. Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou
The ARIFURETA adaptation is so bad, it’s a huge joke. The CGI monsters are atrocious, and the animation is almost always choppy. Also the art is really flat. I can see how the novel could be so much fun; I now plan on reading it in the future. But the anime is not fun. There’s technically one episode left, but I’m not delaying this post for a week just for that episode. Don’t watch this show.
BONUS MOVIE
Promare
Promare is so much fun. If you can turn off your brain, it’s a high 9/10 easily. It’s filled with action, snappy dialogue, interesting visuals, and nods to other Trigger and Gainax works. It builds up different competing factions and a couple plot threads in the first bit, and then brings them together in the second for a blistering finale. The biggest pieces are probably the two leads, who are great together and give the movie a strong emotional core. The worst part is probably the plot, but it’s only really bad in that it feels like it was going to be about something more, but halfway through production they scaled it back or scrapped some elements or something. I think ultimately it still delivers, but some people will inevitably be disappointed. Big fun, would watch again, the theme song is fire.
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