New Summer Anime Review Part 3

18if

_{Haruto Tsukishiro wakes up in a dream world and sees a mysterious girl named Lily. Following this, he meets a man named Kanzaki and learns of the existence of witches, which from here on entangles him in all sorts of incidents.}

Does that description and OP tell you basically nothing about this show? That’s not surprising. 18if is a bizarre show about helping girls who have become ‘witches’ inside the realm of dreams granting them the power to inflict pain back on the real world. The shifting tone and lack of explanation will strike anyone who watched Flip Flappers last fall as highly reminiscent. 18if’s first episode takes us on a surreal dream adventure reminiscent of the virtual hangouts in Psycho-Pass. While I was initially sceptical the following episodes, which comprised a Nightmare on Elm Street revenge episode and self-contained love story, quickly showed me there was more to this show than meets the eye. Unfortunately, this is the kind of show that can’t truly be judged this early on. Its early episodes have managed to pique my interest but lack the artistic beauty and fantastic animation of Flip Flappers making it a much harder recommendation. If you’re fond of the stranger shows around check it out, otherwise, you can probably give this one a pass.

Jikan no Shihaisha

_{The story centers on "Chronos Rulers," those who fight the time-eating demons that appear when people wish they could turn back time. The Chronos Rulers fight a time-manipulation battle against these demons.}

There’s no beating around the bush here, Jikan no Shihaisha is bad. While its concept and setting are interesting they are two of the least important thing when it comes to making a good show. The writing is bad, the comedy falls flat and the animation is horrid. The digital effects work is acceptable but on the whole, this is an utter failure of a production. I can’t in good faith recommend this to anyone, there are surely better shows more worthy of your time. I regret bothering to watch all 3 episodes of this show through to write this review.

Shoukoku no Altair

_{For generations the Türkiye Devleti and the Balt-Rhein Empire have stood in stern opposition to each other. Then one night, when an imperial minister is found assassinated, the two nations are plunged into a potentially explosive situation. As the generals of Turkiye's council cry for war, Mahmut comes to discover the devious truth behind the assassination. Thus the young pasha's battle for his country, peace, and trust in his fellow man begins!}

While not unheard of, middle eastern fantasy tends to be a rarer setting in anime. Shoukoku no Altair is nothing groundbreaking but, if like myself, you’ve never seen a show in this setting it has something nice to offer. It ends up falling somewhere between said fantasy and a light military drama. While it’s not amazingly beautiful or well-animated show it delivers well enough on both fronts not to offend. Personally, I put this a little farther ahead of the other ‘don’t bother because there are better shows’ shows this season, but it still ultimately belongs there. If you don’t feel like checking it you’re not really missing anything important.

Ballroom e Youkosu

_{Fujita has drifted through middle school aimlessly, unable to find friends or anything that can hold his attention. Then, one day, he's attacked by a gang and saved by a mysterious man. But this isn't a karate master; it's a ballroom dance instructor! Reluctantly, Fujita takes a few beginner's classes, only to find his inspiration... an entrancing, teenage dance prodigy named Shizuku. It's Fujita's first step into the high-octane world of competitive dance!}

_{RIP copyright, see it here instead http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5sqsvo}

While unlike to be wholly responsible, I think there’s little to no doubt the astounding success of Yuri on Ice helped bring this manga adaptation about competitive dance to anime. With that out of the way, we can just start ticking off boxes: sports show? Check. Production IG animating? Check. 24 episodes to fully develop our characters and story? Check. I don’t know about you, but I was sold on this show before I had even seen the first episode and it did not disappoint. While the extent to which the character’s bodies are elongated to express the feeling of their dance can be a little unsettling at times, this show delivers beautifully both in design and animation. This isn’t a hard verdict to give.

Princess Principal

_{The "spy action" series follows five girls in 19th century London, a city within the Albion Kingdom divided into east and west by a large wall. The girls serve as undercover spies enrolled as students at the prestigious Queen's Mayfair school. The girls make use of their individual abilities to remain active in the underground world of disguise, espionage, infiltration, and car chases.}

I won’t waste time here, this show is great. The 19th-century-steampunk-spy setting is brilliant, the characters are charming, the animation great, and the story well delivered. With hints at a potential Yuri romance on the cards as well, I can only hope this show doesn’t go Izetta on us and fully delivers on that promise. However, even if it fails to do so this is still an excellent show and well worth your time. If any of that sounds appealing to you, check out its first episode, you won’t be disappointed.

Centaur no Nayami

_{Himeno is a sweet, shy girl, who struggles with the high school life. The difference is she's a centaur, but she's not alone. In fact, all of her classmates are supernatural creatures, sporting horns, wings, tails, halos, or some other unearthly body appendage. Yet despite their fantastical natures, Himeno and her best friends are down-to-earth, fun-loving teenagers who grapple with issues of life and love.}

There’s no denying it, Centaur no Nayami is trashy, otaku pandering, monster girl slice of life, but if you wrote the show off for just those reasons you’d be doing it a disservice. Yes, this show opens up with fanservice of two characters kissing and it’s mermaid characters have thighs for seemingly no other reason than to confirm they have human genitals, but it also has a setting slowly oozing interesting detail and commentary on discrimination and sexuality. Off hand moments discussing how the races used to treat each other or how it would be a hate crime to one of Himeno’s friends to ride her are fascinating and catch you off-guard from a show that should otherwise fall into a bin with Oreimo or Eromanga-sensei for how trashy it is. It remains to be seen if Centaur no Nayami truly has any important commentary on any of these issues, but it’s safe to say that despite being a trashy and fun time, there might be more here than meets the eye.

Hey everyone, StormingJ here. So much for Tuesday/Friday, right? While I may have been a little busy and delayed this post I still fully intend to keep this series going and to finish it off next week. This time around I'm adjusting my post time to better work with US hours, I didn't really get any comment engagement on the last one and I'm hoping that's different this time around.

The next post in this series will be the last, covering Tenshi no 3P!, Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni., Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shuji no Kyoushitsu e, Gamers!, The Reflection and Mahoujin Guru Guru. See you soon.

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stormingj (37) 7 years ago (edited)

I put in a little extra work to make my own upload of Ballroom's OP since the public youtube versions must be getting pulled by copyright strikes. The video ratio got a little bit messed up so if anyone can recommend any software to easily modify MKV video files that'd be appreciated.

Edit: Nevermind, google saw to that.

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steemitboard (66) 5 years ago

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