To start off with that list, some of the bigger titles of the Summer 2017 season that I never watched but probably will at some point are:
Kakegurui, Fate/Apocrypha, Owarimonogatari Season 2, Classroom of the Elite, Jikan no Shihaisha, Knights & Magic, and finally Koi to Uso (which I started but dropped but I'll give it another chance). The pictures should appear in that order below.
GAMERS!
BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA - SEASON 2, PART 2
Our hero Izuku Midoriya received only 1 offer from a pro hero for an internship because what pro would want a kid whose bones shatter every time he uses his powers as someone to mentor and it just so happens that pro hero is Gran Torino, All Might's mentor. It is there that he trains and trains with the old man to learn how to control "One For All" and using frozen takiyoki discovers that he can't use his power just once and always at 100% but needs to always use it in his entire body even if it is at a lesser extent. Thus the "Full Cowl" ability is born and Midoriya starts to always use "One For All" at 5% because he's no where close to being able to use it 100% all the time like All Might.
Idia is in the city of Hosu on his internship in order to find the "Hero Killer" who paralyzed his older brother, on a fateful encounter he finds him, just around the same time that Midoriya and Todoroki are near the city, along with a pissed off leader of the League of Villains who unleashes more Nomus on the city to prove he's more evil than Stain (I think that's what he was doing, he was pissed at Stain of that I'm positive). As Stain is about to finish off Idia, Todoroki and Deku jump in and fight the Hero Killer, between the 3 they manage to take him down but are informed later by the chief of police that since none of them have licenses they can't legally take the credit or if they do they'll be charged. They reliquish the credit of the Hero Killer's defeat to Endevour, Todoroki's father, and they all quietly return to school.
Where they see final exams approaching, because it still is school, Deku shows off in the YouTube clip below a little bit of his ability showing that he doesn't just get hurt anymore. Which is funny to think a hero has to prove he isn't a weakling. Then each classmate is paired with another to take on a teacher/pro hero for their final exam. The one pairing everyone wasn't expecting to pass was Bakugo & Deku who were up against All Might, because the two barely get a long and teamwork is important, but they managed.
They finished off the season well, with a true reveal of All For One and a resolve in his underlings like never before. You see an understanding between All Might and Deku that he knows one day the two will have to face him for whoever is All For One is the "Face Of Evil" and is destined to fight the holder of One For All the "Face of Good". Uraraka questioning her love of Deku in the cutest this is going to happen at some point kind of teenage romance sort of way. Bakugo always feeling a step behind now, for the first time ever, and is determined to prove himself. It will be exciting to see what Season 3 brings, well okay it's another instance similar to Attack on Titan for me where I know what it brings manga wise, but it will be exciting to see it unfold in anime format because they've done amazing so far. The animation is awesome and they make the quirks, especially now that Deku has shown his Full Cowl ability, look so good. It is a pleasant show to watch and definitely the face of Shonen anime going forward.
My Rating: 10/10
My Recommendation: SUPER HIGH, MUST WATCH, IT'S THE FUTURE OF SHONEN ANIME
It's a unique look into different stages of video game development, Aoba herself becomes the character designer of her company Eagle Jump's new game PECO, taking the job of character designer from her idol Yagami Ko. Who doesn't completely get shoved aside, she becomes the Art Director of the project which is a task she's afraid to take on because of the responsibility and the fact she failed at it in the past. The story is that of the different difficulties that go along with the creation of the final game. Aoba loses her chance to make the games cover and visuals for magazines, etc to Yagami because big companies want "the real deal" to do it which infuriates Yagami that they won't let the actual character designer do it. Aoba gets a kouhai who is fantastic at character design and 3D modelling Momiji or Momo as she's known is an intern for the PECO project and like Aoba idolizes Yagami and aims to be a character designer like them. There are different struggles in the programming department as Aoba's friend, Nene, joins the team to learn how to program and be a part of the Eagle Jump team.
The big surprise is that as PECO draws to a close and is close to being released, Yagami ends up deciding to leave the company to go elsewhere, which devastates everyone at the company, but specifically Aoba because her idol and mentor, the reason she became a game designer is leaving for good and she's heartbroken. Though, she does see her off with everyone else making sure to let her know in a joking way that Yagami is being selfish for not telling anyone and that SHE BETTER COME BACK and she probably will but next season will be without her and with the two new girls. It will be interesting to see what comes in Season 3.
All of the different roles in game development are present in this: directors, producers, art directors, head programmers, programming departments, character designers, motion designers, debuggers, and it gives a funny take on all of them. It definitely makes light of how during crunch time of development that teams often stay overnight and that the environment is tense. The animation makes things, no matter how serious, seem light. It seems childish and cute but at the same time it's very pleasant on the eyes and each character is visibly different. They make sure each girl in the department has a unique personality and I really enjoyed this show. I also enjoy the voice acting, each woman is very unique in both looks but also the person who voices them provides that distinction as well.
My Rating: 8.5/10
My Recommendation: HIGH, IT'S CUTESY BUT FUNNY
Upon arriving in this new world he runs into sisters, Elze and Linze, whom he believes need his rescue but far from it, he does ask for their help in things, which leads them to "forming a party" as members of a guild to take on quests. They also teach Touya about the magic that exists in the world, that everyone has affinities for different kinds of magic: water, fire, light, dark, earth, etc, and also personal or Null magics. Using themselves as examples Linze shows that she has the ability to use water magic but her sister does not however her sister does not but Elze can use her own personal Null magic "Boost" to increase her strength. Insert what I said about overpowered light novel protagonist, not only does Touya find out he's proficient with all of the types of magic but that as long as he knows the name he can use anyones Null magic as well. Shortly after they meet Yae, a girl from Eashen (which is essentially feudal Japan) and this is the start of the "harem aspect" to the story. He then cures a duke's wife's blindness, saves the life of the king, has the King's daughter Yumina propose to him (which is awkward as hell because she's like 12 and he's like 16/17) so she joins the crew, gains an estate where they all live together, learns how to summon animals and since his magic is so powerful he summons a God-level animal called the White Emperor, kill an ancient beast, they travel together to a land of beast people, kill a dragon, meets a fairy mage Leen (who eventually will join said harem), and discovers a secret garden called Babylon. Oh and Touya agrees to marry every girl in their group, so 4 girls.......so far, they mention he eventually has 9 wives, so we'll see who these girls are in future seasons.
It has a very simple animation style that you see in many light novel adaptations, like Sword Art Online for instance, and even though it is a very cliche overpowered main character that is denser than any element on the periodic table Touya still manages to be a likeable character. I do feel that it's the girls surrounding Touya and the situations they go through and the places the group are in that make the show good and not so much him. Each girl has something unique about her: Elze is a very tough and strong girl but , Linze is a shy and quiet girl who has a very bold moment at the end of the season, Yae is a very strong willed samurai, Yumina is a kind girl who's always looking out for the others best interests, and all the others he meets along the journey thus far are far more interesting than him. That's one thing that tends to happen with light novel adaptations, or at least certain ones, the supporting cast becomes much more important than the main character to both the story and to your investment into the show. The voice acting is also well done which is always a good thing, the voices fit the characters and their personalities, I was never put off by their voices like I have with other shows in the past.
My Rating: 7.5/10
My Recommendation: GOOD (It's worth watching if you like shows like SAO)
First thing, the episodes are all around 9 to 10 minutes long, at 12 episodes it's honestly no longer than watching 2 episodes of any other show on this list. This has a lot to do with that "testing the waters" thing, do you really want to proceed with a heavy story that tackles a lot of relationship issues if you never plan on continuing the series because yuri style shows bomb? Probably not, honestly I think these 9 minute episodes were for the best because it left you wondering what happens now after such a short amount of time that you anticipate the next episode. However, that being said Netsuzou Trap has been slammed as not as faithful to the manga as it should be, which is what I expected. I don't own it but decided to check out a few panels online (which please don't do, buy the books) and the book is A LOT and I mean A LOT racier than the show is and the show has some racy moments itself (see the YouTube link). The whole story is pretty basic, two best friends all their lives Yuma & Hotaru are both in high school now each with their own boyfriend. Hotaru's boyfriend, Fujiwara, is a cold and mean person who you find out later on is beating Hotaru whenever she refuses to sleep with him. Yuma's boyfriend is more of a crush, Takeda, is just a nice guy and that's all. Hotaru fools around with Yuma, who thinks it's all weird that she's being kissed and stuff by her best friend, so obviously not the brightest bulb in the bunch to see her friend is in love with her. They mess around, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes intentionally throughout the series with Fujiwara actually finding them doing it several times and Takeda having a general idea of what's going on. Both in the anime and manga they have a lot of relationship issues such as cheating and abuse that they tackle on top of a lesbian relationship which isn't a typical thing in anime, as I said yuri isn't something usually translated into anime.
I think that it was a good watch, not fantastic, but I loved the art style specifically the colouring that they used it was very appealing as weird as it is with as many facial closeups as that show gets if the characters eyes look weird it throws off the show but they did a good job as the colour really made Yuma and Hotaru's eyes have that extra touch to them. A lot of people may say that a yuri series is a joke or something that guys like me watched as nothing but pure fanservice but no I was generally interested in how they were going to portray two best friends who already had boyfriends falling in love with each other. They did a good job, it could've been better but I think that with the few panels I did see online from the manga, if they stayed as true to the manga as possible it would probably have been a hentai instead of just a regular anime.
My Rating: 6.5/10
My Recommendation: Give it a try if you want to see what a Yuri style of anime/manga is, otherwise leave it
The customers of the restaurant are sometimes connected to each other in terms of finding the place, they all come to know each other not by name, but by dish. So there's fried shrimp (he's a knight), there's minced meat cutlet (an adventurer), teriyaki chicken (a samurai), omelette rice (a lizardman), and many more. I love the not only the way that each dish looks on screen because like I said it looks awesome but also I enjoyed each characters backstory, it's nice that they all had something you got to learn about them in their world before they just show up to eat. It's a beautifully animated show with talented voice actors, a well done work.
My Rating: 8/10
My Recommendation: Watch this if you like food and interesting stories, also bring snacks
Not going to lie I knew this show was going to just be a fan service show but I figured, "oh well we all need one show like that, whether it's to laugh at or cringe at or just go wow that's excessive". That's what Hajimete No Gal was. It's essentially the story of Junichi, the most normal one of the group of 4 perverted guys in his class, basically him and his 3 best friends. Who I will say are funny yet made me cringe at many if not most point in the series that they showed up in, they managed to always make things worse for Junichi when things seemed to go his way. Yet the whole thing started because of them, without his knowledge, they left a confession note from Junichi to the one of the schools biggest "gals" (essentially an easy girl) because they want him to get some. Turns out she, Yame, agrees to date him and the nice thing is she's far from easy she is in fact the opposite, she's a sweet and kind girl who's portrayed as a gal because she's attractive. Junichi meets Yame's best friend (who we find out is attracted to Yame) named Ranko and several times she threatens to beat the shit out of Junichi but eventually settles that maybe just maybe he's okay because he's making Yame happy. Then there's Nene, who becomes a gal because she isn't receiving attention from Junichi after he starts dating; the two are childhood best friends but the fact that she's attracted to him but still calls him onii-chan is creepy (cuz who wants to sleep with their brother). And finally the "secret gal", the school's princes Kashi, who thinks Junichi is her lapdog and it's not fair that he's dating a beautiful girl because he's a dog not a person.
The entire group have adventures together, there's a lot of cringeworthy moments as most fan servicey shows tend to have, but there are also some sweet moments between Junichi and Yame that make the show go "oh ya these two legit love each other, that's sweet". But ya it's a lot of fan service. The art style is a little unique, I can't tell if I like it, but I really like the colour used it makes everything pop they make the "gals" more colourful then the boys for sure just to show differences. One last time, it's a load of fan service.
My Rating: 7/10
My Recommendation: It's a show for some laughs, nothing important, be prepared for fan service galore, ALSO watch the uncensored version the censored one on Crunchyroll sucks
The biggest hurdle to get over was it took maybe two episodes for me to get used to the animation style, once I did I started to like it but it's not for everyone, and neither is this anime. If you don't like romance stories and don't want to remember those crap high school days, then it's best to avoid. Though I enjoyed it but that's again probably just my inner romantic.
My Rating: 7/10
My Recommendation: Only watch it if you like romance stories
My Rating: 5.5/10
My Recommendation: I don't know how I finished it to be honest, but if you something mind-numbing then watch it
It's the story of yokai (or youkai) and humans, they can be in relationships with each other but when one dies they forget the other existed unless they share a bond through a special item that both have a part of and that is blessed by the Tosan Fox Spirits. They match make between yokai spirits and humans and vice versa. The main characters are Haku Gesshou and Suusu Tosan, a monk that loves candy and a small fox spirit girl who is the sister of the more powerful fox spirits. We find out that these two were in a relationship at one point and that Suusu was the leader of the Tosan clan, that she became little again through some circumstance I have yet to see because it's 14 episodes into Japanese series right now.
Honestly, explaining the story would just be a mess, it's much better to just watch this one to make sense of what's going on. The animation is quite well done and I love the fox spirit characters because each one is super unique from the next, they aren't all cookie cutter fox spirits. As are just regular evil yokai, they're all unique. Haku Gesshou is also a very funny character and the way he bargins in order to get candy is hilarious. I'm not super digging the fact that Japan had to change the money to Yen and all that stuff to truly "localize" it and couldn't keep whatever proper Chinese things were left but to each their own.
ALSO THE CLIP BELOW IS AN INCREDIBLE SPOILER SO WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK...................
My Rating: 8.5/10
My Recommendation: It's a great series, complicated at first, your choice either watch it slowly in Japanese as it's localized or have a lot of episodes and watch super far ahead in its original Mandarin.
Interesting to see what happens next.
My Rating: 7.5/10
My Recommendation: Only watch it if you like Naruto or Shonen anime
So I realized I watched a lot of shows this season and it's probably going to be similar next season from the queue I've already built up for myself. Add to that the shows from this season I didn't but want to watch, continuing series like Boruto and Fox Spirit Matchmaker, I've always got some anime on the go.
I hope you guys enjoyed my little (or I guess big) roundup on the anime I watched in the Summer 2017 season, I'll be doing one for Fall 2017 when that's done as well. I'll also be doing a full review on Gamers! a few days after I have this up just because I have more to say than the other regular anime.
Thanks for reading people.