That being said, this season was full of some ups, some downs, some laughs, some amazing action scenes, cool new characters, and more. Let's get into what I watched for the 2019 Summer Season of Anime starting with:
At this point in the story: Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke have finished healing and headed to a mountain to eliminate an urgent threat. When they arrive they see several low ranked demon slayers already are there and have all been killed; the reason is that the mountain is populated by a "family" of demons headed by one of the Twelve Kizuki (the strongest demons underneath demon creator/leader Kibutsuji Muzan). These demons are all white, with various red spots, and all control or have spider-like tendencies to them. To not ruin their battles something unique happens to Zenitsu and Inosuke as well. Their leader Rui, the 5th ranked Kizuki, gets into battle with Tanjiro; problem is Tanjiro realizes he is horribly outmatched but remembers a dance breathing technique his father taught him as a child that he randomly recalled and as he switched from his Water Breathing technique to the Hinomi Kagura Dance Breathing everything took a dramatic turn and even with a broken sword it looked as if Tanjiro with assistance from Nezuko who used her Blood Demon Art would actually succeed. Things never go how you want though, but they did get taken care of.........awesomely. Which led to meeting the Hashira's, the highest ranked demon slayers, and the Demon Slayer Master, who all were in disagreement about Tanjiro breaking code by traveling with a demon.
Just........the show, is so good; like I said ufotable created the 2nd masterpiece anime of this generation with Kimestu no Yaiba. By the way, the clip below shows what I mean by mix of voice talent, colour, character and art design, mixing of music to go along with things, the reasons I feel it is a masterpiece.
HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 10/10
It makes you question your exercise regiment, your diet, everything.
Most people who look at the anime cover right there and think, cute girls exercising that's all it is, but it isn't. Sure that is there and they do focus on it but the show is a comedy, with great moments that hook and grab you, and it actually tries to be informative as during the middle of an episode or randomly for no reason the gyms trainer, Machio, will give "everyone at home" a lesson on how to do a proper exercise or how to properly use gym equipment. It's not often you're taught life lessons in shows, which is neat.
Our story centers around high school girl Hibiki Sakura and her sudden desire to lose weight when her friend and eventual gym buddy Ayaka Uehara tells her she's putting on the pounds. To be fair, she's walking around with her and Hibiki is downing food left, right, and centre; by no means is she fat but in that "damn I have some handles" kind of fat. So she goes to the new Silverman Gym that just opened (it's a parody on Gold's Gym, even the logo) to use the free pass they're giving out and when there she runs into Akemi Soryuin, her school's very athletic and in shape student council president. They both agree immediately to getting memberships when they meet the cute male personal trainer Machio, who looks like a small normal dude in a tracksuit, which is what caught Hibiki into signing up but Akemi knew better she knew that Machio was going to do what he did which is flex and burst the tracksuit revealing some kind of godlike physique. Akemi has a muscle fetish, so like Hibiki she was into Machio but for different reasons. So we go through various shows and various exercises where we also see their teacher Satomi Tachibana sign up for the gym, followed by Ayaka being Hibiki's friend and her family already owning a world champion producing boxing gym, and lastly Gina Boyd our Russian exchange student (after she loses to Hibiki in an arm wrestling contest, she comes to Japan to get revenge, which means she needs to go to school).
Priceless show, like on par comedy. Roasting idol culture. Making fun of meathead gym guys but also respecting them. Doing the same thing Hinamatsuri did a few seasons ago where when an absolute horrid moment or massive shift in tone happens to completely 180 degree shift the art style. Parodying Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jason Statham with the characters, Barnold Shortsinator (who is Machio's muscle teacher) and Jason Sgatham (who's Barnold's assistant). All of the jokes at the expense of old people and working out or wow you're fit for you age. It's a great and fun show. I know people like to hear what I thought of the animation and honestly it was crisp, smooth, clean, and vibrant looking. All of the voice acting was great too. One of the best parts of the show though is the opening theme song, which I'll have below but it's just so good.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 10/10
That's what Dr. Stone is about, sort of, humanity is suddenly frozen in stone by a mysterious green glow one day. Thousands of years later, one of our main protagonists: Taiju wills himself awake thinking if only I can ask out the girl of my dreams (which is what he planned to do before getting turned to stone), he wakes up in the world of stone only to find his best friend Senku is already well on his way to do one thing. Restart civilization. Senku is a brilliant scientist who's goal is to take what humanity learned through 2 million years from the stone age to the modern age and kickstart civilization again to the way it used to be; he's going to save everyone. Senku and Taiju eventually through experimentation find that it was nitric acid that was the key to curing the frozen in stone issue, they made it using bat guano and alcohol. Using this they wake up 2 people: Yuzuriha, their friend and the girl Taiju was going to confess to and "the strongest high schooler in the world", Tsukasa Shishio, who they needed to help defend them. He kind of one punched a lion the minute he woke up, so ya, he's kind of strong; he's also very clearly going to be the villain the second you see him. He looks like a villain straight out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, one of the Pillar Men from the 2nd arc; that being said he forms the "Kingdom of Might" who is going to establish a group of young people to become the new world's leaders, to destroy the "statues" (which are still living people) of old people because their ways were wrong. Senku said he wants to save everyone and establishes the "Kingdom of Science" to do so, however he is almost killed by Tsukasa and goes into hiding sending his friends to live with Tsukasa as spies. Hesitantly, Taiju and Yuzuriha agree to this.
The people he forms the Kingdom with at first is a group of "new humans". Basically if we are to look at this world as an actual restarting of civilization, one that is advanced but not advanced enough to be using anything other than stone and basics to get by. The girl who brought him to her village, Kohaku, went toe to toe with Tsukasa and lost but he promised not to kill her because she was a capable woman and a new human in this stone world. This new civilization even has it's own Senku, his name is Chrome, and many villagers treat him as an outsider because he believes that crazy things can benefit the village; these crazy things Senku sees as early primitive science. I don't have the exact quote but something along the lines of, no matter what you try Tsukasa even if you kill me you can never stop science, is what Senku says when he sees the burning passion Chrome has for discovering new things through sceince and experimentation. As far as they've gotten, they have as a group, obtained glass, magnets, and even a primitive brief glimpse of electricity; there was one scare as a scout named Gen, sent by Tsukasa to see if Senku was alive, did discover them and told Senku he'd lie to him IF he promised that he'd make a bottle of Cola for him. The most important bottle of cola ever, thinks Senku, as it allows him time to build up his science to beat Tsukasa's growing force.
The art for each character is fantastic and they all look unique. Senku and his sky-high hair with the one tip down and those tips dyed green. Yuzuriha's headphone looking, snail twirling things, that I'm not sure if it's a headband or not. Tsukasa, like I said, looking like a JoJo villain. Kohaku and her vibrant yellow hair, blue eyes, tougher than boys look. Suika (or Detective Suika) with her helmet made of a watermelon (hence the name suika) which she eventually uses as glasses. Chrome almost being a mirror of Senku but more stone age looking. Gen and his split colour hair. Basically all the characters look unique and what's neat about those that "woke up" is that they all have dark lines which are actually cracks in their skin similar to cracks in a rock. Great voice acting, it's a great show. I can see why it was such a highly touted Shonen Jump manga to anime adaptation coming this past season and obviously moving forward.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 9.5/10
Every company has a secret goal, Shinra and Company 8's is to secretly investigate the shady behaviour of the other companies. This kicks of when Company 5 confiscates an Infernal that can talk, when all Shinra wanted to do was put it to rest like his job requires, they kept it for science purposes because the Company secretly answers to one of the top science & technology firms in the Tokyo Empire; they receive money for basically not doing their job but for doing bad deeds.
I've always liked the Soul Eater art style so to have another show with that same style is nice to have back a new show with that style. Like, the rounded art style, vibrant colours, the good use of 3D, one of my favourite two things is the contrasting colours it paints a great picture. But my favourite is the eyes, you can tell a lot about people including fictional ones by their eyes; and the eyes of the characters in Fire Force say so much about their characters. So far, the show is great, the characters are awesome. Shinra is a typical but not typical shonen protagonist; "I wanna be a hero and protect everyone" which reminds me of a Deku-ish character, but at the same time his attitude and mannerisms are so different that you can tell he's more than average. The twisted smile, his embrace of his powers, his ability to put others over himself, he's a great main character. Then there's Arthur, Shinra's rival but not really, because they get along so well it's almost as if it's just jokingly at times they call each other that; I think it's more that Arthur acts the white knight to help women but they dislike him and certain women flock to Shinra. Including Tamaki, not originally a Company 8 member but is now, who is a 3rd generation pyrokinetic that has cat-like fire abilities, and what everyone refers to as a "lucky pervert skill" because often times she bumps into Shinra in a way that ends up with him in a compromising position that is never his fault or that she burns her clothes off accidentally sometimes. Then there are Company 8's two other female members; Sister Iris who grew up an orphan with Company 5's Captain in a church. And Maki, a former military member and 2nd gen pyrokinetic, she's able to manipulate fire that exists but not create it like Shinra and Arthur, she is more of a big sister to them than anything keeping the two in line. The one who keeps everyone in line, including sometimes his Captain, is Lieutenant Hinawa, who is a strict man making sure everyone in the company follows the rules except under certain circumstances where he knows they must be broken. The softy but hard-ass Captain Obi is the last Company 8 member and he's the only member in the entire Tokyo Fire Force that doesn't have some form of pyrokinesis, let alone just captains, everyone; so to say Obi is the most human of everyone is correct.
So far, Company 5 and Company 1 have been investigated and they are onto a new lead; The Evangelist. With a particular surprise I'll leave unsaid.
HIGH RECOMMEND - 9/10
The first squad member we see Hank kill is the Incarnate Dragon, John William Bancroft, who's daughter Schall witnesses the whole thing and goes on a mission of vengeance to kill the man that killed her father. And she meets him, relatively quick, before quickly putting a bullet in his chest. Which Hank shrugs off like a fly, being an Incarnate normal ammo does very little damage, it takes specially developed Godkiller bullets to do damage; ones that Hank carries in his revolver to put down his former comrades. Also Hank is not just any Incarnate but the King of Incarnates, he's some type of white werewolf, like even Cain Madhouse the villain and unstoppable vampire acknowledges this and that's why he wants his former friend to join him. Anyways, Schall is shocked and then Hank tries to explain his situation, why he killed her father and the promise he made; so Schall makes a promise too, to follow Hank on his journey and see just what exactly is so important about Hank's mission and why he has to kill "good people" like her father. She doesn't yet understand how badly the Incarnates loose themselves to their beastly instincts, the worst situation she does come across his when Hank losses control while fighting, while brief his power is overwhelming and unstoppable. I don't feel like going into it too much because I think it deserves a watch as a surprise hit.
The character designs for the humans and Incarnates is spot on; like I love the design on certain Incarnates especially ones like Hank's true form or Nidhogg (the dragon). The animation is super good like just crisp is a great way to explain it. Great use of colour, basically if I see a show that is supposed to be "dark" in genre and the colour pops I feel it brings life to that show and this occurs throughout the series. It was a bright spot to this season.
HIGH RECOMMEND - 8.5/10 (THIS IS A SURPRISE TO ME, WHEN YOU GO IN WITH NO EXPECTATIONS, YOU CAN BE QUITE SURPRISED, THOUGH WITH MAPPA STUDIOS HANDLING IT, I SHOULDN'T BE TOO SURPRISED)
Honestly funny show, reminded me in both art style and presentation of Dagashi Kashi and that was a fun show (for me).............OH, and there's a lot of "plot" situations that Sempai gets herself into with her magic tricks, a lot of "plot" situations.
RECOMMENDED - 7/10 (IT'S FUNNY GIVE IT A GO, SHORT EPISODES TOO)
WATCH IF YOU WANT - 6/10
I could legit just leave that as my synopsis and statement about it but I'll give a quick rundown. Taichi and Rin get isekai'd (it's not a word but I'm gonna use it) and when they make their way to the local village accompanied by the adventurers that saved them; they do generic thing 1) let's try to join an adventurer's guild even though we have no weapons or (to our current knowledge) magic power. Which is when they are tested for magic like all adventurers: Rin's magic appears as all 4 elements, which is shocking to the girl at first, then Taichi tries, and shatters the orb. So needless to say, they're OP as hell and that's when they are taken by an elf girl, Myura (who later becomes one of their best friends), to meet the "Mage of the Fallen Leaves" Remiya; an extremely powerful mage who takes both of them on as apprentices. She knows of Rin's ability to control the elements so she has, Myura, show her how to wield magic as elves know better than most. Taichi's magic is unknown to her but what she does know is that, if properly tapped into, Taichi has the power to destroy countries, level continents, and more; eventually when put in a life threatening situation and using a Wind Spirit's power we find out Taichi is a Summoner. It isn't until later he is actually able to summon Aerial, the wind spirit, to help him defeat a dragon; much later on once she realizes that Taichi is able to handle her full power she tells him she can return to her true self to help all of them get out of a terrible war alive. Aerial transforms in Slyphid, the Spirit God of Wind, and again needless to say after an easy battle Taichi ends the war.
IF they were to continue this, in isekai fashion, I would assume that Taichi would gain the ability to work with and weild the power of the remaining 3 Spirit Gods because isekai.
I don't want to say I'm tired of isekai, because I'm not, I'm not one of those jaded people with the genre; I enjoyed it well enough but there were a few other isekai that I should've watched instead.
ONLY WATCH IF YOU ENJOY ISEKAI - 4.5/10