What I’m Watching Summer 2017 (Anime)
At first glance, the summer 2017 simulcast schedule looked very weak. I didn’t go into the season expecting to be blown away by anything but came out with a couple of shows that have managed to keep me coming back each and every week.

Restaurant to Another World is my favorite show of the Summer, so far. It is a light hearted show about, well, a Restaurant to Another World. On most days, it is just a normal Western-style restaurant that could be found on the corner of any regular street, however, on Saturday the restaurant gets a unique sort of clientele. Soldiers, Elf Wizards, and Dragons visit this restaurant. This simple premise is executed well with a diverse set of characters and is much to the viewing pleasure of the audience. Every character, minor or otherwise, is fleshed out with their own personality and usually, sets the stage as to how they found the mystical store in the first place. We get to see how food unifies people that otherwise would never share air space, let alone a table. I wouldn’t say that there is an overarching plot to the show, the show is as much an experience for the watcher as it is for the patrons and honestly, the lack of such a thing keeps the show from feeling heavy handed. You are never anticipating a climax because the experience is so serene.

A Centaur’s Life is a show about a centaur girl who is just trying to get through her wacky high school life as a half horse human. The thing is, her life isn’t all that wacky considering she goes to a monster high school and that monsters are a key feature in the universe in which the characters reside. The show makes an attempt at humanizing these characters and does a really good job at it. They all want to study, succeed, have relationships and take naps. They struggle with P.E. and don’t always get the best grades. There is something here for everyone (unless you get grossly offended by negative portrayals of young men because there is plenty of that) which can leave the show feeling a little bland at times. That’s not to say the characters don’t have their quirks and convictions, they certainly do, but at times the show can leave you saying “of course they did” and I have to knock it off for that.
GAMERS! is the stupid rom-com of the season and I love it for being what it is. Pragmatically, it’s a show about really really dumb high schoolers falling in love, getting jealous and being stupid for little to no reason and I’m ok with that. The udder stupidity of the characters lends itself to create some hilarious misunderstandings and situations and much like A Centaur’s Life will leave you with the feeling of “of course that ******* happened” but I let GAMERS! pass because it’s obviously meant to be trash and never takes itself seriously. Beyond being a stupid rom-com it has a central theme; all of the characters are gamers. ex. Uehara plays fighting games. (That’s got to be a nod to Daigo Umehara right?) A lot of critics have been unhappy with the show because of its constant use of reference to popular media. I don’t really understand this…it would make sense for a show that takes place in the current year to show current consoles and video games…right? Maybe that makes this show just a giant ad? So what? This show was never high art in the first place and wasting time to complain about ads, or even dedicating space in your blog to complaining about people complaining about ads is a waste of time. (Actually, maybe don’t watch this show.)

Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun is the last show I managed to catch every episode of this season. The main character, Aoyama is a Japanese National Team U-16 soccer player with a quirk, he is a clean freak. So the show hinges on the fact that this hot guy who is really good at something is also a clean freak and this premise wasn’t funny until you see it in practice. Speaking of practice, a fair bit of the show is spent in practice and lends itself to some jokes about how Aoyama approaches getting dirty and sweaty. This show really doesn’t have a theme and for the most part doesn’t rely on stereotypes to define the characters so trying to keep this spoiler free is difficult.
Overall, finding four shows that I can say that I enjoyed is more then I expect from a season.
Thanks for reading this.
-Chris “Matsura” Hausaman
