Doctorkev’s Thoughts on the Summer 2024 Anime Season: Sequels and Ongoing Shows
Having recently covered this anime season’s middling selection of new shows, it’s now time for me to look at a far more exciting selection of sequels, and shows ongoing from the previous season. There’s a lot of good stuff here. Remember once upon a time it was almost unheard of for TV anime to get sequels, no matter how popular they were? Times have changed. Now whether that means it’s less likely for new shows to get a crack at success I’m not sure. It could be that there’s more anime in production now than there ever has been. That makes me more than a little concerned for the future viability of the industry…
As usual, there are a few things I’ve not yet had a chance to get around to watching. I promised last time I’d check out Yatagarasu, but it remains on my backburner. I’m sorry! Hopefully before the end of the season, I’ll get around to it. I’m also intrigued by Disney+ show The Fable, though I hear its animation is terrible. Quite incredibly, Crunchyroll have begun streaming the episodic versions of the 7-part Starblazers/Space Battleship Yamato 3199 movie series, though as yet only two episodes (comprising the first, rather short, movie) are available. Until Crunchyroll decides to stream plot-essential prior 8-episode mini-season Yamato 2205, I’m not even going to start this.
One day I’ll watch the original Spice and Wolf, then compare it with the new, currently-airing version. Similarly, one day I might get around to watching the various Code Geass TV shows/OVAs/movies so I can experience the apparently disappointing Roze of the Recapture spin-off. That doesn’t sound too appealing… Netflix have also picked up season three of Kimi no Todoke — From Me to You, which I hear is excellent, but I need to watch the first two seasons. This all sounds like a lot of work. Maybe we should just get to the sequels and ongoing shows I am watching?
SHY Season 2 — Mondays — watched 7 episodes
SHY is such a sweet little superhero show, it makes me want to hug and squeeze something soft and squishy. I don’t love it as much as Tiger & Bunny or My Hero Academia, but it’s a solid and emotional adventure, with its heart very much in the right place. Shy herself is a quiet but determined girl whose selflessness, prodigious work ethic, and keen sense of empathy draws other characters to her, despite her timidity. Sometimes this means she collects blushing female admirers to the point I wonder if the original manga author really wanted to write a yuri harem rather than a superhero story, especially as Shy seems destined for a life of lesbian polyamory whether she wants it or not.
Somewhat distracting fawning female side characters aside, what I like about SHY is that it’s not just a basic heroes against bad guys story. Everyone has some kind of trauma to overcome, for some characters that has led to a life of heroism, for others that’s meant they’ve gravitated towards creepy and manipulative villain organisation Amaraririku. It seems that, following a battle between heroes and enemies, they’re just as likely to become friends instead of nemeses, or at least come to some kind of mutual understanding. Yes, it’s all a bit touchy-feely, but there’s a feel-good vibe underpinning all of that emotional stuff. I probably won’t remember that much about it in a year’s time, but it’s a nice way to spend 24 minutes per week. I reviewed the first episode for ANN’s Summer 2024 anime preview guide, as linked below.
Oshi no Ko Season 2 — Wednesdays — watched 7 episodes
Sometimes it seems like there’s been a backlash against Oshi no Ko among certain folks in the anime community, because following that incredible feature-length premiere last year (that adapted the entire first manga volume), the show greatly changed direction. Now we follow the teenage versions of main characters Ruby and Aqua as they navigate the entertainment industry. Ruby seems intent purely on becoming an idol like her mother, while Aqua’s motivation is much darker — he’s seeking revenge against his mother’s killer. I suspect criticisms come from a misapprehension about what this story is — Aqua’s obsession is mostly background motivation upon which to hang a story that interrogates and exposes the darker sides of the entertainment industry, from a multitude of perspectives. In a way, it’s a lot like an anime version of that old 1980’s Fame series I remember my mother religiously watching.
This season has mostly followed Aqua, his sort-of-girlfriend Akane, and fellow actress Kana Arima’s first steps into theatre via a “2.5D” adaptation of a famous manga. Admittedly the season starts quite slowly, but the story explores fascinating aspects of the adaptation process, from both original manga author and scriptwriter perspectives, before broadening out to include the perspectives and various approaches of the main actors. Once the production itself is underway, the acting scenes are staged incredibly well, with a mix of flashy direction and introspection giving deep insights into our characters’ psyches. The writing is fantastic, and the sheer beauty of the animation is superb. I can’t imagine manga author Aka Akasaka has any gripes about this adaptation of his work, unlike the fictional mangaka he features in this storyline.
Granted, the underlying meta-story has barely progressed, and as a manga-reader, I’m sorry to say that story progression will remain glacial for a long time. It’s best to take this long, meandering tale as it comes. Long-term viewers will eventually be rewarded with answers, but the smaller stories Oshi no Ko tells in the meantime are definitely worth experiencing.
Sengoku Youko : The Thousandfold Chaos Arc — Wednesdays — watched 5 episodes
Last time, Sengoko Youko left us on a horrendously cruel cliffhanger, wondering where on Earth the story would go next. After taking a season off, it’s back with a massive change in characters and setting — years have passed, and our main viewpoint character is now former antagonist Senya, who teams up with a now older and more cynical Shinsuke. Jinka has disappeared following his transformation into a terrifying monster, and fox girl Tama barely features in the story any more (at least for now). New green-haired girl Tsukiko is so cute, she and Senya make for a magnetic central duo.
Manga author Satoshi Mizukami is famed for his unpredictable, intricate plotting. I honestly have no idea where this super-fun show is going next. Each episode seems to introduce strange new characters and concepts that often build on previous information about the world. The action scenes could be more fluid and detailed, but I expect this show wasn’t given as many resources as it perhaps deserved. I wrote a brief review of the first episode for ANN, linked below:
NieR Automata ver1.1 Season 2 — Fridays — watched 6 episodes + 1 recap
I can’t help worrying that the presence of a recap after six episodes of the second season of A-1 Pictures’ troubled adaptation of Yoko Taro’s gaming masterpiece is a harbinger of yet further production hell. Last year, NieR’s first season’s broadcast was an unmitigated disaster with delay upon delay. I can only hope this was a planned break to aid production. Otherwise, it’s been an excellent season so far. We’re now deep into the final third of the game, past endings A and B, into uncharted territory. Once again, Taro adapts material from secondary sources, and switches the order of events up just enough to keep even dedicated fans on their toes. Production woes aside, NieR Automata ver1.1a is one of the best videogame to anime adaptations ever.
We’ve got raw emotional pain, misery, brutal violence, hopeless desolation, tragic misunderstandings, noble sacrifice, and all manner of Sad Robots. I can’t imagine what non-gamer viewers make of this, if they’ve even managed to stick with the show this long, but I’m fully aware of the horrors still to come and I’m kind of dreading living through them again. I wouldn’t be a Yoko Taro fan if I didn’t keep plugging on until the bitter end, though. I almost want to boot up the game again, and experience that sweet, sweet existential pain all the way from the beginning. But that would be crazy talk, surely?
Once more, I covered NieR Automata ver 1.1a for ANN’s preview guide, you can read via the link below.
Dead Dead Demons DeDeDeDe Destruction — Fridays — watched episodes 0–12
Part of my Friday Evening Cavalcade of Pain, I tend to watch Dead Dead Demons DeDeDeDe Destruction either just before or just after NieR Automata. Then I like to curl up into a little ball of sadness, rocking back and forth while crying myself gently to sleep. Truly, only the darkness of oblivion is enough to drown my anime-induced sorrows. DeDeDeDeDeDeDeDe is truly “Feels Bad — The Anime”. I’m not sure it’s true to say that I “enjoy” this anime so much as “appreciate while suffering through it”. I’ve never read any of author Inio Asano’s manga, but I suspect it would be dangerous for me to do so, as I’m likely to get hooked. Just like it’s hard to look away from a horrific road traffic accident, I can’t take my eyes off this gorgeously-presented, yet insidiously upsetting anime.
Main characters Kadode and Ouran are deeply flawed but human and empathetic characters with multiple layers, as to a slightly lesser extent are their various weird friends and relatives. They’re living through a time of incredible social change, yet for the most part seem oblivious to the horrors and carnage happening around them. Like frogs slowly being boiled to death I worry they won’t wake up until it’s too late, and even if they do, can anything be done to prevent the almost inevitable destruction of both humanity and invaderkind alike?
Sometimes DeDeDeDeDeDeDeDe’s nihilistic deconstruction of human selfishness and stupidity hits so close to home that it hurts. I care about these characters, I don’t want their world to go to shit, but the authorities and vigilantes are slaughtering essentially defenceless child-like aliens in their thousands, and there’s no way this can end well. In some ways it plays almost like a fairy tale, not the sanitised Disney versions, but a darker, more primal original where no-one gets out unscathed, where the Big Bad Wolf kills and eats everyone, only to be bloodily sliced open later, mangled half-digested corpses spilling onto the floor. I don’t know if my heart can stand up to the reckoning surely to come in this excellent but upsetting show’s final third.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 — Fridays — watched 18 episodes (plus one recap)
You know, after the mind-meltingly boring first half of this third season, I almost dropped Slime. Yet something keeps dragging me back. Perhaps it’s because every three or four episodes, something vaguely entertaining happens. Then it’s back to yet more goddamn meetings again. Instead of planning wars or international diplomacy, squishy little Rimuru and pals are now event planning. Oh yay, does that sound riveting. Spoiler — it’s not.
Almost nothing of consequence has happened for 18 episodes, yet somehow they still manage to jam in a random recap. Season three of Slime is taking the piss. This whole thing could, and should, have been condensed down into a handful of episodes, original author and his ridiculous lack of judicious editing be damned. I don’t want to watch the protagonist’s prolonged Civilization playthrough. It’s boring as hell. Please please please please can we be done with the interminable setup and have something happen? Please?
Monogatari Series: Off Season and Monster Season — Saturdays — watched 6.5 episodes
Rejoice! Studio Shaft has returned to adapt more of NisiOisin’s neverending Monogatari series! So far we’ve had an excellent 1.5x-length episode focusing on deadpan doll Yotsugi Ononoki and the terrifyingly unhinged Tsukihi Araragi, then five episodes of my least favourite character Sengoku Nadeko (though it still had its moments), and a 0.5x-length episode with Shinobu the vampire’s backstory. I won’t go into detail about my thoughts here, because my AniTAY writer colleague Lia is planning a collaborative article with me soon, where we’ll discuss all of our thoughts on the new Monogatari season. Look out for it! In the meantime, check out my review of the first episode for ANN below:
My Hero Academia Season 7 — Saturdays — watched 12 episodes (DUB)
So I only just caught up with this most recent MHA season very recently via an unholy binge with my 13-year-old son. We’re a little behind as we’re watching the dub, but holy crap has this season been incredible so far. I’d read the manga up until about where the fourth episode leaves off, so I knew about what happens with US hero Star and Stripes, and I knew the deal about the UA “traitor”, but following the resolution of these plotlines, MHA launches off like a rocket into what seems to be the beginning of the entire series’ endgame. Normally I’d be bored by what essentially boils down to never-ending nonstop fights across several fronts, but it’s so well done, with characters we care about, well-defined villains with understandable motives, and a sense of urgency pervading everything.
I suspect this slightly shorter than usual season will likely end around manga volume 38, leaving four further volumes left to adapt next year (the manga ended very recently with volume 42). We’re into the home stretch with MHA, and it’s a tense, nail-biting action extravaganza with heroes being maimed and killed, villains wrecking everything, and long-gestating plans coming to fruition. MHA has never been so exciting or compelling, and I love this series so much. It faltered a bit in seasons four and five, but since last season it’s been firing on all cylinders. It could possibly become my favourite long-running shonen action show, it’s definitely approaching the level of Fullmetal Alchemist now. They can’t make new episodes quickly enough!
Mission Yozakura Family — Sundays — watched 17 episodes — DELAYED by three episodes outside of the US
Why, oh why, has Disney+ in the UK screwed around with this show like they did with Undead Unluck? There is no good reason for them to randomly stop streaming for several weeks, then pick up and keep going as if nothing happened. We’re now three weeks behind the US, at least that’s better than the three months delay we got for Undead Unluck. Inexplicable mismanagement aside, this remains great fun, mostly light-hearted fluff, though the past few episodes have delved a bit more deeply into darker backstory, and I am most definitely here for it.
Yozakura Family has a great selection of adorable characters who all clearly care deeply for one another (except for the older brother dude, he’s an asshole). Central couple Taiyo and Mutsumi are adorable together, and it’s an unusual series that has its leads tie the knot in the first episode — even though I’m not sure if they’ve even kissed yet. Yeah, we could be at Tonikawa levels of lack of romantic development here, but they are still schoolkids so we can forgive them. Every spy or ninja movie trope is thrown into Yozakura Family’s blender to produce a heady cocktail of daft humour and madcap action. It’s so much fun.
Tower of God Season 2 — Sundays — watched one episode — dropped
Oh dear. What a disaster. I liked season one of Tower of God well enough, with its unique art style and intriguing story. Whatever the hell this second season is quickly squandered any goodwill the first season had earned by shitting all over the carpet and rolling in its own filth. What a boring, ugly, pointless mess. I rarely drop anime after a single episode, but this experience was so poor that I have no intention of ever going back to the Tower of God. Read more of my criticism at the ANN preview guide link below.
TP BON Season 2 — Netflix — watched all 12 episodes
Finally, the second series of this wonderfully retro sci-fi adventure recently dropped all in one go onto Netflix. Hardly anyone seems to have watched this, which is a tragedy. I wrote a full review for ANN recently — follow the link below to read my detailed thoughts on it.
And that’s it for my halfway assessment of the Summer 2024 season! I’ll be back at the end of September with my usual Postmortem articles, perhaps by then I’ll have caught up a bit on my backlog. Once again, thanks very much for reading!
