Anime's Summer 2023 (P)Review
A Review of the currently airing animes before they actually finished
Welcome, Again.
In this new series, I will review animes that are currently airing. Unfortunately, since we're already halfway through the summer 2023 season, There won't be many animes this time-only 3. However, I’m hopeful that I'll launch more next season.
I will be mostly reviewing their first episode and measuring my expectations.
Let's get to it, then.
The Theme for this season seems to be the continuation of big names. Multiple series received a continuation project: Demon Slayer, Rascal, KanoKari, JJK, Horimiya, and even the Quintessential Quintuplets. But there are also a lot of newcomers. Let's start the reviews with:
1. Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
I'll be the first one to confess: I’m a huge fan of the Jujutsu Kaisen series. It's my second favorite (can you guess #1?). I've consumed a copious amount of content from this series- I bought volumes 0-8, watched everything that's been adapted so far, and even bought the Season 1 poster for my room- So I might be a bit biased toward this one.
Naturally, I was very excited about this, and after watching the first episodes, I can confidently say that it will definitely live up to the hype. The first episodes barely launched but are already jam-packed with some of the best animation and action scenes I've seen since the release of Chainsaw Man. Overall very excited to see how the rest of this season unfolds.
(Also, a side note, Gojo is stupidly strong, It honestly amazes me.)
Expected Grade: 10/10
With that, we move on to:
2. Horimiya: The Missing Pieces
Yes. I know. Technically not a second season since the original Horimiya was an end-to-end adaptation. But I'll still treat it as a second season.
I watched the first season of Horimiya. In fact, it was one of the first anime I ever watched, back when I still used my free Funimation account. At first, I thought it wasn't anything particularly good, but as the episodes progressed, I suddenly found myself saying the following:
“Yeah, This is romance right here. This is romance done right.”
All scenes were packed with emotion. The animation was nothing short of a piece of art, and the voice acting was constantly on point, capturing the lowkey vibe the series has to it, while still bringing the characters to life. But, after Episode 13/13, I said to myself:
“It's a shame that this will never get a second season.”
Well, Here we are. we get all the bits the original anime missed. And my impatient self has already read most of them because of that very train of thought.
I was, however, very pleased to see that the team at Square Enix maintained the same attention to deal and commitment to quality as they did in the first season. I have very high hopes for this one. Though I'll most likely already know the stories they'll be adapting.
Expected Grade: 8/10
With that, we move on to:
3. Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3
I have to say that I've grown a sort of ick to this series, thanks to the season 2 finale.
Season 2 was, in my opinion, nothing short of mid. It was utterly unremarkable, and I had to backtrack episodes multiple times because I'd miss dialogue, thanks to it just having become nothing but background noise. I was ready to stop the series after the halfway point, but something (boredom) told me to soldier on.
Then I witnessed a storytelling sin. A crime of the most heinous kind.
Just as we, the viewers, were getting the absolute best bit of character development we've had in 2 full seasons in the form of Mizuhara's backstory:
BAM
Season 2 ended, and I got a notification on my phone from MyAnimeList, saying Season 3 had already been confirmed.
I remember being so utterly pissed that I started laughing out loud in my room.
“This has got to be a joke, right?”
It was not. And now, here I am.
To make matters worse, it would seem all the momentum the character development gave to the series has started to dissipate, and a new female character has been introduced, to the dismay of the human incarnation of a 14-year-old's cum-sock, Kazuya.
I'll soldier on, regardless.
Expected Grade: 4/10
With that, we move to:
4. The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses
Finally, away from sequels.
This one’s a weird one. Much like my experience with Oshi no Ko, I went into this knowing about as much of the story as I know about Quantum Physics. That is to say, pretty much nothing except for bits and pieces of collected knowledge.
I thought the title sounded funny when it popped into my MAL notifications and decided to give it a try (the exact same thing happened to Oshi no Ko, and nothing could've prepared me for that pilot episode).
It's so far held itself up on the animation end of it and on the story. Not particularly high expectations, though. If this list were complete, I'd say this would be a solid dark-horse pick for breaking into the top 10 of the season.
Expected Grade: 7/10
And with that, we move on to
5. The Dreaming Boy Is A Realist
“I'm sorry, what?”
Is what I said to myself after watching the first few minutes of episode 1.
Again, another one of those Anime that I really only picked up because the name piqued my curiosity. After watching it, though, I felt a bit disappointed, if I'm being fair. The Animation was utterly unremarkable, there were characters being introduced without any bit of explanation, and the story kinda bugged me out. Here's why:
Based on contextual clues, our “Dreaming Boy”
Has been relentlessly following our main female lead for most of their school lives, to the point where everyone knows it.
Clearly is madly in love with her.
And yet, he somehow stops after being very nearly hit by a…Soccer ball?
I don't think I've ever seen any character have an epiphany so powerful following such a weird event. I hope this gets better. Otherwise, I'll have to revisit my naming standards.
Expected Grade: 5/10
And with that, we end this.
Usually, in here, I'd have a few more animes. However, as I mentioned, we're already halfway through the summer season.
For now, That'll be it.
I'll be working on something a little bigger for the next post, so subscribe if ou don't want to miss it.
As for now.
~Raider, Signing off
Wow! Cool! Very cool indeed!