Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This is usually the point in this article where I say I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed, but let’s be real here: we’re all stuck inside, time has no meaning, and individual days are beginning to meld into one endless, featureless procession of the eternal Now. I hope you’re all doing your best to cope with quarantine in your own ways, but either way, time has been accelerating all throughout the spring, and at this point it feels like no surprise to already have reached the summer preview.
COVID’s global presence also means that the summer anime season has been dramatically diminished, with a great number of shows either pushed back or cancelled entirely. Fortunately, the surviving properties contain a few shows I’m genuinely hyped for, and frankly, I wouldn’t want all these already-overworked animators putting themselves in any danger, anyway. Without further ado, let’s run down the most intriguing prospects of the summer season!
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU S3
Unsurprisingly, my top prospect coming into last season continues its reign as top seasonal prospect, by virtue of having been pushed back due to COVID. I’m still just as excited as ever to see the conclusion of Oregairu, which has been a show that’s basically accompanied me from the beginning of my critical career, back when the non-stop hits of 2013 gave me a seriously misleading impression of your average year in anime.
Oregairu is full of quick-witted and emotionally complex characters, and rich in insights regarding adolescence and identity. Its season two glow up, courtesy of new director Kei Oikawa and his team at studio feel, rocketed the show’s visual execution from functional into truly inspired. My biggest concern here is that a one season delay might just not be enough for the production, particularly since I’ve heard the show was already cutting it close scheduling-wise with its original air date. But if Oregairu 3 can realize its potential, it will surely be one of the highlights of the year.
Here’s the PV.
Any new Masaaki Yuasa project is obviously a cause for celebration, as the man has developed perhaps the strongest catalog of any modern director, while drawing on a far broader catalog of art styles and narrative forms than you tend to see in the medium. Japan Sinks looks to be a somewhat unusual project for Yuasa, as its style is a bit more realistic and physically grounded than his standard – but frankly, for me, that’s just another source of excitement, as I get to see him and his brilliant team tackle an entirely new vein of drama. Naoya Wada’s excellent character designs are already being put to work in the show’s dramatic PV, and I have every expectation the show will be operating on the same high level of narrative maturity that I’ve come to expect from Yuasa.
Here’s the excellent PV.
Having jumped directly from helming the promising Death Parade to directing the flat-out phenomenal Mob Psycho 100, Yuzuru Tachikawa is perhaps the hottest young director in anime at the moment. This summer, he’ll be directing an ambitious and anime-original new property, working with one of the industry’s newest studios and a whole bunch of top-tier collaborators from prior projects. Deca-Dence’s staff pedigree would be more than enough reason to give it a shot already, but the show’s trailer is already demonstrating plenty more reasons to check it out, from its alluring world design to its beautiful layouts. There are a lot of reasons to believe that Deca-Dence is going to be something truly special.
Here’s the PV.
The Great Pretender has style to spare, with the great Yoshiyuki Sadamoto himself (Evangelion, FLCL) handling the character designs, and the reliable Hiro Kaburagi handling directing duties. But staff pedigree aside, the real sell for The Great Pretender is its terrific initial PV, which features incredibly vivid color work and expressive character animation from start to finish. Kaburagi’s gained experience on precisely this sort of stylish crime drama through the sturdy 91 Days, so I’m at the very least intrigued to see what he and his team cook up this time.
Here’s that PV.
Ikebukuro West Gate Park is a bit of a mystery, frankly – pretty much all I know about it is that it’s being animated by Doga Kobo, and that it’s based on a series of mystery novels. That said, those two touchstones are by themselves pretty solid recommendations; Doga Kobo’s productions are almost universally beautiful, though this one’s being handled by a less experienced director, and anime based on traditional books tend to have an inherent advantage writing-wise over those based on manga or light novels. Like last season’s Sing Yesterday For Me, it’s fundamentally exciting to me to see Doga Kobo moving further outside their slice of life wheelhouse, and though I have no reason to feel certain West Gate Park will be great, I’m supportive of any studio taking on more properties based on full length books.
Gibiate frankly feels more like a novelty than a genuinely strong prospect, but in times like these, even novelty has to be worth something. An anime-original production, the most intriguing thing about Gibiate is that it’s being produced by Yoshitaka Amano, the acclaimed illustrator who drew much of Final Fantasy’s earlier art (among a million other projects), and who’s also providing the initial character designs for this show. If you’re aware of Amano, you’re probably also aware that his distinct visual style, full of delicate lines draped like spiderwebs over the canvas, couldn’t possibly translate into fluid animation – but as an anime-original property with high profile collaborators, there’s still a reasonable chance that Gibiate could turn out to be a fun ride.
Here’s the PV.
And that is sadly it for me. I’m actually pretty impressed I got to four full properties this season – this is easily the smallest season I’ve seen since I began writing season previews, and smaller still once you discount the sequels to shows I’m not following. The last two here are total wildcards, but Oregairu, Japan Sinks, and Deca-Dence should be excellent, meaning the anime flow will continue unabated. I wish good health and luck to everyone working hard through this crisis, and look forward to sharing another season with you all. Please stay safe out there!
You missed Yuasa’s Nihon Sinks!
SHIT, I TOTALLY DID.