Well folks, the spring season’s beginning to wrap up, meaning it’s time to look forward to our upcoming summer slate, and see what new anime delicacies we’ll be devouring this time. Once again, I’ll be frank – the summer is looking to be a really weak season, following up on a spring that was also an extremely weak season. This isn’t the “new normal,” and this isn’t simply a reflection of my own more exacting standards (okay, maybe it’s slightly a reflection of that) – good anime seasons come and go, and the unfortunate fact is we’ve just run into a couple seasons in a row with a relative dearth of noteworthy projects. After an incredibly strong winter that simultaneously offered Violet Evergarden, After the Rain, A Place Further than the Universe, and Laid-Back Camp, both spring and summer seem destined to struggle.
Fortunately, My Hero Academia is still running, and it’s not like summer is a total wasteland – we’ve got Banana Fish to hold down the “prestige adaptation” slot, and perhaps most importantly, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer’s author Satoshi Mizukami is writing one show himself. Plus, there’s always backlog – why suffer through the dubious fruits of whatever happens to be arbitrarily streaming at the moment when we can always watch actually good shows from the past? I might be professionally obligated to indulge fandom’s recency bias, but you all can be free! Go! Set sail! Embrace that freedom, and watch something good!
Anyway. Moving on. As usual, I won’t run down every single upcoming show here – you can check out a site like anichart for a list of general synopses, so there won’t be any of that here. Instead, I’ll just be highlighting the shows I personally have a reason to feel excited about, along with an explanation of whatever it is that caught my interest – great staff, beloved source material, or maybe just a really great trailer. Starting with my most-anticipated properties, let’s buckle up and see what the summer has in store!