Dear Steempunks:
I didn't actually start following season to season until this year. Before then, my watching habits were sporadic and disorganized. I never had the time to watch anything... I was always busy with work or my other projects and anime sort of took a back seat to that. After all, who had the patience to sit still for 25 minutes for however many episodes were in a show, for how many appealing shows there were? The time starts to add up after a little while!
That said, I delegate my time much better now and am able to fit in a viewing schedule that works for me. Sometimes it's heavier, sometimes it's lighter, but it averages out to an healthy level of cartoon consumption each week.
Here are the shows from this season specifically that I've been keeping track with, a little bit about them and why I started/continue/dropped them.
I won't be listing shows from other seasons that I'm currently watching, for the purposes of being relevant, nor including shows that started in a prior season and are continuing this season
General thoughts:
This season, for me at the very least, has seen an unusual increase in the number of romance-related anime that appealed to me. Interestingly enough, this may or may not be related to a show I watched during the Winter season of this year, Scum's Wish, which quickly became my instant-AOTS (Anime of the Season) and one of my top five shows of all time.
It could have been the pessimistic, brooding and calculated approach to romance and love that was the underlying premise of that show that caused it, but I think I was sorely in need of a cleanse of some sort, especially as I bore this burden throughout the Spring season through other equally grim shows such as Attack on Titan or shows on the opposite end of the spectrum - shows that were completely devoid of any meaningful emotional sincerity at all like Eromanga Sensei. Fortunately, I was in luck with Summer 2017, because now there is no shortage of cute, innocent, feelsy shows to self-insert myself in and fantasize about an idealistic romance.
Gamers!
Initially, I wasn't all that interested in Gamers! because it was yet another in the long line of gaming shows that had saturated the medium since Sword Art Online hit us like a typhoon in 2012. After all, how much innovation could there possibly be left to make to this genre after 5 years of SAO-clones? The answer: nothing. This show brings no groundbreaking concepts to the table, except it seems less-focused on gaming and moreso on character development.
I wasn't interested in this show until i saw this video on Facebook of a really cute scene between two of the main characters,
and it was then that I realized this was one of those school romance shows with shenanigans and sentimental moments between characters. I don't watch this show for it's plot - I do so for those moments.
Tsuredure Children
Tsuredure Children is like the center of a Cinnabon roll, except you're eating an entire bowl of them. I was highly interested in this show from before it aired, just having viewed some promotional material for it, and I made the right decision. This show is nothing but teenager confessions, so take from that what you will. For me? This show alone counterbalanced all of the angst of Scum's Wish and more. There are so many characters and so many situations that it is impossible to not relate to at least one of them in some capacity.
Whether it be stuttering face-to-face confessions, frustrating misunderstandings, serendipitous encounters or outbursts of embarassment, Tsuredure Children has no shortage of warm and fuzzy tropey goodness. I literally love this show, and I've watched it from the first episode about five times now, and it has never gotten any less wonderful.
This is my current Anime-of-the-season.
Netsuzou Trap
This is another show i was quite interested in from the get-go. It had what seemed to me to be an interesting premise. Except for one thing: I did not know what it was actually about. All i knew was that there were couples doing secretive and manipulative things, and that had my Scum's Wish senses tingling. Therefore, when I sat down to watch this, I had high hopes.
Unfortunately, it's a short form show of about 9 minutes, which means stunted or rushed character development, as well as a breakneck pace that likely leaves significant chunks of the plot out. I say this because this show is a manga adaptation that I've been told is superior and complete, so I have that earmarked in my to-read list.
So far, I've been enjoying it as much as I can. There are moments when it channels that dark place where moralities begin to blur, and the salient scenes are very well animated, but beyond that, this is basically diet Scum's Wish.
Konbini Kareshi
Of all the shows in the season I'm currently actively watching, this has the silliest premise but arguably most sensible execution. Another schoolyard romance, but of the 7-Eleven kind.
I really disliked the quality of the animation and the lack of plot that the first episode brought, so I put it down for three weeks, but I picked it up again out of curiosity and it seems to have grown on me.
It's mostly filled with pretty anime boys... But the protagonist is a boy and the story is effectively told from a boy's perspective and they always meet up at this convenience store where all the employees are pretty anime boys and the boys are always sleeping at each other's houses and boys take up all the screentime aaand I think I'm gay now.
Aho Girl
This show is as anime as anime gets. It's about a high school girl who has nothing but air in her head and an unsatiable hunger for bananas and the people in her social circles grow evermore frustrated at her antics and general lack of awareness, intelligence, rationality and common decency. I was rolling with laughter watching this for the first time and pausing every few seconds to take it all in.
I never paid this one any attention until I started seeing clips turn up on Facebook. This show must be brilliant because, although it was another short form show of sub-15 minutes' length, whenever someone uploaded videos entitled 'Aho Girl Episode 1 funny scenes' the videos usually ended up about 12 minutes long. That's damn good mileage if you ask me.
Other shows I'm interested in checking out:
- Koi to Uso (More dark romance)
- New Game!! (Been recommended this multiple times by friends)
- Kakegurui (Seeing this turn up on Facebook alot and has a high MAL rating)
- Hajimete no Gal (Fan service, possibly of the Galko kind?)
Let me know your thoughts on this season below! I'm open to recommendations too, so don't hesitate to hit me up with your top picks and what you like about them. As always, thanks for reading, and See You Space Steemers ;)
All shows were watched on Crunchyroll! Support the anime industry!
