The Best and Worst of the Summer 2024 Anime Lineup [Part 1]
Rhianne Ward
Note: this post has been transferred over from my old Wordpress blog. I could go through the trouble of reformatting everything with supporting images and italicisation and whatever else, but I don't really have time to do all that unfortunately, and I'd prefer to spend my time writing new things than labouring over the old. So, if anything looks a little weird or messy, that's why. I hope you enjoy it regardless!
Recently, I’ve been getting back into anime, an interesting development given that I’ve averaged less than one anime season per three-month release window. I used to catch loads once upon a time, but I think having a job and a general change in my personal tastes made me more interested in video games for a couple years. That being said, shows like Delicious in Dungeon and Kaiju No. 8 piqued my interest during Spring, and reminded me that sometimes anime is actually quite good!
To commemorate my meteoric return, I’ve decided to try out as many new airing anime as I can while the Summer 2024 season comes around. There’s gonna be some absolute duds, but that’s a sword I’m willing to fall on in the name of potentially uncovering some bangers. And hey, at the very least, if they all suck, that’s an interesting outcome at least.
Tasuketsu -Fate of the Majority-
Starting off strong, we have Tasuketsu, an adaptation of a web manga which apparently never received an English localisation, so this is the English-speaking world’s opportunity to learn more about this story. It caught my eye because I’m a bit of a sucker for death game premises like this one, and the name is shockingly similar to a visual novel I love called Your Turn To Die: Death Game By Majority, which I thought was kinda funny.
But lovable visual novel this is not, because Tasuketsu is garbage. You can tell right from the start how off the vibes are, and that feeling persists the whole episode length. The pacing is wild, darting from one extreme to the next with basically zero slowdown. We go from bumbling protag passively enjoying his boring school life to the literal end of the world in around 3 minutes, and it somehow keeps escalating from there. Not in the cool way either, where it seeks to overwhelm your senses; there’s simply very little time afforded to any plot beat or emotion because, like I said, the pacing is bizarre. Exposition is incredibly clunky and nobody talks like an actual human being going through a crisis (or even a human being going about a normal human day). There’s even a throwaway line by the protagonist about how weird it was that everybody was handling this apocalypse-tier scenario so well, and it’s handwaved away almost immediately. It’s like the show knows how poorly it’s handling itself, which makes for an incredibly strange viewing experience.
In an attempt to rationalise this breakneck speed, I wondered if maybe they’re falling victim to an adaptation classic; trying to fit too much story into too limited a release schedule. Many anime become prey to this trap due to their typical 12-13 episode runtimes. Then I discovered that Tasuketsu is going to be two-cour, meaning it’ll be around 24 episodes total, and suddenly I had absolutely no sympathy for the way this thing turned out. For a show with that kind of time and corporate commitment behind it to turn out so shoddy is wild to me, and it makes me think about mediocre shows I sometimes take for granted. I’m not usually in the habit of watching things I’ll probably dislike, so this has been an eye-opening experience for me.
That being said, this show sucks in such an interesting way that I’m kinda curious to see where it goes from here, so I will be tuning in next week for the next instalment of this dumpster fire. Call me a masochist; I’m probably just dumb.
Verdict: do not watch, unless you’re a weird little freak (complimentary) (me)
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian
I wasn’t planning on watching this one because the title and premise sounds like the kind of annoying self-insert shite I tend to boak at, but this show has garnered a bewildering level of popularity on MyAnimeList.com, so that got my attention all on its own. I had assumed the source material was popular, which it kind of is, but not really as much as its rom-com contemporaries. The animation looks nice, but not especially spectacular. But hey, maybe I’m missing something. Looks can be deceiving, and with genuinely great romantic comedies like Horimiya and Komi Can’t Communicate I’ve learned not to judge too harshly until I give these things a try. So is Alya more than it appears?
Nope! It’s literally just another intensely male-gazey horny bait anime that over-sexualises high school girls. I think comparing this to Tasuketsu is genuinely interesting because while that show is bad for obvious reasons – poor animation, lazy writing, baffling pacing, etc – Alya is bad in a vibes-heavy way. No amount of high-quality animation and shiny textures can hide the fact that I felt yucky watching this, like I’d stumbled into a convention where I knew nothing about the shared hobby which enough everyone here.
I think what stands out to me is how lazy the whole thing feels. I’ve watched enough anime by now to recognise the tropes, and this one is teeming with them. Not to mention the premise is pretty boring, and does very little to convince me otherwise. I can’t wait for an entire season of this guy not mentioning that he can understand when she speaks Russian, perpetually violating her trust for hours! That’s so fun!!
I find the general aesthetic of this show to be so bland too. The girl looks and move like shiny statuettes, their outfits and hairstyles busy to the point of distraction. They exist to be ogled and to fawn over the unlikeable self-insert protagonist, and that’s about it. It’s all so sterile, so sanitised, and I’m left feeling a little hopeless about people’s standards. Is this really all it takes to have a well-received show? Place a conventionally attractive woman in a little dollhouse and make her say boring things to camera for twenty minutes? I think I’m too gay for this kind of show, and that’s probably a blessing.
Verdict: do not watch, unless you’re a weird little freak (derogatory) (not me)
Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction
Yes, that is the real name of the show, and that’s very cool I think. It’s the first anime adaptation of the works of mangaka Inio Asano, best known for the famously depressing slice of life drama Oyasumi Punpun. This was the series he worked on right after acquiring all that acclaim, and it follows a similar thread of slice of life realism, with more of a science fiction focus.
This story details the years following an “alien invasion” of sorts, where the aliens show up and then hang out in the sky doing nothing. Our protagonists are Kadode and Ouran, two high school girls living in the midst of this situation, where their main concerns are ostensibly ordinary teenage things. Whether or not they should go to university after school, if they should confess to their crushes, where to go for food after classes end… and all the while, the mothership looms over the Tokyo skyline, wordlessly.
I’m going into more detail here than I did with the last two because I genuinely really like this show and I think you ought to watch it. It hits upon this very timely feeling of aimlessness and stagnation so many young people feel in our modern age of encroaching climate disaster and increasing political disorder. This manga began releasing when I was 14, and by that point I was certainly experiencing those feelings of disillusionment with life, wondering what the point of it all is if we’re all going to be dead in a few decades anyway.
I make it sound so dire, but the show does a wonderful life of breaking up the downer philosophical speculation with moments of sweetness and light. The core group of friends, and the friendship between Kadode and Ouran especially, are so likeable and fun to watch. Their scenes meander and often don’t go anywhere, but it’s a much-needed dose of niceness in between the likely apocalyptic situation they all find themselves in. I say apocalyptic, but not as a consequence of the aliens doing anything necessarily. Rather, it’s the human response to the circumstances, and their seeming inability to avoid antagonising an otherwise peaceful alien group, that seems to be dooming us. Any deaths that occur always comes as a result of humanity attempting to fight these passive aliens, only to incur collateral damage as a result of the weaponry used. Humanity keeps hurting itself with its incessant need to meet the unknown with violence, and yet it never learns that lesson. Everything is blamed on the mothership, and nobody wants to look inward. It’s a bleak depiction of humanity, but an honest one.
You might be wondering how I’m able to gleam so much from a brand new show, and that’s because I cheated a little here. Dead Dead Demons is technically an ongoing series, since it started airing at the end of May, but since the bulk of it is releasing in the summer, I figured it was worth counting. Also, it’s really good and I wanted to talk about it, so there you go!
Verdict: definitely watch, especially if you’re a fan of slow burn science fiction and/or cute girls doing cute/ethically ambiguous things.
Shy: Season Two
You know, Shy isn’t the kind of show I typically go for. I think I’m maybe too old to properly enjoy a story that’s predominantly aimed at a demographic around 6-12 years younger than me. I definitely went through a shounen phase at one point, as any burgeoning anime fan likely does. I’ve indulged in my fair share of MHA, Demon Slayer, Haikyuu, and so on, and while I still like those shows, I find that I’ve grown out of them a little.
Shy is decidedly ‘one of those’. It’s a superhero shonen centring around a hero named Shy, who as the name suggests has serious confidence issues, a problem for a protector of the peace. Despite this, she tries her best whenever she can, even if she sometimes beats herself up about the whole thing. I think the show’s depiction of heroes is interesting, mainly because it doesn’t waste any time explaining why there are heroes or linger on the political implications of having a force of superhumans in our society. There’s a throwaway line at the beginning about how the appearance of heroes resulted in a unprecedented period of world peace, but for the most part, people operate as normal, the only difference being that occasionally they get rescued by a flying person. In a way, the show’s seeming disinterest in engaging the sociology of its settings is kind of refreshing, and I say this as a resident overthinker of worldbuilding and politics of media. It depicts a world where everyone is pretty much chill with the concept of there being all-powerful vigilantes saving people for fun, and that’s fine because the heroes are generally altruistic and motivated by a desire to do good.
Instead, the show redirects its attention to Shy, and her personal struggle to be the best hero she can be. In most cases, the only thing standing in her way of getting stronger is herself, and she’s immediately relatable for that reason. Despite her incredible abilities, she’s still just a human with normal person problems. Her true superpower, the show suggests, is her unbending kindness, and I think that’s very sweet.
Shy is under no illusions about its position in the world. It doesn’t seek to prove itself as more than a solid shounen story, and I appreciate it for that reason. It’s an intensely straightforward show clearly inspired a lot by magical girl shows like Sailor Moon, and it’s neat to see a small resurgence in that kind of media. It’s also cool to see a predominantly female-led show releasing in a very male-centric market. It speaks to a world changing for the better that these universal themes of heroism and kindness are being experienced by the whole world, and not just half of it. I hope girls get to enjoy seeing themselves reflected in this action-heavy format, and boys can look up to a female lead in the same way as they would with MHA’s Deku.
I’ve written all that and I’m realising now that I literally didn’t talk about the new season at all! It’s good! Seems to be more of the same, so it’ll probably be enjoyable. I’m looking forward to it!
Verdict: watch this if you like nice vibes in a chill environment. Also, cool fight scenes!
Twilight Out of Focus
Hell yeah baby, it’s boys love time, we’re so fucking back!!
Okay, but to be completely honest, I actually haven’t watched or read an awful lot of boys love media from the anime and manga space. Part of the reason is simply that there isn’t an awful lot of it – Japan is homophobic, who knew – but even when there is, it’s clear when the target demographic is straight women fetishising gay love. Despite this, I’m familiar with a couple bangers, like Given and Sasaki to Miyano, and I wanted to broaden my horizons a little so here we are!
It helps that the premise of this one appeals to my other tastes. A filmmaking club at an all-boys school is wanting to make their next project a boys love romance, and the director requests that our protagonist, Mao, ask his roommate, Hisashi, to play the lead. The only problem is that Mao made a promise not to tell anyone Hisashi is gay, and making a request like this might make it seem like he’s broken that trust. Despite this, Hisashi is keen on the idea, but Mao discovers an altogether separate issue: he is falling in love with Hisashi.
It’s a pretty straightforward situation, complicated by the fact that Hisashi is already dating someone and Mao is only just coming to terms with this newly discovered aspect of his sexuality, so you already know shit is about to get very messy very quick. That being said, it hasn’t yet, and I’d like to be wrong about that because I don’t know how many more scenes I can take of romantic tension between the two before my heart explodes.
To be honest, I don’t have an awful lot to say about this one because it’s not an especially deep narrative so far, but that might change. As of now, it’s a very watchable show that I quite like, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this relationship develops.
Verdict: nice and uncomplicated romance that’s easy to watch. Also, shout out to gay people! Good job, fellas!
Senpai is an Otokonoko
Hoo boy, you know an anime is good when the first episode makes you tear up.
An otokonoko is a Japanese term to describe men who present in culturally feminine ways, usually through crossdressing. It’s a phrase popularised in recent years through anime and manga depictions of the practice, but crossdressing has always been a thing around the world in a variety of cultures.
Gender expression in anime has always been an interesting topic to explore, with varying degrees of sensitivity. More often than not, gender nonconforming characters are positioned as the butt of a lot of lazy jokes for the lowest common denominator to laugh at, or they’re simply a background character to sell figurines while the comparatively bland protagonist does whatever they’re up to. Beyond that, you get some really excellent explorations of the subject, such as in Wonder Egg Priority or Wandering Son.
Going into Senpai is an Otokonoko, I was kind of preparing for the worst case scenario, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s ostensibly a slice of life comedy drama, but the joke never seems to be at the expense of the protagonist, Makoto. Rather, the jokes come from the bizarre behaviours of his admirers Saki and Ryuji, who compete for Makoto’s attention with varying degrees of success. It’s not the kind of show I’d typically go for, and yet the cast is so immediately likeable that I’m definitely hooked.
Then, beyond the jokes lies a few surprisingly mature and layered narrative beats about acceptance, which really struck a chord. The show is quite subtle in its messaging, choosing not to verbalise its message, but rather let the visual language speak for itself, and that’s really refreshing in the otherwise quite wordy medium of anime. There’s a couple of really impactful moments here, made more so by not outright stating their meaning, but by allowing the audience to draw conclusions themselves and even actively reject what characters state as fact. Ryuji claims that Saki’s yearning for Makoto shouldn’t be so public so as not to make him uncomfortable or overburdened, and yet a later scene shows Makoto displaying a greater confidence in self-expression as a consequence of being acknowledged so openly by Saki. It’s some really great character writing that says a lot about all three of the main cast, and relies on the intelligence of the audience to pick up on these wordless cues, and that makes for such an engaging watch.
And then the ending came around and bodied me, with a scene showing Makoto changing back into a boy’s uniform and stating into a mirror hidden away in an abandoned school closet, “goodnight, me”. Like, oh my god, the implications of that scene are absolutely devastating, and I wasn’t ready to feel something that hard right at the end of this otherwise light and heartfelt episode. Its moments like the ones I’ve talked about that suggest an incredible confidence in the execution of this story, and give me so much hope for this series. I’m glad I gave it a chance. If it maintains this incredibly strong start, I can see this becoming one of Summer 2024’s best, if not a contender for the whole year.
Verdict: definitely watch this if you have a heart and enjoy when it’s full of love and kindness. Also, shout out to bisexual people! Good job, fellas!
Pseudo Harem
With a title like that, I really wasn’t expecting a lot from this one, but I’m happy to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised!
Pseudo Harem tells the tale of Eiji and Rin, both members of their school’s drama club, and born clearly into each other. Eiji, being an emotionally stunted teenage boy, makes a joke about how he wishes he had a harem of girls to call his own, to which Rin responds with a masterclass of performances, jumping between the roles of various harem character tropes. This kinda funny bit between friends then becomes the backbone of how the pair talk to each other, and it makes for some genuinely quite funny situations where their inability to communicate normally is masqueraded by the characters they inhabit.
Describing it sounds like the kind of self-insert romcom hell I tend to hate in anime, but here it works because the main duo are actual characters with distinct personalities and flaws, and their motivations are clear and independent. It feels weird to say, but as someone who has watched a lot of anime, it can be genuinely hard to find a protagonist who isn’t to some extent a deliberate blank slate for the presumed straight male viewer to project themselves onto. I think part of the reason I adored Dungeon Meshi so much was because the characters are actual characters with backstories and personalities, and not simply hollow shells.
Pseudo Harem is like peering into an alternate reality where high school rom com anime aren’t miserable bottom of the barrel experiences. I think a big reason for that is the stellar vocal performances at work here. Rin, who plays a handful of different characters in any given scene, is the obvious talent, and Saori Hayami meets that high expectation perfectly, but I also really like the nervous fake confidence Nobuhiko Okamoto brings to Eiji as well. Not to mention, the way they bounce off each other in scenes is so fun to watch, and their chemistry is instant and intensely likeable.
Overall, this seems like it’s going to be a fairly straightforward romantic comedy, and sometimes that’s all you need. With the level of love and effort clearly going into this, I’ll be happy to tune in every week.
Verdict: really fun! Watch if you enjoy low-stakes silliness and a very sweet core relationship.
Dungeon People
I’m not gonna lie, I saw the word “dungeon” and the Dungeon Meshi-enjoying neurons in my brain activated. Extremely low bar to clear, I realise, but I do like the idea of a slower, borderline slice-of-life approach to the dungeon subgenre.
That being said, I think this one might need a couple more episodes to find its footing, because this opener wasn’t that exciting. Not that it necessarily has to have me on the edge of my seat, but to be honest, by the end of it I wasn’t particularly engaged or excited by the concept. It’s possible that it’ll turn out to simply not be for me, and that’s okay.
I will admit that the battle animation is really impressive considering that isn’t the focus of the show. It’s cool to see a show that actually tries with those elements, even when it doesn’t have to. It gives me hope that the show just needs a little more time in the oven to cook up a compelling narrative.
Verdict: might be worth the wait, but it also might just be boring. Time will tell!
Quality Assurance in Another World
Not gonna lie, I was initially resistant to this one because the phrase “in another world” is a top five ick for me when I’m looking for anime to watch. Despite this, I gave it a shot, and it’s actually pretty good! There’s certainly more going on under the hood than I had expected.
That being said, it’s not anything amazing either. I don’t want to say too much about it since this first episode’s ending kinda justifies the entire existence of the show, but I will admit, I think the opening-episode twist thing is a bit played out at this point. See one episode turn your perception of the show’s reality on its head, you see them all!
Still, this one’s fun. I can’t say I’ve got many complaints, but not many compliments either. It’s a straightforward, down-the-middle kind of experience. Perhaps it’ll get better over time.
Verdict: a bit uninteresting at the moment, but it might start cooking with gas soon. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Shoshimin: How To Become Ordinary
Out of all the releases this month, this was one of the ones I was most excited about, mainly due to its original creator. This is an adaptation of a novel written by the incredible Honobu Yonezawa, best known for writing the Hyouka series of books, which was adapted into one of the best anime ever created. Straight up, Hyouka is one of the best works of fiction I’ve ever experienced, so anything else coming from this guy having to live up to that standard is probably really unreasonable.
That being said, Shoshimin certainly has the makings of a masterpiece. It takes a slower, more mature approach than the aforementioned, and the difference in tone is reflected in its presentation. The show is made in a letterboxed format, and whenever an anime does that, it feels like a statement of intent for the kind of vibe they’re going for. Mainly, an emphasis on the cinematic, attempting to emulate live-action rather than relying on anime’s typically more cartoonish aesthetic. It shows with the conversations in this first episode which are often depicted as uncut long takes of actors chatting, their performances unbroken by an edit.
There’s something so absorbing about the way this show captures its world, be it in the naturalistic approach or its moments of surrealism, encouraging the audience to feel the moment rather than parse out the logic of it. It’s a very vibey experience, for certain, and I’m a fan of it. I’m still kinda waiting to see where it goes from here, but I’m fascinated enough to be ready every week for the further unravelling of this little dramatic mystery.
Verdict: Hyouka fans rejoice! This show offers up more of what you love. Anyone else, also rejoice! There’s another cool anime to watch.
The Elusive Samurai
I feel like every season there’s always at least one high-profile Shonen Jump manga adaptation, and this time it’s Yusei Matsui’s The Elusive Samurai. Very popular in its weekly magazine run – more so in Japan than it is elsewhere – the existence of this show isn’t very surprising, but it is cool that it is Cloverworks at the helm with this one. They’re definitely one of my favourite studios working today, with bangers like Wonder Egg Priority, Spy x Family, The Promised Neverland (I’m only meaning Season 1 though, don’t get it twisted), and Horimiya, and that’s just the ones I like a lot.
I have read some of Elusive Samurai, though for whatever reason my interest in it dwindled over time. I think it was a consequence of my general disinterest in keeping up with weekly releases at a certain point, and by now I’ve fallen so far behind that there’s not much point in getting back into it. Not that I’d especially want to, because to be honest, it didn’t leave much of an impact on me during the first go-around.
This opening episode felt much the same. It’s fun and serviceable, as most Shonen Jump productions often do, but not especially exciting to me. Many of the narrative beats in this sole episode feel too underdeveloped to leave an impact, meaning it’s difficult to get invested particularly in the protagonist’s plight. That being said, there is a moment near the end which allows Tokiyuki to show his true heroic colours that really stuck the landing, due to a combination of great music and gorgeous, flowing animation. It’s a scene like that which makes me think there’s more to this series than meets the eye. I enjoyed my time with this one, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. Hopefully it doesn’t fall into any tropey traps.
Verdict: a bit rushed, but very fun and strong moments. Also, the main character is adorable!
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
This one was fun! It’s apparently an adaptation of a popular video game, though I’d never heard of it so I went into this one blind and I liked it!
It tells the tale of Sakuna, goddess of the harvest, who through a series of happenstances end sup banished from the city of the gods and forced to travel to an island overrun by demons, to determine their source, as well as find out what happened to her missing parents who were last seen in that place. It’s a very video-gamey setup, as you might expect, but it also works in the anime format because Sakuna is hilarious. She’s such an unbelievable flop, so seeing bad things happen to her is sort of fun as a baseline, but that means there’s also a lot of room for her to grow and improve. “Level up”, you could say if you’re a corny bitch, which I am!
This episode was all setup, but I liked what I saw. The character designs are all really memorable, and the general aesthetic leans heavily into cartoons which I appreciate as a break from the usual look of most anime. It sort of plays like a kids show, so time will tell if it remains interesting, but so far, it’s cute!
Verdict: cute and fun, and I’m curious to see more. Hopefully it won’t stagnate when it hits the more video-gamey aspects.
And I’m gonna call this the end of Part One, because this post is getting really long and the UI slowdown is killing me. This does mean that despite there being literally 12 anime listed here, that only makes up around half of the shows I was planning on watching.
Is there too much anime to choose from? Probably. Will I want to die by the end of this? Almost definitely. And yet, proceed I shall, so look forward to the second half of this in around a well. Bye!