This weekend marked the turnover point from Spring 2016 to Summer 2016, and last week I checked in to see if anyone would be up for a kind-of-sort-of restrospective on shows that came out in these past three months. So here we are, let's see how this goes, shall we?
I figured the best way to kind of keep this sparse is to have people share three shows they watched this past season. If there are any other shows specifically that are worth talking about, or a particular aspect of a show that you feel would make a good side-discussion, we can either take it from your comment or start a separate reply and go from there.
Like I said, first time doing this, and I didn't see anywhere near everything that came out last season, so this might be a bit rough. But with that said:
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Flying Witch - MAL Listing
This show was a load of fun. One of the first few slice-of-life shows I've really gotten into, but one of the better shows I've seen in a while too. Basic premise: a witch decides to head into the country and stay with some extended family while she works on... becoming a better witch. Pretty simple. But where this show really shines is with its cast of characters. Every episode, more or less, brings in a new character and new elements of the "magical world" that operates right alongside the normal one, and shows exactly how magic would exist in a world like that. It's often subtle and understated, but the way the cast rolls with it - their reactions to it in particular - makes for some pretty good deadpan comedy. The design of the show in general just came off as "pleasant". Soft, painterly backgrounds and a gentle score made it my favorite show to wind down the week with.
Space Patrol Luluco - MAL Listing
To preface: I haven't seen any of Studio TRIGGER's other works outside of Kiznaiver (another show from this season). The best way to describe the short-length ONA of Luluco is to say that it's the bombastic, hyperexaggerated offspring of over a decade's worth of TRIGGER's own works and inspirations taken from their time back at Gainax. This show is so frenetic and ridiculous in premise and execution - a girl living at the crossroads of intergalactic civilization decides she just wants to be "normal", until shenanigans ensue and she's forced to become a space police officer - and yet it put together such solid comedy on a moment-to-moment basis that it ended up as probably my favorite show of the season. Even better, the episodes are short enough that you could probably finish the whole thing in an afternoon or two, give or take.
Bungou Stray Dogs - MAL Listing
While I wasn't terribly impressed with this one, Bungou Stray Dogs is one of the more interesting concepts on paper that I've seen adapted to anime. I'm not nearly as well-read as I wish I was on Eastern authors, but the basic premise of this show is that all of the characters, be they heroes, villians, or neutral parties, are based in some way off of the real-world authors whose names they take up. This leads into something I could probably only closely relate to the Fables comics, where the existing authors' mannerisms, notariety, or the characters they wrote about help to inform the actions of their on-screen personas. Where this really works is in providing a large, well-fleshed group of characters with a lot of the character-building legwork already done and sitting them in a room to see what comes out. It's a fascinating idea that I'm a sucker for in every media I've come across it with. Where the show didn't shine as much was in spending so much time establishing the on-screen characters that the overarching plot seemed to move at a glacial pace, only finally picking up towards the end of the season. That said, a second season was announced, and with the cast already mostly built up, I'm looking forward to seeing where they go with this one.
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Outside of these three shows, I'd love to get a conversation rolling on Mayoiga, if this post manages to get enough contribution. This was a weird, weird, weird show and half of the fun of watching it week-to-week was talking about it and seeing the reactions of the greater audience to whatever nonsense we were being graced with in a given week.
Anyway, feel free to comment and talk about anything you guys have seen lately. Barring that, maybe you're new to watching anime (like I am) and are looking for recommendations? Or maybe you saw something outside of the Spring 2016 season that you'd like to talk about? Feel free to jump in, I'd love to have another place to discuss some of these shows and the greater Hubski community I think would be a nice place to do just that.