July is coming… And that means Summer Anime!

It is indeed that time of year once again. The time when I realize that the next season of anime releases is nearly upon us, and I actually have to do work. While I admit that not as many shows this upcoming season made me nerdgasm as the last, I won’t pass judgement yet; a lot of these certainly show promise.

Kokoro Connect

Based on a light novel by Sadanatsu Anda. What little I can track down about this show indicates that it will be interesting to see where it goes, at the very least. It follows 5 members of a high school culture club, 3 girls 2 guys, as they go about their daily lives, and then they get body swapped with each other.

My expectation is that it will, at it’s core, be a slice of life comedy series, but the uniqueness of the concept is more than enough to draw my attention. I definitely want to see how this plays out.

Sword Art Online

A new virtual reality RPG has just gone into beta testing, and a select few people have been chosen to try it out. The game, Sword Art Online, totally immerses the player in the world with a full sensory experience by way of a special neural helmet-thing. But, as the players just begin to get excited about being there, a figure appears in the sky and tell the amassed people that they cannot log out until they reach the top floor of a tower, and if you die in-game, the helmet device microwaves your brain, killing you. So, trapped in a fantasy world that has become far too real, the players must survive until somebody reaches the 100th floor in the tower.

Admittedly, this bears a distinct resemblance to another series, .hack, but this show, originally a light novel, is significantly darker in it’s execution. There is a manga available as well for those who want to do some research and an ongoing translation project for the novels here.

Hagure Yuusha no Estetica

Hagure Yuusha no Estetica tells the tale of the special training organization, Babel, that takes in young people from alternate dimensions to, well, train them. Specifically, the story follows the wayward hero Akatsuki as he returns from Areizaado, the world of swords and magic, after defeating the demon king threatening it. He also seems to have brought back a souvenir in the form of a beautiful girl who just so happens to be the late demon king’s daughter.

I look forward to see how this show is handled, as in what direction they will go with it, because it is full of potential to turn into pretty much anything. It also reminds me of Ichiban Ushiro No Dai Maou, one of many on my long list of unfortunate cancellations. I can only hope that this series will fare better.

Koi To Senkyo To Chocolate

Ohjima Yuuki is a second year at the extremely prestigious Takafuji Gakuen. This “mega-academy” has a student body of approximately 6000, and the student council takes a very serious role in governing the students, and many see a position on the council as excellent practise to become career politicians in the future. Unfortunately, the club budget is stretched a little thin due to the overwhelming number of different clubs, and the student council elections are looming on the horizon, so club budgets are a major talking point. The front runner even went so far as to say she would be cutting funding to those clubs “without merit”. This would spell disaster for Ohjima and his friends in the Food Appreciation Club, as they really only sit around and eat sweets for club activities, so he is convinced to run for student council president in order to save his club. And you never know what he may find along the way: Romance? Monsters? Giant robots? Giant monster/robot romance? (Here’s a hint: it’s the first one)

Based on an adult visual novel from 2010, this one seems to be the only pure harem anime of this season’s batch. With any luck, they won’t so much be concentrating on the “adult” part of the source material, but instead on the relationships developing with natural progression, with some tasteful fanservice thrown in for good measure.

Just like last time, this list is far from complete, and you can find a helpful chart of upcoming anime here. Let me know what you’re looking forward to this season after looking it over.