While the spring 2024 season had its expected triumphs like Sound Euphonium and Laid-Back Camp S3, there were perhaps a higher percentage of positive surprises than in recent seasons, like the Bartender reboot, WIND BREAKER, and Go! GO! Loser Ranger! While we don’t typically post a preview ahead of new anime seasons, we can help you spot seasonal surprises (both pleasant and otherwise) through our first impression pieces. Yes, once again, we’ll be giving our thoughts on all the new anime premiering as we jump into a relatively light but intriguing summer 2024 anime season!
So what’s on our plate this July? There are huge premieres, as usual, with the second season of Oshi no Ko and the “I wonder what this will be like?” Suicide Squad ISEKAI leading the way, the latter of which drops its first three episodes today. And those two nicely represent the offerings this season, with the usual sequels and a few originals sprinkled in, the latter also including Narenare -Cheer for You!- and MAYONAKA PUNCH, both from P.A. Works. With the former, I’m really intrigued to wonder if audiences are still interested (or might they be even more so, which was the case with Jujutsu Kaisen’s recent season) in some tried and true returning favorites as Tower of God S2, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, Our Last Crusade of the Rise of a News World S2, Nier:Automata Ver1.1a (second cour), Sengoku Youko: Thousand Demons Chaos Arc, and SHY S2 premiere. You should be especially excited for that last one because, spoiler alert, we’ll be conducting a giveaway for it!
Of course, there are also a ton of first-season adaptations headed our way! I’m familiar with a few of these, including two with a lot of hype: Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian (which I think could make for a better anime than LN) and Days with My Stepsister (don’t second-guess yourself with where this one is headed). The surreal trailers for My Deer Friend Nokotan also have that manga adaptation on everyone’s radar, while other offerings include Pseudo Harem, SHOSHIMIN: How to Become Ordinary, ATRI -My Dear Moments-, Makeine: Too Many Heroines, Plus-Sized Elf, and Quality Assurance in Another World.
Which of these series will be worth watching and which are worth skipping? That’s what we’re here for! Over the coming few weeks, we’ll be posting first impression pieces fast and furiously on the website. And then we’ll take quotes from those full articles and throw them down below with links, screencaps, and additional thoughts as well! Please keep checking back as we make updates, click on the links below as we develop this post, and let us know what you’re thinking in the comments!
Enjoy!
The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army Was a Human • Suicide Squad Isekai
The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army Was a Human
First Impression: twwk
There’s nothing original in the script, nothing in the writing that made me think that this opening episode, which was fine, is really worth investing in. The sound effects are pretty off the charts, strangely enough, but is that enough to make me want to keep up with the series? Nope, especially not when in addition to the mid storyline, other aspects should be criticized, particularly how the movement is drawn in a way that feels fake and automated, as if the 2-D animation is being done in 3-D, and voice acting that’s hollow and overly retrained.
Streaming on Crunchyroll.
Suicide Squad Isekai
First Impression: twwk
My experience with DC is mostly through movies old and new, TV shows, and animated series, so those who are deeper into the comics might think differently—they may even consider the show to be a travesty! But for someone like me who is a more moderate fan of the comic side and more heavily leaning into the anime side, I found the opening to be far better than I expected. This is a show on my radar because it is a huge, huge release, but it’s now on my watch list because it’s very, very good. This is an enthusiastic and promising start for Suicide Squad Isekai and, if it keeps it up, could perhaps be the start for even more and grander partnerships between major Western IPs (with Marvel’s earlier, less popular adaptations Star Wars’ one-season of shorts notwithstanding) and anime studios. We can only hope!
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I’ve heard of My Deer Friend Nokotan, because some people love trying to say the Japanese title: “Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan.” This season looks pretty lackluster to me. Sengoku Youko counts as an anime I enjoy, and I might give Alya Sometimes Hides her Feelings in Russian a shot. A fried might succeed in sucking me into Suicide Squad Isekai. Otherwise, I intend to be watching a lot of older anime and revisiting some favorites.
I saw your tweet on this! Your approach is basically what I did during the spring. And…I might end up doing the same this summer. I feel like there are a dozen or two “wild cards,” series that I don’t know much about and that I consider to have some potential. If I end up watching a bunch of series, they’re likely to mostly be those currently off my radar, and really, Oshi no Ko is the only series I feel very confident about going into the season.