Upcoming Anime Season: Summer 2023

[shinta|hikari]

Here is the upcoming season chart: https://anichart.net/Summer-2023

Will watch (in order of preference):
Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan
Mononogatari S2
Jujutsu Kaisen S2
Mushoku Tensei S2
Spy Classroom S2
Helck
Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu wo Samayou
Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon
Undead Girl Murder Farce
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale S2
Liar Liar (can be great or trash based on synopsis)

[MFauli]

btw whats up with Bleach's ridiculous MAL-score? I started the new anime, but it was absolutely nothing special. Did it turn out that great towards the end of the first season or is it just massive fanboys influencing MAL?

[shinta|hikari]

It's Bleach. It's fanboys.

[Ryllharu]

Will watch:
Mushoku Tensei II - It could be a slog, or so novel readers seem to imply, but I will watch it.
Jidouhanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu o Samayou (Turned into a vending machine isekai) - So dumb I must try.
Helck - The must watch of the season, imo.

Will try:
Atelier Ryza - Never played the Ryza games, though I did try Ayesha.
Undead Girl Murder Farce - Because why not.

...and that's it.

Oooku is very widely anticipated, and award winning, but meh. Japanese Imperial Court has always been boring to me compared to the Chinese/Korean equivalents...that means you Apothecary Diaries (probably coming in the Fall unless there's an illness delay).


btw whats up with Bleach's ridiculous MAL-score? I started the new anime, but it was absolutely nothing special. Did it turn out that great towards the end of the first season or is it just massive fanboys influencing MAL?

Just stop paying attention to MAL ratings. Period. They fucking suck. They're plagued with recency bias, perpetual inflation by fans as series hit 2nd seasons, IGN-style score inflation (is anything rated less than a 7?), and the moronic war between the FMA:B/SteinsGate retards, the Kaguya-sama fanboys, the Gintama diehards, and legitimately everyone else.

Literally anywhere else is better. Even ANN (who has nostalgia bias). edit: I take that back, ANN's scores are just as bad in the other direction (i.e. "Everything post 2012 is garbage!").
Stick with Mother's Basement, Garnt, or AniDB.

[MFauli]

Garnt? You cannot mean Gigguk, right?

[DarthEnderX]

Mother's Basement and Gigguk are who I get my recommendations from. Though, I've had to learn to filter MB's picks because he has pointed me towards a lot of really boring shit in the past.


Anyway, watching:
Jusutsu
Bleach
Mushoko Tensei

[MFauli]

Gigguk watches all the worst, generic anime, ugh. I'll never forgive him for making me watch 50 episodes of Black Clover because he claimed "GUYS, WATCH IT, SOMETHING UNBEIEVABLE HAPPENED THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING!!11". Yeah, that "change" lasted like 3 episodes until everything was back to normal :/

Anyway, what I'm looking forward to:

- Mushoku Tensei Season 2

[Ryllharu]

Garnt? You cannot mean Gigguk, right?

Yeah, that's exactly who I mean.

I don't rely on either one of them for what I should watch because they both have wildly different taste than I do. But I do skim through their content to find any thing I might have overlooked after the 3-5 episode mark.

- Gigguk is heavy on the "mainstream" anime and a decent filter on isekai. Plenty of people just want shonen/seinen, so he's good for that for people who like to stay in that realm. He occasionally stumbles on rare gems of a series. His manga recommendations are very good and run the full spectrum.

- Mother's Basement has what I'd generously call "faux-indie" taste in anime. An overemphasis on the series that are avant-garde (and overrated) or corny-fluffy shallow romance series. His relentless shilling for Kaguya-sama and Re;Zero gets annoying, but he's clued me in on enough series that I otherwise would have skipped but ultimately really enjoyed.

- As for AniDB, anything over a 6.5 average rating is one of the Top 7 series in a season. They're communally quite harsh.

[Kraco]

Seems like a promising season.

Helck is obvious, as well as more Mushoku Tensei. Mononogatari was quite decent, so I'll keep watching. Scanning through the list, there seemed to be potentially interesting titles, like Atelier Ryza, but these days three is already great for me.

[neflight86]

I'll sample plenty, but the stand outs in order of appearance:

JJK2- I'd be silly to skip out on something so well animated, and I'm sure it will be entertaining, too. First season got a fan out of me.

Mushoku Tensei II: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu - I think this will begin to adapt the part of the manga where I dropped the series because (potential spoilers): it veers into... high school...

Masamune-kun no Revenge R - I was infuriated by this when it first came out, so I look forward to getting burned again. Masamune's such an idiot...

Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru Made ni Shitai 100 no Koto - The manga was interesting... until it wasn't, but maybe a lively adaptation will reinvigorate a pretty irresponsible zombie apocalypse story.

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - I loved the OG anime when I was too young to know how cheaply anime was produced. A few years back I went and read the manga to see where the story went from Mokoto Shihio's arc, and... it really peaked there. The following arc(s) were weak enough that I'm glad they weren't adapted, so I have mixed feelings on this, but modern production pipelines and a completed work might give Kenshin the pacing and animation to truly shine for a modern audience.

Liar Liar - Stories where people's lives are subject to the whims of games and cheating can be great fun. Definitely trying it out.

Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu wo Samayou - Vending machine isekai. We've peaked as a species with this. Come aliens, it is time to harvest humanity!

Helck - I've heard good things. Going in blind.

Uchi no Kaisha no Chiisai Senpai no Hanashi - It is our responsibility to watch shows about working adults until they are as common as high school dreck (that I'll also be watching). C'mon! Shift the demographic with me!

Jitsu wa Ore, Saikyou Deshita? - Red some of the manga. Isekai trash. So lazy is the world building that the MC creates a magical tap into (old world) youtube so his (new) little sister can be enamored with Japanese culture (sentai anime to be specific) while he creates a vigilante persona to do whatever because he can't bring himself to care with his magic power. So rad. So bad.

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha - Looks cute. Just the type of show I'll watch for three episodes before I soft drop.

Spy Kyoushitsu 2nd season - Low key a favorite of mine this year. Give me more!

Temple - Harem Hijinks? I'm in for an ep or two.

Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu - I don't know if the giant cat in an apron is meme or nightmare fuel, but I'll bite.

Seija Musou: Salaryman, Isekai de Ikinokoru Tame ni Ayumu Michi - The description reminds me of that show a couple seasosn back about the 'realistic rpg' that was just annoying and torturous for the MC. I hope this is equally abusive because I am abnormally amused by masochistic humor.

SYNDUALITY Noir - If the mystery is intriguing... I'll be intrigued, I guess? I hope the emphasis isn't too much on whatever robots they use to combat the monsters they will be fighting weekly.

And plenty more, I'm sure.

[KrayZ33]

I want to try and not watch Mushoku until all the episodes are released, but I think I'll fail doing so.
After rewatching the first season it became even more enjoyable when I could just get from one episode to the next - as is always the case.

Overall good season. I'll probably end up watching a lot, so I might be able to hold back on the Mushoku until it's fully aired.

[Ryllharu]

I enjoyed the first episode of Thigh-za Atelier Ryza. It felt very game-esque, but I guess that means it was faithful. Ryza is a pretty spirited character, but the whole, "we cannot leave this island" tradition of her hometown is very creepy. It's also a nice touch that she might finally understand her father's love for farming and could benefit from his knowledge of plants now that she's found her own focus.

But the animators certainly aren't shying away from framing and focusing on her most well known features. Especially in the OP and ED. There's like twenty shots of her thighs even before the OP in the first 90 seconds of the anime.

[shinta|hikari]

Only reason she is popular.

[KrayZ33]

Yep.
/8char

[MFauli]

Masamune-kun no Revenge Season 2 dropped.

First of all, I mixed this up with another anime and thought it'd be a continuation to that prequel-series of Barakamon about the young calligraphy master who has difficulty making friends because he always appears to be so cool/dark.

Even that aside: What a bland first episode of the new season. The premise of the show is completely dead considering how well the two already behave with each other. And now there's some weird gender-bs going on? I'm out.

[Ryllharu]

Watched Undead Girl Murder Farce and Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu wo Samayou (Vending Machine isekai).

Murder Farce feels a lot like In/Spectre or Tempest. LOADS of talking. But it has a good vibe and a decent hook to it. The main trio are fairly likeable and equally mature. A bit of an exposition dump for an intro, but the action is good and so is the premise.

Vending Machine Isekai surprised me a lot. I knew going in that it was going to be a bit of a satire of the isekai genre with such a deeply absurd premise. That said, its leveling system makes a surprising amount of sense, the protagonist is limited in saying canned phrases which they use in a clever manner, and the female lead is perky but not annoying. The dungeon is also one of the parallel world types, and of course it has That Isekai Town in it.
For a dumb premise, that was a meticulously written first episode.

[Kraco]

Seija Musou looked like quite a dime a dozen isekai series based on the first ep. All it had going for it, as ridiculous as it may be, is that it's not an instantly OP MC series. Those are a dime a score. It's pretty much impossible to say anything much based on the first episode. A larger story is nowhere to be seen, so it could be a slice of life series, but hard to say yet. Oh, another positive thing about it was the lack of a yen equivalent pseudo currency. Damn, I hate those in isekai series. Still, that's no reason to watch a show, obviously. I'll check out the next couple of episodes to make the final decision.

[MFauli]

Have any must-see anime aired already? Something that most fans agree upon is a must, like Oshi no Ko last season?

I only got 4 anime this season, 2 of them old ones >_>

[Ryllharu]

The season isn't even halfway complete in premiering.

[KrayZ33]

This Magic Academy show - Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru - has some nice animation to it - which I thought wouldn't be the case considering how the characters look like. But it's episode 1, so who knows if it remains that way.
It's nothing groundbreaking but there is a certain touch to it... it kinda focuses on movements in the right way, to the point where it's rather pretty.

Story so far seems fine, not much to talk about. Might be about omnipotent MC but also might be about the whole group that was introduced.

[KrayZ33]

Zom 100 best show this season :>
Because it's totally realistic and every single human being on earth knows that this is how work.. works.

[Ryllharu]

Zom 100 best show this season :>
Because it's totally realistic and every single human being on earth knows that this is how work.. works.

I found the manga repetitive, stale, and boring. It's allegedly seinen, but doesn't feel even remotely like it. The anime makes him look even younger (which I already had an issue with when the manga premiered, the guy is in his mid-20s and spent years being worked to death but looks like a high school first year) and also gives him basically superhuman abilities.

Also played Sunset Overdrive, so the premise isn't original and does nothing for me.

[David75]

Deku's VA helped a bit.
I guess his skills in evading zombies come from his rugby years.
His build only allows fast and agile player roles in rugby, so that's what he was if he was a regular till his last year.

[Ryllharu]

Helck was an extremely good first episode.

Right mix of petty physical comedy and deep dread about the things hinted at in the episode. The voice cast is good and while the animation looks a little on the plain side, it is supposed to be. Highly recommend anyone watch the first episode.

[MFauli]

Everything of the new season has started, right?

So, any outstanding shows? Anything on the level of Oshi no Ko? Some Attack on Titan-rival? A new Death Note? What am I missing?

I literally have 1 new anime I'm watching :/ (Zom 100)

[Ryllharu]

You're watching a style-over-substance adaptation of a mediocre series that does nothing to improve it and only makes its flaws more obvious. Everyone is praising the first episode, but the series falls off hard. It is a flawless one-shot, but a bland and uninspired series.

Undead Girl Murder Farce is quite entertaining and the episodes zip by despite it being a very wordy show. Considering mediocre scoring on the manga of that, its anime has only improved the series. The cast is great, the pace is snappy, the timing on the jokes is great, and the world setting is quite interesting for a detective show. Episode 2 was packed with dialogue just like the first, but it felt like it was only 5 minutes long, which is a very good sign.

You're not giving Helck enough time, which admittedly has a weak opening arc.

I thought you were watching Mushoku Tensei? (It's new if it isn't a carry-over from last season in my mind)

[MFauli]

I dont consider Mushoku S2 "new" so I didn't count it. Ofc, I'm watching it.

Watched the trailer for Undead Girl Murder Face and was really put off by it. Isn't there any more "serious" story? Something like, dunno, Ajin or Scrapped Princess?

[Ryllharu]

Isn't there any more "serious" story? Something like, dunno, Ajin or Scrapped Princess?

This season?! Nah. You can watch Oooku I guess, which is not my cup of tea. This season is all romances, comedies, combinations, or detective stories.

[DarthEnderX]

Have any must-see anime aired already? Something that most fans agree upon is a must, like Oshi no Ko last season?I don't know what to like until Mother's Basement and Gigguk tell me what to like.

[MFauli]

I don't know what to like until Mother's Basement and Gigguk tell me what to like.

And youre not even joking :(