We’re back with our final thoughts on the summer anime season~

Sorry for adding both of them at the same time. But I just feel like what I have to say for these two shows is pretty much the same.

Even though they didn’t lose their special touch, it still feels like the prior seasons were better. Well, Working! is still a greatly entertaining comedy, and Non Non Biyori is still as relaxing as it was last season, but something is missing.

To say it in meme language:

So sorry for that stupid meme. I promise I will never add one again. 😛

I didn’t even know about this one until recently, but as soon as I started watching it, I became addicted. This feels like Yakitate Japan happening all over again, but this time with more ecchiness and regular food instead of only baked goods.

This show is entertainment at its best, but only for those that are okay with the amount of ridiculousness that this show serves us. For me, this was no problem and probably one of the main reasons why this was just so freaking entertaining. The fact that I always got hungry while watching this also added to my total enjoyment and unfortunately also decreased my motivation to actually start dieting. But oh well, I can always start another time (is what people who won’t actually do it always tell themselves…. :P)

As it turns out, I could have written my final thoughts for Bikini Warriors months ago, because nothing changed over the course of the season. There’s not much to the series at all, it’s just the girls encountering a bad situation, getting even more naked, escaping the bad situation, and repeating the entire process the following episode. To its credit however, the show was at least self-aware of its shallowness and poked fun of tropes common to RPGs and the like, so at least there’s that. An anime that was meant to be nothing more than a fap fest (Lena taught me this phrase while discussing Sisters ~Natsu no Saigo no Hi~ :P), Bikini Warriors is a shameless parody that, while amusing at first, grows tiring after a while.

This wasn’t quite my favorite anime of the season, but I am sad to see go. Charlotte felt an awful lot like Angel Beats! (it shouldn’t be that surprising, considering they’re both from the same creator), which is a pretty nice compliment to bestow upon a show. Drama, comedy, tragedy; it’s all there in this one, too. Late in the series, there was a curveball that not only confused the main character, but me as well. After that point, it was hard to predict where the story would go, and even though the final episode was somewhat disappointing, I’m still happy with the way this anime turned out. The series definitely wasn’t perfect, but I think it had a certain magic that made it really easy to like.

Set against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse, Gakkou Gurashi! automatically had more potential than most other shows in the slice of life genre, and for the most part, I think it did a pretty good job of realizing that potential. Slice of life has been in need of a shot in the arm for a while now, and that’s exactly what this series provided. You still have all the good stuff that makes the genre enjoyable, but there’s also serious drama that you just don’t see very often. While neither element was great on its own, together they combined to make something that easily stands out from the tons of “cute girls doing cute things” series that are all playing it safe and basically doing the same thing.

Gangsta. seemed like it would be very action heavy with not too much emphasis placed on the story, but much to my surprise, that wasn’t the case at all. The story was first and foremost, and while it wasn’t overly inventive, it provided some needed substance to both the characters and the world. There were plenty of awesome action scenes sprinkled throughout, so action wasn’t exactly lacking either, but there was still less than I initially thought there’d be. Viewers who are into more traditional mobster stories would probably love this, but even though I’m not an avid fan of the genre, I can’t deny that this was interesting and different from the other anime I watched this season.

Thanks to a random anonymous commenter, this was a show that I picked up midseason, and I’m pretty glad I did. I think a lot of people who are into otaku culture can relate to Umaru and the situations she’s put in (to some degree), so for me, it’s especially enjoyable to see anime like this that are somewhat relatable.

Despite the fact that she had to be the most annoying character of the summer season, Umaru’s also one of the cutest and funniest, in my opinion, so it all balances out. There was even a yuri-ish character in this series. She didn’t end up getting enough screen time (do yuri characters ever?), but she idolizes Umaru—and her nonexistent little sister—so she’s definitely a winner in my book. Overall, this was a fun comedy that any otaku nerd can probably find amusing.

Generally, I’m not the biggest fan of harems, but I think this one turned our alright. A lot of my enjoyment for this show came from watching the various monster girls make the main character’s life hell. He was a nice guy and all, but a sacrifice was needed to make the show more enjoyable, and he was that sacrifice. Even though the story was abysmal (that’s a shocker), the comedy and the unique circumstances created by the numerous monster girls helped save this anime for me.

You can’t have a harem without tons of ecchi scenes, and they’re all there. It’s weird to watch the main character nearly do the monster mash with a snake, centaur, harpy, mermaid, blob, and spider, yet it’s strangely entertaining. Long story short, it wasn’t great or anything, but it was better than I expected, and it could have been a whole lot worse.

It should be noted that there were censored and uncensored versions of this show. Why anyone would want to watch the censored version is beyond me, so take into account the fact that this feedback is coming from the uncensored version. This anime seemed to take pride in how closely it came to crossing the line into hentai territory. There was supposed to be a small semblance of story, but by series’ end, nothing had been resolved, and it just felt unfinished to me. If you could manage to look past the near-sex scenes, this was a show that appeared to be entertaining at various times, but I think it just kind of lost its way after a while.

It was a tough call, but this ended up being my favorite anime of the season. Say what you will about it, but this show was just entertainment in its rawest form. Given the high number of ridiculous situations, it’s really surprising how tense and serious everything was made out to be. Only Prison School could turn a character literally shitting himself into a noble act that brings another character to tears. And there are even more moments similar to that that you just don’t see in anime. At the end of the day, this show was just far more entertaining than it had any business being, and I’m desperately hoping a second season gets made.

Much like Prison School, this was all about turning off your brain and having a good time. The amount of lewd jokes and gags hit critical level in the very first episode and never looked back. Even though I imagine that got old for some people, there was enough variety and madness going on that I didn’t mind one bit. There appeared to be a yuri-ish character earlier in the season, but that lasted all of a minute-and-a-half, and absolutely nothing became of it. Such a shame.

Despite that letdown, this was still the most mindlessly fun of all the ecchi anime I picked up this past season. To take a page out of Shimoneta‘s book, I think it basically shot its wad of original ideas, so I’m not too hopeful of a second season being made. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want a season two, but I think it would grow too repetitive for those who weren’t already feeling that way.

The creator of Kiniro Mosaic gives us yet another anime of cute girls doing cute things, and it’s not all that bad. The four main girls are generally likeable and display enough personality to keep you involved throughout each episode’s short 8-minute running length. It’s all about the moe here, so it’s easy to see the resemblance to Yui Hara’s other sickeningly adorable work. However, unlike KM, there isn’t any yuri to speak of. This omission contributes to the series’ lack of distinction from so many other slice of life shows out there. It just feels like we’ve been there before with Alice, Shino, Aya, Youko, and Karen; but in a much more memorable experience than this. Overall, Wakaba*Girl doesn’t have nearly the amount of charm as KinMosa, but there’s still some enjoyment to be had for fans of the genre.