Thanks to upcoming reviews of Love Live! Sunshine!!, New Game!, and Amanchu!, the list this season is rather short and mostly devoid of yuri-ish titles. Nevertheless, the show must go on, so enjoy our Final Thoughts on the summer anime season that just came to an end~

If you were to look up fluff in the dictionary, I’m sure there would be a screenshot of Bananya staring back at you. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad, but it’s clearly for people who are into cute things above all else. There’s no plot, and the narrator is the only source of actual dialogue, yet it somehow works, and every episode is a surprisingly enjoyable look into the lives of tiny cats that live in bananas.

If the episodes were any longer than three minutes each, I think the show would grow tedious and it would lose a lot of its charm, but as it stands, just marveling at the adorableness of it all is enough for me.

After the first couple of episodes, I was really happy with where Konobi was seemingly going, but even though the cast later grew a bit and it wasn’t all about Mizuki and Uchimaki anymore, it was still a fairly enjoyable comedy with enough romcom elements to keep things interesting.

I wasn’t expecting the next Maid-sama, Toradora, or anything that serious and awesome, but for me, it doesn’t get much better than a good romcom anime. The relationship in this anime is of the one-sided variety, so I hesitate to even call this a romcom, but nevertheless, those moments were definitely the highlight of the show for me. It didn’t hurt that those two characters were the most entertaining in the group (which also included a few other notable characters), and the art club setting created a few fun scenarios, yet I felt like there was still a certain something missing.

So all in all, this was a slightly above average anime that had its share of funny moments, but I don’t think it did enough to truly separate itself from so many other similar shows that are out there. It was entertaining enough that I wouldn’t mind a second season, but if that doesn’t happen, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Orange is a different type of “change the future” anime where the fate of the world isn’t at stake or anything like that. It’s all about this small group of friends, and how one character is trying to learn from her future self, yet is still wrestling with her emotions and struggling to make the necessary decisions to save their beloved friend. And that’s really the beauty of this show. It’s a sentimental story that a lot of people can relate to—in one form or another—and the drama is clearly character-driven.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of AnoHana while watching this (which happens to be one of my favorite anime ever), but I just can’t think of it that highly. And the main reason for that was the characters. Even with the most important characters in Orange, I wasn’t as emotionally invested as I think I should have been. Other than the whole “communicating through time” angle, this was a pretty realistic portrayal of the challenges of growing up, and maybe that contributed to how unexceptional (for lack of a better word) I found some of the characters to be.

So if you’re the type of person who relishes personal stories with plenty of character development, Orange is an anime you might want to check out~

Back in July, the broadcast of Regalia was suspended after the fourth episode due to quality issues, so there will be no final thoughts at this time.

The show has now restarted from the very beginning, so hopefully they’ve ironed out the issues and we can get back to watching lolis and mechas battle it out.

Once it’s wrapped up, a review of this will likely be coming down the road as well~

Despite the mediocre story in Taboo Tattoo, the action was what ultimately kept me watching this (and the comedy wasn’t that bad either). Based on the PVs, some pretty good action was kind of expected, but the big surprise here was the presence of some yuri.

Princess Aryabhata is the main antagonist, and when she’s not following through on her evil schemes, her and Iltutmish (the homeless girl she takes in and makes work for her) are usually engaging in some sort of “extracurricular activity”, if you know what I mean. It’s even inferred that they have sex at one point, but all of that is phased out in the second half of the season. Boo.

This felt a little bit like a poor man’s Ga-Rei: Zero, and as the show got further and further along, I think that the story got progressively worse. Things became more serious, and as the comedy all but vanished, the show lost a lot of its luster. So at the end of the day, Taboo Tattoo succeeded in providing some solid action, but not too much else.

Shows dropped: 91 Days, Mahou Shoujo? Naria☆Girls, Qualidea Code, Shokugeki no Souma: Ni no Sara