It’s that time of the year again, so enjoy our Final Thoughts of the 2020 summer anime season that just came to an end~
As you can tell by the number of anime on this season’s list, it was a REALLY disappointing season. Probably the most disappointing season we’ve ever covered, and the one full-length anime we watched wasn’t all that great either. At first glance, Lapis Re:LiGHTs seemed like an interesting mix of magic and idol anime, but at the end of the day, I thought that it failed to capture the magic (pun intended) of either of those genres. Because it was used so rarely, there were times that I almost forgot that these girls can actually use magic, and the musical performances were few and far between, so I feel like this anime could’ve been a lot more entertaining than it turned out to be.
Too often this felt like just another slice of life anime, and although I thought the main cast was decent, they weren’t enough to right the ship and get me to become invested in this show. There were other girls at the academy that I simply didn’t care about and didn’t enjoy watching, and if you’re hoping that yuri would come in and save the day, you’re going to be disappointed as well. The first episode made it seem like Tiara and Rosetta were going to have this really strong connection that would result in, at least, a lot of yuri subtext between them, but it didn’t quite work out like that. The situation kind of reminded me of Koisuru Asteroid, and after Tiara and Rose get acclimated at the academy and join the other Lapis girls, that connection mostly disappears. There were a couple of other bit characters that seemed kinda gay, but their roles were tiny and they made practically no impact on me.
Overall, I didn’t expect Lapis Re:LiGHTs to just be so bland and forgettable. It’s kind of what might happen if you were to take Love Live!, strip away 80% of the singing and dancing, allow the girls to use magic, then not give them any worthwhile reason to use that magic. At least the final episode was a bit better, but it was too little, too late. I’ll forget all about this show in a month, so good riddance, 2020 summer anime season, you won’t be missed. 😛
It was more than two years ago that Uma Musume: Pretty Derby premiered, so I think I should be forgiven for completely forgetting about many of the horse girls that made appearances in this short-form series. In the main series, this was a large cast of characters, but with only two-and-a-half minutes per episode (not counting the ED), appearances here are short and I only vaguely remembered some of the girls.
Still, these episodes were random yet pretty fun. Unlike the main series, racing doesn’t play a big part, so these are more or less just fun activities that make this more slice of life than anything. Because of that, knowing who these characters are probably isn’t a requirement, and even the main characters aren’t on-screen for very long. I enjoyed the overall chemistry between the girls and thought that the comedy was sufficient enough to keep this interesting, but as you can probably guess, there’s no yuri here. I’m not surprised, since there was hardly anything in the main series, yet it would’ve been nice to have.
But the thing I’ll take away most from this is how it’ll serve as a warmup to the second season of Uma Musume, which is confirmed to premiere in 2021. This little spin-off was cute, but there are more horse girls that need to race, so I’m looking forward to seeing a lot more of that. Next year might not be so bad for yuri anime fans, which feels weird to say, considering how terrible the last two years have been for us. The redemption arc begins in the fall season, which is only days away~
Anime Dropped: Deca-Dence, Gibiate
YuriReviews and More 
The best anime of this season was “DIARY OF OUR DAYS AT THE BREAKWATER” – it’s a shame that you didn’t watched it.
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I would second your opinion. This is a really cute girls doing cute things at fishing type of thing, and I am finding it a fun watch. Not quite like exploring Antarctica or climbing Mt. Fuji, but still very cute.
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Every season, I pick out shows that seem interesting to me, and I thought about that one… but I don’t know what happened. Maybe I was so discouraged that I simply tuned out and just wanted the season to be over already. 😀
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The “it was a REALLY disappointing season” is such an understatement! Because of our comments awhile back, I got really interested in the archive, and most of this Summer I have been doing old Anime like Noire, Gunslinger Girls, Gosick, Memories. There is at least some Yuri subtext. Two that I would recommend are 3-gatsu no Lion (March comes in like a Lion MAL 8.44) and kimi no iru machi (A town where you live MAL 6.99). No Yuri or even cuteness in either, but I am finding them quite good. The art in March both visual and music is extraordinary, and the story spins from talking cats to the deepest forms of evil and depression to outright human warmth and openness, a true ugly lovely! Town is a much lesser work in its art but I am finding the story compelling and interesting. There is a lot of good stuff in the vault if you want to rummage around. But this year………………….yikes!
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Back in the day, I used to watch all sorts of non-yuri anime, but nowadays, not so much. At some point, I’m going to run out of yuri-ish shows to watch, so maybe I’ll get back to it then. But now I’m playing games more, so I don’t know. 😀
I think I may have watched the first episode of 3-gatsu no Lion, but the 22 episodes probably scared me away, even though I suspected it was going to be really good. And then it had a second season. Two-cour anime (or longer) is my kryptonite…
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In other news, the first chapter of Himegami no Miko has finally been translated into english. It made me feel very old. Himeko and Chikane took a “selfie” and I realized that that term didn’t even exist when Kannazuki no Miko came out. But they were very cute together, and I have some hopes for it (even if there was tentacle groping).
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I was just about to reply about that! With all the slim pickings in yuri anime recently at least we have lots of yuri manga, and Himegami no Miko is now being translated! I could not be happier! 😀
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You know something’s gotta be good if tentacle groping isn’t enough to discourage you from it. It’s like the entertainment equivalent of relationship goals.
And maybe I’ll mention the translation in this month’s News Update. Thanks for bringing it up~
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Hearing Lapis: ReLight being just another generic Idol anime is like hearing “Water is wet”. Why is this genre so utterly bland (oh, because the it’s multimedia that only cares for profit) when 22/7 really showed that you can have a group of idols with complexity and personalities? I was really expecting to watch this show but oh well, reality is often disappointing.
Gibiate is an absolute train wreck of awfulness from what I’ve seen but it also strays into the “So bad it’s good” territory so I may give it a try once again.
Teibou-bu was very entertaining and cute but I gotta say, they removed all the great moments between Oono and Yuuki that may have hinted at a more intimate relationship between them, at least from the point of Oono.
Deca-dence came in like a moth********. The show is great but I can see why some will not like it after some shocking revelation. Some characters were left on the wayside as well like Fei and Natsume’s bully. Seriously tho, they could’ve forged a rather opposing but also intimate relationship between Fei and Natsume.
Let’s all hope that Fall 2020-to-2021 delivers. We’re already having Adatsi to Shimamu on the horizon but I’m still VERY doubtful, Urasekai Picnic might be my most hyped anime of Winter 2021 but they’ve already dumbed down the visuals, especially Toriko, who is absolutely GORGEOUS in the manga now looks like a cute highschooler
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But even some anime that only exist to turn a profit are more inspired than Lapis was.
I dropped Gibiate after two episodes. I probably would’ve watched more, but that CG and those monster designs were just awful. I couldn’t take anymore. Same with Deca-Dence. The twist happened, then I was out.
The Winter 2021 season looks so good. Is this what hype feels like? It’s been so long. 😀
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