The summer anime season is in full swing, and there are now dozens of new anime streaming every week for viewers to choose from. With so many shows, it can be easy for your eyes to glaze over and be unable to figure out which ones you even want to watch. Luckily, I’ve watched every single premiere so you don’t have to. Here are the four best first outings from the selection of new anime this season.
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The aquatope on white sand
After making some sacrifices for a coworker, Fuuka Miyazawa finds herself fired from her dream job of being an idol, packed up and ready to head back to her hometown. But at the last moment, she decides to take an impromptu trip to Okinawa instead, wandering the beaches and contemplating her future. Eventually, she finds herself at a local aquarium and meets a girl named Kukuru who works there. Inspired by Kukuru’s dedication to the aquarium as well as her desire to put off going home and admitting defeat, Fuuka tries to work at the aquarium herself, only to find that taking on someone else’s dream may be even more difficult than her own.
The aquatope on white sand’s depiction of Fuuka’s struggle hit me immediately. The talk she has with her mom waiting for her train home is believably awkward, with Fuuka feeling anxious and guilty for having lost her job, while her mother doesn’t seem to understand how strongly this is affecting her. The aimless walks she takes in Okinawa and the sudden fascination she has with the creatures in the aquarium, despite not having any interest in them before, ring true to the feeling of being lost and trying to find something, anything to attach herself to, having lost the one thing she devoted so much time and effort to before. Her new friend Kukuru acts as her foil in this regard, similarly capturing the feeling of pursuing a vague future you want but can’t completely define. If it does nothing else,The aquatope on white sandperfectly captures the feeling of being between stages of life, lost but searching.
Kageki Shojo!!
In 1913, an all-woman Japanese musical theater group called the Takarazuka Revue was formed, and would go on to become exceedingly popular and influential.Kageki Shojo!!is about two girls from very different backgrounds who join the Kouka Acting Troupe, an in-universe counterpart to the real-world Takarazuka Revue. One is a tall, extroverted girl named Sarasa who has training in kabuki, a form of theater that is usually reserved only for men. The other is her new roommate, Ai, a socially anxious ex-pop idol who was fired after a bad encounter with a fan.
Kageki Shojo!!is steeped in cultural references that also inform its story and drama, but so far it has done a good job of ensuring those who might not be read up on Japanese musical theater will still understand what’s going on, and maybe even learn a thing or two. The core conflict has to do with Sarasa’s goal to play Lady Oscar, the protagonist ofThe Rose of Versailles. In Takarazuka, where women play every part, Oscar is one of the most important roles; having been born a woman but raised a man, she almost represents the core of Takarazuka itself. Despite the progressive feeling nature of Takarazuka, though, it is also steeped in its own enforcement of gender norms; notably, Sarasa is seen as too tall to play Oscar, or any female part for that matter. This kind of conflict between society’s expectations and the characters' desires to express themselves is at the core ofKageki Shojo!!, and it promises to be an interesting dissection of those issues.
Remake Our Life!
Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you made one very different decision? 28-year-old Kyoya gets the chance to actually live that fantasy out. After quitting his comfortable office job to pursue his dream of working in the game industry, his project is shuttered and he loses that job, too. While wondering what his life would have been like had he gone to art school instead, he wakes up to find himself ten years in the past with the chance to change history and attend the school he once gave up on.
While I normally find these sort of wish fulfillment time travel stories to be a bit played out,Remake Our Life!doesn’t settle with giving Kyoya the chance of a (second) lifetime. As he goes through school, Kyoya finds the creative life much more demanding and complex than he was expecting, but also rewarding. He also finds that the talented people he once looked up to have many of the same insecurities and struggles as he does.Remake Our Life!admires and respects creative people and the work they put in, but is also down-to-earth about the realities of working in those fields. The characters Kyoya has met so far all have interesting perspectives that come from their specializations, too. It’s refreshing to see a show that loves creatives but doesn’t glamorize the process.
Shingo Natsume, a talented director who made his biggest splash leading the wildly popularOne-Punch Man, is back with an original anime he also penned his own script for. Plot-wise,Sonny Boytakes a lot of cues fromLord of the Flies. It follows 36 high school seniors who seem to have been separated from the rest of the world, trapped in their school surrounded by nothing but a black void. On top of that, many of them have suddenly developed supernatural powers. This scary situation, as well as the quite literal power dynamics at play, are the perfect storm for a tense conflict between the kids, a classic push-and-pull between those who want freedom, those who want order, and those who simply want control.
In terms of production,Sonny Boyis the most ambitious show this season by far. The compositions are dynamic in a way that only animation could pull off, capturing the claustrophobia of the school lost in darkness and the tension between the students inside it. The writing is snappy and tight; Shingo Natsume drops us in the middle of the story with confidence that we will be able to piece together the basics of the setting ourselves, allowing his world to breathe. The dialogue is impressively naturalistic and rewards your attention; characters don’t say outright how they feel or what they want, but their interactions give us plenty to glean about them anyway. All of this combines to create a compelling cast of characters in a world that feels true and lived in. IfSonny Boykeeps this up, it is set to be one of the best shows of the entire year.
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