Summer Anime Around the Corner - Here's What's Coming
After twelve weeks of spies, undesired arranged marriages, and student council drama, the excitement of the spring anime season is winding down. Despite several follow-on seasons of big names like Kaguya-sama: Love is War and Komi Can’t Communicate, the ‘hot girl’ was without a doubt Spy x Family, which released the midseason finale this past Sunday. We can expect episodes 13-26 in October of this year.
However, no need to start an Izuku Midoriya-level snot rocket over the end of spring. The summer season kicks off this weekend (July 2) and there are a lot of hit shows returning, including Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (season 4), Overlord (season 4), The Devil is a Part-Timer (season 2), Made in Abyss (season 2), and Rent-a-Girlfriend (season 2).
A few titles I’m going to be paying close attention to:
Classroom of the Elite
Classroom of the Elite returns to us after a five year (!) hiatus. Like many fans, I’d lost all hope of ever seeing another season. The first season was full of intrigue, a small amount of romance, and mysterious backstory. Similar to what I loved about Tower of God, my favorite aspect of the original story was the intricacy of the psychological gamesmanship - I was as fooled as everyone around the main character. I’m looking forward to seeing how they handle the second season and I’m predicting significantly more backstory, as we got just a teaser of in the first season.
(Photo: LIDENFILMS) Call of the Night
In a season characterized by follow-on seasons (9+ shows), magical girls / harem (12+ shows) and isekai (5+ shows), this is one of the more unique stories coming out this summer. This is dark romance about an insomniac middle schooler and a vampire. Even from the trailer, the characters and story seem well-developed (we’ll see if they make good on that) and the art is striking.
(Photo: feel., Gaina) The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting
Despite the inclusion of the Yakuza, this looks absolutely heartwarming. Yakuza lackey is tasked with babysitting boss’s little girl. Despite his zero childcare skills, they eventually become friends. I think this will be our feel-good-fuzzy-kawaii of the summer.
Other things of note for the upcoming summer season:
Special recognition to Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World for leaning in hard to those anime titles (note: I counted 15 ‘!’)
How could a season of anime be complete without one show whose sole purpose is fan service and one show that revolves around a maid? Thank you for fulfilling our expectations, Vermeil in Gold and The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious.
And finally, as your resident otaku cat-lady, I have to call out Nights with a Cat, which appears to simply be about a cat doing things cats do and the guy who lives with said cat. I feel seen.