Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Top 10 Anticipated Anime of Summer 2016 | First Reaction

Let me start off by saying that this upcoming season has big shoes to fill. Like, the winter

season had a few good shows, a respectable number, but

this past spring, oh man, we had so many good shows. Even

the ones that weren't top tier were pretty dang good! So now we need a season that can

live up to that. But will it? Well the potential is there,

so we'll have to see. What follows today are 10 anime that I picked

out of the upcoming lineup that I'm looking forward to.

These ten shows are the ones I consider to be the ones most likely to stand out, based

on the information I have on me here pre-season.

Now the list does not include sequels to shows I either

haven't watched or have no interest in, so while I know that D.Grey Man, Fate Illya,

and Food Wars all have sequels lined up, I don't plan to be

following them. At least not immediately. Also, I did not add

shows for which very little information has been released, more so than usual - like no

director, no PV and so forth. So what you can gather from

all of this is that what follows is a very personal list of mine,

which leaves the chance for one of those other unknown shows not on this list to later sneak

up on us and be amazing, which is something I hope

for actually. Based on little information, and as such with

arbitrary ranking, I present my Top 10 Anticipated Anime of

Summer 2016. Let's Jam. First up, a show that has a name I am about

to completely butcher the pronunciation of: Nejimaki Seirei

Senki: Alderamin on the Sky. This series like the next one that's on our list is mostly

here purely based on the studio producing it. In this case, Studio

Madhouse, who in my mind has been responsible for some

completely awesome anime since like forever. The reason why it's this far down the list

though is because I have reasons to be skeptical. Looking

at the PV, I can personally say that I'm not sold on the

art style. The PV didn't show us too much animation wise, but that could just be a lack

of time to complete good cuts before the PV deadline.

Lastly, there's the show's director, Tetsuo Ichimura, who is

rather new. His only previous works are a 3-episode Echii OVA from 2 years ago. But

this is Madhouse, so I'm very hopeful. I think it'll be an interesting

fantasy series if nothing else. Alderamin on the sky was

picked up by Crunchyroll for this season and will be simulcated from them.

Coming in at number 9, Tales of Zestiria the X. Like Alderamin, this one snags a spot on

the list because it's being produced by Ufotable. I have at

least an equal number reasons to be skeptical about it, but

most of that will all be made up by the fact that it's potentially going to be the best

looking series of the season. The negatives I have are mostly personal.

I've been following the Tales Of series since Symphonia on the GameCube and the track record

for these games being adapted into an anime format

has been less than stellar. Their Symphonia adaptation took a 50-hour game and condensed

that not only into a small 11-episode OVA, but also

released those episodes over the course of 6 years. Now I'm

not the biggest fan of Zestiria in the first place either. I got it when it was released

on Steam awhile back, but the only reason I never returned it is

because I got a copy of Symphonia for free with it. The game

play was vastly inferior in my opinion, though the story could be good, which is why I'm

still slightly excited for this adaptation. Zestria the X

was picked up by funimation so it'll be available from them, no

word yet on if it's getting a broadcast dub mostly because it's far too early to be talking

about such things.

Next up is Qualidea Code. For this one, I'm less looking forward to the good animation

- though it is A-1 Pictures, so it's probably be somewhat impressive

- but I'm more so looking forward to the music of the

series actually. The show's composer is Taku Iwasaki, who previously was responsible for

Soul Eater, Akame ga Kill, and Noragami among others.

These shows have phenomenal soundtracks and for Akame

ga Kill especially, the music was one of the few things that got me through my watch of

the series. On top of having that composer for the soundtrack,

they also snagged both LiSA and ClairS for the OP and

ED songs which is quite an amazing feat, so I'm hoping for both of those to be impressive

as well. Story wise, there's going to be some semblance of

a futuristic fantasy setting with cute girls and explosions.

I'm expecting a spectacle and I doubt that it'll fail to deliver. At the time of this

video Qualidea code has not been officially picked up by any legal

licenser, but there's still time. For number 7, we have NEW GAME! (Exclamation

point). A lot of people are going to write this one off.

For all I know, I might as well after I see the first few episodes, but I want to be optimistic.

The reason why people will write this one off is because

by all accounts it looks to be your stereotypical "let's throw

a bunch of girls into a nerd-like setting purely for the entertainment of the kind of

otaku fans that most people have a good time making fun of". It's

got the cute girls down pat, and they apparently have all

come together to work at a video game company, where I will assume wacky antics will be had.

What keeps me optimistic is the amount of staff

who are KyotoAni alums, such as Fumihiko Shimo who is in

charge of composition and was also responsible for the comp on the Key/KyotoAni holy trinity

of anime, Air, Kanon, and Clannad. Not to mention her

work on both Non Non Biyori and Kokoro Connect, so

that's something. And the composer was the one responsible for the music of K-On, which

is a wonderful thing to have on a resume, so while

I may be skeptical of its story content, the rest leaves me

cautiously optimistic. Which is the best I can hope for most times. Like Qualidea Code

New Game has yet to be picked up by any legal licenser.

For number 6, we have Amanchu, which means I can finally get excited about an anime for

its story. And in this case, by story I mean slice of life

adventures about schoolgirls and scuba diving. The show actually

has two directors, which is interesting. Firstly it has a regular director, Kenichi Kasai previously

responsible for directing the wonderfully upbeat Nodame Cantabile, and then it also

has a "Chief Director" Jenichi Satou, previously responsible

for some amazing slice of life shows such as Aria as well

as Croise in a Foreign Labyrinth. Also, we have Deko Akao doing the series composition,

who was previously the director on Noragami as well

as the series comp for last season's Flying Witch. So the

main important staff positions are indeed well filled, even if both the Art Director

and Character designers for this show are fairly new. All

I can be certain of at this point is that this series has a high

chance of being the show that I watch, like flying witch, for the relaxation that it will

provide. If I want something more thrilling, well that's what

this next one is for. Amanchu has also yet to be picked up.

Numbah 5! BERSERK! This is the only sequel like thing on this list, and I had to include

it because, well hell, it's Berserk. I've said it before and

I'll say it again, I freaking love Berserk. That said though, this is

quite obviously not a retelling of the manga from chapter one. Now considering that, I

have two negatives, and mostly these are the same negatives

that I have for the recent trilogy of Berserk films.

While I love the concept of cel shading 3D graphics, as I feel they help the art last

much longer without aging (see: Zelda Windwaker), I am less enthused

about that same kind of animation being brought to

Berserk. It might just be a hint of the old-fashioned preference I have considering my love for

the original TV series, but the 3D animation in

the more recent Berserk's has always irked me. That and also

for some continued reason Susumu Hirasawa is not fully in charge of the musical score.

I can only assume at this point that it's because he

doesn't want the job. From what I can gather, he is providing at

least one track for the new series, though really I wish he would provide two: whatever

new one he is cooking up and a remix of Forces. Because

Forces is amazing. Anyway, still looking forward to this new

Berserk quite a lot, and it'll be streaming from Crunchyroll this season

Starting to both wind down our list, but also ramp up the excitement, we have 91 Days. 91

Days is a mafia drama, taking place in the prohibition

era. It is not based on any existing manga or light novel, and

I think it's going to be freaking amazing. It's being handled by the same studio responsible

for Terror in Resonance as well as the Durarara sequels,

and its series composition is being done by Taku Kishimoto

who handled the comp for both Erased and last season's fantastic Joker Game. Now my only

hang up with it at this point would be its director

Hiro Kaburaki, much better known for directing shows that are

either comedy or romance focused, two things which I am hoping this series is not. But

it looks good, Ling Sigure is taking care of the opening,

which I hope I can count on as being good, and this kind of mob

story has always been entertaining for me in the past, so I'm excited as hell for it.

Crunchyroll has this one as well, so look out for that.

For number 3, we have Orange, which is mostly here because of a recommendation I was given

by my good friend Ken to read the manga for it.

I haven't yet, but by all accounts the story is right up my alley.

The show is a kind of romance drama, but with an interesting twist. Our main character receives

a letter from herself 11 years in the future telling

her to keep track of a new transfer student. And Like at this

point, with just that, I'm already sold, but then I find out that it's being directed by

Hiroshi Hamasaki the director of Texhnolyze and more importantly

Steins;Gate and hell yeah I'm pumped! Orange is another

crunchyroll pickup and it has the potential to be best of season, which is of course as

long as it turns out to be better than the number 2 on my list.

Mob Psycho 100. All you need to know right now about Mob Psycho is that it is being animated

by Studio Bones and the original story for it

was written by webcomic artist ONE, the very same guy who

created One Punch Man, you know that uber popular series from last year? Same guy. Except

this one is going to be available on Crunchyrol and not

Daisuke so that's an interesting change of eventa. Now I'm

actually going to skip over the detailed reasons of why I'm psyched as hell for this series

because I'm planning on dedicating an entire video to

it shortly, so watch out for that, but I do believe that you might

be wondering what I am personally more hyped for than this. Well...

SWEETNESS AND LIGHTING! UGH I'M SO PUMPED! THIS IS GOING TO BE SO CUTE ARGEJHAKSLDKJD

So this is the point where I have to remind people that this is my personal list, and

I realize that not as many people will be as pumped for Sweetness

and Lightning as I am, and most of my pumped-ness is

because it's one of the few times I've actually read the manga for something. Reading manga

is not something I traditionally do, so the fact

that I can actually be excited for a series because I know the

source material is amazing. I haven't been like this since Ghibli announced they were

making Howl's Moving Castle into a film, only for it then

to be nothing like the book, BUT ANYWAY. Sweetness and Lighting is about a new single

father attempting to take care of his young daughter on his

own. How he's able to accomplish spending time with her is that they attempt to learn

how to cook, along with the help of one of his students,

as he is a teacher at the local high school. It's like this weird

cross between Food Wars and Usagi Drop, but without the competition from Food Wars and

the...things from the Usagi Drop manga that no one should

ever read. Stick to the anime on that one, trust me.

What I am expecting and plan to get is a very light-hearted series, one that I will probably

have to watch on a full stomach in order to handle the wonderfully

animated food, which they will probably have on

display. And I'm a sucker for this kind of light story, which is why I read the manga

in the first place. You can disagree on my pick, but ultimately

this is my most anticipated shows list, not anyone else's.

But what are you guys excited for? Let me know down in the comments. With luck most

of this list will be available for legal streaming, both Funimation

and Crunchyroll have picked up some of them, and

both companies have stated that there are more announcements to come and there are some

entries on this list that haven't been claimed yet.

Though at the moment Crunchyroll though has the most on

this list already, both Mob Psycho and Sweetness and Lighting specifically, so they are off

to a very good start. And as usual there will be a link down

in the description crunchyroll.com/glassreflection for a free

trial of their premium service, because it will be required if you plan on watching any

of their offerings as soon as they are released. If you don't

mind the week delay though, they will be out for free

eventually so if you're strapped for cash that's also an available option.

As I mentioned before I have a solo video on Mod Psycho coming out soon, and chances

are most of the shows on this list will be subject to a First

Reason sometime following the start of the season. I'm

looking forward to all of that and hopefully you are too. Until then, ladies, gentlemen,

and others. Stay frosty.