What Will I Watch? Summer 2016 Anime Season

The Summer 2016 Anime Season is coming just beyond the horizon and as I did last season, I thought it would be fun to make this list to inform you on what series I am most looking forward to. As for now these are the only series that I will be watching from this upcoming anime season, however I will consider watching a few others considering how well it is received by others. This list includes: Aldermin of the Sky, Hanada-kun, ReLIFE, and Rewrite. If you by the off chance that you feel as if I have missed something, then feel free to mention it in the comments down below.

Be sure to check back in a few weeks when I release my first impressions post on the Summer Season.

Note: This list will be updated as more information is released on each series.

==================================================================

Anime Title: 91 Days ~Highly Anticipated~
Production Studio: Shuka
Director: Hiro Kaburaki (Kimi ni Todoke)
Episode Count: 12 eps.
Air Date: July 8, 2016 (Friday)
Source Material: Anime Original
Genres: Historical, Drama, Action, Thriller
Description: “The time is 1920, five years after National Prohibition Law took place at a city called Lorel in the United States. Main character Avilo arrives to join the Vampiro family mafia undercover in order to seek revenge of killers who killed his parents and brother in this mafia. A Killing starts kills. Revenge starts new revenge. A story of vengeance and sorrow starts now.”

---

Anime Title: Amanchu ~Highly Anticipated~
Production Studio: J.C. Staff
Director: Junichi Satou (Aria the Natural, Princess Tutu) & Kenichi Kasai (Bakuman, Honey and Clover)
Episode Count: 13 eps.
Air Date: July 8, 2016 (Friday)
Source Material: Manga
Genres: Slice of Life, Sports, Comedy, School, Shounen
Description: “Hikari Kohinata is a cheerful 15-year-old girl who lives near the ocean and she spends much of her time diving as a result. On her first day of high school, she meets a teacher who also likes scuba diving. There’s also a 16-year-old classmate, Futaba, who gets dragged along in Hikari’s maelstrom as soon as they meet at school. Most of the manga so far details the relationship between the two girls, which quickly seems to move into romantic two girl friendship-territory.”

---

Anime Title: Battery
Production Studio: Zero-G
Director: Tomomi Mochizuki (House of Five Leaves)
Episode Count: 11 eps.
Air Date: July 13, 2016 (Wednesday)
Source Material: Novel
Genres: Sports, Slice of Life, Drama
Description: “Meet Takumi Harada—not even in junior high and he’s the best pitcher in the region, although he’s frustrated and ready to give up, because he can’t find a catcher who is good enough to keep up with how he pitches in this backwater town his family has just moved to. Then along comes a kid named Gou Nagakura…”

---

Anime Title: Big Fish & Begonia (Movie)
Production Studio: Mir
Director: N/A
Running Length: N/A
Air Date: July 8, 2016
Source Material: Anime Original
Genres: Adventure, Supernatural
Description: “This is a mythic land where no outsider has ever set foot. The spirit-like dwellers there, however, know us mortals well. They are responsible for human emotions and desires, for seasons, weather, the elapsing of time…

Our protagonist, a spirit girl named Chun, has just turned sixteen and goes in the form of a dolphin to explore the earthly part of the sea, to see what the human world is like. While cruising at sea, Chun gets caught in a storm and finds herself enmeshed in a fishing net. A human boy spots her and comes to her rescue, trying to free Chun from the entanglement. By accident, the boy drowns leaving Chun wretched and heartbroken.

Da Hai tells an absorbing and bittersweet story of sacrifice and redemption when Chun is determined to bring back to life the boy’s soul, now in the form of a little white fish. Da Hai is about an adolescent coming to terms with her limitations, and a spirit, coming into possession of her powers […] dealing with the difficult issues of death, love and maturing emotions with empathy and nuance.”

---

Anime Title: Days (TV)
Production Studio: MAPPA
Director: Kounosuke Uda (Ginga e Kickoff!!, Lovely Complex, One Piece)
Episode Count: 24 eps.
Air Date: July 2, 2016 (Saturday)
Source Material: Manga
Genres: Sports, School, Shounen
Description: “The series is about two boys named Tsukushi and Jin. Tsukushi is a boy with no special talent or traits while Jin is considered a soccer genius. On one stormy night, Jin meets Tsukushi, and they get dragged into the world of soccer.”

---

Anime Title: Food Wars: The Second Plate
Production Studio: J.C. Staff
Director: Yoshitomo Yonetani (Crayon Shin-chan)
Episode Count: 13 eps.
Air Date: July 2, 2016 (Saturday)
Source Material: Manga
Genres: Cooking, Ecchi, School, Shounen
Description: “Yukihira Souma’s dream is to become a full-time chef in his father’s restaurant and surpass his father’s culinary skill. But just as Yukihira graduates from middle schools his father, Yukihira Jouichirou, closes down the restaurant to cook in Europe. Although downtrodden, Souma’s fighting spirit is rekindled by a challenge from Jouichirou which is to survive in an elite culinary school where only 10% of the students graduate. Can Souma survive?”

---

Anime Title: Mob Psycho 100
Production Studio: Bones
Director: Yuzuru Tachikawa (Death Parade)
Episode Count: 12 eps.
Air Date: July 11, 2016 (Monday)
Source Material: Digital Manga
Genres: Action, Comedy, Supernatural, Slice of Life, Shounen
Description: “Kageyama Shigeo (a.k.a. “Mob”) is a 8th grader with psychic abilities. He could bend spoons and lift objects with his mind from a young age, but he slowly began to withhold from using his abilities in public due to the negative attention he kept receiving. Now, the only thing he wants is to become friends with a girl in his class, Tsubomi. With his psychic “mentor” (who has no psychic powers), he continues his daily life, attempting to realize his purpose in life. “

---

Anime Title: Orange. ~Most Anticipated of the Season~
Production Studio: TMS Entertainment
Director: Hiroshi Hamasaki (Steins;Gate, Texhonlyze)
Episode Count: 13 eps.
Air Date: July 3, 2016 (Sunday)
Source Material: Manga
Genres: Romance, Drama, School, Sci-Fi, Shoujo
Description: “One morning, Naho Takamiya receives a letter in the mail claiming to be from herself 10 years in the future. The letter reveals a series of events that are supposed to take place that day. At first, Naho thinks it’s just a prank; but when the letter mentions a transfer student named Kakeru Naruse, who really ends up transferring into her class later that day, she is forced to believe in its contents.

As Naho continues to read the letter, her future self mentions several regrets, urging Naho to take the right decisions now. Somehow these regrets all seem to be connected to Kakeru, and with the burden of the knowledge that the boy wouldn’t be with her and her friends in the future, will Naho be able to make the perfect choices that will alter what seems to be fate?”

---

Anime Title: Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet (ONA)
Production Studio: David Production
Director: Naokatsu Tsuda (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)
Episode Count: 5 eps. + Movie
Air Date: July 7, 2016
Source Material: Visual Novel
Genres: Drama, Magic, Sci-Fi
Description: “It is thirty years after the failure of the Space Colonization Program. Humanity is nearly extinct. A perpetual and deadly Rain falls on the Earth. Men known as “Junkers” plunder goods and artifacts from the ruins of civilization. One such Junker sneaks alone into the most dangerous of all ruins—a “Sarcophagus City.” In the center of this dead city, he discovers a pre-War planetarium. And as he enters he is greeted by Hoshino Yumemi, a companion robot. Without a single shred of doubt, she assumes he is the first customer she’s had in 30 years. She attempts to show him the stars at once, but the planetarium projector is broken. Unable to make heads or tails of her conversation, he ends up agreeing to try and repair the projector…”

---

Anime Title: Sweetness and Lightning ~Highly Anticipated~
Production Studio: TMS Entertainment
Director: Tarou Iwasaki (Isshuukan Friends)
Episode Count: 12 eps.
Air Date: July 4, 2016 (Monday)
Source Material: Manga
Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy, Cooking, Seinen
Description: “Kouhei Inuzuka is a teacher who has been caring for his little daughter on his own since his wife’s death. He’s no good at cooking, so he and his daughter Tsumugi have been eating packaged meals from the convenience store. A series of events lead him one evening to a restaurant run by the mother of one of his students, Kotori. Her mother isn’t there, but Kotori does her best to feed them both. It turns out Kotori is often alone since her parents are divorced and her mother is frequently not around. The three of them begin to meet and cook tasty food together.”

---

Anime Title: Tales of Zestiria the X
Production Studio: ufotable
Director: Haruo Sotozaki (Tales of Symphonia)
Episode Count: 25 eps. (Split-Cour)
Air Date: July 3, 2016 (Sunday)
Source Material: Video Game
Genres: Fantasy, Action, Supernatural
Description: “Sorey is a human youth who grew up among the seraphim, spiritual beings not visible to humans. Sorey believes in the folklore that says “long ago, every human was able to see the seraphim” and dreams of unraveling the ancient mystery to make the world a place where people and seraphim can live together in peace.

One day, Sorey visits the human capital for the very first time. He becomes embroiled in an incident during which he pulls out a holy sword embedded in a rock and ends up becoming a Shepherd, one who casts away calamity from the world. He begins to realize the gravity of his mission, and his dream of coexistence between mankind and the seraphim becomes more intense—

And thus, the Shepherd embarks on an amazing journey with his companions.”

---

Anime Title: The Ancient Magus’ Bride (OVA)
Production Studio: WIT
Director: Norihiro Naganuma
Episode Count: 3 eps.
Air Date: September 10, 2016 – September 9, 2017
Source Material: Manga
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Magic, Slice of Life
Description: “Chise Hatori has lived a life full of neglect and abuse, devoid of anything resembling love. Far from the warmth of family, she has had her share of troubles and pitfalls. Just when all hope seems lost, a fateful encounter awaits her. When a man with the head of a beast, wielding strange powers, obtains her through a slave auction, Chise’s life will never be the same again.

The man is a “magus,” a sorcerer of great power, who decides to free Chise from the bonds of captivity. The magus then makes a bold statement: Chise will become his apprentice—and his bride!”

---

Anime Title: The Heroic Legend of Arslan: Dust Storm Dance
Production Studio: LIDEN Films
Director: Noriyuki Abe (Black Butler, Bleach, Great Teacher Onizuka, Yu Yu Hakusho)
Episode Count: 8 eps.
Air Date: July 3, 2016 (Sunday)
Source Material: Manga
Genres: Historical, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Drama, Supernatural, Shounen
Description: “The year is 320. Under the rule of the belligerent king Andragoras III, the prosperous kingdom of Pars is at war with the neighboring empire, Lusitania. Though different from his father in many aspects, the kind young prince Arslan sets out to prove his valor on the battlefield for the very first time. However, when the king is betrayed by one of his most trusted officials, the Parsian army is decimated and the capital city of Ecbatana is sieged. With the army in shambles and the Lusitanians out for his head, Arslan is forced to go on the run. With a respected general by his side, the loyal Daryun, Arslan soon sets off on a journey in search of allies that will help him take back his home.

However, the enemies that the prince faces are far from limited to just those occupying his kingdom. Armies of other kingdoms stand ready to conquer Ecbatana. Moreover, the mastermind behind Lusitania’s victory, an enigmatic man hiding behind a silver mask, poses a dangerous threat to Arslan and his company as he possesses a secret that could jeopardize Arslan’s right to succession.

With the odds stacked against him, Arslan must find the strength and courage to overcome these obstacles and allies who will help him fight in the journey that will help prepare him for the day he becomes king.”

---

Anime Title: Under The Dog (OVA)
Production Studio: Kinema Citrus
Director: Masahiro Ando (Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, Hanasaku Iroha, Sword of the Stranger, Zetsuen no Tempest)
Running Length: 24 minutes
Air Date: August 1, 2016
Source Material: Anime Original
Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Description: “Under the Dog takes place in 2025 in Neo Tokyo, five years after a devastating terrorist attack at the Tokyo Olympics. In the wake of the tragedy, the U.N. formed a covert ops unit dedicating to seeking out, then eliminating those responsible for the attack. Anthea Kallenberg, a girl of Swedish descent is a member of this elite group who has honed her combat abilities and has become a deadly assassin, but must come to terms as to who she really is.”

---

Anime Title: Your Name. (Movie)
Production Studio: CoMix Wave Films
Director: Makoto Shinkai (5 Centimeters per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, Garden of Words, Voices of a Distant Star)
Running Length: N/A
Air Date: August 26, 2016
Source Material: Anime Original
Genres: Drama, Romance, School, Supernatural
Description: “The story is set one month after a comet has fallen for the first time in a thousand years in Japan. Mitsuha, a high school girl living in the countryside, wants to live in the city because she is tired of life in the country. Then, there’s Taki. He’s a high school student living in Tokyo with his friends while working as a part-timer at an Italian restaurant. He also has a strong interest in fine arts involving architecture. One day, Mitsuha dreams of herself as a young man. On the other hand, Taki also has a dream where he is a female student attending high school in the countryside. What’s the secret behind their dreams?”

Advertisement