Anime Sunday: Love Live Sunshine Episode 01 Impressions

This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering the second entry in the Love Live series! It’s my Love Live Sunshine Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: Having been inspired by the school idol group μ’s (pronounced Muse), Takami Chika, a second-year student at Uranohoshi Girls’ High School, tries to start her own School Idol Club.

Plot: The plot is sort of cringe inducing, and I’m not even counting the fact this is pretty much a straight up repeat of the first episode of the μ’s era. Personally I can’t stand the Anime portions of the Love Live multimedia franchise, and Sunshine confirmed my opinion of that. That being said it will probably be a huge hit for more avid fans of the series, but I just enjoy the music.

Characters: Chika is a lot like Honoka from μ’s, although Honoka wanted to become an idol to save her school rather than just have fun and become more than just an ordinary schoolgirl like Chika. Personally I enjoy Riko as a character much more just from her actions in this first episode. You is an okay character, but like I said I enjoyed Roko the most and Chika was actually sort of annoying to me at times.

Art: The artwork is great, although the 3DCG usage in the song sequences was occasionally awkward I understand that it’s a lot easier on the animators to do it like that. Not to mention that when Aquors does a real live performance they’ll need to match the movements from the Anime.

Music: The real draw of the series to me, and probably most of the fans, is the music. Japanese voice actors (Seiyuu in Japanese) have so much more to do than their English counterparts and the Love Live projects are some of the best examples of the differences. The Seiyuu of the Love Live series actually perform real life concerts (which includes dancing and various other choreography) and they all do their own singing of the songs that are performed for the project, Pile the voice actor of Nishikino Maki from μ’s is a great example of a now professional singer who enjoys great success in her career due to the projects influence. So when I heard the first album of Aquors, Sunshine’s Idol Unit, way back in January of this year I was intrigued. I’ve always enjoyed harmonies that occur in music and the Love Live series often does some amazing musical work. Snow Halation from the μ’s era is probably my favorite, but Sunshine’s Kimeta yo Hand in Hand might just be a new favorite that can contend with it. I’ll be covering the idol subculture in a very near future Translation Necessary Thursday column for those interested in it.

Overall: If you’re a huge Love Live fan, you’ll probably enjoy the hell out of this series, but most fans can probably just enjoy the music itself rather than watching the Anime.

For those who like: Music, Love Live, Great Art, Amazing Voicework.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Anime Sunday: Most Anticipated Summer 2016 Anime

This week for Anime Sunday I’m looking at this upcoming season of Anime! It’s my Most Anticipated Summer 2016 Anime!

Tales of Zestiria: As people who read my Game Reviews and Video Game Tuesday columns will know, I love the Tales of series, and I thought Tales of Zestiria was the best JRPG I’ve ever played. I still haven’t changed my opinion of that, and yes I think it’s better than Chrono Trigger (sorry hated the combat system). Not only is this going to be an adaptation of my favorite JRPG story, it’ll be animated by ufotable the best Anime studio out there. Zestiria’s adaptation should be amazing and I’m sincerely looking forward to watching this more than anything else that’s new this season.

Tenkyou no Alderamin: I’ve only heard good things about this Light Novel series, so I’ll be giving this a shot. I’m not super excited by the choice of art style by Madhouse, but hopefully the story makes me not care enough to enjoy the hell out of the series.

ReLife: I always thought this web comic series was awesome, and I wasn’t surprised at all that it was announced to be getting an Anime. It was perfect material for an Anime and I’m looking forward to watching this.

orange: I’ve only heard amazing things about this Manga, and the adaptation shouldn’t be any less amazing. Hopefully TMS Entertainment won’t screw it up, and thankfully it isn’t Studio Deen animating it.

Mob Psycho 100: Another Manga adaptation of another series by the creator of One Punch Man, this should also be a riot. I’m expecting to laugh a lot. Studio Bones should do a good job, so I’m hoping the laughs keep me interested long enough to continue watching the series through the season.

Taboo Tatto: I’ve been meaning to read the original source material of this series for a while, so I’ll probably give the first episode a watch and than binge read the series.

Hitori no Shita: I’ve heard this is an adaptation of a Chinese Web Comic, so I’m interested in seeing how well this can do. Hopefully this will lead to an increased interest in Chinese stories from the Japanese studios, and maybe we’ll get to see I Shall Seal the Heavens adapted one day. Wouldn’t that be awesome.

Honorable Mentions: Series I won’t be watching much of, but will be giving a try nonetheless. Or I’ll just be interested in a certain aspect of the series.

Love Live! Sunshine!!: Love Live has a huge cult following around the world, and this second idol group has been apparently well received. I confess I enjoy the music, although the original Anime series was pretty cringe worthy for me.  So I’ll be giving this a shot, but if it even makes cringe half as much I’ll probably just listen to the music only.

Masou Gakuen HxH: It looks to be a typical “Magical Academy” Romcom, but I’ll give this a shot nonetheless. Hopefully I’m proven wrong and the series is more Rakudai than something like Seirei no Tsukai.