Summer 2014 Anime Summary

I’m relatively new to the anime world and this summer was also my first proper anime season. I didn’t watch that many series and dropped a few. There was some good series that i watched and also a few disappointing ones. So, to wrap up my summer journey here is my little reviews of the finished airing anime series that i watched this season  (Beforehand, sorry for my terrible English as it isn’t my native language):

1. Glasslip
The first series i watched this season. Personally, I’m not a big fan of romance themed slice of life genres, but i kind of want to give it a try anyway. But unfortunately, Glasslip didn’t satisfy me for many reasons. I just didn’t get the “feel” of the story. Some of the main characters personality just seems weird. While the plot is kind of promising with its “fragment of the future”-thing, it didn’t developed into something interesting and instead become boring and somehow became just a complementary of the friendship and love interaction in this series. Regardless of that, i really enjoyed the art and animation of this anime. It’s kind of refreshing and lively. It was probably the reason for me to keep watching this series until the end.

Overall : 5/10

2. Tokyo Ghoul
The first episode of this series was really promising. But unfortunately, the rest of the series didn’t meet my expectation for this show. Little by little, this show becomes boring and uninteresting for me. I also a little disappointed by the ending with its cliffhanger and terrible resolution. Not to mention the censorship on the whole series that didn’t make this show any better. Nonetheless, this series isn’t too bad i guess. It’s kind of acceptable and entertains me with its action fight sequences.

Overall : 6/10

3. Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance)
This was one of a good ride. I quite enjoyed the series. It has a good solid plot although it’s kind of a common ones-some special people escaped from the facility that “developed” them. The art and animation in this show is really good in my opinion. The soundtrack and the storytelling are just fantastic. And the ending was really satisfying. Not really a big fan of the main villain of the story though.

Overall : 8/10

4. Psycho-Pass (Re-edit version)
Not really an anime of this Summer as it’s only a re-edited version of the original but I haven’t watched the original Psycho-Pass before, so this is the first time i checked it out. I must say this show is fantastic. A really good plot, interesting characters, and a solid animation. Despite a kind of slow first half, the series becomes really intriguing in the latter half. The whole concept of Sibyl System is really interesting and the Dominator is kind of cool i guess. I can’t wait for the second season this fall.

Overall : 9/10

5. Aldnoah/Zero
This show kind of reminds me of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Not because of the mecha or the non-terran attacks, but how disappointing the story ended. Both series promised an interesting action packed story about a war between earth inhabitant and something that not earth inhabitant. But both ending kind of disappoint me in their own way. Despite of that, I think Aldnoah/Zero is an above average mecha anime. I could feel the atmosphere and the “feel” of the battle. It also has a pretty catchy soundtrack too. I’m curious how the second season will be continued from that kind of ending.

Overall : 7/10

6. Barakamon
This anime is simply the best anime of this season. And it wasn’t for no reason. This anime is the kind of series that’ll left an emptiness inside your heart once you finished watching it. Barakamon is a heartwarming story about a punished calligrapher Seishuu Handa that was exiled to an island because his disgrace action. At first he felt he just a foreigner there and can’t really keep up with the island environment. But through a touching and meaningful events occurred to him in his everyday life on the island, he became an irreplaceable figure for the village folks. The art in this series is pretty decent and the voice acting for the little girls is really good given that they are voiced by actual little girls. But again, the main factor of this anime is its meaningful story and the main character development.

Overall : 9/10

Dropped Series :
Tokyo ESP : Somehow this wasn’t interested me. The story become weird in the second episode in my opinion.
Akame ga Kill : The way the story developed didn’t really entertain me. I don’t really like the overall characters and the “feel” of the series.
Persona 4 Golden Animation : I didn’t get the story at all. Might be continue watching it after i watched the original Persona 4 Animation

tl;dr
Go checkout Barakamon if you haven’t.