Summer Anime 2015 (Part 1)

Quote of the day: "That's the first thing my master taught me. To laugh." - Adlet Mayer

Hello my dear weaboos! It's nearing the end of July and the summer anime season is well underway.  The first week promised us a plentiful crop of good anime to enjoy, but now that weeks have passed and more episodes are out, which summer animes of 2015 have lived up to their expectations, and which plummeted?  Check out the list below:

Before every season begins, I scour through the chart of upcoming anime and determine which ones I want to try out.  I don't have the time to watch every single anime that comes out, and frankly, I don't want to waste my time like that anyways.  My taste in anime has evolved over the years, and at this point, I am extremely picky.  Generally, I'm more into the serious and violent animes like Death Note, Attack on Titan, etc.  (Although I have enjoyed humorous animes like Fairy Tail) So when finding anime that I want to watch I typically narrow it down by genre.  (It at least has to have action and/or mystery)  So I created my list before the summer anime season officially started.  I intended to watch: 

1. God Eater
2. Charlotte
3. Overlord
4. Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace
5. Rokka no Yuusha

  Now that the season has begun, I can begin to determine which ones out of that list I want to keep watching, and which of those are just fucking terrible.  So let's dive in!

1. "God Eeater": This anime I was the most excited for.  The description was intriguing, and most of all, the title was badass. (Yes, I'm a sucker for cool titles)  Before truly diving into an anime, I read the comments to the first episode (hey, they don't count as spoilers if you don't know nothing about the damn show) and pretty much all the comments seemed positive, so I was like, hell yeah!  Anyways, as I began to watch the first episode, my heart instantly dropped.  The animation was indeed unique and beautiful, but it was too hard to stomach.  I literally only got through 10 minutes of it before stopping.  The thing is, I really want to watch this anime, but I can't fucking get over how different the style of animation is.  It's really good and all, but it reminds me more of a fanmade wallpaper than actual animated art.  It's pretty to look at, but only in still form.  Not for a whole fucking show.  I know, I'm terrible, but I just have a hard time watching anime with drastically different art.  So I obviously haven't watched enough of the anime yet to know if it's promising or not, but I do plan on it.  I'm not dropping this show yet, I just need to get used to the art.  That's all.  One thing I wasn't particularly thrilled with after watching for just ten minutes was the main character.  Ten minutes is TOTALLY not enough time to judge a character, but so far he was extremely irritating.  He's one of those guys who thinks he's a total badass, but in reality is super weak.  I can't stand characters like that, so hopefully I either misjudged him, or he progresses over time.  So all in all, I essentially need to force myself to finish watching the first episode and catch up.  Then I can give you guys a legitimate review.
    
2. "Charlotte":  This anime was a pleasant surprise to be honest.  I wasn't initially going to watch it but I decided to give the first episode a shot, which I quite enjoyed.  Overall the anime seems pretty weak, and definitely won't be anything legendary, but I can see it being something I'll finish and say, "hey, that was nice".  So far I'm enamored with the main character.  In the first couple episodes I've watched his personality has just been quite amusing.  He reminds me of a humorous Light Yagami, except without the psychotic mass murderer part.  That's probably the only reason why I'll keep watching this show.  It just proves that having a good main character is an extremely important part of an anime. 
3. "Overlord": I LOVE THIS ANIME!!!!  Haha, yeah this one has been the most entertaining so far.  I've not watched many mmorpg animes before (I never got around to watching SOA) so that's probably the main reason why I like this one so much.  It's something I've not really been exposed to that much.  While I haven't learned a lot about the main character yet, I like the way the first couple episodes have been going, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all the characters.  The plot isn't crystal clear yet, but that's totally okay.  The concept and environment of the anime is more than enough to keep one engaged.  I'm totally digging this one for sure.
4. "Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace":  I had a love-hate relationship with the first episode of this anime.  More than half the time, I was incredibly bored (in fact I totally forgot I even watched this anime until I googled it) and wasn't even paying attention.  If I recall correctly, I wasn't feeling the characters or atmosphere at all.  However, I clearly remember the last few minutes, because those were the few minutes that really grabbed my attention.  I remember watching the ending and being so conflicted, because I hated more than half the episode, but the last couple minutes just left me wanting to watch more.  I need to know what happens.  So, the ending was definitely executed well.  That's all I can really say about this anime so far.  Like I said, most of it was so boring that I forgot what this anime even was at first.  I do want to keep watching it though.  The ending definitely left me intrigued.  If it gets better in the next few episodes, you should totally let me know.
5.   "Rokka no Yuusha": Initially, I wasn't expecting really anything from this anime, however after watching the first episode, it totally blew me away.  I came in not knowing what to expect, and I left with incredibly high expectations.  The general environment, atmosphere, and concept all together seemed different than most anime.  And different in a good way.  I got my hopes up for the next two episodes, but unfortunately, all hope I once had was destroyed in just 20 minutes.  Yeah.  The second episode was cringe worthy.  The transitions from emotion to emotion were fucking terrible.  (And by emotion to emotion, I mean like...from happy to sad, or funny to serious)  Nashetania is probably the most annoying thing about that anime.  Like every time she opens her mouth I want to fucking punch her in the face.  I do not know why such an obnoxious character was created, but she's totally ruining the anime.  After watching all three episodes, I'm most likely still going to continue with this anime.  The ending of the third episode was much more bearable, and gave me a little flicker of hope.  So I'm still holding out for this one and hoping that it will at least come close to my original expectations gained from the first episode.

After a pleasant couple weeks of summer anime, I'm still looking forward to watching many anime.  There aren't really any worthy of dropping just quite yet, and the only one that I've partially dropped for the time being has been Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace, which I do intend on continuing.  I still have high hopes for this anime season in spite of the fact that it doesn't appear to have any "legendary-worthy" anime.  That's okay though.  You don't get legendary status anime every season, and I'm totally fine with it.  So far, the most promising animes from this season are definitely Overlord, and  Rokka no Yuusha.  Although I cringed through the last two episodes of Rokka no Yuusha, I have hope that it will get back on track and turn out to be a splendid anime.  As for Overlord, I'm anticipating further character development, specifically with the main character.  I hope the anime continues to execute as well as it has been, and if so, it will likely be the best anime of the season.
Welp, that is all I have for today.  Let me know in the comments what anime you guys have been watching, and which ones you like the most so far.  If you have any recommendations for anime that I failed to try out, please do so. ^_^ I always enjoy discovering good anime.  Goodbye my dear weaboos!  Peace out!

- Ripkitten