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Saturday, June 1, 2013

What the Summer 2013 Anime Season Should Be:

Cartdriver has both the summer anime preview and the fictional 'fall' anime preview that includes all the series Scamp would like to see, or thinks would be funny if they appeared.  I have much the same tradition, where I demand over and over to see animated series to appear that will never be animated.  Even though I've believed that before, it turns out sometimes my wishes are granted.  For instance, we're getting The World God Only Knows season 3 when I thought the franchise had been abandoned.  So hopefully my prayers will reach God's ears and another one of these series will be animated if I simply repeat my wishes long enough:

According to Anichart.net, we're getting 32 new shows this summer.  Of those, I'm thrilled to have X-monogatari, TWGOK 3, Tamayura, and Fate/Kaleid Liner.  I'm okay with Ro-Kyu-Bu, Symphogear, Servant x Service, Silver Spoon, Danganronpa, Hyperdimension Neptunia, and even Kimi no Iru Machi.  So let's subtract 11 from 32 and see what series we could have added to this summer lineup in a more ideal world.  With 21 extra slots available, look how much we could do:

#1:  Sword Art Online.  This series never should have stopped being animated in the first place.  It desperately needs to pick up where it left off, at Gust Gale Online, and then to continue into the various untold short stories and Mother's Rosario, one of the greatest, most moving stories ever told.  Animating Alicization is unnecessary for now because the story isn't even done, but Mother's Rosario makes for an ending 100 times as powerful and memorable than the Fairy Dance ending from season 1.  If only SAO got a second season, it would easily rank in the top 10 best anime series ever made.

#2:  Hayate no Gotoku.  Hayate no Gotoku may well be the best comedy series ever made, but it isn't just a comedy.  The anime does a fine job showing off the comedy aspects, but it is stubbornly refusing to go into the romance half of the story.  Hayate's childhood romance with Athena is a spectacular story, regularly cited as the best part of the manga, and yet it still has no anime adaption.  His current romance with Ruka is another long and involved plot line that needs to start at the beginning and follow through to the end.

#3:  Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Vivid:  This is currently the best manga that has never received an anime adaption.  It's unfathomable why they haven't continued the Nanoha storyline and insist on making new Dog Days series instead.  The manga hasn't ended yet, so the anime can't be too long, but it could easily support 1 cour with what's already been published.

#4:  Da Capo.  Where do I begin?  I want the true ending of Da Capo III, not that nonsense teaser they had in the most recent season.  I also want all of the additional material found in all the other Da Capo visual novels.  Ideally, the Da Capo anime should be something like 500 episodes long.  It's barely covered anyone or anything yet with what's been made so far.  I want Koko's story to be done right.  And no, it isn't necessary to work all the stories down into a single coherent timeline.  Just do the same thing as Amagami SS.  Start with one girl, go down her route, then restart and do another girl's route.  The isn't rocket science.  Why is it impossible for anime series to adapt visual novels properly?

#5:   Umineko Chiru.  What is the use of a mystery anime that only has the 'questions' section and not the 'answers' section?  The entire joy of a mystery novel is getting to see the great reveal at the end where the detective clears everything up.  The Umineko anime as it stands, half-finished, is a complete joke.  It could be much, much better if we got the second season to clear up everything that happened in the first.

#6:  Rewrite.  Every Key visual novel deserves an adaption, but Rewrite most of all.  It has a spectacular story that's action-packed, which would translate well to an animated form.  Again, it isn't necessary to make all the storylines a coherent whole.  Just go down one route, and then when you're finished start another.  Just like Amagami SS did.  It's not rocket science.

#7:  Negima Remake.  Start Negima over from the beginning, and this time follow the manga all the way to the ending, without cutting or adding anything.  Do it with way better art than the original series, befitting a manga which has some of the best drawn girls of all time.

#8:  Ranma 1/2 Remake.  It would be nice if Ranma 1/2 could also be redone from the beginning, but I would settle for just animating the remaining 1/3 of the manga that was left out.  Ranma is so ridiculously great, why would you not animate the ending?

#9:  Full Metal Panic!:  Continue this story until the ending.

#10:  Haruhi Suzumiya:  Continue this story until it has caught up with the light novels.

#11:  Index.  Index should be continued until the ending.  There's tons of light novel material left.  Why do they keep pausing?

#12:  The World God Only Knows.  I know they're animating a section of the manga, but they really need to be animating the whole manga from beginning to end, so this still remains on my request list.  They should animate the giant gap between the goddess arc and season 2 of the anime, as well as the time travel arc that comes after the goddess arc, using this slot I've so kindly provided them.

#13:  Baka to Test.  They should animate this series all the way to its ending.

#14:  Papa no Iukoto.  This series is the greatest story never told.  The entire first season only covered the first volume of the light novels.  There's 13+ light novels out now.  Please bring back PapaKiki and this time follow the light novels all the way to the end.

#15:  Rurouni Kenshin.  One of the most popular anime series ever and it still hasn't been fully adapted.  Sheer nonsense.

#16:  Dragonball Kai.  The Buu saga needs the same treatment as the rest of the series got.

#17:  Claymore.  Scrap the filler ending, start back at where the story diverged from the manga, and this time follow the manga to the very end.  The story in no way gets worse after the war in the north.  If anything, it gets better from here.  This series should have continued.

#18:  Guyver.  We need the anime to catch up to the manga, which is now well ahead of it.

#19:  History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi:  This story has SO MUCH POTENTIAL.  The manga is brilliant and nearly as long as One Piece.  Why did the anime end?  Why?

#20:  Bleach.  Bleach has plenty of manga chapters ahead of the anime, so isn't it time to bring the series back on air again?

#21:  Strike Witches.  This anime should continue until the war with the aliens ends, one way or the other.  They promised us a continuation, so why not continue already?

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