With the summer season starting soon, now is a good time to go over what’s going to be premiering in the next few weeks. I’ve gone through Anichart and made a list of everything that sounds interesting. I won’t be listing everything that’s premiering since Anichart does that just fine; I’ll just be going over everything that caught my interest. Since none of these shows have actually aired yet, I’ll mostly be going by the premise, the PVs, and the names attached to them. Even if these factors don’t guarantee if a show will be good or bad, they can at least hint at its potential. I don’t know if I’ll end up watching everything here, but here’s all the shows that I’ll at least be keeping an eye on.

18if

18if may be a mobile game adaptation, but the PVs and the basic idea both show potential. Based on the PVs, it looks like a cross between Serial Experiments Lain and Alice in Wonderland. There’s a lot of creative surrealist imagery, and the story has a lot of potential. It’s could turn out quite well, or it could be a complete mess. Either way, it doesn’t look like it’ll be boring.

Fate/Apocrypha

As a fan of Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Apocrypha sounds right up my alley. Fate has always had great fantasy action and worldbuilding, and Apocrypha sounds like it’s going to excel in that regard. Having a Grail war involving two factions that each have seven Servants is a clever twist on the usual Fate setup, and will likely allow for some more creative battles. I don’t expect it to have the same thematic weight as Stay/Night or Zero, but Apocrypha still has a lot of potential to make full use of its premise. Ufotable isn’t animating this one, but A-1 pictures has a solid record of well animated fantasy action anime, so I’m not too worried here. The one potential issue is that it may struggle to balance such a large ensemble cast the same way Fate/Zero did, although I’m perfectly open to being surprised there.

Restaurant to Another World (Isekai Shokudou)

Restaurant to Another World looks more slice of life-y than I usually prefer, but the idea of a restaurant that serves people from a fantasy world is creative enough that I’m interested in checking it out. It’s an unusual idea, but it has a lot of potential for comedy or smaller character stories, depending on what kind of show it wants to be. Studio Silver Link and director Masato Jinbo are best known for Fate/Kaleid, but it looks like this is going to be a very different show from that.

Made in Abyss

I initially thought this would be a kids’ show because of the art, but apparently Made in Abyss is actually fairly dark. That alone wouldn’t mean much, but I’m always interested in a good fantasy adventure, and this has potential there. A lot of fantasy anime take influence from JRPGs, so it’s refreshing to see one that doesn’t appear to be in that style. I’ve heard some mixed things about the manga, but I’ll still give the anime a chance.

Kakegurui

Kakegurui initially caught my interest because I’ve heard good things about the manga. A show about a school where gambling and reading your opponent determines your status is the kind of thing you’d only see in anime and manga, but it’s still a clever idea that leaves a lot of room for originality. It also helps that the anime is being produced by Studio MAPPA, which has a pretty good track record when it comes to visuals. I haven’t seen everything from them, but what I have seen has impressed me. MAPPA was founded Maseo Maruyama, the founder of Studio Madhouse, and has a lot of connections with former Madhouse animators, which partially explains why their animation is always so good. At the very least, I expect Kakegurui to look good, but it has a lot of potential beyond that as well.

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu is another entry in the Touken Ranbu franchise that’s based on a popular browser game. There was an adaptation last year that came and went, but this one looks promising. The one last year was more slice of life oriented, while this one looks to be more of a historical action show. That alone would be enough for me to look into it, but it’s also being produced at Ufotable. This of course means that it’ll be well animated with a lot of digital effects for the action scenes. Worst case scenario, it turns out to be just another action show, but I’m hoping it turns out well.

Princess Principal

Princess Principal is most noteworthy for being an anime original, which we don’t see a lot of these days. That means that it has more creative potential without being constrained by any source material, but it also has more potential to go off the rails. Still, the idea of spies in an alternate history London is an interesting one (even if those spies are all high school girls). Writer Ichiro Okouchi has been working in anime for a while now and his written both Planetes, which I’ve heard nothing but good things about, and Code Geas, which needs no introduction. Having such an experienced writer in charge is a good sign, so I’m hopeful about this one.

The Reflection

The main reason The Reflection caught my eye was because of its co-creator: Stan Lee. Yes, that Stan Lee. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow Stan Lee is collaborating with Studio DEEN to produce a superhero anime. Since it’s so rare for an American creator to create an anime, I’d watch this solely out of curiosity. Anime that’s made with a western audience in mind can be really good (Cowboy Bebop) or really forgettable (Dimension W). Either way, I’m interested in seeing how this turns out.

Vatican Miracle Examiner (Vatican Kiseki Chousakan)

I don’t know much about this one beyond the premise, but that alone is pretty intriguing. Miracle investigators working for the Vatican is an original idea with a lot of potential for good mysteries or even supernatural mysteries (MAL lists it as supernatural). Director Yoshitomo Yonetani is a veteran with plenty of directorial credits to his name, although I haven’t seen any of it myself. Since this is a manga adaptation, its quality will likely depend on the source material more than anything else. I don’t know a lot about the source material, but this idea has promise.