Who has time to watch every single series in a new season? If you are a busy person, let us sample anime for you. This way, you can binge watch it after the season is over and don’t have to agonize over which show is worth watching. If you are looking for Summer 2017 anime to watch this Fall, look no further.
*Note – As usual, this excludes sequels like My Hero Academia and in this special case, the new Fate/Apoc series since, while stand alone, you benefit from knowing at least a little of the universe.
Best Summer 2017 Anime
Made in Abyss
The Abyss is an enormous cave system and the only unexplored place in the world. No one knows how deep it goes, but generations of bold adventurers have descended into it. In the town at the edge of The Abyss, an orphan named Rico dreams of raiding, as her mother did before her. One day while exploring the murky depths, she meets a boy, who turns out to be a robot, kicking off the start of her epic adventure.
Why it is Worth Watching? – At a glance, Made in Abyss seems like one of your more child-oriented anime series that is usually worth skipping for adults. However, it you give it a try, you find a series that continued to impress audiences week after week with its masterful use of intrigue. Everything you think is one thing, ends up being another and weaving the overall plot in such a surprisingly complex way.
Tsurezure Children
Tsurezure Children depicts the many different scenarios of young love. From the relationship between the student council president and a rebel girl or a boy so cripple by his own lack of self-confidence that he can’t accept a girl confessed to him. With many more tales within, you follow their triumphs and failures throughout.
Why it is Worth Watching? – Tsurezure Children is perfect for romance junkies that literally can’t get enough. Although it has only 15-minute episodes and what seems like a dozen different couples, it all manages to showcase them in a way that you don’t forget about them while also feeling like they get a fair amount of screen time. Of course, the real seller of this series is that it is a constant barrage of those sweet moments that romance genre fans live for.
Convenience Store Boyfriends
This is the story of six students and the convenience store that they frequent on their way to and from school. They love, they laugh, they eat pudding cups, and this is their story.
Why it is Worth Watching? – Not completely unlike Tsurezure Children, Convenience Store Boyfriends is a multi-couple romance series with very little overall plot aside from “will so-and-so get together? D:” While it is strange that the girls look like high school girls and the high school boys look like overly handsome college men, it provides some good love stories, albeit ones riddled with the cliches that frequent romance watchers have come to expect (and love anyway).
Kakegurui
Hyakkaou Private Academy is an institution for the elite of society with a very special curriculum. These students are the children of the wealthiest people in the world, but they won’t need athletic prowess or book smarts for a successful life, they will need to know the art of the deal and how to read people. So instead of traditional classes, this school features a curriculum of rigorous gambling where the winners live like kings and the losers suffer. However, they haven’t seen anything yet until they meet new student Yumeko Jabami.
Why it is Worth Watching? – Actually good gambling series are such a rarity that it can make Kakegurui a treasure for that reason alone. However, what makes this worth watching is the sheer masterful manipulation pulled off by the characters. If you like carefully laid out plots and watching them unravel, this can be a fun watch.
Classroom of the Elite
Koudo Ikusei High School seems like a paradise with state-of-the-art facilities and where almost 100 percent of students go to university or find employment. However, while the students appear to have a good amount of freedom, only superior students get favorable treatments. After being careless on his entrance exams for a particular reason, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka finds himself dumped in D-Class with the other inferior students.
Why it is Worth Watching? – It follows your typical “smart person gets put in the low-performing class” trope that you occasionally see in these type of school series, but instead of just settling into the comedy genre, it decides to take a more psychological approach. The story is about the class climbing upwards, and with that involves a lot of surprisingly intelligent plotting, which is a refreshing change for the trope.
Restaurant to Another World
The nondescript Youshoku no Nekoya is a cafe that has been in business for 50 years. However, while it serves salarymen and other workers most of the week. On Saturdays, it closes down to the public in order to serve special guests, mythical creatures that come from another world looking for comforting cuisine.
Why it is Worth Watching? – Honestly, the only reason to watch this is for that gorgeous looking food. Yes, the monsters that come to eat it and their motivations for doing so are interesting too, but let’s be real, we watch food anime for the food. There is also the interesting theme of how food can bring people to a common ground and all that but…Mmm, Omurice….
My First Girlfriend is a Gal
Although he has reached the spring of his youth, Junichi is finding it harder than expected to get a girlfriend, but that is due in no small part to his friends brazen habit of reading dirty mags in class. However, in order to “help” him, his virgin friends submitted a love letter in his name to the resident gal of his class, Yame Yukana. However, while she may dress like a gal, this tough-looking girl is actually as pure as the snow.
Why it is Worth Watching? – “People not being what they seem on the outside” is a common theme in many shows, not just anime. However, My First Girlfriend is a Gal does it in a fun way by making the female lead look incredibly slutty and the male lead think she will be slutty but too afraid to act. As the series progresses, that comedy kind of wears down and becomes a well-beaten horse, but there is something to be admired about a girl comprised of many visible pieces of shiny flesh blushing like a shy dandere.
A Centaur’s Life
Thanks to the different route taken by evolution, there are no humans in this world, only supernatural creatures. Himeno is a sweet and shy centaur girl who is in a class full of angels, devils, and beast people, but this is all normal in the world. Despite everything being supernatural, this is about Himeno’s completely normal life.
Why it is Worth Watching? – The Cute Girls Doing Cute Things genre has taken a lot of different routes, but make all the cute girls different supernatural creatures is a first, and purely the only reason for watching. Don’t expect more than a nice slice of life show, and you’ll love it. I also appreciate that they explained why everyone is a different creature (via the evolution thing) and that they have a surprisingly complex creature hierarchy in society shown in the show as well.
Gamers!
This is the tale of lonely Keita Amano who loves video games and the video game club at his school that ardently tries to recruit him. While each member of the club is distinctly different, they are all united through their love of games.
Why it is Worth Watching? – It is a cute club shenanigan show at its core, but it is just packed with all sorts of gamer references and cameos. In the past, comedy or romance series have made a killing with referencing otaku things, but Gamers becomes more of a toned down romantic comedy and doesn’t quite get to such lofty heights of fanaticism like Himouto! Umaru-Chan or Oreimo.
Did you enjoy anything else this season that you think is worth a watch? Let us know in the comments section below.
