It’s summer everyone! How are you celebrating this lovely time of year where the weather is great and everything is fine?
At least that’s what I would be asking if the world wasn’t still on fire. The Delta variant is scary and the weather has been a weird disaster with flooding in the south of the country and humidity that makes me lose the will to do anything. Luckily the anime season is doing well, which somewhat makes up for it. Today I want to highlight five shows that I think everyone should be watching this season. I will not include sequels like Dragon Maid or Tensura, nor will I include left-over shows like Eden’s Zero and Shaman King. I’m also trying to keep the selection a little bit diverse, so I’m not recommending you four different Isekai shows. With that out of the way, let’s get right to entry number 1.

1: Seirei Gensouki

Although I said I wouldn’t include multiple Isekai shows, I am including this one. In an almost comedic twist, our protagonist, Haruto Amakawa, is riding a bus, so he won’t get Isekaied by it. Pretty clever right? Well, not really, since a train slams into the bus, presumably killing everyone in the vehicle. If it wasn’t so overdone it would have been a shocking scene. He now wakes up as Rio, a small boy in the slums of the capital city. What’s interesting is that although he gets the memories from his life on earth, he seems to feel a lot more strongly about his life in the new world, where he spent seven years as Rio. His main goal so far seems to be Rio’s goal in life, and not Haruto’s. If this was the only thing interesting about this show, I’d write it off as a generic isekai and call it a day, but there are already multiple cases of people who came from earth. The opening song gives it away as well, but there looks to be more afoot. Episode 5, which is the last one I’ve seen as of writing this, even introduced a plot point that could be very fun to explore. If you’re looking for a good Isekai to watch, I think this one is the better one airing this season.

2: Uramichi Oniisan

Have you ever felt like life isn’t going quite right? Have you ever felt like your job is crushing your soul? Do you ever wonder how you got to this point in life? So has Uramichi, the host of the kids television show Together with Maman. This show follows the titular Uramichi, who’s character is massively improved by the amazing voice work of Hiroshi Kamiya (Trafalgar Law in One Piece, Yato in Noragami, Izaya in Durarara, Araragi in Monogatari and many more). Watch as he slowly loses his mind while trying to keep it together. Uramichi Oniisan is funny in how painfully relatable it is sometimes, and it shows characters that feel very real. It’s not a show I could binge watch for a very long time, but for a weekly dose of cynicism it is perfect.

3: Peach Boy Riverside

I won’t lie, this show confuses me a little bit. It seems to be making a point that I’m not getting. Sally, the princess of the Kingdom of Aldraic, follows a young man called Mikoto after he saves her kingdom. Mikoto is also known as Momotaro, a brutal ogre-slayer. After witnessing his violent displays, she still decides to travel. What confuses me about this show is how abrupt it seems to jump from one story element to the next. There’s a time jump here and there, and cities are casually wiped off of the map. Beyond all that seems to be a subplot with an immortal rabbit woman, an ogre turned human and Sally’s power, which seems to be similar to that of Mikoto. Confusing as it all is, I do find myself enjoying this show every week, and that’s why it’s on this list. It also wins the medal for the most awkwardly placed fanservice, which is not really a compliment, but not everything has to be.

4: Bokutachi no Remake

RE:Life is back and this time it isn’t sponsored by a social media platform. Well, that’s not quite what’s happening here, but the concept is similar. Our main character is not in the happiest place in life, and even though he’s definitely someone who puts in the effort, it has so far not paid off in life. After his recent job was cut he came back home to wallow in his sadness. There he suddenly reverts to 10 years back in time, and decides to go to art school after all. He then meets several of his favorite artists, before they even became famous artists, and together they live their life through school. The goal? To follow your dreams and be successful this time. He also meets his old boss, and I’m willing to bet good money that she’s also gone back in time with him. The characters are very likeable in this show, and if you need a reason to watch this show beyond that, Shinoaki, my favorite character, is voiced by the wonderful Aoi Koga (known for Kaguya in Kaguya-sama) and is an absolute joy to listen to.

5: Kageki Shoujo!!

Although I wrote this list in no particular order, I wanted to end with my absolute favorite show of this season so far, and a strong candidate for anime of the year. Early on people likened this show to Revue Starlight, a show in the same genre that aired a few years ago. I quite enjoyed that show, but it wasn’t nearly as well-written as Kageki Shoujo has been so far. This show is quite brutal in its depiction of an elitist drama school. This is a ruthless world these people are getting into and the teachers reflect that. And they do so in a realistic way, and not in a “look at how evil these teachers are.” You even get some insight into their reasoning and it makes sense. Sort of.
I will give a fair content warning, this show handles some pretty touchy subjects like sexual assault, PTSD and eating disorders. And that’s only 5 episodes in, so this could definitely get worse.
Sarasa is an absolute joy as a main character and if you’re not rooting for her success 2 minutes after introduction then I don’t think we can be friends. Definitely check this one out if you like drama as much as I do.
And I think that’s all for this list. There are definitely a lot more shows I’m watching this season, and not everything can make the list. Is there any show you think is really good and should be on this list? Let me know which show and why. And as always, thank you so much for reading!