Summer 2024 Wrap-Up

With the last handful of titles for the Summer 2024 season having now aired, let’s take a summative look at what worked well and what didn’t this season.

Because of the high volume of titles I followed this season, covering every one of them here would make this post cumbersome. Hence I am only covering those titles for which I have updated my grade since the Mid-Season Reports and/or have additional commentary to offer. I will also not be covering Spice & Wolf (2024), Oshi no Ko 2 (which is my Best of Season pick), or Bye Bye Earth here, since all have been covered in other reviews. Our Last Crusade will not be covered, either, since it has released no new episodes since mid-season.

Series from Mid-Season Report part 1 which don’t get additional coverage here include That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (beyond a 4th season and upcoming movie being announced) and The Strong Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army Was a Human.

Series from Mid-Season Report part 2 which don’t get additional coverage here include Dungeon People, Mission: Yozakura Family (which is either ongoing or has more than 26 episodes), Plus-Sized Elf, and Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World?

Best of Season Runner-Up: Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!

Grade: A-

This was, qualitatively speaking, the highest-rated series of the season on Crunchyroll and the highest-rated new series (by a fair margin) on MyAnimeList, and not without reason. Only Wistoria and maybe The Elusive Samurai matched it for visual and animation quality, including a surprisingly dynamic visual presentation for a series which didn’t really have action scenes, but it had much more than technical merits going for it. All three of the main girls were distinct, likable, and compelling, with their own stories about love and life which could get serious at times, but the series was having too much fun to ever wallow in angst and Kazuhiko worked well as the straight man who observed, interacted with, and befriended them but never romanced them (or at least not yet). The series has a lot of meta appeal, heart, and energy, and I’d dearly love to see more animated. It’s practically a shoo-in for a Top 10 spot for the year.

Worst of Season: Failure Frame

Grade: C-

Was the name prophetic? Maybe. The series actually does get a little better in its later stages, especially with the introduction of female leonine gladiator Eve Speed, but it’s also still awash in godawful CG monsters, plenty of repetitive OP displays, and little creativity in how those OP displays are used, and it does nothing to step beyond it basic revenge scheme. Still, the series is popular enough that it’s likely to get a continuation, and I suppose that I have just enough invested in the storyline that I’ll watch more when it comes.

2.5 Dimensional Seduction

Grade So Far: B-

This is actually a mid-series grade, since it is continuing on into the Fall ’24 season. I have frequently seen this series compared to My Dress-Up Darling, but over the second half in particular this has increasingly seemed like an improper comparison since the two have entirely different goals. While DUD emphasizes the technical aspect of cosplaying more, 2.5D instead focuses much more on the motivations behind cosplaying and the general spirit of it. Sure, it’s decidedly inferior in technical aspects, but it accomplishes its objective pretty well. Episode 13’s addition to the cast of the next advertised girl, who seems to be cosplaying to break out of her shell of painful shyness, also looks promising. It’s not a great series, but it is worth continuing to follow.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

Grade: B

The second half of this series makes a hard pitch to move Alya back front and center, but with only limited success. She is still outshone by Yuki at every point where they go head-to-head, and the vagueness behind her desire to be Class President doesn’t help. This is still an entertaining series, and the most popular new series of the season, so a second season promptly being announced for it is no surprise. I’m also told by those who know the source novels that the strongest material is upcoming. Still, I continue to watch the series much more for Masachika and Yuki than for Alya.

Dahlia in Bloom

Grade: C

I really, really wanted to like this series, but there’s no getting around how much it is hampered by its poor technical and artistic merits, an odd choice of recurring transition scene (leaves on a window!), and how generally uninteresting its storytelling is. Dahlia and Wolf’s romance is becoming marginally more convincing by the end of the season, and there is at least some sense of her blossoming as a person, but the execution just isn’t there on any front and those familiar with the novels generally regard it as a poor adaptation. It’s not the worst or most disappointing series of the season, but I do have to relegate it to lower-tier status.

Days With My Stepsister

Grade: B

Of the two series teen romance series this season, this is definitely the better one on all fronts, including artistic quality. It handles the budding attraction between stepsiblings Yuta and Saki, and their efforts to keep it at bay and settle into a proper sibling relationship, with considerable delicacy and introspection through to the end, and unlike closest competitor Love is Indivisible By Twins, it does reach a certain degree of resolution by the end, one which follows naturally from everything the audiences sees up to that point. Really, the series is as much a character study as it is a romance, and it finds a good balance in giving equal attention to the viewpoints of both of its leads. Of all of the series this season, this is the one that stands best on its own, too.

Dungeon People

Grade: B

In the Mid-Season Report I described this series as “reliable low-key entertainment,” and it remains so through to the end. That’s not at all meant negatively, as this series has its own distinct charm and cute factor and firmly sticks to it, even in the rare occasions where it has to get a bit darker (such as when a group of adventurers who have been luring adventurers into dungeons and killing them for their gear have to be violently dealt with). All of the details about the inner working of the dungeon are a delight, as are the two lead characters. I would happily watch more of this one if more is made, though given that it seems to be a bottom-tier series for the season in terms of popularity, that seems unlikely.

I Parry Everything

Grade: B-

I was a bit down on the technical merits of this one at the halfway point, but the second half does improve some and the absurd feats that Noor accomplishes are just too entertaining to deny. The degree of Noor’s cluelessness goes past being a running joke to being mildly irritating at times, but the series follows through so well on its titular concept and general spirit that I can tolerate that. It makes the somewhat odd choice to end with a reflective episode rather than a climactic one, but the extra insight it provides about how everyone sees Noor does nicely round out the story. Not a great series overall, but definitely an entertaining one.

Love is Indivisible by Twins

Grade: C+

Did any series this season feel more like it was spinning its wheels for the whole season than this one? That was the inescapable conclusion I came to as the last episode ended. Jun continues to be caught between the twin sisters and loves them both enough that he can’t pick one over the other, even with one trying hard to physically seduce him to win, and the dynamic between the twins over Jun continues to be complicated as the both try to consider the feelings of the other while staking out their own claims. The one thing which kept this angsty romantic drama somewhat interesting was that it maintains the viewpoint of the twins, rather than the primary male character, through to the end. Hardly the worst series of the season, but definitely the one I felt was the biggest waste of time.

Quality Assurance in Another World

Grade: B-

The elf warrior Akira finally joining the cast is a definite plus, and the cautionary tale about how one bug tester’s intended-to-be-helpful modification of an NPC goes horribly awry has its merits, but the compelling novelty which powered the early part of the series has faded, leaving the series feeling somewhat aimless in the later episodes of this season. Despite not seeming to build towards anything late, it does end on a sort of cliffhanger, and seeing characters take advantage of bugs in creative ways still has its appeal. The English dub continues to be excellent, too. The series just feels like it’s still missing something, though. I’ll continue to watch if another season is announced (one hasn’t been yet as of this writing), but it’s no longer a priority view.

Shy s2

Grade: B-

While I still like this series and its concept and characters, its second season is distinctly the weaker of the two. That’s primarily because the arc about the ninja twins drags badly (especially in its close-out scenes) and is ultimately not as compelling as the arc about Spirit and her mother (which also, honestly, dragged a bit). Hate to chide a series for being too thorough in its development, but that really is part of the problem here. Even so, I’d still watch more if it gets further animation, and the fact that a line of figures exists for this series suggests that it may be more successful in Japan than it is in the West, so that’s not out of the question.

The Magical Girl and The Evil Lieutenant Use To Be Enemies

Grade: B

Thankfully, the second magical girl’s presence is only irregular throughout the series’ second half, allowing it to regain the adorable charm that initially won me over. The ironies underlying all of the sweetness – that Byakuya is the one foe Mira is helpless against, and that her life is better for having met him – also continue to be a delight, and kudos to veteran seiyuu Mai Nakahara for her performance as the gently pathetic Byakuya. Sadly, there will never be additional animation for this one, since the original manga-ka passed away in 2015 and I believe it’s animated most of what got published from the manga.

The Ossan Newbie Adventurer

Grade: C+

The latter stages of the season featured the series’ strongest episodes, especially episode 10’s match between pugilist champion Kelvin and the orc Broughston. Even so, the series remains to the end the weaker of the two series featuring 30ish guys who start late on the adventurer’s path and don’t appreciate how strong they are. It ultimately doesn’t offer much beyond familiar-feeling shonen tropes and features a generally less interesting supporting cast.

Vtuber Legend

Grade: A-

This is my #3 pick for the season in a qualitative sense and the one that I felt was the most purely entertaining series of the season. Nothing else this season was anywhere near as funny, but it also handled its rare semi-serious and character development moments with greater effectiveness than I would have expected. I also found it rather clever in the way it deliberately used CG to invoke both a sense of artificiality and to help reproduce some of the antics of real-life VTubers (which I’m told the series was very accurate about imitating), and featuring a montage of actual VTubers near the end was a really neat touch. I don’t think you have to be an established VTuber fan to fully appreciate this one (I certainly wasn’t), and while it may not work for everyone, both its wit and potential entertainment value shouldn’t be underestimated.

Wistoria: Wand and Sword

Rating: B+

For all that the series is essentially a slave to standard shonen trope, it executes them better than most as Will first fights against, and then later fights with, some of the school’s elite students. This climaxes in an epic battle scene to get out of a dungeon catastrophe in episode 11 before finishing with a wrap-up episode which throws out all sorts of intriguing plot threads and lore. It’s the perfect set-up for a second season announced as this one ends (it’s on the last frame of Crunchyroll’s stream), and I’ll definitely be back for more. A lavish, top-tier visual effort makes this one of the season’s best-looking series and the season’s action star.

That’s it for this season. Please next check out my Fall 2024 Preview Guide, which has already started.