Summer 2014 Streaming Season in Review
Yes, you thought we were gone, but we’re back to give you the regular rundown of the highs and lows of the Summer 2014 season of anime streaming from Japan. With me this time in the commentary booth are Brian Threlkeld and Kate O’Neil as we look upon the debris of last season being cleared off the field to make way for the shiny new shows of Autumn 2014.
So, as we normally do, let’s start with everyone’s general impressions of the season just ended.
A Season of…Everything for Everyone
Greg Smith: As seasons go, Summer 2014 was not bad at all. While I ended up dropping a good number of the ones I started, there was a solid core of shows which I did pick up and enjoyed watching to the end. I know that some of the shows I dropped were more appreciated by others and likely vice versa. Perhaps what marks out this season especially is how it felt like there was a fairly wide range of different genres and audience hooks represented in the new shows that debuted as well as those continuing from last season. While perhaps not every single tiny niche was catered to with this season’s shows, it seems like there was more breadth than last season.
Brian Threlkeld: There was wider variety, but I think also a looser one, with some of the best shows catering to broader tastes than I felt the past couple seasons had done. Comedy, especially, had a smart variety to work with, satirical to absurd, cute to silly to tender. My own slate in that department is my main takeaway from the season: Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, Survival Games Club, Locodol, Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?, and the second part of Space Dandy were great to just kick back with and enjoy. Only a couple other shows (Aldnoah.Zero, Terror in Resonance) I had to take more seriously…which did and did not turn out so well.
GBS: That said, it seems that it was the Season of Square Enix’s Gangan Online. The two best shows of the season for me, hands down, were Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and Barakamon, both of which are serialized in that web magazine.
Kate O’Neil: Going into the season I was interested in checking out a several of the shows airing, and in the end I watched few. Not like my computer gave me much of a choice when it decided to die at the beginning of August. That was about four episodes in for most series and that’s usually the point where many people start dropping shows to begin with. By the time my computer returned from the shop I was struggling to get back on track with my review series and completely forgot about the other shows I was watching or wanted to watch. Luckily I ended up picking one of the widely regarded best shows of the season in reviewing Barakamon.
