Summer Anime 2016 First Impressions

It is already the middle of July and since the start of the month, or even a week before that, a bunch of new Animes premiered as part of the Summer season. Now due to my rather busy real-life world, and getting addicted to Pokemon Go, I had to be awfully picky on what new series to watch. Aside from Berserk, of which I am a fan of and will watch the series to the end, I've picked three other new series and here are my first impressions of them.

 First up, we have Taboo Tattoo, based on an ongoing seinen manga series by Shinjiro. The story is about a war between the United States and the fictional Kingdom of Selinistan (which is strangely based in Japan) over a series of tattoos that grant whoever has them superhuman powers. When martial artist Seigi Akatsuka saves a homeless man from a bunch of thugs, he is given a powerful Tattoo embedded onto his palm, and becomes the target of interest from both the armies of the US and Selinistan alike.

Taboo Tattoo is developed by J.C. Staff, the same animation studio behind metaseries like Slayers, A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun, Shakugan no Shana and Food Wars. Others include Ikki Tousen, Hayate The Combat Butler, Prison School, Shimoneta, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, and many others. So J.C. Staff has plenty of credentials under their belt.

Watching the first two episodes, I can say it does have potential to be good. I'm just not yet drawn to its story nor its characters, as well as the numerous fanservice that may one day end up in someone's Ero or Hentai collection. However, I do love the action sequences, as they are detailed, fluid, and fast. If you're a fan of martial arts flicks, you will enjoy this even though it's purely animation. So Taboo Tattoo is just right down the middle for me and I need to watc h the rest of the series to see how this goes.

 Next up, we have 91 Days. Set in the Prohibition Era where the mafia rules the streets, a man under the alias Avilio Bruno and his friend Corteo, use their skills of preparing Moonshine, and Avilio's sheer cunning, to be recruited into the Vanetti family, where Avilio secretly plots revenge against the one responsible for the death of his family many years earlier.

The series is developed by Studio Shuka, who worked on the Durarara!! x2 series, and unlike other series, 91 Days is one of the few anime that is an entirely original work, similar to Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress.

I will say 91 Days is the kind of show made especially for people like myself. It's mature, it's dark, and the plot is something you would normally find in shows like House of Cards. It impresses me so greatly, I forget it's entirely done by a Japanese staff. Yet the story, atmosphere, and characters are very much American (or Italian-American, in this case).

91 Days is, in a nutshell, like watching an anime version of The Untouchables, or The Godfather, or even The Sopranos. It's definitely not for those who watch anime such as Dragon Ball Super or Attack on Titan. But like a Wine connoisseur, if you have a unique taste for quality, 91 Days is a must-see.

Last is Mob Psycho 100. This is one of the anticipated anime of the summer as it is from ONE, the creator of One Punch Man. In a world where ghosts and other evil spirits run rampant, psychics are called upon to deal with these entities.

We are then introduced to Mob, real name Shigeo Kageyama, a middle-schooler who is an extremely powerful psychic. Mob is under the tutelage of Arataka Reigen, a self-proclaimed professional psychic who offers to exorcise evil spirits for cash. Unbeknownest to Mob, Arataka is a con artist who swindles his customers while letting Mob do all the dirty work.

Like Saitama of One Punch Man, Mob is stoic and emotionless for the most part, but he does have a reason. As the story progresses, you will also see Mob's progress of his stress slowly climbing. When that progress reaches 100%.....

Unlike One Punch Man, which was produced by Studio Madhouse, Mob Psycho 100 is produced instead by Studio Bones, which was also behind My Hero Academia. Furthermore, the character designs closely resemble to ONE's from the webcomic, whereas the anime version of One Punch Man is based on the manga remake also by ONE, but illustrated by Yusuke Murata.

If you're expecting Mob Psycho 100 to be anything like One Punch Man, don't. Mob Psycho 100 is a completely different show from One Punch Man. You still get some comedy thrown in, but the series is more akin to Ghostbusters with psychics. Coincidentally, Mob Psycho 100 is airing just as the Ghostbusters reboot is being shown worldwide. Mob Psycho 100 nonetheless, remains a very interesting series and I'm looking forward to the next episode, as well as digging deeper by reading the webcomic.