With 44 new anime in the pipeline for Q3 2014, how do you know which ones to watch? Check out the trailers and brief blurbs about each to see which of them catches your interest.
Note: Series are grouped loosely by genre.
Free! Eternal Summer
Genre: Sports
Premier Date: July 3, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation
What It’s About in One Sentence: Sequel to last year’s Free!, this anime continues the adventures of a team of male high school swimmers who spend an inordinate amount of their time shirtless.
Glasslip
Genre: Slice of Life
Premier Date: July 3, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: Glasslip is a story centering around the life of a 17-year-old girl who dreams of becoming a glass artisan.
Hanayamata
Genre: Slice of Life
Premier Date: July 8, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: When a girl who loves fairy tales meets a real-life fairy (read: foreigner), she is introduced to the world of traditional Japanese dance.
Yama no Susume 2
Genre: Slice Of Life
Premier Date: July 9, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of a short-form anime about a group of girls whose hobby is mountaineering.
Barakamon
Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life
Premier Date: July 6, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation
What It’s About in One Sentence: The story of a young calligrapher who moves to a remote chain of islands and his interactions with the people he meets there.
Jinsei
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Premier Date: July 6, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: A boy joins his school’s newspaper club and finds himself writing the life advice column.
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Premier Date: July 7, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: A high school girl finds out the boy she likes is actually a famous shoujo manga author and so she becomes his assistant.
Blue Spring Ride (Ao Haru Ride)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Premier Date: July 8, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: After spending her middle school life ostracized for being too cute, a girl reinvents herself to be as unattractive as possible so that her friends won’t be jealous of her.
Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Premier Date: July 12, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: A boy short on funds is forced to live in a small apartment, haunted by the ghost of a dead girl and surrounded by eccentric neighbours.
Love Stage!!
Genre: Yaoi, Romance
Premier Date: July 10, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: One day, an otaku boy performs in a commercial where he cross-dresses as a girl, and one of the other actors falls in love with him at first sight — and that doesn’t change when he finds out the otaku boy’s true gender.
Himegoto
Genre: Comedy
Premier Date: July 7, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: In this short-form anime, when his parents steal his identity and rack up a massive debt, a boy finds that the only way to pay it off is to become the student council’s “dog” — and thus spend every day dressed as a girl.
Maido! Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku
Genre: Comedy
Premier Date: July 6, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: A short-form anime about the slapstick adventures of a second grader, his family, and his friends.
Sabagebu! – Survival Game Club!
Genre: Comedy, Action
Premier Date: July 6, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: A girl is forced to join her middle school’s survival game club and partake in all kinds of military training.
Ai Mai Mi ~Mousou Catastrophe~
Genre: Comedy
Premier Date: July 8, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of a short-form anime about four girls in a manga club who do all sorts of crazy things when they aren’t drawing manga.
Samurai Jam Bakumatsu Rock
Genre: Idol, Historical Fiction
Premier Date: July 3, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: In a feudal Japan where the population is subjugated by music, a group of rockers rise up to free Japan from tyranny through the power of song.
Shonen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49
Genre: Idol, Slice of Life
Premier Date: July 5, 2014
Where to Watch: Funimation (US), Crunchyroll (Other Countries)
What It’s About in One Sentence: The story of an all-male idol group working hard to make it big.
Locodol (Futsuu no Joshikousei ga [Locodol] Yatte Mita)
Genre: Comedy, Idol
Premier Date: July 4, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: A normal high school girl and her friend end up becoming their town’s local idols.
PriPara
Genre: Idol
Premier Date: July 5, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: An elementary school girl grasps her chance to become an idol in a world of fashion, dance, and music.
Minarai Diva
Genre: Idol
Premier Date: July 14, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: Using MikuMikuDance and motion capture technology, this anime about two aspiring idols will be broadcast live and animated on the fly.
Francesca
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Premier Date: July 7, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: The adventures of a zombie girl (who is the personification of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido) with a big appetite for Hokkaido’s famous foods.
Momo Kyun Sword
Genre: Fantasy
Premier Date: July 9, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: Loosely based on the Japanese fairy tale Momotaro, a swordswoman born from a peach, and her companions fight against the invading devil king and his armies.
Majimoji Rurumo
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Premier Date: July 9, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: A witch must grant 666 wishes for a normal high school boy to undo her demotion to “apprentice” — however, what she doesn’t know is that each wish granted shortens his lifespan.
Sailor Moon Crystal
Genre: Magical Girl
Premier Date: July 5, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Viz Media, Nico Nico
What It’s About in One Sentence: Five superpowered girls and their two talking cats battle the forces of evil.
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei!
Genre: Magical Girl
Premier Date: July 10, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of an alternate universe tale starring the characters of Fate/Stay Night as magical girls.
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance
Genre: Fantasy, Harem
Premier Date: July 14, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: In a fantasy world where only pure maidens can interact with the spirits, a boy finds he can do the same and thus heads to the spirit academy to become the first ever male student.
Argevollen (Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen)
Genre: Mecha
Premier Date: July 3, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: In the midst of a long lasting civil war, a young soldier becomes the pilot of a new giant robot: the Argevollen.
Aldnoah.Zero
Genre: Mecha, Sci-fi
Premier Date: July 6, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Daisuki
What It’s About in One Sentence: Set in a parallel universe, where the Apollo 17 astronauts found a hypergate to Mars on the moon in 1979, a war between Martian colonists and the earth begins.
Gundam-san
Genre: Comedy, Mecha
Premier Date: July 6, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: A short-form anime parody of the original Mobile Suit Gundam.
Rail Wars
Genre: Action
Premier Date: July 4, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: In a world where Japan never privatized its railway system, a young man seeking an easy life joins the railway security force — only to be surrounded by oddball coworkers while facing off against violent extremists who want to privatize the railways.
Sengoku Basara: Judge End
Genre: Action, Historical Fiction
Premier Date: July 6, 2014
Where to Watch: Funimation
What It’s About in One Sentence: The third season of an anime retelling the real life civil war that unified Japan under the Shogun — only with pretty boys and over-the-top action.
Akame Ga Kill!
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Premier Date: July 7, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Daisuki
What It’s About in One Sentence: After moving to the Capital to make money for his impoverished village, a young man finds himself joining a group of assassins who intend to end the corruption in the government once and for all.
Sword Art Online II
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Premier Date: July 5, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Daisuki
What It’s About in One Sentence: A survivor of the VR death game Sword Art Online joins a VR online FPS to catch a murderer who is somehow shooting people in the game and causing them to die in real life.
DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Science Fiction, Yaoi
Premier Date: July 7, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: A young man lives a normal life, working at a junk shop, until the day he’s forced to do battle in an online game.
Terror in Resonance (Zankyou no Terror)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Premier Date: July 11, 2014
Where to Watch: Funimation
What It’s About in One Sentence: In a world where Tokyo has been devastated by a terrorist attack, two mysterious children carry out their heinous plan.
Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Horror
Premier Date: July 4, 2014
Where to Watch: Funimation
What It’s About in One Sentence: After nearly being killed, a young man receives an organ transplant from a “ghoul” — a human-looking but flesh-eating creature — and becomes half-man, half-ghoul.
Black Butler: Book of Circus (Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus)
Genre: Black Comedy, Historical-Fantasy
Premier Date: July 11, 2014
Where to Watch: Daisuki, Funimation
What It’s About in One Sentence: An alternate version of Black Butler (that follows the manga from the point where the original anime diverged) which tells the story of a boy who sold his soul to a demon to get revenge for his parents’ murder.
Nobunaga Concerto
Genre: Historical Fiction
Premier Date: July 12, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: When a normal high school boy travels back in time, he must take the place of Oda Nobunaga and unify feudal Japan.
Yamishibai 2
Genre: Supernatural
Premier Date: July 7, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of a short-form anime that uses traditional Japanese cut-out animation to act out traditional folktales and urban legends surrounding the supernatural in Japan.
Persona 4: The Golden Animation
Genre: Mystery, Sci-fi
Premier Date: July 11, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Daisuki
What It’s About in One Sentence: A new anime adaptation of Persona 4 (this time focusing on the Vita version of the game with its various additions) where a group of teens discover a dangerous world inside the TV that someone is using to commit murder.
Re:_Hamatora
Genre: Superhero, Mystery
Premier Date: July 8, 2014
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of an anime about a group of mutants who run a private detective agency.
Tokyo ESP
Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-fi
Premier Date: July 12, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: One day, a normal girl sees a penguin and some fish flying through the air and, after one of the fish touches her, she discovers she has the ability to phase through solid objects.
Shin Strange+
Genre: Comedy, Mystery
Premier Date: July 11, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of a short-form anime where a young man, after finding that his missing brother has become the head of a detective agency and refuses to return home, decides to join him in solving mysteries.
Space Dandy 2
Genre: Comedy, Sci-fi Action
Premier Date: July 6, 2014
Where to Watch: Funimation, Cartoon Network
What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of an anime about the “dandiest man in space,” his cat-like alien sidekick, and his robot.
Hanamonogatari
Genre: Japanese Fantasy, Romance, Comedy
Premier Date: August 16, 2014
Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced
What It’s About in One Sentence: The exact same thing it was about before it got delayed during the Q2 season.
Comments
28 responses to “Your Complete Q3 2014 Anime Guide”
Whoaa, so many animeses!
theres a few promising looking ones there
Whoaa, so many not available in my countries!
http://www.nyaa.se/
Legal – http://www.crunchyroll.com
Illegal – http://www.anilinkz.com
The new Sailor Moon was extremely disappointing. From seiyuu choice to the fact they use CG in the transformation sequence, I think I’m gonna drop it after the first episode :'(
Your reason to drop it is because of cosmetic differences to something 20 years old ?
That was the reaction of a lot of “old school is best” mindsets. I loved the original, I also think this is good in its own ways. But hey, opinions are fine.
Mmn, it is only my opinion which I know is different to what most people are saying. I think it just comes off my begrudgingly bitter attitude toward anime after growing up with absolutely wonderful examples of animation in the 80’s and 90’s (of course, there was plenty of terrible examples back then too) compared to a large portion of what we get today.
Well aware of the fact that animators are paid less than peanuts and the industry has seen better days but .. arrrgh! Seeing a 3DCG sequence for the transformation sequence, which by many standards is one of the key scenes in mahou shoujo anime, that just reeaaaally irked me.
If anything, I’m actually disappointed they kept the similar art style so that the characters look like mostly expressionless barbie dolls. I was hoping the reinvention would take things a lot further, dragging them kicking and screaming into the styles currently in vogue. Also, the direction, script, and voice acting were pretty godawful for the first half of the first ep. Without any nostalgia to keep me there, I couldn’t actually stand to finish the first ep.
Ditto. As someone who didn’t really watch the original it felt rather quite dated and uninteresting.
Unfortunately for both of you (@kami & @transientmind) this isn’t the series made for you. This is for the longtime Sailor Moon fans since this year is the 20th Anniversary and it was done in a style that makes it as close to the original manga as possible. It’s shame that it doesn’t cater to your particular tastes as you’re missing out on one of the best tales ever told for the shoujo genre.
Also, holding to it today’s “styles currently in vogue” for something that was created 20 years ago is a bit silly, It’s like saying that Snow White should be in 3D computer animation because that’s how Pixar would do it as it’s today’s style. I hate to say it but today’s style sucks… It’s just shinier.
Hey I realise that this is essentially a nostalgia-fest, only I see that as a weakness of the series rather than a strength.
I’m in a similar boat, having missed the original and expecting a more polished modern art style and choices to modernise it a bit to make it easier to watch.
Since I’ve heard a lot of good things I’ll try give it a few more episodes, but if it’s going to stick so close to the original what’s the point?
If you were remaking Snow White (And not just a digital remaster) I would actually expect a lot more from it, even in 2D animation technology has improved a lot and you could make it look a lot nicer.
The trick in both cases is finding an art style that is true to it’s roots, but doesn’t use as many of the cost saving shortcuts that older animation used… Because it used a lot.
Seiyuu choice? you mean the same seiyuu they’ve been using for the past 20 years and you’re expecting them to change? pretty sure the amount of hate they’d get if they changed seiyuu’s would vastly outweigh your disappointment.
Nothing wrong with CG they’ve been included into many recent animes with only idiots who think they’re entitled to a “pure anime experience” complaining whilst ignoring everything great about the anime (i.e Knights of Sidonia receiving abysmal ratings on MAL due to people rating it shit after the first few episodes, not that MAL scores mean shit.).
Not to mention the art and quality of the animations have far exceeded what I’ve seen in any anime so far (even PA Works).
Anyway your choice, your loss.
Edit: regarding Seiyuu choice I was assuming Usagi as that is the main complaint coming from people who only watched the english dub.
Got the feels while watching that Re: Hamatora trailer
It would be good with this guide if you actually wrote a bit more like informing people Terror in Resonance is from the Bebop/Champloo director. Or even a short review for ones that are out or had a prior season.
Ha! Thanks for this. After watching that trailer I thought “this seems straight out of Watanabe’s store, maybe these descriptions should also have this kind of information”. Good to know I was right! At the very least the name of the producing studio would be helpful. You know that you can hardly ever go wrong with Bones!
I want a Magi Season 3 🙁
looks to be a lot better than the current season where only Mahouka was worth watching…
…at least for me.
Any of these animes in a similar vein to Full Metal Alchemist/Code Geass? Action/Fantasy with a really deep story?
I was going to make some suggestions until you said ‘deep story’. Akame ga Kill might tick most of the boxes but for that, but maybe it will surprise us. First ep is always a tricky one to convey story goodness. Maybe Sword Art Online 2nd season, if you were into the first one, maybe Aldnoah.Zero if you don’t mind the fantasy replaced with sci-fi. It’s always possible that Argevollen might subvert it’s tropes, but at the moment it’s as predictable as morning wood.
omg, didn’t noticed SAOII was here! Thank you Kotakuuuuu!
Terror in Resonance is directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, with character designs by Kazuto Nakazawa (Samurai Champaloo).
It’s weird Watanabe he’s directing both Space Dandy series 2 and this.
Not really feeling any great type A anime so far.
Bring on psychopass season 2 in october.
Encouragement of Climb had a fantastic first season, especially for a short-form. I highly, deepy suggest it to everyone.
I know a lot of articles here are cut and paste but it would be nice if you could specify which crunchyroll series are not available in AU. I gotta get a VPN to watch half of these even though I’m a paying customer >:(
Wow. I always thought Glasslip was a boxing anime since I’d only seen the title.
This is a surprisingly rich season for Japanese summer, which is usually the worst season for anime as the producers know that people will be outside with friends or travelling and only the most “forever alone” of the otaku remain faithful, so they dish their blandest, most generic, lowest-denominator-catering stuff.