It’s time blast your air conditioner and load Crunchyroll because, man, is it hot outside and, boy, you have a lot of anime to watch.
Pop Team Epic
Summer 2018’s selection of anime is all over the place. My top picks span across horror, slice-of-life and comedy, leaving fantasy and sci-fi by the wayside. You’re in for a wild ride of a season, my friend. Grab a ice block and settle in with this season’s best anime:
Devilman Crybaby
Studio: Science Saru
Genre: Action, drama, horror
Where to Watch: Netflix
Plot: Devilman is a gory, violent, psychedelic anime about Akira Fudo and his best friend Ryo Asuka, who studies demons. After a very carnal clubbing experience with Ryo, Akira takes on the qualities of the demon Amon and becomes a Devilman. As more people catch onto the prevalence of demons, the world begins to end.
Why watch it? Well, first of all, Devilman solidly fucked me up. The plot is intriguing and conveyed with exceptional style. Masaaki Yuasa’s directing is a buffet of textures, colours and acid-laced transitions. He pushes boundaries in ways that, most of the time, take the show to emotional and artistic heights. Sometimes, it doesn’t work. The sexuality and gore can be gratuitous.
Junji Ito Collection
Studio: Studio Deen
Genre: Horror, psychological
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Plot: Junji Ito Collection is a horror anthology. Each episode offers two gruesome (or at least, very disconcerting) vignettes.
Why watch it? Junji Ito Collection is a grab bag of despicable people, plots and places. It’s a well-done horror series that never feels drawn-out. The voice acting and animation, which can be surprisingly scary on their own, do a great job deliver the cult manga’s gorier storylines.
A Place Further Than The Universe
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Slice of life
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Plot: Mari Tamaki is a cowardly high school student who has never done anything particularly interesting or risky. One day, she finds an envelope containing over $9000 on the train platform. Its owner is a girl at her school who is saving up to go to Antarctica, where her mother disappeared years ago. Mari impulsively agrees to go with her.
Why watch it? This is an uplifting, positive show about female friendship. I immediately became attached to the protagonists, believable characters who encourage each other’s dreams in a way I find super adorable.
Pop Team Epic
Studio: Kamikaze Douga
Genre: Comedy
Where to watch: Crunchyroll, AnimeLab, HIDIVE
Plot: The plot of Pop Team Epic is chaos. Two lewd schoolgirls participate in a new, ridiculous skit every few seconds. Most skits parody pop culture, anime or games.
Why watch it? If you like Robot Chicken, you will love Pop Team Epic. Through the lens of its satire, it’s easy to see how generic the media it’s parodying has become. Every few seconds, Pop Team Epic offers a new idea, a new style, and a new beloved cultural trope on the chopping block.
Comments
14 responses to “Our Top Four Summer 2018 Anime Picks”
kotaku can you make your picks when later in the season so theres more episodes to judge on
Pretty odd picks but it’s a really weak season.
nah i think the seasons been alright so far
I dunno, I haven’t found a single show I liked this season.
OK that’s how you feel I don’t really have many shows I don’t enjoy just shows I enjoy more than others
I don’t understand where you are going with this. Negative Zero posted their opinion, you replied with yours (which was fair enough), to which I follow mine… and then you finish with “yeah but mine”.
People get to not like a season, regardless of what people like @keflor think.
Dude I didn’t say that I’m just having a discussion because I couldn’t care less what you think of this season. Also your the one who replied to me first
There’s a few good shows, but look at what’s dropping next season and there’s a night and day difference IMO.
Gotta be bad if they recommended Junji Ito Collection. That anime shows a very clear lack of understanding about what makes Junji Ito’s comics so good.
Its not a bad adaptation but yeah I would have really put something like katana maidens or Darling in the fraxx in its place
Yeah it definitely wouldn’t be one of my picks this season.
Thumbs Down on both Junji Ito and Pop Team Epic… sometimes the source material turns cartoon turns into a mess on screen that doesn’t help when you deal with creative differences between manga artist and anime studios.
My recommendations.
Darling in the Franxx – While a typical mecha pilot anime, its from Trigger A1 in the style of Gurren Lagann (a classic) with some nice story elements be interesting to see where it leads.
Kokkoku is looking to be a very interesting with its story elements about stopping time, but its animation is a bit muddled with some of its use of 3D sometimes being great for inanimate objects but falls short on the animated elements.
Else continue with last season roll ons… Ancient Magus Bride, and the finale of Dragon Ball Super.
This is great season, but Kotaku’s picks are trash. Haven’t watced A Place Further Than The Universe yet though.
Watch Ancient Magic’ Bride, Black Clover, Record of Grancrest War, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, DARLING in the FRANXX, and best of all, OVERLORD Season 2!!!
oh man overlord us f#cking fantastic