The Ultimate Guide to Picking Summer Anime
You might think I’m lazy for picking shows like this. Yeah.
So I don’t have a “rational” basis for picking anime. Who does? Picking shows based on descriptions is an exercise in futility. One of my all-time favorite shows is about an ambiguously gay ghost who teaches a boy how to play go. Who in their right mind would pick that? You’re better off picking shows by throwing darts at a lineup.
Follow along as I decide which shows to watch.
Birdy the Mighty Decode: 1-4-6-8-?
Chocolate Underground: 1-4-6-8-?
Detroit Metal City: 1-4-WATCH
Blade of the Immortal: 1-4-WATCH
Natsume Youjin-Chuu: 1-2-7-?
Slayers Revolution: N/A (WATCH)
World Destruction: 1-4-WATCH
Ultraviolet Code 044: 1-4-6-DON’T WATCH
Strike Witches: 1-4-6-DON’T WATCH
Yakushiji Ryouko no Kaiki Jikenbo: 1-2-7-?
Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora: 1-2-3-4-6-8-?
Telepathy Shoujo Ran: 1-4-6-DON’T WATCH
Mission-E: 1-4-6-DON’T WATCH
Hidamari Sketchx365: N/A (WATCH)
Antique Bakery: 1-4-6-8-?
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: 1-2-3-4-6-DON’T WATCH
Sekirei: 1-2-7-?
Koihime Musou: 1-2-7-?
Ikkitousen Great Guardians: 1-4-6-DON’T WATCH
RoboDz Kagazumo Hen: 1-4-6-8-?
Of course, this list only applies to shows you know nothing about. You can rely on reviews and recommendations for sequels, old shows, adaptations, etc….
I’ll admit that my method discriminates against shows with foreign or forgettable titles. So what? The last thing I want is a crappy show with a crappy title. At least I have an excuse for watching a crappy show with an awesome title. Lesson for producers: make cool titles. Here are a few suggestions, free of charge:
- ShizNat the Mighty Decode
- Chocolate ShizNat
- Underground ShizNat
- ShizNat Bakery
- Mission-ShizNat
- ShizNatx365
- Ikkitousen Great ShizNat
- ShizNat Revolution
Am I the only one who’d pay good money for a ShizNat Summer Special?
UPDATE: Holy shit, my chart is 92.86% effective!
37 people love sucking up to me
Leave a Reply
baka-raptor@baka-raptor.com
June 17th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
It would have been funnier if both end options were “DO NOT WATCH”
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June 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
@Lelangir: It would’ve been funnier if all options leading to “DO NOT WATCH” were labeled “KURE-NAI”
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June 18th, 2008 at 12:39 am
It would’ve been funnier if you killed yourself for saying the above.I love you Baka-Raptor!
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June 18th, 2008 at 2:18 am
I need to quit you. AHAHAHAHA.
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June 18th, 2008 at 2:46 am
What? I thought you died already, Baka-Raptor! XD
I’m glad you’re going to watch Blade of the Immortal like me!
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June 18th, 2008 at 3:42 am
You’ve got the wrong pic for Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora.
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June 18th, 2008 at 4:24 am
It’s Winter down in Australia, so the whole issue of the Summer Season is North-South Polarizing.
I don’t know if I’ll pick up any of this season’s Anime if I still haven’t watched this season’s fill. Heck, I have just STARTED watching Hidamari Sketch, let alone x365.
It’s so hard to remember all the names of these characters if there’s so many new ones in new shows to take account of!
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June 18th, 2008 at 5:04 am
It would’ve been funnier if all options leading to “WATCH ShizNat”
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June 18th, 2008 at 5:16 am
I’m gonna be the rebel and watch all the shows coming this season, and if it sucks too much, I have prepared a barf bucket to get the toxins out of my body submitted from the show.
I’m like the father of anime, I love all my children
Oh, and Baka-Raptor, I will be disconnecting my brain from the intertubes from thursday 19.6 to more or less 10.8. so I will be missing some pregnancies of shows, but I will be back to see them say their first words, and when they learn to walk.
The only thing that will give me nightmares is when I come back, my google RSS reader will be overflowing of feeds :p
Baka-Raptor.. I’m a nerd now, yesterday I bought the 2 english volumes of Aria^^ Guess I will buy all the 12 volumes when they come out in english.
Over and out ->
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June 18th, 2008 at 6:55 am
As I geared myself up to hurl vitriol at you purely by reflex, I found myself stopped halfway when I realized: He’s finally did it. He’s finally made a list that protects his jaw from potential chop-busting. The only step that’s even vaguely vulnerable is step seven, if one were to bring up “Naruto, if by some freakish convergence of the cosmos the viewer had never heard of it”.
So congradulations.
You’ve finally made a guide that I’d actually use were it not for the additional step that precluded me from watching Kure-Nai: does the animation/art style make you want to vomit after looking at three screenshots?
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June 18th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Chocolate ShizNat sounds promising.
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June 18th, 2008 at 7:50 am
well let’s see. I really need some good anime to watch since I’ve almost stopped watching completely so I’m leaving it up to BR to guide me through the summer season. Only show I keep up with these days is Code Geass R2 and even it seems to be writing itself into a corner (that and not enough C.C fanservice). Yep…sad day when I lose intrest in anime. Oh well, I’ve recently found a new obsession with Marvel comics.
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June 18th, 2008 at 8:40 am
“my method discriminates against shows with foreign or forgettable titles.”
Surely it’s in favour of shows with forgettable titles, as long as they’re in English? I mean, ‘Blade of the Immortal’, ‘World Destruction’? Dull. Not impressively stupid, but dull. Anyway, if you watch a good show with a really godawful title you’ll hopefully be afraid to mention it in polite company, and will then be able to treasure it as a hidden gem, and feel extra smug.
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June 18th, 2008 at 8:51 am
@Michael: You’re the title master.
@blissmo: A show called “Blade of the Immortal” can’t possibly suck.
@selkirk: You caught me – I didn’t make that pic myself.
@Asperger’s: There was a time when you could feasibly watch every show that mattered. Now that’s impossible (unless you have no life). Too many new shows.
@dood: I don’t need a chart to tell me to watch ShizNat. Over and over again. I have the background music to the pool scene in My Otome 09 memorized.
@keke: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
@LJ: I almost picked up Kure-nai because it reminded me of Kurenai from Naruto (1-2-3-5-WATCH). Almost. I postponed it with (1-2-3-5-7-8-DON’T WATCH). Then I ended up watching it after a few episodes had passed because everyone else loved it.
@The Sojourner: And delicious! Come for the Chocolate, stay for the ShizNat.
@thekungfukid: I don’t blame you. I haven’t really been impressed lately. Let’s just put it this way: Maid Guy is the best show of the spring season. Without Maid Guy himself, the show’s weak. Kure-nai has a terrible plot. Kaiba has the most annoying characters ever. Some of the Soul Eater characters also get on my nerves. I’ve heard good things about some other shows, but until I watch them, I can only assume they suck.
@coburn: Well, they’re certainly no “The Swooping Descent of the Dark Emissary! The Propagation of Malice.” Forgettable titles were meant to be captured by the Sounds Stupid but not Really Stupid path. The full title of World Destruction is “World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin,” which has a little kick to it. Blade of the Immortal could go either way, but the guy in the pic looks pretty cool, so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.
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June 18th, 2008 at 9:51 am
If Birdy the Might Decode is anything like the OVA, it’ll be a lot of fun.
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June 18th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I wish I knew how to quit you.
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June 18th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
@Michael: You can’t. You’ve already crossed the event horizon of this black hole. There’s no turning back.
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June 18th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
ARGHH!!! Still no new yuri shows in this year. Only yaoi. NOOO!!!
Antique Bakery: Even it still not yet confirmed, I have strong feeling that this is a yaoi like Junjou Romantica.
Sekirei: Another crap filled with big-boobed sluts.
I stick with Hidmari Sketch X 365
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June 18th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
As my time to watch anime is short, i’m picking shows to watch in this way…
[Did Baka-Raptor Published Something About it ?] Yes –> [Did it recieved a *** SCORE from Baka-Raptor's Baddass Rating System ? ] Yes –> [Watch]
… [Did it recieved a *** SCORE ? ] No –> [Has it themes of Hatred/Suffering/Revenge or lesbians or dinosaurs] Yes –> [Watch]
… [Has it themes of Hatred/Suffering/Revenge or lesbians or dinosaurs] No –> [Consider watching if Baka-Raptor worry about posting a review]
[Did Baka-Raptor Published Something About it ?] No –> [Don't Watch]
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June 18th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
[Did lelangir overanalyze it?]Yes -> [do not watch]
[Did Mike relate it to a book no one's read?]Yes -> [do not watch]
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June 18th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I dont feel like watching any of the shows this upcoming season besides Hadamari.
So… I suggest we go get hammered tomorrow, and play darts with that summer 2008 list. What’s the worst that could happen?
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June 18th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Lelangir: RAEG
Baka-Raptor: Sadly, that is the case. T_T
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June 19th, 2008 at 4:00 am
Yeah, you BETTER watch exactly what hows you said you would and not watch those you said you wouldn’t!
Shiznat Revolution for the fucking win.
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June 19th, 2008 at 9:58 am
@Laguna: You may want to reconsider. I haven’t handed out a +++ since Mnemosyne (and I’m demoting it if the episode aren’t released quicker). Haven’t seen many lesbians (since Mnemosyne) or dinosaurs (not even Mnemosyne had them).
@Lelangir & Michael: Yeah.
@Os: We’ll agree to watch whichever shows we hit. Inebriation leads your darts astray, landing them slightly to the right of Hidamari Sketch on…
@Amex_Yohko: Yoshinoya needs a spinoff series.
@digitalboy: Is that a threat? Now I’m watching Ikkitousen Great Guardians out of spite.
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June 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
@Baka-Raptor: Yes i know that…but i’ve never regreted watching a *** show !
PS: I reconsidered watching Clannad now (even with a * score) after i read the clannad quiz post
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June 19th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
@Laguna: Have you watched Legend of the Galactic Heroes? 110 eps. +++
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June 19th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
@Baka-Raptor : This is on my MUST TO WATCH list, but i still haven’t found any fansub project in the portuguese language.
I’m Brazilian , and although i know japanese and english , i often trade anime with friends and i watch anime with them too…so…
But i’ll keep looking…as i’m too much of a slacker to start any fansub project anyway…
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June 19th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
[...] if only there were other good shows to watch this summer. I might as well just randomly choose which shows to watch. « Learn to Spell Collectly. A New [...]
June 19th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
BWAHAHA! My reverse psychology has worked!
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June 23rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
[...] seperate need to select some animu from a superfically disappointing line up, I resorted to using Baka Raptor’s guide to selecting animé my tried and tested previewing [...]
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
this is really useful.. i’m stealing this so i don’t have to watch every episode of everything to make my shortlist. ^^
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July 10th, 2008 at 3:23 am
preliminary testing shows that your tool has a 92.86% effectiveness rate.
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July 30th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Natsu no sora looks amazing, it has photorealistic backrounds. Just watched the first ep of blade of the immortal, looks totally badass. Zero no tsukaima: Princess no rondo is a must watch as well!
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August 16th, 2008 at 3:06 am
I just counted that I follow 10 shows on that list!
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September 20th, 2008 at 12:02 am
[...] สำหรับฤดูใบไม่ร่วงปีนี้มีอนิเมที่อยากดูอยู่หลายเรื่อง ก็เลยอยากจะมาแนะนำหาเพื่อนดูกันสักหน่อย อันแนวทางการเลือกอนิเมดูนั้นของใครก็มีวิธีต่างกัน รสนิยมก็ต่างกัน ใครที่สนใจเรื่องใหนและไม่อยู่ในนี้ จะแนะนำกันก็ได้นะครับ [...]
September 20th, 2008 at 5:57 am
[...] City, which I would have passed on based on their descriptions alone. For Summer 08, I used the Baka-Raptor Ultimate Guide to Picking Summer Anime… it worked, but it’s kinda tedious (Sorry, Baka-Raptor!) and since I watched everything [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Now you have to make a guide for every season, then it’ll be all goooooood.
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