As the northern hemisphere starts getting hotter, a new season of anime is about to be released. Welcome to Farrago’s Must-watch Anime of the 2023 Summer Season! This is a list of some of the upcoming anime coming this season, which ones you should watch or which ones to avoid. These are just my opinions and they definitely hold the absolute truth.      

But this summer season, we are going to be seeing a lot of familiar faces. A majority of the upcoming anime that will be airing are going to be second seasons, such as Jujutsu Kaisen (JJK), Mushoku Tensei (Jobless Reincarnation) and The Devil Is a Part-Timer. We do however, have a couple of new adaptations that hold a lot of promise.

Personally, JJK S2 and Jobless Reincarnation S2 are the ones I’m most anticipating this season. Both of their predecessors were incredibly captivating in their animation, storytelling, and character writing. They are the pinnacles of the modern adaptation done right.

But that’s besides the point so, here’s the list!

JJK 2nd Season (Action, Shounen)

Release date: July 6^th 2023

After the release of countless trailers, promotional videos (PV), posters and character art, JJK S2 looks downright fantastic. JJK if you don’t know, is one of the more promising modern action anime out right now. The TL;DR for the first season is basically, a group of high schoolers train to become sorcerers to fight off curses (monsters). Which is extremely reductive of what the show actually is because the show is way more than that, there’s family politics, insane levels of power-scaling, training arcs and any other shounen trope that you would want but done and presented better than any of its competitors. JJK Season 2 on the other hand, looks to improve every aspect its predecessor had set out.

The action shown in the trailers has a certain bounce and finesse to it; the fluidity of the animation is necessary for the arc this season is going to cover, which explores the backstory of everyone’s favourite, Gojo Satoru before he came a teacher. We see a bunch of familiar faces and as well, some new ones. If you’re an anime-only fan, I envy you because this arc is amazing and you’re going to be able to experience it for the first time in animation. Overall, I’m really looking forward to season two!

Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 (Drama, Fantasy)

Release date: July 2^nd 2023

The first season of Jobless Reincarnation (JR) is, to me, genre-defining, which is fitting because the light-novel that the anime adapted from, popularised a lot of the themes and character tropes that came to define the Isekai genre. Isekai is a genre of anime where the main character is reincarnated into a fantasy world. And after watching the first season of JR, I was completely hooked. The world, the characters, the power scaling, the mythos, the politics, and the history, everything. Every aspect was carefully considered to craft this world making it truly feel alive. It utilises and builds upon its setting to a degree I’ve never seen in any other anime, but it is incredibly disheartening that a lot of people shunned the first season because of the main character, Rudeus Greyrat. Who a lot of people took issue to how he was portrayed in his previous life, a degenerate, perverted, and irredeemable bastard. But that is supposed to be the whole point of isekai’s, a reincarnation or a second chance. The first season of the anime explores this dynamic and characterisation so much better than any other isekai’s I’ve ever watched, let alone, any anime I’ve ever watched. So I cannot wait for season two, not only to continue deepening his character but as well, the world and the major cliff-hanger season one ended on.

The Devil is a Part-Timer Season 2 (Comedy)

Release date: July 14^th 2023

Regrettably, I have not watched the first season of The Devil is a Part-Timer yet. It is on my watchlist and I will watch it, eventually.

But if you don’t know, The Devil is a Part-Timer is essentially what its title suggests, the devil came to earth and was unemployed, so he had to take on a job at a Macca’s. The first season is heralded by the anime community for being one of the funniest shows in anime, which is frankly, not a high bar but people have been singing its praises since its release in 2013 and the anime community has never been wrong about anything, so I will trust them on this. After watching the trailer, its animation does have some stiffness to it which is fine, because most comedy animes are low budget anyways but unless you’ve already watched the first season, this would probably not interest you.

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses (Romance, Slice of Life)

Release date: July 4^th 2023

Much like The Devil is a Part-Timer, the synopsis of The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses is pretty much self-explanatory.

Guess what? The girl the main character likes forgets her glasses! And they go on silly little high school rom-com mishaps, like miscommunication and etc!

Honestly speaking, these kinds of shows aren’t my cup of tea. But I do know a lot of people who’ll eat up these kinds of shows. I have however, read some of the manga. Which I found decent at best, though I think that this very specific genre of romance i.e. the main female lead has this one oddly specific quirk and that’s the whole premise of the show/manga, peaked with Komi Can’t Communicate. This show doesn’t look that bad either, so I guess if you’re in the market for some simple cute slice-of-life where nothing happens, then this show will be right up your alley. Surprisingly though, the animation and art direction looks really good, instead of it just being PowerPoint slides.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (Action, Drama)

Release date: July 9^th 2023

Zom 100 caught me by surprise, as I only really found out about it while I was researching for this article. Its eye-catching and visually stimulating poster was the thing that really drew my attention in after watching the trailer. It looks really promising. Looking to be in the same realm of High School of the Dead, but actually taking itself seriously. The premise of an office worker being grateful for a zombie apocalypse happening is hilarious to me. The colours and the unique and fluid animation style shown in the trailers, presents this infectious excitement which leads me to believe that this is a passion project from the directors. My only worry is the story, as I really can’t imagine how far they could go with the premise though I hope to be surprised.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Separation

Release date: July 2023 (no date confirmed)

I have watched three seasons of Bleach, which covers the first major arc and never picked up the show ever again. I enjoyed what I watched but was never really invested. However, when the first Thousand-Year Blood War trailer dropped. It made me want to rewatch Bleach again.

The animation and art direction were especially convincing, if you compare the original run of Bleach to the Thousand-Year Blood War, it is completely unrecognisable. Yet regrettably, I still haven’t seen it yet, which is why it is so hard for me to try to sell this (besides not knowing the plot). Even though, both The Separation and the first season looks amazing, you would still have to sit through 16 seasons of the anime to understand what is going on, that is over 366 episodes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time for that. However, Bleach is regarded as one of the top three shounens, next to Naruto and One Piece. So if you’re up for the challenge, 16 seasons of Bleach and Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War: The Separation (God this title is WAY too long), which totals to nearly over 134 hours of anime, is right there waiting for you to watch it all.

Honourable Mentions:

These are shows that are coming out this summer season that look good but I don’t have much to say about:

Horimiya: The Missing Pieces

I didn’t think that Horimiya needed its own section because the show is just going to be more Horimiya. Which is essentially, more cute high school romance where nothing wrong ever happens. Horimiya is one of the better romances out there and I would still recommend it as a good starting anime, but I’ve just got nothing more to say about it than that. Hurrah for the three Horimiya fans, I guess.     

Dishonourable Mentions:

Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 3

Please, for the love of God. DO NOT WATCH THIS. It is not worth your time at all, I’ve read the manga. It doesn’t get any better past episode one of season one. It isn’t even good ironically so please, DO NOT watch this.

Conclusion

Overall, this 2023 summer season is pretty alright. Spring introduced a lot more new anime adaptations than summer did, so it is completely up to your personal preferences whether this season is worth it or not. If you aren’t already a fan of JJK or Jobless Reincarnation, this season of anime in my opinion is entirely skippable.

But for me? A massive JJK AND Jobless Reincarnation fan? I am eating good this season. Other than that, I will be covering the fall releases when fall comes around so do lookout for that and thanks for reading!