The widely popular anime, Show by Rock!!, which aired last year, following the original storyline of the original rhythm game, would have a short anime series this summer! This should be enough to tide off our thirst for the second season of Show by Rock!!. The short anime series would have the original staff and cast returning, apparently aiming to be a “carefree and enjoyable” series before the sequel comes. BONES will be handling the animation, and the key visual available is looking exceptional already. There will be a new PV every month featuring bands that would appear in the second season, and the shorts anime series itself would feature the bands from the original series, including Plasmagica and ShinganCrimsonz.

Show by Rock!! is originally a rhythm game by Geechs, featuring Sanrio’s first project for older males and young adults. The game itself featured over twenty bands, though the anime that aired last year only included at least five of them. The anime followed the plot of the original rhythm game, with Hijirikawa Cyan of Plasmagica as its main character, a shy girl who is talented in music, and just happened to have the luck of getting sucked into the world of game she is playing and ends up joining Plasmagica in Midi City.

The cast of Show by Rock!! will be returning for Show by Rock!! Short!!, which means Inagawa Eri, Uesaka Sumire, Numakura Manami, and Sakura Ayane are coming back as Plasmagica together! Among the cast returning also included Hayami Saori, Kayano Ai, Miyano Mamoru, Taniyama Kishow, Uchiyama Kouki, Han Megumi, and Ohsaka Ryouta. Looks like Short!! is at least going to provide us some excitement and good music before the sequel.

Lucky for you girls, Tsukiuta is giving us the idol boys for the anime instead of the goddesses! A franchise that revolves around the 12 anthropomorphized months, Tsukiuta had carved its own success through countless music and drama CDs, with songs composed by popular Vocaloid producers. The franchise also has a mobile app called Tsukino Park, which features mini-games and characters from the franchise. Studio Pierrot will be handling the animation, and the excitement for it is already in the air; there are countdown video messages from the boys, and Animate Ikebukuro would have an advanced screening of the first episode on July 2nd.

While Tsukiuta originally have both male and female idol units, the anime seems to be focusing on the two male idol units: Six Gravity, with its six members representing the months December to May, and Procellarum, which members represent the months June to November. The anime would have all members of the group living in a dorm together, and each episode would be focusing on a different character. So far, Fluna and Seleas, the two female units of the franchise, have not been mentioned to appear yet.

As the franchise itself has already had big successes with its CDs, the music aspects of the anime would hopefully be great, especially for those who are into Vocaloid. The seiyuu line up is, of course, simply amazing, listing top-tier seiyuu widely known to sing well: from Kaji Yuuki, KENN, Kondo Takashi, Hatano Wataru, Aoi Shouta, to Hosoya Yoshimasa—half of the seiyuus in Tsukiuta line up are also singers with their own solo singing careers. Those who are fans of these names, definitely do check Tsukiuta the Animation, and enjoy their songs!

Probably the most anticipated music anime Summer 2016 considering its huge franchise and fanbase, Love Live! Sunshine!! anime is part of the much bigger Love Live! Sunshine!! multimedia project—one that includes the game, one manga adaptation, internet TV and radio, and two released singles. Focusing on an all-new female idol group called Aqours, who are inspired by the famous school idol group µ’s, the nine high school girls formed their own idol group to try their best to save their school from closing.

As a project, Love Live! Sunshine!! had been anticipated since early last year—the first teaser image was published in April 2005, and, true to the spirit of the Love Live! Projects, fans were involved in the creation of the group—from submitting possible group names, to voting, and polls on fans’ first impressions and what kind of images/activities they see of the new idols. Aqours’ first single was released on October 2015, and the second one had just been released last April, each single with a PV. They also have three different Mini Idol Unit Albums. The Aqours girls have also joined µ’s in Love Live! School Idol Festival mobile rhythm game—their cards were added to the game last January, even though the story chapters and songs would be added in July.

After the huge success of Love Live! School Idol Festival project, one would have a lot of expectation and hopes for Love Live! Sunshine!!, and do far, Sunrise, Lantis and ASCII Media Work’s Dengeki G Magazine has yet to disappoint with this project. Among the beautiful voices we’re expecting to hear in Sunshine!! anime are Inami Anju, Aida Rikako, Saitou Shuka, Kobayashi Aika and Suzuki Aina. Don’t forget that the girls of Love Live! Sunshine!! are also making an appearance at Anisong World Matsuri this year at Anime Expo! Let’s all look forward to the new songs and stories Aqours would bring!

A cross-media project by MAGES, B-Project: Kodou Ambitious is a series that focuses on male idol groups under the name B-PROJECT: Kitakore, Thrive, and MooNs. The anime story would revolve around the main character, Tsubasa, who just got hired by the A&R department of the major recording company called Gandala Music, and is assigned to oversee B-PROJECT. Dealing with ten male idols with different personalities can’t be easy for her now, can it?

Those who are familiar with B-PROJECT previously would have known them from the series of CDs released under each unit mentioned above—with the addition of the Killer King unit, which seems to have not been mentioned in the plans for the anime (or would it be a surprise? We’ll see.)—with none other than T.M. Revolution sitting on the chair of executive producer for the whole project. You can already listen to what kind of music this anime would bring to you through the samples provided in the website, including the opening and ending themes of the anime. There seems to also be plans for a game under this title.

Of course, as it is a music anime, the music plays an important aspect, too. On the list of seiyuus who voice (as well as sing) the characters are, so far, quite a satisfying line up. We have names well-known as both seiyuu and singer, namely Ono Daisuke, Kakihara Tetsuya, and Morikubo Showtarou. In the line up are also names that would sound familiar for people who love the fictional idol genre, such as Toyonaga Toshiyuki, Natsuki Hanae, Masuda Toshiki, and Kishio Daisuke. With all the name-dropping, the anime sounds like it’s shaping up to be a very ambitious project indeed!