There are a loud group of anime fans who will tell you that Super Sonico The Animation is nothing more than a blatant Nitro+ publicity campaign designed to lure in the Otaku with a disproportionately sexy mascot. These people are not far from the truth. However, this a slight exaggeration because the show was not totally bereft of substance. Don’t get your hopes up too high though.
For a start – the OST was easily one of the best this season. Many scenes felt particularly magical thanks to an inspiring musical backdrop. Sonico’s band, First Astronomical Velocity, also provided plenty of ear-candy along the way. Think K-On! but a little more grown up. The OP was also neat, and a number of EDs (I love it when shows do this) were a bonus each time. It’s fair to say that the anime lacked in a few critical areas, but the music was spot-on every time.
However… Besides the arguably decent animation quality, it’s all downhill from here.
Sonico might be super-cute, but she’s also super-bland without a guitar in her hands. There was not a single piece of memorable dialogue over the course of the show, and the comedy was weak. I did find it consistently hilarious when Sonico would introduce herself as “…S-Super Sonico desu” to people (who would respond totally normally, as if this was a common female Japanese name) but that was about as funny as the show got. Being a total klutz at all times, Sonico would often find herself in a bunch of awkward jams – but the delivery was way too contrived and unnatural to get a laugh from me.
Sonico’s band-mates were also disappointingly generic. Besides the musical aspect, neither of them had any real impact on the show. Furi-chan's VA was particularly irritating. There was more than ample time to develop them but by the end it had all been wasted on cheap fanservice and boring dialogue. While there is an emphasis on music, Super Sonico: The Animation is a slice-of-life anime first, and slice-of-life is nothing without a quality cast of characters.
Again – the strength of Super Sonico: The Animation is in the music. Nothing else really managed to capitalize.
Final verdict: Skip show, aquire OST.
3/10
Side Note:-
While the show was mostly trash – episode 7 was entirely different. A surprisingly modest inclusion, it followed Sonico on a very personal journey of self-discovery and introspection. The pacing was perfect and everything just worked for once. Part of this was due to a lack of fanservice (besides a brief hot-springs scene, but it was pretty tame) but the episode stood up on its own. Call it a diamond in the rough.
