2023 Spring Anime Review
Jul. 5th, 2023 04:57 pmHappy New Year!
Jan. 1st, 2020 05:55 pmFirst off, Top 50 Favorite Anime Series Of The Decade!
1. Yuri!! On Ice (2016)
2. Fruits Basket (2019)
3. Shirobako (2014)
4. My Love Story!! (2015)
5. Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju (2016)
6. Bakuman (2010)
7. Space Brothers (2012)
8. ReLife (2016)
9. Oh, Maidens In Your Savage Season (2019)
10. Chihayafuru (2011)
11. Sailor Moon Crystal (2014)
12. Card Captor Sakura Clear Card (2018)
13. Tiger & Bunny (2011)
14. Bloom Into You (2018)
15. My Roommate Is A Cat (2019)
16. Yamada’s First Time (2010)
17. A Place Further Than The Universe (2018)
18. Yona of the Dawn (2014)
19. Zombie Land Saga (2018)
20. Death Parade (2015)
21. Your Lie In April (2014)
22. Major 2nd (2018)
23. Sound! Euphonium (2015)
24. Amagi Brilliant Park (2014)
25. Snow White With The Red Hair (2015)
26. Haikyu! (2014)
27. The Promised Neverland (2019)
28. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun (2014)
29. Hinamatsuri (2018)
30. Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits (2018)
31. Orange (2016)
32. Given (2019)
33. Free! (2013)
34. Recovery of a MMO Junkie (2017)
35. Ancient Magus’ Bride (2017)
36. Sakura Quest (2017)
37. Love Stage!! (2014)
38. My Hero Academia (2016)
39. School Babysitters (2018)
40. Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2019)
41. Hanasaku Iroha (2011)
42. How To Keep a Mummy (2018)
43. Interviews With Monster Girls (2017)
44. Idolish7 (2018)
45. Flying Witch (2016)
46. Kiss Him, Not Me (2016)
47. Another (2012)
48. Bunny Drop (2011)
49. Tanaka-kun is always listless (2016)
50. Golden Time (2013)
Honorable mentions go to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Kimi ni Todoke - From Me To You, Natsume's Book of Friends, and Kobato. I only counted series that started between 2010-2019, so these didn't make the cut, despite airing partly between those years.
Now, fanfiction reviews! I answered three different year-end review questionnaires on my Tumblr, so I'm just going to link to them instead of copy and pasting. This entry is already getting long enough!
Set One
Set Two
Set Three
My review of the fall anime season and my choices for the Top Ten Anime of 2019 will be posted sometime in the next few days...hopefully.
Double Decker! Doug & Kirill - This show started off really strong, but lost a little steam near the end, although I still really enjoyed it. And I have the say, the character designs were simply gorgeous!
Tsurune - Tsurune started airing a little later than most of the shows this season, so it still has a few episodes to go, but if you were a fan of Free!, then you'll probably also like this show, which is basically an archery-version of Free! Not that that is a bad thing in my book. Archery isn't quite as exciting as swimming, but Masa is really hot...
Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san - It's always been a bit of a dream of mine to work in a bookstore, so it was fun to watch this series and see what it is like. Some of the customers that showed up were hilarious. I also enjoyed picking on all the censored mentions of real-life companies and manga series.
Ace Attorney - Decent season, I guess, but suffers from the same issue as the second half of the first season in that Mitsurugi was barely in it. I just can't really get into these other prosecutors.
Sword Art Online: Alicization (continuing) - Word of warning: Episode 10 is really tough to watch. Even censored... Well, it's disturbing. But the overall storyline so far is pretty good, and I'm looking forward to where it will go. I think this series is supposed to last for several seasons, which is pretty rare nowadays.
As for next season, I'll be continuing with Alicization, of course, and I'll probaby catch up with the second season of Mob Psycho 100 once I finish watching the first season on Toonami. Looks like there's a new season of B-Project, too. New shows that look promising are Domestic Girlfriend, Promised Neverland, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunōsen, and Dōkyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. Hopefully Crunchyroll will get at least some of them.
And now, for my Top Ten Series of 2018! There weren't any series this year that I would rate a perfect ten, but I think all of these are worth checking out.
* means I didn't watch the show while it was airing but picked up later due to good buzz.
1. Zombie Land Saga
2. Major 2nd
3. A Place Further Than The Universe *
5. Hinamatsuri *
6. My Hero Academia
7. School Babysitters
8. IDOLiSH7
9. The Ancient Magus' Bride
10. Double Decker: Doug and Kirill
Winter Anime Review
Apr. 4th, 2018 09:31 pmAs for next season, I have sooooo much I want to watch, I'm not sure I can fit everything in my schedule! I'll definitely be watching the continuations of CCS: Clear Card, IDOLiSH7, and FRANXX, as well as new seasons of My Hero Academia and Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory (*squee* finally more FMP!). Brand new shows I might check out if available for free streaming are: Tada Never Falls in Love, Comic Girls, Devils' Line, Piano no Mori and Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku. I want to watch Lupin the Third: Part 5 and Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online, but I think I may wait and see if they're picked up by Toonami first since Toonami aired previous seasons of those shows. I'm on the fence on Steins;Gate Zero... I liked the original series well enough, I guess, but I'm not in any rush to watch more. I'll probably save it to watch at a later date.
Fall Anime Season and Top Ten of the Year
Dec. 31st, 2017 08:51 pmRecovery of a MMO Junkie - This series wasn't even originally on my radar, but after reading the reviews of the first episode during ANN's Preview Guide, I thought it sounded interesting and gave it a shot. I'm glad I did! It was nice to see an anime romance centered on people around my age for once, and it was just really cute and funny. Loved it!
Anime Gataris - This is more along the lines of what I wanted last season's Gamers to be - a show about a geeky subject that focuses almost completely on said geeky subject, instead of romance. And the last few episodes? Crazy, but in the best meta way.
The Ancient Magus' Bride - I've always been a little tempted to pick up the manga for this series, but I have to admit that the initial premise turned me off a bit. Thankfully, the anime allowed me to check the story out for free. Even though the premise is a bit problematic, it is actually handled pretty well, and I love how well-researched all the obscure magic stuff is. Also, some of the scenes were just stunning. Continuing into next season.
March comes in like a lion - This new season was much stronger than the previous seasons. I liked that it didn't focus so much on shogi tournaments and more on the characters, especially the sisters. Hina's bullying story, in particular, was quite moving. I think this is continuing?
Kino's Journey - the Beautiful World - - I watched the original series that came out about ten? fifteen? years ago and remember really liking it, but this sequel/remake was just okay. The Kino in this series is almost a different character than the one I remember.
Elegant Yokai Apartment Life - I really wish this series had focused more on the title "Apartment Life" instead of lead character Yushi's boring school life. Honestly, I'm not sure what the point of having him live with a bunch of yokai and learn magic was when it rarely affected the plot...
Love is like a Cocktail - It was cute. Basically all you can say about a three minute short!
Black Clover - I was watching the Japanese version, but when Toonami announced they were going to air the dub, I decided to stop and switch over to the English version, so I'm way behind. Toonami hasn't even gotten to the episode where I left off yet. Still, considering how incredibly ANNOYING Asta's seiyuu's voice is, I don't mind. The episodes I did see were pretty good, though.
And my ranking of My Top Ten Anime of 2017:
Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju (2nd season)
Sakura Quest
Recovery of a MMO Junkie
Natsume's Book of Friends 6 - I actually didn't watch this when it was simulcast because I needed to watch all the previous seasons first, but I really loved the whole series.
Anime Gataris
The Ancient Magus' Bride
Tsudere Children - This was another show I didn't watch when it was first airing, but checked out later due to good buzz.
My Hero Academia (2nd season)
Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga (2nd season)
Love Tyrant
March comes in like a lion
Not much has really caught my eye for next season other than Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card. (So, so excited! And I just bought the first manga volume, too.) Other possible picks are: Gakuen Babysitters, Marchen Madchen, and Takunomi. Maybe Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls since I watched the first season way back when.
Happy New Year!
Summer Anime Review
Sep. 28th, 2017 09:41 amI have to say this season was pretty...lackluster. Granted, several of the shows I really wanted to watch ended up on stupid Anime Strike, meaning I couldn't watch them, but it seems like I wasn't missing much from what I've heard. The best shows this season were continuations of series I already liked -- Sakura Quest, My Hero Academia, and Hell Girl (well, at least the six new episodes we got). Even they weren't quite as good as the previous seasons, though.
Thoughts on the rest:
Gamers! - The parts where they actually focused on gaming were fantastic, but, oh, my, gosh, the way all the characters would misinterpret pretty much anything related to romance (often in the stupidest of ways) drove me nuts! And, unfortunately, the romantic plots took up most of the show. I really wish the romance had been handled better, because the show actually was pretty funny with a good cast of characters, but...argh! Too many misunderstandings! Still, probably my favorite of the "new" shows.
Restaurant to Another World - Good, but VERY repetitive. I don't necessarily mind formulaic shows, but when each episode is cut into two acts that have basically the same simple plot, just with different characters, it's a bit much. The best episodes were the ones that broke the formula, especially the ones that focused on Aletta (the demon waitress). I will say that all the food looked and sounded delicious, though!
Elegant Yokai Apartment Life - This show should have been better than it was, but the pacing was really weird in the beginning, and it didn't really become interesting until a certain item was introduced halfway through the season. Even then, I still wouldn't call it great...just a little better than the first few episodes.
18if - I actually wasn't going to watch this after reading the Preview Guide at ANN, thinking it wasn't really my kind of show, but then I came across a .gif of the figure skater who stars as the "witch" of the fifth episode. Well, of course I had to check it out after that! (Learning that characters are figure skaters -- even if they're just minor or one-shot characters -- is a great way to get me interested in a show/movie/book. Led me to checking out Ginban Kaleidoscope, Yuri on Ice, Tiger & Bunny, Diamond Daydreams, Kaleido Star, The Cherry Project, Sugar Princess...probably a few others I can't think of at the moment.) The verdict? It turns out my original instinct was right. Some of the episodes were good, but others were pretty bad, even downright nonsensical. (Each episode had a different director, all who apparently were told they could do whatever the heck they wanted with their episode.) Even the figure skating episode was kind of a let down.
Oh, well, at least the new season looks much more promising. If they have a free legal stream, I'd like to check out Black Clover, Kino's Journey - The Beautiful World (second season), Classicaloid (second season), Ancient Magus' Bride, Anime-Gataris, and March Comes In Like a Lion (second season).