Sweet Dreams

As promised, here my final thoughts on the series I watched during the Fall 2014 anime season, going from the worst to the best. I think I did a good job of not talking about any major spoilers (except for maybe Celestial Method), so they should be safe to read even if you haven't seen the shows yet. (BTW, I left Sailor Moon Crystal off the list, since I've been reviewing each episode individually as I've been watching, but ranking wise, I'd probably put it in either the fourth or fifth spot.)

Series marked with an asterisk are either continuing or are confirmed to be getting a second season, so aren't technically over yet.

( Which show earned the #1 spot? Find out behind the cut )

Though tons of fun, I'm not sure if I'll be doing something like this again in the future. That was a ton of anime to keep up with all at once! (And that's not even counting Sailor Moon Crystal and RWBY, whatever series I'm currently renting from Netflix, the shows I'm watching on Toonami, etc.) Just look at how I basically forgot everything that happened in Karen Senki; that might not have happened if I hadn't been watching so many other shows. But never say never... Taking a look at the Winter 2015 line-up, not much has caught my eye, anyway. Two of the shows I am interested in -- Kamisama Kiss Season 2 and Maria the Virgin Witch -- are being streamed by Funimation, which is only available to paid subscribers, so I wouldn't be able to watch them as they're being aired even if I wanted to. I guess that just leaves the still ungoing series from the fall and Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! (which I'm hoping is as fantastically ridiculous as that title) for me to watch this season.

Now that I'm past the first episodes, I'm going to start putting these under a cut to protect those who would rather remain unspoiled (although I think the only review this week that has any major spoilers is Akatsuki no Yona).

( Week 2 )

Episode Rankings This Week: (Only concerning the episodes themselves, not the overall series)

Your Lie in April Ep. 2
Akatsuki no Yona Ep. 2
When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace Ep. 2
Parasyte - the maxim Ep. 2
Celestial Method Ep. 2
DENKI-GAI Ep.3
Fate stay/night Ep. 2
I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying Ep. 3
Wolf Girl and Black Prince Ep. 2
Karen Senki Ep. 3

I've decided to try something that I've been wanting to do for years (but couldn't because we were stuck with dial-up) -- actually follow a season of anime as it is airing! I have watched a few shows as they came out -- Sailor Moon Crystal, obviously, Arata the Legend from a few seasons ago, Free! (thanks to mellowcandle), Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (thanks to Tumblr), Space Dandy (thanks to cable, which we finally have) -- but I've never experienced the fun of just looking through the entire seasonal line-up and picking a bunch of shows that look interesting to check out. Even with Free!, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, and Space Dandy, I only started watching mid-season, so I already knew that they had a good buzz around them. Granted, I only have a free account at Crunchyroll and have no interest in upgrading to premium, so I likely will be watching episodes a week after they actually air, but close enough.

The current plan is to check out at least the first episode of all these series that caught my eye. If the series seems promising, I'll continue watching it as it airs. If it doesn't really catch my interest, I'll just wait to watch the rest at a later date. (The completionist in me won't let me even entertain the idea of dropping it altogether, although I have already dropped The Fruit of Grisaia and Trinity Seven before even checking them out due to bad reviews over at ANN.) I may do quick weekly reviews here at LJ over the weekend, but I reserve the right to quit or skip weeks at any time. Here's the list:

Karen Senki - The only show I've checked out so far. It seems a bit like a Japanese RWBY, in that episodes are short (only ten minutes), the animation is non-traditional, and it has a bunch of awesomely choreographed fight scenes. It was a bit too brief to get a real reading on how I'll like the show, but I'm putting it on my "watch as airs" list anyway, since it won't take up a lot of time to watch anyway if the episodes keep to the same general length.

Your lie in April - This is probably my most anticipated series. A romance between a pianist and a violinist? (Those happen to be my two favorite instruments, by the way.) Yes, please!

Akatsuki no Yona - My second-most anticipated title. The reviewers over at ANN seem to think "girl in a Chinese-based fantasy world surrounded by hot bishies" series are a bit passe nowadays, but, bah, I still enjoy watching Fushigi Yuugi, so I'm pretty sure I'll like Akatsuki no Yona as well. It sounds pretty awesome to me.

When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace - I was a kinda on the fence about adding this to my queue -- that title certainly doesn't help inspire confidence that it'll be all that interesting -- but enthusiastic reviews of the first episode make me want to give it a shot.

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying - Another terrible title, but an anime series about the life of a married couple (wife is an office lady, husband is an otaku) isn't something you see much of, so I'm definitely interested.

Wolf Girl and Black Prince - Gotta be honest, the main reason it's on this list is because it's shoujo, and there isn't enough shoujo anime anymore. Otherwise, the summary makes me suspect that it's not the kind of shoujo I normally like -- more Hot Gimmick than Fruits Basket -- but, eh, maybe it'll surprise me. (The male lead can't possibly be as horrible as Ryoki, can he?)

Parasyte - the maxim - - Way, way, way back in the day, when the Sailor Moon manga was first published in English, it was in a manga anthology called Mixxzine. Parasyte was another title featured in that magazine, so I read the first few chapters. I liked it okay, but never enough to seek out the rest of the manga when Mixxzine ended. (This was before I insisted on finishing everything I started, obviously. I couldn't afford to!) So, this anime is letting me give it a second shot.

Celestial Method - Like WSBBC, this is another title I was iffy about until I read some reviews that got me interested.

DENKI-GAI - I think this series has the potential to be either downright hilarious...or hilariously awful. It doesn't have great reviews so far, but comedy is so subjective, I just need to check it out for myself.

So nine series in all -- ten if you count the ongoing Sailor Moon Crystal, and eleven if you consider RWBY as anime. That seems reasonable enough. Anybody else interested in any of these shows as well? Is there another series that isn't on the list that you think I may like?