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WINTER 2016: Final Thoughts (Apologies for any grammar and spelling errors in advance, I haven't really read this over...) 1. Ajin My favorite anime of this past season is one that’s still two whole episodes away from finishing. Despite that, I can confidently say that this has been the show I’ve enjoyed the most out of all the others. The initial premise is reminiscent of Tokyo Ghoul and Parastye, but as the episodes progressed Ajin quickly establishes itself as something different from either of the two aforementioned shows. If anything, it has reminded me of Death Note more than anything else. The story is gripping, and paired with a fantastic soundtrack as well as superb directing the anime keeps you craving more. The characters are interesting and some of them break out of the stereotypical molds they initially seem to be part of. I’d tell you specifically what makes some of the characters so good, but that would be spoiling. If anyone is looking for a dark suspense thriller with unique characters and an amazing soundtrack, then this is for you! The CGI may be a bit jarring at first, but once you get used to it you’ll find that it adds a lot to the atmosphere of the series. 2. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi It seems everyone and their hamster has watched this show. For a time, it was even ranked 9.14 on MAL. Did it deserve to ever be that high? No. Did it deserve to fall as low as it has? No. The first few episodes of ERASED were fantastic. The music by Yuki Kajiura was great, the pacing was solid, and the intrigue was there. Unfortunately, quite a bit of that fell apart by the end of the anime. The characters didn’t develop as much as I had hoped, the pacing started to rush, and the story wasn’t as complex as it could have been for a time travel anime. Despite all that, it was still a fun watch and something that I think most people would enjoy. The director himself said he tried to take a Hollywood-esque approach to series, so this makes for one of the best entry-level anime shows out there. It’s not a perfect anime by any means, but doesn’t deserve a lot of the newfound hate it’s getting now that it’s over either. 3. Osomatsu-san I’m be completely honest: I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first half of this series. However, by the time this anime leaked into the winter season, it had gotten significantly better. I didn’t think any episode could top the first one, but the brilliant episode 18 might have done just that. Once the characters really start developing and establishing themselves as individuals (despite six of them looking nearly identical), the writers are able to string together overall better jokes and parodies. Maybe it’s because I have a younger brother, but by the end of the series I really started to relate to the sextuplets despite them all having over-the-top personalities. This is an anime that’s certainly worth checking out, though the humor will most likely not be for everyone. It’s more miss than hit in the beginning, but more hit than miss by the end. Whether or not you’re willing to make an investment like that is up to you. 4. Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (TV) 2nd Season Assassination Classroom has really come a long way. There is nothing all that remarkable about the show, and it’s often cheesy and predictable, but something about it makes me want to keep on watching. The strange thing, I’m not sure what it is. The cast of characters is sort of interesting, but there are so many different characters that the anime can’t even give all of them backstories and/or very dynamic personalities. If I’m not mistaken, they’re even releasing OVAs covering some of the side character’s development that they weren’t able to fit in the television series. Despite all this, it’s still a fun shounen to watch. It’s not something to take too seriously, but it’s simplicity works to its advantage. 5. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu I think by now it’s become exceedingly clear to me that josei anime just isn’t my thing. I really wanted to like this show. Honestly, I really did. But for some reason, I just couldn’t get into it. Granted, there’s nothing wrong with this anime, and that’s what’s most concerning to me. The characters are realistic and unique, the story isn’t cliché, the music is on point, the animation is good enough, and the pacing is perfect. Since that there’s so little to complain about, why isn’t this at the top of my list? Even I can’t answer that. The show just didn’t click with me, and at the end of the day my subjective enjoyment is where I put the weight of my score. Surprisingly, there’s been a second season announced. I’m on the fence about whether or not to watch it, but knowing me and my track record for second seasons I’ll probably get around to it. If the premise interest you, then by all means check it out. It just wasn’t the anime for me. 6. Hai to Gensou no Grimgar This is probably the closest we’re going to get to a deconstruction of the stuck-in-a-fantasy-world genre (yes, let’s just say that’s a genre now). Even before Sword Art Online, having people stuck in a fantasy world (usually an RPG styled gaming world) has been an easy go-to premise, but Grimgar is a show that, in a small way, turns that cliché on its head. Exactly how it does that would be spoilers of sorts, but in short it portrays things more realistically. The world they find themselves in is not a game, but rather a place not all too different from the planet we call home. The watercolor backgrounds are really nice, even if the animation of the actual characters can be a bit stiff. The pacing is also really slow, though one could argue it’s for the sake of the “deconstruction”. All in all, it was an interesting show (with the potential for a second season) and I appreciate what it tried to do. 7. Dagashi Kashi This show ended up just being Candy: The Advertisement. It’s a real shame too, because it also features one of the best tsunderes in recent memory, Saya (she’s best girl by the way, fite me). If the show instead had just been a regular romcom, I would have liked it better. Instead, because the subject matter was so narrow, it’s hard for anyone outside of the target audience to enjoy, the target audience being Japanese people who grew up with those candy shops. This show is the Japanese equivalent of making an American show about the ice cream trucks of a decade ago. It’s something only people who have memories of paying up their spare change for a taste of sweets after a “long” day at elementary school would understand. As a result, a lot of the references and jokes about certain brands and snacks fall flat. It’s not really worth your time, unless you actually grew up in Japan. 8. Dimension W How the mighty have fallen. This show had a lot of potential, and from what I could tell of what they adapted from the manga a lot of that potential was thrown away. The pacing and animation both fell apart by the end of the series. There were a lot of interesting plot points and ideas briefly hinted at by the end, but since everything was so rushed none of those ideas were developed or explained. If this had instead been a two-cour series, and they didn’t skip over any parts of the manga, it would have been a lot better. It wouldn’t have been amazing, most likely, but it would have still been a lot more enjoyable than it ended up being. This isn’t worth watching, though the manga might be good enough to pick up. However, I haven’t read it yet, and never plan to, so don’t take it from me. 9. Sekkou Boys The running gag got rather old by the end of this show. It wasn’t particularly funny either. I’m having trouble thinking of much else to say, just because there’s not much to talk about (each episode was less than seven minutes, I believe). The animation is okay, the characters are a bit bleh, and there’s no real story since this is just an episodic comedy. It’s a short watch, but not worth watching now that it’s over. 10. HaruChika: Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru People expected Hibike Euphonium and Hyouka, but that’s not what they got. It was unfair of anyone to expect that, but that’s what happened and I think that’s why this show got so much hate when it first started airing. Now that it’s over, did it end up being a good anime? No. But it’s not quite so terrible as people are making it out to be. Sure, the “mysteries” are Sakurako-levels of bad, and the music is just as nonexistent here as it was in K-On, but I don’t think that was the point of the anime. I think it was really just a nice slice of life at the end of the day, and in that aspect it succeeded. Also, the humor in HaruChika is very… “western” for lack of a better word. Or rather, it’s very non-anime humor. Humor in anime is usually categorized by exaggerated facial expressions, wild animation, and a temporarily altered art style. HaruChika, despite looking like a generic slice of life on the cover, did none of that. It was a breath of fresh air, at the least, even if it didn’t really make me laugh. It gave the show a general sense of real-ness. 11. Bubuki Buranki If Trigger ever made a GCI anime, it would look something like Bubuki Buranki. This anime was so bad, it was good, and it’s even getting a second season. It asks to both be taken seriously and not seriously at the same time. Sometimes it’s just outright stupid, and openly aware of that, while other times it seems like it’s trying to drive a hidden meaning and narrative. It’s the perfect show to watch with your mind turned off, because it’s so nonsensical that trying to take it seriously just makes you feel silly. The action scenes are stupidly fun, especially since the CGI allows for consistent art. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone of course, and at the end of the day this show is bad, but it’s become a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. 12. Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri 2nd Season Okay, now this is trash. It’s precisely these kinds of shows that give anime a bad name. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to get any better in the second season, but part of me just couldn’t help but give this a second chance. It’s been a huge waste of my time, to put it bluntly. The story is just right-wing propaganda, the characters are either generic men or attractive RPG styled women (wow, who would’ve guessed?), and the animation ranges from bad to worse. The music is generic, the directing is subpar, and everything about it makes you realize there are much better ways to spend your time. Don’t watch it, unless collecting trash is your hobby. -- This spring season is looking to be one of the most, if not the most, stacked seasonal lineups anime has seen in years. Here's what I'll be watching (scheduled to changed, ranked in order of most hyped to least hyped): 1. Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress 2. My Hero Academia 3. Joker Game 4. Bungou Stray Dogs 5. Mayoiga 6. Ace Attorney 7. Sakamoto desu ga? 8. Kiznaiver 9. Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge 10. Kuromukuro 11. Kagewani: Shou 12. Flying Witch 13. Uchuu Patrol Luluco 14. Ushio to Tora: Second Season 15. Big Order 16. Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou - The Last Song Including the second half of Ansatsu Kyoushitsu's second season, that makes a total of 17 anime I'll be watching this season. Oh geez, my first impressions post is going to be massive...

Diamond no Ace ...have just the slightest empty feeling now that this one's over. I'd been following DnA since summer/fall 2014, and no longer having it to look forward to every week kinda sucks. It was a great run though, and hopefully a season 3 isn't completely out of the picture once the manga's a bit farther along. Also, the character I least expected to cry, cried in the last episode, and that was a nice surprise. And the one play in the game against Yakushi was copied from an actual play the Cleveland Indians did, so this series gets some brownie points in my book. My only complaint though is that some of the players were overlooked. Though it often felt like Eijun wasn't even the main character because of how much attention other characters (ex: Miyuki, Furuya) were given, about half of the players in the first string were still ignored. It just would've been nice for them to get more than split second appearance every episode or so. Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows This one was really, really nice. It's pretty short and it's worth the watch if it interests you. Watch with your cat if you have one for maximum feels Haikyuu!! Don't have much to say about this because I'm following the manga and a third season's already been confirmed. Having the fan favorite training camp arc finally be animated was great since it introduced Fukurodani, gave Nekoma more attention, and was when a lot of character development took place. It was really cool seeing the matches from the spring tournament animated too since sports animanga involves a lot of motion, and it's easy to forget just how much is going on when reading sports manga. Hopefully the next season will be 25 epiosdes as well so Nekoma's and Fukurodani's match will get animated too. Akagami no Shirayuki-hime The final episode was cute. It'd be nice if this got another season, but if it doesn't, it left off at a nice enough place for that to not be bothersome. The romantic progression in this anime cracks me up a bit though. Before the last episode, they'd hugged once, maybe briefly held hands once or twice, and sat next to each other in a dark room and talked, blushing wildly all the while. Then in the last episode they finally kissed, but he went for the neck first, then the lips, and then when they were really alone, he went for the cheek. Not really sure what that order of events was going for, but it came across more comical to me than romantic. Otherwise, a nice finale, but man that was kinda awkward haha