* Not objective
** Not comprehensive
best anime
A Story of Reasons: My 2019 Anime Year in Review
There will be a few confessions made, and some resolutions declared. It’s the end of the year after all! It’s time to look forward, even as we reflect on the past.
The Top Anime of 2016
At long last, it’s here! To be completely honest, I found myself a bit wearied at the prospect of embarking on the great voyage that creating these posts always is, but once I actually got to the writing of it I found myself swept away by the sheer fun of remembering how much I like each of the shows I talk about. That, my friends, is a sign of a good list.
To see how things shook out during the year, check out my final rankings posts for each season.
Winter 2016 | Spring 2016 | Summer 2016 | Fall 2016 (TBD)
And with that, let’s get to it! As per our tradition (three years strong now!) here’s the Best Girl of 2016 to kick things off!
The Best Anime of Summer 2016
The Summer 2016 season of anime is long over, but I’m still thinking about some of the shows I watched back then—and that’s a good sign. On the whole, I felt it was a pretty okay season, with a more balanced spread of truly great shows and shows that were just fun to watch than we’ve had during the rest of the year.
The Best Anime of Spring 2016
Spring 2016 was ridiculous. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched 10+ shows in a season, but this season made me do it. In addition, the top level of shows this season were ridiculous. We had basically two competing AOTS shows (fortunately, only one actually ended this season). In short, I had a whole bunch of fun—my weekly schedule this season felt like coming home each time I started in on it.
Top Winter 2016 Anime: Final Ratings
The Winter 2016 season of anime was a weird one for me—one where the unexpected winners of the season were shows I had fully intended to ignore from the start and one where old standbys didn’t manage to impress me the way they had in the past. That all being said, I’m pleased with this season, even as I look forward to the bounties of spring.
The Top Anime of 2015
In my humble opinion, it’s always best the let the year sink in a little bit before making a list that declares the top anime of any given year. And so, that’s exactly what I’ve done—allowed my favorites of the year to pickle in an aging pot for a while before taking them out and shipping them off to be sold…err, sorry. Too much Harvest Moon these days. Anyways…
To see how things shook out during the year, check out my final rankings posts for each season.
Winter 2015 | Spring 2015 | Summer 2015 | Fall 2015
So, without further distraction, I present my top anime of 2015! Here’s the Best Girl of 2015 to kick things off!
Top Fall 2015 Anime: Final Ratings
The Fall 2015 season is finally behind us. It was a bit rough. About halfway through, I was pretty thrilled about every single thing I was watching, but only a few made the long trek to the very end of the season—and this list. So, no more delays, let’s have the best girl of Fall 2015 take it away!
Top Summer 2015 Anime: Final Ratings
Another season has passed. Despite being a rather slow season and mostly lacking in shows I would consider worthy of serious superlatives, I was generally amused, entertained, and engaged by the stuff I ended up watching all the way to the end. As always, there were some up weeks and some down weeks, but on the whole I’m pretty happy with the way this season ended up. It certainly won’t go down as one of the best in anime history—but when you come away from a season with an episode of a bubble dropping on Lelei’s head, how can you really complain?
Aniwords – What’s the Best Anime of the Season?
Oh, I hear your voices already. “Bless, you’ve already sold out to straight-up lazy clickbait titles and topics?” “So you only really care about views after all—I thought you were different!” “Umm…you do remember that you do end of season rankings, right?”
To which I say, “Ha! Fooled ya!”
I’ll admit this is a title straight up designed to get people to click, but I promise you it’s not for my own affirmation—it’s for something bigger. Namely, the Animator Expo. Now, I’m not a exactly a sakuga buff or a huge industry nerd, but I am invested in this industry and the places it’s going. And I think that path is set out before in the shape of this project. And I honestly think it’s important people take notice. So I went for the hot sell; the easy-in; the rope ’em up strategy. All to get people to watch a weird 7-minute short about a pair of dorky sisters.
Mage in a Barrel 