best anime

Top Spring 2015 Anime: Final Ratings

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The start of this season found me scrambling around in the middle of my final semester of college, and the close of the season finds me a couple months into my first full-time job. The beginning of this season feels like it was forever ago, but not simply because of the huge life changes I’ve gone through in the interim. This season also saw me drop what was probably a record number of shows, including a bunch of shows that fell out of favor midway through their runs. But, for all that, the top tier of this season was exceptionally good—which really makes up for a weak middle tier and a pretty distinct lack of super-engaging trashy entertainment.

Blood Blockade Battlefront

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Top Winter 2015 Anime: Final Ratings

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It was a good season of anime. I realize I’m closing the season on a pretty small selection of shows and that a number of those shows are leftovers from the Fall 2014 season, but even so…this was a good season of anime. I don’t actually know what more to say beyond that. It was good, I really enjoyed it and felt blessed to be watching what I was watching quite a lot, and I’m sad many of these shows are over. And that’s that. Here are the best anime of Winter 2015. Are you ready, Koharu-chan?

[Management: I’ve decided to rename the “Best Animation” category the “Best Visual Aesthetic” category. The idea here is to condense character designs, background art, and general visual appearance into a single category. I’m not really qualified at this point to discuss the actual technical merits of animation, but I can at least tell you what I thought looked good. Additionally, the caption awards have morphed into something a bit different than “the was the best action” show; rather, they’re now more along the lines of “this show had the best romance/action/etc.”]

Your Lie in April

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The Top Anime of 2014

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Well, it has been a year, hasn’t it? 2014, as a whole, was a pretty disappointing year in anime. This has been the first year that I’ve actually watched simulcasted seasons for the entire year, so perhaps there’s some of Sturgeon’s Law in effect, but overall I felt that 2014 was far inferior to 2013 in terms of top level quality, mid-tier depth, and low-tier hilarity. To be completely fair to 2014, I did end up watching a lot of 2013 shows this year, but, by way of comparison, shows like Chihayafuru 2 and Monogatari Series: Second Season only served to further expose the weakness of this year.

But it’s more fun to talk about the good things that happened this year, so that’s what I’m going to do. Unlike last year, I’m not going to do caption awards. I’ve already done that with each season, so if you want to see which shows were notable in certain areas, check out those posts:

Winter 2014 | Spring 2014 | Summer 2014 | Fall 2014

So, without further distraction, I present my top anime of 2014! Here’s the Best Girl of 2014 to kick things off!

Nisekoi

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Top Fall 2014 Anime: Final Ratings

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The Fall 2014 anime season has come to a close, so it’s time to take a look at what was the best, what great, what was good, what was enjoyable, and what was none of those. It’s particularly important in this season to note that these rankings only cover shows that ended this season—if ongoing shows were counted, this list would look radically different.

I’ve also made a few changes to the awards to accommodate the decreasing number of shows I’m watching each season. All the genre awards have been reduced to a winner and an honorable mention, OST has been added as a category, and ongoing shows are eligible for the OP/ED categories. With that in mind, I’m happy to present the top shows of Fall 2014. Well, happy might not be the best word for a season as rough as this, but here’s the list anyways.

HItsugi no Chaika

Shoutout to @ZeroReq011 for giving me this gif!

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Top Summer 2014 Anime: Final Ratings

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And so we bid farewell to what has been the weakest season of anime I have watched since I began following shows weekly. The numbers show it. I finished only seven shows this season, not including my sad farewell to long runner Hunter x Hunter, with four ongoing shows remaining. Thank goodness fall is coming, because it looks a lot more promising to me.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Mikorin basking in the breeze of being the best.

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Announcement: Top Anime List is Live!

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Hello, dear readers!

To commemorate the first day of this fine new month of September, I have an exciting announcement to make! I have finished my inaugural Top Anime List, numbering exactly 19 TV anime series. The reasons there are 19 on the list are 1) because there were no other shows that made the first cut that I felt I wanted in this list, and 2) because there’s no reason I need to get to 20 right away.

I fully expect the list to expand in the future, and as I continue to watch, review, and write about shows, I will be making note of any show that finds its way into my Top Anime List.

For now, you can read the list right here! I hope you enjoy!

Nisekoi

Top Spring 2014 Anime: Final Ratings

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It’s kind of crazy to think that I was still in England when this season started. Where I am now, both as an anime watcher and and blogger, seems quite far away from where I was then. It was a good season, though—one that saw my entry into Reddit, the start up of an ambitious Best Girl tournament on the Crunchyroll forums and my first steps into the aniblogger world. But about that anime…. I picked up a lot more shows than I wanted to actually watch, discovered a new show that I really like (Love Live!), was let down by numerous shows, dropped way more shows than I usually do, was charmed by Chaika and wowed by my first Masaaski Yuasa show. So, yeah. Spring 2014 wasn’t a bad season for me. I won’t say some shows didn’t become tedious at times, but overall it was a pretty good season, with Week 8 (headlined by Hunter x Hunter, of course) standing head and shoulders above all the rest. Here’s how things shook out.

Nisekoi
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First Impressions: Spring 2014 Anime

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I know I’m late with this post, as the Spring 2014 season is already well underway, but I’m going to do it anyways, including everything I’ve watched to this point. My hiatus is over and I’ve got some big things in the works, but I have to get caught up on the current season first!

Pet Show of the Season: Hitsugi no Chaika

This was my pet show even before it started airing. The title, synopsis, character designs and overall feel were right up my alley and it was coming out of my favorite studio of all time, BONES. After making my way through the first two episodes, I’m totally charmed by everything about this show: the color palate, the magic systems, Chaika’s adorable-funny way of talking, her simple motivation of wanting to bury her father, the siblings (even though the imouto is a brocon, ugh…) and the overall feel of the show. I’m not expecting brilliance from Chaika, just a pleasant fantasy adventure with a good story.

poster6979

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Top Winter 2014 Anime: Final Ratings

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The Winter 2014 season has come to a close, and so it’s time to assess the shows that I watched, rate them and rank them. What follows is are short reviews and rating on a scale of 1-10 of the shows that I watched during the winter 2014 season. Overall, the season was one of the least impressive I’ve seen, although it did has a few shows I genuinely enjoyed.

Here’s the format I’ll be following. I will be going through the list of shows I’ve been watching in ranked order. Each show will be given a rating out of 10, as well as a short review and any awards the show won (Best Animation, Best Comedy, etc.).

Tiered rankings will be found here, and full series reviews for the shows that need them can be found on the Reviewed Anime List, as well as on the front page of the blog as I post them.

Let’s get started!

Kagari Ayaka

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Best Anime of 2013: Annual Anime Awards

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Presentation Categories

Best Story

1. Blast of Tempest (Fall 2012-Winter 2013)
Dramatic, well-plotted, well-written and overall just brilliantly executed, Blast of Tempest provided a compelling story held in place by its fascinating quartet of main characters. Blast of Tempest Awards PicPerfectly self-contained and logical on its own terms, Blast of Tempest is an incredible example of how to use characters to tell a story while still maintaining a compelling plot.
2. A Certain Scientific Railgun: S (Spring 2013-Summer 2013)
Although the Silent Party arc was fairly pedestrian, albeit fun and still thought provoking, the Sisters Arc carries Misaka and company into the second place. Gripping, emotional and intense, Misaka’s quest to save her clones from being sacrificed raises serious questions relevant to our modern scientific world and about the nature of sacrifice.
3. The Eccentric Family (Summer 2013)
What started out as a meandering, relaxed story gradually built up into family conflict and drama, all concluding with a satisfying ending that reaffirms the value of family. Artistically and beautifully written.

Best Animation

1. Kyousougiga (Fall 2013)
I’ve gushed about Kyousougiga’s animation before and I’ll do it again here. The show looks like it was made to be an anime. The animation in incredibly artistic and beautifully matches the tone and mood of the show. It’s not often that an anime’s animation so fully embraces and enhances the show itself, but Kyousougiga’s does that and does it very well. Simply put, the unity between the animation and the rest of the show elevates everything about this anime.

Kyousougiga Episode 10 Ending
2. Nagi no Asukara (Fall 2013)
I may have put this on hold to be able to marathon it, but I don’t need to have seen the whole show to tell you that Nagi no Asukara’s animation is beautiful. Like our third place winner, Nagi no Asukara takes full advantage of the fact that it is set around water. The coloring is gorgeous and the water effects both in and out of the water make this show visually stunning. It is worth watching on the merits of the animation alone. That’s just how good it is.
3. Free! (Summer 2013)
Another anime steeped in water and KyoAni milks it for all that it is worth. The water scenes are the obvious highlight, but the rest of the show is just as well done.

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