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.
After more than two years, I’ve finally updated (and expanded!) my top anime list! Instead of 20 shows, I’ve now got 25 on the list, with all new pictures, blurbs, and even some reordering! What a relief—it’s nice to feel my list fully represents my current tastes again.
If you want to get reading it right away: My Top 25 Anime List.
After the jump, I’ll be talking through the details of this overhaul: what’s new, what got kicked out, and what just barely missed the cut.
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.
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 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!
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?
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.
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!
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.
Mikorin basking in the breeze of being the best.
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!
Mage in a Barrel 