I disappeared this season. Yeah, I know. But I was still watching animu. You can never stop watching animu. But regardless of how dedicated you are to watching (or undedicated to writing), this season felt like a chore to get through. Not really because the shows weren’t any good to begin with, but because their best moments really only took place in the last few episodes. That said, anyone who lacked the patience might have skipped out on a legitimately good show had it not been for a mix of odd pacing, boring plot flows, and wishy-washy animation. For whatever reason you had in dropping a show mid-season, you might want to think about picking it up again after reading the season end ranking. Because frankly, quite a number of shows I would have dropped out of frustration (or boredom) actually turned out pretty well. Good things come to those who wait, apparently, and that was no different for this season’s batch of misfits. So how did they do? Let’s run ’em down, from worst to best!
Re: ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-
Spring 2016 – season end ranking
Spring has finally drawn to a close, and man was it crazy. I burned myself out half-way through the season, and apparently so did the CR staff handling the newsletter. As a result, NONE of my articles were ever published this spring, leaving a bitter taste in an otherwise enjoyable season. But my “enjoyment” was only to the extent that the shows were pretty much there to fill a void. It certainly wasn’t as dismal as the winter season, which only had one or two titles which I could consider worthwhile. But at the same time, Spring 2016 wasn’t exactly what I would call stellar, either. Sure, I was quite delighted mid-way through to have a pretty good spread of titles, but as the season dragged on, things began to stagnate. In the end, majority of the shows were pretty ho-hum with one ending up in the “dropped” category on its final episode before proceeding on to a double-length cour (which I’ll get to in a bit). So after all is said and done, though nothing was really “bad”, nothing was all too memorable, either.
So just what happened this season? Let’s run down all the titles, season end ranking, from worst to best! Continue reading
Spring 2016 – Week 5 in Review
This wasn’t one of the strongest weeks for spring, which is quite surprising given the shows have actually been doing fairly well. In fact, this season has turned out to be one of the better seasons as of late. At the start, there weren’t even any signs that the season’s offerings would do as good as they are doing now — that and the fact that genre spread is quite diverse. It’s going to be interesting looking at how these shows will fare in the mid-season review, which is — wow, next week? Holy crap, time flies when you’re having too much fun.
And fun we shall have! Here’s this week’s week in review! (NB: I might not have mentioned it before, but I’m starting to order the shows in this list based on my overall impression for the week, meaning the best shows appear first, and the not so good shows round up the end. Anyway, enjoy!)
Spring 2016 – Week 4 in Review
There was some misunderstanding over at Crunchyroll, hence my writeup on Asterisk War didn’t get published in time for the April 27 edition of the Crunchyroll Takeout. Oh well, no biggie. I just decided to edit it up a little and post it here. But the process of reviewing Asterisk War actually made me realize how well-constructed it was as a battle show, and so if you have yet to pick up the show and are looking for a reasonably competent battle anime to watch, then by all means watch this show.
Otherwise, the fourth week was pretty much the settling period for most shows. It’s that sort of tentative period before the mid-season where shows have gained a rather comfortable rhythm for themselves, not opting for anything too daring (or too risky either, for that matter). So just how did the shows fare? Read on!
Spring 2016 – Week 3 in Review
I’m wondering if I should retime these week-in-reviews to mid Wednesday to accommodate the first half of shows, then a second week-in-review to handle the remainder. Because as it stands, there are just so many shows on my watchlist, that these week in reviews are getting really long. And that’s troublesome because there are times that I have quite a lot I want to say about certain shows, but I have to limit myself in the interest of not boring you to death.
And it didn’t help much that this week had lots of shows giving pretty good arguments to warrant further watching. It’s been a solid season of anime thus far, and majority of the shows that have been shaved off of my list were pretty easy to let go of. The remainder, not so.
Any, enough of that. Let’s do this! Continue reading
Spring 2016 – Week 2 in Review
Or week 2-3… I dunno. I’m confused as to when a week starts for this season of shows since there are some shows that have only just started on their second episode, while others are already on to their third. Anyway, I decided to just go with every Monday for a week in review once all shows have had their shows out.
The second week of any season is usually the weeding period. Shows that made their mark on their premier episodes pretty much nailed it again the following week, while those that were a little iffy remained their iffy selves… and then there were those that just bit the bullet and faded off into obscurity. But a couple shows remain wild cards, and probably for good reason. That said, let’s do this!
N.B. – Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress was cancelled last week due to the Kumamoto quake. My condolences go out to the people of Japan, especially to some friends who live in the Kyuushu area. Continue reading
Spring 2016 – Episode Previews (Part 2)
Still so many shows, still so many thoughts! Here’s part two of the 1st episode reviews for the Spring 2016 season. Let’s do this!
Gakuen Toshi Asterisk 2nd Cour
The Asterisk War continues its run this season in uninterrupted fashion, and does so without any unnecessary exposition on previous events. It’s reassuring that the show decided not to waste any time with its limited run, but instead chose to integrate a review of the tournament standing through an announcer’s rundown. It also allowed the series to introduce a couple new characters without any unnecessary digression, including a little characterization on Jie Long’s student council president, who only had a mere cameo appearance in the first season. Continue reading
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