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Okay. I’ve finally, ''finally'' caught up and finished the last season of anime (now to go straight into the next – oh boy) and I can post my thoughts here.
I think it should be heavily noted though that I want these reviews to be taken with a little leeway. Because of my trip to Japan I missed pretty much 4 straight weeks of every series, and this meant that when I returned I had to continue with my memory of the plots being not as good as I would have liked it. This holds particularly true due to the fact that out of the 6-ish series I watched, I only really enjoyed maybe 2 of them, and had no real reason to bother remembering the ones I didn’t care about. Hence, these reviews will likely be short and a little sloppy. However, I do feel like ranting just a little bit XD
'''Best Series''':<br>
Once more (like last season) I find myself disappointed. There were far more series I disliked/was bored by this season or dropped after the first two episode than that I actually enjoyed – and even those I enjoyed didn’t score as high as I would have liked. Alas, there were two shows I did look forward to each week, and the stand-out of those two was:
:'''[http://myanimelist.net/anime/30276/One_Punch_Man One-Punch Man]''': I’ve seen many people say that this show is overhyped *glances at Misk hehe*. Is it? I would actually have to say it is a little. Does that make it a bad anime though? Absolutely NOT.<br>
:I had a lot of fun with One-Punch Man. I am a big fan of parodies when they are done correctly and in this sense One-Punch man crosses its ‘t’s and dots its ‘i’s perfectly. I found the humorous outlook on the shounen genre to be both hilarious and super on-point.<br>
:And yet, the show wasn’t just a parody. It’s base was a parody, but it built upon that to really dive into some interesting and thought-provoking discussions on the theme of superheroes and strength in general. I got a really heavy “Batman: Dark Knight” vibe from some of the episodes, and one of my few wishes is that the anime had been given more episodes to explore this idea more.<br>
:In short, I think that’s my only real issues with OPM: it was too short. I feel it didn’t quite achieve what it could have in the episodes it had, but when I have time I will be checking out the manga to see where everything goes. Aside from this, I found some of the episodes to be a little underwhelming, and many of the side characters did absolutely nothing for me and I didn’t care about them at all. Again, I feel like I didn’t get to know them enough before the show ended. Additionally, [http://myanimelist.net/character/73979/Genos Genos] (My “Male of the Season” winner) all but disappearing for the last few episodes left me a little annoyed. Nit-picks though. I found OPM to be a fun and super entertaining watch, and it is my anime of the season.<br>
'''Final Score: 8.5/10'''
:'''Honourable Mention:'''
::'''[http://myanimelist.net/anime/28891/Haikyuu!!_Second_Season Haikyuu!! Second Season]''': Welp, after I fell in love with the first season of Haikyuu, naturally I picked up the second.<br>
::Haikyuu is so much fun, and I think it’s the characters that really make the show. I was so happy to get together with the band of misfits once more, and the story so far has been very good, expanding the characters and giving backstory to those that really needed it. This being said, so far I’m not finding it as good as the first season. I’m not really sure why as of yet. Maybe because the climax of the story hasn’t been reached? Maybe because the characters being focussed on, though nice, are not my favourites? I’m not sure, but Haikyuu is still a great watch, and one I’m looking forward to continuing into this next season :)
::'''Final Score: As this season is still ongoing and unfinished, I am not giving it a score as of yet.'''
'''Worst Series''':<br>
I watched a lot of stuff I’m unhappy with this season. How I sat through and bothered to continue some of the following is beyond me, but I did. All of them just had nothing going for them and started to bore me once the initial interest in learning about the characters wore off after about 2-3 episodes. Alas, one of them really stood out as being the worst, because I went into it thinking it would be great:
:'''[http://myanimelist.net/anime/31318/Comet_Lucifer Comet Lucifer]''': By God, how did I manage to finish this??
:I don’t even want to talk about how just bad and disappointing this anime was. I always go into original anime quite excited because getting to see a new story that has never been shown in any other form of media has me very curious. There’s always so much potential, and Comet Lucifer took what could have been a mildly entertaining idea and just… God, just ruined it.
:The cast is flat. Half the cast are admittedly VERY close (too close for comfort at times) to characters from other series. Character motivations are pretty much non-existent or when given make no sense after what’s already happened. Bad guys go good and good guys go bad at the flick of a switch. It’s just awful. Seriously, to give you an idea of what I’m talking about: one character is “good” and seems to be pining after another. She is then revealed later to be an undercover agent for the bad guys and rats out the guy she was seemingly liking. This results in his death. She later then helps the good guys because it turns out she actually did love him. If you think this sounds stupid you are 100% correct and this is just one of the minor characters. Don’t even get me started on the others.
:Pacing is non-existent and plot so convenient I rolled my eyes more often than not. A group of bad guys always just appeared out of nowhere so many times I half expected them to get a Team Rocket-like introductory song before the end. Some episodes faff about for no reason and others cram in so much that mistakes are made and ignored (I’m talking characters being in one place in one scene and suddenly warping to different locations in the next scene – I’m not even kidding).
:The lore of the world is never explained properly. Anything worth mentioning is not mentioned and by the end unexplained proper nouns are dropped like candy and leave everything a nonsensical mess. I had fuck all clue what was happening half the time and why they needed this key or to get to that temple or why the flying fuck there were floating stones for no reason. I still have no clue, even though I waited for any sort of explanation.
:Finally, to top it all off, the anime ends with a goddamn “humans destroy planet Earth” preach message in the last ten minutes, AND gives the characters (very poor) closure IN THE CREDITS with little flash-forward pictures that just ruin any characters that I mildly liked.
:It’s just a mess. Do not watch this and save yourself the pain of whatever the hell this tried to be.
:Why a 3.6 then? Simple: 1 point for the setting (it was beautiful), 1 point for the soundtrack, 1 point for the awesome 3D animation (hot damn it was lovely and a shame it was wasted with this silly anime), and some bonus points for Kaon as a character (even if she was ruined in the stupid credits flash-forward >__>)
'''Final Score: 3.6/10'''<br>
:'''Honourable Mention:'''
::'''[http://myanimelist.net/anime/30187/Sakurako-san_no_Ashimoto_ni_wa_Shitai_ga_Umatteiru Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru]''':
::Ehhhh, this anime, in short, was really boring. I really don’t have much to say. I feel like the creators seemed to think they were being a lot smarter than they were, and though the female lead was engaging at first, she fell flat after the first few episodes due to repetitive actions or poor screenplay.
::The female lead is almost a Sherlock-like character, but where Sherlock is insane and hilarious and spends ages stringing together tonnes of little facts to find the truth of a mystery, Sakurako doesn’t. She is slightly whacky, but not enough to be interesting for a long time. She is funny, but not lol funny. And she doesn’t string together heaps of facts collected over episodes to solve mysteries – she just seems to know everything. My brother says “she’s OP” and I have to agree. She could walk into any mystery presented by the show and just seem to know exactly what had happened with very few clues. The lack of many clues presented also meant that the audience didn’t have a chance to work out the mysteries presented for themselves, and this made the show boring. You couldn’t play along… you just had to wait and watch and it grew old.
::I won’t even mention that a good 3/4 of the mysteries were dull and uninteresting. Only the last few actually entertained me even a little, but too little too late in my mind. Plus, the anime faffs about a lot and constantly, CONSTANTLY hints at a bad guy that appears in the second last episode… only to then have the last episode be a flashback one. I won’t even mention the flat, boring male MC.
::So, no real bad guy, a boring male MC, a female MC whose charm wears off quick, and a plot that is not satisfying enough to make up for them. In short, something bland and not worth your time.
::'''Final Score: 5.5/10'''
Aside from the above, the other 2 series I watched were:<br>
:'''[http://myanimelist.net/anime/28621/Subete_ga_F_ni_Naru:_The_Perfect_Insider Subete ga F ni Naru: The Perfect Insider]''':
:Aaaahhh Subete ga F ni Naru: The Perfect Insider. I… don’t even know where to begin because in all honesty I still don’t know what I think about this show ( .__.)
:I think this is where my break in Japan really hurt my liking of this anime, because as a mystery it was important to remember everything the previous episodes had been saying… and I didn’t… not really.
:This being said, I just found this series to be… well, flat. I can’t describe it… it’s the weirdest feeling. When I think back nothing seemed to be bad. The characters were nice and the setting done well. The mystery seemed well set out and quite intriguing, but the conclusion both bewildered me and disappointed me. And not in a “That’s stupid” way as with other mysteries. Rather a “Woah, I didn’t expect that… is this even logical?” way. It’s bizarre and I still don’t know what to think.
:As such, I’m unsure of what to do here. I have a very strong, nagging sensation that I should re-watch the thing in one sitting, and that it’ll be better if I do. On the other hand though I just… have no want to do that. No drive to wait through all of the talking and set-up once more. Is that telling me that the anime is bad? I’m not sure .-.
:So, whilst I didn’t particularly like The Perfect Insider in the end, I can’t not recommend it due to me not really having anything bad to say about it. On the other hand, I feel like I can’t recommend it either because I just… didn’t care for it. From what I’ve seen, general thoughts on the series seem to fluctuate as well.
:I guess I’m just going to let everyone decide for themselves. Maybe give the first episode a try. If it appeals, keep going. And if you get through it all be sure to let me know what you think. I’ll be very interested tbh.
:'''Final Score: 6-ish/10??'''
:'''[http://myanimelist.net/anime/27991/K:_Return_of_Kings K: Return of Kings]''':
:Not much to say about this. I’m not a huge K fan. I found the first season okay and slugged through the movie because I was bored and then decided I might as well check out season 2 in the hopes that it would be good enough to add to my “enjoying” list. It wasn’t really.
:Animation as always was gorgeous, but once more the plot just lacked… oomph. I found the story predictable, the writing sloppy at times, and I didn’t see why this second season was necessary. I felt very little from the first season was developed upon (save a few characters who got some good development) and the bad guys did nothing for me. I didn’t really get the motivation for many of them, and the final battles they had fell flat for me.
:However, I will say that I did like that the ending (well, 98% of it) was rather well thought out and made sense. The last episodes in general actually were far, FAR more enjoyable than the first many.
:However, however: the very last clip left me confused and a little disappointed and the blatant and ludicrous fanservice throughout the show irked me greatly. The (VERY FEW!) women of the show could have been great if 2/3 weren’t reduced to fanservice most of the time, and this did drag down my final score.
:Despite the other women (and the anime in general) being mediocre, congrats to [http://myanimelist.net/character/64627/Anna_Kushina Anna] for taking the title of “Female of the Season” for me, for her development and badassery (and maybe partly because the females of this season pretty much sucked or were general all ‘round).
:'''Final Score: 5.8/10'''
'''Best OP:'''
*'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa1ckFWKi-Y The Perfect Insider]:''' My confusion about the series aside, the OP for TPI is AMAZING! Seriously, the song is catchy and up-beat, but most of all… THAT ANIMATION! Please watch it. It features outlines of the three main characters moving/dancing, animated in such a way that I am pretty much 99% positive the crew got three, real, professional dancers to dance the opening and just animated over the top of them. The movements are fluid and show weight and the effects are just… gah. It fits the song and the theme of the show very well. A must see even for those who don’t want to watch the series.
*'''Honourable Mentions:'''
**'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixXqHh_Bts8 One-Punch Man]:''' What can I say? I didn’t like this song much at all when I first watched it, but by the last episode I was screaming “HERO!” along with the music. Very catchy.
**'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDdOBhjmeN4 Comet Lucifer]:''' I am very partial to songs by the particular artist that sings this one. I guess that’s the only reason this OP makes the list :P
'''Best ED''':<br>
*'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw_wZcigj5A Haikyuu! S2]:''' Lol, for some reason I always love Haikyuu EDs more than the OPs XD No different here. The song is nice and the animation amazing to boot. Seeing the guys just running is a lovely sight :)
*'''Honourable Mention''':
**'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nozJanOKNKs K Return of Kings]:''' Gah, the song is so catchy – especially at the end. I know this is going to sound petty, but I think the only reason this ED doesn’t take spot #1 is the use of the female characters for unnecessary fanservice yet again. The ED is literally the male characters all being awesome in action scenes… with the females only shown twice basically naked and/or in suggestive poses -__- Yes, it irked me… what are you gunna do?
Aaaaaand, that's that. I didn't watch much and I wasn't impressed by much. Onto this season I suppose? So far I have waaaay more shows that I plan to check out, so here's hoping we have some awesome series incoming :)