It’s that time again! So what survived the cut? What did I stick with until THE END?!
Restaurant to Another World I had kind of a love-hate relationship with this show–probably because I have a love-hate relationship with the restaurant business. However, it did forever change my life in that whenever I eat fried shrimp, in my head I will always hear Sugita-san’s voice being really, really excited about it. And we can’t forget the universally valuable lesson RTAW taught us all:
No matter what world they’re from, vegans are condescending and think they’re better than everyone else.
Aho-Girl The name says it all. And maybe I’m also an aho-girl for watching (and loving) it. But this show was just refreshing and hilarious to me.
Yep. That’s all you can do. Good luck, guys–you’ll get there someday. Maybe. Or, uh, it’s not the destination, but the journey..? Probably?
Saiyuki Reload Blast Did we actually make any progress? No. Did I care? No. Because this was pure Saiyuki goodness and totally gave me something I didn’t even know I’d been missing. I know this sounds odd to say about a show with frequent blood splatter on the screen but for me, Reload Blast was just like a fuzzy warm blanket.
Ikemen Sengoku: Bromances Across Time This was just pure dumb fun. I could watch this forever.
My First Girlfriend is a Gal I just about dropped this one several times but I’m actually glad I finished it. It was uncomfortably ecchi at times (most of the time) but it was also, despite its over-the-top delivery, very “real life.” My brother loved this show and we ended up talking about it quite a bit; he said he believed the reason people hated this show was because no one wants to face the fact that it told the truth of how the male brain works.
Same.
Katsugeki Touken Ranbu OMG this show was so much better than it had any right to be. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to scream, “I can’t believe I’m crying at freakin’ Touken Ranbu!” I loved the crap out of the Ryoma episode and thought that gave me everything I wanted and more than I ever expected…but then…we got…*tries to breathe*…Hijikata…
I was a goner. Touken Ranbu, I can’t quit you.
Knight’s & Magic No aspect of this show should have appealed to me but I kept coming back to it and loving it. It was entertaining, smoothly-paced, and just generally well-done.
Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun Nothing too serious–just fun and cute every week. Silly and easy to watch.
Re:Creators I don’t even know where to start. One of my favorite shows of the year. I was blown away constantly by this series. I think I must’ve teared up at least once every episode. Hell, I think during the final episode I just cried the entire time because it was that good and that beautiful and that amazing. I cannot say enough about how brilliant this was. I know some parts seemed a bit long-winded but it was all so, so important. PLEASE WATCH THIS.
Dive!! I had very high expectations for this show. Once I realized it was going to fall drastically short and just accepted that, then I actually enjoyed it. This show actually had some really great humorous parts that I didn’t expect but overall, I’ll admit, I was disappointed. But once I quit caring and resenting the fact it wasn’t as good as I thought it should be, then I really liked the last few episodes. Minimize your expectations (and speedos) to avoid disappointment, I guess.
Princess Principal Now I had no expectations for this one going in other than it sounded “kinda interesting.” I loved it. Cute girls, especially in this art style, really aren’t my thing at all. So I hope that illustrates how strong the story is, that a show I normally wouldn’t even try ended up being one of the best of the season.
Made in Abyss Where do I even start… If you like great art, quirky characters, adorable children, and fun, light-hearted romps through adventureland, you should totally watch—hahahahaha. Just kidding. I mean, yeah, it has great art, quirky characters, and I guess the children are kind of adorable when they aren’t talking about robot penises and maybe bleeding out their eyeballs…have I said too much? Seriously, though, this show kicked my ass in all the best ways. Visually it was amazing. Everything was put together so well it just sucked me right in and I had that feeling in my bones: “this is gonna be good.” And it was. Totally one of my top shows of the season, maybe the year.
Vatican Miracle Examiner This wasn’t anything like what I expected but I loved it anyway. Heck, maybe I loved it more for being totally…whatever it was. The word “campy” comes to mind even though I don’t think (?) that’s really what they were going for. Would I have stuck with this show if Junichi Suwabe hadn’t voiced the lead? The world may never know. But I’m glad I kept with it, diving into the seriously absurd (or absurdly serious?) world of the Vatican…
Hitorijime My Hero C’mon, people. You know me. Of course I loved the shit out of this.
Like Bakugo here, I love this show so much I could puke.
My Hero Academia What is left to say about this show–it’s always perfect all the time. Every week I just wanted more. I wanted to just watch hours of it. Consistently incredible.
I cannot even describe how freakin’ excited I was when I saw that All Out!! was finally FINALLY getting published in English. Like another sports-manga-love-of-my-life (ahem, Kuroko’s Basketball) I actually buy the Japanese volumes…even though I can’t read Japanese…just so I can flip through and try to figure out what is going on and try to absorb the sports manga essence through my fingertips. That is how crazy I am about this series.
I cannot say enough wonderful things about this series. Watch the anime, read the manga–this series deserves your attention!
Everything I Need To Know, I Learned From Anime 