TAAN: Well, it’s a little late to do a wrap-up post for the previous season, but while making the Summer season post, I decided I might as well do this one as well. I wrote this a week or two ago, so I’m not going to bother updating old summaries (for the continuing series). The numbers next to the titles are the episode counts. It’s pointless to write them for finished ones, so that’s only for the continuing and unfinished series.

———————FINISHED————————-

Ano Hana

I loved the plot for this one. It actually managed to make me tear up a little at points. It had just enough supernatural to make it still feel like a realistic story, but that could also be  because of the great characters (they weren’t that multifaceted or anything, but still, way better than one dimensional). The ending wasn’t the best part for me though, cause it tied up everything too neatly, like a perfect end rather than a good end. Not that it was bad. Would have been better if it had a little more bitter in its bittersweetness though. 9/10

Aria The Scarlett Ammo

This anime I didn’t like, but I somehow finished anyways. Everyone is the descendant of some famous person and inherited ridiculous skills through genes. The hell was that premise? Aria was an average tsundere, Kinji was an average male protagonist, and his hysteria mode is extremely cheezily suave. The final boss was lame. Overall, it just sucked. 3/10

Astarotte no Omocha!

Surprisingly little fanservice until the middle of the season or so. It’s like a drama, only problems are solved almost immediately, usually within the same episode they arise. It’s nice if you want to watch a drama but can’t stand all the stalling and suspense, though that is part of the appeal of the genre… Well that’s why it’s a light drama. 7/10

C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

It started off interesting, with a unique battle mechanic and all that stuff, but it kinda got rushed at the end like everyone expected and ended in a more average shounen way of protagonist has an epic battle to save the world at the very last minute. They pretty much ignored most of the concepts that made it unique and interesting and focused on two big ideas: the loss of the future from C, and the power to change that through high stakes battling. 7/10

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Well, I don’t know, I guess it did what it set out to do, as long as that was create an anime made out of various kinds of moe and not have it absolutely terrible. The plot wasn’t so special after Niwa got Erio to be more earthling than human. 7/10

Deadman Wonderland

I read that it differed a lot from the manga in the beginning, skipping arcs or compressing them or something, but it didn’t seem to suffer for it. I dunno, it felt kinda bland to me, like the plot didn’t have too much direction. It kinda jumped from Ganta being a prisoner to Ganta fighting for his life without knowing what’s going on, to Ganta joining a resistance group. I think I just didn’t like how it didn’t stay on the battles and develop that aspect completely before switching to the resistance thing. 7/10

Maria Holic Alive

It’s Maria Holic, what’s there to say? I guess compared to last season I enjoyed fewer episodes as much as I did before, but overall it was still great. Actually what am I talking about, everything from kanako’s special training to the sengoku card game were great. 9/10

Yondemasu yo Azazel-san

Well, it was ok I guess. The plot was not as interesting as I thought it was going to be, but it turned out to be the kind of show where the plot is extra, as it’s mostly just fast paced insanity. It’s kinda addicting in a way, but the multi-episode plots kinda ruined the momentum. 6/10

——————-CONTINUING———————-

Ao no Exorcist (13/15)

Typical shounen, which means it’s fun to watch, but not all that deep and doesn’t really do all that much new. Not that that’s really a problem or anything. I’m glad its continuing, since it’s the kind of show where each ep is partly filler and partly plot in just the right combo so the filler feels like plot. 8/10

Hyougemono (5/16)

This one’s not getting subs anymore, which sucks. I actually liked this one a lot, cause I’m starting to get into the whole sengoku era stuff now that I have Samurai Warriors Chronicles, and also cause it’s kind of absurd how aesthetics drives the world and it almost seems like everyone’s trolling everyone else. 8/10

Kaiji: Hakairoku Hen (15/16)

Kaiji’s all about epic levels of absurd stakes gambling, and dragging each arc out for way too long. But it’ does so in a way that it’s fun to watch. It’s like getting constantly punched in the face with stalling, but you’ll love it cause of how intense it is. And no, I couldn’t find a better picture off danbooru before I got bored, and settled for that one, because screenshots suck. 8/10

Nichijou (15/17)

Nothing can even compare to this anime in terms of randomness, and it’s awesome because of it. It has just enough structure in the right parts that all the sudden scene changes and stuff actually work. It’s easily one of my favorite anime this (last) season. 9/10

SKET Dance (15/16)

Every last character has some overdone personality quirk, and yet they manage to function well together and build a solid plot. It has just the right parts serious and ridiculous to be incredibly entertaining without being brainless slapstick or something. 8/10

Steins;Gate (15/16)

This anime is incredibly epic. I wasn’t expecting much as chaos;head kinda sucked, but steins;gate is great. They really held off on the whole time travel thing to let the scarce clues become confusing, but then they hit us with the mental time travel machine and the raid on the lab in the same ep, ending with Mayushi’s death. The first season seamed to focus on building up tension and suspense, so that the second season can go all out sci-fi thriller. I really can’t wait for the next episode. I’m going to say this was my favorite of all the shows last season. 10/10

Tiger and Bunny (16/17)

Well, the summaries I read implied it’d be more political, but this is kind of more character driven. Not that that’s bad, and it’s not all that average despite that. The finale kinda didn’t really answer much on Uroboros or anything, but I’m guessing they’re saving that for the true finale at the end of this season. 8/10

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal (14/15)

FINALLY. A Yu-Gi-Oh! in which the protagonist is not blessed by the duel gods to be an epitome of luck and perfection. Despite how childish it looks, and mostly is, this is actually a pretty good show. Yuma looses occasionally, and he loses important duels too. The problems I had in the beginning are mostly resolved, in that Yuma is no longer so absolutely clueless that he doesn’t know what traps are, but it’s still really over-the-top shounen. Astral’s analysis of alternate strategies makes the duels seem less linear too, but they still rely on hiding info about set traps and monster effects to make the duels more exciting, which kinda sucks. I think they finally stopped people from summoning face up defense position though, which is nice. Finally, with the shitton of plot they dropped on us last episode, it’s also looking pretty interesting, too. It doesn’t have some childish plot which I was afraid it might have, but in fact it’s looking pretty dark and twisted. 7/10

——————-UNFINISHED———————–

A Channel (6/12)

Turned into more of a musical glorifying the school life of adolescent girls than anything. Okuu couldn’t save it for me. 4/10

Dororon Enma kun Meeramera (7/12)

I wanted to finish, but didn’t have time. I still have the same impression of it as when I started, so there’s not much to say about it other than exactly as expected. It did get kind of tiring after a while, which is the reason it dropped in priority for me so I never got to it. 6/10

Gosick (23/24)

I managed to miss the last episode, I dunno how. This was actually one of the series I was looking forward to watching, since the plot’s pretty gripping. I’m not really all that sure why though. It’s not exactly mystery, and it’s not supernatural in the slightest though they like to make it sound ambiguous with “Ministry of the Occult” and all that stuff. I suppose it’s mostly the plot that was so interesting, as it really is pretty epic. It’s fairly convoluted, but ties everything together at every step of the way nicely. It’s just satisfying to watch. 8/10

Hen Zemi (3/13)

This one’s weird for me, cause it’s low on my list of priorities, so I never got to it, though I did want to finish it. It’s just, you have to be in the right frame of mind to watch it, I guess? ??/10

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi (7/12)

So generic. I got bored of it. I’ll probably finish it eventually when I pick up all the other old anime I never finished, but eh, I don’t really care all that much to. 3/10

Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai (3/12)

Ahahaha…. No. 1/10

Softenni (4/12)

I never expected to get very far in this series and I didn’t! I’m so great at predicting these things. In all honesty though, it was less interesting than I thought, just average and overdone characters and no plot either. 3/10

Toriko (3/??)

A shounen battle anime about food? That sounds awesome enough. Not if the food is so unreal that it’s not possible to even begin to imagine what it might possibly would have even maybe tasted like. This one wasn’t for me. 3/10

——————DIDN’T START———————-

Fireball Charming

Hanasaku Iroha

Sengoku Otome Momoiro Paradox

Shouwa Monogatari

———————————————————–

For those who tl;dr, in order of favorites, most to least, this is my ranking (may not be 100% accurate, cause there’s a lot to sort). Numbers next to titles indicate rating, out of 10:

1: steins;gate (10/10)

2: Nichijou (9/10)

3: Ano Hana (9/10)

4: Maria Holic (9/10)

5: Sket Dance (8/10)

6: Tiger and Bunny (8/10)

7: Ao no Exorcist (8/10)

8: Gosick (8/10)

9: Kaiji (8/10)

10: Hyougemono (8/10)

11: C (7/10)

12: Denpa Onna (7/10)

13: Astarotte no Omocha (7/10)

14: Zexal (7/10)

15: Deadman Wonderland (7/10)

16: Yondemasu Azazel-san (6/10)

17: Dororon (6/10)

18: Hen Zemi (5-ish/10)

19: A channel (4/10)

20: Softenni (3/10)

21: Hoshizora (3/10)

22: Toriko (3/10)

23: Oretatchi (1/10)

Tags: A Channel, Ano Hana, Ao no Exorcist, Aria The Scarlett Ammo, Astarotte no Omocha!, C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Deadman Wonderland, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Dororon Enma kun Meeramera, Gosick, Hen Zemi, Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi, Hyougemono, Kaiji: Hakairoku Hen, Maria Holic Alive, Nichijou, Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, SKET Dance, Softenni, spring season anime, Steins;Gate, Tiger and Bunny, Toriko, Yondemasu yo Azazel-san, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

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