Lurker > Robazoid

That video was a distillation of everything I don't like about Kaos! I can see the appeal for other people but something about her rubs me the wrong way.

If a cute girl is going to fail at everything, I at least want her to be cheerful about it like Hanako from Anne-Happy

10/10

198. Comic Girls
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35756/Comic_Girls
Spring 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.38/10
Best Character: Fuura Suzu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvDrF43LZ80

Premise: Moeta Kaoruko is an awful manga artist, so she goes to live in a dormitory with other authors in the hopes that they can inspire each other. The series follows their daily lives.

The Good: This is a cute girls doing cute things comedy, and its impossible to screw that up entirely. Comic Girls is an awful CGDCT, but it still had cuteness and some fun gags. Even at its worst, this anime was inoffensive. I also liked the horror author, too bad she was barely in this.

The Bad: As I mentioned above, this is a terrible CGDCT. All the characters had one gimmick, usually related to the genre theyre making, and they kept getting used for the same jokes over and over. The main character, Kaos, failed at everything she tried. It quickly became tiring to watch. I know I shouldnt look for logic in a show like this, but I never understood how she had an editor in the first place. The whole point of her character is that she sucks at everything, how did she get far enough into the business to deserve a spot at this coveted manga artist dorm alongside people with actual talent?

Overall: The CGDCT genre is all about swapping in new elements, like being a manga artist, and having character dynamics in different combinations, so I can easily see other people liking Comic Girls more than I did. It just didnt appeal to me very much. I hated Kaos, most of the rest of the characters were boring, and as a result none of the humor worked for me.

Nene, new girls, old group, we all dislike someone different from New Game! At least we all seem to agree that Kou was good.

And now we prove my old 2017 ranking wrong right away by eliminating New Game before Sankarea.

4/10 MEDIOCRE TIER

200. New Game!
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31953/New_Game
Summer 2016 (12 episodes), Summer 2017 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.58/10 S1, 7.71/10 S2
Best Character: Yagami Kou

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef_ZfhqN-ls

Premise: Suzukaze Aoba follows her dreams and begins working at her favorite video game company. However, the realities of game design arent always glamorous.

The Good: New Game reminds me of Shirobako, only it explores game design instead of anime production. I enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at whats involved in game making. Some stuff, like the planning and execution of something as simple as a minigame, were things I enjoyed seeing. Unlike Shirobako, New Game also never descends into melodrama. It mostly remains a cute girls comedy anime throughout.

The Bad: None of the characters are very good, and a few of them are outright terrible. They all had lame gimmicks and meh jokes. It felt like a lot of them existed more to represent an aspect of game design than to be real characters. Aobas friend Nene was also the absolute worst and the focus she got in the second season dragged it down a lot for me.

Overall: Once the novelty of learning about game design wore off, all that New Game had was mediocre characters participating in mediocre gags. Its still a cute girls comedy show, so it isnt irredeemable, but its easily one of the most boring examples of the genre Ive ever seen.

It was nice of Layle to help Cyan reach his family

It turned out no one really cared to guess on these from the first page, and hey I don't blame you. Since we've finally had a character drop, though, I'll update this because I still think they're fun stats.

-The ratio of males and females in my top 100 characters (example, 51:49 would be 51 guys, 49 girls)
Currently: 0:1
-The five lowest ranked anime with a character in my top 100
5: Death Parade, 204th (Kurokami no Onna)

Another fun stat: Kurokami no Onna is voiced by Seto Asami, who voices a total of four characters in my top 100!

203. Re:Creators
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34561/Re_Creators
Spring 2017 (22 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 7.55/10
Best Character: Chikujouin Magane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGDFBqTZ_LY

Premise: Fictional characters are appearing in the real world to wreak havoc with their powers. High schooler Mizushino Souta teams up with anime heroine Selesia Upitiria to end the chaos.

The Good: I like the reverse-isekai concept, and Re:Creators explores it to the fullest. There are government taskforces, they start bringing in the authors of the fictional characters for support, all of that is great. Some of the fictional characters are awesome, too. Megane is my favorite for her unique powers and aesthetic.

The Bad: For all the cool things Re:Creators did, it also had a few elements that really annoyed me. Several of the fictional characters are easily manipulated morons. Thats partly justified by the characters acting out personalities from in-universe source material, but Id have preferred if they were all a bit more intelligent. Several conflicts happen because they refuse to say anything or listen to each other. There was also one villain who handled powers in a way that I hated, always pulling some new ability that was never mentioned before out of their ass.

Overall: Re:Creators had nice production values, a unique premise explored to the fullest, and several interesting characters. It also had a few elements that turned me off on it. When I was writing the good section of this write-up, I felt like I should like this anime more than I do. Then I thought of a scene where several of my biggest writing pet peeves were hit within a five-minute period, and I remembered why I didnt like it. I came extremely close to dropping this after episode nine, but in the end Im glad I finished it even if it isnt one of my favorites.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
202: This anime will now haunt the ranking until someone finds all the hidden clues.
201: I refuse to believe that this anime is a goddess.

NBIceman posted...

is kind of part of the point. It becomes increasingly obvious throughout the series how bad the system is, to the point that the whole reason the actual plot even happened is because one of the characters realized it's terrible and started taking steps to try and make it at least a little better.

I agree that was the point, I guess I just found the conclusion kind of obvious so I couldn't give the story credit for eventually reaching it. I know Death Parade was a favorite for a lot of people, though! My main problem with it came down to philosophy and ethics, but I can see it being someone else's favorite for much the same reasons.

Cyan

Tifa

I admit my memories of Death Parade are mostly focused on Kurokami, but I recall most of the episodes being really ugly. Some less so than others, but I didn't like any of them at the time.

KommunistKoala posted...

tifa

trade auto

For Cyan

Rinoa

This is how I planned to handle character write-ups. We won't get too many in the bottom half, but they're all over the place in my top 100 so if you have any suggestions about formatting or how to better hide spoilers without being hard to read, please let me know!

204. Death Parade
https://myanimelist.net/anime/28223/Death_Parade
Winter 2015 (12 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 8.16/10
Best Character: Kurokami no Onna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca5Tf5BDSYI

Premise: When two people die at the same time, their souls are judged in the afterlife. Arbiters force them to play high-stakes games, with one soul reincarnating while the other is cast into the void.

The Good: I love the OP video, its like every ounce of the animes fun is concentrated there. Also, congratulations to Death Parade for being the lowest-ranked anime to have someone in my top 100 characters! Ill talk more about Kurokami no Onna in her write-up below, which will contain significant spoilers.

The Bad: When I read the premise, I hoped Death Parade would be an introspective anime about helping the recently deceased come to terms with their fate. Instead, it reveled in being meanspirited and bleak, forcing people into torturous situations for the explicit purpose of breaking them down. All of this is ostensibly to expose the truth of their souls, but I have philosophical problems with the whole idea of judging people this way. I dont believe people are inherently good or evil, for starters, but if they are I question whether an intense game of darts is the best way to filter them. It all felt so simplistic, like a childs idea of morality. You got angry fastest after being hurt, therefore you are evil. Since I wasnt getting anything out of the philosophical angle, Death Parade was basically torture porn.

Overall: Death Parade was largely an episodic series, and a few of the stories they told werent bad. However, most of them had confused morals and simplistic themes. I refuse to accept that this judgment system could last more than a day before collapsing under the weight of its flaws. Without Kurokami no Onna, this anime would've ranked a whole lot lower.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/2/5/AABz_zAADlkl.png

CHARACTER: Kurokami no Onna (Death Parade)
https://myanimelist.net/character/82037/Kurokami_no_Onna
Voiced by: Seto Asami
TOP 100 RANK: 33rd

SPOILERS FOR DEATH PARADE

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBNseHHJAoA

Since character write-ups contain spoilers, Im going to drop the awkward Kurokami no Onna right away and just call her Chiyuki. I mentioned in my Death Parade write-up that Id hoped the show would be about helping people come to terms with their death. Thats what Chiyukis arc was, and it was great.

She spends most of the show calling out the flaws in the judgment system. If you put people in extreme situations theyll react in extreme ways, whod have thought? It doesnt necessarily say anything about their souls. Even a murderer couldve been a good person if they were born into radically different circumstances, which presumably reincarnation would provide. Chiyuki said a lot of the things I was thinking, which endeared her to me early on. Its dumb that Death Parade wasted so much time figuring out the obvious, but thats not Chiyukis fault.

As for her arc, I loved everything about it. The slow reveal that she was a dead human too, the life she led, the reason she committed suicide, the impact it had on the people left behind, it was all hauntingly realistic and really resonated with me. Decim dealt with her the way he shouldve been handling everyone. He helped her accept what happened and move on to whatever comes next. The scene of Chiyuki ice-skating that I linked to above is a beautiful example of visual storytelling. It tells pretty much her whole life, right up to the moment that changed it forever.

The fact that the writers handled Chiyukis arc so well annoys me, because it showed they were aware of the flaws in the judgments. They were capable of doing something like this, but they still went for grimy torture porn instead. Chiyuki is a shining beacon of amazing in an otherwise bad anime.

This write-up doesn't feel very good, but I don't have a whole lot of time to work on it. I guess it's hard to put into words how little of an opinion I have about this anime. I feel like the Futurama neutrality meme, "I have no strong feelings one way or the other."

205. Devilman Crybaby
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35120/Devilman__Crybaby
Winter 2018 (10 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 7.77/10
Best Character: Kuroda Miki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM5mnH7JrJE

Premise: Fudou Akira, always weak and overly emotional, unwittingly merges with a demon. Now extremely powerful, he fights to resist a newfound darker side to his personality.

The Good: Devilman Crybaby is certainly unique. Im not sure Ive ever seen anything else quite like this animation and art style. The story also accomplished what it set out to do, both in terms of plot and themes. It went to some interesting places. As for characters, Kuroda Miki is the only one whose arc really sticks out in my memory, but everyone was fine.

The Bad: The whole time that I was watching this, I felt no strong emotions, either positive or negative. I dont want anyone to take that statement too strongly, though, because Devilman Crybaby hit the emotional beats it set out to. It didnt do anything I can point to as wrong. Other than a few parts in Kuroda Mikis story, however, nothing about it appealed to me. Its rare for me to consume a piece of fiction and have almost no opinions at all, but thats what happened.

Overall: Were at another dividing line in this ranking. I am completely neutral on Devilman Crybaby. The bad outweighed the good for anything below it, and vice versa for anything above it. It didnt appeal to me, but Id still recommend this for anyone who thinks they might like it. The best word to describe it really is unique, its just unfortunate that this brand of unique didnt do anything for me.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
204: This anime is getting sent to the void.
C33: This character doesnt want to play these games anymore.
203: Im bringing this anime into the real world.

(Since no one commented on potential spoiler worries, I'll just spoiler-tag the video with the character write-up, make it clear it's a video link behind the spoiler, and we'll see how it goes)

206. Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36884/Hisone_to_Maso-tan
Spring 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 7.32/10
Best Character: Amakasu Hisone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnVCGLh8ZW4

Premise: Amakasu Hisone joins the Japanese air force hoping to find a purpose in life. Then it turns out shes the only one compatible with Masotan, a dragon who swallows its pilot.

The Good: I enjoyed Dragon Pilot a lot the first time I watched it. It was absurd in a lot of great ways, starting with the concept of people piloting dragons disguised as airplanes from inside of their guts. Hisone is fun too, she has no filter and always says whats on her mind. Her friendly bluntness led to a lot of great jokes.

The Bad: I rewatched this in preparation for this ranking, and Dragon Pilot did not hold up to a second viewing. The first time through it was fun wondering what craziness would happen next. Even with only hazy memories on rewatch, the magic was gone. The overall theme is confused. As soon as this goes from being about finding a purpose to being about love, Dragon Pilot falls apart and never recovers. Hisones arc also didnt feel earned, a lot of things worked out just because she wanted them to. I still considered putting her in my top 100 characters because she is fun, and itd be nice to have a spoiler section to complain about some things. The bad parts with her outweighed the good by the end, though, so she doesnt deserve a spot.

Overall: Years ago, Dragon Pilot made it onto a list I made of fifteen anime from 2018 that I recommended people watch. It still might be worth it for a first-time viewer, but its zaniness doesnt have much substance and I found a lot of flaws when I rewatched it.

Layle

Trading for Cyan auto

Rinoa

Nuclear power until renewables can take over

207. B: The Beginning
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32827/B__The_Beginning
Winter 2018 (12 episodes), Winter 2021 (0/6 episodes, unfinished)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 7.21/10 S1, 6.18/10 S2
Best Character: Hoshina Lily

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JosoJVDxyg0

Premise: Keith Flick, a brilliant detective who is still recovering from a personal loss, is brought in to solve a series of murders by the mysterious vigilante known only as Killer B.

The Good: The early parts of the detective plotline were intriguing. I also liked Lily quite a bit, she was a lot of fun as the overactive sidekick to Keiths quieter brilliance.

The Bad: B: The Beginning is two completely different stories only tenuously connected by the fact that Keith is involved in each of them. Theres a detective plot, and then theres another far more supernatural plot. With only the tiniest of edits, you could get rid of either one of these stories and lose absolutely nothing in the other. In fact, if either half of the story was given more time to breathe, it would probably be greatly improved. Instead, B: The Beginning is about Keith bouncing between different plotlines while the viewer waits for it all to come together. It never does, and because of that neither plot amounts to much in the end.

Overall: B: The Beginning tried to cover two unrelated stories and only managed to feel disjointed. Of the two, Id have preferred if it stuck more to the detective side, because Keith and Lily worked well in that genre. The supernatural side, by comparison, never made a whole lot of sense. Theres a mini second season I havent watched yet, but it has a really bad MAL score so Im not in any rush to see it.

210. Recovery of an MMO Junkie
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36038/Net-juu_no_Susume
Fall 2017 (11 episodes) plus 1 OVA
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 7.56/10
Best Character: Morioka Moriko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzwMuSnKQgg

Premise: Morioka Moriko has quit her job to play MMOs instead. She becomes friends with another player in the game, unaware that they are the handsome man she recently met in real life.

The Good: I liked that Recovery of an MMO Junkie showed how friendships could form online. Moriko was a fun character too. Im jealous of her for living the dream of quitting her job and spending all her time playing video games.

The Bad: A lot of Recovery of an MMO Junkie is based on contrived coincidences. I can forgive the first one, that the player Moriko meets in the game is coincidentally the guy she ran into in real life. There wouldnt be much of a story without that one. There are even more coincidences past that, though, and it soon reached the point where I couldnt take it seriously anymore. I also never felt much of a connection to the romance. It ran into the problem where adult characters act like blushing preteens whenever theyre around the opposite sex. Beyond that, most of the characters other than Moriko were boring.

Overall: Recovery of an MMO Junkie started as a fine romcom. There were just way too many coincidences for me to look past, and most of the characters were ultimately forgettable. MMO Junkie slowly lost the good feelings I had for it the more I watched. Not a bad anime, it just didnt do enough things that appealed to me, I suppose.

handsomeboy2012 posted...

Sad to see Kaguya here, probably my absolute favourite. I do agree it could get repetitive if youre not into the premise at first, but the character interactions beside the main pair is also great and they did try to change things up a bit at the end of season 1, so the rest of the seasons are definitely worth watching.

Actually Ill just go ahead and use the recommendation for Kaguya S2 and S3, unless you really dont want to get back to it at the moment.

Anything that I'm ranking that I haven't finished is something I intend to get back to someday (though in the case of these lower ranked ones, it might be a long time). I almost certainly wouldn't get back to Kaguya before this ranking was over, so if you want to use your recommendation to speed that up, that's fine by me!

Sheep007 posted...

I think almost half of my 9/10 and above shows have dropped in your 3/10s alone!

I'm guessing most people would rank some of my favorites pretty low too! One anime in my top five has a mid-6 score on MAL, for example. Hopefully I'll be able to convey why I like them when we finally do reach my favorites.

Anyway, I've been cutting so many beloved anime lately that I made a meme from one of my favoritest animes of all, The Simpsons.

https://imgur.com/a/0ffxdSv

Inviso posted...

Trading for Freya auto as well.

For Cyan

213. Scums Wish
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32949/Kuzu_no_Honkai
Winter 2017 (12 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 7.17/10
Best Character: Yasuraoka Hanabi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g-MG0JxxbE

Premise: Two high schoolers, Yasuraoka Hanabi and Awaya Mugi, have unrequited crushes for their teachers. The two begin to date, each acting as a substitute for the one the other truly loves.

The Good: Scums Wish is unique, Ill give it that. Its a romance where the characters explicitly love other people and are using each other to fill the void. The story delves into the implications of that arrangement, as well as what it means to be in a relationship with another person in general. I liked Hanabi the most out everyone, she only barely missed my top 100 characters. She was flawed in a lot of ways and rarely made the right decisions, but that felt real for someone her age dealing with the things she was facing. She was also the only character who I felt had a satisfying conclusion.

The Bad: Akane ruined this anime for me. I liked her conceptually, shes a sexually promiscuous woman who gets off on hurting other people. I just hated how her arc progressed and concluded, which is hard to talk about without major spoilers. All Ill say is that everything about Akane is disappointing and not entertaining at all. She dragged everyone else down with her, too, so most of the characters in this anime have a conclusion that makes me angry.

Overall: Scums Wish was an infuriating anime in a lot of ways. By the end I wanted to fix it, to correct the blatant mistakes in its writing and turn an awful ending into a satisfying conclusion. It wouldnt have taken much! While prepping this ranking, Scums Wish was originally down in the 2/10s with the other romances I hated. However, while my lingering feelings towards this are negative, over time Ive come to appreciate it for what it is. At the very least, anything that gets me to think about it that much mustve done something right. Hanabi is also a good character.

Rinoa

We're now halfway through the topic. I want to post the ranking so far, even though it's available in the spreadsheet. Thanks again to everyone who has been following along! 213 will come in a little bit.

214- Aggretsuko
215- Servant x Service
216- Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto
217- (Airing Placeholder) The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting
218- (Airing Placeholder) The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious
219- Assassination Classroom
220- Strike Witches
221- Shirobako
222- Hyouka
223- Sound Euphonium
224- Violet Evergarden
225- The Ancient Magus' Bride
226- The Devil is a Part-Timer
227- Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody
228- How Not to Summon a Demon Lord
229- Island
230- Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion
-----
231- Heroines Run the Show
232- Release the Spyce
233- (Airing Placeholder) Call of the Night
234- A Sister's All You Need
235- Seven Senses of the Re'Union
236- Holmes of Kyoto
237- Karakuri Circus
238- Angels of Death
239- Brave Witches
240- The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar
241- Lord of Vermilion: The Crimson King
242- The Junji Ito Collection
243- School Babysitters
244- Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear
245- Record of Grancrest War
246- Adachi and Shimamura
247- Golden Time
248- Taisho Otome Fairy Tale
249- Vampire in the Garden
250- Frankenstein Family
-----
251- Symphogear
252- Citrus
253- Hanebado
254- Darling in the FranXX
255- Kinos Journey -the Beautiful World- the Animated Series
256- Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigtion
257- Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It
258- My Little Monster
259- Maria the Virgin Witch
260- ID-0
-----
261- Beatless (DROPPED)
262- Urahara (DROPPED)
263- Conception (DROPPED)
264- Eden of the East (DROPPED)
265- Banana Fish (DROPPED)
266- Restaurant to Another World (DROPPED)
267- Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles (DROPPED)
268- Sword Gai: The Animation (DROPPED)
269- Inuyashiki: Last Hero (DROPPED)
270- Gantz (DROPPED)

This bonus write-up is way longer than the 300 words I try to limit these to. Still, I don't want to pare it down because I really liked this recommendation and I have things to say.

BONUS. Talentless Nana
https://myanimelist.net/anime/41619/Munou_na_Nana
Fall 2020 (13 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 7.19/10
Best Character: Hiiragi Nana
Recommended by: @Cody11533

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Y-tyrMMnU

Premise: People with superpowered abilities called talents are being trained on a remote island to fight enemies of humanity. Hiiragi Nana, a mind-reader, is the newest addition to the class.

The Good: Ill say right away that I enjoyed Talentless Nana a lot. If you just want to know my overall opinion, thats it. This anime has an amazing twist in the first episode, and I couldnt talk about anything else without spoiling it, so fair warning about that for anyone who hasnt seen it. Anyway, the actual premise of this anime is awesome. I love reverse murder mysteries, which is the best way I can describe this. Nana needs to kill these superpowered kids without always knowing all about their abilities, and she has to do it without getting caught. Its an inherently fun idea. Every character was interesting because any one of them could be a potential victim or catch her in a lie. Every confrontation was tense because Nana could lose everything at any moment. I also enjoyed the moral dilemma. While some of the talented were monsters, others seemed like good people, but even they could turn into a massive threat someday, so what else can she do? Nana herself was a great character, I loved seeing her thought process during planning, execution, and cover-up, as well as the way she acted around different people.

The Bad: I really had to resist the urge to nitpick this. For Nana, her mission relies on flawless execution and subterfuge at every moment. There were a lot of times where I started asking, why didnt she kill them like that, or why isnt she acting like this instead to be less suspicious? Why arent the students doing this or that to make it harder for anyone to sneak around alone? I tried to stop myself every time those thoughts came creeping in. I wanted to simply appreciate the story as presented. In a way, though, its kind of a good thing that it got me thinking like this. I enjoy ruminating on fiction, so its nice when something gets my brain wondering how I wouldve done things if I were the writer. Still, I felt the characters occasionally acted kind of dumb given the life-or-death situation they were in. It was a small flaw overall, but a flaw nonetheless.

Overall: Talentless Nana has a unique premise, and I thought it handled it beautifully. I hope it gets a second season someday because the story left me wanting more. Nana was a compelling character, the side characters were all interesting in their own ways, and there were a lot of little things that appealed to me. Thanks for the recommendation, Cody! I need to wait a few days to let my opinions settle, but my initial reaction is that this would rank somewhere in my top 30. Hiiragi Nana would also have easily made it into my top 100 anime characters.

SeabassDebeste posted...

this topic may have inspired me to finally watch aggretsuko - the death metal does seem grating but the anime sounds fun

I may not have loved it, but it's never a bad idea to try an anime out! I would've missed out on quite a few of my own favorites if I listened to anyone else.

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Season 1 might be the weakest season imo, and roba I won't fully spoil it but some things happen in season 3 that cater almost directly to your tastes lol

That's interesting to hear, I wonder if that means it has a Fenneko arc or if it's something else. Like I said in my write-up, I didn't hate Aggretsuko, so I'll probably go back to it someday. I just didn't want to prioritize it in the little time I had before starting this ranking.

I got my last dreamer mask from Mewtwo and beat my game, no need to worry about my Monarch Wings anymore, NFUN! This is the first time I've ever beaten HK without them, it was a neat experience seeing how far I could get in all directions without double jump.

At a glance it didn't look like I sent out anything great, but hopefully even the smaller items make life easier for people

216. Havent You Heard? Im Sakamoto
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32542/Sakamoto_Desu_ga
Spring 2016 (12 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 7.56/10
Best Character: Sakamoto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8d3bW42aFY

Premise: The handsome Sakamoto makes the girls swoon and is perfect at everything he does. The boys in his high school keep trying to bring him down, but Sakamoto foils them every time.

The Good: Some of the ways Sakamoto managed to come out on top were funny for their absurdity, especially early on before the whole concept became stale.

The Bad: This anime felt like it only had one joke and it kept using it over and over. Sakamoto encounters a situation that should bring him down a peg, but hes perfect so he makes it through looking even better than before. It quickly became repetitive. It wouldnt be so bad if this was a rapid-fire comedy where there were dozens of gags per episode. Sadly, most of these scenarios were stretched to fill time and felt overlong. I also never felt much attachment to Sakamoto, so I didnt care whether he got through these zany situations or not.

Overall: Havent You Heard? Im Sakamoto is the type of anime where, if you like this style of humor, itll be great because its nothing but that. If youre like me and dont care for it much, its mostly just boring.

There were still the occasional great episodes in S10 to S12, but by S13 it was completely over. The downturn began in S9, so I voted for that.

I got Crystal Heart, which let me get some more stuff. I don't think I sent out anything great though (I have no idea if the DKC3s need all these coins or not)

Movie write-ups will come throughout the day. Just wanted to do the two airing mini write-ups while I'm at home at my keyboard.

218. The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious
This is a currently airing anime, so this is only a tentative ranking and the real write-up will come when it finishes. I'm glad these rankings can be changed, too, because unless it starts doing something else soon, this Maid anime is going to fall a lot further. It started late in the season and only has three episodes at the moment, but those three episodes have basically been the same joke over and over and over. Little boy finds sexy maid attractive but doesn't understand sexual attraction yet. Maid gets flustered. Repeat as many times as necessary to fill an episode. I hope it starts having literally anything other than that at some point. This is an adaptation of a manga by the same author who made Jahy, which I really enjoyed, so I'm sticking with it.

217. The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting
This is a currently airing anime, so this is only a tentative ranking and the real write-up will come when it finishes. I can tell what type of anime The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting wants to be. It wants to be one of those wholesome "looking after a kid" feel-good slice-of-life anime, but with a slight twist in that the guy is a yakuza! The problem is, in order to keep things wholesome, the whole yakuza aspect is never used for anything other than the occasional beating of a rival thug. Hinamatsuri had a yakuza looking after a kid too and used it to wonderful effect for a whole bunch of jokes. The yakuza element in this is wasted. The "looking after a kid" part also feels way too clean and soulless so far. The little girl and the yakuza bonded and became inseparable almost instantly. Deaimon from last season handled this premise a lot better because the guy and the kid had to actually get to know each other and grow closer first. Still, even at its worst, this anime is just kind of hollow, so I'm sticking with it.

SeabassDebeste posted...

in general if seasons are distinct then i'm much more apt to give high rankings to shows with really good stretches, since i can remember those good moments, even if (usually later) parts are iffier - there have been a few where you said the second halves really dragged them down

I definitely have a few anime where I don't let a bad season or crappy ending sour me on it too much. The ranking is just in the lower half at the moment, so right now we're only seeing the ones where bad endings did impact my overall enjoyment

I got Tram Pass, which opened HK up a bit. Without double jump, lamp, or Isma's tear, though, only so much I could do.

Since Factorio shows everything in the game from the beginning, I see my Monarch Wings are in NFUN's world at braking force 6. Not sure how tough that'll be to get, but I recently sent you some more logistics so I hope that helps!

221. Shirobako
https://myanimelist.net/anime/25835/Shirobako
Fall 2014 (24 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 8.30/10
Best Character: Sakaki Shizuka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnSpVz1Oa8E

Premise: Five friends have entered the anime industry. Two join the illustrious Musashino Animation company and experience the trials and tribulations of creating an anime.

The Good: Shirobako is a detailed look at anime production from five unique directions, and it was fascinating to see the work that goes into making these shows. Its a lot of stuff I wouldve never really thought about, like how they divide and prioritize scenes or the work that goes into painting a background. The first half was a lot of fun. They only ever hit realistic production snafus, which was a lot better than the second half where one guy was a lazy jerk for no reason.

The Bad: The second half of Shirobako introduced the worst character ever, and within a second of meeting Shinsuke I think most people know how the rest of the season will go. Since the characters arent as savvy, half of Shirobakos runtime is dedicated to a trainwreck that shouldve been easily avoided. It was so annoying to watch that happen with no way to speed the melodrama up. Even in the superior first half, though, the characters werent all that compelling. They worked as perspectives into the anime industry more than as actual characters themselves.

Overall: Shirobako is an interesting look into anime production, and Im glad that I watched it for that reason alone. Even years later I still think about some of the things I learned from this show when watching new stuff. Sadly, the characters are all lacking in terms of being actual characters, and the second half descended into needless drama.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
220: No one in this anime is wearing pants.
219: This anime needed to be killed within a year.

page

Barret

(I honestly hadn't noticed at any point while preparing this ranking that this was three KyoAni shows in a row. I usually don't think of anime in terms of studios. I have nothing against KyoAni, though! As the rest of this ranking will prove, I've enjoyed as much of their stuff as I've disliked.)

222. Hyouka
https://myanimelist.net/anime/12189/Hyouka
Spring 2012 (22 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 8.09/10
Best Character: Irisu Fuyumi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tvOowLuKxs

Premise: Oreki Houtarou wants to live while expending as little energy as possible. Then he joins the same club as Chitanda Eru, a girl whose boundless curiosity forces Oreki to solve mysteries.

The Good: The animation was great. I also liked the concept. Solving unimportant mysteries is a fun idea, at least in theory. My favorite character still wound up being Irisu Fuyumi rather than anyone from the main cast, though. I liked how she thought as little of those characters as I do.

The Bad: I really wanted to like the main characters. Oreki is a character type Ive enjoyed in other anime. Chitanda is curious and cute, I shouldve liked her a lot. I didnt, though. I found Oreki boring, and the only thing I sympathized with him on was cringing every time Chitanda got curious. Hyouka is difficult for me to explain my dislike for. My best attempt at putting this into words is that, while I like the idea of solving banal mysteries, I didnt like how seriously the characters treated them. It got really grating in one of the later mysteries when they were all genuinely angry and disappointed in Oreki for making a mistake. The mystery didnt even matter, and I didnt see any of them jumping in to solve it. I also didnt like how none of the mysteries felt like they gave enough clues for the viewer to solve it themselves ahead of time.

Overall: Hyouka is an anime that simply was not for me. I thought Id enjoy the central premise of low-stakes mysteries, but the way clues were provided, and the way characters approached them, turned me off. I think the concept wouldve worked better for me as a comedy. Hyouka felt like a drama instead and I just couldnt get into it.

th3l3fty posted...

Amanchu was bad from S1E1

hard to ruin something when it was never good to begin with tbqh

Clearly lefty is racist against muppets, because that's the only way I could see someone disliking half-muppet Pikari.

https://imgur.com/RPMRBgU

captaincanadian posted...

captaincanadian posted...
Auto for barret still, save at :36

bumping this

I'll take this for Rinoa

It isn't as simple as an average of the two seasons. It's about the overall feelings I come away from the show with, I guess. I liked a lot of stuff from Eupho S1, but then Eupho S2 soured me on just about all of those things. That's different from (future ranking spoilers) something like Amanchu. I didn't like Amanchu S2 very much, but it didn't ruin Pikari or anything so its ranking didn't suffer as much. I'd say Eupho S2 was a 3/10, and it was just such a strong 3/10 that S1 couldn't elevate it. I dunno, the rankings are unfair and mysterious.

KommunistKoala posted...

alright i take back what i said about call of the night

it can't get any worse than this

I thought about this when you tried to recommend Hibike Euphonium. Don't worry, Eupho is popular and well regarded enough that I'm almost certainly an outlier.

Everyone will probably feel disappointed in me in the near future, too. The 3/10s are a bit of a graveyard of popular anime that I just didn't like. There are still several shows ranked over 8 on MAL that are coming right up.

A good first day so far, everyone has started playing! I've done pretty much everything I can in HK, waiting on double jump or a lamp.

One of the last items I sent was a Varia Suit for Chrono, though! Hope it helps.

223. Sound Euphonium
https://myanimelist.net/anime/27989/Hibike_Euphonium
Spring 2015 (13 episodes), Fall 2016 (13 episodes) plus 1 OVA
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 8.00/10 S1, 8.30/10 S2
Best Character: Tanaka Asuka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt_EJXhrLOc

Premise: Oumae Kumiko joins the high school band club, led by a famous new advisor whose training is strict. Aiming for nationals, the club must work hard to overcome their differences.

The Good: I enjoyed the first season of Sound Euphonium quite a bit. It introduced things like the schism between the various grades and handled it well. The friendship between Kumiko and Reina was great, it was fun watching them grow closer and they had a lot of moments together. Asuka was also the absolute best. Her hilarity brightened every scene she was in.

The Bad: The second season of Sound Euphonium tainted my good feelings from the first. There were no more good Kumiko/Reina moments. What little Reina there was focused on her crush on their advisor, and I found it creepy how everyone supported it. I didnt like anything to do with those two new characters (Nozomi, Mizore) that they introduced. It felt like a retread of the drama between the grades from the first season. Kumiko also really shouldnt have had anything to do with that plot, but she kept being in the perfect spot to eavesdrop, and then everyone would decide this random first year was the one to fix their unrelated issues. It all felt hollow, like this was only happening because Kumiko was the protagonist. Not even Asuka could escape being ruined by the drama vortex that was Sound Euphonium S2.

Overall: If Sound Euphonium was only one season, Id probably rank it a 7 or an 8/10. The second season dragged so hard that I was left with very few good feelings by the end of it. I still seriously considered Asuka for my top 100 characters. When I think about her now, though, I dont remember her fun moments. I think of that awful subplot with her mother.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
222: Im curious how this anime ranked so low.
221: This anime shouldve produced a better anime.

I also found this after a quick search on reddit, which shows I'm at least not alone! Specifically the first three paragraphs, the rest seems like spoilers from later so spoilers for Violet Evergarden.

https://www.reddit.com/r/VioletEvergarden/comments/obwse7/why_violet_evergarden_is_the_worst_masterpiece_to/

I haven't seen Violet Evergarden since it aired, so I can't argue my position with a lot of supporting details from the show or anything. I'm also not going to argue that it's total trash and no one should like it. I mean, you should wait and see some of the dumb bullshit that makes up my own favorites! Everyone has different tastes.

I do want to clarify, though, that I think you misunderstood my orphanage comment. I meant they should've sent her to an orphanage rather than making her a child soldier, not send her to one after the war. Gilbert, Hodgins, etc, shouldn't have that guilt from forcing her take part in the war. She shouldn't have taken part in the war in the first place. I could accept it if this was a common thing in the setting. Child soldiers certainly exist in our own world, after all. But, from everything we're shown, it isn't common in the setting. Yet someone found this little girl and decided to turn her into a killing machine and I just... I don't buy it. I don't understand how that was even a thought someone had, and why no one stepped in and said "wtf are you doing, no we're not sending this little girl to war, what's wrong with you". If Violet was the standout soldier from a whole unit of child soldiers, it'd make a lot more sense to me. Her existing in a vacuum just feels so fake to me.

To use my own analogy again, it'd be like in WW2 if the Americans liberated a French village, found a little orphaned French girl, and decided to conscript her and make her fight for them. If the WW2 Americans were so desperate in some alternate universe that they were conscripting everyone with a pulse, okay fine, but that isn't the world that's presented. I guess I just can't get into the premise of Violet Evergarden. I can't imagine that situation happening in a world where it doesn't happen all the time. And the fact that she's a child soldier is such an important foundation for her character and everything that follows that maybe I didn't give the rest of the anime a fair shake, I dunno.

224. Violet Evergarden
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33352/Violet_Evergarden
Winter 2018 (13 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 8.67/10
Best Character: Charlotte Abelfreyja Drossel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc-XPJE3oeM

Premise: Former child soldier Violet Evergarden gets a job writing letters for people. She must infuse the clients words with feelings, but Violet herself has little understanding of emotions.

The Good: Violet Evergarden can be effectively split into two halves, with some episodes being stand-alone stories about her writing letters for someone. Disconnected from the main plot, I enjoyed most of those. They were manipulative to tug at the heartstrings, but Im a sucker for that kind of stuff. The one where she wrote love letters for a princess was my favorite.

The Bad: The other half of Violet Evergarden dealt with the titular character, and I didnt enjoy those at all. Violet makes no sense in this setting. Shes the only female soldier we see, the only child soldier, and the only person with robotic limbs, yet no one ever treats her as unique. Her characterization is flat, only changing depending on what the episode requires. A big deal is made when she passes the exam that allows her to write letters, but her big breakthrough was transcribing what the client said verbatim. Then in later episodes shes emotionally savvy to help a client. Then she goes back to being emotionless in her own episodes. Theres no consistency.

Overall: Violet worked when supporting other peoples stories, but as a character herself she never made any sense. I also found her undying love for her commanding officer off-putting. I mean, imagine a movie about World War I where a soldier forced a little girl to fight for him. Hed be viewed as an abusive villain, not a love interest. Again, this isnt common in the setting because Violet is literally the only child soldier that we see. Send her to an orphanage, dude. I havent seen the movie or any of the extra episodes, mostly because Im guessing theyll be about Violet rather than her helping people like the good standalone episodes.