Board 8 > Robazoid Ranks 275 Anime and Top 100 Anime Characters 2 (Average and beyond)

(+) Yeah! (+)

MacArrowny posted...

Somali good stuff. Got better as it went, IIRC. Shame the author died.

Oh dang, I didn't know the author died. All I remember reading was that the manga was on hiatus for so long that the publisher finally cancelled it. Learning that they died makes my no-ending complaint seem petty in comparison.

I liked the super powers in Dandelion. A couple were dumb, like Money and Probability Calculation, but they were mostly fun, and I loved how they came together in the finale.

MacArrowny posted...

Dandelion pretty meh. I barely remember anything about it, though I think I remember the romance being bad...?

I thought the eldest prince and his girlfriend were cute, but

Mobilezoid posted...

I also wasn't a fan of a few of the siblings having crushes on each other.

110. Vividred Operation
https://myanimelist.net/anime/14283/Vividred_Operation
Winter 2013 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 6.44/10
Best Character: Isshiki Akane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2ogn_TZgA

Premise: The Manifestation Engine has solved the world's energy crisis and led to an era of peace. Now strange aliens are trying to destroy it, however, and girls like Isshiki Akane are using something called the Vivid System to battle them.

The Good: Vividred Operation is a cute girls battle anime. It reminds me a lot of Strike Witches. Both feature girls who rarely wear pants using special powers to battle waves of mysterious aliens. I didn't rank Strike Witches very high, and my write-ups for it complained about the boring Neuroi and the unimaginative setting. Vividred Operation is the anime Strike Witches wishes it could be (and yes I know Vividred has a much lower MAL score and wasn't popular enough to spawn a franchise like Strike Witches. It's still better!). The setting in this is a sci-fi future where the Manifestation Engine provides infinite energy. The story explores what it means to have that power, and I liked those themes a lot. The aliens in this, the Alone, also have an understandable goal and characters who speak for them, which helps make them compelling. Vividred has a smaller cast of girls, and while none are super amazing they at least get time for characterization and cool moments. Akane was a lot of fun, but I also really enjoyed the character arc for Rei.

The Bad: The actual battles in Vividred Operation are serviceable, but they aren't super impressive. I like the Alone overall, but their attack forces run into the same problem Strike Witches did where they have no consistent visual style or power levels. The Vivid abilities also aren't too amazing or creative, but they work well enough.

Overall: Vividred Operation is a fun anime with cute girls, compelling themes, and serviceable battles. I always like it when sci-fi ideas like the Manifestation Engine are explored in this way. The story also had some surprising depth with both the themes and characters like Akane and Rei.

The first few eps of Vividred are amazing IMO. After that it got much less good, but I still enjoyed it overall. I would've liked more combinations, personally.

Whatever, Roba. You just hate the SW's WWII setting :P

109. Killing Bites
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34964/Killing_Bites
Winter 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 6.57/10
Best Character: Uzaki Hitomi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY5YHQ0fcfQ

Premise: People who've had their genes spliced with animals are battling each other on behalf of shadowy corporations. Nomoto Yuuya is just a normal guy, but he gets dragged into events by Uzaki Hitomi, who is part honey badger.

The Good: Killing Bites is a battle anime where various half-animal people use special animal powers to fight each other to the death. It's really trashy and edgy, full of blatant fanservice and brutal gore and over-the-top evil people. If you're willing to accept all of that, it's also a lot of fun! Yuuya is just a boring normal dude, but that makes him an excellent foil to the bloodthirsty Hitomi. It's always fun watching him react to the violent insanity happening around him. Hitomi is still my obvious favorite. She's always eager to fight and has lots of fun doing it. There are tons of other animal fighters, too, and they're all neat in their own way. They even start having team battles later on. Watching a gorilla-man, a hippopotamus-man, a bear-man, and a pangolin-man duke it out while the narrator bombastically explains their dumb animal powers is surprisingly entertaining. The fights themselves are fun too with lots of gore and special abilities.

The Bad: As fun as Killing Bites is, I think it leans into the edginess a lot more than it needs to. The opening sequence is Hitomi bloodily killing a bunch of guys who wanted to rape her, for example. There's no reason to introduce her like that other than being edgy just for the sake of it, and there are countless examples of that throughout the anime.

Overall: I enjoyed Killing Bites quite a bit, but I definitely had to look past or accept a few tasteless things along the way. The various animal people battling each other is brutal and entertaining. It's always a good time when the narrator explains a dumb animal fact to go along with their abilities. Killing Bites is also ultra trashy and proud of it, however. I was able to look past the gratuitous fanservice and sexual assaults, but I can see a lot of people being turned off by it.

the one with the sharpest fangs wins!

KommunistKoala posted...

the one with the sharpest fangs wins!

That's what Killing Bites is!

108. Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35889/Hakata_Tonkotsu_Ramens
Winter 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.38/10
Best Character: Banba Zenji

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrVt1hPpkVM

Premise: The city of Fukuoka is crawling with assassins and criminals of all different kinds, and private detective Banba Zenji is looking into them. Lin Xianming is hired to kill Banba, but the assassin instead decides to team up with the detective to get back at his bosses for a stagnant career.

The Good: Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens is an action anime set in a city where a good percentage of the population is engaged in some criminal enterprise or another. They aren't similar otherwise, but the setting reminded me of the John Wick movies where assassins are literally everywhere. It's an absurd premise, but it works because HTR never takes itself too seriously. Banba and Lin are good characters who have a fun dynamic. I also liked the network of people with different skills who help them go up against the bad guys. The various arcs are entertaining, stylish, and have lots of good action scenes.

The Bad: I haven't watched HTR in years, so there's a chance this aspect was actually handled more deftly than I remember. Lin is a man who cross-dresses as a woman, and I honestly can't recall why he does that. He isnt particularly feminine otherwise, so it always stuck out to me as an odd character trait. Also, while the story in this is enjoyable, it isn't especially deep.

Overall: Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens has lots of assassin vs assassin fun. The story and characters are both serviceable, but I mostly enjoyed this for the crazy setting. It felt like an action movie played straight with memorable characters and lots of action set-pieces.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
107: This anime has fallen for its nemesis.
106: This anime was so fragile that it shattered.
105: This anime is trapped in a moment of time.

Is 105 the Endless Eight reference? That'd be quite low for Haruhi but I guess I can't rule it out.

106 is probably Land of the Lustrous?

Yeah every time there's anything that could possibly be Haruhi it's the first thing I think of/hope for, but there's no way 105 is that, hint is too specific to an arc rather than the show premise (plus it's not really a "moment" per se)

gonna be Kokkoku imo

107. Love After World Domination
https://myanimelist.net/anime/48643/Koi_wa_Sekai_Seifuku_no_Ato_de
Spring 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.50/10
Best Character: Magahara Desumi

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

Premise: Aikawa Fudou leads the Gelato 5, a group of heroes who battle the evil organization Gekko. However, hes fallen in love with Magahara Desumi, Gekkos Reaper Princess!

The Good: Love After World Domination is a romantic comedy with lighthearted action. The Gelato 5 are basically the Power Rangers, always thwarting the evil Gekko. Fudou, musclebound leader of the Gelato, falls in love with Desumi, who is an incredibly strong enemy fighter but also a cute girl with no experience in love. I really liked how quickly they started dating. Anime usually ends the instant the couple gets together. I always found the stuff that comes after, like truly getting to know one another or overcoming relationship hurdles, to be far more interesting than the will-they-or-wont-they. The hurdles Fudo and Desumi face are humorously absurd, like pretending to battle whenever someone is watching or scheduling Gekko attacks at date spots. They still face typical relationship woes too, like jealousy or misunderstandings. Both Gelato and Gekko are filled with fun characters, including several quirky evil princesses. Desumi was still my favorite for how cute she was, and how sweet her and Fudou were together.

The Bad: There isnt anything egregiously terrible in Love After World Domination. I suppose the main thing holding it back for me is that it focused a lot more on the comedy than the romance. There is character growth and some heartwarming moments, but this is primarily a Power Rangers spoof. That was fun, but it can only carry something so high in the ranking.

Overall: Love After World Domination is a fun anime with a heartwarming romance between two supposed enemies. Fudou and Desumi are cute together, even if the goofy conflict theyre in makes things difficult for them. The action scenes are solid, and the romance is good. This is still primarily a comedy, and, while I enjoyed that aspect, it wasnt enough to rank this any higher.

The Bad: Episode 11.

I Fudou and the bear, but didn't care much for any of the other side characters. I was on the fence about dropping the series the entire time, then episode 11 happened, and I was out

I don't remember what happened in episode 11 specifically, but I thought the final arc of the show was one of the best parts! It leaned more into the romance hurdles, which was my favorite part.

Oooh, yeah that was definitely weird. I think I blocked that episode out in my memory.

106. Land of the Lustrous
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35557/Houseki_no_Kuni
Fall 2017 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 8.40/10
Best Character: Phosphophyllite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9MuI4gfyiA

Premise: Crystalline beings called Gems inhabit the world and defend against the mysterious Lunarians. Phosphophyllite dreams of fighting too, but its the most fragile Gem of them all.

The Good: Land of the Lustrous is an action/battle anime set in a strange fantasy world. There are gem-people of all different kinds, plus weird angelic beings who come from holes in the sky to break the gems and steal them. The animation is CGI, and while I didnt find it as impressive as most people did, it is very pretty and unique looking. It works well for the battles especially. The story mostly follows Phos, a young fragile gem who wants to fight but cant. I remember their character arc being interesting. The gems store memories in parts of their body, which means their growth isnt exactly linear. I also liked the poisonous Cinnabar a lot, though they werent as big of a presence in the season as Id hoped, they were a good driving force for Phos.

The Bad: The first season of Land of the Lustrous simply doesnt tell enough of the story. It does a good job with introducing the strange setting, and with Phos, but then it ends without really going anywhere substantial. Ive been waiting for a second season for five years now that will put all the things it set up to good use. Im beginning to fear it might never come.

Overall: Land of the Lustrous has unique CGI animation, a delightfully strange world, and a great main character in Phos. This feels like one of those anime where, if it got another season or two, it could easily become one of my favorites. Sadly, the story doesnt go far enough and by the end I mostly just felt disappointed. This would be less of a problem for people who are willing to read the source material, but Id rather keep hoping for another season someday.

I don't think LotL's animation is that incredible, but it's definitely the best-looking CGI anime series.

Also the source has had hiatus issues too so that isn't really a solution either :p

(I apologize for the super late third write-up. Weekends have been bad for me lately!)

105. Kokkoku
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36548/Kokkoku
Winter 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.00/10
Best Character: Yukawa Juri

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhBA6ynorvc

Premise: When Yakawa Juris nephew is kidnapped with a ransom demand for money the family doesnt have, they use a mystical stone to stop time. A hostile group follows them into the frozen moment, however, and there are things about this strange world that none of them understand.

The Good: Kokkoku is a supernatural drama set almost entirely in a single moment. I really love the mysterious concept of a stone that can freeze time. Various members of the Yukawa family head into the world of Stasis thinking itll be a foolproof way to stop some kidnappers, but of course it isnt that easy and not everything is as it seems. An impressive amount of history about the setting gets explored throughout the season. There are unknown rules and weird supernatural aspects to the world. Its just such a unique concept, and the kidnapping plot is an excellent way to explore it because the stakes are clear right away and remain important even as things start getting weirder. I liked pretty much all the characters, but Juri was my favorite.

The Bad: The pacing felt a bit disjointed at times, though not enough to ruin the story or anything. The much bigger problem was that some things came down to blind luck or deus ex machina, which is always unsatisfying compared to the characters smartly figuring a way out of their predicament.

Overall: I really enjoyed Kokkoku for its unique premise and the fact that it tells a self-contained story while still exploring all the weirdness of the setting. Sadly, there are times where the pacing is off, and the writing often relies on luck to make things work. Its still a solid anime, but this is the kind of thing that couldve jumped into my personal favorites if it were handled a bit better.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
104: A flying saucer looms over this anime.
103: This anime is on the verge of closing down.
C29: This character will do anything to save the place they love.

I just finished writing 103 and C29 in advance and the two of them combined are over 1300 words long, LOL. I think it's natural for these to get longer when it comes to my favorites since I'll have more to say, but this is the rare anime where there's a lot I wanted to gush about and a lot I wanted to complain about. I just hope a few people enjoy reading it!

104. Celestial Method
https://myanimelist.net/anime/23209/Sora_no_Method
Fall 2014 (13 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 6.76/10
Best Character: Noel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovc0PpxTVBQ

Premise: A group of five friends are broken apart when Komiya Nonoka moves away. Now she has returned and strives to bring everyone back together, along with figuring out their connection to a strange girl named Noel and the massive flying saucer thats loomed over the town for years.

The Good: Celestial Method is a drama about friends coming back together. A mysterious girl named Noel seems oddly eager to help them, and shes somehow linked to the UFO hovering over the town. I liked the setting. The flying saucer is pretty and gives an otherwise typical small town some flavor. More than anything, however, its the concept that resonated with me. Im a sucker for stories about old friends reuniting. Its always fun comparing how they were in the past vs how they are now, and heartwarming whenever they manage to overcome interpersonal drama. This isnt the greatest example of that, as Ill cover below, but I still enjoyed it. The strange girl Noel really carried the story whenever it started to drag, too. Who or what she was kept me engaged the whole time, and she was also very cute and fun as a character.

The Bad: I like stories where friends come back together, but Celestial Method isnt written as deftly as it could be. A whole bunch of their problems could be fixed if everyone just sat down and had a conversation. Theyre fractured more because of misunderstandings than any real hurdle they need to overcome. I blame that on Komiya having forgotten everything about her time with them for some reason. I usually like amnesia plots, but here its only included so she has to recall what happened with her friends bit-by-bit rather than solving everything right away.

Overall: Celestial Method is a nice anime about friends coming back together. Id have preferred if the reason for their schism was more substantial. The fact that Komiya could fix most things right away if she didnt have amnesia is a letdown. Still, Noel was always cute and fun to watch even when everything else was slow. The central concept of friends reuniting also appealed to me, which made me more willing to forgive Celestial Methods flaws.

103. The Aquatope on White Sand
https://myanimelist.net/anime/46093/Shiroi_Suna_no_Aquatope
Summer 2021 (24 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.51/10
Best Character: Misakino Kukuru

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su4N7i1f2oY

Premise: After quitting her idol career, Miyazawa Fuuka travels randomly and winds up at the Gama Gama Aquarium in Okinawa. There she meets Misakino Kukuru, the young director who will do anything to save the aquarium, and the two grow closer by sharing their broken dreams.

The Good: The Aquatope on White Sand is a slice-of-life drama about trying to keep a broken-down aquarium from closing. Its a basic premise, but it has additional elements that I absolutely loved. One is the relationship between the leads, Fuuka and Kukuru. Kukuru was my favorite for having a relatable dream and struggling to accomplish it, even to the point of going too far sometimes. I like Fuuka too. Shes lost everything, to the point of traveling randomly because she cant bring herself to go home yet, and then she stumbles into a place and meets a person who gives her life new meaning. Its a beautiful story, and I loved both of their character arcs.

The other element that I loved was a supernatural one. You can see it in the video for the Kukuru write-up below if you dont mind slight spoilers from near the end of the first episode (if you do mind, skip the rest of this paragraph). Fuuka is looking dejectedly into the fish tanks and then they start overflowing, quickly sweeping her up in an impossible rush of water. She finds herself floating for a moment surrounded by beautiful sea creatures. After the vision ends, Kukuru confirms it wasnt just symbolic visuals or something Fuuka imagined. It was something else, something real, and its a big reason why Gama Gama is so special. That element of magical realism instantly got my attention. I love stuff like that. That three-minute scene endeared me to this old run-down aquarium and told me that Aquatope was going to be a special anime.

The Bad: Aquatope was indeed a special anime for the first half, at least. If it ended at episode 12, this would be a solid 9/10 in my top thirty. The second half kind of ruined it. I wont get into too many details because the massive tonal shift is a spoiler (you can read my Kukuru write-up if youve seen the anime or dont care about spoilers). All Ill say is, this is another anime original by PA Works, creators of Shirobako and Hanasaku Iroha which Ive already ranked. Both of those featured miserable workplaces, but the second half of Aquatope beats both put together.

Overall: This was difficult to rank, because depending on whether I focus on the wonderful first half or crappy second half, my opinion on Aquatope fluctuates. In the end, I leaned towards my positive feelings. It tells a beautiful story of two girls growing closer through a shared commonality of broken dreams. There are wonderful themes about respecting life, what truly matters most, and coming together to overcome adversity. The second half feels needlessly bleak, but this is still an excellent story thats worth experiencing.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/8/3/AABz_zAADvQP.jpg

CHARACTER: Misakino Kukuru (The Aquatope on White Sand)
https://myanimelist.net/character/191197/Kukuru_Misakino
Voiced by: Itou Miku
TOP 100 RANK: 29th

VIDEO LINK (from first episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0szADOrs1Q

SPOILERS FOR THE AQUATOPE ON WHITE SAND

After losing her parents at a young age, Kukuru lived with her grandparents and grew up at the Gama Gama Aquarium. It makes sense why shed be so intensely attached to it, but the visions people sometimes experience there add another element. They allow her to glimpse her parents again, however fleetingly. When it looks like Gama Gama is shutting down, Kukuru struggles to save it. Thats when she meets Fuuka, a kindred spirit when it comes to broken dreams (though Kukuru hasnt given up on hers yet, no matter how hopeless it seems). The early parts involve her training the new girl, and there are some bumps along the way. Kukuru isnt perfect and can be intense about looking after the sea creatures. They soon grow closer regardless, especially because Fuuka is one of the few who truly believes that Kukuru can save Gama Gama.

Reality doesnt always bend to the power of dreams, however. Despite moderate success with things like sea creature exhibits or creative ice treats, there simply wasnt any hope of saving Gama Gama. Kukuru is forced to face that fact at the worst possible time, right before a massive typhoon blows through Okinawa. She responds in a way I found both compelling and relatable. She essentially throws a tantrum, barricades herself in the aquarium, and refuses to come out for anything or anyone. Fuuka only finally gets in by agreeing to join Kukurus last-ditch protest.

Sadly, they both soon have much bigger things to worry about. The typhoon causes massive damage, including cutting the power. Suddenly, the lives of all the sea creatures are at risk. Kukuru only manages to save them by accepting everyones help. The next morning, Gama Gama is a ruin. Kukuru has lost her important place but shes also found a way to accept it. Shes realized that the lives of the sea creatures are more important. Theyll be better cared for at the new aquarium, Tingarla, opening nearby. Kukuru decides to go work there, and Fuuka leaves for an acting career. Their dreams are gone, but life goes on and new dreams await them. It was a beautiful story. Aquatope shouldve ended there.

Since it didnt, Ill complain about the second half. First, Fuuka doesnt leave. All that wonderful character growth where she accepted losing her idol career but shifted to acting gets thrown out the window because the writers cant let one of the main characters naturally exit the story. She needs to come back and work in an aquarium for the rest of her life. Kukurus job at Tingarla is also incredibly frustrating. She gets put in marketing instead of a caretaker position like shes used to. I couldve accepted that if it were handled well. There are good reasons to see another side of business, especially since money is what ultimately safeguards the living creatures.

Her new coworkers are over-the-top assholes, however, and her manager is the worst of them all. He dumps a gigantic pile of paper on her desk. Buried at the literal bottom is a task Kukuru needed to complete right away, which he of course doesnt mention otherwise. Hes just such a caricature of a bad boss who sets her up for failure over and over. Its miserable to watch. Kukuru would be so happy working with the fish, but instead shes drowned in work she has no passion for and constantly insulted by the worst boss imaginable. Her workload even forces her to miss visiting Gama Gama one last time before its torn down. I nearly dropped Aquatope at that point. The first half had realistic roadblocks for her to struggle against and learn from. The second half was being miserable towards her just for the sake of it.

Luckily, Aquatope won me over near the very end. Kukuru manages to settle into her role, and having an awareness of all aspects of running an aquarium makes her a likely candidate to take it over in the future. I understand why it made sense for her to go into marketing rather than stagnating in a comfortable role she already knew. I just think the writers couldve gotten there without putting her through hell. Kukuru also finally has another vision of her parents, proving that they werent tied to Gama Gama after all. Their spirits will be with her wherever she goes. Aquatope kind of sucked in the second half, but at least it ended with a nice sentiment.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
102: Punching this anime negated its special powers.
C22: This character has an encyclopedic knowledge of the forbidden.
101: This anime pulled a bunch of junk one-stars from the gacha.

2nd half of Aquatope >>> 1st half

But then I really like those PA Works workplace shows that you hate, so yeah. Kukuru's storyline was definitely the weak part of the second half, though. It's just nonsensical. She's not qualified for the job they have her doing, they aren't training her in any meaningful way, and somehow it's her fault when she keeps screwing up? That's just bullshit.

I thought Aquatope had a really strong 1st episode and then just immediately stopped caring about it after that. Not totally sure why, though I will say that I did not like the "fantasy"(?) aspect of this show at all. I'm pretty confident I would like the 2nd half more but alas I never made it there.

pyresword posted...

I will say that I did not like the "fantasy"(?) aspect of this show at all

Agreed, it doesn't add much to the show and they don't do anything interesting with it. One thing of the things I like about the second half of the show is that the magical stuff is almost entirely dropped.

I stand by my feeling that the magical stuff was one of the best parts of the show. They could've done more concrete stuff with it, sure, but it led to some beautiful visuals and had a lot of neat symbolism.

The second half of Aquatope should've had an episode or two for each year, getting a new job each time, ending with an older Kukuru taking over the new aquarium IMO. As it is, her new job just feels meaningless.

Robazoid posted...

102: Punching this anime negated its special powers.

Sounds like Index...

Robazoid posted...

C22: This character has an encyclopedic knowledge of the forbidden.

Yep, definitely Index.

aquatope sounds interesting. not sure how i'd respond to the second half - the work drama sounds interesting but the actress being forced back for story's sake would be a downer to me

Yeah idk. I tend to like work drama stories, but the way it's described makes it sound like bad work drama. Just another reason not to go back to the series I guess >.>

Also apparently I forgot to comment on Land of the Lustrous but I more or less agree. Show was pretty good but it felt so incomplete in a way that even most other incomplete anime adaptations don't. I tried reading the manga and loved some of it but eventually lost interest, though I don't know if that's the manga's fault or my fault. (I'm just very bad at absorbing and comprehending information when it's presented in manga form for some reason, which is problematic for a series like this...)

Aquatope is definitely fantastic first half and mediocre to bad second half. Kind of annoying, really.

102. A Certain Magical Index
https://myanimelist.net/anime/4654/Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index
Fall 2008 (24 episodes), Fall 2010 (24 episodes), Fall 2018 (1/26 episodes, unfinished) plus 1 movie
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.37/10 S1, 7.55/10 S2, 6.81/10 S3
Best Character: Index Librorum Prohibitorum

My Index Figure: https://imgur.com/w2PNZrH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv2Ybecq92E

Premise: Academy City is a metropolis on the cutting edge of research, and many of the people living there have psychic powers. Kamijou Touma has the ability to negate the supernatural with one arm, and his adventure begins when he meets Index, a girl who has memorized the entirety of magical knowledge.

The Good: A Certain Magical Index is a sci-fi action anime. I should state right away that I don't have a great memory of this series, and I still haven't watched the third season. I'll rewatch it all someday, but with seven big seasons between Index and the Railgun/Accelerator spinoffs, I haven't gotten around to it yet. Even in the Index character write-up below, I'll speak more broadly than I usually like to.

Having said that, I definitely remember enjoying the Index anime! Academy City is a fun setting, like a literal city of adventure. It's always crawling with psychics and wizards and shadowy plots. Touma keeps getting dragged into things one way or another. He's unique in that his only power is negating other people's supernatural abilities. I found a lot of excitement trying to figure out how he could use that to get out of his latest predicament. He was a hard-counter to some enemies, but others used theirs in ways that weren't as easily cancelled out. Index was a fun character too, but there's a huge cast of side characters who are all great. Misaka and Kuroko are much better in this than they were in their Railgun spinoff, for example. The Index anime is filled with crazy situations and impressive battles.

The Bad: This might just be because my memory of the series is fuzzy, but even while watching it I struggled to keep up at times. It's such a sprawling world filled with various factions moving against one another. There are secrets and plots, and some things are kept purposely vague for a later reveal. I'm just hoping I'll have an easier time following everything when I rewatch it someday!

Overall: A Certain Magical Index is an impressive series. It mostly follows Touma and Index (though the focus on her definitely diminishes as it goes on), but there's a large cast who all get their moments to shine too. Not many shows could easily have two spinoffs! The world is massive in scope, and the plots and battles that took place within it were exciting.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/9/6/AAcDcBAADvc8.jpg

CHARACTER: Index Librorum Prohibitorum (A Certain Magical Index)
https://myanimelist.net/character/13699/Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum
Voiced by: Iguchi Yuka
TOP 100 RANK: 22nd

SPOILERS FOR A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xn4c07FDFI

Index is the titular character, and the first arc was all about her meeting Touma and him protecting her against the people who were after her. While she doesn't disappear from the plot after that, her importance definitely fluctuates depending on the arc. It's to the point where I've seen people mock her as superfluous in the series that bears her name. I'm glad Index stuck around, though! She's one of my favorite anime characters.

She has such a fun personality. She's always hanging around being energetic or cute. Despite her upbringing in the church and having countless tomes of know jammed into her head, she's a regular girl in a lot of ways, always positive and happy. I found it hilarious how she would comically bite Touma whenever something wasn't going her way. Her continuing to mooch off him and follow him around long after she should've probably moved on is funny too. Her and Touma have a great dynamic. I was always glad that she was there, even when she didn't contribute much.

I also think a lot of viewers don't give Index the credit she deserves. The specific plots may not always give her something to do, but it's important to remember that Index has a powerful ability as well. Her encyclopedic knowledge of all things magical makes her incredibly powerful in the right situation. The video I linked above was one of my absolute favorite moments in the series. A golem rises from the street and attacks Index. She's completely alone. Touma isn't there to negate it. Misaka isn't around to blast it with a coin. It's just Index... but she doesn't run or panic. She just calmly recognizes exactly what it is and then turns to face it. For the next few minutes, Index embarasses that massive golem. She intercepts the orders coming in from its controller, and she uses a safety pin to interrupt its bodily functions. Index damn near destroys the thing all on her own, only losing when the controller unexpectedly switches it to act autonomously. I honestly don't remember how Index made it out at the end of that video. Still, I think she put up a good fight!

I'm sad that I don't remember enough to say more about her. I fell in love with Index right away, and she remained a hilarious and welcome presence throughout the rest of the anime. The writer may not have always known what to do with her, but I'm grateful that they saw the benefits of having her stick around after her initial arc was over.

Index was good fun even if I didn't like it quite as much as Railgun, and some arcs are actually really good.

Until season 3 but I prefer to pretend that does not exist.

I can't support any positive feelings towards Index (character) I'm sorry

KommunistKoala posted...

I can't support any positive feelings towards Index (character) I'm sorry

Here's a gif of poor, innocent Index looking sad about that

https://i.gifer.com/Csg8.gif

she smiled at the end I think she understands and accepts it

Mobilezoid posted...

I also think a lot of viewers don't give Index the credit she deserves. The specific plots may not always give her something to do, but it's important to remember that Index has a powerful ability as well.

You sure about that? I've seen a bunch of people say they like Index when she's not around Touma since she's more competent in those scenes.

I mostly just remember that a lot of people hated Index. There's a chance I'm wrong about the consensus on when/why she's bad. I liked her all the time, personally.

101. Last Period: The Journey to the End of the Despair
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37254/Last_Period__Owarinaki_Rasen_no_Monogatari
Spring 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 6.38/10
Best Character: Choco (also special mention to the Wiseman trio)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a6ts3eSNxY

Premise: In a world beset by monsters, Haru is just one adventurer of many trying to hold them back. Then someone robs his adventurer guild, forcing them to rebuild it from nothing.

The Good: Plenty of anime are little more than advertisements for gacha mobile games. Last Period, however, is a comedy set in the fantasy world of a gacha mobile game! Theres no fourth wall here. The characters do literal pulls on the gacha and lament how unfair the drop rates are when they get nothing but one-stars. The game is clearly cheaply made because the mayors in each town are all palette-swaps of each other, and this gets called out often too. Last Period is just goofy, stupid fun the whole way through. For example, Haru and friends regularly face off with a bad guy trio known as Wiseman. They always burst into the scene with a dumb intro like theyre Team Rocket, it's amazing. All of this comes together to create a show thats simultaneously super lame and surprisingly hilarious.

The Bad: Last Period doesnt take itself seriously at all. That works for the humor most of the time, but its a bit of a handicap when it comes to crafting a story for the audience to care about. The production quality also isnt the greatest, though the humor makes that work more often than not because the game world itself is characterized as being cheap.

Overall: Last Period is a lame show, but its just so charming in its lameness. I loved it when Choco made a self-aware comment or Haru pulled another one-star with the last bit of currency they had. The greatness of Wiseman also cannot be overstated, I love their theme song in the ED.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUFhdk6mR3E

COMING UP TOMORROW:
Actual write-ups for the five airing anime I skipped (Shine Post, Luminous Witches, Call of the Night, Yakuza Babysitting, Mysterious Maid). Technically Shine Post and Maid are still airing but I doubt my opinion on them will dramatically shift at this point. I'll try to do all five, at least. This might end up taking two days.

In any case, we're done the 6/10 Above Average Tier! Next is a bit of a break to finalize the lower portion of the ranking. Then we finally move into my top 100 with the 7/10 Good Tier.

I'll continue to allow guesses for my top 100 character gender ratio until the top 60. It's currently 3:7 (male:female). It takes two seconds to throw out a random number, I'm surprised more people haven't guessed just for fun!

CURRENT GUESSES
Mac's guess: 25:75
Seabass's guess: 29:71
Koala's guess: 32:68

In the end, 90% of my top 100 characters are in my top 100 anime. There are a few honorable mentions from these bottom tiers, however! Some of these just didn't quite make the cut after a watch or rewatch (Toradora, Heroines, SxF, Dragon Pilot) others were from anime I simply refused to rewatch (Citrus, Euphonium, Scum's Wish, Hanasaku), and two are from anime I'd have gladly rewatched if it were available to me (AKB0048, Vividred). Still, they're all fine characters worthy of a mention.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Aihara Yuzu (Citrus)
Yasuraoks Hanabi (Scum's Wish)
Suzumi Hiyori (Heroines Run the Show)
Tanaka Asuka (Sound Euphonium)
Amakasu Hisone (Dragon Pilot)
Matsumae Ohana (Hanasaku Iroha)
Anya Forger (Spy x Family)
Motomiya Nagisa (AKB0048)
Aisaka Taiga (Toradora)
Isshiki Akane (Vividred Operation)

Index would be such a good show if Index wasn't in it.

Yakuza fell from its placeholder position of 217 to 242. It's now barely ahead of School Babysitters because both are bad anime about looking after kids and both offended me.

242. The Yakuzas Guide to Babysitting
https://myanimelist.net/anime/49776/Kumichou_Musume_to_Sewagakari
Summer 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 7.79/10
Best Character: Sakuragi Yaeka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XM3dG1Yns0

Premise: Kirishima Tooru is a yakuza lieutenant with a fearsome reputation. Then he's given the toughest assignment of all, babysitting the boss's young daughter Yaeka!

The Good: The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting is a slice-of-life comedy about looking after a little girl. These kinds of "Dad" anime are pretty common, but the twist here is that Tooru is a yakuza! This is still mostly about Yaeka being cute, and I'll admit it does an okay job at that.

The Bad: This whole anime just felt hollow. I could tell what it wanted to be. It kept trying to have poignant and heartwarming moments, like with Yaeka's comatose mother or her and Tooru growing closer. They were all just handled so clumsily that none of them worked for me (which is saying a lot because usually I'm a sucker for this kind of show). Tooru being a yakuza didn't work either. Despite his fearsome reputation, he's perfect around Yaeka from the very beginning. They can't grow closer because they're as close as they can reasonably get by the end of episode one. The only time him being in the yakuza matters was one later plotline, and that was handled so offensively that it's the real reason this fell so far in my ranking. The tone went dark really clumsily, wasn't done well, and it didn't mesh at all with the more lighthearted stuff in the rest of the anime.

Overall: The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting wanted to be a Dad anime about looking after a cute little girl, but it stumbled every step of the way. One arc near the end was also outright offensively bad. A better anime about a yakuza looking after a kid is Hinamatsuri, though it's more of a comedy. Deaimon is a generic anime about looking after a kid that's also much better than this. Compared to them, Yakuza has no reason to exist and was terrible in every way.

The yakuza stuff in the show is boring yeah. I thought the last ep was pretty good tho.

That last dramatic arc just really bugged me. It wasnt even that Yaeka got attacked and hurt, that could've worked. It was when her father was angrily berating Kirishima for not waiting with her at the hospital. She's your daughter, dude. Why don't you wait at the hospital. Instead the dad barely seemed to care, and you'd think it would've hit him harder than anyone given his comatose wife. Then Kirishima tried to commit suicide over it, which struck me as needlessly dark and really out of character. The last episode went back to lighthearted cuteness, but nothing could've washed away the bad taste of that dramatic arc.

Mysterious Maid fell from a placeholder position of 218 to 241. That's only one higher than Yakuza, but I put it here because The Junji Ito Collection is now 240 and Maid was even more boring and poorly put together than that, which is saying a lot.

241. The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious
https://myanimelist.net/anime/51837/Saikin_Yatotta_Maid_ga_Ayashii
Summer 2022 (11 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.30/10
Best Character: Nakashima Natsume

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUkgO0yE1CE

Premise: After his parents die, a young boy named Yuuri is left to look after himself in an empty mansion. Luckily a mysterious maid, Lilith, shows up offering to work for free... but Yuuri can't shake the feeling that she's suspicious!

The Good: The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious is about a young boy who isn't quite old enough to understand his attraction to his sexy maid, so he interpets it as suspicion. It's a comedy (or tries to be one, anyway) where the maid is playful to put him at ease, but he's so straightforward about his feelings that the maid is the one getting flustered. The only nice thing I can say about this anime is that Lilith is indeed very attractive. Natsume, another maid who shows up later, is always angry and was easily the best character of them all.

The Bad: This anime is basically the same jokes and situations over and over. Yuuri keeps thinking about the sexy maid, which he interprets as suspicion, so he spies on her. Lilith realizes he's spying on her and playfully asks if he enjoys looking at her. Not realizing what that really means, Yuuri confirms that he loves looking at her, and she must've put a spell on him because he wishes he could stare at her forever. Maid gets flustered. Just imagine slight variations of that stretched to fill eleven episodes and that's the whole anime. Even beyond the boring repetitiveness of it, this anime is so ugly and low budget too. Every background is a real picture painted over with weird filters, it looks terrible.

Overall: The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious is one of the most boring, repetitive, and ugly anime I've ever seen. Even if this scenario is someone's kink, they'd be much more satisfied just reading a hentai. If anyone wants an anime about a maid who actually is suspicious, I suggest Uzamaid.

Call of the Night fell from a placeholder rank of 233 to 237. This puts it barely ahead of The Master of Ragnarok, another anime where a bland dude had an undeserved harem and where nothing that happened actually mattered.

237. Call of the Night
https://myanimelist.net/anime/50346/Yofukashi_no_Uta
Summer 2022 (13 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 8.14/10
Best Character: Asai Akira

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rckYQnPW-wk

Premise: Fourteen year-old Yamori Kou goes wandering outside one night and meets Nanakusa Nazuna, a vampire. After she shows him how enthralling the night can be, Kou decides he wants to be a vampire too, which means he needs to fall in love with Nazuna.

The Good: Call of the Night tries to be a few different genres (slice-of-life, romance, occasionally action) but in my opinion it isn't really anything. I'll cover that below, though. In terms of nice things, it's a very pretty anime. The nighttime scenery is genuinely beautiful and the animation is fluid. I also like the ED, though mostly because of the song.

The Bad: Call of the Night starts with Kou catching the eye of a sexy vampire. I don't know why. He's a generic loser who stumbles around struggling to wrap his tiny mind around concepts like friendship and love. That last one becomes a problem when he needs to fall in love with Nazuna to become a vampire. I do understand why he struggles with that, though. She's an annoying gremlin who isn't fun to be around and refuses to show affection beyond sucking his delicious blood (a thinly veiled metaphor for sex). Most of the anime is these two goobers hanging around with each other grappling with fairly basic feelings and having faux-philosophical conversations about the beauty of the night. One half-episode plot in the middle involves meeting a woman who hates her job, leading Kou to give her an impassioned speech about how she doesn't need to go to work and should enjoy the night instead. And this woman is so moved by this, she... goes to work. I just don't understand what the point of any of that was, I guess, and I had that feeling of bafflement throughout this whole anime. The plot and setting are both blatantly being made up as the story goes along. There were points where the writer seemingly realized absolutely nothing was going on, so they introduced new stuff out of nowhere to raise the stakes. These new elements never alter the status quo, however, not even when they probably should.

Overall: Call of the Night wasnt offensively bad. It's just all style and zero substance. The visuals are pretty, but the characters are all flat and nothing actually happens. Even when new characters show up and it feels like things are happening, none of it matters in the end. I can't think of a better word to describe this anime other than "pointless". It's very popular, however, so I guess I just didn't get it.

boo

https://imgur.com/TI3mWjU