I'll admit this season really had a rough start to it. I started out with almost 20 simulcasts, many of which I was praising in their first couple of episodes. By the end of the season, my simulcast schedule had shrunken down to 6 shows with many of the shows I was praising being dropped a few episodes later.
The season had its ups and downs. Some series stood out for sure (both in good and bad ways) but all together the season felt rather below average.
(Series are in order from Best to Worst based on my opinions of them.)
The Good
(Series that I both finished and thoroughly enjoyed from the season)
Chaika: The Coffin Princess
Studio: Bones
Director: Soichi Masui
Number of episodes watched: 12/12
Genre: Adventure, High Fantasy, Action, Steampunk, Comedy
Additional seasons: Confirmed, Fall season 2014
Awards: Best Series of the Season, Best Adventure Series, Best Fantasy Series, Best World Building
I'll admit I'm a bit of a Fantasy nerd. I never get tired of playing D&D. I out right bought the DVDs to series like The Slayers, Scrapped Princess and Orphen without having seen a single episode from them prior simply because of their setting. I'd easily say my favorite comics are Skullkickers and Rat Queens.
And Chaika hits all of my Fantasy nerd buttons perfectly. The series' world building is wonderful as it establishes some interesting steampunk elements in with the usually elements in a High Fantasy series. Most notably is the fact that the magic users in the series have to use tools known as "Gundo." These tools can be anything from horseless carriages to floating fortress. But the most common one in the series are the snipers rifles Chaika herself and other characters use.
I also loved the designs they used for the magic itself
One of the things I especially liked about the series is how they make the main character a Rogue. One of the things I find annoying about many High Fantasy series is that the Rogue class is almost always ignored for either a Fighter or Sorcerer character.
All in all the series charmed me so much that I more than happily give it my Series of The Season award as well as Best Adventure, Best Fantasy and Best World Building.
Knights of Sidonia
Studio: Polygon Pictures
Director: Kōbun Shizuno
Number of episodes watched: 12/12
Genre: Sci-fi, Action, Mecha
Additional seasons: Confirmed, Fall 2014
Awards: Best Sci-fi Series, Best Mecha Series, Best CGI, Best Opening, Best Soundtrack
I'll also admit that I'm also a sci-fi nerd. One of my biggest problems however is how very few hardcore space opera sci-fi anime series there are. Often times series will either only sprinkle the sci-fi elements in here and there or end up just being more fantasy then sci-fi.
Knights of Sidonia, however, nails one of the most perfect space opera aesthetic to come out of anime from the last couple of years. Just details like the fact that the Gardes (mechs of the series) use each other's engines to accelerate to distant places in four mech groups, the fact that a hard turn for such a gigantic ship as Sidonia can cause quite extensive damage to its residential area and the fact that human genetics have advanced to the point where humans can outright photosynthesis and create gender neutral people who can out right choose what sex they wish to be, all hit just the right sci-fi buttons for me.
As this is from the same studio that made Tron: Uprising the CGI is very similar minus the nice color pallet Uprising had. I will say that CGI for the characters feels a bit awkward at times but for action scenes and basically everything else it is perfect.
Music wise, the soundtrack captures the series perfectly. it mixes in more epic tracks for action while also having creepier tracks for all the moments involving the Guana (alien/plant/fleshy creatures of the series) doing something unexpected. And of course it can't go without saying the opening is easily one of the best of the season. Just the combination of the singer's voice with the background chorus and the segments in the song with the bagpipes just make it one of the most epic tracks I've heard all year. Plus the lyrics and visuals capture the theme of the series perfectly.
Unfortunately Netflix didn't really understand what a simulcast is so I had to go through less then official means to watch this series. However, Knights of Sidonia will be available exclusively on Netflix July 4th (With both the Japanese dub and an English one I might add)
Considering how few other sci-fi series there were this season (and how of those, many aren't even worth mentioning) I have no qualms giving Knights of Sidonia the Best Sci-fi Series of the Season award along with Best Mecha, Best CGI, Best Opening and Best Soundtrack and if it wasn't for Chaika, I might have also given it Series of the Season.
The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior
Studio: Brain's Base
Director: Shigeyuki Miwa
Number of episodes watched: 12/12
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Slice-of-Life
Additional seasons: Not confirmed
Awards: Best Comedy Series, Best Closing
Naturally one would need a more comedic/slice-of-life series to balance out the heavier action ones and Kawai Complex was definitely said series for me this season. The series delivers just the right mix of pleasant humor while also adding the occasional heartwarming moment to create an all-around enjoyable experience. The series has a habit of being pretty adorable all around though the humor itself tends to be a bit more mature (I.E. one of the characters is a literal masochist and another is... not the happiest camper when it comes to relationships). Not exactly Seitokai Yakuindomo levels but heading in that general direction. The main characters all felt very adorable together and the series made me laugh quite a bit.
Additionally the closing is easily one of the most pleasant of the season. Mixing an upbeat tone with vocals from the main female characters and visuals that captured each character's personality perfectly. All together the closing fit the series perfectly.
All of this combines I more than happily give the series Best Comedy of the Season as well as Best Closing.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
Studio: David Production
Director: Naokatsu Tsuda, Kenichi Suzuki
Number of episodes watched: 13/?
Genre: Action, Shonen
Additional seasons: Confirmed, 4 cour
Awards: Best Action Series, Best Use of Licensed Music
Of course we can't go without bringing up an action series. I'll admit I only started watching JoJo Bizarre Adventure after Crunchyroll added it to their site at the beginning of the season but I absolutely adored the first two parts. Unfortunately Stardust Crusaders didn't charm me anywhere near as much asBattle Tendency did but it still had the wonderful stufective*-ness (Stupid + Effective. It's stupid yet effective. Term unofficially coined by Tristan Gallant ofGlass Reflection) of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure that got me hooked in Phantom Blood.
I think biggest problems with it is it more less went from a stupid-yet-fun adventure series to a "Stand of The Week" series and the fact that we from Joseph Joestar, almost the Battle Shonen equivalent of a "Just As Planned" character as the protagonist to more stoic yet bland Jotaro Kujo.
The season still capture general awesomeness of JoJo so I more than happily give it Best Action Series of The Season and the use of Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles as the closing song fit the season so perfectly that I decided to give it Best Use of licensed Music as well.
The World Is Still Beautiful
Studio: Pierrot
Director: Hajime Kamegaki
Number of episodes watched: 12/12
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Fantasy
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: Best Romance Series, Best Characters
This series I'll admit had its problems. The age difference between the main characters felt rather unnecessary (hell, you could have raised Livius' age and it have changed absolutely nothing about his character), the music can felt a bit off at times and the later episode don't quite have the same charm as the first couple.
That being said, The World Is Still Beautiful does a lot great stuff to make up for its flaws. For starters it's probably one of the most happiness inducing series of the season. It just has so many little moments here and there with the characters that were so heartwarming that out right raised my mood (Especially after having watched an episode of a few other series I'll mention later on). Additionally the two main characters, Nike and Livius, work extremely well together with neither feeling subordinate or weaker to the other in their relationship and both rely on each other equally.
In fact I felt that the characters worked so well together enough to give The World Is Still Beautiful both best Romance Series of The Season and Best Characters of The Season.
The Comic Artist and His Assistants
Studio: Zexcs
Director: Takeshi Furuta
Number of episodes watched: 12/12
Genre: Comedy, Ecchi, Harem
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: Best Short Series, Best Harem Series
Okay, not even I know why I exactly liked this series. It's basically everything I'd normally hate in an anime: an Ecchi harem with lots of fanservice humor... And yet something about it kept me coming back each week and enjoying each episode.
Maybe it was because of how hyperactive it was. Maybe it was because of how self-aware of what it was and how little it took itself seriously. Maybe it's just because of how out there it is.
Maybe it's the butt.
I'm just not sure why I liked. Hell, it had moments that were just a little too out there even for me (I.E. the "Breast Feeding" scene).
That being said, since it was the only harem series that I actually enjoyed this season, I'm going to give it Best Harem of the Season and since it's the better of the two short series I've watched this season I'm also giving it Best Short Series.
The Bad
(The series might not be bad per se but either have some flaws bad enough or just lost my interest enough for me to drop them)
Ping Pong: The Animation
Studio: Tatsunoko Production
Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Number of episodes watched: 5/11
Genre: Sports
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: Best Sports Series, Most Unique Art-Style
I'll admit I'm not a fan of sports in general. But the weirdness of the art-style in Ping Pong and the fact that it had same director as Kick Heartinterested me enough to check it out. All in all, however, my general dislike of sports series eventually won out and I dropped it about half-way.
Still I suppose as far as sports series go, it was pretty good. Good enough that I'm awarding it Best Sports Series of The Season as well as Most Unique Art-Style for just being plain out there.
Majin Bone
Studio: Toei Animation
Director: Kōnosuke Uda
Number of episodes watched: 8/?
Genre: Card Battles, Action, Shonen
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed?
Awards: none
Majin Bone was more or less just a filler series for me. There's really nothing at all special or interesting about. It has alright action and pretty good visuals but just doesn't have anything that makes it stand out. Which was why I immediately dropped it after the semester ended as I no longer needed something to keep me occupied during lunch time.
Magica Wars
Studio: Gainax
Director: Ayano Ohnoki
Number of episodes watched: 3/26
Genre: Magical Girl
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: none
The only other short series I watched this season, Magica Wars was... Okay. It was cute yes but coming in at only 4 minutes an episode it really didn't have much substance to it. With such a limited episode length, Magica Warswould have had to make best use of its time and it just didn't. Hell, Recorder and Randsell had basically the same episode length and that series made excellent use of its time.
One Week Friends
Studio: Brain's Base
Director: Tarou Iwasaki
Number of episodes watched: 6/12
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: Best Art Direction, Biggest Disappointment
One Week Friends tries to come off as a tear-jerking drama where the main female character has a special case of amnesia that makes her forget friends at the end of the week and thus main character has to reintroduce himself and ask her to be his friend at the start of each week (Kind of like 50 First Dates). Unfortunately the series does not really deliver on the whole sad part and it ends up being a rather boring slice of life comedy with drama elements. Additionally the main character feels very creepily possessive over the main female to an almost stalker-ish level at times (Kind of like 50 First Dates...)
That being said the artwork is very vibrant with earthier Easter like colors which adds a much more calming vibe to the series at times.
I found the artwork so pleasant that I'm awarding One Week Friends Best Art Direction of The Season. Unfortunately it absolutely failed to really live up to what it advertised itself as, I'm also giving it Biggest Disappointment of The Season.
Riddle Story of Devil
Studio: Diomedéa
Director: Keizō Kusakawa
Number of episodes watched: 2/12
Genre: Suspense, Yuri, Psychological thriller, action
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: None
I'll admit I'm not that big of a fan the "Highschooler sin a battle to the death" troupe. There's nothing I found bad about Riddle Story of Devil but it still lost my interest rather quickly. I really have nothing negative or positive to say about this series. It was just not my thing.
Captain Earth
Studio: Bones
Director: Takuya Igarashi
Number of episodes watched: 2/25
Genre: Mecha, Sci-fi
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: Best Animation
Unfortunately there are a lot of things I tend to find myself dislike about the mecha genre. The generally goofiness of many of the concepts and ideas the genre brings up and the plain goofiness of the mechs themselves often turns me off of the genre. There are plenty of great series in the genre that get past the annoying goofiness though. Either by putting more focus on the characters themselves rather than the mechs (Code Geass), being so grounded that they're almost not even in the genre itself anymore (Robotics;Notes) or by being completely self-aware of the genre's goofiness and just go full on with said goofiness (Gurren Lagann).
Unfortunately, Captain Earth fails to do any of the above. It takes basically all of the goofy elements of the genre and tries to pass them off seriously and just completely fails to be interesting. The writing was just so terribly boring that I just could not continue watching more than a couple of episodes.
That being said, this series is Bones at their finest. The animation in the series is very top notch as is with most Bones series and some scenes are ludicrously well animated even by Bones' standard. Which is enough for me to give Captain Earth Best Animated Series of The Season.
No Game No Life
Studio: Madhouse
Director: Atsuko Ishizuka
Number of episodes watched: 1/12
Genre: Ecchi, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: None
To summaries my opinions...
Alright, fine. What I saw of No Game No Life aggravated me intently. Not as much as another series I'll talk about in just a bit (*Cough* Soul Eater NOT *Cough*) but God damn I was not at all enjoying what I saw of the series. Too much fanservice, none of the characters come off as interesting to me and the world was equally uninteresting to me. There was just nothing about it I liked.
That being said, the general reactions I've heard from others have been hit or miss (Fine, more towards the hit category. But my point still stands) so it's definitely worth checking out just to see where you fall in it.
Black Bullet
Studio: Kinema Citrus, Orange
Director: Masayuki Kojima
Number of episodes watched: 1/12
Genre: Action, Sci-fi
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: None
Yeah... It's a lolita heavy anime with giant bugs and stuff... How could it not be... Uninteresting... Surprisingly there's not much to say about the series, it's bogged down by so much dumb stereotypical anime stuff that any actual interesting ideas sort of get washed away.
Brynhildr in the Darkness
Studio: Arms
Director: Kenichi Imaizumi
Number of episodes watched: 1/12
Genre: Sci-fi, Horror, Harem
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: None
Well right from the start I was getting bad vibes about Brynhildr in the Darkness. The PV for it seemed to be focusing a little too much on fanservice and the general premise was already beginning to turn me off. Not to mention that it was getting comparison to Elfen Lied which really started ringing my bad vibe bells about it. And what do you know: It was exactly what I was expected, bad vibes and all.
Also, the opening is dubstep-y and pretentious so there's that...
The Ugly
(These series are the absolute bottom of the barrel. Series that are either unforgivably bad, irredeemable pieces of crap or outright made me feel pain from their awfulness. Needless to say: I won't be holding back against them.)
Blade and Soul
Studio: Gonzo
Director: Hiroshi Takeuchi, Hiroshi Hamasaki
Number of episodes watched: 5/13
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: Worst Character Design, Worst Characters, Worst Lead Character, Worst CGI
Oh where to start with Blade and Soul. I know! The most glaringly obvious aspect of them all!
Yup, the character design in this show is the epitome of awful. Every single female character is a c-cup in pretty much the equivalent of a couple of pieces of cloth. Yes I am aware that they're very similar to the character designs for the MMO the show is based on. That does not in any way make it any less awful.
"Surely their character can't be as bad" Oh yes it can! The protagonist's personality is almost nonexistent and she pretty much lets ever other character lead her on instead of actually doing any thinking herself. Pretty much every other female character is equally uninteresting to downright annoying.
As far as male characters go, well, none of them live long enough. Yup, male characters are basically cannon fodder for the series. Maybe the writers couldn't figure out how to write actual good female characters so instead they thought they could make them somehow seem more badass by killing off most of the male characters they introduce. Literally the only male characters that survive are a rodent eared short guy and a fat henchman of the main villain. Also the fat guy only growls instead of talking, because none of the writers seemed to give a damn about him.
"growl!"... I would translate but it would be entirely be in expletives.
Since it's a Gonzo series, Blade and Soul has the typical horrible CGI Gonzo seems to love to inject into their series so there's that as well.
All that combined, Blade and Soul gets Worst Character Designs of the season, Worst Characterization of the Season, Worst lead Character of the Season and Worst CGI.
(This image contains incest)
The Irregular at Magic High School (Incest)
Studio: Manabu Ono (not incest I hope)
Director: Madhouse (most certainly not incest)
Number of episodes watched: 4(Incests)/26(Incests)
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Science fiction, (Incest)
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed (Incest all year round)
Awards: None (Incest of the Season)
Oh how evil The Irregular at Magic High School is (Evil incest). It starts with some really wonderful world building establishing a world where magic and technology have more or less become interchangeable and wizards are elite soldiers (And full of incest). And then it totally shites itself a not long after it starts (With incest). Every character is bland, the writing tends to be pretty awful and (if you haven't guessed by now) it has incest up the wazoo. You try to convince yourself that it'll get better and then it (yup) beats you over the head with incest.
In the end, this series is a complete stinking pile of poo (And incest).
Daimidaler: Prince vs. Penguin Empire
Studio: TNK
Director: Tetsuya Yanagisawa
Number of episodes watched: less than 1/3/12
Genre: Comedy, Mecha, Ecchi
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: None (A Big Golden Penguin Dick)
Yup, Penguin Dicks (or "Front tails" if you want to kill your brain cells.) Penguin dicks and groping as a plot device. I don't think there is anything more I could possibly add to this... It's basically written its own scathing review... Well Fu-
Soul Eater: NOT!
Studio: Bones
Director: Masakazu Hashimoto
Number of episodes watched: 1/12
Genre: Comedy, Slice of life, Ecchi
Additional seasons: Unconfirmed
Awards: Worst Series of the Season, Worst Animation, Worst Art-Style
Short version:
OH FREAKING GOD WHY?! JUST WHYYYYY?!!!!
Long Version:
Hey you know what would be great? "Making a slice of life ecchi out of an action shonen series!" said not a damn soul on the face of the earth. But someone did so of course it's getting an anime. An anime that sucks baaaaaaallllllsssssss.
"But it's Bones series so it has to at least look good."
Short version:
NOT EVEN BONES GAVE A DAMN ABOUT SOUL EATER NOT!!!
Long version:
One of the things that made the original series so good was how unique and awesome the visuals were. And then we have Soul Eater NOT's art style which is about as bland moe as you can get. Let's not even get started on what they did to returning character from the main series.
Next week on Jersey Shore: Special guest stars Tsubaki and Black Star
Hell, Soul Eater is about 6 years old and it looks at it still looks brilliant. Soul Eater Not! Is a few months old and it looks like something more than 6 years old.
"Surely you're just over-reacting. There's no way it's that bad."
Short version:
IT CUASED ME TO FEEL LITERAL ANGUISH AND PAIN WATCHING A SINGLE EPISODE!!!
Long version:
Unfortunately it is. The writing is terrible, the art sucks, if you're a fan of the original series you will absolutely despise this series with all your soul (-Eater Evans) and even if you didn't watch or like Soul Eater there are tons better series to watch instead (Like say, Chaika: The Coffin Princess which is also made by Bones and is a thousand times better then Soul Eater NOT!... Did I mention I gave it my Series of Season?)
So uh yeah, Soul Eater NOT! gets Worst Series of the Season along with Worst Animation and Worst Art-Style.
Stats
Awards given out (positive): 21
Awards given out (negative); 8 (10 if you can't the two joke ones)
Shows in Good Category: 6
Shows in Bad Category: 9
Shows in ugly Category: 4
Overall grade of this season: C-
Looking Ahead
Erg, if this season was coming off as a little rough, next season is looking to be completely jagged. The only major standouts I see are Space Dandy 2and Terror in Resonance. Since both are being directed by Shinichirō Watanabe they're pretty much guaranteed to great. Everything else, however, has me a bit worried.
Rail Wars, Akame ga Kill, Aldnoah.Zero and Tokyo ESP all look like they could be fun and/or interesting but there's nothing that really brings my hopes up for them. Tokyo Ghoul looks like it could be pretty good as well, however, past experience with horror series tell me that it might end up just not being my kind of series. Outside of those, nothing is really catching my eye.
Closing
Naturally all of your lists would probably be vastly different than mine (I know for a fact a lot of you enjoyed No Game No Life a whole lot more than I did) so I'm curious what your guy's picks from this season are. Best series of the year? Worst series of the year? Was the season good to you or, like me, did you find it rather disappointing? Anything from next season that catches your eye?
Until next tim- Wait, Seki-kun and Yokoi? But you were only finishing up this season! I couldn't add you to the list because you were from last season and- What are you doing with that paperclip?! NO, SEKI-KUN! NOOOOOO!
I shall miss these two most of all.
No comments:
Post a Comment