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| Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 01:00 AM (10,921 Views) | |
| Romanticide | Dec 18 2016, 11:37 PM Post #421 |
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Cult Leader
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Ain't got shit else to do on this cold ass day (well, watch anime/play Civ I *guess*), so top Chinese cartoons of the year. Fall season is pretty much done and I don't think any finale is going to blow my mind enough to make me alter the list. Nothing was that great, outside of maybe Flip Flappers, which is so drenched in symbolism that I'd probably appreciate it more after a re-watch and after reading writeups. 1) Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju 2) Erased Pretty obvious since they're my tens. Could have went lower on Erased but I didn't feel the flaws (last three eps, non-Kayo girls not mattering much, etc) affected my enjoyment of the show much. I wouldn't say I enjoyed (in a traditional sense where "enjoyment = fun") Showa Genroku more than anything this year, but it has the best writing of the year and very little came close. Maybe season 2 of Euphonium, but nothing else is in the same stratosphere. 3) Sound! Euphonium season 2 If you had told me a couple years ago that one of my favorite anime would be about a bunch of girls in a marching band, I'd have laughed in your face. I don't care all that much about marching band because it's not something that I did in school, so I don't have that attachment. However, the character drama is really fucking good, and that's the show's main hook. It's only gotten better. This season has given us development on best girl (sorry volty, it's Asuka - watch ep 7 damnit), Taki finally feels like he's not just there to be their instructor, and the Kumiko/Reina relationship just gets more and more interesting as the season goes on. Even if they don't wind up together as they should, it's a great friendship. I imagine we all know how this ends. Too much development has happened to make anything but Gold feel like a disappointment, both for us as an audience and in terms of the story. I just hope they deliver the goods, namely confirmation of the one true ship. 4) Mr. Osomatsu season 2 5) Lupin the 3rd Part Four 6) Re:Zero Nines and an eight. Not really much to say here, except I'm kind of surprised Re:Zero is so low. I feel like I enjoyed it more than this. Ah well, it's been a good year for the animu and #6 isn't bad at all. 7) Kiznaiver 8) Orange 9) Tales of Zestiria 10) Grimgar of Magic and Ash These last four were kind of hard to decide on since what's left is a mass of 8s. Liked Kabaneri, but the second half fell off. It's hard to justify including that over four shows where the last 6 eps weren't meh to bad. If my main criterion for anime was how pretty it looks, Kabaneri would comfortably be T5 if not T3. Phantom World was fun and all, but nothing about it really stands out when compared to the shows I picked. 91 Days doesn't make the list for much the same reason, though I did like the relationship between Avilio and Corteo, amongst other things. Flip Flappers is probably in the same general area as this group, but the symbolism thing makes it hard for me to properly appreciate/rank it. Most painful cut is Aokana. I'd probably put it at #11. No show this year was cuter or more joyful. The sports part of it was alright, but the character interactions and dem faces are what made the show a blast to watch for me. Cute girls help too. I still want this fucking VN. I feel like each of these last four does something really damn well. Grimgar is one of the most interesting takes on an RPG I've ever seen, and I wish there were a game like it. I'd play the shit out of it. Zestiria is better than the game, which might not be saying much with the needlessly complex equipment system, but the storytelling is definitely better even if the action isn't quite up to par. Needs moar Edna tho, Edna is bae. Kiznaiver and Orange were both very emotional stories, and I tend to favor feeling something over competent shows that don't make me feel all that much about their casts. The endings of Kiznaiver and Orange were underwhelming, but I'm a journey person, and they were two of my favorite journeys this year. Other things worth mentioning. This isn't necessarily my next top 5 or whatever; it's shows that I want to post about for one reason or another. Yuri on Ice. Holy queerbaiting. Maybe the finale changes something, but ever since the kiss(?), the show has seemingly danced around the question of whether or not Yuri and Viktor like each other. I get that anime implies relationships in general and doesn't do much with many of the implications, but it takes on a bit of a different meaning on this side of the ocean where LGBT+ relationships are concerned. Even so, from a pure storytelling perspective, I like to see resolution damnit. Leaving things unresolved so fans don't get pissed off or whatever rationale the writers might have is some weak shit. Take a stand. We all want Yuri and Viktor to be a couple anyway. Also fuck JJ. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. The last few episodes have been great, but I don't think they save this part from being disappointing. By pretty much any standard, it's perfectly watchable and I'd still recommend it to people who like this kind of story. By *Jojo* standards, it's disappointing. Part 2 was much better, and part 3 was more straightforward but still enjoyable material. I liked the idea of Yukako, but I don't think she ever got beyond being a great idea. She featured in maybe two episodes, and while the first one established her as an interesting character, the second reverted to "lol I want to be beautiful". Normal gender roles are fucking boring, doubly so in a series that spends more time than you'd think breaking male gender roles. At least Koichi subverts the ending of that one though. Okuyasu is Polnareff 2.0, except neither as funny or useful. I'm supposed to care about Rohan apparently, but his introduction eps were two of the worst in Jojo thus far. He's better now I *guess*, but eh, still don't feel much about him. Kira's motivation is easily the most down-to-earth motivation in Jojo yet, but that's not saying much when the previous antagonists wanted to take over the world. Regardless, his character development episodes make it easier to hate him, which is good. He's the fucking villain; we're not supposed to like him. The cast is big, but not much is done with most of it. It's pretty obvious the main group is Josuke, Okuyasu, Koichi, and Rohan if you're feeling generous, but too much time is spent on characters who haven't mattered much if at all outside of their own episodes. Jojo is at its best when it focuses on a small handful of characters, not when it's trying to do the ensemble cast thing. March Comes in Like a Lion. When I get around to this, I enjoy it, but it's missing that certain something. I can't put my finger on it, but if I had to try, it's probably that I don't care much about Rei (yet) despite the amount of effort the writer expends to make me care. The people that surround him and the things that happen around him seem to be more interesting than he is. Akari can be waifu, Kyouko is low key the best character on this show and I normally don't enjoy her type of character, Momo and Hina are both fun, and Nikaidou is a funny best friend. I think part of it might be the mood whiplash. Even if each chapter is tonally consistent, going from a funny chapter to a sad chapter still feels weird. There's no real transition. That might work in manga when you're waiting a week or whatever for each chapter, but in an anime where you're waiting a few seconds to transition into the next part of the show, I'm not sure it works as well. Dragon Ball Super. The Goku Black/Zamasu arc was surprisingly good, but as always it's marred by sub-par animation/art. The ideas were legit interesting for Dragon Ball, especially those concerning morality in a series that has always had a black and white sense of morality, but you're not watching because it has good ideas. You're watching for the fights, which are also not served well by this mediocre at best animation. To that end, all of the fights in this arc were good, and the final episode of fighting (featuring a certain spoiler-ish fusion and a bullshit hax form of Future Trunks) was one of the best episodes of Super yet. DVDs/BDs really need to clean this shit up; it's barely passable, and that because this is a childhood-defining franchise. I'd love to own this series eventually, but I can't put this bad animation on my shelf and feel good about it. Recent filler has been good too. Not that you're watching for filler, but the Arale episode is pure fanservice, albeit very fun fanservice, and the baseball episode was an appropriate Dragon Ball take on the obligatory baseball episode. It's not DBZ filler, which I've entirely forgotten about. Bungo Stray Dogs. I'll never blame anybody for dropping based on the first 7 episodes. They were bad. I don't know what compelled me to stick with it, but I don't regret it because it picks up a lot starting from episode 8. Kyouka is easily this show's best character, probably because she's one of two main characters who get real character development. The other is Dazai, and the four eps at the start of this season that were dedicated to delving into his backstory were the best this show has had to offer yet. If those 4 eps were the entire season, this would probably be a T10 show. However, they aren't and we had to eventually go back to the less interesting three faction war. The thing that makes season two better than one is the show finally knows what it wants to be. Gone, for the most part, are useless episodes that don't further the main story, and even the one episode that has nothing to do with the plot is good. The mood whiplash is gone. The comedy is still there, but it's toned down and not seemingly omni-present. It's finally serious when it needs to be serious and the humor is left for less tense/dramatic moments. Main antagonist of season two has what I imagine Trump's power would be, spending money to become OP, so it amused me. Keijo. Holy shit how did I forget this? None of us are watching for the plot. Well maybe for a certain kind of "plot", but you know what I mean. I picked it up because it's fucking stupid, you picked it up because it's fucking stupid. Despite that, it's an enjoyable sports anime, despite being the most absurd sport one could think of. It feels like what One Punch Man wanted to be (and failed at trying to be, imo, because it wasn't fucking funny), which is a show that takes the piss out of shonen anime. Makes sense; you could argue most sports anime are also shonen anime. The references to stuff like Fate/Stay Night (Gate of Bootylon lmao), Attack on Titan, Jojo, etc, are all wonderful and it feels like the author makes fun of them out of love for those series. The animation is also really good. I'd have guessed it would be a low budget series, but from the get-go it turned out to be one of the better-looking series of the fall season. Basically it's better than it has any right to be. I think that's pretty much everything. Still need to catch up on Natsume's Book of Friends, which I'll probably (finally) start this week. Beyond that, I don't know what I'll watch, but thinking some backlog shit like Spice and Wolf or the Monogatari series, and perhaps some of the 2016 shit I never got around to/finished, like ReLife or Rinne. Edited by Romanticide, Dec 19 2016, 02:15 AM.
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| Romanticide | Dec 21 2016, 03:39 AM Post #422 |
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Cult Leader
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https://theanimeawards.com/ Bored as hell, so posting votes/some reasoning. The list is legit. I didn't watch everything on it, and I couldn't get into some things, but unlike most awards shows, you can tell these nominations are by and large the best things of the year and not just the things that made the most money. I feel alright with these picks, even if a decent number wouldn't be my personal picks. Some of the categories are more subjective by nature, but I don't think you can do an anime awards show and not have things like best couple (or best ship) and best OP/ED; those are things that get talked about by fans. I can forgive the subjectivity involved in those categories. Editing an old post BECAUSE I CAN. Anime of the Year Showa Genroku, see above post. Hero of the Year THERE IS AN OTHER OPTION PRAISE BABBY ANIME JESUS After contemplating it, still going Satoru. Couldn't even think of a viable "other" option. I tend not to like the supposed protagonists as much as other characters in a cast and was too lazy to think of other characters that fit the description of "hero". Villain of the Year Abstained. Didn't think any of them were good enough to vote for. Yashiro would have been the most interesting one had he gotten a lick of development, and any hope of voting for Kira *at all* went out the window with the Jojo finale. Best Boy I guess that depends on how you define this. Best written character is Yakumo, but the character I enjoy the most is Yuri. I tend to lean towards the better-written character though, so Yakumo wins. Was extremely tempted to write in Felix from Re:Zero. It'd be half joke, half serious. Best Girl Rem, too easy. Nico is probably one of my T5 characters of the year, but she can't beat Rem. Edna beats them both if I count her game, but she also has a ~50 hour advantage on them both. She hasn't stood out so much in her anime, sadly. Best Fight Yeah, going with the penultimate fight of Super's last actual arc. Despite the animation issues, it was hype as fuck and that's why I still watch at the end of the day. It wasn't a great year for fights IMO. I'd even write in Aoba vs. whoever it was, solely for the Gate of Bootylon, over nearly all of the fights I've seen this year. But meh, I don't really watch anime for the fights or the villains so whatever. Best Animation Other. Tales of Zestiria. Ufotable brings their A game every time. If I took this as an artstyle vote, I'd probably go with something like Flip Flappers or Grimgar. Guess it comes down to personal interpretation but Ufotable stuff always looks incredible, both artistically and in terms of animation. Most Heartwarming Scene Gotta go with Kayo's homecooked meal. Yuri/Viktor's kiss was great, but if you've seen Erased, you get it. Forgot Flying Witch was 2016. Probably because I didn't watch it during the winter season. But yeah I'd put it at #12, right behind Aokana. One of the chillest things out there and you'd think it would feel slow as hell, but before I knew it, 24 minutes had passed and I clicked "next episode". It's just so good. Best Drama People thought Joker Game was good? Did I read that right? Am I confused? But yeah, Showa Genroku again, or if I want to do that thing where sportswriters/game awards shows go with something different so more things get represented, Erased. I don't because that's bullshit. Showa Genroku. Best Couple Yuri/Viktor, reasoning for not voting Satoru/Kayo is spoiler-ish. (Airi still best girl, anyway.) Best Comedy Mr. Osomatsu. Keijo is good and all, but Osomatsu is so funny you might break a few ribs during an episode. Best Action Way too lazy to re-think this, so Kabaneri. UBW season two was good too I guess? I dunno, no action show stood out to me and made me think "yeah, this is the action show of the year", or a T15+ show for that matter. Best Opening Think I'll go with Kiznaiver. Izetta is one of the few that comes close, but I don't think the full version is out yet. This is an "I'm too lazy to listen to the 10 or so OPs I really liked" vote, but even then Kiznaiver's is def one of my faves. Best Closing Standing by Luluco. Could listen to Boujour Suzuki's voice forever and never get sick of it. Edited by Romanticide, Jan 4 2017, 04:06 AM.
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