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Alphinaud

Trading for Cyan auto

Rinoa

Cyan

257. Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It
https://myanimelist.net/anime/38992/Rikei_ga_Koi_ni_Ochita_no_de_Shoumei_shitemita
Winter 2020 (12 episodes), Spring 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 7.37/10 S1, 7.31/10 S2
Best Character: Himuro Ayame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POKhar54nYU

Premise: University student Himuro Ayame confesses her love for fellow researcher Yukimura Shinya. Before he can accept her feelings, however, they first need to prove them scientifically.

The Good: Science Fell in Love had a certain amount of charm in the beginning. Having the characters be scientists was a welcome change from the usual rom-com teenage couple. Their experiments into the nature of love were interesting and resulted in some good jokes.

The Bad: This animes charm steadily diminished the longer I watched it. None of the characters are great and they all quickly ran their gimmicks into the ground. The experiments started feeling repetitive, and forced drama began seeping in. There also comes a point where the bashful phase stops being cute and becomes infuriating instead. I wanted them to get together just to get it over with. All these problems are typical of a mediocre romance anime, however, and if not for the second season Science Fell in Love wouldve been with the rest of those at a 3/10 in my ranking. Sadly, the second season was way worse than the first. The plot turned into a disgusting mess. I cant talk about it without spoilers, but the final episodes went out of their way to ruin the few good things this anime still had going for it.

Overall: I gave Science Fell in Love a lot of leeway early on. It was interesting to see research into romance, at least until it started feeling redundant. This anime still fell into a lot of the same traps as other mediocre rom-coms, and the second season was one of the worst things ever.

KommunistKoala posted...

glad you enjoyed it! i don't remember the teacher thing at all, guess I repressed that part

It was in a handful of those post-credits thirty second short stories showing different couples. I was glad it never became a bigger thing than that.

I finished my first recommended anime. I'll feel bad someday when I wind up disliking one of these, but thankfully that day is not today! I couldn't find the OP on youtube so I linked the ED instead. Also I default to the titles the streaming services use, so Tsukigakirei instead of Tsuki ga Kirei.

BONUS. Tsukigakirei
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34822/Tsuki_ga_Kirei
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.08
Spring 2017 (12 episodes)
Best Character: Nishio Chinatsu
Recommended by: @KommunistKoala

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79F2NN3yxOU

Premise: In the last year of middle school, aspiring writer Azumi Kotarou meets track and fielder Mizuno Akane. As the shy students grow closer, they struggle to understand their feelings.

The Good: Tsukigakirei is a sweet romance story. A lot of little things made me nostalgic for my own junior high and high school romances. They were often too shy to talk in person but opened more over text, and then that little smile that popped onto their faces when the next message came in man, Ive been there. I liked that it didnt fall into the typical pitfalls that have ruined so many other romance anime for me. They were scared and confused, but they still struggled to figure out their feelings and move forward. Even the dramatic moments were believable. These are just dumb kids, its okay that they dont always do the right thing and can get a little selfish. On that note, Chinatsu was my favorite character. Im guessing that might be controversial, but I dont care. She was a lot of fun and I felt for her as her story progressed.

The Bad: I felt that Kotarou and Akane were a bit too similar to each other. They had a cute dynamic, but they had mostly the same worries holding them back and the same feelings driving them forward. It wasnt a gigantic problem or anything, I just think having one of them be more self-assured and driven couldve taken it to different places. I also hated the subplot of a teacher lusting after a thirteen-year-old, so thankfully that was ultimately a very small part of the anime.

Overall: Tsukigakirei was a cute romance story that made me feel nostalgic for my own youth. I rooted for Kotarou and Akane right from the beginning. It also had an overall aura of innocence that I really enjoyed. Itll probably end up landing somewhere near the middle of my final ranking, but the upper half of the list gets super competitive. Itll still be in good company near a few other romances that I liked, so being near the middle isnt a bad thing! Thanks a lot for the recommendation, Koala.

I thought about trading for Nora but I knew the rush would be quick and there especially wasn't enough time after I was late saving Rinoa. Oh well, Nora had her fun.

Rinoa

Will the characters I like survive if we get a new page, though?

MacArrowny posted...

btw, I think your posts would get more engagement if you had one writeup per post and spaced them out throughout the day. I understand if you don't wanna do that though.

Hmm, that's a good thought. I work evenings so one of them would be late, but that wouldn't really matter, people could read it the next morning. On days where I do three write-ups, I could post one from my phone in the middle of the day if I PM the write-up to Mobilezoid in advance.

I'll most likely do that from now on. I hadn't considered it because in my head people are only reading ones for anime they've seen anyway. If anyone else here has seen ID-0 I will be shocked... though a lot more people than I thought knew about Urahara yesterday, so who knows.

Cyan

1/10: TERRIBLE TIER

260. ID-0
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33797/ID-0
Spring 2017 (12 episodes)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 6.54/10
Best Character: Mikuri Maya

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

Premise: In a future where people can transfer their consciousness into robot bodies, space miners are swept up in an adventure that reawakens the memories of an amnesiac crewmember.

The Good: The animation is CGI, and it isnt great. The same studio went on to use this style in later BanG Dream seasons, though, and it looks much better there. If ID-0 was a necessary sacrifice for them to hone their craft, I suppose thats good. The nicest thing I can say about the animation in ID-0 itself is that the colors are nice and vibrant.

The Bad: Im usually a fan of amnesia plotlines. I like seeing a characters core personality without memories obscuring it. Nature vs nurture, basically. In ID-0, though, the only reason he has amnesia is so that he doesnt know the entire plot right away. Otherwise, who he was in the past and who he is now might as well be unrelated characters. The main story was also nonsense. At one point they were being chased by a moon, like its literally following them between star systems. That sounds almost absurd enough to be fun. Sadly, ID-0 isnt competent enough to elicit positive emotions, so it just feels random. Even the robot fight scenes were a slog due to the ugly animation not working for it at all.

Overall: I wont lie, Ive mostly forgotten the finer details of ID-0. In a way, though, thats kind of a final insult. I vividly recall why I hate everything else I ranked low. I put this in last place right after finishing it and then promptly forgot about it. ID-0 couldnt even manage to be memorably terrible. I do remember that morbid curiosity was the only reason I kept watching.

259. Maria the Virgin Witch
https://myanimelist.net/anime/26441/Junketsu_no_Maria
Winter 2015 (12 episodes)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 7.13
Best Character: Maria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p3dgoNtstU

Premise: Set during the Hundred Years War, a witch named Maria uses magic to prevent further conflict. This attracts the ire of both the heavens and various sides who want the war to continue.

The Good: The title is okay, I guess. Maria the Virgin Witch, that sounded like a fun anime.

The Bad: Maria the Virgin Witch is not fun. Almost every character is a terrible person. Its hard to empathize with the central theme that war is bad when I want everyone on both sides to die horribly. However, the worst part about this anime is the fact that Maria will lose her magic if she loses her virginity, and her enemies know it. They dont care about consent, either. You see where this is going. Its bad enough when anime uses sexual assault for cheap shock value. In Maria the Virgin Witch, it becomes the primary goal of the bad guys. There were scenes in this anime that made me feel awful for watching them. It also tied all of Marias strength to the question of her purity, which really bugged me. Women shouldnt be defined by whether theyve had sex. I know this is how it was in the past, and this is set in the past, but still. I didnt like it.

Overall: Maria the Virgin Witch has nothing redeeming it. Even the historical aspect is tacked on. It doesnt follow actual battles or feature real people from that era. Its just a bunch of stuff that happens to push painfully basic morals, which are undermined by how terrible everyone is.

258. My Little Monster
https://myanimelist.net/anime/14227/Tonari_no_Kaibutsu-kun
Fall 2012 (13 episodes)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 7.49/10
Best Character: Natsume Asako

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JVtVl_u7Q

Premise: Mizutani Shizuku only cares about grades, which has left her isolated. Then she meets Yoshida Haru, a quirky troublemaker who quickly confesses romantic feelings for her.

The Good: I liked Natsume. She was a good friend to Shizuku. It was annoying how the creepy boys wouldnt leave her alone, but thats not Natsumes fault. She hated it too, after all.

The Bad: Shizuku only cares about grades and is an exceedingly boring character. However, the real problem with My Little Monster is Haru. The story really wanted me to see him as troubled but cute. I could only see him as someone who needed to get professional help, ideally while staying as far away from Shizuku as possible. One of their early interactions is Haru threatening to rape her, I mean come on. Hes physically abusive, to the point where him hurting her became a running gag. To be fair, it was usually accidental while hes attacking another guy for daring to stand next to her, but that isnt okay either. Controlling like that is emotional abuse. Haru tries to isolate Shizuku. At one point he starts following her around growling like a rabid dog at anyone who comes near her. The story tries to frame all of this as parts of a quirky personality. Haru has a pet rooster too, isnt that zany? I just dont think anything can justify him fantasizing about tearing Shizukus limbs off so that she would never be able to leave him.

Overall: I loathe the message in My Little Monster that girls should give violent weirdos a shot because maybe theres a cute boy somewhere underneath all that danger. Frequent goofy moments and the occasional attempt at being heartfelt never offset my profound discomfort.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
257: This anime couldnt find any hard evidence to support the hypothesis that it should rank higher.
256: This anime is getting banished straight to hell.

I added those three to the recommended tab in the spreadsheet. I also added them to the alphabetical and seasons tabs so anyone who looks can see they're already in. I'll do write-ups when I finish each recommendation, and I'll rank them in relation to other recommendations, but I won't add them into the official ranking until it's finished in a few months. It would just be too confusing to keep inserting things and shuffling numbers around.

Thanks for the recommendations so far, everyone! I was starting to worry it wasn't going to be a popular idea

KommunistKoala posted...

recommends Hibike! Euphonium

I should've mentioned somewhere that I used English titles in my spreadsheet, sorry for the confusion. I've already seen Sound Euphonium S1 and S2

changmas posted...

I'll recommend March Comes in Like a Lion (3-gatsu no Lion)

This one works. I'll add this and Vinland Saga to the recommendation tab in my spreadsheet soon. I'll wait to hear from pyre about Sakura Quest.

Graggle Simpson

pyresword posted...

By the way are we allowed to give recommendations now?

I was waiting for someone to recommend something! For Sakura Quest, it looks like the English dub version is available without an account, but for Japanese audio and subtitles I'd need a premium account. I could get a 14 day free trial, but I'd rather save that in case other people recommend Funi stuff so I can do them all at once. So, it's up to you. I could watch it when I eventually use the free trial, I could watch it when it theoretically moves to Crunchyroll (someday, years from now, maybe they'll finally finish this damn move...) or you can recommend your backup anime.

NFUN posted...

Vinland Saga

Planetes doesn't appear to be available on streaming, sadly. Vinland Saga works though, it's on Netflix.

(Fair warning, I'm going to seem angry and hate-filled in the early parts of this ranking. I swear that I enjoy anime, though! Anything below #241 made me angry. Everything above that has at least something going for it, and eventually I'll seem too happy and forgiving)

DROPPED TIER

270. Gantz
https://myanimelist.net/anime/384/Gantz
Spring 2004 (made it 2/13 episodes, dropped)

Gantz is the worst anime Ive ever seen. It starts with the main characters saving a guy who fell onto train tracks, but then the trains coming. They have a whole conversation about this but not enough time to climb out, apparently. Once it hits them, theyre transported to a room with other recently deceased people whove been chosen to play an alien death game. One girl died in the shower, so she arrives naked. The whole room fights over the privilege of raping her, because of course thats the first thing on their minds after being kidnapped by aliens. Main dude is the only one to resist the temptation of a naked woman but even he only barely holds on. He angrily tells her to get dressed before he loses control, because of course its her fault she got transported by aliens without any clothes on and tempted all these men. I was done with Gantz after that.

269. Inuyashiki: Last Hero
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34542/Inuyashiki
Fall 2017 (made it 3/11 episodes, dropped)

This is about two people who get accidentally blown up by aliens, so the aliens put them back together with incredibly powerful technological bodies. One is an old guy who uses his power for good. The other is a psychopathic teen who immediately goes around randomly murdering people. Inuyashiki is the most miserable anime Ive ever seen. I was done with this when the evil teen killed a father and then used the fathers corpse to drown a toddler in a bathtub. I dont know who wants to see something like that, but it certainly isnt me.

268. Sword Gai: The Animation
https://myanimelist.net/anime/27783/Sword_Gai_The_Animation
Winter 2018 (made it 3/12 episodes, dropped)

Sword Gai was about people who get possessed by swords and have an unsatiable urge to spill blood with them. It was too edgy for me (edgy, get it, sword pun haha). I specifically remember being done with this when one of the sword-possessed people sexually assaulted a girl. Isnt he supposed to want to kill her with the sword? They just wanted to include a sexual assault because thats a lazy way to be edgy and this anime was all about edginess.

267. Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35298/Ramen_Daisuki_Koizumi-san
Winter 2018 (made it 2/12 episodes, dropped)

Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles is food porn. I dont mind that in small doses. In Laid-Back Camp, for example, the focus is on how relaxing it is to eat delicious food while camping and it helps build an aura of calmness. In this anime, the whole point is to watch Miss Koizumi orgasm while she slurps ramen. Thats it. Im pretty sure this was meant to be an advertising tool for a regions ramen shops, so its my fault for watching it in the first place. Winter 2018 was my first season watching airing stuff, I didnt know any better! At least I didnt watch for very long.

266. Restaurant to Another World
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34012/Isekai_Shokudou
Summer 2017 (made it 3/12 episodes, dropped)

This is another food porn anime, but at least Restaurant to Another World pretends to have other stuff too. People in a fantasy world sometimes randomly get transported to a magical restaurant and eat a delicious meal. The three episodes I saw were all the same. First part sets up a super basic situation with fantasy person. Second part is food porn of fantasy person eating. Third part is fantasy person going back home to face their problem, only now theyre satisfied after a good meal. Its nothing but mediocre framing devices to facilitate food porn, and it was super boring.

265. Banana Fish
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36649/Banana_Fish
Summer 2018 (made it 7/24 episodes, dropped)

Banana Fish is about a guy who gets swept up into the underworld. It was very male homoerotic, which I have nothing against, it just isnt my thing. What turned me off most was how much rape there was in this. One guy got raped several times just in the few episodes I saw. It fit tonally I suppose, given how bleak and full of human ugliness the rest of Banana Fish was, but it wasnt fun to see. Eventually I fell so far behind that I decided to drop this. Its too miserable to binge.

264. Eden of the East
https://myanimelist.net/anime/5630/Higashi_no_Eden
Spring 2009 (made it 7/11 episodes, dropped)

I enjoyed the first six episodes of Eden of the East. It was about a guy navigating a real-world game involving money, and he didnt understand any of the rules. Sadly, the seventh episode disgusted me for how it handled the response to a rape victim. Even ignoring how offensive it was, it made no sense and wasnt entertaining. The seventh episode not only made me drop this, it also drove me to take a long break from anime. Now that time has made me less angry about it, I wouldnt mind finishing the last four episodes. It isnt available on streaming anymore, though.

263. Conception
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37823/Conception
Fall 2018 (made it 4/12 episodes, dropped)

This is nothing but fanservice. Generic dude gets isekaid into fantasy world where he needs to make babies with several women. The babies are magic so theres no actual sex, but theres still undressing and moaning. Even if thats your thing, the animation is so awful that it isnt sexy. This is based on a video game Ive never played, but I have played the sequel (hey, I needed something for my Vita). Conception II had one girl with a surprisingly compelling story. Ellie was great, she really got to me. I went into this anime hoping there might be something on that level from the first Conception that would make it worthwhile. All I found was bad fanservice.

262. Urahara
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35250/Urahara
Fall 2017 (made it 3/12 episodes, dropped)

This anime had incredibly low production values. At times the ugliness almost seemed artistic, but mostly it was just bad to look at. Urahara is about three girls fighting goofy aliens who are trying to steal human culture or whatever. Girls fighting things isnt exactly a unique idea in anime. Since the story couldnt elevate the awful production values, theres very little reason to watch Urahara at all. I gave it three episodes to find a way to hook me. It never did.

261. Beatless
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36516/Beatless
Winter 2018 (made it 5/20 episodes, dropped)

I stopped watching Beatless after five episodes because I had absolutely no idea what was going on and I didnt want to put up with it for fifteen more. Its about a generic guy who randomly gets a robot waifu and theyre drawn into some big robot battle royale or something, I dunno. New robots kept showing up with unclear motivations and the low production values meant that even the action scenes were nonsensical and boring. Beatless wouldnt be anywhere near my bottom ten if I bothered to finish it, but twenty episodes was too long for me to want to finish it.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
260: This anime has forgotten everything, including why its so terrible.
259: This anime earned the wrath of the heavens.
258: This anime deserves to get leashed with a chain.

(I'll post these hints each day. My goal was to take some aspect that I could frame as a bad thing. I'm doing 360 of these, they won't all be winners. Feel free to try and guess what they are, but many will be super obvious if you've seen the anime they refer to)

Finally finished making the topic. I'm going to sleep now.

Welcome to the Robazoid Anime Ranking Project! Over the next few months I'm going to do rankings and write-ups for 275 anime (260 where I've finished at least one season, 10 dropped anime, and 5 standalone anime movies) as well as my top 100 anime characters. I will also be taking one anime recommendation per person, but more on that later.

I'm not sure how much interest there will be in this. I post comments in the anime topic every time I finish something and my MyAnimeList scores are easily viewable (though quite a few need to be updated now), so my opinions are hardly a mystery. Still, I think there's a difference between "I liked this anime" and actually seeing it reach the top 20. I've watched quite a few shows I doubt anyone will care about too, so we'll see how this goes. Hopefully a few people will follow along! There's a lot of stuff I want to talk about to set up this up, so please bear with me.

Ranking: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T2EPEpQ4K17ZP_HXtYfm5uGTWG9I8_gI5AixegBRto8/edit?usp=sharing
Write-Ups: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-nFiPImntSMbRTWRe2RcVu1vJ00nJLVrsKXDtBNVIgw/edit?usp=sharing
MyAnimeList Profile: https://myanimelist.net/profile/Westerlyn
(If you have a MAL account, add me as a friend!)

SPOILER POLICY: The write-ups for anime will be kept as spoiler-free as possible. Part of this depends on your threshold for spoilers, though. If I complain that a one-season anime ends on a cliffhanger or that a romance doesn't progress much, some might consider those spoilers. I'll never spoil late twists or big scenes or anything like that, but I will mention specifics and give my overall feelings, so fair warning on that. Character write-ups, however, will be spoiler-filled. If I like someone well enough to talk about them, I want to be free to talk about their whole story. Character write-ups will have clear spoiler warnings. Obviously a character in a lighthearted comedy anime will have way less to spoil than one from a drama anime, but I'll still post spoiler warnings for all of them just to stay consistent.

TRIGGER WARNING (and not the anime studio Trigger either): Some write-ups mention sexual assault or rape. I tried drafts tastefully talking around those aspects, but it just felt odd. I don't know if anyone needs a warning like this, but I wanted to be respectful.

ANIME RANKING
10/10 Perfect Tier (10 anime)
9/10 Amazing Tier (20 anime)
8/10 Great Tier (30 anime)
7/10 Good Tier (40 anime)
6/10 Above Average Tier (30 anime)
5/10 Below Average Tier (30 anime)
4/10 Mediocre Tier (40 anime)
3/10 Disappointing Tier (30 anime)
2/10 Bad Tier (20 anime)
1/10 Terrible Tier (10 anime)
Dropped Tier (10 anime)
BONUS: 5 Standalone Anime Movies
BONUS: Recommended Anime

Not counting dropped or bonus stuff, I basically have a top 100, 60 near average, and a bottom 100. I haven't hunted down every extra OVA or movie or even completely finished all of them, but I have watched at least one season in each. My memories for some of these anime have long since blurred. I'm using GMUN's archive website to find the posts I made back when I finished them and, where necessary, doing extra research to jog my memory. I'll do the best I can. Sorry if some write-ups suck or if I misremember anything. That said, I've watched or rewatched almost 90 anime just this year, and that number will rise as I watch more during the ranking.

TOP 100 ANIME CHARACTERS

I'll also be ranking characters! I'll post their write-ups right after their anime is ranked, which means the character list will be filled in haphazardly rather than in order. It wouldn't make any sense to talk about an anime and then finally talk about a character from it a long time later. The vast majority of my favorite characters are in the upper half of the ranking, so we won't see any for a few weeks. I also want to mention that, whenever it makes sense, I'll use the Japanese "Last-name First-name" order, and I'll use spellings from MyAnimeList just for consistency (unless the spelling is super dumb or something).

RECOMMENDATIONS

I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I see someone start a ranking topic, whether it's games or movies or anything, I always have some personal favorite that I hope they've experienced. Usually they haven't. Well, I don't want anyone to feel that disappointment here! I'll watch one recommended anime per person, with a few stipulations.

-The anime must be available on one of the following streaming services (Crunchyroll, HiDIVE, Netflix, Prime Video, or even Funimation and I'll get to it whenever that anime moves over to Crunchyroll). I'm not morally against pirating, I just don't really know how to do it and I don't have a VPN and I dunno, this is just easiest.
-The anime must be a complete experience on its own. What I mean by this is, no individual arcs from the Pokemon anime and nothing like Kingsglaive that's meant mostly as a prequel to Final Fantasy XV. I'm going to watch the anime you recommend and nothing else, so I don't want it to be one small part of some way bigger thing.
-All seasons of the anime combined must be a reasonable length, preferably fifty episodes or less. Sorry to anyone who wanted to make me watch all of One Piece. I don't have that kind of time. If you're afraid something might be too long, feel free to ask! Just don't feel too bad if I don't want to commit to it.

To help you pick something, the spreadsheet linked at the top of this post has a tab listing what I've already seen alphabetically and another organized by season. You can also check my MyAnimeList account, and if you have one of you own you can compare what I've seen vs what you've seen really easily. I have several shows partially finished under On Hold, but don't be afraid of picking those if you want to. That usually just means I was watching too much stuff at once and they got lost in the shuffle. I also barely remember anything from most of those, so I'll start them all from the beginning. I'm nearing 5000 total episodes, but some of my friends on MAL have four times that amount so I know there's still plenty of anime left for me out there.

There are a lot of big-name anime that I haven't seen, and recommending those is fine. However, what I hope for is that everyone will choose something they truly love, no matter how strange or niche it might be. Also, to anyone who wants to troll me by recommending garbage, I'll drop anything I absolutely hate so you won't waste too much of my time. I think it'll be fun to see whose anime I ultimately rank highest, but this isn't a competition and you don't necessarily have to pick the one you think I'll like best. I just want this to be something enjoyable for everyone, and to expand my anime horizons in directions I may not have found on my own. Depending on how many people recommend something, this might also take way longer to finish than the rest of the ranking. Please be patient with me.

-----

The last thing I want to talk about might seem obvious, but I still want to get it out there. This ranking is 100% my own personal opinions. I'm going to rant about several that I know are some people's favorites. I'm sure my favorites are on a few people's most hated lists too! I'm not ranking anime on their intrinsic quality, if such a thing even exists. I'm ranking them based purely on how much I enjoyed them, which can be a nebulous and unfair thing. It's okay if we disagree, and I'd love nothing more than to have discussions about it. I just hope we can do it without dismissing each other's opinions too harshly. Playful mockery is a lot more fun.

Phew, this post is really long. I guess that's to be expected when combining three different rankings into one. Without any further rambling, it's time for mini write-ups for my ten dropped anime!

I'm including dropped anime in my ranking project for completions sake, but my personal official ranking only includes anime where I've finished at least one season. It feels wrong to truly complain about something if I haven't seen all of it

I finally went back and watched the last few episodes of My Little Monster. This is one of a handful of anime that I blame for killing my interest in anime a few years ago. I got seven episodes into this "relationship" between a crazy person and a boring person where both of them kept changing their affections on a whim that I just couldn't take it anymore. I want to rank it low in my upcoming anime ranking project, though, which meant I needed to finish the season. So I went back and finished it. Ugh. In addition to all the other problems, I'd forgotten how outright abusive the main dude was. They made a running gag out of him "accidentally" hurting the main girl (holding her wrist hard enough to bruise, punching her and making her nose bleed, elbowing her hard in the face, throwing a full can of soda at the back of her head, trying to isolate and control her from anyone else... and this is funny somehow?!?). Troubled but cute my ass, that dude is psychotic.

Now I just need to finally finish Karakuri Circus and I'll at least be out of the dregs.

Terra

Nora

It's called the right hand because it's named after being correct

Cyan

I have access to Netflix, at least for now, but that Uncle show is on a two week delay thanks to Netflix so only one episode is out right now. In any case, I tried to avoid most of the isekai shows this season. If Uncle stays strong, I can check it out once it's finished

The suspicious maid anime finally started and I'm caught up on the ten from this season that I'm watching. Figured I'd talk about them all a bit, and I'd be interested in hearing what everyone else thinks of this season so far too! Also note I'm saving second seasons of things until later, only new stuff so far.

1- Lycoris Recoil: Four episodes in, this is easily the best anime of the season. Cute counter-terrorist girls, aw yeah. The animation is impressive, which really helps during the action scenes. I'm also enjoying the character focused slice-of-life stuff. Chisato and Takina are a fun pair. I think it sometimes struggles with tone, the latest episode in particular went from fun to dark and then back to fun way too quickly. I'm still not 100% sure how it'll ultimately wind up, either. It reminds me of Release the Spyce since they both have cute girls with action and spy elements. Spyce started strong too and then became awful by the end. I hope Lycoris avoids those same pitfalls.

2- Prima Doll: Three episodes in, this is the only other anime of the season I really like so far. I like all the cute robot girls. Haizakura is precious, she's always doing her best. My favorite thing about this anime is the tone, though. It has had plenty of poignant moments but it hasn't gotten too grim yet. It's striking a perfect balance between heartfelt and fun. I also like the setting, the robots are integrated well and the history of the war is interesting. The post-war finding a purpose theme reminds me of Violet Evergarden, but Violet Evergarden got a bunch of things wrong in my opinion. So far, Prima Doll is getting all those same things right.

3- Parallel World Pharmacy: Two episodes in, this anime is good. It's a typical isekai in a lot of ways. The protagonist is hilariously overpowered, and nothing about him arriving in another world makes any sense and will never be explained, which always bugs me. Still, he's using his hilariously overpowered abilities for healing and making medicines and such. I always find that kind of thing interesting, so this has that going for it at least. I also like that the one person who realized he's different now is freaked out by it. It's refreshing because so many isekai anime just have everyone go with the flow.

4- Phantom of the Idol: This would've been my second-lowest ranked show if it were in Spring, so what does that say about this season, ugh. Anyway, four episodes in, Phantom of the Idol is fine. I inherently like the idea of a ghost helping a lazy dude be a better idol. That lets me forgive its shortcomings, such as mediocre CGI and everyone being pretty boring. The best part about this anime is the three fangirls the lazy idol has. The segments every episode of them getting drunk together and fangirling over him are the best.

5- Shine Post: Two episodes in, this is also fine. The central gimmick in this show, minor spoilers from the first episode, is that the manager of the idol group can tell when people are lying. That's... honestly a pretty weak hook, and I think Shine Post knows it because he's barely used it for anything so far. Beyond that it's just a generic idol anime. I like idol anime, though, so hey, I'm cool with that. The main trio of girls all have a fun dynamic at least. My favorite is the one who keeps trying to pull pranks even though she clearly has no idea what a prank is.

6- Luminous Witches: Three episodes in, this is the best anime in the Strike Witches universe, which really isn't saying much. It has the same problems Strike and Brave Witches did, most of the characters only have one gimmick and not a whole lot happens to them. Luminous Witches is about idols, though, and so far they've just been introducing the group and learning about singing. The worst part about Strike Witches was the war against the Neuroi, and I hope Luminous Witches continues to stay far, faaaar away from those boring-ass aliens. Just have zany antics and the occasional song, that's all I need.

7- Teppen: Three episodes in (because the second episode was cancelled), Teppen is passable. The humor is hit-or-miss, and honestly it mostly misses. For a comedy anime, that isn't great. Still, even at its worst, the girls are all cute and they're getting into zany situations. It hasn't ever been bad, at least. The latest episode was also by far the funniest one yet, I loved the bit where it made fun of cryptocurrencies. I'm also excited for a future episode focusing on the girls who are apparently aliens, they've been my favorite background characters so far. I'm also enjoying trying to recognize voice actresses, almost every single character here is voiced by someone who also voices a character in Love Live or BanG Dream.

8- The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious: Only one episode in so judging this with the others isn't fair, but oh well. I really hope this anime has more going for it than what it has shown so far. The whole first episode was 'little boy is attracted to sexy maid, but he doesn't even know what sex is yet so he's confused and sexy maid is flustered'. I honestly have no idea how they're going to stretch this out to fill a whole season. None of the jokes were particularly funny and I don't care about any of the characters yet.

9- The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting: Three episodes in, this anime just feels hollow. It feels like the writers took elements from other shows and put them together without having any idea how to make those elements work. It has a cute girl being looked after, but the cute girl is such a boring cardboard cutout. She exists to be cute but she isn't a real character. The main yakuza guy is also super boring. Remember Hinamatsuri from a few years ago, which was also about a yakuza guy looking after a girl? Hinamatsuri used that concept for, you know, jokes. The yakuza guy in Hinamatsuri wasn't the greatest dude ever, so it was funny that he was looking after girl, and since he wasn't a great guy it made the occasional wholesome moment feel so much sweeter. The yakuza guy in this Yakuza Babysitting anime has such a violent reputation, but so far he's been a perfect boring good dude. He has no problem looking after this little girl and he has made zero mistakes so far. That isn't funny, and the wholesome moments between them fall flat because every single moment is wholesome.

10- Call of the Night: Three episodes in, this anime has nice production values but it isn't doing anything for me. Like, I honestly don't understand what anyone is getting out of this show beyond how pretty it looks. Main dude is one of the most boring characters I've ever encountered, he wanders around in a daze trying to understand basic things like friendship as if he's an alien. The vampire girl is grating, and she loses a lot of points for being obsessed with the boring main dude in the first place. The crux of the show is the boy wants to fall in love with the vampire, but he's a moron so he doesn't even know what love is. And the vampire doesn't want him to fall in love with her, so of course she's taking him to romantic places and helping him work through his emotions and all that. Ugh. This whole anime has just felt really off-putting for me so far.

Terra

Nora

Cyan

I still haven't read a single manga. I intend to eventually but there's still so much anime to watch

I finished rewatching Little Witch Academia. It was one of the first ten anime I ever watched back in the day. My opinion remained mostly the same. The first half was way better than the second half and the episodes following the overarching plot were worse than the mostly stand-alone zany episodes. In those fun episodes, LWA is like a great Saturday morning cartoon. The more plot-heavy episodes were a letdown by comparison, they're too basic to be weighty and too serious to be funny. That said, I remembered the later parts of this anime being way more dramatic than they actually are. I mean, one of the big triggers near the end is everyone being angry about a soccer game, that isn't too dramatic lol.

I'm curious how good the dub is for this. When my nephew is a little bit older this might be a fun thing to show him for his first anime. It isn't a kiddy anime or anything, I just think it'd be fun for all ages. There's no sexualization, nothing too dark, and plenty or applicable moral lessons. Netflix rates it Y7 for 'fear', whatever that means, and he just turned six so I guess I'll still have to wait a year or two.

Ghido

andylt posted...

Auto for Ghido

For Nora, I save in a few minutes

We're pretty much done, so I'll post the spoiler sheet now. I'm thinking August 6th or 13th for the next one, leaning towards the 6th

https://archipelago.gg/dl_spoiler/KKdSuLiHR8WCENna_s26cA

Nora

Cyan

I'm surprised there hasn't already been an isekai idol anime. At least I couldn't find any mentioned in a quick google search. Each of those genres are already struggling to find unique twists to set them apart

Terra

Only three games remain unfinished, so this is winding down. Thanks again for participating everyone, I enjoyed it.

In my continuing quest to rewatch my old favorites, I finished rewatching A.I.C.O.: Incarnation. Even years later, I'm still sad that the dub for this was so terrible. The fact that Netflix hired crappy foreign language voice actors to do an English dub wound up being the only thing anyone ever said about this. That controversy obscured just how amazing everything else about AICO is. It has great action scenes against a neat enemy. I love the Burst, it's so alien and cool and all the pseudoscience surrounding it is interesting. The action scenes are strategic rather than just mindless shooting because they need to counter specific mutations. The story is so laser-focused on its goal as they progress up the river, with the dams providing checkpoints even as their gear slowly wears down. Aiko herself is such a great character too. This anime remains one of the most perfect stories I've ever seen, every little thing about it appeals to me so much.

I also rewatched Revue Starlight the other day. It was still really good, but it did fall a little in my ranking. Nothing can ever replicate the magic of watching that first episode thinking it'd be just a cute show about girls doing theater, not knowing what was coming. Hikari annoyed me a lot more on rewatch than she did the first time too. I still love almost everything about this anime though, the Revues are all great, the singing is great, and the animation is great. I also love the endless symbolism about theater that's woven into the story. Every time I think about something I swear I find new ways that it ties into the themes. It's a really impressive, artistic story. I guess there was a Revue Starlight movie last year, but anime movies almost never appear on streaming services for some reason so I guess I'll never see it. Ah well.

First episode of Shine Post was pretty good. I was expecting this to be the bargain bin idol anime of the season, like Music Girls a few years ago, but this actually had some decent dance segments. The characters are all fun, and even the generic main dude has a neat twist.

A few others have beaten their games, hopefully some good stuff is getting sent out!

I beat my Hollow Knight! Didn't look like I sent much out but hopefully even the basic stuff helps a little.

Also I don't want to rush anyone but MZero, you have an item early in your Sly shop (Enchantress) that would really help MrSmartGuy out, so hopefully you can play a bit soon!

Locke

Trading for Cyan auto

Nora

Cyan

Watched two more Summer first episodes

Parallel World Pharmacy is shaping up to be one of the rare decent isekai anime! The things I don't like about it are kind of inherent to the genre. Main dude has OP protagonist powers. There's zero actual explanation for why he isekai'd in the first place (it was so refreshing in Executioner last season to have actual rules to isekai-ing so it happened often). Still, it looks like he'll use his OP powers for fantasy medical research and I find that interesting. It's also doing some neat things with how people are reacting to him being a different person, especially by the end of the episode. I don't think it'll be the best anime ever or anything but I'm enjoying this so far.

As for the other show, I kind of hated the first episode of Call of the Night. This is going to be the anime of the season that everyone loves except for me, I guess. It reminded me of one of the bad arcs in Monogatari. Boring protagonist dude runs into manic pixie dream girl vampire and of course she finds him immediately irresistible. I laughed out loud at the end of the episode, minor spoilers from episode one if anyone cares about that. Dude: "I want to fall in love with you!" Vampire "Whatever, I won't stop you but I won't do anything to help you fall in love with me. Now come on, I'm going to help you fly through a beautiful nighttime cityscape, one of the most magical and romantic things possible." It was so awful.

Summer ranking so far:
Lycoris Recoil
Prima Doll
Parallel World Pharmacy
Phantom of the Idol
The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting
Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Luminous Witches
Call of the Night

We had a good first day. Almost everyone checked in and found quite a few items for each other. I'm waiting on more mobility items in HK