Lurker > Mobilezoid

The async is tomorrow!

1- Robazoid (Hollow Knight)
2- Reg (SMW)
3- Reg (OOT)
4- MrSmartGuy (Pokemon)
5- MrSmartGuy (LTTP)
6- Alchav (Pokemon)
7- Elina (OOT)
8- Elina (Pokemon)
9- Rose (HK)
10- Rose (LTTP)
11- KommunistKoala (SMW)
12- AriaOfBolo (Pokemon)

Bumping topic

We're up to eight slots so far for the January 14 async! I'll do a list later in the week.

I'll officially move the next async to the 14th then. That works a lot better for me too. I'll start the sign-ups in about a week. Happy New Year, everyone!

That was the plan, but if anything came up for a lot of people I could move it to the 14th

Bumping to keep topic alive

All of us are finished! Thanks again for participating, everyone. I had fun.

This was also our twelfth monthly randomizer. It's hard to believe we've been doing this for a whole year. I wasnt sure anyone would be interested when I first posted about it here, but I'm glad we've built a good crew.

Next month's will likely be on January 7th, but as always I can move it back a week if that works for more people

I finished my Hollow Knight! We're making great progress too, only six slots remain

Thursday bump

I'm more bothered by the fact that 3 doesn't quite match the others, tbh

Edit: Oh I see, 3 is part of the problem. I thought we were complaining about just the two on the right

I've never played LTTP myself unfortunately. Quite a few others here have and maybe they could help, but your best bet would be swinging by the Archipelago discord. It's odd that you could send and not receive, though.

I already have one Bunny Girl figure. That's enough for me.

The November async is pretty much over! Thanks again for participating, everyone. They also released an update today, and it included five new games.

Pokemon Red/Blue
Super Mario World
Overcooked 2
Hylics 2
Zillion
Also some sort of small Sudoku game to play to get hints when your game is blocked but I haven't looked into that much yet.

No MMBN3 for NFUN yet, sadly, but I'm excited for Pokemon and SMW

I have officially finished my first manga!

I picked A School Frozen in Time because it was only four volumes total and I liked the premise. Eight kids get trapped in a high school and need to figure out which one of them was the one who committed suicide. The first volume was good, so I bought the rest. Sadly, the story kind of fell apart and became really melodramatic at times. Ah well.

Still, it worked as a test. I enjoyed reading the manga. Buying physical copies was expensive, especially since reading through them didn't take very long, so I'll probably use certain websites in the future. I also still prefer anime, but so many great shows end without a proper conclusion so it'll be good to start reading those ones at least.

The 12th is coming up!

1- Robazoid (Hollow Knight)
2- MrSmartGuy (LTTP) yaml received
3- MrSmartGuy (Slay the Spire) yaml received
4- Reg (SM64) yaml received
5- JeffreyRaze (Timespinner) yaml received
6- JeffreyRaze (LTTP) yaml received

1- Robazoid (Hollow Knight)
2- MrSmartGuy (LTTP) yaml received
3- Reg (SM64) yaml received

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2022/11/07/watch-sword-art-online-progressive-laid-back-camp-the-movie-more-anime-movies-on-crunchyroll

Laid-Back Camp movie is actually coming to Crunchyroll, aw yeah

SeabassDebeste posted...

have y'all watched romantic killer

we're halfway through and loving it

It's one of five or so anime I plan to watch right away once I'm done watching stuff for my ranking topic. The premise sounded fun, so I'm glad to hear that it's good!

I'll make a new topic for the top 60 when I get home tonight, and I'll finally post the full ranking again too.

Just for fun, I've been keeping track of this. I only rated an anime higher than the MAL score eight times out of the 200 ranked so far!

100- Uzamaid
96- The Magnificent Kotobuki
95- The Price of Smiles
84- Anima Yell
83- Harukana Receive
82- Prima Doll
71- BanG Dream (S1 only)
65- Katana Maidens

I imagine I'll be higher than MAL way more often than not for the remainder of the ranking, but I thought this was a fun stat for the 7s and below.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
60: A lot of people have been dying in this anime's small town.
C48: This character can't go out in daylight.
59: This anime is full of bitter tastes.
C53: This character is becoming filled with sweet feelings for the first time.

We're finally done the 7/10 Good Tier! Tomorrow we start the 8/10 Great Tier.

61. Golden Kamuy
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36028/Golden_Kamuy
Spring 2018 (12 episodes), Fall 2018 (12 episodes), Fall 2020 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.87/10 S1, 8.23/10 S2, 8.45/10 S3
Best Character: Sugimoto Saichi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QahFijEd3hY

Premise: Sugimoto Saichi, known as 'the Immortal' for surviving suicidal charges and countless injuries during the Russo-Japanese War, hears about a trove of gold buried somewhere in Hokkaido. Partnering with an Ainu girl named Asirpa, Sugimoto begins tracking down the escaped convicts who each have part of a map to the gold tattoed on their bodies.

The Good: Golden Kamuy is a historical adventure anime about various factions competing to find a bunch of gold. I really like the premise, it's fairly basic but it leaves a lot of room for characters with different motivations. There are twenty-four escaped prisoners who each have part of a coded treasure map tattoed to their bodies. They're all different kinds of criminals, like an escape artist or a deranged hunter. Tracking down and dealing with each of them, one way or another, allows for lots of little mini-adventures. Then there's the bigger picture where various groups are competing to get the clues first, including a rogue military unit, an old samurai rebel, and of course Sugimoto's little crew. Each group is filled with unique characters, and not all of them are what they seem at first. I'm glad GK got several seasons (there's a fourth that just started airing that I haven't begun yet). It's a big story and it deserves time to play out at its own pace. Sugimoto is my favorite, as I'll talk about more in his write-up below, but I really like Asirpa too. She's cute and can be surprisingly hilarious, plus she's a guide into Ainu culture. Her connection to the gold hunt adds a lot of depth, too. Beyond that, GK is just a really solid story with lots of moving pieces that keep interacting in interesting ways.

The Bad: There are some low budget problems at times. This isn't the anime for anyone who will be bothered by crappy CGI bears. Still, my main problem is probably the food segments. It's a common joke that Golden Kamuy is secretly a food porn anime, because there are lots of scenes about how to catch, cook, and eat various animals. Food porn isn't my thing, especially not "here's a spoonful of animal brains" food porn, so those bits aren't my favorite! There are also times where the mood turns goofy, like a literal zany comedy anime. I enjoy the smaller funny bits, like one time during a chase a character jumped and straight-up Looney Tunes swam through air for a second to reach something higher up, little moments like that were funny. The full scenes of goofy comedy usually felt out of place.

Overall: I really like the premise of Golden Kamuy, as well as the various factions of crazy characters chasing after the gold. Sugimoto and Asirpa are great, as are many of the other characters. I'm not a huge fan of the food porn or the occasional over-the-top goofy scene. Still, GK is mostly just a really solid historical adventure, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/2/8/AAcDcBAAD0tY.jpg

CHARACTER: Sugimoto Saichi (Golden Kamuy)
https://myanimelist.net/character/138553/Saichi_Sugimoto
Voiced by: Kobayashi Chikahiro
TOP 100 RANK: 88th

SPOILERS FOR GOLDEN KAMUY (to the end of S3 only)

VIDEO LINK (from the end of S3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnI2RGqRnnM

Sugimoto is a badass. He's introduced tanking what should be fatal injuries while charging enemy lines and still having the strength to kill several Russians when he gets there. He does this all while in a berserker rage screaming that he is immortal, which is a moniker he proves he deserves many times throughout the anime. Like a great many soldiers, though, Sugimoto is aimless after the war. He's also haunted by his experiences, though he usually doesn't let it show. He has a goal, a dying wish from a friend to get money to his widow, but Sugimoto has no real plan on how to do that until he hears about the Ainu gold. Then he meets Asirpa, a young Ainu girl, and they partner up to track down the convicts.

The dynamic between Sugimoto and Asirpa is my favorite part of Golden Kamuy. There are lots of little moments where they grow closer. Asirpa introduces him to hunting tricks, food, and Ainu culture. Sugimoto slowly opens up to her in turn. There's one scene I really liked when they were riding out a blizzard and Sugimoto talks about a food he misses from his hometown. Asirpa later uses that info to confirm someone is lying to her, which shows she was really listening and taking even small things like that to heart. Sugimoto plays a protective, almost fatherly role, but the two also interact as equals. They recognize that the other has their own areas of expertise and defer to them whenever it makes sense.

The two spent a lot of time apart in the third season, but for me this absence solidified their relationship. I liked how Asirpa steadfastly believed that Sugimoto survived no matter what anyone told her, solely because she has faith in his immortality. Sugimoto's single-minded desire to rescue her was also really sweet. The video I linked above, from when they finally reunite near the end of the third season, was also great. Asirpa doesn't want to become a murderer, so Sugimoto goes to great lengths to save one of his worst enemies after she accidentally shoots him with a poisoned arrow. It really illustrates how close they've become that protecting Asirpa's soul was Sugimoto's goal there rather than eliminating a dangerous enemy. I love their dynamic a lot.

MartinFF7 posted...

Probably dangerous to add more series to my queue with so many still left to be ranked, but I like the Sunday Without God concept (only seen something like it once before, the Paradise X comic series) and want to see how it plays out. Only 12 eps makes that manageable too so gonna pick it up.

Dub, sub, or doesn't matter?

I exclusively watch subtitles for anime, but if you prefer dubs and it has one, you can give it a shot!

SWG won't be for everyone, but I enjoyed spending twelve episodes in that strange little world. I'm sad it only had one season because it definitely still had more stories to tell.

Tsumugi was one of the better parts of the second season for sure. What I didn't like was how they could create more of that anti-Gauna material, which let them turn it into projectiles and suddenly they could mow down hundreds at a time. It felt like it turned into a different show almost.

62. Knights of Sidonia
https://myanimelist.net/anime/19775/Sidonia_no_Kishi
Spring 2014 (12 episodes), Spring 2015 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.65/10 S1, 7.73/10 S2
Best Character: Hoshijiro Shizuka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_zn1a-dOvg

Premise: Earth has been destroyed by the alien Gauna, and the last remnants of humanity are fleeing across the galaxy. Tanikaze Nagate has lived his whole life hidden in the depths of the spaceship Sidonia, but when he finally emerges he might just be the hero humanity needs.

The Good: Knights of Sidonia is a mecha anime. It uses CGI, but I thought it looked really stylish and cool. It also allowed for dynamic battles. I love everything about the setting. Sidonia itself is gargantuan, full of hidden areas and competing factions. I love how desperately they're clinging to survival too, doing things like taking sharp turns when necessary even though the shift in gravity is incredibly dangerous. The Gauna are also really cool. They have such a mysterious, alien feel to them, and they're everywhere almost as if they've infested the galaxy. Since they have what's effectively shapeshifting, regenerating armor, and they can only be killed by one specific material stabbing their core, battling even a single Gauna as a huge challenge. I liked how carefully the heroes needed to plan, and usually there were still massive casualties. The characters in KoS were all fine too, especially Hoshijiro. Still, it was the desperate struggle for survival against an unknowable foe that really resonated with me.

The Bad: The second season definitely wasn't bad, but I felt like it lost focus of the aspects that had appealed to me most. A constant need to escalate things meant there were way more Gauna, which robbed each individual one of its sense of mystery and danger, at least for me. The heroes still struggled just as much, sure, but struggling against one has a much different feel than struggling against ten, if that makes sense. Otherwise, there were a few plot points that went in an unsatisfying direction, but I can't talk about those much without spoilers.

Overall: Knights of Sidonia is tied for the second anime I ever watched. I saw Death Note, then a decade later I watched this and Haruhi at around the same time. I thought it was epic at the time, and KoS being so great was a big part of why I started watching more anime. It's still good, full of neat mecha battles in an interesting setting. I just felt the second season wasn't as focused on the things I liked most, which kept this from reaching my true favorites.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
62: This anime can only be killed by one specific material.
61: This anime has had its torso skinned.
C88: This character is immortal.

I apologize again for taking today off, but after this there shouldn't be anymore problems! The ranking will end on exactly November 30th. There will be eight days where I only do one anime due to it having two or three characters.

Since I'm not doing actual write-ups today, here are some fun stats!

-The top 60 anime have 65 of my top 100 characters.
-One anime has three characters.
-Ten anime have two characters.
-Seven anime have zero characters.
-Counting the character in 61, the current top 100 character gender ratio is 7:28 male:female.

-Since the start of 2022, I will have watched at least one season in 54/60 of my top 60 (whether that be a full rewatch, seeing it for the first time, or finishing a new season).

Thanks again for following along, everyone. After tomorrow, we're finally into my 8/10s!

As for what's coming up tomorrow... nothing! I explained why in post 469, but basically I need time to finish watching a few anime the ranking is about to reach. I've decided not to rewatch 62 (no top 100 character so my fuzzy memories of it should suffice) but I need at least a day for 61.

Hopefully I'll be back on Thursday, but I'll post a "coming up tomorrow" thing the day before when I'm sure.

This should be the last delay in the ranking. Thank you for your patience, everyone, and for following along!

63. Sunday Without God
https://myanimelist.net/anime/16009/Kamisama_no_Inai_Nichiyoubi
Summer 2013 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.30/10
Best Character: Dee Ensy Stratmitos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At9Abkapnlk

Premise: God has abandoned the world, meaning no new life can be born and people can only die if they're buried by inhuman gravekeepers. Ai is a young girl who serves as her town's gravekeeper, at least until a mysterious man with the same name as her father arrives.

The Good: Sunday Without God was a supernatural anime with (if I had to pick a genre label) a focus on mysteries. I really loved the setting. God seemingly abandoned the world long ago, so now nobody can die. Injured people just slowly lose their sense of self, at least until a gravekeeper buries them. This kind of weird apocalyptic setting is something I always enjoy, and SWG does a lot of creative stuff with it. One of my favorite things was a character who was actually two different people cut in half and sewn together vertically, and it worked because neither of the two halves could die. Ai was an interesting character, but I also liked the friends she gathered during her adventures. The ghostly Dee was still my favorite, as I'll cover in her write-up. More than anything, though, this was just such an interesting world. It felt like a place where anything was possible with a lot of potential for fun arcs.

The Bad: As much as I loved the world, there are parts of it I would've liked a better explanation of. For example, I didn't fully understand the specifics of what death meant exactly. Supposedly only burial by a gravekeeper can kill someone, but plenty of characters are rendered immobile. Are they just constantly suffering in silence or what? I wanted more details on stuff like that. I also thought the first arc with Hambart was a bit too meanspirited and edgy.

Overall: Sunday Without God had an incredibly interesting setting. Parts of it weren't explored as much as I'd have preferred, but I mostly forgave that just because the sheer creativity impressed me. Ai and her companions were good characters, and I liked all of the arcs. Dee was my favorite character, though, mostly because the final arc of the season dealing with her was the best one by far.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/9/4/AAcDcBAAD0Qu.jpg

CHARACTER: Dee Ensy Stratmitos (Sunday Without God)
https://myanimelist.net/character/86345/Dee_Ensy_Stratmitos
Voiced by: Kitamura Eri
TOP 100 RANK: 97th

SPOILERS FOR SUNDAY WITHOUT GOD

(I couldnt find a good video for her)

During her adventures, Ai meets a guy named Alice and his ghostly companion Dee. Alice, noticing Ai's knack for solving problems in this crazy godless world, asks for her help in solving a big one. It ties into one of my absolute favorite things about the setting, which I didn't mention in the anime write-up because I think it's a spoiler (and I don't remember if this was ever confirmed or if it was just speculation). God hasn't abandoned the world, he's actually trying to grant wishes and miracles. He just really, really sucks at it, resulting in things like giving people immortality in a way that turns it into a nightmarish curse.

In the early days of whatever change happened to the world, a student at a school fell out a window and died (or whatever death means in that new world). Their classmates, horrified at what happened, wished to undo it... and the stupid god granted it, creating a kind of enclosed reality where the town keeps repeating the same few months over and over. Memories of what happened are fuzzy even for Alice, who was the first one to realize something strange was going on. He found a way to escape alongside Dee. Since she became a ghost in the outside world, though, it wasnt hard to eventually put it all together. Dee's tragic death has trapped that town in a timeloop, and Alice gets Ai's help to break it.

Everyone enters the enclosed world, a perfect replica of a time now long gone. It's easy for everyone to settle into a pleasant life in that regular town, even though they know they have to solve the mystery before the timeloop resets or else the memories of their mission will be erased and trap them there forever. Dee remains oddly unhelpful, too, and once they realize she was the one who fell out the window everyone realizes why. Ending the timeloop would likely mean killing her for good. Dee tries to speed up the timeloop reset, and when confronted the real truth is revealed. It wasnt Dee who fell out the window and died that day. It was Alice, and everything she's done has been her trying to keep him alive because she loves him. Alice still decides to sacrifice himself to save everyone else, the timeloop ends, and Ai moves on to have more adventures.

This was a complicated arc. I'm sure there were parts I didn't fully understand and I probably did a terrible job summarizing it. The important thing is that it had a lot of things I found really interesting, like the enclosed world timeloop. I also really felt for Dee. For large parts of the arc she seemed obstructive and selfish, but the reveal that she was doing it all for Alice put her actions into a new perspective for me. I liked her character a lot.

64. Noragami
https://myanimelist.net/anime/20507/Noragami
Winter 2014 (12 episodes), Fall 2015 (13 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.96/10 S1, 8.17/10 S2
Best Character: Iki Hiyori

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWCnKoEgfP0

Premise: Yato is a god, but he doesn't have a shrine or any followers. He barely makes a living doing odd jobs for five yen apiece, at least until he meets Iki Hiyori, a girl whose spirit often slips out of her body.

The Good: Noragami is a supernatural action comedy. I like the setting quite a bit. It has lots of layers, and it was neat seeing the rules and balance between them. Gods have the most power, but it's directly tied to how much worship they receive from humans. They also need to use good spirits as weapons against the evil spirits that are always popping up. Yato is an incredibly minor god, but he has big dreams of having his own shrine someday and to get there he'll do any job, no matter how small. I liked Yato. He was basically a homeless drifter, but he also had a really high opinion of himself and it led to a lot of great jokes. Yukine, his spirit weapon, was a compelling character too. A lot of people hated on him in the Crunchyroll comments, but it made sense to me that the spirit of a dead teenager would have some angst. Hiyori was still easily my favorite. Her spirit sometimes leaves her body behind, and I laughed every time they used that as a joke like cutting away to show her physical body passed out at school. She also had a great dynamic with Yato and Yukine, which I'll talk about more in her character write-up.

The Bad: Noragami usually maintained a nice balance between comedy and drama. Yato would act haughty and goofy, and then there would be a relatively serious battle against an evil spirit or rival god. I enjoyed the comedy bits the most, and it was nice when it had a good balance too. Sadly, there were a few arcs that became too dramatic for my tastes. Basically anything to do with Nora was too dark for me, and she never brought anything fun to counterbalance it.

Overall: Noragami was a solid comedy with a supernatural twist. One scenario had Yato trying to stop a guy from killing himself, and they had a long conversation complete with flashbacks in the time between jumping from a building and hitting the ground, with a terrified Hiyori tagging along to point out the absurdity of it. I liked the stuff like that a lot. A few arcs were too dark or melodramatic, but even then the battle animation was still great. The dynamic between Hiyori, Yato, and Yukine was also always amazing.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/5/AAcDcBAAD0PV.jpg

CHARACTER: Iki Hiyori (Noragami)
https://myanimelist.net/character/84679/Hiyori_Iki
Voiced by: Uchida Maaya
Top 100 Rank: 37th

SPOILERS FOR NORAGAMI

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWS7Zpxvb4M

Hiyori starts as someone with just enough spiritual power to notice Yato. It nearly gets her killed when she gets hit by a truck while trying to push him out of the way, not realizing he couldn't be hurt by it. After that, Hiyori's spirit form often leaves her body behind. She has an ethereal weightlessness as a spirit, which allows her to do things like leap between buildings. She's worried about what's happening to her, and she hires Yato to find a way to fix it, but I still really liked how Hiyori reacted to her newfound freedom. She had fun with it, doing things like jumping around town and tagging along with her new god friends.

As a half-spirit, she draws attention from from evil creatures but has no defense against them. Hiyori is a tough girl, and the video I linked for her has her doing wrestling kicks on a weird frog thing. Sadly, she can't do much due to the rules of the world. That often puts her in danger, as does her connection to Yato since she's an easy target for anyone trying to hurt him. Still, I appreciated how proactive and fearless Hiyori could be. She'd been warned that a powerful war god hated Yato and would not hesitate to kill Hiyori if they knew her connection to him. When Yato and Yukine were in trouble, though, Hiyori marched straight to that war god's shrine to call in a favor from one of its spirit weapons. I really liked that moment from her. She refused to just stand by being helpless.

Her relationship with Yato and Yukine was really sweet overall, too. There are multiple times where the only real threat to her is that someone might erase her memories of them, but they've formed such close bonds that it's still treated as a serious danger. Hiyori insists on helping Yukine have normal things in life, like schooling and homework. As much as her and Yato playfully clash, it's also obvious how much they care about each other. After hearing Yato's dream of getting his own shrine, Hiyori makes him one. It's the size of a birdhouse made with scrap wood, but it still makes Yato cry tears of joy. He's a literal god, which puts him above things like human morality, but he tries to be a better person for Hiyori's sake. Whenever she's in danger, those are the few times where his god of calamity side rises to the surface. Otherwise, Hiyori is just a fun character. In her spirit form she has a cat tail and various other catlike mannerisms, which I found fun.

MacArrowny posted...

RIP me! I thought this would be in your top 10 or something. I remember you really loving it for some reason.

I definitely raved about Katana Maidens a lot when it was airing. I feel like most people have something they adore despite acknowledging it isn't actually that great. That's where Katana Maidens is for me now. The second half was decent but still such a letdown compared to the early parts. That's why I try to keep my hype in the anime topic at an appropriate medium these days. As much as I'm loving Raven of the Inner Palace this season, I probably won't mention it in there again until I make sure the later parts don't suck.

Still, Katana Maidens wasnt a bad guess for which anime has three top 100 characters! Hiyori and Nene were on my shortlist when I was figuring that ranking out.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
64: This anime doesn't even have a small shrine dedicated to it.
C37: This character's spirit is leaving their body behind.
63: This anime is being eliminated from the ranking, but it can't actually die.
C97: This character is floating through the world as a ghost.

65. Katana Maidens
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35589/Toji_no_Miko
Winter 2018 (24 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 6.80/10
Best Character: Etou Kanami

My Kanami figure: https://imgur.com/XeDS6ti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLioVZ3bo5E

Premise: Evil beings called aradama threaten the world, and girls called toji use mystical katanas to defend against them. Etou Kanami is a gifted fighter, and she gets caught up in a conspiracy that could threaten the world.

The Good: Katana Maidens is an action anime. I was really enamored with it when it was first airing, as I'm sure anyone in the anime topic around that time will recall. My opinion on it has leveled out quite a bit, but I still think this is an underrated gem with a lot going for it. This write-up will be longer than usual just because I feel the need to explain myself. Still, I can see why KM never took off. I struggled to summarize it in the premise! Viewers get thrown into the setting and all its weird terminology without much explanation, but it isn't that complex. They can make mystical katanas that grant girls various abilities like a spiritual shield or bursts of speed. The process of forging these katanas also creates a byproduct called noro, which eventually takes the form of a malevolent monster that only the special katanas can destroy. There was a disaster twenty years ago when a huge amount of noro came together. The girl who eliminated it, Yukari, became a hero and now leads the entire toji organization.

However, things are more complicated than they seem. At a sword fighting tournament, a toji named Hiyori tries to assassinate the hero Yukari. When that fails, Hiyori goes on the run with Etou Kanami, the only person there who was gifted enough to see what actually happened. Yukari defended herself using aradama powers, meaning she never defeated the monster twenty years ago. The monster took her over, and the only two people who know it are being hunted by the entire toji organization.

I really adore that premise. I went into KM expecting another "cute girls fight waves of monsters" snoozefest like Strike Witches. Instead, it thrust me into an interesting conspiracy, and I became genuinely invested in whether or not Kanami and Hiyori could unravel it. I'm a big fan of stories where characters are on the run and have the odds stacked against them. The battles in this use CGI, but I thought they looked good and the back-and-forth was easy to follow. Kanami was also a stellar character who remains one of my favorites, even though my opinion of Katana Maidens itself eventually mellowed out.

The Bad: The second half of the anime isn't anywhere near as good. I wouldn't call it bad, and some of the hypest moments happened there. It just had some problems. There's one character, Yukina, who is a moronic bad guy caricature. I absolutely hated her and everyone stupid enough to work with her. Anything else I want to complain about would be a huge spoiler, so I'll just say there's plenty to nitpick here for people who want things to complain about. My good feelings from early on were enough for me to forgive most of them, though.

Overall: It didn't wind up being as good as it could've been due to a lackluster second half, but I still think Katana Maidens is a lot better than anyone but me ever gave it credit for. It had an interesting setting, a great conspiracy plot, and I liked all of the major characters. Hiyori and the comic relief sidekick animal Nene were considerations for my top 100 characters, but in the end only Kanami made the list.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/4/3/AAcDcBAAD0Db.png

CHARACTER: Etou Kanami (Katana Maidens)
https://myanimelist.net/character/151354/Kanami_Etou
Voiced by: Hondo Kaede
TOP 100 RANK: 6th

SPOILERS FOR KATANA MAIDENS

(I couldnt find a good video for her that wasnt the dub)

Kanami at her most basic is a character type I enjoy, an energetic optimistic girl who really loves sword fighting. What elevated her into my all-time favorites is the surprising amount of intelligence and depth she has on top of that. At the sword fighting tournament, when everyone else was still processing the fact that Hiyori tried to kill the great hero Yukari, only Kanami is astute enough to look past that and see what actually happened. She makes the split-second decision to assist Hiyori and go on the run, all because she saw Yukari use aradama powers. While they're in hiding, Kanami remains a friendly ally to the aloof Hiyori. She also displays a lot of skill and intelligence. When the two are fighting members of the elite guard, they don't waste time trying to defeat them. Kanami recognizes that victory, at this moment, is to escape, and that's what she and Hiyori manage to do.

As her skill level is revealed throughout the anime, though, it becomes clear that Kanami could've won if she wanted to. For years, she's been training in her sleep with the spirit of her mother (it's a long story). When Kanami is serious, only the greatest foes can hope to stand against her. Kanami rarely gets serious, though, because she usually doesn't fight in order to defeat people. She views sword fighting as a method of conversation, a way to see who someone really is. Kanami asks for duels at inappropriate times from everyone, including Hiyori, a reformed Yukari, and even an evil god. She does this because it's the best way to understand them, and for them to sense her feelings in turn.

When Kanami does get serious, though, shit gets real. When Hiyori has absorbed all three shards of an evil god (again, it's a long story) and is ready to die to banish them for good, Kanami refuses to let that happen. Hiyori has incredible powers, including a lightning sword and the ability to see every possible future. And, to her increasing terror, she can't find a single potential reality where she beats Kanami. Every path leads to defeat. Kanami literally cuts a lightning bolt in half and wins easily when they finally do come to blows. That was probably my favorite moment in all of Katana Maidens. I was impressed that Kanami could be so powerful without ever feeling like a Mary Sue, because her goal was usually to reach her enemy, not merely overpower them. It also really upped the stakes at the end when everyone was up against someone who could match her strength.

66. Parasyte: The Maxim
https://myanimelist.net/anime/22535/Kiseijuu__Sei_no_Kakuritsu
Fall 2014 (24 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 8.34/10
Best Character: Izumi Shinichi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm8UjBAS3cs

Premise: Strange shapeshifting creatures rain down on Earth and take over the brains of many people. High schooler Izumi Shinichi has his right arm taken over instead, forcing him to coexist with the alien Migi as they struggle to hide and survive.

The Good: Parasyte is mostly an action anime, but it also has elements of body horror with all of the freaky shapeshifting. I like the idea of this story more than the execution, as I'll cover in the bad section. There are still a lot of neat ideas in the setting and situations. The idea of monstrous creatures devouring people while blending in is neat, and I like how their abilities are clearly explained and explored. I like the societal reactions to it a lot, with it starting as an impossible global killing spree called the Mincemeat Murders and going from there. Shinichi is one of the few people aware of what's going on, but he can't come forward because that might threaten Migi and the alien would kill anyone he tried to tell. I like the symbiotic relationship they form as a contrast to the rest of the selfishly parasitic monsters. All that Shinichi can do is struggle to survive and protect the people closest to him.

The Bad: The story has quite a few problems, mostly related to the supporting cast. Both love interests suck. Murano I feel kind of bad for because Shinichi is constantly lying to her, but it's annoying how she wonders if he's really still Shinichi at least once per episode. Kana is a bad person and a moron who I felt nothing for. Most of the parasite characters are stone-faced and boring. The setting also does an edgy thing I always hate where people can't walk down the street without encountering roving gangs or kids torturing animals. Basically, it pushes the "humans are the real monsters" theme very blatantly at times. It detracted from the fun monster conflict, in my opinion.

Overall: Parasyte has a neat idea and does a lot of interesting things with it. I liked the powers the parasites had, as well as the dynamic between Shinichi and Migi. Those good aspects had to carry the story against the huge amount of nitpicks I have for it. Despite my complaints, it's still a quality production with excellent animation, especially during the battles. Shinichi also just barely reached my top 100 characters.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/9/4/AAcDcBAAD0BG.jpg

CHARACTER: Izumi Shinichi (Parasyte)
https://myanimelist.net/character/12323/Shinichi_Izumi
Voiced by: Shimazaki Nobunaga
TOP 100 RANK: 100th

SPOILERS FOR PARASYTE

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

Much like the Parasyte anime itself, there's a lot I could complain about with regards to Shinichi. I rolled my eyes at how every single girl he came across had the hots for him, both before and after his transformation. I wasn't a huge fan of that transformation either. The story was a lot more compelling before he became a superhuman. Despite all of that, there was one part of his character that I really liked. Shinichi's parents go on vacation and have the bad luck of running across a parasite that takes over his mother. The monster returns home and encounters Shinichi. He can't bring himself to attack someone who looks like her, which leads to him getting stabbed through the heart. Since this creature had the appearance of the loving mother who once selflessly protected him from a pot of boiling oil, this is obviously a traumatic experience.

Shinichi is saved by Migi, but he no longer seems like the same person afterwards. In addition to the scarring on his chest and back, Shinichi is emotionally shut down. He can also immediately calm himself if he ever starts panicking. He still cares about things, but in a logical and callous way that terrifies Murano. He finds an injured dog, holds it until it dies... and then heartlessly throws it in the trash. When he and Migi discuss these emotional changes, he wonders if what Migi did to repair his heart somehow robbed him of his humanity along with all the other changes it made to his body.

Encounters with Tamiya Ryouko, a parasite mother with a callous disregard for her child, are one of the few things to get a reaction out of him. The video I linked is their final interaction, the moment when she shields her human child from police bullets rather than fighting back to save herself. She even briefly wears the face of Shinichi's mother, just to drive the point home. This act of selflessness has a deep impact on Shinichi. Not because it came from a parasitic monster, but because it came from a mother to her child. This is just my interpretation, but I don't think anything Migi did to his heart actually impacted Shinichi's emotions. Getting attacked by someone who looked like his mother just left him with some regular old trauma, and he shut down emotionally as a result. Tamiya's sacrifice breaks that barrier down, and Shinichi is finally able to cry. I thought this was a powerful moment in the anime, and a nice examination of both trauma and motherly love.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2022/10/22-1/laid-back-camp-season-3-tv-anime-confirmed-to-be-in-production

Laid-Back Camp S3, aw yeah.

MacArrowny posted...

Didn't you say you had 84/100 done a while ago? Guess the upcoming ones are those

84/100 were the total I intend to have watched or rewatched sometime in 2022, not what I had already finished.

In the top 60, for example, I intend to have recently seen 54/60 (three aren't available on streaming anymore, one is super long, two are just low priority). I still need to rewatch 14 of those.

There are still three anime where I have to watch sequel seasons, but I'll finish those before the ranking reaches them. Otherwise, I've completed everything remaining (not every movie or extra episode, just the seasons).

I still have quite a few left to rewatch, though, and a lot of them are coming right up. Hopefully I can get through them all in time!

69. Arakawa Under the Bridge
https://myanimelist.net/anime/7647/Arakawa_Under_the_Bridge
Spring 2010 (13 episodes), Fall 2010 (13 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.57/10 S1, 7.72/10 S2
Best Character: Nino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7quGQi_JMjE

Premise: Ichinomiya Kou was raised by his wealthy family to avoid being indebted to anyone. When a homeless girl named Nino saves his life, Kou has no choice but to agree to her request to clear the debt. He must move into the strange community located under the bridge and become Nino's boyfriend!

The Good: Arakawa Under the Bridge is kind of a romance since Kou's goal is to get Nino to fall in love with him, but it's mostly a bizarre comedy. Kou joins a community filled with strange characters located under a bridge on an artificial riverbank. And when I say strange, Nino is one of the most normal ones and she claims to be from Venus. There's a buff soldier guy who wears the clothing of a nun, a mayor who claims to be a real kappa despite it obviously being a costume, a surly guitar player named Hoshi who wears a star mask, a guy who can only walk on white lines so he travels with one of those things that draws lines on baseball fields... I haven't even begun to name them all. Kou is slightly more normal than everyone else, which helps him act as the straight man, but he has his own quirks like a pathological need to never owe anyone anything. Before too long, he starts fitting right in. The setting is mysterious too, seemingly changing sizes and stretching into infinity at times. Arakawa is a weird anime in almost every way, but thats what made it so much fun. I loved seeing what bizarre, dangerous, hilarious, and occasionally heartfelt adventure they'll go on next.

The Bad: This is another anime where I don't recall it doing anything wrong (though I couldn't find time to rewatch it so there's a chance I'm forgetting something). I just can't justify ranking it any higher. As much as I enjoyed the strange setting and characters, they were all a bit too off-the-wall zany for anyone to stand out as a favorite.

Overall: Arakawa Under the Bridge was an enjoyable comedy anime about a community of exceedingly strange people. The stories were usually hilarious nonsense, but I liked how some of them would pack a little emotion. Nino and Kou had a nice romantic dynamic. It was also nice watching him slowly grow to embrace this strange little world.

COMING UP TOMORROW*:
68: This anime is cursed to remain poor.
C70: This character wears skimpier clothing whenever there's a crisis.
67: This anime is being coerced to join a strange club.

*There's a good chance I'll miss one day this weekend for various reasons, but I'll do my best to get through those three at some point over the next two days.

https://media.tenor.com/7KV4Zm-YLG0AAAAd/lucky-star-akira-kogami.gif

70. Lucky Star
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1887/Lucky%E2%98%86Star
Spring 2007 (24 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.74/10
Best Character: Kogami Akira

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iseNlvH2_s

Premise: This follows the daily lives of four cute girls, including otaku Izumi Konata. They encounter bizarre and mundane situations and often have humorous conversations about them.

The Good: Lucky Star is a really solid cute girls gag anime. They take conversations like which end is the correct one to start eating a chocolate cornet and make them fun to watch. Konata was my favorite of the main girls, but I remember liking all of them, including the large cast of side characters. I also loved the running gag where lots of transitions would enter a scene where the girls are in the middle of talking about how stinky something is. We never learn who or what smells so bad, but this made me laugh every time. It gave the impression that the conversations we saw them have were only a small fraction of the total. Still, the main show was not my favorite thing about this. The Lucky Channel segment every episode were brilliant, but I'll talk more about that in my write-up for the surly idol Kogami Akira.

The Bad: I don't remember Lucky Star doing anything terrible. I enjoyed the gags in the main show well enough, but on their own they werent amazing or anything. They were just consistently fine. The Lucky Channel segments vastly outshone the main anime, which I think might've made the main show seem worse in comparison.

Overall: Lucky Star was a fun cute girls gag anime, though the main anime was merely fine. I spent most episodes eagerly awaiting the Lucky Channel segment featuring surly idol Akira and her long-suffering helper Shiraishi. The main show wasn't bad, but Lucky Channel is the reason this ranks as high as it does!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/8/AAcDcBAADzZU.jpg

CHARACTER: Kogami Akira (Lucky Star)
https://myanimelist.net/character/2309/Akira_Kogami
Voiced by: Konno Hiromi
TOP 100 RANK: 82nd

SPOILERS FOR LUCKY STAR

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=132v8ujH9NQ
(That video is an hour long and features every single Lucky Channel segment, but you only need to watch the first two minutes or so to get a feel for Akira's character)

Lucky Channel was way more enjoyable than the actual Lucky Star anime. Accompanying each episode, it features the famous child idol Akira and some nobody named Shiraishi who's there to help her. Akira often bursts into the scene with a cute voice and an energetic "OHILUCKIES!" (Morning Luckies!). When she's in-character, shes an over-the-top cutesy idol in an oversized school uniform. I would've liked that well enough. The real charm of Lucky Channel, though, is the frequent times when Akira's character slips.

She's only fourteen years old, but she's been in show business since she was three. Akira has long since become jaded and surly. She still desires the spotlight, but her attitude is so entitled and abusive that it's clear her career is already on the decline. It's a running gag that she wants to appear in the main anime, which even Shiraishi manages several times, but Akira never does. The one time she was going to, she wound up getting sick and was easily replaced by a cardboard cutout. As the Lucky Channel segments progress, she wears her idol persona less and less. Akira gets angrier and more abusive, putting Shiraishi down whenever she can, attacking him with things like ashtrays (implying fourteen year-old Akira smokes!), and sending him on a literally pointless fetch quest into the wilderness which nearly drives him mad. Akira is unapologetically a piece of shit, but thats why I loved her so much. She was hilarious.

The Lucky Channel segments get increasingly meanspirited as they go along. They also get more bizarre, ending with a battle that trashes the set and gets them chewed out by real life famous voice actress Gotou Yuuko. Then there's a final Lucky Channel in real life with the voice actors acting out their roles, because why not? I loved Akira, I loved her dynamic with Shiraishi, and I loved the bizarre little story those segments told. The idea of an idol already being surly and burnt out at fourteen is a great idea for a character, and Akira was perfect for it.

WhiteLens posted...

To think that you ended up watch BanG Dream due to being my trade partner in SMFAS one year.

And I was grateful for it! I don't know if or when I'd have gotten to it otherwise. There are music anime from around the same time (like Wake Up Girls) that I always intended to watch but never did.

pyresword posted...

Best character is Chisato, though I'm guessing she barely appears in the anime.

She gets a focus episode in season two, at least! But yeah, anyone outside of Popipa/Roselia/RAS is mostly reduced to cameos in the anime.

CoolCly posted...

Glad you enjoyed Rokka!

To answer your question, I've never been a B8 Mafia player but I've played various similar games with people in real life over the years and I'm a fan of the concept. Thanks for the Youtube link too.

As for figuring out the mystery in Rokka (major spoilers) I figured it out (in the sense that I had the correct answer) almost instantly, but I was using narrative logic. The traitor is the second-most important character so it makes sense to introduce them as early as possible. There were still times where I doubted myself and wondered if they'd go a different direction. I was also WAY off on how they pulled it all off, so I'm comfortable admitting the mystery beat me. The best I could guess was that her blade powers let her manipulate the sword the instant the door opened. I was impressed that the actual answer made sense, the clues were all scattered throughout, and none of it relied on offscreen BS or anything. It was a satisfying conclusion.

Keeping topic alive

COMING UP TOMORROW:
70: Something in this anime is apparently really stinky.
C82: This character doesnt even appear in the main anime.
69: This anime owes its life to bunch of weirdos.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/9/AAcDcBAADzL5.jpg

CHARACTER: Ichigaya Arisa (BanG Dream)
https://myanimelist.net/character/142761/Arisa_Ichigaya
Voiced by: Itou Ayasa
TOP 100 RANK: 79th

SPOILERS FOR BANG DREAM

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=virT8Mi7kVs
BONUS (Arisas character song from the mobile game): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6vhxAUW2Yw

In my opinion, Arisa is queen of the tsunderes. If Tsundere' was a country, that song of hers I linked above would be their national anthem. Kasumi is the energetic oddball who drags everyone along, and Arisa tries to be the voice of reason. I love their dynamic a lot, Kasumi is an affectionate goof who always runs up to hug her with a cute Arisa~!. Whenever Kasumi does some dumb, Arisa lets out her signature KASUMI! shout. Its always fun when those two are together. Arisa acts annoyed and angry more often than not, but she also frequently lets it slip just how much she cares about her friends. That video I linked is a good example. Arisa offers Kasumi a place to practice her guitar, BUT (and she says this so angrily and forcefully you think itll be a harsh demand) they can also have lunch together, if Kasumi wants. Arisa switches from angry to bashful to happy so quickly, and I love her for it.

Arisa is largely responsible for PoppinParty existing. First, as a child, she learned piano and often received star stickers for good performance. Placing these stickers all along the route to her house is what leads Kasumi there, years later. Arisa deciding to sell Kasumi the Random Star guitar is another big moment, as is allowing them all to practice in her basement. Arisa often acts annoyed that they invite themselves over whenever they feel like it, but its clear how much she treasures her friends. One bonus comic in the mobile game has her imagining what life would be like without them. She could set up a computer in the basement and then relax, eating snacks while watching movies. She quickly realizes she doesnt want that anymore, and then Arisa is elated when the others finally arrive.

Arisa isnt perfect. Theres a big story in the game where she blew up at Rimi due to stress and nearly broke PoppinParty apart. Still, when it comes down to it, Arisa is a steadfast band member and friend. After the Tae/Layer drama in season two when they were afraid Tae might leave, Arisa is the first one to respond to the song she wrote about wanting to stay. I also like that being tsundere isnt her entire character. Around people she doesnt know very well shes shy and tries to act respectful and proper. The tsundere side only comes out with people she really cares about. Overall, Arisa is a fun character, and I love her dynamic with Kasumi.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/0/AAcDcBAADzL6.png

CHARACTER: Toyama Kasumi (BanG Dream)
https://myanimelist.net/character/142757/Kasumi_Toyama
Voiced by: Terakawa Aimi
TOP 100 RANK: 10th

SPOILERS FOR BANG DREAM

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUYcFmuU9UY

Kasumi is my favorite BanG Dream character by a longshot. I hoard stars in the mobile game so I can always guarantee her limited cards. I own three figures of her. I love it whenever a Garupa Pico episode or mobile game story features her. She has such a fun personality. There are only a few occasions when drama is striking where she isnt happy and energetic. One of the game stories went into how Kasumi is terrible at supporting people by pushing them from behind. Shes the type who grabs people by the hand and drags them forward, and thats her role in PoppinParty. She broke through Arisa's shell with relentless positivity. She dragged Rimi out of her shyness. She turned the oddball Tae from doubtful rival into a friend, simply by playing guitar with her. And she convinced Saya that it was okay to do more than just support her sickly mother, especially since her mother also wants Saya to have her own life. Kasumi is the pillar of PoppinParty. In the first season, when she loses her voice due to fearing shes holding the others back, theyre all there to support her too.

I fell in love with Kasumi in the first minute of the first episode of the anime. She was so excited for her first day of high school that she woke up before her alarm clock. Then, when it goes off, she looks at it with a smile and says beat you to it". I love positive, energetic girls like that. Kasumi has a lot more depth than one might initially think, however. As a child, when looking up at the stars, she felt her heart race. Ever since, shes been searching for something that can give her that feeling (which she calls the star beat). She just has no idea what that could be. She tries every club at school and considers getting a part-time job, but nothing grabs her. Shes left wandering aimlessly. Theres a shot in the first episode that says a lot really subtly. Kasumi runs, trying to catch a crosswalk light, but she misses it. Then she just turns and goes another direction. She wasnt going anywhere in particular, at least not until a trail of star stickers lead her to Arisa's family pawn shop and the Random Star guitar. Im a big fan of things like that, the little coincidences that can change life forever.

Another one of my favorite Kasumi moments is one Ive seen a lot of people call cringey. At a live show, the band Rimi's sister is in is running late. To buy time, Kasumi drags a petrified Arisa onstage so they can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I wouldve linked to that as the video for Kasumi but the only one I could find was nine minutes long. A bemused crowd watches the performance. The late band still isnt there, though so Kasumi starts singing it again. Theyre saved by Rimi finally overcoming her shyness and joining them onstage to play bass, and the band arrives soon after. Still, I thought this was a wonderful Kasumi moment that encapsulated her entire character. She rushed ahead with no real plan, only good intentions. Then her relentless enthusiasm brought out the best in the people around her, which made it all work out in the end. Kasumi really is a wonderful character.

https://bang-dream-gbp-en.bushiroad.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/comic_046.jpg

71. BanG Dream!
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33573/BanG_Dream
Winter 2017 (13 episodes), Winter 2019 (13 episodes), Winter 2020 (13 episodes) plus 5 OVAs
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 6.99/10 S1, 7.58/10 S2, 8.03/10 S3
Best Character: Toyama Kasumi, Ichigaya Arisa

My three Kasumi figures (yes, I have three): https://imgur.com/ySSNHMz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srRfQSO-WO0

Premise: Toyama Kasumi isnt sure what to do with her time now that shes started high school. Then she chances upon a star-shaped guitar in an old pawn shop, and she becomes enamored with the idea of starting a band.

The Good: BanG Dream is a music anime. The first season covers Kasumi finding people to create the band PoppinParty, but the franchise exploded from there. At this point I appreciate it most for the mobile game, BanG Dream: Girls Band Party. Ive played it for years and spent thousands of dollars on it (which was worth it because I havent missed a limited 4* Kasumi card yet). There are now 35 girls across seven bands, and hundreds of game stories have fleshed them out over the years. I love GBP. However, this ranking is for the anime alone. It also doesnt include the three seasons of Garupa Pico short episodes, because those are so amazing they would catapult BanG Dream into my top 10. Each Garupa Pico episode is three minutes of hilarious insanity with characters I know and love. One episode has the members of Poppin'Party swapping minds like its Freaky Friday and Kasumi runs wild in Arisa's body. Another has them getting lost in a jungle. Theres even an Ace Attorney parody, perfect for the B8 crowd!

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

Anyway, the BanG Dream anime is good too. PoppinParty is my favorite band and Kasumi and Arisa are my favorite characters, as Ill cover in their write-ups below. The first season brings that band together, and its the perfect mix of cute girls fun, music, and light drama like Rimi overcoming her shyness or Saya's worries for her sickly mother. For most people the second and third seasons are probably a huge improvement. The animation goes from fairly mediocre drawings in the first season to beautiful CGI, and they have all the other bands from the mobile game. I enjoy those seasons too, especially the live shows and the introduction of Rokka, my third favorite character who only just missed the top 100. Still, the first season was my favorite. It had a lot of charm, and the focus on Poppin'Party was the best.

The Bad: The second season introduced a new band, Raise a Suilen, and, while the third season warmed me up to them significantly, I hated them in season two. They were basically a villain squad led by a gremlin girl named Chu2. They tried to undermine the other bands, and they very nearly succeeded. There was an arc with Tae and Layer that almost made me quit the franchise, it was so melodramatic and bad.

Overall: BanG Dream is a sprawling franchise, and the anime is now only one small part of it. I loved the first season for introducing PoppinParty, and the second and third seasons had lots of great performances and fun character moments. I dont like it when BanG Dream gets overly dramatic, however, and those later seasons often did. Its still always a treat when something new releases, like the extra episodes theyve been adding to their Youtube channel. The CIRCLE Thanks Party ones and Morfonica specials were both great. Whatever flaws the anime might have, I think this is an excellent franchise with lots of wonderful characters.

I looked up the dates and the release of the last Rokka volume coincides with the anime flopping. I wonder if it failing to sell well had something to do with it. That must've been discouraging, either for the author or the publisher.

(I felt bad for only doing one anime today and tomorrow, so I finally watched another recommendation as a bonus. Sorry that I haven't made better progress on these, everyone. Rewatching stuff before I reach them in the ranking has been taking all of my time!)

BONUS. Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers
https://myanimelist.net/anime/28497/Rokka_no_Yuusha
Summer 2015 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 7.29/10
Best Character: Adlet Mayer
Recommended by: @CoolCly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBxFQkLWSg0

Premise: Adlet Mayer, self-proclaimed strongest man in the world, is one of six heroes chosen to defeat the demon lord. When seven heroes gather instead of the fated six, however, suspicion takes root as they wonder if one might be an imposter.

The Good: Rokka is a fantasy action mystery. A demon lord revives every few hundred years, and six heroes are chosen to defeat it. Seven is an impossibility, which means that one of the powerful warriors who gathers isn't who they say they are. I really love that premise. It's a locked room mystery, and I've always been a fan of games like Mafia/Werewolf/Among Us, etc. Each of the seven characters is cool in their own way. Adlet was my favorite, I liked his box full of different weapons and how he needed to use them creatively to keep ahead. Everyone had an awesome unique ability, though, and it led to a lot of great battles. Everyone was also suspicious in some way, which is almost more important than them being cool. Rokka's mystery kept me guessing until the very end, and I give it a lot of credit for that. This is the kind of story that could've easily been ruined by bad writing, but I only have a few minor complaints.

The Bad: I had one or two problems with character decisions, but thats to be expected. This kind of story makes it easy to think "here's what I would do if I was them", after all. I also thought some clues were revealed in a bad way, but they didn't ruin the story or the mystery. I guess the actual worst thing about Rokka is that, from what I've read, the anime flopped so hard that there's zero chance of another season. There were still a few loose ends, but, oh well. It was satisfying enough as its own story.

Overall: Rokka was a great action anime, and I really loved the mystery. It wasnt perfect, but none of the issues were ones that seriously impacted my enjoyment. This was just a great story with unique characters, and I liked it a lot. I'm not sure exact where it'll end up falling in my overall ranking, but I'd say an 8/10 is pretty much guaranteed. Thanks for recommending it, CoolCly!

Kongming's OP is definitely amazing. I was happy when they released a full version of the song, it's just so catchy.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
71: This anime is following a trail of star stickers.
C79: This character is being pulled onstage against their will.
C10: This character is singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

EDIT: Whoops, 71 not 72

72. Ya Boy Kongming!
https://myanimelist.net/anime/50380/Paripi_Koumei
Spring 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 8.23/10
Best Character: Zhuge Kongming Liang, Tsukimi Eiko

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

Premise: As historical figure Zhuge 'Kongming' Liang lays dying, he wishes to be reborn in a more peaceful era. This wish is granted when he awakens in modern day Tokyo and becomes a strategist for talented singer Tsukimi Eiko.

The Good: Ya Boy Kongming is a comedy with a music focus. Zhuge Liang is reborn in Tokyo and meets Eiko, a talented singer who is having trouble making a name for herself. I'm a big Dynasty Warriors fan. I've also read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so I loved this premise. The manager of the bar where Kongming and Eiko work is a fanboy for that era too, and I found him funny because of that. An employee wore an eyepatch on Halloween, and the manager wanted him to keep wearing it after because it made him look like Xiahou Dun! Kongming is also every bit as intelligent as his historical counterpart. There's a great moment early on where he starts asking Eiko basic questions about the modern world, then within a few hours he's figuring out cryptocurrency blockchains. After learning how to mix drinks, he starts anticipating orders and putting them on the bar an instant after customers come up! It's a lot of fun watching Eiko react to these shenanigans, too. All of that is great, and I enjoyed Kongming adapting his famous stratagems to help Eiko in the music business. YBK also has some great emotional moments too. Kongming is a man with a second chance at life, but everything and everyone he ever knew is gone. I liked the times where the story examined the emotional impact of that.

The Bad: The first few episodes of YBK were amazing and I thought it would be a new 10/10. Sadly, it became a lot more average as it went along. There was a long arc for a rapper, Kabe, which had some nice moments but wasn't as good as Kongming/Eiko. Then the last few episodes made some really odd choices for a music anime. Eiko sang the same song over and over several episodes in a row. It's a good song, and I loved it the first time. I just wanted more variety. None of this was terrible, but it was nowhere near as good as the early episodes.

Overall: I enjoyed Ya Boy Kongming. The premise appealed to me as a fan of the era, and both Kongming and Eiko were great, as I'll cover in their write-ups below. It managed to be hilarious as well as occasionally heartfelt, and the music was good. The later parts aren't remotely as amazing, but this was still a nice anime overall.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/2/AAcDcBAADy5g.jpg

CHARACTER: Tsukimi Eiko (Ya Boy Kongming!)
https://myanimelist.net/character/203657/Eiko_Tsukimi
Voiced by: Hondo Kaede
TOP 100 RANK: 76th

SPOILERS FOR YA BOY KONGMING

VIDEO LINK (from the first episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNY6hOFBCqM

I like that video a lot for both of these characters. Eiko doesn't believe Kongming is actually the historical figure, but she was still kind enough to bring him in from the cold and answer all of his questions. He's long since crossed the line into being annoying, and she mostly just wants him to leave. Then she notices that he looks dejected. Without hesitation, Eiko plays a song, and it's so moving that it drives Kongming to tears. It's a nice moment for him, as I'll talk about more in his write-up. It's also a great moment for Eiko, especially once more information about her character has been revealed. Eiko almost committed suicide as a teen, and was only saved by the manager of the bar stopping her and bringing her over to hear that night's musical act. She was so moved by the performance that she started singing as well. The song she played for Kongming was the same one that saved Eiko all those years ago. She saw someone sad, and she tried to cheer them up with the thing that had given her life purpose when she was at her lowest. I dunno, I just think that was really sweet.

She goes on to sing this exact same song over and over in the second half, which I thought was lame, but there was one way where it sort of worked out. When Kongming heard her sing it, it moved him so much he became her strategist. Kongming isn't just some dude, either. If he says Eiko has talent we can probably believe it. When Eiko needs to impress a big time music producer, however, she sings that same song and he finds it lacking. In my opinion, this comes down to the emotions involved when she was singing. For Kongming, she wanted to cheer him up with the song that had saved her, and that likely infused a lot of emotion into it. With the producer, Eiko was just trying not to make any mistakes, which could come across as emotionless. I don't have a good enough ear for music to tell myself, but that makes sense to me.

After Eiko goes on a bit of a journey, meeting and deciding she wants to reach another girl trapped with a shady producer, her singing improves. Thanks to that and Kongming's strategies, she manages to win the 100,000 likes competition. I appreciated how that was almost secondary for Eiko at that point. What she wanted most of all was to reach her new friend and rekindle their love of music. Eiko really is a sweetheart. I don't think it's about the fame and fortune for her (though they're certainly nice to have). She just wants to reach people with her music, and with Kongming's support I'm glad she's succeeding.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/3/AAcDcBAADy5h.jpg

CHARACTER: Zhuge Kongming Liang (Ya Boy Kongming!)
https://myanimelist.net/character/203656/Kongming_Zhuge
Voiced by: Okiayu Ryoutarou
TOP 100 RANK: 61st

SPOILERS FOR YA BOY KONGMING

VIDEO LINK: (I couldn't find another one I wanted to use, the Eiko video is good for Kongming too)

In the past, as Kongming is dying, he wishes to be reborn in a more peaceful era. Knowing about his history makes this wish even more sympathetic. He's the last remnant of the first generation of Shu. His lord Liu Bei, many of his commanders, and countless soldiers were all gone at that point, leaving Kongming to try and hold it all together alone. Even for a man of his skills, it had to have been draining. Then he dies, gets reborn in a new era, and sees what his life amounted to. Sure, he has a Wikipedia page, and that's neat. But it says that Shu collapsed, conquered by the family of his hated rival, only for that dynasty to collapse in turn. Here, over a thousand years later, what did all that death and destruction amount to? What was the point?

Those are deep questions, and they're enough to get even the great Kongming down. That's when he hears Eiko's song, and he has a vision of Liu Bei urging him towards a world without war. It drives him to tears, but it also reminds him of something important. The wars in the Three Kingdoms period weren't the point, it was the world they hoped to build afterwards that mattered. And now he's there, having taken a road he could've never imagined to reach a world without war (well... no wars in Tokyo, anyway. Someone should get Kongming an airplane ticket to go help Ukraine). It's time for him to decide what to do in this era of peace, and Kongming chooses to help Eiko reach people with her music the same way she reached him.

I found all of that compelling. It helps that Kongming is acutely aware of how precious his second chance is, and he doesn't want to waste it. He does things like having drinks with people, remembering how he always regretted not sharing a drink with a group of soldiers who were slaughtered the next day. It's fun watching Kongming navigate the modern world and dazzle everyone with his stratagems, but it's emotional moments like those which elevated the character for me.

Also, if you'll allow me to bore everyone with the specifics of my ranking system a bit more, my way of ranking things isn't perfect. If my memory of an anime fades, sometimes I'll bump it down a tier when it doesn't deserve it. That was how Lost Song became a 6/10 before I decided to undo that and rank it properly. Now that I've rewatched it, let me just say we won't be reaching Lost Song for quite a while.