Lurker > Mobilezoid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Less than a week until the 8th!

KommunistKoala posted...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPOILERS FOR A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KommunistKoala posted...

the one with the sharpest fangs wins!

That's what Killing Bites is!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MacArrowny posted...

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

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

111. Castle Town Dandelion
https://myanimelist.net/anime/28387/Joukamachi_no_Dandelion
Summer 2015 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.17/10
Best Character: Sakurada Akane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzaRLm6Ssuw

Premise: The king's children live under constant surveillance by security cameras for their safety. Each of the nine siblings are also candidates in the election to choose the next king, and the shy Sakurada Akane wants to win solely so that she can remove the cameras for good.

The Good: Castle Town Dandelion is a slice-of-life comedy about a large royal family. It mixes a few different concepts together, and the result is a bit messy. They live mostly normal lives but are constantly being watched, which terrifies shy Akane in particular. Another element is the election to choose the next king/queen. The royal family all also have random superpowers, which... well, I'll cover that below. The election concept is my favorite thing about this. I always enjoy when slice-of-life comedy has a neat twist like that, because it makes familiar antics seem fresh. The nine siblings range from kids to almost adults. They're mostly familiar archetypes (Akane isn't much more than "the shy girl") but that's okay with a large cast and a goofy premise like this. They each have different reasons for wanting to win the election or not caring about it at all, and it's fun to follow how their shenanigans impact their poll numbers. I also enjoyed watching Akane put herself out there to campaign no matter how much it terrified her, all for the selfish goal of outlawing security cameras.

The Bad: The royal family members all have superpowers, and in my opinion this is a step too far. Akane can manipulate gravity, for example, and sure, that results in some zany situations. It just makes the premise feel messy, in my opinion. I thought the election concept was enough without tossing in another whole concept. I also wasn't a fan of a few of the siblings having crushes on each other. They're pretty much the only characters in this anime and shipping is a marketable thing to include, but... that's your sister or brother, cut it out with the blushing awkwardness when youre around them.

Overall: I enjoyed Castle Town Dandelion overall, but I felt like it could've been a lot better. The royal election was a lot of fun to follow as the characters tried to sway their poll numbers through various antics. The whole superpowers thing muddled the concept for me, however. I still liked watching Akane being cute and shy, but in the end this anime was merely fine.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
110: This anime solved the energy crisis but wound up with an alien crisis.
109: This anime's fangs werent sharp enough to win.
108: I'm hiring an assassin to kill this anime.

Choco-boco-lina is amazing and if she were a slightly more prominent character she'd be a top 10 FF character

So I was randomly checking if any anime characters I liked had figures that weren't too expensive. I wound up finding one that's super duper expensive from The Aquatope on White Sand.

https://i.redd.it/rkuhe4yj7qj71.jpg

That is one if the most beautiful sets of figures I've ever seen. After shipping and currency conversion nonsense, however, it would cost more than I make in a week.

Not sure why I'm even posting this. Maybe I think talking about it will get it out of my system and decrease the urge to buy it anyway...

112. Somali and the Forest Spirit
https://myanimelist.net/anime/39575/Somali_to_Mori_no_Kamisama
Winter 2020 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.83/10
Best Character: Golem

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

Premise: Humans have been all but wiped out by the world's various monster races. Then a Golem begins protecting a human child named Somali, and he embarks on a journey to find other humans to leave her with.

The Good: Somali and the Forest Spirit mixes a few genres, including slice-of-life and drama. It's set in a fantasy world with lots of monster races, and a conflict in the recent past wiped out most of the humans. Golem, an emotionless construct meant to guard nature, decides to protect a small human child that he finds. Since his lifespan is nearing its end, Golem hopes to find other humans to leave Somali with before his time is up. Large parts of this anime are slice-of-life or heartwarming as the two go from place to place looking for information. Golem may be emotionless, but it's clear how much he's chosen to care about Somali despite that. And she quickly comes to view him as a father. It's cute watching them grow closer, it reminded me of Terminator 2. Of course, there are missteps along the way, and the danger of monsters realizing Somali is human and eating her is always there.

The more dramatic parts of the story weren't my favorite thing, but they were still handled well enough that it didn't bug me as much as it usually would. It was pretty over-the-top, for example, when monsters defended the genocide of the humans because humanity is always evil and can't peacefully coexist with anyone different. It's just such a heavy-handed thematic message being directly stated to the viewer, which I usually hate. I didn't mind it here, though, because to me it came across that the monsters were regurgitating justifications that had been passed down to them. The actual events were likely exaggerated by people hoping to look better, in addition to being further blurred by time. It was still heavy-handed, but in a way I found compelling and realistic (as opposed to just "humans bad, grr" which this could've easily turned into with lesser writing).

The Bad: My only real complaint is that the ending was kind of a letdown. It really felt like it was building to a conclusion that would've been definitive and perfect, but then it just... didn't. And now even the manga has been cancelled (last I checked anyway) so there will never be another season and I can't even look up the source material ending like I usually do. It wasnt a terrible ending or anything, but it was so close to being amazing that I felt really disappointed when it missed the mark. Ah well.

Overall: Somali and the Forest Spirit is half slice-of-life about a Golem looking after a cute kid, half drama about protecting that kid against very real danger borne from hatred and prejudice. The anime mostly succeeded at whatever emotion it was striving for, but the two halves had such different tones that it was sometimes difficult to reconcile them. Still, I found Somali and the Forest Spirit cute and compelling in equal measure and I was glad I watched it.

LiquidOshawott posted...

whats the better group here by consensus?

Top has three great characters, bottom has zero.

113. RPG Real Estate
https://myanimelist.net/anime/48363/RPG_Fudousan
Spring 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 6.73/10
Best Character: Fa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAg6CKhUKxE

Premise: Kazairo Kotone is a young witch who moves to the capital and begins working for a business that helps people find homes. Together with her three coworkers, they strive to find the perfect place for everyone.

The Good: RPG Real Estate is a cute girls comedy set in a fantasy world. It's mostly lighthearted with the four characters getting one or two clients each episode who they take to various homes. It's stuff like a girl who wants to live with her pet griffon, a necromancer who wants a place with lots of spiritual energy, and a bunch of cats who want to rent out their hot spring rooms. I really enjoyed all of those standalone episodes. The big thing I look for in a cute girls show is a creative twist on familiar antics. Having new side characters show up every episode to visit new places always kept things fresh. Finding people a place where they can belong is also a nice way to have a few heartwarming moments. The main characters are mostly recognizable archetypes, but they were still decent. Fa, the young energetic girl who could talk to monsters, was easily my favorite. The side characters were usually good too, each contributing to the episode's humor.

The Bad: While most of RPG Real Estate is humorous house hunting with an emotional moment or two, there's also an overarching plotline about a dragon attacking towns that I didn't like. It felt like one of those cases where an otherwise lighthearted anime shoehorns in a super dramatic plotline when it isn't necessary. To its credit, RPG handled it better than most shows usually do (Heroines Run the Show from the same season had a similar overdramatic final arc that absolutely ruined the anime for me). Still, even though it was handled well, it still felt harshly out of place next to the tone of the rest of the show, and I'd have ranked this a lot higher if the dragon plotline were removed entirely.

Overall: RPG Real Estate has four girls with familiar archetypes (the tomboy who tries to be more girly, the one with a crush on the tomboy, etc). However, the new side characters every episode and the fun places they visit keeps things fresh and funny, often with a nice heartwarming moment or two along the way. I wasn't a fan of the overarching dramatic plotline, but it wasn't a big part of this until the end and it didn't ruin the anime for me. Most of RPG Real Estate is Fa running around being cute, so overall I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I feel bad that I haven't made more progress on recommendations, but thats partly because I'm working my way through some of the longer ones! I finished S1 of Kaiji today, hopefully I'll get through S2 soon.

I've been waiting to vote for robot Cid and demand he be included.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Cid_(World_of_Final_Fantasy)

Edit: can't end a link in brackets I guess

Sceptilesolar posted...

That's a really high ranking for an anime that made me think 'that extremely mediocre manga I just read a week or two ago had an anime??' while I was making my MAL.

What can I say, I like cute girls anime with supernatural twists. This honestly would've ranked a lot higher if not for Elly being boring.

I also held off on Abyss S2 because I knew it will make me feel terrible and I didn't want to spread that feeling across several weeks. Really looking forward to watching it at some point soon, though.

I thought S1 and the movie were equally good.

114. Ms. vampire who lives in my neighborhood
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37579/Tonari_no_Kyuuketsuki-san
Fall 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.09/10
Best Character: Sophie Twilight

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

Premise: Amano Akari loves dolls, so she's thrilled when she meets Sophie Twilight, a friendly vampire with a doll-like appearance. The two move in together and slowly get to know one another.

The Good: Ms. vampire is a slice-of-life comedy about a young girl who moves in with an ageless vampire. Akari is infatuated with Sophie initially because she looks like a doll, but the two quickly form a deeper bond. This isn't a romance (though the yuri is a lot more explicit than it usually is in a cute girls anime, Akari straight-up hopes to marry Sophie someday), but a lot of the humor comes from Akari being obsessive while Sophie tries to keep her from going overboard. One of Akari's fantasies is to have her blood sucked, for example, but Sophie thinks that's gross and orders her blood online. There are lots of fun facts about vampires in this universe that Akari learns by living with one, as well as stories from Sophie's centuries of life. I also liked Akari's school friends.

The Bad: Around halfway through the season, another vampire, Elly, comes for a long visit. I didn't like Elly at all. She wasn't a bad character who ruined the anime or anything. By that point Akari and Sophie had a fun dynamic, and Elly simply got in the way of that. She also rarely contributed anything fun or meaningful, mostly she just wandered into a situation to make a comment as if to remind the viewer she was there too. Elly was such a drag on what was otherwise a cute and funny anime.

Overall: Ms. vampire is a fun comedy about a girl and a vampire living together. It's mostly just cute and nice to watch, but lots of parts also managed to be funny or heartwarming. Elly isn't great and she weighs down the second half a bit. This is still enjoyable throughout just for the Sophie/Akari interactions.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
113: This anime needs to find a new place to live.
112: This anime might be the last of its kind.
111: This anime is being watched by thousands of cameras.

NFUN posted...

@Mobilezoid here's your chance to nom satania probably

I would love to nominate Satania, but unfortunately she's only named after the big man, she isn't the devil herself.

SeabassDebeste posted...

great writeup for satania, got me invested in a character whose anime i'll almost certainly never watch!

I feel like you've only seen one anime so far on the list (AoT, one of the few I didn't even finish!) so I'm glad you're enjoying following along even though you don't know most of them. I assumed when I started this project that no one would read or comment on anything unless they knew the anime, which would've left me talking to myself for a lot of them so I'm glad that's not the case.

115. Gabriel Dropout
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33731/Gabriel_DropOut
Winter 2017 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.45/10
Best Character: Kurumizawa McDowell Satania Satanichia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfiU6b8LZb0

Premise: Tenma White Gabriel was the top angel in her class, at least until she went to attend high school on Earth. Now she's addicted to video games and has turned into a lazy slob.

The Good: Gabriel Dropout is a comedy about two angels and two demons who are attending high school together on Earth. All four have their good moments, but overall I like the demons way more. Satania is amazing, as I'll cover in her write-up below. She's basically a chunibyo (even though she really is a demon) and a lot of great jokes come from her unwarranted overconfidence. Vigne is also good. Despite being a demon, she struggles to do anything even slightly bad. It's a nice contrast compared to the two who are supposed to be angels. It's fun when the four of them are together and their personalities are bouncing off each other.

The Bad: I don't dislike Gabriel and Raphiel, but they're definitely the weak links in the cast for me. Gabriel is a grumpy, gaming-addicted slob, and she's proud of that so she never changes and a lot of her jokes feel samey. Raphiel likes tormenting Satania for her own amusement, but those scenes are mostly fun because of Satania. I also never felt like Raphiel actually added much. Satania was perfectly capable of failing in a humorous way all on her own without any outside help. If anything, the Raphiel scenes were a bit too meanspirited for me.

Overall: Gabriel Dropout is a solid comedy, and all four main characters add something to the dynamic. Satania is still easily the best. When I was watching it, I remember thinking that it would be great if the entire anime was about Satania... and then, a few years later, The Great Jahy came out and was basically that. Jahy and Satania even have the same voice actress! When I rewatched Gabriel Dropout recently, I couldn't help but feel that it has been made redundant. The Great Jahy had more of everything I loved from this without any of the parts I found mediocre. Having said that, Gabriel Dropout is still worth watching for Satania alone.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/1/AAcDcBAADuZN.jpg

CHARACTER: Kurumizawa McDowell Satania Satanichia (Gabriel Dropout)
https://myanimelist.net/character/143076/Satanichia_Kurumizawa_McDowell
Voiced by: Oozora Naomi
TOP 100 RANK: 47th

VIDEO LINK (short, no real spoilers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiW3hGTalG8

SPOILERS FOR GABRIEL DROPOUT

Satania is introduced proudly announcing to her teacher that she deliberately didn't do her homework, and that she isn't sorry for it. Then she lets loose her iconic demonic laugh... right up to the scene transition where she's crying in the hall because she got in trouble. Basically, I fell in love with Satania right away. She acts like she's evil incarnate, like she's destined to become the ruler of hell and all must bow before her superiority. In reality, she's barely any better at being bad than the good girl Vigne. In one episode where Vigne is trying to be more demonic by *gasp* leaving her ribbon loose, Satania is literally the only one to notice and compliment her on her wickedness because she's at about the same level.

Almost every great moment in Gabriel Dropout involved Satania. She bursts into each scene with her amazing laugh and delusions of grandeur, then usually gets hilariously bullied and brought down a few pegs. Nothing ever goes right for Satania. There's a fun running gag where a cute dog keeps stealing her melon bread. She's a frequent target for Raphiel's trolling. She can never get the best of Gabriel (the scene where she tries to shoot Gab with a magic bullet that will make her laugh for ten minutes is great for how easily Gab manages to turn the tables and shoot Satania with it instead). Vigne seems to tolerate Satania more out of pity than actually enjoying her friendship. Satania never lets anything get her down for long, however. She always bounces back by the next scene, which usually leads to more hilarious suffering. I like the scene where Gab and Vigne realize Satania has been eating lunch alone in a secluded corner of the school. For all her bombastic speeches towards her own greatness, Satania on some level seems aware of her shortcomings.

All of that is enough to make her a great character, but there are two other things that elevate her for me. While the angels have Tapris and later Gabriel's sisters as examples of a typical angel (meaning, one that isn't a troll or a slob), the demons only have Vigne, whose whole gimmick is that she's a bad demon, and Satania. That's why I love the scene with Satania's family when she's visiting hell. Her parents are exactly like her, drinking blood in a lavish dining room and laughing maniacally about their evil daughter's progress towards becoming lord of the underworld. Meanwhile, her younger brother is cringing because the blood is tomato juice, most of the lavish dining room is an optical illusion painted onto the wall of the tiny room, and their family runs a bakery and will never be lords of anything. That scene provides some wonderful perspective into Satania's character and confirms without any doubt that Satania isn't a typical demon either. She just enjoys pretending to be one.

I also liked the arc she has with the bread-stealing dog. It torments her for most of the season, showing up in even the most ridiculous places as if put there by the universe to prevent Satania from having any joy (in reality, it's implied Raphiel trained it). Finally the dog gets picked up by animal control and Satania will be free to enjoy her melon bread in peace. Only, she instead rescues the dog with zero hesitation after learning it might get put down. Satania justifies herself in her usual delusional way, that she wants to defeat her nemesis personally by making it her familiar. However, it's clear that she's actually just a good person deep down. When she breaks her melon bread in half, Satania gives the dog the bigger piece. I love Satania's chunibyo declarations about being the pinnacle of evil, future archdemon, destined ruler of the underworld... but I also love how, when it comes down to it, she's a good person. Of the four main characters in Gabriel Dropout, Satania gets the most character development by far. That, and the fact that she's always hilarious, is what makes her one of my favorite anime characters.

MartinFF7 posted...

(Robazoid technically gets an asterisk for also giving 1 save to Delita but we'll let that slide I guess...)

Huh, I don't remember why I did that.

It also never occurred to me but, yes, I am at 100% in backing the winner in leftyera finals. I've only been happy about three of them though!

FinalistAerith

116. Himouto! Umaru-chan
https://myanimelist.net/anime/28825/Himouto_Umaru-chan
Summer 2015 (12 episodes), Fall 2017 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.12/10 S1, 7.33/10 S2
Best Character: Tachibana Sylphie Sylphinford

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC04OBq_aVk

Premise: Doma Umaru maintains a reputation as a perfect student at school. At home with her brother Taihei, however, she transforms into a lazy, needy slob!

The Good: Himouto is a comedy about the titular Umaru-chan. She strives to seem perfect everywhere except at home. Around her beleaguered older brother, she throws on a hamster hoodie and literally shrinks into a slobby gremlin who only cares about snacks, gaming, and being lazy. It's a basic premise for a comedy, but the execution leads to a lot of funny jokes. Umaru and Taihei get most of the focus, and they're fine. However, the side characters are where Himouto really shines. There's Ebina Nana, a shy girl with a crush on Taihei and who is absolutely adorable. My favorite is still Sylphie, the self-declared rival of Umaru who strives to beat her at anything and everything. Himouto is at its best when it's focusing on the side characters.

The Bad: I don't dislike Umaru, but she's right on the cusp of being a bit too much for me. I'm glad Taihei is around her most of the time because otherwise the slobby/lazy jokes would get really old. The bits where one of her friends shows up and she needs to pretend to be perfect are my favorite parts (also because the side characters are great). When it's just Umaru alone, the humor is kind of mediocre.

Overall: Himouto! Umaru-chan is a decent comedy with a serviceable main duo and some excellent side characters. Umaru being lazy is fine as a premise, but those jokes and scenarios weren't my favorite thing. I mostly enjoyed this because of the different dynamics the side characters brought to the table.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
115: This anime has strayed from the path of godliness and become a slobby failure.
C47: This character had their bread stolen by a dog.
114: This anime thinks that drinking blood is gross.

SockoressKnight posted...

Was that the episode they skipped.

Yeah, they skipped that one initially for obvious reasons after the Abe assassination. Episode two was probably my favorite individual episode, so I'm glad they aired it eventually.

I still need to catch up on most airing shows, but I finished Teppen. I thought it was a solid comedy, but I always enjoy random humor and it relied on that a lot. I'm guessing most people wouldn't like it as much as me.

117. Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Laughing 'til You Cry
https://myanimelist.net/anime/50760/Teppen
Summer 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 6.59/10
Best Character: Hokuto Chihori

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWrtx1O2UHY

Premise: The Teppen Grand Prix is a famous comedy competition, and several groups of three girls have qualified for it. Now they all live together in a dorm practicing their routines.

The Good: Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the only anime with more exclamation marks than Keijo!!!!!!!!) Is a comedy anime, but not the kind it advertised itself as. The show is supposedly about a three-man form of comedy called manzai (basically a straight man reacts to crazy stuff the others say), but in my opinion Teppen isn't about that. There are only a handful of times where they perform onstage. The majority of Teppen is just the antics of a bunch of zany girls living together. I loved how stupid, random, and over-the-top some of the situations became. The second episode has one group think someone at the dorm is an assassin, and their efforts to figure out who creates a growing chain of misunderstandings that was hilarious to behold. Another episode had two girls try to let people know it was their birthday without being obvious about it, and their methods quickly escalated into beautiful absurdity. Another episode had one group stuck in a time loop for some reason. Teppen confused me early on when I was expecting it to be more focused on manzai. Once I realized it was actually about random comedy, I really fell in love with it. I liked pretty much everyone, but my favorite group was the one with a literal alien in it.

The Bad: There are fifteen girls and a few of them don't get much characterization. A lot of jokes relied on knowledge of the regional stereotypes of where the groups come from. Since I still can't recognize a Kansai dialect no matter how many times various anime have pointed out a character as having one, most of those regional jokes fell flat. Otherwise, while I enjoyed Teppen's stupid, random humor, it wasnt the best example of that style that I've seen. It was good at it, not great.

Overall: Teppen was a fun comedy, though some of the jokes fell flat and some of the girls weren't developed much. I greatly enjoyed its random style of humor. Another thing I wanted to mention about Teppen is the voice cast. It's filled with girls who also voice characters in Love Live, BanG Dream, Revue Starlight... just a bunch of talented VAs who I had a fun time recognizing. Any anime where Terakawa Aimi (voice of Kasumi in BanG Dream) randomly breaks into song is worth at least a 6/10 overall.

They aren't love interests, but Sei still has lots of cute supportive boys who hang around her! I was definitely glad it never became a harem because early on I expected it to.

121. The Saints Magic Power is Omnipotent
https://myanimelist.net/anime/42826/Seijo_no_Maryoku_wa_Bannou_Desu
Spring 2021 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 7.26/10
Best Character: Takanashi Sei

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NhSMlyoVNM
(I couldnt find the OP without a bunch of blurring or something over the video)

Premise: Takanashi Sei gets summoned to a fantasy world in need of a prophesized hero. The chosen one is actually another girl summoned at the same time, however, which leaves Sei to find her own path by becoming an herbalist.

The Good: The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent is an isekai with elements of slice-of-life, fantasy action, and romance. I'm obviously not a huge isekai fan, and I'll go into that below, but I still enjoyed a lot of things in this. Sei is a good character. She reacts to being summoned and then ignored with the bewildered indignation the situation deserves. It's fun watching her learn about the world and find a place within it. I'm also a sucker for herbalists and potion crafting, which is the profession she settles on. Something about collecting ingredients and mixing them together is inherently interesting to me. The fact that the surrounding woods have a worsening monster infestation that needs to be cleared out is a good driving conflict.

The Bad: My main problem with this is right in the title. Her magic power is omnipotent. Having infinite power right from the start really cheapens Sei's accomplishments. I also thought the romance in this was pretty hollow. Albert is a chivalrous knight who falls for Sei right away and he's perfect. Basically, this anime has lots of wish fulfillment and power fantasy aspects that weren't my favorite thing.

Overall: The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent is one of the better isekai I've seen. It still falls into a few pitfalls typical in the genre, particularly making the main character way too powerful right away. I just really love potion crafting, and the monster conflict was solid with some decent action scenes. Sei was also a good character, so this anime mostly managed to win me over.

Shadow is a bad person. He abandoned Relm and then chose to die at the end for no reason rather than finally be there for her in the harsh times ahead. What a jerk.

Edge was just really annoying.

Asobi Asobase vs the one I ranked one spot ahead of it will be a good window into my sense of humor. Asobi feels like the absolute peak of a certain kind of humor. 117 is a mediocre example of a different kind of humor but I like it more.

Blue is his iconic look. The white one just looks too cluttered. It works in the game as an indication of what unlocks you have, but it doesn't look anywhere near as good imo

Thankfully the last good character in the bottom ten escaped it this year (Cyan). We can leave the rest of those to rot.

I forget how long it lasted, but there was a decent streak of years where whoever the host voted for in the finals wound up losing.

118. Asobi Asobase -workshop of fun-
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37171/Asobi_Asobase
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 6/10, MAL Score: 8.19/10
Best Character: Honda Hanako

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX6R_TTnPEA

Premise: Three students, Honda Hanako, Nomura Kasumi, and Olivia, often hang out at school. They play various games together, among other activities, and sometimes things get a little out of control.

The Good: Asobi Asobase is an over-the-top comedy anime. I still remember how neat it was going into this expecting one type of show (I mean, look at how light and fluffy the OP is) only for it to be something else entirely. All three of the main girls are fun in different ways. They often goad each other into doing stupid things, and their games regularly go too far. The humor is often surreal, sometimes gross, but almost always at least a little bit funny.

The Bad: I remember that most people enjoyed Asobi Asobase a lot more than me. I liked the style of humor at least enough to not put this in the 4/10s with the other "it was good but just not for me" shows. I still wouldn't call this my favorite thing. I enjoyed how all three girls had their own quirks, but none of them had much depth. Other than a few standout gags, there isn't anything here to elevate this into a higher ranking.

Overall: Asobi Asobase was a fun comedy and I acknowledge its quality. The style of humor that it used just isn't my favorite thing. It was too over-the-top, and none of the characters stood out enough from each other. Still, I remember that most people thought it was the funniest anime of 2018, so I'm probably an outlier in only thinking it was fine.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
121: This anime was summoned, but it isn't the chosen one.
117: This anime wasnt funny enough to stay in until the end.
116: This anime isn't as perfect as it appears to be.

(This 117 isn't the same one as what I referenced in post 202. That one got shuffled quite a bit higher!)

Shadow and Edge are two of my most hated FF characters, so as a fellow ninja I don't like Yuffie's odds!

I've voted Kefka and Ramza over Aerith. At this point I kind of hope I hate her so that I don't feel bad for helping her lose twice...

My top 11 FF characters are:

Lightning > Yuna > Dagger > Terra > Rinoa > Cyan > Eiko > Squall > Lumina > Sazh > Rikku

So as you can see, it takes a lot to be better than Eiko. Does anyone in FF7 write a love letter that leads to wacky hijinks? I somehow doubt it!

Ok, I've taken a closer look at my ranking and moved some stuff around. As I discussed previously, Lost Song is moving higher, so a few things have shifted down a spot. There's also another anime I should've ranked slightly lower, which I'll do tomorrow. This is what the 6/10 tier will look like. I apologize for having to shuffle things around.

116- (Coming tomorrow)
117- (Coming tomorrow)
118- (Coming later today)
119- This Art Club Has a Problem
120- Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos
121- (Coming tomorrow)
122- Actually, I Am
123- Masamune-kun's Revenge (93- Makabe Masamune)
124- My Love Story
125- Tsurezure Children
126- Toradora
127- Non Non Biyori (99- Miyauchi Renge)
128- Healer Girl
129- Carole & Tuesday
130- D4DJ: First Mix

You keep saying non-Eiko FFIX. I think we should test if the non-Eiko part is true! Maybe she just hasn't made it far enough for people to rally around her

Grimlyn posted...

*looks up*

you did it for Cyan!

This is acceptable then

Eww, I've saved Amarant?