Lurker > Robazoid

Trading Cyan auto

Espeon posted...

Trading for Freya, auto.

For Cyan

Rinoa

225. The Ancient Magus Bride
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35062/Mahoutsukai_no_Yome
Fall 2017 (24 episodes), plus 2 OVAs
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 8.07/10
Best Character: Ruth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZbmLLv1vM

Premise: Hatori Chise, a depressed young woman, sells herself at an auction to Elias Ainsworth, a powerful magus. As his apprentice, she learns magic and explores a whole new world.

The Good: The two OVA episodes were great. They were whimsical and fun, and they left me with high expectations for the series. The series itself often had nice locations and situations.

The Bad: Chise was such a boring protagonist. It was fine early on, I understand that she was depressed, but I dont recall her ever improving. She stumbled from one situation to the next with a bland expression on her face, always looking like she had no opinion about what was happening around her. She would encounter the most beautiful or fantastical situations and just not react. Elias was a far more interesting character due to having little understanding of human norms. The relationship between him and Chise was never explored in an interesting way, though. I blame Chise for that too. Even when Elias did something that really shouldve changed things, Chise effectively shrugged her shoulders and status quo remained.

Overall: The Ancient Magus Bride did some interesting things, but they never felt interesting when ultra-bland protagonist Chise was the one reacting to them. The OVAs were really good, and while I havent rewatched them in awhile Im betting its because theyre set further into the timeline after Chise finds a personality. The anime itself, set when she just stared at things and didnt care about anything, didnt appeal to me at all. I think some new OVA episodes have come out recently but I havent watched them yet.

As always, remember to refresh this page before you play as it will go dormant after two hours of no one doing anything. You might also need to download and update Archipelago as well as specific files for your game. Have fun everyone!

https://archipelago.gg/room/7kUTlCDvTKeyC2zUROCYfA

Edit: Oh, two hours of inactivity now! They changed it.

Roughly twelve hours until I'll need to start generating the async. That's the cutoff!

1- Robazoid (Hollow Knight)
2- Reg (SM64) no 100 coins, progression balancing off
3- Chrono007 (Super Metroid) default
4- KommunistKoala (DKC3) yaml received
5- KommunistKoala (LTTP) yaml received
6- AriaOfBolo (LTTP) yaml received
7- JeffreyRaze (Hollow Knight) yaml received
8- JeffreyRaze (LTTP) yaml received
9- Mewtwo59 (OOT) yaml received
10- HBJDubs (DKC3) yaml received
------
11- Lolo_Guru (???)

228. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37210/Isekai_Maou_to_Shoukan_Shoujo_no_Dorei_Majutsu
Summer 2018 (12 episodes), Spring 2021 (0/10 episodes, unfinished)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 6.89/10 S1, 6.72/10 S2
Best Character: Shera L. Greenwood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcCTFOEls9g

Premise: Sakamoto Takuma gets summoned into a fantasy world in the form of his powerful MMO character, Diablo. Now he travels with the girls who summoned him looking to undo it.

The Good: This is a typical isekai anime in a lot of ways. It has an overpowered main character, a harem of sexy ladies, a basic fantasy world, and some comedic moments. I dont love anything How Not to Summon a Demon Lord does, but I give it credit for accomplishing what it sets out to do.

The Bad: With only a few exceptions, Im not a huge fan of isekai. The whole genre feels lazy to me. Isekai authors dont need to think too hard about character backgrounds because its always just some dude from the real world. The setting doesnt need to be coherent because its usually some video game knockoff. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord set out to be a typical isekai, and, as I said before, it succeeded. A typical isekai wont score very high with me, however.

Overall: How Not to Summon a Demon Lord is content to wallow in mediocrity. It doesnt do anything egregiously terrible, but it doesnt do anything to rise above the oversaturated genre either. I apologize for mostly talking about isekai in general in this write-up. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord itself wasnt very memorable. It has a second season now but Im in no hurry to watch it.

1- Robazoid (Hollow Knight)
2- Reg (SM64) no 100 coins, progression balancing off
3- Chrono007 (Super Metroid) default
4- KommunistKoala (DKC3) yaml received
5- AriaOfBolo (LTTP) yaml received
6- JeffreyRaze (Hollow Knight) yaml received
7- JeffreyRaze (LTTP) yaml received
8- Mewtwo59 (OOT) yaml received
---
9- HBJDubs (???)
10- Lolo_Guru (???)

I had to work late today so I figured, what the hell, I at least have enough time for a movie.

BONUS (Movie). Kikis Delivery Service
https://myanimelist.net/anime/512/Majo_no_Takkyuubin
Summer 1989 (1 movie)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.21/10
Best Character: Kiki
Recommended by: @Xeybozn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bG17OYs-GA
(There's no OP or ED so I linked the trailer)

Premise: Kiki, a thirteen-year-old witch, heads out into the world on her own to continue her training. She settles in a coastal town and starts a business delivering things for people.

The Good: This is the oldest anime Ive ever watched by fifteen years, so it was interesting seeing the style of it and how things were done back then. Im struggling to put this thought into words, but Kiki didnt even have typical anime eyes. It made me wonder if thats just how Studio Ghibli does things or if they werent ubiquitous in the medium yet. In any case, Kikis Delivery Service had a lot of charm, particularly in the story. A young girl going out into the world and having a lighthearted adventure is always a good time. I liked Kiki and her cat Jiji a lot, but all the characters filled their roles well. Tombo and the bakery couple were the obvious standouts, but it also managed to quickly make me care about the people Kiki was doing deliveries for.

The Bad: This is awkward to talk about without spoilers, but the thing Kiki struggled with in the second half felt like it came out of nowhere. I liked the characterization that resulted from it, I just didnt understand why it happened in the first place. It also wasnt clear if things returned to normal, particularly with Jiji. I chose to assume they did because itd make me sad otherwise.

Overall: Kikis Delivery Service is easily my favorite standalone anime movie (out of the six Ive seen, and as this ranking will show it doesnt exactly have strong competition). It told a fun story about a witch and the people she met. Thanks for the recommendation, Xeybozn! Ive finally seen a standalone anime movie that I can call good without any reservations.

Cyan

3/10: DISAPPOINTING TIER

230. Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35834/Angolmois__Genkou_Kassenki
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 3/10, MAL Score: 7.13/10
Best Character: Teruhi-hime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdN4XDLa64o

Premise: Mongol hordes are invading Japan, and the battle begins on the island of Tsushima. A ragtag band of convicts assembles to fight them, led by disgraced samurai Kuchii Jinzaburou.

The Good: I like the historical era this is set in, and there are a few neat moments where the defenders use strategy to overcome their numerical disadvantage. Teruhi-hime was fine.

The Bad: An anime like this either needs spectacle to sell the battles or to lean into the historical aspect. Angolmois doesnt really do either. The animation is never impressive, so when the characters start pulling off impossible moves it looks silly rather than cool. It also doesnt have much real-world history other than the fact that the Mongols did, in fact, attack this island. The worst part about Angolmois, however, is that it feels like a prequel to a much larger story. Sorry to spoil history, but the Mongol invasion doesnt end on Tsushima. The season ultimately goes nowhere and then asks the viewer to head over to the source material if they want more.

Overall: Angolmois reminded me of a Korean movie I like quite a bit, Musa. Its also about convicts fighting the Mongols, only it tells a complete story and, in my opinion, does a far better job of it. Instead of watching Angolmois, which didnt really have anything going for it and ends at a disappointing spot, I recommend just watching Musa.

Celes

MacArrowny posted...

with all the good anime movies out there why would you choose to watch this instead

Just because there are good anime movies doesn't mean they're available on streaming. Standalone anime movie selection is surprisingly poor. I think Your Name is coming to Crunchyroll in August though, I'll probably watch that at some point.

Zombie Girl also came out in 2018 and I tried to watch everything new then because that's when I got into anime. The number of 2018 shows that have fallen in my ranking already shows that wasn't the greatest idea!

Time for our first standalone anime movie write-up! These five are ranked separately from the shows.

5 (Movie). Calamity of the Zombie Girl
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37735/Aru_Zombie_Shoujo_no_Sainan_ONA
Summer 2018 (1 movie)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 5.35/10
Best Character: Studion Euphrosyne

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

Premise: Five university students discover ancient mummies in the library storage. Once the students steal their stone of life, the mummies awaken as zombies and seek revenge.

The Good: Some parts of this could be called so bad its good. It sets out to be a cheesy D-list horror movie, and in a lot of ways it succeeds. There are plenty of bad movies where the badness makes them hilarious. However, most of the time bad movies are just boring. Calamity of the Zombie Girl is firmly on the boring side of that spectrum, but every so often it finds that rare moment of stupid brilliance and manages to become slightly entertaining. I mean, if zombies playing superpowered basketball isnt slightly entertaining, I dont know what is.

The Bad: I mostly covered the bad in the good section, I think. This movie is mostly boring and nonsensical. The characters are selfish morons who barely have personalities. The production values are some of the worst Ive ever seen. This movie has very little going for it except for the occasional stupid moment being just the right kind of stupid to be mildly fun.

Overall: Calamity of the Zombie Girl is not just the worst anime movie Ive ever seen, its one of the worst movies Ive ever seen period. I had to talk about something in this write-up and I chose so bad its good moments, but I dont want anyone to watch this expecting to be entertained. The funny-bad is depressingly rare. Thats just the only thing this dumpster fire has going for it.

1- Robazoid (Hollow Knight)
2- Reg (SM64) no 100 coins, progression balancing off
3- Chrono007 (Super Metroid) default
4- KommunistKoala (DKC3) yaml received
5- AriaOfBolo (LTTP) yaml received (but it might need updating)

236. Holmes of Kyoto
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37458/Kyoto_Teramachi_Sanjou_no_Holmes
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.74/10
Best Character: Mashiro Aoi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NRgIqcbkS8

Premise: Mashiro Aoi gets a job working for Yagashira Kiyotaka, a man famous for his ability to spot forgeries. Together they solve mysteries related to antiques.

The Good: Aoi was fine.

The Bad: Every mystery in Holmes of Kyoto sucked. None of them had any real stakes, I mean one was about how a display at a flower arrangement show wasnt very good. The climax of this riveting mystery is that a girl was copying someone elses work, but guilt drove her to submit one of her own flower arrangements too. Somehow, at a show dedicated to judging these, it takes unrivaled genius Kiyotaka to spot how crappy hers is. Eventually they start having showdowns with a laughable take on Moriarty, but the animation isnt good enough for the viewer to have any hope of spotting the clues and figuring something out for themselves. Without that, its just watching two guys sitting in a room arguing about forgeries.

Overall: Holmes of Kyoto sold itself on two things, mysteries about antiques and the chemistry between its lead characters. Since that chemistry goes nowhere and the antique mysteries are all boring, theres little reason to watch this anime at all.

Brave (and Luminous Witches) have whole new casts and each tells its own story unrelated to Strike Witches other than the setting, plus they're full season length. Combining the Witches shows would make as much sense as combining Love Live and Love Live Sunshine, in my opinion. Meanwhile, Twin is a six episode prequel about a major character from Kakegurui and doesn't feel like enough of its own thing to deserve a separate ranking.

A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun will be ranked separately, however, even though Railgun features a major character from Index... I dunno, I'm just doing what makes the most sense to me.

I finished Kakegurui Twin, a six episode prequel to Kakegurui following Mary. It ran into the problem lots of prequels do where nothing really mattered because I know where everyone will end up. Even ignoring that, though, I thought it was kind of meh. Mary is nowhere near as good of a character as Yumeko. We actually get to see into Mary's thoughts, for one, which never happened with Yumeko. That element of mystery, always wondering how much Yumeko knew at any given time, was a big part of why I enjoyed Kakegurui. Mary was a boring protagonist in comparison, and most of her thoughts just made her seem kind of pathetic. This mini-season also didn't tell a complete story, and as far as I know there isn't anything else announced. Since the original Kakegurui also still hasn't told a complete story, now we've got two incomplete stories that might never be finished. As much as I like Kakegurui, watching Twin felt like a mistake.

238. Angels of Death
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35994/Satsuriku_no_Tenshi
Summer 2018 (16 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.95/10
Best Character: Rachel Gardner

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

Premise: Rachel Gardener wakes in an underground complex with no idea how she got there. All she knows is that she wants to die, so she teams up with a psychopath named Isaac Foster who promises to kill her if she helps him escape the building.

The Good: This started with an eerie atmosphere, a compelling mystery with the underground complex, and the characters had a unique dynamic.

The Bad: Rachel Gardner is one of the most boring, low-energy, uninteresting characters I have ever encountered. Thats fine early on when shes depressed, but youd expect her to develop. Instead, she sounded bored for the entire runtime. Isaac had personality, at least, but his constant yelling was grating in a different way. The side characters also fell to one of the two extremes, either sounding almost as bored as Rachel or cackling even harder than Isaac. Regarding the plot, half of the runtime was Rachel and Isaac having the same conversation about her wanting to die and him wanting to kill her but he cant yet. Most of the rest was a faithful recreation of escape room puzzles, the kind where youre stuck somewhere and slowly examine the various items to find a way out. Those are fun to play but excruciating to watch.

Overall: Angels of Death had sixteen episodes, and thats what makes me the angriest about it. There are plenty of 12-episode anime that couldve used a few extra for pacing or to spend more time with the characters. Instead, its this repetitive slog that gets sixteen episodes.

Just a few notes that won't matter to anyone but me:

-I probably won't finish any recommended anime for a little while. The whole thing with my cat made me not want to watch anything for a few days, which put me behind on my rewatching schedule. There are shows I need to rewatch to finalize the character ranking, so I'll focus on that for the next bit.

-I'd planned to rank Kakegurui Twin separately from Kakegurui because I had assumed it'd be a real spinoff like Strike Witches/Brave Witches. Twin came out a few days ago and only has six episodes, though, so it feels more like a special that I should rank with Kakegurui rather than its own thing.

-To keep the ranking at 270 after cutting Kakegurui Twin, I chose a random anime that I couldn't imagine anyone recommending, Servant x Service. I'll finish it soon and hopefully it doesn't wind up belonging in the 2/10s or below. If so I'll adjust some numbers I guess.

New page. The next async will start August 13th

1- Robazoid (Hollow Knight)
2- Reg (SM64) no 100 coins, progression balancing off
3- Chrono007 (Super Metroid) default
4- KommunistKoala (DKC3) yaml received

239. Brave Witches
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32866/Brave_Witches
Fall 2016 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.78/10
Best Character: Karibuchi Hikari

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm6Ten5eKYo

Premise: A sequel series to Strike Witches. Humanity continues its war against the alien Neuroi using girls with magic powers. Karibuchi Hikari, despite her weak abilities, nevertheless joins the Brave Witches Squadron after her sister is injured in a Neuroi attack.

The Good: I liked Hikari well enough. Shes the standard anime protagonist who always tries to do her best.

The Bad: I wasnt a huge fan of Strike Witches to begin with. The Neuroi are mindless, aimless, blob-shaped creatures and none of the battles involving them are interesting. Brave Witches still managed to take all the negatives from the franchise and somehow surpass them. The characters in Strike Witches were mostly flat, each defined by one or two gimmicks, but I still at least knew their names. In Brave Witches, I honestly couldnt tell you anything meaningful about half the squad. I also hated a few of the ones they bothered to develop, with Hikaris sister being particularly terrible once she finally showed up.

Overall: Watching flat characters who never wear pants fight mindless blobs is all the Witches franchise ever was, but Brave Witches approached that premise in the worst way possible. The comedy bits werent funny, and the battles never had any tension. Strike Witches at least had a few neat moments.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
238: This anime wants to die, and Im happy to kill it.
237: This anime died because it couldnt make me laugh.

Cyan

Your confusion drove me to look up how many Ragnarok anime there are (four, apparently) and one of them is the Norse god Loki being turned into a child and opening a detective agency for some reason. I love how anime as a medium can just have a random idea like that and it doesn't even surprise me.

I wonder how many people will see that and stop checking for a round today

240. The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37446/Hyakuren_no_Haou_to_Seiyaku_no_Valkyria
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 5.70/10
Best Character: Suou Yuuto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PTENYkHBnM

Premise: Suou Yuuto, a teenager pulled into a fantasy world based on Norse mythology, uses his smartphone to look up real-world military tactics in order to forge an empire.

The Good: Some of the battles incorporated interesting strategies. Plus, while the animation rarely did it justice, there was the occasional moment where a named character wrecked an army of faceless goons. Thats always a fun time.

The Bad: The Master of Ragnarok is primarily a harem anime, which isnt my favorite genre. None of the girls have much of a personality beyond their connection to the generic main dude Yuuto. That wouldnt be so bad in a typical anime, but this one dealt with medieval politics and some of these girls held positions that really should have mattered. Even leaving that aside, the battles themselves never impacted the bigger picture. Whenever Yuuto annihilated an army, even if the strategy he used was neat, the enemy state would bounce back with a new army by the next episode. It never felt like anything mattered, and the story ultimately didnt go anywhere.

Overall: Its a clich at this point that anime is rife with bad isekai, so Im kind of surprised that Master of Ragnarok is the only one ranked this low. It failed at everything it tried to do, but it failed in such typical ways that I never became angry at it. Anyone who watches past the first episode knows what theyre getting into, so its really my fault for subjecting myself to it.

Bump

It might be the closest any anime in this ranking comes to "so bad it's good" (there are a few other contenders) but mostly it's just confusing and boring. Plus anything below a 6 on MAL (where typical negative reviews are like "I hated it, 6/10") should be treated warily. That last line in my write-up was just the only way I could derive any joy from it.

241. Lord of Vermillion: The Crimson King
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37601/Lord_of_Vermilion__Guren_no_Ou
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 5.35/10
Best Character: Sakiyama Koume

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESUM3JDReoM

Premise: A red fog rolls into Tokyo and awakens powerful abilities in certain people. They must now battle each other while trying to figure out whats going on.

The Good: Some of the character designs were good. They were all edgelord chunibyo personas taken to hilarious extremes. They had capes and eyepatches and meaningless bandages and such. That aesthetic is fun.

The Bad: Lord of Vermilion was an incredibly low-budget production, so I almost feel bad for pointing out its numerous flaws. It starts falling apart immediately with its confused setting. A bunch of people have disappeared in a huge disaster, Tokyo is sealed off by a mysterious fog, and monsters are appearing everywhere. How are people handling this supernatural apocalypse? From the few glimpses we get of regular people, its going fine. Food and resources are never a concern. Universities are still holding classes. Concerts are attended by well-dressed, excited people. The main characters at least take things seriously, but there are way too many of them to follow and their motivations are constantly shifting. The first episode is unintentionally hilarious, it opens with a battle where dozens of different characters just keep arriving one after the other.

Overall: Most things ranked below Lord of Vermilion are of higher quality and simply made me angry. This never made me angry. It scored low based on its poor quality alone. The story honestly makes more sense if you imagine this as a chunibyo fantasy a bunch of nerds are acting out while onlookers cringe from second-hand embarrassment.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
240: I defeated this anime using strategies I looked up online.
239: This anime showed that its never fun to fight on the Eastern Front.

(Today and I'm guessing the next few days probably aren't going to get a lot of comments. Luckily (or unluckily depending on your point of view) the early 3/10s will knock out quite a few popular anime!)

Yuna

Sazh

Rinoa

Cyan

242. The Junji Ito Collection
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36124/Itou_Junji__Collection
Winter 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.39/10
Best Character: ???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N2Nn-42oGQ

Premise: An anthology series animating several works from acclaimed horror author Junji Ito.

The Good: Junji Ito is great. Ive only read one of his works, The Enigma of Amigara Fault (which is not adapted in this season), but it was eerie. A lot of the stories animated here feel like good ideas.

The Bad: The Junji Ito Collection is a terrible adaptation, doomed not only by its low budget but also by the apathy of everyone involved in making it. The art doesnt evoke any of the horror you can get just by googling a random image of Junji Itos work. I remember seeing side-by-side comparisons when the show was airing. It was like night and day. The animation of these goofy drawings is almost nonexistent too, with many sequences essentially being slideshows. Since theres barely any movement and the voice actings passable as best, I honestly cant imagine why someone would watch this over just reading the stories instead.

Overall: A few episodes in The Junji Ito Collection still manage to be okay despite the many problems with its production. Theyre carried entirely by the strength of their idea, though, and are still tainted by mediocrity in almost every other aspect. If nothing else, this anime serves as an example of how piss-poor presentation can doom even the best ideas.

245. Record of Grancrest War
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34279/Grancrest_Senki
Winter 2018 (24 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 7.22/10
Best Character: Siluca Meletes

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

Premise: After a royal wedding ends in tragedy and rips the land apart, a warrior named Theo Cornaro partners with the mage Siluca Meletes to try and restore peace to the world.

The Good: Early on, some fight scenes were fun in a turn-your-brain-off way. Characters mowed down faceless mobs like they were in Dynasty Warriors. I also didnt mind Theo and Siluca, at least until the plot became too big to focus on them and they became generic good guys. A lot of the lords had fun gimmick armies, like a pirate lady or one based on Greek phalanxes.

The Bad: In the first half of Record of Grancrest War, my biggest problem was its absurd pacing. This got worse in the second half with infodumps to try and catch viewers up to why whole new factions were rising and falling with little focus. The villains were also the worst kind, often acting evil for the sake of evil when a simple negotiation would solve most of their problems. Marrine in particular was awful, nothing she did made sense yet no one ever called her out on it. Grancrest was marred by poor production values, too, with the art and animation falling apart more and more the closer it got to the end.

Overall: Record of Grancrest War kept managing to reach new lows the longer it went on. Even the few fun ideas it had couldnt outweigh confusing motivations and pointless war crimes. Breakneck pacing also made the plot impossible to care about.

248. Taisho Otome Fairy Tale
https://myanimelist.net/anime/45055/Taishou_Otome_Otogibanashi
Fall 2021 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 7.78/10
Best Character: Shiratori Kotori

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eBW38kVUkE

Premise: After losing the use of his arm in an accident, Tamahiko Shima is considered worthless by his wealthy family and sent to live a life of seclusion in the countryside. His only companion will be a bride they purchased for him, the cheerful Tachibana Yuzuki.

The Good: Ill admit Yuzuki was cute. I also liked Kotori, the musician who was like an old-timey idol.

The Bad: Taisho Otome Fairy Tale tried to be both cute and dark, and it fell into the worst of both worlds. Yuzuki is cute, yes, but she isnt allowed to be anything but cute. She has no hard feelings about being sold to pay her familys debts. She comes into the arrangement with nothing but optimism. It really undermines a romance when one half of it is determined to fall in love no matter how much of a brooding jerk the guy is. It wouldnt be so bad if this was just a cutesy slice-of-life where she cheered up a depressed guy in zany ways, but TOFT often became way too serious. Theres depression, suicide ideation, prostitution, alcoholism, abusiveness, destruction, death and, in my opinion, none of these aspects are given the weight they deserve. Rio, for example, is violently beaten by her drunken father, and no one seems to care. Why even include that if you wont do anything with it?

Overall: Taisho Otome Fairy Tale simply wasnt competent enough to weave together two divergent tones. The cute parts were always harshly out-of-place next to the dark parts, which served only to make things miserable.

6969 AD is going to be a party year

2/10: BAD TIER

250. Frankenstein Family
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36397/Shiyan_Pin_Jiating
Spring 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.33/10
Best Character: Aisley

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

Premise: Five children raised in seclusion and experimented on by their mad scientist parents are saved by the government. Now they must adapt to society without revealing their abnormalities.

The Good: I liked the girl who had spider legs coming out of her back. As an arachnophobe, she triggered me good. For some reason a normal girl with spider legs was way freakier than the girl in Monster Musume who had a full spider body with a human upper half attached.

The Bad: You wouldnt think itd be hard to fill ten-minute episodes with monster shenanigans, but they found a way to make it boring. The themes kept changing between episodes too. In one, its important to be yourself! In the next, absolute conformity is all that matters! One episode had the family wreak havoc in a restaurant with their monstrousness on full display. Then later episodes had a bunch of drama about how they absolutely could not let anyone realize they were part monster. It also ended on a cliffhanger, which is baffling for a show that tried to be slice-of-life and definitely doesnt deserve another season.

Overall: The worst part about Frankenstein Family is the lame title. During the title cards, they say Creature Family Days in plain English. Thats a fine title, why change it? Otherwise, this whole anime was incompetent and boring, but nothing about it was overly offensive.

252. Citrus
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34382/Citrus
Winter 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 6.47/10
Best Character: Aihara Yuzu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEmq9e_ZxJE

Premise: Aihara Yuzu has a new stepsister after her mothers surprise marriage. Getting along with the cold and aloof Mei becomes even more complicated after the two share a kiss.

The Good: Yuzu was great. She only barely missed my top 100 characters even though I hated the rest of Citrus. She was always fun and openhearted, and she reacted to the nonsense of the rest of the plot with realistic bafflement and heartbreak.

The Bad: Mei, the other half of their relationship, was terrible. I have no idea why Yuzu wanted to be with such an icy person. Mei kept hurting her seemingly just because she could. Another major problem with Citrus was that it only knew how to create drama in one way. New girls kept showing up and trying to get into either Mei or Yuzus pants. By forcing the story to trip over so many redundant hurdles, the whole season passed without any meaningful development of the primary relationship at all.

Overall: No matter how good Yuzu is, Mei was so awful that I didnt want them to succeed. I wanted Yuzu to realize she could do better and to get away from the toxicity, which isnt a good feeling to have towards a romance story.

As you can see, Mac and I often have different opinions about anime. I just finished his recommendation, though, and thankfully there are times where we both like the same thing!

BONUS. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai
https://myanimelist.net/anime/14515/Sasami-sanGanbaranai
Winter 2013 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 6.67/10
Best Character: Tsukuyomi Sasami
Recommended by: @MacArrowny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPTvRx4OuZ4

Premise: Tsukuyomi Sasami is a shut-in living with her overly affectionate older brother. Sasami monitors him with her computer during the day, including his interactions with three odd sisters.

The Good: Sasami-san@Ganbaranai was a wonderfully weird anime. Early on, I was afraid itd be too weird with the brother never showing his face and the incest vibes, but by the end of the first episode I was willing to go along for the ride. It was made by the same people who made Monogatari and has much the same visual style. The unique way shots are framed (sometimes lovingly animated, sometimes still images of various objects around the room, and everything in-between) really helps guide the viewer through whatever craziness is going on. And Sasami-san had plenty of craziness. I dont know much about Japanese mythology so Im sure most of that stuff went over my head. I enjoyed it all in terms of pure spectacle. I loved how the brother/sister stuff, which I found off-putting at first, was eventually explained through the history of the Tsukuyomi family. The main characters also had some great dynamics. Sasami was my favorite, but I also really liked Kagami and how their friendship grew.

The Bad: Sometimes the tone became too dark too fast. Its probably just my preference for lighter stories, but it always felt out of place. Still, this only happened a few times in the whole anime, so it didnt drag it down much.

Overall: Sasami-san@Ganbaranai was difficult to talk about because I didnt want to spoil anything. Even the first episode has a great moment where everything changes, and I think it hits a lot harder if the viewer doesnt know whats coming. Its an anime that goes to some strange places, but it tackles everything competently and has a lot of heart doing it. Ill need a few days to think on it, but itll likely end up in the lower half of my top 100 in my final ranking. Thanks for the recommendation, Mac! Im not sure Id have ever watched this otherwise.

(Sasami also probably makes it into my top 100 characters. I'm debating if I want to do spoiler-filled write-ups for characters who reach that threshold too. She certainly deserves one, especially since I couldn't talk about the story much in the anime write-up. Depending on how much I like the rest of these recommendations, though, committing to characters could be a bunch of extra work. I don't have time for it right now in any case, so I'll think on it some more. We're still a few weeks away from seeing the first character from the normal ranking. It'd feel weird to have already done a bunch from recommendations before that.)

253. Hanebado
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37259/Hanebado
Summer 2018 (13 episodes)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 6.86/10
Best Character: Izumi Riko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwWG_wPuT6c

Premise: Aragaki Nagisa, a member of the high school badminton team, is still recovering from a crushing loss. Meanwhile her rival, Ayano Hanesaki, is trying to leave the sport behind.

The Good: The animation was good at times.

The Bad: More like HaneBADo, am I right? This anime set out to be cruel, and it succeeded by draining the joy out of every character and every single scene. There were a few brief moments where these girls enjoyed playing badminton, but those were always followed by some twist that destroyed them psychologically and made everything awful again. A lot of the drama is centered around Hanesakis abusive mother who put her through hellish training and abandoned her the instant she started falling behind. Hanesaki understandably wants to leave the sport that ruined her life, but no one else will let her. They all have their own traumas guiding their actions and they need to drag Hanesaki into the depths of despair alongside them. There isnt a single character in Hanebado who plays badminton because its, you know, fun.

Overall: Hanebado delighted in breaking its characters down without ever building them back up. It felt like torture porn, physically and emotionally. Nothing good ever happened. No one ever learned a lesson that made their hardship worthwhile. It was just horrible, mind-bending pain, over and over, in an anime about badminton of all things.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
252: This anime is trapped in a sour relationship.
251: This anime was caught up in an explosion at a concert.

(Sceptilesolar, that was still a good guess for 253 yesterday! Some of these hints will end up working pretty well for more than one anime. Like I said in the opening post, I'm doing 360 of these, they won't all be perfect)

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

oh and dunno if it's too late for a recommend

Assuming all goes to schedule, this ranking should last until near the end of November. I'll accept recommendations all the way to the end! I hope more people rec stuff too. I still have quite a few things I want to rewatch, but eventually I'll run out of those and recommendations and then I'll be stuck doing bonus write-ups for shows I chose myself.

Also, just in case it impacts your choice between Mob vs Beastars, I watched the first three episodes of Mob a few years ago. I was falling out of anime back then and I watched a few episodes in a bunch of stuff looking for anything to hook me back in. Stuff like Eden of the East and My Little Monster pushed me out harder instead. I barely remember anything about Mob, so if you stick with that choice I'll start over from the beginning. This is just the first recommendation I have under On Hold on MAL, so I wanted to mention it.

changmas posted...

Darlin in the FranXX wasn't good but idk if I think it's 1/10 level of bad. the plot was not very good but I didn't think the characters were too bad. I'd call it 'meh' more than anything else. doesn't really stick the landing very well but i didn't find any particular quality completely loathsome

I remember lots of people turned on FranXX in the second half, but I honestly kind of hated it even from the beginning. Winter 2018 was my first season watching airing stuff and everyone was hyped over this one so I stuck with it, but it did nothing for me at any point. For most people it went from good to bad, for me it went from bad to really bad. Just not my kind of story, I guess.

MacArrowny posted...

The awesome mecha combat animation was my favorite thing about it. Show looks so good. Zero Two also a fun character.

I dunno, the fights had a certain stylized look, but I still found them underwhelming. I haven't seen too many mecha anime though (Sidonia, Planet With, uhh... Price of Smiles... oh, and ID-0. FranXX was better than that at least!) so I'm hardly an authority on the genre.

NFUN posted...

lmao that's what Zero-Two is from?

Yep! She has a good design, I'll give her that. It's easy to see why she blew up, at least compared to everything else from FranXX. I just wasn't a fan of her as a character.

254. Darling in the FranXX
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35849/Darling_in_the_FranXX
Winter 2018 (24 episodes)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 7.23
Best Character: Ikuno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCzkkHwR2gg

Premise: Hiro, an aspiring mecha pilot, struggles to form the necessary connection with his co-pilot. Then he meets an enigmatic woman named Zero-Two and partners with her to fight the monstrous Klaxosaurs.

The Good: There was one good episode in Darling in the FranXX. It was when Zorome explored the plantation. It was the only episode that showed stuff in an interesting way instead of info-dumping it.

The Bad: The rest of Darling in the FranXX was a jumbled mess. It started bland with a standard fight the waves of monsters conflict and lame characters. I even found fan favorite Zero-Two grating. Everything was needlessly sexualized, starting with the mechas piloted by guy/girl pairs in doggy-style positions. During fights, the men moan about how strong they are while the girls moan about the connection going deep inside of them. Its for symbolism, I know, but FranXX never pulled its plot threads together well enough to have a coherent message. By the end, whole episodes were dedicated to infodumps just trying to explain what was going on. And what was going on was mostly nonsense. Every anime in my bottom ten offended me in some way. In FranXX, what offended me most was the shoddy writing.

Overall: Darling in the FranXX was never fun to watch. It often prioritized melodrama over anything else. I also found the mecha fights boring. The Klaxosaurs were super lame, and the heroes never used interesting tactics or abilities to fight them. I struggled to continue watching this every week, and in the end it wasnt worth it.

Minwu

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

Auto for Minwu

For Cyan

Rinoa

255. Kinos Journey -the Beautiful World- the Animated Series
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35079/Kino_no_Tabi__The_Beautiful_World_-_The_Animated_Series
Fall 2017 (12 episodes)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 7.60/10
Best Character: Kino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rBNn0q6u_A

Premise: Kino travels across the world encountering new people and unfamiliar countries. Its a journey guided by a single rule: never stay in one place for more than three days.

The Good: This is an episodic series, and some of the places Kino visited were neat in concept.

The Bad: The two main flaws that bring Kinos Journey down both tie into the themes, which were either heavy-handed or confused depending on the episode. One was about a slave, with the predictable message that slavery is bad. To show this, the slave is a saint who never begrudges anyone. Every other person is comically terrible, abusing her just for the fun of it. Its like they were worried people might confuse who the bad guys were, so they went to such an ugly extreme. Another episode was set in a mobile city that ruined another citys crops as it drove past. Kino, in the mobile city, has zero problem with this. When the other city sends people to vandalize the mobile citys central mural in revenge, though, Kino leaps into action to defend it! Whats this story even trying to say? Art is more important than food?

Overall: I liked the idea of a wanderer visiting strange new places. The 2017 version of Kinos Journey was just a miserable experience. Even the episodes that werent terrible were boring at best and never did the concept justice.

256. Muhyo & Rojis Bureau of Supernatural Investigation
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37487/Muhyo_to_Rouji_no_Mahouritsu_Soudan_Jimusho
Summer 2018 (12 episodes), Summer 2020 (0/12 episodes, unfinished)
My Score: 1/10, MAL Score: 6.71/10 S1, 6.90/10 S2
Best Character: Kurotori Rio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g7msrF9dlg

Premise: Muhyo and Roji are experts in magical law. They help people who are experiencing paranormal phenomenon and dispense justice to evil spirits.

The Good: Some of the ghost designs were neat.

The Bad: Muhyo & Roji felt like an anime that had no idea what it wanted to be. The themes it explored were often shockingly dark, but they were tackled with all the nuance of a kids show. In the first episode, a girl comes to them because her friends ghost is haunting her. Its revealed that the girl was a massive jerk who basically got her friend killed. Once the viewer is firmly sympathetic to the ghost, Muhyo sends the ghost to burn in hell for all eternity. And the girl is happy because the spirit of the friend she killed is no longer bothering her. Another later arc had them deal with a woman whod been sexually harassed and bullied. Our heroes react to this by saying something to the effect of those nasty people were so mean to you. Why even bring these issues up if this is how youre going to handle them?

Overall: Even ignoring the thematic fumbles, Muhyo and Roji wasnt a good anime. Every single confrontation was solved instantly by Muhyo reading a spell from his overpowered book of laws. It kept trying to artificially create tension where Muhyo would stand there smirking and let the ghost get closer and oh no will be able to read from the book? Just read from the book, Muhyo, and stop wasting my time. This has a second season, but I couldnt bring myself to watch it yet.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
255: This anime doesnt deserve to stay in this ranking for three days.
254: This anime couldnt form a deep enough connection to fight the dinosaurs.
253: Im abandoning this anime and leaving it psychologically broken.

Rikku