Board 8 > Robazoid Ranks 275 Anime and Top 100 Anime Characters (recommend me stuff too)

(+) Yeah! (+)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TOP 100 ANIME CHARACTERS

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

RECOMMENDATIONS

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

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

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

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

-----

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

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

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

DROPPED TIER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

urahara was just a... kind of low energy, acid trip, aesthetic anime tbh

it's a shame its near nonexistent budget held it back enough to somehow end up even more polarising than the fashion style it was a love letter to

i personally liked it a good amount but i acknowledge it's a very hard sell

Robazoid posted...

264. Eden of the East

Hey, that's not a bad show! Why would you drop it?

Robazoid posted...

the seventh episode

...Fair enough. That one sucks so much I'm annoyed you reminded me it exists.

Tag.

Never saw any of these but Eden of the East and Banana Fish have been on my To Watch list for a bit.

Even though I wouldn't consider Urahara to be good, the friendship between the girls was cute enough for me to finish it. For it to be one of only 10 drops though...

Dropped shows are at the bottom of the ranking by default, but most would be a lot higher if I'd finished them. Urahara had one shot I still remember where one girl was skating through town and it looked really neat. The art style was simultaneously the best and worst thing about it. I couldn't get into it overall, though.

Also I made the topic really early in the morning, that isn't the usual time I'll post things. The next write-ups will come around this time tomorrow.

Another thing I wanted to do was post these four questions and people can make guesses about them if they feel like it. I always enjoyed it when ranking topics had small things like this so it's more than just write-ups. Even if you don't feel like trawling through the spreadsheet of what I've seen to make five guesses for the bottom three, the first question is quick and easy.

1- Guess the ratio of males and females in my top 100 characters (example, 51:49 would be 51 guys, 49 girls)

2- Only one anime has three characters in my top 100 characters. Guess which one (up to five guesses allowed)

3- Try to guess the five lowest ranked anime with a character in my top 100

4- Try to guess the five highest ranked anime without a character in my top 100

I rather liked Banana Fish, but I can understand not finishing it in the circumstances you listed.

By the way are we allowed to give recommendations now? If so I'm going to throw out Sakura Quest, which was a show I and seemingly nobody else loved. I think it's currently only on Funimation however and I can't imagine it's high on their priority list to move to Crunchyroll. If you want another one I can give it since I was torn between this and a different one anyways.

Planetes is a very good show about Characters and Motivation that is tries to, and succeeds at, Analyzing The Human Condition And Telling A Meaningful Story

Vinland Saga by the same guy is also excellent and a good option if you want a bit more of a classic story that has occasional but not excessive fights and want to be upset that only the prologue season has been released yet

pyresword posted...

By the way are we allowed to give recommendations now?

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

NFUN posted...

Vinland Saga

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

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

recommends Hibike! Euphonium

KommunistKoala posted...

recommends Hibike! Euphonium

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

changmas posted...

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

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

oops

recommends Tsuki ga kirei

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

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

don't have enough info to guess anything, but enjoying this topic so far

is rape that common in anime? i guess tbf i haven't heard of a ton of these (and for that matter, maybe they're mostly clustered here at the bottom because of that)

SeabassDebeste posted...

is rape that common in anime? i guess tbf i haven't heard of a ton of these (and for that matter, maybe they're mostly clustered here at the bottom because of that)

It's more common than it should be imo, but nowhere near as common as my ranking so far would indicate. As you suspected, I'm ranking anime with rape low because I don't like seeing it. In my opinion, rape or sexual assault are too often used for cheap shock value without respecting the magnitude of it or how heavily it would traumatize someone. I have more respect for something like Banana Fish or Eden of the East where it's at least given the weight it deserves. Even then, though, I wish the authors could've used something else. Have the bad guys do something else to show they're evil. Find another way to give a character a tragic backstory. I watch fiction for entertainment, and sexual violence is almost always too real-world serious for me to enjoy.

Robazoid posted...

I'm not morally against pirating, I just don't really know how to do it and I don't have a VPN and I dunno, this is just easiest.

Any chance you'd be fine with a super-old rec you can "pirate" by just searching on YouTube?

Xeybozn posted...

Any chance you'd be fine with a super-old rec you can "pirate" by just searching on YouTube?

As long as all of it is available and the quality isn't garbage, sure. If the license holders don't care enough to take it down, that's fine by me.

I'll go ahead and recommend 86.

My anime viewing catalog pales in comparison to yours and a lot of other folks' on this board but I'm looking forward to the list!

I will recommend Record of Ragnarok. It's on Netflix, and the basic premise is gods vs historical figures in a contest to determine the fate of humanity. It usually takes me ages to finish watching any series, but I enjoyed this one so much, I watched it all in three days.

Tag

1/10: TERRIBLE TIER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robazoid posted...

I'll wait to hear from pyre about Sakura Quest.

I'll stick with Sakura Quest.

For the record I watched the English dub and thought it was solid, though you should probably just watch however you want

Damn, most of the anime I'd recommend doesn't seem to be streaming. ef, Sengoku Basara, Kamichu...

Guess that means I'll just have to make Sasami-san@Ganbaranai my rec! It's on HiDive. It's a pretty strange show, and most people aren't that into it, but I absolutely love it.

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

257: Science Fell in Love, but it had an awful last episode.

256: Hell Girl? I dunno.

Robazoid posted...

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

smh not understanding the female fantasy

MacArrowny posted...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KommunistKoala posted...

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

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

Robazoid posted...

I hadn't considered it because in my head people are only reading ones for anime they've seen anyway.

my hit rate would be so low in such a case it would be pointless to follow!

Robazoid posted...

. I also hated the subplot of a teacher lusting after a thirteen-year-old, so thankfully that was ultimately a very small part of the anime.

yeah... to me this is what's most creepily normalized in anime

SeabassDebeste posted...

yeah... to me this is what's most creepily normalized in anime

https://imgur.com/SoNTlXR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Robazoid posted...

253: Im abandoning this anime and leaving it psychologically broken.

Pretty sure I know what that one is, I also remember being very angry at the ending to Kuma Miko.

254 sounds like Darlifra

no respect for top tier mecha fight animation ;_;

I loved Tsukigakirei for the all the reasons you liked it. Spoilers for the ending,there's a part of me that wishes that the story just ends before the credits. I was happy for them that it worked out, but I think it would have been better for them to cherish that first love for what it was, grow up, and move on.

Robazoid posted...

On that note, Chinatsu was my favorite character. Im guessing that might be controversial, but I dont care. She was a lot of fun and I felt for her as her story progressed.

I really liked Chinatsu at the beginning, but I felt she was a bit too persistent.

Robazoid posted...

I also hated the subplot of a teacher lusting after a thirteen-year-old, so thankfully that was ultimately a very small part of the anime.

I didn't care for any of the shorts. My brain has probably been broken by too much anime, but at least the teacher was funny in her patheticness.

Recommend Talentless Nana

I've only seen a fraction of these but I'll follow along where I can.

I only saw season 1 of Science Fell in Love, but it was very boring and uninteresting and overstayed its welcome in about 15 minutes. Glad I stopped there I guess

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.

Kino's Journey 2003 was pretty good, so it's a shame this is all I ever hear about the reboot series (which I didn't watch). Though I'm not sure how much you'd like the original either since that can be a bit heavy handed also.

That said, reading what some people have said about both I could easily see them as just having destroyed the series also. This reddit comment in particular is very worrisome

The fact is that they're different. The 2003 show followed solely Kino, and was more about philosophical and ethical questions.

On the other hand, the 2017 show had more action, shifted the focus towards character development a bit more, and had characters it followed other than Kino.

It was mostly the heavy-handedness, that slave episode was zero fun to watch. I wouldnt take my opinion on it as gospel though. I've never seen the original, so if you enjoyed it you might enjoy the 2017 version too! I include the MAL score next to mine just to show that these might all be fine and I'm the crazy one.

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.

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

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

lmao that's what Zero-Two is from?