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

(+) Yeah! (+)

That comfort in knowing 172 isn't Kaiji.... countered by the sadness that Roba won't watch it due to it having too many episodes!!

MartinFF7 posted...

That comfort in knowing 172 isn't Kaiji.... countered by the sadness that Roba won't watch it due to it having too many episodes!!

He said he's okay with 50 ep shows!

MartinFF7 posted...

That comfort in knowing 172 isn't Kaiji.... countered by the sadness that Roba won't watch it due to it having too many episodes!!

52 eps on Crunchyroll. Unless there are more not on there, that's within acceptability of my suggested 50 episode limit for recommendations. I mostly have that to prevent any 100+ recs. You can recommend Kaiji if you want!

Ah alright I thought 50 was a cap. But moreso it was a joke because of the last time we discussed it as you were burning through a different 12 episode series a day in lieu of committing to anything longer, lol.

Also, I'm hoping to pool my recommendation allotment with 3 other people to get you to watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes (110 episodes + 52 episode Gaiden series + 3 movies)

....assuming you haven't already

Huh, I hadn't considered people pooling recs. On the one hand, that means 20+ people could force me to watch One Piece. On the other hand, letting people do that sounds fun and could lead to discussion about longer shows. Maybe I'll allow it for up to four people (so 200 eps max) with the understanding that I likely wouldn't finish any super long ones until after the ranking was over.

And no, I haven't seen Galactic Heroes. I don't know how many readers this topic even has waiting to recommend stuff, though, so you might have a hard time finding people!

Only another 146 people needed to recommend Sazae-san.

Mobilezoid posted...

Huh, I hadn't considered people pooling recs. On the one hand, that means 20+ people could force me to watch One Piece.

I need to start coordinating.

173. Slow Start
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35540/Slow_Start
Winter 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.02/10
Best Character: Momochi Tamate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Q4QD1Qn_c

Premise: Ichinose Hana is finally starting high school after a year off. Shes terrified of anyone learning about her shameful slow start even as she begins making friends.

The Good: Slow Start is a cute girls slice-of-life anime, and it definitely nails the comedic laid-back atmosphere those should strive for. Not all of the characters are great, but I dont dislike any of them. Tamate was my favorite for being so high-energy and having a playfully lewd sense of humor. I also didnt mind the flirty interactions between Eiko and their teacher, it somehow managed to seem sweet rather than creepy. The animation in this was very good as well.

The Bad: Ultimately, I dont recall Slow Start being much more than a super generic cute girls anime. I blame that on the premise. As hooks go, the main character starting school a year later than everyone else is one of the lamest Ive ever seen. I guess that must be a big deal in Japan because Hana moved to a whole new school district where no one will know her and its a constant source of anxiety. It sours a lot of scenes that shes in because I just dont care. Hana was so boring. I also didnt love Kamuri. Her whole gimmick was being small and sleepy and I feel like Ive seen her exact character a dozen times before.

Overall: Slow Start is a fine cute girls slice-of-life. There are just so many other ones with better characters and better hooks that I cant call this anything special. Tama and Eiko are great, but Kamuri and especially the main character Hana are boring.

I have slightly different opinions on Slow Start but roughly the same conclusion. It's odd because it felt like a series I should have liked, but I ended up resenting the premise. Less so because I disliked Hana, which I didn't, but because it felt too much like she was the others' pity project at times, and Eiko was kind of aggressively perfect at everything. Tamate was fun though.

On the plus side someone has been translating Matazoro lately, which vaguely reminds me of Slow Start but it's way more of what I wanted. Random plug done.

172. Three Leaves, Three Colors
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31564/Sansha_Sanyou
Spring 2016 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.10/10
Best Character: Nishikawa Youko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj-6P-jMT_g

Premise: After the bankruptcy of her fathers company, Nishikawa Youko went from rich to poor. She struggles to make friends at school due to her princess-like personality.

The Good: I really like the premise of Three Leaves, Three Colors. The rich girl archetype is always fun, so taking that but making her poor puts a new spin on various jokes. The premise isnt used as well as it could be, sadly, but Ill cover that below. It was still a good idea, and the few times it was used for jokes were funny. Youko was my favorite because of that, but I also enjoyed the side characters from her former staff. Shino the former maid was great.

The Bad: Considering how much I loved the premise, Three Leaves, Three Colors turning out to be a generic cute girls slice-of-life anime was so disappointing. Everyone acts like Youko is this haughty, arrogant princess, and I wish that she was! Most of the time shes normal and sweet, so everyone reacting like shes some stereotypical rich girl makes the jokes fall flat. The same goes for the supposedly black-hearted class rep, Teru. The way everyone reacts to her, youd think she was a demon. Only, outside of a few gags, shes mostly normal and sweet too. Futaba is the stereotypical hungry girl, and they actually make her a hungry girl so thats good. Its just too bad that hungry girl is one of the most boring archetypes there is.

Overall: I honestly dont know whats going on with the writing in Three Leaves, Three Colors. They have solid character ideas, a poor rich girl and an evil class rep, and most of the time its like they forgot those are supposed to be their character traits. Youko and Teru are normal way more often than theyre haughty or meanspirited. That turned Three Leaves, Three Colors into a generic cute girls anime in spite of its solid premise. It still wasnt bad, I mean I like generic cute girls anime, but this shouldve been so much better.

171. Endro~!
https://myanimelist.net/anime/38062/Endro
Winter 2019 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 6.92/10
Best Character: Mao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri4OiC3v-DM

Premise: The heroes defeated the demon lord, but a spell gone awry sent them all back in time. With only the demons memories intact, Mao infiltrates the adventurer school to sabotage them.

The Good: Endro is a mixture of a cute girls anime and a fantasy anime. While the heroes are ostensibly training to take down a dangerous demon lord, the focus is more on the jokes and slice-of-life aspects. I enjoyed the little girl demon lord, Mao, quite a lot. Her situation of being the only one who knows how things played out in the first timeline was interesting. I liked her comical attempts to sabotage the heroes.

The Bad: The four main characters are all very generic. Fai Fai was the worst, but thats just my inherent dislike for characters who are the hungry girl and have zero other traits. The other three at least have one fun thing going for them, like Yulia being super lucky or Meis obsession with the card game Cartado. It just wasnt enough to raise the anime to anything other than fine.

Overall: Endro isnt a bad anime, but for something with such a neat premise it shouldnt have felt this boring and generic. I enjoyed Mao almost every time she was onscreen. The four main characters were where the focus was most of the time, however, and none of them were great.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
170: This anime is getting constricted by a lamia.
169: The only person this anime talks to is imaginary.

Haven't seen Slow Start yet, but TL,TC and Endro were only just fine. I'd heard good things about Endro too, so that one actually left me disappointed.

I actually didn't care for Teru, and would rank the main girls Futaba > Youko > Teru, but my favorite characters were the "mean" girl and her friend.

Mao easily the best part of Endro, and the princess was pretty good too

Three Leaves and Endro weren't the greatest, yeah. Mao was certainly the best.

(I absolutely love that the MAL ranking for this anime is effectively 69. Also, I might not be able to post my second write-up for today until way later tonight.)

170. Monster Musume
https://myanimelist.net/anime/30307/Monster_Musume_no_Iru_Nichijou
Summer 2015 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 6.99/10
Best Character: Miia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K--QO3MQfmE

Premise: In an alternate universe where non-human creatures exist, Kurisu Kimihito is forced to house Miia, a lamia. His home is soon taken over by various other sexy monster girls.

The Good: Monster Musume is a fanservice harem anime, which I know some people are put off by. Im neutral towards it. Fanservice can get uncomfortable depending on the ages of those involved and the situations theyre in, but in general I dont mind some healthy horniness, and I dont recall anything overly questionable in this anime. Monster Musume features several sexy monster girls living with a generic main dude, and they all desperately want to have sex with him. The catch is, due to laws in this world, its illegal for him to sleep with any of them. Most of the humor comes from Kurisu trying to survive their presence, like the lamia girl constricting him, getting carried off by the harpy girl, or nearly drowning after falling into the slime girl. I enjoyed the variety of different monsters who kept showing up. Miia the lamia was my favorite, but as an arachnophobe I also need to mention the terrifying spider girl.

The Bad: As I mentioned above, Im neutral on fanservice. It doesnt ruin an anime for me, but lewdness can only raise it so far on its own. Other than being a specific type of monster and being super horny, none of the girls had much characterization to make me care about them.

Overall: As long as you arent put off by blatant fanservice, Monster Musume is a fun anime with some neat monster girls and some good jokes about them all living in a house together. There just isnt a whole lot else going on other than fanservice, so theres nothing to elevate it.

Mobilezoid posted...

52 eps on Crunchyroll. Unless there are more not on there, that's within acceptability of my suggested 50 episode limit for recommendations. I mostly have that to prevent any 100+ recs. You can recommend Kaiji if you want!

I am recommending Kaiji.

(There aren't any episodes that aren't there, sadly. But the parts that would be animated next don't have quite as much mass appeal)

I've been putting together my own MAL, mostly focusing on TV seasons of anime for now rather than getting bogged down in movies and OVAs. It was kind of a funny experience to go season by season and correct some of my misremembering when shows aired, or discover that one or another mediocre manga I read recently had an anime a while back, or even multiple seasons, without me having known.

The exact count of anime is certainly well under your 275 though once you start combining seasons. Though sometimes it's hard to tell what should be counted as separate seasons or a separate anime altogether. Presumably something like Yugioh, which occupies a good amount of my list, would count as separate anime if I were doing my own ranking, but some of the classification can be fiddly.

https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Sceptilesol

Sceptilesolar posted...

The exact count of anime is certainly well under your 275 though once you start combining seasons.

Well, you already have me beaten on total episodes! I've just watched a ton of 12 episode one-season anime.

I sent you a friend request, in case you don't mind accepting. I like to see what scores my friends gave when I look up shows

(I finally watched the second season of this yesterday! There will still be a few anime later in the ranking that I haven't finished, but at least I'm done this one.)

169. Haganai
https://myanimelist.net/anime/10719/Boku_wa_Tomodachi_ga_Sukunai
Fall 2011 (12 episodes), Winter 2013 (12 episodes) plus 1 OVA
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.18/10 S1, 7.31/10 S2
Best Character: Takayama Maria

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

Premise: Hasegawa Kodaka frightens most of his classmates with his blonde hair. Then he finds Mikazuki Yozora talking to an imaginary friend, and the two form the Neighbors Club in the hopes of finding real friends.

The Good: Haganai is partly a club anime and it has hints of romance, but mostly its a comedy with lots of fanservice. I like that Kodaka isnt a typical generic main dude, he has his own fun character traits and background characters being afraid of him is humorous. The clubs various female members are still basically his harem. My favorites were Kobato, Kodakas chuuni little sister, and the little kid nun Maria. Maria in particular has the same voice actress as Index from A Certain Magical Index, and they both have silver hair and they share some mannerisms. Maria is basically a tiny Index and I love her. She has a great dynamic with Kobato too.

The Bad: I dont mind fanservice, but sometimes Haganai goes in a weird direction with it. Even the Crunchyroll version has uncensored naked Kobato, who is thirteen, never mind the lewdness from the older girls. I didnt dislike anyone, but I wasnt a huge fan of Yozora, Sena, or Rika. Yozora and Sena spent most of their time fighting each other, it got old after awhile. Rika often went uncomfortably far with her innuendos.

Overall: Haganai has a lot of funny jokes from these friendless weirdos coming together, and I love Maria and Kobato. The other major characters arent anywhere near as good as those two, however. It used a lot of fanservice, with some of it verging on uncomfortable. I also really hated the end of the second season, but at least it wasnt the kind of ending that ruined everything that came before it.

Whoops I forgot that was the last write-up today. I could edit these into the other post but I'll do a new one so people don't miss them.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
(168: Airing anime placeholder)
M2: This movie is heading to an abandoned village in the mountains.
(167: Airing anime placeholder)
M1: This movie hurt itself trying to do parkour.
166: This anime is getting possessed by a ghost.

As you can see, tomorrow is airing anime day and the last of the movies (or at least what I classify as movies because they don't fit anywhere else).

Haganai S1 >> S2

I never thought of the show as being particularly fanservicey, haha. I liked the show quite a bit at first, but was disappointed it went more in the romance direction over time. Focusing on friendship would've been more entertaining.

Monster Musume's pretty good, for whatever reason.

MacArrowny posted...

I never thought of the show as being particularly fanservicey, haha.

It had a ton of shots focusing on the girls' bodies and lots of sexual situations. I googled 'Haganai imgur' and easily found this picture of Sena bending over about to read out loud a hardcore sex scene from the VN she's playing >_>

https://imgur.com/sr2SOzT

(We'll start with the movies today. And no this isn't really a movie, it's an ONA or whatever, but it's one episode that's only an hour long so it isn't a series. I just counted it with the movies)

2 (Movie). Starlight Promises
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37970/Yakusoku_no_Nanaya_Matsuri
Summer 2018 (1 movie)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 6.71/10
Best Character: Shoma Mihara

(This has no OP or ED and the only trailers I could find all had French subtitles)

Premise: Shoma Mihara receives a message from a friend he hasnt heard from in years inviting him to a festival. He heads to a village in the mountains and finds more than hed ever imagined.

The Good: Starlight Promises isnt a great movie, a fact that Ill try to convey in the bad section. Still, for its short runtime (barely over an hour), I thought it had a lot of heart. The animation was pretty, and the main characters at least had a nice story. Im a sucker for stories about old friends.

The Bad: All the action scenes in Starlight Promises felt like a huge waste of time. It didnt really detract from anything, but they didnt contribute to the characters or the themes and they werent impressive enough visually to stand on their own either. Starlight Promises was so short to begin with that every minute wasted on the action hurt it a lot. The story was also predictable, which I didnt mind because it still appealed to me but Im guessing it would but most people.

Overall: I thought Starlight Promises was a nice little story with some good emotion. For as short as it was, especially given how much time it wasted on a pointless action subplot, and for how predictable it was, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I still ranked it a 4/10 so obviously its below average, but thats not a bad ranking from me for a standalone anime movie!

Wow, I actually haven't heard of that one. How unusual.

As for Haganai, I do remember a decent amount of Sena fanservice, but she was basically the representative for that type of situation. The sex scene stuff was more comedic to me, haha.

1 (Movie). Bubble
https://myanimelist.net/anime/50549/Bubble
Spring 2022 (1 movie)
My Score: 5/10, MAL Score: 7.30/10
Best Character: Uta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5PpoIMXtcw

Premise: Years after bubbles rained down on the world and began messing with gravity, many people live in the flooded ruins of Tokyo doing parkour races. Then one runner, Hibiki, meets a strange girl named Uta.

The Good: Bubble is a beautiful looking anime. The art direction is top-notch, really managing to sell the ruined Tokyo with damaged buildings and water everywhere and bubbles or bits of debris spiraling through the air in pockets of altered gravity. The animation is great too. The parkour scenes are an excellent way to show all of this off. Theres one four-minute sequence in the middle of the movie during a race that I can only describe as epic. Even now, months after I watched it, I still sometimes rewatch that part on Youtube. The movies soundtrack is also good.

The Bad: The writing is where Bubble suffers. I wouldnt say its bad enough to ruin the movie, I still had a good time watching it for the production values, but it makes me sad that such pretty visuals are held back by a story thats confusing at best and infuriating at worst. Cynically, I feel like the whole setting and story was put together based on flimsy excuses. Someone wanted to do a parkour movie, and they wanted it to have weird gravity effects, so they half-assed this whole bubble plot to explain it. For example, one character is a scientist whos in Tokyo to research the bubbles. She meets a girl whose hand appears to be turning into bubbles. And the scientists reaction is to give the girl a glove to cover it up. No curiosity, no questions, nothing. The plot of the movie makes no sense, and it felt like the writers themselves barely cared about it.

Overall: Bubble is really nice to look at, and in my opinion its worth watching for the visuals alone. Even the lowest points of the story still have scenes of people doing parkour through a unique environment filled with weird gravity and pretty bubbles. The characters and especially the story are unsatisfying, however, so this movie is still below average overall.

That's officially the end of my, uh, limited experience in anime movies. A 1/10, a 2/10 series, two 4/10s, and a 5/10. I'm glad Kiki's Delivery Service was recommended to me, it's a solid 7/10 and easily the best anime movie I've seen. Crunchyroll has added a few movies recently that sound interesting, and I'll watch them eventually when I get time. For now, though, I still have a boatload of old favorites to rewatch and new recommendations to get through.

Since this is the end of the movie portion of the ranking, I can officially move Kiki's Delivery Service over and give it an official ranking. It's number one with absolutely no competition!

MOVIES
1- Kiki's Delivery Service
2- Bubble
3- Starlight Promises
4- Expelled from Paradise
5- The Garden of Sinners
6- Calamity of the Zombie Girl

Two more mini write-ups for airing anime. These are only placeholder rankings and I'll finalize them once they finish.

168: Luminous Witches
This is the second spinoff from Strike Witches after Brave Witches, and obviously I'm enjoying it a lot more than either one of those. So far it has almost nothing to do with the war against the Neuroi. It's basically just an idol show. The Luminous Witches are ones who weren't any good at fighting so they formed a band to help morale instead. I may hate the Neuroi and find the WW2 ripoff setting uninspired, but idols raising the peoples spirits during a war is a fresh idea. The magic of the witches allows for some new things in an idol performance, too. The characters aren't super deep, but I'm liking them all well enough so far. I might end up raising this once it's over, but for now I'm still wary that the Neuroi will find a way to come back into focus and ruin it.

167: Shine Post
This is another idol anime, but a far more standard one than Luminous Witches. Three girls in an unpopular idol unit get a new manager. The twist here is that the manager can tell when people are lying, which... isn't the greatest twist and hasn't been used for much so far. Most of the lies have obvious context clues, he really shouldn't need a magical aura to tell. Other than that, it's a typical idol anime. They practice, overcome their doubts, grow closer, perform in shows, etc. The production is surprisingly competent. I just don't see Shine Post as being anything special yet. I'm the sort of person who enjoys even the most generic idol anime, but this is as high as it can go in my ranking unless the second half can convince me it has some heart.

Robazoid posted...

idols raising the peoples spirits during a war is a fresh idea.

Roba why have you not watched Macross

Robazoid posted...

but idols raising the peoples spirits during a war is a fresh idea.

Roba why have you not played Phantasy Star Online 2

many reasons

MacArrowny posted...

Roba why have you not watched Macross

There are lots of anime I haven't seen! If Macross is about wartime idols, though, then that's pretty cool. It also doesn't appear to be streaming anywhere.

the Macross series got fucked over super hard by Harmony Gold, who licensed the first series, edited and combined it with other series to make Robotech, then blocked nearly every other international Macross release with legal fuckery for decades despite Harmony Gold not doing anything with the Macross license themselves (besides periodically allowing Robotech to be rereleased).

however, recently the series has gotten itself un-fucked recently and bluray releases for Macross 7, Frontier (well, the movies at least), and Delta have been announced.

(though, for the record the Macross portion of Robotech isn't considered to be that bad or unfaithful to the original besides the name changes and changing the concept of Protoculture from being about an ancient civilization that was wiped out like you'd expect from the name to being an energy resource that the war is being fought over. you could also probably still find the most recent Robotech rerelease at Walmart or wherever if you look around for a bit)

(also I guess I should point out that the music/idol aspect of the series doesn't really get started in earnest until later series like 7/Frontier/Delta. In the original, it comes off like it was trying to be somewhat satirical, and other series like Plus and Zero are more focused on the action.)

Shine Post was not my thing, but I'm really enjoying Luminous Witches. Seems these are the first two idol shows on the list, as well.

(Sorry for posting this one so late, it was a busy day for me and there were technically five write-ups today. This anime was also airing this season but thankfully it has already ended.)

166. Phantom of the Idol
https://myanimelist.net/anime/50470/Kami_Kuzu%E2%98%86Idol
Summer 2022 (10 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 6.79/10
Best Character: Mogami Asahi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFNp4BWgJEU

Premise: Niyoda Yuuya became an idol hoping for easy money, but it turns out to be a lot of work. Luckily, he meets the ghost of famous idol Mogami Asahi, and she can possess his body.

The Good: I inherently like the premise of in Phantom of the Idol, which I think makes me give it more credit than it deserves. I like the idea of an incredibly lazy idol, and I like the idea of the ghost of an idol possessing them to do all the actual work. I went into this hoping itd be more character-focused and delve into Asahis early death at the peak of her career. Sadly, it never really goes there. This is just a low-budget idol anime with a comedic focus. About a third of the runtime is dedicated to Niyodas fans, a trio of hilariously over-the-top fangirls who go nuts for this lazy idol. Those were my favorite parts.

The Bad: I mentioned above that Phantom of the Idol never really delves into the potentially interesting story of Asahi being an unfulfilled ghost. I guess it isnt fair to fault the anime for that, though. That simply wasnt the type of story it was trying to be. However, I can fault it for having terrible CGI during the songs, and for being repetitive. Niyoda is lazy, Asahi isnt lazy and loves being an idol but she also wants to convince Niyoda to enjoy the work more so she refuses to possess him all the time. They keep having the same conversations about that over and over. It got old after awhile.

Overall: I enjoy idol anime and I enjoy anime about ghosts, so I liked Phantom of the Idol for combining them. However, even I have to admit it was a mediocre anime in every regard, and it only ranked this high because it appealed to me. Asahi is a fun character and I enjoy her dynamic with Niyoda, but it was just too repetitive and the idol segments were stunningly low quality.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
165: This anime forgot it doesnt know how to sing.
164: This anime was betrayed by the person it loved most.
163: This anime is leaving to sail the stars.

Mr_Crispy posted...

the Macross series got fucked over super hard by Harmony Gold

Huh, that's interesting. I've definitely heard of Robotech before (I swear I played some low-budget video game from it way back in the day), I never knew it had such an odd history of being a combination of anime.

SockoressKnight posted...

Seems these are the first two idol shows on the list, as well.

Yep, this is where the generic idol anime fall. Unless they do something to make me angry (Heroines Run the Show), it's hard to screw up fun character antics and the occasional song. Even these idol anime are fine, there's no shame in a high 4/10 from me.

i have no inherent interest in watching high school girls, especially being sexualized, so the latest large swath (and... it seems like a large percentage of anime in general) have not been of note to me

glad you liked kiki's delivery service though!

Robazoid posted...

I enjoy idol anime

Roba why have you not watched Perfect Blue

SeabassDebeste posted...

i have no inherent interest in watching high school girls, especially being sexualized, so the latest large swath (and... it seems like a large percentage of anime in general) have not been of note to me

Not wanting any high school girls in it at all definitely cuts out most anime, including many of my favorites! Not all of them, though, so thanks again for following the ranking. Hopefully at some point you'll hear of an anime that sounds neat enough to make it worthwhile.

Xeybozn posted...

Roba why have you not watched Perfect Blue

It's apparently on Shudder, on one of the Prime Video channels I don't have. My brother sometimes subscribes to it for a month around Halloween, however, so if he does again I'll try to remember to check this out.

165. Music Girls
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37481/Ongaku_Shoujo_TV
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 5.99/10
Best Character: Yamadagi Hanako

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp8z3HzCi0Q

Premise: Yamadagi Hanako is a natural at everything an idol needs except for one thing: she cant sing. She still begins living with a fledgling idol group to support them however she can.

The Good: Music Girls is a low-budget idol anime, and I probably shouldnt like it as much as I do. There are twelve major characters, so only a few of them get much characterization beyond a one-note gimmick. I enjoyed most of those gimmicks, though. Sasame and Roro were the best of the minor idols. Hanako was still my favorite character, she worked so hard to support everyone and bring out their best. Its neat to have the main character be support staff rather than an idol herself. I also enjoyed the idol shows they put on, even though they werent the highest quality.

The Bad: There were some small dramatic arcs between certain characters that I didnt like, but they didnt ruin the show or anything. What holds Music Girls back more than anything is that it didnt have the money or the skill to be anything more than a low-budget idol anime. I enjoyed it, but an idol anime needs to screw up hard for me not to enjoy it, so that isnt the highest praise.

Overall: I havent seen them all by any means, but I feel like most seasons have at least one generic idol anime and they all do mostly the same things aside from maybe a small twist in the premise. The twist in Music Girls is that Hanako cant sing so shes support staff, and thats it. Otherwise, its a typical idol anime. It was something nice to watch for a bit, but nothing special.

(We're officially out of the mediocre idol anime group)

164. Yona of the Dawn
https://myanimelist.net/anime/25013/Akatsuki_no_Yona
Fall 2014 (24 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 8.03/10
Best Character: Yona

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

Premise: Yona is a princess who dreams of marrying Su-won, the man she loves. Then Su-won kills her father and usurps the throne, forcing Yona to flee with her trusted bodyguard, Son Hak.

The Good: I like the idea of a princess in hiding, and for the most part Yona of the Dawn handles it well. Yona was sheltered all her life, so this is her seeing the world for the first time in the worst circumstances imaginable. The main plot also has a focus on finding legendary warriors to ally with her. I enjoyed the quest to find those dragon guys.

The Bad: I wouldve liked Yona of the Dawn immensely more if it had gotten another season. This season wasnt bad, but it felt like a prequel to a much larger story. Yonas father was murdered by the man she loved, forcing her to go on the run and gather legendary allies, and go read the source material if you want more, I guess. Plenty of anime are only partial stories, but this one bugged me way more than usual because it felt like it ended right when the story was finally about to get started. I also had a problem with some of the more comedic moments in this. Lots of anime do that thing where the art style degrades into a kind of chibi format for a quick joke. Normally I enjoy those bits, but in this it felt harshly out of place next to the life-and-death situations Yona was in. Her father is dead after a horrific betrayal, her life has been shattered... now its time for a gag or two.

Overall: Yona of the Dawn had a solid premise that I enjoyed quite a bit. Sadly, the anime ended right when it felt like the story was getting started, which soured the experience for me. I also felt some of the comedic moments were out of place.

Yona's very good, though it feels like it's dragging a bit lately. Really solid manga overall.

I liked Yona of the Dawn a lot but yeah the lack of a second season is a fair point.

Yona rules. Even the story we got there was pretty entertaining to me. It definitely could use more, though. Been waiting to read the manga for a long time.

163. Bodacious Space Pirates
https://myanimelist.net/anime/8917/Mouretsu_Pirates
Winter 2012 (26 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.15/10
Best Character: Katou Marika

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvQpDEUJ2UU

Premise: Katou Marika learns her absent father has died, and shes inherited his spaceship, the Bentenmaru. Now she must decide if she wants to leave her normal life to become a space pirate.

The Good: Bodacious Space Pirates has one of the coolest titles ever. I felt like I needed to watch it based on the premise alone, I mean its about a girl becoming a space pirate, thats awesome. I always like science fiction stories about the crew of a spaceship going on adventures.

The Bad: I cant say that Bodacious Space Pirates does anything truly wrong, but it definitely doesnt live up to its premise. For one thing, space pirates in this setting need to operate within the confines of the law. To me, thats a baffling choice. Despite having plenty of fun adventures in the show, everything needing to stay legal really limited the kinds of stories this anime could tell. Also, while the characters are all fine with one or two fun traits, none of them are special. Half the fun of a spacrship sci-fi story is getting to know the crewmembers and watching their personalities bounce off each other. I dont remember a whole lot of that happening in this.

Overall: Bodacious Space Pirates isnt a bad anime, but for how much I immediately loved the idea of it, it was a huge letdown. Maybe I went in with my expectations too high. All I know is that I felt disappointed by the way it wasted its potential.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
162: This anime is going to reincarnate as a ruthless little girl.
161: This anime is staying logged on as the game ends.

Ah, a pair of excessively edgy isekai? Good riddance.

.... what is "legal piracy"??? I see what you mean about limiting options, for sure, like other than raiding abandoned ships or something (and does that even count as piracy?), I don't get it...

MartinFF7 posted...

.... what is "legal piracy"??? I see what you mean about limiting options, for sure, like other than raiding abandoned ships or something (and does that even count as piracy?), I don't get it...

One thing I remember them doing early on was raiding a passenger ship, but the whole thing was routine with the other ship's crew involved and was basically dinner theater for the rich passengers. It was odd.

Overlord and... did Yakuza Reincarnation get an anime? Meh anyways.

I want to recommend Chivalry of a Failed Knight but I'm not sure it's really available in any legit ways, so I suppose I'll recommend Rokka - Braves of the Six Flowers.

It's about a pretty generic "group of chosen adventures set off to defeat the dark lord" story except they stop halfway to play a game of mafia.

CoolCly posted...

I want to recommend Chivalry of a Failed Knight but I'm not sure it's really available in any legit ways, so I suppose I'll recommend Rokka - Braves of the Six Flowers.

It looks like Chivalry is on HiDIVE. I'd need to confirm that from home when logged into my account though because there seem to be a handful unavailable in Canada. Assuming it is available, let me know if you prefer that or Rokka!

This topic is almost at 500, too, so I'm just letting everyone know about the other topic I've already made. I'll start posting write-ups there tomorrow.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80155422

Tanya the Evil and Overlord are the obvious two picks for next one (though they could be something else especially since other animes have reincarnation as a little girl!). Overlord definitely feels overly edgy at times, but I don't know if Tanya does.

Bodacious Space Pirates didn't live up to its potential, but it was moderately entertaining.

MartinFF7 posted...

.... what is "legal piracy"??? I see what you mean about limiting options, for sure, like other than raiding abandoned ships or something (and does that even count as piracy?), I don't get it...

There's been government-sanctioned piracy in our own history, most famously by Francis Drake.

MacArrowny posted...

There's been government-sanctioned piracy in our own history, most famously by Francis Drake.

Britain saying it's cool to raid Spanish ships seems pretty different from what Roba was seemingly describing

Ah that was a fair point, thank you Mac.

That's what I get for assuming there's a single government in that anime, spanning the universe so no room for inter-governmental conflicts.

A "Galactic Empire", if you will...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/5/0/AAC56kAADNs2.jpg