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

(+) Yeah! (+)

ah, i see - so i agree on some points and disagree on others

i really dislike it when the characters should have every incentive to explain and then don't. "it's not what it looks like!" so very often is a 10-second explanation

on the other hand, characters not communicating because that's actually how they are is its own thing - that's very authentic to me, depending on the characters. now i can't speak to any of these anime, but yeah.

similarly i'm okay with characters making suboptimal decisions if it seems like those decisions fit their personalities established up to that point, or sometimes, if those suboptimal decisions become what the character is really about after they happen.

Sorry about your cat, Roba.

Mobilezoid posted...

Like, the guy gets seen at a moment that looks kind of bad but was just an innocent coincidence, then he chases after the girl saying he can explain but she refuses to listen

Welp, guess InuYasha's not making the top half.

Mobilezoid posted...

Best Character: Hino Akira

Went with the small friend. I think I would have gone with the larger friend with glasses and big boobs, but I don't remember them individually very well. I do remember that their moments were more enjoyable to watch and thought they made a better couple than the titular pair.

Sceptilesolar posted...

I'm not trying to say it was a show you should have liked, but 'Adachi doesn't share and Shimamura doesn't care' are literally their defining flaws, so it was probably inevitable.

while i don't disagree with this, i think a show like Adachi and Shimamura needs to have its characters grow over the course of a season. Adachi and Shimamura kinda... don't.

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.

(Probably going to post these a bit quicker today. I'm stuck on my phone at work for another seven hours and it turns out I do need a distraction.)

244. Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31804/Kuma_Miko
Spring 2016 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.31/10
Best Character: Amayadori Machi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAndEMUg8JY

Premise: Young shrine maiden Amayadori Machi has lived her whole life in a rural mountain village alongside Natsu, her guardian bear. Now she wants to attend high school in the big city.

The Good: This is a slice-of-life comedy, and thats a hard genre to screw up entirely. Sometimes it was cute or stumbled into a decent joke about the absurdity of the bear. I also liked the ED.

The Bad: Kumamiko tried to have something resembling a plot, and this is where it fell apart. The premise is that Machi wants to go to the city, but no one, not her family or her bear friend or the random villagers, not a single person supports her. Not because they dont think she could do it. They just selfishly dont want her to leave. Large parts of this anime are everyone in her life trying to shatter her confidence so that she wont go to the city. Its heartbreaking to see the effect this has on her. I dont think it was meant to be, all of this is played tastelessly as a joke, but Kumamiko is an accurate depiction of how psychological abuse can break a person down.

Overall: Kumamiko was never great, but the ending is a special kind of awful. I remember that the manga author spoke out against it and demanded their name be removed from the credits. Thats how far this managed to fall from its original premise of a shrine maiden with a bear.

243. School Babysitters
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35222/Gakuen_Babysitters
Winter 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 7.90/10
Best Character: Inomata Maria

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

Premise: After the death of their parents, Kashima Ryuuichi must look after his younger brother Kotarou. He joins his schools babysitting club to look after the various infant children there.

The Good: The kids in School Babysitters were adorable, and their childish misadventures led to some good gags. There was also occasionally a poignant moment, particularly with Ryuuichi dealing with the loss of his parents and his newfound role as guardian to Kotarou.

The Bad: There are just too many questionable things in School Babysitters. One character frequently beats his much younger brother and seriously threatens the other kids with physical harm. Another character is strongly hinted to be a pedophile, and no one seems bothered by him looking after children. The main caretakers gimmick is that he keeps falling asleep, and in real life some of these kids would have died after wandering off. I'd have forgiven the napping, that's pretty standard in a show with kids to let them be alone, but the other two were much worse and made the questionable stuff feel like a pattern. A lot of episodes wound up being more uncomfortable than funny as a result.

Overall: School Babysitters was mostly cute and funny, but these elements clashed harshly with some uncomfortable aspects. And yes, I'm going to look like a huge hypocrite for disliking the pedophile in this when certain other anime rank high! I think it's that the kids in this are literal babies who can't even defend themselves in a slapstick manner if something happens. Really makes it hard to look past it and see the comedy. I don't want to examine it too deeply, though. School Babysitters just bugged me.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
242: The scariest thing about this anime is the production values.
241: This anime was swallowed up by a red fog.

I dropped Kumamiko after a couple episodes. Even the early parts didn't do it for me.

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.

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!)

this review makes me kind of want to watch lord of vermilion

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHDYCe66_bg

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.

I think I might have mentioned this before but I actually own the DVD or Blu-ray for this series because Funimation sent me the wrong item when I ordered something else and just let me keep this (in addition to sending the correct item).

I still haven't watched it and have no plans to do so.

Wait no fuck I actually take it back it was a different awful looking fantasy anime with Ragnarok in the title (Ragnarok the Animation). I hope you can forgive my confusion.

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 actually like Master of Ragnarok, well at least the novels.

I haven't bothered with the anime, but it seems like the sort of series that would naturally end up getting a lazy low effort or generally shitty adaptation so it doesn't surprise me in the least that other people would dislike it though.

pyresword posted...

Wait no fuck I actually take it back it was a different awful looking fantasy anime with Ragnarok in the title (Ragnarok the Animation). I hope you can forgive my confusion.

Yeah, the one you're thinking of is based on that old MMORPG that was popular during the 2000s.

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.

I really like Strike Witches generally, but I remember really hating the CG in Brave Witches. Need to rewatch it, but it currently ranks beneath both Strike seasons, the movie, and the currently airing Luminous Witches.

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.

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.

237. Karakuri Circus
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37447/Karakuri_Circus_TV
Fall 2018 (36 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 7.13/10
Best Character: Saiga Shirogane

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

Premise: Katou Narumi suffers from a bizarre disease that can kill him unless he makes people laugh. Hes also a martial arts master, and he begins protecting Saiga Masaru, a young boy on the run from evil puppets.

The Good: The first few episodes of Karakuri Circus were legitimately great. They set up the three main characters and the conflict well. Shirogane was my favorite, a mysterious circus performer who wielded a powerful battle puppet and was dedicated to protecting Masaru. It was a focused story with clear motivations and lots of fun elements.

The Bad: After the first few episodes, Karakuri Circus goes off the rails and never recovers. The main characters who worked so well together split up. The plot also became an unfocused mess. It used flashbacks and several dozen characters to try and tell a grand story of good versus evil spanning centuries, but the whole thing is just so poorly paced. At one point, Narumi goes from surviving an airplane crash in Japan to being deep in the jungles of China months later without anything in-between. Even when neat moments happened, they never felt earned and it was difficult to care. The animation quality also varied between decent and terrible. Some battles were good while others were just a series of still images like a slideshow.

Overall: Karakuri Circus had a strong beginning, but the story quickly became too big for it to handle. The pacing was way too fast, and what was happening was too silly to take seriously. Every so often there was a fun puppet fight, like one with a gigantic sawblade merry-go-round on its head, but those never outweighed how boring and nonsensical everything else was.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
236: This anime is nothing more than a cheap forgery.
235: This anime shouldve died six years ago.
234: This anime got distracted playing board games and missed its deadline.

Robazoid posted...

-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

Combining Twin while separating Brave doesn't make much sense to me...

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.

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.

I didn't know that had an anime. I tried to read the light novel but I came to the same conclusion for the mysteries.

235. Seven Senses of the ReUnion
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36316/Shichisei_no_Subaru
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.10/10
Best Character: Kuga Asahi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4hzC7rG19s

Premise: Amou Haruto returns to a virtual reality RPG and discovers that his childhood friend Kuga Asahi, who died six years ago in the real world, is alive within the game. Now they must try to figure out the mystery while reuniting their fractured friend group.

The Good: Seven Senses of the ReUnion is Anohana set in the world of Sword Art Online. I dont merely mean that it has a similar premise, this is Anohana down to the exact character archetypes and relationships. I enjoyed Anohana, so, while plagiarism offends me, I cant help but have some good feelings for parts of this. Im a sucker for stories about old friends coming back together. Also, whatever you think of SAO, at least the VR RPG setting was neat, so copying that is a plus too.

The Bad: Unfortunately, Seven Senses focuses on all the wrong things from the show it copied. Rather than being a touching story about loss and friendship, this focused on the melodrama. The amount of attention the overlapping unrequited love triangles got made it impossible to spend time on anything else. There were hints of neat things behind the scenes, like a shady corporation controlling the game and a potential connection to Asahi. Those were never explored because so much time was wasted on the characters being morons and fighting each other.

Overall: Instead of watching Seven Senses of the ReUnion, just watch Anohana. Im not even joking about this. The two stories are so alike that its insulting. Its too bad they couldnt copy quality while copying literally everything else.

234. A Sisters All You Need
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35413/Imouto_sae_Ireba_Ii
Fall 2017 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 7.30/10
Best Character: Kani Nayuta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67y78B9C0YI

Premise: Hashima Itsuki is a light novelist obsessed with little sisters despite not having one. He often hangs out with a friend group consisting of other light novelists.

The Good: I remember thinking Nayuta was decent compared to the mediocrity of the rest of the cast. A Sisters All You Need was also at its best when the characters were sitting around playing board games, which didnt happen nearly often enough.

The Bad: This is an ecchi anime, but in my opinion it isnt a very good one. The girls get naked sometimes but only one scene felt remotely sexy. Anything about the characters being writers also felt very surface level. Like, hed say he was behind on a deadline and thered be a scene of him typing and then phew, he made it. The whole sister angle always felt tacked on, too, like the creator was grasping for something to make the premise stand out. One characters background is that he tailors his work to what people want rather than what hes passionate about. Thats exactly what this anime felt like, a soulless fill-in-the-blank story to hit various market trends.

Overall: A Sisters All You Need had some okay character interactions when the characters were just hanging out, but too often it was simply boring. Itsuki himself wasnt any fun at all, and since hes the lead that meant he dragged down everyone else by association.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
(233: Airing anime placeholder.)
M5: This movie should have stayed dead.
232: This anime wasnt a very good spy.
231: This anime tripped over the last hurdle and lost the race.

(232 was the most difficult one to do a hint for so far, I'm sorry it's so uncreative)

(I'm watching ten airing anime this season. Since they'll finish long before the ranking does, I wanted to include them. They only have placeholder spots at the moment, though. Once they finish I'll do their write-up and maybe shift them around in the ranking if needed. For now, I'll do movie write-ups in their place.)

Based on what you said in the anime topic, I feel like 231 is Heroines Run the Show. I can only think of one spy anime, and it's the new hotness, so surely it's not ranking so low

I can think if plenty of clues for the new hotness spy anime! The only halfway decent one I could think of for 232 was arguably a huge spoiler so I couldn't use it

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.

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

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!

I feel like Netflix has had tons of anime movies (including practically every Ghibli movie).

I know (or at least assume) the Ghibli movies are all unrelated to each other, but if I watch one I feel like it'd drive me to watch the rest too. That feels like a huge project. Watching a zombie girl tear people apart for an hour and a half is much less commitment.

I do agree that my anime movie credentials are lacking, though. They're included in this ranking mostly as a bonus.

Mobilezoid posted...

I know (or at least assume) the Ghibli movies are all unrelated to each other, but if I watch one I feel like it'd drive me to watch the rest too.

Just make Tales From Earthsea the second Ghibli movie you watch. That should convince you that it's fine to skip some of them.

MacArrowny posted...

I feel like Netflix has had tons of anime movies (including practically every Ghibli movie).

Not in the US

Roba is not American.

Mobilezoid posted...

I know (or at least assume) the Ghibli movies are all unrelated to each other, but if I watch one I feel like it'd drive me to watch the rest too. That feels like a huge project. Watching a zombie girl tear people apart for an hour and a half is much less commitment.

I do agree that my anime movie credentials are lacking, though. They're included in this ranking mostly as a bonus.

I don't get it. There's tons of studios where you haven't watched all their shows.

I made a mistake in the ranking spreadsheet, I put Yakuza Babysitting at 233 because... I don't know why. I'll fix it when I get home, this is the actual airing anime that's going out.

233. Call of the Night
This is a currently airing anime, so this is only a tentative ranking and the real write-up will come when it finishes. I'm not enjoying it so far, main dude is boring and vampire girl is annoying. It's a real pretty anime, though, and I like main dude's friend. It also isn't the worst thing ever so I'm sticking with it. Maybe it'll surprise me in the second half.

232. Release the Spyce
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37221/Release_the_Spyce
Fall 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 6.95/10
Best Character: Minamoto Momo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP83JRq4-Uo

Premise: Minamoto Momo gets recruited into a secret spy agency by Hanzoumon Yuki, a girl at her school. Now Momo fights from the shadows, all while trying to keep up with her normal life.

The Good: Release the Spyce was great when it was a cute girls spy show. It parodied lots of spy media cliches. The action was flashy without becoming too serious and the plot stayed coherent despite being a bit goofy. The characters played off each other well with their mentor/trainee relationships. If the whole anime had maintained this fun tone, Id have enjoyed it a lot.

The Bad: Release the Spyce eventually stopped being a cute girls spy show and instead failed spectacularly at being a serious spy show. Cliches that wouldve been used as a joke early on started getting played for melodrama instead. The character dynamics fell apart under the weight of pointless intrigue. Theres one plot point in particular that still infuriates me because it made no sense even within the context of the story.

Overall: Release the Spyce started fun, but it abandoned that tone in favor of a dramatic finale that didnt work at all. Character actions and motivations stopped making sense, they started relying on blatant plot armor, and the ending itself was unsatisfying. Ive seen lots of otherwise fun anime descend into melodrama near the end, as if the writers are afraid the story wont be taken seriously without an epic finale. Release the Spyce was ruined by it.

well it's gonna be hard to have a bigger disagreement than call of the night so all uphill from here (hopefully)

MacArrowny posted...

I don't get it. There's tons of studios where you haven't watched all their shows.

I don't actually know all that much about Ghibli, but they make such well regarded movies that I'd feel weird only watching half of them. Someday I'll find the time and watch whatever is available

Mobilezoid posted...

Overall: Release the Spyce started fun, but it abandoned that tone in favor of a dramatic finale that didnt work at all. Character actions and motivations stopped making sense, they started relying on blatant plot armor, and the ending itself was unsatisfying. Ive seen lots of otherwise fun anime descend into melodrama near the end, as if the writers are afraid the story wont be taken seriously without an epic finale. Release the Spyce was ruined by it.

Reminds me of Princess Principal, another fun girl spy show that had some awful serious parts.

Ooooooh. Release the SPYce. Been kind of meaning to watch that.

MacArrowny posted...

Reminds me of Princess Principal, another fun girl spy show that had some awful serious parts.

Gotta watch this one, too.

I still need to rewatch Princess Principal, but unless my opinion has radically changed we won't see it here for a very long time. Spyce had one plotline that infuriated me, and sometimes that's all it takes to drag a show from 8/10 to 2/10. I don't recall Princess ever making me that angry.

MacArrowny posted...

Roba is not American.

Did not know that. My bad

231. Heroines Run the Show
https://myanimelist.net/anime/49692/Heroine_Tarumono_Kiraware_Heroine_to_Naisho_no_Oshigoto
Spring 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: 2/10, MAL Score: 7.30/10
Best Character: Suzumi Hiyori

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UycYVhOULi8

Premise: Suzumi Hiyori has left the countryside to join the track and field team at a Tokyo school. To help pay the bills, she gets a parttime job working for the rising idol duo LIPxLIP.

The Good: Heroines Run the Show was actually pretty good for most of its runtime! Hiyori is a fun character who always gives her all to whatever shes doing. I liked that she didnt care about idols, so LIPxLIP were just guys in class or at work, not something to swoon over. Someya and Shibasaki were a fun take on idols, too. They werent portrayed as perfect. Offstage they were often surly and rude without going too far. Its a great starting point for them all to grow closer.

The Bad: What really killed this for me was the message that arose from it. At first, I enjoyed how it dismantled the perfect idol myth. It turned out that Heroines Run the Show was mythologizing toxic idol fanbases instead. Im sure anyone interested in idols has heard about scandals where one of them is caught hanging out with the opposite sex, which is a big deal because fans expect them to remain pure and available. Heroines Run the Show is perfectly okay with that and other disgusting expectations. It goes out of its way to defend toxic fans at every turn.

Overall: I understand why Heroines Run the Show takes the position it does. Attacking obsessive idol fans isnt the best way to convince them to spend all their money buying idol merchandise. Its just so disappointing as a non-crazy person to see how gross this anime became in the end.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
230: This anime was overrun by foreign hordes.
229: This anime washed up on a beach without any clothes on.

(We're officially done the 2/10 Bad Tier! Next up is 30 anime in the 3/10 Disappointing Tier. I doubt the two tomorrow will offend anyone, but quite a few coming up are very popular. Nothing in the Disappointing Tier is outright awful, mostly they just weren't for me or had some prominent plotlines or elements that rubbed me the wrong way. We'll also see the first character from my top 100 in this tier, which is neat. Thanks again for following along so far, everyone.)

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.

Mobilezoid posted...

The Good: Heroines Run the Show was actually pretty good for most of its runtime! Hiyori is a fun character who always gives her all to whatever shes doing. I liked that she didnt care about idols, so LIPxLIP were just guys in class or at work, not something to swoon over. Someya and Shibasaki were a fun take on idols, too. They werent portrayed as perfect. Offstage they were often surly and rude without going too far. Its a great starting point for them all to grow closer.

Agree with all of this. I really liked the main 3 and the show as a whole. I get where you're coming from about the last "arc". I really loved the way the boys handled it. Maybe Hiyori was too forgiving...it just didn't bother me. Yes, idols should be able to have personal lives and romantic relationships, but it was all just a rumor. It was a thing, they quashed it, and they moved on.