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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mobilezoid posted...

190: I had to aim slightly lower to shoot at this anime.

Heh, nice clue

Robazoid posted...

The friendship between her and Ton is supposed to be the driving emotional force but theyre barely ever in the same place together.

That's unfortunate, but also,

Robazoid posted...

Over the course of twelve episodes, Shinyao gets kidnapped seven different times!

that's pretty funny.

Robazoid posted...

I remember when it was airing that a lot of people thought it was much better than the original. I found large parts of it to be boring and pointless. Ill admit that I dont remember it very well anymore, though.

Well, it isn't constantly jerking off Kirito while throwing harem members at him, so, there's that. Though it is kinda funny that other Mary Sue characters don't get the hate he does. LLENN herself is kinda Sue-ish, and everyone loves Maple from Bofuri.

Kirito is definitely not my favorite thing about SAO! We'll talk about it when we reach that write-up, but the only arc I really loved from the original series was the one he was barely in. I don't find him offensive like a lot of people seem to, though. He kind of became the template for a lot of boring anime protagonists who came after, and I saw some of those anime before SAO so to me he just felt like "another one of those". I'm probably just missing the context for why so many people hate him.

enjoying these writeups but man i haven't heard of many of these

the vampire in london one looks like it has nice art on MAL?

SeabassDebeste posted...

enjoying these writeups but man i haven't heard of many of these

One of my favorite things about anime is just how many different ones there are. I've watched almost 300 and it still feels like I've barely scratched the surface.

Glad you're enjoying the write-ups at least!

I've heard of most of them but there's definitely a lot I haven't seen, which I think is inevitable when you're doing a ranking with over 200 shows.

Also some I just haven't commented on because like yes I technically watched Girlish Number but I do not care at all about it, remember nothing about it other than it not being very good, and don't have anything of value to say about it.

This is another anime I haven't seen everything in. I was caught up for a long time but then a bunch more came out. Index S3, Railgun S3, Accelerator... it's a daunting series to fall behind in! I'd probably need to rewatch it from the start at this point, but I don't feel like doing that any time soon.

189. A Certain Scientific Railgun
https://myanimelist.net/anime/6213/Toaru_Kagaku_no_Railgun
Fall 2009 (24 episodes), Spring 2013 (24 episodes), Winter 2020 (0/25 episodes, unfinished)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.68/10 S1, 8.03/10 S2, 8.19/10 S3
Best Character: Mikasa Mikoto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK2Djnb4fMA

Premise: A spinoff series from A Certain Magical Index. Academy City is home to espers, and one of the most powerful among them is Mikasa Mikoto, known as the Railgun.

The Good: I enjoyed the Index series, so it was nice spending more time in that world. A Certain Scientific Railgun didnt match up to the original, sadly, but it still wasnt bad. Mikasa is a good character, and its always fun seeing her railgun ability in action. That said, the parts of Railgun that I liked best were the arcs already mostly covered in Index. The new stories werent as good.

The Bad: The main thing holding Railgun back is the characters. I loved Touma and Index in the original series. Mikasa was fine, but of the main three she was a distant third. One of my favorite things from Index was Toumas power-nullifying ability and seeing how hed use it to solve conflicts. Mikasas railgun is far more powerful but also more limited in what it can do. She couldnt carry a spinoff on her own, and the three other major characters dont help much either. Saten and Uiharu were boring. Kuroko, meanwhile, is basically the same horny fangirl as she was in Index. That was fine when she was a supporting character, but here shes the secondary main and it just wasnt enough. Its odd, too. Kuroko got a small arc in Index that I liked way more than anything she did in Railgun where shes supposed to be a major character.

Overall: A Certain Scientific Railgun wasnt bad, but I didnt enjoy it anywhere near as much as Index. Mikasa wasnt a strong enough character to carry it on her own, and the other major characters didnt help much either. Theres a third season I havent seen yet, however, and I wonder if thats when Railgun finally comes into its own.

Whoops I forgot to post the tomorrow shows.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
188: This anime is still struggling to figure out its identity.
187: Maybe I'll find this anime more attractive after it returns from the dead.

188 was tough to hint for.

Railgun doesnt have Index (much) so its automatically much much better

Robazoid posted...

One of my favorite things from Index was Toumas power-nullifying ability and seeing how hed use it to solve conflicts. Mikasas railgun is far more powerful but also more limited in what it can do.

This is probably the thing I disagree with the most in this thread, which is weird because I'm not super high on Raildex either. (Some parts are great--it's one of those series with high high's and low low's for me...)

I mean I guess the series as a whole doesn't utilize it's powers particularly well (exception to the awesome teleporter duel from Index S2), so in some sense I agree Mikasa doesn't use her powers creatively. But comparing it to Index (the series) in this regard is just weird to me because one of the biggest problems with Index is that no matter what's going on or what powers and strategies the enemy has, Touma just solves things by running up and punching it.

KommunistKoala posted...

Railgun doesnt have Index (much) so its automatically much much better

I counter this undeserved Index hate with the best gif of Index biting Touma that I could find
https://c.tenor.com/oB3wRz5yrjYAAAAC/index-nom-index-chomp.gif

pyresword posted...

one of the biggest problems with Index is that no matter what's going on or what powers and strategies the enemy has, Touma just solves things by running up and punching it.

I dunno, I always found it interesting trying to figure out how he'd use his arm to nullify the enemy powers. Reaching them in order to punch them wasn't always simple!

Meh. In a world full of amazing powers, I think it's pretty lame that Touma's ability is just nullify (and gathering a harem). I love Railgun and Railgun S primarily because he's not really in them, and his increased presence in Railgun T is why I dropped it.

That's certainly a ranking I disagree with strongly. I wouldn't be caught dead following Index, but I still keep up with the Railgun manga. Misaka is such a great protagonist. And her power is so much more than what you describe that I swear you must have been asleep during the 2nd season.

I've certainly disagreed with some previous rankings, but 'Misaka is fine but couldn't carry a show, unlike stellar characters Touma and Index' is the first opinion that I've found so utterly difficult to comprehend.

I wouldn't call Touma stellar, but Index certainly is! She's one of the characters I own a figure for.

Mikasa was at her best in Index when she regularly interacted with Touma, imo. In her own series I just didn't find her as compelling.

a spinoff anime has gotten over 70 episodes? whoa

Touma's pretty whatever until Kamachi finally figures out how to use him in New Testament

(OG Index starts to pick up about 2/3 of the way through, but that's mostly despite Touma)

SeabassDebeste posted...

a spinoff anime has gotten over 70 episodes? whoa

the man simply doesn't know how to stop writing

he's been writing the Railgun manga for over 15 years now... while also writing 3 or more other manga/LNs pretty much the entire time

Railgun is definitely better than Index on average... Index is a bit all over the place in terms of highs and lows, with some arcs outright being mediocre/bad but others having crazier stuff or go more into meta/deconstruction territory like the whole world rejector thing (though that ends up being a bit polarizing because of that).

The Railgun anime suffers a bit from the staff not really seeming to get it... The first season was pretty bleh as a whole because like half or more of it was filler, and the second season did a pretty good job with the Sisters arc (which is one of the best parts of the entire franchise) but then the Silent Party filler arc was eh. Some of the cameos/references in season 3 were pretty odd... cutting a couple of Himegami's cameos but leaving in Kumokawa's even though I don't think she ever showed up in the anime (and then adding a brief Himegami cameo later anyway), cutting cameos/references to one character who hasn't shown up in the anime but leaving in one for another character who hasn't shown up in the anime (probably because the staff didn't realize that it referred to a specific character).

The main female Raildex characters I like are Mikoto, Saten, Kuroko, Junko, Frenda, Worst, Fran, and *NT spoiler character*. Kuroko definitely does have the problem where a lot of her appearances in some of the spinoffs tend to focus on her being a perv in a rather one note way and since the first Railgun anime had a lot of filler in it it probably leaned into it more than it should. (for the record, the main female characters I dislike are what's her name, Yuiitsu, and Salome... and really the problem with the former is that the author doesn't really know how to actually write her in the main series, she's fine in Railgun. ah. I probably shouldn't use that joke with people who wouldn't understand it >_>).

and Mikoto does have a lot of trouble jobbing in the main series. Like at one point she just jumps straight to railguning someone in the face, because she assumed that it wasn't going to work at all. Though that's more because the power levels on the magic side in Index are completely bonkers, than her being weak or a bad fighter.

Also I find it pretty hilarious that because Mikoto is "has a streaming site named after her" tier popular that she arguably becomes the "main" girl of the series while Index isn't relevant in the series named after her anymore since even the role of explaining magic powers and lore got taken away from her and was briefly reduced to having to eat condiment packets to survive at one point. She's almost as irrelevant as Himegami, who doesn't really show up in any major way again because her arc was considered infamously bad among the community and just shows up to get jokes about how ignored she is. The only thing she did to help in the last 20-30 volumes was literally just to translate some text on a computer screen (well, I'm a bit behind). The difference in reaction Touma has to Index and Mikoto in the Virtual On tie in is hilarious. The author doesn't even try to have love triangle shipping drama with Index and Mikoto, instead he propped up what's her name to have a super lopsided triangle with Mikoto and what's her name instead. (Which is also the bulk of the problem I have with what's her name in the main, since again she was perfectly fine in Railgun.) ....well, Index is the sort of series I'm not expecting any sort of romantic resolution in at the end anyway, but it's still pretty funny.

shame on you for misspelling Misaka's name, Roba

Touma and Index herself are among the weakest aspects of the series, yeah, especially when they're together. Oddly enough, Index's best showing is in the last arc of Index S1, where she's separate from Touma the whole time. They really bring out the worst in each other. Kinda like negative chemistry.

Railgun's really good when it's at its best, and still solid otherwise imo.

MacArrowny posted...

shame on you for misspelling Misaka's name, Roba

Whoops. I looked it up once on my phone while doing the write-up and then I kept making the mistake every single time after that. She should've had an English name like Index, no way I'd screw that up!

You guys also clearly know a lot more about Index/Railgun than I do. What I remember is mostly some of the bigger arcs (Accelerator arc and such) plus the little moments I enjoyed (Index biting Touma, Misaka getting a frog keychain, etc). I ranked Railgun a 4/10 years ago right after watching it, so I'm not worried about it being in the wrong spot, but I'm no index (heh) of character names or smaller arcs. Clearly I do need to rewatch the series before continuing.

Still, I will stand by my love of Index and try to explain it when she (ranking spoilers) gets a top 100 character write-up.

I never got the Index hate though I wouldn't actually say I like her either. She's just kind of there for me.

I also really hated the Railgun filler arcs and think they're the worst part of the series, despite liking the Railgun series more than the Index series overall. Idk, of the seasons I've seen I'd rank something like Railgun S2 > Index S2 > Railgun S1 > Index S1 >>>>>>>>> Index S3

Haven't season season 3 of Railgun or the Accelerator anime.

and as far as the third season of Railgun goes, the sports festival arc is pretty good overall, starts a bit weak but gets better and has one of the most hyped/important scenes in the entire franchise. (also a funny contrast to Index's sports festival, which is one of the worst and most pointless arcs in the series) Indian Poker arc is kind of all over the place and one of the weaker arcs, but has some good moments. Biggest problem is that the main plot of the Indian Poker arc doesn't actually have much to do with Indian Poker itself.

at the very least I'm glad that they animated the Indian Poker arc instead of doing another filler arc or only covering the sports festival because it means that they might be able to animate the Astral Buddy spinoff in the future. (lol that's not going to happen).

Though there's kind of an issue with the Railgun starting with the sports festival, in that it's far enough in that they thought that it would never get animated. So that while the Level Up and Sisters arcs stand alone reasonably well or with minimal knowledge of the main series (like Touma, or the members of ITEM), the later parts of the series have a lot more cameos and references that only the more hardcore fans would get (including to more up to date stuff that's past what the main series anime covered) and it's expected to have a firmer idea of the timeline and when and everything takes place relative to the main series since it jumps forward a bit more in time with minimal hints for context of when they actually take place. Even in the manga, one of the bonus character design sketch pages mentions concepts related to Thelema and the Aeon of Horus, expecting you to already have some degree of the "real life" "theory" and how it relates to the story in Index/Railgun.

edit: also, the Accelerator spinoff kinda sucks. It doesn't really add anything, and doesn't really get Accelerator's character so it just leans into the surface edgy chuuni stuff with him. also the Scavengers were a little better in Railgun than in the series they were actually introduced where they were just random pointless doofuses to immediately get beaten down.

Accelerator anime is not good at all. First episode or two are alright, but then it gets really boring unfortunately. There's barely any Last Order, and she's usually not with Accelerator. It's pretty slow, too - no one does anything for multiple episodes, and then the conflict gets resolved in an instant. Would recommend against watching.

Mr_Crispy posted...

the later parts of the series have a lot more cameos and references that only the more hardcore fans would get (including to more up to date stuff that's past what the main series anime covered) and it's expected to have a firmer idea of the timeline and when and everything takes place relative to the main series since it jumps forward a bit more in time with minimal hints for context of when they actually take place

Doesn't the manga have way more readers in Japan than the LNs do?

I have no idea.

I don't pay attention to novel sales.

Agree about Accelerator's series - it's pretty blah.

SockoressKnight posted...

and everyone loves Maple from Bofuri

Maple being a Mary Sue is part of the joke though. Like the series is more of a comedy than others so the absurdity of Maple accidentally finding every game breaking ability is played for a laugh rather than as "look how amazing she is!"

I feel the need to say that we are now firmly in the realm of "I often feel like I should rank this higher, but any time I look at it I realize I like the stuff above it better". Also, just because I'm giving an anime a mediocre score doesn't mean I disagree with the message it sends! A 4/10 from me isn't even necessarily a bad thing.

188. Wandering Son
https://myanimelist.net/anime/8426/Hourou_Musuko
Winter 2011 (11 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.71/10
Best Character: Takatsuki Yoshino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQK8Ve14A34

Premise: Nitori Shuuichi, who is biologically male but feels more like a girl, befriends Takatsuki Yoshino, a female who does not identify as a girl. They struggle to understand their true selves.

The Good: I think Wandering Son is an important story. It explores questions of gender identity with a lot of care and nuance. I liked the characters for the most part, and they were all given nice little slice-of-life moments. I also liked the art. It was a muted style that felt unique.

The Bad: My understanding is that the anime only covers the middle portion of the manga, so it isnt a complete story. Plenty of anime only cover parts of the source material, but only doing the middle like that is still odd. The characters also felt like they were constructed to explore gender identity rather than that being just one facet of a more complete personality. I hope that makes sense and that Im not offending anyone. Its all still well-written, it was just so focused on one thing that the main characters seemed like they had nothing beyond it.

Overall: I feel bad for ranking Wandering Son as low as I do. There isnt anything wrong with it, and Im glad it exists. Something like this coming out of a conservative country like Japan over a decade ago makes me glad. It just didnt resonate much with me. Still, I can easily see this being meaningful for others. I mean, as someone who grew up with social anxiety, I felt so understood when I saw Watamote for the first time, and that was explored through the lens of cringe comedy! Wandering Son is a serious examination of gender identity and Im glad I watched it.

Was wondering if this might be Wandering Son. Only read the manga, so I dunno how good the anime was. The first and second parts were much better than the third though, so it's a plus that it doesn't explore the third part.

Wandering Son manga is good.

Wandering Son anime, 4/10 is fair imo (iirc I dropped it 2-3 episodes in)

MacArrowny posted...

The first and second parts were much better than the third though, so it's a plus that it doesn't explore the third part.

Agreed. The high school arc is so disappointing compared to the rest of the series.

187. Sankarea
https://myanimelist.net/anime/11499/Sankarea
Spring 2012 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.30/10
Best Character: Sanka Rea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17J2Ws9AUGY

Premise: Furuyu Chihiro has always been obsessed with zombies, to the point of even wanting a zombie girlfriend. Then a rich girl named Sanka Rea gets reanimated by a potion Chihiro made.

The Good: I enjoy zombie media (if not to the, uh extent that Chihiro does) so it was neat seeing what it meant to be a zombie in this setting. Rea didnt become mindless or anything, but there were still some fun quirks after her reanimation. I liked most of the characters, including the zombie grandpa and especially the zombie cat. Sanka Rea herself was still my favorite. Her backstory managed to draw me in, which is impressive considering how many elements it had that I would usually hate.

The Bad: There are several elements in Sankarea that I found offputting. The whole thing with her father having an uncomfortable fixation on her was a bit much for me. I know it was meant to be creepy, and it succeeded in that, it just wasnt my thing. Im also not the biggest fan of gore or heavy fanservice (though both of those aspects were censored in the version I watched, which in a way just made it more awkward). However, more than anything, I remember feeling disappointed when the season ended without anything resembling a conclusion.

Overall: This was one of the first anime I ever watched, and I didnt enjoy it enough to want to rewatch it so my memory is hazy. Still, I remember being disappointed when it ended. By now Im used to anime only telling part of the sources story, but at the time it was jarring just how many things this left open. I considered ranking it down with Red Data Girl and Nanana, but it wasnt quite as disappointing as those. The ending just left me wanting more, and not in a good way.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
186: This anime struggled to fight goblins.
185: This anime is getting relentlessly bullied.
184: This anime didnt earn enough candies.

186 is goblin slayer?

no it's grimgar.

I'd say that 184 would be Dagashi Kashi.

hopefully it's Grimgar since that's much worse than Goblin Slayer

Please Don't Bully Me, Magical Girl Raising Slayer

Goblin Slayer would fit as a 4/10 or so

Based on Roba's taste I wouldn't expect Goblin Slayer to sneak into the 2/10s (which would be a good thing).

That's the 2nd Goblin-related hint as of late...!

But yeah, "struggled to fight" surely means it's not GS... no more Goblin-related hints until Roba's 7/10 tier imo ;)

I don't know what the deal is with the title of this series. It was Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash when I watched it, and when I checked on Crunchyroll it still had that title in the image used for the series, but the title itself has changed to this almost everywhere I looked. I guess I'll use the new one.

186. Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31859/Hai_to_Gensou_no_Grimgar
Winter 2016 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 7.65/10
Best Character: Yume

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yu4sgN8ru4

Premise: Dozens of people are summoned into a fantasy world. The strongest among them soon team up, forcing the weaker fighters to come together and struggle to survive as well.

The Good: Unlike most isekai anime, Grimgar doesnt have super overpowered protagonists. Even basic goblins are a deadly challenge. They need to proceed carefully and strategically. I really enjoyed that aspect of it. Most anime fights consist of the hero swinging their sword and the monster splitting in half. The realism in this was interesting. They needed to watch out for ambushes and avoid getting overwhelmed even by stereotypically weak enemies.

The Bad: While I praise Grimgar for being slow and methodical, at the same time it was a bit too slow. I dont remember a whole lot happening in this season outside of one or two standout moments. The characters were also a major weak point. They werent overpowered like most isekai protagonists, but they sure were bland like some of the worst isekai protagonists.

Overall: Grimgar came out a few years before Goblin Slayer, but the two anime still feel like companion pieces to me. Goblin Slayer opens with an adventuring party taking the titular monsters lightly and paying dearly for it. The adventurers from Grimgar couldve easily shared the same fate if they werent careful and aware of their limitations. I enjoyed it for that, I just felt that the characters themselves were boring and the story didnt really go anywhere.

incomplete stories are sad - that does like a cool concept, but a story like that sounds like it really needs a story

185. Magical Girl Site
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36266/Mahou_Shoujo_Site
Spring 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 6.52/10
Best Character: Anazawa Nijimi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IesBf6lEyzY

Premise: Asagiri Aya is bullied relentlessly at school and physically abused at home. Then shes granted magic powers by a strange website and begins trying to uncover the mysteries around it.

The Good: Magical Girl Site becomes incredibly dark right away. I dont like dark stories, so usually this would be written under the bad section. This anime goes beyond dark, however. Its pitch-black ultra omega dark. Whether intentionally or not, it felt like a parody of the whole dark magical girl genre. I couldnt take it seriously enough for the darkness to bother me, which made it all kind of fun. Beyond that, the characters were decent and had neat powers. Aya's teleportation gun was something I don't think I've seen before, and a cool ability for the protagonist to have.

The Bad: I remember the actual mysterious plot being a bit jumbled. Magical Girl Sites single-minded focus on being as dark as possible also started to become repetitive and predictable as it went on. Whenever something bad could possibly happen, it would. Whenever the characters could be tortured, they were.

Overall: While I didnt mind the darkness in Magical Girl Site as much as I usually would, I still wouldnt call it a fun anime to watch. The characters have neat powers, but theyre mostly used to torture themselves or others. The plot is confusing, focusing more on hurting everyone as much as possible than exploring anything. If I didnt see this as a parody, Id like it a lot less.

0-for-2, and unless we're getting back-to-back dark magical girl shows, it'll be 0-for-3

I like magical girl stuff but everything associated with Magical Girl Site is so awful and gross I suspect that ranking is far too generous. Not that I would touch it to verify that.

Sceptilesolar posted...

I like magical girl stuff but everything associated with Magical Girl Site is so awful and gross I suspect that ranking is far too generous. Not that I would touch it to verify that.

I haven't seen too many magical girl anime (and I think all of them are from the dark magical girl subgenre... I really should watch a nice normal one someday). Site is definitely awful and gross. It's one of the edgiest anime I've ever seen. Most dark magical girl anime act all coy about it, though. They start out optimistic and happy, then there's usually a moment where that gets subverted. I have an odd respect for Site beginning with Aya already as low as she can possibly go. Getting cursed magical girl powers ruins the protagonist's life in other anime, but for Aya it's arguably an improvement! Plus I just can't justify it in my head as anything other than a parody. It's like someone saw the dark magical girl subgenre and wanted to see how far they could go.

184. Magical Girl Raising Project
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33003/Mahou_Shoujo_Ikusei_Keikaku
Fall 2016 (12 episodes)
My Score: 4/10, MAL Score: 6.96/10
Best Character: Hatoda Ako

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jH_3CjPxlU

Premise: Several girls are granted magical powers, with the catch that the lowest performer each week will lose them. Once its revealed that losing their powers is fatal, they all fight to survive.

The Good: I really adore the concept. Magical Girl Raising Project is basically a battle royale between magical girls. Some characters are more interesting than others. Hardgore Alice was my favorite, mostly because of her name. They all had neat powers, though. Even ones that werent necessarily combat capabilities could be used in creative ways. I vividly remember one moment that came out of nowhere but made perfect sense and was gory and awesome.

The Bad: Like many dark magical girl shows, MGRP tried to be as miserable as possible. I often predicted plot twists, episodes in advance, just by asking myself what the darkest thing that could possibly happen would be. Inevitably, thats what would happen. The concept demands a certain level of grimness, but Id have preferred if it wasnt so predictable about it. I also didnt like a few of the characters the story chose to focus on. The main girl was a boring protagonist.

Overall: Magical Girl Raising Project is one of the rare anime that overcame my aversion to bleak stories. It has an interesting concept and mostly focuses on taking it as far as possible. A story this dark can only rank so high with me, however, and it has a few flaws weighing it down too.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
183: This anime died pathetically while trying to save someone who wasn't in any danger.
182: This anime was shot by an airsoft gun.
181: This anime is sitting by the river waiting for a fated encounter.

tell me it aint konosuba

It's Konosuba and Sabagebu for the next two, which is unfortunate since I like both.

Less sure about the last one.

We did get back-to-back dark magical girl shows. While I haven't seen Site (and I'm not sure I want to) I enjoyed Raising Project.

Mobilezoid posted...

I vividly remember one moment that came out of nowhere but made perfect sense and was gory and awesome.

I remember immediately going back because I didn't understand what had happened. When I found out, it was like "oh...fuck yeah". Then things happened and I felt bad. I also felt bad for the lesbians and the boy (really cool there was a boy magical girl). I feel the majority of the characters were scummy or annoying enough (witch) that you don't feel bad for them and just enjoy the battle royale spectacle and strategy. Yeah, Snow White is a boring protagonist, but apparently she's great in the source material post anime. I also think it's funny that on MAL, the second most favorited character (after Alice) is Nemu who doesn't do anything, dies because she does nothing at the end of the first episode, and barely has any lines.

SockoressKnight posted...

I also think it's funny that on MAL, the second most favorited character (after Alice) is Nemu who doesn't do anything, dies because she does nothing at the end of the first episode, and barely has any lines.

people like characters they can relate to

181 = Arakawa under the bridge...?

182 could be C3 instead of Sabagebu

SockoressKnight posted...

I feel the majority of the characters were scummy or annoying enough (witch) that you don't feel bad for them and just enjoy the battle royale spectacle and strategy.

I definitely agree with this. Well, I felt bad for the pregnant girl, who I'm pretty sure was the witch. They really telegraphed her death though so I wasn't shocked by it. I don't usually like grim stories, and I know I ranked this 4/10 so I didn't love it, but I'm still glad I gave it a chance. The battle royale was a fun idea, and the story did a lot of neat things with it.

I make a totally arbitrary and inconsistent distinction in my mind between "depressing" and "sad." MGRP definitely falls into the former for me, where it just feels unpleasant most of the time rather than giving me the good sad feelings where I hurt in a nice way and cry or whatever. Like, I felt more of a "this sucks" rather than being sad when characters I liked died. It wasn't all bad, but I wish it had done it for me like good dark series do - like one of the series you've already mentioned, Talentless Nana. Or Madoka, of course.