Board 8 > Robazoid Ranks 275 Anime and Top 100 Anime Characters 2 (Average and beyond)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wow I thought the Lucky Channel stuff was very unfunny. Surprising pick.

Yeah, some people love Lucky Channel, but I thought it sucked for the most part. To each their own!

Personally, Konata is my favorite by a lot. She really carries the show.

https://media.tenor.com/7KV4Zm-YLG0AAAAd/lucky-star-akira-kogami.gif

69. Arakawa Under the Bridge
https://myanimelist.net/anime/7647/Arakawa_Under_the_Bridge
Spring 2010 (13 episodes), Fall 2010 (13 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.57/10 S1, 7.72/10 S2
Best Character: Nino

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

Premise: Ichinomiya Kou was raised by his wealthy family to avoid being indebted to anyone. When a homeless girl named Nino saves his life, Kou has no choice but to agree to her request to clear the debt. He must move into the strange community located under the bridge and become Nino's boyfriend!

The Good: Arakawa Under the Bridge is kind of a romance since Kou's goal is to get Nino to fall in love with him, but it's mostly a bizarre comedy. Kou joins a community filled with strange characters located under a bridge on an artificial riverbank. And when I say strange, Nino is one of the most normal ones and she claims to be from Venus. There's a buff soldier guy who wears the clothing of a nun, a mayor who claims to be a real kappa despite it obviously being a costume, a surly guitar player named Hoshi who wears a star mask, a guy who can only walk on white lines so he travels with one of those things that draws lines on baseball fields... I haven't even begun to name them all. Kou is slightly more normal than everyone else, which helps him act as the straight man, but he has his own quirks like a pathological need to never owe anyone anything. Before too long, he starts fitting right in. The setting is mysterious too, seemingly changing sizes and stretching into infinity at times. Arakawa is a weird anime in almost every way, but thats what made it so much fun. I loved seeing what bizarre, dangerous, hilarious, and occasionally heartfelt adventure they'll go on next.

The Bad: This is another anime where I don't recall it doing anything wrong (though I couldn't find time to rewatch it so there's a chance I'm forgetting something). I just can't justify ranking it any higher. As much as I enjoyed the strange setting and characters, they were all a bit too off-the-wall zany for anyone to stand out as a favorite.

Overall: Arakawa Under the Bridge was an enjoyable comedy anime about a community of exceedingly strange people. The stories were usually hilarious nonsense, but I liked how some of them would pack a little emotion. Nino and Kou had a nice romantic dynamic. It was also nice watching him slowly grow to embrace this strange little world.

COMING UP TOMORROW*:
68: This anime is cursed to remain poor.
C70: This character wears skimpier clothing whenever there's a crisis.
67: This anime is being coerced to join a strange club.

*There's a good chance I'll miss one day this weekend for various reasons, but I'll do my best to get through those three at some point over the next two days.

Hope you actually watched S2 of Demon Girl Next Door before doing the writeup :p

There are still three anime where I have to watch sequel seasons, but I'll finish those before the ranking reaches them. Otherwise, I've completed everything remaining (not every movie or extra episode, just the seasons).

I still have quite a few left to rewatch, though, and a lot of them are coming right up. Hopefully I can get through them all in time!

Didn't you say you had 84/100 done a while ago? Guess the upcoming ones are those

MacArrowny posted...

Didn't you say you had 84/100 done a while ago? Guess the upcoming ones are those

84/100 were the total I intend to have watched or rewatched sometime in 2022, not what I had already finished.

In the top 60, for example, I intend to have recently seen 54/60 (three aren't available on streaming anymore, one is super long, two are just low priority). I still need to rewatch 14 of those.

Ahh, I gotcha.

Yeah I'm going to have to skip today as I feared. I'll be back with more write-ups tomorrow! My apologies, everyone.

finally caught up! you hit a few i've seen.

do you mind posting the complete list so far?

I'd rather post a full list at the start of the next topic (which should begin around the top 60 or 50 or so), but I just finished updating my ranking spreadsheet! The full list is available on the first tab.

Ranking: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T2EPEpQ4K17ZP_HXtYfm5uGTWG9I8_gI5AixegBRto8/edit?usp=sharing

68. The Demon Girl Next Door
https://myanimelist.net/anime/39071/Machikado_Mazoku
Summer 2019 (12 episodes), Spring 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.65/10 S1, 7.89/10 S2
Best Character: Yoshida Shamiko Yuuko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCBdGYf06kQ

Premise: Yoshida Yuuko wakes up morning having suddenly grown horns and a tail. It turns out her family is descended from the Dark Clan, and shell need to defeat the local magical girl from the Light Clan to remove a curse on their bloodline. The only problem is, Yuuko is super weak!

The Good: The Demon Girl Next Door is a comedy about an ineffectual demon girl trying to defeat a super-powerful magic girl. Yuuko (who decides to go by Shadow Mistress Yuuko, which is shortened against her will to Shamiko) has grown horns and a tail, but otherwise her transformation didnt bring any special powers. Momo, meanwhile, was strong enough to save the world once, and now she just wants to live a normal life. A lot of scenes involve Shamiko trying to challenge Momo to a duel of some sort, even though she has zero chance of winning. Momo, taking pity on her rival/friend, usually ends up training Shamiko as an excuse for them to hang out. The two of them have a fun dynamic, but I thought this anime improved a lot once the supporting cast grew, especially in the second season. I enjoyed all the scenarios that used different combinations of fun characters like Shamikos statue with the spirit of her ancestor, her supportive younger sister Ryouko, magical girl Mikan who is cursed with bad luck, and so on.

The Bad: I thought the first season became a little repetitive. Too much of it was Shamiko trying to challenge Momo to a duel and getting tricked somehow. Like I said above, though, that became less of an issue later in the first season as the supporting cast grew. The second season was also a huge improvement that focused more on the lore of the town and Shamikos powers, so I enjoyed it a lot more. Still, that weak half of the first season held this ranking back a bit.

Overall: The Demon Girl Next Door is a fun anime about how sworn enemies wind up becoming friends. The setting has surprisingly deep lore with various fantastical people and things that happened there in the past. The best parts about this were the various comedic situations that arose with different combinations of characters. The Momo/Shamiko friendship was great too, as Ill cover in the character write-up below. The only thing holding this back was that I thought parts of the first season were repetitive and weak, but, even then, it wasnt terrible.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/3/AABz_zAADz05.jpg

CHARACTER: Yoshida Shamiko Yuuko (The Demon Girl Next Door)
https://myanimelist.net/character/170466/Yuuko_Yoshida
Voiced by: Kohara Konomi
TOP 100 RANK: 70th

SPOILERS FOR THE DEMON GIRL NEXT DOOR

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_91veZybkA4

When Yuuko woke up one morning with demonic horns and an expressive tail (its a ton of fun watching that thing move in various scenes, its like a window into her mood), she was given a mission to end the curse that has plagued her family. All she needed to do is defeat a magical girl. Thankfully, she met one right away when Momo saved her from being hit by a truck.

Shamiko has low strength, low stamina, and somehow even less magical power. The only ability she gets early on is to change forms in a crisis, but her new clothes are a skimpy outfit seemingly meant for a succubus. They mostly just embarrass Shamiko, and any increase in power seems marginal at best. Momo, meanwhile, can transform so fast theres a timer in the corner of the screen counting the nanoseconds. She stops a speeding truck. She catches an entire tray of dropped food before any of it hits the ground. Their difference in power couldnt be greater.

Luckily, Momo takes pity on her enemy and mostly just wants to be friends. I love the dynamic between them, even if I thought too many of their early interactions were Shamiko challenging Momo to a duel only to get tricked. Shamiko plays up her demonic persona a lot. She really tries to be evil. Shes just really, really bad at it. It turns out that a lot of her demonic powers work on the subconscious. She can enter peoples dreams and wield some powerful weapons when shes in there. Shamiko mostly uses this to help people, which flabbergasts Momo when she learns of it because she can come up with dozens of evil uses for the ability without even thinking about it.

Over time, Shamiko becomes enamored with the idea of turning Momo into her vassal. Momo isnt even fully against the idea, except it would mean limiting herself to much less magical power. The two begin helping each other through various situations, even though they should be enemies. Momo temporarily falls to darkness a few times without hesitation. Shamiko pledges to help protect the town to take some of the strain off Momo. My favorite part of The Demon Girl Next Door was all the zany situations that came up with the large cast of characters. Still, the growing friendship between Shamiko and Momo was always an important core of the story.

I acknowledge that the adaptation of Demon Girl Next Door is kind of by the numbers, but it's my favorite ongoing manga so I would definitely put the adaptation much higher. It is true that the first volume starts a bit slow, but the dynamic changes quickly enough that I wouldn't call it much of a negative. Would also put Momo in my top characters list, a bit above Shamiko even. Really like her more negative and cynical personality.

Anyway I'm hoping desperately for a season 3. The manga goes some wild places.

Turning 4koma into good anime is already good adaptation work to me! Plus the fun way they adapt sfx and such is good.

67. D-Frag
https://myanimelist.net/anime/20031/D-Frag
Winter 2014 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.52/10
Best Character: Shibasaki Roka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9I21T1LgAw

Premise: Kazama Kenji, a high school delinquent, finds out that hes no match for the Game Development Club. The clubs eccentric girls, including Shibasaki Roka, coerce him to join.

The Good: D-Frag is a comedy anime about the Game Development Club. Its an offshoot from another club of the same name that takes things a lot more seriously. Roka and the others were so insane that they didnt fit in over there, so they broke off and made their own. The humor in this is over-the-top and often meanspirited, which describes a lot of comedy anime I ranked in the 4/10s (Konosuba, Sabagebu, etc). However, D-Frag handled it in a way that I really liked. For as crazy as things could get, it all worked because Kazama was such an effective straight man. Lots of times there were wacky things happening while he shouted punchlines, and I enjoyed those gags a lot. Roka was my favorite character because of her fire attacks and darkness elements, but I also really liked Takao, president of the real Game Development Club.

The Bad: I unfortunately couldnt rewatch this because its still on Funimation. I dont remember it doing anything terrible. Theres a chance it deserves to rank slightly higher, but, since I couldnt refresh my memory on it, I dont know for sure. I do remember that one of the board games they played was about space pornography, and I was disappointed to learn that it isnt a real thing because it was amazing. I wanted to play it.

Overall: D-Frag was a hilariously over-the-top anime about a wacky club. Kazama was a great straight man for the zanier characters like Roka to play off of. The style of humor used in this isnt usually my favorite thing, but D-Frag handled it so well that I wound up enjoying it a lot.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
66: This anime failed to take over the brain.
C100: This character has been talking to their right hand.
65: This anime is on the run after a failed assassination.
C6: This character trains in their dreams.

Kazama suuuux yells way too much and his tsukkomis prevent the anime from being a classic

My only experience with Demon Girl Next Door was saving it as part of a trade pact in SMFAS, knew nothing else about it. For some reason I assumed it was a romance comedy, literally the girl next door as love interest for a generic high school protagonist?

Well you know what they say when you assume, that writeup set me straight and really paints the picture of a series that sounds like it has a lot of heart to it & is a lot of fun! Learn something new every day, as they say.

Demon Girl Next Door might not be a romance, but there's nothing wrong with shipping Shamiko and Momo!

Anyway, just a warning to everyone, I might need to take a few days off soon. Whenever I picked something to rewatch, I often chose a 10, 9, or high 8 rather than a low 8 or a 7/10. This has finally become a problem. There are a bunch of anime coming up in the next few days that I still need to rewatch. I literally just finished 66 and 65 today. Both 62 and 61 have two seasons I still need to get to, then 59 has one season. Thankfully, the next one I need to watch after that is 49, followed by 38. (These are all tentative rankings that might shift around once I've rewatched them).

In short, I might need to take a day or two to finish the ones coming right up. Once I get past this bottleneck, however, it'll be smooth sailing! I'll do 66 and 65 on Monday, 64 and 63 on Tuesday, and then I'll see where I'm at. I apologize for having to do this. I didn't watch as much as I intended to these last few weekends.

66. Parasyte: The Maxim
https://myanimelist.net/anime/22535/Kiseijuu__Sei_no_Kakuritsu
Fall 2014 (24 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 8.34/10
Best Character: Izumi Shinichi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm8UjBAS3cs

Premise: Strange shapeshifting creatures rain down on Earth and take over the brains of many people. High schooler Izumi Shinichi has his right arm taken over instead, forcing him to coexist with the alien Migi as they struggle to hide and survive.

The Good: Parasyte is mostly an action anime, but it also has elements of body horror with all of the freaky shapeshifting. I like the idea of this story more than the execution, as I'll cover in the bad section. There are still a lot of neat ideas in the setting and situations. The idea of monstrous creatures devouring people while blending in is neat, and I like how their abilities are clearly explained and explored. I like the societal reactions to it a lot, with it starting as an impossible global killing spree called the Mincemeat Murders and going from there. Shinichi is one of the few people aware of what's going on, but he can't come forward because that might threaten Migi and the alien would kill anyone he tried to tell. I like the symbiotic relationship they form as a contrast to the rest of the selfishly parasitic monsters. All that Shinichi can do is struggle to survive and protect the people closest to him.

The Bad: The story has quite a few problems, mostly related to the supporting cast. Both love interests suck. Murano I feel kind of bad for because Shinichi is constantly lying to her, but it's annoying how she wonders if he's really still Shinichi at least once per episode. Kana is a bad person and a moron who I felt nothing for. Most of the parasite characters are stone-faced and boring. The setting also does an edgy thing I always hate where people can't walk down the street without encountering roving gangs or kids torturing animals. Basically, it pushes the "humans are the real monsters" theme very blatantly at times. It detracted from the fun monster conflict, in my opinion.

Overall: Parasyte has a neat idea and does a lot of interesting things with it. I liked the powers the parasites had, as well as the dynamic between Shinichi and Migi. Those good aspects had to carry the story against the huge amount of nitpicks I have for it. Despite my complaints, it's still a quality production with excellent animation, especially during the battles. Shinichi also just barely reached my top 100 characters.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/9/4/AAcDcBAAD0BG.jpg

CHARACTER: Izumi Shinichi (Parasyte)
https://myanimelist.net/character/12323/Shinichi_Izumi
Voiced by: Shimazaki Nobunaga
TOP 100 RANK: 100th

SPOILERS FOR PARASYTE

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GltHikhFDwE

Much like the Parasyte anime itself, there's a lot I could complain about with regards to Shinichi. I rolled my eyes at how every single girl he came across had the hots for him, both before and after his transformation. I wasn't a huge fan of that transformation either. The story was a lot more compelling before he became a superhuman. Despite all of that, there was one part of his character that I really liked. Shinichi's parents go on vacation and have the bad luck of running across a parasite that takes over his mother. The monster returns home and encounters Shinichi. He can't bring himself to attack someone who looks like her, which leads to him getting stabbed through the heart. Since this creature had the appearance of the loving mother who once selflessly protected him from a pot of boiling oil, this is obviously a traumatic experience.

Shinichi is saved by Migi, but he no longer seems like the same person afterwards. In addition to the scarring on his chest and back, Shinichi is emotionally shut down. He can also immediately calm himself if he ever starts panicking. He still cares about things, but in a logical and callous way that terrifies Murano. He finds an injured dog, holds it until it dies... and then heartlessly throws it in the trash. When he and Migi discuss these emotional changes, he wonders if what Migi did to repair his heart somehow robbed him of his humanity along with all the other changes it made to his body.

Encounters with Tamiya Ryouko, a parasite mother with a callous disregard for her child, are one of the few things to get a reaction out of him. The video I linked is their final interaction, the moment when she shields her human child from police bullets rather than fighting back to save herself. She even briefly wears the face of Shinichi's mother, just to drive the point home. This act of selflessness has a deep impact on Shinichi. Not because it came from a parasitic monster, but because it came from a mother to her child. This is just my interpretation, but I don't think anything Migi did to his heart actually impacted Shinichi's emotions. Getting attacked by someone who looked like his mother just left him with some regular old trauma, and he shut down emotionally as a result. Tamiya's sacrifice breaks that barrier down, and Shinichi is finally able to cry. I thought this was a powerful moment in the anime, and a nice examination of both trauma and motherly love.

Parasyte's another one with a killer soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETPpc4eed4E

One of the best in any anime for sure.

65. Katana Maidens
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35589/Toji_no_Miko
Winter 2018 (24 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 6.80/10
Best Character: Etou Kanami

My Kanami figure: https://imgur.com/XeDS6ti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLioVZ3bo5E

Premise: Evil beings called aradama threaten the world, and girls called toji use mystical katanas to defend against them. Etou Kanami is a gifted fighter, and she gets caught up in a conspiracy that could threaten the world.

The Good: Katana Maidens is an action anime. I was really enamored with it when it was first airing, as I'm sure anyone in the anime topic around that time will recall. My opinion on it has leveled out quite a bit, but I still think this is an underrated gem with a lot going for it. This write-up will be longer than usual just because I feel the need to explain myself. Still, I can see why KM never took off. I struggled to summarize it in the premise! Viewers get thrown into the setting and all its weird terminology without much explanation, but it isn't that complex. They can make mystical katanas that grant girls various abilities like a spiritual shield or bursts of speed. The process of forging these katanas also creates a byproduct called noro, which eventually takes the form of a malevolent monster that only the special katanas can destroy. There was a disaster twenty years ago when a huge amount of noro came together. The girl who eliminated it, Yukari, became a hero and now leads the entire toji organization.

However, things are more complicated than they seem. At a sword fighting tournament, a toji named Hiyori tries to assassinate the hero Yukari. When that fails, Hiyori goes on the run with Etou Kanami, the only person there who was gifted enough to see what actually happened. Yukari defended herself using aradama powers, meaning she never defeated the monster twenty years ago. The monster took her over, and the only two people who know it are being hunted by the entire toji organization.

I really adore that premise. I went into KM expecting another "cute girls fight waves of monsters" snoozefest like Strike Witches. Instead, it thrust me into an interesting conspiracy, and I became genuinely invested in whether or not Kanami and Hiyori could unravel it. I'm a big fan of stories where characters are on the run and have the odds stacked against them. The battles in this use CGI, but I thought they looked good and the back-and-forth was easy to follow. Kanami was also a stellar character who remains one of my favorites, even though my opinion of Katana Maidens itself eventually mellowed out.

The Bad: The second half of the anime isn't anywhere near as good. I wouldn't call it bad, and some of the hypest moments happened there. It just had some problems. There's one character, Yukina, who is a moronic bad guy caricature. I absolutely hated her and everyone stupid enough to work with her. Anything else I want to complain about would be a huge spoiler, so I'll just say there's plenty to nitpick here for people who want things to complain about. My good feelings from early on were enough for me to forgive most of them, though.

Overall: It didn't wind up being as good as it could've been due to a lackluster second half, but I still think Katana Maidens is a lot better than anyone but me ever gave it credit for. It had an interesting setting, a great conspiracy plot, and I liked all of the major characters. Hiyori and the comic relief sidekick animal Nene were considerations for my top 100 characters, but in the end only Kanami made the list.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/4/3/AAcDcBAAD0Db.png

CHARACTER: Etou Kanami (Katana Maidens)
https://myanimelist.net/character/151354/Kanami_Etou
Voiced by: Hondo Kaede
TOP 100 RANK: 6th

SPOILERS FOR KATANA MAIDENS

(I couldnt find a good video for her that wasnt the dub)

Kanami at her most basic is a character type I enjoy, an energetic optimistic girl who really loves sword fighting. What elevated her into my all-time favorites is the surprising amount of intelligence and depth she has on top of that. At the sword fighting tournament, when everyone else was still processing the fact that Hiyori tried to kill the great hero Yukari, only Kanami is astute enough to look past that and see what actually happened. She makes the split-second decision to assist Hiyori and go on the run, all because she saw Yukari use aradama powers. While they're in hiding, Kanami remains a friendly ally to the aloof Hiyori. She also displays a lot of skill and intelligence. When the two are fighting members of the elite guard, they don't waste time trying to defeat them. Kanami recognizes that victory, at this moment, is to escape, and that's what she and Hiyori manage to do.

As her skill level is revealed throughout the anime, though, it becomes clear that Kanami could've won if she wanted to. For years, she's been training in her sleep with the spirit of her mother (it's a long story). When Kanami is serious, only the greatest foes can hope to stand against her. Kanami rarely gets serious, though, because she usually doesn't fight in order to defeat people. She views sword fighting as a method of conversation, a way to see who someone really is. Kanami asks for duels at inappropriate times from everyone, including Hiyori, a reformed Yukari, and even an evil god. She does this because it's the best way to understand them, and for them to sense her feelings in turn.

When Kanami does get serious, though, shit gets real. When Hiyori has absorbed all three shards of an evil god (again, it's a long story) and is ready to die to banish them for good, Kanami refuses to let that happen. Hiyori has incredible powers, including a lightning sword and the ability to see every possible future. And, to her increasing terror, she can't find a single potential reality where she beats Kanami. Every path leads to defeat. Kanami literally cuts a lightning bolt in half and wins easily when they finally do come to blows. That was probably my favorite moment in all of Katana Maidens. I was impressed that Kanami could be so powerful without ever feeling like a Mary Sue, because her goal was usually to reach her enemy, not merely overpower them. It also really upped the stakes at the end when everyone was up against someone who could match her strength.

RIP me! I thought this would be in your top 10 or something. I remember you really loving it for some reason.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
64: This anime doesn't even have a small shrine dedicated to it.
C37: This character's spirit is leaving their body behind.
63: This anime is being eliminated from the ranking, but it can't actually die.
C97: This character is floating through the world as a ghost.

MacArrowny posted...

RIP me! I thought this would be in your top 10 or something. I remember you really loving it for some reason.

I definitely raved about Katana Maidens a lot when it was airing. I feel like most people have something they adore despite acknowledging it isn't actually that great. That's where Katana Maidens is for me now. The second half was decent but still such a letdown compared to the early parts. That's why I try to keep my hype in the anime topic at an appropriate medium these days. As much as I'm loving Raven of the Inner Palace this season, I probably won't mention it in there again until I make sure the later parts don't suck.

Still, Katana Maidens wasnt a bad guess for which anime has three top 100 characters! Hiyori and Nene were on my shortlist when I was figuring that ranking out.

Raven in the Inner Palace is my favorite show I'm watching this season also. Which admittedly I'm only watching 3, but still.

Mobilezoid posted...

I was impressed that Kanami could be so powerful without ever feeling like a Mary Sue,

I'm surprised you could write all that and still feel that way. Kanami was a bit too OP for my liking and it dragged the show down me. I don't hate, but I'd probably never watch it again.

64. Noragami
https://myanimelist.net/anime/20507/Noragami
Winter 2014 (12 episodes), Fall 2015 (13 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.96/10 S1, 8.17/10 S2
Best Character: Iki Hiyori

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWCnKoEgfP0

Premise: Yato is a god, but he doesn't have a shrine or any followers. He barely makes a living doing odd jobs for five yen apiece, at least until he meets Iki Hiyori, a girl whose spirit often slips out of her body.

The Good: Noragami is a supernatural action comedy. I like the setting quite a bit. It has lots of layers, and it was neat seeing the rules and balance between them. Gods have the most power, but it's directly tied to how much worship they receive from humans. They also need to use good spirits as weapons against the evil spirits that are always popping up. Yato is an incredibly minor god, but he has big dreams of having his own shrine someday and to get there he'll do any job, no matter how small. I liked Yato. He was basically a homeless drifter, but he also had a really high opinion of himself and it led to a lot of great jokes. Yukine, his spirit weapon, was a compelling character too. A lot of people hated on him in the Crunchyroll comments, but it made sense to me that the spirit of a dead teenager would have some angst. Hiyori was still easily my favorite. Her spirit sometimes leaves her body behind, and I laughed every time they used that as a joke like cutting away to show her physical body passed out at school. She also had a great dynamic with Yato and Yukine, which I'll talk about more in her character write-up.

The Bad: Noragami usually maintained a nice balance between comedy and drama. Yato would act haughty and goofy, and then there would be a relatively serious battle against an evil spirit or rival god. I enjoyed the comedy bits the most, and it was nice when it had a good balance too. Sadly, there were a few arcs that became too dramatic for my tastes. Basically anything to do with Nora was too dark for me, and she never brought anything fun to counterbalance it.

Overall: Noragami was a solid comedy with a supernatural twist. One scenario had Yato trying to stop a guy from killing himself, and they had a long conversation complete with flashbacks in the time between jumping from a building and hitting the ground, with a terrified Hiyori tagging along to point out the absurdity of it. I liked the stuff like that a lot. A few arcs were too dark or melodramatic, but even then the battle animation was still great. The dynamic between Hiyori, Yato, and Yukine was also always amazing.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/5/AAcDcBAAD0PV.jpg

CHARACTER: Iki Hiyori (Noragami)
https://myanimelist.net/character/84679/Hiyori_Iki
Voiced by: Uchida Maaya
Top 100 Rank: 37th

SPOILERS FOR NORAGAMI

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWS7Zpxvb4M

Hiyori starts as someone with just enough spiritual power to notice Yato. It nearly gets her killed when she gets hit by a truck while trying to push him out of the way, not realizing he couldn't be hurt by it. After that, Hiyori's spirit form often leaves her body behind. She has an ethereal weightlessness as a spirit, which allows her to do things like leap between buildings. She's worried about what's happening to her, and she hires Yato to find a way to fix it, but I still really liked how Hiyori reacted to her newfound freedom. She had fun with it, doing things like jumping around town and tagging along with her new god friends.

As a half-spirit, she draws attention from from evil creatures but has no defense against them. Hiyori is a tough girl, and the video I linked for her has her doing wrestling kicks on a weird frog thing. Sadly, she can't do much due to the rules of the world. That often puts her in danger, as does her connection to Yato since she's an easy target for anyone trying to hurt him. Still, I appreciated how proactive and fearless Hiyori could be. She'd been warned that a powerful war god hated Yato and would not hesitate to kill Hiyori if they knew her connection to him. When Yato and Yukine were in trouble, though, Hiyori marched straight to that war god's shrine to call in a favor from one of its spirit weapons. I really liked that moment from her. She refused to just stand by being helpless.

Her relationship with Yato and Yukine was really sweet overall, too. There are multiple times where the only real threat to her is that someone might erase her memories of them, but they've formed such close bonds that it's still treated as a serious danger. Hiyori insists on helping Yukine have normal things in life, like schooling and homework. As much as her and Yato playfully clash, it's also obvious how much they care about each other. After hearing Yato's dream of getting his own shrine, Hiyori makes him one. It's the size of a birdhouse made with scrap wood, but it still makes Yato cry tears of joy. He's a literal god, which puts him above things like human morality, but he tries to be a better person for Hiyori's sake. Whenever she's in danger, those are the few times where his god of calamity side rises to the surface. Otherwise, Hiyori is just a fun character. In her spirit form she has a cat tail and various other catlike mannerisms, which I found fun.

I like Noragami, and Hiyori was indeed a lot of fun. The first season of the anime had a mediocre filler arc, which brought it down a fair bit. Meanwhile the manga has felt like it's about to end for years, so kind of dragging there.

Noragami a great show, though I agree on not liking Nora much which is a bit unfortunate for some arcs.

I hated Yato and ended up dropping the show whoops.

63. Sunday Without God
https://myanimelist.net/anime/16009/Kamisama_no_Inai_Nichiyoubi
Summer 2013 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.30/10
Best Character: Dee Ensy Stratmitos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At9Abkapnlk

Premise: God has abandoned the world, meaning no new life can be born and people can only die if they're buried by inhuman gravekeepers. Ai is a young girl who serves as her town's gravekeeper, at least until a mysterious man with the same name as her father arrives.

The Good: Sunday Without God was a supernatural anime with (if I had to pick a genre label) a focus on mysteries. I really loved the setting. God seemingly abandoned the world long ago, so now nobody can die. Injured people just slowly lose their sense of self, at least until a gravekeeper buries them. This kind of weird apocalyptic setting is something I always enjoy, and SWG does a lot of creative stuff with it. One of my favorite things was a character who was actually two different people cut in half and sewn together vertically, and it worked because neither of the two halves could die. Ai was an interesting character, but I also liked the friends she gathered during her adventures. The ghostly Dee was still my favorite, as I'll cover in her write-up. More than anything, though, this was just such an interesting world. It felt like a place where anything was possible with a lot of potential for fun arcs.

The Bad: As much as I loved the world, there are parts of it I would've liked a better explanation of. For example, I didn't fully understand the specifics of what death meant exactly. Supposedly only burial by a gravekeeper can kill someone, but plenty of characters are rendered immobile. Are they just constantly suffering in silence or what? I wanted more details on stuff like that. I also thought the first arc with Hambart was a bit too meanspirited and edgy.

Overall: Sunday Without God had an incredibly interesting setting. Parts of it weren't explored as much as I'd have preferred, but I mostly forgave that just because the sheer creativity impressed me. Ai and her companions were good characters, and I liked all of the arcs. Dee was my favorite character, though, mostly because the final arc of the season dealing with her was the best one by far.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/9/4/AAcDcBAAD0Qu.jpg

CHARACTER: Dee Ensy Stratmitos (Sunday Without God)
https://myanimelist.net/character/86345/Dee_Ensy_Stratmitos
Voiced by: Kitamura Eri
TOP 100 RANK: 97th

SPOILERS FOR SUNDAY WITHOUT GOD

(I couldnt find a good video for her)

During her adventures, Ai meets a guy named Alice and his ghostly companion Dee. Alice, noticing Ai's knack for solving problems in this crazy godless world, asks for her help in solving a big one. It ties into one of my absolute favorite things about the setting, which I didn't mention in the anime write-up because I think it's a spoiler (and I don't remember if this was ever confirmed or if it was just speculation). God hasn't abandoned the world, he's actually trying to grant wishes and miracles. He just really, really sucks at it, resulting in things like giving people immortality in a way that turns it into a nightmarish curse.

In the early days of whatever change happened to the world, a student at a school fell out a window and died (or whatever death means in that new world). Their classmates, horrified at what happened, wished to undo it... and the stupid god granted it, creating a kind of enclosed reality where the town keeps repeating the same few months over and over. Memories of what happened are fuzzy even for Alice, who was the first one to realize something strange was going on. He found a way to escape alongside Dee. Since she became a ghost in the outside world, though, it wasnt hard to eventually put it all together. Dee's tragic death has trapped that town in a timeloop, and Alice gets Ai's help to break it.

Everyone enters the enclosed world, a perfect replica of a time now long gone. It's easy for everyone to settle into a pleasant life in that regular town, even though they know they have to solve the mystery before the timeloop resets or else the memories of their mission will be erased and trap them there forever. Dee remains oddly unhelpful, too, and once they realize she was the one who fell out the window everyone realizes why. Ending the timeloop would likely mean killing her for good. Dee tries to speed up the timeloop reset, and when confronted the real truth is revealed. It wasnt Dee who fell out the window and died that day. It was Alice, and everything she's done has been her trying to keep him alive because she loves him. Alice still decides to sacrifice himself to save everyone else, the timeloop ends, and Ai moves on to have more adventures.

This was a complicated arc. I'm sure there were parts I didn't fully understand and I probably did a terrible job summarizing it. The important thing is that it had a lot of things I found really interesting, like the enclosed world timeloop. I also really felt for Dee. For large parts of the arc she seemed obstructive and selfish, but the reveal that she was doing it all for Alice put her actions into a new perspective for me. I liked her character a lot.

As for what's coming up tomorrow... nothing! I explained why in post 469, but basically I need time to finish watching a few anime the ranking is about to reach. I've decided not to rewatch 62 (no top 100 character so my fuzzy memories of it should suffice) but I need at least a day for 61.

Hopefully I'll be back on Thursday, but I'll post a "coming up tomorrow" thing the day before when I'm sure.

This should be the last delay in the ranking. Thank you for your patience, everyone, and for following along!

COMING UP TOMORROW:
62: This anime can only be killed by one specific material.
61: This anime has had its torso skinned.
C88: This character is immortal.

I apologize again for taking today off, but after this there shouldn't be anymore problems! The ranking will end on exactly November 30th. There will be eight days where I only do one anime due to it having two or three characters.

Since I'm not doing actual write-ups today, here are some fun stats!

-The top 60 anime have 65 of my top 100 characters.
-One anime has three characters.
-Ten anime have two characters.
-Seven anime have zero characters.
-Counting the character in 61, the current top 100 character gender ratio is 7:28 male:female.

-Since the start of 2022, I will have watched at least one season in 54/60 of my top 60 (whether that be a full rewatch, seeing it for the first time, or finishing a new season).

Thanks again for following along, everyone. After tomorrow, we're finally into my 8/10s!

Finally the Superman anime.

62. Knights of Sidonia
https://myanimelist.net/anime/19775/Sidonia_no_Kishi
Spring 2014 (12 episodes), Spring 2015 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.65/10 S1, 7.73/10 S2
Best Character: Hoshijiro Shizuka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_zn1a-dOvg

Premise: Earth has been destroyed by the alien Gauna, and the last remnants of humanity are fleeing across the galaxy. Tanikaze Nagate has lived his whole life hidden in the depths of the spaceship Sidonia, but when he finally emerges he might just be the hero humanity needs.

The Good: Knights of Sidonia is a mecha anime. It uses CGI, but I thought it looked really stylish and cool. It also allowed for dynamic battles. I love everything about the setting. Sidonia itself is gargantuan, full of hidden areas and competing factions. I love how desperately they're clinging to survival too, doing things like taking sharp turns when necessary even though the shift in gravity is incredibly dangerous. The Gauna are also really cool. They have such a mysterious, alien feel to them, and they're everywhere almost as if they've infested the galaxy. Since they have what's effectively shapeshifting, regenerating armor, and they can only be killed by one specific material stabbing their core, battling even a single Gauna as a huge challenge. I liked how carefully the heroes needed to plan, and usually there were still massive casualties. The characters in KoS were all fine too, especially Hoshijiro. Still, it was the desperate struggle for survival against an unknowable foe that really resonated with me.

The Bad: The second season definitely wasn't bad, but I felt like it lost focus of the aspects that had appealed to me most. A constant need to escalate things meant there were way more Gauna, which robbed each individual one of its sense of mystery and danger, at least for me. The heroes still struggled just as much, sure, but struggling against one has a much different feel than struggling against ten, if that makes sense. Otherwise, there were a few plot points that went in an unsatisfying direction, but I can't talk about those much without spoilers.

Overall: Knights of Sidonia is tied for the second anime I ever watched. I saw Death Note, then a decade later I watched this and Haruhi at around the same time. I thought it was epic at the time, and KoS being so great was a big part of why I started watching more anime. It's still good, full of neat mecha battles in an interesting setting. I just felt the second season wasn't as focused on the things I liked most, which kept this from reaching my true favorites.

I thought S2 was better overall, mainly due to Tsumugi being incredibly moe. It felt a little scattershot at times though, without a logical flow to the story.

Tsumugi was one of the better parts of the second season for sure. What I didn't like was how they could create more of that anti-Gauna material, which let them turn it into projectiles and suddenly they could mow down hundreds at a time. It felt like it turned into a different show almost.

Probably dangerous to add more series to my queue with so many still left to be ranked, but I like the Sunday Without God concept (only seen something like it once before, the Paradise X comic series) and want to see how it plays out. Only 12 eps makes that manageable too so gonna pick it up.

Dub, sub, or doesn't matter?

MartinFF7 posted...

Probably dangerous to add more series to my queue with so many still left to be ranked, but I like the Sunday Without God concept (only seen something like it once before, the Paradise X comic series) and want to see how it plays out. Only 12 eps makes that manageable too so gonna pick it up.

Dub, sub, or doesn't matter?

I exclusively watch subtitles for anime, but if you prefer dubs and it has one, you can give it a shot!

SWG won't be for everyone, but I enjoyed spending twelve episodes in that strange little world. I'm sad it only had one season because it definitely still had more stories to tell.

Oh I definitely dont prefer dubs, dubs fill the lower tier of what I've watched but I'm trying to force more dubbed series into my queue. If only for not having to focus 100% on the video for some light multitasking...

Apparently there is a dub (and 13 eps, I guess an OVA?) so will give that a shot.

You know what series never got a dub so wouldn't require this question? Legend of the Galactic Heroes, available now on HIDive!!

(...I still need to wrangle 3 users to pool their series nomination with me, damn it!)

61. Golden Kamuy
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36028/Golden_Kamuy
Spring 2018 (12 episodes), Fall 2018 (12 episodes), Fall 2020 (12 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 7.87/10 S1, 8.23/10 S2, 8.45/10 S3
Best Character: Sugimoto Saichi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QahFijEd3hY

Premise: Sugimoto Saichi, known as 'the Immortal' for surviving suicidal charges and countless injuries during the Russo-Japanese War, hears about a trove of gold buried somewhere in Hokkaido. Partnering with an Ainu girl named Asirpa, Sugimoto begins tracking down the escaped convicts who each have part of a map to the gold tattoed on their bodies.

The Good: Golden Kamuy is a historical adventure anime about various factions competing to find a bunch of gold. I really like the premise, it's fairly basic but it leaves a lot of room for characters with different motivations. There are twenty-four escaped prisoners who each have part of a coded treasure map tattoed to their bodies. They're all different kinds of criminals, like an escape artist or a deranged hunter. Tracking down and dealing with each of them, one way or another, allows for lots of little mini-adventures. Then there's the bigger picture where various groups are competing to get the clues first, including a rogue military unit, an old samurai rebel, and of course Sugimoto's little crew. Each group is filled with unique characters, and not all of them are what they seem at first. I'm glad GK got several seasons (there's a fourth that just started airing that I haven't begun yet). It's a big story and it deserves time to play out at its own pace. Sugimoto is my favorite, as I'll talk about more in his write-up below, but I really like Asirpa too. She's cute and can be surprisingly hilarious, plus she's a guide into Ainu culture. Her connection to the gold hunt adds a lot of depth, too. Beyond that, GK is just a really solid story with lots of moving pieces that keep interacting in interesting ways.

The Bad: There are some low budget problems at times. This isn't the anime for anyone who will be bothered by crappy CGI bears. Still, my main problem is probably the food segments. It's a common joke that Golden Kamuy is secretly a food porn anime, because there are lots of scenes about how to catch, cook, and eat various animals. Food porn isn't my thing, especially not "here's a spoonful of animal brains" food porn, so those bits aren't my favorite! There are also times where the mood turns goofy, like a literal zany comedy anime. I enjoy the smaller funny bits, like one time during a chase a character jumped and straight-up Looney Tunes swam through air for a second to reach something higher up, little moments like that were funny. The full scenes of goofy comedy usually felt out of place.

Overall: I really like the premise of Golden Kamuy, as well as the various factions of crazy characters chasing after the gold. Sugimoto and Asirpa are great, as are many of the other characters. I'm not a huge fan of the food porn or the occasional over-the-top goofy scene. Still, GK is mostly just a really solid historical adventure, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/2/8/AAcDcBAAD0tY.jpg

CHARACTER: Sugimoto Saichi (Golden Kamuy)
https://myanimelist.net/character/138553/Saichi_Sugimoto
Voiced by: Kobayashi Chikahiro
TOP 100 RANK: 88th

SPOILERS FOR GOLDEN KAMUY (to the end of S3 only)

VIDEO LINK (from the end of S3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnI2RGqRnnM

Sugimoto is a badass. He's introduced tanking what should be fatal injuries while charging enemy lines and still having the strength to kill several Russians when he gets there. He does this all while in a berserker rage screaming that he is immortal, which is a moniker he proves he deserves many times throughout the anime. Like a great many soldiers, though, Sugimoto is aimless after the war. He's also haunted by his experiences, though he usually doesn't let it show. He has a goal, a dying wish from a friend to get money to his widow, but Sugimoto has no real plan on how to do that until he hears about the Ainu gold. Then he meets Asirpa, a young Ainu girl, and they partner up to track down the convicts.

The dynamic between Sugimoto and Asirpa is my favorite part of Golden Kamuy. There are lots of little moments where they grow closer. Asirpa introduces him to hunting tricks, food, and Ainu culture. Sugimoto slowly opens up to her in turn. There's one scene I really liked when they were riding out a blizzard and Sugimoto talks about a food he misses from his hometown. Asirpa later uses that info to confirm someone is lying to her, which shows she was really listening and taking even small things like that to heart. Sugimoto plays a protective, almost fatherly role, but the two also interact as equals. They recognize that the other has their own areas of expertise and defer to them whenever it makes sense.

The two spent a lot of time apart in the third season, but for me this absence solidified their relationship. I liked how Asirpa steadfastly believed that Sugimoto survived no matter what anyone told her, solely because she has faith in his immortality. Sugimoto's single-minded desire to rescue her was also really sweet. The video I linked above, from when they finally reunite near the end of the third season, was also great. Asirpa doesn't want to become a murderer, so Sugimoto goes to great lengths to save one of his worst enemies after she accidentally shoots him with a poisoned arrow. It really illustrates how close they've become that protecting Asirpa's soul was Sugimoto's goal there rather than eliminating a dangerous enemy. I love their dynamic a lot.

COMING UP TOMORROW:
60: A lot of people have been dying in this anime's small town.
C48: This character can't go out in daylight.
59: This anime is full of bitter tastes.
C53: This character is becoming filled with sweet feelings for the first time.

We're finally done the 7/10 Good Tier! Tomorrow we start the 8/10 Great Tier.

I felt like Golden Kamuy got worse as it went on, mainly due to Asirpa's diminishing screentime (and the increasingly lame villains). She's by far my favorite part.

Hmm, is 60 Shiki? Hope so, it's good.

I'll make a new topic for the top 60 when I get home tonight, and I'll finally post the full ranking again too.

Just for fun, I've been keeping track of this. I only rated an anime higher than the MAL score eight times out of the 200 ranked so far!

100- Uzamaid
96- The Magnificent Kotobuki
95- The Price of Smiles
84- Anima Yell
83- Harukana Receive
82- Prima Doll
71- BanG Dream (S1 only)
65- Katana Maidens

I imagine I'll be higher than MAL way more often than not for the remainder of the ranking, but I thought this was a fun stat for the 7s and below.

yeah I love It's a Mad Mad Mad... World

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80212771

There's the new topic, feel free to fill this one up with nonsense. As always, thanks again for following along, everyone!

I will help

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/7/4/AAC56kAAD0xO.jpg