Board 8 > Robazoid Ranks 275 Anime and Top 100 Anime Characters 3 (The Top 60)

(+) Yeah! (+)

My top recommendation for sure is Psycho-Pass. Season 1 is probably my all time favorite single season of any anime, but the rest I've seen is great too. I haven't seen all of it because I'm a filthy dub watcher and I'm holding out hope the whole series will get dubbed eventually. There's some movies included too so here's the watch order:

S1 > S2 > The Movie > Sinners Of The System (3 movies) > S3

Glad I waited for the rec because SotS just became available for streaming so now the whole series can been seen although not all in one place yet. All are on Crunchyroll except S3 which is on Prime

Nanis23 posted...

Is this finally over
Can I finally start reading those topics (I saved the first two)

Will probably only read writeups of stuff I have seen or stuff I am curious about but still

OK finished and uh....I know I don't watch a lot of anime but I was still surprised by how little overlap there was with the shows I have watched and yours
Seems like you are not interested in watching super popular and long anime but instead prefer the short and (somewhat) obscure anime instead? at least this is the feeling I got

Those are the only anime on the list that I watched-
180. One Punch Man
162. Saga of Tanya the Evil
134. Attack on Titan
35. Hunter x Hunter
14. Made in Abyss

You are missing some big names here like Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Pokemon , Full Metal Alchemist, Hellsing, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Code Geass, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academy, Ranma, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, Jujutsu Kaisen, Mirai Nikki and uh...a lot. I know most of those Shonen and it might not be your cup of tea but still!

As for the stuff I did watch
Agree with your bad points about One Punch Man - I still enjoyed it but qustioned what Season 2 can bring new so I didn't see it. Maybe someday but no plans for it currently

Tanya was fine, nothing special so being the in the middle of a list sounds good

Really enjoyed HxH but the final arc dragged it down a lot. It wasn't bad or anything, it just dragged forever (seriously it's like 45% of the whole show)

Made in Abyss deserves a top 20 list in every list (if not higher). One day I will watch the new season! but the first + movie were fantastic

And I do want to talk a bit more about Attack on Titan
I watched it a year ago so I have yet to see the second part of the final season as I am waiting for the final final part of the final season to air
And let me tell you - this is the first time in years that I actually really enjoyed something. I was obsessed to it. It's a feeling I didn't have for like...over 10 years or so? Like the days in which I was waiting for new chapters of Naruto/Bleach to come out and sometimes I even read them in shitty quality (raw) without translations because I couldn't wait.
So yeah, AoT made me realize I can still enjoy things. I just need to find them!

So seeing the low placement and score kinda hurt. And from reading the writeup and the Tanya one it feels like some of your problems with anime comes from...simply watching too much anime?
Like, it never bothered me in AoT that it's a "mecha anime". I never even thought about it!

Also it's not just the battles that make this anime so good (and they are fantastic) - it's the world building, the twists, the not being afraid to kill off characters, the hard decisions characters have to make...and the most important - the mystery
Trying to figure out the mysteries of the titans is something that you should do from the first episode. AoT is not like most popular and long shows that the author made things up over the years - in AoT everything feels like it was planned from the very beginning. There are so many hints everywhere and it was just pure fun to try and come up with theories and see what stick and what didn't at the end
The animation, the music, the openings and (sometimes) the endings are all masterpiece quality as well
It's the most popular anime on MAL for a reason
It's the (well, used to be, now it's 3rd) highest rated anime on IMDB for a reason

I would advice to give it another chance but seeing your top 10 I guess your tastes are too different to like this after all lol

Nanis23 posted...

You are missing some big names here like Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Pokemon , Full Metal Alchemist, Hellsing, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Code Geass, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academy, Ranma, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, Jujutsu Kaisen, Mirai Nikki and uh...a lot. I know most of those Shonen and it might not be your cup of tea but still!

I've seen some of My Hero Academia, it's #78! I still need to go back and finish the last few seasons though. Still, you're right that I've seen a ton of short/obscure stuff and not many longer anime. I only started watching anime in late 2017, and a lot of those older long ones were too daunting to go back to. A twelve episode season is the perfect length to finish in one night after work if I really binge it, so I've done a disproportionate amount of those.

Still, I'm always trying to fill in the blanks in what I've seen. At least a few of the ones you listed meet the requirements for recommendations (available on streaming, under 50 episodes) so you can pick one if you want me to finally see it. Someone else already picked Cowboy Bebop, but I know Mirai Nikki/Future Diary or Evangelion are both short enough. Probably some others too. Feel free to pick a favorite, if you want! I hope I'm not seeming too desperate for recommendations, but it's always fun to get another one. I've already seen quite a few neat anime that I might've never gotten around to on my own.

As for Attack on Titan, my ranking for it really wasn't fair. I took a bit of a break from anime around late 2019-2021, and I fell way behind in it (and MHA too). I'll hopefully get around to finishing it someday soon, then I'll be able to give it a fairer opinion. I felt bad including it, and the dozen or so other shows I haven't completely finished, but I didn't want to wait another few months before starting the ranking. Hopefully I enjoy the later parts as much as you did when I finally do finish it.

In any case, thanks for taking an interest in the ranking and reading at least a few write-ups!

I wish I could nominate Baccano but I doubt you could find it to watch.

BONUS. Kaiji
https://myanimelist.net/anime/3002/Gyakkyou_Burai_Kaiji__Ultimate_Survivor
Fall 2007 (26 episodes), Spring 2011 (26 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.28/10 S1, 8.25/10 S2
Best Character: Itou Kaiji
Recommended by: @Reg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7myzgxz9nI

Premise: Itou Kaiji is stuck with a huge debt after foolishly cosigning a loan with a friend. He's given an opportunity to pay it back all at once with a night of high-stakes gambling, but losing could also destroy him.

The Good: Kaiji is a gambling anime about the titular character. He's a shiftless bum who's already going nowhere in life even before getting shackled with a friend's debt. His only way out is to participate in shady high-stakes gambling. He struggles constantly to keep his head above water while trying to find an edge he can use to win or, at least, to survive.

I'm a big fan of another gambling anime, Kakegurui, and Kaiji does a lot of the same things that made it enjoyable. I like learning the rules of the unique games they'll be gambling on. Then, just like the players, I try to spot potential cheating or find ways to tilt the odds. It becomes a sort of mystery, and that's my favorite thing about it. I thought the second season accomplished this feeling a lot better than the first season. The last arc with the Bog in particular had a lot of really cool moments. I loved how Kaiji had a plan, but it wasn't spelled out to the audience, so I was caught up in the high-stakes battle of wits. Kaiji was the only character I really liked, most others weren't around for long enough, but he was interesting. I liked the balance of genius and stupidity where both halves felt realistic rather than contradictory.

The Bad: I have two big complaints about Kaiji. I praised the second season for keeping the viewer in the dark about Kaiji's plans. The first season, by comparison, felt like it was always info-dumping as much information as possible. The final gamble of the first season was really bad about that. It took several episodes painstakingly telling me about Kaiji's plan and it just wasn't exciting. I enjoyed the second season a lot more, but my complaint there is the slow pacing. Every time some minor thing happened, it would cycle through the reactions of every single person in the room, and the narrator started repeating everything three times. He repeated it three times! Three times! Zawa zawa.The Bog had a lot of interesting moments, but it would've been so much better if they got through it in half the episodes.

Overall: I enjoyed Kaiji, but it definitely didn't beat Kakegurui as my favorite gambling anime. The pacing was slow and, in season one, it kept explaining too much about Kaiji's plans. My favorite thing in a story like this is trying to figure out how much the protagonist knows and if they have a plan to get through. Still, I'm glad I watched it despite those problems because the Bog arc had so many epic twists and turns. It would've been better with faster pacing, but it still managed to be exciting regardless. I think I just look for different things in a gambling anime. I could easily see people liking this a lot more if their main focus was on feeling the tension of Kaiji's predicaments. Things like the slow pacing really enhanced that, but I was more interested in seeing the next move. Still, thanks for recommending this, Reg! Even if I didn't love everything about it, the highlights of the various gambles were always great. I'm glad I finally watched this.

Kaiji is good times. Great soundtrack, awesome narrator. Feels tremendously epic at times.

I'd like to nominate Monster, but it's both too long and too... not available to watch legally in any form whatsoever (though apparently Netflix now has the rights and will be adding it eventually!)

So I guess I'll go with Code Geass

LordoftheMorons posted...

I'd like to nominate Monster, but it's both too long and too... not available to watch legally in any form whatsoever (though apparently Netflix now has the rights and will be adding it eventually!)

So I guess I'll go with Code Geass

In addition to two seasons, Crunchyroll has five Code Geass movies, but a quick google search says the first three are inferior recap versions and only the last movie (which I guess is split into two) is worth watching. Would you be okay with me only watching Ressurection out of the movies?

Cool to hear about Monster, too! I've heard about that anime so much but it was never available anywhere to watch. I'll definitely watch it on my own if/when it becomes available, don't worry.

I havent seen any of the movies myself; just the two seasons is fine with me

Yeah the kaiji anime was just too slow to prefer over the manga

I can second the Code Geass if it's long enough to need a second nom.

One of my favorites, and really well made.

MacArrowny posted...

Kaiji is good times. Great soundtrack, awesome narrator. Feels tremendously epic at times.

pjbasis posted...

Yeah the kaiji anime was just too slow to prefer over the manga

Both of these are valid points.

The anime is incredibly strong, but the manga is much better paced, especially in the Bog arc.

It's a shame that nothing past that is likely to ever get animated, though. The current manga is very, very good imo.

Also on the subject of spelling out Kaiji's plans, as you somewhat called out (but I'm not sure you actually understood fully), It's kind of a running thing that the more a plan is spelled out, the harder it's inevitably going to fail. Meanwhile, the unexplored and unexplained plans always go well. It's a tad predictable, but still.

Robazoid posted...

In addition to two seasons, Crunchyroll has five Code Geass movies, but a quick google search says the first three are inferior recap versions and only the last movie (which I guess is split into two) is worth watching.

Technically, the movies are an alternate continuity. The "recap" movies have some small changes that are important to the "sequel" movie but contradict the TV series.

Yeah, you should feel free to ignore the Geass movies

Xeybozn posted...

Technically, the movies are an alternate continuity. The "recap" movies have some small changes that are important to the "sequel" movie but contradict the TV series.

I did not know that.

In the meantime, I came up with a tentative list of my favorite anime characters. I tried to be fair with manga stuff and not include anything that was completely unwarranted based on the anime only.

1. Rika Furude (Higurashi)
2. Hibiki Tachibana (Symphogear)
3. Rei Kiriyama (March Comes in Like a Lion)
4. Hisa Takei (Saki)
5. Nozomu Itoshiki (Zetsubou-sensei)
6. Shiki Ryougi (Kara no Kyoukai)
7. Suruga Kanbaru (Monogatari)
8. Rintarou Okabe (Steins;Gate)
9. Kumiko Oumae (Hibike Euphonium)
10. Momo Chiyoda (Demon Girl Next Door)
11. Rin Tohsaka (Unlimited Blade Works)
12. Jack Atlas (Yugioh 5D's)
13. Mikoto Misaka (Railgun)
14. Akemi Homura (Madoka)
15. Kotomi Ichinose (Clannad)
16. Tsubasa Hanekawa (Monogatari)
17. Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)
18. Kira Yoshikage (Jojo DiU)
19. I / Watashi (Humanity has Declined)
20. Yui Hirasawa (K-On)

With Tsubasa being the only shared character between our lists.

That's a great #1 (and some other great ones too)

Quite a few of those characters are from things I haven't seen, but any list with Hanekawa on it is fine by me!

Well, I've started Code Geass! A lot of the recommendations are for longer shows, so Ill probably only finish one every few days.

Oh damn I was too late in posting in here (and/or you were too quick in getting started on Code Geass)

I still hope you'll watch LotGH some day but since it's now coming to netflix, i'm going to nominate Monster

I figure Lordofthemorons would've de-nominated Code Geass if he knew it'd be coming to netflix, how things can change in a matter of days...

Being it's got 74 episodes, I'll need a 2nd person to join me in nominating it.

I won't finish a recommendation this week, I was an idiot and started Psycho Pass alongside Code Geass and I'm nowhere near finishing either. I am slowly working through them, though!

Since the final ranking won't be done until sometime in January now, I wanted to ask if people would be interested in me doing write-ups for the ten currently airing shows that I'm watching. Then I could include them in the final ranking as well. They'll start finishing over the next few weeks.

MartinFF7 posted...

Being it's got 74 episodes, I'll need a 2nd person to join me in nominating it.

Maniac seemed willing to recommend Code Geass too. Unless there's something else Maniac decides on, I could put him under Geass and LotM could join you on Monster (which he said was his preference). It isn't coming to Netflix until the 1st, though, so it'll probably be one of the last ones I watch!

I in general have a lot of trouble juggling more than one show at once tbh.

I'm interested in writeups for airing shows if you are. Just know that I will be officially registering a complaint if you say anything bad about Bocchi the Rock.

Yeah if Maniacs game Id be down for that swap

That's fine. Code Geass is a favorite though not sure it will be Roba's taste.

My only other plan was to recommend Bofuri or the new Fruits Basket as they seem more to his liking.

Mobilezoid posted...

Since the final ranking won't be done until sometime in January now, I wanted to ask if people would be interested in me doing write-ups for the ten currently airing shows that I'm watching. Then I could include them in the final ranking as well. They'll start finishing over the next few weeks.

Heck ya

though it'd be fun if you at least mentioned something after each season about how you feel about it

I assume you mean mention something after each of the airing seasons, and I will post shorter thoughts for them in the anime topic. Right now, though, I'm eleven episodes into both Code Geass and Psycho Pass. That's roughly a cour, so it's like I finished a season. I'll post some thoughts about them too! I just need to talk about them a bit, no need to read this if anyone would rather wait for my eventual write-up. There's always the chance these opinions will change.

Spoilers for Code Geass up to episode 11
Boy do I ever hate Suzaku. He's siding with people who are openly genocidal, people who slaughter civilians on a whim while cackling manically, yet Suzaku struts around like he has the moral high ground. I'm glad he isn't the actual protagonist. Instead it's Lelouch, a cool dude who gets shit done. Still, I just don't know how much more I can take of this constant "Lelouch is about to succeed... not! Suzaku is here to stop him, lol. Time for more hypocritical speeches about how Lelouch is actually the bad guy, not Brittania who are at this very moment gleefully killing children as part of a strategy to lure Lelouch out". That attack on the Japanese civilian sector where there was literally a scene of a crowd, including a mother holding a baby, getting mowed down... that wasn't any fun to watch. I hope the show never goes there again. I also hope Lelouch kills Suzaku at some point because he sucks.

Spoilers for Psycho pass up to episode 11
Boy do I ever hate Makishima. Unlike the Crunchyroll comments, I don't hate Akane for failing to shoot him to save Yuki. I get it. If she were the type of person who could've done that, the psycho pass system would've filtered her out long ago. Makishima though, man, what a crummy bad guy. I get that I'm supposed to hate him, and I do. On a pure story level, though, he's the kind of bad guy I absolutely despise. The faux-philosophical "society is broken, I can do whatever I want" type, ugh. Stories with a bad guy like that always act like they have deep themes, but I've never been able to relate to them at all. The setting was really neat up to this point, but if people can get away with literal murder simply because they think they're doing the right thing, the whole world falls apart, in my opinion. Almost nobody thinks they're doing the wrong thing. Literally every single killer they've encountered so far hasn't seen themselves as doing anything wrong. Why were their psycho pass scores so high? In any case, I hope the show never gets this stupidly bleak ever again like it did with Yuki. There's setting up conflict and then there's being bleak simply for shock value, and this was that.

I'm sad no one recommended a lighthearted cute girls comedy because I could really use one right now!

Robazoid posted...

I'm sad no one recommended a lighthearted cute girls comedy because I could really use one right now!

Are there any left?!

Hey I almost did Bofuri! That's a lighthearted cute girls sorta isekai!

You should just watch it anyway lol

You could argue Sakura Quest is a lighthearted cute girls comedy. I don't think it would make for a very strong argument, but it's at least in the same ballpark.

I thought Bofuri was quite fun also.

Psycho Pass
I think the part you just watched was the low point of the show for me. I think the show does a better job with Makishima later on and I ended up liking it fairly well overall, but who knows if you'll come around. At the end of the day it is still a Gen Urobuchi show and he's still going to do this philosophical stuff even though I'd say his strengths lie elsewhere. I will say though that I don't think "he thinks he's doing the right thing" is the justification the show would give for why things are playing out this way. (Because of things that come up later; not saying you missed something)

Suzaku is a jerk yes. I think the idea of him is that he's basically a typical "hero" character, but fighting for the villains. I never liked him at all, but he didn't ruin the show for me.

I thought Makishima was lame too, and liked the show better when he wasn't around. The episode 11 scene was hella intense too, even if it was a bit silly.

I rec'd you a cute girls show :p

Bofuri is quite good. And very much lighthearted cute girls comedy.

Season 2 soon as well iirc

Yeah Suzaku kinda sucks

Literally lol'ed at the Code Geass write-up

please keep us informed of your progress, this is great

I love Suzaku - he's my favorite character. I also hate Lelouch though, so...

I got partway through episode 14 of Psycho Pass and now I'm going to drop it. It was genuinely intriguing early on, but starting with episode 11 it became so fucking stupid, and it just keeps getting worse. The scene in 14 where mask guy beat a woman to death with a hammer while a whole crowd watched, and even enjoyed the spectacle was so gross that I immediately stopped watching. This show is beginning to incorporate all of the worst aspects of a lot of my most hated anime. It had the shitty pointless shock value of Gantz or Inuyashiki, literally my bottom two. It also had a society where the flaws are just so blatant that I can't accept that it could really exist in any capacity. It reminded me of Death Parade in that regard. Both it and Psycho Pass were clearly about exploring flaws in a broken system, but it doesn't work for me when the flaws are super obvious. I mean, why even bother exploring it when the flaws are this blatant? What's the big theme here? Don't trust a computer with judging life and death? Okay, I promise I won't. I just can't get invested or enjoy any of this.

@HBJDubs
Sorry for the bad feelings for one of your favorite anime. I still appreciated the recommendation! I just have a very low tolerance for this kind of feel-bad shock value. You can feel free to recommend something else, if you want, and I hope I haven't offended you. Like I've said before, not every show can appeal to everyone. Psycho Pass just really wasn't for me.

Those were almost exactly my feelings on Psycho Pass season 2, and I was pretty positive on season 1. So if it was already bothering you that much it's probably for the best you didn't continue.

I think people did like the movies more than S2 but I never got a chance to watch them.

Nah no offense here, I figured based on all your write-ups there was a chance it wasn't gonna be your thing. I'd probably be in the same boat if I was recommended a cute slice-of-life comedy; it's just not my style.

Let's go with Neon Genesis Evangelion for my redo

I like Psycho-Pass a good amount, in large part because I find the world very interesting. I'm not a fan of Makishima either, and the scene in episode 11 with the showdown did bug me for some of the reasons you mentioned... but I also found that scene to be incredibly tense and well-presented. Just a well-made series in general.

Plus the ED song is one of my favorites of all time.

With NGE, worth noting that you should probably watch the End of Evangelion movie once you're done, since that's basically a comprehensible version of the ending.

(This came out recently, so it counts as an airing anime! I'll try to finish a real recommendation this week too)

BONUS. Romantic Killer
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52865/Romantic_Killer
Fall 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.17/10
Best Character: Hoshino Anzu

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1gJM9-d6OM8

Premise: Unlike most high school girls, Hoshino Anzu only cares about video games, chocolate, and her beloved cat. She has no time for romance, at least not until a strange wizard named Riri steals her three joys away and forces her into a real-life dating sim!

The Good: Romantic Killer is a romantic comedy. What makes it unique is that Anzu knows that's the genre her life has turned into, and she refuses to go along with it. She was perfectly happy just lazing around playing games and eating chocolate. Anzu becomes enraged when Riri steals it all away and thrusts her into a real-life dating game. The annoying little wizard starts altering reality to force romantic encounters with hunky boys. However, in addition to being put off by how manipulative this is for herself and the guys involved, Anzu refuses to go along purely out of spite.

Romantic comedies are hit-or-miss for me. My #1 anime is one, but there are also a bunch that were too dramatic that I didn't like. Thankfully, Romantic Killer is one of the fun ones. It mostly uses the genre expectations to set up funny or cute moments. It helps that Anzu is such a great character. Her violent fury towards Riri was usually hilarious, and I loved all the jokes where she saw a typical romance plot coming and did her best to avoid it. She refused to get involved in any dumb drama, and I appreciated how aware she was that the guys were essentially being manipulated against their will. Whenever she interacted with them normally, though, Anzu was always a friendly and genuine person. She definitely won me over! As for the boys, Tsukasa was my favorite. He and Anzu had a fun dynamic with lots of cute moments as they grew closer.

The Bad: There was one dramatic arc in this that wasn't as bad as it could've been, but it still felt unnecessary and was easily my least favorite part. Beyond that, Riri was a bit too annoying sometimes. He was designed to be, and it set up a lot of great moments where Anzu yelled or smacked him. He was still a bit much at times.

Overall: Romantic Killer used romantic comedy plots and expectations in ways that were always a lot of fun. It had cute moments with minimal drama, which is perfect for someone like me who hates the misunderstandings that often plague the genre. Anzu was an amazing character who was always true to herself, and I liked her a lot. Riri could get annoying at times, but he was never bad enough to drag things down too much. Overall, this was a nice anime. Like the recommendations, I'm not giving airing anime a score or ranking just yet, but this will most likely end up a 7/10 and rank near My Dress-Up Darling, another great rom-com that avoided the usual pitfalls of the genre.

EDIT: Whoops, I linked to the MAL page for Beastars for a few minutes because that was the one I copied for the format. Fixed now

Riri is the worst part of the show by far and the dramatic arc was very well executed IMO. Benefited from being the part where Riri was the least annoying.

Incidentally, don't be misled by the "to be continued?" thing at the end. It adapts the whole manga.

Woo another show I've watched!

I feel the same as you did honestly. 7/10 feels right. Anzu was great, Riri was annoying but in a way where it is intentional and just makes you want to see them get beaten up and lose.

The final dramatic arc was a miss for me because boo Riri but it wasn't bad. Does make me worry about season 2 though.

i fucking love romantic killer! the dramatic stuff is bad but i love how it's both a parody of a romcom and a great romcom in its own right

the twist that the baseball player's memories were real was awesome

That was a great twist

As an unofficial recommendation, considering the shows you've liked, have you thought about trying a season of Precure? I'm about halfway through Tropical-Rouge as my first season and it's fun. Good main characters (especially Laura), good jokes, monster of the week fights are still entertaining.

Deadline for recommendations: January 1st

Just in case there are any stragglers waiting to pick an anime! That's the day Monster will hopefully become available, and I should be done pretty much everything else by then except maybe the Funimation ones (I want to do those last so I can hopefully squeeze in a few other anime during the free trial. I'll finally be able to finish Classroom Crisis!)

With airing anime beginning to end, I'm going to be able to start doing a write-up every weekday, including one later today. I'll probably miss the Monday/Tuesday after Christmas, but other than that they should be daily until the ranking ends in mid-January. Thank you for your patience while I continue to finish recommendations!

Sceptilesolar posted...

As an unofficial recommendation, considering the shows you've liked, have you thought about trying a season of Precure? I'm about halfway through Tropical-Rouge as my first season and it's fun. Good main characters (especially Laura), good jokes, monster of the week fights are still entertaining.

I remember someone suggested a Precure to me a few years ago, but I don't remember which one. I'm definitely interested in giving it a try, I'd just need to do some research on it first. I don't know which order to watch in (or if they're all standalone and it doesn't matter)

They're all standalone, with some tiny cameos in some. I picked Tropical Rouge because it was the most recently finished one and seemed to be well received, and that one is certainly standalone. Also recommended to me were Go Princess and Huggto. I know there are some good and bad seasons, and they're all pretty lengthy, so better to pick one of the good ones and decide if you want to continue from there.

Someone nominate Bofuri so he can have a cute girl anime to watch.

BONUS. March Comes in Like a Lion
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31646/3-gatsu_no_Lion
Fall 2016 (22 episodes), Fall 2017 (22 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.39/10 S1, 8.94/10 S2
Best Character: Hayashida Takashi
Recommended by: @changmas

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

Premise: Kiriyama Rei became a professional shogi player in middle school, and now he faces intense pressure to succeed despite his own self-doubts. Luckily, he befriends the Kawamoto family, three sisters who provide an uplifting presence in his life.

The Good: March Comes in Like a Lion is a drama anime about shogi. It mostly follows Rei, exploring his past traumas, his present mindset, and where he hopes to go in the future. I thought he was an interesting character. His family situation forced him to try become independent as soon as possible just so he could escape it. This left him with mental scars, which is an obvious detriment in a mental game like shogi. It often became difficult to watch, but this was still a very realistic depiction of depression. Still, my favorite things about this anime were the lighter parts. The Kawamoto sisters were (usually) happy and fun. My favorite character was still Rei's supportive teacher, Hayashida. He was a good dude, and easily the funniest character. The production values in this were also very high quality, and the animation was relentlessly unique. Even when I didn't enjoy parts of the story, it was at least still visually striking.

The Bad: While I found Rei's inner turmoil interesting and realistic, and the lighter parts with the Kawamoto family were good, there were large sections of this anime that didn't appeal to me at all. I never cared about shogi. I just couldn't follow the flow of the matches. Whether a character won or lost seemed 100% tied to their mental state, so very little effort was spent trying to make the game itself entertaining. I had a similar complaint when I watched The Queen's Gambit awhile back, though, so maybe stories about these kinds of games just aren't my thing. They certainly lack the fun visual element something like Chihayafuru has with the card-smacking!

Other than that, March Comes in Like a Lion was just too dramatic and bleak for me. I really hated Rei's evil stepsister Kyouko, like every time she was onscreen the show became awful. Gotou, her abusive lover, was somehow even worse than she was. Every time they appeared, the Crunchyroll comments would have someone saying "wow, I really sympathize with Kyouko/Gotou now" and... that never happened for me. Everything they did, and everything I learned about them, just made me hate them more. There was also a long plotline in the second season that I can only describe as miserable. Shows like this are why I'm wary of the iyashikei tag on MAL. It's supposed to stand for 'healing', but large parts of this anime hurt me instead.

Overall: I cant claim that March Comes in Like a Lion is a bad anime. The visual flair was great and the writing was clearly intricate and well thought out. Sadly, most of it just didn't appeal to me. I liked Rei, and I enjoyed the uplifting supporting characters like the Kawamotos or his teacher. I never felt invested in the shogi, however, and most of the drama was too much for me. I can see why this would resonate with other people, but it wasn't my thing. Still, I'm glad that I watched it! Thanks for the recommendation, changmas. This will most likely get a low ranking, but it'll be in good company alongside other beloved anime like Violet Evergarden and Sound Euphonium. That whole section of the ranking is full of shows that seemingly everyone loves except for me, so I'm most likely the crazy one.

Wait is this really tagged with iyashikei on MAL lmao

I can see it from the standpoint that the thematic content of the show is about emotional healing, but I feel like that's wildly missing the point of the genre tag.

Anyway I liked the show the show reasonably well myself, mostly because of Rei's character arc. Generally agree that the shogi scenes weren't great, though I did like the match towards the end of the second season.