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

(+) Yeah! (+)

March Comes In like a Lion is one of my favorite anime and manga, so it's a shame you didn't like it as much as I do, but I'm not really surprised either based on previous rankings. Heavy character drama isn't generally something you've rated that highly, though there are exceptions.

I don't know much at all about shogi, but I still think the series does well enough presenting the games as reflecting the characters' mindsets without requiring any actual knowledge. Though the mangaka consulted a high-ranking shogi player extensively when writing it, so the details are mostly there and accurate to the game.

Also, I don't find Kyouko sympathetic, but I did find her pretty entertaining, so that's another difference, I tend to enjoy that sort of character. Gotoh is actually not that bad really. Also not particularly sympathetic, but 'abusive lover' is inaccurate in both counts.

I didn't sympathize with Kyouko but I did find her entertaining yeah.

I also love the ED I Am Standing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZLN_w_rCpM

Written and performed by the artist when she was 14!

Going through the first few, some not iyashikei series on MAL:

Mushishi
Natsume Book of Friends
Kino's Journey
Takagi-san

I can kinda see why most of these were tagged as such, but it's still wrong.

Maniac64 posted...

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

Ok, that's my nom if I'm eligible. Gotta get you ready for next season.

If there's definitely a type of show Roba needs to watch more of, it's cute girls doing cute things...!

MartinFF7 posted...

If there's definitely a type of show Roba needs to watch more of, it's cute girls doing cute things...!

After the stuff we've nommed recently he might need it.

Come to think of it a relevant show that is not on Roba's list is Azumanga Daioh...

I don't want to use my recommendation on it though even though I did like the show.

BONUS. BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense
https://myanimelist.net/anime/38790/Itai_no_wa_Iya_nano_de_Bougyoryoku_ni_Kyokufuri_Shitai_to_Omoimasu
Winter 2020 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 7.55/10 S1
Best Character: Honjou Kaede/Maple
Recommended by: @WhiteLens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS8YwJ9FIrY

Premise: Honjou Kaede starts playing a new VR MMO, and she puts all her stats into defense so that she won't get hurt. This, along with a lucky combination of skills, winds up making her character Maple one of the strongest in the game!

The Good: Bofuri is an action comedy set in a video game fantasy world. The setting reminded me of Sword Art Online, and it was nice exploring a VR MMO like that without any life-threatening stakes. Maple is just having fun playing the game. There's always something new to find in New World Online. It would be a lot of fun to actually play a game like this where players can stumble across quests or dungeons that bestow wholly unique skills or gear. I loved the sense of discovery when Sally found that underwater dungeon early on, and of course Maple encountered so many things it became a running joke.

The comedic moments in Bofuri were usually pretty great. Maple and her friends are all good people having fun. Maple herself especially always got a laugh out of me when her kindhearted friendliness contrasted with her latest game-breaking skill. The events were also a neat way to keep the story flowing. The one where players hunted for coins was my favorite. This wound up being just a nice anime that was a lot of fun to watch.

The Bad: While the game in Bofuri looks like it would be fun to play regardless, I feel like the balance could use some work! People would eventually get tired of a small handful of elites hogging all the special skills and unique events to themselves. Each new superpower that Maple found felt less and less special, like they were just another to throw in the pile. This first season didn't go too far with it, not quite, but I'm worried the second season might if the trend continues.

Overall: I'm glad I finally watched Bofuri. I'm at the point where I tend to skip past shows that look like yet another generic isekai. That means I miss out on gems like this that aren't actually isekai at all! Maple was a fun character, and it was always interesting seeing her explore the world and use new skills in creative ways. The other characters she met were good too. The game was interesting, and I enjoyed seeing what would happen in it. Thanks for recommending this, WhiteLens! It'll probably wind up in the lower half of my top 100, a solid 7/10. I'm looking forward to seeing where the upcoming second season takes Maple next.

Yay! Glad you gave Bofuri a try and enjoyed it.

It's just a nice fun show that really doesn't take things seriously which can be a real nice change from other fantasy world/isekai shows.

Time for an airing anime nobody cares about!

BONUS. I've Somehow Gotten Stronger When I Improved My Farm-Related Skills
https://myanimelist.net/anime/51128/Noumin_Kanren_no_Skill_bakka_Agetetara_Nazeka_Tsuyoku_Natta
Fall 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 5.89/10
Best Character: Ruri

(I couldn't find the OP or ED, but you aren't missing much)

Premise: Al Wayne has maxed out his farming abilities and unlocked a unique skill that gave him a huge stat boost. Now he needs to help battle strong monsters even though he'd much rather be working in his fields.

The Good: Farm-Skills (I'm not writing out the whole title) is a fantasy anime. It isn't an isekai and it isn't set in a video game, but everyone has stat screens they can open to see their level and exp, so I dunno. Maybe anime has just gotten so lazy as a medium that they can't even bother going through the motions of isekai-ing the protagonist anymore. In any case, this anime wasn't very good. The nicest thing I can say is that at least it wasn't bad as it could've been! I didn't hate any of the characters. The action and animation were passable. Al's focus on being a farmer rather than an adventurer was occasionally charming.

The Bad: Al claimed he was a farmer first and an adventurer second, but you wouldn't be able to tell if he didn't keep saying it. Most of the plot was just him going on boring adventures fighting goofy monsters. There was an awful running gag where orcs kept trying to have sex with him, ugh. While most of the girls were decent, they were all dragged down by being in a harem for such a boring protagonist. I also really hated how Al was described as super-powerful, but he also struggled against most enemies. The show should've picked one or the other and stuck with it. It was hard to take any tension seriously when I kept wondering why Al couldn't just smoke the bad guy in one punch like he had in previous battles.

Overall: Farm-Skills is a typical bargain-bin fantasy anime. That was what it set out to be, though, so I can't hold that against it. The one to truly blame is me for watching it in the first place. There just weren't very many other anime to choose from this season! Maybe I should've watched Reincarnated as a Sword instead. In any case, at least Farm-Skills wasnt terrible. It'll rank a low 3/10 alongside forgettable junk like How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, but at least it isn't a 2/10 alongside The Master of Ragnarok. Al's love for farming was just barely charming enough to be mildly entertaining.

Literally anything that describes itself by referring to 'cheat skills' or the like is awful. It is simply a fact.

EDIT: Though the idea that in, not a game but an actual fantasy setting, there's still some sort of character optimization waiting to be broken by some smart cookie is so indefensibly stupid it almost wraps around to humorous. Good parody material, at least.

have you heard of uncle from another dimension? didn't see it on your list

SeabassDebeste posted...

have you heard of uncle from another dimension? didn't see it on your list

I remember the last half got delayed for a long time, but it looks like it's finally started back up again. I'm not a huge fan of isekai (obviously) but I heard this might be one of the good ones, so I might watch it someday!

it's the only isekai i've watched - just watched the part in netflix a few days ago... don't worry, it's not good.

BONUS. Management of a Novice Alchemist
https://myanimelist.net/anime/49849/Shinmai_Renkinjutsushi_no_Tenpo_Keiei
Fall 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 6.60/10
Best Character: Sarasa Feed

(I couldn't find the OP for this one either)

Premise: Sarasa Feed has trained to become an alchemist in the hopes of having a successful business someday. However, due to a lack of funds, she must start with a run-down shop in a small town.

The Good: Management of a Novice Alchemist is a fantasy anime about a girl who starts an alchemy shop. It had a similar feel to the Atelier video games (though I've only finished one of those so I'm hardly an expert). Sarasa needs to balance her income and expenses, gather ingredients, craft new products, and battle monsters. She also has to get to know everyone in town, and she quickly befriends a girl named Lorea to help run the shop and two gatherers named Iris and Kate. Some parts of this are close to cute girls slice-of-life, but it also has serious monster battles and business dealings. I enjoyed the overall vibe of this anime. Each episode ended with a screen tallying her cashflow, and it was fun following along with her successes and failures.

The Bad: Personally, I felt that Sarasa was too overpowered. I'm a big fan of characters having different strengths and contributing in their own way, but Sarasa was a one-woman army. In addition to her alchemy skills, she also had infinite magic, business acumen, and she's an expert swordsman. Iris and Kate should've been the warriors of the group, and it would've been nice if Lorea was the more business-minded one. Instead, Sarasa was the one doing everything. It didn't ruin the anime or anything, but it was definitely disappointing for me.

Overall: Management of a Novice Alchemist was fun and a nice anime to watch. Still, for me it'll end up being either a high 4/10 or low 5/10, meaning it was solidly below average. I enjoyed seeing Sarasa run a business, and the characters were all decent. She was just too overpowered for my tastes, which undercut a lot of the tension and made Iris and Kate especially feel superfluous. It was a nice anime, but definitely not anywhere near my favorite of the season.

BONUS. Do It Yourself
https://myanimelist.net/anime/48542/Do_It_Yourself
Fall 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 7.55/10
Best Character: Suride 'Purin' Miku

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOBr0jcqnZo

Premise: Yua Serefu, a clumsy daydreamer, decides to join her school's DIY club. Even in an era of technological advancement, there's still a certain charm in making things by hand!

The Good: Do It Yourself is a cute girls slice-of-life club anime with a focus on woodworking and other hand-crafted things. It's a comfy show with a similar vibe to something like Laid-Back Camp, which is always nice (though I didn't think DIY was anywhere near as good). I enjoyed watching the girls decide what to make, gather materials, and then put it all together. All the characters had fun personalities, and, while they were relatively simplistic, they each got at least a bit of depth. My favorite was Purin, Serefu's tsundere best friend who acted aloof but was secretly always caring and supportive. I also really liked how they built and sold smaller trinkets to raise money for a larger project. That was neat to see, and gathering funds is something I think a lesser anime would've skipped.

The Bad: DIY just didn't resonate with me as much as other laid-back anime have. Everything about it was comfy and fine, but that was it. I can't pinpoint anything terrible, though. Serefu's clumsiness was charming at first but also got old over time. That's about it.

Overall: Do It Yourself was a show I looked forward to watching every week because it was overall a nice and happy anime. It'll likely end up ranking a low 6/10 overall, very close to exactly average, but theres nothing wrong with that! I liked all the characters and watching them build things was fun. It didn't become a huge favorite, but not every anime needs to. Sometimes average is enough!

DIY seemed like a show I would like but I bounced off the first episode pretty hard. The main character was just a little too random and weird for me, maybe.

(I mostly did airing anime this week, but now I have four days off work! I'll spend some time with family, but I'll also work on finishing some shows. I'll be back on Wednesday with some actual recommendations. Have a good Christmas, everyone!)

BONUS. Akiba Maid War
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52193/Akiba_Meido_Sensou
Fall 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 7.71/10
Best Character: Mannen Ranko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxN-HbcE0XQ

Premise: Wahiru Nagomi follows her dream and moves to Akihabara to work at a maid cafe. However, it turns out that the life of a maid is a lot more violent than she was expecting.

The Good: Akiba Maid War is an action comedy that takes a story better suited for a hardened yakuza gang and uses cute maid girls instead. It's an undeniably fun and unique idea. The first episode especially left me with high hopes, it had flashy action and the contrast of cute maids and gang violence was great. Maid cafes all have unique twists (the main group is modeled after pigs, but there are a bunch of different animal or alien mash-ups). The setting gave me a similar vibe as the old movie The Warriors with its themed gangs. One of the main characters, the older maid Ranko who had just gotten out of jail, really impressed me early on. It really felt like AMW would be the easy choice for anime of the season.

The Bad: Sadly, Akiba Maid War never lived up to its full potential. Of the seven characters in the pig cafe, only two of them feel fleshed out. Ranko and Nagomi get most of the screentime. Everyone else still has a unique character and a few neat moments, but mostly it felt like they were just there to fill out the scenes, which was a huge letdown. As for the main two, I mostly just found Nagomi annoying. Her innocence didn't fit in the violent maid underworld, and it was never satisfyingly explained why she stuck around after her first brush with death. Ranko was still easily the best girl, but even she had moments where her central character changed in an instant for reasons that weren't adequately explained. Basically, none of the characters were great. Even more disappointing, the setting and overall story were both half-baked too. This kind of gang story would've benefited from clear power structures and realistic retaliation whenever one faction crossed another. Instead, it never felt like anything mattered or built into anything bigger. Whether the pig cafe was fine or in trouble or being actively hunted changed on an episode by episode basis, often by the literal whims of some higher-ups. Eventually I just stopped caring because it didn't feel like the characters were actually influencing anything.

Overall: I'm glad that Akiba Maid War exists. My favorite thing about anime is that it can have off-the-wall genre mashups like this. Sometimes the result of mixing, say, cute girls and counterterrorism, results in a fun story like Lycoris Recoil. Then other times an idea that seems like a winner, yakuza maids, winds up falling flat. I didn't like any of the characters by the end, and the plot was all over the place, but Akiba Maid War was still a fun experiment. I'll most likely end up ranking it somewhere in the 3/10s, but I'm glad I watched it.

Reminder that January 1st is the last day I'll take recommendations, and thats coming right up.

I also just learned Sakura Quest finally moved to Crunchyroll! Now only The Tatami Galaxy is stuck on Funimation. Still, most of my remaining recommendations are on Netflix. They announced getting rid of password sharing in early 2023. Since I'm a leech on my brother's account, I'm focusing on finishing those as much as I can. Hopefully there will be enough time for me to finish Monster without having to pay for a month on my own (though I will if I have to). I also watched Cyberpunk: Edgerunners because it came out recently enough to count as airing, and it was one of the few remaining Netflix anime I really wanted to watch. I'll do a write-up for it at some point and count it in the final ranking too.

I hope everyone is having good holidays. I'll be back with more write-ups on Wednesday.

Mobilezoid posted...

They announced getting rid of password sharing in early 2023.

Did they? I thought that was just for India...

All I know is that I saw a bunch of reddit posts mentioning that a week ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/zs641j/netflix_to_begin_cracking_down_on_password/

Kaguya has an OVA that was released between seasons 2 and 3 you might want to check out if you want a complete experience (not really).

There is also a movie that came out in Japan recently that continues from season 3, should be a must watch if it somehow manages to go online before this topic finishes... which is definitely not happening.

Full Moon wo Sagashiteru

DIY started pretty strong but fell pretty flat as it went on.

Jobko and her excessive gratuitous English was great though

Sceptilesolar posted...

DIY seemed like a show I would like but I bounced off the first episode pretty hard. The main character was just a little too random and weird for me, maybe.

Yes, but that at least gave us https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/504371536606658581/1027697470026829834/SPOILER_mpv-shot0001.jpg

Mobilezoid posted...

I also just learned Sakura Quest finally moved to Crunchyroll!

I actually looked at this today and it looks like there's currently a problem with the subbed version where the subtitles are all out of sync.

I watched the English dub for this show and thought it was pretty good, but figured I'd mention this in case you want to watch the subbed version since right now it's near unwatchable on Crunchy.

I'm guessing it's something related to the Funimation/Crunchyroll transfer and that the version on Funi won't have the same issue, but I don't have a premium account there so I can't check.

I didn't get through as much as I hoped to over my four days off, but I did finish Cowboy Bebop and Record of Ragnarok from recommendations, as well as most of Vinland Saga. That plus Cyberpunk and six airing anime, at one write-up per weekday, should carry me through long stretches of watching nothing but Monster in the new year. Once I'm done that and Evangelion, I'll no longer need to worry about Netflix password sharing and I can get back to stuff like Code Geass.

pyresword posted...

I actually looked at this today and it looks like there's currently a problem with the subbed version where the subtitles are all out of sync.

I tried the first five minutes of the first episode and, yeah, the subs are unwatchable. I tried contacting Crunchyroll support about it and I don't need to start Sakura Quest for a little while, so we'll see if they fix it! (I doubt they will). At worst, it's still on Funimation so I can watch it there as originally planned.

Mega_Mana posted...

Full Moon wo Sagashiteru

I couldn't find this on any streaming service, but all 52 episodes seem to be on Youtube. I'll watch it there, hopefully that's okay.

Robazoid posted...

and I can get back to stuff like Code Geass.

phew, was getting worried it was dropped since you've announced finishing like 20 series since you started and gave the episode 11 update on that one...!

BONUS. Cowboy Bebop
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1/Cowboy_Bebop
Spring 1998 (26 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.75/10
Best Character: Ein
Recommended by: @Celo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL-D9LrFJd4

Premise: Set in the near future, Spike Spiegel and Jet Black are bounty hunters. They travel the solar system in their ship, the Bebop, and try to catch enough bad guys to pay the bills.

The Good: Cowboy Bebop is a sci-fi action anime. It's episodic for the most part, usually involving them tracking down a bounty or dealing with a personal problem. Still, I liked how the characters and their growth/relationships always carried over between episodes even if the individual plots did not. They picked up new crewmembers along the way, including a mysterious woman named Faye, a genius child hacker named Ed, and a cute scientifically enhanced dog named Ein. The crew of the Bebop had a fun dynamic most of the time. I was pleasantly surprised at how funny a lot of episodes could be! The episodic nature of the series meant I could watch each one as its own little fun adventure. Some episodes were obviously better than others, but there were only one or two that I outright disliked. If I had to pick a favorite, it'd probably be Toys in the Attic, the one where they battled a nefarious slime loose on the ship. It was tough choosing a favorite character between Ed and Ein. They both excelled at doing fun things in the background even though the plot rarely focused on them. In the end, I decided I liked the smart dog the best. I really enjoyed how fun this anime was overall.

The Bad: I'm guessing this will be controversial, but the more serious episodes were my least favorite. Anytime anything related to Julia or Vicious showed up, my enjoyment took a noticeable dive. I liked Spike the goofy yet competent bounty hunter, not Spike the guy haunted by his past. It all felt very vague and melodramatic, so I didn't really care about it. I wanted more episodes like Ed and Ein wandering around looking for food and less like Jupiter Jazz or the finale.

Overall: Cowboy Bebop was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. Most of what I'd heard about it over the years made it sound like a gritty crime drama, and the few episodes that were like that weren't my favorites. I wasn't expecting to have so many fun stories like Spike battling a showboating killer in an amusement park, or one episode spending significant time just trying to figure out how to play an old video tape. Thanks for recommending this, Celo! I'm not sure when I'd have gotten around to this otherwise. It'll probably wind up falling somewhere around average in my final ranking, but that isn't a bad thing. I'm glad I finally watched it.

Oh yeah Cowboy Bebop is a fun time much more than it is gritty. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I also prefer the standalone eps to Spike's larger story episodes. Though I did think the finale was good.

I remember Pierrot Le Fou being my #2 but Ballad of Fallen Angels was definitely #1 (overly biased on the scene w/ "Green Bird" playing but that's like an all-time anime scene for me). Another series I watched in the 2005-2008 timeframe that I owe a rewatch at some point...

I don't like Bebop as much as most seem to but it's a pretty good show. I like the finale but overall it's more about the ride than the destination. I think the finale is more to make it so the show doesn't arbitrarily stop than because they just really wanted to tell this ongoing story about Spike.

Personally I thought the comedic parts of Bebop were bad and the serious stuff was good :p. Pierrot Le Fou a great episode though. I didn't like the show much overall.

BONUS. Record of Ragnarok
https://myanimelist.net/anime/44942/Shuumatsu_no_Walk%C3%BCre
Summer 2021 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 6.66/10
Best Character: Brunhilde
Recommended by: @GavsEvans123

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FsffPTIL74

Premise: The gods have decided to destroy humanity, but the mortals still have one last chance. During Ragnarok, the thirteen strongest humans from throughout history will face off against the thirteen strongest gods in a duel that will decide the fate of humanity.

The Good: Record of Ragnarok is an action anime about historical figures dueling gods. I'll have some complaints about this, and since I haven't read the manga I don't know if this was poorly executed there too or if this is just a bad adaptation. It's disappointing in either case, because I think this is a really fun idea! Historical figures having over-the-top battles with mythical gods is great. The first battle is Lu Bu vs Thor, I mean come on that's awesome. I liked how it delved into the history of each fighter, and gave them all cool abilities. Looking at the list of fighters, there are a lot of unique choices that I'm excited to see. Conceptually, Record of Ragnarok is really cool.

The Bad: Unfortunately, I thought the execution of this cool idea was mediocre at best. It has a good art style, but the animation itself is really bad. Lots of scenes are mostly still images of characters talking or reacting. I saw a lot of comments elsewhere calling this a slideshow, and it's hard to disagree. Even when the characters fought, the battles were rarely impressive. Aside from the animation, I didn't like the pacing. There were too many reactions from the crowd, and after pretty much every attack the action paused to examine it from every possible angle. Between that and the flashbacks, each ten minute fight was stretched across four episodes. I think this would be less of a problem in manga format where the reader could read all of that without pausing the action in their imagination, but I don't think it worked very well in an anime format.

Overall: I still enjoyed Record of Ragnarok, but it was solely due to the strength of the idea. Historical figures with unique battle skills duking it out with gods is just such an inherently fun concept. Sadly, the anime itself was poorly paced and poorly animated. It made me think of The Junji Ito Collection, another anime where good ideas were held back by shockingly poor animation. Thankfully, Ragnarok wasn't anywhere near as bad as that. The art itself looked good, and the voice acting was solid. I just hope the upcoming second season handles pacing and animation a bit better. This will probably end up in the 3/10s of my final ranking, but I could easily see that rising if the next season is an improvement! In any case, thanks for recommending this, GavEvans. Watching Lu Bu battle Thor was a lot of fun, as were the other fights, and I'm genuinely excited for the duel they teased at the end of this season.

Yeah, all I've heard about RoR is that it's a terrible adaptation and the manga is much better. Surprised someone would recommend it.

Finished Vinland Saga, write-up for it coming tomorrow. While waiting for Monster to come out, I started Full Moon wo Sagashiteru/Searching for the Full Moon. Aside from watching it on YouTube in 360p, it's pretty good so far!

I often go to the anime board and search for opinions of old shows. The only post on there about Full Moon is from nine years ago, made by our very own MacArrowny! He called it the best idol anime of all time. I wouldnt go quite that far yet, but after six episodes it is surprisingly charming and has a lot of heart. (Also in fairness to Mac, the two actual best idol anime didn't exist when he made that post in 2013)

rewatched must of cowboy bebop last year. the animation still strikes me at incredible, and the soundtrack is literally my favorite part, especially the ED, possibly my favorite of all time

i generally like the comedic episodes not then the serious; however even the lighter episodes are still centered around a protagonist with ibvious personal demons and are prepared with his solitude. so the darkest episodes feel inevitable, tying the show together

the worst part of it by far is faye's outfits

little disappointed to hear how poor ROR's pushing is, but if i'm home alone for a boring weekend, could see myself blazing through it like uncle from another universe or darwin's game

I had no idea that ROR wasn't well received. That's what I get for not looking into anime discussions! As you say, the premise is excellent, which was enough to hook me throughout. I considered changing the recommendation as the write-ups went on to something that might appeal better to your tastes, but I'm glad I stuck to it.

I read that another animation studio is coming in for season 2 alongside the current studio. I take that, and the fact it survived Netflix's animation purge, as positive signs for the future. I guess I'll get to find out next month!

BONUS. Vinland Saga
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37521/Vinland_Saga
Summer 2019 (24 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.73/10
Best Character: Thorfinn
Recommended by: @NFUN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U7BDn-gU18

Premise: After the death of his father, a young boy named Thorfinn joins a band of Viking mercenaries. While most warriors simply try to survive the war in England or secure the best plunder, Thorfinn is focused on revenge.

The Good: Vinland Saga is a historical action anime set during the Danish invasion of England. This approximate era has been popular in fiction lately (I've never watched the TV show Vikings, but I know it was successful). It was neat seeing an anime interpretation of it. I enjoy historical epics, and the Vikings are always a fun bunch. Their warrior culture is interesting, and they're usually boisterous badasses who enjoy plunder and battle. That attitude is nicely contrasted by the more dour Thorfinn. His goal is getting revenge against Askeladd, the man who killed his father, but the situation is a lot more complicated than that. Due to various circumstances, Thorfinn needs to work for Askeladd in exchange for chances to duel him, which was a unique dynamic. I mostly enjoyed the bigger picture historical stuff, but Thorfinn's story was a nice driving motivation. Otherwise, the production values were all solid, and the battle scenes especially were great. I tried watching another Viking TV show once, The Last Kingdom, but I didn't get very far because the whole thing felt so cheap. I was thankful that Vinland Saga created a believable setting.

The Bad: My biggest problem is that the story didn't get as far as I would've liked. For something called Vinland Saga, Vinland wasn't exactly a big part of it! From what I've read since watching it, though, this whole first season is basically a prologue, so I guess that makes sense. The second season is starting soon, and I'm glad I won't need to wait as long for it as other people did. If I had to complain about anything else, I guess the last few episodes were a bit of a letdown. It set up what could've been an interesting situation filled with political intrigue, but then it threw all that aside and rushed to a brute-force conclusion. It didn't ruin the show or anything, but it was definitely a letdown.

Overall: Vinland Saga was a solid anime. I enjoyed the historical context and setting, the characters, and there were lots of well-animated battles. I'm glad this is getting another season, too, because hopefully that will resolve my biggest complaint by carrying the story further! Thanks for recommending this, NFUN. It'll probably end up near the middle of my final ranking, but that isn't a bad spot to be. I'd put this alongside a few other high-quality and beloved action anime, shows like Claymore or Attack on Titan. Those usually don't resonate enough with me to get a super high ranking, but I enjoyed watching Vinland Saga and I can definitely see how other people would love it a lot more. I hope either next season or future seasons actually reach the part of the story where they go to Vinland, because I think those early explorations of North America are really interesting!

I was very annoyed with my friend that recommended it when I saw the "to be continued" card at the end. I think you'd like Planetes somewhat more so keep an eye out if it ever becomes available!

Glad you enjoyed Vinland Saga. I'm extremely excited about season 2, a lot of what I love about the manga will be there.

Mobilezoid posted...

Finished Vinland Saga, write-up for it coming tomorrow. While waiting for Monster to come out, I started Full Moon wo Sagashiteru/Searching for the Full Moon. Aside from watching it on YouTube in 360p, it's pretty good so far!

I often go to the anime board and search for opinions of old shows. The only post on there about Full Moon is from nine years ago, made by our very own MacArrowny! He called it the best idol anime of all time. I wouldnt go quite that far yet, but after six episodes it is surprisingly charming and has a lot of heart. (Also in fairness to Mac, the two actual best idol anime didn't exist when he made that post in 2013)

Haha, I'm not a big idol fan, so it doesn't mean that much coming from me. I mostly like it for the cool story and having a great MC.

Happy New Year everyone! This is the last day where I'll accept recommendations, so if anyone still hasn't made one, now is the time.

I'm seven episodes into Monster, which I'll try to finish as fast as I can just in case Netflix does pull anything with account sharing. Then I'll do Evangelion right after. I'm off work on Monday, so the next write-up will be Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Tuesday, then probably airing anime for the rest of the week until I finish Monster.

Is all of Monster on Netflix for you? I'm only seeing 30 episodes listed.

Yeah it's just 30 for now in Canada too...

How many episodes should it be?

74

Oh. Yeah that is a lot missing then.

Pretty lame. Have they done that with other series in the past? If so, how long does it typically take them to put up the rest of the episodes?

Hunter x Hunter only had 100 episodes for a couple years. Other shows like Naruto and One Piece never got completely uploaded.

One Piece is a weird one. At one point there were like 4 streaming services with One Piece all stopping at different points.