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

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Ranking: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T2EPEpQ4K17ZP_HXtYfm5uGTWG9I8_gI5AixegBRto8/edit?usp=sharing
Write-Ups: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-nFiPImntSMbRTWRe2RcVu1vJ00nJLVrsKXDtBNVIgw/edit?usp=sharing
MyAnimeList Profile: https://myanimelist.net/profile/Westerlyn
(If you have a MAL account, add me as a friend!)

I have to make one more topic for the last few recommendations, plus the finalized ranking of 292 anime coming soon. To anyone just now discovering the topic, the deadline for recommendations has unfortunately passed, but anyone can still feel free to suggest anime for me to watch! I'll at least keep them in mind for the future.

There's a Kaguya write-up coming later today, then it'll probably take until Friday for something else. I still have high hopes this will be done by the end of January, though! Also, the list and document in my Ranking/Write-up links above are a bit out of date. I'll try to update them tonight after I get home from work.

REMAINING: 158 episodes
Monster (16/74)
Code Geass (11/25 S1, 0/25 S2)
Mob Psycho 100 (1/13 S2, 0/1 OVA, 0/12 S3)
Sakura Quest (0/25)
The Tatami Galaxy (0/11)

(Write-up coming later today)
Kaguya-sama: Love is War S2 and S3

Tag

With that topic title, setting up yourself for AoT style "Final Part 2" and "Final Final Topic" lol

(I had already watched S1 of Kaguya and only gave it a 3/10. handsomeboy had hoped the later seasons would turn my opinion around, so watching them was his recommendation.)

BONUS. Kaguya-sama: Love is War
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37999/Kaguya-sama_wa_Kokurasetai__Tensai-tachi_no_Renai_Zunousen
Winter 2019 (12 episodes), Spring 2020 (12 episodes), Spring 2022 (13 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.41/10 S1, 8.65/10 S2, 9.07/10 S3
Best Character: Hayasaka Ai
Recommend by: @handsomeboy2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Pb412Bloc

Premise: Student council president Shirogane Miyuki and vice president Shinomiya Kaguya are in love. Both are too proud to confess, however, and they instead scheme to get the other to admit it first.

The Good: I thought the second and third seasons were better than the first. One of my biggest complaints from S1 was that the drama in the last few episodes wasnt my style. S2 and S3 still had drama, but it felt a lot more realistic. It was tied into character personalities or believable misunderstandings, it wasnt just Kaguya's dad being abusive solely to create drama like in S1. I appreciated that. There were also some nice moments in these two seasons! Miko was a good addition to the student council dynamic, and I liked Tsubame. Shirogane's sister and father were fun characters, as was the jealous tsundere Maki. Overall, these two seasons gave me a lot more to enjoy than the first one. However, my favorite things were still aspects that had been there since the beginning. I liked scenarios like when they played the coin truth-telling game and both Shirogane and Kaguya are scheming against each other. The episode where Shirogane learned how to rap was my favorite one of the series. I was also glad that best girl Hayasaka got some more time to shine. These good moments improved my opinion of the show by a measurable amount.

The Bad: Sadly, the main romance between Shirogane and Kaguya still mostly wasn't for me. They had some good moments, though! I loved the episode where they went stargazing and Shirogane was so into astronomy that he forgot all about scheming. He just pulled Kaguya close and started talking about stars, which flustered the hell out of her in a really cute way. It was great seeing Shirogane being so open and genuine in that moment... which confirmed that the premise of the show is my main problem with it. I said in my earlier write-up for S1 that my main reaction to their dilemma was "just admit you like each other you dumb kids", and that didn't change in S2 or S3. There was even a moment where Kaguya herself wondered why she cared so much about not confessing first, and the narrator pointed out that she just destroyed the premise of the show! Sadly, she quickly talked herself back into caring about it again. The Shirogane/Kaguya scheming romance is clearly something that resonated with a lot of people given the show's massive popularity. I just would've preferred if they were more open about it so there could be more cute scenes like the stargazing one. Even by the end of S3, I'm worried they still aren't entirely over the scheming phase of their relationship.

Overall: After watching Kaguya-sama S2 and S3, my opinion of it did rise. I'd probably give it a middling 4/10 now, which honestly isn't a bad ranking from me and is a noticeable improvement from the old 211th 3/10. Still, my main problem is with the show's central premise, and obviously that wasn't going to change. The rare amazing moment, like when they went stargazing and forgot all about their love is war mindgames, made me wish the whole anime could've focused on cute stuff like that. A lot of people really love this show, though, so it's probably good that it didn't cater to me specifically! I can have Snow White with the Red Hair as my optimal anime romance, you guys can have Kaguya, and we can all be happy. Still, thank you for recommending this, handsomeboy! The drama at the end of S1 left a bad taste in my mouth, so left to my own devices it probably would've been a long time before I continued this show. There were enough great moments in S2 and S3 that I'm glad I didn't miss them.

Tag

I'm probably in the minority on this, but the reason I like Kaguya-sama isn't really because I think it's a great romance. I like the show more as a comedy about romance than as a romance itself, if that makes sense.

You're not in the minority at all. I think most would agree there's way more comedy than romance in Kaguya.

It's definitely comedy-focused, but the romance was always such a central driving force that I wouldn't call it secondary.

For me, the ultimate comedy about romance would be Gamers. It took all the classic romantic comedy tropes and cranked them up to an absurd level. The humor came from them getting caught in a complicated web of misunderstandings. It never felt like we were supposed to actually care about any one couple succeeding or not. By comparison, the narrative in Kaguya cared very much about whether or not the main two would get together, it just told a lot of jokes and had absurd situations along the way.

That's how I see it anyway, hopefully that makes sense. I can definitely see someome enjoying Kaguya primarily for the comedy, and I did find a lot of scenarios funny (like all the times they played a game and were scheming about how or why to win or lose). It just didn't resonate with me on that level in the same way something like Gamers did.

MacArrowny posted...

You're not in the minority at all. I think most would agree there's way more comedy than romance in Kaguya.

I don't know if I agree with that claim over the course of the manga, it's just that the comedy is very front loaded.

Sceptilesolar posted...

I don't know if I agree with that claim over the course of the manga, it's just that the comedy is very front loaded.

I read the second half of the manga a couple months ago and there's definitely way more comedy than romance in the second half.

Mobilezoid posted...

It's definitely comedy-focused, but the romance was always such a central driving force that I wouldn't call it secondary.

For me, the ultimate comedy about romance would be Gamers. It took all the classic romantic comedy tropes and cranked them up to an absurd level. The humor came from them getting caught in a complicated web of misunderstandings. It never felt like we were supposed to actually care about any one couple succeeding or not. By comparison, the narrative in Kaguya cared very much about whether or not the main two would get together, it just told a lot of jokes and had absurd situations along the way.

That's how I see it anyway, hopefully that makes sense. I can definitely see someome enjoying Kaguya primarily for the comedy, and I did find a lot of scenarios funny (like all the times they played a game and were scheming about how or why to win or lose). It just didn't resonate with me on that level in the same way something like Gamers did.

The Kaguya anime's comic timing and direction are a lot better than Gamers's imo.

Mobilezoid posted...

BONUS. Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Dont really have high expectations for my recommendation, but I guess it turned out pretty well. Lately I kind of moved on because the Kaguya manga ended and the ending was a bit disappointing on how it handled some of the characters.

Theres a movie that came out in Japan continuing from S3 that we will see online some day. Its as romance-focused as you can get, though I havent seen it and cant say whether you will like it or not.

I could've finished Mob by Friday, but I resumed watching Code Geass instead so the write-up for it won't be until Monday. As an apology, I'll post some brief thoughts!

Code Geass S1 episode 20 spoilers

I know I complained about him once already back when I last made a post about CG, but Suzaku is one of the worst characters ever. I hate him so much. He's an unrelenting hypocrite and no one ever calls him out on it in the ways I want them to. Like in one mission he's killing enemy soldiers and has absolutely no problem with it, but when Zero shows up and starts killing enemy soldiers too, suddenly that's a war crime and Suzaku launches into a self-righteous rage. Shut the fuck up Suzaku. Then, in episode 20, he was finally going to die! He was out of power, surrounded, trapped! Yay! Then Lelouch saved him for some incredibly stupid reasons, ugh. It doesn't help that Suzaku is comically overpowered and has won every single battle he's gone into, including a 7v1 solo against literally all the elites of the Black Knights. Nothing about this goof is compelling in any way. This show has such potential to tell an interesting story, but Suzaku is constantly ruining everything in every way possible. And the way the narrative is treating him, especially with Lelouch randomly deciding to partner with him in episode 20, it's making me think that I'm supposed to sympathize with him. I'm afraid the ending will be something like "Suzaku was right all along" and if that's the case, this will be a new 1/10. I really hope the last 30 episodes aren't just more of the same old "Lelouch is about to do something cool, no wait here's Suzaku swooping in stop it while pretending he's the real hero" It's happened a dozen times now and I'm sick of it.

EDIT: Oh I also forgot, Suzaku has a princess for a girlfriend now. She fell for him even though he's the absolute worst person ever, which only further supports my fear that they're setting him up as the real hero of the show.

I finally started my free trial on Funimation. I finished Sakura Quest and started Tatami Galaxy, along with making some progress with most of the others. I'll do the write-up for Sakura on Monday, Tatami most likely on Tuesday, then either Mob or Geass later in the week. Monster, as the longest anime, remains the biggest hurdle, but I'm still on track to finish this before the end of January!

REMAINING: 104 episodes
Monster (26/74)
Code Geass (1/25 S2)
Mob Psycho 100 (1/13 S2, 0/1 OVA, 0/12 S3)
The Tatami Galaxy (4/11)

(Write-up coming later today)
Sakura Quest

Challenge for your final Geass writeup: spend no more than a single line on Suzaku.

I'll probably need to give him at least two lines, one in the bad section and another one reiterating his badness in the overall section. Whether I need more than that will depend on if he does anything else that infuriates me.

For example, near the end of S1, he dropped the world's largest pizza on a tree in order to help Euphy at the school fesitval, and then it cut to C.C. looking sad because she was really looking forward to that pizza. Suzaku is a monster and someone needs to talk about it!

(A Sakura Quest screenshot I took because it made me laugh, but it's also surprisingly applicable to Suzaku now that I think about it)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/2/AABz_zAAEHaA.jpg

Oh lord I forgot about the gigantic pizza Code Geass sure was a show.

(To be fair I've forgotten most things about Code Geass...)

Honestly more than anything I'm looking forward to (Roba don't click any of these spoilers!!)

-The shitshow Episode 22 reaction
-SUZAKU REDEMPTION ARC when he teams up w/ Lelouche in the final arc
-Re;Surrection thoughts (assuming Roba watches it, and which i really loved as a capstone of the series even if it's really only a sequel of the movies, is there really a difference between the show and the movies other than Shirley still being alive?)

I never watched the movies but I definitely agree on the other 2 points.

I actually liked the final arc a fair amount despite not really enjoying most of the rest of the season. I do not think Roba is going to like that part though >.>)

BONUS. Sakura Quest
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34494/Sakura_Quest
Spring 2017 (25 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 7.39/10
Best Character: Kouzuki Sanae
Recommended by: @pyresword

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlrPO6dBaxw

Premise: While struggling to find a job after graduating from college, Koharu Yoshino accepts what she thinks is a one-day tourism assignment in a rural town. It turns out to be a year-long contract where she'll act as the Queen of a local attraction and try to revitalize Manoyama.

The Good: Sakura Quest is a slice-of-life comedy about a group of girls trying to reverse the decline of Manoyama, a rural town. Yoshino is brought in by the tourism board to be Queen of a local attraction. This is a PA Works original, which always interests me because a lot of their shows have similar elements. This definitely has shades of Aquatope and Hanasaku Iroha (broadly speaking, all three are about an aimless girl going to a rural location for work, and she ends up learning about life while finding herself). Thankfully, Sakura Quest never fell to the melodramatic lows of either of those other two shows. It does a good job at keeping things lighthearted, even while examining all the factors that go into the decline of rural areas. Yoshino and her friends (who came to be known as royal ministers based on their skills) try a lot of things to bring in tourists, entice new businesses, revitalize locations, revive old customs, and so on. There are setbacks and sad moments, but they feel natural and the show was always fun to watch. It's also the first PA Works original show I've seen where the workplace wasn't a nightmare!

There are five main characters, and I liked all of them. Yoshino started out aimless, but she quickly dedicated herself to Manoyama and her kindhearted enthusiasm was infectious. Shiori already worked for the tourism board and loved Manoyama, so most of her growth came from realizing that some things about the town do need to evolve and change. Maki sees herself as a failed actress, and I enjoyed watching her grapple with the question of what to do with her life now. Ririko is a shy girl with an interest in cryptids, and becoming part of the group helped her come out of her shell. However, my favorite character was easily Sanae, the Minister of IT. She burned out at a Tokyo office job and now lives in the countryside. I laughed a lot at her fear of bugs, and she had great banter with Maki. I also enjoyed watching her grow to love Manoyama as well, even though she essentially moved there at random. The main five had a great group dynamic.

I also liked the large supporting cast of eccentric townspeople. Slowly getting to know all of them really sold the theme of a new place becoming familiar. My favorite one was the foreigner, Sandal. He would often be in the background of scenes doing something funny and random. As for the setting, I liked how it was grounded but also had a lot of entertaining zany elements. It was serious while examining the problems a declining rural town faces, such as aging populations, degrading infrastructure, gender imbalance, and so on. There was also an old dude who created wacky inventions, local legends that were halfway taken seriously, and Yoshino being a Queen added fun little royal touches to a lot of things. This was just a really entertaining anime a lot of the time.

The Bad: I mentioned how Sakura Quest never reached the melodramatic lows of other PA Works originals like Aquatope or Hanasaku Iroha. In my opinion, it never managed to reach the highs of those other two shows either. I hated how everyone in Hanasaku Iroha was a jerk, and I hated how over-the-top terrible the workplace was in Aquatope. However, both of those shows still had some top-notch moments that really resonated with me. Sakura Quest was consistently entertaining. However, for me at least, it never had many moments I would consider great. This is a minor complaint overall, though. SQ was simply trying to be a different kind of show. It's more of a slice-of-life and less of a drama. I just wanted to point this out because I'm probably going to rank this lower than Aquatope, and the good section made it sound like I should've enjoyed SQ more between the two of them.

Overall: Sakura Quest was a consistently enjoyable anime. I liked all five of the main characters as well as pretty much everyone in the supporting cast. The setting was an interesting examination of rural decline while still having wackier elements. A lot of the jokes made me laugh as well. I was glad that SQ never got too melodramatic like a few other PA Works originals. However, it rarely had any great moments either, so in the end this will most likely get a 6/10 and fall near the middle of my ranking. It had a lot of good things going for it, it was just missing that last spark to make it truly resonate with me. Unlike Kukuru from Aquatope, no one from SQ was good enough to reach my top character ranking. Still, there's nothing wrong with a show that's consistently enjoyable! Thanks a lot for recommending this, pyresword. Since I have no faith in Crunchyroll ever fixing the delayed subtitles, I doubt I'd have ever gone out of my way to watch this on Funimation if not for you.

Yeah I'm definitely glad you liked it. Personally it's one of my favorites but given the show's (lack of) popularity the recommendation could have gone either way. Though I was specifically going for "type of show I think Roba might like but would probably never watch otherwise."

Honestly the show is probably just my favorite slice-of-life show. But yeah I don't think the show's intent is about setting up specific cathartic moments, though I did quite like the school closing ceremony near the end. But it's more the type of show where you watch how the characters act in specific situations and (at least for me) by the end you're left with the sense that everyone has changed for the better. Very uplifting show to me at least.

I enjoyed Sakura Quest for half of it but realized after another episode or two I couldn't watch the second half of pretty much the same thing.

Also first ED is a banger

pyresword posted...

But it's more the type of show where you watch how the characters act in specific situations and (at least for me) by the end you're left with the sense that everyone has changed for the better. Very uplifting show to me at least.

That's a good way of describing it, especially calling it uplifting. That was nice, too, because it tackled a subject matter (rural decline) that could've been way more depressing if it was handled in a different way.

KommunistKoala posted...

Also first ED is a banger

It really was!

BONUS. The Tatami Galaxy
https://myanimelist.net/anime/7785/Yojouhan_Shinwa_Taikei
Spring 2010 (11 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.57/10
Best Character: Akashi
Recommended by: @Sceptilesolar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkH8ti1gakE

Premise: A college student laments wasting his first few years of campus life, mostly because of the bad influence of his friend Ozu. Maybe things would've turned out better if he made a different decision at the very beginning?

The Good: The Tatami Galaxy is a stylish anime with elements of comedy, mystery, and romance. The story essentially follows a nameless protagonist through his college years. He's never satisfied with the choices he made, so each episode examines what would've happened if he'd chosen a different club. There are some constants in each parallel world, such as a ghoulish friend named Ozu who the protagonist always regrets meeting. There's also a girl, Akashi, who the protagonist appears to have feelings for, but he can never seem to grasp the opportunity to make anything happen between them. These are all interesting ideas. I'm a big fan of time travel and parallel worlds, and this is kind of an odd mixture of both. I'm also a big fan of examining different facets of a character, and this whole show is about seeing him through various iterations. Still, the most notable thing about this anime is the stylishness of both its narrative and the animation. I don't think any description I could write would do it justice, so for anyone interested, just watch the OP linked above to get a rough idea. Moreso than the story, I feel like the style will make or break people's opinion on this show. I thought it was interesting, and there were times where it really worked for me. The ED in particular was oddly hypnotic. The frequent use of live-action with, like, an animation filter was neat too (even though I obviously don't know enough about animation techniques to properly describe it).

The Bad: The story definitely had some neat ideas, but I felt like it was missing something to really bring it all together. I would've preferred it if there was more of a focus on the main dude and Akashi. She was my favorite character from what I saw of her, but there were a number of loops where her presence was minimal at best. This is a technical complaint, but the subtitles on Funimation were also some of the worst I've ever seen. The narration was incredibly fast and would've been difficult to keep up with under normal circumstances, but Funi subtitles made it even harder. Sometimes two long lines of subtitles would appear at the bottom of the screen, then something noteworthy would start happening at the bottom so the subtitles would jump to the top of the screen. Switching which part of the screen I'm reading from mid-sentence wasnt easy. They also did that thing where onscreen text from signs and stuff would be subtitled too alongside the dialogue. When one line was long sign text, one line was lightning fast narration text, and sometimes it would all randomly jump between the top and bottom of the screen, that wasn't fun! It isn't fair to hold Funimation's crappy subtitles against the show itself, but man did it ever bug me.

Overall: I can definitely see how The Tatami Galaxy could appeal to someone a lot. It uses a fantastical premise to examine some pretty relatable themes about regret, love, and friendship. The animation and storytelling styles were also exceedingly unique. I appreciated it as something where I could sit back and enjoy the crazy ride it was taking me on. Sadly, the characters and overall themes weren't quite handled in a way that resonated with me. I would've preferred a story with a lot more of a focus on Akashi and less on Ozu and the rest. In the end, I'll probably give this a 4/10, which isn't a bad score from me! It mostly just means I didn't love it enough to justify ranking it any higher. Still, thanks for the recommendation, Sceptilesolar! This is the kind of show I likely never would've seen otherwise, and it was certainly a fun ride.

It's a shame you didn't like it as much as I did, but I'm glad you appreciated its style. Yuasa is really firing on all cylinders as director for this one. I think the only other work of his you watched is Devilman Crybaby.

To me Tatami Galaxy is my best example of a faultless anime; it tells exactly the story it wants to and with plenty of style and charm to support it. I can't really ask more than that.

It doesn't have the same stylish flair as Tatami Galaxy, but I'm also a big fan of the Eccentric Family, based on novels by the same author as Tatami Galaxy. And it still looks pretty good. Might be more to your taste.

Usually when someone is talking about a character in Geass being the worst ever it's about Nina. I'll admit I did not expect this level of hatred for him.

Sceptilesolar posted...

I think the only other work of his you watched is Devilman Crybaby.

I liked Tatami more than Devilman, at least! I can definitely see similarities though, those are two uniquely stylish anime. I'll keep Eccentric Family in mind for the future!

Maniac64 posted...

Usually when someone is talking about a character in Geass being the worst ever it's about Nina. I'll admit I did not expect this level of hatred for him.

Eh, her racism is no worse than plenty of other characters. It's annoying how she's always afraid of everything, but she's nowhere near the worst (yet). That scene with the table was at least memorable. She invented nukes at the end of S1, though, so I'm guessing she'll do something more substantial before the show ends.

If I'm going to limit myself to only a few anti-Suzaku comments in my final write-up, I need to complain about him a bit more now. Code Geass spoilers up to episode 6 of S2

Suzaku is such an awful person, but everything about the story keeps trying to make him seem like the greatest dude ever. He's on track to becoming the strongest knight in the world. The Emperor is trusting Suzaku with his most precious secrets for some reason, like that weird dimension and wanting to kill God. He doesn't face any discrimination anymore, everyone loves him enough to throw a festival when he comes back to school. And, to top it all off, episode 6 had him explicitly steal Nunnally away from Lelouch, ugh. I give it another few episodes before he wins Kallen's loyalty as well, they've already set it up. Code Geass is a series of such stark contrasts. A lot of it is really good. I like Lelouch, I like the Geass powers, and I like the scheming they allow. There were a few cool episodes where Zero returned and dismantled the surveillance network and won over Rolo... and then in comes Suzaku to drag everything down into the dumps again. Cool guy Rolo was even like "should I just kill him? I can easily kill him" but Lelouch says no because ???

Even when Euphy was Geassed into wanting to kill all Japanese people (which was a really neat moment), she overcame it when she saw Suzaku. Weird supernatural powers can make someone slaughter a crowd full of innocents, sure, but making them hate Suzaku? Never!

I finished Code Geass S2, so I finally read Martin's spoilers from post 16. My understanding is that the Resurrection movie is an alternate timeline where I'd need to watch three recap movies with slight changes, which I really don't want to do, so I don't think I'm going to watch it. Still, I'm open to being convinced otherwise if people think the movie is worth it.

In any case, I'll do the Code Geass write-up tomorrow and just do spoiler-tag thoughts if I end up watching the movie over the weekend. Just to quickly respond to Martin's first two spoiler-tags:

I'm pretty sure Episode 22 was the Euphy massacre. I actually liked it! I don't usually enjoy darker story elements like that, but this was a good example of one where it was used well and not just for shock value. In Code Geass S1, I hated it when Cornelia killed a bunch of civilians. She did it to draw Zero out, sure, but her soldiers all mindlessly followed the order and mowed down mothers holding babies and whatnot. Not only that, no one reacted to it at all, not even supposed good guy Suzaku, so in the end it was just pointless shock value to make the viewer feel bad. She could've done literally anything else to lure Zero out and it would've worked just as well. That sucked. The Euphy massacre, by comparison, was a confluence of things that all made sense and created a legitimate tragedy. Lelouch didn't mean to do it. Euphy didn't want to. The soldiers were confused and not sure what to do, at least at first. Plus, the whole world reacted with horror and disgust. It was set up well, played out realistically, and had actual consequences. When it comes to dark/bleak story elements, I appreciate it when a story does it like this and not just 'lol here's sad stuff, feel bad now' like the Cornelia massacre from S1.

As for the Suzaku redemption arc, I disagree that he had one. Even in his last duel with Kallen, he was still whining that she didn't try to change things from within the system like he did. Motherfucker, did you really not learn anything during this whole story? Suzaku was the same piece of shit he always was from beginning to end. Lelouch really should've found someone better to leave his legacy to. That world is doomed with him in charge.

While I'm at it with spoiler thoughts:

From the Crunchyroll comments and reading about Code Geass elsewhere, I've seen a lot of hate for Rolo and Nina. Honestly, they were fine. Rolo is even on the shortlist for favorite character (I haven't decided yet, it's between him, C.C., and Kallen). I know he did the bad thing, but he was still a compelling character. Nina did the bad thing too, but her biggest flaw is just that she's an idiot who seemingly couldn't comprehend that her big fancy bomb was, you know, a bomb. I'd have respected her as a character a lot more if she stayed deluded and crazy all the way to the end. Having her snap out of it so quickly just makes her seem like a moron.

I still definitely recommend Re;Surrection because I am really pretty sure the only thing fundamentally different from the tv show and the recap movies is Shirley is still alive, the movies did some small cuts or changes but everything else that matters is the same, but I invite someone to back me up (or counter me) on this. Still highly recommend regardless!!!

Also Suzaku gets his ass kicked which you may find appealing!

Speaking of Suzaku, I also really disliked him but nowhere near as intensely as you, so I found it incredibly satisfying (even cathartic?) when he finally teamed up with Lelouche, hence why I considered that his redemption arc...

Regarding ep 22, ever since you posted your ep 11 recap and said " I hope the show never goes there again" re: mass murder of innocent civilians, I was like ohhhh boy can't wait lol. That was pretty great.

I'll wait for full reaction but I'd still love a Re;Surrection viewing!!

I also dislike Suzaku a lot! I think the idea of him is to show the futility of "changing things from the inside" and even the Euphinator stuff goes with that, since that shows how losing one person can completely derail any possibility for change. People still think too highly of him though. He's definitely worse than Rolo or Nina (though there's no way I would put Rolo anywhere near a favorite character list). Lelouch and CC are far ahead of the rest, with maybe Orange as a possible #3?

I still haven't watched Re:surrection so I have no opinion on that front.

Barely anyone watched Resurrection.

They're all missing out!!

BONUS. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1575/Code_Geass__Hangyaku_no_Lelouch
Fall 2006 (25 episodes), Spring 2008 (25 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.70/10 S1, 8.91/10 S2
Best Character: C.C.
Recommended by: @Maniac64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8CFuZ9MseQ

Premise: After being conquered by Britannia, Japan is renamed Area 11. Many people still rebel against their occupiers, however, and a student named Lelouch Lamperouge joins them once he gains an incredible power.

The Good: Code Geass is a mecha anime set in an alternate history where Japan has been conquered by a powerful empire, Britannia. Lelouch is a Britannian student, but he carries an intense hatred for the country that abandoned him. Through various circumstances, he gains a power called Geass, which gives him the ability to order anyone to do anything as long as he's looking into their eyes. Combined with his incredible intellect, Lelouch uses the Geass to become a masked rebel leader called Zero. Now he needs to lead his group, the Black Knights, towards victory against the world's mightiest empire... all while also maintaining his everyday life as a student!

I really liked the concept of Code Geass. I'm a fan of weird powers and seeing how characters use them. The comparison isn't perfect, but the Geass reminded me of Death Note. It has great potential, but also certain limitations, and the intelligent protagonist needs to use it creatively to keep ahead. I was hyped early on to see what neat things Lelouch would do with it. While the scheming didn't end up being as deep as I'd hoped for, there were still a few times where he used it in cool ways to create a network of enslaved minions in key positions. However, this was mostly an action anime with a big focus on mecha combat. The animation was always good, and I liked how many pilots there were with unique mechas, especially by the end. Kallen's in particular had a kind of microwave hand that was really cool. As for the characters and story, this anime had some pretty harsh ups and downs. I liked Lelouch because he had the cool power and kept pushing the plot forward. Still, my favorites were C.C., Rolo, and Kallen because all three of them had great development and arcs.

The Bad: I complained quite a bit about Suzaku in my comments while watching this, and I'm comfortable saying he's one of the worst fictional characters ever. However, I think he was a symptom of a larger problem in Code Geass. Aside from a few exceptions, it didn't enjoy the way it examined its story, characters, or themes. Lelouch is touted as a strategic genius, and he certainly has his moments. Still, they mostly showed it by having him direct a battle saying meaningless lines like "use theta formation and move to point alpha". Outside of battle, there are a lot of instances where he makes some incredibly boneheaded decisions. There were times where I was begging him to explain himself a bit better or to use more tact when dealing with subordinates. It's hard to talk about any of those moments without big spoilers, but I could go on and on about smarter moves this super-genius could've made. Since I was excited about the potential for Death Note style mind-games and scheming early on, that was disappointing.

The story was also very focused on exploring certain themes, which often led to it ignoring other things. Characters would debate the merits of changing a system from inside or from the outside, but no one would point out that the system is literally slaughtering civilians at this very moment. Lelouch never made the arguments I wanted him to. A lot of characters did some really heinous things and were either never called out on it or were easily forgiven. There was also a supernatural plot related to the Geass powers running in the background, and I never felt like it integrated with the mecha war plot very well.

Overall: Code Geass had some great characters, cool moments, and large parts of the story were good. However, there were also some terrible characters, idiotic moments, and large parts of the story that didn't work for me at all. It might be that I went in with the wrong expectations. Early on, the Geass power reminded me of Death Note and I got excited for that level of mind-games. But, while Lelouch's intelligence and willingness to be morally questionable was vaguely similar to Light from Death Note, the closest thing to an L-style rival was Suzaku, and he was one of the worst characters I've ever seen. It's hard to explore a "which side is right?" theme when I have an intense hatred for one of the two sides. Still, there were enough good things in this show that I can't say I hated it overall. It'll probably end up in the 3/10s alongside shows like Violet Evergarden. That's the section for anime where I acknowledge the quality and enjoyed parts of it, but I found other parts to be really terrible. Still, thanks for recommending it, Maniac (and for being willing to swap to it so LotM could switch to Monster). I didn't love Code Geass in the end, but it had compelling characters like C.C. and Rolo along with a lot of fun mecha battles.

Code Geass came out around the same time as Death Note and was definitely compared a lot to it (I prefer CG).

Oh yeah the best CG character is Jeremiah (Crispin Freeman does an awesome job voicing him in the dub). I also really like Diethard, though hes a pretty minor character.

I do not think Code Geass is a good show at all but it's at least the type of thing that is fun even when it's a mess.

Except for episode 22 which is one of the stupidest things any anime writer has come up with in a show I've seen, but I digress.

Code Geass is immensely entertaining IMO, even when it's objectively not that good.

That's enough for me to consider it better than the vast majority of stuff.

I'm fine with you not loving CG, I didnt have high expections so it went better than I expected honestly. I was right about you enjoying Bofuri and that is more important lol.

I prefer Death Note by a lot. Even the worst parts of Death Note are a league ahead of the best parts of Geass.

pyresword posted...

I prefer Death Note by a lot. Even the worst parts of Death Note are a league ahead of the best parts of Geass.

I don't know if I'd go that far. Death Note is easily the superior anime, but the highs of Code Geass were pretty high and the lows of Death Note were pretty low!

In any case, we're into the home stretch now! I'm going to really try to watch enough this weekend that I can do write-ups Monster and Mob on Monday and Tuesday, but at worst we'll be done sometime next week. After that, all I need to do is type up the final ranking. As always, thanks for being patient as I slowly watch stuff, and thanks for following along, everyone!

REMAINING: 69 episodes (nice)
Monster (30/74)
Mob Psycho 100 (1/13 S2, 0/1 OVA, 0/12 S3)

I posted quite a few spoiler thoughts for Geass, so I guess I can do it for Monster too since it's also a long show. This old psychologist doctor has turned out to be an awesome badass. He's beating up young thugs and making legitimate headway into solving the mystery all on his own. Episode 30 ended with him meeting Tenma and getting shot at, but I really hope the old dude doesn't die (which means he probably will).

Oh yeah Dr. Reichwein is pretty cool! I really like Urasawa's style of introducing new PoV characters to later intersect with the main cast.

Robazoid posted...

Episode 30 ended with him meeting Tenma and getting shot at

I knew what scene this was referring to but I had to check just to be sure. Fantastic scene, and always great when characters who haven't appeared in a while pop up unexpectedly

i don't remember how many episodes i got into CG before dropping it. might try it with my partner though - it's got a cool power and should move relatively fast (....right?!)

also as for tatami galaxy - i found it near-unwatchable due to how far the subtitles went (fansub i think) and how bullshit most of the plots were. they didn't feel connecting or relevant overall because of the time loop

that said, reading the light novel source material earlier this year made me more interested in giving it another shot, but without funi, i have my doubts it'll happen for a long time

SeabassDebeste posted...

they didn't feel connecting or relevant overall because of the time loop

This reminded me of one of my favorite things about the anime, which I'm pretty sure is anime original. There actually are a bunch of connecting points between the different episodes, they just don't get spelled out. My favorite is the filmmaking episode, which is chock full of foreshadowing.

CG was going to be one of my favorite things ever based on the premise and first half, but then it just went off the rails.

I wound up watching way less than usual this weekend (I had a bad headache most of Sunday) so the next write-up will be later this week. I'll be done before the end of next weekend, however!

When I started my Funimation two week free trial, I thought I'd have time to finish the remaining recommendations and still watch another show or two there. Sadly, I've gotten through much less than I'd planned. I need to cancel my free trial on Friday, so I'm taking some time to quickly watch Classroom Crisis. It caught my eye because I'm a big fan of anime that put a twist on typical ideas (in this case, I figured it'd be like a school/club anime but set in a futuristic sci-fi world). Plus the premise said it was about students designing a new spaceship, which made me think of If My Heart Had Wings, a visual novel I really enjoyed that was about students designing an airplane. I'm four episodes in and Classroom Crisis hasn't been all that similar to either of my guesses, but oh well. I'll finish it tomorrow and then get back to Monster/Mob. I don't think anyone else here has seen or cares about Classroom Crisis, so I'm not sure if I should bother with a write-up and including it in the final ranking. I'll see how I feel once I finish it, I guess.

I feel bad for delaying the last recommendations, so I'll quickly type up some Monster spoiler-thoughts too. I finished up to episode 62.

I like it when Monster introduces new characters and focuses on their stories for a little while. Reichwein was cool and Grimmer was really cool. Having said that, I can't help but notice just how many times the characters have literally stumbled across someone with a deep connection to the story. I didn't like that one episode where Nina and Deiter spent a few months living with a weird puppeteer who just so happened to be the son of someone important. And then in episode 62 Tenma got hit by a car and was just randomly rescued by a guy with a grudge against Peter Capek? It felt like a lazy way to introduce plot stuff. Still, that's a minor complaint. It really feels like the plot threads are coming together now that it's nearing the end, and I'm excited to see the conclusion. Plus maybe this coincidental meetings were all engineered by Johan for some reason. He's certainly capable of it!

REMAINING: 46 episodes
Monster (62/74)
Mob Psycho 100 (1/13 S2, 0/1 OVA, 0/12 S3)
Classroom Crisis (4/13)

I'm really, really going to try to finish everything in time to post the final ranking on Sunday.