Bit of a rushed job this time, but it looks like what I was going for: professionally amateur.
Reminder: Any and all scores presented in this post are entirely representative of my current mindset. As I have more time to consider shows, my feelings and understanding of the final product will be more likely to change. A good way to consider it is that this is my raw personal opinion in regards to the show, more than a critical review, since my recommendations do, apparently, warrant attention every now and then. Not that I understand why.
Season Wrap-up: Completed Shows
Harukana Recieve
Would you believe me if I said this is about as tame as this show gets?
As much as I'd love to claim that this is a show about its sport, the focus is clearly more focused on the girls than their sport--namely the jiggly bits of said girls. It's a fun, stupid romp of an ecchi show that touches upon some tougher concepts but ultimately decided to forgo those serious elements in the pursuit of making this show as thoughtlessly sexy as possible. Still, I won't say I didn't enjoy it on some level thanks to the generous budget thrown into the show's looks. 5/10. 2/5.
Hataraku Onii-san! 2
Generally picking up where the first season left off, I have to admit that the minor storyline this show offers had me fully invested this time around. It was nice watching the friendship these two formed actually manifest itself from time to time. Beyond that, though, season two was just more of the same but with the weirdness amped up a few more degrees to keep everything spicy. I'll be interested to see if this show gets another season, if only because I have no clue how this show could hope to amp things up even further. I mean, once you jump the gap to live actors doing things, how do you go beyond that? 7/10. 5/5.
Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro
It says a lot when a show like this is being praised as the "best non-sequel of the season."
Gross. Creepy. Yet also more than a little bit relatable, Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro is one of those shows I hated from start to finish but begrudgingly appreciated on some level. The characters are all terrible people in one way or another, but in the kind of way you'd expect from a bunch of idiotic high schoolers. It's not hard to see a bit of your own cringy childhood in these characters and know that they are going to look back on these years with embarrassment the same way you probably cringe at the dumb shit you did as a teenager. When it's not succeeding in that respect, though, this show is just disgusting in a way I only just managed to tolerate. 4/10. 3/5.
Asobi Asobase
Yeah, this just about sums things up.
Though I already went into a lot of the reasons why I loved this show in my seasonal stirrings segment on it, the broad strokes still remain. This is one of those shows that toys with an idea and does it well. It's gross in a manner similar to Chio but never crosses any lines to sexualize the show's cast but is also just a little sweet and silly in the way you'd expect of most all-girl slice of life shows. It's funny, dumb, and irreverent in the best ways possible without ever compromising on its overall message regarding the duality of what its like to be a high school girl. 10/10. 5/5.
Planet With
You walk down a dark street alone and see this. What do?
Probably one of the most compelling mech anime I've ever seen second only to Gurren Lagann, Planet With tackles the complexities of pacifism using the same broad strokes seen in Gurren. Unfortunately, it only manages to do this by couching the entire show in anime bullshit, thus making it far more niche and hard to swallow than it already was. Still, this show gives a lot of thought to what its trying to say and how its trying to say it and does a fairly decent job expressing it all as anime characters battle things out in psychic armor mechs for the fate of humanity. 8/10. 3/5.
Steins;Gate 0
Well then. That sounds like fun....
I initially joked that this show was "The worst timeline: Suffer Edition" and while that is generally true, this show manages to slowly shine more and more light in that darkness until it manages to fully realize itself as the true successor of what is still one of my favorite shows. If anything, there's a certainly novelty this time around because its far more direct and linear then the previous show, giving us a journey worth the highs and lows. I mean, it's still riddled with narrative holes and incomplete thoughts, but it managed to pull it all off in a convincing manner anyway. 10/10. 4/5.
Grand Blue
Is it weird that I love this show for the same reason I hate it?
Put bluntly, the characters that make up this show are awful people. They're hateful, petty, arrogant, self-centered, and quick to betray a "friend" for even the slightest chance of bettering their current situation. They are exactly what I hated about any and all "frat boys" I ran into during my high school and college life, but I think that's kinda the point. None of these characters are particularly likable or are the kind of characters meant to be emulated in real life. They're walking, talking gags on the general expectations and realities of frat culture and, on the whole, they're fairly humorous in that respect. As a whole, though, the show is fairly one note and not all that believable, which just makes the show suffer as it attempts to go for a more down-to-earth feel in certain moments. 6/10. 4/5.
My Hero Academia Season 3
Do I really need to talk this show up anymore than I have already? Out of all the seasons thus far, this is easily one of the strongest thanks to the fact that it holds two of series' the biggest moments. Everything has been building toward this season and I can't wait to see how the next season takes it even further beyond. PLUS ULTRA!!! 10/10. 5/5.
Nobunaga no Shinobi: Anegawa Ishiyama-hen
I'd call this show irreverent, but when you're dealing with a man just as much a myth
as Genghis Khan, it's hard not to let anything fly.
This season felt like it dragged on more than any of the seasons before it. Even though it goes into some of Nobunaga's more tumultuous years, I found myself nodding off and losing interest the longer it went on. That shouldn't happen. So, unless this show tries to spice things up and get a new collection of jokes, I might just drop the next season. 3/10. 3/5.
Hataraku Saibou!
For what basically amounts to an overblown metaphor, this show ain't half bad.
Though this show bears no illusions of what it's trying to go for, I hesitate to think what might have happened if it tried to go on any longer than it already did. I mean, it's a fine show, but the metaphor of the human body being a society of cells can only go so far. Though there are a few moments that kept me going, there were some pretty hard dips in this show's interest-levels for me, particularly as entire episodes started to dedicate themselves to the half-assed romances and friendships that just barely kept this show afloat. 6/10. 4/5.
Revue Starlight
I cannot even begin to express just how much I want the blu-ray edition and soundtrack for this show.
As weird and quirky as this anime is, the general premise magical theater girls fighting to become "Top Star" fails to hit the mark on a few points. Firstly, it feels like this show is just another Madoka clone. Secondly, this show has no real clue where it wants to go and what it wants to do with its cast. It swaps between action-packed character drama and slice of life at the drop of a hat and succeeds at neither in the process. Still, as weak as they are, I like this show's characters and general ideas. With a little polish, the entire show could have been just as fantastic as its art, animation, and musical scores. 7/10. 2/5.
Overlord 3
As cool as all the set-up in Season 2 was, it's nice to have Ains, the king of catharsis, back in control.
While this season cranks up the comedy a little more, we're finally starting the seeds of Ains' work bear fruit in the form of new human leaders, new threats at the borders, and new opportunities for Ains to showoff just how powerful he really is. It's one thing to see Ains gimmick his way through a 1v1 and stand victorious, but it's another to see him finally bring entire nations to their knees. Though it might be hard to root for some of his more despicable actions, namely those he does out of the need to keep up appearances with his subordinates, I can't help wanting to see him run roughshod over the entirety of this fantasy world. 7/10. 4/5.
Season Wrap-up: Ongoing Shows
Banana Fish
And from this point on it's all down hill in one form or another.
New York Gangs, Italian Mafiosos, a prince of both worlds with a troubled past, and an innocent reporter there to report on it all; what could go wrong?! A great deal, apparently. As interesting as it is to watch all these things come together to form a love story, the show runs into several problems involving both representation and believability. Neither the characters or their story are compelling when the show's too busy fetishizing the romance and failing to express the honorific effects the various tragedies this show throws out generously would have on its cast. 4/10. 1/5.
Shingeki no Kyojin 3
Kinky?
As thankful as I am that this season of Attack on Titan blitzed through the political arc that dragged on far longer than it should in the manga, there are some moments where it goes a little too fast. It's hard to get invested in whatever is going on when you're forming alliances one minute and immediately have that ally butchered three minutes later. Still, once it gets past all the hunter vs. hunted nonsense, the stakes finally start to approach what we all loved in the show's first season as more and more truths are being revealed. At this rate, we might even get to the time skip by the end of this season.
Satsuriku no Tenshi
No, Eddy. What's cruel is the damage this shitshow is going to do to other RPGMaker anime.
To say this show makes me angry doesn't even begin to do my feelings justice. Whenever its not too busy telling a terrible love story between and emotionless yandere and a literal serial killer, it's busy making these characters as dumb as humanly possible to stretch out how long it takes for them to complete the game's puzzles. I am more than a little tempted to just not watch the last 4 episodes that are airing separately from the show's original run.
Season Wrap-up: Notable, Dropped Shows
Hanebado! (3/13)
Considering how it drove them to abuse their teammates and
induce episodes of PTSD, that's actually a very good question.
As gorgeous and well-animated this show looked, I could not stomach the unreasonable amount of edge that took up the show's start. I'll be curious to hear if things actually turned out well in the end but I wasn't willing to hold out hope for a title that pissed me off in almost the exact same way and to the same degree Welcome to the Ballroom did.
Angolmois: Genkou Kassenki (4/12)
...I'm sure you do, big guy. I'm sure you do.
I want to meet the executive (because only an executive would think to do this) who thought it'd be a fantastic idea to take this show's gorgeous key animation and smear it with Vaseline before airing it. Like, it's hard to see in that screenshot, but this entire series is covered with this static, constant filter that just muddies the image and makes watching this show unbearable. Like, what I saw of the show's action wasn't great either but I might have been willing to tolerate it if I wasn't being constantly distracted by this shitty, "aged parchment" filter.