Another Season of anime is upon us, so I guess it’s time to look back at what I watched and what there is to look forward to this season. Being summer, there’s a considerably smaller number of new shows this time around but a lot of carry-overs from the spring season. Anyways, looking back at the winter season…

Best show: Asura Crying’

I can’t quite explain why Asura Cryin’ is my top show of last season. All I know is that it was the one which I looked forward to the most, despite the fact that it went all weird at the end. Luckily, with a second season confirmed they have plenty of time to work out the kinks in the plot (and I get a must watch show next season!!)

For the most part tho, the show was solid (with only a few notable drops in animation quality) and I found myself quite interested in the inner workings of the world which it is set in. There’s quite a lot riding on season 2 now. It has to be as entertaining while answering the questions lingering from season1. And it could quite easily falter, but for now, Asura cryin’ gets to gloat.

Runners up: Eden of the East, Chrome Shelled Regios

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Biggest Surprise: Hatsukoi Limited

I DIN’T HATE IT! I wrote in my last season preview that it would be either a surprise hit or a trainwreck. And it ended up being a hit. Comparisons to Ichigo 100% were, in the end, unfair. The multiple stories running through the show kept the show fresh (even though I’ve read the manga and knew what was going to happen) and the strongest points of the manga were accurately translated into the anime and they kept fairly close to the original plot with only a few changes (like the fact that the “explosive chocolate” in the valentines day ep was actually an explosive from some jilted guy in the manga).

Unfortunately, it also contained the worst part of the manga as well… Like Yamamotos’ story. The best girl by far and she gets the most retarded storyline out of all the girls (and there are a lot of girls!!). The Author either seems to enjoy screwing my fave girls over in the works I read. In ichigo 100% it was Toujo Aya, who was led (very strongly, near the end) to be the girl who the main guy gets with in the end, only for the reader to get slapped in the face for thinking that in one of the most idiotic and nonsensical moves I’ve ever seen in any romance show!!
For Yamamoto, She freaking falls for a retard cos he puts a lolipop in her mouth??? Seriously, I’ve never felt so sorry for for a character before but the 2 guys who fancy her got shafted hard due to really really shit writing and it was passed over to the anime…

Still, it was within expectations and it’s not the anime’s fault so I can’t hold it against the show.

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Biggest Disappointment: Valkyria Chronicles

aah, It actually hurts to write this part cos I really wanted to like this show. It did lots of things right too!! The designs weren’t too different from the game, the kept the majority of the VAs from the game too (all except Rosie and Largo as far as I can tell. Hell, Jann is the same voice!! How can Jann keep his but those 2 not?), they kept the unique shading from the games graphics and even used the original game OST for it’s music, which was a really really nice touch!!!

But none of that matters as they are simply dressing over my main complaint of the show, the changes in the plot!! I understand that it’s to differentiate the anime from the game story but changing the focus of the story resulted in a much weaker narrative. In the game, we followed Welkin and, although, he is leader of Squad 7, it gave a good overview of things. But shifting the plot to strongly follow Alicia presents several issues. Alicia is a main point in the story and will play a much bigger part later on. Her actions and abilities are more impressive when you are watching from afar with Welkin as opposed to chose by because you are following her. There are better ways to differentiate the anime from the game plot.
I’ve seen the same mistake made on Sakura Wars TV, where the plot closely followed Shinguji Sakura at the expense of all the other main cast members. Luckily, Valkyria doesn’t have the same problem as the other main characters have the spotlight shone on them for their own storylines but can easily step aside when the time comes. Nevertheless, the shift in focus severely weakens the narrative.  There are also inexplicable changes as well, such as the episode where the princess of Gallia was kidnapped. I don’t want to spoil it, in case they work it in again later, but you’re not supposed to see her in any attire other than her standard gown. and it’s for a reason!!

In the end, the show is OK, but I wanted it to be great!!! They did some nice work with the minor eps tho, using them to expand on a few points (and changing some character completely for no real reason. I’m looking at you Karl Oswald, assistant to Selvaria Bles!!!).

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Worst Ending: Eden of the East

Yes, I know that the original plan was always to have a sequel movie at the end of the series but they didn’t have to shit on our faces and rub it in so hard to remind us of that fact by providing almost zero resolution at the end of the series!!

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Worst show: Kurokami

Oh god… Just when I thought the show couldn’t get any worse, they actually do find a new level of crap!!! I wanted to drop this so badly at the halfway mark, when the show started doing it’s own thing, but I stubbornly stuck with it having invested so much time to it already. God I just wanted it to end. I hadn’t gone thru such levels of torture and self loathing since Vampire knight but at least VK was kind enough to split itself into 2 distinct series with a break in between so I could easily walk away!

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The Rest

• Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo was quite fun but took too long to get a plot established so felt rushed near the end. Good twist tho, not mai-HiME good, but better than Otome
• K-ON was pretty much a waste of time. And I was a Mugi fan! Blatant lesbianism is better than possible lesbianism!!
• Phantom: Requiem for the phantom had the first song from Ali project in YEARS which didn’t make my ears instantly bleed! Still wasn;t very good tho. The song, I mean. The anime is good if you like this kind of Beetrain affair (which I do).
• FullMetal Alchemist is going way too fast for it’s own good and doesn’t have the same impact as before
• Shin Mazinger Z is freaking awesome. But why the hell does the Scrander let it transform into a freaking fist???
• After an amazingly well written 1st ep, Natsu no Arashi fell down the pecking order quite quickly
• Nue from Tayutama is simultaneously awesome and annoying as hell!
• The writers of Shangri-la need to take a step back and explain things better. The stuff about the carbon markets isn’t easy to follow for a lot of people. I’m not too fussed since I work in the financial sector so I have an idea of the jargon and what they want to do by thinking in real terms.
• Pandora Hearts needs more chibi moments, like in the manga
• There was no Nyx in Queens blade but they had Cattleya??? FAIL!!!!!
• Saki was awesome in how it overly Dramatised EVERYTHING!!! and the rampant lesbian undertones wasn’t bad either.
• Hinagiku no Gotoku has tonnes of Hina so it’s already better than before, but the lack of Maria makes me sad. I kinda miss the random Ayumu moments too. She doesn’t even turn up in every ep anymore!!

And now, onto this season. The list will be relatively short seeing as there’s not much new stuff anyway.

Must watch

Fight Ippatsu! Juuden Chan

What Can I say? I just really Like the character designs by Ditama Bow. He did Mahoromatic, Kono minikukumo utsukushii sekai and KissXsis too. So I’ll be watching it cos of that. The excessive fanservice is a bonus.

Cannan

The premise interested me just enough to give this a shot and the first ep impressed, so it’s staying.

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Interesting but Meh

Umineko no naku koro ni

From the producers of Higurashi so it’s worth a look at least, right? Having said that, Higurashi kinda went downhill in the later parts of S2

Sora No Manimani

I’m getting strong Special A type vibes from this show, and I rather enjoyed SA so I’ll give this one a shot.

Bakemonogatari

the synopsis piqued my interest so I’ll see if it holds my interest.

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Why am I watching this?

Needless

Generic action series. Could be good, could suck. Guess there’s only 1 way to find out.

And that’s it. See? Really short list this time round. I *might* add Umi monogatari and/or Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou to the list later, but only if I feel that I need to pad my watch list a little…
So, what is everyone else watching?

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