Currently Watching (Winter 2013 Edition)

[Buckeye]

Now that the calendar has turned and it is 2013, it is time for a brand new season of anime. The fall season did not have as many quality titles as the summer had, but it still had some nice shows in it. This season, lots of shows are continuing from the fall.

The link to the Fall 2012 Edition (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?t=111356)

Note
- Change the title of your post to reflect the contents.
- Do not use the Post Reply button; instead, click quote on the post you wish to reply to, or on this post if you're starting a new subthread.
- Edit down the quoted section to the relevant bits, nobody needs to read someone's epic list of watched stuff twice.
- Be nice to one another.

Also, I'd like to add the following. The Currently Watching Thread is mainly meant for a general overview of how you're currently feeling about shows. It is not supposed to be a replacement for actual discussion threads. Try to keep heavier discussion (if possible) in the more specific discussion threads.

In addition, try to be careful of spoilers here. It's one thing if it's properly tagged and such. However, I don't want people to have to worry about someone randomly posting "Wow, X died in episode 17 of Y". Just a randomly made up example, but you get the idea.

[something]

2012/12/26 (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?p=2010298#post2010298)

Keeping this one very short because I'll be doing my year in review ranking before too long. But I've finished all the one cour fall shows I'll be watching, thus meaning I've completed everything eligible for my 2012 rankings.

R2 Import Tier
(01)　　Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - ◄0► - 12 eps / complete - 9k sales first week? Season five is only a matter of time. And goddamn do I need it. [Import - Ordered.]

(02)　　Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! - ◄0► - 12 eps / complete - [Import - Ordered.]

(03)　　Girls und Panzer - ◄0► - 10 eps / complete for now - [Import - Ordered.]

(04)　　Little Busters! - ◄0► - 11 eps - Got two eps to catch up on tomorrow. [Import - Ordered.]


Almost Import Tier
(05)　　Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo - ▲2 - 12 eps - More really great episodes were on display here as I caught up from 9 to 12. This show just keeps getting better. Man I really do want to import it, in some ways it's actually better than Little Busters!, but all those BD boxes coming out next year, including the monster TTGL box, make it very hard.

(06)　　Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun - ▼1 - 13 eps / complete

(07)　　Sukitte Ii na yo. - ▼1 - 13 eps / complete - Final episode was basically a BD bonus episode. Predictable, cheesy story, and fun. Not a bad way to go out after episode 12 handled the heavier material.


Non-imports
(08)　　Robotics;Notes - ▲2 - 11 eps

(09)　　Magi - ▼1 - 12 eps

(10)　　K - ▲1 - 13 eps / complete - Yeah I'm definitely on board for season two.

(11)　　Bakuman. 3 - ▼2 - 12 eps - Nanamine arc was bad. And I have a feeling it'd going to be a few more episodes before things get better... I will be so pissed if they take Aoki in the direction I fear they plan to.

(12)　　Shinsekai Yori - ◄0► - 13 eps - Inconsistent production values: the anime.

(13)　　Kamisama Hajimemashita - ◄0► - 13 eps / complete - Not the best ending, but parts of it were quite nice, like that dance. Nanami is one of the more enjoyable heroines of the year, though I wouldn't put her above Mei or Shizuku as far as shoujo heroines go.

(14)　　Zetsuen no Tempest - ◄0► - 12 eps - Hakaze!

(15)　　Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankei nai yo ne - ▼2 - 12 eps / complete - Kinda lame ending there. Such a drop in production values over the course of the show too. Still, I loved that amusing Ana bit in 11-12 and Akiko is always <3


2-cour shows from previous seasons:
　n/a


OVAs, Specials, other oddities:
　Fairy Tail - 162 eps
　Hunter x Hunter (2011) - 60 eps
　Smile Precure - 39 eps
　Uchuu Kyoudai - 38 eps


Dropped:
　Ixion Saga DT - 7 ep - It's enjoyable, but a victim of cuts for time.
　Aikatsu! - 1 ep
　Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de - 1 ep
　Ebiten - 1 ep


2+ cour previous season drops:
　Sword Art Online - 20 eps


Still need/plan to try (may not have aired):
none


(Blah blah disclaimer, the number on a tier is not at all indicative of a show's absolute quality, merely its quality relative to the other shows on the list).

Quite a lot of series continuing into Winter here: LB, Sakurasou, Robono, Magi, Bakuman, Shinsekai and Zetsuten are all at least two cour. Hell that's half the shows I'm still watching from Fall.

[Glamrgrl104]

Initial D fourth stage-episodes 1-3- Just as entertaining as the first and second stage.

High school of the dead-episodes 1&2- My bf introduced this one to me. It is a pretty good series if I am in the mood for watching it which I just got done with Resident evil retribution so I wasn't against watching a few episodes of it.

Switched over to something lighter

Fruits basket 1&2- I can never get tired of this series, I always seem to make my way back to it.

[Glamrgrl104]

Initial D fourth stage-episodes 1-3- Just as entertaining as the first and second stage.

High school of the dead-episodes 1&2- My bf introduced this one to me. It is a pretty good series if I am in the mood for watching it which I just got done with Resident evil retribution so I wasn't against watching a few episodes of it.

Switched over to something lighter

Fruits basket 1&2- I can never get tired of this series, I always seem to make my way back to it.

Code Geass S2-disc 8- One of the best anime endings I've seen.

The twelve kingdoms-disc 5- Love this/

[pianocello]

Currently watching:
Outstanding
Strike Witches movie
While admittedly not as good as the 2nd season of the TV series, it was still fun to watch even if they overdid the roll-call of characters too much and there wasn't enough Minna x Mio Sakamoto yuri moments.

Very Good
Aquarion Evol (15)
The last few episodes have been good even though we get too much of Kagura and Mikono.

Good
Campione! (7)
This current arc hasn't been that great. Even for a harem anime, it could have been much better. Not enough ecchi.

Strike Witches OAVs
Not as good as the TV series though it still has fun moments. Not a must-see.

Average
None

Below Average
None

[Glamrgrl104]

The twelve Kingdoms discs 5-10-end- I really loved this series, it took me a long time to get through the first half, but then getting into the 2nd half it was really addicting wondering what would happen next, I flew through the episodes. I thought the ending was worthwhile although one of the story arcs that I wish they would have continued is The black Kirin, does he ever get back to the other world or does he stay in Japan? Other than that I thought it was a very well done and emotional action fantasy filled series that I definitely will rewatch sometime.

Onto either re-watch of C-Control, the rest of fourth stage initial D, or Steins gate hmmmmmm.... Steins gate. I've been watching Dr.who lol.

[Glamrgrl104]

Steins gate episodes 2-8- AWESOME!!! I am happy I got to finally see what happens after episode 4. This series gets better and better with each episode :D I think I found a new fav.

[Glamrgrl104]

Steins gate episodes 8-25- spectacular! I loved Steins gate from start to finish, but where it got really good was the 2nd half. Intrigue, suspense, humor, drama, and action with sci-fi overlay-ed with some romance makes Steins gate an awesome series. Not to mention the character development and the interesting plot.

Usagi drop aka bunny drop- episodes 1-11 end- AWWW this is such a sweet series although it is sad that it is only 11 episodes. I love the relationships of the characters and a slice of life that is rare, the relationship of mother, father, and their children. I quite love this series because I am going to be a pre-school/kindergarten teacher, but I think anyone who loves slice of life anime would love this series.

Eden of the east King of Eden movie- AWESOME! I forgot how good the EOE series and movies were. Next onto Paradise Lost.

[HitokiriShadow]

Almost everything I care about has aired, so....

The Great
AKB0048
Second half is off to a great start, now with an actual person to serve as a villain.

Love Live! School Idol Project
I expected this to be decently good, but this vastly surpassed those expectations. The first episode was excellent.

Haganai NEXT
More of the Haganai I love, with signs that the Sena/Yozora stuff is going someplace serious soon. Sena has serious issues. It really is not normal to masturbate to sniffing the wig that was worn by the person bullying you... while staring at pictures of them on your ceiling.

Sasami@Ganbaranai
I was excited about this because the novels were written by the author of Kyouran Kazoku Nikki and is being animated by Shaft. All I knew about the story was "hikikomori imouto" but I expected it would probably be on the weird side. It certainly met those expectations. Fantastic first epsiode, definitely one of the frontrunners of the season for me.

Vividred Operation
I'm not a huge fan of Strike Witches. I like about 4-5 of the girls and a handful of episodes, wasn't a big fan of the panties/pants thing or the show overall, so my expectations for Vividred were set at "mediocre". The first episode completely blew those out of the water. This is was a legitimately great first episode, and easily the most downright *exciting* first episode. This episode is probably the hardest one to wait a full week for a follow up to after those last few minutes.


The Moderately Good
Tamako Market
Well, that was... different, I guess. Kind of amusing, kind of fun, kind of weird.... still really not sure what to think of it. Tamako is pretty fun, Anko is adorable (and had the best and most natural reactions to the bird), Tamako's friends seem like a lot of fun so I'm looking forward to more of them.

Minami-ke Tadaima
Uh, its more Minami-ke. Hit and miss, but always at least pleasant to watch. Alas, no Mako or Touma in the first episode.

Seitokai no Ichizon LV2
The big backstory storyline was sure unusual for this show, being played pretty straight but it was interesting to watch. Then the 4th wall gets brutally ravaged, so it looks like the rest of the show should be more in line with the first.

Kotoura-san
The backstory part was heavily flawed but still worked me on some level. Haruka's face when her mother shoved her away was incredibly heartbreaking. Once things move back to the present with Manabe, its a very cute little show and I look forward to more.


The So-so
Maoyu
The show has some interesting ideas at play, but I was less than thrilled with what it actually gave me. I'm hoping for significant improvement now that the infodumb intro is out of the way and they will presumably start doing something next time.

OreShura
Mixed bag. First half was rather dull, the last few minutes were pretty great when Masuzu started teasing mainguydude and revealed her real personality. Mainguydude is better than most thanks to having actual life aspirations other than "get a girlfriend" and "live a normal high school life". There's certainly some potential for something decently good. Chiwa was okay but unremarkable. Hard to say how well it will handle things going forward, but the "oh noes, what if people think I'm gay" thing was highly irritating and I fear its going to be a regular "joke".


Bleeeeeeh
Senran Kagura
This show more or less met my expectations, which were very low. I really don't care about the main girls at all, though Hibari at least has a kind of cute character design (though I really don't like her personality type in this kind of show). Only reason I'm still watching is because I kind of like Homura and Not!Kuroneko.

GJ-bu
Didn't even finish the episode. Mao took the "pure virgin" thing to an unpleasant extreme and the rest of the first half wasn't funny, nor any of the characters appealing. I had to leave for a meeting then and didn't care enough to continue when I came back. Not I don't have enough things to watch on Thursdays already, all of them much, much better than this. I'll only continue it if certain people convince me it gets much better and is worth my time.

[Buckeye]

After some thinking, I now have a tentative plan in place as to what I am planning to watch for this season. With football season coming to an end, I will have more time to watch anime, although I will be quite busy with work during this time as well. So with that, here is what I am planning to watch for this upcoming season:

Steins;Gate (from episode 13)
Baka and Test season 2
Shakugan no Shana II
K-On!!
Allison and Lillia
Okami-san
Anohana
Kurenai
Special A
Shiki
Casshern Sins (from episode 11)
Tenchi Muyo GXP
Pokemon Black and White (from episode 87)
Bleach (from episode 279)

As for simulcasts, here are the shows I am interested in:

Magi (from episode 13)
Pet Girl of Sakura Hall (from episode 13)
Robotics;Notes (from episode 11)
Chihayafuru 2
Oreshura
Tamako Market
Hakkenden: Toho Hakken Ibun
Amnesia
Cuticle Detective Inaba
Maoyu

I am looking to watch 8 simulcasts this season, give or take a couple. The three continuing shows are obviously in, while Chihayafuru and Oreshura are sure bets. Up first is Steins;Gate, the second half of it.

[Buckeye]

Up first is Steins;Gate, the second half of it.

And I just finished up the first series of 2013, Steins;Gate. It's a show that takes awhile for it to get going. But once it does get going, it is just amazing stuff. I put this show on the back burner after four episodes back when it was released, partially because it is confusing and partially because I wanted to warm up to it by watching Chaos;Head first. And in the end, it pays off since I definitely enjoyed it a lot more by watching the show in English and in large chunks rather than watching an episode weekly. The first half seems to be a lot of mad stuff by a mad scientist, but the second half is when this show really becomes epic with all the time-traveling to fix a bleak future. Plus there are a lot of mysteries that end up really being something once they are revealed. All of those things make this show a masterpiece.

Up next, Baka and Test season 2 is what I think I will go with next.

[something]

Winter! It's pretty damn great.

Definite or Highly Likely Imports
　01) Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (2)
　02) Tamako Market (1)
　03) Vividred Operation (1)
　04) Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai NEXT (1)
　05) Yama no Susume (2)

Will Continue, High Expectations
　06) Kotoura-san (1)
　07) Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (1)
　08) Minami-ke Tadaima (1)
　09) Chihayafuru 2 (1)

Will Continue, Medium Expectations
　10) Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (1)
　11) Puchimas! Petit iDOLM@STER (10)
　12) Da Capo III (1)

Will Continue, Low Expectations
　13) Mangirl! (2)
　14) Zettai Karen Children -The Unimited- Hyoubu Kyousuke (1)
　15) Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? (1)

Not Tried Yet, but planned (alphabetical)
　Amnesia
　Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman
　GJ-bu
　Senran Kagura

Dropped
　Ai Mai Mii
　Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan
　Cuticle Tantei Inaba
　

- I'd actually order these a little differently it if were purely how much I liked the first episode or two (Kotoura might be as high as third or fourth place, Yama no Susume would be first) but this is partly based on expectations going forward too. So for example I am virtually certain I'll import Haganai Next but Kotoura had the better first episode.
- Yama no Susume is the most tragic thing ever. What evil horrible heartless bastard decided to make such a magnificent story into 3 minute episodes? Honestly, it should be #1, but knowing it's only got ~30 more minutes total really sucks. But even so, it's the first short-episode show (other than Haruhi-chan/Churuya-san) that I'm seriously contemplating importing. That says a lot. It's so. damn. good. I should probably just put the shorts in a separate category like I do in the full rankings.
- Maoyuu is everything I could have hoped for. I set very high expectations, and considered this my replacement for the never-to-be-seen Ookami to Koushinryou III, and so far it's not disappointing me at all.
- Of the ones I haven't tried yet, GJ-bu is an absolute definite, Senran Kagura is very likely. The others are only if I find myself with time to spare.

[Damius]

Winter! It's pretty damn great.

Talk about it. I mean, I still have to watch the first episode of winter and only with my expectations and reading comments about the first episode of each show, I definitely know it will be really difficult to decide what to import...

[MelancholicMariya]

Will Continue, Medium Expectations
10) Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (1)


This was honestly my surprise of the season, well so far anyway. I was caught off guard by how kinda nicely written it is. The performances are really good, the animation and colour use is amazing (great use of colour is a theme this season it seems) and I seem to really enjoy all of the characters and how they interact. Plus a, so far, well written male lead.

This could be exactly what I wanted Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo to be. Not that Sakurasou is poorly written, but it's kinda missing something for me and I can't tell what it is, though I do dislike Mashiro.

[Glamrgrl104]

Eden of the east Paradise Lost- Wonderful ending to an awesome series.


My little monster- episodes 1-10- This series is hilarious although it has the cliche romance stuff, but I am a sucker for romantic comedies lol.

Library War- Episode 1- Interesting concept. I am quite enjoying it.

[something]

2011 Wrapup Post (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?p=1974698#post1974698).

Eligible Shows
- 2-cour Fall 2011 shows through 1-cour Fall 2012 shows
- Long ongoing shows, e.g. Fairy Tail, Hunter x Hunter.
- The following are 2-cour Fall 2011 shows that are counted as 2012: Shakugan no Shana III, Mirai Nikki, Bakuman 2, Chuhayafuru
- The following are ongoing multi-cour Fall 2012 shows that will be eligible in 2013: Little Busters!, Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo, Robotics;Notes, Bakuman 3, Shinsekai Yori, Zetsuen no Tempest. Pretty packed list again.

I recently revisited a lot of my rankings, which made 9/10 a good deal more exclusive than it used to be. It seemed a bit weird to have near-10s like Chuunibyou getting the same number as what are really just "strong 8s" like Papakiki.

So a lot of shows got shifted down in general to draw more finegrained distinctions, meaning 6/10 now includes a number of shows I thought were perfectly watchable, rather than everything in that category being a 7 or higher. Therefore shows that would have gotten an 8 last year might be a 7 this year and so on. If I were doing it the same as 2011, the 9s would probably have gone down to Chihayafuru or thereabouts.

10 (9.8-10.0) out of 10: 2012's masterpieces. Among my favorite shows.
(01)　　Mouretsu Pirates - Winter '12 - 10.0/10 (Satelight) - From about episode 4 or 5 onward, it was pirating time and everything this year fell before the Bentenmaru's onslaught. First it conquered a very very stacked Winter season, then it somehow held out against Hyouka of all things in Spring, and after that it was clear sailing. Mouretsu Pirates was the show of the year, for myriad reasons, but above all for Katou Marika, one of the best protagonists anime has ever given us. She was competent and successful without just having everything handed to her by the plot, and she showed just how much she valued the people she couldn't have succeeded without: Gruier, Chiaki, Mami, the Yacht Club, the crew of the Bentenmaru, and of course her awesome mother. Mouretsu Pirates also scored points with one of the best soundtracks of the year (great OP/EDs too). And I can't possibly mention the show, or Marika, without mentioning my choice for breakout seiyuu of the year, Komatsu Mikako. I want nothing more than for her to become the next big thing after what she proved herself capable of with Marika (and Neko in K too). She's also got a fantastic singing voice too! Lastly, this is the show that solidified Satou Tatsuo as one of my all time favorite directors. [Imported]

(02)　　Hyouka - Spring '12 - 10.0/10 (Kyoto Animation) - Hyouka is the kind of show that you're really not going to appreciate if you focus on the premise and the narrative tricks over the characters. Yes, it's a story from the "mystery" genre but the mysteries are not themselves ends, they are simply means to explore the depths of the characters' personalities, relationships, and growth. They are sometimes simple, even banal, but what they are doesn't (for the most part) actually matter all that much. The OAD episode is a pretty decent example of this - we see how a very trivial, silly mstery is the catalyst to help Houtarou overcome significant depression. By the final episode, Houtarou has changed profoundly on the inside even if a stranger wouldn't see it on the outside. Hyouka revels in that sort of thing. KyoAni's obsession with minor details has probably never been stronger than it was in Hyouka. It's possibly their most visually stunning TV series to date, as far as crisp, consistent, sharp character art goes. The visual experimentation that kicked into high gear with Nichijou carried over to Hyouka in some what more subdued, but no less effective, form as well, particularly in the "deduction" sequences. . [Imported]

(03)　　Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Fall '12 - 9.9/10 (Shaft) - Take everything Hidamari has become so beloved for, give it ever-improving production values from Shaft (I'm rewatching the first season right now, and the quality difference is clear as day), and then add in some beautifully executed emotional turmoil over the impending graduation of the third years (season five when?) and of course it's a 10, just like previous seasons were. It's not until you go back and rewatch the first season that you realize how much Nazuna and Nori have livened things up. The dynamic that lets us explore Yuno not just as Hiro and Sae's adorable and self-conscious kouhai, but as the hard-working, caring senpai to Nazuna and Nori, adds some much appreciated flavor to the character dynamics. Other major highlights this season came from the always-bittersweet Natsume scenes, getting to see Miyako acutely self-conscious of Yuno, and of course Hiro's heartbreaking but beautiful and uplifting episode. Another gorgeous ED from Marble is icing on the cake, with Yumegumo being almost as good as Hoshimitsu's Sakura Sakura Saku. There is something very, very special about this franchise. I really can't bear to ever see it end. [Imported]


9 (9.0-9.7) out of 10: The best or among the best in their respective seasons. Definite imports. A few things hold them back from a 10 but they're still the best of the year.

(T4)　　Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! - Fall '12 - 9.6/10 (Kyoto Animation) - 2012 was a great year for KyoAni, taking both #2 and #4. Chuu2koi was the coup de grace for my ability to ever take a chuunibyou protagonist seriously ever again. Kuroneko and Kobato started it, but after Chuu2koi it's just waaaaay too hilarious to watch a show like Zetsuen no Tempest and take it seriously. Not to mean I can't still like it, but I'm just so aware of the comedy behind it all. :sd: This was such a great show though, particularly in how it melds together cute comedy with brilliantly executed drama. Episode 11 is hands down one of the best episodes this studio has done. That the production values were phenomenal rather goes without saying at this point. As far as seiyuu go, Chuunibyou took the path of trying out a few newish seiyuu (compared to Hyouka's veteran cast) and the results were great, particularly from Uesaka Sumire, the voice of my favorite character, Dekomori. I also love hearing Akasaki Chinatsu (Shinka) again. Uchida Maaya (Rikka) has a few more roles under her belt than the others but is still fairly new. But again, what really sold this show was the transition into the dramatic material, which was done so naturally. The only thing holding it back from a 10 is that I feel as if it needed a few more episoes. 15 or 16 might have been perfect, allowing for more depth to the ending and better use of Kumin. [Imported]

(T4)　　Girls und Panzer - Fall '12 - 9.6/10 (Actas) - I knew as soon as it was announced that I would love it, so I can't call the fact that I rate it highly a surprise, but perhaps what it a surprise is just how much I loved it. I can only explain it with something intangible: the obvious love and dedication the staff poured into making this the absolute best show they could, from making every one of the many girls unique and interesting, to the care given to how the tanks are depicted. Unfortunately they couldn't pour in quite enough love to get their work done on time, so we're still waiting on the last two episodes. Ah well. This show borrowed some elements from two of my favorite franchises - not that they originated with those, but they seem like the obvious immediate influences: the military bishoujo genius of Shimada Fumikane, a la Strike Witches, and the all-girls non-traditional sporting tournament, a la Saki (with some very familiar character dynamics too). It defines its own unique identity in the process and I think it's easy to understand why it's become such a phenomenon in otakudom. I admire shows that can take an absurd premise, treat them with total seriousness, and not come off feeling remotely inappropriate. GirlPan does just that. [Edit 2013-03-28, moving up to a tie with Chuunibyou thanks to the mind-bogglingly perfect final episodes.] [Imported]

(T6)　　Dog Days' - Summer '12 - 9.3/10 (Seven Arcs) - YUUSHA BECKY HELL YEAH. That pretty much sums up Dog Days'. Hoping for Nanami to get her turn in the spotlight in season three. I don't know if season three will totally eschew an overarching plot like season two did, but if it does, that's really not going to be a problem. The battles-games provide ample opportunity to show off what makes the characters so lovable. This is the sort of show that's discovered a formula that'll pretty much work forever, without major changes needed. [Imported]

(T6)　　Yuru Yuri♪♪ - Summer '12 - 9.3/10 (Douga Koubou) - The time travel episode is still probably the height of the franchise. This season was most notable for even more HimaSaku goodness, but also Akari getting some love! She took her fair share of abuse again, of course, but that just makes the moments where her friends show genuine affection for her all the more satisfying. She's one of my favorite characters of the year, without a doubt. [Imported]

(08)　　Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A - Spring '12 - 9.2/10 (Studio Gokumi) - I recently rewatched the first season, which allows me to see both the strengths and flaws of Achiga-hen. It falls short of Saki in some very important ways: the mahjong is rather subdued in comparison, until the semifinals airing in bonus episodes now. The yuri, at least in the main cast, is weaker. The pacing isn't as good. Probably the biggest issue is that the titular school plays second-fiddle much of the time. I don't know if Senriyama was already the most popular school among manga readers, but the writers went a little too far in making Achiga secondary characters in their own show. Saki first season balanced the schools better - it was obvious Kiyosumi were the protagonists, but everyoe else was developed well to. Yet in the end, all that hardly matters. I absolutely adored the hell out of this show, and everyone in it. From Subara-tan to Toki wo Kakeru Toki and finally getting to see Teru in action I loved every single episode. And while Achiga came off as "just another school" in the second half, I felt that the initial introduction was very very strong and that enabled em to fall in love with them right away, and maintain affection for them throughout. Kuro in particular. Knowing that Zenkoku-hen is coming, I'm perfectly happy to view Achiga-hen as a bridge story, and think it excels at it if you accept that Achiga is not Kiyosumi, and Shizu is not Saki. I can't wait for the last three episodes, though I desperately wish this had been two cour. They could have filled 24 episodes easily. [Imported]

(09)　　Jinrui wa Suitaishimashita - Summer '12 - 9.2/10 (AIC ASTA) - Most clever show of the year. The fairies are the best mascot characters ever, Watashi is one of Nakahara Mai's best roles, and oh that snark. The morbid sense of humor, the surreal art, the great OP and ED, on and on. This show is totally irreverent towards everything and that's why it works. I also enjoyed the mostly backwards chronology to it. [Imported]

(10)　　Ano Natsu de Matteru - Winter '12 - 9.1/10 (JC Staff) - Nagai Tatsuyuki doing what he does best: emotionally intense teenage romantic drama. I'd say this was the best romantic drama of the year, as I define it. This did suffer a little from "Everyone else is more interesting than the lead couple" syndrome, but that's only really an issue when the lead couple is bad - which was emphatically not the case here. One relationship thread I was hoping to see resolved was left "in development" rather than explicit, but that it got that far at all made me very happy. Ishihara Kaori really grabbed my attention in Winter with both Madoka from LagRin and Kanna in this show. And of course, Remon is fucking awesome. There is never enough Yukarin. [Imported]

(11)　　Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon II - Summer '12 - 9.0/10 (Sunrise) - It's as good as season one without the 3-4 episode struggle of adjusting to the narrative style that came with season one, which means it just got to be awesome the whole way through. Tenzou came out of nowhere to be one of my favorite characters in the show, the subplot with Gacchan and Margot was really nice, even if being Gacchan is suffering. Kimi continued to illustrate why she should probably just be classified as her own species of awesome. Gin vs Futayo was one of the best fights of the year. Plus Suzu x Adele. <3 I still feel like I have to ignore 80% of the detail in a given episode in order to process the basic narrative, but it's getting a bit better, and I'm willing to just lay back and accept the more chaotic bits as they come, enjoying them for their own sake. [Imported]


8 out of 10: Many of these get imported, but one or two things keep them from being the biggest and best standouts of the year for me.
(12)　　Inu x Boku SS - Winter '12 - 8.8/10 (David Production) - Ricihiyo! Her and Soushi were early contenders for favorite hetero couple of the year, although they faced competition later. Given its sales I'm still hopeful about a sequel. [Imported]

(13)　　Rinne no Lagrange - Winter '12 - 8.8/10 (Xebec) - Highest rated mecha series I watched this year (unless Horizon counts), and also one of the best endings (for the first season) thanks to that "bye bye!" scene. I liked the first season more than the second overall, though both are pretty great. This wasn't in the same league as Tatsuo's other Winter series, Mouretsu, but it was a solid addition to his position as one of my favorite directors. I also rather appreciated him delivering two really great female protagonists to us (Madoka and Marika). [Imported]

(14)　　Natsume Yuujin-chou Shi - Winter '12 - 8.7/10 (Brains Base) - When a show has been delivering the same consistent sort of quality, with the same themes, for four seasons, it can be tough to find something to talk about. I could start with not enough Reiko! but even without her I manage to like this show so much after all this time. This and Hidamari need fifth seasons announced together. [Imported]

(15)　　Hunter x Hunter - Ongoing, pre-'12 - 8.7/10 (Madhouse) - Fairy Tail is still my favorte long shounen overall, but in terms of 2012 material Hunter x Hunter gets the nod because it got to showcase its best material, and possibly the best single shounen fighting anime arc, i.e. Yorkshin and the Spiders. Meanwhile, Fairy Tail spent a good deal of time in a filler stage. Greed Island just started and is what I've been dreading for some time, given how much it turned me off from the first series, but Madhouse has been so solid so far that the benefit of getting to watch it in a weekly TV format might improve the experience. We'll see when I do the 2013 rankings, I guess!

(16)　　Uchuu Kyoudai - Spring '12, Ongoing - 8.7/10 (A1 Pictures) - I love space exploration. And I really love the way this show deals with it. Or ways, rather: comically, absurdly, seriously, deeply emotionally, whatever is appropriate at the time. It can be dumb then inspiring from one week to the next. At its best, it beautifully captures the wonder of that "final frontier", even if most of the characters tend to spend their time earthbound. There was a stretch in the selection exam where it dragged a bit, but many recent episodes have been top-notch.

(17)　　Nisemonogatari - Winter '12 - 8.6/10 (Shaft) - This needs to get some kind of award for the best fanservice of the year. I found this fell a little short of Bakemonogatari, probably due to the strange structure of the series. Both series had somewhat unsatisfying endings (Nekomonogatari was an improvement there), but Bakemonogatari felt like it flowed better, even though it was cut up into character arcs. There were also more major emotional climaxes. But Nise continued the rapid-fire banter between characters that defines the series, and was no slouch there compared to Bake. Exchanges with Shinobu were particularly great. I also liked Tsubasa a lot more in Nise than in Bake. [Imported]

(18)　　Papa no Iu Koto wo Kikinasai! - Winter '12 - 8.6/10 (Feel) - It's really nice when a show makes sure to avoid all the easiest ways it could go badly. It wasn't perfect - Sako is a horrible character, Sora's feelings could have been handled a little better, a few of the fanservice scenes weren't the best - but it continuously impressed me with the amount of feeling it showed. This is a show where it's a little easier to nag at the flaws than to articulate clearly why I liked it, but the good really did outweigh the bad for me, by quite a lot. It crossed between lighthearted and dramatic very well, Oh and Hina da yo~ was totally the cutest child character of 2012, hands down. [Imported]

(19)　　Kokoro Connect - Summer '12 - 8.5/10 (Silver Link) - The Michi Random bonus episodes did a good job improving my opinion of the franchise. I always found it a mixed bag, combining great ideas and pretty great characters (and Sawashiro Miyuki's best performance of the year as Himeko) with execution that aaaaaaaaalways seemed to be missing that little something that takes it to the level of greatness. All the raw materials were there but they weren't in the hands of the best possible craftsman. Even so the end result was very good, with moments of brilliance, even if the ends of some of the arcs felt lacking. In the end I'd still be delighted if more shows were as good as Kokoroko. [Imported]

(20)　　Acchi Kocchi - Spring '12 - 8.5/10 (AIC) - Total, fluff, but fluff is what you want sometimes. And when it comes to fluff, Acchi Kocchi is masterful. [Imported]

(21)　　Chihayafuru - Fall '11 - 8.5/10 (Madhouse) - This would be a 9 if Arata would just go away. My favorite character in the show is actually Taichi, which is part of why the whole Arata plot annoys me. But what a great show, really. Like any good show about a competitive game, it turned something that would bore me to tears in reality into something both exciting and elegant, and conveyed the passion of its players clearly.

(22)　　Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun - Fall '12 - 8.4/10 (Brains Base) - As mentioned below, I liked Yamato better than Haru, but the extended cast gave Kaibutsu-kun the slightest leg up on Sukinayo. This was a more vibrant show, as well as funnier, and that gave it a slight edge even though Shizuku and Haru don't do it for me as much as Mei and Yamato do.

(23)　　Sukitte Ii na yo - Fall '12 - 8.4/10 (Zexcs) - Three shoujo in a row. I've said that if you took the best of this and the best of Kaibutsu-kun, you'd have a lock for an import. Alas we can't do that, so Sukinayo gets points for the better male lead and cuter romance.

(24)　　Fairy Tail - Ongoing, pre-'12 - 8.3/10 (A1 Pictures) - Uh, this goes somewhere around here I guess. Ranking long ongoing shows is very hard. The filler arc was one of the low points of the show, but we had to have one eventually, right? There were some very good elements to it, but it simply went on too long. Still, even when it's not at its best, Fairy Tail is a damn good show, and the Grand Magic Games are proving that.

(25)　　Shakugan no Shana III - Fall '11 - 8.2/10 (JC Staff) - Oh, what the hell should I make of this show? It's part 10/10, part 6/10 so split the difference and add a few tenths for Shana love and a great OP? The final quarter of the show just got irredeemably awkward as development after development was crammed in, spiraling towards a ruly ridiculing endgame - although I liked the very last scene a lot. Before all that, though? Oh god I loved it loved it loved it. I adore what they did with Shana's character through much of that. Her grim determination, and her devotion to fight for what she believed to be right. Made me fall in love with her all over again. The long running battles through much of the first two thirds of the show were also very exciting and full of great set pieces. But it's damned hard for me to wrap my brain around a final verdict. I'm really happy the franchise got animated to completion, and there's no way I wasn't going to import it, but I wish it could have ben done much more elegantly in the later stages. The sheer number of characters I didn't know anything about and didn't feel invested in did not help. [Imported]

(26)　　Mirai Nikki - Fall '11 - 8.1/10 (Asread) - Yuno and Minene and complete insanity results in a lot of reactions along the lines of simply "WTF THIS SHOOOOOOW!". Where do you even start?

(27)　　Rinne no Lagrange season 2 - Summer '12 - 8.1/10 (Xebec) - It lacked in some areas compared to season one, but it was a worthy followup and a good conclusion. [Imported]

(28)　　Bakuman 2 - Fall '11 - 8.0/10 (JC Staff) - I have a feeling my comparatively lukewarm impression of season three is affecting my ranking for season two, because I ranked this above Chihayafuru when I did my last Fall '11 update, and now it's well below. But Nakai is simply one of the most intolerable characters ever written. I hate hate hate hate him. I still think the main couple is a terrible romance. And I'm not a fan of Iwase at all. And yet, this show still ranks very highly on the strength of, well, everything else. The formula


7 out of 10: These will fade from memory faster than the 8s but they were fun while they lasted. Very unlikely that anything getting a 7 would be an import unless I cooled on it pretty quickly after buying.
(29)　　Upotte!! - Spring '12 - 7.9/10 (Xebec) - More than any other show this year, Upotte!! is the one that will get the least respect relative to what it really deserves. Written off by so many as mindless fanservice, what we actually got were a number of really good firefights and even some serious character material. Yes, and fanservice, sure. Maybe some of the good feeling I have for it is radiating from the warm glow of other military girls shows like GirlPan and the SW movie, but I really liked it at the time too.

(30)　　Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate - Summer '12 - 7.8/10 (AIC Build)- It's a little sad to realize that the highest rated visual novel adaptation on my list is only 29th. In fact, it's the only one I finished. Hell I only even got to try two! But hey, times change, industries evolve. At least I have Little Busters! for 2013. I still really enjoyed this show, though. I didn't seem to mind most of the things people found to be flaws (thought the ending was really good too) either. A certain bullying subplot wasn't handled well, and everything had to come together very quickly at the end, glossing over a lot of details, but fundamentally the show was very enjoyable.

(31)　　Another - Winter '12 - 7.8/10 (PA Works) - Ah, comedy horror. I don't like even mildly gory things much, and tend to shy away from the horror genre, but Another was so damn amusing that I could look past it. The pure clusterfuckery of how things ended was fantastic. And the twist, while a bit of a cheat, was good. Yeah, I liked this.

(32)　　Nazo no Kanojo X - Spring '12 - 7.7/10 (Hoods) - I can't say saliva weirds me out any less, but the point of this show wasn't the fetish, it was the way an awkward young couple stumbles through love. It's really quite heartfelt when you get own to it.

(33)　　Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - Spring '12 - 7.5/10 (Silver Link) - A mixed bag. Some episodes were good, others decent, but episodes 10 and 11 were among the best of the whole year. Yuuko's backstory was just absolutely goddamned phenomenal on every level.

(34)　　Sengoku Collection - Spring '12 - 7.5/10 (Brains Base) - This show was given the animation budget of my average bowel movement - way to B team it up, Brians Base. But what it lacked in production values, or even coherence, it made up for with a degree of experimentation that sometimes fell flat, but sometimes scored real brilliance. Particularly Yoshitsugu and Angel. It's the kind of episode that you finish and think "wait what show did I just watch?" Sandbox wars, Bashou's haiku episode, anything involving Ieyasu, Shingen in space and various other stories were pretty great.

(35)　　K - Fall '12 - 7.5/10 (GoHands) - Komatsu Mikako as Neko is what made the show for me, but when it wasn't trying too hard to be stylish (and stumbling over its footage reuse) this manged to be a very solid "gang war"-style show. Sort of like a low level Durarara I guess. Second season is definitely on my to-watch list. The lead trio is too fun to pass up.

(36)　　Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru! - Summer '12 - 7.4/10 (Studio Gokumi) - Three cheers for shows that take the plot in the interesting direction rather than the easy direction. Sure it's dumb as hell and full of fanservice, so yes it is the show you assume it is, but it's also something more than that too. WHO IS IMOUTO was actually handled a lot better than I expected, making this one of those "unexpectedly competent!" anime, and a pleasant surprise.

(37)　　Senki Zesshou Symphogear - Winter '12 - 7.3/10 (Satelight) - All I wanted was a kiss at the end! Goddamnit! That could have put this ten spots higher. Well there's always the sequel, which I do look forward to. More silly singing superpowered girls please.

(38)　　Sakamichi no Apollon - Spring '12 - 7.2/10 (MAPPA) - It's a beautiful gem that someone tragically stopped polishing right before it started to truly shine. It peaked at the incredible cultural festival performance, then really started to unwind in the closing episodes. Early on I thought it could be one of the best shows of the year, but something just happened, and it ended up being "pretty good" instead.

(39)　　Hakuouki Hekketsuroku - Summer '12 - 7.2/10 (Studio Deen) - Switching to a male protagonist actually worked out, not that I disliked Chizuru. The very awkward ending of the second season was gone thanks to the powers of prequel. And Serizawa, surprisingly, provided a three-dimensional, interesting antagonist. All in all my favorite of the three seasons so far.

(40)　　Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? Of the Dead - Winter '12 - 7.0/10 (Studio Deen) - I guess a bit of the show's luster faded, which is why this is the first sequel to an import that I didn't import. It's certainly not bad at all, I can think of a lot of things I like about it (especially the next episode previews). But it didn't really compete with most shows this year.


6 out of 10: Nothing particularly wrong with these shows, but nothing that particularly amazed me. Or, some may be shows that should have been good but had some major flaw. Worth watching at any rate.
(41)　　Kami-sama Hajimemashita - Fall '12 - 6.9/10 (TMS Entertainment) - Quite good, maybe it should be a 7, but whatever. Tomoe and the other guys were okay, but Nanami was the real draw.

(42)　　Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan - Spring '12 - 6.8/10 (Production IG) - Happy bread. What I constantly thought while watching this was "surprisingly competent!". Which I guess sounds like damning with faint praise, but that's not my intent. I was pretty convinced it would fall apart if it introduced plot, but oddly enough it held together well.

(43)　　Fate/Zero season 2 - Spring '12 - 6.5/10 (ufotable) - I stopped taking this franchise seriously very early on in season two. It was kinda fun to watch but just so goofy, even though it was trying to be serious. Waver x Rider is 90% of the appeal though. Rider is a god among men, and Waver is adorable, so they totally made F/Z.

(44)　　Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne! - Fall '12 - 6.3/10 (Silver Link) - Dumb last minute development. Drop in production values hurt it too, because pretty much the whole appeal was the fanservice (especially of Akiko), which was pretty great when the art quality was at its peak. Overall pretty funny though.

(45)　　Moyashimon Returns - Summer '12 - 6.2/10 (Telecom Animation Film) - Marie was great, but by and large it kinda lost something the original series had. Or, that I assume the original series had, because I have a reasonably positive memory of it even if I can't remember why for the life of me. I dunno, it was decent but things derailed with Paris.

(46)　　Sankarea - Spring '12 - 6.1/10 (Studio Deen) - It's not bad, but it is a cautionary tale against introducing plot for the sake of plot. Rea's dad did nothing to improve this show at all. He just took away time from the "my cute dead girlfriend" fun.


4 out of 10: This did not go as planned.
(47)　　Natsuyuki Rendezvous - Summer '12 - 4.0/10 (Douga Koubou) - I tend to drop shows I feel this negative on long before they get to the end. But a combination of 1) a reasonably strong start, 2) only being 11 episodes, and 3) being on Crunchyroll, so I could just make it part of my usual rounds, caused me to somehow end up finishing it. The whole final arc and everything involving Atsushi completely turned me off unfortunately.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OVAs/Specials/Movies/Other: Not ranked; "Extra" episodes that follow the original broadcast like Achiga-hen or Kokoroko are considered part of the TV series and not listed here.

　　K-ON! Movie - Movie - The absolute best piece of animation of 2012 (ok it premiered in Dec '11, but the BD date matters for movies). The perfect capstone (if it's the end) to the series. I don't think I can even get started on this without going on for paragraphs. Just typing this out I'm feeling overwhelmed thinking about it. This movie was everything I have ever loved so deeply about K-ON! taken to another level. Thematically, it simply could not have chosen a better unifying concept (Tenshi ni Fureta yo) to express the deep love and friendship and affection that exists among the members of the band and particularly of the third years towards Azusa and double particularly from Yui to Azusa and HOLY FUCK IT I'm putting this post on hold to go rewatch it right this second. ::comes back:: ...yeah, it's still got it. It's a masterpiece.
　　Strike Witches Movie - Movie - Wonderful. I still need a third season but this was just the thing to get me thinking about the franchise again until that happens. Seeing more witches was great, and there were so many great dogfights. Perhaps slightly overboard on "Yoshika is superhuman" but unlike certain other shows, it worked because everyone got to be badass as hell.

　　Nekomonogatari - Specials - The most important thing this did was to clarify a lot of things about how Koyomi thinks about and reacts to Tsubasa in Bake and Nise. It added a good deal more depth to what is the most complex of all of Koyomi's relationships, and I thought it handled it quite well.

　　Yurumates - Short episodes - Of the recent flood of mini-shows, this stands out as one of the better ones. The jokes seemed timed well enough to make the short format work. Liked 2011's Morita-san wa Mukuchi a bit better though.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dropped: I've started rating dropped series, but only if I see at least 6 episodes.

At least 6 episodes, scored:
　　Ixion Saga DT - 7 eps - 6/10
　　Kill Me Baby - 7 eps - 6/10
　　Brave 10 - 6 eps - 5/10
　　Tari Tari - 6 eps - 5/10
　　Kidou Senshi Gundam AGE - 27 eps - 4/10
　　Accel World - 19 eps - 3/10
　　Sword Art Online - 20 eps - 0/10

Less than 6 epsiodes, no score given:
　　Medaka Box - 5 eps
　　Oda Nobuna no Yabou - 5 eps
　　Zero no Tsukaima F - 5 eps
　　AKB0048 - 4 eps
　　Queen's Blade: Rebellion - 4 eps
　　Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2 - 4 eps
　　Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu Utakoi - 3 eps
　　Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou - 3 eps
　　Haiyore! Nyaruko-san - 3 eps
　　Highschool DxD - 3 eps
　　Natsuiro Kiseki - 3 eps
　　Arcana Famiglia - 2 eps
　　Chitose Get You! - 2 eps
　　Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai - 2 eps
　　Muv-Luv Total Eclipse - 2 eps
　　Tsuritama - 2 eps
　　Campione - 1 ep
　　Aikatsu! - 1 ep
　　Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de - 1 ep
　　Ebiten - 1 ep
　　Eureka Seven AO - 1 ep
　　Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna - 1 ep

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TOTALS:
47 completed 2012 TV series. Pretty consistent with 2011's 43.

20 TV series on the list are being imported in full, up two from 2011. I ended up importing almost 43% of the TV shows I watched to completion, slightly more than last year (17 of 43). Besides TV series, I imported the K-ON! and Strike Witches movies. I'll also be importing Nisemonogatari but it doesn't release until March.

22 dropped shows, down for the first time in a few years. I would say this is mostly due to trying less shows out, and I guess I picked fairly well since I still ended up finishing even more shows.


Quite the year, to say the least. I wonder if the close completion and import numbers between 2011 and 2012 are going to be the norm gong forward. Winter '13 is already off to a good start, and there's one carryover import (Little Busters) that'll count as 2013.

[Buckeye]

Up next, Baka and Test season 2 is what I think I will go with next.

I just finished up with the season season of Baka and Test. This show makes its money on the comedy as it is really funny with Akihisa being so dumb and all the avatar wars. The first season was really funny, and while this season is a little bit less so, it does tell a more complete story with the episodes that explain this history of Minami, Yuuji, and Shouko. The first half with the summer vacation and the training camp were so-so, but the second half was really nice to watch. Overall, it continues to be quite funny, which is why I like to watch this show. I was expecting Class F to declare another summoner war, and while a summoner war was part of the season, it is not the same type that happened during the first season.

Up next, I'm thinking I will go with K-On!!, the second season.

[Damius]

Something, I don't see Kokoroko in your list...

[Nico87]

Already have my imports lined up for Winter, thankfully.

Vividred Operation
Kotoura-san
Maoyuu
Boku NEXT
Tamako Market (shut up, something ;))

I might pick up and import an additional show later on that I didn't watch simulcast like I did with Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun (vols. 1 & 2 in January order) and Suki-tte Ii na yo (vol. 1 in February order), but those five are it for me right now. Just too bad that store exclusive boxes have already been confirmed for all of them except Kotoura-san (no retail box confirmed yet either for that matter)!

[something]

Something, I don't see Kokoroko in your list...

Huh, I know I typed something up originally, but must have accidentally deleted it when setting things in order, and not noticed when I renumbered. Thanks, re-added! Now I wonder what else I forgot... I know I didn't add Smile Precure, which I should have, but I'm going to wait until after I finish the show since I'm still a ways from the end, and do it in 2013.

[something]

Vividred Operation
Kotoura-san
Maoyuu
Boku NEXT
Tamako Market (shut up, something ;))
=D

But yeah that list is pretty much to what I'd guess my orders will be. I won't be deciding for a while yet (I don't need to choose until late February) so I don't have any locked in. I mean Maoyuu, Vividred, Haganai are really obvious. Tamako should be a super mega obvious lock but there's one plot thread that's so intensely delicate for me that there's a chance even KyoAni might fuck it up (!!!), although I dearly hope not. Kotoura-san will have to be imported if episode one was indicative of the quality of following episodes (watching ep later 2 today).

I'll almost certainly import Yama no Susume too, gritting my teeth and muttering all the way about what a goddamned travesty and crime against humanity it is that something so profoundly wonderful was crippled with short episodes.

There are other contenders too, but we'll see.

[Nico87]

I decide very early. Problem for me is that I can never get used to this simulcast stuff. I can't just watch one episode one week then wait another week for the next episode while watching other stuff in between. Too used to watching 3-4 eps in a row for three days and boom, show completed.

I watch three or four eps and then I just leave it entirely until the show is done so I can watch everything over two or three days. If the rest turns out to be bad then too bad for me. I can't see any of the five shows I mentioned turning shit though, and this "method" has never, ever failed for me.

[something]

Problem for me is that I can never get used to this simulcast stuff. I can't just watch one episode one week then wait another week for the next episode while watching other stuff in between. Too used to watching 3-4 eps in a row for three days and boom, show completed.
That's basically why I decide so early. I watch three or four eps and then I just leave it entirely until the show is done so I can watch everything over two or three days. If the rest turns out to be bad then too bad for me. I can't see any of the five shows I mentioned turning shit though, and this "method" has never, ever failed for me.
I've definitely changed my mind a good bit as to what is import-worthy as the season goes on. It would be uncommon for a show I want to import after 2 episodes to turn completely terrible (though it's happened) but it might just drop to "pretty good" and that's well below my import threshold. I also don't want to import something "good" and miss out on something that becomes "great" much later on. But I prefer watching weekly anyway, otherwise you completely miss out on the discussion part of fandom, which would be a fairly big loss for me. It's fun seeing how everyone's reactions evolve week to week as the show plays out.

[ultimatemegax]

Watched the first episodes of things I wanted to try and the second episodes of shows I'll likely keep, so I might as well make a ranking thus far.

Keeping:
1. Tamako Market
Tamako gets the top slot not for anything it's done thus far, but for the set up it's laid for an overall view. The atmosphere is very nostalgic (as Yamada mentioned, it's very Showa-esque) and the art/animation is very well done. I'm quite pleased at the technical aspects of the first two episodes and look forward to see where this show goes. Highly probable to import, but who knows at this point.

2. Mondaiji-tachi
Well, I can safely say this was a surprise. Coming into this season, it was nowhere on my list of series to watch. Once the first episode had an endcard by Noizi Itou (http://i.imgur.com/3LLla.jpg), I had to give it a try if only to see that. Thus far the story is intriguing without being too cliche. Given that it's a LN and the story is from the POV of our male lead, I worried that he'd take over the show as some leads tend to do (coughToumacough), but thus far it's been nice to see the entire main cast expanded upon. Would import, but it's Kadokawa pricing and I've got other, better, series to debate over.

3. Chihayafuru 2
And contrasting to Tamako, this is ranking Chihaya from what it's done rather than where it'll go (read ahead in the manga). I'm not a fan of Sumire and having the two first episodes of the second season focusing on her tends to be a polarizing option. People who like her will feel that it continues on from the first season while those who don't may feel that the show's going downhill. I'm feeling anxious to get further into the team tournament portion and to see what Mizusawa can do there. At the moment, groundwork is being laid, but I can't help but feel ready to move on.

4. OreShura
Not really digging the male lead. Masuzu is alright, but I can't say that I like her. Chiwa would be in the sympathetic position, but she refuses to say anything that would give our idiot lead any clue that she likes him. I'm seriously debating dropping this due to dislike/disinterest to where it'll go.

Already dropped:
Mayou: Two things. First episode didn't really capture any interest for me, and second, I can't stop putting Yuuta/Shichimiya in the place of "Hero"/"Demon Lord", so I've dropped it.
Seitokai no Ichizon Lv2: I really enjoyed the first season and thought this would be a good continuation, but it seems the staff changes really neutered what made the first season entertaining. Yoshida couldn't save this one. (yes, I watched episode 0 and episode 1. Neither really grabbed me)
Love Live: Maybe I'll marathon it when it's done/released by NISA. Idol shows aren't usually something I like, so I'll wait to see what others say when it's done.

Last season:
Sakurasou: Less than writing "maybe when it's done" I go through and catch up in a marathon. Not bad. Outside of the imouto episode, it's pretty decent, but nothing higher than "slightly above average." Feel so bad for Nanami.
Little Busters: Actually has a chance of me finishing it since it'll be on Crunchy and I won't have to expend effort to find it. Maybe I'll forget how the first 2 episodes and 8 minutes of the 3rd didn't interest me at all.

Looking forward through 2013 confirmations:
Railgun S: Already saving for the BDs
Monogatari Second Season: After being underwhelmed by Nisemonogatari and Nekomonogatari (Kuro), my expectations are low.
Kizumonogatari: (Hey it's "planned for 2013" according to Eiga.com) Very much looking forward to it. Hopefully AoA will screen it in the US and I might get to see it.

[Nikopol]

Well, so far:

1) Vividred - 2eps
It's all i've hoped for and then some. Some glitches like the tomato thing may be forgiven. Import locked.

2) Sasami-san -2eps
I'm already hooked, really love the art style and the explantion of the trippy first episode makes sense. Very high import chance.

3) Tamako Market - 2eps
Not a lot has happened yet, but i'm starting to get attached to the characters already and i love the huge supporting cast. Very high import chance.

4) Kotoura-san - 2eps
This came out of nowhere for me. Both episodes have been really great. It would need an ending as strong as the first episode to really succeed for me. Moderate import chance.

5) Maoyuu - 3eps
It dropped from my fourth place. Hero has been underwhelming as a character thus far, so the chemistry with the wonderful demon king isn't working for me. Yet. We are still early in the exposition stage, so this might change as the season goes on. Moderate import chance.

6) AMNESIA - 2eps
Not much happening yet. I like the artstyle and the end of the second episode hints at some mystery, though i don't hold my breath. No plans to import.

7) Mondaiji -1ep
It's mostly Black Rabbit, that will have me check out a few more episodes. No plans to import.

8) The Unlimited - 2eps
Nice action show, too bad "normal" action shows don't do it for me. Will stick around for while longer though. No import.

Not listing any of the dropped shows.

Continuing from last season

Shinsekai-Yori
Really love this show, each new arc is stronger than the former. If added to the ranked list above, it would hold the no.2 spot. Already importing.

Robotics;Notes
At this point, i've almost given up. There has been some sort of suicide attempt, and i don't even care. I can't put my finger on why it is, but the show fails to make a connection with me. Had such high hopes for this, so probably my biggest dissapointment.

[Damius]

(06)　　Dog Days'
(07)　　Yuru Yuri♪♪

I remember that in Summer you were not able to decide which one was first and which one was second, so they ended up being both first. How where you able to decide that Dog Days' was a rank above Yuru Yuri♪♪ this time?

[something]

(06)　　Dog Days'
(07)　　Yuru Yuri♪♪

I remember that in Summer you were not able to decide which one was first and which one was second, so they ended up being both first. How where you able to decide that Dog Days' was a rank above Yuru Yuri♪♪ this time?

I have both at 9.3 so I didn't really. It's more an alphabetical tiebreaker than anything.

[Glamrgrl104]

My little monster 11-13- I really hope they pick this one up for a second season it ended in such a bad cliffhanger. I quite enjoyed this series.

Toradora episode 1-16 LOL this is hilarious! That bird made me LMAO. I love the characters too. Going to continue with this one. I stayed up until 1 trying get through most of the episodes lol.

New:

Amnesia episode 1-3- A little slow at first but then it turns out to be really good. There is no real action or anything, but I am curious about this one are her companions magical or something? They all have spades, clubs, hearts as in the poker cards. I loved the new episode even though it still isn't making much sense, but it is good.

Sword art online-episode 1- Such an awesome show and I just started watching lol.

[FUNiOP]

I wasn't going to do this, but I decided I liked the idea of posting my impressions after I had started everything, then comparing that against my final thoughts after everything had finished, specifically grades and rankings, relative both to others from the same season and everything else I'm watching in general.

I'm caught up on all official streams, so in cases like Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, I'm an episode behind.

New This Season:

01. Kotoura-san (B+) I never expected this kind of consistent emotional weight from what looked like a fun little 4-koma adaptation. Easily the anime of the season at this point.
02. MAOYU (B-) Interesting to watch both for its Spice & Wolf similarities (as we'll likely never get a third season) and its unusual 2ch origins.
03. Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? (B-) This still isn't too impressive most of the time, but when it gets into the real meat of the episodes, things become surprisingly compelling.
04. Tamako Market (B-) Definitely interesting to watch basically exactly the same staff as K-ON! bring a completely original story from KyoAni. It's not doing much for me from the first couple of episodes, but I have hope that things will improve.
05. Oreshura (B-) This definitely has those top-notch Aniplex/A-1 production values, and although the subject matter is certainly nothing compared to Bunny Drop, Kamei is still a damn good director.
06. Love Live! School idol project (C+) I don't usually like idol shows, but I'm enjoying this one more than most. Maybe it will open my mind enough to try some more I may have ignored because of that theme in the past.
07. Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (C+) Unlike many, I'm not familiar with any versions of this story, so this is all new to me. That doesn't mean it's an amazing and mind-blowing original story, but at least it's not all old news to me.
08. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (C) This is the only thing I'm only one episode into, and its first episode made less sense than probably any other first episode, so I have no idea where it will go from here. I can't imagine it not continuing to be pretty damn weird, but at least that Shaft/Shinbo artistry keeps things nice to look at.
09. Cuticle Detective Inaba (C) I can't say I commend the show for constantly throwing as many attempts at humor as it can at us, but I also can't deny that with all that volume, something will work for me once in a while.
10. Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (C-) It's kinda like watching Lupin... Yeah, this is definitely a possible drop depending on the quality of upcoming episodes.

That said, I haven't actually dropped anything that I started. Everything I knew I'd hate I didn't even try, and so far I'm sticking with everything I did start although, like I said, Roman is definitely a candidate for being dropped before the season is over.

Everything I'm Watching:

I included the above series simply to compare them against everything else I'm watching. Obviously I don't need to repeat what I said about them, and anything that's been running for multiple seasons before this one I probably don't have anything new to say about, so for this section there will only be comments for the shows that started in Fall 2012.

01. One Piece (A-)
02. Hunter × Hunter (A-)
03. Fairy Tail (B+)
04. Space Brothers (B+)
05. Kotoura-san (B+)
06. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou (B+) This is getting surprisingly better and better as well. With the way the last few episodes have been, I really can't wait to see what every episode after this point will be like.
07. Psycho-Pass (B+) The series has settled into its main plot, and it's all the better for it. The moral conflicts make for a far more compelling narrative than simply letting the system decide everything could've.
08. Magi - The Labyrinth of Magic (B+) The supposed protagonist has been strangely absent from much of the recent events, but his two co-stars are more than making up for that, between Alibaba's epic plans and Morgiana's amazing ass-kicking.
09. Blast of Tempest (B) With the shakeup in character relationships going on, I'm very curious to see who will be fighting who in the near future.
10. MAOYU (B-)
11. Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? (B-)
12. Robotics;Notes (B-) The serious half has started, and things are getting much more interesting, especially with the ending of the last episode...
13. Kingdom (B-)
14. Tamako Market (B-)
15. From the New World (B-) The more depressing this show gets, the more the tension takes hold of you. It may not be pleasant, but it's compelling.
16. Oreshura (B-)
17. Little Busters! (C+) Uh... it's better than Kanon Kazahana... for now...
18. Polar Bear's Café (C+)
19. Love Live! School idol project (C+)
20. Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (C+)
21. Ixion Saga DT (C) I hope this doesn't go on forever. I don't know how much more I can take. It's fun in some ways, but god it's dumb.
22. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (C)
23. Cuticle Detective Inaba (C)
24. Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (C-)

[something]

Guess I'll do a full update next time.

Definite or Highly Likely Imports
　01) Tamako Market - ▲1 (3 eps)
　02) Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - ▼1 (4 eps)
　03) Vividred Operation - ◄0► (3 eps)
　04) Yama no Susume - ▲1 (4 eps)
　05) Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai NEXT - ▼1 (1 eps)

Will Continue, High Expectations
　06) Kotoura-san - ◄0► (3 eps)
　07) Minami-ke Tadaima - ▲1 (3 eps)
　08) Sasami-san@Ganbaranai - ▼1 (3 eps)
　09) Chihayafuru 2 - ◄0► (3 eps)

Will Continue, Medium Expectations
　10) Seitokai no Ichizon Lv.2 - ◄NEW► (2 eps)
　11) Puchimas! Petit iDOLM@STER - ◄0► (14 eps)
　12) Senran Kagura - ◄NEW► (3 eps)
　13) Da Capo III - ▼1 (3 eps)
　14) Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru - ▼4 (1 eps)
　15) Zettai Karen Children -The Unimited- Hyoubu Kyousuke - ▼1 (3 eps)

Will Continue, Low Expectations
　16) Mangirl! - ▼3 (1 eps)

Probable Drops
　17) GJ-bu - ◄NEW► (1 eps)
　18) Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? - ▼3 (1 eps)

Not Tried Yet, but planned (alphabetical)
　none

Dropped
　Ai Mai Mii
　Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan
　Cuticle Tantei Inaba

- Crap. I knew there was a show I keep forgetting to watch, and it's Haganai. I've still only watched the first episode. Argh. Probably too late tonight, since I kinda want to watch HxH. I'll need to try to get an episode or two in during the week.
- Figured it was only a matter of time before Tamako took the top spot. I have a feeling it'll keep it too.
- And I've tried all the shows I'm going to. It's already more than I'll be able to finish, although there are a few others I'd have tried if I had more time.

[Fencedude]

Probable Drops
　17) GJ-bu - ◄NEW► (1 eps)
　18) Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? - ▼3 (1 eps)

You can drop these only if you pick up Love Live.

[something]

Probable Drops
　17) GJ-bu - ◄NEW► (1 eps)
　18) Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? - ▼3 (1 eps)

You can drop these only if you pick up Love Live.
Maybe if someone breaks all of the CG animators' fingers (as painfully as possible). Vivipan is as much character CG as I'll tolerate this season and only because it makes up for it with glorious DOCKINGU.

[Buckeye]

Now that I have watched a couple of episodes of every show that I am thinking about watching this season, I will take a look at all the shows and see which of them are likely to make my watch list and which ones land into the drop or watch later list. With my five episode rule, that means once I watch episode five, it has clinched a spot on my watch list and nothing becomes official until that point.

Continuing from Fall
Magi
Pet Girl of Sakura Hall
Robotics;Notes

Likely Watching
Chihayafuru 2 - This show picks up nicely where the first season ended, and the addition of two new members to the karuta club. The newcomes are very interesting people and they are definitely great additions to this show.
Oreshura - While a show like this could have been something really ugly, it has been very nice to watch so far. The main characters are great with Eita being a great lead, Chiwa being an awesome tsundere, and Masuzu being a nice yandere. So far, the show has been fun to watch.

Could Go Either Way
Tamako Market - The first episode is enjoyable. But at the same time, I feel that more could have been done better with it. From what I have been hearing, this is one of KyoAni's weaker titles, so due to the TAN-exclusiveness, I might very well hold off on this one until March, when I am planning to subscribe to catch all of this show in one month's worth of subscription.
Vividred Operation - So far, this show has some impressive action in it. I thought that there would be much more fanservice in this show, but so far it hasn't been the dominant theme, which is a good thing.
Mondaiji - This show is just fun to watch seeing how I enjoyed Dog Days. The characters are interesting and there is a decent story going on.
Amnesia - While my experience with anime adapted from O games hasn't exactly been great, this one is much different. The character desings are just superb, which is why I was interested in this show in the first place. But so far, the storyline has been slow to develop with not much being revealed. I'm interested in seeing which direction this show goes.
Hakkenden: Toho Hakken Ibun - The second of two shoujo anime shows, so far the story is decent. Certainly, it does a good enough job with the storyline and the characters are interesting.
Maoyu - It looks like this show has some promise in developing the relationship between the hero and demon queen.

Fuhgeddaboudit
Senran Kagura - This show is overloaded with dumb fanservice. While the action is good, there is just not enough of it in the episodes I watched. Katsuragi is a particularly annoying character, so that pretty much does it.
Cuticle Detective Inaba - It's funny, but dull and boring at the same time. It's really stupid, and I just don't think this show is my cup of tea in any way.

With the way my schedule is with football season almost over that I should have more time to watch simulcasts. But at the same time, this season will have much more busy than in fall. So I am looking at a cap of eight shows. There are three that are continuing, two that are as good as in (and just waiting for my five-episode rule to take effect), and three from the middle ground with one of them being a shoujo title (Amnesia or Hakkenden), and the other two being between Tamako Market, Vividred Operation, Mondaiji, and Maoyu. I prefer diversity, which is why I always don't necessarily take the shows I liked the most.

[tytan88]

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru--I like what I have seen so far, but I hope it picks up within the next couple of episodes.

Tamako Market--I like this one, but I haven't been past ep 1. I will watch more tonight.

Minami-ke Tadaima--this is wonderful....just what the doctor ordered.....and maid costumes!

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai NEXT-I love the first episode. I will watch more tonight.

so much anime and so little time!

[Glamrgrl104]

Toradora 16-25- A good ending but it would have been even better if it showed them grown up and what careers they ended up with.

Tiger and bunny-episode 9- Funny.

Amnesia episode 4- Getting good :D

Luckystar-episode 6- Initial D reference!

Deadman Wonderland OVA-Interesting.

Sword art online episodes 2-3- An awesome anime, it reminds me of Fairy tail or Tower of Druaga. It has lots of action, drama, and good character development and plot.

[stardf29]

So I'm going to do something different now. Instead of my previous tiered rankings, I am now assigning each show a score out of 11.0 (with increments of 0.1). Why 11.0? The number before the decimal is what the show would have ranked on my old 10/10 scale. Generally, anything above 8.0 is something I'm enjoying a fair amount, while anything above 9.0 is something I really like, and anything 10.0 and above is just absolutely blowing me away. However, my new system is more of a continuum, so there isn't that much difference in how much I like a 10.0 show compared to a 9.9 show, even if I give them different ratings on ANN for simplicity's sake.

With that said, here are the scores for the shows I'm following this season at the moment, with the last episode I watched in parentheses.

Kotoura-san (3): 10.3
Maoyu (4): 10.2
Yama no Susume (short, 5): 10.1
Tamako Market (3): 10.0
Little Busters (16): 9.9
The Pet Girl of Sakurasou (16): 9.8
Minami-ke Tadaima (3): 9.7
Robotics;Notes (12): 9.5
Love Live! (4): 9.3
Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (2): 9.2
Haganai NEXT (3): 9.1
OreShura (4): 8.3
Student Council's Discretion (3): 8.2
Vividred Operation (3): 7.8
Da Capo III (4): 7.5
(Problem Children (3): 7.3 - going on hold)

The top four continue to be simply amazing, but Little Busters! is getting awfully close to that point with the entry into the latest arc. I have few doubts it'll get a much higher score eventually, though whether it can reach the level of Clannad (one of only two 11.0 shows at this point) remains to be seen.

As a reference, the past seasons of Minami-ke (well, the 1st and 3rd at least) are rated as 9.7 for me. Tadaima is so far doing a good job of keeping that same level of enjoyment.

I am falling behind on Robotics;Notes again. Somehow, as much as I like the show, it's not one I can easily get myself to watch more of on a weekly basis (I can partly blame FUNimation for this, as their streams are nowhere near as convenient for me as CR and even TAN's streams are, for various reasons). Worse comes to worst, I'll just marathon the last batch of episodes at the end of the season like I did for the first half.

Love Live! is really starting to grow on me. It might be partly because I'm still on an idol high from Idolm@ster, or it may be because this show is giving me vibes of Tari Tari (a 9.8 show from last year), but I'm liking this a lot. Even the CG isn't bothering me as much as it did at first.

The scores for Haganai and Student Council's Discretion are what their past seasons are scored as; so far, they've both been consistently good with their past content.

OreShura is something I'd probably like more, but a couple of things are keeping it from being any higher: the childhood friend is in a disadvantageous position, and I'm only recently starting to like Masuzu as a character. Still, it's very funny and has just enough heart in it for me to keep watching for now.

What to say about Vividred, though… there's absolutely no subtlety, and they're pretty much using every applicable trope in the book for its type of show. And that's part of its charm. The other part being Wakaba. And docking.

Da Capo shows have always been slow to get started, so I'm not worried that it's not quite that good yet. The mysteries this time around are starting to come out, which should make things interesting down the road.

Problem Children is fun, and I love You to death (that looks so weird without context), but it's my least liked show at the moment. I think that, considering how packed my schedule is, it's best if this show is put on hold.

[stardf29]

Now for the not-currently-airing shows I finished this month. Again, I'm using my 11.0-point scale.

Bakemonogatari - 10.5 [SHAFT, 2009]
The Idolm@ster - 10.1 [A-1 Pictures, 2011]
Kimi ni Todoke Season 2 - 9.7 [Production IG, 2011]

Bakemonogatari was completely worth the $150 I paid for that set. I figured it would when I previewed the first two episodes on CR, but watching the whole show and seeing everything come together like it did was just amazing. On the one hand, the show has some very interesting visuals and equally interesting dialogue all over the place. On the other hand, there is definitely a lot of heart in this show, which meshes quite well with the supernatural elements. I'm definitely interested in more of this series, hence why I'm watching Nisemonogatari now. Expect some thoughts on that next month.

Another amazing show I finished last month was none other than The Idolm@ster. Honestly, though, through the first part of the show I had my doubts it would be particularly good. However, as the show went on, things started to happen. The girls started to go through character development. The music started to really grow on me. Episode 20 happened. Cap it all off with the final arc and concert, and now I'm definitely a fan of the Idolm@ster franchise. Also, "Yakusoku" is definitely one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard from anywhere.

The first season of Kimi ni Todoke got a 9.7, and the second season was entirely consistent with that. It definitely had both its strengths and shortcomings compared to season 1. On the one hand, for much of the series, the romantic aspect was just painful to watch, and I never really did like Kent. On the other hand, Kurumi got to be awesome again, the aspects oriented around Sawako's friendships and overall role in the class were amazing as always, and, of course, once she and Shouta finally got together… well, let's just say I'm glad this adaptation got at least that far. Overall, this series is definitely one of my favorite shoujo series.

[Glamrgrl104]

Sword art online-episode 3-8- Nice. Lots of action and the plot thickens.

Baka and test episode 1-13- Still funny watching it a second time.

Baka and test Season 2-episode 1-13- Hilarious! wishing for a season 3

Pretear-episode 4-5- Interesting.

Fate stay night episode 1-5- Pretty good watch. Kinda slow at some parts but interesting.

Puella madoka magica- Episode 1-4 An odd series, but I am liking it so far. The cutesy artwork doesn't really match the darker story, but I will continue with this one.

Toriko-episode 1-2- HMMM

[Buckeye]

Up next, I'm thinking I will go with K-On!!, the second season.
I just finished watching K-On!! last night, and everything that was nice about the first season continues to this season. The characters continue to be great, while the show continues to be about the daily life of a high school club that is devoted to playing music. This season starts off great, and ends very nicely.

Up next, it looks like I am leaning towards Kurenai as the next show that I'll be watching.

[Glamrgrl104]

Puella madoka magica- 4-6- Getting more interesting. It is pretty dark for the cheery art style. This is definitely a psychological anime, the places where they fight are like hallucinations that people see on acid.

Kailedo star-s1-disc 1- Still an enjoyable rewatch.

[something]

I wanted to do a full list seeing as how we're like halfway through the season... but I'm lazy. Maybe next week.

Definite or Highly Likely Imports
　01) Tamako Market - ◄0► (6 eps)
　02) Yama no Susume - ▲2 (7 eps)
　03) Vividred Operation - ◄0► (6 eps)
　04) Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai NEXT - ▲1 (5 eps)
　05) Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - ▼3 (7 eps)

Will Continue, High Expectations
　06) Minami-ke Tadaima - ▲1 (7 eps)
　07) Chihayafuru 2 - ▲2 (6 eps)
　08) Sasami-san@Ganbaranai - ◄0► (6 eps)
　09) Kotoura-san - ▼3 (6 eps)

Will Continue, Medium Expectations
　10) Zettai Karen Children -The Unimited- Hyoubu Kyousuke - ▲5 (6 eps)
　11) Puchimas! Petit iDOLM@STER - ◄0► (35 eps)
　12) Seitokai no Ichizon Lv.2 - ▼2 (4 eps)
　13) GJ-bu - ▲4 (5 eps)
　14) Da Capo III - ▼1 (6 eps)

Will Continue, Low Expectations
　none

Probable drops
　15) Senran Kagura - ▼3 (4 eps)

Not Tried Yet, but planned (alphabetical)
　none

Dropped
　Ai Mai Mii (1 ep)
　Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan (1 ep)
　Cuticle Tantei Inaba (1 ep)
　Mangirl! (1 ep)
　Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? (1 ep)
　Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (6 eps)

- I put in an early March order. As of now, I've got all of the top 5 ordered except Yama no Susume, because it doesn't come out until May.
- I'm a little uncertain about Maoyuu. I did lament i the discussion thread that I seem to be the only one who likes watching it (rather than just tolerates watching it) but at the same time I understand where the complaints come from. The writing did get scattershot after the first few episodes, and really quite unnecessarily so. Its origins as a crowd-sourced story from 2ch may be coming back to haunt it. Or maybe it's too much being cut from the adaptation - it's harder to follow certain details than I imagine it would be in a novel. Still, it's got something I really enjoy. I think the author just needs help polishing his stories.
- Minami-ke may take the 5th spot if Maoyuu drops out, or if I decide to get six. It's been really solid with the laughs. Not all the segments hit, but most do and they can be pretty great. The show understands its cast really well and uses that to our advantage.
- Hyoubu Kyousuke is one of the really nice surprises of the season - I'd really love to see more people give that a chance. It's such a solid storyline, with consistently good production values. And Yuugiri is adorable! Watch for Yuugiri if nothing else!
- Kotoura-san was looking like an import competitor, but as the drama has died down, so has some of the intensity of my feeling towards it. It's doing a whole lot of things right, and I don't think I can say I wanted it to keep the drama going full blast all cour. But it did drop a bit in this latest update as it transitions from "holy shit what am I watching" to "this is a pretty fun romcom". I debated whether it or Sasami-san (battle of the -sans!) should be ahead of the other, but I think the two episodes of Sasami-san I watched today make it the clear leader.
- GJ-bu was on probation last time but has since landed itself a solid position and is a lock for finishing, if not import contention. Meanwhile Mondaiji, Mangirl, and OreShura got dropped.

Nothing this season is clearly blowing the competition away. There's no Mouretsu landslide like Winter '12, or Hyouka in Spring. I feel like there are a lot of very good shows but no 10/10 contenders. The top bunch are pretty close, although Tamako's lead is not really in dispute at the moment. It's the only one I've given a 9/10, the others are 8/10 though Yama no Susume would be a 9/10 if it were full eps (and may yet get it anyway).

[Fencedude]

Meanwhile Mondaiji, Mangirl, and OreShura got dropped.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

;_;

You make Kurousagi sad

[tytan88]

I've also watched part of the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and was hugely surprised. That could wind up being one of my best watches of the season.

Some of the series failed to translate, unlike last season, but there were enough gems to keep me interested. I'll check out Kotoura-san tonight.

[Glamrgrl104]

Puella madoka magica- 7-12- a Really dark anime, but why can't I stop watching. Intriguing ending. Even though it is a short series, it works. Unlike other short series that should have had more to it.

Kaleido star disc 1-4- Wonderful still a good rewatch.
Season 2 disc 1-2- Love it!

Familiar of Zero-episode 1-3- Funny but kind of boring plot. You don't really care about any of the characters it is just I don't know how to say it.

K-on Season 2-episode 10-14 Why did I stop watching this one lol. This is very funny.

Rose of Versailles-episode 2-4- Brilliant. I like this so much better than Le cheviler deon, yes I know they are totally different in genre and style, but two stories about the French Revolution. BTW they keep saying her, I thought only her father and friend knew that she was a girl?

Hakuoki-Demon of the fleeting blossom-episode 3- AWESOME samurai action and I know I just like it for the hot guys XD

[pianocello]

Currently watching:
OutstandingNone

Very Good
Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Irvine
Not as good as the original series but you still get great mecha action.


Good
Campione! (finished)
Some great moments with the female lead at the last 2 episodes but otherwise an okay show that mostly is going through the motions.

Koi To Senkyo To Chocolate (finished)
Turned out better than I expected. I'm glad that the lead characters don't go through love cliches and can be more honest and frank on speaking about the issues of romance.

Aquarion Evol (finished)
Ultimately, passable show that suffered from a very uninteresting main couple.

Armored Trooperoids Finder
One of the least satisfying spinoffs of the VOTOMS franchise. Poor character development.

To-Love-Ru Darkness
One watches this for nipples and nothing else. Just ignore stupid Rito.

Average
None

Below Average
None

[Buckeye]

Alright, I decided to watch something else next, and it is a show that I totally skipped out on during the simulcast period last year, but after hearing great things about this show during a panel at Ohayocon, I decided to watch it next. So with that, I finished watching Another last night, a horror mystery show about students being killed due to some phenomenon that the main characters are trying to figure out, and many of the deaths are quite gruesome. This show does an excellent job in drumming up the suspense and everything. And the way the show brings up the main characters is another nice thing.

Up next, I have started to watch Casshern Sins after taking a long break from this show 10 episodes in.

[Buckeye]

Up next, I have started to watch Casshern Sins after taking a long break from this show 10 episodes in.

I just finished watching Casshern Sins last night. The first half of the show felt pretty lethargic as random robots come to see Casshern seeking eternal life before rusting away or something like that. But it wasn't until the second half when the show got interesting, and the whole story in the second half is about why eternal life like what Casshern has is not all that great. It felt like things were jumping from one place to the next without much indication, which is why I had a hard time following this show. But at least the second half was worth watching.

Next up, I am going to finish a show that I had previously put on hold. Given that Bunny Drop is going to soon be taken off CR, that reminds me to go finish up Papakiki, so I think I will go with that show next.

[Glamrgrl104]

Kaleido star Season 2 disc 1-4- Love it! Never get tired of this series.

Rose of Versailles-episode 5- Let the suspense continue lol.

Dream Eater Merry-episode 1- An interesting concept. Reminds me of a cross between Jing king of bandits and is this a zombie.

Heavens lost property-episode 1- This one didn't really appeal to me, but I gave it a shot. I prefer Baka and test or dragonaut.

Fairy Tail disc 1 vol 1- LOVE LOVE IT! AWESOME series now if Funi would hurry up and dub second season.

Demon King Daimo episode 1- hmmm interesting.

Yumeiro Patissiere-episodes 1-7- AWWW this anime is so sweet lol.

[Buckeye]

Next up, I am going to finish a show that I had previously put on hold. Given that Bunny Drop is going to soon be taken off CR, that reminds me to go finish up Papakiki, so I think I will go with that show next.

And I finished up Papakiki last night after putting it on hold after a few episodes in last year. This show is a hidden gem as it's about how tough it is to raise children, especially when the father is a poor college student who was not planning on it, but is willing to sacrifice himself for the sisters. The show was nice to watch and certainly the girls are great.

Next up, I will take advantage of my TAN subscription so that I can watch Tamako Market, and thus the next show on tap is Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai.

[stardf29]

Winter 2013 Rankings
---
We've hit the 2/3rds point of the season, and it looks like while some shows have started to shake up their stories with interesting new developments, others are just falling back on filler and rather pointless stuff. How is this affecting their ratings?

Tamako Market (8): 10.5 (+0.5)
Kotoura-san (8): 10.4 (+0.1)
Little Busters (20): 10.3 (+0.4)
Maoyu (8): 10.2
The Pet Girl of Sakurasou (20): 9.8
Minami-ke Tadaima (8): 9.8 (+0.1)
Love Live! (8): 9.6 (+0.3)
[Robotics;Notes (12): 9.5]
Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (6): 9.4 (+0.2)
Haganai NEXT (7): 9.1
Student Council's Discretion (7): 8.3 (+0.1)
OreShura (8): 8.0 (-0.3)
Vividred Operation (7): 7.8
GJ-Club (8): 7.8
[Problem Children (3): 7.3]
Da Capo III (8): 7.1 (-0.4)

The latest episodes have thrown Tamako Market into the lead position. It's always been a strong slice-of-life show that is cute, funny, and has a good feel to it, and the addition of Choi into the mix only seems to make it more interesting. We'll see if things can keep up during this last third, but there's no reason to believe this won't be another hit from KyoAni.

Kotoura-san has switched gears from its drama-filled opening episodes to something a lot more like a laid-back rom-com. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, and the rom-com works so much better with everything that's been established in the opening drama. At any rate, though, the drama is likely to return next episode, so we'll see how that all plays out.

Little Busters has broken into the 10s with the latest Haruka arc, which is definitely my favorite so far. Not much else to say; I'm just really enjoying this show.

Maoyu has stayed right where it has been; it's still an intriguing story in many ways, I just wish there was more Maou/Yuusha stuff to go with it. That said, the last episode in particular was amazing, and helps make up for the lack of Maou/Yuusha.

Not much to say about Sakurasou; it's still a very worthy light novel adaptation.

The more time I spend with the crazy cast of Minami-ke, the more I like them. Nothing's really happened in this show (not like anything ever really did), but it's still proving to be one of my favorite pure comedy series with each episode.

Love Live! is proving to be a great show, too. With the full group together, I think this will be a great show, kind of like a cross between The Idolm@ster and Tari Tari, which isn't a bad thing at all.

I don't know why, but I'm still finding it hard to get back into Robotics;Notes. It'll be on hold for now, but I will have it finished by the end of the season.

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai has had some interesting developments as of late. Waiting to see just how it all will play out…

I find that Haganai is starting to explore the heart behind its crazy comedy even more, which is nice. This season has also made me actually like Rika, which is great. Still no change from its current rating, but it's definitely a great show.

Student Council's Discretion (Seitokai no Ichizon) Lv. 2 is also shaking things up with the latest new character introduced. Overall it's been getting just a bit better than it has been, and it's already been pretty good.

I wish I could say that OreShura has gotten better, but, well, it hasn't. It seems to at times want to be a harem comedy with multiple girls fighting over a guy (the new additions to the cast are definitely doing their job there), but it also wants to be a deeper, more sentimental show, and right now it feels like the two are clashing with each other. It's still a good show--I wouldn't call anything at least an 8.0 anything less--but it just feels like it could be better.

Vividred is still Vividred.

With Crunchyroll finally adding GJ-Club to their lineup, I went ahead and caught myself up with this show. It's definitely a very cute show, with all the girls being adorable in their own way. Not much else to it; it's very laid-back and overall a pleasant watch, if nothing groundbreaking.

And I'm still waiting for Da Capo III to get good. An exceedingly stupid swimsuit episode doesn't help things.

[stardf29]

And now for the other shows I finished during February.

AIR - 10.3 [Kyoto Animation, 2005]
Shakugan no Shana (Season 1) - 8.5 [J.C. Staff, 2005-6]
Nisemonogatari - 9.5 [SHAFT, 2012]
*Whisper of the Heart - 9.3 [Studio Ghibli, 1995]
K-ON!! (Season 2) - 10.8 [Kyoto Animation, 2010]

AIR was a show I have wanted to finish for a long time, having caught the first couple of episodes around the time I was really starting to get into anime (which was also around the time ADV first licensed the show, conveniently). Anyways, compared to other Key/KyoAni works, I'd consider this one the weakest of the three, just because it didn't quite resonate with me as much as Kanon and Clannad did. It's still a fantastic show, though.

Shakugan no Shana is a solid show featuring the original Rie Kugimiya tsundere. I don't really have much to say about this one; it was an entertaining watch with fairly interesting characters (Shana being the best) and I'll definitely plan on watching the other seasons.

On its own, Nisemonogatari isn't quite as good as Bakemonogatari; it lacks the emotional strength the earlier series had, IMO. It's still a great series, especially because of Shinobu. More importantly, it does not detract at all from the greater Monogatari story (redundancy?), so the series as a whole still ranks a 10.5.

Whisper of the Heart is my first anime movie of the year, watched for Valentine's Day. It's a very sweet, laid-back sort of movie, one where nothing completely blew me away but was just a nice pleasant watch overall.

Finally, I finished the TV episodes of K-ON!!. I had already pegged it as a top-tier favorite after finishing the first season, so I was excited to get a double-sized dose of this show. And this show didn't disappoint. In fact, with the continued fleshing out of the characters and some great emotional moments, I gave this a 0.3-point improvement over the first season, and it currently sits at #7 in my top 10 anime of all time. It is one of the best in comedy, and it has great music, too. I can't wait to be able to watch the movie.

[Glamrgrl104]

Yumeiro Patissiere-episodes 1-10- AWWW this anime is so sweet lol.

[Buckeye]

Now that my five episode rule has taken effect for the last show on my simulcast watch list that it is now time I reveal my finalized slate of shows to be watched during the simulcast season. I imposed a hard cap of eight shows for this season, which meant that there are three shows I wanted to continue watching but ended up putting on hold for the time being. Since I want my list to fit as one line in my signature that I decided to use three-letter abbreviations for everything that I am watching. Some of them should be pretty obvious, but others not so much mostly due to the fact that they are based off what the show is called in Japan. Unless the English title is mentioned in the Japanese website, they are based off the Japanese title. So with that, here is my watch list for the season.

Watching
[MGI] Magi (continuing from Fall 2012) - This show continues to live up to the hype with its re-imagined version of Arabian Nights. The characters are great in this show, and the storyline is really something. About the only big problem with this show so far is that the current story arc lasted too long. There is that, and the fact that there is not enough of the Kou Empire guys. In any case, this show has been nice to watch.
[PET] Pet Girl of Sakurasou (continuing from Fall 2012) - This continues to be a hidden gem and after a rough start that almost resulted in me dropping this show, this show has definitely been great to watch since then. It is a breath of fresh air from other shows of this type as it focuses on relationships and developments rather than the usual stuff that obstructs development.
[RNT] Robotics;Notes (continuing from Fall 2012) - Trying to live up to the greatness that is Steins;Gate is going to be awfully tough to do, but even though it is nowhere near as great, it is still nice to watch, but something that I had been lagging behind on. Things in this show are awfully slow to develop, but Steins;Gate was that way and it resulted in a complete story that would otherwise not be possible. The character development is nice, but at the same time it's not efficient and in too many episodes, the story seems to sidetrack.
[CHF-2] Chihayafuru 2 - The same great story that ended the first season continues over to the second season. Pretty much the only thing that has changed is that the karuta club has two new members, who are both nice additions to this show. And like the first season, one of the main characters has become an afterthought, at least so far (although a pretty intriguing connection is about to be explained). Much like a sports anime is supposed to be, the focus of this show is on learning the game and using it to build friendships rather than showcasing game action, and the game action in this season is particularly intense. All in all, it picks up right where the first season left off.
[OSH] Oreshura - It's another harem, but one that is really fun to watch seeing how much of the relationships are fake and delusional. The show is heavy on parodies and fighting, and this show fares better than many other harems because the lead is a good guy. He did not plan on building a harem, but he did it because he was blackmailed. There are some things I don't like about this show, but overall I am enjoying it.
[VRO] Vividred Operation - The show is about girls with super powers to defeat some alien species, much like how Strike Witches is and this time, the girls are wearing hot pants to school. The fighting scenes are what make this show so great to watch. There is that, and that this show builds up the relationships of the characters very nicely.
[AMN] Amnesia - Alright, I will admit that I shouldn't be bothering with this show, but I wanted to add some diversity, and by that, I wanted a shoujo title as part of my viewing slate, either this show or Hakkenden. I chose to go with Amnesia because I really like the character designs in this show. And then there is the fact that the show takes place in a college environment rather than grade school. The heroine is cute even if she is someone who gets dragged around like a rag doll all the time, while the boys are really nice. As for the show itself, it's one that will really test your patience since it is a drama that slowly adds elements as the heroine is connecting with the different boys. It's a good show for an O game adaptation given how bad they usually are, but it's far from great.
[TMK] Tamako Market - The final show to my watch list was either going to be Tamako Market or Mondaiji, and if it were not for the fact that this show is TAN-exclusive that I would have made the decision a long time ago to go with Tamako Market rather than waiting until the beginning of March so that I can watch the whole thing with a single month subscription. I went with Tamako Market for the final show since it is by KyoAni and even though it is one of there weaker titles as I have been hearing, it's still a great show. The character designs are similar to the ones in K-On! and the characters are just great here, especially the bird who provides a lot of comic foil. This show is just KyoAni doing what KyoAni does best.

On Hold
Mondaiji - I won't bother writing out the whole title since it is too long. This is the last title not to make it, and it's a show that I found to be surprisingly enjoyable. Perhaps having watched Dog Days that this show feels much like it. In any case, the show is a lot of fun with colorful characters and nice action. But at the same time, it lacks that wow factor. I do plan to revisit this show.
Maoyu - It looks like this show might develop into something special. But at the same time it was hard to follow considering that none of the characters are named and that it jumps around too much. In any case, I just didn't find myself interested in this show.
Hakkenden: Toho Hakken Ibun - It was either this show or Amnesia that was going to make it, and I ended up going with Amnesia due mostly to the character designs. This show also has some nice character designs and feels much like Saiyuki. The characters are nice and it's a show about humans who can turn into dogs. Overall, it's a decent show in its own right, but not something that will win me over.
Senran Kagura - I had low expectations for this show, and it was met, and then some. The fights were good enough, but the problem is that there wasn't enough of it. And of course, the fanservice was really detracting, all while the animation is low budget. If that wasn't enough, Katsuragi is such an annoying character totally being a menace to the good guys.
Cuticle Detective Inaba - This show is just flat humor to me. I just could not get into this show whatsoever. The jokes and stuff were not really funny enough for me to continue watching this.

And there are some more shows that I didn't bother checking out mostly because I wasn't interested enough to think that the show had a good chance of being watched. But after hearing great things about Love Live, Kotoura-san, and Sasami-san@Ganbaranai that I might very well check them out after the end of the season.

[Damius]

Finally, I finished the TV episodes of K-ON!!. I had already pegged it as a top-tier favorite after finishing the first season, so I was excited to get a double-sized dose of this show. And this show didn't disappoint. In fact, with the continued fleshing out of the characters and some great emotional moments, I gave this a 0.3-point improvement over the first season, and it currently sits at #7 in my top 10 anime of all time. It is one of the best in comedy, and it has great music, too. I can't wait to be able to watch the movie.

I finished K-ON!! last night. For me, it sits at #3 in my top 10 anime of all time. I have to wait on Friday to watch the movie... it's a so long wait! What an incredibly godly show!!!

[Buckeye]

Next up, I will take advantage of my TAN subscription so that I can watch Tamako Market, and thus the next show on tap is Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai.
I just finished up watching Chuunibyou deom Koi ga Shitai last night, and it is another nice show put out there by KyoAni. The delusions were funny and the story establishes a bond between the club members very nicely. But the ending leaves a lot to be desired, so I will leave it at that. Certainly it sets the stage for the second season since the ending goes against what the show set out to accomplish in a way.

Up next, I am planning to watch Rideback.

[tytan88]

I just found this: the full version of the YuiAzu version of Ballpoint pen. So good! must buy album......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80CnzLalOIk

[pianocello]

Currently watching:
Outstanding

Hagure Yuusha no Estetica (finished)
Best male lead of the year! Finally a male lead that doesn't freak out at female flesh. It helps also that the female lead is actually a useful character though we are probably not going to get a 2nd season to the open ending.

Oda Nobuna no Yabou(finished)
Probably the best of the various Sengoku characters genderchanged anime. I did wish the ending was more romantically conclusive though.

Very Good
None


Good
None

Average
Sengoku Collection (finished)
The show starts off wrongly by giving us three minutes of a bland generic male freaking out at female flesh. Then episode 2 gives us some subpar idol episode (I've seen better idol anime). Episode 3 sort of redeems it by giving us some yuri. After that, much of the show is hit-and-miss and I'm not fond of this kind of format with minimal plot continuity though Nobunaga is certainly delicious. Next to Oda Nobuna no Yabou, this Sengoku anime just falters in comparison.


Below Average
None

[Buckeye]

Up next, I am planning to watch Rideback.

I just finished watching Rideback last night. While the show had a lot of promise at the beginning, the ending was badly rushed. This show would have been better off being a two-cour series since there was so much involved that 12 episodes could not do the trick. The development was nice, but then there was an awful lot left unexplained at the end as all it really did was put an end to the conflict. While the character designs were not exactly the most appealing, the characters were developing very nicely up until the end.

Next up, it is back to TAN, and I am going with Majikoi, a show that I ended up dropping when it aired and probably would have left in the closet if it did not have a dub.

[Buckeye]

Next up, it is back to TAN, and I am going with Majikoi, a show that I ended up dropping when it aired and probably would have left in the closet if it did not have a dub.

I just finished watching Majikoi last night. Pretty much, the first half was absolutely garbage with the large amounts of pervertedness and other ecchi stuff, but at least the second half was decent enough with the whole conspiracy and weapons smuggling thing. This show is just dumb all-around, and there is just something wrong with these girls in the show (except for Mayuchi), especially with Miyako. While the fighting was good, the heavy fanservice was distracting.

Up next, Love, Elections, and Chocolate. Also, simulcasts are starting to wrap up at this time. The first simulcast that's finishing is Robotics;Notes.

[Glamrgrl104]

Fairy tail vol 1-2- AMAZING I forgot how good of series this is. The changeling episode was LOL funny. Now its getting even better. Onto Vol. 3!

Shugo chara-episode 1- interesting premise. Very cute series and will continue with this one.

Angel Beats episode 5-10- LOL why did I stop this one? Best classroom scene ever some guy being shot into the ceiling from his desk XD Nice movement of the plot. aww episode 9 is soo sad. Love the end of episode 10.

Shakugan no shana S1-episodes 1&2- Hmm pretty interesting

Hetalia beautiful world-episode 6 &7- Still hilarious series.

SPRING BREAK means catch up on my simulcast lol

[Buckeye]

The first simulcast that's finishing is Robotics;Notes.

I finished off Robotics;Notes yesterday, and while it isn't the masterpiece that Steins;Gate is (then again, not too many shows are going be), it definitely is a nice show to watch, and certainly way better than its other predecessor Chaos;Head. The show starts out with the question about how robots are tied in to the grand scheme of things, and through a series of interactions and stuff, everything is slowly explained. This show took awhile to get going and I had lost my motivation to watch this show when it went on to a series of seemingly irrelevant stuff after the first hint of a grand conspiracy. But once it gets going, it's great. The ending of this show was just awesome, which probably would not have been possible without all that stuff leading up to the climax.

Next up, I am getting ready to wrap up Love, Election, and Chocolate in taking advantage of my short-lived TAN subscription. Also, I am currently watching Upotte!! and Akikan! as well and I'm midway through both of those shows. The next simulcast coming to an end is Amnesia.

[Buckeye]

Next up, I am getting ready to wrap up Love, Election, and Chocolate in taking advantage of my short-lived TAN subscription.

And I just finished up with Love, Elections, and Chocolate today. It's pretty much a show about those three things with the biggest emphasis on the elections, with campaigning more of the type commonly found in Washington, DC than in a typical high school. It is pretty much what an anime adaptation of an adult novel is supposed to be about: the main guy helping several girls with their problems. The characters are nice, although there are a couple of them that are big jerks. The storyline is pretty good, although this show tries to cram too much into this show given that the main character is trying to reach out to too many girls. All in all, it's a decent show and certainly it's an adaptation that resembles Mashiroiro Symphony more than School Days. It would be a nice show to watch right around Election Day in November.

Up next is Upotte!! as I have been in the mood to watch some dumb fun.

[Buckeye]

Up next is Upotte!! as I have been in the mood to watch some dumb fun.

I just finished watching Upotte!! and man it is such a dumb show. But at least it's stupidity that I got a kick (or rather shot) out of as it was funny. That's just about the only thing going for a show that instead of girls with guns, it's the girls who are guns. There's just about no story to it, and it's just there for the jokes and stuff.

From girls as guns, I go to girls as soda cans as I am now watching Akikan, and I am almost through with it.

[something]

Previous update 2/17/2013 (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?p=2015907#post2015907)

So I might just stick with this format going forward, and only do a full post once at the end of a season.
Key: Rank) Title - Change (eps watched) [score]

Imports
　01) Tamako Market - ◄0► (11 eps) [9/10]
　02) Yama no Susume - ◄0► (12 eps / complete) [9/10]
　03) Vividred Operation - ◄0► (6 eps) [9/10]
　04) Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai NEXT - ◄0► (10 eps) [8/10]
　05) GJ-bu - ▲8 (11 eps) [8/10]
　06) Minami-ke Tadaima - ◄0► (12 eps) [8/10]

At Least Partial Import
　07) Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - ▼2 (11 eps) [7/10]

2nd Tier
　08) Sasami-san@Ganbaranai - ◄0► (10 eps) [7/10]
　09) Chihayafuru 2 - ▼2 (11 eps) [7/10]
　10) Kotoura-san - ▼1 (11 eps) [7/10]

3rd Tier
　11) Puchimas! Petit iDOLM@STER - ◄0► (54 eps) [7/10]
　12) Seitokai no Ichizon Lv.2 - ◄0► (10 eps / complete) [7/10]
　13) Zettai Karen Children -The Unimited- Hyoubu Kyousuke - ▼3 (11 eps) [7/10]
　14) Da Capo III - ◄0► (11 eps) [6/10]

Dropped
　Ai Mai Mii (1 ep)
　Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan (1 ep)
　Cuticle Tantei Inaba (1 ep)
　Mangirl! (1 ep)
　Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? (1 ep)
　Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (6 eps)
　Senran Kagura (4 eps)

Strong season, with a lot of movement for two series.
- First, over the past two updates, Maoyuu has dropped 5 spots. I went over some of the reasons in my post on the latest episode, but I just don't think this show understands what it wants to do. Or perhaps it does, but it's executing on it far less skillfully than I'd like. I still like many aspect of it but I don't think they are fitting together well, not with as quickly as things happen. I really don't know if I'll import it after the first disc, which I already have in hand. I'm still torn, but maybe the final episode will answer it for me. It's not really a matter of money, my budget can take buying it, it's just a matter of only wanting to import shows I think pass a certain enjoyability threshold.

- GJ-bu on the other hand has risen 12 spots in the last two updates. It started picking up from episode 3 or 4 onward, but the arrival of the imouto has been a huge boon to the show. They're ridiculously awesome. I decided to import this after seeing how it improved, but a huge part of the reason was also that it's really, really cheap, so I can pick up this and Minami-ke Tadaima pretty easily.

Seitokai no Ichizon Lv.2 was the first show I completed this season, at a short 10 episodes even if you count episode 0. I think it sucks that its sales dropped to basically 1/10th of the first season's sales. It's not a bad show! It's really not... it had a lot of what sucked me in to the first series, from the humor to the serious scenes. It is too short, but I was still left satisfied. I guess this is it for the franchise in animated form though, outside of some OADs or something.

Yama no Susume is the second show I've finished, and my god it was phenomenal. I don't give 9s nearly as easily as I did before the Fall season, but this one earns it for sure. It's without a doubt the best short-format show I've seen since Haruhi-chan. It just crushes all the others, though I am very much enjoying the silliness of Puchimas, don't get me wrong.

Tamako Market hasn't budged from my #1 spot since like episode 2 or 3, and I can't see that changing at this point. KyoAni does it again, even if it will be lucky to sell 1/3rd of what Chuunibyou has.


One last comment, unrelated to Winter but really, really worth saying at least once outside of the discussion thread, since I haven't updated my fall list in a very long time:

SAKURASOU NO PET NA KANOJO IS AN AMAZING SHOW. I know a lot of people dropped it pretty early on, expecting something shallow and generic, but my god nothing could be farther from the truth. This show is phenomenal. It is one of the most skillfully executed teen romantic dramas ever. In fact, I might call it the best JC Staff show since Toradora, and it is without question the best show from that studio not directed by Nagai Tatsuyuki.

It's such a beautiful, intense, brilliant show. It may even be my second favorite show of Fall '12, ahead of Chuunibyou... but it's very hard to decide. There are things it does better than Chuunibyou, but also things it doesn't, and Chuunibyou wins by a mile on male lead. But having two cour to flesh things out gives it a clear leg up on Chuunibyou in the story and pacing area. And while the technical production values can't be called KyoAni-tier, they're for the most part stellar and at least worthy of making the comparison.

I really wish more people had given it a chance. It's masterfully executed. As much as I enjoy Little Busters!, there's no question to me which show JC Staff pulled off better in the Fall.

[Fencedude]

I still can't believe you didn't watch Mondaiji or Love Live.

[something]

I still can't believe you didn't watch Mondaiji or Love Live.
At the very least the latter shouldn't be surprising at all.

[Fencedude]

I still can't believe you didn't watch Mondaiji or Love Live.
At the very least the latter shouldn't be surprising at all.

There wasn't that much CG dancing. Its not like it was Aikatsu or something.

[HitokiriShadow]

I still can't believe you didn't watch Mondaiji or Love Live.
At the very least the latter shouldn't be surprising at all.

You have no excuse for Mondaiji though.

And as Fencedude said, there's not that much CG in Love Live. They don't even dance every episode (about half of them, I think) and the recent ones have been fairly low on the CG.

[EmperorBrandon]

I rather liked Sakurasou from the very beginning, but it only gets better and better from there. I was unsure if I was going to buy it when Sentai gets around to it, but now it's quite certain.

[Nico87]

Time for an update again. I actually completed five shows this season, for the first time ever. Way too many shows I couldn't decide whether to import or not, mostly because of two cours from Fall and because I imported too many Fall shows in the first place plus a shitty backlog, so I had to safe mode this.

Basically my import list looks like this (I know this isn't the R2 sub-forum but it's still very relevant for me either way):

Fall '12 imports (plus Spring)

Little Busters!
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!
Girls und Panzer
Suki-tte Ii na yo.
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
Hyouka (Spring '12)
(I'm also missing the final volume of YuruYuri♪♪)

Now, with all these going on plus the aforementioned backlog (had some stuff I had to get out of the way like AnoHana + FES., Toradora!, Clannad: AS) and BD boxes for at least OreImo and the upcoming Gurren Lagann, I really had to take stock of the Winter shows instead of just importing everything I found worthwhile, like I did with the Fall shows.

Winter imports

Tamako Market
Kotoura-san
GJ-bu
Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?
Vividred Operation
Yama no Susume

That's it. I dropped Mayouu completely because everything points towards me being just a fan boy for the first half of the show. I loved the setting and most of the characters, but as a complete package it's just not good enough for me.

I have no idea what to do with Haganai NEXT. I think I expected more, because I even though I loved the first season, I don't think that I need a second season of this. I would have if the second season was just outright awesome, but I didn't think it was. If anything, I'll get all the volumes with the Gamers box from Yahoo Auctions Japan later on.

I don't really feel that these two shows are worth spending around 75k on, not with so many other shows that I need to import. I mean, 13 shows in total is already way too much.

GJ-bu made the cut because it's only four volumes, comes with a box and is all around pretty cheap. This together with Mondaiji are my blind buys of the season, so I hope they prove themselves worthy. Yama no Susume is just one volume, so no harm there either.

As for the other shows..

Tamako Market - Unique, cute, weird, KyoAni. I couldn't get into it at the start, but it definitely grew on me. Still not 100% sure about Dera though!

Kotoura-san - Made my decision based on the first two episodes alone. I loved it. Kotoura and Manabe are my two favorite characters from Winter.

Vividred Operation - Just mindless fun and shitloads of girls. I think they mixed in the mahou shoujo pretty well with whatever genre Strike Witches is in. I also never watched Strike Witches, so Vividred was kinda "new" for me still.

Yama no Susume - Cute girls x climbing. Had my eye on this since it was announced.

Also, I'm not in a rush to get any of the Winter shows except the Tamako Market volumes which are all on pre-order from HMV to get their exclusive box (and the underwhelming, but still cute, bromides). I'll most likely delay buying Vividred Operation and Mondaiji because there's almost nothing for me from Spring '13.

[Nikopol]

Update and personal ranking:

1) Shinsekai Yori
In a league of it's own. Imo best of show fall 2012/winter 2013 (and then some).
Import locked

2) GJ-bu
Moe saves the world.
Import locked

3) Vividred
Has lost a bit of steam for me and i think the characters are mentally challenged. This is noticeable even with my brain switched off when watching this.
Import locked anyway

4) Mondaiji blablabla
Sort of stopped mid season and it got really good after a dodgy start. Hoping for a second season. Besides GJ-bu, this show has grown the most on me during its run.
Import locked, though delayed until July.

5) Sasami-san
Starting to love this show, though it's still crazy as hell.
Import decision delayed until final episode, though almost locked at this point

6) The Unlimited
Nice action. Mostly watching to balance out all the moe-overload
Will not import

7) Tamako Market
It's nice, but it's just not enough. Not a big fan of pure slice-of-life, so i'd probably never watch it again.
Will not import

8) Robotics;Notes
Oh my, i stuck around until the end. But all these 22 episodes haven't touched me at all.
This was almost a blind buy before it started. :(

9)Maoyuu
Dropped. This didn't do anything for me beyond the first episode.

Well i have to say, in the end the big favorites of this season were all underwhelming for me. Especially Tamako Market and Maoyuu fell completely flat. Vividred's filler episodes and recurring theme of stupidity and uninspired writing 'I want to talk to you more!!! That's why i went rogue!!!' seriously WTF cooled me off as well. Though still enjoyable, it won't be a classic like Strike Witches for me. Still don't really know, what to think of Sasami-san.

The dark horses GJ-bu and Mondaiji saved the season for me. Moving on, the next season doesn't have any favorites for me yet, so i'm looking forward to see what gets me interested.

[something]

I still can't believe you didn't watch Mondaiji or Love Live.At the very least the latter shouldn't be surprising at all.You have no excuse for Mondaiji though.
And as Fencedude said, there's not that much CG in Love Live. They don't even dance every episode (about half of them, I think) and the recent ones have been fairly low on the CG.
Mondaiji first episode was not terrible, but also left me with no motivation to make time for it when I had so much else to watch. I skimmed the thread last night to see why it was being received positively, and it looks like it avoided the SAO trap, which is nice. Of course, now that I've read the posts I'm spoiled on it so, yeah, still pass.

Regarding Love Live, I've considered before watching it but skipping all the dance scenes to minimize nausea. I never actually doubted that I'd love the characters or anything, I mean it's pretty damn hard to screw up a dozen or so cute girls. But the idea of skipping dance scenes in an idol anime was super off-putting. Some of iDOLM@STER's most incredible scenes happened on stage after all. That's why even when I thought about cramming it into a much too full schedule (today is possibly the first time all season I've been caught up, except for Precure) I couldn't work up the motivation. I'll take you at your word that there's "not much" CG even though we have vastly vastly different tolerance levels for it and "when" CG shows up is at least as important as how much.

And hey I did give GJ-bu another chance so it's not like I passed on all three suggestions!

...Ehhhhh fine, I'm home sick from work today so maybe I can blitz through Love Live. I'm already feeling nauseous, so I guess I've got nothing to lose? I don't see Mondaiji getting watched though. Cramming two cour of shows in at the end of a season ain't happening and if I'm going to do one it's obviously going to be the one with a fuckton of cute idols.

P.S. There so better be some at least "goggle-plausible" yuri in this to make up for losing the dance scenes.

P.P.S. And seriously you should still totally be watching Sakurasou. If you can get past some of the lead's more annoying traits god damn it's so stupidly good. The bit at the start with Misaki introducing herself by declaring her love for Sorata is a total red herring, she's really the heart and soul of Sakurasou; Nanami is a gorgeous, strong, hard-working character who should be taken seriously on all levels; and Mashiro's seiyuu eventually refines deadpan to comedic gold, plus the deadpan makes the emotional outbursts all the more effective.

[HitokiriShadow]

I'll take you at your word that there's "not much" CG even though we have vastly vastly different tolerance levels for it and "when" CG shows up is at least as important as how much.


It's entirely in the dance sections. It's seemed like our tolerance levels used to be similar, but yeah, I've definitely been willing to tolerate it a lot more in recent years, though it still tends to be massive eye-pain.


P.S. There so better be some at least "goggle-plausible" yuri in this to make up for losing the dance scenes.

Ooooooooh yeah.


P.P.S. And seriously you should still totally be watching Sakurasou. If you can get past some of the lead's more annoying traits god damn it's so stupidly good. The bit at the start with Misaki introducing herself by declaring her love for Sorata is a total red herring, she's really the heart and soul of Sakurasou; Nanami is a gorgeous, strong, hard-working character who should be taken seriously on all levels; and Mashiro's seiyuu eventually refines deadpan to comedic gold, plus the deadpan makes the emotional outbursts all the more effective.Unfortunately, the show was finding ways to annoy me on just about every level with basically nothing really working. I've been hearing a lot of good things about it, but I don't think its from anyone who was as bothered by the opening episodes as I was (only other person was Fencedude, who also dropped it at about the same point). The bigger problem is that its just way too much to catch up on at this point, with nearly two entire cours to watch. In the incredibly unlikely event I can find the time to catch up on that much, I'd rather spend it picking up Hunter x Hunter.

But really, anything that requires me to catch up on 10+ episodes probably just isn't going to happen anytime soon.

[something]

In the incredibly unlikely event I can find the time to catch up on that much, I'd rather spend it picking up Hunter x Hunter.
Well there's craptons more HxH than Sakurasou to catch up on, but HxH would also be totally worth watching. Easily the best long shounen anime next to Fairy Tail.

[HitokiriShadow]

In the incredibly unlikely event I can find the time to catch up on that much, I'd rather spend it picking up Hunter x Hunter.
Well there's craptons more HxH than Sakurasou to catch up on, but HxH would also be totally worth watching. Easily the best long shounen anime next to Fairy Tail.

I ha read the manga up to late in the Chimaera Ant arc, so I'm pretty familiar with what its like. I just wasn't interested in following it at the beginning, having already seen the Hunter exam in the manga and in anime form once already, but then I didn't start following it when it got to the end of that and, well, now I have a fuckton to watch. It's been a long time since I read the manga so I don't want to just jump in at Chimaera Ant. I do intend to just skip most or all of the Hunter Exam though, so that will shave off 15-20 episodes.

[Draneor]

SAKURASOU NO PET NA KANOJO IS AN AMAZING SHOW. I know a lot of people dropped it pretty early on, expecting something shallow and generic, but my god nothing could be farther from the truth. This show is phenomenal. It is one of the most skillfully executed teen romantic dramas ever. In fact, I might call it the best JC Staff show since Toradora, and it is without question the best show from that studio not directed by Nagai Tatsuyuki. [...]It's such a beautiful, intense, brilliant show.[...]I really wish more people had given it a chance. It's masterfully executed.

I respect your opinion and I've heard a lot of positives about it and I have considered giving it another chance (not that I'm not perpetually behind on everything). But I guess my main concern is Mashiro... seemed to lack the mentally capacity to consent. As much as I've enjoyed Okada's past works (whether adaptations or originals), I just don't see how I can enjoy a romantic comedy (one of my favorite genres after anime that make me cry) if I have to ask myself "is this really consensual"? It's the same issue that caused me to have such a visceral reaction to the first episode of Maid-Sama. Putting fanservice into it (which I normally like in small doses) compounds the problem...

[something]

But I guess my main concern is Mashiro... seemed to lack the mentally capacity to consent. As much as I've enjoyed Okada's past works (whether adaptations or originals), I just don't see how I can enjoy a romantic comedy (one of my favorite genres after anime that make me cry) if I have to ask myself "is this really consensual"?
It really couldn't be any less like the "innocent girl can't control her urges around the playboy delinquent ikemen" shoujo trope you're referencing. Not least of all because there's nobody trying to get in her pants or string her along. Sorata is as awkward and unsure about how to deal with her (to a fault actually) as she is with him.

Mashiro is in some ways reserved around other people, especially people not as gifted as her (which is just about everyone), and that's where the real struggle comes in. Can she become friends with people who envy, and feel inadequate when close to, her natural talents? Especially when to their eyes she seems to do it effortlessly. And will those people take responsibility for their own shortcomings and try harder, or will they take the easy way out and blame her overwhelming radiance for their inability to see their dreams clearly?

The question of whether it's consensual is the wrong question to ask, because the concerns that would raise such a question aren't part of the show.

While romantic feelings feed into the tension, the core of the show isn't romance but a struggle between hard work and genius.
The second most important theme is having a place to call home - Sakurasou itself is a central concept in the show, as a place there the oddballs and misfits of the school can get the kind of emotional and creative support they need. "The residents of Sakurasou" is the most important character grouping in the show, not "Character A and Character B as a couple".
Romance comes after all of that.

Mashiro is just socially awkward, and nobody is trying to take advantage of her. They're too busy striving to achieve their own goals, for which Mashiro alternately serves as both a motivating factor and a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. When romance comes up, it comes up between mutually consenting characters who, while still trying to understand their feelings, aren't totally clueless about what they're getting into.

[Draneor]

To clarify, I wasn't intentionally trying to reference a shoujo trope (more that she was shamed into it). Mashiro came across, in the first episode, as functionally impaired. By that, I don't mean socially awkward--as in maybe she should live in an assisted living facility. Now, maybe she's actually not that way. Maybe there's no significant romance in the show. But to me, the show seemed like it presented the fantasy of having a relationship with a passive doll (who happened to be an amazing mangaka). You mention a lot of themes about finding a place and discovering your talents in the face of genius I'd think I'd love. My first impression may in fact be wrong, but I can't not ask the question.

[something]

Maybe there's no significant romance in the show.
There are significant romantic feelings, but they're used sort of as "additives" to mix things up for surrounding other plot points. So for example it's not just about how someone with few natural talents interacts with someone who is exceptionally talented, but also how much more complicated it is if you're developing budding romantic feelings for them. Can you still love them if you feel inferior? Can they still love you if they think they're hurting you just by being alive? Even with Misaki and Jin, the most overtly romantic subplot, they only tell half the story.

But to me, the show seemed like it presented the fantasy of having a relationship with a passive doll (who happened to be an amazing mangaka).
A lot of this goes to the viewer I guess. There's potential for it to appeal on the level of wish fulfillment, but no more than any boy-meets-unusual-girl show. Personally while I adore the character I wouldn't want to date someone like Mashiro (Nanami is way more my type) so it doesn't serve those purposes for me - and Mashiro is actually quite the handful, particularly as she gets more stubborn and willful. (I should say that in general the "imagining myself in that situation" wish fulfillment does little for me; I mean, I love yuri after all, so I explicitly want to keep myself out of the character relationships.) But more importantly, I only find wish fulfillment to be a problem if it's really shallow, if the fantasy is all there is to it. When it's instead just a setting trope woven into an intelligent and respectful story, when it's used as a starting point for character development than a static trait with no end goal, it loses any negative connotations it might otherwise sometimes have.

[Buckeye]

From girls as guns, I go to girls as soda cans as I am now watching Akikan, and I am almost through with it.

And I just finished watching Akikan today. I was in the mood for some really bad anime and with my current TAN subscription, I figured I would see this show, one where girls are beverage containers as a gimmick. This show was pretty lame since the characters all have problems, and the male characters are especially bad. It's a show best left in the recycling bin considering that it recycles so many bad aspects of other shows of its type, with the only new thing being the girls are actually drink cans. In any case, I remember a guest at a con telling me how bad this show was, and I do agree with him.

Up next, Amnesia is finishing its simulcast.

[Buckeye]

SAKURASOU NO PET NA KANOJO IS AN AMAZING SHOW. I know a lot of people dropped it pretty early on, expecting something shallow and generic, but my god nothing could be farther from the truth. This show is phenomenal. It is one of the most skillfully executed teen romantic dramas ever. In fact, I might call it the best JC Staff show since Toradora, and it is without question the best show from that studio not directed by Nagai Tatsuyuki.


This is a show that I nearly dropped back in the fall, but I am definitely glad I stuck with it (though it meant that Shin Sekai Yori and Psycho Pass had to be put off given the time constraints). The beginning definitely felt like it was going to be another one of those generic shows with the only thing new to the table is that the female lead can't do anything but draw, but once episode 4 rolls around, thing shift into high gear.

And speaking of being quick to drop, there is an article (http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2013/03/25-1/poll-winter-shows-you-shouldnt-have-dropped) on CR that was posted today that lists the shows that you might want to consider revisiting if the beginning looked not so appealing.

[Glamrgrl104]

Angel beats episodes 11-13 and OVA- Interesting twists.The ending was bittersweet. The OVA IS LOL. Not as good as Clannad because half the time you are like wtf is going on. It was a really good series just different.

B Gata H Kei-episode 1-2- Interesting and really funny despite the plot. cute romantic comedy.

[Buckeye]

Up next, Amnesia is finishing its simulcast.
I just finished watching Amnesia today. While there are some good things about this show, there are a good amount of not so good things in this show as well. The character designs are the main reason why I was interested in this show to begin with as they are very nice. And the whole mystery of everything had me wanting to find out what's going to happen. Given that this is an anime adaptation of an otome game, which are usually terrible, this one is at least good enough for me to watch. While the designs are great, the characters themselves have issues as the main character is just naive and lacking in common sense that it gets frustrating. Pacing is another issue, and the biggest problem is that show becomes too lethargic. In any case, this show is passable considering its roots.

Next simulcast ending is Pet Girl of Sakurasou, and tomorrow the final episode will be airing.

[Buckeye]

Next simulcast ending is Pet Girl of Sakurasou, and tomorrow the final episode will be airing.
I just finished watching Pet Girl of Sakurasou today. This series looked like it was going to be one of those series where there is lot of weird stuff going on and mindless fanservice to go along with that. At least that is the impression I got at the beginning. But then things quickly shift gears and the focus was on community and friendship, which allows the story to develop into something much better. These characters may be weirdos, but they also talented and determined to reach their goals. And while it would have been convenient to have them achieve it right away, this show takes life as it comes. Definitely the sleeper title of last year considering how not so good shows like these tend to turn out.

Next simulcast coming to an end is Tamako Market.

[Buckeye]

Next simulcast coming to an end is Tamako Market.

I finished up Tamako Market yesterday. While it was still an enjoyable show to watch seeing how it's very typical of KyoAni, it is one of their weaker titles. The storyline was pretty much full of gaps and stuff seeing how this show tries to plow through a year in 12 episodes and that the part in the final two episodes didn't have enough buildup to it. The characters are very nice with designs done by the same guys who did K-On! and that's what I like about KyoAni. So while there are aspects that could have been done better, it still is good to watch.

Next up, Oreshura is finishing its simulcast.

[Buckeye]

Next up, Oreshura is finishing its simulcast.
I finished up Oreshura yesterday, and it was enjoyable to watch for the parodies, the fake couple stuff, and the delusions as having that in a harem was neat to watch. Nothing is too over-the-top, which is a good thing here. This show falls into the typical traps that harems tend so save for too much fanservice, and nothing is really settled by the end of the show. But it doesn't need to be that way.

Next up, Vividred Operation is finishing up. After that, only Girls und Panzer and Magi remain.

[Buckeye]

Next up, Vividred Operation is finishing up. After that, only Girls und Panzer and Magi remain.

I finished watching Vividred Operation today. I thought that it was going to be another all-out fanservicefest like Strike Witches is and while there were a good number of those shots that were all too common in Strike Witches, it builds a pretty good storyline. The Alone of the week got old pretty fast, but the story focuses on the girls and their friendship circle. While there were definitely some things that could have been done better, overall I liked it.

Girls und Panzer is the next simulcast I will finish up for the season. And then it will end with the first season of Magi on Wednesday.

[stardf29]

So, with some shows finishing and others coming close, my judgment of the shows are as follows:

OreShura is simply the most amazing show ever. It'll be a true classic even more so than Cowboy Bebop.

Da Capo III just remained stupid.

GJ-Club is boring because it's too dramatic.

Student Council Discretion Lv. 2 is much worse than the original.

Maoyu is a truly worthy successor to Spice and Wolf.

Love Live! is much better than The iDOLM@STER.

Haganai NEXT is just stupid.

Little Busters is an absolutely horrible Key work.

Minami-ke Tadaima is as good as Okawari.

Kotoura-san totally does not deserve all its praise.

Tamako Market is KyoAni's first true dud show.

And The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is the worst show ever.

...

...

...and today is April Fool's Day.

The Pet Girl of Sakurasou: 10.7 (+0.9)
Tamako Market: 10.5
Kotoura-san: 10.3 (-0.1)
Minami-ke Tadaima (12): 10.0 (+0.2)
Little Busters (25): 9.9 (-0.4)
[Robotics;Notes (12): 9.5]
Haganai NEXT (7): 9.4 (+0.3)
[Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (6): 9.4 - put on hold]
Love Live! (12): 9.3 (-0.3)
Maoyu: 9.2 (-1.0)
Student Council's Discretion: 8.2 (-0.1)
GJ-Club: 8.0 (+0.2)
[Vividred Operation (9): 7.8]
Da Capo III (12): 7.7 (+0.6)
[Problem Children (3): 7.3]
OreShura: 6.9 (-1.1)

Bolded shows are completed. I have more detailed final thoughts in their respective threads, so here I will just give a simple explanation for those shows.

First, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou... This show is amazing. If you dropped this show thinking it'd just be the usual rom-com, you are really missing out. This show has a lot more depth than its initial episodes let on, and really explore what it's like to live in a community like Sakurasou while pursuing various creative endeavors and facing both success and failure.

Tamako Market is a great slice-of-life show with great comedy and great Kanna. A worthy KyoAni title.

Kotoura-san didn't quite live up to the high expectations that the first couple of episodes set, but in the end it still was great in its own way, mainly thanks to those first episodes setting a nice tone for everything that was to follow.

Maoyu also failed to live up to expectations, though in ways worse than Kotoura-san did. The show ended up just not really developing any critical plot points well (particularly Maou and Yuusha's relationship), and didn't end so much as stop. That said, the show still gets a high rating thanks to one of this season's best characters in Elder Sister Maid.

Student Council's Discretion Lv. 2 is a solid follow-up to the first season, with some fun new characters and a solid ending.

GJ-Club is a nice, understated slice-of-life show that's good to relax to.

OreShura had some good points, but unfortunately towards the middle the show lost track of what kind of show it wanted to be, and then when it decided, it ended up developing the "main couple" in a way I didn't like. The show mainly avoids being completely a waste thanks to Chiwa, easily the best part of this show.

Now for some comments on the shows I have yet to finish...

First of all, Sasami-san@Ganbaranai is on hold, as are the other on-hold show. Vividred Operation is also sort of in a "stalled" state. Hopefully I can get those (and Girls und Panzer) finished this weekend.

Haganai NEXT is getting good. Really good. Ironically, there are actually some similarities between this show and OreShura, yet I'm liking the direction Haganai is going in. Let's see what the last episode has in store...

Da Capo III is finally exploring the main plot, hence why this show is going up in score. Although there are a lot of connections to past shows in the Da Capo series, and that's making me like the show more, too.

The final Winter 2013 wrapup will be in the Spring 2013 Edition thread, after finishing up all the shows still airing or on hold.

[Buckeye]

Girls und Panzer is the next simulcast I will finish up for the season.

I finished up Girls und Panzer after a long delay for the last two episodes. It's a surprisingly nice show as it is something that could have turned into a fanservicefest or an all-out actionfest, and it turned out to be neither, which is a great thing. It does an effective job in building a complete story with the girls all using tankery in order to connect with each other. There are many other adventures in this show that don't involve blowing up other tanks, which is what made this show so fun to watch.

All that remains for this season is Magi. But in the meantime, I have been watching the shorts for Encouragement of Climb.

[Glamrgrl104]

B Gata H Kei-episode 1-12- Interesting and really funny despite the plot. cute romantic comedy.

InuXBoku Secret service- eng dub episodes 1-12 including OVA- Hilarious!!! I loved it from beginning to end. I kinda wish they would have a few more episodes, but it ended at a good place too.

Earl and Fairy-episode 1- I read the first chapter of the manga so I was excited about the anime.

Mirai Nikki aka future diary- Episode 1- Reminds me of Eden of the east a little bit with the cell phones. I love Steins gate so this one is interesting to me.

Amnesia episode 5-6- Interesting series. Just a little confusing lol.

[Buckeye]

[quote=Buckeye;2019692]But in the meantime, I have been watching the shorts for Encouragement of Climb.

I finished Encouragement of Climb yesterday, and I will just say that it was an amusing series of short episodes. There isn't much to this show given that it is just three minutes per episode, but at least it was enjoyable given the format. Watching these episodes in marathon fashion rather than in weekly increments definitely helped me enjoy this show, I think.

Magi is the last thing to finish for the season.

[pianocello]

Currently watching:
Outstanding
None

Very Good
Eureka Seven AO (2)
It's off to a decent start. At least the beginning is better than the first season. The animation quality and character designs are okay. Plus so far, we've not had any annoying brats. (at least not yet).

Good
None

Average
Mouretsu Pirates (finished)
And so we come to the show that everyone has been saying to me that "You must see!" and "This is definitely the best show of the year!". So I came watching with sky-high expectations. I found the show extremely fruity for lack of a better term. The whole concept of the show is cheesy to begin with but cheesiness only works when the show doesn't take that concept too seriously and plays it for laughs. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble but this show just didn't click for me. Frequently, the show would just go through its set routines and I didn't find myself engaged with any character. Even yuri failed to elevate this show.


Below Average
None

[stardf29]

March saw a lot of shows currently airing finish up, but I also managed to squeeze in a couple of other shows, including two shows for which sequels would air this coming Spring season (one of which was 75% a rewatch).

Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth - 10.5 [Satelight, 2011]
Kamisama Kiss - 9.6 [TMS Entertainment, 2012]
OreImo (rewatch + eps 13-16) - 10.2 [AIC Build, 2010-11]
Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos - 7.7 [Xebec, 2012]

Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth is one of those extremely relaxing shows that I already enjoy watching, with two things that really made me enjoy this show. One, Yune is beyond healthy levels of adorable. Two, I enjoyed how the show presented the aspects of learning about other cultures.

Kamisama Kiss was one of the shoujo shows from the Fall 2012 season that I had to put on hold because I didn't want to overload with shoujo, and I didn't feel like dealing with Funimation's streams. It really is too bad I had to do that, because this show was great. It's even slightly better than the shoujo series I did finish last year (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, score: 9.5), though that's in part to this show having some interesting supernatural elements and having a more satisfying ending. Akitaro Daichi hasn't lost his touch since Fruits Basket, and I'm definitely looking forward to Funimation's home video release.

OreImo was a rewatch for the 12 TV episodes, but it was also my first time watching the 4 "True Route" episodes. The score I have is actually the score I had initially given the first season… which is kinda funny in that had I re-rated the show based only on those 12 TV episodes that were my "rewatch", I would have rated the show lower; I guess these opening episodes didn't really grab me that much this time around. However, the True Route episodes brought my opinion back up, with a great end and some overall nice content. All in all, I really like this show and am looking forward to season 2.

Finally, there's Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos. This is the first time I'm officially rating a show in the 7's, so I should explain that, while it's definitely lower than most shows I've rated, it's still indicative of a show that I liked and enjoyed. There wasn't much to Nyarko-san, aside from some amusing jokes and references and an overall kooky cast, but I liked it and am looking forward to season 2.

[Glamrgrl104]

Uta no prince-sama-season 1-episode 1-3- AWW love this. I like the music animes.

[Buckeye]

Magi is the last thing to finish for the season.
And I have put a wrap on the winter 2013 season of anime viewing by finishing up Magi yesterday. This show is just great to watch and the story was very nice as well. It tells a really deep story and while the show is about the pretty boys and other stuff, the story is what makes this show really go. About the biggest problem with the show is the pacing as the Balbaad arc lasted too long, while the Sindria arc wasn't as deep as it could have been. But with a second season coming, I am hoping to get more of what I want to see out of it.

[FUNiOP]

Previous post that this post constantly refers to. (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?p=2012952#post2012952)

Alright, everything that's going to end has ended and officially streamed, so it's time to look back at what I was thinking of everything three months ago and see how it all stacks up now.



New For Winter 2013:

The first number and icon is the number of spots and direction the series moved on the given ranking. The second is the number and direction of possible grades it moved. The former is obviously only relative to the other series around it, and the latter may show a movement of "00" even if my opinion of it did go up or down, if it wasn't enough to change the grade.

03▲ 01▲ 01. Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? (B) This took the top spot due more to its competitors getting worse than anything, but it definitely did still get better. The worst thing is that this ended at a short 10 episodes, basically just as it was starting to get really good. Hopefully a second season can come along and continue getting better.
07▲ 02▲ 02. Cuticle Detective Inaba (B-) At first I was considering dropping this, but it ended up mixing things up in interesting enough ways to keep my attention, and in the end it wasn't too bad after all.
03▲ 01▲ 03. Love Live! School idol project (B-) The CG remains a painful detriment throughout the entire series, but the dynamic of the group and the other aspects of the performances make for some pretty solid enjoyment.
03▼ 02▼ 04. Kotoura-san (B-) The first few episodes were so good that it was really disappointing to see it fall like this. It doesn't get terrible, but it definitely never returns to the level it started at, and some of the plot points it attempts later on have some major issues. Still, for being based on a 4-koma, I'm amazed at what this anime accomplished.
03▼ 00► 05. MAOYU (B-) This definitely never ended up being the Spice and Wolf successor it showed some small promise of being. It has some of the same ideas going for it and they remain strong, but it also gets lost in otaku-pandering and trying to do too many things at once.
01▲ 01▲ 06. Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (B-) This probably gets a boost just for having some Hitomi songs in it. Once it settles on its main story, it does become pretty engaging, although it's never quite my style.
03▼ 01▼ 07. Tamako Market (C+) Easily my least favorite KyoAni series. I really love the idea of using each of a show's 12 episodes to cover one month of an entire year, and I appreciate them seeing that through, but as a result there's equal time spent on various parts that should really be longer or shorter, and nothing ended up really gripping me.
03▼ 01▼ 08. Oreshura (C+) The production values are nice and Kamei is definitely a strong director (plus I ended up really loving the entire OP sequence), but the fresh concepts explored in the early episodes take a backseat to the harem cliches that overtake the series until the relatively unsatisfying finale.

Dropped:

01▼ 00► 09. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (C) I actually watched as far as episode 10, so maybe I just should've finished it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I guess I can't expect to like a series just because it's Shaft/Shino anymore.
00► 01▼ 10. Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (D+) I think I might have made it through 4 episodes of this one. With as many series as I was following, there could be some bright side to dropping a show as it freed up that much more time, but this was the ONE show on Mondays, so even that aspect of it is a failure.

The fact that my highest final grade for the season was a solid B, and that only one series even got that high, should give some indication of what I thought of this season. Of course, there was plenty of strong stuff from the previous seasons still going, so that made up for the mediocre new slate.



Everything That Ended:

This section will include comments on series that ended but were not already covered in the above section.

Since I obviously didn't have this section last time, there will only be one set of movement number and icon per series, indicating the grade movement.

00► 00. Gintama' (A+) This is number "00" because I didn't include it in the previous post, due to half of the "new season" being reruns and therefore not something I considered appropriate to list along with the rest. However, now that it's ended and had over twice as many new episodes in the Winter season as it did in the Fall season, I feel that it needs to be acknowledged here. Obviously the grade is only referring to the new episodes.
01▲ 01. Fairy Tail (A-) After watching the Crunchyroll simulcast every Friday at 10:00 PM for a solid three and a half years, it's hard to believe Fairy Tail is over. It's sad to see it go, but at least I got to enjoy some really great moments in its final stretch.
01▲ 02. Psycho-Pass (A-) Urobuchi is doing some pretty damn good work these days. The start may have been slightly slow, but the story gets extremely captivating, and the character arcs are very strong, particularly in the case of Akane, whose arc comes full-circle at the end. It ends positively but realistically within its established world; there's not nearly enough time to fix all the problems that exist, but the clear objectives are accomplished nicely.
02▲ 03. From the New World (B+) There's some really lousy character writing in some of the later parts, but the story itself is as brilliant as ever, and the final episode is pretty much perfect.
00► 04. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou (B+) I have no idea how to write about this show while keeping it as short as I'm trying to keep all of these. In the briefest way possible, though, it's a hidden gem that looked like offensively creepy garbage at first but ended up being not only completely sweet and innocent, but the most heartfelt story I've experienced in a long time. That little description doesn't begin to convey how amazingly well-written all of the characters and their situations are, but again, it would take a lot more writing to do this show justice at all.
01▲ 05. Blast of Tempest (B+) It never quite reaches the potential I thought it might have from the beginning, but it definitely keeps getting better, especially in the second half, and the final episode gives a big leap in quality to bring everything to a very nice conclusion.
00► 06. Magi - The Labyrinth of Magic (B+) Most of this goes about as expected, but there's nothing wrong with that, because it's all done very well. The animation is normally of very high quality, which contributes to this, but there are a few times when it surprisingly gets relatively terrible.
01▲ 07. Kingdom (B) The CG is definitely very bad, but the story is compelling enough to make up for that, and occasionally we get some nice scenes without too much of it.
01▲ 08. Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? (B)
02▲ 09. Polar Bear's Café (B) I almost can't believe I watched a full year of full-length episodes of this. I guess after a while it stops being surreal and just becomes another show. It definitely had its ups and downs, but overall it was very amusing and sometimes even quite sweet, along with being obnoxiously repetitive and largely not especially hilarious.
00► 10. Robotics;Notes (B-) This ain't no Steins;Gate, that's for sure! Okay, it's not fair to think that it should be, but I still expected a lot better than this. This was plenty better than Chaos;Head, but that had a lot to do with the adaptation. This adaptation seemed maybe not as flawless as Steins;Gate but still perfectly fine, so I guess the source material must've been really lacking.
02▲ 11. Cuticle Detective Inaba (B-)
01▲ 12. Love Live! School idol project (B-)
01▲ 13. Little Busters! (B-) It's good, but it's not nearly as good as I expect a Key-related anime to be at this point. As happy as I am about Sakurasou in every way, it seems strange that the new adaptation of a Key game would be the J.C. Staff production that got the far lower budget and far less competent team, to make for overall far lesser quality.
02▼ 14. Kotoura-san (B-)
00► 15. MAOYU (B-)
01▲ 16. Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (B-)
02▲ 17. Ixion Saga DT (B-) I can't say the show ever really stopped being dumb, but it seemed to get a better grasp on how to use its attributes to be fun and occasionally even pretty clever. If nothing else, there was definitely some entertainment to be had here, at least quite a bit more than I had previously expected.
01▼ 18. Tamako Market (C+)
01▼ 19. Oreshura (C+)

Dropped:

00► 20. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (C)
01▼ 21. Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (D+)

TWENTY-ONE series I was watching just ended. That is far more than I've ever seen before.



Everything I'm Watching:

And here's everything, including everything from both the above sections. This is here to show the overall ranking and movement of everything in relation to everything else. There are only a few series not covered in either of the above sections, and I don't have anything in particular to say about any of them here, so there won't be any comments in this section.

As with the first section, the movement indicators show the movement in the ranking and the change in grade, respectively.

00► 00► 00. Gintama' (A+)
00► 00► 01. One Piece (A-)
00► 00► 02. Hunter × Hunter (A-)
00► 01▲ 03. Fairy Tail (A-)
03▲ 01▲ 04. Psycho-Pass (A-)
10▲ 02▲ 05. From the New World (B+)
00► 00► 06. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou (B+)
03▼ 00► 07. Space Brothers (B+)
01▲ 01▲ 08. Blast of Tempest (B+)
01▼ 00► 09. Magi - The Labyrinth of Magic (B+)
03▲ 01▲ 10. Kingdom (B)
00► 01▲ 11. Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? (B)
06▲ 02▲ 12. Polar Bear's Café (B)
03▼ 00► 13. Robotics;Notes (B-)
09▲ 02▲ 14. Cuticle Detective Inaba (B-)
04▲ 01▲ 15. Love Live! School idol project (B-)
01▲ 01▲ 16. Little Busters! (B-)
12▼ 02▼ 17. Kotoura-san (B-)
08▼ 00► 18. MAOYU (B-)
01▲ 01▲ 19. Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (B-)
01▲ 02▲ 20. Ixion Saga DT (B-)
07▼ 01▼ 21. Tamako Market (C+)
06▼ 01▼ 22. Oreshura (C+)

Dropped:

01▼ 00► 23. Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (C)
00► 01▼ 24. Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (D+)

Also, I got caught back up on an ongoing series, but didn't include it in the above list so as not to artificially lower the rank of everything below it by one. However, I do give it the number it would have if it was factored into the above list:

12. Naruto Shippūden (B) After giving up on the hope of catching up on the manga via legal means, I decided to just catch up with the anime and watch that each week. The initial marathon of the canon content I was missing was pretty nice, but getting back into the weekly episodes, many of them still filler like always, is reminding me how much of a slog this can be. With the new cour starting, hopefully things can get back to being a bit more enjoyable for a while.



With all those series having ended, I'm the closest to having a blank slate I can remember ever being. Now it's time to move onto Spring 2013. I'll post my first impressions of the new series and how they stack up against the few remaining series once I've seen at least one episode of each one I plan on trying.

[Glamrgrl104]

Uta no prince sama 1000%-episode 3-13- Hilarious. I love the music and the relationships between all the characters.

Vandread episode 1- Interesting. Pretty funny too, I might watch more of this one.

Fairy Tail rewatch Vol.3- Just as awesome as the first time watching it!

Hetalia beautiful world-episode 11&12- LOL

[Buckeye]

Now that my viewing slate has wrapped up for the Winter 2013 season that it is now time i give out thoughts and reviews to everything I watched during this time frame. While the simulcast season had the quantity, it was lacking in quality as far as the new stuff goes. That said, there were plenty of good and enjoyable shows to be seen during this season. The categories are pretty much self-explanatory, and I prefer to use on hold rather than dropped because even the worst shows have an outside chance of being revisited by me (for example, this applied to Majikoi from Fall 2011 since the beginning was just so awful and dumb, but I ended up watching it through this season due in large part to the dub and my TAN subscription). Shows that I have interest in revisiting later are given the grade of "Incomplete" while shows that I can just about stick a fork in have a bad grade of sorts since reasons for dropping something are not always due to it being totally unwatchable. Alright, I said enough, so here are my reviews for this season.

Completed

[STG] Steins;Gate: A+
Just about everything was perfect in this show. Well, not exactly everything since the beginning was a little bit rough around the edges, but once the main plotline shows its face midway through the series, this show really takes off. There is a lot of development, the characters are quite colorful, and the mysteries and other stuff are just excellent. The beginning was very confusing, but all of it is cleaned up nicely, and watching it dubbed really helped me out.

Baka and Test season 2: C+
It continues to be a nice way to pass the time as the first season was extremely hilarious. This season, it's not as funny and the plot moves too slowly, but it is still entertaining to watch. The flashback episodes are the highlights of this season, especially the one about Minami trying to reestablish herself in Japan after spending so much of her life in Germany.

[KON-2] K-On! season 2: A-
The first season is great, and this season is even better since it gets two cours to cover one year rather than one cour to cover two years. It's about cute girls doing cute things and play music, but at the same time several other characters are developed and become an integral part of this show. Character designs are top-notch as expected out of KyoAni and the music is the real highlight of this show.

[ANR] Another: B+
Here is a show that's about a mystery of students suddenly dying in gruesome ways, and that it is connected to some calamity from years ago. The show is full of suspense and the development of the mystery was pretty good leading up to the source of why all these murders are happening. It was pretty good to see all that go down.

[CSS] Casshern Sins: C
This show starts off being lethargic and the artwork was just tough on my eyes. This show doesn't really become anything until midway through the series when the final boss shows up. The first half is episodic and while it sets up one thing, unfortunately the plot is too fragmented. At least the second half was good when it talks about what eternal life really means, which is what Casshern has and so many other robots covet that it is leading to all these conflicts.

[PKI] Papakiki: B-
This is a pretty nice show to watch given what it is all about, an uncle who suddenly tasked with becoming a father of three half-sisters who suddenly lost their parents. The story is solid and the antics never rub me the wrong way as it tends to happen in shows like these. The plotline is solid, and it shows decent development.

[C2B] Chunibyo Demo Koi ga Shitai! : B+
Here is a show about how delusions are something that defines a character. The main character finds them embarrassing and while he tries to leave them behind, some other girls drag him back into the delusional world. The story showed some really nice development and while the show was set up nicely, the ending us just horribly done. I will just say that the ending was a case of contradiction. But thankfully, a second season is coming and hopefully some common ground will be found by the end.

[RDB] Rideback: C+
The first ten episodes were pretty nice, but then the last two episodes just ruined everything this show was making out to be. The show has a decent story to it, but then the last two episodes it rushed everything leaving out important details and not telling a complete story that it could have been.

[MJK] Majikoi: D-
This show was just crazy dumb, and the first half was just pure trash. At least the second half was decent when there is this conspiracy going on where the characters are caught up in something big. But the first half was mostly painful to get through since the female characters are all bullying the main guy and doing all sorts of ecchi stuff that is just too much.

[RNT] Robotics;Notes: B
If you are expecting this show to be another masterpiece like Steins;Gate, then you will be sorely disappointed. But as its own show, it's a pretty nice show. This show is pretty slow to develop, and I was pretty much snoozing through the middle of the series. The first few episodes were nice, but then things went way off track in the middle. Near the end of the show, when the truth behind everything is slowly revealed, that is when the show really starts getting great, and it was made possible by those earlier episodes that were not so enticing to watch.

[LEC] Love, Elections, and Chocolate: C+
It's a decent show based off a dating sim about a candidate in a school election, except that it's not just any ordinary school election. In this election, candidates are backed by branches of the Japanese government, and there is Washington DC style politics going on. The main character is there to help out the girls in his club that is threatened to be shut down, all while there is some connection between his girlfriend and chocolate. The story is solid, but nothing outlandishly spectacular. The girls are all solid characters except for one of them.

[UPT] Upotte: D+
It's a dumb show about girls who are actually guns, but it's fun enough that it is good for a few great laughs. There is not much of a story, but that isn't really needed in a show like this. I wasn't exactly pulled in to this show, but at least it was good enough to keep me interested.

[AKN] Akikan: F
It's girls as cans here. This show is just a total train wreck as it deals with girls who are actually soda cans due to some project to decide whether steel or aluminum cans are the superior. All but one of the characters (Najimi) have huge issues with Otoya being the worst of them with his yaoiish deposition, and it's a heavy on inopportune fanservice. And on top of that, the story was never settled in the end as one more character barges into the show and derails the plot.

[AMN] Amnesia: C-
I wanted to give an O-game adaptation a chance, and since the character designs are great that I decided to sit through this show. It starts off with the nameless heroine waking up not remembering anything and by dating several boys, the truth is slowly revealed. It feels like you are watching someone else play this game, which isn't what anime adaptations are supposed to be. The first eight episodes were pretty bland, but the last four episodes are when things start kicking into high gear, and the show has a pretty good ending. The characters have issues, especially Ikki, and then there is the heroine's naivety that will drive you crazy, although understandably so once you see the ending. By O-game adaptation standards that are usually terrible, this show is good, but that's as good as it gets.

[PET] Pet Girl of Sakurasou (13-24): A-
This is the sleeper show of the year, and it looked like this show was headed for a total train wreck in the beginning. But once the show took on the identity that it wanted to be in episode 4, that's when it became something special to watch. It's about the life of six weirdos who left the regular dorms for various reasons and ended up at Sakura Dormitory as their home. This show looked like it was going to be heavy on fanservice and love triangles, which didn't bode well at the start. But as the story progresses, it becomes a story about community and friendship. Even though these characters get a bad reputation, they are anything but that. This show then goes into depth about struggles and other stuff that is involved with going to school and finding work.

[TMK] Tamako Market: B-
By KyoAni standards, this show is a flop. But it's still a good show to watch, especially if you liked K-On! as the characters are designed by the same person. There are lots of nice moments and stuff in this show, and the characters are very likable. Basically, the episodes are either hit or miss, and the plotline was full of holes seeing its approach to covering an entire calendar year within 12 episodes. But despite that, it a great show to watch for the characters, and the other stuff that made K-On! such a hit.

[OSH] Oreshura: C+
This show is fun for its parodies and stuff, and while it's a harem, it's one that deemphasizes fanservice and some other bad aspects of harems and brings something new to the table with the whole fake couple charade. It's a good show, but one that isn't exactly going to change the perception of the genre. The characters are nice, but the animation style feels awkward with its overly bright colors.

[VRO] Vividred Operation: C+
It's Strike Witches, but this time the girls are wearing hot pants. The show has a solid storyline, while the action scenes are what makes this show so nice. But at the same time, it feels like the show settles into a typical formula that doesn't work and for the most part, it's predictable to a degree what will happen. The character development just wasn't there until the end, and that is what hurts this show the most.

[GUP] Girls und Panzer (11-12): B
It's a show about girls (and lots of them) and tanks. While this show could have been filled to the top with tank action, it is not the case with this show. There is lots of development going on with the characters, and that is what makes this show distinguishable from other shows of its type. The tanks are very cool as well, and this whole tankery tournament is what I watched this show for. The last two episodes are what I watched this season, and it was really nice to see the girls putting together a strategy that defines Miho as a character.

[EOC] Encouragement of Climb: C
These are three-minute shorts, so development was going to be limited. But with this show, it was pretty fun to watch the girls learn about camping and hiking. It does a nice job in getting the girls together with the time constraints.

[MGI] Magi (13-25): B+
In continuing this show, the storyline, characters, and animation were are very nice in this show, and it's a great thing a second season will be coming soon since there is just a lot going on. The one problem I had with this show is about the uneven emphasis in the story as the Balbaad arc took way too long, and the Sindria arc at the end just feels a bit rushed. I would have liked to see more of the Kou characters involved, but maybe that will be coming in the second season because they are great characters. Anyway, the characters develop quite nicely in this show, and one that will justify a second season.

[B]Ongoing

[CHF-2] Chihayafuru 2 (1-12): A-
This is the best show of the season based on what I watched, and it picks up right where the first season leaves off, and this time the show does not mess around. Chihaya continues to develop as a character, and the two new members of the karuta club are nice additions to the show. Currently, this show is in a rough spot since the show's pacing has just slowed down considerably, and whether or not it is justified remains to be seen.

Bleach (279-283): B-
Not much to say about these episodes that is different from the rest. Just some more fights, but they are fights that advance the story as opposed to the filler material. I only watched a few episodes here since my DVR is having problems and it stopped recording up to episode 283, and that I have been too busy watching other stuff.

[PKM-BW] Pokemon Black and White: C+
I watched up to the end of the Junior Cup tournament. Like with Bleach, not much to say that is any different from the rest of the series. It continues to be nice to watch, and it introduces an old friend. And Team Rocket is being used more strategically rather than being crammed into every episode, allowing natural development.

[TMY-GP] Tenchi Muyo GXP (1-8): C-
I began watching this show, which is the first Tenchi Muyo show that I have watched in a decade, and while it has a lot of the stuff that made Tenchi Muyo what it is, I feel that it is lacking. It's funny, especially with Seiryo going crazy and everything, but I just am not too fond of the characters in this show, not with the main cast missing.

[B]On Hold

[MDJ] Mondaiji (1-4): Incomplete
This is the last show that didn't quite make the cut for my viewing slate. It's fun and the whole gift gaming wars stuff is interesting. The characters are nice as well. But it lacks that killer aspect for some reason.

[MYU] Maoyu (1-2): Incomplete
This show is set up to feel like Spice and Wolf, but with wars and stuff being the bigger focus. This show just skips from place to place without really doing much to advance the overall plot of this show. In any case, I just felt like something was going to go down, but I didn't get that sense from the episodes I watched, but the interaction between the main two characters was pretty good stuff.

[HKK] Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (1-4): Incomplete
It's about a classic story retold with bishonen, and the show looked interesting from what I watched. It certainly has the feel of Saiyuki without the traveling, and the characters are really nice considering that they are able to transform into dogs of some sort. While I enjoyed the show for it's action, boys, and dogs, this show just felt too generic.

[SRK] Senran Kagura (1-3): F
This show just totally fails. Just about the only thing good from the episodes I watched were the action. But there is just not enough of it, and way too much fanservice of the crazy bad kind. Not to mention, the bad ninjas are far more interesting than the good ninjas as the good ninjas look far too generic.

[CDI] Cuticle Detective Inaba (1): D
It's a show that's all about comedy, but it's totally flat and fragmented. I couldn't get a sense of continuity when watching this show, so I was quick to drop it.