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The Best Anime of 2015


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razberry_yum



Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 169
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:12 pm Reply with quote
I'm just so happy Gintama is included in the list, courtesy of Amy-san who has been reviewing it. I've always been saddened by the fact that this awesome series never really caught on in the States, so any positive attention given to it is greatly appreciated, which will hopefully result in a boost in readership and viewership, if even a tiny one.
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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:16 pm Reply with quote
Surprised to see My Love Story!! get some love here; I did enjoy that show quite a bit Smile Equally surprised to not see any love for Blood Battlefront Blockade; that seemed like an instant classic to me.

Never got the chance to check out Death Parade; seemed like one of those shows that just didn't seem very fun. I like some of those kinds of shows, but it can be hard to convince myself to start watching them.

But over the next week, I hope to have a single question answered - WHERE JOJO?!?!
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HolyR



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 42
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:17 pm Reply with quote
This'll be fun to read throughout the week. I'm kinda always amazed how many people liked death parade when I thought it just, I dunno, really really sucked. The OP is fun though.
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AholePony



Joined: 04 Jun 2015
Posts: 330
Location: Arizona
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:37 pm Reply with quote
HolyR wrote:
This'll be fun to read throughout the week. I'm kinda always amazed how many people liked death parade when I thought it just, I dunno, really really sucked. The OP is fun though.


Hah I'm a little surprised both of these first two lists had it. I would expect it on someone's list but not the majority of them. I guess we'll wait and see. I personally wouldn't say death parade sucked but it was a little too one-trick-pony with its episodic nature and barely -there sub plot. A little TOO similar to hell girl in that way for my tastes.
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Random 21



Joined: 03 Jul 2014
Posts: 198
Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:37 pm Reply with quote
Yay! Been looking forward to this part of the year. As someone who loves lists, and just rankings in general, this part of the year is extremely satisfying for me. As for my list, I'd go:

5) Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans

This being my first Gundam show, I was hesitant to go in, due to my unfamiliarity. Goddamn did I end up enjoying this though, I can't help but finding myself loving all these characters, Mika and Orga are easily two of my favorite characters of the year. I also appreciate the show knows when to calm down, it doesn't need action every episode to be engaging, and it knows this. Consistently awesome.

4) Noragami Aragato

I loved the original Noragami, and this season STILL runs laps around it. It rare to find a show that feels like it starts at a 10 and just stays there, never calming down, just remaining at its amazing pace. Plus, this season gave more focus on the best and originally underutilised character (Bishamon), so it was already a win for me from the start.

3) Maria The Virgin Witch

Now this came outta left field. When I first saw art for it, it caught my curiosity, but I never imagined I would love it as much as I did. It's portrayal of sexuality I thought was very different and interesting, and it manages to take a sensitive topic like rape and handle it with care and respect. A fantastic show.

2) Durarara x2

Alright, I'll admit, this is mostly out of blind love, but there is a lot of truth to this. Sure Shou was meh, but The Second Arc I felt made up for it and then some. Mikado's character growth in this season managed to take one of the weakest characters and within the span of a few episodes made him one of the strongest characters. Plus, The Second Arc had in it's ranks some of the strongest episodes to date in the Adabashi and Daily Life arcs. Can't wait to see how this story comes to an end next season, but I'm definitely gonna miss it.

1) Blood Blockade Battlefront

I was fully prepared to give Durarara the top spot on name alone, so I did not expect anything to come up that could beat it. Hell, this show became one of my favorite shows period. I knew I was going to love it the moment I first saw the PVs, but everything in it was just so amazing, the soundtrack, the characters, the art, the animation, even the anime original stuff was just a joy to watch. Coming from the director of another show near and dear to my heart, Kyousougiga, I'm really going to have to watch out for more of Rie Matsumoto's stuff in the future, if it continues at this calibre she might be one of my favorite directors. I might have to check out the precure stuff she did, now that I think about it...

And if I were to go to a top 10, just to include some stuff I missed out:

10) Concrete Revolutio (I know I'm the only person who actively enjoys this show, but damn it's been impressive of late)
9) Osomatsu-san (Again, another show completely out of left field)
8) Death Parade (Damn that OP, still in my head)
7) One Punch Man (Still absolutely gorgeous)
6) Yurikuma Arashi (My first ikuhara show, really need to get on his other stuff)

Also Baby Steps as an honorable mention because I love that show but I couldn't fit it on the list, even though I love it. God that show is underrated.

Overall, yeah this was a good year. There was a fair bit of boring stuff, a whole season that was kinda bluh (summer), Chaos Dragon, but overall there are a lot of shows that really stand out to me. Hell, even this list is missing a lot of other favorites of mine, Wakakozake, CHEDCL, Ushio and Tora, new Gintama. Here's to 2016, that Ace Attorney anime better deliver or else the year fails by default.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:53 pm Reply with quote
AholePony wrote:
I personally wouldn't say death parade sucked but it was a little too one-trick-pony with its episodic nature and barely -there sub plot.


I agree with you on the barely-there subplot, and I wish it wasn't there at all - most episodic encounters were alright to really good, but the plot was just abysmal, especially Decim.

Random 21 wrote:
10) Concrete Revolutio (I know I'm the only person who actively enjoys this show, but damn it's been impressive of late)


I enjoy it too, so far it's Top 10 material for me as well. Hell, if I only consider anime I didn't know I was gonna enjoy before it even started (sequels and material I'd already read), it's Top 5.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5296
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:13 pm Reply with quote
Random 21 wrote:
10) Concrete Revolutio (I know I'm the only person who actively enjoys this show, but damn it's been impressive of late)
9) Osomatsu-san (Again, another show completely out of left field)
From what I've read, most peoples issue with it, is that they can't follow it. And while it can a bit confusing at first, if you pay attention it is not that hard to do.

Osomatsu-san has been pretty good, I had to persuade a friend of mine to watch it, as he saw the first half of the first episode and thought it was a cute boy show.
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JaggedAuthor



Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Posts: 981
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:24 pm Reply with quote
In many respects, this has been the most consistently solid season of Gintama. Not only were the first 3.5-ish cours absolutely hilarious, the show's artwork and animation are better than ever. BN Pictures is definitely treating this property with care.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:27 pm Reply with quote
5- Overlord
Actually had a hard time deciding for that spot, nothing really impress me outside of the next 4 so I went with Overlord for easily the best villain dead in any media I've ever watch. The rest was fairly good but not spectacular, the pacing was a bit weird and it's really begging for an S2 but probably won't get it. Also, the only "trap in mmo" where it actually feel like the person writing know how mmo work.

4- Block battle battlefront
Would be my #1 if the quality of the first half could have translated into the second half, but the last few were merely very good with the actual ending being just decent. Still amazing world, very little down time/wasted moment and some amazing episode like the chess themed one.

3-One punch man
Similar to BBB, I liked the first half better than second, of late there's maybe 2-3 joke per episode and its starting to take itself a bit too seriously. But the animation alone can carry it all the way, so its no big deal.

2-Umaru-chan
I love show that know exactly what they want to be, and umaru-chan knows what it want very well and execute it. Bonus point for being a comedy show that stayed about comedy trough the end and didn't try to become serious part way. Also best and most representative opening of the season.

1- Sound! euphonium
Execution execution execution, that's what this show is. Don't care one bit for band class and petty teenager problem, the whole "underdog beat the best by training for a few month" always piss me off and the yuri-baiting is ridiculous at time. But none of that matters because the execution was amazing, it could have been about anything and it would most likely still be my #1.

Honorable mention to gundam IRO, its damn good but it's not done yet and gundam have a bit of an history of crapping themselves on the follow up (looking at you gundam 00 S2), so I won't include it. Would probably be my # 3. When it's good its amazing (I think episode 5 was my favorite episode this year from any series). If there was a few more fight (say 2 more) and a bit less character development repeat (I think the princess realized 4 time that her action would endanger people) would be my #1.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5406
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:28 pm Reply with quote
Interesting, for some reason I never pictured Mike as a big fan of slice of life anime.

I agree that this looks like a very cool feature. I look forward to seeing the rest of the lists. Death Parade is not in my top 5 favorites (I will reveal my list on Friday to keep up with the spirit of the feature Very Happy), but to me it is the best overall anime series from 2015. I suspect that Death Parade will be present in most of the staff's lists.

Merxamers wrote:
Equally surprised to not see any love for Blood Battlefront Blockade

Quote:
I hope to have a single question answered - WHERE JOJO?!?!

I think Hope might have those 2 titles on her top 5.
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Alabaster Spectrum



Joined: 02 Sep 2015
Posts: 528
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:45 pm Reply with quote
Surprising variety already. I expected mostly just to see Fate/Stay Night, Sound Euphonium and Owarimonogatari and that sort of stuff. Well there is Sound Euphonium but like generally it's the same sort of stuff from the same sort of producers every year or at least it feels that way.

I think my favorite show this was the very surprising Garo: The Carved Seal of Flames- which I almost didn't watch and IMO remains an unsung hidden gem. From pretty much the moment the first scene played and the Main character Leon's mother was being spoiler[put to death as a which and the manner in which it solemnly carried the scene with the excellent soundtrack] I found it immediately gripping. It had a great classic style antagonist in Mendoza played awesomely by the veteran Takaya Hashi whose whole scheme comes together so well in the end, had great themes of revenge and redemption and the main character learning about what truly makes a hero, lots of tragedy but not trageporn and was just an all around great drama with tons of imagination from the staff, great visuals and a truly awesome final fight sequence to top it all off that ends with a recall to the very opening scene that so gripped me in the first place only with the spoiler[tables fittingly turned]. Also really loved the classical Spain theme they chose to go with for the story which I've never really seen before from an anime.


{Added spoiler tags. ~nobahn}
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lostbirdinatree





PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:55 pm Reply with quote
Seeing as there was lots of praise every time Death Parade was the subject I knew it would show up somewhere on quite a few lists, but I didn't expect the placement...

Quote:
10) Concrete Revolutio (I know I'm the only person who actively enjoys this show, but damn it's been impressive of late)
9) Osomatsu-san (Again, another show completely out of left field)


Concrete Revolutio is one of those shows which is underappreciated due to its timeskips but if you can follow it, it works quite well in explaining later events. That's why when you remove the freq. of timeskips (it's done that in later eps) it is easier to appreciate the story.
Osomatsu-san is hit and miss for me, as I only took it up when I spotted its name among ANN ep reviews and since I'd been thrown off by how wacky Gintama was in the past, I wasn't expecting it to be so popular (even if in Japan).
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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 6:38 pm Reply with quote
Death Parade was this year? Man. I can't weigh in on this year a tall despite the good shows because I can barely comprehend its almost xmas. 2015, where'd you go?
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 7:19 pm Reply with quote
The only anime this season I would put in for AOTY is One Punch Man. Now it isn't the only good show this season, but it is the only one I would be confident putting in my top five of the year. If the shows ended earlier, maybe another one might be on the list. My top five would be, in no specific order, One Punch Man, Sound Euphonium, Gintama, Oregairu Zoku, Blood Blockade Battlefront
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Valhern



Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Posts: 916
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 7:20 pm Reply with quote
I don't have an specific order but I do have these 5 best: Blood Blockade Battlefront, Sound! Euphonium, Onepunch-Man, Prison School and JoJo. These last three may not be as important since I already read their manga counterparts, so I was thorougly more surprised by new content, although, JoJo and OPM have shown a great deal of originality in terms of adaptation (JoJo's case) and new material (OPM). I especially like the good care and attention they've put into the daptations, it is clear that who worked.

Special mention: My love story SNAFU Too! Damn if there is a good drama I've watched it must be this one. And I'd consider Gintama if I had read up until that point and watched along.

Runner-ups: Saekano: How to raise a boring girlfriend, Maria the Virgin Witch, Himouto Umaru-chan and School-Live!.[/b]
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