Forum - View topicThe Best and Worst Anime of Spring 2017
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Mojave
 Posts: 178 |
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For me, first place was a tie between Re:Creators and My Hero Academia season 2. They both did some really amazing things (episode 10 of MHA this season is one of the single best episodes of any anime I've ever watched), and I'm excited to see where their second cours take them during the summer anime season.
Worst for me was probably Clockwork Planet. There were some warning signs from the start, but it at least showed a bit of potential at the beginning. It then proceeded to become completely aimless and tepid, not knowing what it wanted to do or be. Eventually, it felt like every 5 minutes the show would completely change writers and not tell the new writer what the previous one had been aiming for with their writing. |
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Mo Fro Shillingford
Posts: 2 |
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"its tight focus on a pretty simplistic racism allegory felt like a serious letdown compared to Genesis’ swashbuckling, world-trotting adventure. In a worse season I'd likely still be watching Virgin Soul, but with riches this bountiful, an underwhelming plot was enough to earn it the axe"
Well this sentence just didn't make any sense whatsoever and infact made me believe the reviewer didn't even watch past episode 6. We saw the swashbuckling adventure during the prison break last week and the week before, we haven't only been focusing on the racial themes (which isn't simplistic in the slightest and is something nearly no anime ever touch and is a great and important theme to explore) but we've also been focusing on the mystery side of things with stuff like the device, Charioce's character and Mugaro, not to mention the sheer scope and epicness of this series is something no anime that I've seen has done in a long time. We also have the incredible art and animation which has been the best of the season due to it being so damn consistently good and the OST is the greatest that I've ever heard in anime. How this reviewer has given Virgin Soul the Worst of the season tag is absolutely jarring and confusing, especially when he says it was good 
Best: Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul Anyway as you can probably see from the post I've just put up  Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul has been my favourite anime of the season. The racial themes explored during the early stages of the series was great to watch, especially because it something that anime series rarely ever touch, if you couple that with the heartbreaking story of Jeanne and Mugaro, the quirky joyous character that is Nina, Kaiser's development, the epic scale of the war between the humans and the gods, the art, the animation and the OST, we have an absolutely fantastic series that takes my best of the season title.
Runner-Up: My Hero Academia The character focus in My Hero Academia is what makes it stand out from the rest, it's been a joy to watch each character react accordingly to all those around them, have their own unique dreams and progress accordingly. The animation and OST has also been a stand out and the ending to the tournament arc was not what I expected but still blew me away. Worst: Eromanga-Sensei Need I say anymore... |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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Best of the season was definitely Eccentric Family 2 for me. I never expected to get a second season and I was afraid it wouldn't live up to the magnificence of the first one, but it totally did. It didn't feel unnecessary, it gave us more depth into the world and characters and expanded on the urban fantasy setting in unique, wonderful ways. The Hell episode was a particular highlight.
Runner Up: Shingeki no Bahamut Virgin Soul. Putting aside how Nick's reasoning to call it "worst" of the season is mind-bogglingly absurd (it touches on social issues instead of being dumb fun, so it must be bad?) I'm loving everything about this season, from the expansion of the universe, to seeing our beloved cast again and the fun dynamics they've developed, to how they're dealing with the boiling conflict between the main three races in a complex way that doesn't give us dry-cut good and evil. Nina is a delightful protagonist and the production values are as good as I've come to expect from MAPPA, definitely a treat I'm delighted to keep on with it for the second half Worst of the season: Seikaisuru KADO, no doubt. I never really liked it and found the first half to be not only terribly boring but pointlessly pretentious -all these debates about the ethical and developmental consequences of introducing the alien technology came down to nothing because the show never committed to showing the consequences of those technologies-. Then the second half became a nonsensical series of twists coming out of nowhere that capped out at one of the most tryhard and stupid finales I've had the displeasure of watching. I do however appreciate that it self-destructed so hard because for the first half I felt like the only person not singing its praises
Dishonorable mentions: Re:Creators which I think has excellent ideas buried under poor execution and suffocatingly endless exposition (literally shut up Meteora) and Grimoire of Zero, although it got significantly better in the second half, the first one was a bore and overall it doesn't rise above 'forgettable' |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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My thoughts exactly. Tsukigakirei achieves its claim to maturity not through any risks taken in its writing, but instead through its measured and sympathetic focus on ordinary behaviour. Many romance anime convey the awkwardness of being emotionally open for the first time through plot twists or stock lines, usually to save space for other story arcs, whereas this opts to let its central couple falter and unravel at a realistic pace to the exclusion of anything unnecessary. A quiet success, but a notable one. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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Each season I usually post in this section to vent my anger, but not this time. Every season I watch shows that fail to deliver on whatever promises it made in the previews or the synopsis. That is what I think is inadmissible, since not all series can be gems, but even a lowly regular burger is expected to have meat when you take a bite.
Let's start with the lowest in the pile: Clockwork Planet. This series is dumb as a rock, ok, no problem, brain disengaged. But if it does not have plot, what reason could there be to watch it? Female lead with a hard body and a lashing tongue, SOLD! Now when are they going to release a Drama CD with RyuZU abusing the listener, inquiring minds want to know for ... science! Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho. Plotwise this is not on the level of Re:Zero, but it is a comfy romp into a fantasy world with a cute and cool heroine. Love Tyrant. The animation was lowest of the pile, but since it is a comedy it fits. The plot was no great, but it was entertaining. Nice to have a yandere as the female lead, I think Yuno Gasai was the last time such thing happened. HInako Note. Cute animation, cute series, not much to write home about, but I think this series heals you. -------------------------------------- Middle Tier series would be: Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor, Eromanga-sensei, Suka Suka, Alice & Zouroku, Tsuki ga Kirei, Sakura Quest, Tsugumomo & Frame Arms Girl. -------------------------------------- Top Tier series would be: Attack on Titan Season 2, My Hero Academia 2nd Season, The Eccentric Family 2 & How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend .flat The list of series could be longer, but I would not comment on series I have not finished, I might on the coming weaks since summer season has yet to get into full swing, but I might not. As always kudos to Chidori from Nobunaga no Shinobi for being so cute. Honorable mention to this season OVAs: The Ancient Magus' Bride, Strike the Blood II, Blue Exorcist, Everyday Life with Monster Girls, New Game, Gabriel Dropout, Himouto! Umaru-chan, High School Fleet & Matoi the Sacred Slayer. |
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Alexis.Anagram
 Posts: 278 Location: Mishopshno |
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Best: Eccentric Family 2 was pretty awesome. I loved the first season and unlike others I didn't feel this one was a step down at all. There was some messaging about the cyclical nature of things (revenge, damnation, even how its characters grow and develop) and I guess I could see how that might feel repetitive, but so much of the show focused on brand new conflicts and characters, or expanded meaningfully on existing ones, that I think it was just as important there were familiar, accessible through-lines from the first season to balance it all out. Most of all, true to its tanuki musings, the show managed to genuinely surprise me more than once, and with twists that weren't even especially unpredictable but, rather, had such great set-up that I just didn't see them coming! That and Benten remains one of my favorite characters ever; even moreso after her journey this season. So here's to another! And somebody license it! I'm using exclamation points it's a big deal!!
Runner-up: Natsume Yujin-cho 6. I mean, I wait for this show like other folks have been waiting for AoT and it never fails to deliver. Only reason it isn't number one is because we've had such a steady diet of it recently that I wasn't so much starved for new material as waiting with whetted appetite following the completion of season 5. This show is always what I need it to be. <3 Worst: Attack on Titan. Just to be spiteful. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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My favorites were Bahamut, Uchouten Kazoku 2, and Sakura Quest. I never have a "worst" category since I drop shows like that, e.g., Clockwork Planet.
However, I'd like to add a "most disappointing" category to which I'd assign Alice to Zouroku. This was never going to be one of my top-ranked shows, but the first half of the story kept my attention with its emphasis on Sana's origins and the secret research organization. I also thought Noto Mamiko gave a stunning performance against type in a villainous role, turning her soft "waifu" voice into icy steel. Then that story ended, and the show lost its way. The second half focused too much on what I might call "young girls' issues" and dropped the plot that made the show more interesting to an adult like me. |
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TasteyCookie
 Posts: 421 |
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Best: all 3 sequels. Attack on Titan, MHA, Rage. All 3 sequels were fantastic.
Best non-sequels: Tsuki Ga Kirei, SukaSuka, Sakura Quest. Worst: Clockwork Planet, and Re:Creators. Hands down. Clockwork was bad in every aspect. Re:Creators was just entirely unenjoyable. The concept was over done and it's prose was god awful. Least the music was good. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3982 |
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Yup! Completely agree! Those are my top three (AoT 2, MHA 2, and Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul) of my top five as well, and also all pretty much tied for greatness IMO, with AoT probably nudged ahead at the top due to it's edge of your seat combination of elements, and the epic memories of the first season, that once again make it a ridiculously addictive watch. Re:Creators (hope they can keep it up for the important back half, and like Christopher sighted that Matsubara helping Selesia moment, love them both, it's true that the pacing of the show can be both good and yet uneven at the same time) is next and then was Kado and ID-0 (probably my hidden gem of the season). Runner-Up/Honorable mention (6) to Atom: The Beginning (through ep 10, sadly think only two more eps left till it's over). Glad to have MHA, Bahamut, and Re:Creators all continuing on this summer. A pretty amazing feeling to have all three big sequel seasons turn out so damned good that they topped the season again for me (and many) just like their first installments. Like some I also enjoyed Grimoire of Zero quite a bit, it's true it's not the best at anything but it does everything solidly, it's cute, cool lead and her partner have fun banter and team development, a decent story, and nice action, and it is even mostly self contained completing the current adventure which was nice since I read that there's more to adapt if they want to make more, which I'd likely watch. ---- Well then, looks like I need watch King's Avatar then given all the mentions. Just about finished Rakshasa Street which will also hopefully get more episodes. Will probably get around to more of Oratorio (like it better than the original due to Aiz being the lead though even still she doesn't get enough focus and I thought we'd actually get her inner thoughts, both series are "ok"). Need to make time to check out Kenka Bancho Otome -Girl Beats Boys-, sounds fun. Been waiting on the dub for Little Witch Academia after sampling the really fun first two or three episodes.
It's so great to have her greatness back on screen!  And Nina is a great fun addition as the new lead.
One of the best shows. |
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Bluenoser
Posts: 39 |
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Well, I guess I am going to be an outlier then, because for me my top pick after seeing it through to the end was Kado. For me, it was a real treat seeing a true classic old school SF and unlike what appears to be almost every ANN commentator here I found the ending worked very well indeed. spoiler[Now, if the daughter had brought her father back to life, THEN I would have been quite offended, but they didn't.] It explained our main antagonist true motives, including his/its inhumanity from our perspective in some aspects while the self-interest that was at its core is entirely relatable, even if what the desire is for beyond that most basic of trying to cure boredom seems a bit hard to fully grasp and/or suspend disbelief for as clearly some here have found it to be.
The one thing though I will make bluntly clear though is this: This is NOT a fantasy story, and anyone that sees it as such is sadly missing more than they are gathering IMHO. This is being said bluntly because one person listed it as fantasy in this thread already, and it is so clearly not, whether you agree or disagree on the quality of execution, calling it anything OTHER than a SF story seems rather difficult to understand, or so it comes off for me, anyway. Like it or not as a series/story, it *IS* what it is, Science Fiction, and one of the bravest examples of a true SF story I have seen in anime in many many years. Most SF anime uses SF settings to tell stories that are not at their heart true SF stories, but about other well known types of stories, hero tales, combat stories, etc. Anyway, that is *MY* pick of the season, and so far of the year as well. The runner up though I was hooked into despite it not being technically anime, The King's Avatar. I locked into this series right behind Kado and never looked back. So much so that when the article on it last week came out I not only read it, I immediately went to the site listed where the free translation of the webnovel it is sourced on is freely available, and as of that time there was 669 chapters up. I'm currently at CH418, and the only reason I am not done already is real life has priority and this was a busy weekend for both family and my home's 150th birthday. For this link though and the reading pleasure it is giving me (and yes, I've read more than a few LNs too as well as manga over the many many years now) is something that only fails as my favourite this season because of my strong feelings for Kado. I tend to be hot/cold on overpowered characters, I need to be comfortable with the underlying basis for it, and in this series case, as noted by Rebecca Silverman in this series it is a clear and obvious reason for why, that would be true in real life as in this story. Well, in any event, she wrote a wonderful piece last week that got me to go direct to the source material, and I am enjoying reading it even more than I did watching it. Thank you Rebecca Silverman. I've had a very hard year, especially the last three months, and this series and then the ability to flesh it out now with the source material has been one of the first signs I am starting to move out of crisis mode (long term) back into my more normal state, and the way I have been able to relax and throw myself into this work when I have been having a hard time reading any fiction not something I had read and reread, well that is one of my signs for "the worst is over". I have no worst example. I had no time for it this season. Within the first three weeks of this season, my mother stroked out, ended up in hospital and while being treated there just missed dying a week into admission from a massive blowout of surgical mesh in her GI area (and that is as specific as I am getting, this was a real mess, and for almost a solid week after the emergency surgery she hovered on the knife edge of life and death before she finally decided to take the long road back, we only got her home under a couple of weeks ago now after 10 weeks in), ironically her stroke almost certainly saved her life by having her in the one place she could survive such a rapid blowout. So I was only following that which truly worked for me this time out. I mean I turned 50 last month and I barely noticed it going by because of how much I was wrapped up in my parents situation (my Dad was not coping as well as he expected he would for such a situation, so I had to be there for him too obviously, and both of them are mid 70s now, so these things alas are not going to become less common). There were a few other shows I followed and enjoyed, but anything that was not working for me conceptually did not even get a start beyond those first few weeks, then I dropped anything that I was not already really into. For me though I felt Kado was not well understood for what it was, but then it is following a style of SF writing that has not seen much love in the last few decades in either popular SF writing nor AV form, but that is my personal opinion, YMMV obviously. The King's Avatar though was a very pleasant surprise for me, as am *NOT* a gamer in any sense of the word save old school arcade games of the late 70s and 80s. Yet this story I understood perfectly, saw the humanity within, and appreciated the more mature relationships shown within it. When a 12 ep series sends me to the source material and then I cannot put it down save for RL issues taking priority, that does not merely speak volumes for how enjoyable I find it, it shouts them. Thanks again Rebecca Silverman, that article last week was great, and has given me many extra hours of pleasure thanks to that link to the webstory translation within your article. Well, I am sure as usual I am an outlier and either will be ignored or ridiculed by some for thinking so highly of Kado, but I am not your average/typical NA anime fan. I came to anime because it was the only decent AV (audio-visual for those too young to know this acronym) SF source for me growing up in the pre CG special effects tech in even movies world, back when an episode of Battlestar Galactica costing over a million dollars an ep was enough to break the back of the series for the limited special effects they could do in the late 70s, and I was 12 at that time. Anime and animation were really the only AV options for SF to be done properly, but NA animation in this regard, well to say it sucked would be far too charitable in my view. Yet there were these weird exceptions like Astroboy and Speed Racer, but then the true revelation of anime as a medium/media I needed to know better because it could AND WOULD do SF right, Star Blazers aka Space Battleship Yamato put me on the path of discovering, learning, and watching anime for decades to come. That is what brought me to anime, my love of SF, so I may come at this differently than a lot of anime fans, and that may also play into why I so liked Kado from beginning to end where so many didn't, but again YMMV is also reality. For me though, Kado was the treat of the year so far and not just the season, with the Kings Avatar a decent close second. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Can't say I really understand genre fans who want a show to hit specific check boxes and stick to a particular formula. That just seems antithetical to actual entertainment to me. Regardless of what genre a show is actually in, if it does something that doesn't work for me, it doesn't work for me. The reason that I don't love Kado as much as I used to has nothing to do with it being "SF" in my mind(unless it being "true SF" means that it has to be this rote), it has to do with the fact that it began with many brilliant and thoughtful philosophical ideas, and then 2/3rds of the way through, decided that it was less interested in that, and more interested in having a spoiler[shocking twist and a shonen-esque showdown complete with magical girls.] Still entertaining, but not nearly as thoughtful as I, and many others, probably expected. Anyway, I don't give a crap what genre it's in.
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Bluenoser
Posts: 39 |
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That did not take long. As I said, YMMV. I stand by my view, and I am not someone that is a simple genre fan, I am a fan of the literature of ideas, and am old enough to remember when SF was nothing but regarded as escapist fantasy looked down upon all others for its lack of substance, so perhaps how I evaluate these things differs from you as well. Note I was not calling anyone else out save one, and that was solely for improper labeling of Kado as fantasy, because, as I said before, like or not the execution, this was clearly SF from beginning to end, and to call it fantasy is simply the wrong definition/word/descriptor from the most basic meaning of the word onward. I am in actuality a rather catholic reader in my tastes in fiction and non, I just happen to be someone with a strong science bent so naturally material that shows such will tend to get a stronger liking from me. I am just as good with many others. However, your complaint misses the point in another way as well. My point about Kado was that it is a very unusual type of SF story to be seeing, and not just in anime either these days. Most things people call SF are not SF beyond their settings, they are retelling classic memes, tropes, and such that are centuries old. I was very happy to see something I rarely see, and think that being happy to see something rare is not unreasonable, nor falling into the mindset you ascribed to me in the quoted sentence above, and the overall reply it came out of. I know it isn't a very popular type of SF, and has lost ground in recent decades, but it is one I happen to like, along with good multiverse, time travel, and of course, dimensional physics types. So of course Kado would be within my wheelhouse, but that wheelhouse is a lot larger than you are apparently willing to grant, or even consider possible for me, no you instead appear to have made up your mind on me in this regard. Your choice, but I clearly think you are missing more than you are retaining. I also think Kado did its job and treated its audience with more maturity than many anime do, and that is not meant as a criticism of those other anime, I mean I still watch them too and have no intention of stopping. I found Kado though did a very nice job of telling one of the classic SF concepts, how humanity reacts to the truly alien, how the truly alien interacts with us, and what balance, if any, is found at the end. I also like stories with lots of exposition, which I know is NOT well liked by most anime fans, so that also may give me a different perspective. However, what I will not be is so labeled and dismissed as a mere genre form worshipper, which is what you did, and you simply do not know me well enough to be that dismissive. My joy was because I saw a rarely seen form of the genre executed, and in my view executed well. That does NOT make me what you ascribed to me. That is also as much as I am going to say on that front, because I rarely post here as it is, and have no interest in flame wars/feuds. If I want that I can do that at any old news or political commentary site. This is my recreation, my relaxation from such. Oh yes, it occurs to me you may be working from a misunderstanding. I came to SF as a child in the early 70s not from TV or movies, but books. Lots and lots and lots of books. I have lost count of the literally tens of thousands of books I have read in fiction alone, and SF is a major part of it, so I come at things with SF first from the POV of a literary fan, not an anime fan, it is that anime was the best source for good SF for a lot of my younger years, and by the time the market expanded I was loving anime genres of many flavours because the storytelling tends to be so good. I am an anime fan not because I am a genre fan, that was just the opening door point. I am an anime fan because I love good storytelling in the various ways that can be described. Anime is but one, and SF another, and frankly of the two I submit SF is a wider, broader, and in many ways more significant form of storytelling. Of course saying that here at this site is likely heresy to many, but it is how I see it, sorry. So please, be a bit more careful in how you choose to characterize someone you do not know, my complaint is not that you do not share the same high regard for Kado as I, but more for how you went and tried to mock my liking of it. Critical analysis is one thing and fair enough and to be expected and in my view welcomed, I do not feel though yours met that threshold. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Natsume and Eccentric Family are in a dead heat for top of the season for me. I can never get enough of these two series, and they haven't failed me yet.
I'm also delighted one of the reviewers picked Girl Beats Boys. That was great from start to finish. Now I just want a long-form version of it, with the same attractive character designs and engaging fight animation. A full series could tie the plot together a little better than the short form had time to do. Re: Creators and Rage of Bahamut:VS were also appointment series. No complaints about either. I really tried to watch Tsuki ga Kirei, but it really made me pull my hair out and I dropped it after 4 episodes. I still read some of the comments and the chatter about the ducks in the finale made me go see what that was about. In searching for the scene, I watched a few minutes of them crossing a creek but when she started chewing him out about not telling her someone had confessed to him, it just made me utterly relieved I'd gotten out early. This was a series that's so not meant for me.
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JustinTaco
 Posts: 118 |
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{Edit}: Pointless trolling removed. ~ Psycho 101}
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I'll give you credit for getting me to actually read your entire essay... that being said, while you were the catalyst for my comment, as you clearly grasped, you were NOT the target of my comment. You are assuming I'm somehow judging you and are clearly offended, but that was never my intention. I'm simply expressing my own opinion on a view and a type of fan that I see all over the place. Your comment struck me as espousing that mindset in more than a few ways, but I'm not attacking you, or mocking you. I'm just taking advantage of the forum here to express my relevant thoughts and responding in what I feel was a cordial and well reasoned manner. What threshold that doesn't meet, I have no idea. I've been told that I'm usually too thorough in my arguments, rather than the other way around. But I'll apologize for making you feel uncomfortable. My bad dude. |
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