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This Week in Anime - The Best and Worst of 2018


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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2501
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:32 pm Reply with quote
Be sure to play the "Human Love" ED in the article while watching the Macross Delta or PTE GIFs, they go together (sort of)! Smile

Last edited by Hiroki not Takuya on Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1493
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:37 pm Reply with quote
You can have beautiful-looking series with terrible plots, and you can have very well-written series with terrible animation. My Sister My Writer manages to be terrible in both respects, which makes its "award" very fitting.
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Wyvern



Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Posts: 1545
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:44 pm Reply with quote
THE FIVE BEST OF THE YEAR, DESCRIBED IN ONE SENTENCE OR LESS (except number one because it's the winner)

5. A Place Further Than The Universe: There is no limit to the things we will do to befriend a penguin.

4. Devilman Cranberry: Imagine the most beautiful painting and everyone in it is getting chainsawed in half.

3. Gegegegegegegegegegegegege No Kitaro: Looks like that the REAL evil yokai around here is...[looks solemnly at camera] social media.

2. Megalo Box: Don't let the opening fool you, this is not a furry show about angsty dogs; but please don't hold that fact against it.

1. Planet With: "What's that, The Pillows, you won't do the music for my anime?" said Satoshi Mizukami. "Fine, then I'll just make something BETTER than the FLCL sequels, and also every other show this year!!" And then he did, the end.

THE THREE WORST OF THE YEAR, DESCRIBED IN ONE SENTENCE BECAUSE THAT'S ALL THEY DESERVE:

3. That Sister Writer Thing I think being on the staff of this show legally counts as a hostage situation in most countries.

2. Death March To Another World Trumpet Hamburger We Can Just Put Any Word We Want in the Title Huh I'm gonna be king of the slave owners!

1. Darling in the Franxx I got the results of the test back, Futoshi definitely has an eating disorder.

BOTH THE BEST AND WORST SHOW OF ALL YEARS AT ONCE:

Pop Team Epic:
This isn't even a show, it's an entity and we need to figure out what it wants with us.
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Jonny Mendes



Joined: 17 Oct 2014
Posts: 997
Location: Europe
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 1:16 pm Reply with quote
My best of 2018

1. Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume o Minai
Also best MC, Best heroine and Best couple, best plot. Simply the best.

2. Sword Art Online: Alicization
Is SAO, so there nothing more to say why is on the top 5

3. Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu
The most funny MC of 2018 and also the best cat girl

4. Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet
I'm a sucker for this Rom/Com animes with lost of sugar The couple is also extremely cute

5. Darling in the Franxx
spoiler[(minus the alien part, why the hell had to be aliens)]


As always i don't like to say they are the worst, just anime i drooped.

Goblin Slayer
It was so many years that i dropped a anime even before the end of the first episode. Too much violence/gore/rape to my tastes.
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XerBlade
Subscriber
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 162
Location: Depletion Garden, Nashville, TN
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 1:57 pm Reply with quote
Best: (a lot of this is going to seem like recency bias, but I assure you I spend the entire year carefully documenting everything so as to eliminate it)

1. Thunderbolt Fantasy Sword Seekers2
Puppets puppets puppets PUPPETS!
And the fact that this wasn't even offhandedly mentioned once in that whole thing just goes to show the amount of bias there is around the anime community at large against things that aren't technically anime in the traditional sense, even when they are actually the most anime thing of all time.

2. SSSS.Gridman
BABY DON DON. BABY DON DON.

3. Sword Art Online: Alicization
So all the morons who keep calling SAO an isekai can finally be right for once.
Also, the vocal minority that it's popular to crap on this franchise with can stop trying so hard to sabotage it already.

4. Overlord II (and not III, seriously, why are those combined in the mega poll?)
We seriously need a lizardmen-only spin-off.

5. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Because I'm a sucker for politics, economics, and social reform: the anime. So when is Maoyuu 2 coming? In other news, when has it been a lot longer than usual since the last Log Horizon?
P.S. Please stop writing this one off as being "yet another power fantasy isekai." Just do it.


Worst: (had to wade through a steaming pile of awful 2017 anime to sift these out. Seriously, 2017 was a terrible year for anime)

5. Mary and the Witch's Flower (I know it's a 2017, but it got a local theatrical release in my area in 2018)
Not even sure where to start with this one.

4. Chio's School Road
And it started out with so much potential...

3. Harukana Receive
What even was this?

2. Layton Mystery Tanteisha: Katori no Nazotoki File
This show teaches kids some really, really bad lessons that they definitely should not learn.

1. Conception
And it's not even at the very bottom for the story or anything like that. Episode 1 was literally made of slideshows. You know it's going to be a shitshow when you're starting out with the worst mid-season production slump imaginable.


Last edited by XerBlade on Sat Dec 29, 2018 2:18 pm; edited 7 times in total
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ultimatehaki



Joined: 27 Oct 2012
Posts: 1090
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 2:08 pm Reply with quote
Please look forward to my slave waifu Raphtalia in Shield hero.
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BaronViolet



Joined: 27 May 2018
Posts: 212
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 2:52 pm Reply with quote
Lupin part 5. Don't care what anyone says, this was one of the best shows of 2018 and the best Lupin anime. Takes the fun and camp of part 2, the dark edge of part 1 and woman called Fujiko Mine and the serial storytelling of part 4 and gives the series a slight update without ignoring the classic elements. Best Lupin anime.

Other great shows of the year:

After the rain, zombie land saga, Gridman, Kitaro and happy sugar life.
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Connor Dino



Joined: 20 Dec 2010
Posts: 292
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 3:37 pm Reply with quote
I hope Nick gushes about Macross Delta, because I have an equally long rant about why that show was terrible. And not enough people care.

When the recap movie of Delta is superior in every way to a 20+ episode series, you have a problem.
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 1380
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:41 pm Reply with quote
Connor Dino wrote:
I hope Nick gushes about Macross Delta, because I have an equally long rant about why that show was terrible. And not enough people care.


You and me are gonna fight in a field
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Erwin Chandra



Joined: 29 Dec 2018
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:45 pm Reply with quote
Top 5 Favourite Show:
1. A Place Further Than The Universe
2. Revue Starlight
3. SSSS. Gridman
4. After the Rain
5. Comic Girls
Favourite Movie: Liz and the Blue Bird ( haven't watch Mirai)
Worst show that i finished this year: Citrus, Goblin Slayer, Steins Gate 0
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:52 pm Reply with quote
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
Be sure to play the "Human Love" ED in the article while watching the Macross Delta or PTE GIFs, they go together (sort of)! Smile

Heh, I was going to recommend the Macross gif with the Megalobox OP. Very Happy
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Eddy564



Joined: 14 Sep 2008
Posts: 340
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 8:13 pm Reply with quote
I really loved Violet Evergarden. A very beautiful story.

Honorable mentions go to SAO: Alicization (people who still **** on the show out of spite are lame), MHA season 3, AOT season three cor 1, and Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion.
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 28 Oct 2018
Posts: 483
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 1:28 am Reply with quote
Look, you guys. I'm a tokusatsu fan. I *hurt* when I wasn't able to find any Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad DVDs because they're OOP. I *screamed when GRIDMAN: boys invent great hero was released during Animator Expo. And I was dead-set to watch SSSS.Gridman, that was appointment television for me.

That show made me scream. Several times. It wasn't just the references, or the fact that the entire cast consists of (thematically appropriate--spoiler[peep how Akane goes from wearing Shattered Glass Optimus Prime's colors to Nova Prime's colors at the end of the series!]) Transformers Gijinka, or how the show captures the tone and feel of a live-action series. It wasn't the cheeky allusions to the cast of the original Superhuman Samurai with the assist vehicle's attack names ("LUCKY MISSILE CIRCUS! FORRESTER BARRAGE! MAX TANK CANNON!"). It's that ending. It's a powerful ending, and it's the kind of thing even few tokusatsu shows manage to pull off well. I am so glad that the series did what it did, it was a highlight for me. I hope it comes out on DVD. Hell, I'm sad I can't afford to preorder the Akane Shinjou Nendroid.

And Devilman Crybaby? Woof. What a well-made series. I have only watched it once--because I know I don't have the strength to sit through Episode 9 all over again. I just don't. And kudos to the soundtrack for that series, too! You might complain about the series using MAN HUMAN instead of Devilman no Uta--until you hear the Devilman no Uta cover they do use. Also, MAN HUMAN is a banger.

So, my point is, we need to combine Yume no Hero and MAN HUMAN somehow. "BABY MAN MAN, BABY MAN MAN", perhaps?

Also, in regards to Tokusatsu: weak year for Super Sentai. Kyuuranger was way too crowded with its cast, Lupinranger Vs Patranger wasn't very engaging. But Kamen Rider Build? Woof. Powerful acting, great cast, fun toys... you don't get a Kamen Rider series like that every day. Definitely recommended to anyone looking for something along the lines of SSSS.Gridman.
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 1:30 am Reply with quote
A Place Further Than the Universe It got a New York Times recommendation! A New York Times recommendation! That's a big deal! And it totally deserved it! Great show, and perfect to watch with non-anime fans (I watched it with my dad!)

Garo: Vanishing Line Wonderful found-family story, a lot of fun to watch. I didn't include it in my top 5 personally, but I'd still recommend it.

But my absolute, #1 favorite anime this year:

Golden Kamuy:
No love for Asirpa and her good faces? Manly Manservice? Over-the-top action and comedy tempered with strong bonds between characters? A Spaghetti Western homage with more respect for Native Cultures than many Westerns have. Asirpa was Best Girl of the Year in my heart!
Worst:
Darling in the. Franxx, brought to you by those right-wing Japanese politicians who want otaku to have babies already. (They might have thrown some money at Conception, too, but it would be a waste because Conception doesn't even know how babies are made. DitF knows that when a boy and a girl love their giant robot very much...)
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Beansprout Midget



Joined: 17 Apr 2016
Posts: 145
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 2:18 pm Reply with quote
Best by Season (because I can't make lists)
Winter: Place Further than Universe
Spring: Megalobox
Summer: Planet With (PLEASE READ SPIRIT CIRCLE)
Fall: Gridman
Other: Garo Vanishing Line

FinalVentCard wrote:

But Kamen Rider Build? Woof. Powerful acting, great cast, fun toys... you don't get a Kamen Rider series like that every day..


THIS. While I can argue Build had it's lower points, I cannot deny how much fun and how crazy this ride was. The acting was amazing (someone give Atsuhiro Inukai an award please) and the cinematography was insanely well done. One of the best shows I've watched in the past year. While I'd debate over how Kyuranger/LuPat ended up, Build was a solid addition to the KR legacy.
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