Forum - View topicThe Best and Worst Anime of Fall 2016
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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What I don't get about Gakuen Handsome is how they can have all those chins, yet nobody gets stabbed.
Haven't watched enough to chime in on best/worst, though I've yet to watch anything that was more than a disappointment. www.Working would probably be worst, by virtue of being so slow & trite that I couldn't get past episode 5. |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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Poor adaptation, the show decided to be faithful to the manga horrible pacing, that was a very bad call. The story element are there to make a very good show but it needed a bold director, it didn't get that. |
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Kon'Doriano
 Posts: 552 |
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Best: Haikyuu S3 (One of the best sports series of modern times, 8/10)
Runner-ups: Gundum IBO S2 (Still needs time to pick up but otherwise fine 7/10), and Drifters (Mindless gore done right 7/10) The Meh: Yuri on Ice (Fabulous direction and presentation but the story is just a Polymerization of an average sports show and typical romcom 6/10), Fune Wo Amu (another slice-of-nothing ever happens but i like the grounded presentation 6/10), and 3-gatsu no Lion (slice-of-nothing ever happens that at least had some decent characters and great production values 6/10) The Trash: Keijo (stupidity at its finest 3/10), Magical Girl Raising Project (the edgier and simpler version of Madoka Magica 3/10), and Flip Flappers (a poor man's Trigger project 4/10) I'm glad everyone here enjoyed the season but I daresay this Fall is no good to me. Last edited by Kon'Doriano on Fri Dec 23, 2016 2:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Too much YOI. I really hope this doesn't become the trend in anime since it encompasses everything that is wrong with the current "boom."
On that note, it's no surprise that I would count Stella no Mahou as the best of the season. It represents the kind of anime that too many people despise yet has helped the industry shape into what it is because of its fans. If an anime like this exists alongside Long Riders!, Keijo!!!!!!!!, Hibike and Flip Flappers! to combat the current glut of fujoshi pandering every season then I am satisfied. Last edited by Paiprince on Fri Dec 23, 2016 2:09 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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danpmss
 Posts: 768 |
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There are ways to do so. Not quite legal ones for certain shows, but there ARE. Don't talk like it is impossible, Mr. Sarcasm lol Other than that, some reviewers in here watch movies in pure japanese and analyse them in review posts from time to time, they have quite the excuse for saying they didn't do it illegally anyway (or even actually do it legally, at least those who can). Again, it's not like I'm saying they were obliged to do so, like you seem to imply. I just find a shame they didn't do it, regardless of the series being out there to be seen to everyone with internet access really, in more than 7 different languages and all, you know. Just letting that good old relucent comment so they can pick their interest in said name (hopefully), make an article about it (also hopefully), so the series can gain the attention it deserves. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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I was being half-serious. "Social osmosis" is actually a legit way to experience a TV show. 
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danpmss
Posts: 768 |
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Bro, I don't think it's quite the same thing at all, to be completely honest (at maximum, it will be more of a "It Was His Sled" kind of thing haha) Welp, I'm caring too much about all this anyway. The recommendation is there, though. You guys check it out if you want, it's worth it. |
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Raebo101
 Posts: 795 |
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Rebecca Silverman said:
You should check out the dub, because it does indeed fix that issue. Not only is the "fat voice" non-existent, but Kae's actress, Jeannie Tirado, is excellent. Like Yu Kobayashi, Jeannie is over the top when Kae goes full fujoshi, but, like me, you'll probably prefer Jeannie Tirado's take on the character. The only issue is that Kae's name is mispronounced as "Kai", but that's it. Also, the dub-script attempts to fix the anime's issues with fat-shaming. A background character in the dub said, "Kinda sad to see everyone going nuts now that she's lost weight." I was like, "Yeah! That IS sad!" 
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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You say that like it's a bad thing, lol. That's exactly how I'd describe it yet I'd give it a much higher rating. My favorite this season was either Flip Flappers or Keijo, both for very different reasons, obviously. Flip Flappers did lose some of its steam in its second half, but overall it was still a great show that surpassed my originally non-existent expectations for it. Plus, it still has one episode to go that could turn everything around. Doubtful, but the possibility's there. I would like to see more from the director in the future, as they have a lot of talent. Visually it's up there as one of my favorites of the year, though it doesn't quite approach the truly orgasmic visuals of Mob Psycho 100 enough to knock that down from my top spot, nor are the actual storytelling or characters up to par in comparison. Now, Keijo... what to say about Keijo? Nothing that any of the editors who picked it as a favorite and commenters on this thread haven't said already. It's just dumb fun. Not what I'd traditionally call a "great" show, or hell, even a "good" one, but there's something about its shameless embrace of its truly low-brow nature that makes it utterly impossible not to be charmed by. At least for me, that is. None of the characters are that deep, nor the events all that surprising, but they're done just competent enough to remain engaging and fun to watch throughout. It's nice to watch a sports series where all the competitors are just genuinely nice people who are passionate about said sport and actually bond with each other through it and push themselves to get better, instead of it all just being angsty rivalries for the sake of it. Like always, I have a difficult time deciding what would be my "worst" pick, as I don't believe in subjecting myself to the torture of watching terrible shows that I don't like just for the sake of being a thorough anime watcher or some trite reasoning like that. I can only choose the ones that I watch regularly, don't necessarily dislike, but I might consider to be disappointing in a way or overall just kind of average and unremarkable. For me this season, that show would probably be Izetta: The Last Witch. It started out pretty good but just became really bleh by the end of it. I'd have chosen March comes in like a lion over that one, but it's not finished yet so it wouldn't feel right for me to do so. Even so, while I find the exploration of the darker themes to be quite solid in that show, the "humor" (or whatever you want to call it) and the juxtaposition of it with the more serious content doesn't work for me at all. And I know I've had plenty of people argue that it's not actually supposed to be funny in the past, something I completely disagree with, but I digress. It's just kind of average for me, the show that I've kept watching but I'm not always sure why. If I didn't buy the aesthetic and darker implications it would probably be unwatchable. |
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Valhern
 Posts: 916 |
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I'm going to be the sole idiot here to defend my dear Ping Pong Girls. I won't break any grounds saying that it wasn't exceedingly good, but I don't think it was undecisive or bland. Even if it was very simple, from the get-go the theme of the show is "Love for Ping Pong", and that's what you should get from Tsumujikaze in the first episode; the good thing is that they hammer it very well with all the characters, and most of them show a different way of loving the sport, the bad thing is that it stops there, and outside of my girl Hokuto we don't particularly learn anything outside of the Ping Pong life of these girls, making most of the scenes where a match isn't being played quite a bit boring. However, when a match is on, boy is it on, I love the dynamic of the matches, the pacing feels tight, and when the animation sparks, it really does. This is one of my favorite cuts in the year.
Now, on the meat of the thread... Best of the Season: Flip Flappers. It might end however it wants, it was just the best, I eagerly watched this every week, expecting great things and every time it delivered in spades, one of my favorite shows in all of 2016, anyway. Runner-up: Hibike! Euphonium: thwarts and all, I can still feel the strenght of what Euphonium was in its first season, and slowly but surely it became a huge hit for me, I think anyone who followed the review thread knows what I think of it. Small disclaimer: I don't have a problem with Yuri!!! on Ice particularly, but ultimately, I felt that this show landed one of the best premieres of the season, and it had individually excellent moments, but in a broad perspective, it felt "just right", since I felt like it was progressively less dense, compared to its first episode. Worst: Izetta and Long Riders have a nice tie here. However, the latter was inherently bland from the get go, Izetta easily became a mess of "I don't give a damn about any of this and they don't even try to tell me why should I". At least I knew what Long Riders was about in the first episode, a feel-good moeblob show, except it was boring. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell was Izetta supposed to be. |
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 348 Location: Manchester, UK |
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My number one show of the season without a shadow of a doubt would be Flip Flappers. Beautiful in visuals and thematic weight, plus it’s been great seeing the editorial blogging side of the community digging in to what makes it so special. I completely disagree with James’ take that the show suffered from Ayana’s departure (I was pretty worried for a while but it ultimately never missed a beat) or that the homages to shows like Eva turned it into anything like a knock-off, but each to their own, eh.
As tempting as it is to put Girlish Number, Yuri on Ice or Keijo as my runner up, Sound Euphonium S2 firmly remains my pick. Sure, structurally quite a few problems showed up, particularly during the initial 5 episodes, but when it nailed the drama Eupho was easily the strongest show of the season or me. Worst pick for the show I watched to completion (discounting Izetta, which I quickly got wise on for being a lazy collection of fetishized military or yuri tropes) was Magical Girl Raising Project. I genuinely loved the initial 5 episodes of build-up & felt nearly the entire cast had strong qualities, but once the carnage started it deciding to abandon all the potentially interesting ideas in favour of unimaginative schlock that failed to be shocking or engage with me emotionally. Seeing seemingly complex characters like Swim Swim effectively boiled down to “she has a few screws loose” was completely dissatisfying and made me feel like I was watching bad fanfiction of much a more engaging dark magical girl show. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Well, pretty clearly there are ways to watch Fune wo Amu since many of us here have seen and enjoyed it. I'd put it just behind Flip Flappers on my 2016 list. What's worse is that by the time Amazon gets around to releasing it, it will be a 2017 show in the eyes of ANN and likely fall through the cracks. Since it was streamed as it was released in the UK, shouldn't that be sufficient to qualify it at ANN? You do have a UK branch after all. [EDIT: Actually it does, but you have to use < > instead of square brackets for that one. - Key] Last edited by yuna49 on Fri Dec 23, 2016 5:26 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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My favorite anime of the season is Keijo!!!!!!!!. I came in with basically no expectations and was blown away by how infectiously, outrageously fun it is. It has so much going for it in so many ways, and pretty much no major flaws. This is the most unexpectedly good show of the year, honestly, and possibly my pick for comedy of the year, which is saying something, considering how good a year it's been for comedy in anime.
My very close runner-up is Haikyuu!!, as it is, as others have said, possibly the best all-around modern sports anime. It's an incredibly polished production that maintains and builds on the strengths of its past seasons. Few other anime are this good at maintaining and releasing tension, in any genre. I was a little concerned about the episode count and singular focus of this season compared to past ones, but those fears were soon dispelled. As I tend to drop shows that don't interest me very quickly, I don't really have any that I'd feel comfortable listing as the worst of the season. Anything I'm still watching, I'd consider at least a 6.5-7/10. |
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SnowyLightning44
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My best of the season would be Haikyuu!! 3rd Season to which before watching I also thought fitting one match in a whole season would make it feel dragged out and lessen the intensity but nope, it still had me hooked for every second and the production quality was fantastic.
My runners up would be Flippers Flappers even though I felt it got muddled up plot-wise nearer to the end, I loved the randomness of it and the stellar visuals produced in the series and Yuri On Ice since I didn't except to like a show about ice skating (which I pretty sure is what I thought about Haikyuu!! when J first watched it...) but I was impressed by what the show did and although during some of the routines had problems animation wise the majority looked fantastic. Nothing I didn't drop after one episode was bad so just judging by the first episode my worst of the season would be Bloodivores Honourable Mentions: Poco's Udon World and Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2 |
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Saturn
 Posts: 513 |
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That's a good point, and might be one of the reasons that YOI did so well in the rankings (other than it's just flat a good show). We needed some joy this year. |
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