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The Best (and worst) Anime of Winter 2019


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Robiii



Joined: 29 Mar 2017
Posts: 133
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:15 pm Reply with quote
AksaraKishou wrote:
Robiii wrote:
I applaud Lauren and especially Nick for proving to me once and for all that I should stop reading ANN reviewers, but mostly Nick, cause he has proved many times that this man has no taste in anime whatsoever.


Don't let the door hit you on the way out m8
Watch out people, we got ourselves a comedian over here...
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Jinbei



Joined: 12 May 2014
Posts: 55
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:19 pm Reply with quote
I bend the rules rarely, but here it seems appropriate. I can't just decide between just 2 series, when there's been much more than that to love this season...

1. Run with the wind

Finally!! A sports series where the main character isn't a yelling and screaming Duracell-bunny of raw energy. Well-built characters and a good example of how to develop characters in the sport field and as a person(mental growth and such)

2. Promised Neverland

The hype show of the season for me, as the manga has been my favourite a good year before the start of the series. The anime did some things differently and the tension was felt all the way through.

3. Kaguya-sama

Comedy of the season and what a good one! Chika is the Girl Of the Season easily and hands down.

4. Dororo AND Tate no Yuusha

Both are good in their own way and both have good action. Tate no Yuusha has some controversial themes and a princess most of the viewers most likely wish to see dead. Dororo is good, but the Monster of the week-scheme began to taste dull at one point. Now we'll see where it all leads to.... in case of both series...

Worst: Index s3


So....can someone slap me awake? Did I really wait for this utter clusterf**k of a series for 6 whole years??!! Well... i mean there's action....that makes no sense.. there's plot that makes no lick of sense and Touma just ends up saving the day by punching someone in the face. Classy. Let's hire the kid so we can rid ourselves of wars in the future....yes... i was sarcastic..
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Terrible90sDub



Joined: 14 Jul 2017
Posts: 168
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:24 pm Reply with quote
Only using titles I watched completely:

Promised Neverland ended up first, which I honestly wasn't expecting earlier on sincespoiler[I felt like the episodes with Sister Krone detoured it. Even ignoring some of the more unfortunate aspects, she was so over the top in her behavior that I found it distracting and it would take me out of the tone of show. She did end up helping back up some of the themes in the end, but many scenes with her just felt unnecessary before that.] The execution was already remarkable, and I appreciate how different it is for a shonen title specifically, but after it got past that spoiler part... it really picked up for me and now I'm completely hooked.

2nd... I honestly have to go with My Roommate is a Cat. It's probably not going to be one of the most memorable anime, but it was relaxing (and sometimes appropriately sad) to watch. Oh, and it had books and cats, always a plus.

I've somehow never seen an episode of Mob Psycho, and I wanted to like Dororo as it was beautiful and had some great concepts, but I could never get past how annoying I found the kid...

Most insane: Magical Girl Special Ops Asuka. I swear, one moment I like it and want more, the next I'm cringing at something.

Worst: Rising of the Shield Hero. "It's not a game, stop treating it like one!" Naofumi screams, after bringing up multiple menu screens in the middle of a raid-like instance he was magically teleported to. I can't take this seriously thanks to aspects like that, which is amusing since the series wants so badly to make you think it's doing something serious and dark. Plus, I can't get over how Raphtalia has, overall, suffered more than shield hero has, yet he's allowed to brood forever over it - when he wasn't even put in jail or anything - while she just... recovers and all is forgotten.


Last edited by Terrible90sDub on Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:31 pm Reply with quote
Best
Run With the Wind-As someone who's not a fan of sports shows or sports in general, this series was fantastic! Great characters, OST, story, art. It's also a candidate for AOTY.

Runner-up
Meiji Tokyo Renka-It's always a nice surprise to get a good otome show. Really happy to see it get a mention. I'm still surprised at how much it grew on me. Mei is a very entertaining/likable MC and I actually liked all the guys as characters. I really want to see the movies and play the VN.

Most Disappointing
My Roommate Is A Cat-As a cat lover, I was instantly sold on watching this. However, the actual experience was meh. I didn't like any of the human cast and I found the show tedious until the Haru parts.
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Hal14



Joined: 01 Apr 2018
Posts: 651
Location: Heart of africa
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Best: Kaguya-sama: Good adaptation of a great manga. The VA's were especially fantastic

Runner-up: Mob Psycho S2: The animation in episodes like 5 and 10 are top tier stuff.

Honorable mentions: Rising of the shield hero, Dororo and Promised Neverland: All great, hopefully Neverland gets a second season and the latter halves of dororo and shield will be better than their first.

Special mention/ Most surprising: Quintisential quintuplets, which i liked more than i thought i would despite being a harem show.

Worst: Price of smiles. Index III comes close but Price beats it by just being completely unrecommendable. Usualy even the worst shows i watch, i can at least think of someone to recommend them to. Maybe a fan of the genre? but not this. Can't think of anyone. War drama fans? Nope, Mecha fans? Nope, Fans of female protagonists? Nope

Dishonorable mentions:
Boogiepop: If it had just been "Boogiepop at Dawn" that aired it would have been the best of the season but the rest of the show was dull. Only thing i dropped this season.

Magical girl Asuka: I like it and would watch a second season but the tone shifts are a problem for me. spoiler[One moment their feeling sorry for Whiplash for being exploited by the enemy, next minute their wheeling her away on a BDSM device]
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Oggers



Joined: 29 Nov 2017
Posts: 357
Location: Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:53 pm Reply with quote
Best: Mob Psycho 100 II, hands down. I didn't think it could get any better than the first season, but I'm always glad to be proven wrong.

Runner-up: Run with the Wind. An excellent sports series with great characters who for once aren't in high school.

No Worst since I don't watch anime I know I won't like, though I should probably get around to watching Dororo...
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Shinigami-Seishou



Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 123
Location: Traveling
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:53 pm Reply with quote
I had three top favorites this season, Dororo, The Promised Neverland, and Meiji Tokyo (Thank you, Rebecca I ALSO NEED THE SYUNSO ROUTE).

I was really going into this season with low expectations. Yet I was blown away with the great amount of diversity and fun shows. Finally, a good reverse-harem this season! If only it was more episodes so that it wasn't just Ougai's route.

The first two choices are no surprise. Kaguya-Sama is up there but despite how unique it is, could become really exhausting after a bit.

Shield Hero was disappointing for me as well. By time the episode came where he thought Raphtalia was going to leave him after she was 'freed' just felt so forced in terms of dramatics because all the scenes before that didn't have any basis leading up to that. Clearly she was happy with him. Everyone hating him got old quick, and people were just being a dick for the sake of plot.
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GodEmperorLeto



Joined: 27 Mar 2019
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:56 pm Reply with quote
phia_one wrote:
Most Disappointing
My Roommate Is A Cat-As a cat lover, I was instantly sold on watching this. However, the actual experience was meh. I didn't like any of the human cast and I found the show tedious until the Haru parts.


wut? Surprised How dare you. Nana was adorable and a human cast member. Needed more of her.

I do think the main character human was a bit overly ridiculous in being so poor socially, as someone that is poor socially, but it was fine.

Shinigami-Seishou wrote:
Shield Hero was disappointing for me as well. By time the episode came where he thought Raphtalia was going to leave him after she was 'freed' just felt so forced in terms of dramatics because all the scenes before that didn't have any basis leading up to that. Clearly she was happy with him. Everyone hating him got old quick, and people were just being a dick for the sake of plot.


They actually aren't hating him for the sake of the plot, there is a reason in the world, but I don't want to spoil it because it hasn't been revealed/talked about (but hinted at some) yet. Only a few weeks anyways until people will understand better.
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joeydoa



Joined: 30 Dec 2014
Posts: 121
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:06 pm Reply with quote
Out of the dozen series I signed up for I dropped none - so no worst for me. My Top 3:

1. Bang Dream Season 2 - They really upped their game and animation in this season far exceeding season 1, and less of a drop off in quality later in the season.

2. Bermuda Triangle Colorful Pastrale - Ok, you got me - yes this is also a Bushiroad property but it is a really good slice of life and a must for fans of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things - the soundtrack is one of the best I've heard in an anime series.

3. My Roommate is a Cat - There was a little loss of narrative cohesion throughout the series but still a really well done slice of life.

If The Magnificent Kotobuki had used hand drawn animation for the non aerial parts (instead of dreadful CGI) this would have been no. 2; Same goes for Kemurikusa - fantastic story and characters but off-putting animation style.
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:12 pm Reply with quote
Robiii wrote:
I applaud Lauren and especially Nick for proving to me once and for all that I should stop reading ANN reviewers, but mostly Nick, cause he has proved many times that this man has no taste in anime whatsoever.



Not everyone's gonna like your show, just accept it. Look on the bright side, no one's gonna even remember it well enough to talk bad about it a year from now when the next season of Re:Zero drops.


Now then, as for mine.



Favorite - Kaguya-sama: Love is War

I will be both absolutely floored and utterly disappointed if this isn't remembered as one of the great anime comedies of the decade. A genuinely remarkable central cast of characters that all add their own spice to the formula to keep things from getting stale, able to switch between tones *almost* as adeptly as Hinamatsuri, and a downright baffling amount of meme potential, cements this as my favorite of the season and possibly of the entire year.

Runner-up - The Quintessential Quintuplets

Who knew that a harem could feel so incredibly fresh just by keeping things simple and vanilla? Well, it managed to do that, but it helps that the protagonist has an incredibly fun personality that causes him more problems than he knows how to deal with, the girls all mostly fit into familiar archetypes but they manage to avoid feeling bland or mere waifubait, and the show manages to establish from the first minute that yes, there will be an actual ending (even if it isn't this season). I'm not surprised this has been such a massive success in Japan.

Runner-up Runner-up - Boogiepop and Others

It's a very interesting show to be sure, but also a very dense one. My poor, dumb brain just can't retain all the necessary information on a weekly basis, so I dropped it and am instead planning on marathoning it at a later date when it's done.

Worst (that I saw) - The Price of Smiles

What a shame about this one. It had such a strong and compelling start, but it dragged it's feet for far too long only to have to suddenly rush every single plot point to an unsatisfying conclusion and end everything on a wet, forgettable note.

Worse overall - The Rising of the Shield Hero

I dropped this one about 5 episodes in but, even if you wanted to ignore all the obvious garbage in the show, the whole thing is just incredibly poorly written. It constantly bends over backwards to justify every awful thing the protagonist does, no matter how poor the justification is, Raphtalia has no actual personality to speak of, and it consistently fails to capitalize on what little potential it actually *does* show. It baffles me to see anyone talking about how fresh this series is as an isekai when it's about as by-the-numbers as it gets beyond that first episode.
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Grimvice



Joined: 10 Aug 2017
Posts: 89
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:13 pm Reply with quote
WTF like I get it if people think Shield Hero is bad, I personally don't think so but I get it.

But to say Shield Hero is somehow worse than W'z seems completely unreasonable.

Again, could you say Shield Hero is bad? Sure, you can make that argument.

To say it's the worst of the season? Hell no.....
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2599
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:24 pm Reply with quote
Grimvice wrote:
WTF like I get it if people think Shield Hero is bad, I personally don't think so but I get it.

But to say Shield Hero is somehow worse than W'z seems completely unreasonable.

Again, could you say Shield Hero is bad? Sure, you can make that argument.

To say it's the worst of the season? Hell no.....


It's entirely possible that they didn't watch anything they liked less. I can't speak for others, but I definitely try to make my "Worst of" the "Worst Thing I Actually Watched Most Of;" otherwise I might have gone with that fairy tale one where they all were dictated to by their books.

Shinigami-Seishou wrote:
I ALSO NEED THE SYUNSO ROUTE


WE WILL STORM THE CASTLE AND DEMAND OUR SYUNSO!!!
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DeTroyes



Joined: 30 May 2016
Posts: 520
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:47 pm Reply with quote
For what its worth, my $0.02 worth.

Best: Kaguya-sama: Love is War
I'm always a sucker for well-done Romcoms, and this one was just too cute for words. Love the characters, the humor, everything. Hope this gets another season, because I understand from manga readers that the best parts are all yet to come.

Runner-Up: Kakegurui XX
Another season of everyone's favorite compulsive gambler. I don't think this season has been as enjoyable as the first, but its still manage to keep me intrigued. And watching the plans of the high and mighty fall to Yumeko is always satisfying to watch. Again, another series I hope continues with another season.

Honorable Mentions:
Rise of the Shield Hero, Magic Girl Spec Ops Asuka, Dororo, Black Clover (ongoing), Sword Art Online: Alicization (ongoing), A Certain Magical Index III (ongoing)

Dropped:
Boogiepop and Others and The Promised Neverland. Nothing wrong with either series; in any other season, they probably would be up there with my favorites. But for whatever reason, horror anime just isn't working with me right now, so rather than force myself to follow two shows I wasn't really getting into I decided to save them for another time.

Worst: Dimension High School
I have no idea what the heck this mess is suppose to be. It looks like a bad after-school special put together by a local cable access group. Gave it up after one episode, and haven't looked back.

In summary, this season actually seemed a step down to me from much of 2018. While it did have a lot of mostly serviceable shows, there really wasn't anything that I thought stood out' not like last year at any rate. And next season looks like more of the same. A good season, but not a great one.

On to Spring 2019!
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jenthehen



Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 835
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:51 pm Reply with quote
Shield Hero is my problematic fave. Like, I'm 100% aware of all its issues and I can roll my eyes at the neckbeard rage it's emanating (the whole world is against me and hates me for no reason because I'm ACTUALLY the best and bitches be trifling ... unless they're slaves which would be ok because I would TOTALLY be super nice and loving to my slave girls!!) ... but it's just SO entertaining. The drama is great, the MUSIC is fantastic, and I'm just much more invested in the story than I usually am in isekai stories. I honestly thought Slime was cute, but mostly a snooze fest.

I'm going to give an unironic shout-out to Wataten! ... honestly, it was ADORABLE and funny and cute and relatable in so many ways. If they would have dropped the, like, THREE moments of pedo weirdness that was inexplicably the "hook" for the series, it would have been amazing (very much like Strawberry Marshmallow).

Other faves were Quintessential Quintuplets, Dororo, and Roommate is a Cat. Biggest disappointment was Domestic Girlfriend which started SO STRONG and then somehow turned a scandalous sex story with stepsisters and teachers into something unbelievably boring and NOT sexy.

Overall, I felt like this was a strong season for me, despite what many have said.
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KitKat1721



Joined: 03 Feb 2015
Posts: 952
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 4:29 pm Reply with quote
Best (tie): Dororo. I'm surprised how quickly I became invested in this show, despite its relatively simple premise. Watching each new episode makes my Monday, and I love seeing MAPPA breathe new life into an old classic, not afraid to change some things up, or add more depth to certain characters. I'm super curious how this is all going to end up, but its definitely the show I look forward to the most each week!

AND, Mob Psycho 100 II. Good lord this show is a feast for the eyes and soul. The animation in episodes 5 and 11 are particularly jaw-dropping, but every episode has at least a couple moments where you are basically compelled to re-watch. And I love this show's understanding of the necessity for human empathy, and how the not being born "special" or having a predetermined fate is what makes us special and allows us absolute freedom to be the person we want to be. Its a message that's been done in plenty of other works, but I love it all the same. For me, its a step up from season 1, of which I had a harder time connecting to emotionally.

Runner-Up: The Promised Neverland. Reading the manga has kind of prevented this from becoming my favorite of the season, since the story can't be a completely new experience, but its definitely a fresh adaptation with some strong direction. I admire the conviction of forgoing the internal monologue, since so often I feel its a crutch in anime (even if keeping it would have been understandable in this particular series). Hopefully the wait for season 2 isn't too long for anime-newcomers, although I expect a lot more people to be picking up the manga by the end.

Worst: Thankfully, I didn't watch anything bad. I enjoyed what I saw of My Roommate is a Cat and Kaguya-sama, even if I didn't feel the need to keep up with them week to week.
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