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The Best (and worst) Anime of Winter 2019


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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:04 pm Reply with quote
steelmirror wrote:
After reading people talking, I've made up my mind to go back and watch Kitaro more. I watched up to episode 15 or so and then wandered away.

Chrono1000 posted a nice guide to the episodes that follow the main story about Mana and Nanashi here: animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5111164#5111164

In addition, even though it's off the main story line, you should definitely watch episode 20.
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Sekaro



Joined: 12 Nov 2018
Posts: 346
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:20 pm Reply with quote
Terrible90sDub wrote:
^ Oh, and how it portrays all of what he does as justified despite that. At the moment, even when he doesn't trust those close to him, they bend over backwards to do everything to reaffirm him (i.e. reapplying the slave seal after he thinks she's going to leave him just because she was freed).


Wait I'm genuinely confused by what you said here. Didn't Raphtalia reapplied the slave seal at her own will to show her undying loyalty? Even Naofumi was against the idea but gave up eventually. That said, I also think the slave seal is unnecessary and contradicts what true loyalty really means but that's just one other fault of the show.
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Terrible90sDub



Joined: 14 Jul 2017
Posts: 168
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:25 pm Reply with quote
Sekaro wrote:
Terrible90sDub wrote:
^ Oh, and how it portrays all of what he does as justified despite that. At the moment, even when he doesn't trust those close to him, they bend over backwards to do everything to reaffirm him (i.e. reapplying the slave seal after he thinks she's going to leave him just because she was freed).


Wait I'm genuinely confused by what you said here. Didn't Raphtalia reapplied the slave seal at her own will to show her undying loyalty? Even Naofumi was against the idea but gave up eventually. That said, I also think the slave seal is unnecessary and contradicts what true loyalty really means but that's just one other fault of the show.


Yes, I was referring to what happened at the end of the previous episode which seems to have been what inspired Raphtalia to do that. Specifically, when she is freed and he breaks down and acts like he's being betrayed again because of actions outside her control. He later comes around, but instead of her being remotely upset at his lack of trust at that moment, she reapplies the slave seal to reassure him of just how loyal she is.
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:59 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:

Trainwreck of Winter 2019: Dimension High School
Color me astounded to see this show up on Theron's list. I thought I was the only one torturing themselves with it. Very Happy It was unspeakably horrible in every conceivable way, and yet I couldn't look away. Spudio haunts my nightmares still.


Count me in as well! Laughing But while this was definitely the worst show i've finished this season in terms of animation, acting and...um..."plot", watching this silly mess turned out to be surprisingly fun. Plus, halfway through i found out that the actor who played Ryuusei also voiced Kakeru from Run With The Wind which increased my amusement tenfold! Laughing

Which brings me to my picks for best anime of the season: it's a tie between Run With The Wind and Mob Psycho 2. It's really impossible for me to choose one over the other since they both were awesome in their own category. RWTW has been the first sports anime that really gripped me emotionally in a very, very long time while Mob simply is a feast for the eyes and features Best Boy Shigeo and Internet Sex Symbol Reigen!

Runner-Up: The Promised Neverland - it mananged to keep me on the edge of my seat for almost its entire run. Also, Emma rocks.

Honourable Mentions: Dorororo, Kitaro, Kaguya-sama, JoJo, The Kitty Show, Slime and Kemurikusa.
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Aquasakura



Joined: 01 Jan 2014
Posts: 700
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia, U.S.A
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 4:20 pm Reply with quote
Princess_Irene wrote:

Anything that causes you that much anxiety and upset isn't worth it, especially if it's something you do for fun. There are a couple more torture scenes after the one you're referring to, and the series doesn't treat any of them with the seriousness and care that they merit. That's fine for some viewers, but there's also no shame in not being one of them.


In that case I will officially drop the show. Thank you! Smile I needed to know if it was safe to go back. You are right in that it's no sense in being apart of the crowd if it's only going to make one emotionally unwell, although for my case the reason I was debating at times whether I should go back into watching Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka was for closure to what happen, but I guess one of these days if I want to I could just read about it without the risk of going through similar disturbing scenes in the process.

With that said I do feel it's a shame the show didn't go about showcasing what it did in a appropriate manner. It has made me aware that as a writer that scenes like that should be approach with utmost care for the sake of the audience.
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catandmouse



Joined: 02 Mar 2011
Posts: 212
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 5:57 pm Reply with quote
I can’t list them in priorities, but the three series I’m watching and I throughly enjoyed all 3 are:
Boogiepop and Others
Dororo and
My Roommate is a cat
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:03 pm Reply with quote
Merida wrote:
Gina Szanboti wrote:

Trainwreck of Winter 2019: Dimension High School

Plus, halfway through i found out that the actor who played Ryuusei also voiced Kakeru from Run With The Wind which increased my amusement tenfold! Laughing

Oh. My. God. Shocked Prideless Ryuu sprained my cringe muscles so hard. Well, at least I can say for sure he's a far better voice actor than a live action actor, even given that Japanese live action is a very different animal from what we expect in the west. Very Happy

::wanders off singing:: oh Spu Spu Spudio...
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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:09 pm Reply with quote
I feel ya, Rebecca. Asuka was the only one I've seen (still catching up on it) this season and sadly it was a huge disappointment. I may finish the manga, but I don't know about that even, the manga has the same flaws the show has (once again, problems of a "too faithful" adaptation), tonal whiplash, pacing problems, the animation is sadly awful, mostly mediocre characters, bad fanservice, the torture scenes partially make me feel the FBI will batter down my door (and I heard there's a scene reminiscent of tentacle rape near the end of the manga), it may not be adapted fully coming off as lazy...maybe my expectations were just too high. Sad

Quoting I Hate Everything, I don't care how much heart or energy you poured into this, Fukami and Yamamoto (manga author and anime director), you came off like you're either cynical, lazy perverts who wanted to make a quick buck with big boobed teenage soldiers, or you're so clueless that you probably shouldn't be writing magical girl manga or making magical girl anime in the first place! And it's like they banked on the fact that people would think the Asuka in this series was like the Asuka from Evangelion, or they just wanted to jump on the now generic grimdark side of the magical girl anime genre out there.

Another disappointment too: they actually got Aya Hisakawa, my favorite seiyuu, who was the soldier of water and wisdom, Sailor Mercury, everyone's favorite lion cub-like mascot Kero-chan, Devil Hunter Yohko, the goddess Skuld, Voogie, Cure Moonlight, and now Bulma, to voice Francine (who's probably the Evil Queen, wouldn't be surprised if I'm right), but she's sadly wasted as Francine from what I've seen of her so far is way too underdeveloped for Aya to show her skills and talent. Sad

I'm not even sure if I wanna touch Machikado Mazoku which is coming out despite its interesting concept, I've really been soured a bit by all these magical girl failures I've seen/read/heard about (last December I played the "Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru" visual novel which was just as disappointing, yeah, it's not an anime but you get my point, I hope) to where I'm losing my faith in the genre, Pastel Memories was worth as much as used baby wipes from what I saw of it and Magical Girl Site? More like Magical Girl Shite from what I read about what happens in it. I also dropped Saintia Sho, it's adapting the manga poorly and I dunno if I'll see it again. I'm sticking with the Magical Girl Raising Project light novels instead for now.

I'm planning to check out My Roomate is a Cat, but I've got doubts for what anime may come for the rest of the year...I only found one I liked last year, may not find any more this year. Sad
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AryaFan22



Joined: 17 Feb 2019
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 3:55 am Reply with quote
My Favorite Anime of the Season:
Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War- One of the best romantic comedy anime I've seen. This fun and touching series looks at what would happen if two Tsunderes fell in love with each other and shows that, as the song says, "Love is a battlefield". It also has one of the best ending credit sequences ever in Fujiwara's dance for Episode 3.

The Rising of the Shield Hero- One of the better Isekai series (certainly better than SAO II), that shows that going to a fantasy world isn't always a dream come true. While parts of it are reminiscent of SAO, Franz Kafka's The Trial, and the works of Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, there are traces of influences from Log Horizon, Spice and Wolf, and Steinbeck's Travels With Charley in the more on-the-road segments. I got so invested in the story that I went out and read the Light Novel series (currently on Volume 10). The music from Kevin Penkin of "Made In Abyss" fame is certainly a highlight.
P.S. The whole "controversy" involving this series is hyper exaggerated nonsense and reflects badly on how tyrannical the victim culture proposed in some circles has become. It's like Get Out or the Socialist rally in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man becoming the norm (I do highly recommend Get Out, it shows just how horrific the dichotomy used in victim culture can become). Like Aristotle said, "Any virtue taken to the extreme can become a vice."

The Promised Neverland- A heart-pounding thriller that has the feel of Hammett meets Stephen King meets Charles Dickens with the chess-maneuverings of Fisher. Each move made by our trio of protagonists in Emma, Ray, and Norman in order to out-maneuver Best Mom of the Year Isabella is carefully thought out, but do not necessarily mean instant success. Sacrifices are made, much like in chess, so that the desired result can become a reality. Really glad that this will be getting a second season.

Dororo- Japanese myth and history become intertwined in this tale of vengeance and the search for redemption. A young thief joins a young man on his quest to become whole again. This show does reflect on the sins of the father being passed down to the son in a rather literal and grotesque way. I'm getting a lot of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian vibes from this show, even though the original source material predates McCarthy's brilliant novel of violence and damnation in the old American Southwest.

My Roommate Is A Cat- A heartwarming story of a man and his cat who each find comfort in each other as well as find ways to become better in life.

My Least Favorite Anime of the Season:
The Price of Smiles- It started out strong with the ending of episode 2 being one of the best close outs for an episode this season. Yet, somewhere along the way, it went from being a look at how war affects both sides to just another show about how friendship makes everything better. It was a major disappointment since it had such a strong beginning.
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 3:59 am Reply with quote
Not seeing a single mention of Dororo anywhere on this article is disappointing. Sad Anyway, quite an interesting season overall and here’s my list.

Honorable Mentions: The Magnificent Kotobuki, Boogiepop and Others, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Mysteria Friends, and The Rising of the Shield Hero.

5. Endro!
4. The Quintessential Quintuplets
3. The Promised Neverland
2. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
1. Dororo

Looking forward to seeing what Spring will bring.
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Aquasakura



Joined: 01 Jan 2014
Posts: 700
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia, U.S.A
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 6:47 am Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
I feel ya, Rebecca. Asuka was the only one I've seen (still catching up on it) this season and sadly it was a huge disappointment. I may finish the manga, but I don't know about that even, the manga has the same flaws the show has (once again, problems of a "too faithful" adaptation), tonal whiplash, pacing problems, the animation is sadly awful, mostly mediocre characters, bad fanservice, the torture scenes partially make me feel the FBI will batter down my door (and I heard there's a scene reminiscent of tentacle rape near the end of the manga), it may not be adapted fully coming off as lazy...maybe my expectations were just too high. Sad


So the manga has similar problems as well. I was suspecting as much although I was slightly hoping perhaps it's presentation would not be nearly as bad. Regardless the chances of me ever given the original manga try was slim given how the adaptation affected me early on.

Joshua Zarate wrote:

Looking forward to seeing what Spring will bring.


Same here! I have been looking forward to seeing the Spring line up. Smile
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meruru



Joined: 16 Jun 2009
Posts: 470
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:37 am Reply with quote
Promised Neverland is pretty solid, but honestly, the manga is better. They definitely made some choices in the anime that I'd like to change. Meanwhile, Kaguya-sama is just about as flawless an execution of the source material as you can get. My only mild disappointment is that it didn't cover some episodes I really wanted to see animated. But, I can always dream of a season 2! Therefore, I'd pick it as the best of this season.
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miketan



Joined: 29 Mar 2019
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:02 am Reply with quote
My ranking : -

1.The Promised Neverland (Best)
2.The Rising of The Shield Hero
3.Dororo
4.Domestic Girlfriend
5.That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
6.Black Clover
7.Kaguya-sama: Love is War (watchable)
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timber



Joined: 12 Dec 2014
Posts: 132
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 1:48 pm Reply with quote
Not a really exciting season. The more interesting one were:

Run with the wind, Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maiorita!, Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai, Love is War.

Not bad, Dororo (might have been more interested about it if I hadn't seen the original show a few months ago), Slime, Tate no yuusha, SAO, The promised Neverland, Endro.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 5:25 pm Reply with quote
ninjamitsuki wrote:


You forgot the feminists themes in ranma.
and it's not like anime does not deal with serious issues, if anythign to concile both posts, is that anime deals with serious issues in an unapologetic manner.

Key wrote:


As a Web Novel reader, I can see some sense in lots of the critiques of shield hero, the show really is making a big effort to make the viewer like naofumi; judging by episodes 11 and 12 I can see how someone can think so if said person has only watched the anime, skipping his dumb paranoic mental monologues (to make him more likeable) and changing some fights to make the other heroes look more useless have been changes that damage the series.

I kind of don't want ot read the light novle so I can keep this perspective.
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