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The Best and Worst of the Winter 2018 Season

by Daniel DeLorme,

Our team of reviewers are following 28 anime series of the Winter 2018 season and readers are rating each episode as the reviews go up. So let's have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season.

Keep in mind that these rankings are based on how people rated individual episodes of the current season, not on the overall quality or popularity of the series. Only the titles legally streaming in North America and popular enough to be reviewed are being ranked, so the bottom of the list might represent 'watchable' rather than 'bad'. See the notes for further details.

For the last week we're doing a little something different

With the week of March 26-31, the Winter 2018 season is now over. But many of the series already ended the previous week, so we're adding an extra "final" week where all the last episodes are ranked against each other. With this we can see which series ended on a strong note and which ones ended more weakly. That means the "final ep." column is a repeat of the last episode from Mar 19-25 or Mar 26-31. And the "prev week change" is the difference in position between the "final ep." column and the penultimate episode.

Episode Rankings for the final episodes

Along the actual ranking for this week's episodes, this graph chronicles the change in position from week to week. While some series are stable, others swing wildly in the rankings depending on the strength of each episode. When a series has no episode for a given week, the previous week's episode is used instead as a placeholder. The first episode of each series is considered as part of the first week, even if it really aired during the second week. Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.
ranking change from week to week
(episode numbers as labels; clickable)
prev
week
change
this
week
rank
anime series
#1. A Place Further Than the Universe
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
#2. March comes in like a lion (season 2)
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
44
1 #3. Laid-Back Camp
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #4. Dragon Ball Super
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
131
4 #5. Gintama.
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
353
4 #6. After the Rain
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #7. Garo -Vanishing Line-
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
2 #8. Overlord II
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
2 #9. Mitsuboshi Colors
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
9 #10. Mr.Osomatsu Season 2
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
1 #11. School Babysitters
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #12. The Ancient Magus' Bride
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
10 #13. Pop Team Epic
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#14. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
5 #15. DARLING in the FRANXX
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
6 #16. One Piece
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
829
10 #17. Violet Evergarden
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
2 #18. Citrus
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
6 #19. Killing Bites
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
5 #20. How to keep a mummy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
9 #21. Record of Grancrest War
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
5 #22. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
51
6 #23. BEATLESS
1
2
3
4
5
7
8
9
10
12
12
2 #24. Kokkoku
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
2 #25. Black Clover
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
1 #26. Death March to The Parallel World Rhapsody
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #27. Maerchen Maedchen
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10
#28. Junji Ito "Collection"
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12

Series Cumulative Ranking for Winter 2018

Each week's ranking takes into account the scores given to previous weeks' episodes. Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series. With the last episode duplicated in the "final ep." column, it means that the votes for the last episode of each series are counted twice, which intentionally gives a boost to series that ended strongly. This somewhat compensates for the fact that the first episode of each series has more votes, which favors series that started strongly.

So this is it, the final ranking, the winners and losers of the Winter 2018 season.

ranking change from week to week
(episode numbers as labels; clickable)
prev
week
change
this
week
rank
anime series
1 #1. A Place Further Than the Universe
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
#2. March comes in like a lion (season 2)
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
44
2 #3. After the Rain
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#4. Violet Evergarden
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #5. Dragon Ball Super
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
131
1 #6. Gintama.
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
353
1 #7. Laid-Back Camp
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #8. The Ancient Magus' Bride
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
#9. Garo -Vanishing Line-
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
1 #10. Overlord II
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #11. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #12. Mr.Osomatsu Season 2
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
2 #13. Mitsuboshi Colors
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
2 #14. School Babysitters
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
5 #15. DARLING in the FRANXX
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#16. How to keep a mummy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#17. Citrus
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#18. One Piece
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
829
#19. Kokkoku
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#20. Record of Grancrest War
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
2 #21. Killing Bites
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#22. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
51
#23. Pop Team Epic
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
3 #24. Black Clover
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
#25. BEATLESS
1
2
3
4
5
7
8
9
10
12
12
#26. Maerchen Maedchen
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10
#27. Death March to The Parallel World Rhapsody
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#28. Junji Ito "Collection"
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12

Notes

Disclaimer: the rankings are just an average of opinions, published for entertainment and information purposes. ANN makes no claims regarding statistical significance.

The rankings are computed using the Schulze method, with the variation that unrated titles are considered as abstentions instead of lower than the rated titles. This roughly means that if, out of all people who rated both A and B, 60% preferred A, it will be ranked higher than B.

The rankings indicate relative quality (A is preferred to B), not absolute quality (B is good/bad). While the titles are ranked from 'best' to 'worst', sometimes the difference between #1 and #10 can be very thin. So if your favorite is near the bottom of the list, don't take it personally. It doesn't mean it's a bad show, it just means that ANN readers, on average, have preferred the ones above.

If a series has no episode for a given week, we use the rating data for the previous week's episode in order to compute the weekly ranking. This is not officially counted as a position in the ranking (it has no impact on the cumulative ranking), but it makes it easier to compare weeks if they each have the same number of series ranked.

It should be noted that long-running series (and sequels) have an advantage in the sense that only people who like the series are still watching it, and they are likely to give each episode a high rating. But if such a series is going through a low-quality filler arc, the season will get low rankings that are not indicative of the true overall quality of the series.


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