The Best and Worst of the Season So Far: Week of Jan 22-28

Our team of reviewers are following 27 anime series of the Winter 2016 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 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.

Episode Rankings for the week of January 22-28

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. For the first week we compared the first episode of each series, even if they aired during the second week. That's why several episodes appear missing from "Jan 8-14"; they were ranked in "first ep." instead. Click 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	#1.	Gintama	304 305 306 307
	1	#2.	ERASED	1 2 3 4
	—	#3.	Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū	1 2 3
	—	#4.	Haikyu!! Second Season	14 15 16
	6	#5.	Mr. Osomatsu	13 14 15 16
	6	#6.	Durarara!! ×2 The Third Arc	27
	2	#7.	Lupin the Third - Part 4	14 15 16 17
	7	#8.	Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans	14 15 16
	1	#9.	KonoSuba	1 2 3
	3	#10.	Snow White with the Red Hair	13 14 15
	3	#11.	Dimension W	1 2 3
	1	#12.	Assassination Classroom	1 2 3 4
	3	#13.	Heavy Object	13 14 15
	2	#14.	Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash	1 2 3
	10	#15.	GATE	13 14 15
	1	#16.	Schwarzes Marken	1 2 3
	4	#17.	Myriad Colors Phantom World	1 2 3 4
	5	#18.	Haruchika – Haruta & Chika	1 2 3 4
	1	#19.	Prince of Stride: Alternative	1 2 3 4
	1	#20.	Dagashi Kashi	1 2 3
	15	#21.	One Piece	725 726 727
	—	#22.	Active Raid	1 2 3 4
	9	#23.	Utawarerumono: The False Faces	13 14 15 16
	1	#24.	Girls Beyond the Wasteland	1 2 3 4
	5	#25.	BBK/BRNK	1 2 3
	2	#26.	Luck & Logic	1 2 3
	1	#27.	Naruto Shippūden	444 445 446

Series Cumulative Ranking as of January 28

Each week's ranking takes into account the scores given to previous weeks' episodes. As we reach closer to the end of the season, each series' rank will start to solidify and we'll get a look at the real winners and losers. Click 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.	Gintama	304 305 306 307
	—	#2.	ERASED	1 2 3 4
	—	#3.	Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū	1 2 3
	1	#4.	Haikyu!! Second Season	14 15 16
	5	#5.	Durarara!! ×2 The Third Arc	27
	3	#6.	Mr. Osomatsu	13 14 15 16
	3	#7.	Lupin the Third - Part 4	14 15 16 17
	2	#8.	Snow White with the Red Hair	13 14 15
	1	#9.	Dimension W	1 2 3
	1	#10.	Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans	14 15 16
	1	#11.	Assassination Classroom	1 2 3 4
	5	#12.	GATE	13 14 15
	5	#13.	One Piece	725 726 727
	1	#14.	KonoSuba	1 2 3
	1	#15.	Heavy Object	13 14 15
	2	#16.	Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash	1 2 3
	—	#17.	Dagashi Kashi	1 2 3
	3	#18.	Utawarerumono: The False Faces	13 14 15 16
	1	#19.	Prince of Stride: Alternative	1 2 3 4
	1	#20.	BBK/BRNK	1 2 3
	1	#21.	Girls Beyond the Wasteland	1 2 3 4
	1	#22.	Myriad Colors Phantom World	1 2 3 4
	1	#23.	Schwarzes Marken	1 2 3
	—	#24.	Haruchika – Haruta & Chika	1 2 3 4
	2	#25.	Luck & Logic	1 2 3
	1	#26.	Active Raid	1 2 3 4
	1	#27.	Naruto Shippūden	444 445 446

Notes

Disclaimer: the rankings are just an average of opinions, published for entertainment and information purposes. It's entirely normal to disagree with the rankings; you should not expect your tastes in anime to match the average expressed by the rankings. Also, the rankings indicate relative quality (A is preferred to B), not absolute quality (B is good/bad). So while the titles are ranked from 'best' to 'worst', that doesn't necessarily mean the best title is 'great' or the worst title is 'awful'.

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.

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, but it makes it easier to compare weeks if each week has the same number of series in the ranking.

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.