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

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.

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. 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
	2	#1.	After the Rain	1 2 3
	3	#2.	March comes in like a lion (season 2)	34 35 36 37
	2	#3.	Gintama.	342 343 344 345
	2	#4.	A Place Further Than the Universe	1 2 3 4
	2	#5.	Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card	1 2 3 4
	2	#6.	Violet Evergarden	1 2 3
	1	#7.	Laid-Back Camp	1 2 3 4
	2	#8.	Dragon Ball Super	122 123 124 125
	3	#9.	The Ancient Magus' Bride	13 14 15 16
	3	#10.	Mr.Osomatsu Season 2	14 15 16
	4	#11.	Kokkoku	1 2 3 4
	9	#12.	School Babysitters	1 2 3 4
	6	#13.	Pop Team Epic	1 2 3 4
	3	#14.	DARLING in the FRANXX	1 2 3
	6	#15.	Overlord II	1 2 3
	4	#16.	How to keep a mummy	1 2 3
	6	#17.	Garo -Vanishing Line-	13 14 15
	4	#18.	Mitsuboshi Colors	1 2 3 4
	5	#19.	Record of Grancrest War	1 2 3 4
	2	#20.	Citrus	1 2 3 4
	2	#21.	One Piece	820 821 822
	—	#22.	Killing Bites	1 2 3
	2	#23.	Maerchen Maedchen	1 2 3
	12	#24.	Boruto: Naruto Next Generations	40 41 42
	1	#25.	BEATLESS	1 2 3
	10	#26.	Black Clover	14 15 16
	—	#27.	Death March to The Parallel World Rhapsody	1 2 3
	—	#28.	Junji Ito "Collection"	1 2 3 4

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 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.	Gintama.	342 343 344 345
	—	#2.	March comes in like a lion (season 2)	34 35 36 37
	5	#3.	After the Rain	1 2 3
	1	#4.	Dragon Ball Super	122 123 124 125
	1	#5.	Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card	1 2 3 4
	1	#6.	A Place Further Than the Universe	1 2 3 4
	1	#7.	Violet Evergarden	1 2 3
	1	#8.	The Ancient Magus' Bride	13 14 15 16
	—	#9.	Garo -Vanishing Line-	13 14 15
	1	#10.	Mr.Osomatsu Season 2	14 15 16
	1	#11.	Laid-Back Camp	1 2 3 4
	—	#12.	DARLING in the FRANXX	1 2 3
	1	#13.	Mitsuboshi Colors	1 2 3 4
	2	#14.	Kokkoku	1 2 3 4
	2	#15.	Overlord II	1 2 3
	2	#16.	School Babysitters	1 2 3 4
	4	#17.	Boruto: Naruto Next Generations	40 41 42
	3	#18.	One Piece	820 821 822
	—	#19.	Citrus	1 2 3 4
	—	#20.	How to keep a mummy	1 2 3
	—	#21.	Black Clover	14 15 16
	—	#22.	Record of Grancrest War	1 2 3 4
	—	#23.	Killing Bites	1 2 3
	2	#24.	Pop Team Epic	1 2 3 4
	1	#25.	Maerchen Maedchen	1 2 3
	1	#26.	BEATLESS	1 2 3
	—	#27.	Death March to The Parallel World Rhapsody	1 2 3
	—	#28.	Junji Ito "Collection"	1 2 3 4

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.