March… was crazy. For one I had my life getting in the way of actually updating reliably, but also in terms of how every series concluded. Some series got much better, others got much worse. Because of that, this list is completely different from last month’s. It’s good; keeps things exciting and unpredictable.
#17 (16) – Amnesia – (5/10) – Oh dear lord. That obsessive stalker. Things really did not improve afterwards, with the actual ending as a really cheesy conclusion that tried to stuff as many infodumps as possible into its airtime, and things still did not make sense. It was incredibly cheesy and bad. I now feel stupid for thinking that this had potential.
#16 (7) – Robotics;Notes – (7/10) – Robotics;Notes completely fell apart for its ending. All of the subplots it has built up were joined together in a completely hacked way that just felt so incredibly forced. Then they introduced brainwashing and other kinds of cop-outs. Nothing really made sense and nothing really was concluded in a satisfying way. Blagh. I had high hopes for this one.
#15 (14) – Tamako Market – (7.1/10) – Oh dear god, Tamako Market. What on earth were you thinking with that stupid marriage subplot that overtook your entire second half? It didn’t really go anywhere and you could have used your time so much better. Like, on actually developing your characters. My favorite episode so far was the one that focused on Tamako’s father, but that was not enough to make up for how boring the rest was.
#14 (11) – Magi – (7.5/10) – Aah, I wasn’t able to catch up to this series. I’m at this point eight episodes behind, with a lot of other stuff that I also want to check out and watch. I didn’t want to do this, but I don’t think that I can finish it. Did this series turn better in its finale? Will its second season be interesting?
#13 (10) – Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo – (7.6/10) – A been there, done that ending. The only thing that really stood out was how incredibly cheesy the whole subplot with the dorms closing down was. Apart from that I can hardly remember anything that caught my attention, and the whole ending was full of cop-outs that got I the way of change. The script just had none of the wit of the earlier episodes.
#12 (15) – Kotoura-San – (8/10) – The whole killer subplot was stupid, and I didn’t really like that. As for the actual ending though, I liked that one surprisingly much. I’m not sure what happened ,but it’s there where this series got really genuine with itself and its characters. It was one of the big reasons why this is pretty much the only non-sequel series from the past winter season that I enjoyed watching.
#11 (13) – Saint Seiya Omega – (8/10) – Things were much less predictable than what I expected. It wasn’t the best month for Saint Seiya Omega, but still the battles in it were quite good and full of emotions. Also ZOMG, the director of Heartcatch Precure is going to return to do the second half of this show!
#10 (8) – AKB0048 – (8/10) – A decent finale. A bit cheesy with some problems here and there, but it was fun and enjoyable while it lasted. The second season of AKB0048 was less interesting than the first, but still it was a fun little animated musical.
#9 (12) – Shirokuma Cafe – (8.25/10)
I must say, this surprised me with how solid the ending was, especially since the creators saved some of their cards for the end. I laughed quite a bit and this was the best month for this series in quite a while, which is really handy for an ending.
#8 (9) – Hunter X Hunter – (8.25/10)
The finale of the Greed Island arc is definitely done better in the 2011 version of Hunter x Hunter. The animation is much more up to par, and it doesn’t drag on. I still find some parts of it boring though, since half of the arc is basically nothing but a glorified training-arc. And finally, after a year and a half of recaps, we are about to get to the new material!
#7 (17) – Little Busters – (8.4/10)
Well, there you have it. On the home stretch, Little Busters actually got really good there. Kud’s story was by far the best out of any of the girls, and the final episodes were just individual stories about some of the characters. And you know what? These things are what makes Little Busters good! Just screw all of those long complicated arcs that try way too hard to be sad. Just give me more episodes like these! If the entire series was like that, then this would have been a really good series. Now though, I can’t really recommend this show because of some of the crap that you have to sit through.
#6 (1) – Chihayafuru – (8.75/10)
Chihayafuru in this month was mostly build-up, but still it was of edge of your seat quality. It still managed to develop a ton of characters at the same time, and made the entire main cast count, instead of simply forgetting about them when they’re not needed anymore. It wasn’t the best month, but still rock-solid.
#5 (2) – Zetsuen no Tempest – (8.75/10)
The actual ending of Zetsuen no Tempest wasn’t its best, but it did have a really good finale. Especially how everthing just fell into place, and how on one hand it embraced logic, and on the other it just went completely against it. The characters really made this a really enjoyable month for me.
#4 (4) – Uchuu Kyoudai – (8.75/10)
Uchuu Kyoudai this time is in the middle of the desert for a training mission. The pacing still is quite slow, but the characters still are rock-solid. Especially Nitta and Mutta were in the spotlights this time.
#3 (6) – Psycho Pass – (8.9/10)
Psycho Pass had a really solid ending. Perhaps it did not answer everything, but it did wrap up its biggest points in a satisfying way. Not everything got solved, but things evolved. It concluded its view on its own setting and it made for a great emotional climax. More series like this, please.
#2 (5) – Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – (9/10)
The fights this month really were epic. A great example of how these things should be done. Instead of just being boring with characters exchanging punches until one falls down, the creators introduced all sorts of cool stuff to keep things interesting and varied, ranging from incredibly over the top to small and subtle. Oh, and Stroheim is awesome.
#1 (3) – From the New World – (9.25/10)
An absolutely fantastic ending for From the New World. One of the best I’ve seen in a long, long while. The animators really showed one final time how great this series looks, and the main villain here was one of the best you could get.
The Magi anime ended horrible, adding 1000% more angst to Alibaba from the original, bad animation, horrid pacing, and character assassination. As a fan of the original, I was more than disappointed. If you are actually interested in getting into Magi, read the original. The anime’s awful.
Also I find it weird that you keep calling HxH a recap when it’s obviously a remake?
psgels just used the word “recap”, but it’s not really a recap. I suppose it could feel like a really long recap though, kind of like how Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood felt for the first 15 or 16 episodes if you watched the original series?
Rethread would be the more accurate word to apply in this situation I believe.
I agree. They butchered the epic that was Magi.
Surprised you dropped Magi, it has some charm. I find it difficult to see it stand alongside the likes of Amnesia, Tamako Market and Robotics;notes (which I rage-dropped at ep 19, still can’t believe it…) Give it some chance when you can.
I’ve seen that your starting to rank chihayafuru and space brothers lower now, I remember you’d also have space brothers at the top spot or at least second.
Great list. I agree for the most part
Little Busters ranking higher then Hunter x Hunter? Double Shock! Of course, I have been enjoying LB throughout its run, but it really stepped up since Kud’s arc began.
Other than that though, I agree with this listing.
Are you going to make a review of the first season of Saint seiya Omega as the serie conclude its first arc and change staff (Nagamine came as director but Umakoshi leave as chara designer and maybe animation director)?
I would like to see it.
And Morio Hatano also worked on Heartcatch Precure (23, 37, 44…), he was the second most silled director of Heartcatch. Morio Hatano and Tatsuya Nagamine were the 2 disciples of Shigeyasu Yamauchi who was one of the biggest strengh of the original Saint seiya.
I hope also that you try the original serie and its movies and OAV. You should like it
Even if Omega is a good serie, the gold saint, Hades sanctuary and Asgard arc from the original series were much better than Omega.
Omega is only superior or at the same level than the less good arc of the original series as Silver saint, Poseidon and Hades inferno/Elysion
omega is much much better than the original. The gold saint arc from the original has better gold saints but omega shines with its own cast of bronze saints who are really supposed to be the main characters. Omega also has a better ending than the original gold saints arc. And with umakoshi as the art designer, you just can’t compare the original with Omega.
I’m surprised that you would even mention Hades. Even wiki acknowledges that the manga was cut short at that time due to low ratings. The Hades arc is a complete mess.
I assume you never seen the original anime and just read the manga from what you said.the anime are really different and the anime is much better than it (better character devlopment, far better art and design
Shingo Araki, the chara designer and animation director of the original serie, was as much famous and talentuous than Umakoshi (Umakoshi himself said he have begun to draw because he was a fan of Shingo Araki).
He was one of the greater chara designer from 70-80. he worked on famous series as Harlock SSX, Grendizer, Cutey honey, Cat’s Eyes, Versaille no bara, Kojiro, Ulysse, Galaxy express 999, Majokko meg-chan, Lunlun, kindaichi, Yugioh and Ring ni Kakero.
he have also formed famous animator like Michi Himeno, Eisaku Inoue or Keiichi Ishikawa (chara designer of the second season of omega).
And for the director, the original series had Shigeyasu Yamauchi and Kozo Morishita. 2 of the biggest names of Toei animation
The bronze saint of the original show also shines. The shine as much as the bronzze from omega.
-Phenix Ikki was just as much fantastic than Piccolo or Vegeta from DBZ. He is just like Eden x 10
-Cygnus Hyoga was a really sad character with fight maked by the fate
-Dragon Shiryu was a badass character with really violent and memorable fight (eyes pierced, massive blood loss and arm cut)
-Shun was very similar to Ryuho,too.
And no,the ending of the original gold saint arc with the sacrifice of every bronze for killing the 3 last Gold and their chief saint is brillant. Better than the Omega final (even with the very good fight against Apsu)
Another point where the original saint seiya is superior to omega is the OST. Saint seiya omega OST is very good but the original anime OST is far better.
For Hades, I assume, you have not seen Hades sanctuary. if the Mekai and Elysion are complete Mess, Hades sanctuary is marvelous, good animation, good direction by Yamauchi and Nagamine, good story, good emotion.
Omega is better than the less good arc of the original series, Poseidon and Hades Mekai and Elysion. But it’s not better than the best arc of the series.
So, I’m assuming that Hunter x Hunter is going to be up for blogging after this series is through with Greed Island.
Despite the problems of Amnesia, It has surprisingly good opening and ending songs(Zoetrope-Yanagi Nagi, and Recall-Ray) for anime.
It’s got that cool pop-rock-guitar thing going for it, different from usual moe stuff.
How many of you think the same way? Did anyone enjoy the songs?
I enjoyed the show and the songs.
A good song can make a good anime great, but it can’t make a bad anime good.
I don’t understand all the rage over Magi. I’ve browsed through most chapters of the manga and I don’t see what the big deal is about. It does seem to be mostly the same story, but they have switched it around a bit with the pacing, and mashed together some events, but it’s not a completely different story like the original FMA anime. I would say that it seems to be mostly true to the source material, and while I don’t really see the need for that change, I can still say that it’s still a better anime that much of the crap that has been airing this season.
I think you should keep watching it.
Did you watch the last two episodes where a pretty big fucking change was made for no reason (since it got resolved anyways). It changed Alibaba’s character completely.
Magi second season could be better. I mean the good things happen more after Sindria arc. But having a first season like this….
From the new world was epic. I never imagined myself liking Yakomaru/squealer as a character this much.
@joshee Hell, I was rooting for Yakomaru to win. The world would have been a better place (no joke)
I think HXH will go for one more month for the one-on-one episodes, then on MAY we will finally get the Chimera Ant arc, and it is supposed to be the darkest arc yet.
It’s starting April 21 and it is the darkest arc in its themes and the obvious violence/gore
It such a brutal arc, so much that it had to be censored constantly in the volumes I read. It gave me the feelimg that Togashi wwas trying to deconstruct the Shounen genre, familiar territory after writing Yu Yu Hakusho (one of ny fave shounen manga)
Tamako Market. 75/100 for the review but 7.1/10 for the season summary? Am I missing something here?
It really was boring this month, much more compared to the rest thanks to that marriage subplot. These ranks are only for the episodes that aired this month (or that I watched, anyway).
And not in the list Zettai karen and love live. Again.
And they won’t be as he dropped them. Personally I think both of them were much better than I expected, Love Live in particular.
I initially dropped Love Live after an episode but picked it up again at a friend’s suggestion. It did have it’s annoying aspects (including the basic premise!) but actually managed to redeem itself and certainly managed to surprise me when a good story actually broke out amongst the idol pandering!
I’m really enjoying the “glorified” training arc of HxH. Very well constructed and the previous episodes were epic… especially Bisky last episode.
I didn’t see the old anime nor read the manga so it really ranks very high to me.
Thought I’d put my 2 cents on Magi, since while I was admittedly ambivalent with Season 1 of the anime, my experience reading the manga arcs afterwards has significantly raised my opinion on the series. The focus widens to look at the political situation on a global scale, and the current Magnostadt arc is a surprisingly dark and complex take on a dystopian society, with one of the best antagonists I’ve seen in…well, not a while, cause we just recently got Makashima and Squealer, but he’s very compelling still.
I obviously can’t speak for how well the material in S2 will be adapted (I have my reservations as to whether some of the material will work well in anime format), and the final arc of Season 1 is fairly weak, so I don’t think watching Magi should be a priority right now, but I think it might be worth finishing if at some point your workload goes down.