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 Voting Ends Saturday, January 12th. Votes made after 11:59 PM CST on January 12th will not be counted. Rules - Pick up to 5 series from the list. - Rank them if you want. - Write something about your choices! - Feel free to discuss picks, but don't be a prick. If you notice anything missing from the list (or incorrectly included), just let me know and I'll make an edit. Movies/OVAs overall exist in a weird grey zone where they aren't always readily available, but feel free to vote for them. We're getting more and more of them released same-year thanks to GKIDS, Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Fathom Events, so I suppose next year I'll have to legitimately track them. If anyone puts in a vote for a movie or OVA that was available theatrically the same year of release, I'll be editing it into the list same as any other missing entry. An edit log will be maintained at the bottom of the list, in case anyone is curious. code:Edit: Added Hey, Your Cat Ears are Showing, Liz and the Blue Bird, Maquia, Batman Ninja, BanG Dream! Garupa Pico, Mirai, Penguin Highway, Non Non Biyori Vacation, I Want To Eat Your Pancreas - 1/1/19 6:17 PM Edit: Added Castlevania - 1/11/19 9:25 PM dogsicle fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jan 12, 2019 |
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Dec 27, 2018 01:24
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Comic Girls was the only show from this year I finished I'm pretty sure ZLS episodes 8 and 9 were really good Harukana was a comfy show and it was really funny posting screenshots out of context to make it look like they were talking about bottoming
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Dec 27, 2018 01:34
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In alphebetical order as I looked through the List™ Hakumei & Mikochi - Im a sucker for cute easy going stories and this fits the bill. Also big fan of the manga. Pop Team Epic - I will never not be thinking about Hellshake Yano. Today's Menu For The Emiya Family - Food mangas also a favorite of mine and while I know basically nothing about Fate, this was an enjoyable show. Violet Evergarden - Every once in a while I get into a drama instead of my usual slice of life/comedy and this was one of those times. While the overall plot was a little shakey, some of the individual episodes were gold. Yuru Camp - Just a funny cute show. All the characters were interesting, the dogs were adorable, and the pine cone said hello. Shoutouts to That Time I Reincarnated As a Slime. If you ended a little earlier, you'd have made my list easy.
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Dec 27, 2018 01:52
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1. Aikatsu Stars it had a decent first 50 episodes and then the second half was incredible. amazing antagonists, wonderful humor, great character building. it uses its long form format to build its characters in ways shorter shows couldn't, slowly growing and developing their personalities, goals, and relationships over time, justifying its length with the depth of its cast. my only real complaint would be that recycled cgi dance footage is incredibly hard to invest in. it's really impressive that the show's written well enough that it still works, but you can only hear 1 2 3 de aikatsu so many times.  2. akanesasu shoujo wacky, kinda broken structurally, has a pretty weak middle arc, but its last two episodes are some of the best material of the year and honestly one of my favorite anime endings. it uses weird off-kilter humor to endear you to the characters and uses its odd scenarios to build to an actual point about apathy and depression in a way thats both hopeful and pretty realistic, avoiding easy solutions. legitimately great direction helps too. it's still very blunt (the ending literally involves a tape recorder that plays out how the characters are affected by sexism), but otoh, it has an ending that literally directly explores how the characters are affected by sexism, which is pretty cool.  3. a place further than the universe imo the best show this year quality-wise and im only placing akanesasu and aikatsu stars above it because they feel more personal to me since they're less well-regarded. aka im being a hipster. anyway, this show has really believable banter between its characters and one of the most well-executed dramatic episodes ive seen. it's also incredibly funny. the director is one of the best directors currently in the industry. watch this show if you haven't. it's going to win anime of the year. 4. ssss. gridman a really well-executed exploration of female depression and isolation that also uses its nostalgia-pandering roots as a method of actually exploring why those shows would appeal to someone spiraling into depression and the ways in which escapism through art can be both healthy and unhealthy. and it has cool giant robots 5. revue starlight banana nice honorable mention harukana receive: a really solid sports show let down only by a few weak middle episodes and being a 12-episode adaptation of an ongoing manga comic girls has an insanely weak start but picks itself back together really well when it stops relying on gimmicks, actually has pretty solid exploration of being a female creator in a nerd space, the gag with the protag getting told she's 'a guy who's clearly never talked to a girl' is one of my favorite of the year and i like how they actually outright explore how and why she distances herself from other women mentally and why she writes characters who have to constantly tell themselves they're cute girls in a way that feels really unnatural. also has a really good exploration of how weird horny josei manga helps women feel more confident. i just wish the first couple eps weren't so mediocre and that it didn't feel the need to rely on gimmicks like chuuni stuff sometimes. wins my award for 'show i most wish i could put in top five' yama no susume wins my award for 'would probably put this in over revue starlight if i didnt like banana so much' citrus the anime sadly didn't get to all of the manga's best materials but citrus owns, gently caress the haters (or as i like to call them, the straighters) marchen madchen if the entire show was like the russian arc it'd unironically be in my top five. that arc was legitimately some of the funniest comedy of the year, and intentionally so at that. a bunch of shonen villains whose powers are comically useless and whose plan to cheat through the competition is to lock one of the enemy team in the basement. darling in the franxx it got like three transphobes banned and for that i owe it my life this is way too many honorable mentions
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Dec 27, 2018 01:57
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It was another brutal year for anime, seemingly designed to torture me from all sides with the first and biggest blow done by the disgusting gdmen, and then ending the year with himote house performing the ridiculous feat of having its final episode being a recap. neither manages to reach the genius of beatless and its 5 recaps though . then again i was smart enough to drop that early. its also been a big year for drama anime wise, with tons of stuff leading to tons of dull arguments with people trying to outwoke each other. most seasons seemingly had one show that seems to attract drama, and luckily i didn't enjoy any of them. had a lot of fun loving with all the people trying to be the one to finally destroy goblin slayer though. hell, probably enjoyed it more than most of the anime i watched this year (finished 13 anime made in 2018) 5 Asobi Asobase: one of the rare shows this year that actually had jokes, but it also started repeating the same jokes a hundred times. a 7 4 Kokkoku: this one was good. original story, time travel/stop etc is always fun. but halfway through it started dying animation wise and the villain turning into the hulk was insanely idiotic. kinda felt like that went against everything that made him interesting. 3 Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa: life truly is the story of class struggle. are we not all the slaves of the corporate machine that binds us? must we not all resist? truly tonegawa shows us wise lessons about our meaningless lives in the face of corporate oppression through its impactful episodes showcasing such issues in our global capitalist economy such as: 1. should one have a dance party at weddings? 2. what is more important, honor or the swallowing of massive amounts of meat? 3. how the hell do you keep all your coworkers apart, seriously i worked for 1.5 years in a library and i still couldn't keep all the middle aged women apart and there was far more variety in them than the suits. how do people do it. i just dont know. 2 Aru Zombie Shoujo no Sainan: Gonzo, my friends at Gonzo, get unfairly maligned. they are a joke studio! they make bad anime! my friends i say, give Gonzo another chance. first and foremost let it be said, they have mostly made good anime outside of a difficult period that just took an embarrassingly long time. secondly, this excellent horror parody should finally redeem this classic studio in the eyes of the naysayers. give Gonzo an hour of your time and give them a second chance with the closest anime gets to horror parody classics such as braindead 1 Killing Bites: a realistic and down to earth portrayal of the communist revolutions, the parallels in the events of this show with the russian revolution are no secret to any observant viewer. besides this critical look at the way revolutions get hijacked it also offered some insightful philosophy for the more astute watcher. what is killing bites? a simple question. and a question with a simple answer. it is that the one with the sharper claws wins. but behind these simple truths lies a far more universal truth. and this is one that perfectly fits with its revolutionary themes. the true strength of the people is not money, like the bosses in the series are shown having (and the visual parallels to kaiji are no coincidence!). no, capital is not power, as much as they try to hijack all that is good. it is physical strength, aka claws. it is labour. it is the men, the women, the rabbits and the honey badgers that go out there every day putting their lives at stake making money for those that command them. and for what purpose? betrayal? why must we stand for this? will we let ourselves be oppressed and our dreams crushed forever? no! rise up friends. rise up gamers. it is time now for the revolution. it is time for us all the get the animal hybrid wives of our dreams. other: i only managed to finish one other anime this year that i gave a score above a 6 and it was a.i.c.o. the story was about as dull as you'd expect something commissioned by netflix to be, but it had some good monster designs
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Dec 27, 2018 02:32
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I didn't finish all that much this year. I also watched Osomatsu s2 but it was hit or miss with an 80% miss ratio so it won't be appearing on this list 1. SSSS Gridman - This is a good show, plain and simple. Strong tokusatsu/mecha action with great characters, a good character study and commentary on depression and isolation and how our interests can be warped to be used against what's best for us. Every episode radiated with the love that the creators put into it. It was a joy to behold and even though the last episode felt a little too jam packed it pulled off everything in the best way it could. This finally has fulfilled the promise of the digital era of anime: the cgi was always good and episode 9 was something that really could not be done in previous eras of anime 2. Megalobox - I was a little nervous about this going in because I really love Ashita no Joe and a spiritual sequel set in the far future could end up not working but what I got instead.was Ashita no Joe as a mythic template, a story told over and over through time. I got huge chills from Joe and Yuri's first meeting and even though it could never capture the full scope of the original in just 12 episodes it managed to get most of the emotional punch. Megalobox was all about nostalgia, I think, from a production level with the heavy lined aesthetic and being made natively in 480p but it filtered into the story as well, with Joe representing a yearning for a return to old style boxing contrasted with the mechanical cyborg boxing of Megalobox. The ending was also a good revision, showing that even if you're deeply I spired and modeled after the past you don't have to be tied down by it. Good show and I can't wait to see what the people who made it do next. 3. Gurazeni - A fun and pretty relaxing show about the business side of professional baseball. I had no idea what to expect of this because the original description sounded like a kaiji survival game thing but it's just a salaryman anime basically. It had good character designs and was an anime about working adults, with each episode often focusing on a different player. The production itself was pretty workmanlike, nothing super flashy to be seen at any point here. It had a good surf rock soundtrack that never got old to me and the op was one of my favorite this year, it made me feel happy whenever it came up. The second season has better content than the first, as it deals with a lot of off season stuff so it's more character interaction than baseball and we get to see the lives of people like the announcers and radio play by play folks. Season 2 also has more appearances by the mythical ED girl of the first season. I hope we see more of this show in the future. GURAZENI! 5. Devilman Crybaby That's right it's number five and there is no four because I have a lot of reservations about this one. I liked a lot of Yuasa's innovations like the sexuality angle, the animalistic devil run, the rap kids and Miko, the character designs were all top notch, the entire last episode was incredibly awesome and I think the anime did a good job at being a Devilman anime that acknowledges all the things that Devilman inspired. It also gave more screentime to the General and Psycho Jenny who are some of the best designs in Devilman but only get one line in the manga. On the other hand of missed on the first half with the Sirene arc for me. Instead of capturing the long desperate struggle.of the Sirene arc it was all over in less than half an episode. I also thought the sports meet didn't quite fit, and as a whole it felt like the Devilman story almost couldn't hold up beneath all the weighty things Yuasa was putting on it. This review was a lot more negative but then I remembered the scene where everyone hugs Devilman and that was good. Mixed feelings on this one but I'm still thinking about it after an entire year basically so it goes on the list.
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Dec 27, 2018 02:52
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Ain't gonna rank these because I'm still mulling over the rankings myself. A Place Further Than The Universe Whilst it didn't make my cry like most other people, I definitely appreciated the message of breaking out of your comfort zone and trying something new. Also, pretty as all hell and gave a good look into life in Antarctica which I thought was pretty snazz. Yurucamp Comfy personified. I got the first 4 volumes of the manga recently and it got the chill vibe of everything through perfectly. I need to renew my membership to Secret Society BLANKET. SSSS.Gridman Action scenes owned. Emotional drama was great. The central mystery was intriguing. The direction and graphics were incredibly on point. Episode 9 might be the best episode of the year. What else is there to say? Bloom into You Thanks to this series I've been checking out a lot of other yuri series. The drama has been refreshingly un-melodramatic and the soundtrack and use of was masterful. Enhanced some of the most important manga scenes in very good ways. Bunny Girl Senpai I had originally written it off as an ecchi harem series but was pleasantly surprised at getting a series with snappy dialogue and a main couple with great chemistry. Whilst the last couple of arcs weren't as strong as the first half of the show, the way that Sakuta interacted with the girl of the week whilst still keeping in touch with the previous ones (and dating one) were fun to watch. Honourable mentions: Hanebado (good action) Revue Starlight (pretty) Grand Blue (funny) Megalobox (good punching) MHA S3 (some of the best fights in the series) Wotakoi (cute) Ibblebibble fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Dec 27, 2018 |
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Dec 27, 2018 02:58
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1.)Yagate Kimi Ni Naru/Bloom Into You - Rock solid adaptation of one of my all time favorite manga. Story is a fantastic romance and character drama, taking a very deliberate, careful, and compassionate approach to topics like self-loathing, identity issues, our somewhat arbitrary expectations for what romance is supposed to look or feel like, among others. Has easily my favorite love triangle I've encountered, and doesn't even really have any real trick to it besides "the author loves all three of them very much and tries to be kind to all of them." In terms of the adaptation, it's a step below the raw production chops of Gridman or any of this year's KyoAni shows, but only a step. Has some of the stronger storyboards I've seen all year, and it's been an extremely good year in that regard. Soundtrack sets the mood wonderfully too, and the voice cast low-key turned in one of the strongest overall performances of any show I've seen all year. There's probably shows I'd say are "better" than Bloom was this year, but this one meant the most to me specifically, so there. Smartly written, excellently boarded, relentlessly compassionate - a winner in every regard that matters IMO. 2.) SSSS Gridman - This might be recency bias putting it ahead of Universe, but fuckit. Gridman was my best surprise of the year. Went in expecting a solid action romp, came out with hands down one of the best shows of this year, and the last couple. A feast for the eyes every week, with the best storyboards of the year and I don't think it's even all that close, at least in terms of TV anime. The writing really stole the show, though - fantastically realized characters, wonderfully handled mysteries, and a villain who evoked online predation and radicalization in a way I've simply never seen an anime even seriously attempt before. Really excited to see what's next for both the writer and the director. 3.) A Place Further Than The Universe - Fantastic coming of age drama, Atsuko Ishizuka deserves all of the praise this show won her. Marvelously directed from start to finish, handled its character relationships with a lot of charm and subtlety. Shirase's isolation, grief, and eventual catharsis in particular was a real highlight. The climax of that arc in episode 11 made me want to wail like a baby. 4.) Revue Starlight - Easily the next best storyboards of the year, after Gridman. Told a really compelling and entertaining story about the arbitrary and often unfair nature of competition and performance with a spectacularly well-realized framing device. Great fight scenes, a fantastic and wonderfully-utilized score, really ambitious and impressive production values throughout. 5.) Yama No Susume season 3 - Kind of hard to talk about because most of its story material is exactly what I expected from it, but that material is so fundamentally sturdy and so well delivered that it really doesn't matter. Like everything else in this top 5, it was consistently a real treat for the eyes, especially in the more dramatic material in the show's last third. Aoi and Hinata are just relentlessly charming and endearing leads, and when you pair that with a show that consistently draws a real showcase of upcoming animation talent, you get a show that's always worth returning to. Honorable Mentions: Violet Evergarden: Rather uneven in terms of writing, but consistently visually stunning and had a late episode that made me bawl like nothing else this year has besides Episode 11 of A Place Further Than The Universe, and it would feel rather unfair of me not to at least shout out a show that did something like that to me. Even outside of that, I kind of appreciated VEG's enthusiasm for sappy Hollywood melodrama and dedication to swinging for the emotional fences 100 percent of the time, even when it didn't entirely land. Yuru Camp: The best Iyashkei offering of the year after Yama No Susume. Provided all the therapy of a calming nature walk, sneakily had one of the best soundtracks of the year, and set up a really interesting and charming dynamic between Rin's positively-framed fondness for solitude and Nadeshiko's more outgoing nature. So glad we're getting more. Hinamatsuri: Best comedy of the year by a mile. I don't have anything especially long or flowery to say about it, it was just consistently hysterical. HeroAca 3: Some saggy narrative stretches in each cour keep it from making my top 5, but All Might vs One For All solidified All Might as one of my all time favorite mentor characters, and Deku vs Bakugo round 2 was a real treat too. Best shounen running right now, IMO. GGO: Fun story that managed its tone and utilized its hook very well. Akanesasu Shoujo: Would have been my best surprise of the year if not for Gridman. The first arc is actively kind of rear end and the middle of the show was still only kind of okay IMO, but the last two episodes are, without any irony at all, some of my favorites of the entire year.
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Dec 27, 2018 03:02
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i'll get my list in by the weekend, boss also god please, if you're going to number your list, start at #5 and work your way down. don't give away your number 1 right away. like build some suspense, c'mon here folks GorfZaplen posted:
Expect My Mom fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Dec 27, 2018 |
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Dec 27, 2018 03:05
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hrm i wonder if the person who wont shut the gently caress up about aikatsu and has an aikatsu av is going to put aikatsu as their number one with an image of the girl in their av
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Dec 27, 2018 03:13
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i mean what if you didn't. that reality would exist for a few more minutes, the tension would be marvelous. have you no love for drama
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Dec 27, 2018 03:17
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Expect My Mom posted:i'll get my list in by the weekend, boss Something I forgot to mention is that it had a split cour, and I don't know if this was intentional but it fit in perfectly narratively because the narrator gets an injury that put them out for exactly the amount of time it was off the air which was cool and also meant that it was more or less concurrent, so when it was fall for us it was fall in the show etc.
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Dec 27, 2018 03:17
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Expect My Mom posted:i mean what if you didn't. that reality would exist for a few more minutes, the tension would be marvelous. have you no love for drama
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Dec 27, 2018 03:21
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I only finished 6 animes this year. The top 5 are: Yuru Camp Bunny Girl Senpai Zombieland Saga Cells at Work Overlord II (The one that lost was Overlord III)
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Dec 27, 2018 03:28
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Killing Bites. And I blame all the smallbrains who didn't watch or buy the BDs for why we won't get a second season.
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Dec 27, 2018 03:32
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Ibram Gaunt posted:Killing Bites. you can thank me directly
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Dec 27, 2018 03:38
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Fuuuuck I have so much anime to get through for this year. I guess Ive watched enough good stuff that I could provide 5 worthy shows if I don't have enough time to get through everything in my list.
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Dec 27, 2018 03:39
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drat there were some good anime this year but I am going to preemptively say people slept on Golden Kamuy because of the stupid CG bear in ep1
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Dec 27, 2018 03:49
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I'm not so great at analyzing shows to explain why I like things, but I'll give it a go. Narrowing it down to five was difficult. 5. Comic Girls - sure, cute girls slice of life stuff, but I like that stuff. Well-depicted characters, including one I really could relate to (no, not telling which one, so there) 4. Zombieland Saga - hilarious. More heartfelt than funny towards the end, but that's good too. Plus, the Legendary Tae. 3. Slow Start - more cute girl slice of life (I said I like it). Plus the relationships between the various female characters are shown as simply the way they are, rather than beating any agenda into the viewers' head, that was an excellent choice to depict things that way. 2. Hinamatsuri - I can't think of any other anime where I'd have tears coming down my face (no, you're crying) and then clutching onto the table trying not to fall over from laughing so hard, within the space of 10 minutes. 1. A Place Further Than The Universe - everyone else will speak on this better than I will, so I'll just say: great story; wonderful characters; and that rarity in anime, a fantastic ending. Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order): Cells at Work! - who knew platelets were that cute? Darling in the Franxx - great start, good middle, kind of lost it at the end Dropkick on my Devil - comedically gory deaths (with instant undoing) always bring a smile to my face Encouragement of Climb Third Season - almost made my top five list; a lot more good character development Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online - profusely pink pandemonium. 'Nuff said. Umamusume: Pretty Derby - glad I gave this one a chance, it was a really nice show with good characters. Did I mention a show's characters are usually what grabs my focus? Violet Evergarden - Violet's story itself was very uneven, but some individual episodes within the show were fantastic, and it all was animated beautifully of course Yuru Camp - I'm a very indoors person, so all the camping equipment details were a bit boring for me, but the characters made it still a good show
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Dec 27, 2018 04:10
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i'm going to unilaterally give Dragon ball super the best finale award.
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Dec 27, 2018 04:32
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My pick for top 5 of the year - 5) Tie: Aikatsu Friends/Hugtto Precure - Really good versions of my favorite kids shows so they make they list 4) Revue Starlight - Takarazuka review being called out for it's BS with some great imagery and also a love story? yeah this is the kinda of stuff I really Love. 3) Gridman - Tokusatsu love letter that used anime to tell a story that couldn't be done in a kids show but at the same time kept a spirit of a kids show for it's ending. 2) Yurucamp - Secret Society Blanket 1) A Place Further than the Universe - Great mix of comedy, drama and probably one of the top 5 episodes of anime I've seen in Episode 11. Easily the best of the year Honorable Mention: Akanesasu Shoujo Zombieland Saga Bloom Into You Umamusume Toji no Miko Show I wish had more subs so I could watch: Kiratto Pri-chan
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Dec 27, 2018 04:36
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Honorable Mention: Bloom Into You -All I wanted from this was a competent adaptation and that was what I got. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai -Really surprised by how good this was, but I think the last arc needed more time to breathe. Harukana Receive -Misses my top 5 only because I forgot about it until I read the list again. SSSS.Gridman 5. Hanebado! -Ayano "Murderface" Hanesaki is my second favorite sports anime protagonist behind Ishidou Natsuo. 4. Planet With -There was no chance of me not loving a Mizukami anime. 3. Toji no Miko -Every day I check to see if a physical western release of this is getting made for, like, just me and am disappointed. 2. The Girl in Twilight / Akanesasu Shoujo -The last two episodes were incredible. 1. Zombieland Saga -I would now die for any zombie idol.
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Dec 27, 2018 05:00
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LibrarianCroaker posted:3. Toji no Miko https://www.rightstufanime.com/Katana-Maidens-Toji-No-Miko-Part-1-Blu-ray
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Dec 27, 2018 05:27
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5. SSSS.GRIDMAN I'm so used to ambitious, nostalgic robot shows like this not delivering that it's astounding that this worked at all. Good show. 4. Yurucamp A comfy show that's also sharply observed. 3. A Place Further Than the Universe Gonna go down as an all time great and it deserves it. 2. Devilman Crybaby Felt like getting my guts ripped out, I love it. 1. Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues More than lives up to Kaiji itself, it's insightful while also being incredibly funny. -- I didn't finish Revue Starlight but it would probably have been in my list if I did. Also missed Bloom Into You which I will watch! Megalobox, Killing Bites, and fuckn Pop Team Epic. Good year.
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Dec 27, 2018 07:49
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Alphabetical order: Aggretsuko A Place Further Than the Universe Devilman Crybaby Hakumei to Mikochi March Comes in Like a Lion Season 2 Honorable Mentions: Gakuen Babysitters, My Hero Academia, Slow Start, and Yuru Camp. And I'll forever love Gintama. Still enjoying One Piece, too.
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Dec 27, 2018 08:21
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I know this isn't on the list, but I'm going to say it anyway: Liz and the Blue Bird was amazing. Also Spiderverse, which is honourary anime. 
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Dec 27, 2018 09:00
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5. comic girls 4. slow start 3. antarctica 2. yama no susume 1. ssss.gridman: this one came out of nowhere but for a lot of reasons it came at pretty much the perfect time for me and the ending made me not feel depressed i had a hard time watching stuff this year so basically the only thing i've watched other than these five shows in full is devilman crybaby and i didn't like that very much e; i forgot gungale online i stand by this ranking though The Colonel fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Dec 27, 2018 |
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Dec 27, 2018 09:00
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You're missing Hey, Your Cat Ears Are Showing! 1. Pop Team Epic The producers for this really went all out and took advantage of the variety format; we got Hellshake Yano out of it which is just incredible to watch. It did a lot of neat things to create a unique watching experience and the dub team did a good job with the voice acting as well. Would watch again 4 times. 2. Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 This continues the trend of the first season with good puppet action, although it feels less splashy since it didn't have anything on the level of the first 6 minutes of season 1. The show also treats one of its characters in a pretty lame way, but the rest of it is good enough to make me look forward to Season 3. If it wasn't for that misstep I would rank this as tied for 1st with Pop Team Epic because the puppetry is great. I want more puppet shows! 3. Cells At Work! A solid adaptation of the manga; David Productions did a great job breathing life into it. Hopefully they plan on adapting more of it in the future. 4. Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues I liked the combination of Fukumoto's penchant for over-the-top, dramatic delivery/metaphors with mundane office life. The narrator's voice was also an interesting change from the usual Kaiji narrator; there's something about his enthusiasm when he says english words. The only problem with it is that you need to have seen both seasons of Kaiji beforehand to enjoy some of the humour. 5. Skull-faced Bookseller Honda I enjoyed learning about the behind the scenes actions in bookstores and the humour was great. The animation is low-effort and there's a lot of engrish, but they both enhance the experience in my opinion. Honorable Mentions: Love Is Hard For Otaku: I wish I could say more about this, it was entertaining to watch. Hey, Your Cat Ears Are Showing!: Cute and fluffy! Golden Kamuy: The anime skipped a lot of content and had some "interesting" animation decisions, but they covered a lot of good moments. The last three episodes of Season 2 were also amazing. Isekai Izakaya Nobu: Unfortunately it didn't live up to the art from the manga, but it was nice to see it animated. High Score Girl: A nice adaptation, the ending of episode 3 was a punch in the gut. The 3D animation style they used worked surprisingly well with the manga's art. My main complaint is they ended it in such a weird spot of the story. Can Of Worms fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Dec 27, 2018 |
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Dec 27, 2018 10:17
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This was such an insanely strong year for anime this list was honestly hard to compile. I ended up ultimately leaning heavily on comedies because this year was chock full of them and honestly there usually aren't that many great anime comedies, usually only good at best ones. I tried to pick from all seasons to avoid recency bias. 1. A Place Further Than The Universe This is pretty much a perfect show, beautiful, funny, melancholy all at the same time. The characters are all insanely endearing and the central story about Shirase is heartbreaking in the best possible way for entertainment. Also the one rare good opinion piece by New York Times named this one of the best shows of the year and it's nice to agree with the paper of record for once. 2. Zombieland Saga This was only narrowly edged out by Antarctica for a couple episodes that weren't purely amazing but this show is probably the most memorable of all of 2018. Incredible combination of genuinely touching pathos and over the top comedy that can only come from pure commitment to very stupid jokes, Zombieland Saga is a treasure I will never forget and look forward to a second season immensely. 3. Hinamatsuri I'm a huge fan of dry comedy and Hinamatsuri delivered that in witty spades. Easily the funniest anime this year and one of the funniest I have ever seen, this show's great characters and masterful performances have etched a place in my heart. 4. Pop Team Epic One of the most artistically interesting and audacious anime in years, this reminded me of the brilliance and magic of Space Dandy. Just letting young, talented creators do whatever the gently caress they want with material can be a perfect recipe for success (or disaster, e.g. most episodes of 18if, which did have flashes of brilliance). This daring, incredibly stupid anime is a remarkable and probably impossible to reproduce experiment that I will love always. Also very funny. 5. Asobi Asobase Other than the terrible handling of a trans character, I loved the comedic sensibility in this anime. I don't have too much to say about this one other than it was incredibly funny, but it was the only one that was appointment viewing when it aired like the rest of my list.
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Dec 27, 2018 10:54
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5. Comic Girls 4. Slow Start 3. Harukana Receive 2. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online 1. Yuru Camp
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Dec 27, 2018 13:52
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I've not watched that many shows this year so I'm just here to cast a vote for A Place Further Than The Universe. The comedy is funny, the drama hits hard, it's just an incredibly executed show in every single aspect that's not just my favourite of this year but probably one of my favourite pieces of television period. Also, SSSS.Gridman, which I really did not expect to resonate with me so much. Akane was just a little too relatable... It's honestly amazing how well the show combined the psychological introspective stuff and the fun colourful action without either ever having to suffer for it, other than the last episode being a bit too dense.
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Dec 27, 2018 14:33
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Eh, like last year was a bit pick and choosey over what to watch. Whatever -A Place Further Than the Universe -Akanesasu Shoujo -Bloom into You -Cells at Work! -Harukana Receive
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Dec 27, 2018 16:12
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1: Tonegawa 2: Cells at Work 3: Lupin 4: Megalo Box 5: Zombieland Honorable Mention: Baki (dunno if it's getting a season later), Pop Team Epic
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Dec 27, 2018 16:22
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gently caress me sideways, you're my hero.
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Dec 27, 2018 16:37
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1). March Comes In Like a Lion 2nd Season: When the adaption for Lion was first announced, this was the plot arc I was most looking forward to. I knew the first season would likely not have the episode count to get to without some tomfoolery, but as soon as this second set was known to be coming it was time to brace oneself for it. I'm not sure I'm prepared to say it meets or exceeds its manga material for this stretch, but it honestly doesn't matter because even 50% of the quality of that story is going to run laps around the competition for me. Powerful and affecting, it allowed the characters established in the first season to truly come into their own as they faced one of the harshest and yet most relatable trials a lot of people themselves might have had to face. There's still more to come for Rei and the Kawamoto sisters (oh boy is there...), but this was the first major part that solidified March Comes in like a Lion as one of the all-time great stories I feel I've experienced. 2). A Place Further Than The Universe: There's not much really negative to say about this show, and in any other year it probably takes my #1 easily. Characters were outstanding and expertly developed, with just enough screentime in the provided episode count to give everyone the time needed to shine and have it all come together by the end. Like Lion, there's some powerful content here and it was extremely affecting. 3). Yuru Camp: You sort of know what you're going to get on the tin with this (a slice of life show about girls camping), but as far as "It's a good one of those" conversations go I truly do think it's an outstanding one of those. There are a ton of nice little touches and the chemistry feels very real and organic, and not forced like some Cute Girl SOL shows tend to be. I especially like how they handled Rin, a character who prefers to camp alone, and did not make her preferred solitude as some sort of character flaw that needed correction. It's just a warm and cozy time with this crew in a time where that feels really appreciated, at least for me. 4). Hinamatsuri: Hinamatsuri is one of my favorite comedy mangas and this adaption is aces. Really the only problem I have with it, which is not really fair, is that because I'm more keyed into the current manga content a part of me can't help but pine for having some of the later arcs animated as well. Hopefully it just means there's more to look forward to in the future. 5). Hakumei & Mikochi: Like several others here I came to the show because of a love of the source material, and like the previous this was a very solid adaption of said material. Fills a different, but still solid, warm/cozy niche like Yuru Camp. Some of the "transition" choices where manga-like panels would cut in took a little to get used to but I think the work was overall stronger for such choices. Just missing the cut: Today's Menu For The Emiya Family Planet With
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Dec 27, 2018 17:13
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1. Devilman Crybaby - I didn't really care for the original manga, but I feel like Yuasa elevated it into something special and striking. 2. Dragon Pilot: Hisone & Masotan - These dorks were just great to watch. That ED is still stuck in my head. 3. Lupin III: Part V - I hadn't watched much Lupin for years before this started, but it was stylish as hell and reminded why I ever enjoyed these stories to begin with. 4. Violet Evergarden - The post office is extremely powerful. 5. FLCL Progressive - I keep coming back to thinking about this one every now and then, so it gets to sneak in at my number 5 spot in light of nothing else really standing out enough to me to put here.
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Dec 27, 2018 20:07
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I didn't watch many currently airing shows this year, mostly backlog stuff, but I'd like to put in a vote for Yuru Camp as the most beautiful, relaxing iyashikei show ever made, which really lifted me up when I needed it, and I simply cannot get enough of Nadeshiko and Rin's relationship.
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Dec 27, 2018 21:11
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5. Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Surprisingly turned out to not be super pandering fanservice like I expected, and was actually a pretty heartfelt and interesting show. 4.Bloom Into You. Probably the best yuri show of the year, and I like yuri. Sorry Citrus. That said I haven't finished it so maybe it gets worse. 3.Emiya Family Gohan I absolutely adore Fate/Stay Night, so this was a really pleasant surprise. It was cute and funny, both of which are important. 2.SSSS.Gridman I really didn't expect this to be up here, but man, what a ride. I had no intentions of watching it and only knew it from the flood of art of Akane and Rikka on Pixiv and Twitter, and wasn't really a huge fan of this kind of show growing up (though I did watch Ultraman). I checked it out on a whim because of a friend's reccomendation and some curiosity over a Heroes of the Storm reference and it ended up exceeding expectations on every level. I'm not entirely a fan of the ending, but I think it was a reasonably good one nevertheless. 1.Devilman Crybaby I'd read Devilman and Violence Jack before and could see how it inspired other manga like Berserk. Other, better, manga. I think Crybaby enhanced the original pretty impressively. The way it was modernized to incorporate things like social media was great, the refocus on characters over random fights had me invested instead of just laughing when bad things happened, and the aesthetic was typically amazing. There are times when the art is just straight up bad, but a lot of the time the weird, stylized look is just so perfect, not to mention the killer soundtrack. Honorable Mentions Fate/Extra Last Encore: Okay this one was bad but I have a huge soft spot for Nero so I can't entirely hate it. Zombieland Saga: I'm a casual fan of idols at most, but the humor was spot on and when it turned to drama I could buy into it. It kind of had a non-ending, though. Happy Sugar Life: A great horror/tragedy show that had some surprisingly real depictions of the impact of abuse. Pop Team Epic: Great dumb fun. Hinamatsuri: Probably the funniest show of the year. Cells At Work: The way some of the biology was depicted was clever, and it was generally both cute and funny. How Not To Summon A Demon Lord: good ecchi. ecchi good. There were a bunch of other shows I liked too, but that wouldn't be "best of" really. 
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Dec 27, 2018 22:30
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I watched more than I thought but not too many memorable series Rokuhodo Yotsuiro Biyori: Great VA and food for a calming cafe anime. Also another meeting another tea fan. The Ancient Magus's Bride: There's some rough ep but some of the moving scenes looked great animated and VA. I liked the other OVA too. I hope the anime boosted the manga's popularity since it's a good/calming series. Violet Evergarden: Lovely animation and interesting FeMC. I prefer the adaptation to the LN and wondering if they ever plan on adding an OVA.
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Dec 27, 2018 22:51
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Alder posted:Violet Evergarden: Lovely animation and interesting FeMC. I prefer the adaptation to the LN and wondering if they ever plan on adding an OVA.
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Dec 27, 2018 22:53
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