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drpsychobabble · 6 months ago

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2024 Anime List - Special mentions

A cheat list despite already cheating plenty in the previous lists

Let it be known that assembling this one, even when I'm saving up for a Special List, was quite difficult. So I had to repeatedly break my completely arbitrary rules to allow myself to talk about this year's many shows that gave me a significant amount of enjoyment. This list has no real order.

Quality Assurance in Another World

First off is a show I tried hard to like but one that fell short for multiple reasons.

"This world is too defective" is a fun take on the basic premise of being trapped into a computer game, because this time the people trapped aren't regular players but rather playtesters who were tasked with checking all of the game's bugs. However it became quickly known that none of the outsourced companies that were doing the checking could log out of the game. An indeterminate amount of time went by and now the testers have realized that they are trapped for the moment.

There is no way to communicate with the outside world other than sending in bug reports, which does indeed end up in bugs getting fixed. So that is the set up for a mystery that a lot of the testers are not bothering to solve because they choose to rather focus on leisure to manage their anxiety.

The protagonist is an extremely rare devoted tester who dutifully keeps checking everything for bugs. That, his humility and unusual stocky build make him stand out and be likeable enough to lure you in. His companion is an NPC that is suffering from a bug that allows her some freedom and the protagonist chooses to give free rein to her. Her innocence provides some comedy and also a point of reference for how real the NPCs can be considered to be.

We have other party members later on, but that is enough. Because the issue is that the show ends up being uneven. Episodic, disconnected. The animation is also inconsistent and often very stiff, which may be due to the show choosing to use some detailed models that are hard to work with.

Perhaps I will pick up the manga to see the mysteries solved. Because I really don't think the show is getting another season.

But I would recommend it for the promise of a mystery.

Trillion Game

The Crying Freeman artist and the writer from Dr. Stone? What is this, a crossover episode?!

The writer brings back his methodical progressive approach combined with emotional beats to carry this story about two young people breaking the system to accumulate a trillion dollars in order to become a top company in the world.

The show is interesting because it manages to have the fun story beats with clever moves, tricks and scams. But also it never becomes entirely clear if the story is in support of the pointless greed or if it's exposing how much of business is built on lies rather than actual practical skills.

The cast combines a shy computer whiz kid and an extremely social compulsive liar, which presents a dynamic that is always risking some clashes. A third member eventually shows up that is more in line with the computer kid, but it hasn't been clear what her role is in the long run just yet.

To get some Dr Stone in a "normal" modern setting, this is the show.

Isekai Suicide Squad

I am essentially just here to say that the show was the most predictable it could have been.

The Suicide Squad formula is simple enough that it should be really hard to mess up (looking at you, Suicide Squad 2016...). A bunch of selfish oddballs at odds with each other focus on accomplishing a single task under duress. Along the way they develop team work and with their own perspectives about how life should be they manage to change people's lives.

You combine that with "isekai" and you get a romp through a fantasy world to deal with various factions, betrayals, and fresh magic powers that enhance them. We even get some fun transformation sequences, though only in the final episode.

It did not stand out much, but it was fun enough. Special mention to the ending sung by Mori Calliope that shows off Amanda Waller's dancing skills. Always a good character to see.

Tonari no Youkai

I enjoyed this show but I understand very well why it seems like it was ignored by most people. The narrative takes a strange scattered approach with multiple ongoing plots that quickly cut between each other with no sense of rhyme or reason nor even a theme. Not even the finale manages to feel like it wrapped everything up in a package, neat or otherwise.

But it's interesting. It has the essence of something thoughtful that attracted my attention. A moody air of melancholy is also unusual for a seasonal show. Many characters are dealing with issues of identity and mortality, so that's where it mostly comes from.

The gist of the show is that it's a peek at a world where various spirits live together with regular people in a completely well integrated fashion. Our point of view character is an old cat that instead of passing away he turned into a nekomata, giving him an extended lease on life and transformation abilities he needs to practice. His newfound ability to communicate with his family helps him grow even closer, but also presents him with the complicated thoughts that come from realizing that he will now be the one that outlives the people he loves.

Various relationships between spirits or half spirits drive the show, but the one I want to highlight is the one between a car tsukumogami and his recently widowed owner. From the get go I picked up that he talked about him in a very loving way, which got my attention as Wagen is male-presenting and the owner was also a man. As his story was unveiled and we learned about his owner's long marriage with a woman I was doubting I had been correct about my assessment. But then the story doubled down and put their love into unequivocal words. Wagen loves Kazuhiko and he loves him back. Their love is what slowly helps Kazuhiko recover from his grief.

The messiness of the show makes it hard to recommend, but I feel like it still sticks with me so maybe it can offer something to someone else.

Yakuza Fiancee

To be honest, this show should have been in my Good list but it got spontaneously edged out as I kept cheating and adding double-entries.

A romantic comedy about yakuza with two rough and tumble protagonists? I was -so- in from the get go.

Yoshino and Kirishima are really fun characters to watch back and forth. Yoshino because she oscillates between laid back and vicious with ease, being a little bit naive but also harshly aware of it and expertly navigating it. Kirishima meanwhile is a dangerous masochist that will get into multiple difficult situations for the joy of it, making him very attractive but also repulsive whenever he's exercising violence... which is also attractive. His exterior hides a complicated past and deeper pain that is also interesting to see unfold and be slowly explored.

The ongoing plot about various crimes and Tokyo-Kyoto factions in conflict is also quite promising, but they don't get any significant resolution in the show.

It's certainly a story I'll keep reading in the manga since a second season is unlikely.

Isekai Shikaku

No Longer Allowed In Another World is also, "interesting". It can be read as a simple comedy-adventure, but the premise allows some space for some throughtful elements.

The Writer is there to make sense of each person's narrative and to present it to them so they can reflect on their life and how it's best used, which allows them to return to the Real World and abandon the escapist fantasy.

Some very cruel people are not allowed the respite so they are Dealt With in more conventional ways.

The constant gags about the Writer seeking death do get a bit old, but it is what it is.

365 Days to the Wedding

This one gets a special mention because the anime production was pretty lacking and also cuts the story short! Unforgivable!

Tamiki Wakaki has never fully left my mind since his "The World God Only Knows" concluded. A premise that appears superficially questionable gives way to a deeper narrative that ran across the entire story, leading into one of the most satisfying ends a manga could provide.

In line with my interest in romantic games he resurfaced last year with 16-Bit Sensation, which made me look up what else he had been up to recently. And that's how I found the manga for 365 Days. I got invested instantly and kept up with it week by week until its conclusion.

It's different from his other works since it's more grounded in reality while also avoiding the most extreme dramatic developments. It is simply a solid adult romance between two people that have problems expressing themselves and also a reflection on the meaning of marriage.

Charming characters with fun unusual quirks add a touch of color that keeps things entertaining and you have a solid work.

The anime... well, it has voices and a few fun cuts. But it was not very impressive. The manga is a must.

Mysterious Disappearances

This series has an interesting approach to the occult through some references to classical and modern texts. It's not quite a mystery since the supernatural element is always beyond conventional rationality, but it manages to feel like one as the characters try to figure out what's happening step by step.

The cast is fun enough and it's amusing to see the banter between the two protagonists as they share a friendship with a tinge of romance.

What gets in the way of fully enjoying this is that it has a lot, A LOT of leery fanservice. And it ends up feeling jarring when trying to take the stories seriously. And the main problem is that it starts with the lead herself and her extreme proportions. The camera insists on emphasizing them and to make things worse characters will comment on them very often.

Sengoku Youko

At the very least from the point of view of the anime adaptation... The most chaotic work by Mizukami.

Sengoku Youko is a story that spans 2 generations of characters and Then Some but it never feels like it has an overarching story. Just the transient goals of life in a world between finite mortality and fantastical longevity.

The production was definitely better than the horrendous disaster that was Biscuit Hammer, but it also suffered from some flaws and shortcuts.

I am glad that I watched it but I don't know how I would even start trying to sell this to anyone.

Noble Farmer season 2

Not a lot to say here other than reminding people about Hiromu Arakawa's comedic chops.

This series feels like more Silver Spoon without the burden of plot. It's just a bunch of farm topics from general knowledge or anecdotes.

It's a short anime so it's a lot of fun in short bursts. There's even a third season coming so I'm looking forward to that!

#anime #2024 anime #anime list

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drpsychobabble · 6 months ago

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drpsychobabble · 6 months ago

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2024 Anime List - The Good

11. The Fable / The Elusive Samurai

Since I'm already cheating right from the start, I'll be brief.

The Fable is a show I found fascinating because the first episode kept me guessing about what was the tone. Mostly because it was very dry in delivery, which could work for a serious drama. But the show makes it work wonders for comedy as well.

Finding out that Ryosuke Takahashi was directing quickly cemented my decision to keep up with the show, and I was not disappointed. Sure, the visuals are not the best. Sometimes things look off model, and the limited action isn't the flashiest or most fluid. But the show knows what it's doing and hits every seriously ridiculous situation right where it should be.

A story about a dedicated Hitman piecing together a humanity through his multiple encounters with a normal daily life (and sometimes not so normal).

And then there's The Elusive Samurai, which surprised me despite the identifying badge of being a Shonen Jump title.

The production manages to use various tools to create unique moments that stand out visually, producing that world that is on the borderline with pure fantasy while remaining historical fiction.

I always favor historical fiction so it did not take much for this show to attract my attention. Since the wait for more is going to take a while, it's likely that I'll switch to the manga. But at the very least I'm happy I gave the anime a shot.

10. Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF / Kinnikuman Perfect Origin arc

A bizarre pairing but both of the shows are deserving of that position right on the edge, where I want to talk a little bit about them.

For most people who could care a Spice and Wolf show did not offer much at all, probably. They had already seen the original back in the 'aughts. However it happens that I had not. So not only I benefited from the new production, I also enjoyed a story that was new to me.

And so I did. It is a story that is nowadays very unusual among the many other seasonal shows. Episodic, low on action, quiet. The heart and soul of the show are scenes of conversation and that is fantastic.

The back and forth between the titular Spice and Wolf feels unusual for anime, a more mature interaction that isn't as charged with expected fan-service appeal. Through it the mystery of Holo unfolds little by little, as we take the perspective of the patient Lawrence who is ready to listen to her but won't push her to explain anything.

Studio Passione did a decent job with the show's appearance, perhaps containing their worst tendencies to over-exaggerate some things.

And then.

After hearing the news that a new Kinnikuman show was arriving, I realized that... Kinnikuman had continued. Due to the dub version of Nisei annoying me as it was the dub of the American adaptation, I always avoided that sequel. But I was glad to find out that the creative duo Yudetamago had also taken into consideration the Nisei dead-end and started an increasingly divergent path that continued the story from the end of the original Kinnikuman manga. So, of course, I re-read the whole thing.

Kinnikuman is a thing that is very much the true spirit of Shonen Jump. A shameless sequence of exciting nonsense full of dumb gags and constant retcons. At one point the villains steal the heroes' friendship, which was stored inside a box. It's brilliant.

However it's also very casually racist. Characters like Ramenman live between being admirable and a cartoonish parody of a Chinese person. Geronimo has an incredible story about aspiring to be a superhero while being a normal human, but also he's a cartoonish parody of an Apache (maybe, doubt the authors originally thought about which tribe is he actually from). Brocken Jr dresses up like his nazi father.

I would call it a very childish way to portray other people that could fly easily in the 70s and early 80s. It's there and it's part of the lifeblood of the series, so I have to do the due diligence and mention it.

Perfect Origin Arc started in the 2010s, so at the very least I expect more sensitivity out of it. The anime at the very least adjusted Brocken Jr's uniform so it looked less like... what it is.

I enjoyed the show quite a bit because it managed to provide me with more of the original manga's nonsense and fun surprises. Completely ridiculous characters figuring out how to fight other completely ridiculous characters is simply Just Fun. I'm not particularly into wrestling but this is when I can understand the fans of that the most.

The arc also brings back the Devil Chojin, something I could appreciate more because I had recently done the re-read. And it makes all of them shine.

Poor Buffaloman rejoins the Devil Chojin but has to pretend to be fully into their camp since he is still clearly a Justice Chojin to the core.

I await the next season so I can be surprised by even more unexpected reversals and crazy tricks and powers.

9. The dangers in my heart s2

I will keep repeating how I'm vulnerable to starting something with a negative impression and then the impression turning around. My appreciation always overcompensates. This series benefits greatly from it because not only it manages to grow past the initial awful premise, but also it makes "growing up" a core theme.

The way the series deals with the protagonist slowly maturing and realizing he is put me in mind of, specifically, a couple of novels I really liked in my youth. Vasconcelos' "My Sweet Orange Tree" and its direct sequel "Let's Warm Up The Sun" (my own attempt at awkward translation for that one). Both follow the lonely thoughts of a child growing up in modest poverty and later on adopted by a wealthier family but still in disconnect with his peers and himself as he goes through adolescence. The self-centered perspective and extreme drama it creates echoes in all works as we can easily place this in the "coming of age" category.

But the series offers me another favorite: a dual perspective in a romance. Not only we remain in Ichitaka Kyotaro's head, we can also spy from the very beginning that Yamada Anna's behavior accuses her own inner feelings about the world in general but also about this classmate of hers that she happens to find herself interested in. Even though she is the more demonstrative of the two regarding her feelings, she still keeps as much as Kyotaro bottled up. Her fears and anxieties are always at the bursting point. And that's where he can understand her and offer the reassurance that he himself has isolated from.

The anime improves on the manga with ease, rearranging each episode to keep a consistent theme and the satisfying beat of taking a step forward in the path to growing up.

It's also -really funny. so there's also that.

8. Astro Note

In this position I'm playing favorites to explain why I placed this show so high. For one it's an Original. But the other side of that coin is the obvious inspiration in Maison Ikkoku and generally the romcoms of the late 80s.

Astro Note is a show that probably flew under most radars since it's not exactly easy to grasp what it is doing. It's hard not to just compare it to "a Rumiko Takahashi remix" given the already mentioned main inspiration for the romantic comedy aspects, but also the sci-fi components bring forth an Urusei Yatsura quality.

The cast of tenants in the titular Astro Note lodging is quite colorful and entertaining, each of them providing their own brand of silliness to spice up the dynamics in the house.

The two-faced idol, who provides some musical bits and drunken slob comedy.

The jobless salaryman and his precocious child who not only open the path to a story about adoption and the love of a found family, but also explores the child's interest in reflecting about their gender identity. The fact that the overly concerned father agrees to let them experiment but only at home and that compromise is seen as not enough is an interesting and unexpected path to explore. It doesn't take up a lot of the show's run time but I liked seeing it.

Then there's the elderly resident who laments the passing former Manager and dear friend.

And the extremely shy girl who slowly left her room to find that the man she loved had moved in.

The main couple is formed between a chef seeking a place to belong and an alien princess who is only there to find a token from her galactic kingdom that would allow her to inherit according to the strict customs that keep her from exploring her newfound pleasure in experimenting things for herself. Namely: food.

It is simply a pleasant and fun romance with a solid and exciting conclusion.

7. Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!

With a name like that it was simply impossible for me not to watch this show.

As someone who has consumed many a romcom back in the day, I recognized a pattern in my behavior that kept making me root for the most obvious "losing heroines". Those characters that have an honest interest in the protagonist and try their best to break their shell and appeal. But ultimately fall to the fateful power of The Main Heroine

So, how about a show where -all the heroines are losing heroines-? A collection of notable weirdo losers that completely fail to grab the attention of the people they like. Not through a fault of their own but rather because they are too late to act, too slow to openly reveal their feelings.

To accompany them on this ride we have the Tepid Water of Protagonists, Nukumizu. We are obviously expecting him to pick up the pieces and end up with any one of these losers. But Nukumizu's role in the story is mainly to be a companion first to these girls who are Going Through It. From his own cowardice and slowness to act or reflect on his feelings Nukumizu prioritizes offering a shoulder for them to lean on as they are rejected.

Another very enjoyable aspect of the show is the Literature Club activities which allow us to peer into the world of those people who publish their stories to Absolutely Not Shosetsuka Ni Narou. A collection of web novel / light novel gags and parodies keep providing funny gags and mild critiques of the space this story itself shares.

Another strong point that should not go unmentioned is the show's visual style. The moody palette really makes the show stand out above the rest. Though it also puts their full effort into... honestly unnecessary fanservice scenes. This show feels better than *that*. But ah well, it's there.

I hope the show returns soon.

6. Mayonaka Punch

From the dead of night, good morning! Mayonaka PUNCH!

A completely unexpected original show with a very fun premise that deals with a glamorous but mundane thing while also incorporating fantasy concepts largely for comedy's sake.

Masaki is a youtuber, in trade and in essence. She's always thinking about new ideas for videos and doing her best to execute them at the best of her ability, editing and all. However this makes her a very tense person, as she's constantly faced with the unpredictable whims and cruelty of the internet. Which comes to a boil when her frustration turns a casual argument into a shouting match and, finally... She ends up punching her partners live on stream. The girls she had been friends with and working with for years turn their backs on her, dropping her as fast as they could to get rid of the weight of the public perception as a toxic person.

But when she's at her lowest point she runs into... a vampire! Called Live! And she REALLY wants to taste Masaki's blood. But she needs her consent. So Masaki has a condition. Live will help her launch a new youtube channel... and if they hit 1 million subscribers... She can be Live's meal.

This is the basic premise and it doesn't stray much further from this. The introduction of Live's mansion and the other vampires that live with her extend the cast and introduces more fun personalities to work stories with. Episodes slowly show the channel's development but also a couple focus on the other vampires and their very vampire-like way of suffering tragedy. A stand out episode devotes to Fu, the shy one in the group, who is invited to sing for the show but declines the chance. And this makes the others learn about a chance she missed to be able to do music with another woman, stopped by her concern about being found out as a vampire if she stepped on the limelight. But that very essence is what allows her to forever keep thinking about that partner she betrayed.

A very funny, very energetic show, that still manages to hit key emotional beats with ease.

5. Puniru is a Kawaii slime

Lately I end up gravitating towards shows that have some of the energy from 80s or 90s shows far more than more current ones.

Luckily for me those seem to be proliferating.

Puniru is a Corocoro show, which means it's aiming for a younger audience than the average Shonen Jump and etc series. As it's sometimes said, it's "peepee poopoo humor". And sometimes the simplest humor just hits best.

The show shines by having a cast of All Idiots who are constantly acting dumb in their own special ways.

Our Kawaii protagonist (not the slime) is suffering from growing pains and is overly concerned about revealing his personal preference for cutesy things, instead trying very hard to appear "cool" in front of his crush. This is however a partial lie because he actually doesn't try very hard at anything. We have a Nobita who thinks highly of himself in comparison to his companion but does absolutely nothing deserving of attention or recognition.

Meanwhile the titular Puniru is the archetype of the Nosy Annoying Character. Puniru proudly proclaims their cuteness at every possible opportunity. They simply cannot believe they could be considered to be not cute. And most of the world definitely agrees... but not Kotaro. Puniru wants him to admit it as he used to when he was younger. Puniru is, also and by the way, a slime. Mixing some borax and laundry starch we somehow ended up creating life. Their form is very flexible and quite sticky. This also allows Puniru to mix in additional ingredients to perform a transformation into various shapes and costumes... As long as they are Cute.

We round up the cast by having...

Mami, the love interest, who has a deep love for performing the role of a mother. She needs to be in jail.

Nanpa! Initially thought to be a sort of PUA type, Nanpa is not a playboy. He's a play boy (I completely stole this equivalent wordplay from someone else, but it's perfect). Nanpa is completely committed to enjoying youthful passions to the extreme. He doesn't think about how old he is, he just loves to have fun with his toys and children's card games.

Alice fulfills the spot of the haughty rich kid, but her loneliness comes forth clearly in all her actions. She is dedicated to making the friend she imagined in childhood into a worldwide appreciated mascot just like her dad's company's Kyuthi-chan (essentially Hello Kitty). Seeing Puniru she also wishes her Runrune was alive, which ends up in her personal maid creating a simple toy robot Runrune who disappoints her by proving to be Just A Toy.

That robot who later gets a separate name, Runru, seems to have a plot cooking up...

In short, it's a very silly show with very fun visual gags that are only mildly gross in their sliminess.

4. Ranma 1/2 (2024) / Urusei Yatsura season 2 (2024)

How am I writing about two mega classics of manga and anime showing up in 2024? How is it possible that my first favorite series is back and once again shining as bright as it could?

It's not like this list isn't just my personal bias from start to finish, but this entry is definitely the most biased of all. Rumiko Takahashi's works have been with me for almost 30 years.

The year started with the last of the new Urusei Yatsura. Colorful and energetic, it properly represented the dynamism in Takahashi's pages. Some people were at odds regarding the stories chosen, but I had a blast with all the hijinks regardless. It seemed to give Ryunosuke as much time as possible which felt like a hint that Ranma might happen later... And, SURPRISE!

I can't say much else about UY that isn't just describing. Explosive comedy of horrible people being horrible with occasional moments of emotional sincerity.

I expected the show to end in the Fate Doors arc as it is a proper capstone for the spirit of the series: "Ataru does love Lum but he just wants to play around". But they did end in the very final arc which had the grandiose feel of a movie.

Ranma, it's just Ranma. Eye opening at the time in many ways, it's still at its core a very funny series about a bunch of horrible people being amusingly horrible. The Takahashi formula of comedy never fails!

Childish Ranma butts heads with the equally stubborn Akane while the swirling spirit of martial arts chaos envelops them. The ever expanding cast only adds more and more characters to yell more and louder.

The new show brought back the original anime's cast back and the growth in their voices is palpable. With hindsight they are able to enhance the things that matter most, so we're getting a Ranma that plays the emotional beats with a much richer depth than the first time around.

I hope the show fuels a new generation's fantasies and once again illuminates how much of gender is purely performative.

3. Oshi no Ko season 2

The show's first season was my number one for 2023.

By the time I'm writing the list the manga has been over for some months. And it was an ending I found quite unsatisfying.

But I don't believe the diminished position is connected to that and it's simply that my preferences found other things to focus on.

Because this second season was absolutely fantastic. The theater play arc is likely my favorite one in all of the manga, and the anime made it shine while taking into account the irony of an adaptation playing the story of an adaptation.

The cast of actors get to show off their different acting philosophies while the production meets trouble after trouble because of adaptation woes and later on from the author of the original work directly.

That this all connects to the first season's brief Drama arc only makes things better. The bonds between Akane and Kana shine through as they shift from rivals to admirer and idol and back to rivals, professionally and romantically.

The plot at large also continues as the arc wraps up but foreknowledge prevents me from enjoying those parts as much as I could if I counted on ignorance.

Despite the disappointment I do want to keep watching how the show handles the rest of the story.

2. Dungeon Meshi

And talking about adaptations... here's another one that knocks it out of the park. Studio Trigger keeps doing their best work when they have help from outside writers. And Ryoko Kui served them a magnificent story to work with.

In years where dozens of series about fantasy worlds with game mechanics flood the pages and screens, Dungeon Meshi does the same thing but in a different universe of quality entirely. The gaming inspirations for the setting and mechanics are clear, but the author makes everything their own by being completely earnest.

The theme of "meals" is woven incredibly well through the entire story, connecting all the characters little by little as they can all join the same "table" and share the same food.

An excellent cast of characters with plenty of depth and full backstories help the show keep its feet on the ground at all times.

And, of course, the comedy glues everything together and keeps it as Fun as it could be.

Hopefully next year I'll be able to write more about why I love this story so much, when a second season ends the show.

1. Brave Bang Bravern

There was no way for this show not to be my number one.

Bravern is a show that was custom made for me.

It plays both ends of the mecha spectrum, with the military tragedy on one side and the BRAVE heroism on the other.

It's a comedy. It's a romance.

It's simply beautiful.

Masami Obari worked on this project and tried to play a prank on the audience by making it seem that the show was going to be -just- the military side. And nearing the end of the episode I was quite pleased with how things were going! But as the end was approaching BRAVERN! arrived and completely changed everything. In a few seconds the discombobulated Isami was riding inside the colorful talking hero robot, teaming up to save the world against an alien threat.

The name quite clearly shows that Bravern is inspired by the many shows in the Brave series that Obari worked on through the years.

And to add to that the companionship between the human and robot turns to straight up romance, as Bravern is openly fixated on Isami. This creates a tiny romantic triangle as fellow pilot Smith was also smitten with Isami's bravery in the military exercise they shared before the invading alien forces hit the planet.

The family circle expands when Smith finds a strange young girl who only talks in "beeps" (GAGA PIII!) and was being used by the invading robots as a disposable battery for enhanced power. Smith ends up taking care of her and she gets to quickly grow up and becomes part of the team of two dads, an additional robot dad and one robot uncle.

Blow by blow Isami and Smith find an understanding and Isami also manages to do the same for Bravern, all of their bonds growing ever closer.

A subtle but very ingenious component is naming the invaders "Death Drives", which helps create a very psychoanalytic tale (even more material to appeal to my very specific tastes).

The show simply has it all and it remains the most fun I've ever had with a weekly series in the entire year.

Well, that's it. Go home!

A "special" list is forthcoming Soon (tm).

#anime #anime list #anime 2024 #bang brave bang bravern #ranma 1/2

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drpsychobabble · 6 months ago

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2024 Anime List - The Bad (*)

This is the first list that I wrote, since I'm naturally negative and I thought that once again it'd be the easier one.

I feel like the Good list came to me much more naturally and I struggled getting this one done.

I want to say that none of these are actually THAT bad (except Tasuketsu) because they held my attention by being frustrating, amusingly bad or having a good moment here and there. So, that's my asterisk.

10. Kaiju No. 8 / GO! GO! Loser Ranger!

It's probably the most damning thing about these shows that, while I obsessively keep track of shows I watch by collecting screen captures from them... I just had nothing for these ones.

Both popular manga, as I had heard, the anime versions happened to run at the same time and had good buzz behind them. So I gave them a shot. Both of them seemed tangentially related to recently renewed interests as I go through the original Ultraman shows and have a lot of fun with them.

Kaiju no.8 has a very strong first episode that presents a different (if not particularly fresh) perspective on the giant monster scenario. Someone has to deal with the messy aftermath of every battle. It put me in mind of Marvel Comics' old Damage Control.

A touch of sadness as the protagonist had his frustrations about wanting to have been one of the fighters instead of the clean up crew, it also presented a non-standard older protagonist.

However all the accumulated good will is tossed aside instantly as soon as the protagonist acquires powers. Suddenly it's My Hero Academia again and the 28 year old protagonist acts exactly the same as a teenager (save the couple of times he complains about underperforming in comparison to the Young Ones). A childhood promise, a secret to keep, mysterious edgy villains... I have seen this all before. It is dull.

Meanwhile Loser Ranger is yet another story about a sentai team outside of the realm of toku shows. I have mostly enjoyed other shows out of that trend. But Loser Ranger is determined to be The Boys (as the staff of the anime adaptation mentioned in an interview). And The Boys already exists.

It's a collection of horrible characters being horrible to a different group of horrible characters and a story that never quite feels like it's advancing as it expands in multiple directions without any impact. The show also decided to end the season without any kind of exciting cliffhanger or interesting developments. It just came and went.

9. Vampire Dormitory

Now this is the Real Shit here. Bad, I should maybe clarify, does not necessarily mean it's not enjoyable. And this terrible show is probably the most enjoyable out of this lot.

A completely ridiculous romance that hinges on the most absurd secret and has a cast of outlandish characters, supernatural and otherwise.

Absolutely stupid how this could JUST be about a vampire boy romancing a guy against the "vampire society" that insists on him finding his "destined partner" (who must be a woman). But no, the boy he likes has to secretly be a woman who disguises as a man because ??? The story says that she does it for safety as her family kicked her out because she was just too much of a bother to keep around, but given how she keeps getting fired from jobs because "he's too pretty and causes problems" I fail to see the advantage. This is disappointing on every possible level... But it also makes it really, really funny.

It's all about that short hair wig from the gif above.

8. Good Bye Dragon Life

Trying to find distractions in these last few months, some mistakes were made. This show did not surprise me being bad. I knew what it was from the get go. Bottom of the barrel Shousetsuka Ni Narou slop.

A story with a reincarnation element that exists to justify the protagonist having incredible powers, it stands out as bad because the protagonist is even more of an empty husk than the average Isekai Protagonist. His deadpan approach to everything sharply contradicts the conceit of this deity wanting to live a regular life.

The admission of fault here lies in thinking the show would feature more of the snake character. But it kept taking every possible shortcut not to show the character outside of portrait or static scenes. What's the point, then?

An honorable mention to the one time the show popped as it shocked me into disgust when the characters entered a milk drinking contest using the milk from one of the characters' minotaur wife. The way that scene starts and ends uncommented on reflects the style of writing one would expect from a web novel.

7. Demon Lord, Retry! R / Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low-Level Spells

Another double whammy as more shows flow into my mind and need to do some last moment rearranging.

No surprise, it's more Shousetsuka Ni Narou. Both isekai but the two are pretty different within that slop pit.

Retry is a show I engaged with out of a sense of self-punishment, which is not that uncommon. Years ago (5 or so) I chose one bad isekai show to watch in a slow season. I hated it then, but not enough to drop it. The show was very clearly trying to mimic the Overlord series while excising the nastier parts of it but also the core conceit of an incompetent boss managing his company full of people that are vastly more capable than him.

Retry is just power fantasy slop. Accumulating characters that love the protagonist, building a village, etc, etc. Trite to bring up those things.

Thing is, they made another season. For some reason. And it seemed like it was going to be a remake (the wording was unclear about this). But it wasn't. It was a sequel from an already terrible show that got even worse.

All those nasty aspects removed? Back in full force and treated in a completely casual way. Not for comedy, not for shock. Those things were just There. A new character was repeatedly tortured and their body altered? "That's rough, buddy" and we move on.

Animation also took a significant hit, with missing keys everywhere and objects just sliding across the screen at the best of times. Just atrocious.

And on that same page I'll give Failure Frame a mention as a "dark revenge isekai" that moved at the pace of molasses with a methodical approach to carefully leveling up the titular skills.

The protagonist used his personality of "angry" to repeatedly paralyze and literally waited until his enemies died from it. Over and over. For the entire show.

His very static style of fighting helped the show's animation... in theory. As the show kept shifting between 2D and CG styles in a very jarring way.

6. A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School!

I found this show tremendously frustrating.

The concept is: there's a silly teacher that goes to a school for youkai. Hijinks ensue. That's it. It sounds like the easiest premise to work with. You just need to write school situations and jokes while taking advantage of what kind of youkai each student is.

The show certainly does try to do that but it seemingly gives up after the first episode. It was not particularly good, but things take a nosedive right away.

The jokes either don't work or are stock gags that could be in any other series. Or, worse, the series relies on the running gags related to the teacher being a coward, "silly" and meddlesome or the worst one: his fetishistic obsession with all sorts of uniforms (which gives him comical super strength or unlocks his actual exorcist powers).

The very large cast either fades into the background or is unappealing and unfunny when they spend the most time on screen.

Again, frustrating. This show should work. But it does not.

5. My Deer Friend Nokotan

Few things are as bad as a bad comedy. Any other kind of story can be enjoyed through some irony or from the perspective of imagining fun fixes.

But with a comedy the exercise of script doctoring is hardly enjoyable because it amounts to essentially making yourself laugh.

The show is honestly not as bad as many other shows (this very list indicates it clearly) but the spontaneous attention it grabbed (through a catchy song and instant comparisons to a show as notable as Nichijou) played against it.

The series has 2 jokes of its own and then a collection of reference humor. The jokes are "deer horns" and "deer crackers".

The characters are all underwritten even by comedy standards. The lead protagonist has a past as a delinquent she wants to hide, but we never really see her try hard at keeping up appearances and even then no one really cares so there's none of the tension that could make the double-face comical. The titular deer girl meanwhile is "silly" and that's fine, it is a classic character type. She doesn't have a whole lot to bounce with, though, and that makes her fall flat in all the non sequiturs and the like.

To try to describe the rest of the characters is nearly a moot point because they don't even have solid traits that identify them. We have "overly attached incestuous sister" as the most memorable for the worst possible reasons.

It did have a very catchy and fun Opening, though.

4. Re:Monster

The stand-out isekai from this year.

A series with the worst aspects of a methodical progression, it trips into screens with an already absurd premise. We go from a world of sci-fi and special powers to a world of fantasy... and special powers.

Dull narration from the protagonist makes sure we keep track of all the Special Skills he acquires and every single "evolution" or "class change" or piece of equipment, etc that his entire team gets. More time is spent on this than on any attempt to have anything resembling a "story" or "character depth" or "motivations".

The show's structure which divides things in days arbitrarily only serves to eat up over 5 minutes of time across the episodes.

The show's looks are very, very poor. Character models are hardly kept consistent (the fact that they keep changing must have been challenging), but also the animation relies either on after-effects or simply sliding things on the screen. A very ugly show.

Special mention, because it must be said, to the Opening sequence. Visually it is about on the same level as the rest of the show. But the song that accompanies it is quite silly, singing at one point: "ding ding dong like King Kong".

A lot less fun but also necessary: the show is following goblins, so this carries over the relatively recent trends in portrayal of those fantasy creatures. Nothing is shown on screen, but a lot is implied and more often than not in a comical tone. While this is not as bad as other shows, it remains abhorrent and disgusting. The protagonist glosses over this by being "the good one" and respecting victims and sparing the rest. This helps not at all. This did not need to be an element in this story.

3. Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture

Do you get it? Rozè? ZERO? Eh? EH? EEHHHHHHH?

Nearly all of Code Geass past the original show has been atrocious. I reserve judgement on the Resurrection movie until I actually watch it. The original show played things fast and loose, moving its pieces around for the sake of fun twists and exciting moments. A cast of theatrical characters grandstanding as if their lives depended on it.

But I will argue that at the core Geass had some thought behind it, enough to construct a story that didn't completely betray itself.

Rozé feels like a direct copy of Geass that tried to reproduce the broad structure of it, but crammed into a fourth of the length. This resulted in creating a colorful and loud spectacle that failed to impress or signify anything at every possible turn.

Things just accumulate and never resolve. The double identity of the protagonist and domination over her partner fall flat because the partner was always meant to protect the protagonist, so all it did was delay a romance that "tragically" never came to fruition (there is no tragedy to this because the characters had absolutely no chemistry and barely any scenes together, much less romantic ones). The Curse Of Geass shouldn't be one because in theory it was obtained from people who know very well about the dangers of it, so they wouldn't pass it on unless it was safe. But it's forced into tragedy through scientific villains that appear and leave the story without any effect. The extended cast is indistinguishable beyond which characters are "tough man" "schlubby man" or "fanservice bait woman". One villain stands out with a particularly revealing outfit, and an attempt to create a narrative of redemption around her to justify her presence. It does not.

Minor mention to returning characters in cameo fashion, but one specifically to Nina Einstein. The woman that invented the Super Nuke just for the purpose of eliminating the Japanese. She now shows up to claim that she was "just thinking about the numbers" and she feels real bad about making a genocide doomsday device. We forgive her, right?

Absolutely insulting beyond everything else is to ignore the entire conflict as it was introduced in the first episode, to reveal that the main villain of the show is a carbon copy of Gundam Unicorn's Full Frontal, with some Gundam SEED's Rau Le Creuset tossed in for good measure. And that is not even all! Because this villain is also Charles from the original show! And his method to Kill Everyone is essentially the same as Gundam F91 Iron Mask's. Without any real build up or actual Emotions one can only see the obvious "inspirations" as the one thing that manages to stand out.

But, overall... The show is just Not Fun. If your Geass is not fun, give up.

2. Tasuketsu -Fate of the Majority-

I'm making a special exception for this show, as I am presumably one episode before the end. All other shows I've watched in their entirety. Now, why make an exception for this one?

Because the show is one of the most blatant examples of something written completely on the fly, lacking cohesion and often being incoherent.

I started watching this show purposefully to enjoy a Bad Show, as this was clear from the first episode on the basis of animation, writing and performances. However the key factor was the type of show this appeared to be: a "death game" story.

As a story trend this show arrives very late to the game, and it wasn't bringing anything good. Poorly defined and simultaneously overcomplicated rules made the "game" hard to understand (or impossible, because it just wasn't thought out). That was the main appeal. The show's name indicates the game: every day at midnight a question would be posed and whichever was the majority in that question's criteria would be magically killed.

However an extraneous element was the presence of "special powers" which could be acquired. Now, if the issue is an external absolute force, why are Special Powers necessary? That would fit a different kind of story, like a Powers Battle or a Battle Royale type. Ah. There's an idea, said the author, probably.

On the road a condition was added to acquire a power, the sacrifice of a body part (could the person choose? was it chosen for them? who would they confer with to decide? none of this is explained). This generally did not matter, and for the characters who did have a notable loss, they just compensated it in a way that eliminated the downside. Special mention to the guy that sacrificed his testicles to get the power of infinite bullets and this made him immune to getting kicked in the groin.

Eventually the show devolved into a "Powers Battle" type with unclear goals, while the presumed protagonist kept fading into the background. The lack of powers made him uninteresting to the author, I can only presume.

Mercifully the show ends when they confront the shadow authority behind the "death game" they were mostly ignoring. This is at the cost of the protagonist's life (and his... girlfriend? even though they had 2 scenes together at most...).

Except it didn't. It goes on straight into a sort of second season with a remixed cast and a new enemy. And the plot continues to change the rules and characters from there.

The show is fun to make fun of for a while but as it keeps shifting it becomes really dull and never quite hits the same heights of stupidity because there is no real baseline to split from.

Perhaps I'll edit this when the final episode airs. Perhaps the ending will make everything worth... no of course it won't.

This is probably the worst show of the year. But it started as trash and remained trash without any expectations to betray. Unlike...

1. Metallic Rouge

While this show has NOTHING on the show I labeled as 2023's worst (Magical Girl Destroyers) it also suffered from a similar effect. A great first impression that suffers from a near instant sharp decline that accelerates as the show goes along.

A show with a cyberpunk style! Telling the most reheated and generic cyberpunk story without any flair, complications or reflections on the modern world.

A yuri romance! With one of the participants being a child in a grown up body. And also (thankfully) barely any romance to speak of, largely symbolic.

A Dirty Pair appeal! With both characters having bland personalities and not standing out. One because She Is A Child so her role is being confused about things and reacting. The other because her role as "secretive" means that she never actually participates from the stories and takes a passive attitude.

Mecha powersuits! Filling in time with dull battles that have barely weight to them because they never feel emotionally authentic. Artificially choreographed is what I would call them, and even then not even that well.

A mystery story! Where nothing really matters and everyone is arguing whether to do something or not for ages without actually presenting valid confronting points. It's all about the aliens off screen that want to destabilize mankind, maybe.

Overall what makes me condemn this show is the sense of deep disappointment and boredom. It felt like a waste of time to keep up with it week to week just to see a flaccid finale. Very competent people were involved in making this show, but it was a complete miss.

#anime #seasonal anime #2024 anime

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