#I know it's just tera here but I have been storming things in my brain (she is silly-cute too)

[mewkwota]

The script for DXC varies a lot from RoB and while you can't really beat the anime charm of the latter, there's things I like from this iteration's dialogues too. This one in particular is a favorite of mine, I think it's silly in a cute sorta way.

(I especially love the delivery in Richter's correction of his name.)

[daryls-dixon-antoni]

Chapter 16.) The Distance

When everyone is finally awake and doing their own things, Maggie and Sasha return, followed by a stranger...

"Hey," Maggie greets, "Everyone. This is Aaron." Aaron is followed by Sasha and the name alone has me taking a step back against the wall as everyone else rushes to get their weapons and point it all at the stranger.

"We met him outside."

Daryl walks past them, looks around outside of the barn.

"He's by himself," Maggie continues as Daryl walks over and begins frisking the man. "We took his weapons and we took his gear." Sasha and Tera close the doors behind Aaron as Judith starts fussing.

"Hi," Aaron greets, stepping forward seemingly to shake Rick's hand.

Everyone cocks their guns except me as I can't seem to step away from the wall, my world starting to spin slightly.

"It's nice to meet you," Aaron continues, despite the response from our group.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asks, and Maggie walks forward to give Aaron's weapon to Rick, who checks it and then puts it in his belt. "There something you need?"

Sasha responds, "He has a camp, nearby. He wants us to audition for membership."

Mason makes it to me and gives me a side hug, when I look down I see that he, too is affected by this man's name.

"I wish there was another word." Aaron sounds nervous. "Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." No one laughs at his ill thought out joke.

"Um, and it's not a camp. It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home. I know. If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into. Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" Sasha moves forward, takes off the backpack from her back, and hands it to Rick. "Front pocket, there's an envelope."

Rick starts rummaging and takes out a manila envelope.

"Now, there's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. That's why I brought those. I apologize in advance for the picture quality." He chuckles nervously. "We just found an old camera store last-"

"Nobody gives a shit," Daryl interrupts him.

Aaron turns to face him, "You're absolutely 100% right." He turns back to Rick who has now since opened the envelope and started looking at the pictures. "That's the first picture I wanted to show you because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe. If you join us, you will be. Each panel i-in that wall is a 15-foot-high, 12-foot-wide slab of solid steel; framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubing. Nothing alive or dead gets through that without our say so. Like I said, security is obviously important. I-in fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival. The people. Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger. The next picture, you'll see inside the gates." Rick starts walking towards Aaron. "Our community was first construc-" Rick reaches Aaron and cuts him off with a punch to the face that knocks Aaron on his ass, everyone tightening in on the two.

I watch as Michonne approaches Rick and whispers something to him, Rick responds by pointing to Carl and saying, "We got to secure him. Dump his pack. Let's see what this guy really is."

"Rick," Michonne says, sounding annoyed.

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are."

I take my hand gun out and head for the door to the barn, Mason grabs my arm, "Mom, wait."

I shoot him a look that says we'll talk later, and continue heading to the door as Maggie speaks up, she, Daryl and Carol are restraining Aaron, who is now knocked unconcious.

"Me and Sasha, we didn't see him. If he had wanted to hurt us, he could've."

"Anybody see anything?" Rick asks, as I peak out the barn, and Glenn responds.

"Just a lot of places to hide."

"All right, keep looking." Rick approaches Carl, "What did you find?"

"Never seen a gun like that before," Carl responds, but I don't take my eyes off the outside.

"That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick." Aaron woke up.

"Sit him up," Rick instructs.

"I think it's better if-"

Aaron interrupts Maggie, "It's okay."

"He's fine." Rick says, "Sit him up."

I turn to look as Michonne and Maggie help him sit up with his restraints.

Aaron speaks, "You're being cautious. I completely understand."

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick shows him an orange flare gun, "You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes. Yes, it does."

"I mean, of course, it matters how many people are actually out there, but does it matter how many people I tell you are out there? Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say; eight, thirty-two, four hundred and forty-four, zero. No matter what I say, you're not going to trust me."

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." Rick responds.

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?"

The water...

Daryl starts toward Aaron asking, "How long you people been following us?"

"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. Long enough to see that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned on each other. You're survivors and you're people. Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world."

Its quiet as we all exchange looks.

Rick steps forward, "How many others are out there?"

"One. I knew you wouldn't believe me. If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is for real?" No one answers. "What if I drove you to the community? All of you? We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."

"I'm not sure how the 17 of us are going to fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in."

"We drove separately. If we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us."

"And you're parked just a couple miles away, right?" Carol asks.

"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route 16. We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came, blocked the road. We couldn't clear it."

"Yeah, you've really thought this through," Rick says.

"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here. You know, light the barn on fire while you slept, pick you off as you ran out the only exit. You can trust me."

Michonne aoproaches Rick, "I'll check out the cars."

I step forward, "I'll go with her."

"There aren't any cars," Rick argues.

"There's only one way to find out." Michonne states.

"We don't need to find out."

"I have lost too many kids, Rick. I can't give up on an opportunity that could keep Mason safe." I but in.

"You know what you know and you're sure of it," Michonne says, "but I'm not."

"Me neither," Maggie also agrees.

"Your way is dangerous, mine isn't," says Rick.

Michonne shakes her head, "Passing up someplace where we can live? Where Judith can live? That's pretty dangerous. We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do."

"Then I will, too." Glenn says. "I'll go."

"Abraham?" Rick asks.

"Yeah," Abraham says walking to Aaron, "I'll walk with them."

"Rosita, Sev?"

"Okay," Rosita says, standing up as Sev nods, also getting to move.

"If there's trouble, you got enough firepower?" Rick asks Glenn.

"We got what we got."

Daryl walks Aaron to the side of the barn and I open the barn doors.

"The walkies are out of juice," warns Rick. "If you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come. Which might be just what they want."

Before I walk out the door, I look at Daryl, "Can you watch out for Mason?"

Mason starts to argue but with a look from me he stops. I look back at Daryl, who nods once.

I follow Michonne out the barn doors.

We make it to route 16 and Glenn says, "Eyes open, everybody. Weapons up. You see someone coming at us, you fire."

We all follow his instructions as we walk. Abraham stating, "Copy that."

"So if we see someone, we just shoot them?" Michonne asks.

"It's a good question." Maggie says.

"What if they're someone like us?" Michonne asks, "What if Aaron is telling the truth? What if they're someone who has nothing to do with this?"

"We're seven people walking with guns," Glenn states. "No one's coming up to say hello."

"But that's exactly what happened," argues Michonne.

"If it's someone like us, we should be afraid of them." Glenn argues. "He said he was watching us, right? It means he saw us yesterday. And after everything we've done, why would he want us to join his group?"

"People like us saved a priest." Michonne makes her point. "Saved a girl who rolled up to the prison with the Governor. Saved a crazy lady with a sword. He saw that."

"I don't know what he saw," Glenn argues.

We keep walking.

We approach a white camper and a white car, blocked off from fallen trees due to the storm.

"He was telling the truth," Michonne says.

We all keep our guns at the ready, and as we all prepare to step over a fallen tree branch, something snaps next to us, and immediately we're all on high alert, adrenaline rushing through my brains. One word repeating itself through my head, Ambush.

"Not one step closer, asshole!" Glenn warns, but whoever it is keeps moving. It's two of the dead.

Abraham steps forward, placing his gun around his back saying, "I got 'em."

Rosita glances at Sev then to Abraham stating, "We got 'em."

After the three take out the two dead, Abraham thanks Sev and Rosita.

Rosita and Abraham start looking through the RV.

"All clear?" Glenn calls in.

"All clear," Rosita responds.

We bring the RV and the car back and show the rest of group what we found.

Rick stands up with a can in his hand and says to Aaron, "This, this is ours now."

"There's more than enough."

"It's ours," Rick repeats. "whether or not we go to your camp."

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't we go?" Carl asks.

"If he were lying or if he wanted to hurt us... but he isn't, and he doesn't. We need this." Michonne says. "So we're going, all of us. Somebody say something if they feel differently."

"I don't know, man." Daryl speaks up, and my stomach twists. If he doesn't go, I know I'd stay with him, meaning Mase will still be out in this. But he continues, "This barn smells like horse shit."

"Yeah," Rick amends. "We're going." He turns to Aaron. "So where are we going? Where's your camp?"

"Well, every time I've done this, I've been behind the wheel driving recruits back. I believe you're good people. I've bet my life on it. I'm just not ready to bet my friends' lives just yet-"

"You're not driving," Michonne says, walking towards him. "So if you want to get home, you'll have to tell us how."

"Go north on Route 16."

"And then?" Michonne asks. "I'll tell you when we get there."

"We'll take 23 north?" Rick disagrees. "You'll give us directions from there."

"That's- I don't know how else to say it... That's a bad idea. We've cleared 16. It'll be faster."

"For our safety, I'm with Rick. Like you said, you cleared 16... less of a chance of an ambush if we go an unplanned way," I speak up.

"We'll take 23," Rick says after glancing at me. "We leave at sundown."

"We're doing this at night?" Michonne asks, incredulously. "Look, I know it's dangerous. But it's better than riding up to the gates during the day. If it isn't safe, we need to get gone before they know we're there."

"No one is going to hurt you," repeats Aaron. "You're trying to protect your group, but you're putting them in danger."

"Tell me where the camp is," Rick says. "we'll leave right now." Silence. "It's going to be a long night." Rick addresses us all. "Eat. Get some rest if you can."

Rick, Glenn, Michonne, Sev and Aaron all pile into Aaron's car whilst the rest of us go in the RV.

When we saw the flare shoot into the air and we'd lost sight of the car, we assumed it was Rick who'd shot it.

So we drove that way, met a man named Eric and ended up hauled up on some off the alley shack thing.

When Daryl knocks on the door, Sasha opens it and Carl runs out.

We all hear Eric's name being called, and he answers, "In here."

"Eric!" I'm sat next to Eric who has his leg elevated. "Eric?" Aaron asks as he runs into the room.

"I'm okay," Eric reassures. "It's like a volleyball injury. It's a broken ankle. At least that's what Sev said. I like her.

It's not a big deal." After a few moments of silence and Aaron leaning down to look at it for himself, I pick up on the fact that these two, are a couple.

"Oh, my God." Aaron whispers.

"I'll just go to the infirmary when we get back."

Aaron kisses Eric in relief, and I turn my head trying to give them some privacy even though I'd been tasked to watch Eric.

"Oh When I saw that flare go up, I-I thought-"

"You were worried, were you?"

"Yeah."

"This is your fault, you know?"

"Is that so?"

"Because I love you. And because when I'm worried, I do stupid things. And when I do stupid things, I wind up underneath a rust bucket surrounded by roamers who roll a rear passenger tire onto my left ankle. Hey, something good came out of today. While I was waiting for you, I searched through the neighborhood. I found that," Eric exclaims happily, handing Aaron a blue licence plate much to my confusion.

Aaron frowns, so Eric asks, "You lost the license plates."

"I lost the car."

Eric laughs, "Maybe it's for the best. That monstrosity out front can run. It's so ugly, it'll scare the roamers away." They both laugh.

Rick walks in just then and Eric introduces himself. Rick does the same.

Aaron gets up anf walks out, Rick and I exchange glances. And Rick walks out behind Aaron.

We take off the next morning, all piled into a van.

When the RV breaks down, I get off of it and take my blade out a little ways from the group and start hacking at a tree, swearing under my breath, over and over again until strong arms wrap their way around my arms and hold me back into a hard chest.

"Stop." Daryl whispers in my ear.

I start crying and turn around, crying into Daryl's chest. "I can't have any more hope, I can't! It just- everything keeps going wrong! Everything!"

"Glenn's fixin' the RV."

I look up into his blue eyes, "What if he can't fix it? What if the community falls through?"

I'm cut off by the sound of the RV and Daryl says, "One step at a time, RV's fixed."

I nod slowly, and he looks back at the RV, before briefly kissing my lips and then walking away, ready for us to get back in and drive.

When we drive up to the walls surrounding Alexandria, I'm surprised to hear the obvioud sounds of kids laughing.

We get out of the RV and walk to the gate, Mason takes my hand as we approach.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Morose Mononokean 3 – 13 (FINAL) | Nanbaka 19 | ACCA 5...and anime from 2016, ranked.

(Morose Mononokean ep 3)

LOL, the kaomoji scroll.

Hopefully your handwriting won’t be illegible, Fusshi.

The Japanese place a lot of emphasis on independence, hence th errand running comment.

It’s so threatening to get pointed at with a stick.

I didn’t quite get the “five years again?” joke, but the jokes were going pretty rapid fire there. I might’ve just missed one and that’s OK. *shrugs*

Technically Ashiya lied when he said “you don’t have to believe me” because she believed him in the end…kinda sorta…?

Oh, to grandstand means to be showy. I don’t think I solidified that into my brain until just then.

Are those weeds or onions?

…Oops, not onions at all. Close enough (since they’re blub plants), though.

Where’s your dad, Ashiya?

Zenko’s not crying, you’re crying, I’m crying. Everyone’s crying!

…Oh, that’s the punchline of the joke…but Abeno’s scary when he’s really angry.

(ep 4)

I think even lil’ Fuzzy nods in the OP near the end.

The d and b thumbs are very inventive in regards to kaomoji. I like inventiveness.

Exhibit A of how Comic Sans ruins a mood, CR subbers.

So that’s Abeno’s writing (and not Comic Sans)?

Ashiya and Abeno have really creepy eyes on the eyecatch.

Shizuku means “water droplet” IIRC.

Ashiya, Super Sentai!...or something like that.

The Fuzzy Ashiya knows has 3 tails. This one only has one.

Ashiya, getting coerced into deals he can’t handle. *sigh*

(ep 5)

Fuzzy’s basically a Pokémon now.

What happened to Abeno’s jar?

Where I am, there’s three arms to the government: the legislative arm, the judicial arm and the executive arm. This show must run off a lot of the same principles.

Fuzzy seems vaguely unimpressed when Ashiya learns he doesn’t have to die.

How is that communicating with a fuzzball? Sad life for Abeno-san.

The sad thing about Abeno is that he’s very grumpy. While that does make him basically a male tsundere, his grumpiness isn’t something everyone can live with. Rippou (Legislator) included.

(ep 6)

The Ring? Like a horror movie? (This is the last of the Mononokean episodes I’ve seen before, so it’s not a horror movie, but I had to make the joke while I was at it.)

Fuzzy looks like an offering to the ancestors there on that cushion.

The Mononokean went “If you’d followed my instructions [yada yada yada] but…” Note the “but” – that wasn’t in the translation.

Where does Abeno sleep?

Fuzzy wrapped up is like a fuzzy sushi roll. I wouldn’t like to eat a fuzzy sushi roll, though.

Edo = old Tokyo…so are all Edoites (or whatever you call them) meant to be non-honorific users?

Manjiro must’ve been easy to draw if this were in the source material. However, since this is obviously a CGI Manjiro, it must’ve been easier to animate than, say, Fuzzy. (Apparently fur is hard to get right in CGI.)

“15 whole minutes”…hardly anything impressive…LOL.

Ashiya will never give you up, he’ll never let you down, he’ll never run around and desert you…

Even Fuzzy’s sweating up a storm just thinking about how to return the ring.

Ow. Getting headbutted by an eel is not the way to go.

The salve on Fuzzy looked like a box for a frame or two.

The irony of an eel shop with an eel youkai…

(ep 7)

It’s fresh impressions from here on out.

Butterflies don’t fly like that…

Since middle school is years 7 – 9…okay…Ashiya is that childish? *laughs awkwardly*

I just realised this show doesn’t do flashbacks very well.

I saw a grave in the back that said “Abe Family Grave”. It’s not the kanji for Abeno, though.

Don’t be so proud of your status as a hide and seek veteran, Ashiya.

“Yoko” is the word for a fox spirit. it’s why, in Tactics, the fox spirit is called Youko. Even I knew that much and Ashiya didn’t, LOL.

Oh right! Abeno calls Fuzzy “hairball”.

Abeno is 15?! I’m absolutely positively flipping out!...Abeno and Ashiya look like they’re 17!

(ep 8)

I thought something was up with the subs. Turns out “Haruitsuki” was spelt wrong.

Remember “–sama” is of more respect than “–san”.

I think Mr Chips from Eldlive was like this critter. Gets drunk on green tea.

Tsundere flying green youkai. That’s probably better than an annoying, possibly tsundere fairy (<- reference to One Wish They Never Wanted).

Benkei? I’ve never heard anyone yell “Benkei!” when they stubbed their toe. I get that it’s Standing Benkei though.

Aww. Even if it’s a youkai proposal, it’s so sweet…

(ep 9)

How do you spell “dispirited”? Two Ss? One?

Dangit, Ashiya would do well in job interviews…

The eyecatches always look unnecessarily dramatic, don’t they?

Does Abeno’s question about amateurs include Ashiya?

Abeno must’ve gotten a “Don’t come near my daughter again!” sort of thing a lot.

Fuzzy’s body went “boomph!” when he jumped on to Ashiya’s shoulder.

Fuzzy absolutely fails at rolling on balls, LOL.

(ep 10)

Why did I think of “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” when it came to large!Yahiko?

The title of this episode is “deku”, like Boku no Hero Academia Deku.

Rakugan.

How did the eyecatch manage to put shojo sparkles on Nobou and turn him into something that’s vaguely appealing (in a handsome sense)? It must be the magic of the shojo sparkles…Also, henohenomoheji scarecrow.

“Phantasmagoria” aka “fantasy” or “illusion”.

Wow, basically this show is an ethics lesson…

Who knew a mutant scarecrow could cause such a heartfelt story? Also, please stop hitting yourself with a potato.

(ep 11)

I don’t think I’ve seen the character for “purple” being read as shi before.

Stop using Fuzzy as a shield for your words, Ashiya.

Fuzzy jumped on to Zenko’s head. It’s kinda funny to see Fuzzy acting like a Swablu.

Fuzzy with a leaf hat is aesthetically pleasing. It soothes the soul. (Uh, hey. Come to think of it, Mononokean’s a lot like the works I’ve done on Honeyfeed, eh? Light comedy and a lotta drama.)

I keep stumbling upon spoilers for shows I’m not caught up on, this show included. So I technically knew about Yahiko and never mentioned it, and I’m going “oh no” here because I know what will happen to Ashiya…

Tomori. That was the name from the spoilers…oh no!!!

Fuzzy looks particularly round in the eyecatch.

Apparently Ashiya began as a doodle in the margin of Kiri Wazawa’s sketchbook, but he became the protag of Morose Mononokean. That’s the ultimate upgrade in life for a character, eh?

Abeno’s logic…I get it, but I guess it was played for hilarity. Well, it worked. Really well.

A 9-11. I thought it was funny at first, but now it’s scary and solemn.

Simultaneous equations? I want nothing to do with them anymore.

Come to think of it, Aoi may have been a woman due to the woman’s cloak.

(ep 12)

Oh? A sister? I’ve haven’t seen her in the show yet. I wanna see her.

One of the lil’ pine cones is sleeping. It’s strangely adorable.

(ep 13)

Yahiko’s so spoilt by Zenko.

*squints at Ashiya’s book* Oh hey. I haven’t done this in years! Yeah, that sort of stuff is “first year of high school” stuff, but speaking from experience as an advanced maths student, I have a skewed perspective of what “normal maths” is for a year level. Add that to the fact Japan has the idea that they have to push their geniuses to the limit by being ahead of their years (sometimes going up to one year ahead of the “usual” standard) and…yeah.

From the lip reading, the word could’ve been tera (Buddhist temple) or jinja (Shinto shrine). Knowing how Zenko is built off the ideas of Buddhism anyway, it’s tera.

Well, out of sight, out of mind, as they say.

Abeno looks like such a bad boy in that eyecatch, it’s hilarious.

Seriously, how does Nobou talk with no mouth?!

I thought the hand was Yahiko. Turns out it was Abeno.

Fuzzy looks downright ill when Ashiya’s scared.

A boss normally doesn’t bow his head to his subordinates, let alone call them “lord” (dono), which is the highest type of honorific one can give to a person.

See, the kaomoji scroll really is fun. If someone could make one for me, I’d love to play with it for a little bit. Maybe you could make a (computer?) program that could function mostly the same way…huh. That’s a good idea, actually.

Notice the Mononokean uses “watashi”. I guess it doesn’t have much of a gender anyway.

Nice hat, Ashiya. (LOL.)

Welp, that’s the final episode of all my 2016 anime. I moved the top 10 anime of 2016 to the bottom of this post for the surprise factor, but knowing my reactions to the anime means you can’t be too surprised by the results.

(Nanbaka 19)

Honey’s still on arrow mode.

The scream. It’s like a horror movie, but so funny because it overlays the OP.

The sparkles actually helped viewers see something for once.

Rokuriki. So that’s the guard’s name. It has “six” in it.

Deer hook swords. I’m not quite familiar with them but they look cool.

I only just realised, but they left Nico behind in the supervisor’s office.

The rubble is so beautifully rendered.

What was Jyugo doing behind the pots? Something for humour, I suppose, because I laughed.

“Hachiman” can mean 80000.

Kawaisouni… translates to “unfortunate” or “how unfortunate” but I probably wouldn’t peg it as “poor baby!” like the subbers did. It’s probably the tone Uno used that caused them to sub it the way they did.

Here we go again with this Jyugo comeback from episode 1…

It’s around the part where Upa’s trash talking Hachiman that you can identify Upa’s VA is Yuu Kobayashi (SGRS’s Konatsu’s VA). Even Nico is voiced by a dude and yet Upa is not.

(ACCA 5)

Seriously, this blue haired guy (Magie) reminds me of Japan from Hetalia. Must be the haircut.

How does a guy not remember toast? Probably because this is of Japanese origin, where rice and fish are more common than bread.

I still think his name should be Gene Otus.

CGI fits flawlessly into this style, and if you’ve been around these parts long enough, you know I don’t like obvious CGI.

Dowa Travel.

Hotel Akevitt. They have some weird names in this show.

Reindeer…? I’m not very good at identifying deer vs reindeer.

I heard you like wheat bread, so I put some wheat bread in ACCA to keep you happy, Jean. (insert more memes about wheat bread here)

Lotta really likes walnuts, eh?

Crow/Nino’s a free agent hired by Grossular, right?

Ah. I get it. Lotta’ll keep an eye on Nino for Jean.

Isn’t a sandpiper a bird?

Oh. So that’s why Grossular has such long hair.

Lilium’s bro? Gotta remember him for later.

Grossular’s an older Kyosuke Kuga, LOL.

 Anime of 2016, Ranked

Since I have 17 entries this year and it took a lot of shuffling to get right, I’ve decided to show my entire 2016 rankings. Only shows I saw in their entirety at least once over in 2016 (with the exceptions of D Gray Man Hallow and Morose Mononokean, which are applicable through the simulcast commentary process but were only watched to episode 6 before 2016′s end, and fall anime, which due to being AFK at 2016′s end were unfinshable until 2017), and had at least one new seasonal entry in 2016, apply:

17. Prince of Stride Alternative

16. Mr Osomatsu s2

15. D Gray Man Hallow

14. Kiznaiver

13. Morose Mononokean

12. Nanbaka s1: can’t talk about this yet because its s2’s not finished!

11. Classicaloid s1: can’t talk about this yet because it′s not finished!

10. Flip Flappers: The art style and fight scenes really make this a show worth watching. However, it did get somewhat confusing at the end so that’s where most of the drop in the rankings comes from.

9. ReLIFE: While the themes were pertinent and the art style on point, it was a bit plain and there wasn’t much of an explanation as to why the pills work (even if that isn’t Yoake or An’s role). I guess I’m still used to it living in the shadow of Detective Conan, after all.

8. Boueibu s2: This was a step up from s1, but unfortunately there were prime contenders this year that knocked it out of higher places. Also the fact that it does seem more rushed than s1 due to the time constraints does give it a bit of a toll.

7. Bungou Stray Dogs (overall): 2 seasons makes this show stand out as a strong one, especially near the end when it really hits its stride. The fact light novel stories took up up to 4 episodes did make me worried, but the fans definitely have more than enough material to work with as a result, right?

6. Yuri on Ice: I don’t mind the off model in this one if it means the good stuff can come with it, but the fandom is quite intimidating and it was a “show of the year” in ways some people now consider to be a negative thing, so it did suffer a bit from that. I give it merit for the things it does well, but it’s not the saviour of anime the talk of the town can make it out to be.

5. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi: Stunning visuals, a Sayuri ED and good thrills with well executed cliffhangers. My only gripe with this one was the very end, but you’ll have to see the relevant posts for why that is.

4. Boku no Hero Academia s1: Even if it is repetitive, it rises above (Plus Ultra!) to become something more than just a fusion of East and West like I always try to strive for. It’s an emblem and it’s definitely something Horikoshi should be proud of after what happened to Barrage and Oumagadoki Zoo.

3. Sakamoto Desu Ga: This show also managed to go above its repetitive trappings with inventiveness and humour. The fact it’s also touching at exactly the right points shows you why Takamatsu is one of my favourite directors.

2. ConRevo s2: Colourful and politically striking as always, ConRevo was one of the shows I always looked forward to watching, even if it meant staying up past midnight to document things on the wiki. Even if I’m not that fond of the Urobuchi episode, this show managed to reach awesome highs without losing the fans it got from s1.

1. SGRS: With a soundtrack that brings you to the past, humour that can make you laugh no matter how many times you watch it and visuals to wow even the most serious of artists, you can tell SGRS is a labour of love in every aspect. Its second season has already surpassed its predecessor in only 4 or 5 episodes, so...only time will tell whether anything can challenge SGRS for the throne.

 Total:

winter 4

spring 5 (incl. Bungou Stray Dogs s1)

summer 4

fall 5 (incl. Bungou Stray Dogs s2)