#Jeffu watches Sangatsu no Lion yo

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Oh yeah 2017 ended so I can properly say this: Houseki no Kuni was AOTY 2017, hands down. Literally no contest

my other favorites were

Kemono Friends

Sangatsu no Lion

the Castlevania Netflix show

Kuzu no Honkai

Kobayashi-san

Love Live Sunshine s2

Tsurezure Children

There were other shows I watched this year that didn’t air this year so I don’t think they belong on the list (like Mitsudomoe and Yami Shibai)

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I don’t get to look forward to Sangatsu every week anymore ;-;

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I can’t believe “an anime about shogi players” is one of my favorite I’ve watched in a long time and my fave of the season

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AAAAAHHHH THE SECOND SANGATSU NO LION OP SUCKS WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS

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Man I miss Sangatsu no Lion :c

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Winter 2018 (Jan-Mar) Season rundown!

Idk why, but I thought writing something like this would be fun once again. There were a lot of shows to be excited about this season!

I’m going to write about all 11 of the shows I watched in descending order from favorite to least favorite. Yep, that means I’m saving the worst for last, lol.

Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan - Man, I didn’t even get to watch this show until like a week ago, but I’m so glad I did. I can’t quite get to the bottom of it, but for whatever reason, I fucking love this anime. I love it just as much as I did season 1. It’s still funny, it’s still completely bizarre, it’s still full of Shonen Jump tropes from time to time, but everything about it is fun to watch. And that means a lot to me when judging shows: how excited I am to put on each new episode as soon as it comes out.

Also, Saiki is, undoubtedly, one of my favorite anime characters from any show, full stop. I never get tired of how, well, tired of everything he is. I don’t think I’d be able to write a character I like more if I tried to do it myself!

Yuru Camp - Just like with Saiki, I marathoned this show damn close to the end of the season (and maybe that has something to do with how high I rated it), but I’m very glad I chose to. I love Rin-chan, and I love watching her and the other girls go camping. That’s all the show is, but they keep it fresh and different enough it doesn’t grow stale. It was just funny enough, and just cute enough, and just relaxing enough in all the right proportion to make a show that was pleasant and worth watching. Also, high production quality, like great music and animation, always help elevate a show like this.

Koi wa Ameagari no You ni - This one was honestly a tie with Yuru Camp. I couldn’t decide which one should be placed higher, so just pretend they are equal, each for their own different reasons.

Koi wa Ameagari was something I tried completely on a whim, and it absorbed me with its gorgeous art and atmosphere. I seem to really get into shows like this, where it’s just about establishing characters and their circumstances, and the ensuing drama and events coming of that setup. I also think the show has a lot of very meaningful reflection, but it’s hard to briefly recommend for that reason. Although the subject matter could be repellent to some people, I think it’s benign enough that it’s nothing to get upset about, at least from my perspective.

Overlord II - Overlord is real fuckin’ cool. That’s all that really needs to be said about this series, lol. I love the characters, and I love the grand schemes, and I love the setting, and I love the sense of humor. This season started off in a strange place, but in the end it all came together to be more of the badassery I loved in season one, so I have no complaints.

And season three is already confirmed, which means I get to remain hype about it for the rest of the year! All hail the great tomb of Nazarick!

Sangatsu no Lion - I’ve loved this show for like two years now, and in that time I’ve written plenty about it. I think it might be over, but I’m not sure...? Anyway, this anime is one of the longest I’ve committed to in a very long time, ending at 44 episodes.

It’s very human, and that’s what I like about it. Plus, the art and atmosphere are absolutely top-of-the-line. Unrivaled polish on this one. That said, I rank it slightly lower than some others from this season simply because I think I was more excited about those shows than this one. It’s still extremely good, though!

Mitsuboshi Colors - This show is about being a kid, and about the kinds of things that kids do, and I have to say that it gets it more correct than almost any other anime I can think of. Yui, Sacchan, and Kotoha are perfect representations of the way kids have strange ideas, say strange things, and follow their strange whims without any hesitation.

It was amusing without being too funny, and cute without being too charming, and as such feels perfect as the “middle-of-the-road” entry on this list. I enjoyed it just normally, no more and no less (the manga’s really good, though).

Citrus - Well, we’re in the bottom half now, but that doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom. Citrus was decent in its own right, despite struggling in more ways than one to properly match the source manga.

The art was pretty good, and they paced it to the best of their ability, but it’s hard to work with something as beautiful and as leisurely in pace as the Citrus manga is, I’m sure. Some things, like the voice acting, really did help a lot, though, so it’s not like it was “pointless” to make an anime of this or anything. I just hope there’s a season two, because they did not leave off on very much of a satisfying conclusion compared to what could come next!

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san - Well, I sort of said everything I could say about this one above in the Citrus entry. Is it better than the manga? Not really, but it’s basically a perfect one-to-one recreation of the manga. The voices were good, art was good, pacing and choice of stories was good. It was fine, through and through. I like it, but it’s hard to say it’s a favorite or anything. Cute and fun, and that’s all there really is to it.

Hakyuu Houshin Engi - Oh man, I have no idea what to say about this one. I watched the original Houshin Engi when I was in like... high school, I think? And I don’t remember it very well, but it was reason enough for me to try out this modern remake (as the original is from the 90s).

I don’t follow the plot very well, but the characters are cool and the setting is very unique. It’s not over yet, so I can’t properly judge it right now, but it’s.... fine, I guess is what I’d have to say. Sometimes I slack off on watching the episodes right away, but I don’t hate it either. Definitely a good example of the kind of stuff that belongs low on a list like this.

Pop Team Epic - I really wanted to like this one, but I didn’t. It’s hard to properly explain why, but I guess the fastest reason I can think of was just that I didn’t find it funny, when I really do find the manga very, very funny.

It wasn’t a bad show, but I didn’t feel excited to watch the episodes. It was more like I was simply curious to see what each episode was going to be like, and to be fair to it, it was never particularly boring or stupid. It just... wasn’t funny. A couple of the segments were really cool, and I fucking love Hellshake Yano for how creative it is, but then, that wasn’t really funny either...

I think that being able to say “I enjoyed reading stories about the production of this show more than watching the actual episodes” is not a very good sign, but it was true.

Ito Junji Collection - This is the bottom of the list, so you guessed it: the Junji Ito anime fucking suuuuuuuucked. I was so optimistic at the start of the season, but man did it disappoint in almost every conceivable way. The art was bad, the voice acting was mediocre, the choices of stories was questionable. I can’t think of anything good to say about it. Please don’t watch the Junji Ito anime if you like horror, or if you like Junji Ito, or if you like good anime. It was so bad, I didn’t even make a tag for it on my blog, and I didn’t notice that until just now.

And they didn’t even do Enigma of Amigara Fault. What’s the point, you know?

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The second season is over ;-;7

I’m not sure if there’ll be more, but if there is, I’ll always look forward to it!

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i was gonna stay up and watch more anime but Sangatsu no Lion relaxed me enough to wanna go to bed....

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the 4th OP/ED change for Sangatsu happened and both of em are really good!! I like the 4th OP less than the 3rd, but the 4th ED is a fucking JAM holy shit

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I still love this show so much.... I caved and scored it a 10 on myanimelist lol. When I went to go edit season 1, it was already a 10... I can’t remember doing that, but it makes sense.

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Sangatsu no Lion season 2 (´u｀)

this feeling is back. it feels so soothing...

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Sangatsu no Lion season 2 starts on Saturday and when I remember that both opening songs and both ending songs from season 1 were fucking great I’m just waiting, ready for more music

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man I’m actually so fucking excited for more Saiki Kusuo and Sangatsu no Lion.... woah man.... now that owls anthology manga is out of my head I can get excited about other stuff and it’s sinking in

especially Saiki, that show’s so goddamn fun

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shitting on Eromanga sensei just made me think about the stuff I watched in 2016; for no good reason, and at 7:30am, in fucking May of 2017, why not rundown a quick scramble of my favorite anime I watched last year.... for memory’s sake:

Ajin - I really, really don’t do shonen, and I don’t often do action either, but Ajin is just way too fucking cool. If you make any kind of story intriguing through worldbuilding like Ajin’s got, I’m in. Such an awesome story because of the thoroughly fleshed out supernatural stuff, and it’s always a plus, for me, when the protagonist is someone who’s curious about the world of the story alongside the reader/viewer.

Also, Ajin is CG animation, which had every right to be terrible, but was honestly incredibly done. I don’t even mean in the “well, it’s not the worst, so I can at least watch it...” way - it genuinely looks fucking great. Lots of impressive detailing, like in subtle facial expressions, that you’d think would just be passed over in something CG.

Danganronpa 3 - I didn’t think it could be done after the underwhelming anime about DR1, but both DR3 shows told original stories loaded with Danganronpa vibe and style that made me feel the same excitement and despair as reading the fuckin SA threads way back when. Watching the new episodes every week with my friends will remain one of my all-time favorite “Live Experiences” you can’t really replicate if you get into media long after it’s new, if that makes sense.

Love Live Sunshine! - This show was so fun to watch I think I ran at least 10 of the episodes straight, and what’s funny is I can’t really remember what hooked me in. The characters are really spirited and endearing, and although all the conflicts (if you want to call them that) were relatively mundane, I still really wanted the Aquors girls to make it...! I don’t even remember any of the music, which is supposed to be the draw of idols content.... my bad...

Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan - I’m pretty sure Saiki was the funniest anime I’ve watched in years. I don’t watch that much comedy, because if it doesn’t make you laugh pretty quickly, then it doesn’t seem worth your time, which can make it tough to judge as a genre. But Saiki was consistently funny in a way that’s rare between me and rapid paced gag-a-minute shows. Even though it’s downright stupid at times, the stories in this show were genuinely amusing to me, and all the more for the fucking protagonist, whom I love. Saiki’s absolute disdain and disinterest in everything could have been so repelling, but he tied the show together for me - a true straight-man in a world of fools.

Nobunaga no Shinobi - Amazingly, this show’s runtime is 4 minutes flat. I’ve watched over 30 episodes now and I can barely remember any of them, but somehow, that’s what I love about this one. It’s as effortless to watch as breathing, a nice 4 minute break every week. Its semi-historically-accurate telling of Nobunaga’s rise to power is a fun premise even though I don’t have a native’s familiarity with Japanese history, and it’s cute and appealing even if it didn’t elicit any laughs.

Sangatsu no Lion - This show became like fucking meditation for me. I would eagerly await Saturdays, making some time in the evening to disconnect, relax, and put it on. I love the weird slice-of-life/shogi focus of the show.... I don’t really know how to summarize it. It’s not “about Shogi” like a sports anime would be, but it’s “about Shogi players.” The art was gorgeous, just fucking incredible - I had like 5 separate posts on here that were basically “Look at this fucking show!!” Very pleasant, calming experience for me, even though Rei’s emotional state sometimes changed the mood of everything.

Luckily for me, Love Live, Saiki, and Sangatsu are all slated to continue, and Nobunaga already has been. These shows are my favorites from 2016, and I only hope that I can find some suitable shows to watch in their place this year in 2017. It has been.... rather dry, so far....