#and hey the ending cgs r better yay to that

[charlie-boyfriend]

also ib thing i only posted on evil insta...

[thejpfdude-blog]

Midpoint Impressions of the Spring 2017 Season

Yes, it’s already the halfway point of the season! I meant to put this out as an initial impressions post but my finals studying got intense and I didn’t have time to write a post. But now that my finals are done (HALLELUJAH), I have time to actually watch anime without feeling guilty. And so this post is here. So yeah, let’s start off with a good ol’ rankings:

Rankings:

1. Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season (8.5/10)

2. Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ♭ (8/10)

3. Sakura Quest (7/10)

4. Tsuki ga Kirei (7/10)

5. Aggressive Retsuko (6/10)

6. Nobunaga no Shinobi S2 (5/10)

Awards:

Best Anime: Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season (HM: Saekano ♭)

Out of all of the shows from this season I’m watching, this is the clear choice for the best one. It’s just: hype. That’s it, but it’s so much fun watching it and really, that’s what I want in an anime. Something that entertains me, makes me want more. Saekano has been entertaining so far too, but there are times I’m a bit irked (like the excessive Utaha moments). I’m hoping there’s more fun action-y stuff and less of the “I will become the strongest of all of you” spiels, but a minor complaint for a show that’s been great so far.

Worst Anime: Nobunaga no Shinobi S2 (HM: Every show I’ve dropped from this season)

Meanwhile, we have this show. I didn’t expect much, which I’ll get into more in that award category. But yeah, it’s becoming a chore to watch, and that’s something I don’t really want an anime to be to me. It’s still funny at times, but it’s really not offering anything new. Welp, it’s only a few minutes. That’s okay I guess. Shoutout to the handful of shows I dropped, shows like Eromanga-sensei and Hinako Note (of which I’ll talk about a little in later awards).

Best Surprise: Tsuki ga Kirei (HM: Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season)

I never really expected much from this show, but it’s been a nice little romance show so far. It’s slow, yes, but it has that vanilla aspect that I’m a huge sucker for. I haven’t had this much “aww’s” since Honobono Log. This show’s filling up my romance quote quite nicely, which is good considering last year was not a good year for romance shows. Hopefully it continues to be nice and not too drama-y. Shoutout to BnHA for exceeding my expectations when I thought it would be like it’s slow first season.

Worst Disappointment: Nobunaga no Shinobi S2

Like I mentioned above, this show wasn’t really something I had expectations for, but I’m still a bit miffed about it. The show hasn’t gotten better since it started, more like stagnated into what it is today. I really think it’s the new characters which I don’t like that make it kinda meh. Otherwise, the old characters are fine and their interactions are okay. Really, this show isn’t too bad, it’s just bad compared to the rest of the shows I’m still watching right now. And so it ends up taking up the spots in the two main “worst” categories. But compared to past seasons’ winners of this award, it’s pretty good. Still, from first (well, actually I now consider it to be the second-best show I watched from the Fall 2016 season) to last now is a bit of a fall no matter how many shows I’m watching.

Best Girl: Katou Megumi (Saekano ♭) with HM to Oribe Ririko (Sakura Quest)

For a character to be on my “Favorite Character” list, he/she has to be pretty good. Usually I add somebody who makes every scene he/she’s in so much better. Characters like Yui (Oregairu) or Megumi (Shokugeki no Soma) are examples of this. Yeah there might be a few characters in there for different reasons (Ema is really there because I loved her voice), but that’s usually how it is.

Anyway, that tangent was just a really long way of saying unless a character from this season is that good, there’s almost no way Megumi loses this award. She was one of the biggest reasons why I loved the first season, and she’s the biggest reason why I’m liking the second season so far even with crazy Utaha and the usual Eriri. Unless a girl becomes amazingly great in the next few weeks, I can pretty much say there won’t be a change in this award come the end of season awards.

Shoutout to Ririko, and actually all five of the main girls from Sakura Quest. It was kinda hard choosing from them, but in the end I went with the girl who’s made every scene better when she does something. We’ll see if she’s still the best as the season ends (and later when this show ends).

Best Guy: Kashimura Zouroku (Alice to Zouroku) with HM to Sandal-san (Sakura Quest) and Mineta Minoru (Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season)

Yes, I’m including shows I dropped. Because otherwise this choice would be pretty hard. I’m gonna go with a guy who I would want as a grandparent: strict but also wise and a pretty nice guy. In the few episodes I’ve watched of this show, I always liked how he didn’t care for whatever nonsense happened with Alice and the others and treated her like she was just a normal kid. It was kinda refreshing to see such a character in anime. Maybe I might pick this show back up again just to see his wise advice and all that.

Shoutouts to Sandal-san and Mineta. Sandal-san’s outros complete with the one perfectly pronounced English word are glorious: I always repeat whatever word he says from “mandrake” to “online shop”. Mmm, that’s good stuff. Oh and I guess Mineta’s the same old pervert I know and love.

Worst Girl: Izumi Sagiri (Eromanga-sensei) with HM to whichever girl was the annoying one from Hinako Note

Ahahaha yes. This. I didn’t even finish the first episode of Eromanga-sensei but oh my goodness the glimpse I did watch I couldn’t handle this girl. She’s a lighter version of Kirino, but that’s not saying much in terms of good character. I’m not about the tsundere sisters it seems.

Also shoutout to that one annoying girl from Hinako Note whose name I can’t find. She reminded me so much of that girl from Stella no Mahou, and once I got flashbacks of that I noped out (especially since the show itself wasn’t fun anyway).

Worst Guy: That One Dude from Nobunaga no Shinobi with HM to Izumi Masamune (Eromanga-sensei)

I couldn’t find this guy’s name (and I’m too lazy to go back to the episode to find it), but man this guy. His demeanor and joking manner towards Chidori was kinda off-putting, and I didn’t really like it too much. Especially the whole sexual joke thing: why tho.

Shoutout to Mr. Izumi (I think that’s a last name? IDK, that looks first-namey to me) for being the unfortunate recipient of a tsundere little sister, but then falling for her. Yay anime.

Best OP: Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season (HM: Sakura Quest, Warau Salesman New)

I’ve now included links in the post so that y’all can watch these.

Anyway, Boku no Hero Academia’s OP is pretty dang good. I didn’t like it too much at first, but now listening to it a lot, it’s really hype and gets me in the right mood to enjoy the episode. It’s standard shounen OP, but sometimes the classic is best.

Shoutouts to Sakura Quest’s OP for having a catchy song (with nice visuals to boot) and Warau Salesman New’s OP for having hella good visuals with a nice jazzy song (go watch it, because I’m sure almost none of you have seen this OP).

Best ED: Sakura Quest (HM: Eromanga-sensei, Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season, Saekano ♭ (no link because the actual version isn’t on /r/AnimeThemes yet))

Ok, this was the easiest choice of all of the awards. I’ve probably listened to Sakura Quest’s ED 50 times already, and that’s probably an understatement. I love the pop melody complete with snaps and acoustic guitar, and the characters with their listening devices looks really nice. It’s all pretty to look at, and the music added to it makes it one of the best OP/EDs I’ve listened to in a while.

Shoutout to:

Eromanga-sensei’s ED (I know, right?) for having a peppy song complete with a cute (wow I can’t believe I’m saying this) grill

Boku no Hero Academia’s ED for its catchy song with grills

Saekano’s ED for the visuals that remind me of all the nice events that happened season 1. Oh and the song isn’t too bad I guess.

Miscellaneous Categories (they happened to be all about the same show... try reading the three blurbs as one big blurb because it works i guess):

Worst Animation: Tsuki ga Kirei

Amazingly, despite how this show is, the animation is atrocious. Half the scenes are background scenes of people walking, but those people are horrible CG people that distract from the nice backgrounds. Kinda something big, but if they don’t do it so much I guess I’m fine with it.

Most Underrated Show: Tsuki ga Kirei

Because it is still a good show. But not much people are watching it which is a bit disappointing. It’s a nice little romance show about how awkward middle school can be. I would know. Not the romance part, but the awkward part.

The TheJPFDude Happy Show of the Half-Season: Tsuki ga Kirei

But hey, it still gives off that happy feeling that a romance show gives me, and for that it gets this award. That’s all I have to say about this show for now.

And that’s all for this little checkpoint post! Thanks for reading through all of it, and hey... I’ll see you in the next post (which is coming out pretty soon! I guarantee it!)