Posted 02 July 2015 - 06:35 PM
Well, I'm declaring the Spring 2015 season to be over (sorry Kekkai Sensen!). This time, I think I am going to recap my thoughts awards-style!
Best Comedy - Shokugeki's food reactions and loincloth-chef made it a strong contender for this, but I have to give it to the returned Gintama^o. Almost every episode at least gave me chuckles and some of the parodies were outrageously funny. The Teekyuu spin-off Takamiya Nasuno desu! also wins this in the short-form category as it continues the brain-meltingly fast Teekyuu comedy style.
Best Romance - There was a lot of great friendship developments that could eventually turn into romance, but weren't really romance-oriented enough to count this season - Leo/White (Kekkai Sensen), Kumiko/Reina (Euphonium), etc. The couples from Unlimited Blade Works and Kyoukai no Rinne had very little chemistry, IMO. Plastic Memories would be an obvious contender, but while the initial setup and culmination of that romance were good the middle sections were cringily awkward in many cases. I'm pretty tempted to award this to Tohru/Kyoka from Gunslinger Stratos - despite that shows massive problems, those two were actually pretty cute together (I loved when he said he would try and become President and she immediately starts plotting his world domination instead of thinking he could just get elected) but there's not enough time spent developing it to justify. So, the award goes to Yamada/Shiraishi from Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo - it didn't necessarily progress very far but it was nevertheless prominent, well-executed and cute!
Best Combat - No surprise here, Unlimited Blade Works's fight scenes were astoundingly gorgeous. Unfortunately, you could tell quite blatantly whenever they dimmed the scene due to the Japanese seizure worries - but when the master versions of the episodes come out (like they did for season 1) it'll be even more amazing to watch. Some of the battles I found had way too much stop-and-talk, but not all of them did. The Berserker-Goldie and Lancer-Archer battles are probably the biggest stand-outs.
Several special mentions to note though:
Kekkai Sensen: not only did it have some very thrilling chaotic-style fight scenes, but the first vampire episode also had a really creepy, chilling fight
Punchline: the final convergence had some surprisingly great effects and choreography, particularly with Ito and Mikatan
Is it Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon: I didn't watch this show past episode 1, but based on comments I read I watched the Minotaur fight from episode 8 and it was pretty awesome.
Best Not-Combat - The cooking scenes from Shokugeki no Souma, lovingly drawn with lots of attention to the details of the food and all the fast-cuts, dramatic camera angles and epic music of a climactic shounen battle were excellent. If you aren't eating, they make you hungry, and if you are eating they make you sad your food isn't as cool as theirs!
Best Mysteries - Vampire Holmes: Not because there was actually any good mysteries for Sherlock to solve... no, the mystery is why whoever financed this thought releasing it could possibly good for their public image, or why the studio thought this was even close to decent...
Best Characterization - It would be easy to watch Sound!Euphonium and see it as just a slice-of-life music show, but in many ways it is just as much a character piece. In some senses, it took a while to even notice, but the show really does show a lot of detail about Kumiko's personality and what has transpired to make her that way... it's just not very blatant about it. While the plot and focus mainly showcases the band development and Kumiko doing stuff with her friends, when you take a step back and think about how Kumiko acts there's a major development from the melancholic Kumiko of episodes 1 and 2 - where she is wishy-washy about which school and clubs she wants to do, doesn't emotionally invest herself in anything and only confides her feelings to her cactus - to the Kumiko of later episodes (I won't spoil how she changes!). Most of this is accomplished through her growing friendship with Reina and through the changes brought on by Taki-sensei. I would hesitatingly say that the characterization might even be a bit too subtle at the start, and so it becomes easy to expect that the show will be just a slice-of-life show. In any case, when it comes time to bring this characterization arc to its climax KyoAni doesn't hold back, and I was moved.
Biggest Surprise Hit - Punchline is a weird show and I nearly dropped it two or three times in the first handful of episodes, but if you look past the fan service (which it proudly wears on its sleeve, even though there's not that much of it) and odd initial character dynamics (initially, the main character can see but cannot interact with the rest of the cast) you find a quirky-but-cheerful show spiced with solid humour... and just when you get comfortable it hammers you with some tonal changes and a bunch of plot twists, then kicks things into overdrive. I had no idea what was going to happen next throughout the last few episodes (even some of the bits I thought would obviously happen... didn't!) and the finale brings all the established elements together very satisfyingly. Who would have guessed, after the first episode introduced a MC who summons asteroids by looking at panties?
Biggest Disappointment - Owari no Seraph/Seraph of the End was heralded as the next Attack on Titan, given the roughly similar plot/characters and same studio. But horrendous pacing, shallow characterization, a lack of world-building and much weaker fight scenes have so far made this a snore-fest. Unfortunately, between this and the mediocrely-received Rolling Girls last season (which I thoroughly enjoyed but will admit had its own share of problems) it is looking like the new Studio Wit is developing a reputation for only being good at Attack on Titan (which is co-produced with Production IG).
Best OP - Assassination Classroom's second OP was a drastic improvement over last season's. As before, it helpfully reminds you of all the students to help keep track of them, but does so with an easier-to-follow fashion by breaking them into groups and combines it all with a lot of good cuts of footage from episodes, layered effects and great upbeat music that puts you in just the right mood for the show. Bonus points for the song being sung by members of the cast, themselves and the words being relevant to the show!
Best Realism - Arslan Senki's big battle setups, Lusitanian politicking and social issue themes. All are handled so well it's hard to remember that this isn't based on true events from a millenium or so ago in ancient Persia Pars.
Best Total Disregard for Realism - Shokugeki no Souma: how exactly does a high school expel students for not cooking adequately? Even if the school is specialized, doesn't Japan have laws requiring all middle and high schools to still teach math, science, etc? Even if the school isn't required to teach those subjects, wouldn't a kid who can cook amazingly but fails at doing simple sums be a terrible restaurant owner?! So, for some reason Japan has a cooking school so prestigious and amazing all the European prodigies come to it, too, and it really operates more like a college, but don't worry these 15-year old European chefs are perfectly fluent in Japanese and all the Japanese chef students who graduate here will go out in the world and dominate the industry anyways... except when the show then turns around and shows that Paris is even more prestigious and doesn't accept the Japanese chefs who go there... so why didn't the Italian kids just go to a school there? All of that is A-okey, because this insane chef school formula works so damn well that NO ONE CARES if it makes absolutely no sense. WE JUST WANT MORE DELICIOUS DRAMA FOOD DUELS!!!
Best Visuals - Sound!Euphonium, hands down. Consistently beautiful scenery and fantastic character animations (tons of facial expression range and they almost never stop doing little movements) from start to finish. KyoAni once again asserts themselves as the dominant studio in this category, and then goes ahead and makes an ordinary running scene into a eye-bleedingly beautiful pseudo-hand-animated moving 3D perspective scene just to rub it in!
Best Line - I'm sure we'll be hearing Emiya's "Just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right" from Fate/Stay Night Unlimite Blade Works for years to come as a meme, especially along side his already-memeified line "People die when they are killed" from the original Fate/Stay Night adaptation.
Best Advertisement for the Source Material - The adaptation of Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo was good in its own right, but the blitzing speed at which it rushed through the chapters it covered I'm sure convinced many viewers to go read the manga and see the character and plot development in full. Furthermore, it ended with a big "Is that it? Or is there more to come? If so, how?" moment and there is no plans for a second season, so many will want to go read the manga (which goes quite far past where the show ended) to see how the story continues.
Weirdest Random Little Thing - I get that it is sponsored by Subaru and more or less supposed to be half-anime, half-car commercial, but despite all that it is still just super weird (and funny) that the magic flying witch broomsticks in Houkages no Pleiades (which is basically a Sailor Moon knock-off show) make motorcycle noises. Assassination Classroom's guy who always sticks his pistol in his mouth is a close second.
Coincidental(?!) Trends of the Season - Last season had a few alien characters or "it was aliens all along" twists. This season, seven different shows had alternate dimensions/worlds/warrens that could be entered {Mikagura Gakuen, Pleiades, Punchline, Kekkai Sensen, UBW, Kyoukai no Rinne, Gunslinger Stratos}. Punchline and Mikagura also had veeeery similar magic cats, and Re-Kan! and Kyoukai no Rinne also had magic cats (that were less similar to the others)... then again magic cats are fairly common in anime altogether. 4 shows had characters being possessed, 4 shows had memories being altered, and 4 shows had time travel, too!
Anime of the Season - This has been a great season, with a lot of good shows! But I'm giving my top of the season to Sound!Euphonium. I hesitated with this, as it is in some ways a very niche piece - people who don't like slice-of-lifes may not like it, people who don't like character-development-focused or club-focused SoLs may not like it, and people who have never played a musical instrument (especially at school) are not going to get the same boost of immersion that the folks who have will via nostalgia. That being said, the show knows what it is and isn't trying to reach beyond its niche, it is just trying to be the best it can be within those confinces. And if judged solely in that category, the astounding visuals, meaningful character development and relationships, and the finely detailed craftsmanship make this show something that is absolutely worth the praise.
Shows I didn't watch but have added to the To Watch list:
Nisekoi - Heard a lot of comments that this was an underappreciated gem this season.
Teekyuu S4 - I need to finish season 3 first!
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders - I've never really heard much about the JoJo series but with this one airing this season there were tons of people praising the whole series, so I will have to go and watch the first season of the first series and try it out.
worrywort, on 14 September 2012 - 08:07 PM, said:
I kinda love it when D'rek unleashes her nerd wrath, as I knew she would here. Sorry innocent bystanders, but someone's gotta be the kindling.
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