Without further ado, here is my top three from this season:

3. Gabriel Dropout – Fun little comedy slice of life. Actually didn’t like Gabriel (dunno if that was intentional), but Satania, as a cute character and voice, made up for it. Nice art and good gags.

2. Konosuba s2 – Though the cult joke ran a little long at the end of the season, there was plenty here to enjoy. This is one of those shows that has become popular to like, and for good reason. Funny gags, animation production that doesn’t take itself too serious, and a good voice group who’s delivery seems to gel with the general irreverent tone of the series creates a very cohesive whole that makes watching a joy.

1. Youjo Senki – Loli fascist won this season as the show most regularly anticipated. Story moved but did not travel, as is the course for so many anime today. Nice animation and sound design. Maybe there is more to come. One odd point I would like to address is the concept of “god” as portrayed here. In the translations I watched, the ethereal being (X) demanded for the major to have faith in him; not necessarily reverence or worship, which was achieved, as far as I can tell, in the second episode’s flashback. Yes, the main character says he does not believe in the god, but he behaves as though it (being X) is a real entity by specifically rebelling against it and even cursing it. If I say I don’t believe in something, I can’t go around cursing it or talking to it to prove as much. Acknowledging the being by responding to it and not assuming he himself was crazy is a demonstration of faith in the perception of this being. It just felt very disjointed, from a plot point, as if it were all a convenient excuse to bring real world history into a similar but different conflict.

Special awards (I now officially look more forward to this part each season):

“Most girly thriller” Acca 13: Political intrigue, by its low key nature, has the clear to be a relatively subtle affair, but when characters spend the better part of 6 episodes speculating with the unifying theme of ‘isn’t fresh bread tasty?’, I grow itchy for just a bit more bite. It’s hard to take such a serious theme of upending a peaceful country’s government and reconcile it over a narrative where government agents don’t even carry guns, as far as I can tell. Rioters don’t go to jail? Touchy-feely espionage, if you will.

“Nicest animation” Kobayashi Chi no Maid Dragon: Kyoto ani strikes again with cute character designs, consistent production, and an inane plot that is simply a vehicle for characters to interact. No harm, no foul, but not much to remember, either.

“Most Saccharine subversion of theme award” Demi-chan: Say what you will about the degenerates watching it, but at least Monster Girls knew exactly what it wanted to be and do. Demi-chan’s premise is quickly marginalized by likening the girls to simply being disabled. Seriously, an ice woman who can sweat some ice, maybe, sometimes? A vampire who wants to drink blood, unless there is one of many suitable substitutes is available? The tension from the premise itself is drained, as people would never even know about their powers if they weren’t for their “special needs” treatment. Lacking natural tension, the show shoehorns some in via… bullying? Perhaps it is a homogenous Japanese thing that people who are even a little bit different might be treated or reasonably fear being treated differently, in a negative way, for it, but I just can’t buy the drama here. I have a friend who lives with an actual disability, and to see a fully functional character cry over ‘maybe’ having a superpower just fell flat for me. It also feels weird that all of the girls are friends because of their demi-status. None of their ‘powers’ are similar, so why should they have any special bond (to be fair, the show explains their parents kind of banded up to offer support to each other)? My whining aside, still worth a watch, even if thematic elements rubbed me the wrong way.

“Would have been better with a death award” Fuuka: This didn’t stand out, as we’ve all seen this show before, in some form or forms. Normal boy is aimless, enter wild-spirited girl who gives him passion for *blank* and he decides he loves her as they pursue the thing together. Fuuka had the chance to be memorable by not giving the formulaic ending we got (in the original manga, apparently, she was hit by a truck as the band began to grow and died). This jarring change induced some uncomfortable adapting of the story toward the end to inject drama and conflict that just felt transparent. The good news is I’m sure I’ll forget all about this by the end of next season.

“Most Infuriating to watch award” Masamune-kun no Revenge: Oh, Masamune… I wish you had been hit by the truck along with Fuuka. I cannot comprehend relating to your plight. My logic muscles cramped each and every episode of this otherwise unambitious show. Masamune wants to make a girl with no redeeming qualities, who he already had dirt on (she eats like a refugee camp), fall in love with him to dump her as revenge because she called him a fatty years ago. This Masamune is a character who was created to support this premise, as I cannot fathom how a functioning human being could hold a lifestyle changing grudge over someone they knew for such a short period of time, and then come up with and commit to the most improbable revenge scheme. He actively stacks the deck against himself via his means and target, and, as far as I can tell, is only motivated to continue this idiotic scheme by his pride that is constantly treaded upon by being around this girl (who he willingly approaches) anyway. It’s sort of similar, in a way, to the “Vash the Stampede”, or “Ruroni Kenshin” dynamics where those characters had the means to solve most of their problems easily (kill their enemies), but chose to take the harder road by avoiding violence to uphold their convictions, but Masamune has no such reason to not use the kill switch for his revenge (his goal is simply to emotionally harm her) except for his worthless pride. I grind my teeth just thinking about it.

“Cutest Animation” Schoolgirl Strikers: Also tied with Ao no Exorcist for most catchy theme song, oddly enough, SS hooked me with a by the numbers take on magical girls saving the world from generic bad guys that they can only fight with some cute costumes on, or something. No real reason to watch this unless me telling you that the generic characters and costumes were still really cute and ‘glossy’ would make a difference.

“Cold Iron award” Ao no Exorcist: Five years ago I had some inkling of what was going on, and then there was a crazy filler grandpa, and now this series tells me to forget everything that happened after part of episode 16 of the original series- you know what? That sounds like a reboot opportunity. Do that next time so I don’t have to spend the first three episodes remembering everyone’s relationships or how annoying I thought the main character is, or how nonexistent the power scaling is in this show.

“Most Impressively Mediocre award” elDLIVE: There are some shows you can just watch one episode of and know that this is gonna be the lowest common denominator show you could watch. Mediocre really is the perfect word for this production. Plain animation, plain shounen story about space police that tries to do action, comedy and drama without excelling in a single one, plain normal characters, plain ‘wacky’ characters (how do you even do that?!?), plain fan-service, plain animation (it’s worth saying twice) and phoned in voice acting. There is just no reason to watch this if even anything else airing actually interests you.

“Most generic show” Chain Chronicle: This is distinct from “mediocre”, because it was well enough executed that I could forgive the mad-libs approach to storyboarding employed here. Apparently most of this was cobbled together from a series of movies about a tower defense game, Chain Chronicle had a good first few episodes that got me on board enough to ride it to the finish, when the story became more derivative with each passing episode. A few nicely animated cg fights in the first couple episodes might be worth a watch, even if the rest of the show is largely irrelevant.

“Worst protagonist award” A toss-up between Chuuta (elDLIVE), Masamune (Masamune), and Rin (Ao no exorcist), the least inspiring MC is… Chuuta. While Masamune is an idiot, he continues to pursue his goal, and Rin also finds his redemption (drawing the sword) eventually. Chuuta simply spends too much (screen) time being depressed and feeling sorry for himself. So much so that it actually hurts the pacing of an otherwise unremarkable show. Chuuta commits the ultimate crime of anime: he bored me with his repetitive and predictable ‘moments of doubt’. For that, he is this season’s wort offender of an MC.

Character most deserving of a better show: Chuuta’s fat ginger friend (I’m not looking up his name). This is the role model that Chuuta should be aspiring towards. Facing all of the same social stigma as Chuuta (not popular with girls or dudes), Fat Friend has an impeccable mindset. Kind to everyone, including the mega-loser that is Chuuta with no ulterior motives, I question if Chuuta saved him in episode one, or if he in fact saved Chuuta long ago by reaching out to him in friendship when no one else would. Even though he has ‘no chance’, he talks to girls, sets up events and gatherings, and approaches even odd alienoids as equals; as friends. If anyone deserves a talking phallic monitalien’s help, it’s this man. Oh, Chuuta’s aunt also deserves a better show, for the record.