A season I looked more fondly on in hindsight, as my actual viewing volume seems to have dropped, even counting the few continuous shows I can’t list on this season’s chart.

3. Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho: A good time, every time. Sora Yori managed to settle for only mildly cute girls doing only mildly cute things. A story about characters at its core, this one focused on one or more of the titular girls each episode where the journey was truly better than the destination. It could be silly, but never let itself be embarrassing to watch. Recommended.

2. Ryuuou no Oshigoto: Okay, I know I don’t display myself in the best light for admitting to enjoying the ‘loli’ show for this season, but I did. Similar to Welcome to the Ballroom from last year, I enjoy the spectacle of the culture that builds around a specialized competitive activity like shogi. MC has no notable qualities aside from Shogi prowess (and having tragically unfortunate phrasing when talking to and about young girls). So light novel you can taste the cynicism, Ryuuou managed to move fast enough and have enough simultaneous (and cute) character arcs to make me a believer and hankering for more. One look at the tin should tell you everything you need to know about this show. I will say though, that I was surprised at the last arc where the main character broke down at his own inadequacies in a way that readers would not project themselves onto (with requisite redemption); it kind of reminded me of the Re:Zero deconstruction. Hit rock bottom before coming back up.

1. Killing Bites: Har har har, make your jokes... Do I just have poor enough taste, or was this season just that bad? One word. “Entertainment”. Nothing else provided it more consistently and at any expense this season. Sort-of furries fighting half naked with all of the trash talk and trashy fanservice you’d expect from pro wrestling, except people died during Killing Bites. I don’t have to sell this to anyone, because it is so plainly and proudly what it is. That being said, it also took the time to craft an violent, turbulent, and ambitious ending that completely surpassed my expectations. Plain dude was straight up killed, the world order changed, and the story bothers to introduce the next generation of animal characters we will see if this ever somehow gets a sequel. Not bad… not bad. I looked forward to nothing more each week.

Special awards? Who, me? Well, if you insist…

The “Who needs this?" award is being fabricated in 70% post-consumer product for Slow Start: At this point, do we really need more ‘healing’ shows? Are our lives so vapid and empty that borrowing a ‘slice of life’ from an anime could truly hope to fill such a gap? Who knows, but I struggle to even call this “cute girls doing anything”. You got your shy one, the deadpan loli, the otaku, and the yuri-bait comprising our team of friends being friendly, while talking about how they are friends… and what good friends they have… and how they are glad that they’re friends. You know… I’m beginning to question if I’m doing this whole ‘friendship’ thing right. I mean, do my friends even know they we are friends? I don’t tell them that we’re friends very often, so what if they forget? All we have are some shared interests and we enjoy spending time together! Good thing I have the almighty wisdom of anime on my side to explain in no uncertain terms that friends have in common that they are, in fact, friends!

“Catchiest tunes” award is being pirated by Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san: When watching an anime about a certain thing- the thing in this case being some girls’ sexual awakening to Ramen- you are going to be told alot about that thing. It’s just how things are going to go. When said thing isn’t particularly interesting, it is easy to drift off and... just kind of take in the lights and sounds from the screen; no chemical assistance required. During many such moments of Koizumi, I noticed the upbeat twangy soundtrack queueing me that some sort of important thing was happening (usually eating or preparing to eat ramen), snapping me back into the show. Impressive, so it gets a note here. We can’t all be Shokugeki.

Best first episode award goes to Kokkoku: This is up there with Parasyte, Psycho Pass, Death Parade, and HSotD as having the one of the greatest, most effective opening episodes in recent memory. Even if the rest of the series didn’t hold up as well, this episode alone would likely be enough to sell someone on watching at least a few more to find out what happens next.

The "Eyes rolling" award goes to Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san: It’s cute. No denying that. Bright little girl teases dense little boy cuz’ she likes him, and he’s learning he likes her, too. The setups are varied, but the actual format is never really shaken up over these twelve episodes. I could identify the beats in this odd courtship far too early and reliably to not begin feeling just a little annoyed at Nishikata for not wising up a bit more comprehensively given how often he is teased. Still, they were cute. No denying that.

The “I can’t believe it’s a TV anime” award went to Violet Evergarden: Kyoani has raised the bar again by illustrating a realistic turn of the century european-ish country so fantastically that I can still vividly remember some of the landscapes. This is TV animation, and I’m having trouble finding where the corners were cut! Enjoyable and episodic. This is clearly a series designed to make the audience feel things, and it often succeeded, so for that, Recommended.

The “pitchforks and smoke” award is smouldering next to Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku: An isekai anime adapted from a light novel? That’s just crazy talk. What’s next? Magical fighting in high school? Snide jokes aside, I had some slight hopes for this one when the main character spent the beginning of his journey in mortal peril… and then he became the overpowered protagonist within minutes of the first episode. The fact that the MC was satisfied being a corporate drone sleeping at his desk during crunch time in the first place is a bit depressing in hindsight; it suggests a lack of character outside of ‘nice guy’. After a few episodes, the internet at large began to take issue with Death march apparently sliding into the standard harem, no tension escapism route. I lost what little interest I had (already being about 5 episodes behind), and cut my losses.

The"‘true to form" award is rattling around in a vending machine besides Dagashi Kashi 2: The first season was nice enough, though it didn’t need a sequel by any stretch, and here we are. The show, like the products it is centered around, is kind of a poor-man / kids mini-anime that resembles the real thing, when I go by the ― episode length and slightly worse animation quality. It had some heart, but the jokes/setups weren’t that much different from the first season, and Kokonatsu’s arc at the end didn’t really resonate with me. I also felt that each episode ended a bit too soon, right when I was beginning to settle in with the characters.

Now, the prestigious “fool me twice” trophy is being inversely colored by Shaft for Fate/EXTRA Last Encore, so it doesn’t even look like a trophy: I’m not angry at this for being boring, but I’m not hopeful that anything produced with the name ‘fate’ attached to it will interest me now, after this and Apocrypha. ‘Pretentious’ and ‘Ambitious’ share part of the same second half of their words, and by Shaft logic that allows them to be compared to make my point that the writing and directing of this show just muddled together into something akin to 18if from a few seasons back with a higher budget. It feels aimless and overinspred at the same time. I can enjoy shaft’s work, but this story left me fearing for the ...wait for it… FATE of the franchise!

The ‘like an ugly baby’ award goes to Black Clover: I’m including this on this season’s list because watching another 26 episodes would be an unjustifiable waste of time. Let me be clear: Black Clover is the most soulless, cookie-cutter, produced by committee, half hearted, uninspired, bland, uninteresting, low concept, cynical embarrassment of a show I’ve seen in a while, as a fan of shounen. If Black Clover were just a bit better, it would be a parody of itself. Every shortcut imaginable is employed here from bland characters, tropes that mirror their appearance in other, better shounen, lazy and rushed ‘character development’ segments, filler beginning in episode 2, and of course animation that wouldn’t pass as decent ten years ago. I would encourage you to watch an episode or two just as a sort of litmus test for how much quality you demand in your shounen. Dropped.