The anime was… alright, I’ll level with you, I have nowhere near caught up with ongoing anime. The first episodes of everything, sure, yeah, I had to review all that, but any episode twos? Well, I found time for the punch-happy shows I watch with my housemates anyway, but that’s basically it. Hell, I only found time to watch After the Rain’s finale two days ago! I’ve basically just been finishing up preview week and catching up on other projects in the aftermath, so “airing anime” isn’t really a concept for me at the moment. But hey, let’s run down what I did manage to get to, and hopefully by next week I’ll have caught up enough on writing about anime to actually watch some anime. Let’s get to it!
Category Archives: Week in Review
Spring 2018 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective
Hey all, and welcome to the Spring 2018 Premiere Retrospective! If you haven’t been here before, here’s the deal: my work at Anime News Network means I end up watching and reviewing nearly every single new premiere in a season. That normally adds up to somewhere between thirty and forty premieres, and given a solid percentage of those premieres tend to be shows I wouldn’t inflict on my worst enemy, it seems like a worthwhile idea to rank these episodes to aid future travelers. As usual, I’m not implying these rankings are “objective” or anything, and obviously my own tastes will dictate a great deal of how things shake out. I also should stress that a show ending up somewhere further down the ranking isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I grumble about it, but in truth, the majority of anime are perfectly watchable, and will likely appeal to an audience who finds their premise intriguing. You can check out the full list of ANN reviews here, and I’ll be grouping my own critiques into vague tiers below. Alright, that’s enough preamble. Let’s rank some shows!
Spring 2018 – First Impressions, Part Two
The spring season continues to barrel onward, and we’ve now arrived at some actual, genuine pickups! From the action-packed Megalo Box to the comfy as heck Comic Girls, we’re getting into the real contenders at this point, and even picking up some unexpected stars like the new SAO spinoff. As usual, you can check out the full ANN preview guide right here, or click below for a list of my new scores and links to individual rules. Let’s get right to it!
Spring 2018 – First Impressions, Part One
The spring season has begun! As usual, I am pretty much booked solid on viewings and reviews and previews and all my other random projects at the moment, as I rush to offer the hottest of takes on the freshest of shows at the fastest pace I possibly can. As for this particular season, things are actually turning out pretty swimmingly so far – both Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Lupin III had very solid premieres, a few unexpected shows managed to surprise me, and pretty much nothing reduced me to sobbing in the fetal position. I’ve got thoughts and ratings for everything, so if you want to check out the full ANN list you can head right here (I’m Nick Creamer over there, incidentally), and if you’d like to see my own scores with links to each individual review, click through below!
Winter 2018 – Week 11 in Review
It’s closing time, folks – open all the doors and let you out into the world. I’d be happy to just quote one hit wonders this week, but the season really is ending, so I suppose we should also survey some cartoons. Given I’ve already dropped everything that seemed to be juggling more narrative balls than it could handle (aka Franxx), I wasn’t surprised to see this week’s finales conclude their shows with general grace, with both Laid Back Camp and A Place Further than the Universe offering not necessarily their best episodes, but fine representations of their overall appeal. And among the continuing shows, After the Rain continues to hone in on a genuinely satisfying endpoint for Kondo and Akira, while March comes in like a lion… well, I mean, it’s March, it’s always gonna do its own thing. All these shows have been consistent enough that I have entirely run out of new things to say about them, so while I’m sad to see them go, I’m also looking forward to whatever fresh madness the spring will bring. Let’s send this season’s contenders off right, and run this week down!
Winter 2018 – Week 10 in Review
The anime kinda killed it this week, folks. Well, alright, at least one anime specifically killed it, and that anime constitutes a large enough percentage of my weekly quality variance that it alone killing it pretty much lifts the whole ship. To put a finer point on it, this week’s episode of A Place Further than the Universe was absolutely phenomenal, and given all three of my other airing shows tend to maintain roughly the same level of quality every week (barring a climax episode of March), Universe’s success makes for a Week in Review success. Both Universe and After the Rain accomplished the difficult tasks of convincing me they could actually conclude their stories at satisfying points this week – Universe through its graceful return to its initial themes, and After the Rain through its continued detailing of what a glimmer of hope might look like for either of its heroes. In spite of this being a relatively light season in terms of raw show numbers, After the Rain, Universe, and March all fall so squarely into precisely My Jam territory that I can’t really complain. Not one, not two, but THREE melancholy character dramas about quietly unhappy people trying to reach out to each other. My cup runneth over with gentle sadness, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Let’s run this week down!
Winter 2018 – Week 9 in Review
Alright folks, it’s time once again for the Week in Review! With the season continuing to wind its way down, my own weekly pickings are looking even slimmer than usual. The big news this week is that I simply couldn’t muster any enthusiasm to watch Franxx, and so the butt handles have been dropped until their show gets better at handling its butts. Aside from that, the anime was pretty alright this week, which isn’t a surprise – I’ve honed my seasonal viewing down to just four shows, including a long-running sequel. If I can’t derive any pleasure from that short of a shortlist, I’m probably in real trouble. This has turned out to be a pretty standard off season all around, still housing a few random treasures, but mostly just laying out the carpet for next season’s copious sequels and adaptations and originals. That is, as ever, perfectly fine by me; regardless of what’s currently airing, I’m still buried in Princess Tutu and Chihayafuru and Simoun and plenty of other old gems. Every season is a great anime season if you’re not paralyzed by recency bias – but for now, let’s embrace that recency bias once more, and run down some random thoughts on the industry’s latest wares!
Winter 2018 – Week 8 in Review
Alright guys, I’m starting to run out of enthusiasm here. After seemingly gathering itself into a genuinely respectable show, Darling in the Franxx shit the bed for the second time straight this week, meaning the season’s wild card is rapidly losing all hope resolving into a genuinely good show. On top of that, my interest in A Place Further Than the Universe has only lapsed further, as the show continues to indulge in just-kinda-par slice of life episodes. And with even After the Rain turning in a relatively so-so episode this week, it feels totally unfair to hang all my hopes for excellence on Laid Back Camp, a show that is just trying to have a good time and is feeling so attacked right now. None of this is unusual, of course – a great first episode is a lot easier to achieve than a great show, and every season’s back half ends up littered with the regrets of shows that could have been. But still, I can’t help but feel just a bit demoralized as we embark on this Week in Review. Let’s pick up our spirits the best we can and run this week down!
Winter 2018 – Week 7 in Review
The anime was not so great this week, I am afraid to say. Darling in the Franxx tied off its recent rally with a mediocre beach episode, Laid Back Camp outsourced its aesthetically weakest episode yet, and March comes in like a lion was still a no-show altogether. Though this winter season opened with an unexpectedly appealing grip of shows, it’s at this point arrived at an average, or perhaps slightly below-average lineup. That’s still fine for me, of course – with After the Rain still kicking ass and readers guiding me into such luxuries as Toradora and Princess Tutu, I’ve still got plenty to enjoy every week. But as for airing shows, this is slowly becoming a season that encourages prolonged glances towards that ever-present backlog. But enough grumbling – let’s start with our comfy campers and run this week down!
Winter 2018 – First Half in Review
That sacred time has come yet again. Once again we’ve arrived at the halfway point of the season, and once again I’ll be foregoing my episodic-specific thoughts in lieu of general feelings on everything I’m watching so far, all sorted into a neat show ranking. As usual, I should impress upon everyone that these show rankings don’t aspire to anything approaching objectivity, and the fact that I’m only doing this ranking here, when many shows have only just finished clearing their throats, means it’s basically impossible to draw any conclusions from them. These rankings also used to feel a bit more meaningful when I actually watched seven or eight shows a season – these days I tend to max out at half a dozen, and generally drop anything I’m not thoroughly enjoying. All five of these shows have been tested and found worthy in their own various genres and specialties, and I’d happily recommend any of them to the right person. But there can be only one champion, so let’s start with my top pick and RUN THIS SEASON DOWN!