General Anime Thread

@Holofan4life  
It’s definitely not. It’s got the highest watch rate (something like 70%, when most shows don’t break 50%). But, no, it’s not Anime of the Year. It won’t even be close to Anime of the Season in either season it airs. I don’t buy the idea that the “emotional response” to the hatewagon scene has any artistic merit. Not when a lot of it are from bandwagoners who have never even watched the show.
 
I’m sorry Holo-sama, but if you’re judging an anime from the memes it generates, your judgment is fucked up.

So, … stupid question, but were all Cutie Honey series so… upfront or has Cutie Honey Universe just made it more overt than previous series?
 
Because, I mean, from episode one it makes it pretty clear what the selling points are supposed to be.

Pop Team Epic is probably anime of the year with all of its meta humor.

@SentryBronyPlatinum  
I mean, that doesn’t make it special. Last Period is a meta anime. Mahou Shoujo Ore just did an ep about how fucked up the anime industry is, and then the show’s director (who’s also the writer and lead storyboarder) deleted all of his social media accounts after the ep aired.

Concept of AOTS and AOTY is dumb anyway. You can’t just compare bunch of radically diffrent shows and make one better over another when its just subjetive thing. It also invites pointless rivality like if people couldnt watch and like more than one show per season.

I don’t believe we have an anime of the year for 2018 yet, especially since it’s almost May. Also tomorrow I start watching FLCL since Season 2 is coming this year and Season 3 for next year.

So these are my rankings a month into the season:
 

 
I think it’s been a pretty deep season, even most of the shows I rank towards the bottom are okay.
 
Hinamatsuri: A good combination of fast-paced comedy and heartfelt drama. I expect this to be at or near the top the whole season.
 
Hisone to Masotan: Has off-putting elements but overall a lot of fun. Unlike another show that put its pilots in awkward positions, HisoMaso’s characters are immediately more endearing and interesting. I’ve enjoyed their depiction of everyone’s various character flaws. As long as they don’t take certain things too far, it should be fine.
 
Comic Girls: This show has also shown it can effectively combine cute comedy with earnest drama. One edge it has is it’s sexy. I know that’s pretty shallow of me, but I can’t honestly say it’s a non-factor. It still needs to show the cast’s depth, but if this show can put out more eps as good as the Ruki ep, it might finish on top.
 
Golden Kamui: Intriguing story and strong characters elevates it above its lackluster production.
 
Last Period: I did not expect to be watching a meta anime this season. It’s mostly working so far, but I don’t know how long it can keep it up. The Wiseman better get their own ep at some point.
 
CCS Clear Card, cour 2: Not as strong as I expected but still good.
 
My Hero Academia, S3: I expect this show to start slow. Watching this weekly instead of bingeing it reminded me that I tend to have issue with this sort of show’s pacing. But it seems to be getting going now, so hopefully it’ll stay strong for at least bit longer. Honestly though, I’m not really looking forward to what looks to be a Bakugou-centric arc. But maybe it’ll fine.
 
Mahou Shoujo Site: It has a surprising amount of charm and personality, and it seems pretty earnest when dealing with abuse and trauma. I’m glad I didn’t drop it at the first ep.
 
Uma Musume: A good choice going the sports anime route. It’s had a few missteps but overall still pretty solid.
 
Darling in the FranXX, cour 2: If I think of the cour’s first two eps as a lead up to the third, then they’re not so bad. Maybe the show is going to start rising above its fundamental flaws. Or they go the Citrus route and repeatedly reset the show but still expect us to stay emotionally invested in it.
 
Toji no Miko, cour 2: I wish it had more fun intrateam interactions in lieu of this serious aradama business.
 
Gun Gale Online: Currently the only show on my chopping block. There’s too much expository dialogue for my taste and, unlike Toji no Miko, it doesn’t have much other fun elements to counteract it. Maybe this show just isn’t for me.

@DeathCloud  
I think you can. These shows aren’t that different that you can’t compare them at all. You can find common ground if you tried. Standards for artistic merit are completely subjective and arbitrary, anyway.

@dt
 
Okay, fine, but why do we need to pick one to raise above all.others as THE anime of the season/year?

Best sailor
 

 
 

How Gold Ship is still capable of seeing out of her left eye baffles me.

@YetAnotherBrony  
No, we don’t need to, strictly speaking. But I don’t have this binary thinking that if something isn’t the greatest ever, it’s crap. So I don’t see the harm in comparing the shows relative to each other, as long as the discussion is civil and the standards used are valid.

@dt  
SAO GGO is my fav from this season and I’m pretty satified so far.

@HJSDGCE, God’s Wrath  
I love it and forgot to post it here.

@DeathCloud  
I wish Karen got more screentime.

@dt  
Show only started, they intentionally showed things in way to make suprice about IRL LENN in first episode.  
But IRL will be focused, like how Karen befriended those school girls (who are team she facing in this squad jam) and Pitou and M IRL drama too.

Neo Yokio is great, though I can’t help but wonder why a lot of people hated it when it was meant to be satire/ a parody of New York in the form of an anime artstyle.
 
Feels like they took it too seriously.

@dt  

 
It’s not just the memes, though. If you look at the subreddits that have spawned from all the new shows, Darling In the Franxx blows everything out of the water in terms of subscribers.
 
@SentryBronyPlatinum  

 
Pop Team Epic was very good.

@Holofan4life  
You keep bringing up points about FranXX but never seem to talk about, y’know, the actual show? Let me show you an example:
 

 
See that, I actually talk about what happens in the show. Now you try. Convince me that FranXX is Anime of the Year by discussing the actual show.

@dt  
I don’t talk about it because I haven’t actually seen it. The only reason why I say it’s anime of the year is because it seems to be the most talked about anime in the circles I visit and the anime subreddit. You can say a show is anime of the year without actually seeing it. For instance, Neon Genesis Evangelion was the anime of the year for 1995 and I still haven’t seen the original series.

Heh, Shinometa is fun.

 

I gave Franxx 3 episodes and was turned off just by how stupid everything was.
 
And by that, I mean that about 80% of all my issues stem from just how absurd the incredibly forced fanservice was.