All my Winter watches other than the ongoing Ansatsu Kyoushitsu are now showing up as finished on MAL, although some of them still have some way to go, and I have 12 episodes left to watch in total over 5 remaining 1-cour series. All Autumn 2014 series are now finished, however, and as such the final status is in this post.
WARNING: Long Post
Episodes watched this week:
Koufuku Graffiti 11
Rolling Girls 9
Absolute Duo 12 END
Sengoku Musou 9
Akatsuki no Yona 24 END
Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! 11
Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! 12
Seiken Tsukai no World Break 8
Seiken Tsukai no World Break 9
Seiken Tsukai no World Break 10
Ichigo Mashimaro 1
Dog Days” 9
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 11
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 12 END
Kantai Collection 12 END
Sengoku Musou 10
Shirobako 24 END
Log Horizon 2nd Series 25 END
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (TV) 12 END
Winter 2015 Status
Series rankings at present:
1. Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
2. Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! (up 1)
3. Koufuku Graffiti (down 1)
4. Kantai Collection
5. Dog Days”
6. Ansatsu Kyoushitsu
7. Seiken Tsukai no World Break (up 1)
8. Absolute Duo (down 1)
9. Yoru no Yatterman
10. Sengoku Musou (up 1)
dropped:
Rolling Girls
Autumn 2014 final status:
Note: rank changes are compared to the ranks as of December 26th, which is why some of them are rather large.
1. Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru
2. Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu
3. Inou Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de
4. Akatsuki no Yona (up 7)
5. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (down 1)
6. Madan no Ou to Vanadis
7. Log Horizon 2nd Series (down 2)
8. Shirobako (up 2)
9. Denki-gai no Honya-san (down 1)
10. Hitsugi no Chaika: Avenging Battle (down 3)
11. Sora no Method (up 1)
12. Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (dropped) (down 3)
13. Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken
14. Kaitou Joker (on hold)
15. Amagi Brilliant Park (dropped)
16. Gugure! Kokkuri-san (on hold)
17. Grisaia no Kajitsu (on hold)
18. World Trigger (dropped)
19. Nanatsu no Taizai (dropped)
20. Cross Ange (on hold)
21. Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis (dropped)
22. Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete (on hold)
23. Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (dropped)
24. Orenchi no Furo Jijou (dropped)
25. Girlfriend (Kari) (dropped)
26. Sanzoku no Musume Ronja (dropped)
27. Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji (dropped)
28. Garo: Honoo no Kokuin (dropped)
29. Magic Kaito 1412 (dropped)
30. Bonjour♪ Koi Aji Patisserie (dropped)
31. Calimero (dropped)
32. Terra Formars (dropped)
33. Donten ni Warau (dropped)
34. Karen Senki (dropped)
35. Trinity Seven (dropped)
36. Wake Up Girls ZOO (dropped)
37. HisCoool SeHa Girls (dropped)
38. Tribe Cool Crew (dropped)
39. Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu (dropped)
Obviously some of these ones at the bottom are things that were abandoned really early. The rankings can only reflect what I saw, and are not intended to represent what my opinion of them would have been had I watched them to the end.
That was a pretty big season, in fact even more than the upcoming Spring one. There were lots of drops but also a lot of spectacularly good series. Quite the contrast with winter on all three fronts.
And on that note, Winter is now largely done. So this blog post is mainly focusing on the finishes rather than individual episode watches. Before I do, though, I’ll just leave a bit of a comment on Rolling Girls. The main appeal of this show were the little things happening in the background, particularly in the first few episodes. As the series wore on, though, these gradually faded away. I guess they were relying on you having grown attached to the characters by this point, but unfortunately I had not. It’s secondary appeal was simply the fact that there wasn’t enough good enough to make me run out of time to watch it. Which isn’t really much of an appeal point is it?
Absolute Duo – I’ve said this before, but I love all the characters in this series with the screaming exception of Lilith – which really is the dominant factor of my enjoyment of the series. From what I’ve heard this is one of those adaptations that misses out rather a lot of key details from the novels so I guess I’ll be reading through everything from the start again, once I’ve bought the novels. I doubt they will be a particularly high priority for me to read, though, so the chances are that by the time I get round to it I will have forgotten everything anyway. A good, entertaining and completely character driven series, which is a plus for me.
Akatsuki no Yona – this series started good. And got better and better. Of all the things that were airing this season, this is the one above all others that I most looked forward to watching. I love this sort of thing, when it is done right. And done right Akatsuki no Yona was. I bought all the first 16 volumes of the manga in one go.
Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE!! – that final episode managed to outdo all the ones that came before it in terms of absurdity, although it still could have done with more. Ridiculous is good.
SaeKano – this is pretty much set in stone as Anime of the Season now. I like all three of the original main female characters in this series (Eriri, Megumi and Utaha come close to being my #1, 2 and 3 favourite characters from anime this season) and Tomoya certainly has his own appeal as well. I had bought the first 3 volumes of the series back before the anime was announced, and will be buying more at an appropriate time. When I first started I was rather sceptical about the character designs, which was one of my few gripes with this series, but I got used to them over time. Even the slightly uncomfortably fanservicey scenes in episode 10 were a good thing as Tomoya himself was uncomfortable and the discomfort I felt was pretty much a perfect mirror of his. Overall, a great series with great characters.
Kantai Collection – this series really has some characters doesn’t it? And it’s the characters, and not the actual events, that drove the interest, although at times they were entertaining and even griping as well. I’m glad that there is a second series coming, and I’ll be watching it for sure.
Shirobako – Although at times over the top and occasionally even rather ridiculous (and not in a good way), I must admit that this is one of the most interesting and informative anime series I have ever watched. It was also throughly enjoyable and never dry. If you are reading this and have not yet watched Shirobako, please do yourself a favour by setting it as the very next series on your to-watch list. You won’t regret it.
Log Horizon – Ah, Log Horizon. In a sense it was just a continuation of the first season, and thus my thoughts of the first season continues here too. A fascinating concept explored well, this is one of those rare series where my enjoyment isn’t primarily derived from the characters, although said characters certainly aren’t bad ones. I’ll be buying the English releases of the novels when they come out, although it seems the anime has gone a long way ahead of the original novels (I would guess it is up to volume 11, assuming the novels continue along the same storyline – volume 9 came out 2 days ago in Japan, with the same title as that of episode 14 of the anime) so it will be a very long time before the novels progress beyond the point the anime got to.
Fate/Stay Night – Not really an ending in the same sense as the others, given that the next episode airs in just a week’s time. I think I’ll reserve my comments on the series as a whole until the second half is finished…
Which leads on to one final point – the list for Spring 2015 will be posted later today.
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