Category: Anime Tierlist

  • Spring 2015

    This is the big one. The one you’ve all been waiting for. This is the hype season.

    (I didn’t post the stuff from last season, but, uh, I guess Parasyte, Your Lie in April, Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! all made the list, and I’m now catching up on Log Horizon.)

    Maximum Hype

    • Fate/stay night Unlimited BudgetBlade Works. If you haven’t already seen the first season, you do not deserve to be reading this list.
    • Nisekoi (continued).
    • The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. The “alternate universe” style refocused anime based on a spin-off manga story. I may just own all the official English manga, and be a big Haruhi fan besides. It’s interesting that KyoAni turned this down; it’ll be animated by Satelight.
    • Ghost in the Shell: Arise (TV Anime). Not much detail, but the hype is real. GiTS makes a return to TV, but will it be SaC good?
    • Hello! Kin-iro Mosaic. More silly Engrish in this sequel. Ridiculous cute guaranteed.

    Could probably use more hype than it has

    • Plastic Memories. Sci-fi story involving the collection and disposal of end-of-life androids. Has potential to be a touching story if pulled off well. If not, it’s off to the moe android junkyard.

    Some Hype

    • Hibike! Euphonium. Reason: KyoAni.
    • Ninja Slayer. Reason: Trigger. But I dunno if I’ll keep up, it doesn’t seem like my fav. genre based on key art.
    • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid. It’s been ages since the first two Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series, and Strikers was such a let down. Will this new refocused anime based on an spin-off manga story pick the series back up again?
    • More Gintama. To be honest, I haven’t actually seen anything but bits and pieces of the series, but it seems like I could probably pick it up now without too much issue. Maybe catch up later

    Anti-hype

    I’m sure there are people who were looking forwards to them. But they’re not me.

    • Digimon Adventures. I’m sure there are lots of people who will watch and enjoy this. But I’m probably not gonna watch it, and therefore will never know whether I would have enjoyed it.
    • Battle Spirits Burning Soul. Not another trading card game anime.
    • Takamiya Nasuno Desu!. I’m not sure how they’re making another season of Teekyuu, let alone this spin-off series. Although… I’m not really one to say: I watched the entire Teekyuu series on Crunchyroll.

    You’re probably hyped about different things than me. That’s too bad, but feel free to let me know what they might be…

    Thanks to the Neregate Anime Chart, Anime News Network, and Crunchyroll for references.

  • Fall 2014

    Well, it’s time for me to make the list of stuff that I’m watching this season. Here’s the what and why.

    Fumoffu Holy Grail Shocking Truth Tier

    • Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – An anime version of the second route in the VN, in some ways replacing the earlier Fate/stay night anime due to (hopefully) being more coherently put together. Apparently reworked a bit so it flows better from the Fate/zero anime. Very well done, and the first time that the actual introduction to the game has been animated. CR
      Now, wouldn’t it be nice if ufotable followed this up by making a Tsukihime anime? No way that could be anything short of awesome. I mean, I’m surprised nobody else has already made one.
    • Amagi Brilliant Park – Although the first episode was a bit blah, the second really picks up with the large ham main character finally kicking things off properly. This could have a lot of heart if KyoAni pulls it off well.
      Annoyingly, none of the legit streaming sites have picked this up (yet).
    • Chaika – AVENGING BATTLE – More Chaika. If you watched the first season, then you are already watching this. If you didn’t, then go back and watch the first season first? CR

    Harmless Fun Tier

    • DENKI-GAI – A bunch of strange folk with character designs of ambiguous age working at a bookstore that sells dojinshi in a slice of life/light comedy. CR
    • Gonna be the Twin-Tail!! (Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu) – I’m pretty sure they’re just running out of ideas now. Aliens attack Earth to somehow steal the power associated with loving the twin-tail hairstyle. But it doesn’t take itself seriously, character designs are cute, and the fighting animation is surprisingly well done. Funi
      Bonus points if you spotted the Kugimiya Rie cameo.
    • Orenchi no Furo Jijo – Guy has a merman in his bathtub. It’s only 4 minutes long, can’t hurt. CR
    • When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace – When a studio known for over the top ridiculousness makes a show with a mundane setting, something weird is going to happen. Or… maybe not? Some students get supernatural powers with apparently no reason behind them, but there might just be something else going on. CR
    • Celestial Method – A group of former friends in a town below a flying saucer. Looks to be mostly drama, and with one of the writers from the Kanon visual novel on staff it’ll probably be a tear-jerker. CR
      These anime producers really need to stop hiring the onion-chopping ninjas.

    Harmful Fun Tier

    • The Fruit of Grisaia – Based on an adult VN, and it definitely shows it. Pretty much only made my list because of the brilliant tsundere deconstruction that is Michiru. The VN is apparently pretty popular, and there are indications that a more dramatic storyline is hiding in the background. I guess I’ll see how it pans out.

    Insufficent Data Tier

    • Yuki Yuna wa Yusha de Aru – Apparently the obligatory cute girls show for the season. But it doesn’t air until next week.

    And now for the things that I’m not watching.

    Actually Hurts to Watch Tier

    • World Trigger – In theory, there’s nothing wrong with this show. A somewhat generic shounen action, where a group of teenagers with special powers fight invading aliens. In practise, the low-quality animation (for the bits that are animated at all), wooden character designs, and bad CG aliens really kill it.
    • CROSS ANGE Rondo of Angel and Dragon – A disgraced princess fights invading dragons on a flying motorcycle that transforms into a mech. Don’t watch it for the excessive fan disservice.
    • Karen Senki – Presenting the latest tech in CG magic skirts, this series of shorts goes easy on things like plot and characterization in favour of disconnected bits of action featuring a heroine with the magic power of not being able to be hit by bullets. It could have been a neat post-apocalyptic story about AI, but it’s not pulling it off.

    Meh Tier

    I don’t care enough about these shows to actually bother listing them here or making comments about them. Meh.

    Do let me know if there’s something particularly interesting that I don’t have on the list, of course.

  • Summer 2014

    The season is already almost over. What am I doing writing this up so late. At least I have a proper impression of all the shows that I’m watching…

    Stuff that I’ve been looking forwards to every week

    • Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun – Lets just say that someone bought a domain just to make this page: http://sakura.chiyo.is.seriously.moe/. Very lighthearted, interesting characters, drama-free. Available on Crunchyroll.
    • INVADERS of the ROKUJYOMA!? – Obviously a classic “harem” anime, most of the girls are invading a small apartment room for poorly defined reasons, battling it out with card games and silly challenges. But it’s pretty funny, and Sanae is particularly cute. This is on Crunchyroll too.
    • Locodol – Girls become local idols. Fun and entertaining. But that Uogokoro-kun song is starting to wear on me. Second-best battle scenes of any anime I’ve seen so far this season. It’s almost like I’m on a (crunchy) roll here.

    Hmm. Seems like my go-to shows have all been silly/cute comedies. I guess I wanted some stuff to cheer me up.

    Stuff that I sometime put off because it’s too drama-tastic

    Case in point.

    • GLASSLIP – PA Works follows up their beautiful show Nagi no Asukara with a show about glass-making… No, scratch that. Teen romance/drama with some supernatural themes thrown in. Full of feels. Rolling with the Crunches.
    • Blue Spring Ride (Ao Hara Ride) – Obligatory shoujo series. I like it so far, and it seems like it’ll avoid the bad end to the love triangle that obviously has to be introduced into such a show. I’ve run out of funny things to say about Crunchyroll links.
    • Free! (second series) – Kyoani’s swimming show returns. Still decent, adds new characters, etc. Guess where this link goes.

    Things that I’ve fallen behind on, or are continued from last season

    • Captain Earth – Continued. I’ve fallen behind since I’ve been watching it with friends, and I’ve been out of town for several weeks in a row. It has the most ridiculous Giant Robot combining sequence ever created for TV. Crunchyrolled.
    • The World is Still Beautiful – This fell down into the drama-tastic category last season, and I haven’t gotten around to finishing it yet. I suppose I should. Crunchyroll.
    • Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA 2wei – The only reason I’m behind on this is because it’s presumably awesome enough to be worth watching with the friends I haven’t seen in a while. Crunchyroll.
    • Tokyo ESP – I’ve only seen one episode of this, dunno whether I’ll do more. Seems a bit too serious for my summer-time mood. Hah, you thought this would be a Crunchyroll link. Well, too bad; they don’t have the rights where I live! (To be honest, that’s probably the main reason I’m not keeping up with it.)

    WTF

    • Strange+ – To be honest, it’s not actually any stranger. Big-name voice actors make butt jokes in this series of shorts. CR
    • Himegoto – This season’s other series of shorts. Cutest cross-dressing guy ever seen in anime. Except maybe Hideyoshi. Or Megumu. It’s close. CR

    Seriously Junk

    This stuff doesn’t even deserve the Crunchyroll links.

    • Bladedance of Elementalers – You can tell this isn’t going to be a great show right from the title. Mostly a fanservice vehicle. Animation quality isn’t even that great.

    There’s also a bunch of BL-focused shows which I am not qualified to comment on. I’m sure there’s some other decent stuff around that I’m not watching, but maybe you should be. Go check stuff out for yourself!

  • Spring 2014

    It’s spring, the sun is hidden behind the clouds, the snow is gently falling then getting heavier and heavier until we’re buried. Again. In the subzero weather.

    This being Canada, it’s nice to escape to Anime for a bit; so lets see what’s in the upcoming season.

    Things that are SHAFT

    • More *Monogatari. Maybe. I dunno what’s going on this this.
    • Mekaku City Actors (KAGEROU PROJECT). Why didn’t anyone bother to tell me that SHAFT was doing this? How did this even happen?
    • Nisekoi, which I’m going to have to marathon the first chunk of to catch up. Strange that SHAFT is continuing a show while starting a new one.

    I’ll give these a shot.

    • Mushishi, to help us recover from the frantic energy of everything else.
    • One Week Friends – Girl has impossible metal condition where she can remember everything except personal relationships, which she forgets after a week. Looks super-cute.

    Shows that got good reviews of ANN and I should probably check out

    • Captain Earth. Which sounds like the most horribly show ever, based on the title alone.
    • Chaika – The Coffin Princess – Hmm. I’m not usually one for these sort of serious fantasy shows, but I might take a look anyways.
    • If Her Flag Breaks (Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara) – The show takes the concept of ‘flags’ from dating-sim games and turns it into a character-visible mechanic. Somehow the show apparently doesn’t completely suck.
    • The World is Still Beautiful. Hmm. More fantasy. Maybe I’ll wait until this one’s completely aired so I can power through it if I decide I’d like to see it.

    Nope. Or at least not for now.

    • Brynhildr in the Darkness – The maker of Elfen Lied comes back with a new show… that’s pretty much just Elfen Lied in HD. I’ve already seen said show, no real need to watch this now.
  • Winter 2013/2014

    Alright; a new season of Anime is soon to be upon us. Lets see what there will be.

    Can’t Miss This

    • Space ☆ Dandy – Imagine if Shinichiro Watanabe came back and made a new Anime about some interesting people in space, and it will be awesome. Only downside is that Yoko Kanno isn’t doing the music.
    • Nisekoi – I haven’t missed a SHAFT show in a while. It wouldn’t do to start now.
    • Sailor Moon (remake) – No idea what this is gonna be like. It has a lot to live up to.

    I saw the originals, so I should watch these sequels too

    • Saki Zenkoku-hen – The first two series were OK, but it’ll be neat to see what happens after Saki wins the tournament. Assuming that’s actually what the topic of the show will be.

    Continued from Previous Seasons

    • Nagi no Asukara
    • *monogatari – (Sort of. I’ve been watching it on Crunchyroll, which is broadcasting it with a delay)

    I might watch these if they show up on CrunchyRoll and I’m bored

    • Pupipou!
    • Sakura Trick
    • Sekai Seifuku
    • Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! (S2) – KyoAni, but I haven’t seen the original, and I dunno.
    • Mahou Sensou
    • pupa

    How did anybody even come up with the ideas for these?

    • Nobunagun – Nobunaga reincarnated as a gun in a futuristic fighting anime. Yeah.
    • Go! Go! 575 – I admit that I’m almost interested to see what kind of story they could come up with for a game where you make songs that follow Haiku meter?
    • Robot Girls Z – Sure, girls dressed up to look like famous giant robots is kind of cute. But there’s no reason that they had to animate a show (even if it’s just shorts) for this.
    • Buddy Fight – No season is complete without a generic fighting anime based off a trading card game.

    As always, thanks to the folks who make the Anime Chart.

  • Fall 2013

    Hmm. I’ve been looking a bit at the upcoming season based on the announced series. There’s, well, not really that much that interests me listed yet. But here’s a start to my list:

    SHOWS THAT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE SO FAR

    • Kill la Kill

    Shows I took a look at

    • Nagi no Asakura: I’ve been generally pleased with the stuff P.A. Works has done recently, and the description hasn’t put me off the show. A good start. This show is super-pretty, and kind of sad.
    • Little Busters ~Refrain~: Actually, I probably won’t watch it this season. I’m still working my way through the game, and it will be spoilers! I will try to come back to it later.
    • Kyoukai no Kanata: KyoAni. Of course. (The start was a bit weak; lets see if it gets better.)
    • Miss Monochrome: Silly little shorts about an “android idol singer” voiced by Horie Yui with a really strong vocal filter.
    • Non Non Biyori: Because why not.

    Old shows that are awesome and I am now watching

    • Super Dimension Fortress Macross (the original). I suppose I’ll watch Frontier after that.
    • Captain Harlock

    Continued stuff from previous seasons

    • *monogatari

    What were they thinking?

    • Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!: This is… a cross between an idol anime and wrestling anime?
    • Meganebu!: Guys with glasses. I suppose the blatent fanservice anime needed to expand to the female market, after all. Free! led the way, but at least it was a good show. I’m not holding out any hopes for this.

    But you know what I’m really looking forwards to? The Captain Harlock movie. I hope that it actually gets a release over here…

  • Best Anison from Summer 2013

    Here’s just a quick list of the songs that I felt were particularly great this season:

    1. The WATAMOTE opening: 私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い by 鈴木このみ n’ キバオブアキバ. It sure wasn’t what I normally expect, but it works perfectly.
    2. The KINMOZA! opening: Jumping!! by Rhodanthe* (anime cast). It sounds suspiciously similar to some of my favourite Doujin music… because it’s composed by Meis Clauson and has lyrics by yuiko!
  • Summer 2013

    I have now rejoined the ranks of the anime-watching, I guess! Here’s the list of things that I care about in the upcoming season. Expect this page to change over the course of the season.

    Just to note, this list is way absurdly too long. I wonder what I’m going to end up dropping.

    Continued from last season

    Wait, what, I actually watched things last season? Well, no, not really. But I went and marathoned a few shows to catch up.

    New this season

    • Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – it has Makino Yui, And if I’ve learned anything from past shows like C -Control- or Sora o Kakeru Shoujo or Tsubasa Chronicles, that doesn’t mean very much. But it has at least one character with a voice actress I’m a fan of :)
    • NEW GENSHIKEN
    • Some more The World God Only Knows, too.
    • Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA. There is no way this can not be awesome. It’s as if they’d made a third season of Nanoha. Possibly almost as good as a Tsukihime anime, should they have made one.

    Things where I used to be more than a season behind and had to catch up first

    • The second season of the “Monogatari” series. I’m kind of surprised how far behind I am on this; I have to watch Nise- and Neko- (Black) to catch up before starting on this. Which is probably a good thing, because knowing SHAFT it’s not going to come out on schedule anyways. (I’m now caught up on the previous shows, but Crunchyroll has this on a delay…)
    • There’s new Rozen Maiden, but I haven’t seen any of the previous work. So, yeah. (I’ve now watched the entire first season, and have started this. It’s awesome!)

    Things that aren’t actually from this season at all.

    • Captain Harlock
    • My Little Monster (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun). Picked it at random, but it’s surprisingly sweet.

    Things that I thought I wouldn’t watch, but upon further reflection changed my mind about

    Things I’m probably definitely not watching

    • Fantasista Doll – it has surprisingly well-animated plaid skirts. But that’s about it.
  • Well, So Much for That

    I haven’t really watched any anime series as they came out in ages, so I guess you could say this page is dead. Maybe some day when I have more time, the Anime Tierlist will rise again.

  • Fall 2011

    Going back to school has really ate into my Anime watching time. I suppose it’s all for the best, but my Anime Tierlist sucks this season, because I haven’t seen very much. So it’s pretty simple:

    Worth watching even if you’re really busy

    Not worth watching when you have homework to do

    • Everything else.