Favorite anime: Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou. A solid cast of characters, a well-paced storyline, beautiful animation, a wonderful soundtrack, brilliant writing, and the cutest pair of teenagers you’d ever see. Kawaisou has everything I want apart from a second season.
Least Favorite anime: DRAMAtical Murder. You know, I could have put Wonder Momo here; most people probably would. DRAMAtical however had potential. It has a strong fanbase, a good overall plot, and some good characters. How studio NAZ managed to make an anime so lifeless that it became disturbing to watch, I don’t know. I’ve never been so creeped out by a show. It’s just empty… and when a Moomin fan complains that something is empty, you know it’s bad.
Favorite moment: Mekakucity Actors – Episode 7. Just before the credits role, a beautifully heartbreaking scene takes place. It’s not a big moment. It’s a quiet little sentence as the scene exits… but it’s the best thing I’ve seen from any Kagerou Project work. What gets me most is that I can’t find a single person mentioning it in a review or episode discussion. This moment makes me appreciate Kagerou Project as something more than a series of songs. It shows that there is potential for an amazing story in there. It shows that, when Shaft stop focusing on Shaft moments, they can break hearts with a single sentence. If you haven’t watched Mekakucity or anything Kagerou Project related, just watch the anime up until episode 7. Maybe watch ‘Lost Time Memory’ on YT after episode 5.
Best guy: Shougo Kiryuu – One Week Friends. When your best friend not only decides not to turn a romance into a love triangle, but also decides to stop you from being a selfish idiot, you know he is a true best friend. It’s one of the three signs of the BFF status. The other two signs being access to a burial ground, and complete loyalty.
I honestly didn’t enjoy One Week Friends as much as I thought I would, but it wasn’t bad by any means. Kiryuu pushed the anime above average in my mind.
Worst guy: Hatate Souta – Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara. There’s honestly not much to say about this guy. He’s blank and depressed, but with a mix of some harem protag tropes thrown in. It doesn’t help that the art style is unexplainably ugly…
Best girl: Hajime – Hamatora. Hajime was a bit of an unexplained wonder in the first season of Hamatora, and it was very compelling, but in the sequel she finally got the much needed screentime that she deserved. Generally she’s seen as a quiet tomboy-ish character that loves food and is very sympathetic. The juxtaposition of her cool OP scenes and her absent-minded joy is adorable, and speaking of adorable, there is some of that later on in the show~
Also at one point she has a ridiculously long fringe. I swear I have a sixth sense for detecting characters that will end up with this hairstyle. Best superpower.
Worst girl: Five – Zankyou no Terror. ZnT (not to be confused with the many other ZnTs) was an intelligent, compelling, exciting show… for a good few episodes. Starting from episode five (Five huh?) the show became so boring that I was seriously considering dropping it. Episode nine (Nine huh?) grabbed my attention again, but still…
So what made those episodes different from the ones before them? The attention shifted to the character Five. An antagonist of sorts with no satisfyingly explained motive. Episode Nine onwards shifts it slightly away from Five and back to… Nine. (Think they planned this? The names and the episodes are way too fitting.)
So yeah, Five’s introduction and whole characterization essentially ruined the whole show… Puurrretty bad
Best cast: Tribe Cool Crew! Kuru Kuru! Yeah, a children’s TV show… This isn’t about the show overall (that’ll be brought up in the airing anime thread) so I’ll skip the discussion of not judging a show based on it’s demographic, but I can’t say I’m not surprised that this show got a “best” of something in my mind.
The main cast is as follows: A clone of Kamui from CFV, a Dandere from a rich family who goes to an all-girls school and somehow manages to not feel like a trope, a scary street-fighter turned good guy from the Sakagami family, a post-development Dandere who is supportive, and a fat gentleman with blond hair that all the girls fangirl over.
So far I’ve watched 11 of the 12 episodes (no idea how long it’s gonna be) and already the main characters are developed really well. The spoiled brat (Kamui clone) is learning to listen to advice, and the Dandere is opening up and being accepted by her school and family. They are showing some early signs of romance too, so I’m uneasily sailing that ship. The three other characters have had their own development, but mostly act as support for the two young leads.
What makes it all work is the chemistry between the characters. They all bounce off each other so well that I can’t help but marvel at it in surprise. It’s amazingly done. I can’t stop watching it. I can’t stop writing about it! SEND HELP! PLEASE!
Worst cast: Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete. There are only 2 characters in this show I care about at all, and one of them is criminally undeveloped and sidelined. There’s not a lot of chemistry, development, or standout traits that make me like this cast. It’s just awful…
Guilty pleasure: Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete. I love this show man! Anime of the MONTH. So much energy and excitement. I can pretty much guess what’s gonna happen, but god am I excited to see the show’s predictability! OP and ED are love. That’s all the praise I have for this show, but it gets me every single week…
What’s wrong with me? ;~; Why didn’t I just say Trinity Seven and save myself this embarrassment?
You can find my full review here.
Biggest disappointment: Sora no Method. An Ex-Key writer makes an anime!? WOOOOooooooo, oh it’s trash. Nevermind. I guess we know why he’s an Ex-Key writer…
The animation is nice… usually.
Unexpected favorite: Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis. “I TOTALLY CAN’T WAIT FOR THIS ANIME BASED ON A TRASHY OVERRATED P2W MOBILE CARD GAME” says my inner Kanon… and yet, it’s great. I think the show has become less enjoyable in comparison to it’s early weeks, but it really is a great show. If this was 2012 or 2013 this show would probably be a contender for anime of the year. Unfortunately it’s 2014 and there’s a bunch of shows that are better than great. I also kinda wanna play the card game now… I managed to enjoy Sword Girls Online, so I can probably enjoy SnB…
Luckily I don’t have a phone.
Favorite OP: There were a lot of good OPs this year. Nobunagun’s, Mekakucity’s, Mahouka’s, Tokyo Ghoul’s, Parasyte’s, Ushinawareta’s, Trinity Seven’s… Buuuut I’m gonna say Shingeki no Bahamut’s. I talked about how surprisingly good the show was, but what’s even better than the show is the OP. Whoever wrote this needs to be praised.
The song is sung from two perspectives: Bahamut’s (the big bad) and Favaro (the main protagonist.) Bahamut, being a dragon, is inventively represented by screamo vocals, while Favaro sings along and voices his ideals and his view of the world. At this point in the anime (I’m at episode 10 right now) it’s hard to tell… but I feel like it’s some very clever foreshadowing. I might just be looking into it too much, but still, it’s really well done~
ALL I WANNA BE IS MEEEEE
Favorite ED: Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete. I need to talk about this show more apparently! I could have just picked one of the few good Trinity Seven EDs, but nooooo, I had to go and pick Ushinawareta.
There’s a couple versions of the ED, and occasionally it gets an different video shown alongside it, but it’s always amazing. I love the animation of the town the most. This ending song is slow and peaceful, but it fills me with so much energy and excitement. The lyrics are masterful and the meaning of them evolves and becomes deeper every episode. The same can be said for the Opening.
Favorite Soundtrack: Most of Zankyou no Terror’s OST is suited to a very specific taste… and it’s a taste I enjoy. Quiet, melancholic, lonely… but filled with hope for the morrow. I think it’s absolutely perfect for the material Zankyou covers, and you should really listen to a few tracks. Von, Bless and Is should be good tone-setters.
Shout-out to the Tribe Cool Crew OST too.
Late to the show: White Album 2. I hear the show pales in comparison to the VN. It didn’t do the protagonist justice some say. It wasn’t as personal say others. I’m sure they are valid complaints, but I can’t read the VN, so the anime will do~ It was pretty great. Waaay better than White Album. Probably the best over-the-top romance drama I’ve seen since… Kimikiss? It’s nice to see characters acknowledge each other instead of refusing to accept moments of peace.
Looking forward to in 2015: Di Di Di. Di Di Di. DIGIMON. DIGIMON. DIGIMON ADVENTURE TRI! I am watching all of Digimon Adventure in every language I can find until this thing releases, and if it’s disappointing, I will refuse to acknowledge it’s flaws and smite all who aren’t blind! Hah, hahaha. HAHAHAHA!
Oh, and what’s with all the hate on the art style? I love the old style as much as the next guy, but people are already raging at it as if it were the end of the world.
Please, no hate. 
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