The Best Anime of 2017

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > The Best Anime of 2017

Eela6: May 25, 2007; Shredded Hen

This was an interesting year for me and my relationship with anime. Not to go into too much personal detail, but I have chronic health problems that have left me unable to do a lot of my former hobbies and often leave me disabled with intense pain. I filled a lot of that time with anime this year.

Honorable Mention: Anime-Gataris: I think to really love this show you need to be an obsessive anime loon who hasn't been into it long enough to burn out or see all the tricks yet. That's exactly where I am, so it worked perfectly for me. A meta anime is not a classic, but I did love it. Also, I still can't get over how good the OP is

Honorable Mention: Little Witch Academia - This show is a fantastic adventure for all ages, and Acco is a fantastic protagonist. I just wish the other students got more screen time.

5. Demi-Chan Wa Katanari (Interviews with Monster Girls) - This smart, gentle show manages to be a cute SOL and gently explore the space of living with disablity at the same time. Watching this show helped me come to terms with the fact I will likely be disabled for the rest of my life, and that's OK. It's just how things are. Sometimes when you're disabled you want to be treated like you're just one of the guys, and sometimes people treating you like you're 'normal' is cruel itself. The characters in this show felt like real teenage girls, and the way Takashi-Sensei learns to grow into his role as mentor was very interesting to me. I think it's cool that he is an actual role model, an established, hard-working educator in his mid-thirties who takes his responsibilities seriously, rather than a bland everyman protagonist for the audience to project themselves onto. I empathized most with Machi, whose unique challenges have led her to be focused and somewhat self-serious.

4. Princess Principal - A cute, stylish, and well-written period thriller. Every episode felt tightly plotted, and every character had hidden depths. It had a FANT

3. Konosuba S2 - In context, this is the funniest scene I have ever scene in an anime. Konosuba made me laugh and laugh, even on repeats. Every Konosuber is the worst.

2. Symphogear AZX.

Endorph posted:

Symphogear is the best anime ever made.

Symphogear is a riotous explosion of pure fun, an over-the-top candy-colored mess that constantly dances one step ahead of the insanity of it's own ambition. Symphogear feels like I remember Dragon Ball Z or Ranma 1/2 being; it's funny, it's emotional, it has a sense of scale and action that's out of this world. Best of all, Symphogear is completely uninterested in ironic detachment or posturing. It's not afraid of looking dumb, because it is busy being the coolest goddamn thing in the world. Symphogear thinks that sweet guitars and having your hair be blown dramatically in the wind by an explosion are cool, and you know what? It's right. Combine that with one of the most lovable casts of characters anywhere, a fantastic sense of audio design (it's not just the songs - listen to the sound effects, and surprisingly fantastic comedic chops, and you have a recipe for the best anime ever made.

AZX is the third best Symphogear. It crammed too many fights into each episode and fumbled Maria's subplot and the finale somewhat, but it has some of my favorite character moments and songs in the whole series. While I didn't love the alchemist trio as much as some other ADRTW goons, I thought they were interesting rivals, and I honestly loved Adam, who oozed smug disdain from every pore on his RIPPED BOD.

Objectively, Symphogear AZX may not be the second best anime of this season.
While the first and third seasons try to grapple with larger themes, Symphogear AZX is content to be pure escapism - or, to be less kind, Otaku bait. I don't want to drat it with faint praise by just listing the traps that is avoids, but unlike similar shows, and despite it's commitments to various kinds of fan-service, Symphogear maintains a respect for it's characters, it's world, and it's audience. Every character in Symphogear is a person, except for Adam, who's a real piece of poo poo.

Even so, I have spent so much time this year watching Symphogear, and it has brought me so much joy. Only Symphogear can make me shout "YES!" like an idiot even when I'm in severe pain. Symphogear thinks that love, music and emotional connections are good, and that the world should have more of those things, and also more giant explosions. I think that's worth celebrating.

1. Land of the Lustrous - I don't have much to add to what people said here, but the scene where Antarticite breaks apart made me cry. I know what it feels like to push your body until it breaks and have that still not be good enough. Every single thing about this show is :perfect:

, except that there's not enough Dia.

Eela6 fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Dec 30, 2017

# ¿ Dec 30, 2017 20:21

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 10:04

Eela6: May 25, 2007; Shredded Hen

Spiritus Nox posted:

I just posted in here to gush about animes I liked tbh

It's fun reading everyone's lists!

# ¿ Dec 31, 2017 18:27

Eela6: May 25, 2007; Shredded Hen

Strange Quark posted:

I don’t think this is the best place to talk about your sex life.

Probably not.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2018 01:40

Eela6: May 25, 2007; Shredded Hen

the best anime of 2017 is... anime-gataris???

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 04:12

Eela6: May 25, 2007; Shredded Hen

Xinder posted:

Thanks, Anaconda! This easy to read data is my favorite part of the thread every year.

I guess I'll put Land of the Lustrous on my backlog if it's apparently that good.

Thank you, Anaconda. I really enjoyed this!

Some might say Land of the Lustrous is the best anime of the year....

# ¿ Jan 13, 2018 17:47

Eela6: May 25, 2007; Shredded Hen

mycot posted:

I think the seemingly average reception to LWA on the forums was due to people cooling on Trigger/Kill La Kill here, and how long it took to become a series. Both of these opinions are extremely Something Awful though, both series are still incredibly popular in pretty much every other internet anime community I've seen.

Speaking personally, I loved LWA. It was merely a very good anime in a season full of great anime. When working on my top 5, it kept shuffling in and out of the #5 slot, along with Anime-Gataris.

I think LWA has a little bit of an identity crisis. It doesn't know whether it wants to be Ghibli Harry Potter or an Extremely Trigger Metaphor for the Anime Industry. I know a lot of people who liked one or the other half more than the other.

This is in contrast to other Trigger works, which pretty much establish their tone within the first episode and then the rest of the show is just pushing the gas as hard as they can. I think that can be exhausting for some people but I love it, personally.

Nate RFB posted:

The stuck up rival girl would have made for a better MC, IMO.

I disagree, but it was a fantastic Yoko Hikasa performance.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 22:54

Eela6: May 25, 2007; Shredded Hen

The Colonel posted:

kill la kill isn't a good show

What the???

# ¿ Jan 16, 2018 00:42

Eela6: May 25, 2007; Shredded Hen

The Colonel posted:

the first half of kill la kill is fun but the ragyo scenes are really weird, imo, and the drama in the second half isn't good

but it at least feels like it uses its characters at any point

Fair enough. Not gonna try and defend the Ragyo stuff. It doesn't bug me a lot personally, but it's just poorly executed and not a good look for a show that otherwise threads the line between "I can't believe they just did that" and "oh god, why did they do that" so well.

Otoh, I might like the second half more than the first! It's bigger, louder, and dumber than the first half, and that's a-ok with me because Trigger is great at big, dumb, and loud.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2018 01:06