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This was a really fantastic year for anime, and while my top 3 are easy enough, I have like 8 shows vying for the remaining slots. １ - Land of the Lustrous  I read some of the manga years back, so I knew it'd be good, but the anime blew me away. I was hesitant about the CG at first, but this is I think the first anime I've seen that didn't just look good "for a CG anime," it just looks good. It uses it to accentuate the otherworldliness of the Lunarians and the inhumanity of the gems, and it's just plain pretty besides. I adore how it handles Phosphophyllite. Their transition from a likeable brat to a tortured badass via losing parts of their body is just really neat, and it's nice how they're not just a different person; Phos still feels like Phos, even now that they're cool. Their doofy side still shows through. The alienness of the Lunarians is what I remembered most clearly from the manga, and the anime managed to portray it even better, with bizarre movement and an eerie soundtrack. In many ways this is a very ambitious show, and it managed to deliver in pretty much every way. I adored the ending cards. ２ - ACCA  This became the show to beat from early on. The OP is fantastic, the whole soundtrack is great, it looks gorgeous, and the characters are all nuanced and fun. What appealed to me most about it was how it has various sorts of intrigue swirling about, Important Things happening imminently, matters of vital national importance - but the focus of most eps is just on Jean and his friends/family going about their lives, eating things, making new friends, trying new breads, and learning more about the diverse kingdom they live in. It manages to tell a good political thriller in a low-key way, and it sticks the landing. Also Jean is very moe.  Take special note of the above shows. I, Love_Livealoupe, rated them higher than Sunshine. This means a lot. ３ - Love Live! Sunshine!! S2  As the whole world knows, I love live. I like CGDCT anime and I like sports anime, and Love Live is really just the two smooshed together, but also with fun songs, an addictive rhythm game, and a huge and productive fan community. Possibly due to following it from the beginning, I've gotten more into Sunshine than into OG LL, but beyond that I feel that the Sunshine anime is just a better show than OG - especially comparing first seasons, but this second season has also been fantastic. My love for the franchise no doubt inflates my opinion of it, but it's a really solid show either way, and if you too enjoy cute girls trying their best to overcome challenges together, give Sunshine a shot. Kobayashi, LWA, Made in Abyss, MMO Junkie, and Eccentric Family are all in the running for these next slots and I'm having trouble deciding, so I'm going to let "which shows I had to watch as soon as they came out" be the deciding factor. ４ - Made in Abyss - Cute art style, cool action, and an awesome and imaginative world to explore are just the start of what makes Abyss so good. I really cared about Reg and Riko, and seeing them overcome trials with help from each other and friends was really great. Mitty  ５ - Recovery of an MMO Junkie - This show is incredibly cute, and feels really true to the experience of playing MMOs. I really appreciate that the show stars adults, even if they do occasionally act like lovestruck anime teens, and I like that it managed to have a complete and reasonably story arc despite adapting an ongoing manga. Honorable mentions to the runners-up mentioned above - Kobayashi (despite some not-good bits), LWA, and Eccentric Family s2 - and also to Urara Meirochou for differentiating itself somewhat from the crowd of good CGDCT shows by having really neat sequences getting into the mysticism of the world, and to Natsume s6, for being more of one of my favorite shows, and still being really good. A special shout-out to Kemono Friends, for coming out of nowhere and just being really genuine and enjoyable. Big  to Grape-kun and to the staff that made it so fun.
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Dec 26, 2017 22:24
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 16:26 |
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Crain posted:Not gonna lie, I'll probably be stealing the story beats from this for D&D plot lines. That's a really good idea. I'mma steal your idea to steal ACCA's idea.
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Dec 27, 2017 17:39
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LWA was pretty good at the start, then it had a run of middling eps, but from the love bee ep on it was pretty great
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Jan 15, 2018 09:25
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