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Lu Over the Wall and Haibane Renmei, by a country mile. Hell, both were better than many things from this year I watched. Also, started rewatching Samurai Champloo this year to introduce my husband to it and I forgot how much of a downer this rip-roarin' thrill ride is at first.
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Dec 28, 2018 02:19
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GIRLS LAST TOUR and i've been broken ever since
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Dec 28, 2018 02:29
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Symphogear. It's a great weird show and I'm glad I watched it. I still think the show doesn't really live up to its first episode but that doesn't mean it's bad, it's just different than what I expected.
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Dec 28, 2018 02:41
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I've watched the first season of KonoSuba and Made in Abyss this year, and I have absolutely done myself a disservice not watching Made in Abyss sooner. The longer it went on the better it got, and now I can hardly wait for a second season.
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Dec 28, 2018 17:40
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I finally watched Steins;Gate this year. It’s been on my list of stuff to check out forever but I never got around to it. Now that I have it’s easily one of my top shows of all time. I checked out the OAV and movie as well but found them pretty superfluous (and the movie doesn’t even really make sense). I’ll get around to 0 once the blu-rays are out but it sounds pretty unnecessary as well.
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Dec 28, 2018 20:44
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I watched a whole lot of old anime this year and they were almost all good so this is going to be a big post. Strap yourselves in! Osamu Tezuka's Dororo starts out as one of the best anime I have ever seen. It starts out as an almost arthouse exploration of class conflict, revolution, abuse, and man's place in the cold uncaring universe that's perfectly paced and thrillingly directed. After eight episodes of this it kind of loses its way, and after a mediocre stretch it reforms itself into something much stranger: a dark comedy about demon hunting. These episodes are in see ways more enjoyable than the first part, legitimately funny and I would say the direction on most still holds up today. Overall I was not disappointed by this show and it lived up to my expectations of it. The show was one of the first shows that a whole host of legendary anime directors worked on, Yoshiyuki Tomino of Gundam fame, Ryousuke Takahashi of VOTOMS, Osamu Dezaki of Ashita no Joe/Rose of Versailles/every influential anime ever made, Noboru Ishiguro of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri of Ninja Scroll/Cyber City Oedo fame all worked on this show. Wow! Hyouge Mono is a great Sengoku period drama about feudal lords obsessed with tea ceremony. The main character is a minor Noble who loves aesthetics and the tea ceremony and his struggle between doing what he truly loves and what society expects from him persists even as he rises through the ranks of society and through ever changing political leadership. There's a lot of attention to detail and costuming in this show, people actually change clothes and what they wear is also thematically important. The costuming is used.to create a believable sense of history and time. The show also has a lot of humor and heart and the funny faces will stick out immediately for a lot of people but it is also a tense and emotional political thriller and also a secret history of tea in Japan. It's one of the few Sengoku anime I have seen that put the period into a more global context; Japan's cultural relationship with China and Korea is important to the plot as is the spread of Christianity. Since it's based in history and everyone in it is based on a real person I would advise not looking them up if you don't want to be spoiled on their fates. I would say it says a bit in the middle but that is also a time of stagnancy in our hero's life so it makes sense. Highly recommend this series if you like history and well written shows and good looking animation Kimagure Orange Road was a fantastically 80s love triangle shonen romcom that hits a lot of familiar beats and has a hit or miss secondary cast but was good looking and stylish enough to get me through to the end. The biggest thing it does is force the main character to make a choice and then follow through definitively, with all the messy emotions that entails, on that choice in the finale movie which was one of the best anime movies I watched this year. The Hakkenden is an adaptation of the classic Japanese novel about eight half brothers in feudal Japan trying fighting to break the curse put upon them when their mother was married off to a dog. It was brought to you by just about drat everyone who worked on Akira except Katsuhiro Otomo. It's an anime made by and for animators, so communicating the story through imagery and aesthetic is given a higher priority than a direct narrative. It's absolutely gorgeous and very thematically dense, covering heavy topics like intergenerational trauma, whether honor and respect are things even worth having, and how weak men in powerful positions victimize everyone around them even beyond the period of their rule. Since it's a 106 volume novel packed into 12 episodes it's more episodic toward the end with each director choosing a story that fits the themes and visuals they want to do which can be jarring after the first part which is more straightforward. I thought the second half was the better one and it contains all of my favorite episodes, especially the crossdressing revenge plot episode. If you care about animation at all you should watch this series Takarajima still sticks in my memory, this adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel directed by anime legend Osamu Dezaki probably the definitive adaptation for me, it radiates a sense of adventure and boyhood in every frame. Like all Dezaki there are a lot of striking and iconic images, this uses his postcard memories technique to great effect often, including one memorable sequence where Long John Silvers spears a swordfish done entirely in the sketchy, hand painted style. It's also very tense for a kid's anime, with people getting shot and killed and blood being drawn. Dezaki's interpretation of Long John Silver is the real draw here, he's the ur-father figure, a Byronic man of action, a man who lives not for money or fame but for adventure itself. The ending is especially memorable, with the last few episodes becoming a meditation on aging and death that was unexpectedly touching and will stick with me for a long time I bet. I can see why it was such a big inspiration for people like Hiroyuki Imaishi and Kentaro Miura.
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Dec 28, 2018 23:29
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As part of my getting-back-into-anime-bingathon I revisited a couple of my top shows to remind myself why I regard them so highly. And boy was I reminded. Fate/Zero This show was everything I remember it being. Incredible action, stylish visuals, sharp directing, Yuki Kajiura...and last but most importantly, Gen Urobuchi's brilliant writing. Having watched this show a second time, I feel like I have a better sense of how good he is at constructing narratives. The tight web of thematic relationships he weaves between his characters, even characters that don't have much of a direct interpersonal relationship, serve to not only heighten the weight of each theme they tie into, but to point out how interrelated all of these seemingly disparate themes are. And he does all of that within the confines of a prequel to existing source material he had no hand in writing. All of which reminds me that I need to watch Thunderbolt Fantasy. Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World) I never really remembered why I held this show in such high regard. I just knew that I did, and had vague memories of a couple critical moments in the show. But watching it again... I wondered how I ever forgot to begin with. It's been at least a month since I rewatched it and I still find myself thinking about it. It's a show simultaneously about so many things all at the same time that I wonder how the show is at all coherent. And yet this show is somehow neatly structured into 4 distinct acts split across over a decade in the lives of its characters without ever losing cohesion or momentum, slowly but steadily sinking its thematic claws deeper and deeper, long past its climax. I'm not sure I fully understood the show on my first pass despite it becoming one of my favorite shows. Having watched it again, I'm even more sure that it deserves a spot as one of my picks for the best shows of all time. Other than those, I also got around to Hosoda's Boy and the Beast. As my favorite anime filmmaker, I felt obligated to check it out and was not at all disappointed. It still doesn't dethrone Wolf Children as my favorite of his films and overall was one of his least interesting. But it is no lesser than any of his fantastic filmography. J-Spot posted:I finally watched Steins;Gate this year. It’s been on my list of stuff to check out forever but I never got around to it. Now that I have it’s easily one of my top shows of all time. I checked out the OAV and movie as well but found them pretty superfluous (and the movie doesn’t even really make sense). I’ll get around to 0 once the blu-rays are out but it sounds pretty unnecessary as well. As a huge fan of Steins;Gate I did not enjoy 0 overall. They try to recapture much of the same dramatic tension and feel through brute force anime rather than the subtle character-driven narrative of the first. Your milage may vary if you enjoyed the original for different reasons than I did, because it wasn't a bad production by any means. It's better than the movie whose existence I'd completely forgotten, or possibly chosen to forget. ViggyNash fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Dec 29, 2018 |
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Dec 29, 2018 07:57
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I finally sat down and watched Miss Kobayashi's Maid Dragon. Which was good fun and Kobayashi is a great and relatable main character.
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Dec 29, 2018 11:33
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Gunbuster. Easily. also Jojo part 4 was really good
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Dec 31, 2018 14:50
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I watched Gaogaigar and that's one heckuva show. Never forget Pizza.
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Dec 31, 2018 16:02
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I mostly watched shows that were released this year but I did watch Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World. I had gone in knowing absolutely nothing about this other than it featured blue haired and pink haired maids which I guess I had learned through cultural osmosis at some point along the way. I ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would before I started with a special shout out to the conversation episode.
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Dec 31, 2018 19:52
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Redline it fukkin` owned
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Dec 31, 2018 19:59
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Paradise Kiss - I rewatch this one every time I'm in a slump because the ending makes me cry. It's my favorite Ai Yazawa work and I honestly think her best stuff is when she can wrap up a story quickly. Still mad the movie changes the ending. Escaflowne - Nothing like fantasy giant robots. The TV series is great, the movie is more meh, and I forgot the manga existed. I'm working my way through the Zeta Gundam TV series but I watched the trilogy movies again earlier this year and it was an experience. The only upside to the movies is no Rosamia, so far anyway.
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Dec 31, 2018 21:10
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Tulalip Tulips posted:Paradise Kiss - I rewatch this one every time I'm in a slump because the ending makes me cry. It's my favorite Ai Yazawa work and I honestly think her best stuff is when she can wrap up a story quickly. Still mad the movie changes the ending. e: now that I'm thinking about it, even the anime very slightly changes the mangas ending doesn't it
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Dec 31, 2018 21:28
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Hyouka: Technically counts as a rewatch, but I don't care. This is still probably my favorite KyoAni show. Like, by loving far. Hanasaku Iroha: Also a rewatch. My favorite P.A. Works show. Ohana is a goofball in a very relatable way.  Aikatsu!: Thanks to my favorite show from 2018 Zombieland Saga, I decided to ask to the authorities from the Idol thread to see if I could give any other idol show a look. While I'm in no rush to give the sequels a look just yet (maybe in 2019?), I am happy to report that OG Aikatsu rules a whole bunch. 
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Dec 31, 2018 21:53
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a kitten posted:I never actually got around to watching the movie, what does it change? In the movie Yukari and George meet again and its implied they get back together. The anime ending slightly changes the manga ending in that we don't see who Yukari is marrying or get updates on Isabella, Arashi and Miwako but it still keeps the part where George sends her tickets to his Broadway play. I like a lot of the changes the anime made, especially with Arashi and Miwako's relationship so the slight change in the ending is fine.
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Dec 31, 2018 22:02
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So, I remembered, I did watch Gamers! earlier in the year. It was funny enough for a romcom sponsored by Sega/ArcSys. I've had the argument Keita and Chiaki had in real life, and it was a little surreal to watch, though the positions were reversed. Plus, that last episode where Aguri becomes a strawman in a debate about games was weird as gently caress.
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Dec 31, 2018 22:06
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Tulalip Tulips posted:In the movie Yukari and George meet again and its implied they get back together. Wow WOW Thanks, I hate it
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Dec 31, 2018 22:10
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Non Non Biyori I have a funny old time with SOL shows. Either they're incredible and I love them or they're boring and I feel nothing. I went into Non Non Biyori expecting to watch the first episode for well known pretty scenery and then give up, but the show surprised me with the strength of the characters, pretty realistically written for a group of kids living deep in the Japanese countryside. But the real charm was the way the characters' lives fit into the rural setting. Having grown up in the woods myself, far from real civilization, it touched on things I recognised. It felt very real.
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Dec 31, 2018 22:15
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a kitten posted:Wow I'm pretty lenient when it comes to live action movies or dramas of shoujo/josei manga but it was a goddamn travesty of an ending. Plus the dress is super ugly in live action but it probably wouldn't have been easy to replicate anyway so I let it slide. The only good thing was the ending theme song.
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Dec 31, 2018 22:38
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AlternateNu posted:So, I remembered, I did watch Gamers! earlier in the year. It was funny enough for a romcom sponsored by Sega/ArcSys. I've had the argument Keita and Chiaki had in real life, and it was a little surreal to watch, though the positions were reversed. Plus, that last episode where Aguri becomes a strawman in a debate about games was weird as gently caress. I saw the final episode as an amusing meta one in conjunction with their discussion in it about the nature of story DLC that awkwardly adds on more moments with the cast after the story has naturally ended i.e. episode 11 
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Dec 31, 2018 22:42
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I rewatched Turn A Gundam this year and it's still one of the best Gundams out there.
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Dec 31, 2018 23:04
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I don't think I watched anything not from this year in full but the first episode of Canaan and Sora no Woto were okay
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Jan 1, 2019 00:05
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1. Ouran Host Club 2. Skip Beat! 3. Later -gatari parts, particularly season 2 and the movies. Skimwatched a lot of Dragonball Super to get to good fights and Vegeta shenanigans and sassy-rear end Frieza. Glad to see Haibane Renmei and Redline getting mentioned.
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Jan 1, 2019 01:22
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Sound Euphonium
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Jan 1, 2019 01:47
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Konosuba. Easily one of the best shows ever made.
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Jan 1, 2019 02:07
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Davincie posted:why isnt this thread stickied The bad one is. I guess everyone in ADTRW is just a bunch of pessimists e: Oh this isnt even the best in 2018 thread
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Jan 1, 2019 02:14
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Furnaceface posted:Konosuba. Easily one of the best shows ever made. Hai Kazuma desu.
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Jan 1, 2019 02:32
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Little Witch Academia: Watched after seeing results of last year's best anime thread. Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Watched the OVA after seeing the reboot. The animation style still stands up fairly well, and the actual narrative is much better in this version.
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Jan 1, 2019 09:24
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In no particular order - Shirobako, A Silent Voice, Kara no Kyoukai (all of the movies). I loved all 3
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Jan 1, 2019 11:17
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Two standouts I got through this year were definitely Shirobako and Land of the Lustrous. One I really want to highlight though is Stop!! Hibari-Kun!! A boy moves in to the local yakuza bosses house and instantly falls in love with his beautiful daughter. Except it turns out she was born as a son. For a show made in the 80's its actually very positive in its portrayal of a transgender character. Hibari's sexual identity is never the butt of a joke (only peoples reactions to it) and she always gets to retort to any negative attitude towards it. She's very comfortable and confident in her identity and comes out on top every time. Also although the male MC is resistant to the idea, they really do develop an actual and positive romance. In many ways its more trans-positive than most modern anime. Apparently the author based Hibari after how he'd want to be if he had been born a girl, which I think is a cool way to look at it. Its only available subbed on youtube but I recommend it if you're interested. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Jan 1, 2019 |
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Jan 1, 2019 15:18
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bakuretsu bakuretsu la la la Also very glad to see people enjoying Shirobako, one of my all-time favorites. 
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Jan 1, 2019 18:18
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Agronox posted:bakuretsu bakuretsu la la la Shirobako was good because Shizuka's storyline was big mood for me and made me sad for most of the show. Just like my real life
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Jan 1, 2019 19:34
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Nephthys posted:Two standouts I got through this year were definitely Shirobako and Land of the Lustrous. I never finished it but the manga's quite good, worth a look for the author's love of fashion illustration if nothing else.
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Jan 1, 2019 21:13
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Shirobako is my favourite as well! There was quite a lot I liked about it. The large cast of characters was a bit hard to follow at first, but I appreciate that the series went out of its way to show a major group effort where everybody's input matters. In that regard it's cool that rather than having the main character do something glamourous like directing, they put her on the production side of things, and it's her social skills and ability to reach out to the right people that makes her special. There's a special feeling to seeing so many different personalities come together for the sake of one whole that fiction rarely lets me experience, and I'll admit that the bit at the end where they hire Shizuka and finally, after all the different roads they've taken, all five of the girls are on the same project together really got me emotionally.
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Jan 1, 2019 21:58
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It's really hard for me to pick a top 5 favorite anime but Shirobako is the one title I know would be in it
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Jan 1, 2019 22:00
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Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, the finale is fantastic.
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Jan 2, 2019 04:40
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Finally got around to watching both SKET Dance and Toradora this year, which make interesting bookends as shows that were flawed in different ways. SKET Dance failed to really provide any sort of conclusion, but the character interactions in the middle were very interesting and likeable. While the show gave me whiplash by the way it rapidly swapped between tragedy and comedy, it still made for an enjoyable watch. Toradora: The show focused entirely on the wrong characters. The protagonist is bland, the heroine unlikable, but around them you see glimpses of vivid and interesting characterization. The message offered by the final choice angered me (If someone is going to be hurt by you not being with them, you need to give up on everything and dedicate your life to keeping them happy). It's an odd criticism, since similar situations didn't bother me in other shows (Sakurasou, Golden Time), but it is what it is. Blood Blockade Battlefront: I'm not sure why I avoided this as long as I did, but it was very solid. Kytrarewn fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Jan 2, 2019 |
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Jan 2, 2019 15:20
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I watched Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi which was good and I liked it a lot.
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Jan 2, 2019 15:54
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i finally watched tiger and bunny and really liked it, it’s fun and good and charming. i liked all of the cast and the story stayed interesting but tbh the cast was the real draw so it woulda been fine either way. anyway it’s a good show.
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Jan 2, 2019 17:09
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