The Best and Worst of the Autumn season

crashmatt

Death Scythe
It's that time again, the season is ending so what's been a hit and what's been shi.... Rubbish

Great/ Fantastic

Rascal doesn't dream of bunny girl senpai - genuine suprise of the season. It's refreshing to see a relationship develop rather than 12 episodes of blushing and missunderstandings. Also it's dealt with some serious issues in a mature and sensitive manor. Excellent

Reincarnated as a slime - I'd happily watch 50 episodes of this. Great animation and characters. Another suprise hit.

Golden Kamuy season 2 - despite the continued poor production values I can't fault the story or the characters. It's a really great unique story . Episode 11 this week was superb.

SAO season 3 - more of the same but better writing and great animation. Still a long way to go though.

Good / Average

Goblin Slayer
Hack n slash the anime. Held back by one of the most one dimensional MC ever. Entertaining but not something I'd watch again.

Boarding school Juliet
A fun show with a less than original premise. Solid but not spectacular.

A Certain Magical Index S3
A real mixed bag. The second arc of the series was massively confusing and rushed. The latest arc is better but still needs to improve.


Poor / Awful

Radiant - I don't hate radiant in fact I like the characters but it suffers from being a battle Shounen. Filler episodes, poor comedy and the story has gone AWOL. It's wasted potential and we are half way through the series.

My Sister the Writer
Here we have one of the absolute worst anime I've ever watched. Train wreck animation, cringe worthy character and story. The entire show is one big mistake.

Conception - Dropped. After one episode im like nooooooo.
 
Great/Excellent
-Golden Kamuy 2nd Season: It’s great that we got two seasons so close to each other, as I’ve grown quite attached to the unique setting and enjoyable cast. Sugimoto is a great character and seeing a strong child character in Asirpa is refreshing.

-Rascal does not dream of Bunny Senpai: An engaging premise and a core romance not weighed down by trite cliches and tropes? It deserves the praise it gets, and each arc has been very good to great.

-Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San: I didn’t think this would be as good as it is, but each week is a real joy and I love the retail-based shorts and all the little jokes they put in throughout.

Very good
-Anima Yell!: A cheerleading SoL that’s an easy watch each week. The cast is energetic and it’s an example of simplicity being bliss.

-Double Decker: A fun futuristic cop series that acts as a precursor to the world of Tiger and Bunny. It’s not a genre you see often nowadays in anime so I found it refreshing.

-IRODUKU: A visually stunning and intriguing tale of time travel and magic that manages to balance a nice atmosphere with drama in a way that never felt melodramatic.

-JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Pretty consistent with the franchises’ signature tropes and the characters are shaping up decently. The first sections of these parts are always a build-up to bigger things to come so hopefully the next cour of episodes delivers.

-Merc StoriA: A surprisingly engaging fantasy series with varied arcs and fascinating settings.

-Ms. Vampire who lives in my Neighbourhood: A cute SoL that similar to Anima Yell is simple but takes advantage of its characters and quirks.

-Zombieland Sagas: Great fun, even if it loses some of its gusto towards the middle. At least it has a strong ending.

Decent/Good
-Ace Attorney 2nd Season: Still quite fun and each case has its distinct plot and characters to go along with it.

-A Certain Magical Index III: A season that feels like it’s rushing through a lot of arcs and skimming details that left me confused at times in regards to certain characters and motivations. However it still has good action and a good cast overall.

-Banana Fish: Not quite as strong in its second half than the first but still decent.

-Black Clover: This has maintained a relatively decent run over the season. It’s still nothing amazing but it’s better now than it was in the early episodes.

-Boruto: The current arc seems to be stalling but the recent content is decent and reminiscent of the franchise as a whole.

-Goblin Slayer: A series that began with controversy and bloodshed that soon became more of an SoL adventure with a one note protagonist and his buddies slaying their way to a bag of coins. It’s not a great watch, but I’ve enjoyed it.

-Run with the Wind: A fun sports anime that manages to balance a pretty big cast. Hoping the second half is good.

-Tsurune: This is a series that got better each week and is overall a good and visually pleasing series-I just don’t have that much to say about it.

Meh/Okay
-Fairy Tail: Final Season: This has been okay so far, but the meat of the final arc has yet to come to fruition.

-Jingai-San no Yome: Bizarre but not completely without merit.

-Radiant: I almost dropped this because of the shite filler episodes. They’d barely gotten started before doing it, and it’s shat all over the decent cast and world. Hopefully the remaining episodes can redeem it slightly.

-SSSS.Gridman: A Story with potential, but a lack of relatable or likeable characters. The battles and action are neat, but the other elements didn’t do a lot for me at all. Trigger continue to disappoint me.

-Tokyo Ghoul: re 2nd Season: I have so much to say about this but I’ll keep it brief. This season had the job of condensing around 121 chapters into 12 episodes. The result is a lot of cut corners and scaled down setpieces that should have been superb but instead just feel lacklustre. Some of the scenes and even episodes were decent despite some flaws, but the franchise deserves so much better than this being its swansong. Maybe another studio will save it from Pierrot’s incompetence.

Dropped
-Hinomaru Sumo: The Anime skipped a fair bit of content so I checked out the manga instead. Maybe I’ll get back to this in time.
 
Last edited:
Good
Tsurune I shan't review yet due to 4 eps left
Banana Fish - Not as good as the first cour but are most 2 cour shows rarely, but still best anime of the year easily ended very strongly love people hated it in the manga when it feels the theme of the story 100%.

SSSS.Gridman- Was exactly what I expected and last few eps have been fantastic

SAO Alicisation - BAr episode 10 which is the worst content I've seen all year bar far the best SAO and shame not many people are watching

Overhyped (So I feel are meh)
Bunny Girl- Only watched cos of the hype and its not very good relies on cliches and feels like it cherries picks better shows like monogatari and Haruhi and the books covered in 2 eps felt rushed and ep 13 better redeem the Kaede arc as the ending of 12 annoyed as me all development poof gone.

JoJo Part 5 - How this pains me worst part so far easily worst cast of characters since part 1 and worst JoJo in general 100% and the name changes of stands are annoying me more than usual how is Aerosmith Lil bomber and that ED is a disaster.

Meh
The BL - Its alright but no Classmates
FT Is Fairy Tail.
Ace Attorney is alright bar the filler. Somehow stretching the 3rd game to two cour they are... yaaaay

Worst
If I had to pick a worst due to the hype I went in with yeah its Bunny Girl boring dull animation and relies on tropes and rushes points. Monogatari had 15 eps for 3 books and 3 films for one book, but Bunny girl lets do 5 books in 13 eps and it shows. I would 100% if MVM got it but it and hope the books get translated as I assume they will be better. Oh it really overrelies on the fact the MC Is lewd and its boring not clever like mongatari just boring and its annoying as the girls take none of that shite in monogatari but In Bunny girl do they fancy his lewd comments I don't know.
 
Winner
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (1st Cour) - This might as well be my favourite isekai series at this point for how fun and vibrant it is. Rimiru Tempest certainly makes for one of the more interesting isekai MCs with a good sense of humour and fun side characters. The animation and art style also made for one of the more visually interesting series this season.

Excellent
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO (2nd Cour) - Easily one of the best short series I've seen with each episode more absurd than the last.

Bloom into You - A nice laid-back series with well developed characters and actual lesbian representation that doesn't fall into the usual tropes of the genre. The overall direction and music added so much to each scene with the warm colour palette being a nice touch. Really hoping for a season 2 since series had such a good production and story.

Great/Very Good
Anima Yell! - Another nice CGDCT series from Manga Time Kirara with a focus on cheerleading.

Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San - A fun look into the stressful life of booksellers which uses it's limited animation to great effect with great comedy

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (1st Cour) - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is great fun as always though I may just put this on-hold so I can binge the whole series later.

Goblin Slayer - Setting aside the controversial first episode I really liked this series. Goblin Slayer made for a great tragic protagonist and the supporting characters were fun as well. The meta jokes and music were also pretty great. Looking forward to the upcoming project.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai - Started out pretty strong with the first two arcs and some great subversion of the usual romance tropes. It does get kinda weaker in later arcs but it's still a great show with good characters

Zombie Land Saga - Another wacky series from Cygames. Not as great as Uma Musume but it's still great fun. Seeing as it's selling really well in Japan I'm hoping for a season 2 for more zombie idol nonsense.

Golden Kamuy Season 2 - An improvement on the first season with the same great characters and story. Plenty more awesome character moments and a great set of final episodes. Season 3 please

Alright
Angels of Death (Specials) - I am quite interested in the characters and the story but it just dragged on for too long tbh. 12 episodes would've worked much better than 16. I'll check out the game anyway in case that's better.

It's Bad
Tokyo Ghoul:re Season 2 - Studio Pierrot only manages to get worse. Sure there were some great scenes here and there but overall it was a hot mess caused by cramming 120 chapters in such short time that various plot points are rushed or even simply abandoned. I can only hope this series will get another adaptation at some point, preferably by Studio SHAFT.

On-Hold
SSSS.Gridman - It was alright but I kinda lost interest after a while. May finish it at some point.

Dropped
Between the Sea and Sky

Ms. vampire who lives in my neighborhood

Seasonal Awards
Best OPs

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
Golden Kamuy Season 2
Zombie Land Saga

Best EDs
Bloom into You
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO

Best Animation
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Bloom into You
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

Best Soundtrack
Bloom into You
Goblin Slayer
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Best Characters
Bloom into You
Golden Kamuy Season 2
Zombie Land Saga

Best Girls
Yuu Koito - Bloom into You
Saki Nikaido - Zombie Land Saga
Asirpa - Golden Kamuy Season 2

Best Boys
Rimiru Tempest - That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Saichi Sugimoto - Golden Kamuy Season 2
Sakuta Asuzagawa - Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
 
Finally time to write this now Tsurune is finished.

First Cour of Multi Cour Shows (in order)
Hinamaru Sumo

Fun likable characters with some informative stuff about Sumo.
SAO: Alicization
A bit slow with lots and lots of exposition (but now picking up the pace a bit in the 2nd Cour)
Karakuri Circus
Plot is a bit all over the place, but the action is good.

SAO and KC suffer from how they are being adapted. SAO seems to be going for the thorough word for word adaptation, I feel the world introduction stuff could have been condensed a lot more. Whereas KC has gone for let's cram too many volumes into not enough episodes, which leads to skipping plot points and some details.

Multi Cour Finished
Banana Fish


One Cour Sequels (in order)
Golden Kamuy
s2
Would be second in my one cour list if not a sequel.
Tokyo Ghoul:re s2
Would be second bottom!

Short
Jingai-san no Yome


New One Cour Shows Ranked
  1. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny-Girl Senpai
  2. Bloom into You
  3. Boarding School Juliet
  4. IRODUKU: The World in Colors
  5. Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san
  6. Release the Spyce
  7. Goblin Slayer
  8. ZOMBIE LAND SAGA
  9. Tsurune
  10. Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighbourhood
  11. HIMOTE HOUSE
  12. Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight
Seasonal Awards
Best Show - Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny-Girl Senpai
Whilst the it did suffer from a rushed second half and "now watch the film" ending, there was plenty to like about the show including the first 2 cours and the character interactions with the couple of Sakuta and Mai being the best I've seen with their banter and seemingly quite realistic relationship.

Best Writing - Bloom into You
Could have easily gone to Bunny-Girl, but for the second half. A more consistent show with lots of nice scenes of character interactions was Bloom into You. It also ended without a full adaptation and this time with no promise of any extra coming, but it ended in a better place for me.

Best Animation - IRODUKU
Tsurune was also a contender, but some of it was OTT for no reason. But all the lavish moments in IRODUKU i.e. the paintings coming alive were both in service to and explained by the plot of a magical girl trying to find colour in her world. The rest of the show was no slouch either.

Best Song
Plenty to like again. Both OP and ED from lots of shows including Release the Spyce, Bloom into You, IRODUKU, and Karakuri Circus. Also the OPs from Honda-san and Banana Fish (again), but only one winner. All together now "Kimi no sei, Kimi no sei, Kimi no sei"
Not on Spotify unfortunately (well it is, but not here 😢)

Best OP Sequence
Whilst Bunny-Girl, Bloom into You, IRODUKU and Banana Fish (again) are up there, this has been my favourite since the first time I saw it:

Best ED Sequence
IRODUKU and Bloom into You were both good, but I went with Golden Kamuy s2. Probably a bit more simpler than those I think it said a little bit more about the connection between the 2 protagonists.

Best Soundtrack - Release the Spyce
With the action comes lots of high tempo electronic beats.

Best New Girl - Mai (Bunny-Girl)
Shout outs to Saki (ZLS), Kohaku (IRODUKU) and Shirogane (KC), but really only one winner.

Best New Boy - Sakuta (Rascal)
Shout outs to Honda-san, Romio Inuzuka (BSJ) and Narumi (KC), but again only one winner.
 
Back
Top