Your best and worst of Spring season 2019

crashmatt

Death Scythe
It's that time again and honestly this has been one of the most dissapointing seasons in a long time especially for new anime. Anyway what did you rate and what did you hate?

Great/ Excellent
Attack on Titan S3pt2

Once again it delivers the goods, fast action and mystery thrown in. WIT will be missed as they have done fantastic things with AOT.

Dororo - despite its decline in the second half and some shonky animation, the story is unique and compelling. Definitely worth a watch and not the type of story we tend to see these days.

Rising of Sheild Hero
A great looking show once you get past the awful first arc it's actually a very good isseki. I'd certainly be onboard for more and it looks great as well.

Demon Slayer
This is still ongoing it has been excellent so far.

Good/ Average

One Punch Man S2

The animation is clearly not as good and the lack of Saitama in this series is a major downside. That said it's still fun and the comedy is on point though dissapointing compared to season one.

We never learn (Bobukun)
Its like going back 10 years. Generic harem comedy where the will never pick a girl, nobody can say how they feel and it's unlikely to get a second season. Entertaining but utterly forgettable. Quituplets had the same concept bit is miles better.

Wise man's grandson
Standard Isseki bit I will give it credit for deleoping an actual romantic relationship. Still enjoyed the show despite the fact it offers nothing new.

Helpful Fox Senko
Almost borderline creepy but a good show that highlights the work to live culture on Japan. Good fun and relaxing in places.

Why are you here teacher?
Ecchi Goodness

Dropped:
Bungo Stay dogs
- just can't be bothered with it.
Ao Chan can't study - dull dull dull
Fairy Gone - great to look at bit story is nonsense and the CG is horrible

Next season is looking better for new shows.
 
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Best
Carole & Tuesday
- Shame Netflix has killed this as its great, fun great music and likeable cast and looks good. Nice to see BONES doing well twice this season
Sarazanmai - Rushed but better than most of the crap this season. Made me watch Utena and will sub to watch Revue starlight to, its quite good bar bumps in the road.
Bungo S3- Bar the rubbish fanservice flashback arc its been really good I must be the only person who doesn't like Dazai on his own he works because of his dynamic with the rest which is happening in the current arc.

Worst
AoT -
Better adapted than my fav arc but I still hate it, stupid motivations AWFUL TWIST, AWFUL and WIT seems to have give up doesnt look as good as S2.
Fairy Gone has its own award - Its so bad its awful its painful it was like paint drying and didn't look that good where PA talent from Maquia gone it sums up you shouldn't compare studios on their own its the staff.
 
We've still got another episode of most things yet. I won't put my thoughts forward until my shows are finished, on the off-chance that the last episode of something just drags it to the gutter...it can happen 😕
 
We've still got another episode of most things yet. I won't put my thoughts forward until my shows are finished, on the off-chance that the last episode of something just drags it to the gutter...it can happen 😕
Same tbh. Gonna wait until the end of JoJo to post my thoughts.
 
Best:
Sarazanmai
Bungo Stray Dogs S3

Great:
Wise Man's Grandchild
Fruits Basket
Fairy Gone
Demon Slayer
Shield Hero
Isekai Quartet
Fairy Tail

Good;
Attack on Titan S3
Kono Oto Tomari
We Never Learn

Average/bad
Afterlost
Midnight Occult Civil Servants
Hitoriboochi no Marumaruseikatsu

I know people are going to complain about Fairy Gone, but I really like Grimgar and I can see what the author is going for in their writing for Fairy Gone.
 
If it becomes a book and get translated ill buy it. But its like a book lots of exposition in weird ways. I feel it would work better being the main girl as her being a POV character.
 
Average/bad
Hitoriboochi no Marumaruseikatsu
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Here we go then. Again not the best season, maybe better than the Winter season, but not by much!

Here's what I have been watching:

Multi cour finished (in order):
Dororo 8
Karakuri Circus 7

Dororo's second cour wasn't as good as the first, but still maintained its score, whilst a strong final cour improved KCs.

2 cour continuing (in order):
Fruits Basket 8*
Demon Slayer 7*
YU-NO -
(on hold)
Demon Slayer has seriously lost ground with the introduction of the "comic" relief characters.

Shorts (in order):
Yatogame-chan 6
Joshi Kausei 6
Nobunaga-sensei 4

Yatogame-chan easily wins. Would have liked longer episodes, maybe for season 2 like Encouragement of Climb.

Sequels (in order):
Attack on Titan s3 p2 8
Aggretsuko s2 7
One Punch Man s2 7

Season 3 overall is probably the best. The same great action, but some actual answers to the questions we had from the first 2 seasons (even if some of the answers were a bit odd).

New 1 Cour Full and Half-Length Shows:
  1. Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu 8
  2. Kono Oto Tomare 8
  3. We Never Learn 7
  4. Helpful Fox Senko-san 7
  5. Senryu Girl 7
  6. Ao-chan Can't Study 7
  7. RobiHachi 6
  8. Why the Hell Are You Here, Sensei!? 6
  9. Midnight Occult Civil Servants 6
  10. Fairy Gone 6

Seasonal Awards
Music
OST - Demon Slayer

Pretty similar to Dororo with the use of traditional music, but a bit more varied.

OP Song - WONDERFUL WONDER by EDOGA-SULLIVAN (Ao-chan Can't Study)
Not the biggest selection this season apart from the 2 others mentioned below in the sequence section there was only 3 others I liked: Senko-san, We Never Learn and Kono Oto Tomare.

ED song - Lucky Ending by Vickeblanka (Fruits Basket (2019))
Even smaller pool than the OP category. Apart from the sequence winner I also liked Senryu Girl, Kono Oto Tomare and Demon Slayer.

Production
OP Sequence - Demon Slayer

Pretty close between this and two others. Hitoribocchi and Ao-chan both had parts where the visuals follow along with the song either by the characters singing or cutting with the beat, but overall both in animation and song Demon Slayer wins.

ED Sequence - We Never Learn
Wins by default really with a general lack of animation in this seasons EDs.

Writing - Fruits Basket
Not the best season for writing with some shows showing how to do it poorly more than how to do it well. I'll go for Fruits Basket because whilst the story is pretty much the same as the first adap, I found it more enjoyable and that's probably due to a tighter script (and cutting some of the more annoying comedic moments).

Episode - Let Our Sound Resound and Reach Them (Episode 5 of Kono Oto Tomare!)
The performance of the group intercut with the backstory of one of the MCs was very moving.

Animation - Demon Slayer
Easy choice really. The fights are excellent with the representation of the water fighting technique of the MC really nicely realised with rolling waves as his sword moves through the air. One Punch Man had characters with the same element based technique and the animators thought a smear of blue would do, Demon Slayer blew it out of the water (pun intended).

Character Design - Demon Slayer
Pretty unique designs that stood out from the rest.

Characters
Best New Girl - Nako (Hitoribocchi No Marumaru Seikatsu)

I didn't connect with too many characters this season, but Nako wins due to the fact that she was such a good support for Bocchi. Of course if it wasn't for new girls only Hanajima from Fruits Basket would have won hands down.

Best New Boy - Tanjiro (Demon Slayer)
As with the girls Shigure from Fruits Basket would have won if the category wasn't just for new characters.

VA - Azumi Waki (Senko-san)
Really nice cute voice performance with, I think, an old Japanese dialect (as the character is 800 years old) and loads of cute little noises. She also played Ao-chan this season which was good as well and showed she can do a normal voice well as well.

Anime - Fruits Basket (2019)
It was going to be Demon Slayer until just a few episodes ago, but the recent events in the show means it lost at least a point off its score, so it goes to FB (2019) which as I pointed out in the writing section is an improvement on the first adap.
 
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Great/Excellent

Attack on Titan 3rd Season 2nd Part

The cour that changes a lot for the series and introduces a wider world. The action and storytelling is strong and it did serumbowl quite well.

Dororo
Violent and engaging storytelling and one of my favourite of the season.

Fruits Basket (2019)
This adaptation is doing the manga a lot of justice and is a favourite each week.

Senryu Girl
Lovely and fun, a SoL that stood out due to a likeable cast and a concept that didn’t tire itself out. This may just be my AOTS.

Very Good

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Visually impressive and with a good premise. Hoping the new characters don’t bring the story down too much as I hear they get good development.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind
The series is coming to its end and has truly been bizarre.

The Rising of the Shield Hero
A solid isekai throughout though I do wonder if the story can continue to impress now that Naofumi is a free man.

Good

Ace of Diamond: Act II

I have enjoyed this so far though I get the sense the best is being held off for later in the series.

Black Clover
This has gotten better as a series since I began watching and I’m happy that it was worth persevering.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Some fun arcs this cour.

Cinderella Nine
A fun little sports anime that doesn’t tread a lot of new ground but kept me entertained regardless.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu
A school based series that managed to balance its humour with more poignant moments.

Isekai Quartet
A funny crossover series that utilised having various casts in the same environment.

Midnight Occult Civil Servants
Perhaps an overlooked entry from this season, I found it to be quite good overall and a good supernatural series.

Decent/Good

One Punch Man Season 2

Not as strong as the first season but overall still decent-needed more Saitama though.

We never Learn: BOKUBEN
Another school based series that was fun but didn’t stand out much, will probably tune in for its second season though.

Alright

Fairy Tail: Final Season

This continues to trundle along unremarkably.

Sarazanmai
This started out pretty well but slowly ran out of steam for me after the halfway point.

Yatogame-Chan, Kanatsu Nikki
It’s getting another season that I’ll watch but these short anime only so so much for me.
 
For this season I have watched the following:​

#1: Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2
#2: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (1st Half)
#3: Dororo (2nd Half)
#4: Fruits Basket 1st Season (1st Half)
#5: The Helpful Fox Senko-san
#6: Isekai Quartet
#7: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (3rd Half)
#8: Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life
#9: One Punch Man Season 2
#10: The Rising of the Shield Hero (2nd Half)
#11: RobiHachi
#12: Sarazanmai
#13: ULTRAMAN
#14: We Never Learn: BOKUBEN
#15: Wise Man's Grandchild
#16: YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World (1st Half)

Best Anime of the Season:

Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (1st Half)
Dororo (2nd Half)
Fruits Basket 1st Season (1st Half)
Isekai Quartet
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (3rd Half)
Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life​

Of the 16 titles, the 8 above I found to be my favourite in terms of overall quality. My number one choice is going to be Attack on Titan mainly because it's like the 'best of' of the past three seasons with an ending that I am quite satisfied with. The music was really good, an improvement over the previous seasons and Sawano's best in years. The story also has my interest even if it's very different from the previous seasons we knew prior.

Nominated titles are Demon Slayer for being a surprisingly enjoyable shonen with great animation and music to go along with it. Dororo's second-half stumbles in the middle but it got back up on its feet to provide a solid conclusion to a manga series that was never finished. Fruits Basket is great fun, though it can be a bit slow at times in terms of story progression. Isekai Quartet was almost perfect but a couple of episodes I found to be rather average and Kazuma kinda got treated like trash in many places which were a bit annoying. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind delivers in many ways, but the story is not over as the last two episodes couldn't air on time due to production issues (the recaps took up their timeslot so they had to move these episodes to the end of July). And Kono Oto Tomare! is a surprising series, while the melodrama does ruin it a tad the concept and music are solid overall.

Best Opening Song:

Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (1st Half)
Dororo (2nd Half)
Fruits Basket 1st Season (1st Half)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (3rd Half)
Sarazanmai
We Never Learn: BOKUBEN
YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World (1st Half)​

For this category I will have two awards; one for best music and one for best presentation. For music, I'm going to go with Fruits Basket 1st Season because it's a calm but sweet introduction to the franchise and helps support the tone that you would expect throughout. Honourable mentions for music Demon Slayer which I quite enjoyed given how LiSA's songs don't really grab my attention as much as others, Sarazanmai for reminding me of Radwimps, and YU-NO for having a catchy second half.

For the best presentation, I'm going to go with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Ufotable basically went all out with its visuals including the water effects on the swords and the show doesn't spoil any future events that much which is a plus. While I liked the presentation for the likes of Attack on Titan and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, they heavily relied on spoiling you in order to offer something for those episodes which is disappointing. Dororo has great visuals, but it just needed a bit more polish. We Never Learn: BOKUBEN had great visuals also. YU-NO is simple but I do like how they represent the love interests in the second half.

Best Closing Song:

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
(1st Half)
Dororo (2nd Half)
One Punch Man Season 2
RobiHachi
Sarazanmai

This one was pretty much decided quite early on, as I feel the ending songs don't really have as much effort done compared to the openings and thus tend to get skipped here and there. For best music Demon Slayer really grabbed my attention especially with how it adds elements of the show's soundtrack into the song. Honourable mentions include Dororo, One Punch Man Season 2 and RobiHachi.

For best presentation, I really liked the blend of live-action and animation for Sarazanmai so I decided to pick that series for the slot. Everything else was alright but didn't stand out that much for me personally.

Best Animation:

Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (1st Half)
Dororo (2nd Half)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (3rd Half)
Sarazanmai
ULTRAMAN​

Time for some animation goodness. Looking through the titles I have mentioned, these all feature elements of action and so you can probably expect why they were chosen. Starting with Attack on Titan, they have really gone all out with the fights and the animation still holds up pretty well. There were CG uses throughout but it didn't stand out as much as that scene from Season 2. Demon Slayer is like Ufotable was able to keep the quality up without much issue and the best scenes were in the fights during the last part of the first half which was really cool. Dororo had a lot of unique combat scenes animated in a different style and if it had enough polish it would have stood out a lot. JoJo is JoJo with its amazing art style, but the animation does need a bit of polish like the previous seasons. Sarazanmai has a lot of nice animation presented throughout and especially the water sequence after the end of each fight. ULTRAMAN definitely is not perfect with its character models, but the action scenes work really well in CG. I think overall Demon Slayer wins this time around with Attack on Titan at a close second.

Best Music:

Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (1st Half)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (3rd Half)
Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life
YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World (1st Half)​

For this category we have the music composed throughout the series (or in special cases incorporated into the story). I'm just going throw this out of the way and say that Attack on Titan is already the winner. Sawano's music for me has a lot of great stuff but a majority of the time its okay and doesn't really grab my attention that much, then Attack on Titan Season 3 comes along and turns it up to 11. Oh my god the music is this made the show even more exciting.

Demon Slayer was also a solid choice, with music composed by both Go Shiina and Yuki Kajiura. Go Shiina worked on GOD EATER and Tales of, while Yuki Kajiura worked on Fate/Zero and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Both combined gave the scenes a really cool atmosphere and when the battles began it was really motivational weirdly enough.

JoJo is JoJo. Kono Oto Tomare! has a solid choice of music thanks to the importance of using the Kono instrument throughout the series. Like Your Lie in April a lot of the effort is placed on the characters playing the tunes and they are great. This show is still in early days so you can expect even better songs in the later seasons to come. And YU-NO is great for keeping its 90s retro feel in its score, given that the visual novel and story are set in the 90s and not modernised like other titles.

Best Waifu:

(Disclaimer: These are my preferences and you can take your criticisms elsewhere)

Everyone listed below is a winner.

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Hiro Kurusu, from Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life. Honourable mention from the series is Satowa Houzuki.

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Maria von Messina, from Wise Man's Grandchild. Honourable mentions from the series are Alice Corner, Lynn Hughes, Sicily von Claude, and Yuri Carlton.

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Fumino Furuhashi, from We Never Learn: BOKUBEN. Honourable mentions from the series are Mafuyu Kirisu, Rizu Ogata, and Uruka Takemoto.

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Tohru Honda, from Fruits Basket.

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Mio Shimazu, from YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world. Honourable mention from the series is Eriko Takeda.
 
As JoJo's final episodes have been delayed I'll post my thoughts now.

Excellent
Attack on Titan Season 2 Part 2
- A great last season from Studio WIT. This series really won't be the same without Imai, Koizuka and Araki.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu - The CGDCT show of the season. Delightful fun with interesting character designs.

Fruits Basket 1st Season (1st Cour) - Ah I sure do love getting gut punched in the feels nearly every episode.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (3rd Cour) - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is bizarrely fantastic as usual. Definitely one of my favourite main groups in the series.

Great
Sarazanmai
- Another bout of Ikuhara weirdness. Not as good as Yurikuma Arashi but still pretty great work.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (1st Cour) - Thanks based ufotable. Aside from some issues with tone this has been pretty solid with great fight scenes and a fantastic soundtrack.

Isekai Quartet - A crossover of four isekai series. Fun interactions between the four casts.

The Rising of the Shield Hero (2nd Cour) - Took a bit of a drop when they spent a few episodes fighting in a crater but at least best girl Glass returned for the final episode. Wouldn't mind a 2nd season.

Dropped
Senryu Girl - I guess lost interest at some point.
We Never Learn - Was pretty eh on this but I'll check out the manga later.
One Punch Man Season 2 - Yeah wasn't gonna bother with this after seeing episode 1. Will check out a few of the cuts sometime since I heard they got a few good animators in the latter episodes.

Leftovers
Bungo Stray Dogs Season 3 - Gonna rewatch seasons 1 and 2 before I watch this.
Why the Hell are You Here, Teacher!? - Waiting for uncensored BD version like a true man of culture.
YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World - Will get to this eventually.

Seasonal Awards
Best OP
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (1st Cour)

Best ED - Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu episode 6

Best Soundtrack - Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2
Easily one of Hiroyuki Sawano's best soundtracks to date with great callbacks to songs from seasons 1 and 2.

Best Animation - Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (1st Cour)
With it being animated by ufotable this was an obvious choice.

Best Episode - Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2 Episode 5
A real highlight episode to focus on Armin as a character and to bring the battle to a resounding finish.

Best Writing - Fruit's Basket 1st Season (1st Cour)
This series really has succeeded in making me cry so many times with how good it's character writing is.

Best Characters - Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu
The characters really made this series, bringing in great humour whilst also being supportive friends as well.

Best Boy - Armin Arlert (Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2)
His character development really has been great to watch.

Best Girl - Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket 1st Season)
She's just so good. Too pure for this world.

Anime of the Season - Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2
A epic battle followed by much awaited revelations, this season was well worth the wait. I'm gonna miss Studio WIT.

Best of the Backlog
Special mention to some backlog. Mostly OVAs this season.
  • Hyouka
  • Encouragement of Climb
  • FLCL Alternative
  • Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Specials
  • Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
  • Revue Starlight Specials
  • Golden Kamuy OVAs
  • Asobi Asobase OVA and Specials
  • Gabriel DropOut Specials
 
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