Your best & worst of 2016

Buzz201 said:
Just somebody who is likeable. I wouldn't call any of them cliched or lacking in personality, but all of them were just bad people, I didn't want to succeed. Emilia, Puck and Reinhard are the only characters that weren't just mean and insufferable. And I wouldn't call either Puck or Emilia likeable. She's best girl, but only by the virtue of being the only girl that isn't a complete bitch. Reinhard is the only character I could genuinely say that I liked without qualification, hence my disappointment at his recurring guest role. Though to be fair, Reinhard is the only non-villain(?) that doesn't have that much screentime, so maybe I'd dislike him just as much as everybody else if he'd appeared more.

I'm sure you'll disagree me, but hopefully you can understand that if none of the characters are working for you, and the show isn't completely tied together from a plot perspective, it all falls apart.
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For what it's worth, I do disagree. I suppose I could see how you'd think Rem and Ram are 'bitches' but they grow into so much more than that as the show progresses. Honestly, I liked Felt a bunch, I think calling her a bitch is a bit harsh. She's snarky, but I wouldn't call her a bad person. I'd also disagree with the whole idea of the plot falling apart. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it's not full of holes, it could well be, but I didn't notice them, and they obviously didn't ruin the series for me. I may be a rarity in the fact I will happily overlook plot holes or inconsistencies if a series is entertaining, and Re:Zero, in terms of pure unpredictability and spectacle, may be the most thrilling and entertaining show I've seen all year. Not the best show I've seen all year, but it's up there.

The point of all of this is, I'm not going to convince you one way, and I'm not going to convince you the other, so perhaps it's a little hippocratic of both of us to go around as if either one is objectively bad, and anyone who likes them is wrong. I know, I'm guilty of it, you don't have to remind me, but hindsight is always 20:20 and all that.
 
Buzz201 said:
I liked it from the very start, I don't agree with everybody else's viewpoint that the start of the manga is really slow and boring. Maybe BONES will make the next part exciting, but I'm not optimistic. And I should clarify that I did enjoy MHA, I just find it lacked the "x factor" the manga has.

Clearly BONES is a bankable name and it has a following, but I just meant that I think other studios have done better jobs at adapting and tailoring their shows to the tone of the source and the resources available to them. The Pierrot comment was an exaggeration, but for my money their recent works have nailed the emotional element, even when they've mangled the rest of the manga. I am an unashamed defender of Twin Star Exorcists and I will stick up for Root A, even though I didn't enjoy it as much. For more money, I could have forgiven screwing up plot elements. provided they'd nailed a tone and emotional element, and I think Pierrot would have managed to do that.
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I think I probably wasn't helped by being thrown in during the academy tournament arc when WSJ added it here. I went back and read the start after they dropped us into the random chapter and I did find the start slow, so for me the way the anime adapted it felt down to the source. I think had I gotten into it via the first volume instead I probably would have felt differently.

I think one interesting thing to take into consideration is that in an interview with ANN around the time of airing, BONES did admit that MHA was pushed out a lot faster than the average WSJ adaption and I wonder if that was down to the fact Naruto was coming to an end and WSJ wanted a big hit sooner rather than later. At that point it's not surprising that some of the BONES shine was lost in an effort to adapt the series and make it work for what WSJ would have wanted, although obviously we'll never truly know there.

Also as much as I complain about Pierrot I actually liked Tokyo Ghoul as well, so they're not terrible at everything they adapt! I just feel like if I want high quality action and a tone that'll work for a more casual and western auidence I would always pick a BONES series. It's not that other studios are bad at developing anime with a western curve, but I feel like BONES have always been best at it which is why I'm happy MHA was with them rather than someone else. :)
 
OK here goes. I'll do it a little different in that i'll list my Top 5 per season. Not much text as to why i like a series, sometimes i find it hard to describe it in Dutch let alone in English :D

Winter 2016 (seen 7 series)
1. ERASED
2. KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!
3. Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
4. I've Had Enough of Being a Magical Girl
5. Schwarzesmarken

Personally the Winter season was the least out of the four, but also the season i saw the least series.

Spring 2016 (10 series)
1. Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-
2. Kuromukuro
3. Flying Witch
4. Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
5. Kiznaiver
Worst of the season: Myriad Colors Phantom World

Spring was a lot better in quality, and somewhat in quantity, than the Winter season and in fact for me the best season all round of the year. But nonetheless there were also some series which were disappointing, amongst others Macross Delta of which i had high hopes but these weren't fullfilled.
Worst of the season: Mayoiga.

Summer 2016 (17 series)
1. Alderamin on the Sky
2. Food Wars! The Second Plate
3. Sweetness & Lightning
4. The Heroic Legend of Arslan: Dust Storm Dance
5. Tales of Zestiria the X

Slightly less good than the Spring season but still some very good series. Honorable mentions for ReLIFE, Amanchu! and Love Live! Sunshine!!. Disappointing was Orange, and even worser was Taboo Tattoo and Rewrite.
Worst of the season: Qualidea Code en Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars which i both dropped.

Fall 2016 (13 series)
1. Sound! Euphonium 2
2. Flip Flappers
3. Magical Girl Raising Project
4. Keijo!!!!!!!!
5. Poco's Udon World

Season still not ended and unfortunately tomorrow is the last episode of Sound! Euphonium 2 but even then this is my number one for the Fall season, heck even my numero uno for the whole of 2016. Disappointing was Long Riders!
Worst of the season: Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru which i dropped after 2 episodes in.



Top 5 for the whole year of 2016
1. Sound! Euphonium 2
2. Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-
3. Alderamin on the Sky
4. Flip Flappers
5. Kuromukuro


But also i've not seen some stuff mentioned in others their list, amongst others Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Assassination Classroom S2, Gate S2, Ajin, Durarara, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure en Yuri On Ice! and from this list i need to watch some of those in the near future, because i've probably missed some good series.
 
I watched a LOT of great stuff this year but very little of those shows were from this year so it's going to be short list.

Best

Erased - Yeah the studio screwed by not including the backstory of the killer and i think they should have just done something way different and just end the whole thing at the child part but i did still really enjoy the show. They did number of small changes that make the anime version my prefered version of the story (despite the ending)

Flying Witch - Really relaxing little SOL......nuff said.

Worst

Flip Flappers - It's not really fair to include a show that i have only seen half but i'm doing it anyways. I really liked the visuals in the first episode and the episode about the painter was actually pretty good but otherwise it's been just disappointing. It might look flashy but nothing that actually happened on the other episodes exited me. Thanks to that it has been so far mostly just dull and it's getting painful to even get through an episode.

Rezero - This started out well but in the end it just felt like shounen trying to be edgy.

Sweetness & Lightening, Relife and that anime version of bones - All of these were just lackluster shows that didn't have much offer for me.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress - Most think this started out well but went halfway but i didn't really even like the beginning. Maybe i have become really hard to please when it comes to action but i didn't really get anything out of this even on that department.

Lost Village - I did chuckle a when the show went completely bonkers but the silliness of that didn't last long and it was just boring to sit through the rest of the episodes.
 
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Winkuru said:
Flip Flappers - It's not really fair to include a show that i have only seen half but i'm doing it anyways. I really liked the visuals in the first episode and the episode about the painter was actually pretty good but otherwise it's been just disappointing. It might look flashy but nothing that actually happened on the other episodes exited me. Thanks to that it has been so far mostly just dull and it's getting painful to even get through an episode.
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Not sure how many episodes you've watched, but to me the visual style and episodic stories were reason enough to continue watching. True, the earlier episodes were a bit hit or miss, but I was really impressed how they managed to keep a consistent visual style despite the thematic and storytelling variations from episode to episode. Although I think what really did it for me was that every episode had a moment or two that gave you the feeling that there was something more to the world and characters than meets the eye.
 
I wrote a little bit more about my top 10 on my blog if you want to read that. If not, here's my 10 favourite anime of 2016, in no particular order:
  • Mob Psycho 100
  • Persona 3 The Movie #4: Winter of Rebirth
  • New Game!
  • Tanaka-kun is Always Listless
  • Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
  • Sweetness & Lightning
  • Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-
  • Flying Witch
  • KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!
  • ERASED
 
There was a quite a lot I enjoyed this year
Konosuba
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless
Alderamin on the Sky
Mobile Psycho 100
Kiznaiver
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
Rainbow Days
The Great Passage
Re Zero
 
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It's worth mentioning before I start that I tend to drop bad stuff. Fast. So my candidates for "worst" may not be accurate to what my opinion would be if I saw the whole series, and are based solely off what I did watch. This is why, on my blog post (also contains other stuff like top characters, OPs, EDs, new manga and novel series) I don't do a worst list but instead have a list of fastest drops - ie. how quickly I realised that this was something I didn't want to be watching.

Winter 2016:

Best:
1. Hai to Gensou no Grimgar
2. Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri 2nd Season
3. Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!

Worst:
Oshiete! Galko-chan (perhaps a bit unfair - I didn't watch anywhere near as much in Winter as in other seasons, and Spring had at least 5 series that were worse than this)

Spring 2016:

Best:
1. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (best of the year)
2. Sansha Sanyou
3. Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?

Worst:
Endride (worst of the year)

Summer 2016:

Best:
1. Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin
2. Amanchu!
3. New Game!

Worst:
Berserk (2016)

Autumn 2016:

Best:
1. Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume
2. Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku
3. Nobunaga no Shinobi

Worst:
Ao Oni The Animation

Incidentally, Shakunetsu broke a 7 season streak of my favourite anime being adaptations of either novels or light novels.
 
I didn't watch a lot of airing anime during 2016 (2017 may be the same or less because exams), but the ones I did I absolutely loved.
Those were:
  • Love Live! Sunshine!! (favourite of the year)
  • New Game!
  • Re:Zero
  • Yuri!!! on ICE
There are three I have started and are yet to finish, those are:
  • KIZNAIVER
  • Flip Flappers
  • Macross Delta (which I honestly love so much)
Can't really give an opinion on "worst".
 
After much deliberation, I'd go for a top five of:

1. Erased
2. Diamond is Unbreakable
3. Mob Psycho 100
4. ReLife
5. Berserk

With an honourable mention for Occultic;Nine, which I enjoyed more than many ostensibly 'good' shows.
 
In no particular order my favourites of the year were:

Love Live Sunshine
Yuri on Ice
Erased
Flying Witch
Haikyuu 3
Sound Euphonium 2
Natsume Yuujinchou Go
Showa Genrou Rakugo Shinjo

Worst: Couldn't really say. I didn't really watch anything I actively didn't like, more that I just found a bit boring.
 
It's a bit late but here are my top 5 (In no particular order)

.shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu
.Re:Zero
.Mob Psycho
.Yuri on Ice
.JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: DIU

There's still a few I need to watch such as Grimgar and Erased (which I'm currently on with) and a honourable mention to Konosuba Alderamin in the sky,Iron Blooded Orphans S2 and Ajin

As for the worst
.Big Order
.The Lost Village
.Ace Attorney
That's pretty much it
 
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