Your best & Worst of the Summer season 2017

crashmatt

Death Scythe
With the season ending soon, its that time again to see what everyone rates or hates.
Its not what i'd call a classic season by any stretch but there have been some nice surprises. What are your best and worst and also biggest surprise of the season?

Best of the season
Made in Abyss not only is it a stunning show to look at the whole set up and story is really well thought out and I look forward to every weeks episode.

Other good shows are Classroom of the Elite, Kakegurui , and Re:Creators all have been very good Rage of Bahamut Virgin Soul and Restaurant to another world have been solid but the former has been disappointing in recent weeks with the ridiculous romance storyline that was never going to work.

Worst of the season

My First Girlfriend is a Gal
- I like a bit of Ecchi but the MC is a total wimp and his three friend are utterly repulsive (borderline offensive). The comedy is terrible and the art is bang average. A very poor show
In a different world with a Smartphone also deserves a mention for being utterly pointless with the worlds most OP bland MC, a non resistant plot and some poor artwork its not a winner.


Biggest surprise of the season

Princess Principle.

Get past the daft name and Moe character designs and what you have is in very interesting story, some great characters and a very nice soundtrack. More people should watch it and it clearly a case of not judging an anime by its promo pic/ tile.
Knights and Magic has also been enjoyable much better than I expected even if its fast paced.
 
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Best of the Season

Princess Principal:
I love this series to death. From the high quality animation character designs to the characters themselves, who are quite memorable with great internal dynamics within the group, to the amazing soundtrack by the legendary anime composer Yuki Kajiura, to the varied stories each week, this is an easy contender for the best show of the year, and quite easily is my pick of the season.

New Game Season 2: I loved the first season of New Game and this follow up is no different, balancing average moe girl comedy antics with a real emotional and heartfelt core and great characters all around.

Made in Abyss: I'm a little torn on this one because, as great and enjoyable as it is, it's going to live and die on a potential second season that isn't set in stone yet. This first season has done an amazing job of building up this unique fantasy world and Riko and Reg are two very likable protagonists, with a bevy of memorable side characters being thrown in for good measure. Episode 10 also showed they weren't afraid to go dark as we see the horrifying effects of the Abyss on the human body, and this only seems to be a glimpse of things to come from what I've heard.

Worst of Season

NTR: Netsuzou Trap:
Out of all my simulcasts, NTR is the only one I kind of dread each week. It aims low, so I'm not really sure I can chastise it too hard, but it's pretty much just yuri fanservice with some thinly veiled and tedious story to get to those scenes each week. The whole will they won't they angle gets incredibly played out and each episode seems to rely and cliffhanger to keep viewers watching, only for the resolution to each cliffhanger to be massively disappointing. The characters range from bland and forgettable to genuinely despicable and the animation seems to be done on a shoestring. In terms of Yuri, I'd much rather watch Sakura Trick, at least the non-fanservice scenes in that show were enjoyable. I just hope the year's next Yuri manga adaptation, Citrus, turns out better than this mess.

Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu: This has the accolade of being the only show I dropped this season. The animation is very good, as you expect from Ufotable, but the plot borders on non-existent, being very uninteresting despite the time travel samurai element, and the characters are all just forgettable pretty boys, barring maybe Mutsunokami. I was just kind of bored every week when I was watching at. At least NTR is the kind of trainwreck you can't look away from, and had the decency to only be 12 minutes long per week, as opposed to this full length snorefest.
 
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I actually forgot to add Gamers which tbh hasn't been good either. Too many misunderstandings and the MC voice Gets on my nerves.
 
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overall this season has been very meh for me

Best of the Season

Made In Abyss
- The cute, but dark adventure of the main characters is always a joy.

New Game!! - I love New Game especially the character Umiko.

Knight's & Magic - Very surprising that this generic Isekai anime turned out to be pretty interested with good battle fights, and no slowdown of pace.

Worst of the Season

Smartphone
- I don't know why I even kept up with this. The MC is boring as hell, and is way too OP to actually bring out any interesting dynamics.

Re:Creators (2nd cour) - The 2nd half of re:creators has mostly ruined it for me.

(I didn't really keep up with much this season so can only comment on what I have watched atleast more than 2 episodes of)
 
Best
- Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul - Consistently fantastic. I seem to the one of the few who actually enjoys the romantic sub plot :p
- Made In Abyss - Magical.
- My Hero Academia Season 2 - I'd call this a perfect adaption.

Both Tsurezure Children & New Game!! come close to the best, just not enough :)

Middle Ground
- Welcome to the Ballroom - Everyone knows I bum the manga hard & the adaptions been great but the last episode had some irritating animation issues & they've started painfully drawing out the arc & repeating what we've already heard in flashbacks 60345343 times. Other then that I love it & am realllly looking forward to the next arc.
- Aho Girl - Hit & miss. When it hits all the right marks it's genuinely one of the funniest shows I've seen. I'm just not too keen on how the blue hair girl's treated sometimes, rubs me the wrong way.

Worst
None. It was going to be Centaur no Nayami but the show's greatly improved since the initial episodes. I tried out My first girlfriend is a Gal, Classroom Elite (felt like a Tesco own brand SNAFU) & the Smartphone show, decided not to continue after 3 episodes ..do they count?

I'm also watching Gamers, Yami Shibai 5, Restaurant to another world, Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun & Sakura Quest which are all enjoyable in their own way :)

EDIT:
Biggest Surprise
- Tsurezure Children
- Watched on a whim, didn't think it'd really be any good. I was very very wrong.
 
I've only been watching My Hero Academia and Boruto, I have such a backlog as it is that current anime barely get a look in unless they're continuations. That being said, both Boruto and MHA have been very enjoyable, Boruto because it's gradually getting better and MHA because it's been a consistently good run all season.
 
Best:
My Girlfriend is a Gal- Pretty funny after the first episode relies less on visual humour.
Classroom of the Elite- Pretty interesting, though the last (dubbed) episode #7 was kinda a snooze.
Gamers!- Holy cow this show is hilarious! Misunderstandings ftw!!

Dropped after an episode:
Smartphone
Restaurant
New Game... Not technically S2 but I didn't like the first episode of S1.

Long running show:
Dragon Ball Super

Decent ish season I guess.
 
Best:

Gamers! - I really love all the misunderstandings and how the characters get out of the holes they dig for each other. It might not strictly be about games anymore, but it's still really enjoyable.

New Game!! - I was always a fan of New Game! but this season the show evolved from a cute girls doing cute things show to something with a lot more depth and character development. It's probably the biggest surprise of the season in terms of just how good it is now.

My Hero Academia - This half of MHA has been fantastic and covered one of my favourite arcs of the manga. :D

Honourable mention: In Another World with My Smartphone - All the hate for this show just makes me want to mention it all the more lol. It's a pretty terrible series all things considered, but still I can't look away. It's trying to be a KonoSuba but not as good, still I like the light novels so I've really enjoyed watching how it plays out in anime. I kinda hope we get that rumoured season 2...

Worst:


Knights & Magic - I dropped this after two episodes, I just could not get on with the protagonist at all.

Convenience Store Boy Friends - Dull, dropped after episode 1.

Made in Abyss- Now I do think I'm being a bit unfair putting Made in Abyss in worst, but while I really like the world and what the story is doing (last weeks episode was amazing), I just do not like the main character at all. I really wish they'd just made this into a game and had done with it. Let me explore this world, let me get into these super dangerous situations. The world lends itself so well to a JRPG so just let play. So TL;DR, I just don't like this in anime form because of the MC. ;_;
 
Best:
Welcome to the Ballroom: Just so good ahhhhhh shame amazon has killed it and pony can destroyed it
Touken Ranbu: Ufotable and Sword boys yes I'm shallow sometimes
Made in Abyss: Riko is annoying I agree with Dem but Reg and the twists keep it strong.

Worst:
Classroom of the elite: Ugh I dunno what it is it seems to be different yet falls into samey tropes
Sagarada Reset: WTF Happened it started great last season then got bad real bad
Recreators: Just for ep 21 and most of the second cour letting down s1s greatness
 
Best:
Made in Abyss-
Love everything about it, I really enjoy the pacing, the characters are likeable, the world is interesting and the animation and background art is really really good (top-tier music as well).

Princess Principal- I really like the Victorian setting, the characters are all good with nice designs and the animation and music is really really good. Also enjoying the non-chronological episode order. (I love studio 3hz and Yuki Kajiura, so I was sold on this from the initial announcement).

My Hero Academia- Still absolutely loving this, the animation is really good, the fight scenes are cool, and the characters are all fun and different. Haven't enjoyed a shonen series for ages.

Kakegurui- I love how over the top and crazy all of the characters are, especially Jabami. Even though sometimes I don't fully understand the rules of the games they play, I still find it super intense.

Alright:
Fate Apocrypha-
Probably the anime I was most excited about to begin with because I really like the Fate series/Nasuverse. It's completely fine, but I don't really feel very invested in it, maybe as the cast gets smaller i'll become more invested in the characters.

Welcome to the Ballroom- It started off being the thing I looked forward to the most every week, but for the past few episodes I've found it to really drag, and the lack of animation during the actual dance scenes recently is a bit disappointing.

18if- I really liked the concept of every episode having a different director and being about dreams and witches, however 80% of the time the animation is pretty questionable, and the quality of the episodes range vastly. I think I've really enjoyed about 3 or 4 episodes so far, the rest have been either boring or just plain weird.

Worst:
Classroom of the Elite-
It's just a bit boring really, none of the characters are interesting, the setting is pretty dull, and it doesn't feel like there are any real stakes. I kept thinking it would get really ruthless or something, but its just dramatic music and over the top reactions regarding pretty trivial events.
 
Best
- Aho-Girl - Really fun comedy, some small moments are a little meh but as a whole I'm really enjoying this series
- Centaurs Life - Cute Girls doing Cute things with an undertone of serious.
Episode 9 JFC
- Hina Logic - Enjoyable characters, good story but there isn't really enough here making me watch this ever week, leading me to being 4 episodes behind now. Those last 5 episodes really strengthened the series, leading it to getting a 9/10 from me. Easily putting this onto the re watch at some point list :)
- New Game - Do I even need to say anything about this?
- Restaurant to Another World - This shows a good example of Anime I love. Yes its literally an anime about people going through a magic door to eat food and I love it

Underwhelming
- Netsuzou Trap - While I'm watching this for the Yuri and NTR stuff, its kinda underwhelming. When reading the manga I was picturing things a little different and while the Anime does a good job following the manga, its pretty meh

Worst
- Tsuredeure Children - This series started out quite a nice watch, I'd seen a few shorts posted around facebook so decided to give it a go. While parts really are good, it feels like its dragging on a little too much. What for a 1/2 length series isn't good.
 
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Best:

Gamers! - I really love all the misunderstandings and how the characters get out of the holes they dig for each other. It might not strictly be about games anymore, but it's still really enjoyable.
Tbh the gaming being secondary is what I love about it, I'm not huge into gaming anime and I only really checked it out when it reached the half cour stage cuz I was bored one day next thing I knew I watched all 6 lol.
 
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