Last season's top 3

[neflight86]

As per usual:

3.Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e 2nd Season: This is how you do garbage. Throw our broken characters into edgy silly confrontations with fluid logic and the limpest social commentary for twelve or so episodes, but make it somehow entertaining, and you’ve got a winner. Never bored even when it was boring, and that’s a feat.

2. Lycoris Recoil: A truly well made piece of media that nailed all of the various ranges of ‘fun’ during its runtime. It easily teetered between serious but not so serious with exciting action set pieces and genuinely clever plot elements and twists, to speak nothing of its great delivery of witty dialogue and self referential humor that didn’t lean too heavily on the otaku pandering tropes so common in anime. Some shoehorned cultural elements and an unexciting ending climax dampened my excitement a little, but still an easy recommendation.

1. Shine Post: Even though Covid delays prevented this from finishing as of this writing, I already looked more forward to this than any other show this season by a considerable margin, and cannot imagine the finale flopping hard enough to affect my rankings. Sometimes I just want a happy story, and the unbridled positivity of this idol story won me over, in no small part thanks to its stellar animation. I was strangely captivated throughout the entire run about things I wouldn’t care about if the character animation, voice performances, and overall cuteness hadn’t sold me from the offset. Maybe it just hit at the right time, but Shine Post is the whole package for me this season.

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Some (dis)honorable mentions are in order!

Shadows House 2nd Season has the “most within expectations” barometer: Exactly what I thought it would be, Shadow’s House plays out consistently, if nothing else. Some light mystery with more moving parts than I can track, this season ends in roughly the same place it began, with a few more ominous stakes introduced. Comfortable, if not compelling.

Cyberpunk Edgerunner gets the ‘superior commercial’ award: While a fine show in its own right, narrowly missing the top three, the real accomplishment of Edgerunner is that it stirred a desire to dive back into the Cyberpunk universe, namely the video game. Even if that isn’t your jam, I’d still recommend this as a great story with the main character being the rich universe itself.

Instead of the golden toilet, Engage Kiss is instead awarded the “silver plunger” in recognition of its efforts to be simply trash. Also home of the worst protagonist this season if not decade, Engage Kiss is so teenage and angsty you can almost smell the Axe body spray. Cool kid throws it all away (his memories) to fight demons and avenge his family no matter what society tells him. The adults around him are useless and corrupt in roughly equal measure and he can only count on his cute waifu trio of catty, possessive girlfriends to aid him in his quest. I’d say I was moved, but that would only be half true, because bowel movements don’t really count. Funny I call Shuu a teenager/kid when he is actually old enough to smoke and drink, but Shuu’s mindset couldn’t be more immature and conforming to the image of what hormonal youths think of themselves as. I can’t connect with that, but it still provided some measure of entertainment wrapped up in the thickest of pretension; a magical concoction worthy of staining the bowl on the way down.

Both Prima Doll/Warau Arsnotoria Sun! failed the ‘filter’ test: After about two episodes each of these strangely parallel ‘cute girls doing post war time reconstruction faffing about with more sinister undertones’ shows, I ran a test on the next few episodes to see if there was anything visually interesting to see, as that resonates with me most. Skipping through a couple episodes each, I found nothing but stills of (cute) talking heads and almost no hints at motion or body expressiveness. Sadly, I just couldn’t muster the interest to press on, but wanted to give them mention as they may be worth seeing for those not put off by endless conversations over cookies and tea.

Made in Abyss: Retsujitsu no Ougonkyou gets the ‘strange stasis’ amber: An anisphere darling for sure, MiA s2 was hotly anticipated by many, myself included. While the introductory episode detailing the precursor expedition team was fascinating, the story quickly swelled into one that struggled to present a core I could latch onto. They were in a city made of people who turned into value in exchange for their humanity, with an angry princess outside, and the village was its mother and wanted it destroyed… It just lost me somewhere along the way and I was taking in what was happening more than following along, really. What is strange is that I don’t begrudge the show for this approach (though the creepy exploitation bits still bother me) and fully expect the next arc, whenever we get that, to be of high quality. I just missed out on the heady themes, I suppose, but my enthusiasm somehow isn’t diminished; an accomplishment in its own right!

Kinsou no Vermeil: Gakeppuchi Majutsushi wa Saikyou no Yakusai to Mahou Sekai o Tsukisusumu gets a blank piece or paper: Not much to say other than this was one of the most boring ecchi series I’ve seen in years before I dropped it; I struggle to even remember anything about the few episodes I watched.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures: Stone Ocean part 2 gets the ‘two towers’ award: Like I detailed in its thread, Jojo has, as of this season, transitioned from an dynamic action adventure to a static institution. Specifically a meme factory. There is no tension as there are no indications that the characters are in any real narrative danger despite the show going out of its way to craft specific horror styled scenarios for the cast to overcome while yelling at each other. Not enough plot progression to satisfy, and leaving off on a transition in setting is the only thing it's got going for it right now. Many shows decline over time, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it's unfortunate to see Jojo do likewise; hopefully this is just a slump.

Awarding the ‘calories burned’ scale for Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano Datta: An interesting journey, this goes from a Kaguya style ‘make them confess' schemes framework of two youths in love, and quickly transitions focus to other contrived complications in their non relationship (namely their friends with overlapping affections), and finally settles on a character study about love and loss that kept me watching to the very end. Maybe it's that the characters were all pretty cute and likable, but by the end I could root for them all and was glad to be a part of the ride. They put in the effort.

Isekai Meikyuu de Harem o gets no award: A decent enough power fantasy isekai that had me until the awkward and prolonged first sex scene. At that point, I fully realized what audience this was geared for and excused myself. At least there was an attempt at world building, but it is impossible to ignore what this softcore isekai is.

Yofukashi no Uta is awarded the ‘night light’ lamp post: Good vibes and a laid back program that really benefits from its mood and production more than almost any other show this season (MiA also excelled in this). Bored vampires and a dumb kid who wants to be one and end up getting in over his head while still enjoying the night life of a city with apparently a curfew given how few people walk the streets at night. Some more interesting story beats are introduced with some of the characters to shake things up and lead to an ultimately satisfying non-ending.

Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gets the ‘sad face’ drama award: Humor is obviously a personal taste thing, but this just didn’t hit almost at all for the episodes I gave it. The only noteworthy item about this is that the second episode was not aired until later in the season because it featured a politician assassination plot and was pulled after Shinso Abe (previous prime minister) was killed at a rally by a disgruntled assassin within days of its planned air date. ‘Cute girls doing stand up’ (that isn’t rakugo) isn’t a bad idea, but the laughs need to be much more dense than the sit-com line/straight man delivery found here.

Bucchigire! Got the ‘plowed under’ shovel: Nothing wrong here (except the naivete of the main character at times), Bucchigire was a fun, traditional show that simply fell to the wayside as I tired of its rote, simplistic storytelling, but don’t let that dissuade you if you’re jonesing for some shinsengumi action and a rogue’s gallery!

RWBY: Hyousetsu Teikoku can borrow the nostalgia goggles (I need those back!): I made it through the first introductory ‘arc’ of the series as condensed into the first three episodes, but I couldn’t abide by some of the legendary choreographed fights being outright omitted, events being re-organized and quickly lost interest. Sure I’m biased, but those were some great scenes and honestly, take those away and RWBY gets kind of pale for me…

Isekai Yakkyoku/Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life: Daini no Shokugyou o Ete, Sekai Saikyou ni Narimashita get some cherry-scented vape smoke: Similar to the ‘blank sheet earlier’, but without even the advantage of cute girls doing whatever, I couldn’t find much entertainment in these isekais, either. The discussion of Yakkyoku survived on these forums, so maybe there was something here, after all!

Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru gets detention for excessive teasing: Looks like I had reached critical mass for the teasing works of Yamamoto Souichirou, or at least low effort adaptations of them. The same framework didn’t capture my attention for more than a few episodes, but what I saw wasn’t bad, per say, just flavorless without the fresh premise of Takagi or the great production of Kunoichi.

A pretty solid season, all said and done with some good looking shows I didn’t even give time of day to! On to the next!

*Edit: Summertime Render gets a quick shout out as a very solid show that has a fun and well utilized hook and keeps the twists coming, only barely creaking under its own weight by the final confrontation. An anime I feel would go over well with 'normies' looking for quality entertainment. I wish every season has a show of this caliber.