Alright, the season is pretty much over, with only
Sousou no Frieren having one episode left for its first cour and there's no chance it manages to somehow screw this up. So, season rankings, just before Christmas:
1st place:
Sousou no Frieren: What an amazing show. Heartwarming, prone to make you appreciate your friends and family and it can show that it has kick-ass fight scenes as well at times. Also, the mimic meme.
9,75/10, a show for the ages.
2nd place:
Tearmoon Princess: A fun show to watch, with likeable characters, good humor, a decent story and just the right sense of drama and comedy mixed together. The conclusion was also well done and an actual conclusion.
8,5/10.
3rd place:
Seiken Gakuin no Makentsukai: Another show with solid characters and a decent story, but then a pretty shlock theme, i.e. "super powerful dude reincarnates and babes flock to him while he destroys fools". What made this one interesting is that he came back as a ten year old, wasn't so super OP that he never could be threatened and actually developed a healthy respect for the modern world. Oh, and his name was Leonis
Magnus. That counts for something with me.
8,0/10, I'd love to see a second season.
4th place:
Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou: Another villainess anime, but the twist is that the heroine reincarnates into the game world and she's in love with the villainess. And it's super fun to watch. It fell down a little bit at the end with unnecessary melodrama, but that still makes it a very solid
8,0/10. Another one where a second season would be welcome.
5th place:
Kikanshu no Mahou wa Tokubetsu desu: This was a well executed series in most parts, with middling fight animations. The premise is good as well, a seasoned veteran of a war against the apocalypse dragon, ahem, Boromir Napolitan (bwahahaha....
) is sent back to the past after defeating the big dragon actually triggered the apocalypse. Now he has to use his knowledge of the past to train up everybody, while dodging the classist education system. It's a well thought-out premise and that elevated the show above many others.
8,0/10 and it actually gets a second season!
6th place:
Dead Mount Death Play S2: Oh, this one also hasn't finished yet. Well, the story finally got off its ass from a status of permanent set-up to giving us some showdowns and it's all pretty interesting. But there's only one episode left and I somehow don't think that this will conclude all that satisfactorily.
7,5/10.
7th place:
Spy x Family S2: Yeah, the story is well-written and the action was good and, uh, I just don't care anymore as much as I did in season one. I think the fault for me is that I read ahead in the manga and I just think the story is as stagnant as pond scum. Stuff happens, there's actually good action every once in a while, but the characters and story are set in a sort of stasis. The relationships don't really advance. So, with all that said, it's
still a
7,5/10, because I can't deny that the cruise arc was pretty awesome.
8th place:
ShieldBro S3: Well. This season started pretty strong and then fell flat on its face during the latter part, just to pick up again right at the end with the set-up for next season. See, the show has really passed away the focus from the main trio of Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo to them going on a quest to assemble the three other loser heroes and for that they need female characters one and two to give emotional fortitude to the sword and bow hero, who are mentally damaged, because crisis of faith, blarghlgarglblaaaah. Ah, yeah, the pervert spear hero also wants to sexually molest Filo and therefore he's now on Naofumi's side and calls him "father" (ewwwwwwwww!!!!). Honestly, what a strange arc.
6,5/10, still a bit above average and I look forward to hopefully the main trio doing something together again or maybe, just maybe, Naofumi finally recognizing Raphtalia's feelings. But this show kinda fell flat on its face a few times by now.
9th place:
Helck: Yeah, well. Helck started out super good, with the MAN EMPEROR OF MANKIND being a super unflappable, hypercompetent lovable lug being cool without even trying. And the supporting cast was fun as well. But THEN, half the season (the latter half, to boot) was spent in a super dark flashback which utterly crippled the feeling the show conveyed in its first half. So, yeah, sorry. This was a bit of a dud in the end.
6,0/10, really too bad.
10th place:
S-Rank Musume: Another show where I saw the previews and had high hopes for it, but in the end it just was too bland, the storyline a bit too meandering and the characters were only okay.
6,0/10, too bad, so sad.
11th place:
Rouroni Kenshin: I can see how in a previous era this was hailed as one of the best shows out there, but that obviously in an era where very traditional values of honor and men and women were still in place. As for now... it didn't work out very well for me. I don't really feel the characters, the storylines really feel like something out of the seventies or early eighties and I'm barely interested to see how Kenshin will defeat his next enemy by cross-cut-dodging-loop-de-loop-blablabla'ing the super duper special move his opponent busts out.
5,0/10, competent yet yawn-inducing.
Still, all those shows kept my interest for the entire season, which is a pretty rare thing. Normally I drop half the shows by mid-season, but every single one this time had at least something to look forward to.
Looking forward to what the winter season brings, but I think my schedule will be a good bit lighter. ^^
So, if I have a simple synthesis of this season, it's got to be :
Watch Sousou no Frieren. Don't delay for three years, because you got a long list to go down. Just watch it now, it's most definitely worth it.