On another note, Shirobako first episode was great! PAW back on track. Now I can stop raging (for now) .

Aww, you don't remember my Bioware and Bethesda rants a few years back?

Thanks for telling me but I already own Dragon Age .

Hello there my good sir! Yune is a fine name for a machine, but alas, my Thinkpad has no such name - interesting idea, though. And yes, I have been thought to be female by a fair number of people, so no worries.

As for hidden gems, Gugure! Kokkuri-san has been the biggest surprise so far. I keep a pretty steadily updated list of anime I follow each season on the "About Me" tab on my profile. So far my A rank series are Gogure and Akatsuki no Yona. Yona was prolly my most anticipated series for the Fall, and I am glad it delivered! Gogure is a complete surprise. B rank series include Chaika s2, Sora no Method, Log Horizon s2 and Grisaia.

There are a fair number of on the fence series this season for me, partly because their ep 1 was not much to go off of - okay only, not great, not horrible.

Funny enough I've tried all of those except for Grisia. Didn't really like any of the pilot episodes from those. Apparently Grisia is a poor man's Sharin no Kuni Himawari no Shoujo and G Senjou no Mao.

And don't worry, I found Rin stupidly psuedo-moe too.

Will check out Ano Natsu OVA since I liked that series.

Once you get some time, tell me what "moe" shows or shows with moe in them are worthwhile this season. I trust your opinions the most out of every other "moe pretentious scholar"

Just so you know, I don't see any particular problem with your Top 5 list. I see some good quality in your list, and I'd be fine recommending any show on your Top 5 list that I've watched (I haven't seen Moon Phase yet).

One thing I've become more aware of over the past year or so is how very subjective taste in anime is, especially when it comes to personal favorites.

Don't get me wrong, I think that some anime shows display more effort and attention to detail than some other anime shows - think of shows with a lot of QUALITY animation, or lots of plot holes at a writing level - but that this "polish" distinction, shall we say, has minimal impact on what we like best. It can break ties, but that's about it.

And whatever else can be said about your list, it does show a fair bit of polish. Hyouka, ef, and SSY all have considerable polish. Bake has severe issues in later episodes, but in the early going, it also displayed considerable polish.

I also find, over time, that the most important thing to me is, in fact, characters. As much as I love good storytelling, a show most have at least one character that really resonates with me in order for it to be an all-time favorite (each of my Top 5 is like that - for Madoka Magica, its much of the cast and especially Sayaka; for El Hazard it's the main villain Jinnai; for Love Live!, its much of the cast and especially Honoka; for Nanoha and Haruhi its the titular characters).

I suspect, though am not 100% sure, that much the same is true for you, and that each of your Top 4/5 shows has at least one character that really resonates with you. And that sort of thing is a very subjective thing.

I tend to identify with very emotionally expressive (often to the point of theatrical), colorful, heroic-seeming, optimistic, and highly determined characters.

I get the impression that you identify with a subtle but charming, just slightly off (in a good way) eccentricity, in a quirky yet relateable character. That is something that SHAFT is really good at, so it's not surprising that SHAFT shows do so well in your Top 5.

The first two Madoka films felt like money grabbers to me and seemed kind of pointless. It doesn't really do anything different or significant enough compared to the TV series which is why I think they are significantly worse. Compare that to say something like the Hanasaku Iroha movie, which added a lot of depth to Satsuki's character and linked three generations of the Matsumae family. It actually had a purpose and point to it. The third move I actually had a lot of problems with since the drastic changes seemed to make everything that happened in the TV series "pointless". I did like the fight between Mami and Homura though, that was probably the highlight of the movie.

I'm sorry but that chocolate eating scene made me facepalm . I didn't find it moe at all but annoying . But then again you already know about my dislike of Chitanda overall and that she took far too long for me to care about her. That last episode though I have to agree, it was absolutely fantastic.

As for FMP, you're right in that it wasn't a huge leap but TSR was better than the first season overall. The first season had some filler and slow pacing issues particularly in the middle which had some irrelevant mediocrity which TSR largely avoided. The premise, characters, tone, execution of the series though was similarish in both the Gonzo's first season and Kyonai's second season.

One of the key reasons why I like Steins' Gate a lot (aside from its premise) is because of the main character. Okabe is one of the best male leads to come out in the last few years and he was an absolute blast to watch. This scene remains to be one of the most hilarious things I've seen in anime to date.

It certainly was a great series and over time I began to like it more, but I'm not too sold on it knocking off some of my "nostalgic" favourites. Even then, there has been "better" series in recent years like Shin Sekai Yori, Steins Gate, Mawaru Penguindrum or Madoka Magica (the movies don't count, they are significantly inferior to the TV series) or series that just completely clicked with me like Bunny Drop or White Album 2. Nor do I "fag" over Hyouka as I so do with the likes of say something like Tari Tari, and that series isn't part of my personal best either.

I do think it's possibly Kyoani's best series, but in a way it's not much of a competition when one is not a big fan of Key and although Haruhi and FMP were great, don't think they are as good as some people claim it to be, particularly the former.

There seems to be a little bit of turnover in the bottom part of my favourites list (the high 8 to low 9/10 range), but my upper half has on the whole remained unchanged with the exception of Cross Game, which might be the best sports/coming of age series I've seen. I only finished in the past year as well. Brought me to tears by the end of it, and not in some sappy melodramatic someone dies kinda way, but because it was bittersweet as hell.

Oh wow, you're alive! :P

I didn't realise you liked Hyouka that much.

I pretty much ragequit Glasslip. Made a rant post on it.

Now excuse me while I curl up in a ball in the corner whilst you laugh at me...