User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 454: Flying Dragon Squad and Osprey Squad, Review./@comment-4449950-20150929043128


 * walks in with a gun* HANDS IN THE AIR EVERYONE AND DON'T YOU DARE MOVE! THIS IS A BLOG HIJACK!

'''NOBODY CARES ABOUT THIS FAIRY TAIL CHAPTER, SO INSTEAD WE'RE GUNNA TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE INTERESTING AND DEBATABLE. THAT'S RIGHT, IT'S TIME TO START THE OFFICIAL (Well, we've been doing this for so long that it's almost official now)...'''

FAIRY TAIL WIKI SUMMER 2015 ANIMEH SEASONAL REVIEW!!

For those who don't know, if you watched this previous season of anime, we like to have a general discussion about what went down. We talk about our favourite series, the ones we disliked, the best OP and ED, and sometimes even over-hyped and under-hyped series. If you watched something from the last season, feel free to chime in!! Please black-out or tag spoilers though.

For a look at a previous season review (where we jacked Raven's blog, haha) see here. The Spring 2015 review from this year kinda sucked because no-one watched anything, so I'll link that one instead XD

So, let's get this show on the road!! Here's my seasonal review, with everything I watched.

Best Series: I am going to be honest, this season actually had more poor contenders than good ones. The highest score I gave was an 8/10, which is quite poor when looking at other seasons. I found there was little that stood out as being absolutely amazing, but even so, there was one series that really made this season great for me, and a few that kept me greatly entertained.
 * Rokka no Yuusha: Holy shit, Rokka no Yuusha. Were do I begin? In the season review for spring I mentioned after watching the first episode that Rokka would be either amazing (if it was paced well and the main character wasn't a twat) or it would suck completely. I am so happy now, 12 weeks later, to say that Rokka stood up in almost every way and really delivered a smart and engaging show.
 * For one, the pacing was slow. And no, slow is not a bad thing when it is done right. Rokka primarily turned into a mystery anime, and the slow pacing allowed for every detail of this mystery to be properly addressed, and for every character (sans one, who I'll mention) to be developed. Relationships (and I don't mean all romantic) were explored and well crafted, the plot was engaging and made me think, and all in all I just had a great time.
 * I also can't get through without mentioning the main protagonist Adlet. By god. I thought I'd hate him. He came across at first blush as the type of simple, shounen protagonist. "I'm the strongest man in the world. You can't beat me!". I was prepared to hate him. I was prepared to loathe him really. But no. Omg, how I wish Natsu was written like this guy. By the end, I do think he is the strongest man in the world. He may not be the best fighter ("lol what?" you say), nor the smartest, nor the most loving. But he combines all of these factors together with a strong spirit and positive outlook, and that's what makes him the strongest. Adlet, gah, he was just so great.
 * However, this anime did have a few faults, which lowered the final score I gave:


 * The anime obviously had a low budget. I try not to judge too harshly based on animation, but there were some dodgy parts in the execution of some fight scenes and the 3D bad guys irked me a bit. That aside, the character designs were all GORGEOUS and unique, so props to the company for doing their best to keep the unique (and harder to animate) designs when it would have been easier to ditch them.
 * This show was a mystery, so of course the reveals were important. There was a character I distrusted from the moment the mystery side of the show was revealed, and I thought it was obvious that they would be the culprit. However, this was earlier on, and as the story progressed I saw just how complex and smart it could be. As such, I started to change my mind about the person I suspected, as I thought the answer to the overall mystery would be just as smart as the rest of the show. My brother and I were quite disappointed then when the mystery was revealed to be the obvious. This didn't take away from the show too much, but it was a little "Awww, so it was that .-. Okay..."
 * Goldov, as a character, was horribly written. There, I said it.
 * The end. Gah, why Rokka? The end of the anime sets up for a second season, but not in a good way. If they hadn't introduced that cow girl, and had just skipped her scenes and ended with everyone running towards their next goal, I think I would have liked the ending much more. However, her introduction just irked me more than made me excited for what's to come :/ Shame, but I know her intro was in the light novels and the studio was being true to them.
 * These faults aide, Rokka was still a great watch. Intriguing and with great characters and script, please give it a shot. Also give it a shot if you want to see how an action protagonist should be written. Adlet is man of the season for me :)

Final Score: 8.4/10
 * Honourable Mentions:
 * Shokugeki no Souma: I liked it a lot :D Ngl, I didn't think I would after the first episode, but I grew attached to many of the main characters. Souma was actually a really great character imo, though Megumi takes my fav spot.
 * There was a lot to like here and I can't really fault the show in many ways. Why then is it below Rokka? Well, for two reasons: One, there was A LOT (like, a craptonne) of fanservice, which was amusing at first, but just dragged after a while. By about the 1/4 mark, I was over it and was no longer amused. Plus, the fanservice would last for a long time, as the characters gave their reviews of food. Not that the reviews weren't good, but if you take the amount of time the show wasted on showing naked/half-dressed people going on about loving a dish and get rid of it, so much more could have been added imo. I dunno, it just didn't appeal to me. Second, call it the shounen curse, but I never felt like our protagonist was going to lose. There were high stakes at times, but I never got worried that something would go wrong. It's just the vibe I get from shounen, and the problem here is that I was right. I never found the story hard to predict, and there were no (if any) real "Omg, I didn't expect that!" moments. As such, I couldn't really score it higher.
 * These points aside, it was a massive amount of fun! Please give it a watch if you want a shounen with a great cast!
 * Final Score: 8.3/10


 * Gatchaman Crowds Insight: Hell, where do I even begin with Gatchaman? It was one of the series I was most looking forward to from this season, because I LOVED the first season.
 * For those who don't know, Gatchaman is a mecha-ish, action-ish anime set in a slightly futuristic Japan. The thing that makes it so special though is the philosophical outlook it takes on story telling.
 * The topic for this season was just as deep: "Do people truly say and act in a way that they personally believe is correct, or do we simply follow others and keep ourselves safe by hiding the complete truth of our thoughts in favour of agreeing with the larger crowd/twisting our opinion so that it can be slotted into theirs?"
 * As a philosophy student, this anime of course appeals to me because of these topics explored. However, this being said, Gatchaman can also be a hard series to like. The animation is unique, and because the topics are so philosophical, sometimes they seem pressed or discussed too much. You have to pay attention, and it can be easy to dismiss this anime because it's boring or "just talking about stuff that doesn't seem important". But when you stop to think and look back, man is there a lot to learn from this series. In answer to the question it posed, Gatchaman recommends thinking. That's right, 12 episodes to suggest that people should think, and take time to make decisions after looking at all points. That's the kind of series this is. It can be slow, yes. It can be trying too hard at times, yes. And yes, it can feel bloated. But Gatchaman tries to achieve something a lot of anime don't even bother to consider, and that is sending a message. And I really can't fault it for that.
 * Hajime, the main female, is also my woman of the season. That damn last episode, holy hell. She shone. Shone, I say!!
 * Final Score: 8/10

Worst Series: Gah, there were so many let downs this season. I ended up giving out three scores of 6 (this is all on MAL, so I'll have the un-scaled scores here), which is pretty darn bad for an anime season where I went in liking most of these shows. I now have to choose between 3 anime that I disliked (well, disliked is too harsh. 6/10 on MAL means "fine", and none of these shows were bad, just not good) and all for different reasons: Soooo... which to pick as worst?? Gah, after much thought, I had to go with the series that should have been great from the start, but wasn't. Hence, option number two:
 * 1) One started off okay, and then suddenly decided to change its entire plot half-way through, rushing over so much content with pacing issues greater than the population of Aus and ending WAAAAAY too fast with nothing explained properly.
 * One, in reverse to the above, started off awesome, but then at the half way mark dragged and dragged and lost all focus and ended with nothing wrapped up at all, and
 * 1) One never had much plot to begin with and was just standard the entire season through.
 * Gangsta:
 * What can I say? From episode one I believed this would be my anime of the season. The characters were so fresh, so morally grey, and the setting and plot seemed poised to impress.
 * And at the start, it did. The main characters were explored and their pasts revealed. And these were interesting pasts. Like, I loved hearing about them and seeing how these two men came to be. The rest of the cast (which was huge in number, but I've seen that work before - see Baccano!) were all introduced nicely, and, again, were interesting in their own way.
 * However, around the half way mark something just went... wrong. The two mains slowly became less and less prominent in each episode, until there were some where they were absent all together. The other characters started to become the focus, and a whole bunch of other "bad guys"(?) were brought in.
 * Now, here's the issue. NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS WERE EXPLAINED!! The "bad guys" all work for different people and organisations and NONE of them were given any backstory or motive. They just appeared and started massacring people .-. Now, don't get me wrong, in a short anime I don't expect every character to have backstory, but at least the leader or something. Now, these characters came in and started doing their own thing just as some of the other minor characters started doing their own thing too. Problem was, these characters had not been introduced well enough for me to A) get why their story was more important than the main one previously being told, and B) care :P
 * And then the ending. By god, the ending. Just to give you an idea, here is a list of plot points that were not wrapped up by the final episode, and were just left hanging:


 * A character's relative is hinted at for the entire anime and appears at the half way mark. Nothing is done from then on out despite the hinted importance of said character.
 * One character is on death's door. Survival? Who knows.
 * One main-er/more explored character is killed off in a quick scene that had no impact.
 * One side character I don't care about has spent ages trying to find someone. He finally spots her and rushes to talk to her, but the anime ends before they meet.
 * One character finally builds up the courage to convince their supporters to fight with them. They head out to fight... and the anime ends.
 * One main character is meant to be helping some people, but for some reason ends up in the final scenes to be running around in the rain for no reason.
 * One group decides to fight because of some apparently scary thing coming, but what is coming and if they end up entering the fight is never seen.
 * A "bad guy" is attacked, but if the final blow did anything to him is never seen.
 * One of the more mysterious characters just vanishes. His motives are never explained.
 * One character is looking for a significant other, who is assumed being held and tortured.
 * Yeah, that's all I care to remember. But if you're thinking "holy shit", you are right. None of those plot points were concluded, and half were not explained - i.e, the motives behind why they were even happening.
 * As such, Gangsta takes my pick as worst of the season. So much potential in those early episode, but so much poor episode directing and script writing took it down into the dirt. Which is a shame, because I've read that the anime doesn't follow the manga and just did its own thing. However, this is anime reviews, not manga reviews, so my score still stands.

Final Score: 5.6/10
 * Honourable Mentions:
 * Akagami no Shirayuki-hime:
 * I got told about this series a lot. Like, A LOT. People who love AkaYona wouldn't shut up about it, particularly when the anime was announced, so I gave in to curiosity and read the manga. Sufficed to say, I was unimpressed.
 * To say there is anything wrong with Akagami is incorrect, because in all honesty, there is nothing wrong. But, there is nothing great about it either.
 * To start off with, all of the characters (sans a few) are perfect. I mean it. They have very few faults, and any faults they have are not their own, rather issues other people have that cause them issue. Eg: the main character is a commoner, so people assume she is just hanging out with the main prince character for status and this causes tension. These people then find out she isn't and all is well... until another person with these thoughts appears. Repeat 100 times until it's dry.
 * And that's the thing. I don't mind nice, caring characters, but I at least like them to have faults. I like them to screw up and do bad things and make mistakes. And no, not "Oh no, I worked so hard that I fell asleep when I shouldn't have!" mistakes that happen in this series, but actual mistakes.
 * Shirayuki as a character is sweet and nice and hard-working. But that is all. She has no faults. She is like an angel from heaven, and again, whilst that is not bad, it's not interesting either. I never had a moment of "oh no, will this work out!? Will she stuff up?". She won't. She's awesome. We get it.
 * Zen is just as uninteresting. His faults all come from others having preconceived ideas about how he should act. He then shows them right, and all is well. He is another angel. There is nothing more to say.
 * The three characters then that are the most interesting (and the only ones I still read the manga for) are Raji, the spoiled prince, Obi, the sarcastic nut with the dark past, and Isana, the older bro. Raji is great because he is flawed. He brings diversity to the show. Pity he meets Shirayuki though and does pretty much a 180, FT-style bad to good guy transformation .-.
 * Obi is the best character, hands down. Zen and Shirayuki are so perfect that their romantic relationship is perfect too. They never fight, they never clash... heck, they never even seem to have differing opinions. As such, and knowing that their relationship continues in this cutesy manner and goes nowhere, I ship fucking Obi with Shirayuki. That's right, I don't ship the angel couple... kill me .-. Obi is just so much funnier, so much more flawed and therefore so much more engaging. End of story.
 * Finally, Isana is introduced as a bad-ish guy, yet his only flaw is being morally grey, which I love. He seems "bad" because every other character has a moral compass as white as snow (lol, see what I did there?) and so his more, sometimes backwards, ideas are seen as being "bad". I hate that. You know I like philosophy and complex characters, and the fact that Isana is treated as such annoys me to no end.
 * In short, this anime is like a Disney movie... but with no overarching bad guy, and no plot that fits into an hour and a half. It's just a slice of life with cute, perfect characters and what they do when obviously mean characters (who are only mean for the sake of the plot advancing) are brought in. In short even more, it's dry as fuck. People who compare it to AkaYona politically, philosophically and in terms of action, annoy me to no end.
 * Final Score: 6.3/10


 * Charlotte:
 * Gah, this anime was nuts. Really. Wtf.
 * Okay, imagine this: an anime about school kids with magic powers. For the first almost 8 episodes they just do stuff and try to find other magic users before bad guys do. They faff about and have fun and combine their powers well to achieve their goals. Sounds okay, yeah?
 * WRONG! The story takes a turn after these wasted slice-of-ish episodes to reveal the true plot... and then try to resolve said plot in 3-ish episodes.
 * That's the issue here. The characters are great and the powers included are actually neat and well explored, but the plot has no idea what it's doing. If it kept up the same sort of thing it had going at the start, it would have been mildly enjoyable. Or, if it had started with the actual plot revealed later and used all 13 episodes to tell that story (rather than waste all of the earlier ones) it could have been fantastic. But it does neither, and as such, it's a gross mess of a story. I don't even want to get into it, so here's just a quick example to give you an idea:


 * A character is trying to take a power from another female character, but said female character uses healing magic and uses her power in a third world country to aid sick people who would otherwise die. This could have been a morally interesting idea to explore in an episode: is it correct for said character, who needs to take her power, to take it if it's so vital to her and her community? Well, fuck you, the main character literally says "oh well" and takes it. The scene lasts for legit 1 minute and is never brought up again. Too bad third world community, you're all going to die next time you're sick 'cause that girl has no powers.
 * And that's the problem here. Anything worth looking into is skipped over due to the awful writing and episode planning. Characters from the first half disappear all together because the new plot doesn't need them after spending ages developing them, and there are enough plot holes due to a time travel twist that just make everything worse. But all in all who cares anyways? Charlotte obviously doesn't .-.
 * Final Score: 5.8/10

Best OP:
 * Gangsta: Lmao, after all my bitching, I will admit Gangsta's OP is FUCKING AWESOME. Gosh, great and catchy song, interesting animation style and nice images. Seriously, watch it... it will hint at the awesomeness that was drained from the series with each episode .-.
 * Honourable Mentions:
 * Gakkougurashi!: Catchy as fuck, and the fact that it is changed slighty 5 times over as the plot progresses and gets darker is awesome. First version linked, so no spoilers :)
 * Gatchaman Crowds Insight: In typical Gatcha style, the OP combines unique animation and effects (of putting the characters on cardboard in real-life locations) to make a great OP. Song is okay, but the rest is awesome. Also shows of the awesome 3D animation used for the Gatchaman metal suits * ^ *
 * Rokka no Yuusha - OP1: Catchy and nicely made. Nothing else to say really. The second OP is good too, but the song in this one suited the series more imo.

Best ED:
 * Rokka no Yuusha - ED1: Gah, the song is perfect, the clips are gorgeous and I just LOVE it. No more to say.
 * Honourable Mention:
 * Charlotte: The series may suck, but this song is so beautiful, and the accompanying clips so well animated.

Other Series: Here are short reviews of the other two series I watched that didn't make the Best and Worst lists above :)
 * Fairy Tail: What can I say, it's been rather good lately. Animation steps up when it needs to and all of Lucy's parts were fantastically done. Nothing else to say.
 * Final Score: 7/10 (for this past season only!)


 * Gakkougurashi!:
 * This is a hard anime to talk about without spoiling, and I'm getting tired so I'll be quick.
 * Basically, this anime combined two genres I haven't seen put together in such a way. Like, holy hell the first episode was SO FREAKIN' BORING, but then you get to the last 2 minutes and HOLY HELL IT'S SO FREAKIN' INTERESTING! However, the anime fluctuates between both genres, and one is interesting and awesome whilst the other is kinda meh. The problem is that the meh genre is used more in the show, so the impact of the second genre is never really felt properly imo. However, I will give the series props for what it tried to do and what it did achieve. I was intrigued the entire way through, even if I was bored a bit. In short, give the first episode a shot. And not just the first 10 minutes - you NEED to sit through all of episode one to see what I'm talking about. By the end, you'll have an idea as to if you want to continue or not; however, be aware that imo the anime falls short in achieving what it sets out to. It's still good though :)
 * Final Score: 7.1/10

And that's that. That's what I watched and huehehehe, this is LONG AS FUCK XD XD XD XD Lmao, hope you enjoyed and let me know what you guys all watched and what you thought! I know Misk will likely have some things to say about my Akagami review, but others might too XD

Fire away!!