User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Wiki in Anime: Fall 2016 Edition/@comment-24546844-20161229220014

Today aired the last episode of the last anime I was watching this season (that won't extend to next season) so I waited for today for me to write this post. I'm happy with this season as it had some really good anime, though some let me down. But here we go:

>> Best Series with no doubt goes to:


 * Sangatsu no Lion! This anime is amazing. The visuals are so beautiful, the atmosphere it gives is at times suffocating, at times relaxing, it gives a great mix of melancholy and happiness, the characters are all likeable, even the ones you're supposed to dislike are made in a way that it's natural. The protagonist is relatable and you feel his conflicts. There's so much to like about this anime, it wins you at the first episode. It will carry on to the next season so there's more for us to see, and I'm sure I'll be running to the manga as soon as the anime ends.

>> Special mention to:


 * Shelter! Shelter is, to be short, beautiful. It's amazing how a 6 minute music video can be so pretty and touching. I loved the animation and loved the idea behind video. The music isn't something I'd listen to regularly but I still do simply because I like everything else. Also, this in itself is a great project an I feel there should be more like it. If you haven't watched it yet the just do it!

>> Now on the other ones:


 * Yuri!!! on Ice!: Yuri on Ice is huge hit. Even people that don't watch anime regularly have at least heard of it and I don't deny it's merits. Even with a simple sports anime premise YOI could draw it's potential building good, realistic human drama and relationship. Yuri and Victor is probably my couple of the year and they didn't even need a direct confirmation because it's obviously there. Of course the animation suffered a bit on the long run and we couldn't see more of the other characters but all in all that didn't affect the enjoyment too much. I'll have to say that the ending didn't satisfy me too much though, t felt a bit rushed or like that wasn't what was planed. I feel they should have finished it all in this season but apparently they opened space for a new season due to it's huge success. But I can't blame them, if an anime can crash Crunchyroll then it off course should take advantage of that success.


 * Hibike! Euphonium 2: I watched the first season of Hibike just before the start of this season and it was amazing, Kyoani at it's best, and of course I was going to watch the next season. The main problem here is that this season gave too much focus on something that could be put on a secondary plane. The first arc had a great build up for an underwhelming reward, and Reina's feelings for Taki-sensei still felt out of place but apart from that this season was as much worth watching as the last especially in the final chapters when the focus finally changes to Asuka and we learn the "truth" about this series (unfortunately I've been spoiled by a novel reader so I knew what to wait for but nothing that ruined the fun). I still believe the first season is slightly superior to the second but Hibike! Euphonium probably works the best being watched together as a single series.


 * Flip Flappers: Flip Flappers is a mess. A beautiful, colorful, confusing and exciting mess. Two girls going to crazy parallel to have adventures is a simple concept that can be used to do almost anything without the worry of things going wrong, except when you try to bring everything together. When they tried to put everything together for the finale some things felt out of place, especially the final villain and some characters that were supposed to be more important but were either not properly developed or simply forgotten. Still, the show covers that with more and more funny and beautiful animation and it sort of works. It is above anything an entertaining show and it's very good at it. Also, nice yuri coupling.


 * Shuumatsu no Izetta: A witch using her powers to change the course of alternative World War 2, this could in itself turn out to be a really good show but for some reason it didn't caught me. It was an inconsistent watch alternating between between average and good episodes. Towards the end a plot twist removed what could be a battle between the struggling humanity and a magical being that had no place on the modern world (and with the flipped perspective of the witch being on the "right" side of the war), and the implications it would bring to world scale relationships between nations, and instead gave us a fight between two of those overpowered beings, and it's as forced as seem. The ending was a bit predictable but still had that touching feeling you'd expect from such a conclusion.


 * Kiss Him, Not Me: A nice reverse harem comedy about a chubby fujoshi suddenly turning pretty and all the guys who previously disliked her now are suddenly attracted to her. Nothing really special to say here but it works just fine around it's premise. Intended or not it gives us a nice commentary on the superficiality of beauty patterns human relationships. The development of the initially unlikeable male characters are mainly centered around them realizing how they've been focused on Kae's appearance over her feelings.


 * Keijo!!!!!!!!: The salvation of anime ladies and gentleman. Sport anime about girls beating their opponents with their butts and boobies, no one can deny of the originality of this. The main issue here is that it's actually as funny and exciting to watch as any of those absurd superpower sport anime. You watch it expecting to see how absurd the next technique the characters will pull and you will, for better or worse, be surprised by it. Ironically because of this IMO, Keijo fails completely at being an ecchi anime. Interestingly everyone who's read the manga said the anime ruined everything because apparently Keijo isn't supposed to be about boobs and butts colliding but something much deeper. I feel like reading just to try to understand those claims.


 * Magical Girl Raising Project: I haven't watched Madoka yet (though the internet makes sure you know everything about it before you even begin) but I'm sure that mindless killing of cute girls isn't the main reason why it's so acclaimed. This anime on the other had is simply about this. My main problem with this one is that there is not a single character on it. They are all nothing but avatars on the killing game. The anime does so little to make us sympathize with those avatars that their deaths feel meaningless. Most of the time they'll get a flashback showing how miserable their are but there's no point to it because at that point they'll already be dead. Not even the "protagonist" exist beyond one or two superficial traits and the one character that should at least be interesting is quickly killed for the sake of being replaced. Even the conclusion is so stupid that it makes every single episode before it meaningless. This is easily the worst anime I watched this season and that's saying something if the above anime is about girl fighting with their butts.

>> Best OPs:


 * Sangatsu no Lion's Answer: This one is simply amazing. The music is really good and the visuals depicts the protagonists feeling of depression and uncertainty pretty well. My favorite OP thi season being closely followed by:


 * Yuri!!! on Ice's History Maker: History maker is probably the most addicting song I've listened to recently. It simply keeps repeating over and over in my head and it's actually good. The visuals to the op are an interesting case too because every episode adds more colors and details to it making it a ice game trying to find out what is new there. It's basically an unskipable OP.

>> Best Endings:


 * Sangatsu no Lion's Fighter: A great counterpart to the OP, Sagatsu's ED is great at showing how Rei's relationships and resolve counters his depression. Love this one too.


 * Yuri!!! on Ice's episode 10 ED: This one is just hilarious. It catches you off guard and when you realize you're on the ground laughing your ass off because it's just that funny and random. Interestingly it ties very well to the plot and keeps the anime's use off social media.


 * Flip Flapper's FLIP FLAP FLIP FLAP: Just like the anime this one is just beautiful. A nice take on fairy tales, the song is just funny to listen to.


 * Shuumatsu no Izetta's Hikari Aru Basho e: Nothing much to talk about the visuals, this one gets you only with it's lovely song.


 * Magical Girl Raising Project's Dreamcatcher: Just to not say there's nothing good about this anime, this song is really good. It's a bit sad seeing it wasted on this.

>> For the next season:


 * I haven't seen the charts yet but I'm sure I'll be checking KonoSuba Season 2, and Rakugou Season 2. Later I'll check the others, but as I'll start working next year I'll have way less time to watch things.