Final Thoughts: Winter 2013

Final Thoughts: winter 2013

The first season of 2013 is over, and what a season! It had everything from omnipotent beings to school idols to the return of my favorite traditional Japanese card game. I’ll be giving my final thoughts on the winter 2013 anime season, but first let’s take a look at the shows that I will be continuing to watch into the new season.

Cardfight!! Vangaurd: Link Joker-hen- I first got into Cardfight through a friend of mine who watches the series. He got me playing the game, but I only recently started watching the series, and it is really good. It might be the best card game anime I have ever seen. It follows the rules perfectly, showing off the product but almost never forcing it down our thoughts, and the characters are really fun. I highly recommend the dub, but this is about the most current season, which I also highly recommend. It has a bit of a high school tournament thing going on, and I like how they are slowly phasing out Aichi and allowing a new character to slowly take the lead role. I look forward to seeing how the new season develops, and how they will inevitably add in physic powers and other planets, because they always do. 

Hunter X Hunter- Every time I watch this show I am so thankful that it exists. We are getting close towards the end of the Greed Island arc, and I am so excited for that finally. And then after that, we get the Chimera Ant arc, which I know will freak the fuck out of people, with how dark it can get. I can only hope that the creator of the series will go off hiatus again and the anime won’t catch up to the series for a good while longer. I am seriously just so excited.

Toriko- I am really surprised with how fun and good Toriko consistently is episode after episode. It is the creativity that goes into every episode, every strange piece of food, every battle, that keeps it as fresh as it was episode one. The whole big casino card battle thing was so cool, and the stuff they are setting up for future episodes are looking so cool. Also, there will be (at the time of writing) a Toiko X One Piece X Dragonball Z cross over next week. I am so excited! Even if it’s bad it will still be so over the top it will be awesome!

Space Brothers- I am actually surprised that this series is continuing on. I had heard right when it had started that it would be a 52 episode series, and we are quickly approaching that number with no sign of slowing down, much less stopping. And I am so happy for this. Space Brothers has consistently been a show that I personally connect to the characters and their journeys, and I was worried about how they would end the series, especially with where they are in the series currently. But now that it is going on for who knows how long, I am looking forward to seeing how Mutto eventually makes it to space.

Chihayafuru- God I am happy for this show to be back. It is like a ray of sunshine and Karuta. We are really starting to see the growth of our Karuta players, and the new characters are adding a surprisingly good amount to the series. They are interesting, but not over shadowing Chihaya and the others. And they even had a chance to develop Arata, who has been a glorified background character in the first season. I am looking forward to the queen and king matches this season also. I can only hope that the show will continue to improve into the future.

And those are the shows that are continuing unto the next season. It is a really short list this season, it seems like everything is ending. Well, let’s get right to it the final thoughts.

AKB0048 Next Stage- This is a really good continuation of the first season. It expanded the universe, answered some questions, and really put the idols under some severe pressure. And watching them over some those pressures, of losing a friend, of fighting against their own people, of even having to retake their home planet, was just incredible. Honestly, the world that they have created, and the music and dancing, and just the heart of the Idols is so incredible that you can’t help but love this series. While I think the ending was good enough that it doesn’t need a third season, I would not mind a third season of this show.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT- What is fascinating about this show is how it both follows and subverts, to a degree, all the tropes and stereotypes of a fan service type harem series. They have the main lead be lusted after by every single female he meets, along with the main lead being too dense to realize that they all want him, but they also subvert this by having the main lead purposely act naïve to the advances of his female friends because he is socially awkward and doesn’t know how to deal with this situation. And that finally! I was really not expecting it. Seriously, the characters and their interactions are what make this series a head and shoulders above its compatriots. But it is still a fan service type harem show at the end of the day, just one with really good characters. I really can’t wait for the inevitable third season; because the way this season ended it really needs a third season.

Girls und Panzer- They finally came out with the final two episodes and they were incredible. Seriously, do yourself a favor, watch the series, watch the last two episode, it is just a fun, awesome ride.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure- HOLY SHIT THIS FUCKING SERIES IS FUCKING FANTASTIC! *ahem* Sorry, had to get that out of the way. Btu seriously Jojo is just a crazy fun ride from start to finish. The fights, the characters, the powers, everything about this show is just fun and action packed. And it really makes me want to go read the manga so I have a better understanding of the characters, and the history of the Joestar family. I can see why this show has had such a strong following for so long. And I am happy to be a part of that following from now on. I am really looking forward to the inventible next part, where we go to Japan and follow the next person to take the mantel of Jojo and fight vampires and other monsters. But until then, all I can do is yell out the names of characters I like, following in the footsteps of Robert O. E. Speedwagon! SPEEDWAGON!! ZEPPILE!! JOOOOOJOOOOOOO!!

Kotoura-san – I have never seen a show that has balanced joy and sadness as perfect and realistic as this show has. I have never been so mixed in my feelings, not about the show, but what feelings the show has given me. Any given episode of this show can have me laughing right out of my seat at the antics of Kotoura and her friends, and a moment later being almost in tears at what is happening to Kotoura and her friends. And that is why the show is good. Its story runs the gambit of emotions yet it never feels like it is trying to manipulate the audience. And the best part is that it resolves the relationships between the characters, in a positive way, and still allows for a second season to be made, if that ever happens. If you don’t mind feeling a lot of emotions, I completely recommend this show; it is honestly just emotional fun.

Love Live! School Idol Project-I mentioned in the First Look of this show that it had a lot of heart and passion, and it really kept up that feeling throughout the series. You really are rooting for the girls, you want them to succeed, and you want them to save their school. What is really impressive is how the show balances all the girls, they each have distinct personalities that meld and work together really well. And the singing and dancing was fantastic. This show was light and happy, but unlike other shows that state the end goal in the beginning and never do anything about it, the girls saving the school is ever present in the characters minds. At the end of the day, this was just a fun idol show, and I really hope it gets a second season. My only complaint is that it promised me an idol competition and I received no such thing! I want my idol battles damn it!

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic- I got to admit, I didn’t realize that this show was ending this season. I thought it would be one of those shonen adventure shows like Toriko that go on until they accidently catch to the manga, and then go on a hiatus for a year and a half. But no, it ended and it wasn’t a bad ending, though defiantly a non ending. The series, so far because I know it will be getting a second season eventually, is really good. The world they are making is intriguing, I really want to explore it and see how they flesh it out. And the magic system they have is really interesting, using rules and layers to perform complex magic feats. And the characters are growing really naturally, though the main character does have a lot of back pedaling that he needs to fix. But overall I really like Magi, and I can’t wait for a second season.

 Problem Children are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They?- This was probably the most fun I have had with 10 episodes in a while. The strange amalgam world they created was just plain fun. The huge action pieces, which grew from person on dragon god to giant mecha battles, were fantastic. It wasn’t perfect, it needed more or a story, or a plot. It set up an ultimate goal of our heroes, but didn’t do much about it. What this show needs is a second season, or baring that, just more episodes. It was bright and full of color, had some great set pieces, and had some really great characters. I would really like some more episodes though.

The Pet Girl of Sakurasou- I am of two minds of this show. On the one hand, it has a lot of problems. Most of the message giving is ham-fisted and the main character is so wishy washy and generic that most of the time you just don’t like him. But on the other hand, this show is the most emotional show I have seen in a good long time. Kotoura-san was depressing and emotional, but Sakurasou made me openly weep at least twice, maybe three times. This show is great at building up all of the emotions of the characters until its highest and then great crash of feels washes over you because they won, they succeeded, and they will live on. If you want another emotional rollercoaster, I recommend this show, but you will have to get past the main character.

Senyuu. – Wow I wish this had a real, full length season. It was a really funny micro series, but I wanted them to explore the world they created, even if was silly and nonsensical. The characters were really great, having surprisingly full personalities for a type of shows that usually doesn’t allow for great character development. Personally I loved how the opening summery of the series would slowly start to change from episode to episode, evenly becoming just really crazy. I am actually really pumped for the next season of this, which I heard would be coming out in the summer anime season. It is just a really funny micro series, an enjoyable hour to spend with at the end of the day.

Polar Bear’s Café- I am really sad that this show is ending. This how should have been a  quirky, kind of strange, slice of life show with animals, but it when so far and beyond that and became something just incredible. There were episodes where I was tearing up. They had a sentai parody with penguins. This show had one of the best endings in anime ever with Llama’s ending. It had a rapping polar bear! Seriously, Polar Bear’s Café is a fantastic little show that you can get into easily. It is really calming, but you also get attached to the characters, you become invested in their everyday lives. Polar Bear’s Café is a really good ride, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Yama no Susume- While Senyuu was the micro series that was a joke a minute (so like three jokes an episode) Encouragement of Climb was much more about the growth of the main character, which is really impressive to do in 12-13 consecutive 3-4 minute episodes.  What is the advantage of this series is really its heart, it is just so honest and earnest, and it is a cute series. I admit, there is not a lot to say about this show. The characters are all simple, if cute, girls, and the story is simple, if cute. I like the show overall, there is just not a lot to say about it. Watch it if you have a half hour free.

Blast of Tempest- At the end of the day this show is really, really interesting. Blast of Tempest is a strange combination of really intelligent and really dumb, and that is why it is just fun. The logic and intelligence of the characters, and even better the use of that intelligence e puts this show apart. The story over all is surprisingly complicated, involving two gods and possibly aliens, and the fact that it isn’t fully answered just how or why these tree god things exist is interesting and beneficial to the series as a whole. This show can be split into two sections really, the Mage of Genesis portion of the first half, where good and evil are clear, and the Mage of Exodus portion, where everything we know is turned on its head and effect proceeds cause. If you like a good thinking show, if you like a show with some cool visual effects, Blast of tempest is for you.

So that was the winter 2013 anime season. Overall it was a very emotional season, with every other show leaving me in tears for some reason or another. But I wouldn’t trade any of these shows. But now we move onward to spring, a time of love and new anime. Look forward to my first impressions of that show, but until then, have fun watching.