Fall 2012 Review and Winter Title Updates

A quick update on new Winter titles and the blogging schedule. I've decided to pick up Oreshura as a potential blogging title, but please note that none of the new series I do blog are cemented into the schedule yet. I'm following the "three episode test" with most of them, and even if I do continue to watch a series it doesn't mean I'll continue to blog it, due to the fact that I'm one writer and can't follow fifteen-plus shows continuously while going to college. Some series may be blogged as digests as a result, with more than one series to a post.

Before I begin, I'd just like to explain how this Review will work. Because I'm only reviewing the Fall for 2012, rather than the whole year, I'm only including those series which ended in the Fall, regardless of when they began to air. This means that currently airing series such as Psycho-Pass or HunterXHunter are not included (K is not included because it's getting a second season), and that this list is in no way indicative of what I thought of Winter, Spring, or Summer of 2012.

Of course, like any other review or list, this is simply my take on what I watched and enjoyed (or disliked) this season. With that in mind, its on to the anime.

The A-List:

Jormungand: Perfect Order

Both seasons of Jormungand were spectacular, and it's hard to disagree with that. It was by no means a perfect series, but it was visceral and fascinating on a very deep level. You wouldn't think it after seeing all the gunfights and bloodshed, but this is a series that revolves around characters, and a more difficult set of characters to categorize you'll find yourself hard-pressed to find. These are not nice people fighting on the side of justice, but they're not evil psychopaths who enjoy killing for the hell of it either. Koko is crazy but interesting as hell, and Jonah is the lost lamb who isn't sure he can choose his affection for her over the insane things she does. When push comes to shove, the whole series is a moral dilemma of mind-blowing quality pretending to be a trashy action flick. The ending was a bit anti-climactic, though it did have significant impact, but regardless this one overwhelmingly deserves its spot on the A-list for the Fall (and in my opinion, for the entire year).

Tonari no Kaibutsu-Kun

I've already explained why I think Tonari was a great series, and there's not much more I can say about it without beating it to death. In short, the anime was interesting and well developed, the characters were awesome social disasters, and quirkiness has rarely been pulled off so finely. The main couple is one of the best romances I've seen in a while, even though occasionally it feels like perhaps Shizuku and Haru are better off not forcing themselves to fit together, and the series rarely falls into the melodramatic. Everyone may be a bit dysfunctional, but they're honest kids with real problems and like real kids they're not sure how to make it all click so they constantly miss out. It was funny, it was cute, it was downright bizarre sometimes, and I will definitely miss these monsters on my anime schedule, even if Haru is a nutcase I'd want kept away from me with a ten foot pole.

Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean

I know, I know. This is the part where the angry mob stabs me with various pitchforks. I think I've made it fairly obvious that I'm an Eureka Seven cult fanatic, but that's not why I loved AO. Being a huge fan of the original made this much more difficult to love because it was so different and, in some ways, disappointing. This series suffered fatally from the loss of the amazing Dai Sato as chief writer, but once I got over the shock of how different the series was, I realized I really liked it for what it was. Truly. Ao is a straight out awe-inspiring protagonist, and I've never understood how any fan could call him whiny after Renton. This is a boy beyond his years, a brave and stoic soul lost in the adult world who has to learn the hard way that idealism and love can only take people so far, but that they must struggle and retain it if they wish to change and take control of their lives. In many ways, the series strengthened the messages of the original, even if it broke the hearts of viewers and did it through a convoluted and rushed plot. It was one hell of a roller coaster, but it was worth it.

The Runner-Ups:

Kamisama Hajimemashita

There was nothing to make Kamisama Hajimemashita patricularly stand out among the huge crop of shows this season, but it was by no means a failure. This was a solid series, a classic shoujo piece out to make sure we didn't forget that simple and sweet is just as winning a recipe as complex and jaw-dropping. Akitaro Daichi is a master, and he knew what he was doing with this anime despite the fact that it's a thirteen episode snippet of an ongoing 88 chapter manga. It could verge on the melodramatic, but it was pulled off stylishly and without taking itself too seriously and the humor was usually perfectly on point. Kurama and his Visual Kei insanity as well as Mizuki's almost pompous incompetence were always good for laughs, and Tomoe wasn't as much a stick in the mud as he liked to pretend he was. This was a perfectly good series, though one with a bit of a niche audience and somewhat easily forgotten when considered alongside its contemporaries.

Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!

I won't sugar coat it, I didn't love this anime. I did, however, like it quite a bit. You see, I think all anime fans can to some extent empathize with chuunibyou because anime is usually a form of escapism and fun that the real world just can't quite satisfy on its own. Yuuta tried to hide his chuunibyou but realized, along with Rikka, that that was a stupid thing to do. Why should people give up fun and fantasy just because they have to grow up? Life is much more fun when you're willing to change your perspective and add it in yourself, and that's what Chuunibyou is all about. Who cares if you make an ass of yourself? It'll be fun memories you can die laughing about later anyway. I could have done with less of the moe-moe designs and fanservice, and sometimes the humor and drama fell flat, but the series had a good message, and it was a silly little escapade that was occasionally hilarious and mostly interesting to watch.

The Rest:

Sukitte ii na yo

I have a really big problem with the Sukitte anime, and it stems from the manga. The manga in itself is a pretty decent shoujo series that can feel a bit unconventional because it treads sexual and complicated emotional topics that most shoujo series don't dare touch. However, the problem exists even there, and I feel that the manga did a much better job than the anime even with that problem present. Mei is fine as the protagonist, but Yamato is not. The series tries to paint him in a likeable way, but he comes off as too bland, too demanding (as is the case with most shoujo male leads), and too static. Unlike Mei, he doesn't change very much and despite what the manga would like you to think, he makes the series much more conventional than it could have been had he been different. That being said, the anime wasn't awful; it was a decent watch and I did enjoy hearing Suneohair in the ending and insert song, but it was ultimately forgettable and not as powerful as it had the potential to be.

Btooom!

This was a complicated show for me to think about. On the one hand, the series felt misanthropic and interesting because of it, but on the other I couldn't stand the blatant sick feeling I got off the characters. Perhaps its just me, but this series ended up feeling a little bit trashier than I thought it would be, and the way Himeko was used for driving sexual conflict could verge on nasty. That's not to say it was terrible; I did enjoy it and liked that everyone was painted as equally hateable, but there was just a gross taste in my mouth in certain places, though I do suspect that it was intended to have that effect. The premise was certainly interesting, and there were plenty of things to think about philosophically, and if a second season is green-lit I'm sure I'd be back even if I had to become a nun afterward.

Sword Art Online

And here's where the people who are after me for AO will be after my heart with kitchen knives. I know SAO is hugely popular and hailed by many as one of the best series in recent memory, but I simply have to disagree. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate this series in the least: I've read all the light novels to date and had plenty of fun with both it and the anime, but I just think it gets far too much credit because of its stellar premise rather than for its actual content. The premise can't help the fact that the characters are sub-par, and it's unfortunate because it had plenty of potential to be the amazing series some people think it is. If Kirito were less Gary-Stu, Asuna less Damsel-in-Distress, and the villians less obviously evil, then perhaps SAO could have made much greater good on that wonderful idea behind it. Because it didn't, we got a mediocre piece with really nice fight scenes; that can't be helped however, and SAO does have one great positive consequence in that it introduced tons of new fans to the anime world.