Now seems as good a time as any to do a quick impressions recap of all the shows I'm still watching this season:
S-Tier (The best of the best this season)
Girls und Panzer
This turned out to be a fantastic show which keeps getting better each week. Taking the concept of a large all girls cast and fusing it with a shounen sports concept featuring WW2 tanks in safe and friendly competitive war games is one crazy idea, but it totally works. Filled with charm, humor and fun.
Zetsuen no Tempest
Andogod returns to BONES to show the world once again what he and the studio are capable of given the right resources. The direction here is really in a class of its own, and the action set pieces are extremely well thought out and often executed with outstanding animation. The orchestrated soundtrack is fantastic, and really elevates the tone of the work. This show also features some of the best voice work I've heard in a long time.
Code:Breaker
This show is cheesy, over-the-top, and kinda stupid at times, but it is also full of classic 90s shounen action flavor. Everything from the character designs, the action, the script, and the music is totally retro in a good and fun way. Nice effects animation and a badass lead who's a stone cold killer doesn't hurt either.
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A-Tier (Not quite consistently great, but still consistently enjoyable)
My Little Monster
I'm not really a big fan of romantic comedies in general, but this one really caught my eye. The art design and the characters are extremely appealing, and initially the pace was extremely brisk and dynamic. The humor is pretty great too. In the recent episodes it has adopted a more traditional shoujo storytelling approach and the pace has slowed significantly, but it's still good enough to recommend. It's not a long series, so they can't drag things on much longer anyway.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventures
Probably the greatest low production value to high entertainment value ratio there is this season, it proves that with enough heart and with good source material, even a cheap production can turn out well. This show can be pretty ugly most of the time, but it's also really entertaining, crazy, and really fast paced. The music direction is also a stand out this season.
Medaka Box Abnormal
Surprisingly good for a show which was mostly a waste of time in its previous season. The gags are mostly funny, the scripts are extremely wordy but rather sharp in terms of wit and self-awareness, and the fights are really fun. I definitely didn't expect to like this as much as I did, but it's definitely delivering on the entertainment factor.
Gyrozetter
This is how I like to see a kid anime done. It's a simple concept which also has certain gimmicks (which unsurprisingly tie into the franchise's origins as a card battle arcade game), but the characters are also silly but fun, and there are a lot of varied robot designs. The pace can be a little slow at times, but it always feels honest and fun. Even the filler can be pretty good so far. Those not looking to watch something childish and silly probably won't get much out of it, but for those interested in something more light-hearted and relaxing, it's pretty good stuff.
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B-Tier (Has potential, but also serious consistency problems)
From the New World
Probably the most evocative show this season in terms of mood and tone. Unfortunately it suffers from pacing and direction issues as well as inconsistent production values as the series progresses. The source material seems relatively strong, so the show could still pull through in the end. It's rather hard to make a solid judgement as of yet, since much of the show's value will be dependent on how the characters and plot pay off in the end.
Magi
This is a real mixed bag so far. I'm a huge fan of the original manga, but the anime has been up and down all season so far. The introductory episodes were rushed and really poorly handled, leaving a poor first impression, but the series really picked up after that with more faithful adaptations and some good direction. Sadly the entire production is being dragged down by piss-poor sound direction - everything from casting to music seems pretty bad. Characters don't sound like they should, the background music sucks, etc.
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C-Tier (Disappointing, but not dropped... yet)
Psycho-Pass
One of the shows this season with the highest potential in terms of premise and setting, but so far it seems like quite a dud. The cases aren't very interesting, the character development is awfully lacking, the scripts are heavy in exposition and low on excitement, and the main character is rather unbearable. It'll be nice if they can turn the show around at some point, but it isn't looking likely.
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Carried-Over-Tier (Escalation of commitment?)
Sword Art Online
The new story arc in the second half of the series has been mostly pretty awful due to dumb fanservice pandering, not-incest tropes, and generally a lack of anything worthwhile happening. It's getting better though, with two episodes of back-to-back solid action recently. Overall though, it's quite annoying to watch most of the time. A pity because the new game being played is much more interesting than the original one.
Saint Seiya Omega
The Gold Saint story arc this season has been pretty good, even though production values are once again on the decline. It's hardly as bad as the previous arc though, since it doesn't look like they'll have time for terrible filler episodes here. The gold saints introduced so far feel sufficiently strong, and the fights have been better than expected given the almost non-existent budget.
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Dropped-Tier (Dropped)
- K
- Robotics;Notes
- Btooom!
- Chuu2Koi
