Don't hate me, senpai-tachi.
srsly tho good luck with these gifs. There's a bajillion of them. I know they're inconsistent because I've scoured the bowels of the internet for 'em. I shoulda made them as I watched everything. Unmarked spoilers.
1.
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO!; Genuine is my new favorite word. Yui is the best girl ever. She steals all the budget. Runner up goes to Iroha. There's a whole bunch of themes in this show but a lot of is some adolescent passing phase. But the teacher says it the best. You guys are in freakin' high school. Not of this stuff even matters five years down the line.
You know when they announced season 2 and Feel was going to man the helm instead of Brain's Base I was kinda skeptical but not as much at the rest of the internet. BB did such a good job with season 1 (AotY 2013, duh) so it's understandable if season 2 will be just as good. And it is. Bless Feel.
Part of the reason people were worried is because of the character designs. People just weren't feeling them. They almost look like the characters in A Certain Magical Index. Same character designer, probably. Well, I like them. They look better now. Some of the stuff in BB's season 1 was low quality so we got this big budget boost in quality which is great.
It's great because a lot of the stuff in the show relies on visual cues. Without context, that teary eyed Yui gif is just a studio flexing their animation muscles. And Hachiman, man. When dude was crying right in the middle of the season, I cried too. Wtf man. He was so ugly when crying. Seriously, who looks good when they're crying.
Haruno and Hayato sucks. I hate them. Hayato is surprisingly deep. Even good looking dudes have problems. I don't care though because he's good looking. He shouldn't have problems. And Haruno's in university and she's wasting her time talking to these high schoolers. Get a life. These youngsters are already having problems with each other. Don't come in here and exacerbate these problems. Mai Nakahara, yo. She's got this ability to evoke malice when she's talking cheerfully. How does she do it???
SORE ARU girl no one liked. I liked her because Haruka Tomatsu voices her and she's one of the best active VAs right now. Well, probably semi active cuz I don't hear her enough. Are you serious right now, anime industry? SMH
The president of the other school with his hand movements. What on earth is this dude. I don't even.
People are always praising Saori Hayami and Takuya Eguchi for their performances and they'd be right to.
Ayane Sakura is killing it right now. She killed it as Iroha and the other roles she's done this past year.
And last but not least, Nao Toyama. This girl, man. She always puts out the best performances. I love her voice so much. Killed it when she's happy Yui or contemplative Yui. Easily my favorite active VA. Keep up the good work!
I still don't know if Yukino likes Hachiman. I know Yui does because that girl wears her feelings on her sleeve. All I know is Yui should be commended because she ain't sidestepping and goes out of her way to let Yukino know that she'll take him all for herself. Yukino's character in the last couple episodes sucks cuz she was like a timid animal. Yui makes her feelings towards Hachiman known and lets Yukino know straight up she is being a wimp for not confessing either. Throughout the show, Yukino was more proactive in getting stuff done and Yui was along for the ride now circumstances have changed. YukiYuki's image of Hachiman being infallible broke, her sister is a scumbag (actually, she's instrumental to this whole ordeal because in her own messed up way, she's trying to help Yukino out after all), that stuff.
So Yui cooks up this plan to take Hachiman so Yukino's problems like relying on him and her sister are solved and the group dynamic between the three are balanced. Letting Yui proceed with the plan doesn't fix anything because Yukino's problems would have been solved by someone else (the whole point is that Yukino grows up to be someone who can decide things for herself) so it's not like it's easy to say that "yeah you can have him. I'll just sit back here." She's about to take the bait and man it was awful to hear Yukino about to take the easy way out. Hachiman speaks up tho. He ain't having none of this.
I think ultimately, Yui planned for all of this to be rejected by Hachiman. Nothing gets solved when she goes through all of this. The show made it a point with that scumbag Hayato about superficial relationships and how love screws up friendships in groups and how it's better to keep everything bottled up. So it's a toss up between "do we keep everything the same?" - everyone keeps quiet and this sterile relationship remains where no one steps over each other's boundaries or "naw this is some BS" - we'll search for a better path and it'll be a thorny journey where they'll struggle, writhe and maybe even walk away with nothing in the end but at least we didn't take the easy way out" Yui planned for the two of them to see through the BS and take action. This girl, man.
And this all works because of the visual cues in expressions and backgrounds and the audio cues with the voice acting and the music. This is all done with some minimal dialogue too. You don't need everything spoonfed to get what's happening.
It's like the Mad Max: Fury Road of anime.
SNAFU could be the deepest or shallowest animu ever. Well, I liked it enough to make my own interpretations of what happened and stuff and discuss it with other people (on different boards tho, sorry)
Annnnnd cliffhanger
2.
Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend; I have this gif of Eriri putting on her underwear but nah you guys won't tolerate that so here's her looking away. And that's cool. Utaha was cool, then she sucked, then she became cool again. Cool again like rolling around Tomoya's bed sniffing the soul out of his sheets. Megumi was nice from the very beginning. She's deadpan and that's her appeal. And Michiru. Like when I watched episode 0 and she was hot AF with her booty shorts and tank top and she's all touchy feely. Then she got introduced in the show and she sucked because she didn't approve of MC's anime fandom. She was awful but she redeems herself later on. The show feels rushed here because I think she was only in the show for two episodes and she goes from BAD ANIME to o-o-okay anime's fine in small doses. Her bandmates are nice too. I think they're into the easily misunderstood sexual positions Tomoya and Michiru were in the final episode. Because really, you can try and say cool lines while in the lotus blossom position but- *arghblargh* thanks, Megumi.
Saekano's different from a lot of shows because the characters are sorta subversive in their tropes. Does it succeed? I couldn't tell you. Like Michiru is your next door hottie who likes making music with her friends but hates otaku culture. Her band actually covers anime songs and her friends are all closet otaku. They had to hide it though because she admitted to them she's all about real music and that otaku life ain't her. She's real good at making anime-sounding songs. Her bandmates are all "that Michiru. she don't know it but she wrote another anime song huehuehue."
Eriri has all them nice tsundere features that makes my heart go swoon. She's the shortest, she's got twintails and she even rocks that golden hair. Golden rule applies here. So her and MC are childhood friends who enjoyed each other's company by talking about anime and games. She still exhibits those tsundere attributes like when some new girl who is just starting out with drawing wins over the MC and he's all hyped about it. Eriri calls him out and asks him how come he doesn't act all excited about her drawings despite her being a well known artist. MC doesn't answer because that's typical MC behavior when they got nothing to say. Dude man don't lie to me. She runs away in tears like her dog got ran over. He shoulda caught on like Eriri likes you of course she ain't gonna like you creaming yourself over another girl's work. Eventually he realizes he screwed up with the help of his friends and cosplays to try and win Eriri back. She's all flustered and when she's caught her breath because they were running from something, iunno, she asks him "yo what's the deal with you." We get treated to a flashback where other kids are making fun of the both of them for always talking to each other about anime. Even draw that umbrella with their names on them. MC was a cool young kid so he confronted his bullies. Eriri just sat there though. Kids are so mean. Well anyway Eriri claims she doesn't like that weird otaku stuff to begin with so MC got left in the dust. Okay so it was all a big deal. Dude held this childhood grudge for this long. Normally MCs just forget their childhood friends and the circumstances that led to their splitting. Not this MC. This is like a 10 year grudge. At this point I'm on MC's side because he's right man Eriri turned her back on him long ago and she still demanding an apology for liking that other girl's stuff more? Girl, I don't know. Eriri channels her inner shounen and resolves to doing whatever it takes to make him accept her drawings as the best. Until then she ain't apologizing. I don't understand her thought processes, ehh man golden rule.
3.
Wakaba*Girl; Dead serious. Every episode is ten minutes long and it's so funny. Wakabi is the sheltered rich girl and her gag of trying to give her friends money because she thinks that's the only reason why they even hang out with her and it never gets old. Moe is moe. I like her because she's got a good head on her shoulders. So like she's the voice of reason. She can cook too and wears thigh highs. Mao is, well, I don't know. She's got pink hair? That's nice, right? She adds "su" to the end of her sentences, nice quirky speech. She's energetic. I like her too. Nao is my favorite girl. She plays the straight man of the group and wears glasses. And now I find out Rie Murakawa can do good stuff. Blew my mind she voiced Nao. Never knew she could have a heavy voice. She was awful as Escha but she did good work as Hotaru. Rie can do it after all. YEAH
In the final episode Wakaba hears her family talking about moving away and she processes that as them moving away. She immediately thinks about her friends and it's too soon that they'll be torn apart. Who wouldn't. Wakaba has the greatest group of friends ever. Seriously, when she told them, all of them went to her family to convince and compromise for her to stay. Friendship is magic. It was all a misunderstanding in the end. Why the heck wouldn't it be? Wakaba has finally made some real friends. Friends she could count on to hang out with after school and just chillax with. I'd be mad if she did ended up moving. It'd totally undermine her development when she's finally had a taste of that sweet gyaru life.
4.
Castle Town Dandelion; I can't find any gifs of Kanade by herself and the only one I could find is semi-NSFW so here's one with her and Hikari, who I also like. Man, Kaori Ishihara and Yui Ogura. Last time I saw these together was in Saki. Kaori doesn't seem to be getting a lot of roles which freaking totally sucks because her voice is amazing. Oh and shoutouts to Eriko Matsui as Misaki. She can clone herself up to 7 times and each clone sounds different. Incredible range.
I don't like the end because Shu became the king and he's kinda boring and his girlfriend, Hana, is the only reason he's turns out okay. I wanted Kanade to win the election because she's got a sorta good reason for wanting to win and she's hot.
Akane took center stage a lot but meh she aight to me. Everyone else in the show loves her though. She got her own fan club and everything and her brothers are part of it unbeknownst to her. Her best friend pops a yuri boner for her. I think she was voiced by Saori Hayami. Akane's voiced by Kana Hanazawa and that girl does amazing work so it's deserved.
Everyone totally played second fiddle to Akane. The title is a misnomer. It's Castle Akane Dandelion. Akane is one devious little character. It's all an act. She don't wanna go out? Sure. She loves the attention. When she goes out and she's holding on Kanade in fear of being all alone, I bet she's getting high off the attention. And she plays it up really well. Kanade bursts to running and she quickly catches up to her to make it all look like she needs her. This is all just speculation tho.
If you add up all the time the other characters got it'd be one episode each. The show went on for 12 episodes and she's got about eight siblings or something. An episode each and four more for Akane. That ain't how ratios work. They're all main characters!
5.
Sound! Euphonium; Asuka was awesome at first, but now she sucks. Can't decide between Reina, Natsuki (my favorite sleepy girl) and Kumiko. Bassoon girl too. She was hiding the whole time tho
Asuka sucks because she don't like drama in her club. I don't like drama too except in rare instances. Well, drama happened because she sat around doing jack. What is this girl even complaining about?
About the yuri undertones, yeah I got nothing. I didn't really think about it all that much because there's nothing there. Reina's a goof. She doesn't know nothing about proper friendship rules and whatnot. And Kumiko's this aloof girl so never mind her to understand anything either.
At first Natsuki don't care about band like a honey badger and sleeps but seeing her kouhai be serious made her straighten her act out. She be practicing and stuff. She fails her audition though and she invites Kumiko (the one who takes her spot) for lunch. Girl was worried she was gonna get smacked but it was dumb of me to think that because Natsuki isn't that kinda girl. Instead she praises Kumiko and Kumiko realizes this and comforts her senpai back because that's what kouhais do.
6.
Shirobako; Ema and Shizuka best girls. The show went for 24 episodes treating Shizuka so badly. Do the producers hate redheads or something? Argh. I teared up in the end when she got a role in the show everyone else was working on. About freaking time. What an injustice. She tears up but her best friend Aoi tears up even more. Because even she knows Zuka-chan's been treated like garbage the whole time. What else. Oh yeah, I like everyone else too. Midori's speech mannerisms. Oi-chan-senpai, Zuka-chan-senpai, ummppphhhh so cute. I think she drinks all that beer there.
There was this one time when it looked like Shizuka was about to get a role in the show but she gets dropped because the producers don't know any better. I would have hired Shizuka right there. And then she waits and waits for her phone call and it doesn't come and she drinks her night away. So awful. I lovehate this show.
Shirobako's all happy and there are glimpses when it's bad and not-so-happy. The reverse is probably true in real life. Lots of shaming and finger pointing and stress. I can't deal with that so props to the people who bring us anime from Japan.
7.
Chivalry of a Failed Knight; Here's Shizuku giving her onii-chama a long kiss. I like this scene (yeah sure, for the saliva swapping) because of the background characters. They're reacting like how we would. Look at that dude holding his head. Looks like he just done witnessed the most appalling thing. She backs off eventually because Stella's cool.
This show is a clone of that other high school tech show. They even start the same way with walking into girls changing and the fanservice shots. Failed Knight's better because it has Stella and MC and they end up together and it's unbelievably believable despite them getting together a couple episodes in. I dropped the other show. Nothing happened anyway. It's got Nao Toyama though... but FK also has Nao Toyama... hmmmmmm
8.
The Eden of Grisaia; JB best girl. At this point, the story doesn't try to be coherent. I don't really care though. Makina becomes a master sniper, like what? In the end, MC lives on an island with his harem.
And what an awesome harem it is. I'm linking it tho. Sooooooo lucky. Poor JB. She was taken without her consent. This part is pretty gross, but the anime plays it off like it's nothing.
Yuuji's had a hard knock life. But dude is still alive and kicking. I think that's what draws the girls to them. Even if they haven't heard his story before. One look at him and instantly they'd think "wow, dude's seen some stuff in his life" The series ends with him murderizing the dude who is pretty much half of the reason his life was horrible. Good for him.
9.
Owarimonogatari; Ougi is weird. Kaori Mizuhashi saves her though.
Shaft continues to be the defacto animation studio of the world. I'd put this higher but iunno I've seen a lot of monogatari. I'd lump them all as one show and it wouldn't be fair to the other anime in their respective years if I kept thinking each and every monogatari to be the best in their year. So yeah they're all kinda the same. Even the fanservice stuff that's in your face in Nise. I could watch any episode from any of the seasons and I wouldn't be able to differentiate.
10.
Overlord; Nabe best girl. Really like girls with ponytails. I like being OP in games so it's about time we get a show that depicts power perfectly. MC and most of his team are lvl 100. The folks outside are lvl 30 at best. It's awesome. MC is cautious as heck because even though he's lvl 100 he's not entirely sure if that level carried on to the new world he's in. He's not sure if his magic is as potent, if his items work as intended, or even if the old world rules apply to the new world at all. And it's kinda suspenseful too like I know the MC and his cohorts are the baddest, meanest, strongest people out right now but since he's so wary, I look at every encounter he has like they might be stronger than him too. It doesn't happen though. When the evil empire priest dude busts his super rare crystal gem to summon an angel and I'm like "oh no OP might need to get serious" and it turns out it can't do anything to Ainz I let out this laugh like "my man destroy this weakling." Ainz uses this cool black hole attack and the enemy side's quaking in their boots. "b-b-but that was the super rare crystal gem thing how did he beat it so easily." SO AWESOME. Near the end, the two main antagonists are talking garbage then Nabe and Ainz are like "hahah" and wrecks them. Aoi Yuuki does a crazy good job at voicing crazy. If you wanna hear what someone sounds like getting a soulcrushing uguu hug, watch this. man, I got this cool Albedo gif where she's hugging her Ainz bodypillow but semi-NSFW
And then it turns out his underling is actually stronger than him and he only manages to beat her because of Batman prep time. I get that it's because he's ain't built for 1v1 or whatever but still. Say you're an accountant for some odd years and there's this girl who's been one for decades so there's this expectation that she should be better at handling numbers than you. Then again, I don't expect most basketball coaches to better at playing the game than actual players. Some kinda false equivalence garbage, whatever.
Honorable Mentions:
x.
Prison School; I'd post gifs of Meiko but they're all NSFW. So here's one of Chiyo cuz I like her too. Everyone liked Hana. I thought she was OK. where my fire resistant jacket at...
x.
Actually, I Am; can't decide between Nagisa and Shiho, the president and werewolf respectively. I got this perfect gif of both them but it's NSFW since it's Shiho rubbing Nagisa's butt. Instead, I got this one of Shiho showing off her feminine wiles while Yoko looks on. MC taking it all in.
x.
Yuru Yuri San☆Hai!; Same girls, different fun. Ayano, best girl. Her, or Himawari, or Kyouko
x.
Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There!; Risa Taneda is insanely good at giggling. Nao Toyama is in here too <3 I think the writer is some military dude and the whole thing is just him projecting Japan to be some sorta military superpower. Stop, man. Stop the politics. You wrote a shinigami loli named Rory, a slender elf girl with a penchant for jeans and a human witch girl (I shouldn't be putting her in here with the fantasy characters despite being human but whatever) into the story. You ain't fooling me.
x.
Sky Wizards Academy; Nao Toyama round 2 <3 Rico just loves ogling herself and she'd be right to because she knows she's hot stuff. Everyone hates the MC because he's not into fighting no more/ Jokes on them because he's cool as heck. He's got this similar power to the bugs that's constantly attacking the city but it leaves him wasted when he's using it too much. Not everyone knows this so everyone treats him like garbage except the team he's training and the old teammates. Dude man I just wish he showed off his cool powers and show these punks he can handle his. He doesn't end up handling his tho because he puts up a fight in the end against the dude obsessed with Yuri's booty and it's understandable since Risa Taneda's voice is mesmerizing and gets beat but his team comes through to save the day.
x.
Non Non Biyori Repeat; I really have trouble remembering what happens in these SoL shows.
Well, I do remember something heart-attack causing but it happened in season 1.
Candy Shop and baby Renge
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Hello! Kiniro Mosaic; See Non Non Biyori.
Did we get a musical at the end of this show? I know we did for season 1. I remember because
Risa Taneda's short singing as a mermaid was real nice. Again, I linked something from a first season again.
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Working!!!; A lot of stuff happened. Finally. I feel exactly like Aoi does.
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The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls; Do I even have a favorite girl? I like everyone about equally.
Sorry for your internet.
