Okay so, Upon watching most of the things this season, I have come to the conclusion that near everything is trash.

Real talk, there are maybe 2 or 3 new shows that i’ll be following this season, which is super low for me.
Thankfully there are at least some 2nd seasons to very good shows this season – Attack on Titan Season 2 is shaping up to be super interesting already, and My Hero Academia returns for a 2nd season as well.

Least worst of the bunch:

Eromanga Sensei
7 – This seasons ‘I hate onii-chan show’, with manga writing big brother and erotic artist little sister

Sakura Quest
6 – This season’s PA Works anime, about a useless girl sent to the countryside to become a tourism ambassador. First episode was ok

Renai Boukun
7 – ‘Kiss Note’, whoever’s names are written will fall in love. And by the end of the first episode we already have a harem love triangle thing happening, including a Yuri sis-con, a Yandere and an idiot character. It’s literal trash, but i’ll be damned if it isn’t entertaining trash.

Everything else is kind of trash:

Hinako Note
6 – Opening and ending videos consist of adorable anime preteens dancing and making kawaii uguu faces =^_^= , also one of the girls looks suspiciously like konata from lucky star. Shy girl from the country moves to the big city and wants to start a theatre troupe with her friends. Seems to have some potential if you are into cute girls doing cute things.

Tsuki ga Kirei
6 – High school romance show, about a shy boy and girl. Very vanilla and quite realistic so far, which is a good thing because so help me if they get magical sword powers by episode 2.

Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho (Grimoire of Zero)
6 – Perpetually hunted manbeast meets powerful loli mage. They team up to be persecuted together. Seems watchable, if not particularly new or innovative.

Sagrada Reset
5 – Has potential maybe, town where everyone has powers. One boy has 100% memory, whilst another girl can rewind time up to 3 days. From there they solve crimes or something I think. Episode 2 was kind of dull though,otherwise I might have rated it higher.

Rokudenashi Majitsu Koushi to akashic records
4 – Useless teacher in a magic school. Kind of painful to watch such an irritating character take centre stage, the shows only saving grace is that the school uniforms appeal to a wide range of fetishes

Tsugumomo
4 – Japanese deity comes saves schoolboy and lives with him, probably goes shows up in his class as a transfer student in episode 2. That sort of show.

Sekaisuru Kado
4 – Stories of an “Ace Negotiator”, whatever that means. First episode kind of boring, not sure where it’s going to go.

Fukumenkei Noise
4 – Kind of dull school music/romance story? Has a really awful animation style where the main character ‘sings’ with this face :O and it totally doesn’t match.

Clockwork Planet
4 – A planet made from clockwork, though it looks suspiciously like normal japan but with androids and a strange fixation on gear based furniture. It’s a sudden girl appearance at it’s core, with an extra helping of generic battle show.

Re-Creators
3 – Reverse ‘teleported into a video game’ story, with characters from an Anime teleported into the real world. They still have powers though. First impressions were not very good…

Granblue Fantasy
3 – Generic fantasy show based on mobile game. Interesting character design but not a whole lot else.

Gin no Guardian
2 – Not a goddamn clue. Superpowered schoolkid show again? It tried doing some strange storytelling stuff and I wasn’t interested enough to pay attention so I have no idea if they showed 2 separate shows cut up, or if the schoolboy is somehow linked to the superpower dude fighting monsters in an apocalyptic world.

Kabukibu
1 – “lets make a school club based on crossdressing men who wear makeup and perform theatre”. I’ll be honest I couldn’t be bothered to hit 50% of ep 1.

Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine
1 – “Royal Tutor”, show about some shorty who gets appointed to be the tutor for 5 handsome but asshole princes who all have bad attitudes and annoying quirks, Wasn’t really funny or very entertaining so i’m not sure if it’s a bad comedy or boring serious show. MIght be targeting women?

Actually a pretty good season for a change? lots of good shows to watch, and plenty of decent shows to fill in any extra gaps you have.

Jojo’s, kabaneri and Hero academia are definitely worth a watch if you want action, while Kiznaiver and Sakamoto are unexpected treats.

You should be watching:

10 – Jojo’s Diamond is Unbreakable – Did he just punch through his mum?

9 – Sakamoto desu ga? – Weird as shit, it reminds me of Cromartie High School. Sakamoto is basically a G and everyone tries to mess with him and ends up making him look cooler.

9s – Space Patrol Luluco – Bitch turns into a gun (7 minute episodes)

9 – Kiznaiver – Trigger attempting to save anime again? Not much has happened so far, but 6 people are soul-bound and share pain, one would hope there are benefits as well…

9 – Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress – Also known as ‘Attack on Zombie’, it’s very similar to attack on titan, but is that really such a bad thing? Replace disposable swords for steampunk rifles, and gigantic titans for armor ribbed zombies…

8 – Boku no Hero Academia – I’m a sucker for a good zero to hero story, and this is quite literally that

These are decent too:

7 – Mayoiga – Bus on the way to lost town

7 – Gyakuten Saiban – Retelling of PW, might score higher if you haven’t played the games, but a PW fan, it’s ‘ok’

7 – Joker Game – Psychological battle show about spies

7 – Bungou Stray Dogs – Special unit tasked with taking down users with special powers, bit generic, but seems interesting at least.

7 – Shounen Maid – Adventures of now parent-less young child sold into slavery to work as a maid in a mansion.

6 – Flying Witch – bit on the boring side, but kind of interesting story about a witch who moves to the suburbs and goes to school there.

6 – Sousei no onmyouji – Defend the world from monsters in an alternate dimension, users have individual powers, I guess that makes it like Bleach?

6 – Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja nai to omotta – This seasons candidate for longest title. These dudes play ragnarok online and then meet up IRL and main chara finds out that his guildies are all girls in his school. Totally unrealistic

Ehhhh…

5 – Bakuon – It’s like K-on but instead of music they play with motorbikes

5s – Shounen Ashibe: Go! Go! Goma-Chan – Short gag show about adopting a seal, it was alright I guess.

4 – Kuma Miko – Theres a big talking bear. Why is there a big talking bear.

I am now judging you.

3 – Endride – Generic shounen fantasy superpower swords and shit

3 – Pan De Peace! – Something about bread but I forgot.

3 – Hundred – Super generic superpower high-school “fite me even tho u dnt know how to duel” show. (ohmagod his power is a sword?!)

3 – Tanaka-kun wa itsumo kedaruge – Tanaka kun being a lazy boring shit all day. Drink some red bull or something you fuck.

3 – Anne Happy – Cute girls doing cute things, not particularly funny or enjoyable.

2 – Seisen Cerberus – I think my brain blocked this one out. I think there were swords?

2 – Hai-furi – I’m ‘watching’ it while typing this up. Bunch of 10 year olds in uniforms running a battleship. It’s like kancolle but more shit.

1 – Bishoujo yuugi unit crane game – I have no goddamn clue what this shit is

1 – Super Lovers – What the fuck is this? I can’t tell what genre this is, but it looks like he’s about to rape his younger brother and it’s creeping me out.

Tons of trash this season, with robot shows in particular being the ‘in’ thing apparently. A few surprises, ‘Kono subarashii sekai’ came out of nowhere and was really entertaining, similarly I didn’t know much about ‘boku dake ga inai machi’ and that was really good as well, even my brother who came in and started watching half way seemed really interested as the episode reached its climax.

Watching Tier –

Boku dake ga inai machi

– 9 – Rewind time to prevent disasters. Featuring that same blue butterfly from ‘Life is Strange’, lets hope it doesn’t end the same way.

Prince of Stride

– 8 – A world where freerunning relay is a sport, seems pretty cool, reminds me of ‘Free!’

Kono subarashii sekai ni shukufuku o!

– 8 – A better version of danmachi? Weeb gets transported to a fantasy video game style world with adorable goddess, characters and humour are pretty good.

Musaigen no Phantom World

– 8 – Kyoani phantom nonsense with plenty of fanservice this time round.

Haruchika

– 7 – Hibike Euphonium version 2 (orchestra club), but with more mystery and puzzles

Shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu

– 7 – Really plot/drama heavy, but interesting rakugo story for those looking for something more mature

Dimension W

– 7 – If the show becomes as hype as the OP, this will be awesome. Plot seems alright, with cute robot girl partner.

Hai to gensou no grimgar

– 7 – Whilst a fairly generic fantasy setting, has an interesting set of characters and a new spin on the adventurer story.

Nijiiro days

– 7 – Terrified that it was going to be yaoi at first, seems okay though, schoolguy love drama comedy thing

Probably Dropping Tier:

Dagashi Kashi – 6 – Candy shop owner’s son and a very strange mentally unstable girl.

Ao no kanata no four rhythm – 5 – Based on a visual novel, some shit about flying shoes.

Nurse witch komugi-chan – 5 – What even is this? Is this satire? It’s almost bad to the point where it’s entertaining

Koukaku no pandora – 5 – Borderline yuri “put your hand into my crotch slot” show

Shoujo-tachi wa kouya o mezasu – 5 – Like sainai heroine but reversed? Very uneventful first episode

Bubuki Buranki – 5 – Another superpower show, summons? Eyeball things? Pretty nice visuals

Get that shit out of my face Tier:

Luck and Logic – 4 – Generic superpower harem

Saijaku muhai no bahamut – 4 – Literally already saw this anime last season, twice. Yet another super power highschool harem with hidden potential protag

Schwarzesmarken – 3 – Robot battle for pretty much a whole episode. Nothing particularly bad about the subject but these shows bore me to tears.

Divine Gate – 2 – Generic superpowers show based on smartphone game

Phantasy Star Online 2 The animation – 2 – Painful to watch

Active Raid – 2 – Robot power rangers, very boring

Norn 9 – 1 – Terribly boring shoujo floating ship thing

Ojisan to Marshmallow – 9 – (Short) I have no idea what this is but it was amazing

Oshiete! Galko-chan – 7 – (Short) lewd comedy with blonde big tits

Sekkou boys – 6 – (Short) More sculptures?!

Seems like a pretty averagely bad season, in the interest of my sanity I am switching to now only watching the very first episode to judge the show’s overall quality. The last few seasons have made it pretty evident that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover anyway (see, Prison school, which turned out to arguably be the best show of last season), so I can’t imagine going from 2 episodes to 1 is going to make a significant difference.

‘Heads up’ Tier

One punch man

– 10 – Story of a dude that wanted to be a hero so bad, that he trained to the point where everything he fights now practically explodes in one punch. It’s pure action, and it’s amazing.

Itoshi no muuco

– 10 – Short show about the happiest dog in the whole goddamn world. You need to be in a certain mindset to watch it, but imo it seems like an almost guaranteed bad day fixer.

Hokuto No Ken: ichigo aji

– 9 – For Fist of the North Star fans only, it’s a full length gag show featuring the cast of FOTNS but as High school students, Ken is to bring laughter to century end high school.

Utawarerumono

– 8 – Semi generic fantasy show where all the humans are half animal, has catgirls so automatically above average, not too much has happened yet though so genre is up in the air for now, however apparently it’s based on an eroge so it might go harem route.

Shomin Sample

– 8 – Comedy based on the idea of bringing in a commoner to a school of sheltered ojou types. It’s going to end up as a harem for sure, but it’s entertaining so far at least.

Shingeki no kyojin Chuugakkou

– 8 – comedy spinoff of Attack on Titan, pretty entertaining alternate universe take on the whole ordeal, where titans steal your lunch box.

‘Heads down, Thumbs up?’ Tier

Rakudai kishi no cavalry

– 7 – high school magical knight show w/ pink hair girl. Literally all the cliches, the only thing that would make it more generic is if it was a harem – there is still time.

Young black jack

– 7 – presumedly origin story of ‘Black Jack’, a master surgeon.

Concrete revolutio

– 7 – Witch girl getting up to weird world saving stuff. not really sure what to think of it so far, there are robots, superheroes and all sorts of other oddities. The art style is nice and colourful though.

Osomatsu san

– 7 – Modern revival of a showa era show, first episode was really good, but the animation style looks to be changing next episode so not sure how it will go.

Comet lucifer

– 6 – Reminds me of a shitty laputa, Involves gemstone, sudden girlfriend appearance, and some mechs. The animation and world is pretty interesting looking though.

‘…and stay down.’ Tier

Peeping Life

K

Taimadou Gakuen 35

Lance n masques

Sakurako-san

Sakurako-san no ashimoto ni wa shitai ga umatteiru – 6 – Forensics detective and her very unlikable high school teenage sidekick, bit on the boring side but might have potential.

peeping life – 6 – Literally feels like watching anime standup comedy with 2 characters from a show appearing and doing a gag routine, all of the set ups are based on characters from very old anime series (70’s-80s) so presumedly you’ll get more out of this if you are older or have knowledge on these sort of shows (eg. Astro boy, yatterman, black jack)

Gakusen toshi asterisk – 6 – oh hey it’s the same show as ‘Rakudai kishi no cavalry’, but slightly more generic and less entertaining And I mean that pretty literally, the overall flow and layout of the episode was practically identical, except this one was more boring.

Lance n masques – 6 – Pretty similar in principle to Hayate the combat butler, generic princess character who lives alone being guarded by generic beta main character who carries around a big ol’ lance.

Taimadou Gakuen 35 shiken shoutai – 6 – Military platoon drama, but in true anime style they send magical high school students to fight instead of actual soldiers.

Heavy Object – 5 – mecha style show but replacing cool mechas with generic grey metal orbs of death. Includes pervy teenage main character and a shy girl with few emotions as a pilot, seems very mediocre so far.

Subete ga F ni naru – 4 – Gonna be honest, wasn’t really following what was happening because it was kind of boring. Some sort of detective story I think. It’s very wordy and not very flashy so far.

K return of kings – 3 – 2flashy4me, it feels like someone told the animators that people only judge the first episode of a show, and these guys put their entire budget into a nonsensical episode just full of flashy fight scenes, spinning cameras, glowing neon lights, chrome plated cars and so on, in the hope that redditors would repost the show and persude people into watching it. Granted it is by far one of the best looking shows ive ever seen, but the plot and everything else about the show just looks terrible.

High school star musical – 2 – like ‘Free!’ except with singing and dancing, it’s gaytastic in every sense. I found it pretty cringey and generally unenjoyable, but then I’m a straight male so..

diabolik lovers – 2 – Reverse harem featuring vampires, probably the worst show this season unless you rather enjoy your twilight fanfics.

Notable Sequels

Yuru Yuri San hai

Haikyuu s2

Lupin 3rd

Grim times. Summer 2015 brings us a ton of godawful shows, so bad that I almost didn’t even bother writing up this seasons WYSBW.

When a harem show featuring a snake woman, bird girl, and fucking centaur is one of the better shows of the season, you know you are in for some rough shit.

Sort of Watchable Tier

Monster Musume

Ridiculous harem show where all the monsters want MC’s dick. It wont be winning any awards, but it’s kind of entertaining, and you’ll probably feel bad for enjoying it.

Gangsta

Bit like Black Lagoon? Edgy mercenaries fighting other dudes. Not too bad, arguably the best show this season that’s trying to be serious.

Jitsu Wa Watashi Wa

Sort of harem set in a school filled with weirdos, including a vampire who speaks with a kansai accent. Enjoyable, but MC is annoying.

Prison School

There is a lot of censoring (probably best to wait for the BD rips) and the hypersexualization is kind of annoying, but it’s kinda funny, and not like anything i’ve ever seen before.

Ushio To Tora

About a giant demon lion that hangs around with a high school boy (obviously). Seems decent, but a little bit too childish – seems like a solid pick if you like shounen stuff though.

Himouto! Umaru Chan

Worst of this tier, not sure if i’m going to continue watching it. It’s about a nerd girl who maintains a good appearance at school and then slumps into this annoying AF chibi thing when she’s at home. Funny at times, but mostly just annoying.

Not very good Tier

Rokka: Braves of the six flowers

I totally forgot I had even seen the second episode of this show, which probably summarizes how memorable it is. They’re heroes trying to save the world or something? Meh. Its ok.

Gate:

Boring and generic ‘man from this world goes to fantasy world and probably finds catgirls’ show. Wasn’t interesting enough to keep me watching.

Overlord

See above. Except now we’re in a video game.

Charlotte

Super powered high school students agaaaaaiinnn, fucking yeeeaaah i love this shit, wow their powers are so cool except they really arent and I dont give a shit.

Akagami no Shirayukihime

Boring show about one of those chinese herbal medicine ladies going with a prince or something, reminds me a bit of ‘The world is still beautiful’ which probably isn’t a compliment.

Ranpo Kitan (Laplace)

Murder investigation high schoolers, first episode seemed alright, you might like it if you’re into murder mystery/detective shows. All of the characters so far are pretty unlikable though.

FML Tier

Shimoneta

This is the new Seitokai yukuindono – except less funny. Pretty much just dick jokes galore, though the rampant censoring makes it kind of shitty. I didn’t really find the first episode funny at all, and it sure didn’t have a whole lot of anything else to offer.

Aoharu x Machinegun

Some shitty show about playing with BB guns. Characters werent even loli. Dropped.

Bikini Warriors

Sigh.

School Live!

Bunch of school children in a zombie apocalypse, but one of them has super autism and probably gets them all murdered in the end.

God Eater

Hypergeneric dudes with big weapons fighting monsters show. Might have extra value if you like the games I guess, but i’d stay away otherwise.

Didn’t even bother watching Tier

Symphogear GX , Chaos Dragon, Castle Town Dandelion, Ranpo Kitan, Classroom Crisis, everything else not mentioned…

Sequel Tier

Non Non Biyori Repeat

Working!!!

Durarararararararararara

It’s that time again, my quarterly grind of identifying which high school super power shows are bad, and which are good – but let’s be real they all probably bad.

New for this season, clicking on a show title will now take you to a torrent directory, just because it’s easier for everyone that way.

Safe for Consumption Tier

Ore monogatari

(9, 10) Despite clearly being a shojo RomCom i’m loving this show, characters are adorable – huge dude and small cute girl. I think i’ll keep watching this one for sure. Seems to be progressing pretty rapidly despite being 24 episodes, presumedly we’re in for some advanced drama.

Etotama

(8,9) Show about a cat-girl trying to join the chinese zodiac by fighting the other 12 zodiac spirits. True to japanese fashion however, all of the zodiac spirits are actually adorable girls who vaguely represent their animal. For some reason, fight scenes are done entirely in CGI, with a kind of chibi style – surprisingly, it works really well, and the animation is pretty good. Etotama is a pretty brainless show, but it’s entertaining for sure.

Punch Line

(10,7) Batshit insane first ep, and a more subdued character developy second ep. I think we’re in for a good time regardless, I like the setup, and the guy that wrote 999/VLR wrote the script so hopefully it goes crazy later on, plot wise. For the meantime though, plenty of humour.

Plastic Memories

(9,7) About androids who collect other androids whose lifespan has expired. Pretty good first episode, but lackluster second means this one could swing either way. Rather large plot point introduced in second episode means show is probably going to end in tears. Also not entirely sure why androids need to use the toilet, i think there was a scene where she cried as well. it IS a android right?

Hibike! Euphonium

(9,7) As expected from kyoani, it’s basically K-On with an orchestra. Cute moe girls fawning over instruments and going to class, if that sounds like your jam, go for it.

Shokugeki no soma

(8,8) Pretty fun cooking show, feels like an anime version of Masterchef, except the main characters food is so good it literally gives people orgasms. It’s high levels of service and ‘moans’ mean it’s probably not for anime newbies, but it seems like a fun show to follow.

Yamada and the 7 witches

(8, ) Body swapping comedy, I kind of love the body swap idea, and it’s a pretty natural fit for a drama/comedy. Who knows, maybe it’ll lead to romance too. Seems to have some mixed themes – was a comedy for most of the first episode and then went onto a kind of serious topic for a bit. Enjoying so far though.

DanMachi

AKA. Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon / Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru no Darou ka?
(7,8) While slightly generic in it’s fantasy RPG style setting, DanMachi has proved entertaining so far thanks to it’s cast. Hestia in particular seems to have exploded in online popularity for some reason, I guess she is pretty adorable.

Should be safe to consume Tier

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan

(7,7) Not sure exactly what the deal is with Disappearance of Nagato, it feels like it’s set in an alternate universe from the Haruhi series where Nagato is adorable and in love with Kyon. Haruhi is also in it, and as weird and hyperactive as you probably remember her. It’s not as good as I would have hoped, but Nagato is plenty adorable to watch, though I might actually prefer old Nagatoi better.

Wish upon the pleiades

(7,6) Gainax magical girl show, so expect some dark shit to happen later on down the line probably – that’s what magical girl shows do nowadays right? Nothing particularly unique about the show so far, the girls are of course in school, and then transform and ride on broomsticks to capture stars (although they are supposedly bits of spaceship or something, idk). It’s decent so far, but nothing special.

Arslan Senki

(6,7) Old timey war stuff with focus on prince Arslan who is destined to be king. Genre wise seems half and half split between drama and action. Probably worth watching, but not particularly jaw dropping 2 episodes in so don’t come complaining if it turns out a bad’un – that said, i’m hoping that it’ll eventually turn into anime game of thrones.

Show by rock! 

(6,6) I’m really not sure how to feel about this show. Its about a girl band in a world powered by music and with giant demon things – It’s part moe girls doing silly things, and then randomly goes full CGI for action/music sequences. Also the story is bizarre as hell. The world at the very least, is really cool.

‘Bin it’ Tier

Kekkai Sensen

(5, ) oh jeez. Yet another superpowered teens fighting against monsters show. Now with even more attack calling. Bonus points for semi unique weapons, minus points for post apocalyptic world. Can’t say I’d recommend this, but maybe im just getting old. At least the animation is decent.

Re-Kan! 

(6,4) Seems lackluster after only 2 episodes, featuring a bunch of jokes which just aren’t really that funny. The art is kind of shitty, and i still know more or less nothing about any of the characters, and don’t really care to. The ED is good at least?

Kyoukai no Rinne

(5,2) Interesting fantasy premise, with characters being able to cross into the world of the afterlife and such. It feels like a cross between an old film called ‘Chinese ghost story’ and Doraemon. Can’t say i’d recommend this show at all though, as it’s boring as fuck and isn’t entertaining at all. It’s sort of an achievement in itself that they’ve made such an interesting world seem so very mundane.

Denpa Kyoushi / Ultimate Otaku Teacher

(4,3) Feels like it’s trying to imitate GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), except instead of cool and manly Onizuka, the teacher is a super otaku. Not really liking it much so far, and the humour really falls flat (I assume it’s trying to be funny but honestly I dont even know anymore) leaving a rather dull show without much plot or comedy. The Show also has rather impressively seems to have blown its animation budget in 0 episodes because it looks like shit. Do yourself a favour and (Re)Watch GTO instead.

Gunslinger Stratos

(3,3) Probably exactly what you’d expect from an anime adaptation of a team deathmatch third person shooter video game – a bunch of flashy fight scenes accompanied by lengthy discussion and a dumb plot of why they are fighting. That said, 2 episodes in and there hasn’t even been that much action. At least the characters look like they have some individuality I suppose.

Seraph of the end 

(4,3) Terribly generic monster slaying bullshit with zany high school antics thrown in. Main character is unlikable, side characters are forgettable… Oh and he fights with a sword, how original. There was even a ‘power of friendship’ moment thrown in for good measure. This show can go fuck itself.

Sequels Tier

Nisekoi:

Baby Steps

Kiniro Mosaic

Hello again, and here we are in January of the new year, hoping for cool and interesting new shows! Winter 14/15 is sort of interesting because, for a change everything is pretty easily sorted into stuff which looks interesting (or has the potential to be interesting) and those which are fucking abysmal. Practically everything which isn’t original falls into super generic ecchi superpower fighting against monsters shows, so at least I don’t have to wrack my brain too much being on the fence. I intend to follow everything that isnt in the crap tier, at least until it starts to get boring, but for now, there are a fair amount of interesting shows.

Shows are listed best first.

Watch These Tier:

The Rolling Girls

(9) That show with rainbow explosions –  Pretty insane and over the top superhero stuff, the story is pretty nonsensical for now but my god is it colourful and fun to watch. Quirky characters, crazy animation style, and a happy soundtrack make this a near essential watch for this season, if only for it’s complete disregard for colour palettes.

Maria the virgin witch

(8) The show that isn’t sure how lewd it wants to be –  Maria the witch trying to save bitches, but archangels don’t really like that shit. Maria also has some familiars to add some extra characters. The animation and art is good, and the characters are very likable, though 2 episodes in and i’m not entirely sure which direction the story is going to head.

Koufuku Graffiti

(8) The shaft slice of life about eating food – Did you like Hidamari Sketch? Because this is Hidamari Sketch but instead of going to art school, they cook and eat food in perverse detail.

Death Parade

(8) The one where you gamble with your life – Death parade has a pretty interesting premise; the deceased go to gamble with their lives on the line in a bar, and those who operate the game get to decide if the gambler goes to heaven or hell. It’s kind of dark, but it looks like it has it’s fair share of twists and turns.

Spare Time Tier:

Saenai heroine no sodatekata

(7) The Slice of life comedy about making a dating sim – Bit of a mixed opinion on this one, the first episode was pretty funny, but the second episode seemed to try harder to push the plot, and as a result it was a little more boring. The characters seem alright though (and by that i mean, it has a twintail girl with fangs), and the art is clean, i’m hoping it’ll push towards the comedy side rather than just be another SOL drama thing, because honestly we have enough of those.

Assassination Classroom

(7) Murder the alien – So, the teacher destroyed the moon, and now wants to destroy earth, but first he wants to teach a year of high school. The students are tasked with trying to assassinate him, but given that he moves at near speed of light and has tentacle arms, it’s not so easy. While the first two episodes have been entertaining, i’m not sure where they can go with this one, unless they can change it up or introduce some sub plots, a whole season of watching them try to fruitlessly kill this alien will get boring.

Kantai Collection

(7) Goddamn boat girls – So Kancolle is pretty massive in japan, the mobile game about humanized warships, so naturally they had to release an anime about these warship schoolgirls doing… warship schoolgirl things. So pretty much the usual shit, but instead of art class they go to a shooting range and fire their cannons (as you do.)

Yurikuma Arashi

(6) Bearly sensical? – Made by the same director as Penguindrum, so you know you are in for some weird shit. From what i’ve gathered, it’s about two bears that can shapeshift into human form, and their attempts to eat schoolgirls… Which actually sounds alright, but then every now and then they go to some sort of bear court, and then every now and then people fall down staircases which are probably metaphorical but I dont even know. It’s fucking weird.

Yatterman Night

(6) The one that’s not actually about Yatterman – I don’t actually know a massive amount about Yatterman, I played Tatsunoko vs Capcom, and saw the live action Yatterman film, but that’s about as far as my knowledge goes. Yatterman Night, from the two episodes i’ve seen at least, appears to be an origin story of Doronjo and her cronies – how much of it is canon however, I have no idea, this could actually be some sort of alternate reality thing for all I know. Regardless though, it’s essentially the tale of a good girl, trying to be a bad guy, and is kind of a refreshing take on one of these sort of shows. If you imagine a show based around Jessie and James of Team Rocket, you’re probably most of the way there.

Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls

(6) This season’s girl idol group show – For fans of Genre or series. It’s pretty standard im@s affair, and if you don’t know what that even means, this show probably isn’t for you.

Please No Tier:

Shinmai Maou no Testament

(3) Generic ‘I have super powers and now suddenly two demon girls are now living with me’ show.

Soukyuu no Fafner Dead Aggressor – Exodus

(3) The only thing I want an exodus of is the people that keep greenlighting this shit. Another Humans VS Aliens shows, with some mecha thrown in later probably. It gets a higher rating because it’s very pretty while it bores you to death with its mediocrity.

Absolute Duo

(2) Superpower high school and MC pairs with shy girl who is attached to him for no explicit reason. Sigh.

Juuou Mujin no Fafnir

(1) Fafnir? More like, Fackoff. This is another generic ‘I go to superpower school and we must protect the world from aliens, also I have to live with a grrrll?’ show.

Seiken tsukai no World Break

(1) Superpower high school again, holy shit. This one is the worst of the lot, generic as they come. Right down to the “oh, my power is actually super strong but I had no idea?!”. Also manages to already look like it’s out of animation budget, even though it was only the first goddamn episode.

Sequel Tier:

All probably worth watching if you saw the previous season(s) I think theres also Milky Holmes, Kuroko no Basket and Dog Days sequels as well if you’re into those.

Durarara x2

Jojo’s Stardust Crusaders

Tokyo Ghoul A

What you should be watching this Autumn – Now with bonus clarity! Mostly because of how many shows there were this season, and the fact I was forgetting which show was which, new starting this season are 1 line summaries and aggregate scores – each of the two episodes are scored out of 10, for a score out of 20. This’ll hopefully let me filter out the trash into clearer tiers.

Rad Tier:

Hi Scoool! Seha Girl

(20) The one with the gillius fucking thunderhead
It’s fantastic and yet awful at the same time. Seha Girls is about personified sega consoles, featuring Megadrive, Saturn and Dreamcast on their journey through various sega games to gain credits to graduate. The style is CGI rather than anime, which on the one hand makes it look clumsy and awkward, yet once they start descending into video game worlds it begins to make more sense why they chose this animation style. While watching, you will be somewhat aware of how bad the show itself is, but at the same time the wealth of Sega references will have you grinning from ear to ear throughout. Seha girls is aimed at video gamers more than fans of anime, which may very well be why I love it so damn much.

Shigatsu wa kimi no uso

(19) (Your lie in april) – The one with the pianist
Episode one started off with a bit of a Nisekoi comedy kind of flair, however episode 2 has moved swiftly into the drama/music genre. Though it’s hard to say for now, this show might be the one to watch – a strong backbone of drama behind what could possibly be another Nodame Cantabile style romantic comedy. Plot wise, because even though two episodes have passed, not a whole lot has actually happened, it’s one of those shows that seem to pass by in a flash without feeling long, our main character has a troubled past with professional music, but looks like he may be about to rejoin that world..

Parasyte

(18) The one with the hand that talks back
Another anime adaptation of a manga, the Parasyte manga I hear is doing pretty well recently, and so now we get this. Solid concept, alien parasites which invade people’s brains and control them, our hero however gets his hand possessed – or rather, the parasite straight up eats his hand and replaces it. The alien right hand proceeds to get him into all sorts of trouble, and yet at the same time, saves his life from other infested humans who try to murder him. It’s an interesting sci-fi show, with some good action and well animated monsters.

Amagi Brilliant Park

(18) The one which feels like an anime adaptation of theme park
This season’s kyoani production, Amagi brilliant park feels like an odd spin on tycoon games theme park or rollercoaster tycoon, requiring the new elected manager to bring in 250,000 guests to the park before the deadline, or the park closes. To accomplish this task he is given the power to read minds, and is reluctantly supported by a huge cast of mascot characters who aren’t actually people in suits, but genuinely living mascot characters – with some odd personalities.

Gurure! Kokkuri-san

(17) The one with the adorable little girl
Probably the best comedy of the season, kokkuri-san is about a little girl who thinks she is a doll, and the spirit who decides to haunt her. Little kohina is a adorable, and the show is genuinely pretty entertaining even without any real plot or even attempt of plot so far.

Rage of Bahamut : Genesis

(16) The one with bahamut and the afro guy
Following a bounty hunter who gets turned into a demon of some description. It’s pretty interesting so far, and varied, with equal amounts of story, character development and slaughtering giant monstrs, arguably most interesting is the fantasy world they’ve set, which manages to have a medieval feel to it yet maintain a vivid palette.

Nanatsu no Taizai (7 deadly sins)

(16) The one about searching for 7 murderers (action, not murder mystery)
Your somewhat typical shounen action show, our hero and female sidekick are trying to find 7 legendary murderers and solve a few problems along the way. 2 Episodes in and it seems pretty solid, though the hero seems a little bit too overpowered for now.

S’alright Tier:

Vanadis

Magic Kaito 1412

Nichijou Battle

Grisaia

Trinity Seven

Terraformars

Vanadis (Lord Marksman and Vanadis)
(15) The one with the harem archer
A fantasy action show with action and service, doesn’t appear to be doing anything extraordinary, but is solid so far. Has some strong, likable characters and is showing some development already.

Kaitou Joker
(14) The one clearly intended for a young audience
It’s a show for children vaguely in the same plot style as Lupin 3rd, following a talented thief as he outsmarts detectives. It’s a good show, though don’t expect a deep plot or complicated characters.

Magic Kaito 1412
(14) The Magic Kaito series
The show plays out almost exactly as you would expect of a spinoff from detective conan, the styling and animation is almost identical, yet the focus is on Magic Kaito instead of our usual Conan. There is light plot, but one can only wonder if it’ll be a repeat of conan’s plot which never goes anywhere. Good show, though I hope Kaito’s girlfriend gets more love than Ran.

Inou battle wa nichijou-ke no naka de
(13) The one with the special powers club
School club group of friends, throw in some superpowers (which don’t actually seem to mean much after episode one), add in some comedy and drama and we have… this. It’s solid, it’s well drawn,

Ushiniwareta mirai o motomete
(13) (In search of lost future) The slice of life that turns into sci-fi drama?
A fairly boring slice of life, however one that seems to have some sci-fi twists up it’s sleeve, the first episode eludes to some sort of time travel/jump stuff, while there is also a mysterious character who appears randomly and seems to have some special interactions with the world. It’s hard to explain much more because not much as been revealed. Unfortunately, these more interesting sci-fi elements seem buried underneath a more orthodox and boring slice of life student club sort of scenario.

Grisaia
(12) The ‘source material was obviously a VN’
Stylized in a cinematic wide aspect ratio, I was hoping for more from this show, however it has started slow so far. It’s based on a visual novel which i’m told does have a decent story, and so far it is apparently sticking to the source material well. It’s not particularly good so far, but according to my sources, it’ll get better… Perhaps wait this one out if you’re unsure.

Daitoshokan to hitsujikai
(12) The slice of life with the shephard via mobile phone texts
Started reasonably well, but episode 2 brought it firmly back into standard ‘group of friends in a club’ land. As far as plot goes, the students are recieveing mysterious messages from someone called the shephard, it’s fairly light hearted rather than mysterious though. Plot is also very slow moving, this one could easily swing either way so far, but as of 2 eps, is a fairly average school club show.

Terra Formars
(12) The one with the giant cockroaches
About a team of genetically engineered humans who go to fight a bunch of humanoid cockroaches on mars, yes, really. It’s actually not a horrible show, however the TV censoring really kills the mood of the show, a disappointment because evidently the animators have really gone out of their way to make it really gory, only to have the censors black out 70% of  the screen for some segments.

Trinity Seven
(12) The one with magic school
Semi typical ecchi magic school scenario with a harem thrown in, there are supposedly 7 powerful magicians in the vicinity but all we get instead are adorable blushing schoolgirls with magic powers. Not awful, but a somewhat cliche premise makes it hard to recommend unless you are into harem shows.

Eeehhh Tier:

Garo
(11) The one with the demons and karas wannabe
Medieval age superpower suits versus monsters of the night kind of affair, there is some fancy CGI and the fight scenes are well done, making it maybe worth watching if you fancy yet another action show. Monster design thus far seems very interesting (think Bayonetta), unfortunately the ‘knights’ clad in shiny CGI armor are significantly more orthodox.

Yuki Yuna wa Yusha de Aru
(5,?) The one that’s like Madoka Magica but without the dark undertones (yet?)
So didn’t really know what to expect going into this one, started off as an everyday school kind of show and then suddenly our club of 4 girls gets whisked off into another world and essentially turned into magical girls, where – surprise surprise, their everyday lives come to an end. How cliche. Functionally it’s very similar to how Madoka Magica started off, even down to the musical styling (orchestral). For now, i’m somewhat skeptical as to whether this will turn into anything more than just a magical girls fight monsters kind of show.

Cross Ange
(10) The one where she gets her panties ripped off
First episode was pretty odd and bad, episode 2 puts our princess in a pilot school and introduces what is basically a female version of hitler who proceeds to try and rape the main character. The show seems to be about saving the world from dragons, so if half naked girls flying about shooting at dragons sounds like your thing…

Sora no Method
(9) The boring show with the blue haired chick
What even is this show about? I’ve watched 2 episodes and both have bored me to the point where i’m barely paying attention to the show anymore. Something about removing a giant saucer from the sky, and a blue haired girl who (I suspect) may not even exist. It’s nicely drawn girls doing nothing in particular, it’s style over substance, it’s glasslip V2.

World Trigger
(9) The one with the least likable main character
Another show about saving the world, with one of the main characters being an alien in disguise or something. While the premise isn’t horrible, it’s so bland and uninspired, and the characters are especially generic and unlikable.

Akatsuki no Yona
(9)The one with the redhead and guy that isn’t Zhao Yun
A king is assassinated, and a princess has to flee the castle to begin anew. It was a show that, whilst boring, was looking appealing mostly due to the drama – however towards the end of the second episode it seems to have turned into yet another generic action show in a vaguely dynasty warriors fashion (only less cool).

Girl Friend Beta
(4,?) The one where girls do nothing in particular for 20 minutes.

Trash Tier:

Denki Gai no Honya San
(7) The one with the bookshop clerks
I think it’s supposed to be a comedy, however it doesn’t manage character humour or even slapstick humour particularly well, the result being a show which is just kind of stupid. Perhaps i’m just too old for the jokes to be funny.

Ookami Shoujo to kuro ouji
(7) (wolf girl and black prince)The shoujo with the S male pretending to be her girlfriend
A fake boyfriend scenario, yet while Nisekoi turned it into a comedy, Ookami shoujo seems to have taken it on a darker, more abusive route? With the heroine basically being a toy for men and literally treated as a dog. It’s awkward to watch, and I find it odd that a show for girls would tell this sort of story of basically a girl who gets bullied and then falls in love with someone who is clearly a complete fucking asshole.

Donten ni Warau (Laughing under the clouds)
(6) The one with the blunt swords
Very generic ninja-esque anime, pretty one dimensional characters and not much plot either. Second episode gets a bit more actiony but the animation is sub-par and reminds me of a bad version of bleach or naruto or some shit.

Shirobako
(6) The one about anime production where nothing really happens
Boring as shit show about making anime, PA works seem to have a real knack for making good looking shows with zero content lately.

Gonna be the twin-tail
(2) The one with the twin tails that was fucking awful

Sequel Tier:

Log Horizon 2

Psycho Pass 2

Yowamushi Pedal : Grande road

Whilst a common theme anyway, Summer 2014 brings with it a large collection of school life comedy shows along with a small selection of interesting looking action shows.

As usual, opinions are based on 2 or 3 episodes of the show, as such it is only an educated guess into how the show will actually progress and whether or not you should give it a look.

For those that dislike or don’t have time to follow many shows, i’ve added a top 3 this season tier for what I anticipate to be the best shows this 3 month slot.

Top 3 this Season

Note: Space Dandy 2 is in the Sequels tier because it’s technically on its second season – even if the episodes are all pretty standalone. It is easily the best thing airing this season.

Barakamon

Story of a guy going out to the countryside to practice calligraphy, there he meets an adorable playful little girl. It’s a heartwarming comedy, somewhat similar to the fantastic Usagi Drop from a few years ago.

Terror in Resonance

A terrorist group who announces their plans before carrying through with them, and a detective who is on their trail… Sound familiar? While the characters are vastly different, and the atmosphere completely different, i’m getting slight death note vibes from this one. In addition, it’s directed by Watanabe Shinichiro – of Cowboy Bebop / Samurai Champloo

Tokyo Ghoul

Dark action show, a world filled with ‘ghouls’ – beings which feed on humans and have powers. Seems to be dealing with main characters feelings well, emphasizing on his unable to adjust to suddenly having to live off human flesh, a nice change from shows where the MC just kind of accepts it. It’s an action show as well of course, with the ghouls having powers and having their own territories.

Watcha these?

Akane Ga Kill

Teen enters a group of assassins and starts murdering dudes, a slightly basic premise, but it’s done well enough to be interesting.

Monthly Girls – Nozaki kun

Comedy about a hit shoujo manga artist actually being a guy, the story follows a girl who starts work as his assistant. I’m enjoying it so far, lots of funny scenes and the main character is very lovable (and has some fantastic facial expressions)

Majimoji Rurumo

The worst in this tier, being on the border of good and mediocre. Follows Witch rurumo and perverted main character, reminds me a ton of Henneko. These show itself isn’t amazingly good, but witch Rurumo is so adorable that she is basically carrying the show on her own right now.

Probably not watcha these

Glasslip

Girl can see glimpses into the future, interesting premise but slightly boring execution – fairly standard stuff for PA works I guess (nice to watch, but stuff doesn’t really happen)

Hanayamata

Might be the best of the bad ‘cute school girls do cute things’ genre this season. A bunch of girls trying to make a dance group. Probably the catchiest OP of the season however.

Tokyo ESP

Seems like a fairly generic superpower action show, some of the characters have some interesting powers but the show itself seems to have pretty bad storytelling.

Sequels

Persona 4 the Golden animation

This show isn’t a remake of the original Persona 4 Animation as I initially expected, but rather a collection of side ventures which aren’t really connected to the main plot – Great for P4 fans, but not really worth watching if you haven’t played the game or seen the original P4 animation series.

Space Dandy 2

Still the dandiest guy in space, still 10/10 show – even if the episodes seem to be getting more and more bizarre. Episodes are made by a selection of different directors which make for an incredibly unpredictable ride. Episodes are still hit and miss, but the hits are SO good – episode 3 this season was the funniest thing i’ve seen in ages, and episode 4 is a goddamn high school musical episode.

Sword Art Online II

Honestly really disappointing so far, very slow starting – if it weren’t a continuation of SAO it probably would have been dropped by now because all we’ve seen are some dumb scenarios. (derp, lets come down from my vantage point to fight this guy with a minigun with my sniper rifle…)

Free! Eternal Summer

Gay Swimming sequel, still charming and vaguely K-ON like, though I wish it wasn’t about buff dudes in swimwear.

Do not watcha these.

Blue Spring Ride

Shoujo Romance show, doesn’t seem awwwful but I didn’t find it at all enjoyable, characters seem kind of boring for this sort of show.

Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?

Similar to Kanoflag from last season, ridiculous setup into a not even sly harem situation. All the characters are basically caricatures.

Locodol

Bit of an idol show with the singing and the dancing… Never really been to into these.

Rail Wars

Story of teens that work at a train station or some shit, i dunno. Pretty uninteresting, even the fanservice they are giving isn’t enough to keep me watching this one.

Jinsei Soudan

Aka. Kids who sit around in school in some sort of club and just talk to each other. It’s hard to tell if the shows are just repeating or what, because this show feels a lot like Love Lab from 2 seasons ago, and honestly that one wasn’t good either.

Please no watcha these.

Sabagebu

Momo kyun Sword

And into the 2014 Spring season we go, spring brings with it lots of sports shows and surprisingly few sequels. Probably an above average season, I’ll be following a fair few shows if they continue at the pace they are currently at.

Note: All opinions in this article formed after watching 2 or less episodes of a given show, aka. Don’t blame me if a show goes downhill rapidly, I ain’t no clairvoyant.

This is not a full list, there are a ton of other shows I didn’t bother checking out or didn’t want to check out (mostly anything with mechs, a few shoujos, another season of mushishi, something to do with love live, and a handful of shows which look to be aimed at children). Theres a full list of this season’s shows here

God Tier:

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – Stardust Crusaders

Hail to the king baby. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is back, this time covering the most popular arc of the manga – part 3, Stardust Crusaders. Part 3 introduces the addition of ‘stands’, a physical representation of one’s life force, and shit basically gets real. Having already seen the original JJBA Part3 anime released about 20 years ago, viewers will definitely be in for a treat, this is a fast moving story, with important characters occasionally introduced and then promptly killed off in the same episode. If you have no exposure to the Jojo’s series, this is a great time to start.

Ping Pong the Animation

Ping pong boasts probably the ugliest visuals ever seen in a modern anime, and yet it’s exquisite style and content is more than enough to make you quickly forget and adapt yourself to its standards. The story follows Smile, an introvert naturally gifted at table tennis, I can’t really say much more than that because that’s about as far as the story has gotten in 2 episodes, but as i mentioned earlier, the style and direction of this one is really impressive.

Lookin good Tier:

The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior
(Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou)

Kind of the ‘Sakurasou’ of this season, a dorm comedy/slice of life with emphasis on the characters rather than what they actually get up to (which, as somewhat usual for a slice of life, is nothing at all). Kawaisou has some fun characters, and is off to a fairly good start.

Haikyuu!!

Yet another sports show for this season, this time volleyball. A short spiker meets a tall setter, naturally they don’t get along, but once they do, some shit is going to go down. Got some pretty cool animation at points too.

Isshuukan Friends.
(One week friends)

Ever see that film ’50 first dates’ with Adam Sandler? the one where the girl loses her memory every day? That – but once a week.
It’s kind of a bittersweet story, yet one which is heartwarming to watch unfold.

No Game No Life

A pair of no-life gamers get transported to an alternate world which is ruled by betting and games. Don’t like someone? why not play rock paper scissors and whoever loses has to kill themselves? This is that sort of world. It’s kind of Kaiji meets ecchi/moe, in a world where you can rule the world with the right bets and by playing the right games.
Oh, it also has this ridiculously bright and colourful colour palette, which is kind of nice.

Soul Eater Not!

Kind of like if K-on was set in Soul Eater’s Death City, with only 2 episodes so far, it’s hard to tell how much soul eater is actually going to be present in this slice of life spinoff series. The first episode had some battle and transformations, yet the second episode had the characters in maid outfits working a part time job. So… yeah. Might not be worth watching if you wanted more soul eater, but if you are okay with an adorable slice of life where the girls can turn into weapons, this might be your thing.
^POST SEASON EDIT: THIS SHOW SUCKS D. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME.

Baby Steps

Nerd attempts to learn how to play Tennis, might be a bit of romance later on down the line, but for now it’s a fairly typical zero to hero sports story, and I’m okay with that.

Sitting on the fence Tier:

Mekakucity Actors

Yet another highly stylized SHAFT production, as usual the art and direction is interesting, the story however seems odd. That said, still fairly interesting, and the AI partner the main character travels with is voiced by Asumi Kana, so there’s that at least. Will probably keep following to see if it gets any better.

The irregular at magic high school
(Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei)

Probably the best of this tier. In a magical school where students are classed as first and second class based on their magical ability, a guy in second class breaks status quo. it does seem to be a bit of a typical battle / school kind of show though.

Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin

A kind of fun easygoing story about modern day treasure hunting on an island, looking for Nanana’s artifacts, Nanana of course is an adorable ghost who lives with the main character and spends all her time playing PSO2 and eating pudding (im not joking.). I’ll probably follow it for a few episodes but am reluctant to give a recommendation just yet.

Akuma no Riddle

Bit of a Danganronpa vibe from this one, a classroom filled with 1 ‘ordinary’ girl and 12 assassins who have to kill her. They are of course, all female. It’s not awful so far, but it’s not particularly great either.

Brynhildr in the Darkness

Guy stumbles upon a clairvoyant cripple and a magician, they try to stop people from dying before it happens, final destination style. Oh, but if any of them get caught by ‘da bad guys™’ they all get murdered. Not looking great, but the intro video and unexplained background of the characters will likely have me watching another few episodes to see how things go.

Black Bullet

Not sure how I feel about this one, the first episode seemed like another monster invasion save the world kind of story, yet the second episode delved into more of the universe and had some interesting character development alongside some plot. It has, at the very least, earned itself another episode or two to prove itself.

Unimpressed Tier:

Selector Infected Wixoss

Card games, where the cards are adorable little girls, and the players are adorable little girls. They fight to become the magical girl or something, i dont fuckin’ know.

The World Is Still Beautiful

King of the sun kingdom wants to bring forth the rain, so he summons a woman from the rain kingdom, problem is, she can’t call the rain without being shown how beautiful the world is – which, if 2 episodes is anything to go by, means looking at some flowers.

Chaika the Coffin Princess

Fairly uninteresting battle show featuring a girl with a speech impediment who carries a coffin on her back. There are some neat magic scenes, but for the most part I found the two episodes really boring – even during the fight scenes.

Kanojo ga Flag o Oraretara

Kind of an obnoxiously cliche harem show, complete with just about every character trope known (trap, big sister type, tsundere, etc). It may be something I put on in the background, but its not really convincing me any further than that.

Waste of bandwidthTier:

Sidonia no Kishi

I personally hated this one, a bland story about godknows what, and then all of the characters are animated by CGI, and it honestly looks awful. It felt like watching a 22 minute cutscene from some Japanese space opera RPG with character models devoid of emotions, we’re not talking a good RPG either (I might be fine with episodic cutscenes from Squeenix or Level-5). There are some mecha style space fighting scenes, and those were actually pretty good and complimented the CGI, maybe if you are into mecha shows you’ll find some joy here. (but man. those faces.)

Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka?

Moeblob little girls working in a cafe.

The Comic Artist and His Assistants

Perverted Manga artist and his assistants, not a whole lot of story or personality here, just some light ecchi fantasizing.

As we start the new year, we get a whole slew of new shows, and to nobodies surprise, tons of mediocre stuff with schoolgirls, 1 show about little sister incest, some robot shows, some shows which are godawful, and a few sequels thrown in for good measure.

There do seem to be a LOT of superpower / Magic shows this season. with maybe half the shows having some form of magic/powers/skills.

Oh well. Lez go!

Please note: All opinions formulated after watching 2 (or less) episodes of the series. Views expressed here will not represent the series as a whole, and there’s a fair chance i’ll call something good and then it’ll go and turn shitty in episode 3.
Also note: Things are ordered in their tiers from Best to Worst – So for example, the first thing listed in the worst tier is ‘best of the crap’.

Space Dandy Tier:

Space Dandy

Who am I to argue with the dandiest guy in space? Space Dandy is almost like a spiritual successor to the classic anime ‘Cowboy Bebop’, the main difference is Space Dandy doesn’t take itself seriously in the slightest. The story is episodic and (if episode 1 is anything to go by) completely self contained (watch episode 1. seriously.).
If anything on this list could end up as anime of the year 2014, space dandy is probably it.
As an added bonus, it’s available in both Japanese and English audio, with the latter being perfectly watchable.

Lookin’ Good Tier:

Wizard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil

In a world where magicians exist, we have the wizard barristers who try to represent defendants in magical court. It’s one part phoenix wright mixed with 2 parts ‘magical Index’ and it makes for an interesting mix of detective work and magical action scenes. I’ll be keeping my eye on this one. Very flashy animation on the magical attacks which is pretty cool.

Nisekoi
False Love

Pure comedy, the manga has been picking up fans recently apparently, and will probably moreso now that the anime adaptation has started. It follows the son of triad boss… as he fakes a relationship with the daughter of another triad boss, and they hate each other to bits. It more or less writes itself just from the basic plot, but the show seems backed by some very likable characters as well as a love triangle. The art in this one is very nice too I might add, reminds me of bakemonogatari style.

Mikakunin de Shinkoukei
Engaged to the unidentified

Mikakunin is hard to describe, it’s kind of a genre reversal of the sudden girlfriend appearance, in that the female MC of this show kind of wakes up one day married to some guy who then comes and lives with her (along with adorable loli step-sister). It’s not serious in the slightest, but it’s proven itself funny and entertaining in the 2 episodes thanks to good character design.
Oh also. Best OP this season.

Noragami

Noragami is about a girl whose soul gets intermittently detatched from her body, she seeks help from a god who turns out to be somewhat useless. Now despite the brief summary I just wrote, Noragami isn’t actually that funny, but more of a light action / drama. It’s kind of interesting, but at the same time if it only maintains this pace I may lose interest before the end of the series.

Hamatora The Animation

This one kind of reminds me of Persona4, a group of people with special powers going around doing detective and contract work… All of the members of the group have their own powers, as do most of the bad guys…The surprising thing though is that the superpowers manage to be the weakest part of the series, overshadowed by the plot. A serial killer is on the loose, and the hamatora team is on the case (as well as any other case that crosses their path), the cases themselves are self contained, and interesting, with their own little twists and turns. Recommended, arguably the best 2 episodes overall this season.

‘Watchable’ Tier:

Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta
The Pilot`s Love Song

School life romance.. but set in a pilots school in a floating city above the clouds, looks pretty serious as school romance anime goes, take that how you will. First 2 episodes seem decent, though the plot is looking a little predictable and fairytale like at the moment.

No-Rin

Feels like ‘Silver spoon’ the anime but with more of a focus on comedy and fanservice. 1 Episode in and already 2 nude scenes. Doesn’t look like theres masses of plot so to speak of, probably just going to be a slice of life with some love triangle thrown in, but i’m okay with this.

Witch Craft Works

Riding smoothly in the space between good and bad is ‘Witch Craft Works’, about a guy who is suddenly under attack from witches and the witch who appears to protect him. The plot in this one is pretty bad, yet this show manages to maintain being pretty watchable somehow. It’s sort of funny and entertaining to watch, but even after 2 episodes i’m not quite convinced I want to watch the rest of it yet. One thing I will say is that the witch protecting him seems to be somewhat overpowered right now, feels like having a Lvl99 chara babysit a lowbie through trash mobs (which will either make complete sense to you as a reader, or not make any sense at all.).

World Conquest Zvezda Plot

Yet another ‘Guy stumbles into unfamiliar world’ shows, this time with some guy that pledges allegiance to a loli that turns out to be the leader of a military group. It’s dumb, but there are worse shows this season. I’m still undecided if i’m going to be following this one.

Wake Up, Girls! // Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol

An idol anime, however this one turned out to be deeper than I anticipated. I expected a song and dance with some girls and fanservice, but what I got instead was a story about 7 girls trying to make it into the entertainment business. It’s deeper than it looks. Oh also, the latter link is for the short film, which is kind of the prequel to the series, I’d watch that first, as the anime series starts of kind of weak without that backstory.

Nobunagun

About a girl who suddenly finds out she has Oda Nobunaga’s genes or something, she gets recruited into an organization to fight aliens… Despite the somewhat random and cliche plot of saving the world from aliens, Nobunagun was okay for the first 2 eps, The weapon system of using ancestral genes is something new (their weapons are based on their genes, and their genes are based on famous historical figures), it was interesting to see Gandhi and Newton’s powers (the latter being a giant foot which can change gravity).

Sequel Tier:

Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren

Sequel to 2012’s ‘Chu2koi’ about delusional teenagers, this one is a little more cutesy as it follows on chronologically from the first series.

Seitokai Yakuindomo *

Sequel to perverted 2010 anime of the same name. Still doing dickjokes.

Eeehhhh…. Tier:

D-Fragments

Eeeeehhhhh…. School comedy, but isn’t very funny… Best of the worst award though, so…yeah. There are worse shows out there, but you should probably just go and watch ‘Daily Lives of highschool boys’, ‘yuru yuri’, ‘School rumble’, etc etc instead.

SoniAni: Super Sonico The Animation

It’s like slice of life K-on style but not very good… I might put it on in the background while im playing games or something I guess.

Buddy Complex

Guy travels through time, ends up in a robot. Could be good, but robots really arent my thing so I’m not sticking around to find out.

Nobunaga the Fool

Dropped this one straight up. Got about 3/4 of the way through the episode and I didn’t have a damn clue what was going on, nor did I care to put in any effort to work it out.

Mahou Sensou

Bad. Not to mention dumb in a bad way. A guy gets dragged into a world of magic, has a gun pulled on him (as well as magic) and doesn’t even bat an eyelid. He then goes ahead to take on a magic user with a final fantasy sword… with a wooden kendo sword… and wins.
In these sorts of stories the main character at least acts a little bit shocked but not this guy, balls of fucking steel. Maybe he just gets held up at gunpoint often.
Also there is some girl that sticks a syringe needle in her mouth to use her powers or someth– i don’t fuckin know this show is retarded.
Also did this girl really just acquire magic power to make her tits bigger?
The only reason you should watch this show is to see how bad it is. Jesus.

‘Are you fucking serious?’ Tier:

Sakura Trick

Turn 360 degrees and walk away.
Seriously though, this is basically ‘lesbians: the anime’, if you want to spend 20 minutes of your life each week watched animated girls kiss each other, who am I to judge.

Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga.
aka. Imocho

imocho takes top spot for ‘worst anime this season that you will watch in secret’. Little sister basically gets a chastity belt with a gauge which fills up when she gets sexually excited over her brother, if she doesnt fill it up, she’ll die. Yeeeeeaaahhhh……. This one goes exactly as you would expect. Also whoever directed this show has a piss fetish because she always seems to need the toilet (and has already pissed herself once.)

Thats all folks?
I didn’t bother listing the short shows here, there is ‘Tonari no Seki kun’ which is nichijou but not as entertaining (ending song is pretty awesome though), and ‘Strange+’ which seems entertaining, but certainly lives up to its name (iirc they shoot an ass at a helicopter and it explodes or something? idk. strange+.)
I guess this season doesn’t look too bad after all, and of course, there are still plenty of great shows coming through from last season – Kill la kill, Ippo rising, Yowapedal, space brothers, Dia no Ace, and probably some others im missing.

There is a TON of new shows airing this season, however as usual, around 80% of these are a waste of your time and bandwidth.
With this being the last season before the end of the year, it would seem 2013 has not been a very good year for anime at all aside from a few standout shows (but we’ll cross that bridge later in the year when I do my 2013 Best Of series)

As Usual, all of these shows have been judged only on the first 2 episodes (or if its been THAT traumatizing, the first episode only). If it aint on this list at all, I didn’t watch it.

‘I actually Look forward to these shows’ Tier

Kill La Kill

I already touched on this one a week or so back and after watching the second episode, I am only more pumped to see more. The art style is fantastic, and the episodes are fast, action packed, and insane. The humour in the show is also great, though I can’t help but wish the show on the whole didn’t have so much fanservice.

Yowamushi Pedal

A surprise for me, AniDB didn’t actually have a whole lot of information on this one so I went in blind and was rewarded by an interesting tale of a nerd with a natural gift for biking, who meets with a cycling enthusiast. It’s set to be another zero to hero anime so somewhat cliche, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen a good one, I am happy to go along for the ride.

Ace of the Diamond

Speaking of Zero to Hero, Ace of the Diamond looks keen to replace Major as my sports show, I’m not entirely sure how I keep getting sucked into these baseball anime, maybe I just can’t dislike a good underdog story. The story is again, a cliche one, with our hero being scouted for his natural gift for pitching, he goes off to a new elite baseball school where I assume he’ll aim to go for nationals. It won’t be for everyone, but I loved all 6 seasons of Major so this is right up my alley.

Log Horizon

Log Horizon is Sword Art Online but without the drama, where SAO made a big deal out of players being sucked into the universe and held hostage, Log Horizon’s players just fucking deal with it.
The main attraction for Log Horizon for me, is that it tries its best to stay true to what it would actually probably be like to be trapped in an MMORPG, there’s talk of classes, class specific skills, raid gear, even specification trees. It’s all somewhat fascinating to watch, and i’ll be keeping track of this one to see what else their universe holds.

‘I’ve already watched 3 hours of Running Man and need to waste more time’ Tier

Unbreakable Machine-Doll
Its ‘OK’, people fight using dolls and magical puppetry and he’s trying to get revenge or something.. idk.

Samurai Flamenco
Can be very quickly summarized by calling it ‘the anime version of Kick-Ass’, some guy wants to make a difference in the world and so dons a superhero costume to do vigilante work and promptly gets the shit kicked out of him. I’m interested in seeing where the story goes from here.

Kyokai No Kanata (Beyond the Boundary)
A story about demons in the real world and wardens or some shit. Im not sure. Made by kyoani so its kind of weird because you have this ‘serious’ fantasty story and then moeblob k-on characters.

Outbreak Company
Anime Nerd in the real world gets taken to a fantasy alternate universe to teach them all the wonders of manga and anime. Featuring tsundere ojou-sama princess and a maid. As the tier suggests, its watchable, but not particularly fantastic.

Galilei Donna
3 Sisters under attack from a mysterious organization, but why? Seems interesting but again, will have to wait and see..

‘Not bad, But certainly not good’ Tier

Golden Time
Love triangle story, its meh but at the same time more interesting than the other 2 shows in this tier. I might keep watching this one if i’m really bored.

Nagi no Asukara
Nice animation and art, but the story (a romance love triangle tale between mermaid and surface dwellers) is boring and actually irritating to watch.

White Album 2
A romance story which had a strong first episode ending, but very mediocre and somewhat boring 2nd episode, as a result im not sure where to put it…

Sequels Tier

If you’ve seen the previous seasons, then this is to let you know that they have a new season, you’ll already know what they are, so I wont bother talking about them much.

Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! – Rising
Off to a weak start for now, but I have faith that Ippo and crew will show us a good fight.

‘Who is greenlighting this shit’ Tier

Coppelion

Walkure Romanze

Yuushibu (Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shuushoku o Ketsui Shimashita.)

BlazBlue: Alter Memory

Prenote – All opinions are based purely on the first 1 or 2 episodes, views expressed here are likely not representative of a series as a whole. If an airing show isn’t on this list, I didn’t watch it (mostly sequels).

Anywho, Heres what Anime you should be watching this summer 2013 season.

‘Watch These’ Tier:

Danganronpa
Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei – The Animation

I did a quick post about this the other week, a murder mystery survival anime based on a chunsoft game, this to me is the most interesting show this season, it has an interesting art style and a story which is clearly going to go insane further down the line.

Free!

An anime produced by KyoAni (the studio most famous for producing K-On and Haruhi), it’s about really fit dudes that go swimming. It’s very possibly the gayest thing i’ve ever seen, and yet it manages to be surprisingly entertaining.
As a subnote, the ED is hilarious.

‘Watamote’
Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui!
(No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!)

Despite taking the award for worst series name I’ve ever heard (which is why its no surprise everyone refers to it as….), Watamote is probably the best comedy this season.

Adorable Kuroki realises she isn’t quite as popular as she anticipated and tries to take steps to become popular, which ends pretty much exactly as you can imagine.
I was never a complete outcast in school, but its easy to sympathize with the main character just because she is a perfect characterization of a shut-in gamer nerd struggling to find friends and talk to people. It also takes ‘catchiest ED of season’ award.

http://utw.me/tag/watamote/ <- downloads

‘Consider These’ Tier:

Servant X Service

Servant X Service is essentially a spiritual sequel to ‘Working!/Wagnaria‘ from 2010/11, the author of the source material and the animation studio are identical, and it really shows – in art style, jokes, and actual content. The story follows 3 new recruits to a civil service office and how they cope (or fail to cope is probably a better description). It’s pretty funny, certainly if you enjoyed Working! you should check this.
Has by far the best OP animation this season,

Uchouten Kazoku
(The Eccentric Family)

An odd one, not a whole lot has happened so far, but the anime is set in an interesting universe with shapeshifting tanooki and tengu living in the human world. Uchouten Kazoku is without a doubt the best looking series this season (art wise). Whilst watching, It felt like I was watching a ghibli series, not particularly interesting and almost boring, but filled with a strange sense of eccentricity

Love lab

If i’m honest, I originally had Love Lab in the Trash Tier based solely on its first episode (which was awful imo), the second episode however was pretty funny and introduced a bunch of new characters (one of which reminds me a ton of Sugiura from YuruYuri).
Love Lab is a comedy essentially based on the concept of the blind leading the blind, Natsuo asks Riko for help with her love life – Little does she know, Riko is equally clueless.

Sequel Tier:

TWGOK 3 (Goddess Arc)

3rd Season of ‘The world only god knows’, which follows dating and gaming god Keima and adorable demon assistant Elsie. Off to a strong start with a plot based around revisiting the girls featured in the first 2 seasons – which is nice because pretty much all of the characters in the show were likeable.

Genshiken Nidaime

3rd Season of Otaku club Genshiken, doesn’t seem as strong as previous series judging by the first 2 episodes. Also a little bit sad considering all of the original club members are now just sub-characters.

‘Watchable, but not particularly good’ Tier:

Gin no Saji
(Silver Spoon)

Guy from the city moves to the countryside and joins a farming school, with the story focused on how clueless he is. Its okay I guess, though it doesn’t do anything particularly well. I’m not actually sure what genre it’s supposed to be at this point. The 2nd episode isn’t out yet, so this may get moved around after i’ve seen that, but for now im not really sold yet it doesn’t seem awful either.
It feels a lot like Moyashimon, so if you liked that, this is probably up your alley.

Trash Tier:

Blood Lad

The first episode was okay, but honestly the plot is awful to the point of being straight up random, Second episode moved this series down to trash tier level. The animation style is nice, but if it’s supposed to be a comedy, its not very funny, and if its supposed to be an action, there isn’t a whole lot of that either. Staz the vampire seems like he would be pretty cool to watch in a battle series, but they try to bounce humour off the fact he’s an otaku and it doesn’t really work very well.

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu
(Stella girl’s school – C3 club)

Like K-ON but without the cute, oh and instead of playing music they play with BB-guns.
I tried watching the second episode but was so disinterested that I couldn’t finish the episode, if you are looking for a ‘cute girls do cute things’ series, there are better choices out there.

Cringe Tier:

Hyperdimension Neptunia – The Animation

Really disappointing, I love the idea behind Hyperdimension Neptunia (based on video games and stuff) but this anime is so geared for fanservice that it manages to dive into the bizarre zone between porn and not-porn, where it’s not quite erotic enough to be classified as hentai, but too uncomfortable to watch normally. Im not stranger to fanservice/ecchi shows, but neptunia managed to take it a little too far.