The Best and Worst of the Season So Far: Week of Jan 29-Feb 4

Our team of reviewers are following 27 anime series of the Winter 2016 season and readers are rating each episode as the reviews go up. So let's have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season.

Keep in mind that these rankings are based on how people rated individual episodes of the current season, not on the overall quality or popularity of the series. Only the titles popular enough to be reviewed are being ranked, so the bottom of the list might represent 'watchable' rather than 'bad'. See the notes for further details.

Due to scheduling issues, KONOSUBA and Myriad Colors Phantom World could not be included in this week's ranking. They will be retrofitted in the graphs in next week's ranking.

Episode Rankings for the week of January 29-February 4

Along the actual ranking for this week's episodes, this graph chronicles the change in position from week to week. While some series are stable, others swing wildly in the rankings depending on the strength of each episode. When a series has no episode for a given week, the previous week's episode is used instead as a placeholder. For the first week we compared the first episode of each series, even if they aired during the second week. That's why several episodes appear missing from "Jan 8-14"; they were ranked in "first ep." instead. Click to highlight a particular series.

ranking change from week to week (episode numbers as labels; clickable)	prev week change	this week rank	anime series
	7	#1.	Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans	14 15 16 17
	2	#2.	Haikyu!! Second Season	14 15 16 17
	11	#3.	Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash	1 2 3 4
	3	#4.	Gintama	304 305 306 307 308
	1	#5.	Durarara!! ×2 The Third Arc	27 28
	4	#6.	Snow White with the Red Hair	13 14 15 16
	14	#7.	One Piece	725 726 727 728
	5	#8.	Heavy Object	13 14 15 16
	6	#9.	GATE	13 14 15 16
	7	#10.	Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū	1 2 3 4
	9	#11.	ERASED	1 2 3 4 5
	7	#12.	Mr. Osomatsu	13 14 15 16 17
	2	#13.	Dimension W	1 2 3 4
	6	#14.	Dagashi Kashi	1 2 3 4
	3	#15.	Assassination Classroom	1 2 3 4 5
	pending review		KONOSUBA	1 2 3
	1	#17.	Schwarzes Marken	1 2 3 4
	pending review		Myriad Colors Phantom World	1 2 3 4
	7	#19.	Luck & Logic	1 2 3 4
	4	#20.	Utawarerumono: The False Faces	13 14 15 16 17
	3	#21.	Haruchika – Haruta & Chika	1 2 3 4 5
	3	#22.	BBK/BRNK	1 2 3 4
	16	#23.	Lupin the Third - Part 4	14 15 16 17 18
	5	#24.	Prince of Stride: Alternative	1 2 3 4 5
	3	#25.	Active Raid	1 2 3 4 5
	3	#26.	Girls Beyond the Wasteland	1 2 3 4 5
	—	#27.	Naruto Shippūden	444 445 446 447

Series Cumulative Ranking as of February 4

Each week's ranking takes into account the scores given to previous weeks' episodes. As we reach closer to the end of the season, each series' rank will start to solidify and we'll get a look at the real winners and losers. Click to highlight a particular series.

ranking change from week to week (episode numbers as labels; clickable)	prev week change	this week rank	anime series
	—	#1.	Gintama	304 305 306 307 308
	—	#2.	ERASED	1 2 3 4 5
	—	#3.	Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū	1 2 3 4
	—	#4.	Haikyu!! Second Season	14 15 16 17
	2	#5.	Lupin the Third - Part 4	14 15 16 17 18
	1	#6.	Durarara!! ×2 The Third Arc	27 28
	3	#7.	Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans	14 15 16 17
	—	#8.	Snow White with the Red Hair	13 14 15 16
	—	#9.	Dimension W	1 2 3 4
	3	#10.	One Piece	725 726 727 728
	5	#11.	Mr. Osomatsu	13 14 15 16 17
	1	#12.	KonoSuba	1 2 3
	2	#13.	Assassination Classroom	1 2 3 4 5
	2	#14.	Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash	1 2 3 4
	3	#15.	GATE	13 14 15 16
	1	#16.	Heavy Object	13 14 15 16
	—	#17.	Dagashi Kashi	1 2 3 4
	—	#18.	Utawarerumono: The False Faces	13 14 15 16 17
	—	#19.	Prince of Stride: Alternative	1 2 3 4 5
	—	#20.	BBK/BRNK	1 2 3 4
	2	#21.	Schwarzes Marken	1 2 3 4
	1	#22.	Girls Beyond the Wasteland	1 2 3 4 5
	1	#23.	Myriad Colors Phantom World	1 2 3 4
	—	#24.	Haruchika – Haruta & Chika	1 2 3 4 5
	—	#25.	Luck & Logic	1 2 3 4
	—	#26.	Active Raid	1 2 3 4 5
	—	#27.	Naruto Shippūden	444 445 446 447

Notes

Disclaimer: the rankings are just an average of opinions, published for entertainment and information purposes. ANN makes no claims regarding statistical significance.

It's entirely normal to disagree with the rankings; you should not expect your tastes in anime to match the average expressed by the rankings. Also, the rankings indicate relative quality (A is preferred to B), not absolute quality (B is good/bad). So while the titles are ranked from 'best' to 'worst', that doesn't necessarily mean the best title is 'great' or the worst title is 'awful'.

The rankings are computed using the Schulze method, with the variation that unrated titles are considered as abstentions instead of lower than the rated titles. This roughly means that if, out of all people who rated both A and B, 60% preferred A, it will be ranked higher than B.

If a series has no episode for a given week, we use the rating data for the previous week's episode in order to compute the weekly ranking. This is not officially counted as a "position" in the ranking, but it makes it easier to compare weeks if each week has the same number of series in the ranking.

It should be noted that long-running series (and sequels) have an advantage in the sense that only people who like the series are still watching it, and they are likely to give each episode a high rating. But if such a series is going through a low-quality filler arc, the season will get low rankings that are not indicative of the true overall quality of the series.