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The Best (and worst) Anime of Spring 2018


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DeTroyes



Joined: 30 May 2016
Posts: 521
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 12:54 am Reply with quote
My $0.02 worth:

Best: Steins;Gate 0
In just the first few episodes, Steins;Gate 0 manages to pull off the near-impossible for a sequel series: pick up almost exactly where the original left off, and move its story forward in a way that still feels fresh, yet also very much a continuation. All the favorite characters are back, and the new characters are almost as fun. And the story, while it does piggy-back on elements of the original series, nevertheless is intriguing and draws the viewer in with its mystery. If you are a fan of the original Steins;Gate, then I cannot recommend Steins;Gate 0 enough. Quite possibly my AOTY. One downside to note: this series is not something to watch if you haven't already seen Steins;Gate.

Runner-up: Full Metal Panic IV: Invisible Victory
While S;G fans had to wait 7 years for a sequel, fans of Full Metal Panic had to wait even longer: 13 years. And while I won't say this series has been quite worth the wait, its damn nice to finally have it back. All the characters have returned, the stakes have never been higher, and its just great watching the FMP gang -- long after many of us had given up any hope of ever seeing them back in an anime again -- strut their stuff and kick butt. The series does have some problems, however: there is a noticeable change in tone from previous entries in the series (away from the romcon and more towards Clancy-style technothriller), the CG is noticeably choppy in parts and feels rushed, and one of the main characters is almost entirely absent throughout much of the show. Not to mention an episode release schedule that has been frustrating, to say the least. At this point it doesn't look like FMP IV will finish off the LN arc it is adapting, so one does hope that a 5th season is in the works. If you enjoyed Full Metal Panic way back when, then I do recommend this series; new viewers, however, are probably better off watching at least the 1st & 3rd seasons of FMP before delving into Invisible Victory.

Honorable Mentions:
Lupin III, Part V; Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These; Juushinki Pandora, Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits; Golden Kamuy; Black Clover (cour 3); Comic Girls; Tokyo Ghoul:re; Gundam Build Divers; Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku; Darling in the FranXX (cour 2); Sword Art Online: Gun Gale Online; Persona 5; You Don't Know Gunma Yet; Caligula; Cutie Honey Universe. (whew! I watched way too much anime this season!).

Started but dropped: Dances With Dragons; Libra of Nil Admirari; GeGeGe-no Kitaro (2018); Devils Line; Space Battleship Tiramisu. Of these I might pick up GeGeGe no Kitaro again later; all the others were zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Have not watched but intend to in the near-future: Hinamatsuri, Space Battleship Yamato 2202.

Worst: Fist of the Blue Sky: ReGenesis
Dear god, was the CG on this series dreadful, worse sometimes than the much-maligned Berserk (2016). AND THE NECKS ON THE MALE CHARACTERS!! They were like tree stumps. Egad, was this series terrible. Characters I didn't care for, a boring and mostly regurgitated plot, and animation that hurt my eyes to watch. Dropped it, and never looked back.

******

Overall, I found this season to be among the strongest in a long time, with plenty of series for just about everyone. In fact, it was incredibly difficult at times keeping up, because there were just so much enjoyable stuff coming out.

Unfortunately, Summer Season doesn't look as big. There are a handful of shows I'll be giving a try, but nothing really shouts to me as potentially outstanding. I'll probably end up using the freed time to catch up on some shows I didn't get a chance to watch from Winter and Spring.


Last edited by DeTroyes on Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:43 pm; edited 3 times in total
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echen_taichi



Joined: 04 Jun 2008
Posts: 22
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:25 am Reply with quote
Best: Magical Girl Site
the only anime I've watched this season
and also Cardcaptor Sakura
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SakuraShimizu



Joined: 16 Oct 2017
Posts: 49
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 7:34 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
My honorable mention is a series that seems to have gone almost completely overlooked. Devil's Line got off on the wrong foot with me, and I didn't much like any of the characters at first, but I was hooked around the 4th episode as it built up an intriguing conspiracy, with a dash of amazingly frank romance on the side. Unfortunately, the last half of the last episode tanked, being either an anime-original rush-job or a read-the-manga-we're-done non-ending - and the hell of it is, I can't tell which it was! But they did a good enough job selling the story, that even I, the inveterate manga non-reader, might just go read the manga.


I agree about the ending to Devil’s Line. Based on every other episode that was an anime only ending. It was just so bizarrely different from the main story and it really didn’t fit. I really didn’t enjoy that ending at all but I highly enjoyed the main story. It made me want to read the manga as well.

I’m going to disagree with everyone here and say the best was Mahou Shoujo Ore. Of course there was that one disaster episode, I liked all the others. I mean if they only had that very first part of the episode and moved on it would have been better. Like I got a laugh out of “they told us we need to lose the blue lines” because it looked like Osomatsu-san. But ten minutes in, I wanted to skip the episode. But other than that I loved it. Showtaro Morikubo was made to voice the manager! It made him more lovable. I also liked that the ending wasn’t completely obvious.

The runner up for me was Magical Girl Site. Which watching this first and then Ore was a good palette cleanser. Sometimes the show depressed me a bit but I did enjoy the twist on the genre as a whole. The magical sticks were the best part in my opinion. None of them were typical and that’s what made them great.

Can’t say I had a worst. In fact, I had to put some series off because there were too many that I liked. Laughing
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5519
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:18 am Reply with quote
Jose Cruz wrote:
They haven't released the last episode of the season for several shows yet. Isn't it a bit early to determine which was the best?

I agree with you, but these pieces being published before the season finishes wrapping up is the norm.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13626
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:28 am Reply with quote
Nice to see "Megalobox" get some more positive reviews.
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Koda89



Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 279
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 12:52 pm Reply with quote
The race to the top this season was definitely closer than last season, which had my favorite locked up for most of the season.

Best: Megalobox - I just love me a good old properly done manime from time to time. Much like my choice for Winter, Megalobox is a new spin on a legendary classic, and just nails everything.

Runner-Up #1: Hinamatsuri - What can I say that hasn’t been said yet? This show managed to effortlessly swing between funny and feels, and was so confident that they were able to do multiple episodes where the supposed leads weren’t even in them that much.
Runner-Up #2: Aggretsuko - A hilarious little short that 20-somethings and anyone else who is/was young and had a shitty job can relate to.
Runner-Up #3: Lupin the Third Part 5 - This has been just simply fantastic. The only reason this isn’t my favorite of the season is because it isn’t finished yet.

Worst: DARLING in the FRANXX - So since I don’t subject myself to the truly bad stuff for more than one episode, this is functionally just “the weakest show I saw to the end of the season”, and there just wasn’t anything weaker or more disappointing bring this season to me than FRANXX. The only other show even remotely as low as this was Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line, and that got saved from this fate by a very strong back half to this season, leaving me on a high note.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5519
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 1:28 pm Reply with quote
Kadmos1 wrote:
Nice to see "Megalobox" get some more positive reviews.

You say this as if people were not gushing out about how great the show is. No one is giving Megalobox the cold shoulder.
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18537
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:54 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:
Jose Cruz wrote:
They haven't released the last episode of the season for several shows yet. Isn't it a bit early to determine which was the best?

I agree with you, but these pieces being published before the season finishes wrapping up is the norm.

I'd like to wait for the last eps to air, too, but it's just not practical. Especially this season, doing so would run the "best of season" feature midway into the Preview Guide, which would be hectic enough even if Anime Expo wasn't getting in the way.
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Panoptican



Joined: 03 Oct 2005
Posts: 160
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:59 pm Reply with quote
I didn't really think about this yesterday, but it seems strange that this article came out before all the shows had completed. I just finished Megalo Box. After watching last week's episode and the final episode of Hinamatsuri I was certain that I'd give my number one spot to Megalo Box. While I enjoyed the final episode of Megalo Box quite a bit, I think I let my expectations get ahead of me. Hinamatsuri is my number one show. If I was a writer for ANN I would have written two rather different entries just one day apart. Why not wait til every show is done?
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5519
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:29 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
angelmcazares wrote:
Jose Cruz wrote:
They haven't released the last episode of the season for several shows yet. Isn't it a bit early to determine which was the best?

I agree with you, but these pieces being published before the season finishes wrapping up is the norm.

I'd like to wait for the last eps to air, too, but it's just not practical. Especially this season, doing so would run the "best of season" feature midway into the Preview Guide, which would be hectic enough even if Anime Expo wasn't getting in the way.

Would it be possible to at least publish it 2 days before preview guide starts? By then more shows would have concluded, and it could increase fan participation and enthusiasm.
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GMArcturus



Joined: 31 May 2016
Posts: 56
PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 5:08 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:
angelmcazares wrote:
Jose Cruz wrote:
They haven't released the last episode of the season for several shows yet. Isn't it a bit early to determine which was the best?

I agree with you, but these pieces being published before the season finishes wrapping up is the norm.

I'd like to wait for the last eps to air, too, but it's just not practical. Especially this season, doing so would run the "best of season" feature midway into the Preview Guide, which would be hectic enough even if Anime Expo wasn't getting in the way.

You guys do realize that shows like My Hero Academia are getting 20-some odd episodes, right? You really shouldn't write these kinds of articles without doing a modicum of homework.
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SantaBla





PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:24 am Reply with quote
Cutie Honey is good.
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MariskaCraft#884434



Joined: 30 Jun 2018
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 9:54 am Reply with quote
First off, The voice cast was great!! To thumbs up for you guys!!!

Second: This anime could have being so much more. To think they skip 7 chapters of the manga is just Sad . There was no character build overall. And every time I watch an episode I went back to the manga to read what they left out. The last episode was just how to say, bad, just terrible, to cry over. Because wen I watch the 12th episode there was so much left out and didn't cover what was in the manga, It felt the episode was rushed together to make an end to it.

Third: Who ever made the anime, is clearly not somebody who read the manga, at least that how it looked to me. I don't say cover ever chapter but skipping 7, 3, 4 chapter in between episode is just to much. I would just say redo this whole anime. Because so much critical things are left out, character build and informative of charters
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1043
PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:50 pm Reply with quote
MariskaCraft#884434 wrote:
First off, The voice cast was great!! To thumbs up for you guys!!!

Second: This anime could have being so much more. To think they skip 7 chapters of the manga is just Sad . There was no character build overall. And every time I watch an episode I went back to the manga to read what they left out. The last episode was just how to say, bad, just terrible, to cry over. Because wen I watch the 12th episode there was so much left out and didn't cover what was in the manga, It felt the episode was rushed together to make an end to it.

Third: Who ever made the anime, is clearly not somebody who read the manga, at least that how it looked to me. I don't say cover ever chapter but skipping 7, 3, 4 chapter in between episode is just to much. I would just say redo this whole anime. Because so much critical things are left out, character build and informative of charters

You forgot to mention what you were talking about.
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2062
PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 11:46 pm Reply with quote
Spring had a little bit of everything going on and will be something to remember for a while. Here’s my list:

Favorite Original:
1. Hinamatsuri
2. Megalobox
3. Golden Kamuy

Favorite Sequel:
1. Full Metal Panic IV
2. Steins;Gate 0
3. Amanchu! Advance

Honorable Mentions: Katana Maidens, Tada Never Falls in Love, SAO Alternative: GGO, and High School DxD Hero

Most Disappointing: Cutie Honey Universe

Worst: Caligula

Summer looks like a nice opportunity to take a little bit of a breather before Fall aims to kick things into super high gear. I’m having a blast with 2018 anime-wise, so I look forward to seeing what will come out of the Summer season.
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