Monday, January 01, 2018

The 4 Strongest Spring (2017 Anime Favorites)

The Spring 2017 Season had some pretty solid series. Sadly it also had some series that managed to either crash and burn such as Seikasuru Kado (Do not expect it to make the best of the year). As well as series that failed to live up to potential such as Little Witch Academia TV. I mean I like the series, one of the few of Anime Twitter that finished it and even I had to admit it was weaker than it should have been. Still this post isn't about disappointments and failures. This post is about four of the series that succed in being enjoyable experiences during Spring. They are as follows....

Alice to Zouroku

The relationship between Zouroku and Sana is a definite selling point. The very moment we first got to see Zouroku react not just to Sana, but the entire scenario unfolding around him, it was clear we were in for something special. It also helps that Sana is the type of character you want to find the guidance she needs. It's not just these two, but the way the cast was handled in general.

I loved the fact that the series had the guts to say "The leads can't magically solve every problem by themselves, sometimes other characters have a role to play, sometimes people actually need help" Not only that on occasion during the 2nd arc our leads took a back seat to allow other characters a chance to develop. Which made it so when they did get involved, it actually mattered.

Come to think of it, the general flow of the series is different than I'm used to. The first arc feels more like the "end arc" of a season and the 2nd arc feels more like an early arc of a season than anything else. It's a bit jarring at first, but it does help make things stand out. Oh and for the record I did watch that recap special. It was fine for what it was.

Grimoire of Zero


It's worth mentioning that this series too has a good relationship between the two leads. It also has an interesting premise. You also get some pretty solid moments during the story filled with some ups and downs. It also helps that Zero is charming. I wish I had more to say about the show than that, but be assured I had a strong liking for it in genral. I just don't have many words to say about it at hte moment.

Well, I can say I do like concepts such as Sorcery vs Magic. I like some of the things Zero pulls during the story. Let's just say she does the "Aha, you didn't realize" moments well you know unlike  certain series where comes off as some 2 year old making up rules as they go along. At least with Zero there's a sense of logic behind it.

Hinako Note


I will concede this series has problems. While I don't hate fanservice, even I have to admit the series can go too far sometimes. It also doesn't help that one character (Chiaki) suffered because of it. Mostly because she got the worst of the fanservice moments. Yes, her moments were in fact worse than the ones with the Oppai Loli.  Mostly because Chiaki's were the most forced. With that out of the way, I still highly enjoyed the series. Some of the fanservice images were actually good for one thing.  Feel free to guess which I mean.

Aside from that I loved how Hinako and Yua's relationship grew over time even if sadly the relationship can only go so far. The same could be said of other relationships in the show, but it's especially painful in the case of Hinako and Yua. Granted that might be part of why I was invested. I kept having hope.

The cast in general was fun to watch and it had several solid episodes among the few less than stellar ones. If this shows gets another season (doubt it will because I already cursed its chances by liking it) I'll gladly watch more. I just ask for Yua and Hinako to get married. In other words, I want the impossible.

Twin Angel Break



At the start of the season, I would have questioned including this in the top four of Spring. After all we were given a story premise that would normally cause me to feel impatient. The type of story you want to be resolved by episode 6, but ends up getting dragged out to episode 11 because lol reasons. Ie the main one being they'd have to actually think of something new. However I was mislead by the show entirely.

What I thought was the main story was a misdirection for what the show was really about. Once the final arc started up and Sumire took on the role she did, the show became a lot more interesting and everything was paying off. Sadly by the time this happened many gave up on the show. Heck I'm sure many gave up either two episodes in or pre-dropped it.

However I'm glad I stuck with the series due to the pay off. If I had any negative, it would be that I wish the series could have given a stronger role to the supporting cast. I kept expecting them to have some surprise role, but they never got one. I demand a spin off series for them.

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I'm sure some are going to question why I didn't include certain series. The reasons are as follows. It was terrible, I never saw any of it, and finally while it was good I just enjoyed some other shows more. I actually had a bit of trouble narrowing down this list. I even had to refresh my memory on some shows just to be  sure. Regardless  these are the four shows of Spring for me. Next time will be Summer 2017

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