Spring 2017 Anime Review Roundup

Hi everyone! My name is StormingJ, I like anime and I have my fair share of opinions. I’ll save the detailed introduction for another post and get straight to the point, welcome to my Spring 2017 season anime reviews. The format is simple: in the order of least to best scored of the shows I watched, I’ll briefly talk about my thoughts followed by my final score. Let’s get started.

Alice to Zouroku

Alice to Zouroku managed to both surprise and ultimately disappoint. Its first arc managed to introduce a somewhat interesting power system, a fairly dark and compelling drama, and a handful of interesting philosophical questions that it would hopefully dive deeper into as the show went on.

Then it proceeded to drop almost all of these positive traits in its second half. The focus shifted to newly introduced characters who I could never really care about or take as seriously as the initial cast and spent far too much focus on them. The end result was a significant tone shift to a much less interesting place and it never managed to recover. As I’ll discuss with a later show this didn’t have to have been a bad thing but this show ended up far was worse of for doing so.

The action animation wasn’t exactly the best around but wasn’t a complete dealbreaker. If Alice to Zouroku piqued your interest then watch first arc (5 episodes I believe) then do yourself a favor and stop there, you’ll have a significantly better time.

Final verdict: 6/10

Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte (SukaSuka)

What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? (WorldEnd)

SukaSuka struck an interesting mix between fantasy and romance, and delivered a decent result at both. There were a handful of very interesting story points but one of my larger issues is the show never played them up as much as it could have. I like my dramatic twists played for maximum effect, if you’re seen Code Geass or Valvrave you’ll have an idea what I’m talking about whereas SukaSuka likes to drop its large reveals without making a big deal like they’re all the [REDACTED] reveal from AoT season 2, you know which one.

My much larger complaint is the series is an unashamed promotion of the light novels with no real attempt to stand on its own. I have no idea if the LNs open with a flash-forward to the conclusion like the anime did but that’s always a sign a story doesn’t trust itself to keep your hooked until it would reach that point naturally. If you want to see an ongoing LN adaptation conclusion done correctly you need only to look at last year's Re:Zero which while leaving unresolved plot points and foreshadowing for later content ended its adaptation literally seconds before a major cliffhanger, satisfying itself with the more or less self-contained story about Subaru and Emilia’s relationship. On the other hand, SukaSuka opted to leave us without full closure of its events, potentially foreshadowed some of that closure, and dropping an entirely new plot thread while the credits rolled which significantly spoiled the otherwise decent experience.

If the idea of a fantasy series with a primary focus on romance sounds like your kind of thing and you don’t agree with my heavy criticisms about the ending you’ll probably like this more than I did and I’d be happy to recommend it.

Final verdict: 6/10

Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho

Grimoire of Zero

As the second of two fantasy shows I watched this season, Grimoire of Zero solidly placed itself as my favorite. Its world of medieval sorcery is somewhat common and simple but it’s filled out with enough detail and charm I was happy to explore it again. By far and away the characters are what make this show so enjoyable; Zero is adorable and the Mercenary a fantastic male tsundere but they really shine when we see them interact, struggle and grow. No matter how many times I watch Zero stick her hands up so the Mercenary can carry her to run away faster I always crack a smile, it’s their little interactions like this that manage to sell their relationship so well. The supporting cast are equally as strong and without wanting to go into too much detail are never left to waste away after being introduced.

Even being a light novel adaptation the story is cleanly wrapped up while leaving the possibility for further adventures. Grimoire of Zero never did anything particularly amazing but never once it did it offend or disappoint and was a playful, enjoyable ride throughout. If the idea of a fantasy adventure with a cute witch and manly tsundere beast-man sounds like your cup of tea I would happily recommend this show.

Final verdict: 7/10

Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism

Armed Girls Machiavellianism

Everyone now and then a show arrives that’s quintessentially anime, last year we had Keijo and this season it’s Machiavellianism. Maybe that comparison doesn’t make sense to you but there’s something unquestionably ‘anime’ about the concept of a high school where delinquent boys are sent, beat up and forced to dress as girls by a group of sword carrying teenage girls, as there is with the concept of a sport where girls wrestle each other into the water with their breasts and buttocks. Machiavellianism has all the positive perks it could need: it’s got a large group of likable characters with unique interactions, solid comedy and fight scenes, one catchy opening, and a dramatic and satisfying finale.

Pick your favorite sword wielding waifu, then come back to the comments and tell my why it’s also Satori, and enjoy.

Final verdict: 8/10

Quan Zhi Gao Shou

The King’s Avatar

There aren’t many anime about e-sports and even fewer good anime from China but The King’s Avatar manages to be both. With a protagonist in the later part of his 20’s, you’re looking at a handful of pretty unique parts that come together to make a pretty great whole. It’s not perfect, there’s a handful of animation cuts you’ll see repeatedly and the characters don't always seem to stick the right to the scenery when they’re moving around but this is still by fast the best anime to have come out of China yet that I’m aware of.

Final verdict: 8/10

Eromanga-sensei

Look this show is trash, I’m trash, and if you enjoy it then you are too. You already know if you’re going to love or hate this if you loved or hated Oreimo. Haven’t seen Oreimo? Go watch that first then refer back to the previous sentence.

Bonus video:

Final verdict: 8/10

Seikaisuru Kado

Kado: The Right Answer

You don't get a gif for this one because I don't want to give anything away

Remember when I mentioned another show that successfully managed to tone-shift without being garbage? This is it. The biggest disservice you can do for Kado is to over explain it to someone, if on the off chance you didn’t hear anything about this show and don’t mind watching a single episode to find out go find episode 0 and give it a watch. Reactions to Kado’s ending seemed to be highly divisive but I personally thought it delivered on everything leading up to it.

3D animation is getting better and better as time goes on. Just like Ajin before it, the CGI here wasn’t perfect but has reached a point where it’s definitely watchable and no longer a significant detraction from the experience. In addition, they used the CGI to create the cool effects on [REDACTED] which they could only have done using CGI, and which didn’t clash horribly with the rest of the show like it would have if that was the only thing they’d used it for.

Final verdict: 8/10

And drumroll for my AOTS....

Tsuki ga Kirei

As The Moon, So Beautiful

Tsuki ga Kirei was the surprise darling gem of spring ‘17. It helps that I’m a sucker for romance and feelings of teenage nostalgia it caused me but to say it was just these things does a massive disservice to the outstanding show that it was. Tsuki ga Kirei wasn’t a particularly beautiful show, although it was nice to look at. None of the characters, story or music were particularly amazing either, but somehow when everything came together the end result was such much more than any of these parts.

It’s easy to see that not everyone is going to agree with me here. Some people probably found the pacing too slow or the constant use of LINE too much of an immersion breaking product placement, but at the end of the day nobody can give a definitively objective score to any anime and for me Tsuki ga Kirei was deserving of my number one spot and it’s score.

Final verdict: 9/10

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Ongoing:

I’m going to stay very brief on these because I’ll cover them in my summer round up when they finish.

Re:Creators

Re;Creators it teetering on the edge of greatness, it has nearly everything it needs to deliver a fantastic second cour and with how it’s gone so far my expectations are high, I could easily see this ending up with a 9 but it hasn’t quite claimed it yet.

Prospective verdict: 8/10

Sakura Quest

Despite never being particularly excited to watch Sakura Quest every week I still keep coming back to it. Not in the bitter way I couldn’t drop Alice to Zouroku but in pleasant ‘I always feel satisfied and content whenever I actually watch an episode’ way. The girls are cute and their experiences wholesome but not boring, a 7 feels like a strong grade now but this is the kind of show where the characters keep growing on you and I wouldn’t be surprised if it felt like the correct choice when it was over.

Prospective verdict: 7/10

Sakurada Reset

While Sakurada Reset’s setting is incredibly interesting it’s implementation isn’t quite so. Toeing the line between slow and painfully slow, somehow I still find myself eager to see what new powers and plot threads will be revealed each week. There’s something very compelling about seeing the main characters use their specific powers, which would be fairly useless on their own, to do incredible time changing things with them together. There are enough clues and pieces to make me believe the show will surprise me yet and earn its grade, but time will tell.

Prospective verdict: 7/10

Boku no Hero Academia S2

My Hero Academia

MHA is one of the best things to come out of jump in years. Season 1 was just alright (I scored it a 7) but as a manga reader, I knew season 2 would step it up big time. Todoroki vs Deku was by far the best animated part of the show yet and it was absolutely beautiful, managing to vastly improve on the quality of the manga which was already great. With the Stain arc coming up the only way for MHA to go is up and an 8 might be too weak a score, we shall see.

Prospective verdict: 8/10

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If you’ve made it this far thanks for reading my first steemit blog post and anime review. I plan on writing at least three more of these: my summer 17 first impression in a few weeks time, my summer 17 round up in about 12 weeks time, and somewhat of an introductory post where I’ll talk about my viewing history to give a better frame of reference for my taste. Let me know what you thought in the comments if there was anything you liked or think I could improve on.