Fall 2017 Anime Final Thoughts (or are they?)

Here we are at the end of another season and at the end of the year of 2017. Fall was a great season all around. There were some great surprises, but also some spectacular disappointments. Still, I don’t regret digging deeply into this season at all. The stories were wonderful, the character work was beyond expectations, and I just had a good time.

Watch These Right Now

-Girl’s Last Tour

This was a surprise at first, but it’s quality never left it. With its subtlety, philosophy, and general fun, two girl’s traveling around a waste land Earth could not possibly be any more entertaining than this. I say all that I have to say about it right here.

-Land of the Lustrous

Added after the fact. See why here.

-Ancient Magus Bride

What truly surprises me is how grounded this anime is. I don’t mean just on a character level or action level where everything is believable and feels like it has weight. Everything has weight. The magic that Elias and Chise use have weight have a cost, the world has a weight and cost, the relationship between characters has a weight and a cost. I love this show for all of this and I will have to write something on this in the future. The frame work of The Ancient Magus is basic shoujo stuff, but everything around it, including how magical and exciting its world is, is just fantastic.

-March Comes in like a Lion season 2

What can I say about this show that I haven’t said about it many times before? It’s great. It does have some problems though. I wish this show wasn’t producing two chapters of the manga per episode. I would like to see Studio Shaft take some more liberties. That being said, there is almost nothing I can say about March that is bad. The characters are great, Shaft’s unique direction adds some introspection to the series, and the story just feels true to life.

Then These Next

-Blood Blockade Battlefront and Beyond

What became a series that I used to inject a feeling of variety and energy between two similar toned shows like Magus Bride and March quickly became one of my favorites this season. What was it that sold me on it? Well, I think this season is stronger than it’s first. The direction is more straight forward, which balances out all the insanity that is going on in the show itself, and the characters of Libra are actually getting development now. They aren’t just people that Leo is hanging out with, they are people that we know and now we can relate with on some personal level. Also, this show has been hitting a lot of good emotional beats on its own. What’s not to like about it?

-Recovery of an MMO Junkie

Never have I seen such a relatable comedy and slice of life romance like this one. Read one of my previous posts, link here, to know more.

-Just Because

The second show that has accomplished having relatable and awkward characters this season is this show. I can say that for a couple reasons. One, Just Because fully captures the feeling of how things are at the end of high school. The feeling that the reality of life you have now is going to leave you forever and it’s captured through the show’s tone and character feelings. Two, these are incredibly well written characters. Even Eita himself, who feels completely disconnected from the show. That works for what is going on, because he showed up to a new school and the end of his senior year. How isn’t he going to be disconnected? The other characters are like this too. Production issues aside, I am finding this show to be something that I look forward to watching from week to week. Seeing it come to an end makes Just Because an even more relatable experience.

If you have enough time

-Zodiac Wars

I remember praising this show quite a bit during my mid seasonal post, but I have fallen out of love with it since then. Yes, the character work is great and some of the action scenes are still fun to look at, but it isn’t as appealing as it used to be. A lot of that has to do with how Zodiac War’s structure. When the backstory of a character was introduced in the first half, we got to spend an entire episode getting into a character’s mindset. When the inevitable thing that usually happens in a death game happens, we are left behind with some remorse.

A lot of that has to do with how interesting of a character they are. The second half changed this. For one, some character died with only getting a mere glimpse at a character’s life. For another, two brother characters got more time for their backstory to be revealed and they didn’t turn out to be the most interesting characters. These were episodes that could have easily been cut into one. That way, the experience wouldn’t be as jarring. There were some good moments and episodes after those two, but the ending of this show was kind of lackluster. In the end, the experience isn’t very memorable.

-Osomatsu-San Season 2

Contrary to Zodiac Wars, my feelings about this show haven’t changed since the mid-way point. It’s still an on and off show sketch comedy show based on the NEET Osomatsu Sextuplets.  That’s about it really. The funny moments are incredibly funny, but there isn’t enough of it going around this show to completely recommend it.

Can’t completely recommend, but watch if you want to

-Black Clover

I feel like I am having a hard time deciding whether or not I should drop this show at the end of this season. The episode quality seems to go up and down in peaks in valleys. For a show that has trodded down the routes that other series have done to be worth watching, it has to be interesting or at least provide a unique angle that hasn’t been done before. Unfortunately, Black Clover isn’t interesting consistently. When the show builds up some intrigue to some sort of plot, the next episode drops all the momentum that it builds by going into slice of life episodes. I’m sorry, but none of these characters are developed, unique, or interesting enough to pull this off. Yet, the production values are good. I think you may see my struggle here.

-Inuyashiki

I am glad that this show is only eleven episodes, because it’s incredibly frustrating for me. From week to week, I kept trying to find what magical aspects that a lot of other people find in this show, but I just can’t see it. It is just feels way too out of order and wrong for me. For a much more detailed explanation, please click this link here.

—

With everything said, this has been a great and fantastically entertaining season for me all around. I know that I have complaints and that I dropped Kino’s Journey (2017), but I just had to. That one was frustrating.

If you are wondering where Land of the Lustrous is, I am currently going through it right now. I am going to save up my opinions on it for a post of its own. Maybe this list and the 2017 shows worth watching list will be revised because of it. I’ll have to see.

What shows did all of you end up watching and how do you feel about them? Do you have that you would recommend for me to watch?