Winter 2020 Anime At The Half Way Point

How is February almost done and this season is halfway over? How did that happen? I swear that2020 just started yesterday and this season only just started. Is it the drama of the possibility of US going to war again, the impeachment trials, or something else entirely making time feel this way? Hard to tell. This new decade is just going too fast regardless already. Gah. Let’s not talk about the movement of time and time dilation itself too much though. That can get depressing. Instead, let’s talk about anime. Something that can never get depressing, right? (Nope.) Yeah, always safe and full of sanity all the time. No one ever breaks from it. (I lie to myself.)

For an anime season to start off this new decade, I have to say that this season hasn’t been too bad so far. If anything, I think this season is possibly the best season to start off all of this crazy thing of a new decade. We’ve got so many varied types of anime in this season that I can’t help but just love how varied it all is. Some shows are just full of joy, others are emotional pieces, while others still are strong dramas which have a little more thought put into them. (Sometimes a little too much thought and possibly over written). Best start possible I think. Let’s see what anime can do and talk about these shows.

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A Handy Guide for how I feel about shows:

Solid: Seasonal Favorites, Highly Recommend.
Good: Maybe not as high quality as the first category, but still pretty enjoyable.
Ok: What it says on the tin. Maybe preferable for those who are into the genre the show is from.
Bad: I’m not even sure why I am still watching it besides maybe learning something from it.

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!!

I just can’t help it, everything about this show is just so good. It’s chaotic world, the passion behind the production and characters in the show, and just everything else. Eizouken is about a group of girls making an anime and it really feels like one. All the hard problems are there along with the general techniques and limitations usually put into anime series to make the process faster. Not to mention the world the series takes place in is wonderfully chaotic and colorful world that would only aspire animation. There are flaws, but I don’t think they matter as much in regards to everything else on display here.

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Chihayafuru Season 3

I love Chihayafuru in general, but I wasn’t expecting the show to go into a deeper level in what it wanted to accomplish. While the show never loses it’s Chihaya focus at all, we dig deeper into adults still holding onto their passions after life gets in the way for a long time. All of it all being thematically tied together because right now is the time these kids in the club have to consider their futures and what they want to accomplish next. This is a glimpse of that future. There have been some bumps in the road, but the over all product is just fantastic here.

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Haikyu! To The Top

I’m cheating A LOT here because I jumped to this anime series after reading the manga, but I really do like this show. I like seeing Hinata and Kageyama being thrown into situations beyond their control and seeing them somehow come out on top. It makes the Karasuno Volley Ball Team coming back together recently feel sweet.

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Somali and the Forest Spirit

I’m a mark for this show, I completely admit that. It’s a somewhat dark and deep look at a father and daughter series set in a fantasy world with a racism against humans. Somali is a human and needs to be hidden from the world with an almost robotic golem as the father. Seeing their relationship being strained and pulled works for me. I’m glad to see that dark fantasy world aspect to it make an appearance in the latest episodes.

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Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun

The one massive negative side here is that there is zero animation production because it’s mostly powerful point slides with some good stock footage on the side here and there. Other then that, I find this show deeply engrossing and wonderful to watch each week. The relationship between Nene and Hanako is so interesting and I love the entire premise of the show itself. I do wonder about some of the stories and myths behind everything here, but there is nice things going on here. Definitely a good watch that I recommend.

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ID: Invaded

I feel like ID:Invaded is what happens when you throw three different stories together, each one that could have had their own anime, into one. That means we have an extraordinarily busy police procedural with a Paprika element involving kids diving into people’s minds to figure out who the criminals all are. It’s a mess, but it’s an interesting mess of a series that I enjoy watching every Sunday. Also, I think it’s getting better with Hondomachi taking the reigns. She’s just so fascinating.

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Fate Grand Order: Babylonia

Besides it’s basic story telling and writing, I really love watching this show every week. The execution is just spot on though. The character moments are fantastic, the action beats are beyond astonishing, and the genuine experience of the show is just spot on. It just works so well to provide joy that I didn’t even know I needed on my weekends even in it’s darkest moments. It really is like a Saturday morning cartoon I didn’t know I needed until other shows started failing.

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Magia Record

Another mobile game adaptation and one that I find a lot of fun to watch. I wasn’t sure about this show at first, but it really captured the gloomy and unique Madoka Magia atmosphere that it really needed to in order for this show to work. The writing isn’t very tight and Gen Urobuchi like, but I think it’s really picking up and connecting together. I’m beginning to dig into these characters too. It all really just works together nicely somehow with large bumps here and there. Kind of shocked, but in a good way.

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Blade of the Immortal

If this show didn’t have it’s whole Nazi experimentation arc that grossed me out and horrified me at the same time, maybe Blade of the Immortal woul have been a little higher on this list. Maybe. I mean, there is a lot of questionable content in this series that makes Blade of the Immortal walk a thing line until it drops into the distaste zone. That being said though, I really like the art style of minimalism that it has on display, it’s characters including Rin and Mr. Manji, and it’s so complicated of a situation that I can’t help but enjoy.

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Bofuri

This is a simple anime about two girls playing a video game together. One is Maple who is kind of lazy, but also continually breaks the game because she doesn’t think like a gamer. On the otherside, is Sally who does know how to play the game enough to become over powered too. I really do think the conflict of Maple vs Admins is minimally there at the moment and Maple could even be the gamer who becomes the ultimate boss. Bofuri is fun by itself, but I could do with some more conflict in it. If not, I can still enjoy the bright and fluffy fun.

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My Hero Academia Season 4

Yeah, this is where My Hero Academia is this season. There are some bright spots that allow it to stay afloat above bad, but this season just doesn’t work for me at all. There is no good flow in this show at all. It’s way too slow and drawn out. Even the moments of shonen hype just fell flat for me. I think I am completely done with MHA after this season unless season 5 turns out to be the best thing since sliced bread. At this moment, I doubt that will happen. Man, I hate saying this about a Bones show. I love Studio Bones.

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Nothing Yet. Kind of Threatening to put MHA here though.

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So yeah, this is my little segment of where I would place anime right now. I’m not trying to be too evil here, especially with My Hero Academia, but this is honestly how I feel about everything right now in terms of ranking and everything. Once again and like usual, none of this is permanent. All things have the ability of going up and down with quality for the last segment of their cour’s run. Once again, this is the joy of watching seasonal anime. You never know how they will end up.

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