Fall 2016 Anime Season Wrap-up

Fall 2016 Anime Season Wrap-up

Warning: The following post may contain spoilers from the shows I watched from the Fall 2016 anime season. If you wish not to know some plot details in the stories, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series that are mentioned, please exit the tab, and come join me once you've watched the first few episodes. But than again, if you don't mind spoilers, feel free to stay put.

Also, the pictures for my special posts are chosen at random. The first half of the American adaptation of Smile PreCure (Glitter Force) has been out for a year now, plus this picture is super adorable by itself, so why not?

So with that said, let's get started:

School is now back in session for mwah, as I'm currently in my junior year, and it's definitely more of a challenge like people said it was. Aside from a later start time in my school district, I'm having more homework, my first job, and the time to do absolutely nothing else. I may be exaggerating a bit there, but I'm pretty behind on both my reviews and episodes for my Top Model shows on my Youtube channel that it's probably going to be a while until my inspiration fully decides to make a comeback.

In the meantime, I have had enough time to dig into some anime (plus read), and while I didn't follow as many shows this season, there are plenty more that I'm interested to check out later along, considering that next season doesn't look really promising or interesting, which is a total bummer.

But hey, yay for more fall shows!

Aside from watching one series from my last wrap-up, I followed 3 series as they were coming out, and had to say goodbye to one after getting halfway through (though I'm planning an incomplete review for that one. and unlike my other ones, it's kind of a must to routinely check Twitter, and watch bits and pieces here and there because of curiosity/masochism). Other than that, I pretty much really liked or loved the anime I watched during this season, so we're pretty good on that count.

Of course before we dig in, it's time to say that any opinion regarding any of these shows is my own, and if you happen to disagree with me plus plan to comment, please don't be rude about said opinion. It's fine if you like a show I didn't or vice versa, but there's a way to discuss it without being incredibly aggressive. That also goes to discussions going on in the comments if they happen.

So with that said, let's first start off with the show I went back and looked at from my last season wrap-up:

Taboo Tattoo.

The surprise from some of you should start here. Out of all the shows from last season that promised to be better, why did I decide to go for this one?

Well, aside from the reasons I stated in my wrap-up, the main reason was that I was just insanely curious to see how this show was going to end up for me. It's going to be regarded as a dud from this year (if it hasn't already), and why not see what it has to offer before it's gone?

I finished this show in almost 2 weeks thanks to a four-day weekend in which I watched 8 episodes of this series, so I technically would call that binging (I'll probably pull marathons later in my life though because I'm anime trash). The position I landed up in was the middle. Taboo Tattoo wasn't necessarily a horrid show, as it had some good parts to it (plus I actually liked the episode everyone hated), but as a whole, this wasn't a great show, or even a good one. It's just plainly average, and could have been better had it not had a handful of faults.

Those positives and negatives will be discussed in detail in my upcoming review for this show, which should be out in the next few months. I'll leave off here though by saying that my favorite character happened to be the main villain, who's a princess, and, honestly, quite crafty. Compared to some of the other character development in this anime, she had the better side of the hammock.

Time to discuss the dropped show now, which ended up being:

Uta no Prince Sama's 4th season.

I really hate feeling like this you guys. Uta no Prince Sama basically launched the revolution of reverse harem shows into this decade (oh, the puns I make), and the first two seasons were actually pretty good. The 3rd season was a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, it still had the great elements that make me like Uta Pri in the first place, but at the same time, there were so many things that managed to get on my nerves. The year and two month wait was spent wondering if this season was going to turn things around or if it would have the show get even more aggravating.

For starters, STARISH were now hollow maple trees, basically acting like the same person with no distinguishing traits (aside from their main one, but that lasted a good 2 episodes in Season 3), QUARTET NIGHT suddenly became dark, tortured souls only thanks to the writers and Nanamiprofen (that joke hasn't died yet BTW), and HEAVENS was just HEAVENS. I wanted to see the character development that had benefited the first two idol groups back in action, and for some members of HEAVENS to get some development that I thought the writers wouldn't care about (but that was proven wrong when finding out about the duet projects between the "rivals," so go me).

But I was honestly most looking forward to see the lovely Ranmaru Kurosaki again aside from other problems with Haruka and the show's dipping animation budget. Ranmaru's always going to have a special place in my heart what with fanart, his voice, his looks, and just overall, HIM.

*begins to froth uncontrollably*

Luke was also on board to watch it due to our shared love of the male mentioned above, and to see if our small hopes and dreams would actually come true.

Say to say, they didn't. Luke left the party after Episode 1, and I stuck on until Episode 6, when I decided that this season wasn't worth my time anymore. Not only was this season worse overall than all of the past 3 seasons, some of my problems got fixed (kind of), and some just were laced with the anime equivalent of a laxative (which means they got s**ttier). I'm not going to go into detail now since I am, again, planning a DNF review for this, but there are NUMEROUS things wrong with this season, and it's a shame since there were parts that I feel like I should've liked.

So yeah, let's give this a 4/10 and call it good.

Now that we've gotten over that hurdle, let's move on to the anime I followed all the way to the end:

Haikyuu's 3rd season, Nanbaka, and Yuri on Ice.

Unlike last season, which had 2 great shows, 2 good shows, and 1 average show, these anime easily earn a little piece of my heart (putting it simply for one of these series here), each impressing me with qualities that were special to their own show or universal all around.

I'd of course be insane if I didn't tune into the 3rd season of Haikyuu, mostly because I adored the first two and wouldn't miss it for the world. And of course it slayed my entire life, and pretty much did every description of "I loved this show so much it ________." Everything pretty much impressed me again, lovely character development was seen, the score had some new pieces that blew my mind, plus I now can pinpoint my favorite character from this show.

Yup, the lovable asshole. :P

Nanbaka presented itself as a prison comedy, but it has actually had moments where it gets more serious and doesn't rely on laughs to draw me in. It's also get some great characters, nice animation, and a pretty good score from one of Yasuharu Takanashi's right-hand men (I figured it was either Takanashi or someone from Team-MAX based on the opening credits upon seeing the aforementioned group name). Plus, the dub for this show is just as good as the Japanese, and I honestly don't think it's preferred in one language over the other, since both are pretty sweet.

Plus, we're getting another season (much like with the first 2 arcs of Sailor Moon Crystal, it will be streamed online in Japan), and I'm curious to see what will happen next to my lovable prison dorks.

Meanwhile, Yuri on Ice pretty much exploded everywhere once it started. Becoming this year's One Punch Man, it has a huge fan-base (including me), and while I may not adore this show to pieces, I still really like it. I wouldn't have expected a show about figure skating to surprise me as much as it has, but it's still proving me wrong.

Great story, nice characters, stable animation in the parts that matter most, and above all else, a sweet, tender, awesome, and hella gay main romance. This is the kind of relationship that I'm not used to seeing in anime, and I want more of it.

Reviews for all of these shows will be posted in the upcoming months (Haikyuu's of course taking top priority), and I think I'm planning something different for Yuri on Ice. In the meantime, stay tuned!

Time to explore the land of the shows I'm interested in also looking into:

Bloodivores.

Well here we have it, folks. This is the s**t show of the season by far and wide! I have literally heard nothing about this show other than that it sucks. Again, this is the primary reason why I want to watch it, because I'm actually curious to see how much it stinks like dog poop. But from what I've heard, it sounds like something I'd watch, and the main character has a cool design, so we're just going to roll with it eventually (maybe I should watch this next?).

Bungo Stray Dogs' second cour.

No, I haven't watched this season yet. I was planning on focusing on the follow-up seasons for this anime season, but this happened to be the one that I never found time to watch with Luke. This is on my top priorities though, since this upcoming arc looks epic, and I'm very excited to see how it plays out.

My main concern going into this is the pacing though, as the first 4 episodes are of Dazai's time in the Port Mafia, then the exciting grand action will come crashing down. It seems like 8 episodes will be fine, but I guess further looking into it will be better aside from screenshots and GIF's.

Izetta: The Last Witch.

Historical fiction anime, along with books, never stick the landing with me in terms of interest. But this series happens to have a retelling of World War II, along with a potential lesbian romance, so things are definitely going to be exciting. I'm expecting some intense battles and interesting events going down with this one, even with some unnecessary fanservice.

Kiss Him, Not Me.

I've seen the manga a couple of times at Barnes & Noble for this, and the premise sounds half funny, half offensive. But I think I may actually end up liking this one. There's a nice batch of really cute boys, and I hope I'll be able to relate to Kae on a spiritual level in terms of her fangirling.

But the main thing that got me hooked into watching this is that Yu Kobayashi is playing Kae, which basically means that Kobayashi's signature craziness will be coming out in droves. That really only makes me more excited, that and the fact that Yoshitsugu Matsuoka's playing another sweet guy.

Magic-kyun Renaissance.

And here we have another reverse harem with bishes all around! This one actually looks pretty promising, with a lead heroine who actually has more of a personality, a great group of gorgeous men (the first years are my favorites), lovely animation (from the folks who brought us Code Geass. At least the animation studio), and music, there's probably going to be a lot to enjoy here.

Plus, if the OVA that previewed all the guys told me anything, it showed that this show will probably cause me to be reborn several times in the span of five minutes. Count me in! Don't let me down, show!

Show by Rock's 2nd season.

I'm a very bad person, because I haven't been able to catch up with Show by Rock. The shorts aired last anime season, and I have yet to find enough time to watch those. So until that gets done, this will be waiting for me with baited breath, which does make me sad. After all, we're getting new groups this season, plus a brand new villain who's voiced by the one and only Miyuki Sawashiro. Who couldn't resist that?

Soul Buster.

Much like with Bloodivores, I've heard nothing but negativity for this series. The art style, from what I've seen, looks half interesting and half trying too hard to be edgier than most action shows. But it may work. It's much like Diabolik Lovers in the sense that the episodes are not full-length, so let's see if that's yet another hurdle in this show's path.

But the main reason why I'm interested in looking at this is that Rui Tanabe plays the female lead, and I honestly think she needs to be in more stuff, since I personally like her voice. Who knows? She might get the recognition that Yuto Uemura (MY BABY!) got and receive more roles. Time will only tell.

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru.

Quick question: How many boys are there in the Touken Ranbu world? Based on what I've seen, it seems to keep on expanding. Eventually, we're probably going to end up in the thousands with so many pretty characters we're all going to suffer from fanning-induced strokes.

I've heard about Touken Ranbu a bit through a friend of mine online, plus looked at it myself (my favorites are already Tsurumaru, Kogitsunemaru, Nakigitsune, and Iwatooshi), and I think this might be a good introduction to it aside from looking at gameplay videos. This is a more comedy focused series though, with a more action packed series to come next year from ufotable (which means it's going to look incredible), so hopefully this isn't the wrong place to start.

Onto the topic of FUNimation's Broadcast Dubs, since FUNimation and Crunchyroll have established a new partnership (which sounds incredibly cool), FUNimation has taken the dub side of things with their simulcasts for this season (and probably will do the same from now on). Out of this season's current titles that Crunchyroll is streaming in Japanese, FUNimation is currently working on 12 series, and 5 other series from earlier this year. I'm quite interested in checking out the dubs for Yuri on Ice and all of the others in my Interested List that FUNimation is streaming dubbed (Izetta: The Last Witch, Show by Rock Season 2, Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru, and Kiss Him, Not Me).

I have watched 4 episodes of Nanbaka's dub so far, and knowing me, I'm probably going to finish the first season dubbed, because why not, right? Like I mentioned earlier when discussing Nanbaka, the English dub surprised me with how great it is, with a mix of older and newer VAs, and it being directed by none other then Aaron Dismuke. I'm watching the dub in increments, so it'll always make for a fun binging period.

And that just about wraps up my fall wrap-up (haha, get it?). What shows did you watch this season that you managed to end up liking, and which ones didn't go so well for you? Any shows on here that I talked about that you agree with me on opinion wise?