Anime Challenges

12 Days of Anime: Day 12 The Best of the Year

Time to end these posts looking back on the year on a high note. A lot have anime have aired. A lot anime this year that I found not really too exciting. This year has been rather boring in my opinion, however there are still a lot of good moments out there for what happened this year. Not just in anime, but older series as well I watched. A lot has happened this year. Although I will be only talking about the airing anime that happened this year here is to all the anime seen this year and to all the ones that will be airing next year that will be good.

These are my Personal Favorites

Death Parade

That opening, just wow, I still love it so much. I mean once I mention Death Parade I naturally think of it, and had to stop writing just to play it while I write this part. But the show was rather interesting. It kept up that sense of how really people are behind their masks. Sometimes they really are jerks, while other times they are good people. It was very interesting just to see how each episode played out since clearly not everything was known. There was also room for there to be more, since it felt like there could be. Personally I hope there is not since it ended wonderfully, and is also the highest score of any review. Although I will admit now that could be partially due to bias. Still is a very great show and deserves a look at.

Monster Musume

I mean, did you really think I would not talk about this show? I really enjoy the manga, and I think the anime did a wonderful job with it. I agree with the choices that were made. I still want to rewatch it again just because why not. I have reread the manga so many times while waiting for another volume to come out. So, I am just glad the anime only fueled my enjoyment for the series more instead of ruin it like other adaptations. Now since I did a weekly review of this and Jitsu wa Watashi wa, the second series I reviewed will not be on here, since they really could have done better, they really stopped before it gets to the more humorous parts of the series. I think Jitsu wa Watashi wa does play a role in why I enjoyed Monster Musume was because I was reviewing both and I really enjoy the manga for both, which allowed me to think about them independently and think about the choices that were made for the anime from what they had in the manga.

One Punch Man

I think this one could have been obvious. This anime saved me from a boring year of anime. I will admit I only watched episode one and two, stopped, and then picked up again later since this was after I decided to marathon it in one sitting. Then I stopped again to do exactly that and watched episode 4 to 12 in a day. It was glorious and worth the wait. I am so glad there are like 6 OVAs going to be out for it. I really hope there is another season, but it will have to wait a bit for the manga to finish the next arc, which is apparently very long. Still the humor and action was very enjoyable and throw in the great art made it even more so. I really want to get the manga because I love owning physical copies and caught up with the redrawn version of the manga only two hours after finishing the anime. It was just amazing, easily one, if not, then my favorite series of the year.

I wanted to talk about another three since I only talked about three in Day 11 The Worst of the Year. However here are some honorable mentions of good series. Some are ongoing though.

Danmachi
Gundam Iron Blood Orphans
Saekano
Shokugeki no Souma

So, what are your favorite anime of the year?

As always I hope you enjoyed. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or anything you would like to see here feel free to comment. If that does not work try to contact me through social media.

The Reviewer’s Corner has an official twitter, which is here. All updates, polls, and information on posts and future posts can be found there.

If you are a blogger who focuses on anime, manga, or comics and make you blog known feel free to visit the blog roll page and leave a message.

Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe

December 23, 2015 5

12 Days of Anime: Day 11 The Worst of the Year

We all have series that we plainly do not like. Then there are shows that are bad that we somehow stuck with. So, time to count down the worst of the year. I am taking into account plot, personal enjoyment, and the condition I seen more than half if not all the show to label it as some of the worst of the year. The final two days of the 12 Days of Anime are going in and basically mini-reviewing some shows. So I hope you enjoy.

Charlotte

The plot was alright. I really enjoyed this series too. It is just there is so much wrong with it that is the problem. The beginning, was alright. It had problems and that just showing the powers and labeling and not explaining them to some extent, it was more understandable come later episodes. The middle of the series was alright too, really enjoyable, gave the main character much-needed character development and made him no longer a prick. Then the ending sucked. The ending felt way too rushed, they could have devoted a whole cour to what they did but they were like “No, he can travel the world and get rid of everyone’s power in a episodes and completely lose who he is.” That was just way too rushed and even going with that option felt like they threw it there at last-minute since they could not think of something.

This is not the worst of the worst. This falls in the lines of okay. I would still tell people to check it out if this is what they were into but still warn them.

World Break: Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman

I could not make it to episode 8. It was bad to begin with. It did that thing with past lives that I never like were they instantly fall in love upon remembering, they fought the seemingly final boss in the first five minutes, and it was just bad from the start. It was a harem, so I can easily see past the clichés. But in a majority of harem series there are redeeming qualities that make me come back for more. This one did not. The battles, the characters, there was nothing that was truly enjoyable about this series. In fact this was one of the series that brought about me not picking up shows just to pass time but to watch shows that I really really like. Plus the abusive Tsundere architype was one of the main, I never like that type, Shy Tsundere is fine, just the abusive one is always up in everyone’s face about it and it is annoying.

This is not the worst of the year.

THE WORST OF THE YEAR AWARD GOES TO……

Testament of Sister New Devil

Where to begin. It sucks, yet I watched all of season 1 or cour 1 or whatever it is referred to as since its second half is Burst. It is just terrible. Ecchi for the sake of ecchi. It is borderline hentai, if not that then it is hentai. The plot is terrible were it hardly gives anything type of personality to the characters. But the opening is good. The creator also gave birth to what I refer to as the worst anime in history and the one that I regret the most for ever watching and completing. But that has nothing to do with this series. It does the mirror in terms of the lack of character personalities, poor choices in plot, if there is the plot. But like in both the fantasy like elements in terms of magic is fairly good. Testament is not as bad as that other show. But with the characters, nearly most scenes having to be censored out worse than a To Love-Ru episode. You get a harem that is basically a hentai with no characters that have any qualities that stick out, in terms of personality. This is another one of the shows that made me stop watching whatever for whatever reason. The other one I cannot talk about since I dropped it after an episode. Still the worst of the year goes to Testament of Sister New Devil and Testament of Sister New Devil Burst.

So, what are the worst anime you saw this year?

Also since I didn’t have any other images from any of the series after Charlotte, here is another pic of Nao from Charlotte.

As always I hope you enjoyed. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or anything you would like to see here feel free to comment. If that does not work try to contact me through social media.

The Reviewer’s Corner has an official twitter, which is here. All updates, polls, and information on posts and future posts can be found there.

If you are a blogger who focuses on anime, manga, or comics and make you blog known feel free to visit the blog roll page and leave a message.

Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe

December 22, 2015 6

12 Days of Anime: Day 10 The Mostly Utarwaremono Post

So, cat girls are cute, bear girls, ship girls even though I am not talking about those, and more are cute, and a lot of them appeared in this year for anime. Dog Days, Utarwaremono and its sequel, Yuri Kuma, which sadly I did not finish and wish I did. Plus many more I assume are out there. Point is it is nice to see them. So, time to talk about my thoughts about at least two of those shows, one made more impact than others.

Dog Days

I watched all three seasons once season 3 began airing. I really enjoyed season one and finished within the span of two days. After that it took over time. Although I enjoyed season one, the following seasons were not so much-loved. Season one had a fun plot, but after that the plot no longer existed and was then changed to adventures per episode or several with no over arcing plot. A fourth season has also been announced as well. I think a line, when I would change the line on my blog from time to time was, “Dog Days nearly killed me with cuteness,” which is true. It was a cute and fun show. It is just will I ever watch season four, probably not unless it obtained a plot again.

Utarwaremono

Yes, I really enjoyed this one. I will be talking about the original series and the ongoing one as well. There has been a third game announced which is for next year, so hopefully that means there will be a third anime to come.

The first series I really enjoyed. This was more action and I could see what it was underrated and not given as much attention as it should have. It aired back in 2006. At the same time it had an interesting means of going about. It had some comedy, but it also maintained the action. It was heavy strategy. The really plot, although the action was full until that point, did not really happen till half way through the series.

The second series at first I thought would have nothing to do with the first, but with the main character being the *spoiler* daughter of the main character in the first series *end of spoiler* (although that probably isn’t really a spoiler) and the characters from the first series appearing from time to time in amazing ways, including the two best girls that have more than likely appeared throughout this post. The humor focus is what I have noticed, but I am hoping in the second half the action will appear. That is my hopes anyway. Either way I have been having fun with the second series as well. It is more humorous, and although I like the action in the first series, this one is a little more fun because of the humor and slow build up.

If you are enjoying the ongoing one, please go check out the first, since I did read a synopsis on what the second half is about and it will tie into with the characters from the first series, although I am not still 100 percent sure on that so teehee. I still need to see the OVAs from the first series, so I think I might do that. I really do not know the direct the new one will go, but hopefully it will live up to where the first one is. Maybe for next year’s 12 Days of Anime I can talk about it again.

As always I hope you enjoyed.

Feel free to comment your thoughts on these posts. Have any suggestions for anything you would like to see here feel free to comment as well.

The Reviewer’s Corner has an official twitter, which is here. All updates, polls, and information on posts and future posts can be found there.

If you are a blogger who focuses on anime, manga, or comics and make you blog known feel free to visit the blog roll page and leave a message.

Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe

December 21, 2015 2

12 Days of Anime: Day 9 The Idol Wars

This year really marked when I started to watch Idol anime. Although there is not a lot, just Love Live, Idolmaster, and Idolmaster Cinderella Girls. I have come to rather enjoy the type of series and view each one differently. Although it might be known by now on my viewpoint of them, to a minor extent, this year was still a year were I started to watch Idol Anime.

To me I did not fully enjoy Cinderella Girls. This is due to several factors. The characters I really enjoyed were never around. I did not watch the original Idolmaster till later, and at this point that this post is going up I only have a few more episodes left. However besides my lack of likeable characters and the characters to me being the most important part of the show. I could not fully enjoy it. There is also the always serious aspect to it, which was completely different to any idol anime I saw to date. Although they do have serious moments, Cinderella Girls feels all serious and no fun. Yet it was still there. I personally am willing to give it another shot, mostly for Kaede, Rin, and Ranko and seeing those characters again but mostly Kaede since I did not really appreciate her character till after her episode and after I dropped the show around episode 17. I found myself forcing to watch it knowing I did not like the characters that were the main focus all the time. But again I am willing to give it another shot since I like to keep an open mind. Since Kaede is worth it.

Idolmaster, as I stated I am still watching it. From the beginning I rather enjoyed it. I cannot find a character I dislike, which is amazing. Even characters I would expect myself to not like, I still find myself somehow enjoying them. The series itself is lighter than Cinderella Girls. At the same time that serious factor is always there, but not always making itself fully aware. Again unlike Cinderella Girls where it is always there and always known, which bugs me. The two series are complete opposites. I have major different views of both. I think that could be said for a lot of things, just because you like the main series does not mean you will love the spinoff. Or just because you love the spinoff does not make you love the series. I think that is why I see people picking one series over the other. To me I do not like drama filled shows. I do not mind them. However now thinking of this I think it was in episode 8 of Cinderella Girls where my dislike begin all thanks to Mio, the one character where I have to say that dreaded word known as hate, and say that I hate her character. So, besides that I really like Azusa and Takane the most in the original Idolmaster. Plus the producer is not some stiff serious dude all the time.

Love Live, one of my favorite of the series I saw this year. All thanks to Nick and his Maki Monday spam way back in February. Anyway, as much as I enjoy Love Live, I do not like the second season. The reason for that mostly comes from the fact there was no real underline serious tone. Season 1 although it was not always fully present, it was still known that if they fail the school will close down. Season 2 did not really have that at all, not till towards the end when Muse decided they would disband. I am not going over the movie, since I plan to do a review later on it. Season 2 really felt like it was “Love Live 2: The Search for More Money” and if anyone can get that reference, you are awesome. At the same time what I enjoyed the most in Season 2 is that it gave characters that did not get so much limelight in season 1 episodes that focused on them and gave them character development. Also only thing I will say about the movie is all their moms are attractive and I want to see Mama Live like they were talking about. Where is Mama Live?

So, since I like Love Live more here are my rankings:

Umi
Maki and Nozomi (I don’t know who I like more)
Rin
Eli
Kotori
Honkers
Hanayo
Nico

As always I hope you enjoyed.

Feel free to comment your thoughts on these posts. Have any suggestions for anything you would like to see here feel free to comment as well.

The Reviewer’s Corner has an official twitter, which is here. All updates, polls, and information on posts and future posts can be found there.

If you are a blogger who focuses on anime, manga, or comics and make you blog known feel free to visit the blog roll page and leave a message.

Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe

December 20, 2015 2

12 Days of Anime: Day 8 I watch too much Magical Girl Shows

So, let me see I am just going to start listing off all the magical girl series that are on the top of my head that I watched this year alone. This is in no particular order. I watch a lot. So I am probably just going to talk about my favorite characters.

Go Princess PreCure
Smile PreCure
Happiness Charge PreCure
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon Crystal
Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha As
Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrickerS
Maigcal Lyrical Girl Nanoha ViVid
Fate/Prisma Season 3
Madoka Magica

Those are all the ones that I remember. In total adding them up taking into account of the ones I did not finish. Or where airing weekly from the year before and finished this year. You are looking at well over 100 episodes. Just from the ones I remember.

My favorite of all these is Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StirckerS. It is my favorite of the franchise. I really wish they gave ViVid an original ending since it is basically saying go read the manga. There is also the lack of Best Girl and Best Yuri Couple Fate and Nanoha in it. StirkerS you got to see them as an adult and there were just so many interesting characters that appeared. It was the more magical battle one and a lot more build up since it had double the episodes then its first two seasons.

So, let it be said Nanoha and Fate will always be my favorite magical girls in terms of an anime and just in general as characters. Madoka Magica has nothing on them, even if that series was amazing. Plus added bonus of Fate being voiced by one of my favorite VA/Idols Nana Mizuki.

Then let me seeing. Prisma I did not finish. I don’t know why. Probably because I don’t like the mixture of ecchi and lolis. I am leaning towards that. I could take two seasons. But this season they really kicked up the yuri to uncomfortable levels more so than previous seasons.

Sailor Moon I have yet to finish. Crystal I still has two more episodes. But so far Mars and Mercury are my favorite also Jupiter. Just really wish the second half was a lot better. I really enjoyed the first half of the show, despite the ending for the first arc. I do not like how instant the relationship happened the second they regained their past memories, I could understand and would prefer if it happened over time, just not instant.

Go Princess PreCure I have been falling behind. But Clueless Princess is best princess, aka Towa or Cure Scarlet.

Smile PreCure, if you seen my twitter time line you probably seen the image I used for the feature one often. Yayoi or Cure Peace is my favorite. She is probably one of my favorite of all PreCure too. She likes superheroes and comics and stuff like that. She is a total geek and adorable. I am too afraid to watch the English adaptation known as Glitter Force in fear of now, whatever her English name is getting ride of what makes me like her.

So, before this post gets any weirder, I am ending it here. But what are your favorite Magical Girl series?

As always I hope you enjoyed.

Feel free to comment your thoughts on these posts. Have any suggestions for anything you would like to see here feel free to comment as well.

The Reviewer’s Corner has an official twitter, which is here. All updates, polls, and information on posts and future posts can be found there.

If you are a blogger who focuses on anime, manga, or comics and make you blog known feel free to visit the blog roll page and leave a message.

Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe

December 19, 2015 13

12 Days of Anime: Day 7 The Day Made for Maids

Well, in the song day seven is “Seven Maids a milking,” so I figured why not make today devoted to maids. However looking back this year there has been a major lack of maid characters or even episodes that deal with maids. This is a problem. But there are a few that come to mind.

There are two girls in Seraph of the End, although I am uncertain if they are maids, and I have not seen this cour so I cannot confirm if they are or not. There is also that one guy in Rinne no Lagrange that dressed as a maid for a majority of the show. There were a few more too. But none really stuck out, except one. Although I have plans for talking about this series on another day. Nothing fits a day for maids more than the maid of Akihabara, Kotori from Love Live.

Just the episode as a whole, although they never touch upon it ever again after the episode in season 1. I know this show is old, but I watched it this year so it counts. Still I really enjoyed this episode. It was a lot of fun. Plus Umi maid looked super mature and I love her outfit and hairstyle in that song. It was amazing.

umi maid dance — Did not realize this was my gif of choice for the Waifu Day. But still look at the clip with Umi then this version, major difference.

Now I cry since I did not see Carnival Phantasm this year to talk about Arthuria (Saber) Maid. Well, I got to at least post two maid waifu pics.

As always I hope you enjoyed.

As I mentioned feedback on what you would like to see for these series of posts would be appreciated. It will take a few posts before a set form and it might change depending on the series as well too. The same goes for any suggestion for anything you would like to see here.

The Reviewer’s Corner has an official twitter, which is here. All updates, polls, and information on posts and future posts can be found there.

If you are a blogger who focuses on anime, manga, or comics and make you blog known feel free to visit the blog roll page and leave a message.

Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe

December 18, 2015 2

12 Days of Anime: Day 6 I am going to see Star Wars Today

Ok, so I am hyped for Star Wars today. I get to see it a day before the release. So much other things, needless to say I am super excited and have been waiting for this for a while now. However although the title has the one it does, time to talk about anime that is in space that I saw this year.

There are only really two, that I enjoyed, that have taken place in space this year. The currently ongoing and airing one is Gundam Iron-Blood Orphans. It is the first Gundam series that I have ever seen. I rather enjoy it. Oddly enough the mecha fights are my least favorite part of the series. I really like the characters and everything that happens behind the scenes, like the strategies in fights. To me I find it one of the more appealing part of the series.

Although I have a general idea of the next Gundam series to check out, it is later on my “to watch list.” The only reason for this is I want to finish Idolmaster before starting Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (again for a third time, since I accidentally dropped it twice and kicked myself for enjoying something so much only to drop it).

The other series in question is Rinne no Lagrange. I really love the show when I saw it over the summer. I probably would put it in my top 20 series. I had a lot of fun watching it. Yes like all shows it had problems with it, specifically with the plot. But I am a person that believes great characters can always make up for details like plot sometimes. This was one of those times.

Lan is my favorite of them all. But at the same time it was a little difficult since they all were so fun and enjoyable to watch. The show itself felt perfect for summer with the scenery of the ocean throughout the show, even in the OVA between the two cours when it showed winter, it still felt like summer. Plus I really liked the mecha fights, although they were not major and only real important in a few scenes and that was about it.

So, space stuff???

As always I hope you enjoyed.

The Reviewer’s Corner has an official twitter, which is here. All updates, polls, and information on posts and future posts can be found there.

If you are a blogger who focuses on anime, manga, or comics and make you blog known feel free to visit the blog roll page and leave a message.

Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe

December 17, 2015 2

12 Days of Anime: Day 5 Not the Top 5 Openings

This is not the post that is my Top Five Favorite Opening Themes as voted by the community for Top Fives return, which is this Friday. This one is dedicated to one opening theme per season from this year. So, before I begin, happy holidays and have a nice day.

Winter Season: Death Parade

I love this song. One of the best parts to the show. I love the opening themes and if a show has a bad one I do find it hard to watch it. This is mostly because I do not feel like skipping ahead at the start. The ending theme is a different story, which I skip. Death Parade has that nice guitar that is just so nice to hear.

Spring Season: DanMachi

This one was difficult there were so many that I really liked from this season. It was really between Rinne and DanMachi. Both were very enjoyable. At first with this it sounds like it will start off soft, but by the end it just picks up into something really enjoyable and fitting for the show.

Summer Season: Monster Musume

Another difficult one between this and Jitsu wa Watashi wa, both series I really like, both manga series I really like, and I am glad I did both for weekly reviews. It was really enjoyable. One thing that I like about this one is there are seven versions out. One for each of the girls, excluding Lala, and the one used for the series which is all together. It was really enjoyable seeing it for the first time.

Fall Season: One-Punch Man

This opening reminds me of a mixture of two of my favorite bands ACDC and Led Zepplin. Somewhere towards the end it just reminds me of them. The song is just amazing from start to finish. Although I only saw 3 episodes of One-Punch Man and plan on marathoning it comes Sunday. I have heard it so many times to the point where it is not funny.

So, yeah. What are your favorite opening themes from this year? Another day where I am curious.

Also I do not own any of the music used. All Youtube clips where uploaded by there respective owners.

As always I hope you enjoyed.

The Reviewer’s Corner has an official twitter, which is here. All updates, polls, and information on posts and future posts can be found there.

If you are a blogger who focuses on anime, manga, or comics and make you blog known feel free to visit the blog roll page and leave a message.

Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe

December 16, 2015 4

12 Days of Anime: Day 4 Trying to be Original

Ok, so on one hand a lot of bloggers are doing these posts. Mine is super random, so I am rather glad about that. Since even I don’t know what I am going to talk about for the day until I start typing. But, that is not the only reason why this day has the title. Time to talk about original series. Also, as always happy holidays for whatever you celebrate, and if you don’t celebrate anything then have a nice day.

There were a lot of original series I attempted to watch this year. So, any anime that does not have source prior to its creation. This is a little difficult if I say Death Parade since it had a short 20 minute long show before about a year which served as the concept.

There were some with promise, Plastic Memories and Classroom Crisis. Rolling Girls was good, but the ending did not satisfy me. Death Parade was amazing, really enjoyed it. Charlotte I kind of liked, then really, then felt like the ending was too rushed and not thought out well enough. Comet Lucifer I thought would be good, but it was in one of those I don’t feel like watching it.

So, enough about the shows that aired this year, time to talk about my favorite original series and its sequel that I saw this year, Kiddy Grade and Kiddy Girl-And. I do not want to talk too much since the Favs post will be dedicated to both series in upcoming weeks.

Out of all the older shows I watched this year, just to name a few, (Strike Witches, Madoka Magica, Non Non Biyori, Ben-To, and Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha) a lot, and at least two that I mentioned are some of my favorite series. Nanoha probably also being close to the top 10 and the same goes for Kiddy Grade.

Space action series, I have not really seen many anime that take place in space. Even the few mecha series I seen not all took place in space. But Kiddy Grade I really enjoyed. The first 8 episode really focus on the characters before the real plot of the series actually happens. But although that is the case it gives small hints on the mystery as a whole. The action is also really good as well, although I mentioned that. I just like the fights and Éclair and Lumiere with their chemistry together makes it so much more fun.

Now Kiddy Girl-And, is the sequel. It does not have Éclair and Lumiere as the main, let alone in the series until really at the final episode and a half which made seeing them with the new cast that I grew to love in another 24 episodes that much more fun. Ascoeur, Q-feuille, and Di-Air, are so wonderful. Although the series does take a similar approach in it taking 8 episodes before the actual plot happens it still gives time for getting to know the characters. The show is also a lot more comedic as well, at first I felt mixed about it, but I grew to love it by the end. This one is also more Yuri than the other. In all honesty looking back at both shows that I watched for 4 weeks in august I still have a bad case of the void and still want to watch these shows again. This hasn’t happened in a long time.