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Opinion Personal

My Favorite Anime of the Year – 2018 (Part 2)

Welcome back! I wasn’t originally planning to split my favorites up between multiple posts, but I realized while writing that there was just too much great anime that I wanted to talk about and it would have been unjust to cram them all into such a tiny space. It may also be that I can get a little long-winded talking about the things that I love… but that’s not necessarily a bad thing (at least if you enjoy my writing).

Just for consistency’s sake, I’ll reiterate that the anime series I’m writing about for my favorites were broadcast from Autumn 2017 through Summer 2018, rather than from the entirety of 2018, not only because I tend to watch things in fits and starts, but because I like to let my opinions crystallize a bit before naming something a favorite. There was obviously a lot of great stuff airing this Autumn… so some of it will probably end up as a favorite next year!

Read part 1 of this series here!

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Opinion Personal

My Favorite Anime of the Year – 2018 (Part 1)

Now is the time when many of my favorite anime bloggers are posting their picks for their favorite (and sometimes least favorite) anime of the year. While this is something I’ve always wanted to do, what’s prevented me from posting lists like this in the past is the fact that I tend not to finish watching the Autumn season shows in a timely manner, and so feel ill-equipped to participate. I also like to let the series I have finished watching settle for a while so that I can ensure that my opinions hold up over time; sometimes I may feel one way about an anime immediately after completing it, but after some further thought my opinion becomes more nuanced and even completely different.

My solution, then, is to operate on a slightly different time-table. For this list of favorites, I’ll be drawing from the anime I viewed from Autumn season 2017 through Summer season 2018 (basically October 2017 through the end of September 2018). While that will offset my picks a bit from others’, I feel like this is the best way to confidently represent how I feel about the anime I’ve completed.

This list is in no particular order, other than chronological based on time of broadcast. I’m terrible at assigning rankings to things, and would rather feature these different anime for their specific good traits rather than attempt to figure out which ones I liked more or less. I also hope that through this list I’m able to feature a few underrated gems that readers might want to give a second look.

This was getting lengthy, so I split it up into two parts. Stay tuned for the second half!

ETA: Check out Part 2 here!

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First Impressions Reviews Uncategorized

Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Shorts

The honeymoon phase is great!

Hello, friends! While I’ve decided not to tackle sequels this season for various reasons (lack of time being one of them, relative difficulty being another; I’d also rather not get Index or SAO fans after me), I wanted to poke around this season’s short anime.

Shorts are always kind of a mixed bag. While there are some shorts I’ve really enjoyed, their short run-time often feels like a sample rather than a meal. For the purposes of this post, I’ll be watching 2-3 episodes (or more) of each, so that I can ensure I’ll have enough material to work with. Though some anime series are accompanied by more gag-focused shorts, I’ll only be watching original short-form anime for this post.

Himote House

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Summary: Tae is about to experience one of her dreams – living in Tokyo as an adult. In order to make this dream a reality, she’s sharing a living space with three sisters and another former classmate. Tae is outgoing and has no trouble settling into the home, but there’s one minor detail that she didn’t know about ahead of time – in addition to their different personalities and style-sense, all of her new roommates also harbor within them special abilities. One can stop time, another can shoot energy beams, and there’s even a young woman who can duplicate the abilities of other powerful individuals. Tae feels like the odd-one-out… until she discovers a special ability of her own.

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First Impressions Reviews Uncategorized

Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Voice of Fox

Hu Li is a poor but talented high school boy. He is a “ghost” singer/songwriter for the popular and narcissistic boy idol Kong Que, who is very handsome but can barely sing. Hu always wears a fox mask to hide his large facial scar caused by a traffic accident. He also uses a screen name “Mr. Fox” to publish his music online. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Comic

Episode Summary: Hu Li is a typical, unassuming young man. He holds down several odd-jobs to scrape by and watches those with fame and fortune from afar. But Hu Li has some interesting secrets. He’s a talented singer and songwriter who posts his creations online under a fox-masked pseudonym. He’s also the voice of a popular idol, the attractive Kong Que – a man with a pretty face but without the talent to go along with it.

Kong Que and Hu Li have an arrangement – Hu Li provides the live vocals for Kon Que, and together they create the perfect idol. A clause in Hu Li’s contracts is that no one can find out the nature of this secret, but after receiving a mysterious email one night, Hu Li realizes that someone is watching his every move.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Gakuen Basara: Samurai High School

The suspension of student council president, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, has created a power vacuum at Basara Academy. Now, Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura find themselves vying for the top spot. But they aren’t the only ones with their eyes on the prize. – HIDIVE

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Game Series

Episode Summary: It’s election season at Basara High School, and the primary candidates are feverishly trying to drum up support as they work to replace the displaced student council president. The rivalries have even filtered down into some of the sports clubs, as the soccer team and baseball team fight over who has ownership of the practice field. As the argument gets even more heated, club leaders Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura decide to work things out the way they know best – through sports.

Their hot-blooded kickball game exists as a bit of a proxy war for the larger conflicts going on throughout the school. Candidates Tokugawa and Mitsunari use the event as a campaign opportunity as both teams prevent one-another from scoring any points. As the sun sets, Yukimura and Masamune go one-on-one to decide the victor, and with his master’s guidance Yukimura comes out on top. The competition is quickly made moot, however, as headmaster Oda Nobunaga puts an end to the game (and the entire playing field).

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2018 First Impressions – My Sister, My Writer

Suzuka Nagami is a beautiful third-year middle school student who has excellent grades and is the student council president. She wrote a novel about a little sister who dotes on her older brother, and the the novel wins a light novel award. After they discuss the matter, her older brother Yū is the one who debuts as a proxy light novel author instead of Suzuka, under the pen name Chikai Towano. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 10

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Yu has aspired to be a light novel author most of his teenage life, but his contest submissions never seem to make it to the finalist stage. After another rejection email, he looks up the winning entry – a story about a sister who harbors feelings for her older brother. Yu files the information away for later use (it might be a decent read, after all).

In the meantime, his sister Suzuka (with whom he has a strained relationship) begins to act as though she has some news to share with him. Finally he gets her to cough it up – she was, in fact, the winner of that writing contest, having submitted a manuscript that she just happened to write on a whim. With that blow to his confidence out of the way, Yu ends up undertaking a difficult challenge; Suzuka can’t make public appearances as an author for various reasons, so she ropes Yu into becoming the public face of her writing.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Conception

Itsuki Yūge is a high school student who finds out on the day of his graduation ceremony that his cousin and childhood friend Mahiru is pregnant. Immediately afterward, Itsuki and Mahiru are taken to a magical world called Granvania, which is currently being invaded by monsters. The only people who can fight and exorcise the monsters are the “Star Children,” and the Star Children can only be produced by the 12 “Star Maidens.” In order to defeat the monsters and return to his own world, Itsuki must father the Star Children with the Maidens. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Game

Episode Summary: Itsuki’s cousin Mahiru has some news for him, and it’s a surprise to them both: Mahiru is pregnant, though having never had intercourse the mechanism is truly a mystery. As she reveals the news, both the teens are drawn unwillingly into a magic porthole that connects to another world. After battling with a demon, they’re met by someone from the royal court who escorts them them to the castle.

As the King himself explains, Itsuki was brought to their world to be its savior, and Mahiru is one of twelve zodiac priestesses who play an important role in the world’s survival. It’s not Itsuki himself that’s destined to purify the world, but instead the offspring he creates with each of the priestesses have the power to save them all. As a relatively innocent guy, this weighty task seems somewhat daunting though perhaps a little fun, too. When his potential coupling with Mahiru is set to become a reality, it’s then that Itsuki is under the gun to prove what kind of man he is.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Merc StoriA

Yuu, a young healer with the power to heal the hearts of monsters, receives a mysterious bottle from his father as a gift. When Yuu touches the bottle, Merc, a girl made of liquid, appears from it. Merc has no memories from before she met Yuu and wants to learn more about who she is, so the two of them set out on a journey through various countries. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Game

Episode Summary: Yuu is a young man with a developing ability to heal agitated beasts and monsters. His adventuring dad brings him home what looks like just a weird bottle of water, but inside is a magical water fairy named Merc with a snappy personality and a desire to lead Yuu out on his own adventures.

As Yuu and Merc plan to embark on a quest (since Merc’s horoscope leads her to believe that it’s the best time to do so), they get involved with a small, fluffy monster who seems insistent that they follow him. Their fluffy friend leads them to a large monster in need of healing. Though Yuu’s abilities may be somewhat untrained, his natural talents are able to calm the beast. To show thanks, their fluff ball companion elects to join them as they adventure into the unknown.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Karakuri Circus

Masaru Saiga is a fifth-grade boy who aims to become a puppeteer. After Sadayoshi Saiga — the CEO of the giant home telephone maker Saiga and Masaru’s father — passes away, Masaru inherits 18 billion yen. Masaru is targeted for his wealth, and is saved by two people. Narumi Katō is a man who has studied Kung-Fu and has a weird illness called “Zonapha Syndrome,” and Shirogane is a silver-haired woman who controls the puppet “Arurukan” (Harlequin). Together, Masaru, Narumi, and Shirogane get thrown into various conspiracies by those who would try to steal Masaru’s fortune. – ANN

Streaming: Amazon Prime

Episodes: 36

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Narumi is a martial-arts expert, but you wouldn’t know it from his day job as a costumed advertisement for a circus. As he’s handing out flyers to passers-by, a boy runs into him with his luggage. This young man, Masaru, is on the run from several very threatening men-in-black who seem immune to physical attacks. Narumi and Masaru escape from them onto a train, but their safety is only temporary; these dark figures, who are soon revealed to be puppet-like automatons, attack their car and derail the train, crashing it into Narumi’s circus tent.

Inside, Masaru and Narumi find themselves cornered, until a silver-haired woman wearing a sparkling unitard descends from a tightrope above and takes control of the huge marionette in Masaru’s luggage. This woman, Shirogane, has a long-standing commitment to Masaru’s family, and uses her skills to rescue him. Still, she doesn’t know much about the lay of the land, so as Masaru receives medical treatment, Narumi and Shirogane reach an uneasy truce.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2018 First Impressions – As Miss Beelzebub Likes it.

Mullin lands his dream job with the demon king he’s always held in awe, but when his tenure begins, it turns out the demon king isn’t quite what he expected. Beelzebub is a hardworking female demon but her dedication to her job is only rivaled by her love for everything fluffy. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Though human beings have many myths about Hell, in truth it’s a very pleasant place, populated by demons who don’t appear as sinister as expected. In fact, they’re actually fallen angels who still (in some ways) serve God, and they’re led by the intelligent, powerful, and cuteness-obsessed demon Beelzebub. Beelzebub’s assistant, Mullin, has always looked up to his leader (and might even have feelings for her), but can’t reconcile the image he had of her with the reality of her personality. In truth, Beelzebub is very capable, but her comfort around Mullin manifests as laziness and continued expression of her love of soft and fluffy things.

Their relationship is a bit of a tug-of-war, which blows up when Beelzebub wanders off in Hell Ginza and gets lost. Mullin worries that, in spite of her battle prowess, she’ll end up getting mugged – or worse. When he finds her, he lets his emotions show, and Beelzebub doesn’t know how to react. The real problem is that she’s started to feel feelings she doesn’t have the experience or the vocabulary to define, and it seems to be Mullin’s fault.

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