Let’s talk about some Summer 2015 anime.

Rokka no Yuusha and Akagami no Shirayuki-hime are my two fantasy anime picks for this season. They’re set in very different fantasy worlds (the former appears to be inspired by the Mayan and Aztec civilisations, while the latter draws from European fairytales), but both convey a sense of wonderment and majesty that is difficult to encapsulate in words. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two series share the same soundtrack composer – Michiru Ooshima, one of the most talented ladies in the business.

If you’ve seen an anime with an Ooshima soundtrack (Fullmetal Alchemist, Xam’d: Lost Memories, etc.) you’ll know what to expect: grandiose, heavily orchestrated themes with some well-placed synthesisers. My personal favourite soundtrack of hers has to be Zetsuen no Tempest’s – never has an anime’s tone complemented Ooshima’s musical style so perfectly.

Rokka no Yuusha and Akagami no Shirayuki-hime stack up pretty well against Ooshima’s multi-award winning record. Out of the two, I’d say I prefer Akagami no Shirayuki-hime a little more. This might have something to do with the fact that the musical cues are very well-timed in the anime. The opening scene featuring Shirayuki running through the forest is magical precisely because the soundtrack is more restrained elsewhere. Mad props to the sound director Kazuhiro Wakabayashi (who also, coincidentally, worked on Zetsuen no Tempest).

This isn’t to scoff at Rokka no Yuusha, though. The music injects a sense of epic scope into what might otherwise feel like a rather generic fantasy premise. The scene in the first episode where Adlet receives the mark is a particular standout. It is far and away the most viscerally impactful scene in the anime so far.

Rokka’s soundtrack is arguably more memorable as well. The bombastic music certainly stands out more to the casual listener. And it’s so unabashedly straight-faced about its epicness, too. If the music can get me to take a bunny girl 100% seriously in the context of the plot, it must be doing something right.

In the end, it’s hard to decide which soundtrack is better overall, because both sound great and are extremely well-utilised. Perhaps it simply comes down to genre preferences. I like the whimsical sound of Akagami no Shirayuki-hime because I’m a big fan of prominent oboe parts, especially when they’re accompanied by light strings. I also simply prefer the light-hearted, Disney-esque feel of Shirayuki-hime in general. I’ve always had a sweet spot for Disney princesses, and this series scratches my shojo itch.

In any case, suffice it to say that Ooshima has done it again. I don’t think she’s produced a soundtrack that didn’t stand out to me in some way. She really needs more love.

Finally, how can I finish a post about one of my favourite anime composers without mentioning my favourite song of hers? As flawed as the story of Patema Inverted was, its theme song was really something special.

So, my readers, what do you think of Michiru Ooshima’s music? If you’ve seen Rokka no Yuusha or Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, what did you think of them? Yay or nay?

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime was a really pleasant, easy-to-watch show, but only towards the end of the season did it start to feel like it was going somewhere. Let me explain.

The narrative progression of Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is a bit all over the place. There’s a charming story about how Shirayuki chooses to become a court herbalist, but once she succeeds in that goal, the plot ambles for a while. At some point, the story ends up being more about Zen and his past than it is about the titular heroine.

Towards the end of the first season, however, Zen and Shirayuki’s struggles start to come together. Their romance (and the underlying conflict around their class differences) serves as a way for them to share each other’s burdens. Shirayuki’s journey as a court herbalist is no longer just about proving what she can do for her own sake. She now has to prove herself in front of the entire kingdom.

Season 1 feels like the calm before the storm. Season 2 is when I expect things to get real.

Otherwise, I don’t really have a lot to say about Shirayuki-hime.

Despite not being my cup of tea genre-wise, I enjoyed Shirayuki-hime. Most of my enjoyment of the series came from its wonderful aesthetics (and particularly its music). The atmosphere felt like something from a fairy tale. The characters are endearing and likable, although perhaps a little rosy and perfect to be truly interesting. It’s a fine thing to watch if you want something relaxing after a long, tiring day.

As much as I enjoyed the anime, I think I would have eventually tired of it if it remained that way forever. It did bother me when the focus shifted to Zen because I think it undermined the original point of the story: Shirayuki’s search for independence. Obviously, I don’t think you necessarily have to be single to be an autonomous individual, but we never really find out much about Shirayuki’s past or her motivations for doing things. Meanwhile, Zen gets all the meaty character development. It feels like Shirayuki is trying to have its cake and eat it too in that regard. The heroine is supposedly an independent character or whatever, but she also has this hot guy protecting her whenever she gets into the slightest spot of trouble. Oh well, at least he’s not a grade-A jerk.

By the way, the show is legitimately cute, so don’t let my minor complaints dissuade you from trying it out. It really is nice to watch an anime filled with nice people whom you would genuinely want to spend time with if you knew them irl. There’s a refreshing, down-to-earth charm to the story, even during the dramatic parts. I particularly liked the episode where Zen and Shirayuki decide to become a couple because it was handled in such a naturalistic way.

If season 2 keeps the core strengths of the series while building on the character relationships, it may turn out to be one of the finer shojo romances of recent memory. It’s the show I’m most looking forward to next season.

I suppose now is also a good time to ask: what are you looking forward to next season?

Hello, everybody! It’s that time of the year again! Time for anime bloggers to write long posts and poop on each other’s tastes.

This year, it was surprisingly easy to throw together a top 5 anime list. You see, I only finished about 5 anime. As I will explain in tomorrow’s post, this has a lot to do with my shifting interests as a blogger. If you want opinions on the latest shows, there are plenty of other blogs and reviewing sites you can go to. Personally, I don’t think that I add much new to the discussion.

But oh well, this post is for anime, so here we go!

5. Noragami Aragoto

It’s nice when a sequel surpasses the original.

Noragami is one of those series that touches on a lot of interesting ideas, like the fading relevance of Shintoism in Japan, but never really ties them together. So while the series was always competently put together, it never truly struck a chord with me.

The second season was a significant step up from the first season because it builds its conflicts around the relationships between gods and humans. The Bishamon arc is all about communication and people withholding their personal problems because they don’t want to make problems for others, which ironically causes bigger problems for everyone. Not only is this a theme that I’m pretty sure everyone can relate with to some degree, it’s relevant to the god/human theme as well, because gods operate on a different level than humans. The second arc is about Yato deciding he wants to become someone who can serve humans, which is a nice way of tying all the story threads together.

Unfortunately, the anime ends with one of those accursed “read the manga” endings, so I guess I’ll have to read the manga to see how it all ends up.

4. Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

appropriant ended up verbalising my thoughts on this anime better than I could, but Akagami no Shirayuki-hime really is a very relaxing anime to watch, and sometimes that’s all you need. I’m a big fan of the shojo aesthetic but not so much a fan of the SHENANIGANS, which is probably the big reason why Shirayuki-hime hit all my sweet spots with uncanny accuracy. While it was never the kind of show that challenged me, it never bored me either. And it never failed to put a smile on my face.

By the way, I don’t actually care that much about the two MCs, but Obi is awesome. I hope the side characters get more love in the second season. I’m hyped.

3. Aldnoah.Zero

Aldnoah Seed Destiny???

Aldnoah.Zero 2 ended up being rather unpopular with pretty much everyone except the Slaine-loving crowd on Tumblr. I enjoyed it, but holy crap, Slaine was an asshole. What the heck happened? He doesn’t even look good in those count clothes. Bring back the old Slaine, I say!

Anyway, I enjoyed this iteration of Aldnoah.Zero mostly because I love Lemrina so much. And also, there was so much delicious NTR at the end. This show really delivered what I wanted out of it.

On a more serious note, I think I ended up enjoying this series more than most anime fans because I spent more time engaging with it. I translated one of the novels and even wrote fanfiction (lol). As a result, I spent way more time thinking about this series than any of the others I watched this year. It’s not that I don’t see the flaws in the storytelling. I just ended up getting more out of the show because I put more into it.

I also had some really interesting discussions about this show with Karice, who is a bigger Aldnoah fan than I am and is quite knowledgeable about its production history. If nothing else, I hope you at least check out her post about Gen Urobuchi’s involvement in the series, which should clear up more than a few misconceptions about how Aldnoah was made (and how anime writing “works” in general). At any rate, it’s clear that all the staff put a lot of effort into making Aldnoah.Zero. It’s the kind of show that I appreciate more after rewatching it a few times. There’s a lot of nuance that I simply didn’t notice the first time around, especially with the visuals.

2. Sound! Euphonium

Hey guys, did you know that I used to play the oboe in my high school concert band? Yep, it’s true. I was the best oboist the school ever had in its entire history. (Also the only oboist, but that’s unimportant.) My history as a band nerd is one of the many reasons why Sound! Euphonium has a special place in my heart. But it’s not the only reason I love it so much.

At its heart, Eupho is a coming of age story, and its theme of finding purpose in a seemingly mundane activity resonated with me in a similar way Hyouka did, although not quite on such an intense personal level. Eupho is also an ensemble story; it’s a story about the band and the people who participate. While the focus of this season was mostly on Kumiko, many of the background characters were shown to be struggling with their own problems. This gave the impression that the band consists of people whose stories remain half-told, much like the bands I’ve been involved with in real life. There was no single character I identified with, but I was equally interested in them all.

Overall, Eupho is a nice show. It makes me nostalgic about high school. I’m looking forward to season 2 because the story we did get felt very much incomplete, and I heard the oboe girl will get attention next season.

(I also have a hot take on Kumiko x Reina, if you’re interested.)

1. Oregairu Zoku

There was never any doubt about what would top my list. Oregairu is one of my favourite series of all time, after all. I feel like I know it inside out at this stage.

Still, I was pretty burnt out on Oregairu after translating the light novels. I actually only got around to watching the second season earlier this month, but it was good stuff. In particular, I’d like to say that Hayama is the best guy and that he really needs more love and attention.

At the same time, I will have to admit that I’ve gotten everything I needed out of this series already. I’ve said everything I wanted to say. I do plan to read and summarise volume 12 for all the fans out there, but I am genuinely not all that interested in what happens next. I just hope that Watari’s subsequent projects don’t keep retreading the same characterisation and themes. I’d really like to see him try something new, something that isn’t entrenched in the point of view of the cynical loner. And no, Qualidea does not count as “something new”.

(On an unrelated note, it was a nice surprise to see my Oregairu fanfiction get a TV Tropes page this year! It seems that the story has had some lasting appeal, considering that I finished it over a year ago.)

A year-end favourite anime list is never complete without any mention of the top waifus and husbandos of the year. I don’t have Kai’s dedication to write 12 days of waifu posts, but you can nevertheless count on me to have strong opinions about waifus and husbandos.

My waifu of the year is Lemrina from Aldnoah.Zero, if it wasn’t clear enough already from all the gushing I’ve done so far. My runner-up waifu is Katou from Saekano, so give her a hand.

Katou really made the Saekano experience for me. She’s not a terribly complex character; honestly, she’s remains a cipher throughout the entire series, but hey, she’s cute. And she was memorable too. It was a genius idea to put a non-tropey character in a trope-y show, although I’m not sure I agree with the implication that Katou is what a “normal girl” would act like in the company of otaku stereotypes. Her flat characterisation works for the show and is the source of some great jokes, so I’m okay with it, though.

Also, beret!Katou > ponytail!Katou. Deal with it.

As for my husbando of the year, I spent more time pondering over this one. The Haikyuu! boys are cute, but for some reason I like the girls in that anime better, especially Yachi. Gosh, she’s cute. Thinking about husbandos only made me think about waifus, which made me feel slightly depressed about the state of bishonen/sports anime.

Then yesterday, the answer struck me like a thunderbolt.

MY HUSBANDO OF THE YEAR IS TAROU, THAT LOVABLE FUCKUP.

I only started watching Shirobako yesterday, but I am fully confident in my decision.

What has been your favourite anime this year? Do you agree/disagree with my hot takes? Let me know in the comments!

Just remember: if I didn’t mention your favourite show, it’s probably because I was too lazy to watch it.

The season has only just started, but it’s never too early to pick out a favourite waifu and husbando.

Believe it or not, Winter 2016 has not actually been a great season for waifus and lovers of fanservice. The good folks at fapservice.com have been complaining about the lack of tits and nudity this season. On Musaigen no Phantom World, they said, rather amazingly, “The lack of fanservice brings out the terrible flaws in this anime.”

Not that I’ve seen Musaigen no Phantom World, but I agree with this writer’s general sentiment. Half-hearted pandering doesn’t cut it. You can’t just have a bunch of cute character designs and dumb “MC accidentally falls on boob” jokes and call it a day. It’s the personality that counts, damn it! There’s really no girl who has leaped out at me as an icon of cuteness this season, and that’s a crying shame.

All is not lost, however. To compensate, this has been a good season for husbandos. If you’re a fan of cute boys interacting with each other in homoerotic ways, you’re in luck! We have Prince of Stride and Norn9 for the otome game fans, and of course we still have Haikyuu! continuing from least season. However, my husbando has to be from Akagami no Shirayuki-hime. Obi is the Wan for me.

Yes, you.

I can’t even tell you what I like about Obi. Maybe I just like him because I don’t care about Prince Zen and I hope that Obi NTRs him. (Clarification: I don’t hate Zen or anything, but for some reason, I just really want to see him get NTR’ed. It’s weird. I can’t explain it.)

But anyway, Obi is simply a likable character. He doesn’t seem to take himself so dead seriously, like the other characters do. He comes across as so charming but you never know entirely what he’s thinking, even though you’re sure that he is 100% a good guy by this point in the series. Because his emotions are so subtle, I find myself paying extra attention to his facial expressions. Also, his fight scenes are amazing.

It looks like season 2 will focus more on Obi and this is entirely a good thing. I can’t wait to see how his actions will affect the plot. Keep up the good work, Ando-san and co.!

As for my waifu, I’ve narrowed down my choices to two.

My first choice is for an anime I haven’t actually seen, but I am reading the manga, so it counts, right? I’ll go with Irina from Assassination Classroom (AKA Bitch-sensei).

Irina is a “bitch” in the Japanese sense of the word. As in, she’s seen as a loose woman with loose morals. But despite having some really questionable habits that undermine any semblance of professionalism as a teacher (like tongue-kissing her underage students… wtf?) Irina’s flaws are portrayed in the most endearing of ways. Even when her students call her “Bitch-sensei”, it feels affectionate rather than offensive… if that makes sense.

The funny thing about Irina is that she’s competent at everything from languages to playing the piano, but she’s woefully incompetent at her actual job: assassinating. (Well, technically, we’re told she’s good at assassinating too, but we never see any of that in the narrative itself, because everyone sucks at killing Koro-Sensei.) She also sucks at romance and has pretty much zero chance of winning over the guy she likes. But that just makes me want to cheer her on for some reason. She’s just so incredibly earnest it’s impossible to hate her.

The other girl I like this season is Saya from Dagashi Kashi. The eyes of everyone in this show freaks me out, but other than that, Saya looks pretty good. I’m pretty sure that everyone who thinks she’s cute deliberately tries to ignore that she looks like Kirino from OreImo, though.

Can’t unsee it now, can you?

Yet despite being violent towards her brother, Saya doesn’t come off like Kirino’s type at all. It has a lot to do with the fact that she’s not a violent tsundere towards the MC himself, which makes all the difference, apparently.

There’s just something natural and unaffected about Saya. I like her because she’s acts as a nice counterbalance to Hotaru, whose energy is just too much for me, honestly. Instead of doing a bland tsukkomi act in response to Hotaru’s zany behaviour, she does something much more realistic: she plays along for the sake of politeness. She ends up getting drawn into Hotaru’s antics, of course, but her silly actions never feel like a show she’s putting on for the audience. Unlike our potato-kun MC, she’s the real audience stand-in.

Also, that card-slapping scene at the end of episode 2 was genuinely hilarious. Saya is the MASTER.

So those are my waifus and husbandos of the season. Agree? Disagree? As always, take care to remember…

Zen and Shirayuki’s relationship is supposed to be the heart and soul of Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, but for some reason their interactions have always left me slightly cold. It’s a strange conundrum, because Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is everything I told myself I wanted out of a shojo romance: a story where the main characters actually communicate and are not douchebags/morons.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the manga is how Sorata Akizuki goes out of her way to infuse those old fairytale tropes with a modern, egalitarian spirit. Zen might be a dashing prince who falls for a commoner, but instead of eloping with Shirayuki or turning her into a princess, the story is all about Shirayuki rising to Zen’s level of esteem through her hard work and merit.

On closer inspection, the egalitarian message clashes with the story’s setting. Monarchism and egalitarianism don’t mix well, after all. But of course, Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is not really making a point about social equality. It is simply trying to sell a fantasy about a kind prince from a utopian kingdom to a modern audience, for whom gender equality has become a romantic ideal.

This is the main reason why I don’t find the romance in Akagami no Shirayuki-hime interesting. It is the kind of story that sets out to reaffirm what the audience believes about romance instead of challenging our preconceptions. This is not to say that I think Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is a bad series, because it is exceptionally well-crafted comfort food. But it does mean that I enjoy it primarily for the relaxing atmosphere instead of its romantic moments. Every time Zen and Shirayuki display their enormous trust in each other, I think, “This would be great for a couple in real life, but as fiction it’s boring.”

Well, to be honest, I’ve always preferred the more dysfunctional relationships in fiction.

I’m reminded of the famous opening line of Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

It’s not that I have such a cynical view of relationships that I believe it’s unrealistic to portray a happy couple in love, but I do think that one of the key strengths of fiction is that it can invite you to empathise with circumstances that don’t match your own experiences or ideals. Perhaps this is why I am so drawn to taboos such as incest, polyamory and adultery. In some cases, I actually prefer the exploitative stuff because it makes me ponder and reflect on real-life inequalities.

(Yes, there’s a reason why I find harem anime so fascinating…)

This may explain the appeal of ship teasing. It’s a way of exploring unconventional or outright taboo relationships without having to deal with their implications. One could argue rightly that a writer should just explore unconventional relationships head on instead of resorting to baiting, but from a reader’s perspective, it can be effective. If a writer insists that the ideal romance must be monogamous, egalitarian and heterosexual, at least they offer an opportunity for the reader to imagine something alternative.

Fortunately for me at least, Sorata Akizuki appears to have mastered the art of ship baiting, and so all the ship baiting scenes in Akagami no Shirayuki-hime are considerably more entertaining than the romance itself.

Warning: Some slight manga spoilers below.

I’ve joked that I would like to see Obi “NTR” Zen, but in truth it would make zero sense in the context of the story and would in fact make it noticeably worse. Part of the reason Obi is such a likable character is because the audience is assured that he would never do such a crappy thing. His devotion to Zen prevents him from acting on all of his desires. This doesn’t kill the Obi x Shirayuki ship; it just means that Obi x Zen is also fair game. Or how about a threesome? Zen approves and even orders Obi to stay by Shirayuki’s side!

If that wasn’t enough, the manga also has a fun moment where Shirayuki openly admits to perving on Mitsuhide’s abs.

…Or how about the time she blushed when she saw Kiki naked?

And don’t even mention all the Raj x Shirayuki shipping in season 2 of the anime.

None of these moments are dwelt upon in the narrative, therefore the monogamous romance between Zen and Shirayuki is never seriously challenged. But these moments remind me that Zen and Shirayuki’s lives don’t revolve around each other. They have unique relationships with other people that are no less important to them as individuals.

These moments also serve another very important function as far as the narrative’s themes are concerned. They show that Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is not just a story about romantic love, but of love in many of its forms. And you can’t always slap an easy label that describes the way you love somebody. Is it romantic? Is it platonic? Well, sometimes you can’t draw the line and that’s fine.

In most other romances, a boring lead couple would have killed the entire story, but Akagami no Shirayuki-hime remains interesting throughout. Had it placed Zen and Shirayuki’s relationship on a pedestal while downplaying the importance of the people around them, I would have gotten fed up with it. As it is, it’s a great manga for shipping.

Having said that, I do agree with some of the major criticisms against this series, particularly this:

I’m always down to have a female character defying shoujo stereotypes and have her doing something that actually requires her to have a brain. You see flashes of Shirayuki’s intellect at various points throughout the show, but any time she does something even remotely clever it’s so heavily valorized that she loses all her credit.

While I avoided discussing Shirayuki’s characterisation in this post, it probably does partially explain why I found the main romance boring. It should be noted, however, that this issue is not unique to Shirayuki. As I’ve noted before, all the characters are too rosy and perfect to be truly interesting. Yes, even Obi.

So in the end, Akagami no Shirayuki-hime sells an idealised romance that I don’t find inherently appealing. Despite this, I find it to be a very charming and pleasant experience. Give it a try if you haven’t already. I hope that it will prove to be your cup of tea.

Let’s talk about some Summer 2015 anime.

Rokka no Yuusha and Akagami no Shirayuki-hime are my two fantasy anime picks for this season. They’re set in very different fantasy worlds (the former appears to be inspired by the Mayan and Aztec civilisations, while the latter draws from European fairytales), but both convey a sense of wonderment and majesty that is difficult to encapsulate in words. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two series share the same soundtrack composer – Michiru Ooshima, one of the most talented ladies in the business.

If you’ve seen an anime with an Ooshima soundtrack (Fullmetal Alchemist, Xam’d: Lost Memories, etc.) you’ll know what to expect: grandiose, heavily orchestrated themes with some well-placed synthesisers. My personal favourite soundtrack of hers has to be Zetsuen no Tempest’s – never has an anime’s tone complemented Ooshima’s musical style so perfectly.

Rokka no Yuusha and Akagami no Shirayuki-hime stack up pretty well against Ooshima’s multi-award winning record. Out of the two, I’d say I prefer Akagami no Shirayuki-hime a little more. This might have something to do with the fact that the musical cues are very well-timed in the anime. The opening scene featuring Shirayuki running through the forest is magical precisely because the soundtrack is more restrained elsewhere. Mad props to the sound director Kazuhiro Wakabayashi (who also, coincidentally, worked on Zetsuen no Tempest).

This isn’t to scoff at Rokka no Yuusha, though. The music injects a sense of epic scope into what might otherwise feel like a rather generic fantasy premise. The scene in the first episode where Adlet receives the mark is a particular standout. It is far and away the most viscerally impactful scene in the anime so far.

Rokka’s soundtrack is arguably more memorable as well. The bombastic music certainly stands out more to the casual listener. And it’s so unabashedly straight-faced about its epicness, too. If the music can get me to take a bunny girl 100% seriously in the context of the plot, it must be doing something right.

In the end, it’s hard to decide which soundtrack is better overall, because both sound great and are extremely well-utilised. Perhaps it simply comes down to genre preferences. I like the whimsical sound of Akagami no Shirayuki-hime because I’m a big fan of prominent oboe parts, especially when they’re accompanied by light strings. I also simply prefer the light-hearted, Disney-esque feel of Shirayuki-hime in general. I’ve always had a sweet spot for Disney princesses, and this series scratches my shojo itch.

In any case, suffice it to say that Ooshima has done it again. I don’t think she’s produced a soundtrack that didn’t stand out to me in some way. She really needs more love.

Finally, how can I finish a post about one of my favourite anime composers without mentioning my favourite song of hers? As flawed as the story of Patema Inverted was, its theme song was really something special.

So, my readers, what do you think of Michiru Ooshima’s music? If you’ve seen Rokka no Yuusha or Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, what did you think of them? Yay or nay?

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime was a really pleasant, easy-to-watch show, but only towards the end of the season did it start to feel like it was going somewhere. Let me explain.

The narrative progression of Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is a bit all over the place. There’s a charming story about how Shirayuki chooses to become a court herbalist, but once she succeeds in that goal, the plot ambles for a while. At some point, the story ends up being more about Zen and his past than it is about the titular heroine.

Towards the end of the first season, however, Zen and Shirayuki’s struggles start to come together. Their romance (and the underlying conflict around their class differences) serves as a way for them to share each other’s burdens. Shirayuki’s journey as a court herbalist is no longer just about proving what she can do for her own sake. She now has to prove herself in front of the entire kingdom.

Season 1 feels like the calm before the storm. Season 2 is when I expect things to get real.

Otherwise, I don’t really have a lot to say about Shirayuki-hime.

Despite not being my cup of tea genre-wise, I enjoyed Shirayuki-hime. Most of my enjoyment of the series came from its wonderful aesthetics (and particularly its music). The atmosphere felt like something from a fairy tale. The characters are endearing and likable, although perhaps a little rosy and perfect to be truly interesting. It’s a fine thing to watch if you want something relaxing after a long, tiring day.

As much as I enjoyed the anime, I think I would have eventually tired of it if it remained that way forever. It did bother me when the focus shifted to Zen because I think it undermined the original point of the story: Shirayuki’s search for independence. Obviously, I don’t think you necessarily have to be single to be an autonomous individual, but we never really find out much about Shirayuki’s past or her motivations for doing things. Meanwhile, Zen gets all the meaty character development. It feels like Shirayuki is trying to have its cake and eat it too in that regard. The heroine is supposedly an independent character or whatever, but she also has this hot guy protecting her whenever she gets into the slightest spot of trouble. Oh well, at least he’s not a grade-A jerk.

By the way, the show is legitimately cute, so don’t let my minor complaints dissuade you from trying it out. It really is nice to watch an anime filled with nice people whom you would genuinely want to spend time with if you knew them irl. There’s a refreshing, down-to-earth charm to the story, even during the dramatic parts. I particularly liked the episode where Zen and Shirayuki decide to become a couple because it was handled in such a naturalistic way.

If season 2 keeps the core strengths of the series while building on the character relationships, it may turn out to be one of the finer shojo romances of recent memory. It’s the show I’m most looking forward to next season.

I suppose now is also a good time to ask: what are you looking forward to next season?

Hello, everybody! It’s that time of the year again! Time for anime bloggers to write long posts and poop on each other’s tastes.

This year, it was surprisingly easy to throw together a top 5 anime list. You see, I only finished about 5 anime. As I will explain in tomorrow’s post, this has a lot to do with my shifting interests as a blogger. If you want opinions on the latest shows, there are plenty of other blogs and reviewing sites you can go to. Personally, I don’t think that I add much new to the discussion.

But oh well, this post is for anime, so here we go!

5. Noragami Aragoto

It’s nice when a sequel surpasses the original.

Noragami is one of those series that touches on a lot of interesting ideas, like the fading relevance of Shintoism in Japan, but never really ties them together. So while the series was always competently put together, it never truly struck a chord with me.

The second season was a significant step up from the first season because it builds its conflicts around the relationships between gods and humans. The Bishamon arc is all about communication and people withholding their personal problems because they don’t want to make problems for others, which ironically causes bigger problems for everyone. Not only is this a theme that I’m pretty sure everyone can relate with to some degree, it’s relevant to the god/human theme as well, because gods operate on a different level than humans. The second arc is about Yato deciding he wants to become someone who can serve humans, which is a nice way of tying all the story threads together.

Unfortunately, the anime ends with one of those accursed “read the manga” endings, so I guess I’ll have to read the manga to see how it all ends up.

4. Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

appropriant ended up verbalising my thoughts on this anime better than I could, but Akagami no Shirayuki-hime really is a very relaxing anime to watch, and sometimes that’s all you need. I’m a big fan of the shojo aesthetic but not so much a fan of the SHENANIGANS, which is probably the big reason why Shirayuki-hime hit all my sweet spots with uncanny accuracy. While it was never the kind of show that challenged me, it never bored me either. And it never failed to put a smile on my face.

By the way, I don’t actually care that much about the two MCs, but Obi is awesome. I hope the side characters get more love in the second season. I’m hyped.

3. Aldnoah.Zero

Aldnoah Seed Destiny???

Aldnoah.Zero 2 ended up being rather unpopular with pretty much everyone except the Slaine-loving crowd on Tumblr. I enjoyed it, but holy crap, Slaine was an asshole. What the heck happened? He doesn’t even look good in those count clothes. Bring back the old Slaine, I say!

Anyway, I enjoyed this iteration of Aldnoah.Zero mostly because I love Lemrina so much. And also, there was so much delicious NTR at the end. This show really delivered what I wanted out of it.

On a more serious note, I think I ended up enjoying this series more than most anime fans because I spent more time engaging with it. I translated one of the novels and even wrote fanfiction (lol). As a result, I spent way more time thinking about this series than any of the others I watched this year. It’s not that I don’t see the flaws in the storytelling. I just ended up getting more out of the show because I put more into it.

I also had some really interesting discussions about this show with Karice, who is a bigger Aldnoah fan than I am and is quite knowledgeable about its production history. If nothing else, I hope you at least check out her post about Gen Urobuchi’s involvement in the series, which should clear up more than a few misconceptions about how Aldnoah was made (and how anime writing “works” in general). At any rate, it’s clear that all the staff put a lot of effort into making Aldnoah.Zero. It’s the kind of show that I appreciate more after rewatching it a few times. There’s a lot of nuance that I simply didn’t notice the first time around, especially with the visuals.

2. Sound! Euphonium

Hey guys, did you know that I used to play the oboe in my high school concert band? Yep, it’s true. I was the best oboist the school ever had in its entire history. (Also the only oboist, but that’s unimportant.) My history as a band nerd is one of the many reasons why Sound! Euphonium has a special place in my heart. But it’s not the only reason I love it so much.

At its heart, Eupho is a coming of age story, and its theme of finding purpose in a seemingly mundane activity resonated with me in a similar way Hyouka did, although not quite on such an intense personal level. Eupho is also an ensemble story; it’s a story about the band and the people who participate. While the focus of this season was mostly on Kumiko, many of the background characters were shown to be struggling with their own problems. This gave the impression that the band consists of people whose stories remain half-told, much like the bands I’ve been involved with in real life. There was no single character I identified with, but I was equally interested in them all.

Overall, Eupho is a nice show. It makes me nostalgic about high school. I’m looking forward to season 2 because the story we did get felt very much incomplete, and I heard the oboe girl will get attention next season.

(I also have a hot take on Kumiko x Reina, if you’re interested.)

1. Oregairu Zoku

There was never any doubt about what would top my list. Oregairu is one of my favourite series of all time, after all. I feel like I know it inside out at this stage.

Still, I was pretty burnt out on Oregairu after translating the light novels. I actually only got around to watching the second season earlier this month, but it was good stuff. In particular, I’d like to say that Hayama is the best guy and that he really needs more love and attention.

At the same time, I will have to admit that I’ve gotten everything I needed out of this series already. I’ve said everything I wanted to say. I do plan to read and summarise volume 12 for all the fans out there, but I am genuinely not all that interested in what happens next. I just hope that Watari’s subsequent projects don’t keep retreading the same characterisation and themes. I’d really like to see him try something new, something that isn’t entrenched in the point of view of the cynical loner. And no, Qualidea does not count as “something new”.

(On an unrelated note, it was a nice surprise to see my Oregairu fanfiction get a TV Tropes page this year! It seems that the story has had some lasting appeal, considering that I finished it over a year ago.)

A year-end favourite anime list is never complete without any mention of the top waifus and husbandos of the year. I don’t have Kai’s dedication to write 12 days of waifu posts, but you can nevertheless count on me to have strong opinions about waifus and husbandos.

My waifu of the year is Lemrina from Aldnoah.Zero, if it wasn’t clear enough already from all the gushing I’ve done so far. My runner-up waifu is Katou from Saekano, so give her a hand.

Katou really made the Saekano experience for me. She’s not a terribly complex character; honestly, she’s remains a cipher throughout the entire series, but hey, she’s cute. And she was memorable too. It was a genius idea to put a non-tropey character in a trope-y show, although I’m not sure I agree with the implication that Katou is what a “normal girl” would act like in the company of otaku stereotypes. Her flat characterisation works for the show and is the source of some great jokes, so I’m okay with it, though.

Also, beret!Katou > ponytail!Katou. Deal with it.

As for my husbando of the year, I spent more time pondering over this one. The Haikyuu! boys are cute, but for some reason I like the girls in that anime better, especially Yachi. Gosh, she’s cute. Thinking about husbandos only made me think about waifus, which made me feel slightly depressed about the state of bishonen/sports anime.

Then yesterday, the answer struck me like a thunderbolt.

MY HUSBANDO OF THE YEAR IS TAROU, THAT LOVABLE FUCKUP.

I only started watching Shirobako yesterday, but I am fully confident in my decision.

What has been your favourite anime this year? Do you agree/disagree with my hot takes? Let me know in the comments!

Just remember: if I didn’t mention your favourite show, it’s probably because I was too lazy to watch it.

The season has only just started, but it’s never too early to pick out a favourite waifu and husbando.

Believe it or not, Winter 2016 has not actually been a great season for waifus and lovers of fanservice. The good folks at fapservice.com have been complaining about the lack of tits and nudity this season. On Musaigen no Phantom World, they said, rather amazingly, “The lack of fanservice brings out the terrible flaws in this anime.”

Not that I’ve seen Musaigen no Phantom World, but I agree with this writer’s general sentiment. Half-hearted pandering doesn’t cut it. You can’t just have a bunch of cute character designs and dumb “MC accidentally falls on boob” jokes and call it a day. It’s the personality that counts, damn it! There’s really no girl who has leaped out at me as an icon of cuteness this season, and that’s a crying shame.

All is not lost, however. To compensate, this has been a good season for husbandos. If you’re a fan of cute boys interacting with each other in homoerotic ways, you’re in luck! We have Prince of Stride and Norn9 for the otome game fans, and of course we still have Haikyuu! continuing from least season. However, my husbando has to be from Akagami no Shirayuki-hime. Obi is the Wan for me.

Yes, you.

I can’t even tell you what I like about Obi. Maybe I just like him because I don’t care about Prince Zen and I hope that Obi NTRs him. (Clarification: I don’t hate Zen or anything, but for some reason, I just really want to see him get NTR’ed. It’s weird. I can’t explain it.)

But anyway, Obi is simply a likable character. He doesn’t seem to take himself so dead seriously, like the other characters do. He comes across as so charming but you never know entirely what he’s thinking, even though you’re sure that he is 100% a good guy by this point in the series. Because his emotions are so subtle, I find myself paying extra attention to his facial expressions. Also, his fight scenes are amazing.

It looks like season 2 will focus more on Obi and this is entirely a good thing. I can’t wait to see how his actions will affect the plot. Keep up the good work, Ando-san and co.!

As for my waifu, I’ve narrowed down my choices to two.

My first choice is for an anime I haven’t actually seen, but I am reading the manga, so it counts, right? I’ll go with Irina from Assassination Classroom (AKA Bitch-sensei).

Irina is a “bitch” in the Japanese sense of the word. As in, she’s seen as a loose woman with loose morals. But despite having some really questionable habits that undermine any semblance of professionalism as a teacher (like tongue-kissing her underage students… wtf?) Irina’s flaws are portrayed in the most endearing of ways. Even when her students call her “Bitch-sensei”, it feels affectionate rather than offensive… if that makes sense.

The funny thing about Irina is that she’s competent at everything from languages to playing the piano, but she’s woefully incompetent at her actual job: assassinating. (Well, technically, we’re told she’s good at assassinating too, but we never see any of that in the narrative itself, because everyone sucks at killing Koro-Sensei.) She also sucks at romance and has pretty much zero chance of winning over the guy she likes. But that just makes me want to cheer her on for some reason. She’s just so incredibly earnest it’s impossible to hate her.

The other girl I like this season is Saya from Dagashi Kashi. The eyes of everyone in this show freaks me out, but other than that, Saya looks pretty good. I’m pretty sure that everyone who thinks she’s cute deliberately tries to ignore that she looks like Kirino from OreImo, though.

Can’t unsee it now, can you?

Yet despite being violent towards her brother, Saya doesn’t come off like Kirino’s type at all. It has a lot to do with the fact that she’s not a violent tsundere towards the MC himself, which makes all the difference, apparently.

There’s just something natural and unaffected about Saya. I like her because she’s acts as a nice counterbalance to Hotaru, whose energy is just too much for me, honestly. Instead of doing a bland tsukkomi act in response to Hotaru’s zany behaviour, she does something much more realistic: she plays along for the sake of politeness. She ends up getting drawn into Hotaru’s antics, of course, but her silly actions never feel like a show she’s putting on for the audience. Unlike our potato-kun MC, she’s the real audience stand-in.

Also, that card-slapping scene at the end of episode 2 was genuinely hilarious. Saya is the MASTER.

So those are my waifus and husbandos of the season. Agree? Disagree? As always, take care to remember…