![Kiseijuu - 08 -21[2]](https://thecartdriver.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/f0c3e-kiseijuu-08-212.jpg "Oh no the girl I like is talking to me. Must...strain...to hold in....fart")
The year is nearly over. Time to start deciding the best and worst of the year. Now would be the ideal time to go back and watch that anime everyone is talking about so you can decide your favourite anime of the year too! Or you could just spend more time procrastinating on the internet like you’re doing now.
What’s Hot
Scamp: Mushishi
There was a plan to blog Mushishi again for this half, but that sorta fell by the wayside because Mushishi is really hard to cover. You just watch it at your own pace and stew in it for a while. That doesn’t mean it got worse or anything. Mushishi is still consistently excellent. The latest episode with the water boy is probably the best its been this season. The way Mushishi has no qualms moving between good and bad endings means you never fully know how the episode is going to shape out, meaning the twist in the water boy episode completely blindsided me. Maybe it’s just me turning into a huge sap in my old age, but I swear this season has me way more emotional than previous seasons. It’s still the same old Mushishi with the same excellent storytelling, but it feels like it hits harder sometimes.
Shinmaru: Shirobako
Sometimes I have to sit and wonder why I so enjoy a series that is so reflective of the stresses of work and life. I’m not an animator, but I can certainly identify with many of the core conflicts and themes of Shirobako. The choices and sacrifices one has to make to lead a happy and fulfilling life, the chaos of coming together to make any sort of impact or difference in the world, the fear of looking out at the world and not knowing how to make it … all that and more hits me pretty hard. The way Shirobako balances that edge and that comforting hand patting the characters on the back and telling them to keep going because it’s all worth it is probably what makes it bearable to watch. Too much comfort, and the series seems like empty platitudes; not enough, and it’s full of despair with no end in sight. It’s a delicate balance, but one that has been struck such that I’m rooting for these characters more than any cast in quite a while.
It also helps that literally every person in this series — even that fuckhead Tarou — is adorable.
Inushinde: Selector Spread WIXOSS
Teenage girls acting really mean to each other is always a pleasant diversion in a medium fraught with teenage girls being insufferably civil, but Spread Wixoss raises the bar to something truly wonderful. Where Spread Wixoss triumphs over the first season is in the way that it’s forgone any attempt at explaining why each of the girls are fucked up, opting instead for shedding light on the unhealthy, extremely caustic relationships they have with each other, and the game that’s ruined their lives that they’re still inexplicably drawn to.
It’s one of the rare cases of a cast being entirely unlikable that’s still engaging, with even the more sympathetic characters like Ruuko being made annoying by persistent inaction and refusal to not stake their lives on children’s card games. It hints at an inner desire that’s no more healthy than Akira’s desire to either bully or be dependent on other teenage girls. If Wixoss wanted to make me utterly detest a cast of characters while still eagerly wanting to see what shit they do next, it’s succeeded.
Not so Hot
Scamp: Psycho Pass 2
I know I normally try to cover something in the monthly roundups that I’m not covering weekly, but fucking Psycho Pass man! What an absolute shitshow. There comes a magical point where your goodwill and pre-season hype drops and suddenly all the free passes you were giving the show beforehand disappear and all your frustration and anger comes out at once, changing your view on even the earlier episodes. All the characters are stupid, it’s even more blatantly obvious with its themes last season, the animation is turning to dogshit. All of these are much larger problems of niggles the first season had, but what ultimately undermines this entire season is how bad Sibyl has suddenly become. It went from the one character in the entire world not being correctly identified to apparently everybody having their hues leap all over the place and change every which way to the point that Sibyl’s existence just seems silly. It undermines the entire moral question that is supposed to form the structure of Psycho Pass’s cyberpunk future. Would Robocop be as good if Robocop kept accidentally killing civilians? Exactly!
Shinmaru: Psycho-Pass 2
For once I’m watching something that’s plain bad rather than less good than everything else I’m watching. What’s most disappointing is this season of Psycho-Pass started with promise: There was a greater focus on Akane, whose story was without question my favorite part of the first season of Psycho-Pass. She’s a cool, incisive detective, and we watched her show us that gradually throughout the first season, so I have real investment in her. But here, I feel like she’s been plopped into a really bad late ‘80s OVA, and not one of the enjoyable ones like Mad Bull 34. (A super serious detective being thrust into a ridiculous Mad Bull world sounds like an awesome idea, though.)
The weird thing is I think a lot of the goofy, weird elements — people unknowingly controlling death robots via video game, a person constructed entirely of other people’s body parts (including multiple brains!!!!), a lab experiment who turned out to be Pure Evil, and so on — would work if it weren’t attached to a world and story that had already advanced in such a clear direction beforehand. My reaction to much of Psycho-Pass 2’s silliness feels particularly weird considering that I thought much of the first season was also ridiculous. Maybe I would think differently if Akane weren’t involved in this nonsense. Who knows?
Anyway, this show is goofy as fuck and I hope it gets goofier.
Inushinde: Grisaia no Kajitsu
Grisaia is the kind of show that, no matter what bullshit it manages to conjure from the ether, always takes itself deathly seriously. And let me tell you, there is a LOT of bullshit that the series tries (and fails) to pull off with emotional weight. It tries to pass off the inanity of elaborately faked deaths, aborted school arson, and live burial as some profound statement on the human condition, filtered through the lens of generic harem girls with varying degrees of psychosis. The fact that each of these acts is executed with a total lack of self awareness, and enough filler to choke a filler-resistant horse, only makes its attempts more catastrophic. Grisaia is terrible, but it’s the kind of adorable terrible that all of us tried to pen at age fifteen, blissfully unaware of our own lack of skill. In a way, it’s inspiring. In a bigger way, it’s just really bad. If it weren’t so boring half the time, I would love the hell out of it.
The Cart Driver 
Anime of the year goes to Twintails.
What he said. The only way it could be better is if it focused exclusively on the villains.
Nope. Cross Ange!
Cross “Anal”!
I think Twintails would be even better if it was about the Head Maid trying to entrap under-aged guys and get them down the aisle.
Really, really want more Head Maid action.
hopefully the Psycho-Pass movie forgets everything that transpired this season.
from my understanding it occurs after season 1 and before season 2, so we can all just dismiss this season as being noncanon to make us feel better about it. Like everything that happens after the anime for Usagi Drop ends
Really? Promo art features Kougami so I’m pretty sure it’s a sequel
My understanding is that this season is either going to be completely ignored by the movie or make no significant changes in the status quo that would require watching it before the movie. Whatever it is, the message we’ve been getting is that watching PP2 is entirely unnecessary for the movie.
This all sounds like wonderful news! Psycho Pass season 2 can be regarded as some slightly bad fanfiction
Urobuchi had complete control on this one’s script, right? So this failing can’t be attributed to anyone else, right?
I thought Urobuchi wasn’t involved with this one at all? It’s being written by Tow Ubakata or someone, I think.
In that case, what was the point of getting hyped? The success rate of stuff with both
A) Urobuchi’s name attached, and
B) Urobuchi not having complete control of the script
has been very close to, if not completely, zero. I mean, sure, it was a sequel to Psycho Pass, but I would have been skeptical from the beginning if I knew this was the case.
The reason for the hype is simple: Most people don’t do their research on the writing staff (or much of the production staff in general).
The real mystery is why Urobuchi keeps letting people use his name for this shit.
I actually wasn’t planning on watching Psycho-Pass 2 until I heard people actually liked the first episode due to the reasons I liked the first season (Akane being awesome). It’s been downhill since the second episode.
I think Urobuchi is a $ man by now. He’s got his name in the public and just trying to capitalize on it. Why make up a new plot to an already convoluted story when you can market a CG movie with a scantily clad loli?
I hated Psycho-pass 2 from episode 1, so it’s been fun to watch people realize how awful it is. I think I could have enjoyed it a little if Mika hadn’t been a terrible character and the show hadn’t gotten super violent for no reason, but alas…
The idea of Mika isn’t too bad, but the writing behind her is terrible. I can’t even hate her; she just comes off like the walking contrivance to justify the bullshit leaps the story takes.
PP2. I mentioned in the preview that I had a bad feeling about it, but this is beyond that.
I grit my teeth through most of it, thinking there will be some reveal that will make it better, or it’ll shake off the direction it’s headed in… but then the Sibyl-is-an-EVIL-family-business thing happened, so now I’m checked out. It went from a flawed and well-intentioned system to some perverse power grab for it’s own sake.
Gonna watch what remains though. I must not avert my eyes from this, no matter how it changes my hue. What color are we? WHAT COLOR ARE WE!?
At least Psycho-Pass 2’s OP still kicks ass.
The OP is cool but anytime the frames loop I feel like I get kicked in the ass.
Both OPs from the first season are better tho
I disagree with you and I think that this one is the best OP so far, but whatever.
To elaborate, I’m not a big fan of Ling Tosite Sigure’s overblown whispery falsetto in Abormalize, and Out of Control just fell flat. Enigmatic Feeling has LTS use his falsetto in a much more efficient manner.
And yes, I know there’s more than one vocalist in Ling Tosite Sigure.
Blogging Mushi-Shi too difficult? I beg to differ. There were plenty a moment when I turned a dark alley and thought I got trapped in a creepy teleportation cocoon.
I always thought that Psycho-Pass had almost perfect ending so I didn’t have any high expectations when the new season was announced. I don’t care that this new season is stupid. I’m just enjoying the ride. The VERY stupid ride.
I’m really disappointed that they haven’t done anything with the sibyl system. Sibyl system is the true villain of the series. Make a season or movie about Akane destroying sibyl. That would be a great idea.
The movie will probably suck too. Anime movies that are sequels are often worse than the tv-series. FMA Brotherhood, Steins;Gate, Madoka, Eden of the East and Evangelion comes to my mind.
Why would Akane destroy a system that allows her to be the top cop?
But End of Evangelion was actually really fucking good, and so are the Rebuilds.
I’ve been largely disappointed by Zoku Shou 2’s stories so far. The newest ep and the first ep are the strongest and the rest have been pretty bottom tier. They’re slow, not very engaging, and just aren’t particularly good but everyone still praises the series nonetheless. I hope that last ep being stronger means it’ll improve again.
Psycho Pass 2 went to hell that’s for sure, but it’s watchable. Shirobako is boring but it’s not bad. Grisaia isn’t horribly once you get past the first few eps but it’s not very good either. The weird thing with UBW is just when I complain the most it delivers a fairly solid ep or two so it can shut me up so I’m enjoying it but a bit mixed. SAO 2 is boring as hell, but oddly while I enjoyed Excalibur more than Mother’s Rosario in the LNs, it’s the opposite now and Mother’s Rosario seems to be the first time I’m not quite as bored watching (GGO seemed a lot worse in the anime as well)
I’m enjoying Magic Kaito, GBF Try (I think it’s slightly more solid than S1 so far), Nanatsu no Taizai a decent amount. Kai is moving too slowly but it’ll finally get to the second section of meat for the Buu arc. Amagi is actually decent for a Kyoani anime (best since Hyouka but that’s not saying much), though they’ve seem to have forgotten the mc’s mind reading powers stupidly. Shigatsu is alright, really beautiful visuals and when the characters play music it’s nice, but other times it’s not quite so good and feels kinda slow, the characters aren’t that great either. Madan no Ou is actually better than I thought at first, with stronger characters than typically seen in what the anime appears to be, but its initial charm has worn off somewhat.
Diamond no Ace is boring me and I just want it to end, it’s way too damn slow for me to enjoy anymore. I actually picked up Pokemon X/Y for hell of it and sometimes it has it’s moments, the Mega Evolution special is actually pretty good. Akame’s gone anime original but the newest ep wasn’t nearly as bad as the last one. Chaika started kinda meh but this season is still overall better than S1 as it’s without the shitty middle filler. I also picked up Shippuuden again for the first time in years because I want to see one particular part (Gai), but I’m just sort of waiting around for it
My overall favorite is definitely Kiseijuu, every ep since his transformation has gripped me quite a bit. Bahamut trails right behind and has been both an entertaining and solid watch. Garo had a strong start then fizzled ever so slightly but it’s been great lately.
That’s about it…
Its sad that PP2 has became the Aldnoah of this season but one that i was able to enjoy unlike Aldnoah that i thought was crap from the begining. From now must not get overexcited for any show with Urobuchi stamp when he is not the one writing the script.
ah my engrish
become*
i am able*
which i thought*
About WIXOSS. Crazy Akira has been the highlight of my week every time. Her VA is just amazing.
Aki-lucky!
I warned you, man. I had a feeling a sequel to psycho pass was a bad idea since the first season ended because it had such a perfect ending. But not only continuing it but doing it without the main writer of the first season at the helm was bound to be a failure. I decided not to watch it after the first episode to see if the second season gets better but it doesn’t seem like it so I can keep my memories of the first season untainted :p