Now THIS was a great season.
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Happy New Year's Ever everyone! I had a fantastic holiday break where I got the family together for Christmas, saw old friends, felt festive and merry, and binged an ungodly amount of anime for this list!
So I may have done a bit of a poor job keeping up to date with all of the shows that were airing this season. Out of the six shows that I saw, I only followed two weekly. One of them I completely forgot about until the finale aired. One show I picked up two days ago because of all of the praise I've heard for it. All of the other shows were binged in a most glorious fashion and if I can be pretty honest, while 2017 wasn't exactly the best year for anime (I'll get into that more with the Best Anime of 2017 list), we at least ended with the strongest season of the year. Every show that I was able to watch was fantastic in some degree and I just enjoyed watching all of the shows that I did. It was the first time all year that I felt excited about watching anime as it aired.
So let's not dawdle around and let's just dive right in. Six shows, go!
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| Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond |
I'm going to go ahead and put a link to my original review of the series here. Read this, get acquainted with the series, or even go watch it on Crunchyroll. It's 12 episodes, it's a ton of fun, then comeback and we'll keep going, alright? Alright.
At first glance, Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond (B3&B) is a bit of a step down from the original series. The action isn't as frenetic, there's no overarching plot about Satan or even an overarching plot at all, the former director isn't around, and the series has weird moments where it'll get bizarrely dark during action scenes. I don't mean in the thematic sense, I just mean that it's going to be hard to see because the screen will dim. I'm sure there's a reason behind it, but visually B3&B took a hit in its second season.
Now don't worry. This doesn't mean that the show has become average or even mediocre (outside of a lame two parter). Instead, the season decides to take a more character driven focus. While the first season was all about high concept action revolving around Leo and occasionally a side character or two, it was the exact opposite here. We got character focused episodes that rarely dealt with Leo except when he appeared as a supporting character. We got to see more of Stephen Starphase, Chain the Werewolf, K.K and her family, Zed the fish man, and the bandaged butler Gilbert even got an episode. If you were disappointed last season about how the members of Libra were never fleshed out then B3&B is here to satisfy you. But is it enough to satisfying the downgrade in action?
Personally, while I do think the first season was better just because of its scope and outstanding animation, the second season succeeds in different areas. Hellsalem's Lot is expanded upon even more and the characters actually feel like characters instead of just superpowers with faces. It tries to do something different, but the source material is so strong that it still elevates this series into one of the best of the season.
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| Dies Irae |
Holy crap you guys. I know that I said that Hand Shakers was one of the worst anime I've ever seen, and it still is, but Dies Irae is glorious insanity. Not "artificially inseminated with Hitler" levels of nuts, but more along the lines of God Hitler piloting a giant golden spaceship at our teenage hero. It's gloriously terrible to the point where you can get a few good friends together and just tear this show apart for laughs.
If you've never heard of Dies Irae before, I wouldn't blame you. The anime is an adaptation of a visual novel and a crowdfunded one at that. Yes, this anime was crowdfunded which goes to show that fans at least believe that the story is good enough to warrant it. I mean if it wasn't then why would someone donate money into this production? But man oh man is this a trip.
Out story revolves around Ren, a high school boy that has constant dreams and visions of a girl in a guillotine. This girl is a sign of things to come and incidents start appearing all around his city that is bringing it into chaos. And who is responsible for this invasion? A Nazi officer named Heydrich, who is so overwhelmingly powerful that he makes Sephiroth look like a pansy. This guy has a battleship, insane Nazi followers, and their goal is to start a war to revive a God or something? Look, there are superpowered Hellsing Nazis that are totally nuts and have to be stopped.
Now you may be thinking to yourself "Why would I want to watch a show like this? This sounds dumb." And you're right! It is dumb! It's so dumb and terrible that there are so many laugh out loud horrible moments in it. Ever want to see a woman give birth to a teenage boy? Here you go! Want to see a giant golden skeleton crush a building? Done! Have you been craving for an anime with truly awkward and unnatural dancing set opposite of grizzly murder? Does Dies Irae have you covered!
When the series isn't on fire and we have slower moments we get some of the most hackneyed and dull drama you've ever seen. Harems, a Sasuke rival, and weird interdimmensional sci-fi mumbo jumbo abound and all of it is terrible, but in just the right way. And do you want to know what makes it even better? There are technically six more episodes that have yet to air. The series is incomplete with the final six episodes airing online, but just imagine this for a moment. A show with ratcheting insanity where our hero hasn't even fought against one of the major goons of Heydrich the super Nazi... and it's television run ends before anything substantial happened. No resolution, nothing! Dies Irae is awful but in the perfect combination of over ambition and sheer WTF-ery.
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| Juni Taisen: Zodiac War |
Taking a step back from the moronic tendencies of Dies Irae, here's the most polarizing show of the season. Juni Taisen: Zodiac War was a show that had people bored out of their minds, pissed off at what they were seeing, engaged in the conflict of the show, and were surprised at how effective it was at its goals. Juni Taisen is less of a compelling experience and more of a statement of a show and I can totally understand why people are mixed about it.
Once every 12 years, the 12 families of the Zodiac households send a representative from their clan to compete in the Juni Taisen. The goal of the Juni Taisen is simple; kill everyone else and you can have one wish granted. So our show revolves around 12 different representations of the Chinese Zodiac killing each other in fun and entertaining battles while flashing back to their backstories and what brought them to the tournament.
So the idea behind Juni Taisen seems pretty straightforward. It's a killing game with wacky warriors that all have unique powers. Boar has unlimited ammunition, Tiger gets drunk to kill people, Rabbit is a naked necromantist in high heels with a poofy bunny tail and is the best character in the show, the Snake brothers are literally the worst, you get the idea. But while the show has a fantastic beginning and a solid ending, the middle is what causes a lot of people to lower their opinions of it. Without giving anything away, we spend half of the series with characters that no one really cares about so we can learn about their backstories only for them to die by the episode's end. This doesn't happen all of the time, but it happens often enough. Juni Taisen has a bag of tricks it likes to use, but instead of varying up those tricks it instead opts to use them again and again. It's predictable is what I'm saying.
For a show like this, your enjoyment is going to stem from how much you like some of the characters and how much you can tolerate knowing how the series will end. From the second episode it's pretty easy to piece together who will win the Juni Taisen. The series doesn't go in any unexpected directions minus the twist regarding the winner and their powers. What you get is what you get and you better be ready for constant flashbacks about how war is awful and truly evil.
But do I like it? Oddly enough, yes. I actually really enjoy Juni Taisen. I will admit that the middle part of the show is not very good and most of the characters are lifeless (literally), but the show shines in its action scenes and when the series puts a focus on some of the better characters. Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Boar, and Chicken are all fun, and the twist with Dog is one of my favorite moments in the show. It isn't for everyone and it does drop the ball plenty of times with its musing about the nature of war and with spending too much time with bad characters, but it was definitely a guilty pleasure for me.
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| Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World |
Kino's Journey is a bit of a cult classic anime and given that this was an early 2000's anime that's saying a lot. We don't really get cult classic anime series, especially ones about a person traveling around and exploring the world and the people in it. Kino's Journey is very similar to Mushi-shi in that it involves a person encountering different situations every episode with no overriding narrative. It's a quaint little show that had some really great moments and is still remembered fondly to this day. Kino's Journey The Beautiful World? What a major disappointment.
The premise is still the same as the original series. Kino drives around to a bunch of different countries, stays for three days, and experiences the culture and people. They all turn out to be modern fables and reflect lessons on society and nature, or at least they should accomplish that. What The Beautiful World fails at is that there are three types of stories on display; the good ones, the dumb ones, and the action ones.
The good episodes speak for themselves. They're good episodes that reflect Kino's Journey at its finest and envelops the viewer into its world. The first episode of this series is a perfect example of that, featuring a nation where murder is legal and what kind of people would live in a country like that or what kind of people would go there. Then you have the dumb ones, involving plots that are so inane that they feel like they belong in another series, a series that doesn't have a legacy like this. We have an episode here that features two people that are in love, except the man thinks he killed his love and became an emotional wreck, only for his assistant to take care of him and it turns out that she's actually his lover who faked her death, but the crazy man knew this and thinks that being crazy is the only way she'll stay with him. I mean... that's just spectacularly dumb.
But The Beautiful World's biggest problem are the frequent action episodes. These are episodes where violence is not just the theme, but the solution. Kino will frequently shoot people, shoot at innocents, allow an entire nation to destroy another one, and kill homicidal sheep. Now I don't have any problem with violence in anime. Hell, just look at my adoration for B3&B. But action needs a purpose and has to fit the situation. It wouldn't make sense if you were watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood only for him to start a fistfight with another person to teach kids how to defend themselves. You can try to justify it as much as you want in the context of the show, violence just doesn't fit the overall themes and purpose.
The same is true for The Beautiful World. Violence is a part of this world and Kino is usually involved in it and her desires become a bit uncomfortable. She willingly allows a nation to steamroll into another one and destroy countless lives and houses instead of finding a way for both nations to prosper. Now you can say that that was the point of the story that it was trying to tell, but the story doesn't mesh with the other stories told in the series. If the moving, technologically advanced nation is a symbol of capitalism and how it crushes over anything that opposes it and refuses to stop, why did we need Kino to have a sniper rifle shooting at moving cars of soldiers?
If you can't tell, I didn't enjoy The Beautiful World very much. There were maybe two episodes that I thought were legitimately thought provoking, but as a sequel to a beloved anime classic that didn't have a bad episode in the bunch, this was a big letdown. At least we still have the original series.
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| Land of the Lustrous |
I had the biggest uphill battle against Land of the Lustrous. On the surface, it appeared to me like a perfect recipe for failure. It's a show about anthropomorphized gems defending the Earth from alien invaders. There's one human in the group who serves as the group's leader. All of the gems have their own unique personalities. It's a 3DCG show, and those tend to look absolutely awful. Everything was against Land of the Lustrous, and yet I think it's the most beautiful show of the year and an easy contender for anime of the year. It's mind boggling.
Our story revolves around Phos, the youngest of the gems. Phos is trying to find a role for themselves in the gem community since everyone else has a purpose. Some gems fight against the Lunarians, beings from the moon that want to harvest the gems for jewelry and weapons, some are caretakers, some are medics, and some are strategists. Phos is nothing, so they gets tasked by the leader of the gems, Sensei Kongo, to create an encyclopedia about the Earth, much to their chagrin. What follows is a coming of age story that completely changes Phos, but is it for the better?
I can't state it enough, Land of the Lustrous is absolutely, undeniably, gorgeous. It's astounding just how seemless all of the animation is and how none of the characters every look wrong or bizarre to me. When you look at shows like Berserk and how piss poor ugly the CG was in that show, and then you look at Land of the Lustrous, it's like night and day. I can now officially say that 3DCG shows can truly be something special and any other CG show has no excuse for looking repugnant anymore.
Getting away from the jaw dropping visuals, Land of the Lustrous's secret weapon is Phos, one of the most likeable characters of the year. To see the arc that they have gone through is something truly spectacular. We watch them deal with inadequacy, finding a purpose, grief, regret, and self-loathing. And yet despite all of that, they still pushes on and try to be a better person and be useful to the other gems. They're one-sided friendship with Cinnabar is a key example of this, beginning and ending the show with a promise to them that goes to show the devotion and sympathy Phos can elicit.
By the end of the show we get some small glimpes into the other 20 or so gems and all of them feel truly fleshed out. If we were to get future seasons, and we NEED to have future seasons, you could theoretically make it about any of these gems and the result would still be compelling and fascinating. I loved Land of the Lustrous and it was easily my most surprising show of the season.
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| The Ancient Magus' Bride |
Chise is a woman who sells herself into slavery. She hates her mother and pretty much hates her life, so she decides to sell herself to the highest bidder because why the hell not? She gets bought, but she gets bought by a really unusual man. Her buyer is a man named Elias, who is a mage and is known as the Mage of Thorns. Elias senses magic inside of Chise's body and vows to train her to become his apprentice, despite his monstrous appearance and lack of understanding emotions.. Oh, and he also buys her to become his bride. ROMANCE!
In all seriousness, I can joke about how the intro does not paint Elias in a good light, but The Ancient Magus' Bride is actually a really good show. I hesitate to say that it's fantastic like so many other say it is simply because the show is still airing and with air in the winter, but The Ancient Magus' Bride is a compelling little romance with a classical sense of magic. We get magic in the same veins as Lord of the Rings or Dungeons & Dragons as opposed to modern magic where people can just cast magic out of nowhere. Magic has a sense of wonder in this series and ever little moment with it is just blissful. When a person casts a spell, it's like watching a truly spectacular event. It's not every episode, but it's enough to leave an impact.
As for Chise and Elias, you wouldn't expect the romance between these two to be so gripping, but it's the best thing about this show. Chise grows from being a quite and sad character to a strong, caring woman who wants to help and protect Elias. Meanwhile, Elias is an enigma of a character. He doesn't know where he came from, still doesn't really understand human emotions, and his goals at first are entirely for his own benefit. But as time goes on, he genuinely grows to care for Chise and is willing to defend her, despite his inhumane tendencies.
I can't say much more about this show, and the quality of the show will most likely improve as we learn more and more about this world and see Chise and Elias grow to truly love each other, but if you're not watching this show now, be sure to catch up and start watching it for 2018.
OVERALL RANKING
Thank God 2017 ended on a high note! There were so many great show that I've watched that it was a challenge just to rank them. Except for Dies Irae and Kino's Journey. Both shows share the dubious honor of being the worst of the season, though I will give the nod to Dies Irae for actually being enjoyable amidst its gibbering lunacy.
The other four were incredibly hard to place, but I view Juni Taisen and The Ancient Magus' Bride as being the same in terms of enjoyment. One is a bloody action show that had some solid moments in it while the other is a calm and beautiful fantasy romance. I'm sure that my overall enjoyment for The Ancient Magus' Bride will grow and I'll question why the hell I thought it was just as good as Juni Taisen, but that's for later on down the road.
As for which is my favorite anime of the season, it's a tricky choice. Both Land of the Lustrous and B3&B are great and I can imagine both shows being the best show of the season. If I had to choose, I would say that Land of the Lustrous was the better of the two shows, but B3&B is going to take the top spot. It's not because I love the original season, though my previous history with these characters made it easier to enjoy this season, but it's mostly because I watched B3&B as it aired. I waited for each episode to come out every week and I would lap it up with gusto. Land of the Lustrous was a show that I binged, so I didn't really get time to let each development sink and and really impact me. Incredibly tough call, and maybe I might clarify this for my Best of 2017 list if they both make it (they will), but for now Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond is my favorite anime of Fall 2017.
BLOOD BLOCKADE BATTLEFRONT & BEYOND
LAND OF THE LUSTROUS-------------------------------
THE ANCIENT MAGUS' BRIDE
JUNI TAISEN: ZODIAC WAR
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DIES IRAE
KINO'S JOURNEY: THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD
Are your top lists of 2017 coming soon?
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