Halfway There! Winter 2017 Anime Midseason Report

Winter is so much easier to get through when the weather remains pleasant, like it has around where I live, and the passing of an anime season hurts more when it contains interesting series, like this season does. We’ve reached the middle point of the Winter 2017 season and that means it’s a good time to reflect on the initial promises that this season’s series made, how well they’ve been able to carry out those promises, and what are the chances of a successful ending of these anime. For ease of organization, I’ve covered this season’s anime in a countdown format from weakest to strongest.

Summer 2014 Mid-Season Anime Report – Part 3: #8 to #1, The Good Stuff

whose looking for her John Carter.

Eight titles are left to cover. Seven of these titles are new series with only a single series being a carryover from a previous season. Not bad for a season that typically considered one of the weaker ones. Eagle eyed readers can probably guess which series will be featured and how they will be ordered. Are you one of those eagle eyed readers? Read on to find out.

Summer 2014 Mid-Season Anime Report – Part 2: #13 to #9, The Okay Stuff

What’s strange about this season of anime is that it appears to feature anime series that are either not very good (hence the 10 series covered yesterday) or pretty good (the 8 series to be covered in the near future) with few series left in the middle ground of mediocrity. The five series that currently make up this group are featured below. My gut tells me that most of these series will raise up or stumble further before the end of the season. To find out if that will happen, don’t forget to tune back in for the season in review post. 🙂

Summer 2014 Mid-Season Anime Report – Part 1: #23 to #14, The Stuff I Don’t Like

Before I start, I want to point out the new banner. I felt it was time to give the best anime currently airing some of the attention it deserves. If you’re not watching Hunter x Hunter then I don’t want to hear your complaints about the types of anime series that get made nowadays.

Moving on, we’ve now reached the halfway point of the summer season and it’s turned out to be a pretty good season for anime. If the spring continuing series had been a stronger group then this season might have placed somewhere near the top for best anime season. (This statement might be amended later if I can find the time to try Haikyuu!! and Baby Steps and like them.)

For this post, I’m not doing anything fancy; instead, I’m doing a straight countdown towards the best anime of the season starting with the worst of the worst …

Winter 2014 Mid-Season Anime Status Update

Actually, if it wasn’t for the Olympics pushing a few shows back a week this would be more aptly called the 3/4 season report. 🙂

Well, the anime apocalypse that this winter season was supposed to bring turned out not nearly as bad as people feared. The sequels are holding their weight and the seasonal surprise hits arrived on time, like they always do, and there’s plenty of assorted goodness spread around the other shows to keep the wolves at bay. Anime is not dying yet. The placards and rhetoric can be put away for a future season.

That said, my attention is starting to drift towards spring. Dangle the promise of a series directed by Masaaki Yuasa  (Kaiba, Tatami Galaxy, Kick Heart) and you’d have to be an idiot not to get excited.

But let’s not get sidetracked.

Below the fold are my thoughts about each of the 21 anime series I watched that began airing this season. They are ranked from best to worst and grouped into six broad groups ranging from superior to poor. Before we start I wanted to quickly mention all the carryover series I’m watching and how they’re fairing: Hunter x Hunter > Kill La Kill > Nagi no Asukara > Space Brothers > Golden Time > Magi 2 > Tokyo Ravens > Samurai Flamenco. Oh Samurai Flamenco, how far you’ve fallen.

Spring 2013 Mid-Season Anime Report – Part 3: #8 to #1, The Top Eight

Well, that took longer then I expected, I almost retitled this last post the 2/3rds season report since a few of these series are now on their eighth episode.

I was initially rather worried about the overall quality of this season going into it because it just didn’t look like it could match the overall strength shown in the Winter 2013 season. However, the few series that continued into this season plus a couple of surprises plus the series that were expected to carry the season actually doing so made for a pretty strong season. The only thing that still mars this season in the lack of new noitaminA series which had become a regular fixture for many a year now. In this, I can’t wait for the summer season. Actually, the upcoming summer season looks rather strong. I wonder if the relative few number of anime series continuing into summer is partly the reason.

Whatever the reason, let’s move to last part of the countdown.