Summing Up the Season
BM: A lot of shows I dropped this season, some of which I had high hopes for at the beginning – Space Dandy I’ve already mentioned, but World Conquest Zvezda Plot and Nobunagun were also well up my list for the first few episodes before going to pieces. Wake Up Girls! promised to be a more interesting take on the idol business than it ended up being, but at least it tried to inject a little realism into itself. (Insert “Yamakan fails to save anime again!” gag here…) And I can but hope that the likes of Recently, My Sister is Unusual and Onee-chan ga Kita!! are the dying paroxysms of the whole “imouto” craze. Surely that barrel can’t be scraped any further..?
For all the bad, though, there was still plenty of good around. Nisekoi is, for my money, the best fanservice comedy in a while. The Pilot’s Love Song was refreshingly different from a lot of what’s been seen recently, and very enjoyable. Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha and Sakura Trick were both downright sweet, in their own very different ways, although you could fairly ding Sakura Trick for being exploitative as well. Log Horizon and Golden Time both felt grounded in ‘real’ characters, and are all the better for it. And Kill la Kill was the show of the season that’s likely to become a classic. I don’t think we can complain too much.
GBS: It wasn’t an outstanding season. We were fortunate that two shows carrying on from last season, Kill la Kill and Log Horizon, were still here to keep us wanting to watch things on a regular basis. There was also a major upgrade to Nagi no Asukara in its second half, fixing some of its major problems by removing the most tedious and annoying character elements and keeping them fixed even when the problematic characters returned to full duty. Golden Time provided real characters, indeed, but also reminded us that sometimes writers can start off well and lose their way by the end.
Of the new shows, the zaniness of Witch Craft Works and the underdog story of Wake Up Girls! held my attention the best, with the gentle comedy of Inari, Konkon, Iroha and esoteric humor of Hozuki no Reitetsu coming next in terms of interest, though neither of the latter could match my enthusiasm for the former two. Other than the two ag school shows, I don’t think there was too much joy for me this season beyond the shows I’ve just mentioned.
So, that’s the season that was. Now, we have a new crop of riches awaiting us. At least I hope so. More Love Live! should be good.
This is Greg Smith and Bryan Morton signing off until next time.
