Show of the Year
2017 was a great year for anime. Let me say that again: this was a great year for anime. There was a wealth of shows that were worth watching, in many genres and from many creative teams. It was a year that proved the point that anime is not a genre but a medium. There were Quality Shows with a Capital Q and good, simple pieces of entertainment that won’t make the Top 10 lists but provide the kind of easy enjoyment that should come from anime. There were good shows I wasn’t able to see thanks to the fragmented nature of streaming this year. It was a great year.
Starting from the very first season, Winter, there were shows that prominently displayed that Quality (capital intended). Among the best were sequels and continuations. Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo 2, that’s too much, let’s go with Konosuba 2…I could spend pages talking about the glories of this show. The further adventures of Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness showed that the first season was no fluke. While the core of the show is a parody of the now overloaded and overdone “transported to another world” (isekai) genre of light novels, the appeal goes beyond that simple base. As we have seen the group interact more and more, we can see just how well put together an ensemble they are. None of the characters are likable, really, all of them are flawed, but it is those very flaws which make them relatable. We in the audience forgive them for their flaws in exchange for the copious laughs they provide. Speaking of audiences, the other sequel of merit, Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju 2, brought to a close the story of Bon/Yakumo VIII, the master of rakugo storytelling who first floored us with the detailed telling of his younger life and the death of his rival in the past in its first season. Here, we learn the truth about that past as its hidden secrets come spilling out. It was a bravura performance in many ways.
After an interesting start, the second cour of March comes in like a lion added depth and breadth to the world of young shogi professional Rei Kiriyama, introducing to us the hard-working master Shimada among others. The roster of characters growing perhaps reflects, in some ways, how Rei himself is finally able to grow outside his sheltered, insular world. As for completely new works, two more from Winter earned my attention: the very stylish tale of ACCA: 13-Territory Inspect Dept. and the surprise sensation Kemono Friends. ACCA was an interesting puzzle to unravel. Kemono Friends, however, was just one of those things that overpowers you…kind of how I felt about, say, the original Love Live! (not its carbon copy successor, which will go unremarked any further in this piece). Kemono was this wonderfully weird and cheerful work that seemed like a children’s show but had all kinds of subtle messages about the dangers of playing with forces you don’t fully understand built into it with its eerily post-Apocalyptic world.
Add in a few other shows that provided decent enjoyment and Winter overall was simply fantastic. Spring was a bit weaker in comparison for my tastes, though two very different shows stood out for me: Alice & Zoroku and the second season of the returning hit Attack on Titan. In a medium that at times seems overrun with super-empowered or “special” children, to the point that it’s really beginning to turn me off of the entire fictional concept of superpowers, Alice & Zoroku stood out for highlighting an unusual bond: between a young child (Sana is elementary school aged) and a grandfatherly figure (Zoroku). By turns slice of life comedy and action-filled superpower story, it was amusing that the most powerful ability in the universe was that of an old man giving people a good talking to. Rather different from high drama and thrilling tension of AoT 2, where some of the most important revelations of the story come to light, among them the truth about the identities of the Armored and Colossal Titans and the reason why Eren Jager is possibly the most important being alive in this screwed-up world that they live in. The slightly freakish ending theme really fits as this run of episodes really throws the world that we knew into further disorder. If one doubts that a dystopian nightmare can be made any more hellish, here is an example of how you can make things even worse. Even if a small spark of hope may yet remain.
The Summer continued the weakness on the quality front…but only because I was cut off from a show that has been appearing on Best lists elsewhere regularly and about which I remain highly curious (Made in Abyss). That’s not to say that there was nothing to note. The sequel to last year’s unexpectedly charming comedy New Game!! continued the fun on the game-making front. A show that displayed occasional sparks of imaginative storytelling, Classroom of the Elite, proved to be worth debating at times. Unexpectedly amusing was the new version of Magical Circle Guru Guru. My favorite Summer show, however, was Restaurant to Another World, which made use of an interesting twist on the overworked isekai genre, turning it instead into a food show (I like food shows) that employed the usual RPG fantasy world types as diners enjoying food from our world. As this has been a rather stressful year for other reasons, a good healthy dose of healing (iyashikei) storytelling every week was most welcome.
Ending the year, Autumn turned out to be the strongest season since Winter, with a heavy load of Quality again. For dramatic storytelling, which had been somewhat lacking since the Winter, March comes in like a lion returned with a second season that picked up right where it left off…and then delved even further into the lives of Rei and his close friends, the Kawamoto family. Even minor characters get full backstories and detailed inner lives in Chika Umino’s masterpiece. Then, there was the highly anticipated The Ancient Magus’ Bride. I had already seen the prequel OVA Those Awaiting a Star, but here we had the beginning to the story proper, which has been in some ways much darker, but no less enchanting.
Besides those dramatic powerhouses, there was a lot to like from Autumn. We got more Food Wars, which continued its blend of food, glorious food combined with melodramatic reversals of expectations and the occasional (though more restrained) “foodgasms.” There was a remake/continuation of Kino’s Journey, a venerable franchise, that seemed to get some mixed reception at times but which I felt was good enough. There was further fun in Hell with Hozuki’s Coolheadedness Season 2. And cuteness abounded in the silly, cotton candy workplace comedy Blend S and the much more reflective, pleasant iyashikei Konohana Kitan. In addition, there was the completely unexpected surprise of Recovery of an MMO Junkie, whose premise reminded me too much of the rather lackluster And you thought there was never a girl online? from last year, but which turned out to be a far more complex, thoughtful, and sympathetic look at an adult woman who turned her back on harsh reality, to find escape in an online game.
Not every show here was seriously in the running for Show of the Year for me, but each in its own way made a positive impression and several of these shows merited consideration. I think of them, I have no qualms with others giving their final nod to a Rakugo 2, an Ancient Magus’ Bride, a March comes in like a lion. If you’re not afraid of comedy, a Konosuba 2, an MMO Junkie, a Kemono Friends may have topped your list. It really was a wealth of riches this year.
Yes, you’re now starting to get impatient as I’ve not named a best show yet. I began with this long preamble because…I am actually going to give the nod to what will be, to put it bluntly, a very divisive pick, one that I can easily imagine being derided in certain corners of the anime online commentariat. But then, I have my reasons, which you’ll see shortly in depth. And in my own summing up of the year here, I’m sure that the complete absence of any mention of certain shows might already raise questions for some. Absences, by the way, do not mean dislike or disapproval automatically. Some of the omissions are purely from disinterest or lack of familiarity (otherwise I might have talked about Re:Creators…but I can’t, having not seen it). Some, of course, are deliberately put aside, but I have no interest in discussing them further.
