Due to getting late into the season, I said most of what I wanted a few weeks ago and I have a really hard time ranking the anime this season, so I'll give a bit of a tentative ranking along with the comments this week and this has to suffice for now. So, the ratings below are for the entire series up to this point.
Joukamachi no Dandelion: Well, this was more adding on what we already knew about the characters. The king being a worrywart about his daughters with super powers is rather ironic. ^_^
Rating: 7.5+/10. It's fun and an entertaining concept. I've said it already but if all reality shows were that entertaining, I could actually stand to watch them.
Gate: And now it's back to Japan. The poor Princess probably had a few heart attacks this episode.
Rating: 7.5+/10. A unique male lead and some impressive action scenes, along with a likeable cast. There's still room for improvement and the utter glorification of the JDSF is at least a bit of a bummer.
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Zwei Herz: As much as I enjoy the interaction, it is quite obvious the third season clearly suffered from the decision to split this into three 10 episode coeurs. There is clearly not enough "real" plot left to fill out this season until they go and face the last card. I feel a bit more lenient about this since at least the whole thing is not terrible and useless as some of what say Plastic Memories pulled last season.
Rating: 7/10. It has fallen too far from what initially pulled me in despite my skepticism. The final battle with the card really has to count. The interaction is enjoyable and I like what is there but concerning pacing Prisma has become somewhat of a mess. A lot of these episode could be OVAs or something.
Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX: Looks like Maria and the others can finally perform as well. Of course the good mood had to be ruined and obviously something important was taken... Hibiki & Co. are as clueless as ever, much like the rest of the audience with this flimsy plot. Still, the action is good.
Rating: 7.5/10. The action is keeping it steady. If I were to rate Symphogear for the plot... Well, let's not go there.
Fairy Tail: Apparently this was a filler/anime original but a decent one at least. That's the sort of thing that I knew Fairy Tail could do but in light of the horror that was the Spirits filler arc had almost been forgotten.
Rating: 9/10. Wendy had her moment, even Lucy did something useful. Unfortunately the one time they get to do something useful, it is delivered very quickly whereas the usual heavy hitters would have milked these out for at least an episode more. A shame really.
Rokka no Yuusha: I honestly will be disappointed if it does turn out to Hans. It's TOO obvious. Some light shed on both Adlet and Flamie's past.
Rating: 8/10. The mix of mystery and fantasy is unique enough and works mostly. The problem I have is that we know the Braves to different degrees and it is hard to make any fair guesses this way. If it is one of the new ones, I would find that too easy because we barely know anything about them and it would be simple to blame them. Final judgment on this depends highly on who the Seventh is and how that is delivered.
One Piece: These two have the worst luck ever... And to think this could have worked if Law hadn't run into Vergo of all people.
Rating: 9.5/10. The flashback finally reveals the much needed backstory while still being enjoyable and there is the conclusion of the battle in the present to consider. The only thing that irks me is the flashback is placed right in the middle/beginning of the battle and takes a lot of the momentum out of the present events. I do not quite see why this couldn't have been done before.
Go! Princess Precure: Looks like we finally are done with the "Introducing the new Precure" episodes and are actually getting back to something called a "plot". Unfortunately the whole thing reminded me a little too much of what Doki Doki did with the Regina-Aguri switch mid-season. After being nearly absent for nothing but random attacks, Lock suddenly pulls out this plan without warning. And let's not even talk about how entirely STUPID it is that no one even noticed their freaking keys were stolen after detransforming on the spot! What are they nine (and that's not even an argument considering Nanoha and Co. were smarter at that age)? Another similarity to Doki would be how it seems they totally seemed to have forgotten/ignoring Kanata's fate and such, much like Regina was practically shoved aside illogically for Aguri/Ace. This is just bad pacing and storytelling.
Rating: 7/10. I am still at odds for many reasons already stated here. There is promise in the different premise but I feel the whole dorm setting has not really been milked for its uniqueness in the franchise. Likewise the Twilight-Towa angle was so predictable a three year-old could have seen it coming. While Towa brought some much needed push for the other characters except Haruka, I also find her somewhat bland personality-wise. And I've already stated my thoughts about the enemies above. The only, really good thing that came from Towa is her transformation and final attack... SMC you can learn A LOT here. I hope this picks up for the final stretch as Happiness Charge, otherwise I fear Princess will remain another wasted potential Precure.
Overlord: More interaction. I am still finding it hard to really connect with this for lack of a real direction. Hopefully the coming confrontation might provide some.
Rating: 7/10. The lack of direction is hard to overlook. Overlord crawls along at a very leisure pace, too leisure as we still have no real idea what it actually wants to do. Which is a shame, since the setting is good enough to be interesting initially but very little has been done with it since very little actually happens each episode to move the plot along.
Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosai no Kyoukai: I still want to know what Kanata's deal is and why everyone calls him a traitor... It's about time we get some light shone on this. After all the good development lately this was a rather boring episode.
Rating: 6.5/10. Well, it's not grand but it is solid enough. This is another example though where you have to wonder if the complex fantasy/sci-fi setting is all that necessary since it mostly seems to be concerned with competition amongst the fireteams themselves. It's not really a harem either as there are no actual romance overtures from the team towards Kanata. I don't really know how to classify this.
Kyoukai no Rinne: And once again Sakura's nonplussed attitude strikes as she does not even bat an eye when all the spirits pass through her house! Unfortunately most of this was so utterly predictable – especially the end – I couldn't even laugh.
Rating: 7.5/10. Caught somewhere between annoying and funny. I admit, Rinne might not do itself a very big favor by focusing on the serious bits and the all-to-predictable romance ala Takahashi. For awhile the series made me really laugh but it has mellowed out a bit with the recent episodes which were often more annoying/aggravating than humorous in terms of character behavior.
Gakkou Garashi!: The first cracks appear in Yuki's armor as it seemed and we actually get glimpses of how she was right after it happened. I really am curious what kind of end this is going to get.
Rating: 9/10. For a scenario that usually doesn't interest me much, if at all (Zombie apocalypse), this is quite excellent. The anime does a great job at covering all its bases and then some, presenting a wonderful duality of happy pretense and grim reality. That it focuses more on the mechanism of coping in such a situation than gory battles with hordes of undeads or such things is clearly one of its charms. While I cannot say I find it as utterly enjoyable as Euphonium last season, I would place this definitely on a level with Maria at least as far as anime this year are concerned. Here as well, success will be determined how this anime ends. So far I cannot see it messing up the landing.
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