Looking back, Fall season last year was completely marvelous. This can certainly not be said about this, at least not for me. In fact it is probably the weakest this year for me. Yet, despite my rather low amount of anime followed this season, with none of them really standing out, I still enjoyed most of it more than I would have expected.
This season definitely won't win any awards but it definitely had the best, most stable quality in a magic school harem show I've seen in a long time in form of Asterisk War. Valkyrie Drive was also a lot more than initially anticipated and I wasn't even cursing as much at Testament's second season as I expected to do. Of course most of the quality came from the two shounen titans reaching/concluding the finish of their arcs and trying to outdo each other with epicness.
But all in order. Like always I will keep up the order from my weekly reviews. All on-going series' scores only reflect what is there to this point.
Shinmai Maou no Testament Burst
I fully went into this expecting to sit there cursing and ranting about the censoring again... Surprisingly I didn't. Not once, not really in the extremity as I had during the first season. Simple reason for that was that there was notable less censor-worthy scenes and a good bit more action and plot.
Of course, that made it both better and worse. Which actually outweighed the other is hard to say. Considering the extreme ecchiness-bordering-lemon (from which the casual streaming viewer never got to experience anything hence my harshness on the series) is a big part of this series and Testament has already proved rather whimsical when it came to actual plot and action scenes in the first season, the decision is not entirely without risk. Personally I do consider it refreshing. Burst at least tried and there were some good moments. With the harem essentially set up (Kurumi and Zest naturally just squished into it), there was obviously more room for other stuff. Unfortunately the production team may have hurt itself utterly unnecessarily here by limiting the season to only ten episodes. This caused the tournament fights to be one hit wonders (often quite literally) and a lot of rather obscure plot points were just glossed over. Two more episodes for a regular Coeur could have fixed this easily enough and would have made Burst much more worthwhile. I am more satisfied with the season than the first but it could have easily been done better even without addressing the censor issue.
Rating: 7/10
Fairy Tail
Fairy Tail has fully recovered from the depth of the filler hell. The Tartaros Arc concluded on a very high note. It was an utterly enjoyable ride and showed what a Shounen series can do when the fights and many other elements are not dragged out unnecessary but given just the right kind of attention. So many glorious moments were to be beheld in this final arc and ending in a bittersweet final which once again showed why Fairy Tail can make emotional-charged situations so absolutely tear jerking. Masterful recovery FT. The true winner of the season at least if I were to include it among the normal ratings.
Rating: 10+/10
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk
Fantasy/Magic-Harem anime (usually within a school setting of some kind) can be found like sand on a beach each year. Seldom though do they amount to much. Asterisk War is a little different, to a point where I'd proclaim it the best of the lot this year (unless one is counting DanMachi among the genre).
The first episode started out atypical enough though (if you read my ironic description you know what I mean). All the stereotypes were there. The visuals were impressive enough though to keep one moderately interested even if not expecting a whole lot. It was a pleasant surprise, however, to see an anime of this genre to actually do what it wants well and with proper pacing and focus. Unlike Absolute Duo, Asterisk War never strayed very far from the central "pair" of the group and gave the series a sort of focal point this way. Ayato needed some time to develop and he's actually still not that impressive by the end of the first Coeur but likeable enough. Julis turned out to be a delightfully low-key tsundere type who is actually capable to keep up with the male lead (many of the primary females are not). While having some stereotypes pushed on to her, there is nothing to excessive and she seems more like a genuine human being than others in her place.
There is plenty of other stuff, too. A fairly large cast of supporting characters both friendly and enemy, several plot strings with different agendas which are introduced slowly over the course of this first Coeur without trying to push everything into one run made for some fairly moderate pacing. In fact Asterisk War never felt like it hastened anything, which again is a rather rare thing for this genre.
Unfortunately, of course, the stronger focus on Ayato and Julis prevented more growth and screen time for other characters. Saya and Kirin were both introduced, had some interaction with the other two and each other (I am so going to ship them!) but it was very little. A shame really as the one battle we saw of them together showed a good bit of promise. Also the many, many open plot threads can somewhat disconcerting and one has to wonder if one Coeur more will be enough to resolve most of that. I doubt it somehow.
I am not going to harp on that though. With the limited amount of time within a single season Asterisk War has done fairly amazing in terms of pacing and never strayed from a constantly good quality of episodes. If one wants to criticize something, it is that the quality never really went above a constant good either. But I guess we shouldn't reach for the Moon. Best entry of its specific category this year.
Rating: 8/10
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
'Tis an odd beast. Valkyrie Drive started out with practically smacking one yuri/hentai fetish onto another. For all intents and purposes it was pretty much mild hentai, instead of something scratching the border like Testament. However, as time went by, something a little more emerged out of this anime which I honestly only planned to give a casual glance.
The initial introductions out of the way, slowly a somewhat decent plot started to form and despite all the naughtiness the central characters all became somewhat loveable beyond that. Mirei and Mamori's awkward interaction was somewhat more cute especially compared to all the open raunchiness around them and some other characters also made an effort to be appealing.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't that Valkyrie Drive has a grand, complex story. It isn't really focused on providing one, keeping it simple while racking up all the fanservice it can squeeze in. However, when necessary the latter actually takes a backseat and becomes fairly tame to barely existent in some episodes which is something you cannot associate with simple hentai. The ending had a nice, sweet touch as well, finding the right conclusion to what was built up between the main heroines. Don't expect to find a grand piece of work going into Valkyrie Drive but trust me, it has a little more to offer than openly displayed yuri action.
Rating: 7/10
One Piece
I'm not sure I should even continue to include One Piece in this since I end up writing the same each season considering this arc has been going on forever. At the very least we are nearing a climax point now. It's been a long and usual fun ride despite all the longwinded pacing. But we are used to it from One Piece by now.
It is still one of the biggest issues of why I consider Fairy Tail to come out on top this year when it comes to just comparing their main arcs (especially the Tartaros one). Whereas almost every battle and scene in Fairy Tail has sufficient impact because it does not take months to come to a conclusion, the incredible long stretches, jumping from battle to battle and event to event makes it somewhat hard to stay connected and involved with them all, especially with a week between each episode. A quote in one of ANN reviews describes my feelings so well I just have to post it again:
"So I did the math and I learned that Bellamy has been in the middle of his big finishing move against Luffy for the last 12 episodes now. We've been cutting to this background scene of Bellamy bouncing off all the walls as Luffy shouts “Don't do it!” and other similar phrases for an exhaustively long time. Generally, I'm pretty at peace with the show's pacing, I've accepted that it is what it is, but every now and then some things just feel so ludicrously ill-fit for such a slow speed that it has to get mentioned."
Maybe that was also one reason why I was somewhat disappointed by the conclusion to the Zoro's battle. I imagine had it been solely covered in 1-2 (or even 3) episodes it might have left more of an impact. I mean, let's face it, Zoro has been hopping around on/around Pica for much longer than the Luffy VS Bellamy thing. ^_^
Rating: 9.5/10
Go! Princess Precure
With just the final stretch of episodes to go and the usual three week break around New Year (honestly Toei, it's a stupid practice disrupting the flow just during the final, fix that already), I am not much better off knowing how to place Princess Precure.
There were certainly some better episodes in this stretch. Haruka has really made great growth and it showed in her ability to recover from Kanata's harsh words on her own. Kirara's recent episodes were also great as they showed a willingness to not make everything seem so picture perfect in the end. I've missed this down to earth approach from earlier seasons greatly and there was at least a glimmer here.
However, at the same time Minami remains the Yuko of this season I guess and shows the uneven distribution among character growth the most clearly. At least with Kirara and Towa there is an effort whereas Minami remains rather static and rather drags down the overall impression here. Precure has always been about the group (well, ever since we left the initial duos). Yes, a bit more focus on the leader was always there but lately that has become a lot of focus. It started with Mana already, just a little, went into overdrive with Megumi and Haruka is practically the only one with real character growth in this installment. I am really not sure I like this development at all. But I'll refrain from further comments until I've seen the end.
Because of Haruka's and Kirara's episodes I'd give this stretch a bit of a higher rating than last season but only a little. Too much of the same issues as addressed last time like the hardly fleshed-out enemies (in fact even less now) and the lack of interaction with the rest of the school remain.
Rating: 7.25/10
Hidan no Aria AA
I might have expected too much coming out of my Illya run. Even at its worse, Prism Illya was at least somewhat entertaining where Hidan no Aria AA mostly fails even that requirement and somehow I don't think knowing the original or not would have made such a huge difference since the main focus was on the new cast anyway.
Initially it started out decently enough. There was a bit of promise there and I liked the interaction between Akari and Aria. Had it stayed focused on those two, maybe something decent could have been developed but instead the focus shifted more on Akari's friends loaded with stereotypes that couldn't be any bigger. Especially the yuri stalker routine of Akari's supposedly best friend was rather irritating to watch and reminded me almost every time of Yuri Kuma Arashi. Apparently the creators didn't get the message. At all. Instead they doubled up on the cringe-worthy stereotypes!
While AA certainly looks nice that is about all one can say about it. Even the supposedly dramatic scenes lack any sort of suspense, especially in light of some of the stupidity displayed which I found rather incredulous. It's telling how Aria hypes up the "power of friendship!" (TM) only to have said friends being almost no help at all while they are ignoring the supposed teamwork and get themselves taken out one by one! And while it was somewhat sweet that Akari gets to be Aria's Amica after all, it also goes against every reason brought up in the negative and those reasons were good (even if the friendship thing completely failed). Execution-wise Hidan no Aria AA was a mess quite frankly and the only ones I can expect to find something worthwhile in it are fans of the original looking for any small bites to sate their hunger or those who get a kick out of possessive yuri obsession. Valkyrie Drive did better with plot and characters this season than this!
Rating: 4/10
Rankings
1. Gakusen Toshi Asterisk
2. Shinmai Maou no Testament Burst
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
4. Hidan no Aria AA
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