It’s almost the end of the year and since I have shared my thoughts on what games I enjoyed in 2014, I will focus on the top 5 shows that I enjoyed and completed during the year.
Top 5
1. Nagi no Asukara
In the past, I had mixed feelings towards Okada Mari’s works. Even so, I think she is a good writer despite having a few gripes with her works in regards to emasculating male characters and other silly antics. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the case with Nagi no Asukara. While Hikari was somewhat annoying in the first half, at least he becomes more likable in the second half. Although Miuna was the only girl who did not win, I am very satisfied by how the show ended and of course, the animation was gorgeous and is perhaps one of the best I have seen from PA Works thus far.
2. Amagi Brilliant Park
It has been a while since Kyoto Animation has made a very entertaining anime. While the premise of saving an amusement park with a touch of fantasy was silly, I really enjoyed most of the characters, particularly the female cast. Not only that, I also liked the comedy since most of it was rather humorous. Even though they did not focus much on Seiya’s past, it’s probably one of the most enjoyable shows I have enjoyed in a while from them in a while.
3. Love Live School Idol Project Second Season
Although I regret not watching the first season when it aired last year, I did watch the second season when it premiered back in spring. I think the sequel is better than the prequel since were a lot of heartwarming and enjoyable moments that I enjoyed, especially during the semi-finals and the final round. While I still prefer the Idolmaster Anime to Love Live and the CG performances scenes still bother me somewhat, I still enjoy the characters and the story enough to look past some of the flaws.
4. Hanayamata
Besides the beautiful animation, there were a lot of things I liked about Hanayamata such as the cast and of course, the lighthearted feeling as Hana tries to make a Yosakoi club to perform at a festival. While there is some drama that turned off some people who were expecting a completely light-hearted schoolgirl slice of life anime, there are a lot of moments that I liked, mostly thanks to Hana’s energetic personality and the heartwarming moments following the drama.
5. No Game No Life
It’s true that not everyone enjoyed this show for the fact that some expected serious games, I still enjoyed it mostly because of how the siblings manages to get out of a bad situation and turn it to their favor. I admit that there were some rough patches with some of the games, particularly the game of Existence Reversi with Sora challenging Clammy since it was seen in Shiro point of view. Besides from that, I enjoyed most of the games and the show overall and I think this is in part of the author getting involved with the anime production. I just hope that the author does not overwork himself so that someday, we can see how the story ends.
Honorable Mentions
- Sakura Trick – It’s an entertaining lighthearted yuri show with enjoyable characters and of course, lots of kissing.
- Nisekoi – While Tsugumi didn’t get much screen time and I have a feeling the plot will drag on until the author decides to end it, it’s still a very fun romantic comedy thanks to the character’s interactions and their personalities.
- Prisma Illya 2wei – This sequel is an improvement over the first season with Chloe finally showing up. Although there are not as many battles compared to the prequel, I still enjoyed the lighthearted moments between Illya and Chloe.
- Ore Twintail – The production values may be this show’s biggest weakness, but at the same time, Ore Twintail ni Narimasu is probably the most enjoyable ridiculous show yet about magical girl warriors protecting twin tails with some gender bending.
Not Rated since it’s ongoing, but Worth Mentioning
Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works – Part I
Like Fate/zero, the first half of Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works was very enjoyable. Off the bat, Unlimited Blade Works arc adaptation was noticeably better than the Fate arc, which Studio Deen made back in 2006. While Shirou can be annoying at times (although not nearly as bad as Shinji), I admit that Rin is too adorable. It’s such a shame that she could not be the main character of this arc. Despite this, I can’t wait to see the second half when it begins airing in spring of next year.
Shirobako
After watching the first episode of this show, I liked how PA Works gave behind the scenes look at the Anime industry a whole in a form of a fictional story. While I have written an editorial about some of the issues in the industry several years back, this show is doing a great job giving a bird’s-eye view of the industry by showing how rough the work is while giving new perspectives about Anime as a whole. Hopefully, they will keep it up with the second half as it continues into next year.
Worst Anime of 2014
Glasslip
To me, Glasslip is probably the most pointless show of the year. This is because the story made little sense with Touko being lonely again at the end of the show after forgetting about her friends and Kaekeru. Glasslip was so bad that it only sold about 600 DVDs and Blu-rays, which is utterly pathetic. I’m already guessing that PA Works written off the expenses from producing this show.
With that, this wraps up the best and worst Anime of this year. Of course, there are some shows I missed during the year that I didn’t have the chance to watch such as Gochuumon. I will eventually cover these shows in a one-shot review next year.
So, what are your favorite and worst Anime of 2014? Feel free to share them.
Let’s see my favorite anime would have to have been Free! Eternal Summer, Psycho-Pass 2, Noragami, Love Stage!!, Tokyo Ghoul among others.
I still haven’t finished No Game No Life and not sure if feel up to completing. There is just this barrier that keeps me from finishing it. So still need to finish from where left off on Episode #6. If you say it is good I am willing to continue it, after all, it doesn’t matter if it does contain serious games or not to me. I will just get to it when I can.
Interesting. I skipped over seeing Glasslip early on since for me sometimes I can tell which series wont like right off the bat especially with anime. And Glasslip actually keep hearing some bad things about especially after it finished airing/simulcasting. So glad I kind of escaped that bad anime since I usually don’t like the bad aftertaste bad anime leave or ones really not worth your time put into it since watching can be time consuming even if love it so much.
I admit that the second season of Free was better than the first season for the fact that Rin was not as angsty in the sequel. I wouldn’t mind another season or a movie if they decide to make it.
As for Glasslip, it’s a good thing that you avoided it… I decided to continue since I may as well since I watched most of it and none of it made much sense. It’s such a shame since the animation was good, but it still paled in comparison to other shows they produced. It seemed like PA Works blew the budget away with Nagi no Asukara (since it’s their anniversary project) that they have to cash in with some kind of show to recoup the remaining costs. Who knows the reason behind the odd story decisions with that show since it felt more like an experiment than anything.
Wooooooooooo! No Game no life <3 <3 <3 that was such a fun series, but I heard the rumor that it wont be getting a season two anytime soon…
I’m guessing that the assistant the author married does not want him to overwork himself since from what I heard, he is recovering from some type of cancer. But I won’t be surprised if the second season will release two years or later after. By then, probably we’ll see some conclusion with the light novel.
I haven’t seen many of your favorites unfortunately, but I will say that at least one is also among my top picks XD
Totally agree about Glasslip being the worst. I can’t seem to find anyone who liked it. What happened, P.A. Works? Well, at least they’re making up for it with Shirobako =)
Like always, I only watch at most 5 each season because of course, some of the courses for my master’s degree took a long time and I admit that I missed a few during the year. I’ll probably come back to them at some point, but we’ll see.
Glasslip from my understanding was disliked by many for the fact that the story did not made any sense and people felt that it was a big waste of time. I know a few on some Anime forums that liked it, but many disliked it. But I’m happy that they are at least recovering from their failure with the show they are currently working on.
“I am very satisfied by how the show ended and of course, the animation was gorgeous and is perhaps one of the best I have seen from PA Works thus far.”
Then, Glasslip happens.
Nice list, and nice to see Amaburi on the list :p Hanayamata was great too. The drama is nothing original, but it’s still especially heartwarming. I also enjoyed No Game No Life as well, despite barely talking about it myself, lol. It’s a ridiculous anime with some nice game-reflective world-building. Not as ridiculous as Ore Twintails though, yea.
It seems that studios have their downs once in a while, but I do hope that PA Works will recover from that failure. From what I have seen from Shirobako, I think this is a good indication of this.