Best and Disappointing Anime of 2015

Artist: 能義 たか好

Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to take a look at the top 5 anime I enjoyed and completed during 2015.

Best Anime

1. Shirobako

While Glasslip was the most disappointing show PA Works made, I felt that Shirobako allowed them to get back to their glory with the focus being on the anime production. I have to admit that the show does a very good job giving a basic idea of how anime gets produced and the difficulties that people face, especially for Shizuka who had it the worse compared to the other girls.

Although the industry stuff is seen through rose-colored glasses in this show, I have to admit that it was an enjoyable way to learn more about how anime is produced so that people can appreciate how much work the animators and other staff members put into creating the shows you watch.

2. Hibike! Euphonium

From a person who used to be a part of the school’s concert band along with participating for one year in the school’s marching band, Hibike! Euphonium definitely gave me a lot of nostalgia as the school Kumiko is attending decides to aim for nationals. While I like the development between Kumiko and Reina, Reina is clearly not your typical high school musician. She is a serious trumpet player and she usually spends her time alone, aside from interacting with students.

While the animation and music were great, which is expected from a Kyoto Animation production, I especially liked the interactions between Reina and Kumiko since they almost look like a couple. In fact, the 8^th episode shows this as they walked up a hill, talked to each other and played a duet with each other. To me, this is probably the most memorable moment from the show since they understood each other and wanted to do their best to make it to the nationals. With a movie and another season on the horizon, it makes me wonder if their relationship will develop further and if Taki’s band will be able to beat the top band. Time will tell.

3. Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works

Artist: 冬ゆき

It’s clear that Ufotable will eventually make their own adaptation of Fate/stay night after Fate/zero. While the Fate arc did not get a remake, I have to admit their version Unlimited Blade Works was very enjoyable like the prequel. The show had a few flaws, but otherwise, the way they handled the source material and the fights were great aside from the noticeable improvement in animation quality compared to Studio DEEN’s version. It’s also nice to see them expand on the character development on Caster’s former master and Illya along with expanding on the epilogue.

With Unlimited Blade Works meeting expectations, I wonder how they will handle Heaven’s Feel arc as a full featured film, which most people say it’s the best arc since Shirou is not as annoying. We’ll have to wait and see.

4. Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??

Artist: れっどすたぁ

As mentioned earlier, I regret not watching the first season when it aired since the show is very enjoyable. Like the first season, the second season is more of the same, but better as the girls do more things they haven’t done before such as going on a trip or search for treasure. Of course, the most anticipated aspect of the show is Mocha, who is Cocoa’s older sister. She is a very enjoyable character as she cuddles all of Cocoa’s friends and causes her little sister to become uneasy.

Of course, there are more shipping moments to be expected. Aside from Cocoa and Chino getting even closer, I’m happy that there are more moments with Rize and Sharo since they are my favorite characters.

5. The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls

Artist: ゆらん

Although it does not quite live up to the awesomeness of 765 Production Idols, the Cinderella Girls idols are enjoyable in their own right. The show has some improvements over the original, namely the Producer who is competent, but lacks the skills to properly communicate to the girls, which leads to funny misunderstandings and some serious drama like Mio deciding to quit before she changed her mind and came back.

To me, the first part was better since it was light-hearted and focused primarily on the main group. The second half was good, but I felt that the focus on other characters took the attention away from the main unit since there is not enough episodes to do the “everyone is a main character” thing. Even so, the music and the characters were still enjoyable although it could have been so much better.

Honorable Mentions

Working 3 – It’s an improvement over the second season. I just liked how they wrapped things up with revealing Aoi’s mother, Yachiyo finally admitting her feelings with Satou and Inami having her androphobia completely healed.

Disappointing Anime of 2015

Charlotte

To me, while Charlotte was not terrible, but it feels somewhat short from the hype since there were some flaws that Jun Maeda did not address. Sure, the cast and the development was somewhat better than Angel Beats, but that doesn’t say much. The fact remains, he simply can’t make a good story with only 13 episodes to work with as seen with the 11^th episode, which is all kinds of bad. Sure, the last episode was enjoyable in it’s own weird way as Yuu goes on an adventure to steal every supernatural power. Sadly, it wasn’t enough for the show redeem itself. To me, I won’t be surprised if he ends up creating a visual novel for it.

This is pretty much all the shows that are on my top 5. Sure, there are a number of shows that I did not get to see during this year, but I will eventually get to them in the future.

With that, what are your best and disappointing shows for this year? Feel free to share. ¶