Phew! 2017 is coming to a close and this is now my fifth year reviewing a whole year of anime.
But before we jump into what 2017 did for anime, what happened in the rest of the world?
The eclipse happened for America, causing a nationwide purge of sight for people who took the advice of every possible outlet telling them not to stare directly at it as a fucking dare
This was swiftly followed by hallucinations of a giant man in black armor with a massive sword shouting angrily at the sky.
It was a tough year for tragic events; stories of sexual harassment coming to light and North Korean threat ever stronger
Which is no surprise that the biggest group of people causing us to lose faith in humanity this year was 'Rick and Morty' fans
by completely losing their shit, caused by massive outrage over a bit of teriyaki sauce mixed with ketchup.
And of course the fidget spinner craze took over the world, showing the terrifying power of having a mildly satisfying feeling in your hands.
In response, the World Health Organization advised people to start take up smoking instead,
with new research coming to light suggesting you would pose a significantly less risk to cancer
But of course we're here to talk about the last year in anime and everything that happened in our community
Of course I won't be able to cover everything, but I will do my best
So as we roll back the clock to Winter, the community found some love during the cold months to warm our icy hearts in DreamWork's highly acclaimed
How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon Waifu
♪ Aozora no Rhapsody (青空のラプソディ) by fhána ♪
This year started off with some wholesome goodness as 'Miss Kobayashi's Maid Dragon' proved to us that the king of cute still firmly remains in Kyoto Animation's hands.
It was the show that grabbed the community for some reason
I mean, I don't know what's so great about a dragon in the maid outfit.
I mean sure she's cute and all but I don't really see why the community would go crazy about this
Kanna: 'Oooh'
*Sounds of IT'S SO CUTE D'AWWWWWWWWWW-*
A lonely adult working woman actually one day finds a dragon at her doorstep who enthusiastically offers to be her maid.
And thus we follow the daily life of Kobayashi as along the way she meets an assortment of dragons
who all end up growing a close bond to her, wanting to stay by her side of course making her true name Miss Kobayashi...
Stormborn of House Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains
Beyond this, it was just a heartwarming tale about family values and how we can find family with the people we meet and spend time with, even if those bonds aren't made by blood.
But let's be real here, we all know the true reason we watched the show as Kanna's cuteness dominated the community for that season.
Clips and gifs flooded all of social media with carnosine, signifying the next level of cute animal videos
Detailing these terrifying ancient mythical creatures becoming domesticated for our viewing pleasure
Oh bububububu
Who can destroy the world to bring about the apocalypse?
Yes, you can! Yes you can!
Ooo boo boo boo boo boo boo
On a sidenote, the official music video for the OP is one of the most unintentionally entertaining things to come out of this,
just because this guitarist is the epitome of that unimpressed normie friend you see at anime conventions.
Being forced into doing this weird weeb shit that he doesn't get
In the rest of the Winter, 'Fuuka' gave an anime adaptation for a manga that caused major controversy for its preexisting fans
by completely changing major plot points, only to diverge entirely by the second half of the show.
While many argued the anime was doomed from the beginning without enough episodes to properly conclude the events laid out in the beginning of the manga,
It was clear that either way the adaptation really got hit by a truck.
Oh wait, no it fucking didn't.
After much anticipation from his highly successful OVA, Studio Trigger finally debuted the first full season of 'Boku no Chibi Potter Academia'
Despite the mostly positive reception it received from viewers, and the hype had going for it, it failed to make a big impact on the community
marking the first time fans really felt the effect of the highly anticipated anime being held hostage behind the red bars of Netflix's prison
A pattern that would soon be felt more as the year went by.
'Youjo Senki' gave us another contender for loli of the season with the story of a middle-aged man trapped in the body of a nine year old girl during an alternate reality World War One.
Yes, Kanna has her work cut out as she may have her adorable eating scenes, but how can she possibly compete... with... the precious smile...
of Crazy-Rocket-Loli Hitler murdering hundreds of soldiers
CUTE!
'Rakugo Shinjuu' got another season; giving me a chance to redeem myself from the endless comments I got for missing this masterpiece in last year's run down
So now that I've been given this chance I can safely say that
'Masamune-Kun’s Revenge' was a tsundere harem junk food that I actually enjoyed a lot.
A tale about an overly-confident, narcissistic asshole trying to get revenge over a stoic tsundere bitch who rejects them ages ago because he was fat.
Which sounds cheesy and dumb, and was cheesy and dumb, but somehow ended up being the perfect popcorn and seinen rom-com.
Okay, fine, I'll talk about 'Rakugo,' past the first season's somewhat disconnected 45 minutes slow burn over first episode that turns me and a lot of people off initially
'Rakugo' demonstrates some of the best that anime has to offer. It's a beautiful character driven story told through Rakugo, the not so well known art form that it is
but the character surrounding this concept are so well fleshed out and compelling, that it was simply a joy to experience life from their shoes
and this season followed suit from the first to definitely become one of the contenders of anime of the year
'Handshakers' gave us a highly ambitious car crash about a group of kids who get superpowers by holding hands.
And if that sounds bad to you, don't worry.
That was the best part of the show.
Yes, if the audience weren't put off by enough excessive camera movements to induce motion sickness,
Then its visual style was so ugly, I now have a permanent phobia of badly animated CG chains.
Our favorite lovable cast of idiots returned for another season in 'Konosuba 2'
Giving us the fun, stupid fantasy adventures that is basically the animated experience of playing Dungeons & Dragons with a group of drunk pissheads.
'Scum’s Wish' gave us a genre about a group of scummy people being scummy with each other because everyone's in a relationship where they'd rather be with someone else
That's right, as an anime set in Cuckfield where it's always NTR o'clock; so of course with such a recipe, It was only ever going to end one way
Yep, it' the return of everyone's favorite old friend. If you he happy happy clap your hands and
♪ If you're happy, happy, happy, clap your hands ♪
And finally the surprise hit of the season came with 'Kemono Friends' which took Japan by storm
With its depiction of cute little anthropomorphized anime girls, to which my first thought was
"Wow, I fucking wonder why"
But the series turned out to be a light-hearted original experience for anime that no one expected.
Fueled by the fact that during a promotional run at a zoo, one of the cardboard cutouts called the affection of a lone penguin, Grape-Kun
Yes the story of Grape-Kun and his waifu exploded on the internet and how could it not ?
it's fucking adorable! As of course Usenet that has never had any obsession with any animal ever before
Unfortunately, a few months later, Grape-Kun did pass away
And of course the anime community mourned at the loss of one of our own showing that our love for waifus transcends gender, belief, and species.
Rest in peace Grape-Kun. Jesus may have died for our sins
but Grape-Kun died for our waifus.
As Spring rolled around there was much anticipation in the air as two of the hottest properties of the last few years were back and vying for the top spot in the Battle of Season Twos.
One was the old king, finally back after many years of anticipation; and the other was the new kid on the block continuing to make a name for themselves in this new era
That's right, the boys were back in town.
♪ The Boys Are Back In Town ♪
After four years of waiting, 'Attack on Titan' returned to us and it was almost like it never left
Titans once again walked the line of pants-shittingly terrifying to pants-shittingly stupid,
Eren was still a loud uptight fuck who can't stop failing a life and once again
We were given an opening that everyone thinks they can sing, even though they only literally know one word
Tonally however, this season was far different from the previous one, focusing more on mystery and horror than all out action and hype.
But despite being the sequel to one of the hottest anime properties of all the time the hype surrounding it was nowhere near what it was during its peak in season one.
Showing us that waiting for years probably wasn't the best thing to do as this new seasonal anime climate has given the community a collective memory that lasts about three and a half days
While undoubtedly it was still popular, the series that rose up to take the spotlight for the community was 'My Hero Academia'
Though the first season was highly loved by Shonen fans, it was this season that really catapulted it into sky-high popularity.
Most likely for its longer run, the absolute hype surrounding his take on its
T-T-T-T-T
TO
TOU
TOUR
... "structured series of individual fights" arc. And for hosting one of the standout fights in the year for anime.
That's right:
'Boku no Hero Academia' versus 'My Hero Academia'
"IT'S MY HERO ACADEMIA!"
"IT'S BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA!"
"STOP TRYING TO BE JAPANESE, YOU WEEB!"
"IT JUST ROLLS OFF THE TONGUE BETTER"
"Why can't we just call it Hero Aca?!"
"Well, I call it Macadamia!"
*in the distance* "What is wrong with you?"
I have nothing more to add over the things I've said and have been saying since last year's recap as it just continues to be a
very high-quality shonen action show, staying true to us John Roos roots
Ultimately, which title won The Battle Season Twos?
Well, there's only one way we can settle this. What you really want me to bring it back one last time?
fine.
STRUCTURED SERIES OF INDIVIDUAL FIGHTS ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRC!
In the rest of the season, 'King's Avatar' gave China's first attempt at giving the world an eSports anime that was less an eSports anime
and more an ex-pro making a bunch of new friends by dicking about in bronze in 'Anime Smurfing: The Dyrus Chronicles'
'Akashic Records of I Thought We'd Grown Out of the Battle Harem Magic Highschool Phase By Now' anime
Gave us a Magic High School where the most magical thing was how they confused the stripper outfit for a school uniform, as only the girls seemingly need to wear it.
It's degrading, objectifying, and I am so horrified that I want to meet the genius who approved this
Seriously who thought of this? I need to shake his hand.
Roy: "All female officers will be required to wear TINY MINISKIRTS"
We got a continuation to our favorite loud yellow haired ninja that everyone expected to suck,
but actually turned out to be a great homage to what made the original anime appeal to us in the first place while tackling it in a new enough way to keep it fresh
In 'Naruto's Son: Child of Boruto's Dad'
The suffering continued as 'Berzerk 2017' continued kicking fans while they were down who was still left an agony from last year thinking
"Well at least there's no way it can look any worse than 'Berzerk 2016'
OH GOD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!
"Well I don't get why you guys are complaining about I mean it's stupid"
"Hey hey, hold mfmphhhmp"
*squish*
The sleeper it of the season was 'Tsuki ga Kirei,' a grounded portrayal of teenage Relationships that unfortunately got swept under the masses of big shows this season.
one of the most realistic takes of adolescent romance I have seen recently that breaks all the bullshit conventions you'd normally see in anime.
Like no over dramatic melodrama, parents are actually present,
and they even show the superpower granted only to us introverts
communication through awkward silences
*cries* I know the feel, bro!
Meta was taken to a whole new level as 'Re:Creators' gave us a show about anime and game characters being transported to the real world and meeting their creators
Yes, we had budget Saber meeting her author, should-have-been-a-'Monogatari'-villain versus should-have-been-a-'JoJo'-character
and Madoka Magica causing collateral damage with her completely OP friendship powers
God, I love this fucking show!
The only thing missing was for an Isekai character to be transported to their world where he would get confused thinking he was transported back to his homeworld.
'Kado: The Right Answer' gave us some interesting thought experiment of how easy it would be to advance the human race
given new technology that could give us Infinite resources and understanding of our universe
While interesting, it was obviously very unrealistic as in reality
It would never be this stupidly difficult to unite the human race under a technology that everyone would be able to use equally without being controlled by people for their own gain.
Ha. Ah ha ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha ha HA
'Sword Oratoria: Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon On The Side' gave us a side story to 'Danmachi' featuring not Hestia
But even this season had competitions for most overly convoluted title based on a light novel as
'What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? Question Marks Included'
attempted it's best to go for the word count limit for new anime titles MAL.
And finally, 'Eromanga Sensei' exploded onto the scene, giving us the harem incest baits loli fanservice absolutely none of us asked for.
But we all watched anyway.
Of course, following from 'Oreimo' you would have to do something special to make waves in the community and that it certainly did.
Combining elements of the absolute lowest paths of anime into one show and taking it just that level beyond!
It was tasteless, It was pandering
It was downright questionably illegal
And just when you think it couldn't get any lower, it asked you to hold his beer while it jumps in the dumpster to take us further below.
Despite the fact it was an absolutely awful show, we just couldn't stop watching before somehow enjoying the experience
Then accepting it for the awful garbage that it was.
And for better, or worse, this year would not have been the same without it
Thank you 'Eromanga Sensei' for providing us with such entertainment over the years and an endless well of memes.
Thank you for uniting us and making us realize that we are all just a bunch of the degenerates at heart!
Goodbye, respectable taste in anime! Hello, FBI registering!
The otaku fandom has spoken again and the final answer to the rest of the world is that
ANIME
ANIME IS
ANIME IS TRASH!
ANIME IS TRASH! AND
ANIME IS TRASH! AND SO
ANIME IS TRASH! AND SO ARE
ANIME IS TRASH! AND SO ARE WE!
See you in part 2.
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the video if you would like to check out all the previous anime year reviews click on this playlist here.
Just to check out just how much anime has changed in the last five years
this is my fifth year doing it and if part two is out the link will be right over the video I've put here as a placeholder.
Which should hopefully be in a few days. Anyway, that's it for me. I will see you guys later.