Fall ’13 reviews part 2 and my top 5 anime of 2013

I decided to combine the rest of my 2013 anime reviews and my list of top 5 anime of 2013 into one post. The winter 2014 season is already upon us after all, so I need to finish up all the 2013 stuff and start checking out all the new shows! XD So much anime and blogging to do and so little time…


Coppelion

Coppelion is one of the rare cases where I actually watched a trailer of it before it aired and thought it looked pretty cool – I saw some good action, an interesting post-apocalyptic setting, and three female leads who could have interesting backstories and personalities. And now that I’ve finished the series? Well, I can see why I haven’t been able to find any positive reviews of it. Its reasons for disappointing are different from Galilei Donna’s though: while Galilei Donna’s main problem was having a messy plot that made little sense and couldn’t tie things together, Coppelion’s main problem was just plain having little direction in a very grandiose setting in addition to other things like making its dramatic moments cliche and/or over-the-top angsty, and sadly the typical unsatisfying ending.

What I mean by the show having little direction is that it starts with the setup of the Coppelions having to rescue people still living in the nuclear wasteland that was once Tokyo. The first few episodes are sort of episodic with the girls finding some people, learning about their troubles, and being able to help them or not. The drama was already a tad on the cheesy side from the start, but I tried to see if it could make up for it with some interesting plot twists or fascinating character background…but those never came. Instead, halfway or so through, the show focused solely on the Coppelions hanging out with one group of people they meet and eventually figuring out a complex way for all of them to escape via train while being pursued by a gang of rogue soldiers and two enemy Coppelions. We learn a few things about the history of the nuclear accident and politics along the way, but no big plot advancement, no suspenseful reveal, and no intriguing character backstories. The big finale was simply all of them escaping the city (minus a couple of casualties) and befriending the soldiers and Coppelions who had tried to kill them before, which I thought was pretty cheap. The fact that Ibara’s one little act of kindness towards the Ozu sisters was able to change two total psychopaths hell bent on killing them into humble friends was definitely hard to swallow. Even saving all the First Division soldiers was questionable – you don’t even know these guys, what if they’re just going along to save their own hides and will turn on you as soon as it’s all over? And we don’t even get to see what becomes of the ex-bad guys in the end. After there was so much focus on the Ozu sisters being reformed, we abruptly see them walking behind the Coppelions in the epilogue and that’s it (and the Coppelions act like they don’t know they’re there, which was kinda weird).

So besides a haphazard ending, I wouldn’t have had a problem with Coppelion focusing more on the simple goal of the characters escaping the city than any kind of grand plot or complicated background – IF that focus was particularly enjoyable. But unfortunately my thoughts on pretty much every episode of the show was “meh.” The drama was alright sometimes but overdone most of the time, the action scenes weren’t bad but just standard, and there was just plain nothing innovative or interesting about the conflicts, setups, and outcomes of the episodes. It all just felt like a basic post-apocalyptic action/drama series that was brought down several notches by having overly angst-ridden drama and an inconclusive ending. Of course there were a few things I liked about the series that kept me watching. Our three main Coppelions were alright. I found Aoi annoying in the first few episodes but surprisingly her haplessness and scardy-cat flailing about grew on me and even gave me a few laughs. Ibara was likable except for her “must save everyone even if they’re trying to kill me” schtick going a bit too far. And Taeko got the short end of the stick with being a midwife for practically half the series and doing basically nothing else. Her whole big arc was going from not thinking she could deliver the babies to being able to deliver the babies, and since it’s something we don’t see her do in detail (not that I wanted to, LOL) it was hard to be invested. I would have liked to see her in more of the action scenes. And even though I liked Haruto I’m glad they kept him dead in the end – it was cheesy enough that the show ended with them being friends with all their enemies, but having it turn out that he actually survived would have made it even cheesier XD Oh yeah, and whatever happened to that dog Taeko befriended in the first few episodes? He hung out with them a lot in the beginning, then we gradually saw him less and less, like they kept ditching him on their missions, until he was never seen or talked about again. He appears in the ending song so I thought he would be more respected than that. Poor puppy XD

So yeah, the lack of anything truly remarkable or memorable in Coppelion, along with more flaws than not, makes it a below average series for me. I can’t say there’s absolutely no merit in it, especially if you like post-apocalyptic drama series, but the few things I did like about it aren’t enough for me to recommend it.


Monogatari Second Season

If you’ve seen the previous two Monogatari series, it’s hard not to think the show is a bit…weird. But “weird” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad” and it can lead to a masterpiece for some or an unpleasant experience for others. The series has always been too pretentious and bizarrely stylized for me to really get into, much less to consider it a masterpiece, but I did like Bakemonogatari as a whole, yet unfortunately found the large amounts of perverted and incestuous scenes in Nisemonogatari too much for my liking. Now we have the two-cour sequel to Nise, the longest installment the Monogatari series has seen so far. I figured it was either going to lean more towards what I liked in Bake – character/relationship development and interesting supernatural stories – or more towards what I disliked in Nise – too much emphasis on awkward or borderline creepy character interactions with little story advancements. And thankfully, pretty much all of Monogatari Second Season was the former.

Even though it was a two-cour series, I don’t have that much to say about it, mostly because it’s still too strange of a show for me to get fully invested in. Despite its incredibly detailed animation style and subtle, complicated subplots – both of which would greatly benefit from a rewatch in order to catch all the details – I watch the show in a casual way, seeing how the characters develop and the conflicts unfold and resolve rather than trying to piece together the full story or find symbolism in all the weird imagery. So with that in mind, looking at the series’ five story arcs, I thought they were all fairly good. The resolution of Hanekawa’s character in the first arc had me engrossed, though the only thing that puzzled me was that she seemed like such good friends with Senjougahara yet I hardly remember them interacting in the previous seasons. Mayoi’s concluding arc that came next was kind of meandering but it did have a nice bittersweet ending, so that was a plus. Nadeko’s arc was pretty interesting since, out of all the girls from Bake, I found her the least memorable. However, her becoming an antagonist in this season changed that XD Shinobu is probably my favorite character in the series, so I always wanted to know more about her and enjoyed her arc this season, though the downside was that it brought up a lot of characters like Gaen and Ougi that we’ve hardly seen in the series, so I was kinda confused on everyone’s motives, goals, and relationships. And lastly we have Hitagi End, which made a seemingly mediocre character suddenly burst into popularity and respect – Kaiki of course. I too found his calculating ways and ambiguous motives interesting to watch, and his banter with Senjougahara was always entertaining. The thing he came up with to bring Nadeko out of her snake god state was great, though the harsh end he came to in the epilogue was annoyingly abrupt – guess all I can say is, “I want to see what happens next.”

After being turned off to the Monogatari series with Nise last year, I’m glad I was more entertained than creeped out with Second Season. I guess a good thing I found in all the story arcs was their satisfying endings and unpredictable means of getting there, along with good character development. As I said, the dream-like animation style and character interactions that rank from strange to perverse give the series this pretentious and distancing air that makes me unable to get that into everything that happens. But when it’s not being too strange I do enjoy the characters and writing that it offers. I hope Kizumonogatari won’t go back to focusing on the perverted stuff and will continue to focus on the character and plot resolutions.


*Bonus review* Pokemon the Origin

Pokemon the Origin was a 4-episode special that aired back in October, and being the Pokemon fan that I am, I of course watched it but never got a chance to share my thoughts on it. It seems like everyone who watched it thought it was good, but I only thought it was “okay.” The reason being that I found it very inaccessible to anyone who didn’t already have nostalgic feelings towards the original Pokemon GameBoy games. Of course, that’s obviously who the target audience of the special is, but I felt that if they made it a longer series that followed the game closely yet took creative turns here and there for the sake of making the story interesting to people who haven’t played these games before, it would have seemed like more than just a love letter to nostalgic fans. As I watched the episodes a part of me found it fun to think “Oh, I remember that from the games!” and yet another part of me thought “I can’t imagine anyone finding this entertaining if they’re not already a fan of the old games.” Even as a fan of the games myself, I found that many things in the episodes worked good in the original games, but as part of a linear animated narrative, they just felt awkward. It also didn’t help that because the special was only four episodes, they chose to focus on four particular points in the game and rush through everything else, which would of course makes the special very confusing to anyone who’s never played them.

But if you do consider the special as just a token of love to nostalgic fans of the games, then yeah, it was cool to see. I liked how they made the pokemon battles harsher than the regular anime does and a few things in the game storyline the special focused on were good in their own right. Oh, and I did like how they made the title screen for each episode, or “save” as they were cleverly called, look like the start-up menu from the original games – that was a nice touch. But if asked, I would say Red’s pokemon journey feels stilted as a short anime special and flows much better as a game. As I said, the special is a good watch for Pokemon fans, but probably less than entertaining if you’re not one.

—–

So now that reviews are out of the way, it’s time to finally finish up 2013 with my top 5 anime of the year. First off, here’s all the seasonal anime I watched this year:

finished airing from 2012 or before
Nekomonogatari
Shinsekai yori
Bakuman 3
Little Busters!

finished airing from the winter ’13 season
Haganai Next
Tamako Market
Kotoura-san
Sasami-san@Ganbaranai
Pokemon Best Wishes! Season 2: Episode N

finished airing from the spring ’13 season
OreImo season 2 + OVA
Karneval
Suisei no Gargantia
Hataraku Maou-sama!
Little Witch Academia
Railgun S
Attack on Titan
Pokemon Best Wishes! Season 2: Decolora Adventure

finished airing from the summer ’13 season
Chuunibyou OVA Kirameki no…Slapstick Noel
Blood Lad
Silver Spoon
Kiniro Mosaic
Watamote
The World God Only Knows III
Free!
Monogatari Second Season

finished airing from the fall ’13 season
Pokemon the Origin
Madoka Magica Movie 3: Rebellion
Kyoukai no Kanata
Galilei Donna
Gingitsune
Coppelion

Since this post is already long enough and I’ve already talked about these shows before, I’m simply going to list my top 5 2013 anime along with links to my reviews of them while just saying a few things about them here. So here are my top 5 anime of the year 2013:


5. The World God Only Knows III

My review here. The third season of TWGOK took all the characters and plot points established in the first two seasons and exceeded my expectations in taking them to better directions; developing the characters, building the world, and creating a suspenseful plot.


4. Bakuman III

My mention of Bakuman III on my top 12 anime moments of 2013 here. But yes, it also ranks among my top 5 anime of the year, which is little surprise since its previous two seasons also did for 2012 and 2011 respectively. It’s simply a well written show that takes a slice-of-life premise and makes it very suspenseful and interesting, with likable characters and a fascinating look at the manga industry.


3. Suisei no Gargantia

My review here. Gargantia had an engrossing sci-fi story and managed to build an intriguing fantasy world, good characters, and an unpredictable dramatic plot leading to a great twist and exciting conclusion, all well paced within a short 13 episodes.

Credit to linked pixiv user
2. Attack on Titan

My review here. Does anyone really need to say why they like this series? ;) A gripping setting, gut-wrenching drama, exciting action, and never ending suspense. Besides Death Note, it’s the only other anime I watched that was more of a thrill ride than a viewing…which is good!


1. Watamote

My review here. Both Attack on Titan and Watamote left me dying for more at the end of each episode, but Watamote just had that more intimate, feels-worthy edge. I loved every bit of it and it gets the “anime of the year” spot from me ;)

Runner-ups:

OreImo season 2 + OVA: My review of season 2 here and the OVA here.

Kotoura-san: My review here.

Madoka Magica Movie 3: Rebellion: My review here.

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. Myna says:

    Wow, no KyoAni on this list!

    I knew Watamote!, Bakuman, Gargantia, and Titan were gonna be in your top five. Though I had pegged down Railgun S as your last pick rather than TWGOK. I also guessed that either Gargantia or Titan was going to be your top favorite from 2013.

    Do you still have access to animepaper.net?

    • Yumeka says:

      Yeah, Tamako Market didn’t do much for me, and Kyoukai no Kanata and Free! were okay but nothing amazing. But as far as your other guesses, you know me well, LOL XD

      If you’re asking whether I still have paper points for downloading on AnimePaper.net, I believe I do. However, the site sort of closed down several months ago…what I mean by “sort of” is that the site’s still up but they don’t get any new scans. I actually haven’t tried downloading anything from them in a while, and it seems like the site is down for maintenance now, so I don’t know what’s going on with them. Why do you ask?

  2. Kal says:

    I agree with Coppelion, and I also noticed the removal of the dog/wolf! I actually liked him :( I found Aoi to be utterly obnoxious. She actually made the series worse for me. Ibara was actually kind of cool. But yeah, it just did not focus on the worthy things, and kept focusing on minor plots. So it was pretty bad overall. I did expect more after the first episodes, but it just did not deliver.

    I did not watch the other 2, so can,t comment on those. I like the top 5, and I have to finish watching Watamote. But TWGOK was a favorite of mine as well. But really, as Myna said, no KyoAni! I’m not surprised I guess. Apart from strong visuals and animations, they have been a bit weak (with the exception of Chunnibyou). Let’s hope for a good 2014! Oh, and happy new year :)

    • Yumeka says:

      Happy New Year to you, too ^_^

      LOL, I can’t believe they left the poor dog when they escaped the city and didn’t even give him a second thought! It was bad enough they kept ditching him on their missions but c’mon, not even a cameo in the epilogue? But yeah, I can understand Aoi’s whining being obnoxious. Not sure why I warmed up to her in later episodes since I found her annoying at the beginning. I liked her bonding with the robot, No Sense XD

      KyoAni shows just haven’t wowed me post-Haruhi sadly. I’ve liked a lot of them of course, like Chuunibyou, but none have replaced Haruhi or Lucky Star as solid favorites, at least not yet.

      Glad you also liked TWGOK! And finish Watamote when you can =D

  3. hayase says:

    Just like you, I was turned off by Nisemonogatari. I decided not to watch the latest sequel, but with what you said maybe it’s worth a try in the future.

  4. Bryce says:

    Personally, I would not put Attack on Titan in any top 5, 10, or 20 list. It started out great, but I just did not care about anyone, nor did it feel like I got to know them.

    Railgun S was much better, even though the last arc was terrible.

    However, this is your top 5, so you are entitled to your opinion

    • Yumeka says:

      I think you’re the first person I’ve encountered who doesn’t like Attack on Titan. I know such people exist of course but they’re a bit rare XD As you said, we’re entitled to our opinions and I’m sure you know why people like the show even if you don’t feel the same way.

      Railgun S was indeed good…just didn’t like it quite as much as the others XD (I didn’t mind the last arc but I agree it was the show’s weak point).

  5. Rioraku says:

    The only one reviewed one on this post that I saw completely was Pokemon. I LOVED it but I can totally see where you are coming from. Would most likely alienate people not coming in with the same nostalgic feelings but that didn’t bother me.

    Had you reviewed Karneval? I’ve been interested in it, would you recommend that?

    • Yumeka says:

      Judging it as just a gesture of nostalgia for older Pokemon fans and nothing more, then Pokemon the Origin was a good special. I guess I expected it to make an effort to draw in potentially new fans, with its release just a week or so before the release of X and Y. Some parts were good from a narrative perspective, but most of it just felt like a lot of “Remember this from the games?” while rushing through a lot of things I had wanted more focus on.

      I did watch and review Karneval, but unfortunately I can’t recommend it. The plot and writing were messy, many things didn’t make sense, and it left loose ends hanging.

      • Rioraku says:

        Yea, I agree with that sentiment. You said it best in the post “…just a love letter to nostalgic fans.” I see it as nothing more or less. The rushing didn’t surprise me since going in I knew it was only going to be four episodes. I think the creators probably figure that the main Pokemon anime takes care of catering to newer fans since ever new region is pretty much a reset as far as the main characters/plot is concerned so its more accessible and will have the time to build on the plot.

        Pity, what caught my eye was the interesting artwork from promo stuff. I may watch a few episodes and see whether I keep on it or not but I appreciate your opinion!

  6. chikorita157 says:

    Your thoughts on Pokemon the Origins pretty much match my thoughts. As mentioned earlier, while I did enjoy the more serious take and being close to the games, I did find it pretty rushed. Still, it’s still good considering what it is.

    As for the top 5, it seems our lists are completely different… but then again, I don’t usually watch more than 4-5 at a given time because of college. Still, I didn’t add any Kyoto Animation shows to my list as none of them stood out in 2013 to even consider adding any of the three shows to the list (compared to 2012 as I did enjoyed Hyouka and Chuunibyou). I had to narrow my list to only 7 since I didn’t think the other shows were good enough. Hopefully, Kyoto Animation will have a better year than they had in 2013.

    (Out of the list, the only title that we had in common is Gargantia)

    • Yumeka says:

      I wish Pokemon the Origin had had more episodes, at least one-cour with 11-13. Trying to condense an RPG game that takes many hours to play through into just 4 episodes while also trying to make it work as an animated narrative that will be interesting to watch rather than play, things are definitely going to feel rushed and awkward, especially if your viewers aren’t knowledgeable about Pokemon to begin with.

      Chuunibyou was one of my top 5 from last year, but no KyoAni shows hit home with me this year. Glad to know you also liked Gargantia a lot =D

  7. Mikoto says:

    Your thoughts on The Origin are similar to mine (which I also posted on my blog). The condensation really hindered its potential and, of course, some parts of it felt kind of stupid because it was too busy referencing game mechanics instead of being an proper animated retelling of the Gen I story (I thought the HP bars, for instance, was unnecessary, and Red looked stupid trying to catch another trainer’s Pokemon, among other things). Still, it was pretty good for nostalgia, and possibly a good way to get older fans to play the new games, but that’s all there was to it, and it’s hardly the anime I was hoping for since the original series ended a decade ago. Voices were great though, I thought Junko Takeuchi’s Red matched Rica Matsumoto’s Satoshi pretty well, and man, did Sugita do awesome as the Origin version of Takeshi.

    I agree that Watamote is definitely the biggest highlight of the year. For my personal list, the Kyousougiga TV series is a close runner-up for that position. Both series are definitely the ones that stood out the most to me. I haven’t caught up with Shingeki no Kyoujin yet, but I like what I’ve seen so far, though I feel that fans praise it more than what it’s worth (and the piano players at my college ruined the first opening for me by playing it over and over lol).

    • Yumeka says:

      I would have loved if Origin was a longer series – they could have taken time to really explain the Pokemon world and how everything works, which would be great for new fans, and not blatantly focus on a few things while rushing through everything else . But as we both said, if the special’s sole purpose was to bring nostalgia to old fans and get them hyped about using the old Pokemon in XY (since they had Mega Charizard in the last episode) then I guess it served its purpose.

      I’ve heard good things about Kyousougiga so I’ll have to check it out someday.

  8. jimmy says:

    Yeah, I enjoyed Pokémon: The Origin for what it was, but I can’t recommend it as a good anime on its own merits. Coppellion was kind of cruddy.

    I actually preferred Nise to Bake. Not because of the fanservice, or because I enjoyed spending time with the characters – in the beginning episodes I wished they’d get to the point already – but because I just thought the story and characters were more compelling. I didn’t really get Bake or understand what was supposed to be interesting apart from the cool wanky style. Maybe I’d feel differently if I rewatched it. I think Mayoi’s farewell episode in Monogatari 2 was what made me finally actually like Monogatari, rather than just enjoy watching something that’s good. I thought Second Season was the best entry so far, though apart from Neko I wouldn’t separate them by an actual rating. Actually, it might explain my opinions if I were subconsciously judging solely by the presence of Kaiki. The OP with his and Senjougahara’s duet was brilliant.

    My top 5 is Non Non Biyori, Kyousougiga, Little Witch Academia, Kill la Kill and, at the top, Uchouten Kazoku. If you count anime that finished in this year, swap out Kill la Kill for Shinsekai Yori. This season just gone had some great titles and some of the year’s worst, like Infinite Stratos 2 and BlazBlue.

    • Yumeka says:

      What I liked about Bake was the different story arcs that focused on each girl’s problem with their respective apparition and how Araragi would help them solve it. Nise just focused on his sisters and the creepy near-incestuous interactions he had with them, which wasn’t particularly enjoyable to me. I’d have to watch Bake again to say whether I liked it better than Second Season though.

      Out of your top 5 I’ve only watched Little Witch Academia, and I believe you already know how I feel about it XD Guess we have differing tastes, LOL.

      • jimmy says:

        Fair enough, I just thought his sisters were better characters than any of the girls from the first season, except probably Senjougahara, though I was never enamoured with her personally the way… uh… I dunno, the only characters I really like are Shinobu and Kaiki. And their stories, once we got past the fanservice stuff that just sort of got in the way mostly (though the toothbrush scene was excellently-directed and conceptualised, and its dénouement, or perhaps 落ち, perfectly overturned everything that came before and laid bare the absurdity of what just happened), I found more interesting than those in Bake.

        I guess we do have different tastes, yeah. From your list I agree the most with Watamote and Gargantia.

  9. Shikon says:

    I was looking forward to your review on Monogatari Second Season! I’ve recently got into the Monogatari series and finished all of the installments (including second season) a few weeks ago.

    I took the same approach when watching the second season, with all of the subplots, subliminal(ish) dialogue popping up, and the dreamlike animation, I found it difficult to really wrap my head around everything. I mainly found myself just focusing on what was happening and how the characters have developed from the previous series. It still was quite good though imo, I really hated that ending though. I’ve dying to know what happens next as well!

    After watching Nise myself I can understand why you didn’t want second season to be like that. It was indeed perverse, a bit too much for even me. Even watching it by myself I still felt a sense of awkwardness XD

  10. Yumeka says:

    Seems like we got the same feeling watching all the Monogatari seasons – liked Bake, felt uncomfortable with Nise, and liked Second Season :3 Like I said, the series in general is just too strange and pretentious for me to really get into, but I still enjoy it enough to keep watching and glad you enjoyed it too =)

  11. Overlord-G says:

    First person to rank Watamote as their #1. Cool. I personally found the Summer Vacation episodes to be quite enlightening because they reminded me of how I spent a Summer vacation a couple of years ago and how sad it made me look seeing someone else doing the same thing. Still, Watamote taught me to be proud of who I am and continue enjoying my hobbies…but not get so absorbed by them that I lose touch of reality.

    I’m glad to see another person who disliked Nisemonogatari as much as I did. I keep hearing how improved Second Season is so I decided that a year was enough time to stay away from the series. I am more calm now and ready to give the show a second chance.

    Gargantia is also on my to-watch-list…mainly for the ladies. Sad, but true. I honestly think the plot and setting are bonuses. Anyway, will check it out when I can. The same goes for Titan. I wonder if I should get back to watching Bakuman and finish it? I should, someday.

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