Now that I've seen a few more episodes of my prospective series, I thought it wouldn't be amiss to re-rank them and give further commentary.
First off, Arata Kangatari had a terrible second episode, so I'm dropping it. I'm also dropping Aiura, because it isn't good enough to bother with when when it's so stupidly short in the first place. In their place, I'll list Gundam SEED Destiny HD Remaster as a new series and tell people to watch that instead. The remaster is a good excuse to watch (or if you're old rewatch) a classic like this, which is the highest selling Gundam series of all time. Presumably, that makes SEED Destiny the best Gundam series of all time, and Gundam is technically in my rankings, so that makes SEED a must watch.
Suisei no Gargantia has proven itself and entered my rankings as the 129th best series of all time, replacing Trigun. However, Photo Kano has turned into a lame excuse for fan service and abandoned all semblance of a plot that might have made it good. My expectations for this series were crushed, but I guess it can still function as a watchable mediocrity. I still like the rhythmic gymnast and the little sister and the photographer of light after all. It doesn't look like any other series will impress me enough to get into the rankings, but there's still a chance for Yahari Ore no Seishunn Love Come wa Machigaiterru, Hataraku Maou-sama!, and Zettai Bouei Leviathan, who are all doing something uniquely humorous and interesting with their characters and settings. The question for these series is if they can keep up the level of humor and plot twists over a long period of time, or if they'll run out of creative ideas early and just start repeating themselves. Overused gags are pretty boring, and I could see all three of these series crashing down by relying upon them.
Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko continues to survive purely on its marvelous art, music, and voice acting. The actual content of the story is terrible, but I guess anything is forgivable so long as the production value is high enough.
Joujuu Senjin Mushibugyou has almost the opposite problem. Everything about it is great -- if it had been made in 1980. But since every single scene in the series reminds me of some better series, like Katanagatari, One Piece, Naruto, Dragonball, Fairy Tail, Rurouni Kenshin, etc, I just can't get excited about the series or care the least about it. I feel like a fervent fan of Shounen Jump grew up reading a lot of great past works and resolved to become a manga-ka himself. He then wrote out the storyline of his bug crushing samurai and so perfectly emulated Shounen-Jump-iness that he became the collective unconscious of Shonen Jump itself. Now his story is like a demon without a face that can only mimic everything around it, before devouring its victims whole.
Actually, Joujuu Senjin reminds me a lot of Vividred Operation, which had the same problem of so closely mimicking the much better Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha that all I could ever see were the glaring gaps between the two in quality. Copies of good series just aren't as good as the originals, no matter what the genre.
Majestic Prince has continued to be just interesting and funny enough to continue watching, it's very different from your typical mecha action series. It doesn't take itself seriously, but it isn't slapstick either. It's found a very unique niche for itself in a season with three good mecha action series airing simultaneously. I wish the art weren't so bad, because the content is pretty charming.
Valvrave yet again had a series of dramatic plot twists, with mind blowing changes in characters' situations every thirty seconds or so. It also had more cold blooded killing, which was awesome. But how long can they keep up this pace? I suspect the series will eventually settle down to where practically nothing happens every episode, at which point it will lose its charm. Valvrave is still living on borrowed time.
Namiuchigiwa continues to be funny so it's fine.
Shingeki no Kyojin is trying way too hard to be 'cool' and 'gritty.' I guess these are things Americans love, but I personally detest them. Anyone trying to act like a badass deserves a punch in the face on general principles. It's just like an ape thumping his chest and intimidating everyone around him for the sake of the ladies. It's just primitive, repulsive conduct. Having guys flying around forests with 'cool' devices with 'scary, slanted eyes of killing determination' is not exciting, it's annoying. It reminds me of peacock displays, all show and no substance. I'm fond of some of the side characters who aren't constantly trying to emit badass auras or look depressed and dark, like the potato girl, and the giants are freaky and interesting to look at, so the series remains watchable, but that's it.
Date A Live pretty much sucks. There's nothing stupider than a main character dying and then magically coming back to life, with no explanation. It's just the author jerking our chain around and screwing with our heads. Also, the romance is retarded and at a level of a bird imprinting onto its mother instead of a girl falling for a boy. The action scenes are also totally unnecessary to the story, since it's obvious violence won't solve anything in this world anyway. The spirits he's dating aren't going to kill anyone, because that would make them less personable to the audience. Meanwhile, we also know that the spirits he's dating won't be killed, because that would defy the point of dating them. As such, since we know ahead of time the results of every battle -- a neutral tie -- why even animate them in the first place? They're just a pointless waste of everyone's time. There's no point watching this story any further. Everything good about it can be found elsewhere, like in The World God Only Knows, whereas everything bad about it is unique unto itself.
Hunter x Hunter is finally entering new territory, the Chimera Ant Arc, which has never been animated before, so I'm going to give it a boost in my 'looking forward to the most each week' rankings from here on as well.
2nd Impression Spring Anime Rankings:
1. Railgun
2. Oreimo
3. Hayate
4. Hunter x Hunter
5. Suisei no Gargantia
6. Chihayafuru
7. Leviathan
8. Hataraku Maou-sama
9. Yahari Ore no Seishunn Love Come wa Machigateirru
10. Dokidoki Precure
11. One Piece
12. Joujuu Senjin Mushibugyou
13. Majestic Prince
14. Valvrave
15. Namiuchigiwa
16. Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko
17. Shingeki no Kyoujin
18. Photo Kano
19. Gundam SEED Destiny (Remastered)
20. Saki Achiga (just 1 episode left)
Someday Naruto, Higurashi, and Miyakawa-ke (Lucky Star) will join the lineup, but not yet. Let's hope I don't need to drop any more spring series, but Shingeki no Kyojin, Photo Kano, and Hentai Ouji are definitely on the choppable block.
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