Miyuki Added:

I've been dropping a lot of series from my rankings, so it's high time to add a new series in their stead:  Miyuki.

Miyuki is the earliest animated work of Mitsuru Adachi's long and illustrious career.  The wonderful world of Mitsuru Adachi includes dozens of manga series and seven animated works:  Miyuki, Cross Game, H2, Touch, Slow Step, Nine, and Hiatari Ryoukou.  Nine and Hiatari haven't been subtitled at all, so they're basically lost to the western world.  Miyuki is in the process of being subtitled, needing just four more episodes until completion.  However, the subbing group is taking its time and therefore Miyuki probably won't be subbed completely until sometime in 2015.  In a sense, Miyuki is just now 'coming out', just like Grisaia no Kajitsu or other fall 2014 series, because until a show is subbed it really hasn't even begun, despite the fact that it's 30 years old.

Of the anime of Adachi's works that have received subtitles, Miyuki, Cross Game, H2 and Touch have all been entered into my rankings.  Slow Step might not be far behind, depending on whether the short oav series really does manage to faithfully cover the entirety of the excellent manga upon which it is based.  H2 would be much higher ranked except for its inexplicable ending of the anime in the middle of the manga.  Luckily, for the other shows, they all seem to carry through from the beginning to the end, which gives them a leg up against modern competition like Akame ga Kill that randomly veers off to filler, betraying all of its fans just when the show is getting good.

With Kyoukai no Rinne getting an anime, only one 'good manga' hasn't gotten an anime adaption at this point, Vinland Saga.  The reason for having separate ranking systems for manga and anime is to make clear that some anime adaptions are better than others -- for instance, Negima's adaption, Freezing's adaption, and Zettai Karen Children's adaptions were all terrible.  Those series are much, much better than the anime versions would have you believe.  H2 is the same.  Standing at my 19th favorite manga of all time, ahead of smash hits like Rurouni Kenshin, it's stuck at 158 in my anime rankings.  The works of Mitsuru Adachi should be enjoyed in both the anime and manga forms, or people will miss out on his total power level which is well over 9000.

In terms of how great a mangaka Adachi is after making so many hit works, he can only be compared to the likes of Oda Eiichiro, Masashi Kishimoto, Hiro Mashima, Hata Kenjiro, Ken Akamatsu, Akira Toriyama, or Rumiko Takahashi.  Of those, only Rumiko Takahashi has been as inventive in terms of making multiple good series instead of just one long flagship franchise.  I can't thank Adachi enough for his long career of service in the manga industry dating all the way back to the 1970's and continuing to this day, not with occasional sporadic hiatus break chapters like you find from the authors of Glass Mask or Golgo 13, but with genuinely continuous output every week.  This man is a legend and an invincible machine.  Someone needs to patent whatever energy drink keeps him going.

Meanwhile, Shingeki no Kyojin is getting a second anime season in 2016.  It may be a long ways off, but nevertheless I rank series with a prophetic eye, taking into account everything that is guaranteed to come in the future as well as everything that has already aired.  Due to this, Shingeki no Kyojin jumps up to #45 in my rankings two years before any new content even airs.

Almost as exciting as an entire new season of Shingeki no Kyojin, a single new ova of PapaKiki is coming out.  Will they ever make a second season of this blessed anime?  It doesn't look like it, but at least they're paying their fans some attention by releasing this ova and delivering a little of what's expected from them.  The light novel series is slated to end with the upcoming 18th volume, which is great news for Japan, as it's clearly one of the best literary masterpieces of all time, but it doesn't help us much since fan translators have given up on translating it ever since the beginning of volume 4.  The lack of a light novel translation makes the need for a new anime, which would get fansubbed, all the more pressing, but sadly there is no justice in this world.

Little Busters EX episodes 7 and 8 still haven't been correctly subbed, the 3rd Squid Girl ova still hasn't been subbed, Yama no Susume S2's ova hasn't been subbed, and the new Prince of Tennis Genius 10 ova's 1 and 2 still haven't been subbed.  That's six episodes of currently releasing anime that fan translators have fallen behind on, all on presumably extremely popular series that should not be treated this way.  When even good anime isn't being subtitled, you can kiss any hope of light novel and visual novel translations goodbye.