Marina Inoue:

Marina Inoue is one of those girls, like Shizuka Itou, who sneaks up on you after a long time and a great many roles.  Nothing in particular stands out, but once you realize the sheer number of good performances she's done over her career, it becomes unquestionable how talented she truly was from the very beginning.  No special verbal quirks here.  Nothing that stands out.  Just role after role after role that all perfectly represent the character and conveys their feelings like a spiritual medium channeling ghosts one after the next, day after day, year after year after year.  The variety of her roles shows just how much talent goes into making every one of them sound independently realistic and truthful.  I'm sorry I haven't noticed you until now, Marina Inoue.  Lets make up for all the lost time starting now!

Marina Inoue has a huge number of huge roles.  Armin from Shingeki no Kyojin, Sodachi from Owarimonogatari, Nao from Smile Precure, Sakura Mamiya from Kyoukai no Rinne, Alicia Melchiott from Valkyria Chronicles, Jessica Ushiromiya from Umineko, Yozora from Haganai, Erio from Nanoha Strikers, Rei from High School of the Dead, Yoko from Gurrenn Lagann, Eve Genoard from Baccano, and the list just goes on and on.  She's the main character of every great anime ever made.  If that isn't enough to make my great seiyuu list, what is?

Meanwhile, Hai to Gensou and Kono Subarashii Sekai have made my 'good books' list.  Both authors started just in 2013 and both of them have already written at least seven volumes.  Talk about a work ethic.  Congratulations to Ao Jumonji and Natsume Akatsuki for their new great works.  It's likely they'll both be showing up in my great anime rankings sometime soon as well.  It's easier to replace Oregairu and Noucome than be added to my great anime rankings though -- neither of those authors/works were in my great anime rankings to begin with.  The competition just gets fiercer from here.  32nd and 33rd in the light novel category doesn't even equal 175th in the anime category, because anime pulls from a lot of additional sources compared to just light novels.

Taking the current 20 series of this winter season, you have seven series based off of light novels, four off of visual novels, six off of manga and three original works.  Dimension W and Boku Dake ga Inai Machi may be entering my manga rankings next, before also striving for the true peak of perfection which is my anime rankings.  It depends on how well their coming eps play out.

Boku Dake, Hai to Gensou, Dimension W, Subarashii Sekai, Ao no Kanata, Nurse Witch Komugi-chan R, even Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut are still in the running to reach my great anime rankings.  I watched the entirety of the previous Komugi oav's and they were merely watchable.  But Komugi-chan R has been a breed apart and much better than its predecessor.  The question is will it revert to form or continue onwards in this vein?  Everything is still up in the air, except for Marina Inoue's quality as a voice actress.

With the winter season more or less sussed out, it's also time to start looking forward to spring 2016.  There's a lot of treats in store for us:  Jojo's Part 4, Sailor Moon Crystal Part 3, Kyoukai no Rinne s2 and Macross Delta are known great franchises.  There's also a lot of shows with potential, like Big Order, Wagamama High Spec, Hundred and Unhappy.  Naruto is finally supposed to return to canon material again, and Dragon Ball Super is finally supposed to stop retelling the stories with a lower budget and more wasted time than the movies that the movies have already told.  This winter has been a treat in terms of new good works, but spring is going to deliver the classics again that we've all been waiting for.