One of many shows that were actually made in 2015 has now come out subtitled in 2016. This is really helping to bolster the number of great anime shows 2016 has to boast of. 2016 is already at 17 shows even though its still in its first season out of four. At this rate it will break all records with 68 great series -- though of course that won't actually happen.
Tamayura, like Assassination Classroom, is one of those shows that's going to end this year, but it won't make this year special because it barely qualifies as great to begin with. It's nice to have closure on these works but they were never that much in demand to begin with.
Still, this third Tamayura movie focused on Maon, who's beautiful and charming and emotionally evocative as always. She's the highlight of the series, which made this episode probably the best of the movies that have come out so far.
A short anime series called 'A Girl and her Cat' has started airing. It's pretty good, for a short series. This moves our concurrent watching schedule up to an impressive 19 shows. I have no plans on dropping any of them until the end, so this might set some sort of record in terms of me watching so many series this late in the season.
Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm just doesn't seem to measure up to greatness. If anything, I would rate it below Juuou Mugen no Fafnir, when it needs to be scoring well above that mark. Schwarzesmarken also falls short, because it tries to evoke emotions that it hasn't done nearly enough groundwork for us to appreciate. Always the sign of a rushed or plain bad attempt by the writers. Still, as an expose of the evils of communism I'm loving it.
Fairy Tail Zero is where the actual quality resides. Fairy Tail Zero's latest episode had some of the most beautiful drawings all packed together in a single episode I've ever seen. The emotional strength and impact was just as good as the art. The voice acting, as always, was incredible. Between Mamiko Noto, Kana Hanazawa and Katsuyuki Konishi there are just no poorly said lines in the entire script.
The only way Fairy Tail fails to maintain its position as the #1 anime of all time is if it breaks off before the ending of the manga. Otherwise it's just invincible. The art of this show is the best in anime. The music is by a top notch composer. The voice acting is all-star. Fairy Tail as a source manga keeps delivering beautiful and emotional moments while keeping the plot moving at a decent pace (Bleach and One Piece could learn from Fairy Tail.) Fairy Tail has the best cast of characters in any story, and also one of the largest. Despite all the new great shows that came out this season, like Gensou no Grimgar and Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, Fairy Tail Zero on its own was better than any of them.
When Fairy Tail Zero ends, there will be 60 chapters of Fairy Tail still not animated. What will they do with the show? Nobody knows. There haven't been any clues as to whether the show will continue on the main storyline, go into filler, cover a spinoff, or simply shut down.
In contrast, Naruto still has 22 chapters left to adapt. What happens after the main storyline is finished is anyone's guess though. There's plenty of spinoff material left to animate.
One Piece has 28 chapters left to adapt. 10 chapters until the end of the Dressrosa arc. We're really hitting the home stretch with this endless arc which has been ongoing for three years now. It would be such a relief, except that the subsequent Zou arc is even worse. Treasure the One Piece you have, it's all downhill from here.
Hayate no Gotoku says it's at the 'beginning of the end.' But there's no telling how long it will take to actually finish from there. Bleach said something similar years ago and we're still nowhere close. It's something to be aware of though. An epic and endless series like this coming to an end will be extremely weird when it finally happens.
Some Yama no Susume manga actually got translated! It won't matter until it surpasses where the anime reached, but it's still something to look forward to. That leaves just Kokoro Toshokan and Locodol as the great manga that have never received even a single english translated chapter over here in the west. All we get to know about these shows are what the anime have shown us, and that's unfortunately not much, as neither anime went until the ending of the mangas.
Mahoutskai Precure has a fun premise and setting, but it feels shallower than, say, Suite Precure's beginning. With each passing episode it just keeps falling further behind. Maybe the show has something amazing in store for us in the future, but at present it looks like a lackluster, middle-of-the-road performance.
We're in a sort of doldrums period of entertainment right now. Flash and Arrow won't air a new episode until the end of the month. Daredevil 2 comes out ten days from now. The same for March Madness. Even the final Hunger Games movie blu-ray only comes out at the end of the month. Most importantly, the start of the spring season of anime, which has a massive catalog of shows, isn't until the start of April.
If there's really no Fairy Tail after Zero, then the spring season is worthless and terrible, because Fairy Tail is more important than any of these shows. However, if there is more Fairy Tail after Zero, then life is still worth living and we may as well look at what else there is to offer:
First, we have the continuing shows -- Pretty Cure, Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece.
Then there's the sequel shows:
1. Sailor Moon Crystal season 3
2. Jojo's season 4
3. Kyoukai no Rinne season 2
4. Macross Delta
5. Assassination Classroom season 2 (continued)
So we're already at a guaranteed 9 good series for the spring season.
After that we have shows that look promising:
Big Order
Kuromukuro
Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
And shows that might be good, that I'll be checking out at least the first episode of:
Wagamama High Spec
Unhappy
Sword Gai
Sousei no Onmyouji
Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge
Seisen Cerberus
Sansha Sanyou
Sakamoto desu ga?
Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja nai to Omotta?
Onigiri
Mayoiga
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri
Kiznaiver
Hundred
Hai Furi
Gyakuten Saiban
Flying Witch
Bungou Stray Dogs
Boku no Hero Academia
Bakuon
12-sai
So the spring season is going to have a hell of a lot of first impressions. Whew. Just two weeks before the fireworks begin~
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