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Friday, October 7, 2016

Anime Wishlist Updates:

I've radically revised my anime wishlist, so it would be seemly to explain my reasoning for doing so.

After looking at the first volume sales figures for Love Live Sunshine, at 67,000+, I don't need to ask for a sequel.  We're sure to be getting one soon enough anyway, so I can cross that off my list.

As for Zettai Karen Children, after being given 64 episodes of anime already, there's no way we'll ever get a larger or better version of the story, and it seems impossible for them to get this story right anyway, so there's no sense asking for it any longer.  Like Zero no Tsukaima, this show has been given infinite anime support and it still never seems to gel, so what would be the use of yet another season?

As for Tomoyo After Story, there's just a lot of plot holes in this story and it may actually be better off ignored.  It doesn't live up to its Clannad predecessor, which ended perfectly right where it did.

I also gave up on any further adaptions of Tales games.  I believe for most of these games it's better to play the game than watch an anime of it anyway, so nothing is lost by the lack of an anime.  For earlier games where the gameplay is too bad, a manga adaption is all that's needed to get the story across, and Tales already has that for all of its games.  What I really want is for the manga adaption to be translated, an anime after that would be superfluous, if we could ever just get the translations.

Also, Tales has so many seasons of anime already under its belt, it's a little too greedy to ask for more.  There's enough correspondence between the games that just by watching the ones that have been animated, you have a pretty good grasp of what all the other games are like too.  Phantasia, Abyss, Eternia, Vesperia, Symphonia, Zesteria and Berseria is already quite a few adaptions to work with.  The added value of, say, Hearts, the portions of it that don't overlap with any other animated Tales game, has to be pretty small by now.

With all the precious slots opened up by dropping these demands, I got to instead ask for adaptions of more manga series I like.  I'm now asking for the real endings of Alien Nine, RG Veda, K-On! and Binbou Shimai Monogatari.  I also want Ad Astra per Aspera and Toki to get adapted for the first time.  Moreover, I want sequels to Kin-iro Mosaic, Locodol, Prince of Tennis, Joukamachi no Dandelion, Yuru Yuri, Dimension W, and Sore ga Seiyuu!

Perhaps some of these shows don't have enough volumes of content for a full anime season to adapt yet.  This isn't a major issue.  Even if they announced a sequel now, it could always come out years from now when there is more material.  I just want the manga series I love to be shown the support they deserve.  A vote of confidence in them is all I'm asking for now, the anime itself can always come later.

So long as these manga series aren't over, I don't see why the anime versions of them should end either.  The two should grow together like two serpents intertwined forming a staff.

There are a few manga that anime doesn't wholly cover that I won't insist on being covered.  (Zettai Karen Children I just explained).  Aisheteru ze Baby's anime almost covers the full manga, so it's pointless to ask for just the last portion.  The same applies to Hikaru no Go, Touch, and Hunter x Hunter.  Usagi Drop's second half isn't worth animating because it's just no good, so it's a good decision to stop where they did.  Nausicaa's movie adaption is sufficient even though the manga is much longer.  But overall, if you've started adapting a manga but haven't promised to finish adapting said manga, you'll likely end up on my wishlist.  Every one of my top manga deserves an animator's full attention, just like Inuyasha received.  It's well worth it to ditch all my other wishes just to make this point clear.

(For reference, I'll include my full anime wishlist, including all the portions that weren't changed, here:)

Anime Wishlist:

There are 23 anime in my great anime rankings that have a solid start, who are sorely lacking a proper ending, and whose source material has already ended, giving the shows a perfect opportunity for a solid ending, whenever they see fit to continue their already halfway finished series.  The fact that studios haven't acted upon these golden opportunities is an inexcusable tragedy.  The series that qualify for this infamy are listed in the order of their severity.

Wanting an anime adaption can be about two different things, though.  In one case, it's just because the music, voice acting, animation and color would be preferable to the previous source.  But as a burning secondary issue, it's because anime is more likely to be translated than any other source material.  For shows with untranslated source material, the wish to have an anime doubles as a wish to finally have the product translated and be able to enjoy it in any way whatsoever.  As a result, the two categories must be broken down into two groups, the series I'd like to see animated most despite already being translated in other ways due to the added value nature of anime, and the series I'd like to see animated mostly just because I want a translation of the subject material to finally be forthcoming and there doesn't seem to be any other way than this wish being granted for such an event to happen.  The first group will be the anime for animation's sake, as the * next to the product means the source material is already fully available translated in non-anime form, and the second group will be for the translation's sake, as the lack of a * shows there's still no english version whatsoever of the product available anyone could enjoy:

1.  Bleach *
2.  The World God Only Knows *
3.  H2 *
4.  Ranma 1/2 *
5.  Baka to Test *
6.  History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi *
7.  Flame of Recca *
8.  Miyuki *
9.  Umineko no naku koro ni *
10.  Kodomo no Jikan *
11.  Ao Haru Ride *
12.  RG Veda *
13.  Alien Nine *
14.  K-On! *
15.  Binbou Shimai Monogatari *

1.  PapaKiki
2.  Haganai
3.  Da Capo III (main game storyline)
4.  Utawarerumono (game 3)
5.  Kokoro Toshokan
6.  Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku
7.  Nichijou
8.  Shinryaku! Ika Musume 

There are other groups of inexcusable tragedies, though.  One group is the shows that wandered off into filler (or super-abridged versions of the content) instead of reaching their proper endings, where you need to not only provide the ending for the show, but also cut out the filler/abridged-content that already infests the show like a malignant disease in order to correct the horribly skewed timeline.

1.  Claymore (starting from the war in the north) *
2.  Rurouni Kenshin (starting from the end of the Kyoto arc) *
3.  Sora no Otoshimono (starting from the end of Forte) *
4.  Soul Eater (starting from the death of that coffee loving guy) *

1. Akame ga Kill! (starting from ep 19 till ending, then flashing back to cover Zero prequel)
2.  Major (starting from the end of the tv series)   

To Love-ru is a special case, needing both a remake of its beginning which doesn't follow the manga, and a continuation of the story which now spans past the latest animated section.  There's no other anime that fits into such a unique situation as this one, so let's just call it the To Love-ru category:

1.  To Love-ru *

Some series are so screwed up by filler that, even though they've been animated before, require a complete and total remake which this time follows the source faithfully in order to be salvaged.  As a bonus, this remake should also extend to the duration of the newest released material, as opposed to wherever they ended previously in their fillericious snarls, which sometimes means all the way to the proper ending of the source material:

1.  Negima *
2.  I"s *
3.  12 Kingdoms * 
4.  Sailor Moon (Arcs 4 and 5) *
5.  Full Moon o Sagashite *
6.  Rosario Vampire *
7.  Mujaki no Rakuen *
8.  Slow Step *

1.  Freezing/Freezing Zero/Freezing Pair Love Stories/Freezing First Chronicle
2.  Amagi Brilliant Park
3.  Prism Heart/Arc/Magical/Princess/etc 
4.  Gokukoku no Brynhildr

Some series haven't even been animated yet despite the amazing quality of the source:

1.  Shinohayu: Dawn of Age *
2.  Strobe Edge *
3.  Nanoha Force *
4.  Vinland Saga *
5.  Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare *
6.  Ad Astra Per Aspera *
7.  Toki *

1.  Da Capo I, II and III Untold Routes/Spinoffs
2.  Kono Oozora ni, Tsubasa wo Hirogete
3.  Kud Wafter
4.  Angel Beats (Knocking on Heaven's Door prequel)
5.  Junai Sensation
6.  Sakura Zensen
7.  MIX

In addition, there's a lot of series that technically aren't over yet, but do have so much material that whole additional story arcs could be animated, in which case the series would be much better than it currently is.  When a source has tons of material left to cover and the anime studio refuses to move, that's cause for concern, even if technically they could be waiting for the ending.  (Odds are they aren't, they're just refusing to animate the show.)

1.  Akatsuki no Yona *
2.  Index *
3.  Railgun *
4.  Hayate no Gotoku *
5.  Saki *
6.  Haruhi Suzumiya *
7.  Juuou Mujin no Fafnir *
8.  Bastard! *
9.  Chihayafuru *
10.  High School of the Dead *
11.  Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun *
12.  Break Blade *

1.  Sword Art Online - Alicization
2.  Seikai no Senki
3.  Maria-sama ga Miteru
4.  Nanoha Vivid
5.  Hai to Gensou no Grimgar
6.  Oreshura
7.  Outbreak Company
8.  Bake-(etc)-monogatari light novel volumes 18-22
9.  GATE
10.  Non non Biyori
11.  Baccano
12.  Guyver
13.  Spice and Wolf 
14.  New Game
15.  Lucky Star
16.  No Game No Life
17.  Hataraku Maou-sama!
18.  Kimi ni Todoke
19.  Btooom!
20.  Yama no Susume
21.  Hyouka 
22.  Hanayamata
23.  Mikakunin de Shinkoukei
24.  Sakura Trick
25.  Futari Ecchi
26.  Kin-iro Mosaic
27.  Locodol
28.  Prince of Tennis
29.  Joukamachi no Dandelion
30.  Yuru Yuri
31.  Dimension W
32.  Sore ga Seiyuu!

These are the 100 Inexcusable Tragedies of Anime.  The anime industry has let us down not once, not twice, but 100 times.  Anime fans are in the most abusive relationship in history. . .

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