Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja nai: This story shares the same premise as Eromanga Sensei and Imouto Sae Ireba Ii -- a light novel series about light novel authors writing light novels. The other two are in my rankings -- this one will not be. This is because the characters are less original and relatable. Since the characters aren't innately appealing like in these other series, they had to crank up the sex appeal to 11 to make up the difference and keep people's attention. But such gestures just denote desperation and do little to improve the product, especially when most of it is censored and we'll have to wait for the blu-rays to see the 'real deal.' Even so, I like the subject material, bro-con imoutos and light novel authors, to the point that even a poor rendition of the concept is still worthwhile. Pass.
Conception: Virgo is very cute. But the situation is just too damn contrived. It sounds like a really lame concept for a porno. I mean, what are the odds? You get transported to another world where the only way to defeat the demon lord is to impregnate 12 priestesses? And they're all fine with this because, of course, the world's at stake so watcha gonna do? If a guy were cool enough, he could probably take down a demon lord and win the love of 12 girls fairly (like Sato from Death March). Why do the two have to be intertwined, such that he gets all that love for free? It doesn't seem fair. Fail.
Merc Storia: There are 7.6 billion people on Earth. If you spend all day every day going around and helping the ones in need you'd never get anywhere. People need more selfish and completable goals. You can't just wander off into the sunset with the purpose of healing anyone you come across. This is stupid. Plus the art style sucked, the characters sucked, and everything in general sucked. Thirty minutes of my life wasted. Fail.
Beezelbub-jo no Okinimesu Mama: I hate watching dysfunctional relationships. On one side you have a cocktease who goes nude around a guy who wants her but has no interest in him sexually, just torturing him with thoughts of what he can't have day in and day out. On the other hand you have a scolding nagger who continuously criticizes a girl who, objectively, hasn't actually done anything to be scolded or nagged about. In fact, according to the story, Beezelbub is a great ruler who has been doing this job for thousands of years, so hardly needs the advice of a loser like Mullin appearing out of nowhere and just starting his job as her assistant. He should just shut up and do as he is told, but instead he spends all day every day insulting her. Between the two of them only negative emotions arise from start to finish. What a painful watching experience. Fail.
Still to come -- Kyoto Animation's archery club anime that should air on Monday. It probably won't be any good though, so there's no point waiting for it.
As things stand, this is what the fall season looks like in terms of weekly excitement and anticipation levels:
1. SAO S3
2. Fairy Tail S3
3. Index S3
4. Shingeki no Kyojin S3
5. Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara
6. Goblin Slayer
7. Tensei Shitara Slime Datta-ken
8. Ken en Ken: Aoki Kagayaki
9. Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san
10. One Piece
11. Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet
12. Gurazeni
13. ImoImo
14. Hugtto Precure
15. Bolt
Best season ever? Probably an over-exaggeration. Still, fifteen shows (possibly even 16), including SAO, Fairy Tail and Index? That's really good. I have no complaints.
I do have an observation, though. For yet another season, there doesn't seem to be any new series worthy of entering my rankings. I made a promise not to include any new entry into my top 200 rankings until I'd rewatched every previous series in my rankings -- but that promise remains meaningless because nobody is worthy of entering my rankings anyway. Aside from Death March and Ryuuou, that came out in January of 2018, anime hasn't produced any new good ideas for the year. In previous years it wasn't unusual to have 8, 12, or even 16 great new franchises. 2018 had 2. Will 2019 have any at all?
I would love to replace some of the series in my rankings but that's impossible at this rate. Anime needs to get its act together and fast. If you lean on continuing older series for too long, you'll end up reaching their endings. Then what? The top four anime of 2017 were all new franchises. That's healthy and exciting. The top four anime of 2018 are all sequels. The last time a year in anime added only two new great franchises was 2000. The last time a year had fewer new great entries than 2018 was 1994. Not very healthy or exciting.
Any year with Sword Art Online is a great year for anime. But everything else about 2018 was far worse than 2017, which I already considered a disappointment. SAO won't be around forever -- it will be here for 2019 and it's going to be awesome, but then what? 2020 is looking really grim.
The series in my rankings from 186-200 all have huge flaws. They're either too short, full of filler, or worse than their original source material and thus unnecessary. Obviously there are good things about these shows or they wouldn't be in my rankings, but I was really looking forward to replacing them with something new and better. Flawless representatives I could point to without shame. But at the rate we're going, I won't be able to replace these flawed representatives for another decade.
That's a pretty dismal projection, but Japan isn't doing enough to prove me wrong. Even though they're making twice as much anime as before, it's not even half as good as it used to be. Step it up, folks. This isn't going to cut it.
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