No more single-episode posts from now on (except PSO2, when I get around to finishing that).  I’m doing this in one weekly go!

The Rankings:

1. Boku no Hero Academia

I love Boku no Hero, but I was never particularly hyped for it.  The anime, however, completely sold me with quite possibly the perfect episode 1.  It thrusts you into its world quickly and smoothly, and it doesn’t take long to get a complete understanding of our hero, Midoriya.  The pacing was spot on, even if the episode ended on kind of a tease; with how far along the manga is, honestly, the anime can afford to take its time.  But most of all, every minute is just dripping with FUN.  Honestly, this anime may just surpass the manga, and do so VERY quickly.

I especially appreciate how it can turn from comedic to dramatic on a dime, flawlessly.  *sniff* The sheer competence… it’s enough to drive a man to tears.

2. Sailor Moon Crystal Infinity (Screw that “Season 3” nonsense; I’m calling it Infinity!)

I said it before, and it has come to pass: whatever flaws Sailor Moon Crystal had would be worth it if we got to the Infinity arc, and doubly so if we make it to Dream and Stars.

Although I largely defended the style of Crystal, primarily because I embraced a closer-to-manga art style, it was wrong in that it seriously downplayed the comedy that absolutely was present in the manga, as if it tried too hard to distance itself from the 90’s anime just to differentiate.  Infinity strikes a perfect balance between 90’s anime and Crystal, resulting in something MUCH closer in spirit to the manga, and it picked the perfect arc to start.

The only flaw so far is that, when you get right down to it, not much at all happened in the first episode.  It was all setup and introductions, plus a huge amount of time dedicated just on the new henshins.  But this was probably for the best, since what Crystal needed was a sort of rebranding to give everyone the impression that this is a very different Crystal, and in that regard, it knocked it outta the park.

Hell, they even somehow managed to fix that weird hand pose Mars does.  I’d still rather they not pick that pose at all, but hey, at least it looks reasonably like a human hand.

Also, Mercury has outstanding breasts.

3. Ushio to Tora

WE’RE GOING FULL THROTTLE!  Wow… so… this was an intense, unabashedly rushed episode.  It’s honestly kind of jarring how quickly we went through the story considering it’s the first new episode after a season-long break.  Viewers honestly aren’t given the opportunity to really settle down at all throughout the episode with the break-neck pacing.

All the awesomeness is back, but so are the flaws.  For some reason, the showrunners decided to just plop the Western Bakemono, their leader, and their floating castle into the mix even though they skipped this arc in favor of the easily sacrificed and much less important HAMMR arc.  I fucking told you to go for the Bakemono War arc instead, but noooooooo.

But hey, I’ll forgive a lot of things because A) It’s still a fucking proper Ushio & Tora adaptation, and B) This hype as fuck OP.

You can tell shit’s about to go down, and that’s worth ALL the points.

4. Kuma Miko ~ Girl Meets Bear

First episode was fun and funny, even if it was just all establishment.  Outside of the completely absurd premise, it seems like it’ll be little more than an aimless yet amusing rural slice of life.  But hey, nothing wrong with that, especially if the characters are entertaining enough.  And it seems they are.

Yeah, it seems that the obvious Pedobear jokes to be made were not lost on the creators, and that’s pretty awesome.

To sum it up in a sentence or two, the bears in the village, including Natsu Kumai here, can speak human language because they are descended from a bear and his virgin sacrifice.  Our main character is Machi, a miko who wants to leave the village for someplace more convenient, but she’s too much of a timid country bumpkin to make it in the city, or so she’s told.

The crux of the series seems to be about Machi and Natsu’s friendship, which, while initially bizarre, is actually rather wholesome and humdrum.  Outside of the initial hilarious shock value, I truly wonder if there’s anything of substance there.

5. Sousei no Onmyouji

So, Onmyouji is one of my favorite subject matter (see: Millennium Match), so it’s no surprise that I would give this a go.  It’s… not too bad, but nowhere close to what I was expecting.  The episode starts out promising enough with violence and child casualties.

Then we skip ahead and learn that our hero Rokuro is basically retired at 14 after being one of the strongest Onmyouji at 12 before shit hit the fan.  Rokuro has an… interesting design.  He’s like if Invader Zim were a good-hearted human.

Anyway, long story short, there are monsters called Kegare that inhabit an alternate plane called Magano, and they sometimes spill over into our plane and have to be beat down by Onmyouji, or Exorcists (but fuck you, translator; an Onmyouji is far more than just that; they’re diviners, mystics, and summoners – so just FUCKING CALL THEM ONMYOUJI!).  Our main heroine, Benio, is one such warrior, and she’s especially powerful… but we eventually learn (surprise surprise) that Rokuro is stronger.  That’s pretty much what this episode amounts to, really.  We mostly delve into Rokuro’s trauma over the day that made him quit being an Onmyouji.

Well, that and, it warrants reiterating, being swallowed in amazing visuals that seem like they belong in a Persona game.  Hell, one of the battle themes sounds like modified version of Maya’s theme.

Yeah, I don’t have a link to the scene, but I swear, if you watch it, you’ll hear it if you try hard enough.

For now, I’m giving it a shot, but I don’t have high expectations after the first episode.  Derivative as fuck, and literally has a scene where Benio falls from the sky like the Magical Girlfriend she is destined to be.

6. Ace Attorney

Oh, gawd… If you thought the first season of Sailor Moon Crystal had bad animation… this just manages to uncover a new low.   It’s a strong contender for worst adaptation, and we’re only one episode in.  True, the tutorial case wasn’t a particularly good story, but the anime doesn’t even attempt to make the best of a bad situation.  The most glaring omission is the defendant’s toupee throw.  It sends a signal that the signature quirkiness of the series will be toned down considerably.  Of the few things it got right, it does take some audio cues from the game and doesn’t unnecessarily waste time – it’s very much a streamlined version of the games.  Unfortunately, that also means getting rid of fun presses and a vast majority of Phoenix abuse.

By far the worst part of this adaptation is the animation.  It’s terrible on pretty much every level.  Sailor Moon Crystal may have had bad lows, but it was inconsistent to the point where it could be genuinely good at times as well.  Ace Attorney is consistently, distractingly terrible.  You KNOW it’s bad when you cut corners on OPENING CREDIT animation.

On the upside, Maya-focused ending animation.  And the music is spot on, even when it’s using original tracks.