The 4 best animes you’re missing out on (Winter 2015 edition)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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Dark_Sage here with the opinions you need to fix your anime game. Don’t say I never did anything for you.

Death Parade

Death_Parade

Oh sorry, I should say not Death Parade.

If your game plan with this post was to scroll past the show titles in the hopes of seeing Death Parade on the list to affirm your good taste and quirkiness, I’m afraid you’re the casual this article is aimed at. Death Parade is the most popular non-sequel airing this season, and the second most popular “new” show overall, just behind Tokyo Ghoul Root A.

Don't let it get to your head.
Laugh it up.

The show isn’t even that good; stop being so fucking basic. Here, I’ll help you.

 

 

Line ’em up, cowboy

I’ve included the ranks for these shows so the “you’re missing out on” piece in the title isn’t actually the clickbait bullshit you thought it was. Out of 17 “original” series airing this season, this is how many people are watching each one (MyAnimeList #s):

Spoiler for

1. Death Parade (55,309)
2. Assassination Classroom (38,746)
3. Absolute Duo (29,430)
4. Shinmai Maou no Testament (26,942)
5. Saekano (22,156)
6. Kantai Collection (21,022)
7. Maria the Virgin Witch (19,860)
8. The Rolling Girls (17,331)
9. Seiken Tsukai no World Break (16,976)
10. Koufuku Graffiti (15,237)
11. Unlimited Fafnir (13,823)
12. Yurikuma Arashi (13,082)
13. Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love! (12,676)
14. Isuca (10,985)
15. Yoru no Yatterman (8,270)
16. The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls (7,295)
17. Sengoku Musou (3,244)

Yeah, Idolm@ster fans, it’s not pretty.

 

Yoru no Yatterman (Rank #15)

I know getting you to watch this one is gonna be an uphill battle, so let me just dumb the story down a bit and say the show is Team Rocket vs. Evil Robot Power Rangers.

Cool, right? But don’t get the wrong idea. This show’s dark; almost oppressively so. Which, compared to the now-industry standby of “cute girls doing cute things”, is a breath of fresh air.

Even though the show leads you to believe all’s gonna be smiles and rainbows just as soon as the main characters overcome that one final hurdle, there has not yet been an episode with a “good ending”. It’s like a whirlpool of angst.

gfdg
Oh hey, there’s a blind girl who thinks Team Rocket are angels who will lead her to her parents in Dachau. This will surely end well.

I’m gonna be (relatively) brief. This is a dark drama about a goofy gang of thieves fighting against a fucked-up dystopia. If you ever felt like rooting for Team Rocket, here’s your fucking chance. If you’re tired of the same paint-by-numbers series where you’ve guessed the ending correctly after 5 minutes, this will also be up your alley.

Maybe this kinda show ain’t your style, and that’s fine. But you don’t have a right to bitch about how moe’s killing the industry if you don’t give Yoru at least a 2-episode shot.

 

 

Yurikuma Arashi (Rank #12)

There are people who swear by Mawaru Penguindrum and Shoujo Kakumei Utena — and they’re generally people who have watched more anime than any human should. Yurikuma Arashi is essentially those two series refined into pure, high-quality psychological shoujo-ai. So, you know, maybe the oldfags are onto something.

Yurikuma Arashi - Species Divide

The only reason I can see for the show being snubbed in the west is that there are girls who get touchy with each other, and you may see some nipple-less breasts.

Call the SJWs! There are cis scum who aren't hidden by burqas and it's oppressing me!
Call the tumblr police! There are cis scum who aren’t hidden by burqas and it’s oppressing me!

Yes, the show is sexual, but that doesn’t make it ecchi. And even if it was ecchi, who fucking cares? This is the only show this season with a plot you can’t fully pin down in one sentence. That’s reason enough to give it a try for anyone who wants their anime to be more than dumbed-down flickers on a screen. Try this one on for size, self-described brainiacs.

 

 

The Rolling Girls (Rank #8)

Produced by Wit Studio, the same people behind Attack on Titan, The Rolling Girls is basically an AoT reboot with an all-female cast. …basically. …uhh, trust me on this.

Okay, maybe I lied.
Okay, maybe I lied.

Remember how I blasted moe back in the Yatterman section? Well, this show is different. Instead of cute girls doing cute things, it’s cute, dumb girls doing cute, dumb things. But they’re so fucking genki — how could anyone hate that?!

God, this show is just fun. It's like having friends that you didn't have to settle for!
God, this show is just fun. It’s like having friends that you didn’t have to settle for!

Do I mostly just want this show to become popular so I can get some sweet cosplay shots?

Kuniko-sama-chan The Rolling Girls

Okay, you caught me. But really, watch it. I’m fucking tired of going to cons and seeing $50 Attack on Titan “cosplays” that people picked up from Hot Topic on day-of.

 

 

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata (Rank #5)

Awkward… cute… awkwardly cute. Oh god, I love this fucking show. Think Monogatari, but without the incest or action. Which, yeah, is the main reason anyone watches Monogatari, but maybe this’ll help sate you till the next one comes out.

Plus look at how smooth these girls' skin is!
After the OP, anyone would be sated for the next 10 minutes.

Back to the awkwardness — it’s fucking hilarious.

Make a man of me
MC-kun, trying to convince a girl to play VNs all night with him.

I don’t know if I’d class this show as a comedy — since they don’t spend half their episodes on kanji puns — but it’s close enough that even those of you who watch shitty shows might like this. If I had to call Saekano something, I’d say… reaction drama? Since I spent half my time reacting to it like I was being paid. The show’s really good at bringing emotion out of ya. Or me, at least.

Plus, the characters are so cute together.

So sweet I need some fucking insulin.

 

 

~A conclusionary tale~

And there you have it. The top 4 animes to watch this season that you aren’t watching right now.

Loli Approved

Hmm… I don’t think I convinced many people with those explanations. Oh well, I tried. Japan market your shows better next time. After about a paragraph I have a hard time writing anything seriously.

 

Neways, here’s where I’m at with the season (shows are ranked in order of my enjoyment):

Spoiler for

Actively watching:
1. Tokyo Ghoul Root A
2. Durarara!!x2 Shou
3. The Rolling Girls
4. Saenaie Heroine no Sodatekata
5. Yurikuma
6. Yoru no Yatterman
7. Kamisama Kiss 2
8. Death Parade
9. Assassination Classroom

Not dropped, but not really watching (unranked, cuz I don’t care):
Absolute Duo
Isuca
Kantai Collection
Koufuku Graffiti
Seiken Tsukai no World Break
Shinmai Maou no Testament
The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls

Dropped:
17. Maria the Virgin Witch
18. Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love!
19. Unlimited Fafnir
20. Sengoku Musou

Best taste, my taste.

84 thoughts on “The 4 best animes you’re missing out on (Winter 2015 edition)”

  1. Silly D_S, that’s not how MAL works.
    I’ll be nice and fix it for you:
    1.Death Parade (55,309)
    2.Assassination Classroom (38,746)
    3.Absolute Duo (29,430)
    4.Shinmai Maou no Testament (26,942)
    5.Saekano (22,156)
    6.Kantai Collection (21,022)
    7.Maria the Virgin Witch (19,860)
    8.The Rolling Girls (17,331)
    9.Seiken Tsukai no World Break (16,976)
    10.Koufuku Graffiti (15,237)
    11.Unlimited Fafnir (13,823)
    12.Yurikuma (13,082)
    13.Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love! (12,676)
    14.Isuca (10,985)
    15.Yoru no Yatterman (8,270)
    16.The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls (7,295)
    17.Sengoku Musou (3,244)

    And because I’m even nicer here’s an image with scores:
    http://i.imgur.com/VDaePSg.jpg
    http://i.imgur.com/wj419iM.jpg
    I’ll actually comment later.

    Reply
      • Seriously, why is Yurikuma so low rated? In my opinion it’s actually one of the best shows this season, and the soundtrack is killer.

        Reply
            • This sorta thing happens all the time. MAL uses two different rating scales. One is used for airing shows. The other is used for completed shows. Because of this, you’ll notice sudden jumps or drops in show ratings after a final episode airs.

              Reply
              • More like people only rate stuff when it ends and there’s also people who drop it in the first episode or so and give it a low score which gets cancelled when it ends.
                That’s why HunterxHunter came out of nowhere and jumped into 3rd on MAL, people who didn’t like it dropped it early on and their votes didn’t count anymore.

                Reply
                • in the first episode or so and give it a low score which gets cancelled when it ends.

                  This is what I was implying except you explained it a bit better.

                  Reply
                • Yeah, these scores are likely to change once the season ends. If you look at the stats for Yuri Kuma, it’s been scored by 3330 users, but 13,100 are watching it and about 1500 have dropped it. If all the people who dropped scored it poorly, then that accounts for almost half of its poor rating and the number of people watching who have already rated it is a small portion of the total viewer count.

                  Reply
  2. Yoru no Yatterman has been pretty damn fantastic so far. It’s like Gurren Lagann with significantly less fucking around. It disappoints me greatly to see the likes of Absolute Duo and Fafnir being more popular. But I suppose that’s par for the course when it comes to your typical anime fan.

    Also, Fafner Exodus has been pretty nice so far, despite being basically nonexistent to most viewers. But that would require you to watch the first season, which is a bit unfortunate.

    Why does the anime community have such shit taste? I ponder that question frequently.

    Reply
  3. After watching the first 3 episodes of Rolling Girls I don’t know what to do. I love the color scheme, character designs and it’s original…but also kind of boring.

    Reply
    • Well, it’s like an adventure anime more than an action one. So you have to be in that mindset when watching it, otherwise you’ll probably get disappointed.

      Reply
  4. I’ll have to add YnY to my watch list this season. The other three don’t really seem to be my type of show, but I might give them a couple episodes.

    Reply
    • I mean if they’re not your kinda show, don’t bother. This isn’t exactly a season with anime that will convert people into liking new genres.

      Lemme know how YnY turns out for ya.

      Reply
  5. I’m only watching Durarara x2 and The Rolling Girls this season because it’s Durarara and I accidentally saw The Rolling Girls ep 1 fight.
    I was planning on adding Yuro no Yatterman and Yurikuma Arashi later on since I’ve heard they’re good but I just wasn’t motivated to know what it was actually about.

    The thing I liked in The Rolling Girls is it’s colorful fight scenes. The normal life in this show also doesn’t try reflect our own world so it doesn’t feel otaku/chuunibyou-ish.

    Reply
  6. I didn’t get around to working out which shows to watch and which to drop until about the 3rd week of this season. Overall I feel the quality of new shows this season are pretty mediocre. There are a few reasonably stupid-but-fun shows (e.g. Assassination Classroom; World Break; Absolute Duo; Testament) but they need to become a bit more if they’re going to hold my attention.

    I wanted to like Saekano, but episode 00 just rubbed me the wrong way and I haven’t bothered to watch any more.

    I didn’t even start watching Death Parade because by the time I got to it it was a few weeks in and people were already complaining that it was just essentially doing the same thing over and over.

    OTOH there are quite a few shows I’m continuing to watch from last season (and earlier e.g. Kami-sama Hajimemashita), and I’m looking forward to April when some more shows return. And there are a few new shows this season which show promise (e.g. YnY, YKA) and I’m hopeful that I’ll stick with.

    Reply
    • Simply because I assumed the first episode was a good representation of the type of “humor” I’d find. Was I wrong? Is it actually decent? Cuz I’ll trust your opinion on this one.

      Reply
              • The problem is it’s not even gay, it’s fujobait. So they’re not even going all the way with the joke; because the creators think they don’t need to – or worse, that they shouldn’t.

                But then again, they’re just banking on the renewed mahou shoujo craze and the success Free! had. The show is empty wave-riding. Of course it’s shit.

                Someone tell me when another mahou shounen appears. Negima kinda counted but it’s kinda shitty. Ushio to Tora might count, but it’s not really the style I’m looking for… Arata Kangatari was rather disappointing but it gets close to what I want.

                Reply
    • Well then, you can rest assured that you have good taste, my friend.

      To be honest though, I wouldn’t really say people are “missing out” on Saenai. Replace with Fafner and you’re all good.

      Reply
  7. Your top 5 is the same as mine (although in a different order), so I think I can assume you have good taste. Gonna give Yoru no Yatterman a chance.

    Reply
  8. My dream is to become a ship designer and possibly a weapons inventor.

    The fact that you don’t give two fucks about Kantai Collection means that I won’t be naming one of the weapons based on your name, Sage-chan… ;_;

    Reply
  9. Disconsidering the leftovers Akatsuki no Yona and Shirobako, IMHO my 4 best animes would be.

    – Junketsu no Maria
    – Kantai Collection
    – The Rolling Girls
    – Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata

    Nice list, by the way! ;-)

    Reply
  10. Gah, now I’ll have to have a look at Yatterman, as I’m watching the other three already… On that note, why hasn’t there been any fansub review for the show yet? Cthuko is subbing it too. Get to work, man.

    I expected the worst out of Saenai Heroine, but it’s been cracking fun up to now. Also I’d add Maria to those four, it’s been quite entertaining up to now (yeah I know you don’t like it).

    Reply
  11. Oh my god, I fucking hate it. I’m probably missing out on something, but it takes a lot for a show about sluts and shotas to turn me off.

    Reply
      • Son of a bitch, I failed at commenting on my own blog. That post was directed at Alex’s “Also I’d add Maria to those four, it’s been quite entertaining up to now (yeah I know you don’t like it).”

        Reply
    • Ah well, maybe I’m too easily amused – but, for example, I’ve been laughing my ass off at the incubus mishap alone, and they keep building on that. Also the show manages to pull off sex jokes without actually being lewd.

      But hey, I don’t want to sell Maria to you, just wanted to note that I like it…

      Reply
    • Maria is really one of the better non-sequels of Winter. It’s #5 in my personal top 5. Don’t really see any reason why the show would turn someone off.

      Reply
      • The question for me is more “why would this show turn me on”. The first two episodes offered nothing for me, so dropped.

        Reply
  12. From the new stuff I’ve been watching
    KanColle, Death Parade, iDOLM@STER and Yoru no Yatterman are the only ones I’m fully up to date, I’m also watching Koufuku Graffiti, Rolling Grils and Yuri Kuma Arashi but I’m stuck in episode 1 for those 3, not because they are bad or anything, well, Rolling Girls kinda dissapointed right off the bat and YuriKuma is pretty weird but I know I’ll enjoy Koufuku Graffiti a lot it’s just that maybe they haven’t had the best timing coming out and were left behind, not dropping anything though.
    I’ll catch up to everything between today and tomorrow though.

    KanColle is a mess, pure fanservice for the players, has its actually good moments but they are way too few and far in between, just recently someone died and someone was sad about it and whatnot and 5 seconds later there’s a bunch of girls dancing and singing, good job guys, nailed that one.

    Death Parade is decent, not much to comment, I find the concept weird but it works.

    iDOLM@STER is also a bit of a mess but the MCs are strong and pull it together and its good moments are closer to each other, it’s just that the other idols just seem so fake, I have a feeling they are actually all really depressed inside and that depresses me too when I see them trying so hard, and not enough P-san, what a load of bullshit.

    Yoru no Yatterman is just I don’t even, is it a comedy? A action series about saving the world? Coming of age? Parody? All of them? I don’t know and I bet the show doesn’t know either, I like it for what it is but I saw a lot of potential in this from episode 1 and it’s not really using any of it and I’m kinda sad, I wanted this to be the series that’d blow everything out of the water and prove once again that MAL has shit taste and the best series are the underwatched ones but I’m not feeling it that much.

    And I sure as hell ain’t watching Saekano, I feel insulted just looking at the MC and thinking he has a harem “I’m supposed to self-insert into that? I know I don’t have that much self-confidence but give me a break”, that goes for the other harem highschool magical girlfriend bullshit series this season too, man, I just feel like they are making fun of me.

    Reply
    • The thing about Saekano is that it intentionally relies on tropes and archetypes for comedic effect, so it’s not really accurate to lump it in with crap like Absolute Duo and Sister Testament. Personally, I don’t love the show or anything, but it’s at least worth a shot as long as you don’t judge the entire series by the fan-service heavy episode 0.

      Reply
  13. My ranking for the new stuff so far this season so far is:
    #1 Rolling Girls – Genki girls roll around helping people out in some kind of crazy anarchistic Japan+that opening

    #2 Yurikuma Arashi – Gao gao

    #3 Yoru no Yatterman – I call it Yoru no Best Korea

    #4 Maria the Virgin Witch – Comedy gold

    #5 Shinmai Maou no Testament – Expand dong

    Reply
  14. So of the creme of the crop, I have the choice between a show that makes me cringe, a show that is silly, and another show that is silly. (Neither of those are Yurikuma Arashi)

    This season gave me a grand total of one show to watch. My expectations remain unsurpassed.

    Reply
      • What are you looking forward to?

        Sidonia, GITS, Baby Steps, Sarusuberi and Lupin immediately stand out for me. Couple others which could be interesting, but we’ll have to see.

        Reply
  15. > Makes a jab at people who want to appear quirky
    > Submits list bragging about how he’s the quirkiest of everyone

    Thanks for the suggestions anyway, yo, I might look a few of them up.

    Reply
  16. You hyped Yatterman, now it’s got like a 6.8 on MAL.

    Now, MAL as a collective has shit taste, this is known, but 6.8 is still pretty low,

    Was the show a flop, or do the high schoolers who seem to make up most of MALs userbase just not understand it?

    Also, which sub-group did you find was the best? You never did a review :(

    Reply
      • Thanks for the recommendation.

        Regarding MAL, I hoped and expected that to be true, but such a low rating could have been earned by a mediocre second half/conclusion, so I needed to ask.

        Ugh, they’re on episode 9, releasing an episode a month, yuck.

        Reply
    • I agree that the MAL score for Yatterman is pretty inaccurate. If anything, it should be lower. That show’s plot meandered around aimlessly with obnoxious characters, terrible comedy and skill-less tone shifts. The last couple episodes are kind of cool, though, despite some very curious recycled footage.

      Reply
  17. Death Parade was a pretty bad show, so I won’t disagree there. Rolling Girls was pretty average, in my opinion, because it suffered from Wit Studio and their crappy pacing. Didn’t watch anything else on the list.

    Reply

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