Gif From My Hero Academia Season 2. Bones.
The spring season is now over but that doesn't mean our opinions are. Now a few weeks deep into the summer season, it's the perfect time to go over what exactly was a hit and what exactly was a miss for the MAL audience the past spring season. A fair number of sequels and the usual number of light novel adaptation flooded the market last season, but where exactly did your favorite show fall along the hype train? Did your favorite show make the list? Most importantly, did the show you hate get what it deserves?
Hit - Attack on Titan Season 2
MAL Score: 8.58 | Popularity: #75
Screenshot From Attack on Titan Season 2. Wit Studio.
Who would have thought that the sequel to a popular first season would end up becoming a popular second season? Everyone. Absolutely everyone. Still, while not a surprise, Attack on Titan continues to endear the MAL audience with its over the top violence, death, and a potato-eating girl by the name of Sasha. Not even a full 4 years between seasons could prevent it from a high rating and being one of the most popular and well received anime on MAL.
The current season also seems to have more focus than the previous iteration. Some mysteries were solved while new mysteries were left for the coming third season. Wait! Did I mention that?! A third season was announced with a more bearable wait in-between. Sometime next year we’ll have more Titan goodness.
Miss – Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai
MAL Score: 5.56 | Popularity: #1265
Screenshot From Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai. Artland.
This is about the point in the article where I should wave my hand all Jedi-like and say, "This is not the Nanatsu no Taizai you are looking for..."
A wise Otaku once said that fanservice sells. He’d be wrong in this case. With an abysmal 5.56 rating on MAL, no amount of T or A could save this dumpster fire of a show from getting the rating it deserved. Seemingly one step away from becoming a hentai, gratuitous amounts of jiggly bits does nothing to hide the fact that there isn’t much story to go with all the fanservice.
Even for those that came for nothing more than senseless fanservice, they had to make sure that they watched the right version of the show to get the near full-frontal experience. The AT-X broadcast of the show is the only truly uncensored version. Any others were riddled with distracting red and black pentagrams over the parts of the show that seemed to be the program’s focus.
This probably shoulda just been a hentai…
Hit – My Hero Academia Season 2
MAL Score: 8.80 | Popularity: #189
Screenshot From My Hero Academia Season 2. Bones.
Who would have thought that the sequel to a popular first season would end up becoming a popular… wait, I’ve already done this joke… Regardless, this season features a sports festival arc that starts out strong and ends at a satisfying conclusion. It’s the perfect way to display the wackiness of a superpowered sports festival and to segway into a tournament arc that concludes with a well-animated fight between Deku and another member of his class.
My Hero Academia continues to uphold the tenets that made the first season so popular, successfully mixing together a comic book aesthetic with an anime style; the show has a lot of heart for the oh so typical tale of a young man that wants to become a hero. That’s not where it ends though, the show features a wonderful supporting class with their own “quirks” (see what I did there?) that make an already great show surprisingly complex.
Miss – Sakurada Reset
Mal Score: 6.60 | Popularity: #1156
Screenshot from Sakurada Reset. Sentai Filmworks.
Anime that focuses on timey-whimey shenanigans can be really good. This isn't the case with Sakurada Reset. On paper, the idea of two people combining their powers of going back in time and remembering what happened in the previous timeline sounds fun and engaging. The execution is an entirely different thing though.
It seems like Sakurada Reset was a little too big for its britches. Many cite that the plot was too complex to follow and others think that the characters were robotic. Better luck next time, Sakurada Reset.
Hit – Tsuki Ga Kirei
MAL Score: 8.40 | Popularity: #832
Screenshot From Tsuki ga Kirei. feel.
Finally, a good show that isn’t the sequel to something else. Surprisingly, it also isn’t an adaptation from some other work, and instead it’s a completely original anime work. School romances are far from innovative in anime but Tsuki Ga Kirei successfully recreates the nostalgia of first love. The shy, pure, and often clumsy emotion that comes from entirely foreign feelings and the inability to properly deal with them at such an age.
The art style seems to have what I would describe to be a lighter tone when compared to most other anime. This proves to be rather effective in displaying the simple and clean emotions even from a cursory glance. It’s no doubt that you are in for a bucket of feels as you vicariously relive your awkward middle school years.
Miss – Souryo to Majiwaru Shikiyoku no Yoru ni...
MAL Score: 4.62 | Popularity: #2278
Screenshot From Souryo to Majiwaru Shikiyoku no Yoru ni... Seven.
Not really an entry in the “Shoulda been a hentai category”, much more an entry in the “Did I just watch a hentai?” category. Once I readjusted my head from the serious head-tilt I just did contemplating that query, there isn’t really much show to consider for this series. Souryo to Majiwaru Shikiyoku no Yoru ni… has a title longer than its running time of three minutes per episodes and most of those minutes are spent with a Saitama-lookalike banging a redhead. And that’s probably the most flattering description I can give it.
No plot. No story. Not even good smut. Don’t watch.
