Spring gave anime fans a bounty of titles to look forward to, featuring series with longer pasts than a huge chunk of the viewerbase. Powerhouses like Ghost in the Shell, the Fate series, and a Haruhi spin-off landed along many lesser-known (but now just as loved) stories. Yet no matter how great they used to be, some veteran series found themselves being overshadowed by the rookies.
It’s seldom that an animation has the daring to take on genuine challenges of life past the feel-good nature of friendship, but Memories courageously shouldered the burden of mortality. Not only does the series ask important questions about death, it takes a very rare risk by attempting to give its own answers.
Not only is it completely acceptable to pick up girls in a Dungeon, but for Bell Cranel it’s as easy as killing a level one monster. Bell’s status as an irresistible ball of kitten-like adorableness manages to avoid leading the series into a mindless train of harem, but just barely.
Seraph is a series that did a lot of things right. The show rocketed out of the gates to the slaughter of thousands of people and was seemingly unafraid to rip the plot armor away from almost anyone. The powerhungry nature of the villains and the less-than-noble desires of the main character were all laid quickly bare to set an intense stage. Despite this, Seraph’s reception has been divided.
Triage X would be a fine candidate for the most improved animation of the season. Many of the problems plaguing the first few episodes were fixed throughout the series to ramp up its overall quality.
Battlefront stood out from the crowd within its first few episodes, diving into an interesting world with a diverse set of characters. The world of interdimensional monsters living alongside humans feels natural, the story makes a surprising amount of sense given its randomness, and it’s probably the most beautiful eye-candy of the season.
SNAFU follows the life of an unfriendly and withdrawn student as he does everything in his power to resist overtures of friendship so he can live in peaceful seclusion.
Kuroko’s Basketball is an enjoyable oddity — a flawed and plodding work that manages to draw upon well-tread sports formulas to deliver a funny, chaotic series of bromances built upon the sport. As the series fires into its third season, it brings protagonists Kuroko and Kagami closer to their final showdown.
It’s easy to watch a huge chunk of Parasyte and think of it as being nearly perfect. The characters tend to behave in human (rather than cartoon) fashion, the plot is interesting and quick, and the zero-filler approach means that everything laid on the table has a purpose.
Aldnoah is a mecha space opera the likes of which the newer generation of anime-watchers has not seen in a great while. However, if you grew up watching after school specials, you’ll probably get a feeling of deja-vu.
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