I did not know exactly what to do as a year-end theme. I would have liked a thorough analysis of the western otaku community throughout 2018, but that is something that requires more planning and that I should have started preparing before. Then I thought about talking in general about the most important animes of each season. In the end, I opted for a top of favorites because it is a format that works very well, people like it a lot and allows me to briefly specify the most outstanding points of each work. We'll see what falls next year.
So, what goes into this top? Animes that have finished in 2018. No sequels, no movies, no series of OVAs and no things that remain in broadcast. Why? Because it comes out of my nose and allows me to put more new things in the top.
Before I begin, I want to emphasize that not all the animes of the year together could make 3-gatsu no Lion's nipples stand on end, let's not even talk about getting him to come.
10. Yuru Camp
When the animewas announced I expected something decent to come out of this, but not that I would become so good and loved by the community. Yuru Camp is a series in which nothing important happens in 12 chapters; only a group of protagonists that goes camping. The work has a slow pace, recreating in general planes of the places you visit (to highlight those precious funds). It is one of the most comfies things of the last years, and I have testimonies of people who have camped and points out the tremendous research that anime has. I would be even higher if it were not because I did not love the majority of the group, although that is for a totally personal reason: for me to go to the country is to keep quiet and enjoy the scenery. That's why I had a better time with Rin than with Nadeshiko. But come on, it's a pretty perfect series in its genre and you should keep an eye on it.
9. Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight
Of all the top, this is the anime that less "I recommend to everyone". However, as it fits with your interests, you will be freaking out during each episode. The plot situates us in a school of dramatic art, where the students compete to reach the top of the entertainment world. This series would not be here if it were not for its incredible staging. The conflicts between characters are presented through choreographed battles, long scenes with an excellent shounen animation that develop to the rhythm of a song. Yep, we're talking about a musical anime. And I can assure you that even if you do not empathize with the topics about the competition and the art that the anime poses, at least you will be left open-mouthed with these incredible exercises of audiovisual technique. Give him a chance! If you do not like it, you'll shit on me.
8. Hinamatsuri
I have a less complete memory of Hinamatsuri than I would like. My spring season was starring the EVAU taking all my time and a tremendous rush in June to be moderately up to date. Hinamatsuri I ended up seeing on the mobile during displacements, and it is definitely an anime that I would like to return with more calm because not only had great concepts, but executed them fucking well. The synopsis is that of a girl with powers that ends up living with a yakuza. But, contrary to what you would expect, it does not have any of the negative tropes that tend to have this type of series. Between a hilarious visual humor it gets to deepen in plots like the one of Anzu (treating subjects that include the life without ceiling or the bets) and the one of Hitomi (pretty good exploration of the relation of a person with its work and its family).Hinamatsuri is a series that deserves an opportunity, and if it is not for its comic side, you will end up loving it for the dramatic one.
7. Asobi Asobase
In a certain sense, Asobi Asobase supposed the opposite case to me that Hinamatsuri. In summer I had all the time I wanted to enjoy each episode week after week. And while Hinamatsuri surprised me by his sensitivity to certain themes, Asobi Asobase did so by taking his sense of humor to extremes in sketches that worked on their own. It is a fucking despiporre of bizarre jokes, bordering on the eschatological, who see their effectiveness multiplied by 1000 thanks to their millions of visual resources. The faces, the backgrounds, the color, the compositions ... everything is at the service of creating the most extreme bullshit possible. And how can we forget about that job of anime figurats seiyuus! All are incredible, but if you have to highlight someone, it's Hina Kino as Hanako. We are before an actress who comes to play very minor roles in anime that you may have seen (and a loli orgasmando Masou Gakuen HxH) and suddenly has left the throat in a very difficult role with excellent results. Let's not lose the trajectory.
6. Violet Evergarden
Ok, this is difficult. Violet Evergarden is a collection of love forms. The protagonist is a person who has only known misfortune and enters a world of scars from a war that has just ended, where the bonds between people are the source of all happiness and misery for the people who populate it. Violet meets fraternal and romantic love, the idealized and the visceral, the one that opens new beginnings and the one that closes tragedies. All this will lead her to understand herself throughout the autoconclusive episodes posed by the work, to finally face her own loss. First as an intrapersonal test in chapters 8 and 9, and then as the ultimate understanding of his relationship with the people around him in episodes 10 and 11. The end is a brooch that had to be put on and little else; we'll see if the movie makes more sense. It is a very intelligent structure but it is easy to understand why what happened happened: people said that it should have ended in 9 because it was the dramatic climax ... We are so accustomed to the same narrative fictions over and over again, that we realize that, in real life, the evolution of a person continues until he dies, and he will always have to face new challenges where he will put to the test what he has learned. And in all this talk I have not yet talked about the best technical and musical section of the year. But that's better if you see it for yourself and that I shut up ...
5. Yagate Kimi ni Naru
After the extremely toxic way of representing relationships in Citrus, many of us expected the next great yuri with a mixture of fear and high expectations. I ventured into Yagate's manga Kimi ni Naru before the animated adaptation reached Japanese TV, and it was one of the most surprising and rewarding readings of the year. The relationship between the protagonists is not limited to presenting the romance as a means and goal to achieve in the work, but raises a story about two people finding in the other, respectively, a step to overcome their insecurities and a way to evade their problems. After many works exploring the theme of identity (personal, non-sexual) of twisted and metaphysical forms, I found in Yagate Kimi ni Naru an extremely practical and simple answer to the question "Who am I?" The animated version of this story has met all my expectations, although the open end with about three volumes of manga to adapt is a rope to tie. It is something that will be a nuisance to non-readers (precisely at the moment of the argument where everything was ready to explode!) And what holds me against giving it a place on the podium. However, my experience with the anime was wonderful: it is a series that you should take a good look at, and when the time comes, it will be my turn to play the "read the manga" card against you. Let's pray for a second season that closes the story.
4. SSSS.Gridman
1576/5000 Gridman is a chaotic mix of visual resources typical of what was the old Gainax. If Violet Evergarden is a work that expresses her love of the medium through preciosity, paused narrative and a direct thematic axis, Gridman is her perfect opposite. The director of this, Akira Amemiya, is, quite simply, like a whore goat. Anything that you want to express in the work, will do it by removing from the ass an extreme visual metaphor and as subtle as an elephant. For example: if you want to symbolize emotional distancing between two characters, impossibilities to connect, how do you do it with the tools that audiovisual language gives you? Atsushi Nishigori, who is a sane lord, did this in the first episode of Darling in the FranXX. Placing a vertical line in the form of a wall just in front of Hiro, cutting the axis of their gazes, shows how he is not able to reach it. Very well, it shows that he knows what he is doing. Now let's see what Amemiya did in episode 3 of SSSS.Gridman, on this plane, one of my favorites throughout the year. The turkey focuses on two mirrors reflecting the image in such a way that the characters go from looking at their backs. And they are not even looking at each other. It is the least subtle thing in the Universe and I LOVE IT. Well, well for 12 episodes. To this we must add constant references, tributes and plagiarism in the name of good art, a thousand visual resources more like the use of live-action to give a thematic sense to the work, and ultimately an anime that started above and with its last 4 chapters touched the sky.
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