Here we are to usher in an optimistic 2019 by complaining about the dregs of the final 2018 season!

3. Goblin Slayer: Cut me a slice of that edge off, because I like my fantasy a bit darker than the typical isekai style RPG homage show. It evoked enough ‘Berserk’ to bring make the romp very fun. Due to the silent nature of the main character, I could never tell what he was thinking, and therefore all of the plans were unexpected yet plausible enough to maintain my suspension of disbelief. A good effort and entertaining show.

2. Release the Spyce: Rated here simply by its ability to keep my attention over weekly viewings.

1. Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume o Minai: I’ve heard some curmudgeons complain about the derivative nature of this one, but I was almost immediately enamored. A hint of Rom-com snafu vibes really helped there. The supernatural plot device felt well utilized, if not particularly necessary; it worked as a gimmick. I really enjoyed each girl’s arc, and the “blank slate” protagonist actually felt pretty life-like to me. I looked forward to nothing more each week.

Wouldn’t feel the same without just a couple special awards, now would it?

Best OP/ED combo: Akanesasu Shoujo: Take or leave the show itself, but the OP and ED did their jobs of getting me hyped for each episode, and regretting its absence until the next episode.

2nd best gaslight award goes to Double Decker: The entire run time of this one I awaited for the link to Tiger and Bunny, a personal favorite of yesteryear, as this supposedly takes place in the same universe. Never happened, as I sat in disbelief that not one connection was made, even though a few hopeful opportunities arose and were sadly ignored. As for the show itself, I believe that comparing itself to T&B, even fictitiously, did this no favors. Too much low effort CG, and some ‘progressive’ posturing that I rolled my eyes at. Still entertaining for most of the run, though.

“Will the real gaslight please stand up?” award goes to Release the Spyce: The suggestion of a traitor character is handled possibly the best I can remember seeing in anime. The idea itself had me questioning and scrutinizing every girl each episode, bloating my paranoia until the very satisfying reveal/betrayal of the girl in question. That alone, though, wouldn’t warrant special mention, but rather that the entire series-long ploy of setting up a traitor character was a sacrifice to get my guard down for one final twist is… glorious.

The “most forgettable series” award goes to… who again? Oh, Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san: Look, I know it’s kind of mean to dump on creative works that, though uninspired, are greater than anything I could come up with. That irony isn’t lost on me… But hot dog these shows are have more bland filler than… hot dogs, actually… topical! Vampire girl and her yuri bait sidekick/friends. You’ve already watched this or never will, so there you go.

The “overpromise” trophy is actually a paper voucher and hereby presented to “RErideD: Tokigoe no Derrida”: A true mixer bowl of science fiction gobbledy-gook, Derrida is quite willing to attrition your better tastes by simply throwing every science fiction idea it can at you relentlessly, constantly, and stupidly- until you forget which half-baked idea got you to try it out in the first place. We have terminator robot uprising, time travel, dissociative identity disorder, blade runner cyberpunk, fallout post apocalyptic, corporate conspiracies, and the power of believing in the good of mankind, maybe? All handled with the nuance and care you’d expect of a low budget independent anime production in twelve episodes. You’ve had better written and directed fever dreams, I’m sure. By episode 3, I was too embarrassed to stop watching.

The “I’m getting too old for (some) anime” award is being chased off of my lawn for “Ulysses - Jeanne d'Arc to Renkin no Kishi”: Take an interpretation of the 100 years’ war’s European political climate as filtered through adolescent kids and enough Japanese pop-worldview that your resulting stroke has a stroke and you can approximate the experience of consuming media of such dubious quality. I see what’s to like here: edgy revisionism, gun and sword fighting, alchemy, smart sounding words to explain ‘how the world works’, and ‘hot chix who wanna mouth-to-mouth with the insert character’… but are youth so willing to accept such a base characterization of their desires? I feel like there was a time when I could have been drawn to these elements, but I don’t know if I could have overlooked what the marketing said about the consumer. Couldn’t make it through episode 4 (I tried twice!).

“Charming Fluff” goes to Zombieland Saga. If the plucky girls in Zombieland saga were any more plucky, my eyes very well could have been plucked clean out… Still an idol series, but with enough crossover into what I would actually watch to keep me in.

The “World isn’t fair enough” award goes to Thunderbolt Fantasy Season 2. Super entertaining, but not anime, so it can’t tie for 1st/2nd like it should. A travesty for sure, and highly recommended.

The “This would have gone over better 15 years ago” award is presented to “Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet”: the latest appropriation of a tale (idea, really) from western literature, one look at the art and first episode synopsis will give you all you need to know about it. Watchable and passable in equal measure.

The “Perpetual Search for identity” award is for “SSSS.Gridman”. I don’t care for robot fighting, and the ‘trauma’ of innocents dying in kaiju battles feels kind of limp in a ‘it’s been done’ sort of way. The villain alone carried this one for me. Anime villany has an abundance of edgelords, misguided anti-heroes, and psychopaths, but this girl had a chillingly… bad personality and attitude. That made her chaos more fun to watch, in a more ‘chaotic neutral’ sort of way.

The obligatory “Cute girls being cute friends” award goes to “Anima Yell!”: Cheer leader routines/dancing itself especially lends itself to jabs about this show ‘going through the motions,’ but that doesn’t change the validity of the claim. More empty viewing calories with a side of moe.

The “dying ember” award was extinguished for “Sora to Umi no Aida”: Space fishing… As I looked around the anisphere for the season, my tired gaze often returned here, beaten down by the utter tripe that constantly burned my retinas… I kid, I kid, but this one actually does a little bit, creatively, with the premise, which is more than can be said for many anime. Feel good ‘girl power’ empowerment story/drama with an ending that pulls the foundations laid in previous episodes together into a satisfying conclusion. It helped that half of the girls didn’t get along anyway; friction makes a story have more bite.

Here’s to dusting off the burn out with the next season!