A Seasonal Review: Spring 2012

I’m a bit late. Sorry. That’s mainly because I have been extraordinarily busy, and last season had a ton more good shows than usual. I was planning to finish more of them before writing this, but it doesn’t appear that that’s going to happen. Oh well.

I’ve loosely ranked the season’s shows from worst to best (rough guide: A=awesome, B+=great, B-=good, C=decent, D=bad, F=fail). The numbers in parentheses are how I ranked that series’ first episode at the start of the season. Let’s see how much things have changed.

I’ve tried to keep this post concise. Let’s begin!

So bad I couldn’t finish the first episodeShibainuko-sanSaint Seiya OmegaPabu and MochizuNaruto SDGakkatsuArashi no Yoru ni: Himitsu no Tomodachi

Dropped after the first episodeHiiro no Kakera (29)Acchi Kocchi (28), Folktales from Japan (25), Kuromajyo-san ga Touru!! (24), Gon (23), Kuroko’s Basketball (20), Zetman (19)

Still Planning to Watch Eventually / Excuses

8. Shining Hearts: The Bread of Happiness (26)
Honestly, this is probably not going to happen anytime soon. This show sucks. 

7. AKB0048 (21)
I have no interest in idols, but this is kind of funny in a ridiculous way.

6. Saki Side A (17)
The new lead characters are way too boring.

5. Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (16)
This one moves way too slowly for me.

4. Sankarea (11)
Just haven’t gotten around to watch it.

3. Lupin III (12)
Only a couple episodes left…

2. Mysterious Girlfriend X (3)
I feel less motivated to watch since I’ve already read the manga.

1. Natsuiro Kiseki (9)
I don’t want to watch it because then it will be over.

Completed / On Track

18. Medaka Box — F (27)
Plain awful. The most boring part of the manga, and the voice actors are soulless.

17. Accel World — Ongoing (14)
Everyone in this show pisses me off.

16. Queen’s Blade: Rebellion — (22)
Much better than I expected.

15. Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?!! Of the Dead D+ (13)
This second season was pointless.

14. Jormungand  C+ (10)
Gratuitous violence, but joyless.

13. Moretsu PiratesC (Winter)
Likes to build up to great climaxes and then ruin them for no good reason.

12. Upotte! — (15)
Girls with are guns.

11. Space Bros —Ongoing (6)
I’m getting bored.

10. Sengoku Collection — Ongoing (18)
This ones hard to rank. Some of the episodes (like the rice one) are among the best of the season, but most are just average.

9. Polar Bear Cafe — Ongoing (7)
Still funny, but my patience for bad Japanese sound-puns is starting to wear thin.

8. Mobile Suit Gundam AGE  Ongoing (Fall)
We’re finally getting to the climax!

7. Hunter X Hunter — Ongoing (Fall)
The whole training arc started to get boring, but it’s over now.

6. Eureka Seven Ao — Ongoing (4)
We’re just getting started, and this is already awesome. Can’t get enough sci-fi.

5. Aquarion EVOLB (Winter)
Such unabashed earnestness earns my respect.

4. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san — B+ (5)
This was way funnier than it ought to have been.

3. Tsuritama — B+ (2)
Great straightforward but quirky show.

2. Hyouka — Ongoing (8)
I’m in love with Mayaka.

1. Sakamichi no Apollon — A- (1)
That’s how you do a drama.

Overall, this was quite the strong season. What did you think of the spring season’s shows? Let us know in the comments below.

10 thoughts on “A Seasonal Review: Spring 2012

  1. Aawwwww snap! Nice work Draggle-kun!

    Agreed with the C/D crowd like

    Kore Wa zombie OTD:: I loved the hell out of Season one and Two, but I was so angry when they failed to progress the STORY and threw in a bunch of people we did not need? And then WTF they only pushed for ten damn episodes? That made me so sad T____T ah well I think a movie/s3 is in the works for the future.

    B crowd is great! Aquarion EVOL fits perfectly and of course Nyaruko-san <3 both of them are off the wall nuts, but EVOL just kept me going with all the cheesy lines from Andy and his whole love thing with Mix? Damn every week I got so excited to watch it…and I admit Zessica was the main factor for tuning in.

    I think my list was like
    1. AquarionEVOL
    2. Nyaruko-san
    3. Kore Wa zombie OTD

    I forgot what I had for 4 and 5 ahahah

    1. Zombie’s second season was extremely disappointing. It was completely pointless. And the fanservice wasn’t even all that good.

      Aquarion was great, agreed! Andy’s lines were some of the best parts. And Nyaruko was superb as well, of course! It’s like what Zombie’s second season should have been.

    1. It was #1 in terms of the show I enjoyed watching most, but that was because of the people I watched it with and not the show itself.

  2. Oh my god, there’s someone out there still watching Gundam AGE! We’re part of an exclusive club lol. Agree with your comments on Pirates, Space Bros and Accel World

    Pirates: dropped it because despite the fact that these are pirates, nothing ever serious happens. It’s always “Oh we’re a’gonna rob you…ahahahah naw JK”. So someone tells me it finally gets seriously, but I’m already done with hoping. Director also directed Lagrange, which explains all the yuri thrown at as. Loved Chiaki and her parfaits though <3

    Space Bros: I expected this show to take place in space, but if it's just a bunch of adults talking about ISSUES, forget it. Booooring.

    Accel World: Shares the same scriptwriter as Guilty Crown, and Haru has the same voice actor as Shu. You should make musical posts for AW like GC when it starts to get really awful. Honestly I feel bad for the creator for having both this show and Sword Art Online in the hands of very incompetent people.

    Slightly disagree with Sakamichi being #1 (very rushed ending), I felt Tsuritama was consistently getting better while Sakamichi sort of went like "Hey, listen to this Yoko Kanno OST and forget about the rushed pacing!". But both were way better than most spring shows. Anyways long comment over. LOL

    1. Yep, I’m still watching Gundam AGE! It’s great, too, everyone is missing out!

      Pirates never gets serious, so you aren’t missing much. Chiaki is the only decent thing about that show.

      I think space bros could use a bit more excitement too. I’m still sticking with it though (although I’m about five episodes behind at the moment).

      Hm, maybe I should do some singing posts for Accel World. The problem is that at least Guilty Crown was entertaining, even if mind-numbingly stupid. I can’t say that much of Accel World. It’s just plain bad.

      Sakamichi and Tsuritama were a close call. I kind of had the opposite thought, that Tsuritama was all about the great soundtrack and animation, with a less unique story. But they were both great.

      And trust me, I’ve gotten much longer comments than this. 🙂 I had some guy write out poetry about Mirai Nikki episodes for a while…

    2. I thought Tsuritama had a bigger problem that Kids on the Slope with its own thing. Half of each episode was basically a poorly integrated fishing tutorial that had nothing to do with the actual plot. And while Tsuritama was getting better, it never got better to the point that I cared. I hated Haru due to being a simple-minded nitwit and when the finale did come, I barely cared about what was going on because it’s hard to take the end of the world seriously when it involves dancing like an idiot.

      As for Space Bros, I thought the latest arc with the teams in the shuttle simulation was the equivalent of Hyouka’s festival arc.

  3. Yay, the long awaited spring season review post!

    “Let us know in the comments below.” Who is ‘us’ ? Anyways, please find below my non-exhaustive comments ^ ^ :

    You missed out my #1 series, Kuromajo-san. What a shame.

    Half of my favourites are in your plan-to-watch list: Lupin III was my #2 and be it just for the awesome visuals. I also loved Nazo no Kanojo X and Tasogare Otome (it got really touching after the annoying first few eps).

    Isn’t it unfair to keep Natsuiro Kiseki unrated just b/c you don’t want to see it ending? Reminds me of those shows where the main couple just never gets together so that the story can continue! I quite liked this series although it suffered from poor animation quality.

    I dropped AKB but since psgels has been promoting it so hard on his blog I think about picking it up again.

    Zetman is actually be my #3, not for homeless Gandalf but for the gritty atmosphere and artwork. It also had the most attractive girls of that season imo.

    Totally agree about Mayaka! Hyouka imo had a slow start, though, and took a while to grow on me. For last season I wouldn’t rank it that high but in total I consider it one my favourites of the year.

    I dropped Panda-kun b/c it became too repetitive. Nevertheless this show animated me to my first visit to the zoo after like 15 years. Besides the panda I also paid due attention to the llama!

    1. I’m using the majestic plural!

      I plan to get to most of these eventually. There were just so many shows last season, and I was quite busy. Lupin III I only have a couple episodes left. Naze no Kanojo X and Natsuiro Kiseki I will definitely finish at some point.

      Isn’t it unfair to keep Natsuiro Kiseki unrated just b/c you don’t want to see it ending?

      Yes, I have this problem all the time though. After how many years, I still haven’t finished the last episode of Lucky Star…

      I may have to give Zetman a second chance. Hardly anyone was talking about it so I just kind of forgot it existed more or less.

      I’m way behind on Panda at the moment. Will probably finish it eventually, but again, there are only so many hours in a day… 🙁

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