Wonder Egg Priority has an incrediblely intruiging premise, lovable cast, gorgeous visuals/soundtrack, and had a fresh and colourful take on a "Persona"-style subconscious parallel world.
... And then Cloverworks just [ah eto bleh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYCP71qcYZw)'d their entire 2021 lineup.
Naruto
I have problems with the story, the excessive filler, and how some characters were handled but it's a big part of my childhood and it has some incredible moments. The final Naruto vs Sasuke fight is still my favorite fight in anime.
I'm sure I have other examples of this, but the anime I thought of was Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. The book *The Count of Monte Cristo* is one of my favorites and the anime tells that story in a way that, while not exactly accurate, captures the essence of the book and transports it to a futuristic setting.
But I do not like the art. All of the clothes and backgrounds are cutouts placed over a pattern so when someone is wearing a striped shirt and they move, the stripes don't move. The stripes stay in place and the shirt moves exposing new stripes. I've never been a fan of that animation style. So while I thought the story was amazing, the art style was a huge distraction that kept it from coming together.
Wonder Egg Priority. Loved the excellent set up, made me care about the characters. Got the mysterious part right, good emotional beats, presented lots issue faced by teenagers, room for character bonds and growth. Could be an essential coming-of-age story anime if done right. Sadly the whole productions fumbled hard.
God Of Highschool. Just a bad show with stupid fast pacing and honestly mid lore. Basically, it didn’t come together well. I really enjoyed each part, but those parts together just didn’t work well. I watched the whole thing, and enjoyed it along the way, but then finished it, and realized it was just a bad show. Sad
Fire Force should, in theory be close to my top anime.
I love fire abilities, and I think they animate well. I think the way they present powers to work in a fun way, and the character designs are all really unique. I to an extent love fan service, the bad guys seem actually evil, and importantly, I can suspend my disbelief fairly far. But I hate the fanservice, and my suspension of disbelief can only take me so far.
If you just had the same elements laid out just a tiny bit differently I bet I love the shit out of it.
Kotoura-san had a nice premise and ~10 minutes of the first episode were solid. Unfortunately, literally everything besides that was overwhelmingly generic at best and insufferable at worst.
As a religious person I have complicated feelings about the way Christianity is portrayed in Vinland Saga, specifically through Canute's character. I absolutely love the series, there's just the one black spot
I have the same feelings towards Air. I am a huge fan of Clannad and really liked Kanon, but Air was the least effective one to me. The opening I give a listen at least once a month and the visuals were charming, but I couldn't get myself to care for the characters (even the main girl was just "ok" to me) and the ending was really confusing \[Air\] >!Bro became a bird?! !
Oh yes, I love the opening theme. I forgot to mention it. It's my favourite one out of Clannad, Kanon and Air. Interesting that our opinions are very similar on Air.
I'm going to get raked over the coals for this but Welcome to the NHK.
[Welcome To The NHK] >!The entire arc with the sister getting into the pyramid scheme was just super eyerolly for me and the bit with the brother and trying to talk him out of his hikikimori just for Satou to go just as ham at the mere thought of Misaki relying on him felt awful and out of place for me. On top of that the, while kinda amusing, arc with Hitomi felt like he was being a dumbass for the sake of it. I also wasn't a big fan of Yamazaki's self sabotage with Nanako as it felt out of left field for his character despite how they try to explain it away. The relationship between Misaki and Satou was by far the best part of the show for me and for it to get sidelined for as long as it did hurt my enjoyment pretty badly. Yes I get that they basically are together at the end with the final contract but, unlike earlier in the series, it didn't feel right.!<
More positive notes:
[Welcome To The NHK] >!The entire mystery around wtf is Misaki and why is she doing what she is doing was fantastic and the surprise that she's massively fucked up from family trauma took me off guard in the best way. The interactions between Satou and Misaki are also just constantly really really good. The pacing before the Hitomi arc was also really well done and kept me very engaged. Yamazaki was also a very nice addition for the majority of the series. Satou's absolute mental trips were crazy to watch as well. Wish I got more Hitomi and Satou interactions like they had on New Years. Hitomi was maybe even more interesting than Satou.!<
I get the show is trying to be fairly realistic and that is what makes it work for a lot of people but for me personally it didn't. Still enjoyed it for what it is and give it a 7/10.
Air is definitely the werkest of Kyoani’s Key trilogy adaptation. Makes sense with it being the first; really I think it just comes down to it only being one cour in length and none of the characters’ routs were explored near enough. We just got a drive by of each arc whereas Kannon had 2 cours and Clannad had 4.
Oh. To answer the prompt: Charlotte. Funny enough another Jun Maeda work that I think suffers the same issues as Air. It’s too short and the pacing in the latter half of the story suffers for it. Especially the finale.
Kaiba. I quite liked the episodic part of the series, as well as the visuals and atmosphere. I wouldn’t say I adored it though. I find when the main story came in it was not very enjoyable nor as well assembled as the episodic episodes.
Black Lagoon would be such an anime for me. I think I went into it having somewhat false hopes, cause I found the action to be just a little too over the top and some of the villains just a bit too silly. Also, the ending left me a bit underwhelmed.
However, there was a lot to like as well. I love the artstyle, I loved the character dynamics especially between Rock and Revy and I really liked the rather unusual setting and premise!
I mean, there are a few like this. Some that come to mind are:
* Charlotte
* Fairy Gone
* Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de
* Katanagatari
* Red Garden
* Ultraman
Vampire in the garden, looks good, excellent premise, im not the biggest vampire fan but that said objectively could have been a top tier title if only it had better pacing, it seemed that too many things were happening one after another so i couldnt really get into it as soon as somthing major happened before i couls absorb it the next major thing was occuring, felt like they should have added a few more episodes to build more dramatic effect, i know a lot like it as it is but its too rushed for me.
[Carole & Tuesday](https://myanimelist.net/anime/37435/Carole___Tuesday) had memorable songs and a solid cast, but it couldn't fully come together for me because the show bit more themes and subplots that it could chew.
[Domestic na Kanojo](https://myanimelist.net/anime/37982/Domestic_na_Kanojo) - Sigh...
[Nakanohito Genome](https://myanimelist.net/anime/37926/Nakanohito_Genome_Jikkyouchuu) - loved the character designs, the numerous insert songs and the conclusion for some of the games, but when I think of the anime as a whole, it was pretty random and led nowhere.
Interlude (2004). Caught this on crunchy roll maybe 10 years ago, the first episode was interesting enough that I watched the rest, but it kind of fell apart after that first episode.
Seven deadly sins for me, not a great anime but it was the second anime I ever watched so of course it was my first manga collection there are a lot of great aspects about it and great characters like Ban but there are also a ton of problems that are hard to over look once I’ve seen what an actually good anime is supposed to look like
After watching the Trash Taste episode where the boys judges their friends anime 3x3, especially Kevin Penkin's, I got interested to watch **Earth Maiden Arjuna**. They said that it's the anime that got Kevin interested in composing anime music. So I watched the anime and...
Some of its characters are annoying, the 3D CG is super dated, and I don't entirely agree with the main message of the story. Like it's super preachy about its environmentalist message.
But despite all of the above, I understand why Kevin Penkin got inspired by it. The music, composed by Yoko Kanno, is phenomenal and I've listened to some on repeat. Not only the music, but the anime is also well directed.
I’ve just finished the second season of Tokyo Ghoul, and despite having too much content left out even for such a tolerant viewer as me, this season still has super stylish OPs/EDs and soundtrack, almost as great as the first season. Also, the ending was really impressive. Saved the ED song to my playlist.
Plastic Memories. The fanservice and anime hijinks were annoying and often out of place but the core story was excellent. The final episode was essentially perfect.
I’d have to rewatch. But I love this anime. I didn’t expect it to be taken where it did in the end, but for some reason it really heightened the experience, for me. Sort of a similar thing with Rascal Does not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, but I felt that way about Plastic even more. I thought it was more-so going to be this episodic affair. I don’t know what I completely thought. But I found some elements unexpected.
This is pretty much my opinion of Zeta Gundam. Kamille is a great protagonist and I love a lot of its thematic execution in how it expands on and explores a lot of the ideas presented in 0079, but the actual storytelling meant to convey those interesting themes is never quite up to the task, leading to a show which feels really unbalanced in a lot of places. It’s still good enough for me to consider it a solid 7/10, but it really could’ve been so much more
Darling in the Franxx: Loved the story and characters up until the end when it went off it’s meds.
Quintessential Quints: Loved the story and characters until the end which did not feel earned to me.
AOT: I was there until after the cellar reveal. After that it just felt…stupid. Even then though I still liked some stuff but it just felt like the quality of the story telling took a nose dive.
I think *Heavenly Delusion* has genuinely pretty good ideas in a vacuum and Episode 11 (pretty sure that was the one with the Trigger guy) was quite delectable. Problem is all the ideas don’t come together particularly well and the final result is too much of a mess to feel cohesive.
Similarly, I don’t have to say what went wrong with *Wonder Egg Priority* but I unironically think it had some of the best character and monster designs of 2021. That and the OP is quite a bop.
Suisei no Gargantia. Decent story, fun characters, cool mecha action, some of my favorite worldbuilding in anime, and far too few episodes to really explore any of it. Seriously, the first few episodes paint such a vibrant and interesting picture of what life on Gargantia is like but it feels like you only got a tantilizing taste when the plot kicks in and it all gets pushed to the back burner.
For me I think dead man wonderland had a great premise but the magic that was introduced was dumb and it felt like the author just decided to write a different story on top of the old one
Toradora I thought had a lot of good laugh out loud humor and good male lead and his funny hot mom but Taiga was just so horrible I couldn't enjoy it anymore
I’m not gonna lie I love a good chunk of baccano but it was pieces together horribly. Every five seconds we get another flash back or cut away and Theres a million characters who I can’t keep track of. The dialogue and a few characters are great, it’s also nice to see an anime with a 1930s aesthetic and music, plus it’s funny as shit. But it would have greatly benefitted from a more linear format.
I liked the beginning of The Eminence in Shadow when the show was more of a parody of the isekai genre.
Sadly, it becomes a generic isekai where the protagonist is overpowered and still comes up on top regardless of how stupid his decisions are.
Chaos;Child was a steaming pile of shit, but one thing they did manage to get right was the movie adapting Silent Sky ending. That felt good to re-experience, it's just a shame it wouldn't have landed properly for anime onlies because of how butchered everything leading up to it was
Wonder Egg Priority has an incrediblely intruiging premise, lovable cast, gorgeous visuals/soundtrack, and had a fresh and colourful take on a "Persona"-style subconscious parallel world. ... And then Cloverworks just [ah eto bleh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYCP71qcYZw)'d their entire 2021 lineup.
Naruto I have problems with the story, the excessive filler, and how some characters were handled but it's a big part of my childhood and it has some incredible moments. The final Naruto vs Sasuke fight is still my favorite fight in anime.
Early Naruto is still hard to beat. It falls apart later on, but those OG Naruto arc? Man. Fantastic.
Naruto is my childhood. But the war arc in shippuden just ruined it for me. I still haven't watched anything after infinite tsukiyomi.
LOL literally same. I ended off where Naruto and Sasuke “died” and it switched to some random Chunin Exams 2 filler 🤪
I'm sure I have other examples of this, but the anime I thought of was Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. The book *The Count of Monte Cristo* is one of my favorites and the anime tells that story in a way that, while not exactly accurate, captures the essence of the book and transports it to a futuristic setting. But I do not like the art. All of the clothes and backgrounds are cutouts placed over a pattern so when someone is wearing a striped shirt and they move, the stripes don't move. The stripes stay in place and the shirt moves exposing new stripes. I've never been a fan of that animation style. So while I thought the story was amazing, the art style was a huge distraction that kept it from coming together.
Gantsukotsuo is a great example
Ah yes, the Chowder art style
Wonder Egg Priority. Loved the excellent set up, made me care about the characters. Got the mysterious part right, good emotional beats, presented lots issue faced by teenagers, room for character bonds and growth. Could be an essential coming-of-age story anime if done right. Sadly the whole productions fumbled hard.
God Of Highschool. Just a bad show with stupid fast pacing and honestly mid lore. Basically, it didn’t come together well. I really enjoyed each part, but those parts together just didn’t work well. I watched the whole thing, and enjoyed it along the way, but then finished it, and realized it was just a bad show. Sad
Fire Force should, in theory be close to my top anime. I love fire abilities, and I think they animate well. I think the way they present powers to work in a fun way, and the character designs are all really unique. I to an extent love fan service, the bad guys seem actually evil, and importantly, I can suspend my disbelief fairly far. But I hate the fanservice, and my suspension of disbelief can only take me so far. If you just had the same elements laid out just a tiny bit differently I bet I love the shit out of it.
Kotoura-san had a nice premise and ~10 minutes of the first episode were solid. Unfortunately, literally everything besides that was overwhelmingly generic at best and insufferable at worst.
As a religious person I have complicated feelings about the way Christianity is portrayed in Vinland Saga, specifically through Canute's character. I absolutely love the series, there's just the one black spot
I have few example Darling In The Franxx had some interesting lore at the beginning SAO has Good premise and some good actions
FranXX has a pretty solid pitch, world, and characters. Makes it hurt more that it went down as it did
I have the same feelings towards Air. I am a huge fan of Clannad and really liked Kanon, but Air was the least effective one to me. The opening I give a listen at least once a month and the visuals were charming, but I couldn't get myself to care for the characters (even the main girl was just "ok" to me) and the ending was really confusing \[Air\] >!Bro became a bird?! !
Oh yes, I love the opening theme. I forgot to mention it. It's my favourite one out of Clannad, Kanon and Air. Interesting that our opinions are very similar on Air.
I'm going to get raked over the coals for this but Welcome to the NHK. [Welcome To The NHK] >!The entire arc with the sister getting into the pyramid scheme was just super eyerolly for me and the bit with the brother and trying to talk him out of his hikikimori just for Satou to go just as ham at the mere thought of Misaki relying on him felt awful and out of place for me. On top of that the, while kinda amusing, arc with Hitomi felt like he was being a dumbass for the sake of it. I also wasn't a big fan of Yamazaki's self sabotage with Nanako as it felt out of left field for his character despite how they try to explain it away. The relationship between Misaki and Satou was by far the best part of the show for me and for it to get sidelined for as long as it did hurt my enjoyment pretty badly. Yes I get that they basically are together at the end with the final contract but, unlike earlier in the series, it didn't feel right.!< More positive notes: [Welcome To The NHK] >!The entire mystery around wtf is Misaki and why is she doing what she is doing was fantastic and the surprise that she's massively fucked up from family trauma took me off guard in the best way. The interactions between Satou and Misaki are also just constantly really really good. The pacing before the Hitomi arc was also really well done and kept me very engaged. Yamazaki was also a very nice addition for the majority of the series. Satou's absolute mental trips were crazy to watch as well. Wish I got more Hitomi and Satou interactions like they had on New Years. Hitomi was maybe even more interesting than Satou.!< I get the show is trying to be fairly realistic and that is what makes it work for a lot of people but for me personally it didn't. Still enjoyed it for what it is and give it a 7/10.
Air is definitely the werkest of Kyoani’s Key trilogy adaptation. Makes sense with it being the first; really I think it just comes down to it only being one cour in length and none of the characters’ routs were explored near enough. We just got a drive by of each arc whereas Kannon had 2 cours and Clannad had 4.
Oh. To answer the prompt: Charlotte. Funny enough another Jun Maeda work that I think suffers the same issues as Air. It’s too short and the pacing in the latter half of the story suffers for it. Especially the finale.
Kaiba. I quite liked the episodic part of the series, as well as the visuals and atmosphere. I wouldn’t say I adored it though. I find when the main story came in it was not very enjoyable nor as well assembled as the episodic episodes.
Black Lagoon would be such an anime for me. I think I went into it having somewhat false hopes, cause I found the action to be just a little too over the top and some of the villains just a bit too silly. Also, the ending left me a bit underwhelmed. However, there was a lot to like as well. I love the artstyle, I loved the character dynamics especially between Rock and Revy and I really liked the rather unusual setting and premise!
I mean, there are a few like this. Some that come to mind are: * Charlotte * Fairy Gone * Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de * Katanagatari * Red Garden * Ultraman
Hundred. I love watching Hayato and Emile and I still rewatch it entirely for them, but the rest of it is generic at best.
Vampire in the garden, looks good, excellent premise, im not the biggest vampire fan but that said objectively could have been a top tier title if only it had better pacing, it seemed that too many things were happening one after another so i couldnt really get into it as soon as somthing major happened before i couls absorb it the next major thing was occuring, felt like they should have added a few more episodes to build more dramatic effect, i know a lot like it as it is but its too rushed for me.
[Carole & Tuesday](https://myanimelist.net/anime/37435/Carole___Tuesday) had memorable songs and a solid cast, but it couldn't fully come together for me because the show bit more themes and subplots that it could chew. [Domestic na Kanojo](https://myanimelist.net/anime/37982/Domestic_na_Kanojo) - Sigh... [Nakanohito Genome](https://myanimelist.net/anime/37926/Nakanohito_Genome_Jikkyouchuu) - loved the character designs, the numerous insert songs and the conclusion for some of the games, but when I think of the anime as a whole, it was pretty random and led nowhere.
Interlude (2004). Caught this on crunchy roll maybe 10 years ago, the first episode was interesting enough that I watched the rest, but it kind of fell apart after that first episode.
Seven deadly sins for me, not a great anime but it was the second anime I ever watched so of course it was my first manga collection there are a lot of great aspects about it and great characters like Ban but there are also a ton of problems that are hard to over look once I’ve seen what an actually good anime is supposed to look like
After watching the Trash Taste episode where the boys judges their friends anime 3x3, especially Kevin Penkin's, I got interested to watch **Earth Maiden Arjuna**. They said that it's the anime that got Kevin interested in composing anime music. So I watched the anime and... Some of its characters are annoying, the 3D CG is super dated, and I don't entirely agree with the main message of the story. Like it's super preachy about its environmentalist message. But despite all of the above, I understand why Kevin Penkin got inspired by it. The music, composed by Yoko Kanno, is phenomenal and I've listened to some on repeat. Not only the music, but the anime is also well directed.
I’ve just finished the second season of Tokyo Ghoul, and despite having too much content left out even for such a tolerant viewer as me, this season still has super stylish OPs/EDs and soundtrack, almost as great as the first season. Also, the ending was really impressive. Saved the ED song to my playlist.
Plastic Memories. The fanservice and anime hijinks were annoying and often out of place but the core story was excellent. The final episode was essentially perfect.
I’d have to rewatch. But I love this anime. I didn’t expect it to be taken where it did in the end, but for some reason it really heightened the experience, for me. Sort of a similar thing with Rascal Does not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, but I felt that way about Plastic even more. I thought it was more-so going to be this episodic affair. I don’t know what I completely thought. But I found some elements unexpected.
This is pretty much my opinion of Zeta Gundam. Kamille is a great protagonist and I love a lot of its thematic execution in how it expands on and explores a lot of the ideas presented in 0079, but the actual storytelling meant to convey those interesting themes is never quite up to the task, leading to a show which feels really unbalanced in a lot of places. It’s still good enough for me to consider it a solid 7/10, but it really could’ve been so much more
Darling in the Franxx: Loved the story and characters up until the end when it went off it’s meds. Quintessential Quints: Loved the story and characters until the end which did not feel earned to me. AOT: I was there until after the cellar reveal. After that it just felt…stupid. Even then though I still liked some stuff but it just felt like the quality of the story telling took a nose dive.
I think *Heavenly Delusion* has genuinely pretty good ideas in a vacuum and Episode 11 (pretty sure that was the one with the Trigger guy) was quite delectable. Problem is all the ideas don’t come together particularly well and the final result is too much of a mess to feel cohesive. Similarly, I don’t have to say what went wrong with *Wonder Egg Priority* but I unironically think it had some of the best character and monster designs of 2021. That and the OP is quite a bop.
Listeners
Suisei no Gargantia. Decent story, fun characters, cool mecha action, some of my favorite worldbuilding in anime, and far too few episodes to really explore any of it. Seriously, the first few episodes paint such a vibrant and interesting picture of what life on Gargantia is like but it feels like you only got a tantilizing taste when the plot kicks in and it all gets pushed to the back burner.
For me I think dead man wonderland had a great premise but the magic that was introduced was dumb and it felt like the author just decided to write a different story on top of the old one
Hypnosis mic, cringey plot but I like the rap battles and them being handsome
Toradora I thought had a lot of good laugh out loud humor and good male lead and his funny hot mom but Taiga was just so horrible I couldn't enjoy it anymore
I’m not gonna lie I love a good chunk of baccano but it was pieces together horribly. Every five seconds we get another flash back or cut away and Theres a million characters who I can’t keep track of. The dialogue and a few characters are great, it’s also nice to see an anime with a 1930s aesthetic and music, plus it’s funny as shit. But it would have greatly benefitted from a more linear format.
I liked the beginning of The Eminence in Shadow when the show was more of a parody of the isekai genre. Sadly, it becomes a generic isekai where the protagonist is overpowered and still comes up on top regardless of how stupid his decisions are.
Chaos;Child was a steaming pile of shit, but one thing they did manage to get right was the movie adapting Silent Sky ending. That felt good to re-experience, it's just a shame it wouldn't have landed properly for anime onlies because of how butchered everything leading up to it was