2017 was a pretty solid year for anime; I didn’t watch as much as last year however but yea I’m content with the volume and overall quality of the shows that I watched.

Generally speaking to be on this list I need to fully finish a show, however there are a couple of exceptions with long running shows and those that will end soon so yea, whatever. Last year I mentioned that I would try my best to finish a few shows that had been lingering for me because I had thought that they were worth a watch but honestly in the end I didn’t watch any of them. This time I’m not going to even make those promises, if I didn’t finish it by the end of the year, the probability of me finishing it later is pretty low. I do however want to recognize popular shows that I know are probably good but have no interest in right now such as all of the Fate stuff coming out lately, honestly there is so much content from this franchise I just can’t even anymore, Shokugeki no Soma 3rd season aired and I haven’t even caught up with S2 so I have no idea if I will ever be able to get back on this train, Konosuba i’m like half-way through second season but I only watch that when there’s nothing else on so yea, maybe eventually. I wish that there was more magical girl shows this year but sadly there is like none, ah well maybe in 2018.

Once again, the criteria for mai ranking is based on a variety of factors which I deem of importance such as: quality of animation, character design, waifu material, levels of epic manliness, opening introduction sequence, effect on popular anime culture, long term fandom, artsy quality, meta jokes, original concept, watch-ability, background history etc.

Shows that I am still watching even though they didn’t even start in 2017 still count on this list.

30. The Kings Avatar

Well now, to start the list off I am going to cheat a bit. This show was actually aired in 2016 but I only heard about it after the fact. Not on cruncyroll or even horriblesubs this show is kinda hard to find but has been praised by many as one of the first “decent” Chinese anime. So I decided to give it a try and see it through to the end. Does that title hold any merit? I suppose if you want to see the best out of the worst which I suppose is still something. The premise of the show is actually pretty interesting, basically former e-sport player is forced to retire because of drama but ends up playing the game anonymously with a new account and owning shit from scratch. On paper this sounds great and the first few episodes were good but it quickly becomes tedious and boring as hell. It suffers horrendous pacing issues and about midway through displays a fairly noticeable drop in animation quality and overall story coherency. All the characters are pretty much bullshit except the main guy and like 1-3 other people and are all completely forgettable with no real value added to the story. Suffers from catering to women and gay. Could have been the first decent chink anime but still pretty shit.

29. Seikaisuru Kado

One of the first “serious” animes that I watched that was pretty much all 3D CG. The opening intro sequence to this show is amazing and is bordering masterpiece in terms of tone, music and thematic design.  The majority of the show is pretty decent and has a pretty interesting drama/mystery thing going on with the alien visitor or whatever but the last few episodes completely ruined the show. COMPLETELY RUINED THE SHOW. FUCKKKKKK. Basically they could have made the alien visitor a neutral party in helping humanity but at the end of the day they just made him straight up the villain of the show, ultra lazy and poor writing. And how they “defeated” him was completely bullshit and retarded, yes, by the show’s parameters made sense but was so rushed that it felt completely devoid of any sense of accomplishment. Which leads me into the pacing of this disaster, 95% of the show moved extremely slowly, but the ending was so rushed and contrived that I could hardly believe what they did to resolve this show. One of the worst this year. 3D cg still horribly bad, shit. Only thing good is the opening sequence, fucking work of art masterpiece. Fail show in both design, story writing and direction.

28. Sin – Nanatsu no Taizai

I like boobs. This show is without a doubt a pure fan service show filled with boobs and ass. Does it deliver in sexy and cute busty anime girls doing stupid things and fighting occasionally which always results in all getting their clothes torn off or exposed completely naked for some reason? Yes, it definitely succeed in that regard with flying colors. But how does it do for a anime show with story and characters? Wellllllll, let’s just say it’s not fucking Kado that’s for sure, so it’s got that but yea, pacing and story is pretty horrible. It barely makes any sense but that’s ok, all I want is to see lucifer and levi go naked with bare boobs at least once or twice each episode, that’s all I’m asking for and because of that it’s automatically better than Kado. For what it is, it has beautifully designed characters and boobs, they are planning to make a sequel of sorts along with a new line of figures to go along with it named “The Seven Heavenly Virtues” in contrast to the “Seven Deadly Sins”. It’s bad yes but yea consider it a guilty pleasure.

27. Twin Angel BREAK

To be honest I don’t really know why I watched this show. Maybe because when it aired it was a dry season where I didn’t’ have much to watch or maybe because I was feeling like a magical girl show since I haven’t watched one in awhile. Either way I picked this show because the girls were decently designed well and the opening intro was pretty happy and hype, awww yea. I had no idea what I was getting into and only like midway though the show did I truly realize that this was actually a sequal of sorts to an earlier anime of the same name minus the BREAK. Technically I broke my own rules of no watching sequels before the original but whatever, the core themes of this magical girl show are pretty base generic like friendship, hope, the usual. For what it’s worth it wasn’t a bad show by any means, I was moderately entertained to be honest and filled my lack of magical girl show satisfactorily.  Decent ending and pacing, just not a madoka, nanoha or even raising project.

26. Akiba’S Trip The Animation

Based on a series of games that from what I read is kind of like a hack and slash/beatup game with a story layered on top about some dude got some dumb powers and can’t leave Akiba and has to defend it from a bunch of crazy things like various types of otaku and shit who are being mind controlled or whatever. Yea it’s not that important but it’s an alright concept. The show was decently entertaining as the main guy and his girl crew dealt with various types of threats and decently funny with references and the like to many points of otaku culture in japan, from video games, idols, card games, radios, anime, merchandise, gunpla and the like. Overall a decent show, shit still but another guilty pleasure. Doesn’t really suffer pacing issues, just a case of overall dumb which can be ignored if you want to be dumb as well, which I am.

25. Centaur no Nayami

A slice of life mild comedy about a centaur girl in a world filled with other cat-eared, dog like, goat like, rabbit, mermaids, angel, demon, snake people? Sign me up i’m game. The show starts out good addressing the reasoning and history of this crazy multi-species world and how everyone has to live together or else the “discrimination” police come in and book people for being racist and shit. Dem snakes be niggas, no lie. Cool cool, great premise and theme and the characters are pretty decent, despite being filthy animals and such so yea. While some jokes are indeed good, the problem of this show is pacing and tone. It’s very dry humor at times because the personality of some characters are just not fun or entertaining enough compared to similar shows. While the main centaur girl, Hime is fine, her rabbit and demon friend however leave much to be desired and just aren’t funny or interesting enough for me to care about them. They also kind of have a secondary main character, student coucil president angel girl but by the sheer fact that she is this kind of archetype (uptight bitch with a caring heart), makes her hard to like and sympathize with and her main problem; being poor with a big family. Some segments aren’t even supposed to be funny at all, I couldn’t believe they literally did a retelling of their version of the holocaust during WWII with concentration camps and all because some people thought some species were “inferior” beings and the like. Wut the fuck. The animation is decent for what it is and the opening song is pretty fun, if not chaotic in terms of hype levels and denpa song quality. Of course there are more fun times like beach shit and standard slice of life moment buts it’s very inconsistent, I wanted slice of life take it easy, not a history lesson parable on how blacks and jews have been persecuted since forever. Not what I signed up for.

24. Konohana Kitan

This is a nice calming show about a cute fox girl who ends up becoming a inn attendant with a bunch of other fox girls in some limbo other world between the human and god world. I wasn’t so sure what to expect from this show, being a slice of life and all since the range of this category is huge. There is a bit of comedy and “deep” moments of reflection which is fine and I found the stories told entertaining over time and gain a decent amount of depth. It’s kind of hard to describe this show, I don’t regret watching the show but on the other hand I wouldn’t be missing anything either if I didn’t watch it. Pretty Lagom I guess. The animation is decent and the character designs are ok, could be better but yea whatever. The tone of the show I can only describe it as whimsical with a sense of nostalgia, I dunno but it’s an alright show all round.

23. Kino no Tabi

Kino’s new show is pretty good and was more or less exactly how I pictured a sequel after so many years since the first show. Refreshed modern designs, good animation, nice voice acting, good new stories with new perspectives. Yea, this is all around a good sequel of sorts although being episodic it does leave itself open to a few boring or lacking episodes. One of the things that I am still not entirely sure about is the addition of 2-3 other new characters that Kino met during previous episodes with the show periodically checking back on them and focusing on them instead of Kino, since they are travelers or at least formerly travelers as well. There is nothing wrong with this as it gives an outsider’s perspective on the countries and the world in general but I still feel that it’s a strong sign of the author getting tired of writing about just Kino all the time and wants to do something else or even focus on different characters instead. Like come on, shit is called “Kino’s Journey” but there’s a good 3-4 episodes where she barely or doesn’t make an appearance at all. Author should just make a spin-off with his new characters if he likes them that much instead of cutting-in on Kino’s story time. Still a good show but I wished it stayed true to it’s name more.

22. Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine

This was a fairly entertaining show and the first “gay” show targeted towards women on my list which is cool. So basically we have a little small guy of questionable origins and history become the teacher of 4 blonde princes and his job is to prep them and learn life lessons in order to be a good future king although only one of them will end up being the king obviously. Despite it’s obvious pull for women with a cast of fairly good looking bishonen dudes as the princes, the show is surprisingly very funny and well paced. All of the princes get their spotlight time and their teacher Haine, points out their weaknesses and helps them learn a lesson in becoming not just good princes but better people in general, which is good. The show is not really gay, all of the princes are depicted as being straight, it’s just that the women audience makes it gay, so that’s fine by me. Overall good animation, good jokes, likeable characters and a relatively satisfying ending that ties up the most mysterious question of the show, who is Haine sensei? It’s got one of those endings where it’s not really done and can continue when the manga or whatever it’s source material has gone further which is good. A good watch all around if you want to watch what women like.

21. Demi-chan wa Katarita

Demi-chan wa Katarita is pretty much a superior version of what Centaur no Nayami was hoping and trying to be at least in terms of themes of inclusion, tolerance and the like. Set in a school setting where a handful of students/teachers are classical monsters such as vampire, ice women, headless-sleepy hollow, succubus and such do their thing in a slice of life setting and format. Everything is better than the former, the characters are fairly likeable and the show does a great job of focusing on each one and their personal school/social problems as a result of their status as a “Demi-human” living in the normal human world. The main girl is the vampire girl and is alright hype girl, best girl. Worst girl is headless sleepy hollow girl, worst, who the hell wants a girl that is decapitated. Snow girl is ok, base. Succubus teacher is good overall. The main dude, the teacher of these demi students is probably the real MVP, dude is not a wuss in any regard, but a real manly man with defined principles and consideration for his students and such. Also helps that he’s swole as hell with a cool deep manly voice. Good job. Animation is ok and I had no problems with the pacing of the show whatsoever. It’s funny and thought provoking at times but still tries to keep everything light and not overly serious. Good shit, however, if there’s anything that I ABSOLUTE HATE about this show is the uniform designs, HOLY SHIT THEY ARE PLAIN AND UGLY, SO BAD. Couldn’t they have put like a ribbon or something on their shirt collar? Fuck I didn’t know a white shirt and skirt was good enough to be a uniform. Fuck. Still good but fuck, those uniforms are so bad.

20. Hinako Note

Hinako Note is a new moeblob anime which hits the mark in some categories but misses it in others. The basic premise of the show was good, main girl wants to be an actress so she starts working at a cafe where they do plays and stuff for drama and have fun with all of her new friends and such as typical slice of life shows go. The character designs are excellent with all of the girls very attractive and cute looking, the animation is also excellent without missing a beat and having a few ace gif-able moments. The story and pacing however is a bit lacking and a bit too slow moving for my liking and while the show does make it’s best effort at comedy and humor, more often than not kind of falls flat with the majority of the jokes relying on the main girl being super shy or totally clueless and or the other characters reaction to her mistake or fault. It works for awhile but it’s kind of a waste how they didn’t flesh out the other characters more in depth which usually provides easy material for funny stuff. Outside of the main girl, all of her friends are fairly one-dimensional and never go into their backstory or anything like that. From what I understand this show was originally a 4-koma so that’s forgivable but it’s still a shame how they only focus on the main girl pretty much for the entire show. This show also has the strange title of being one of the most sexiest slice of life shows because despite their appearance in various forms of super deformation and simplification, the main girl, Hinako and landlady girl actually have great bodies and big boobs/ass whenever they decide to draw them more “realistic” and “proportionate” in some segments to the point where the other characters actively have to notice and acknowledge how beautiful they actually are for comedic purposes. This is not even getting into their 9-year old “teacher” which for no particular reason, has huge boobs for her age. I don’t even know why…However, despite it’s shortcomings, Hinako Note is still a good slice of life show but could have been better if it fixed it’s couple of flaws. Great opening and ending sequence/songs.

19. Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records

This show has probably the most sexist uniform designs this year among all shows and probably a few years back as well. Damn the girls in this show are so cute and waifu material, the uniform is just the icing on the cake. Well, it goes without saying that being another magical school anime does grow old considering the vast amount of other similar shows and media but because of the the strong cast of characters, likeable main heroines, relatively ok/kinda cool main teacher guy aids greatly in it’s ranking on this list. The story is pretty good as well with fairly noticeable story “arcs” that are covered in the anime, not revolutionary but not bad either so that’s great. The character designs of the girls are soo good. The opening sequence and song are extremely catchy and well animated and showcase the best of what the show has to offer. I liked the opening song so much I downloaded it and listen to it daily, well not really but it’s in there on my ipod whatever. HOWEVER, despite all it’s good graces this show suffers horribly from what is known by many as “RUSHING THE ENDING”. FUCkkkkkk what the fuck guys, they done fucked this one with rushing so bad I can hardly believe it. 90% of the show was great with steady pacing and progressive plot progression with each character getting more and more fleshed out. I was content with a kinda cliffhanger ending, but instead it feels like they rushed an entire story arc in 2 episodes when all other ones took like fucking 3-4 to develop. The main villain literally revealed himself at the start of the episode and was defeated to retreat 5-10 minutes later. Sure guys I get it, you were rushed badly but I would have rather you guys not even tried cramming that arc in the show to begin with. Man. Despite it’s fail rushed ending, it doesn’t deter me in the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed the 90% of the show to it’s fullest. Got action, got cute girls, got cool teacher, decent story, great songs, good shit, but man that ending. Ah well, not sure if this one will ever get a second season but we’ll see.

18. Shingeki no Kyojin S2

Well then, after much waiting and anticipation, I think like maybe 3 years since the first season of Titan aired we finally get a second season. Time does things to people and this is especially true with big name media franchisee like attack on titan. Although I fully enjoyed the contents of this season, I can’t deny the overall hype for this franchise has decreased significantly. 3 years is a long time for the next installment of story for anime, but despite that long gap the show was nevertheless excellent still. The animation, character designs and pacing were spot on, matching that of the original show perfectly. The opening sequence, while not as glorious or hype as either of the 2 original Titan songs was still pretty epic for me and eluded to so much you kinda get mini hype while watching it. In terms of story big important plot points are revealed and the story kinda moves forward and the mystery of titans and the world grows ever stronger. The action is there but nowhere near as much as the first season which is fine since more plot and backstories of characters are elaborated upon. Levi literally didn’t do shit in the entire show, Eren was just being Eren and getting epic triggered, same for Mikasa and Armen. Some people kinda died, but not really HEADFAKKKKEEE, disappointed a bit but whatever. They announced S3 immediately after S2 ended so that’s good news, we don’t have to wait so long for the next story. Maybe the story is coming to a close? Dunno, but S2 was still good overall, a bit slow but still good.

17. Inuyashiki

This is a pretty rare show which for once, the main hero is not a wussy fag boy that can’t handle or come to terms with himself or his power or whatever life. No, Inuyashiki is all about a old man that was accidentally turned into a cyborg robot with no organic parts remaining doing good shit and helping people save lives. Well, that’s how this show was marketed to me at least. While I did indeed get the aforementioned promise of an old man saving people and doing battle for the sake of good and justice, they focused wayyyy too much on the villain young lad boy who was also accidentally turned into a robot as well and as a viewer it just makes you say, man, I sure wished they showed more about what the old man was doing instead of this crazy mutherfucking kid with no emotions and is a murderer. The ratio of screen time coverage between the two feels something like 60% young lad, 40% old man which doesn’t really make sense since the old man is supposed to be the main character. I dunno what the reasoning why that was done other than the fact that the villain boy is such a complicated bitch and needed more time in order to flesh out storywise and the old man, well, was already a good man to begin with even before becoming a robot and didn’t need to change or anything. The show is well done and I enjoyed it fully, especially with the very hype and cool opening sequence and song. There are however a few things that bothered me about this show, one being that despite his coverage, the voice actor for the young villain is pretty shit, dude can’t voice act if his life depended on it. I know that he is supposed to sound dead, apathetic and generally doesn’t give a shit, but it just sounds like a regular dude with no voice talent whatsoever, sure you can attribute that to being more “real” but no, this is not a live action drama and dude just sounds out of place. The second thing that bothered me is how they ended the show. Fuck seriously? Meteor crashing down on earth? Out of all the possible problems that they could have done for the two robots to fight over and save the world, they went with the FF7 route which in mai opinion is extremely lazy and too cliche. What they should have done instead is after the young boy tries to crash all those planes, he moves on to hijacking nuclear missiles and gets them to launch around the world with the old man still stopping them. After that, they should be in space they say a few words and then have a direct space battle with full lasers and shit with the end result being either both of them are destroyed or shit voice kid being defeated. That’s how it should have ended, but no, what I got instead was Armageddon the movie. Somewhat dumb and disappointing ending but ah well, nevertheless still a great show worth watching.

16. Boku no Hero Academia

Ah yes, the new “Naruto” is still going on and so far I’m still enjoying it. It feels like I’ve watched so much of this show already since there have been 2 cours covering differing arcs of the story within this year, the first one being the school battle tournament arc and the other is the placement/practical skills hero training segment. Both arcs were ok but to be honest I really like the battle tournament arc, it’s just pure shonen battle gold, fuck. The second cour this year was about the hero students just doing their thing with a overlaying threat of some hero killer and whatever, of course our main cry boy and friends take him down and that’s kinda it. The end of the second cour was kinda meh for me but it does lead into the next phase of the story about all might and friends. Solid animation, good pacing, heroic tone and dreams, just good old shonen style fare all around.

15. Kemono Friends

Kemono friends is a weird show. At first I thought that it was a shit show, being it very cheap looking and poor 3d cg but looking past that what you have here is a pretty fun and enjoyable show with a somewhat mysterious and even dark subtext behind the world that the animal girls live in. Honestly I wasn’t interested much at all with this show but having seen kemono friends videos consistently charting the top videos of nico douga I decided to give it another try and I don’t regret it at all. The formula is so simple and pure that it just works, there is no grand story to tell here, no saving the world, no girls to win or fight over, no powers, just a random mysterious girl in an alleged post-apocalyptic world and her journey around a zoo safari park where all the animals have been turned into cute anthropomorphic girls where I learn about the habitat and behaviors of the real animals themselves. Yea, I know but it’s fun and educational too. But come on seriously, animal-girls and a slice of life adventure, so pure how could this not catch on in Japan? While the 3dcg is bad the base character designs are done pretty well and are true to their animal counterparts.  Also helps that their opening song is really catchy and fun too, so pure and optimistic, good shit. A surprise good find. They will probably make another season because of the huge amount of fandom and following this show got but how good it will be is anyone’s guess because the original director was shockingly fired a few months after the show ended, even though he did the majority of the work and poured countless hours on the production, so yea, I dunno about that but if the fandom keeps up Kemono friends legitimately has the potential to become a real media franchise and expand greatly.

14. Frame Arms Girl

To be honest what I got from this show is not exactly what I was expecting. When you have bunch of mini robot girls based off pose-able figures in military gear, basically full on mecha-musame; it’s almost impossible to not think Gundam Build Fighters or some kind of mecha battle show that involves tournaments, battle and heated rivalries between kids and shit. Kind of like angelic layer from back in the day or even yugioh, rozen maiden, pokemon, even a beyblade kind of fare. Make no mistake, there is battle and fighting between the robot girls in this show but it’s not even really competitive, it’s just for fun, for testing according to the story. Another thing that makes this show interesting is that all of the robot girls are owned by a single girl who doesn’t really give a shit  but gets paid money from the robot company to “play” with them and do battle simulations, all in her apartment. Yes, the vast majority of the show takes place in the girl’s apartment room, they rarely go outside or anywhere else. With all that said and done, this show is actually a slice of life comedy 70% of the time with 30% battle. All of the mecha-musame are cute and fit into the standard archetypes with their own unique traits, like we got base tank girl, 2 flying girls, 1 ninja girl, 1 cyber girl, 2 alternative close combat/support girls and 1 crazy op girl that can do everything that sort of acts like the villain to the other robot girls but not really. Combined with ACE character designs by the same guy that did Strike Witches and all the best foreign boats in Kancolle and we have a very enjoyable show that has lots of chill and battle unlike any other I’ve seen in awhile. Animation is good and they use 3dcg for some segments, mainly battle times but it’s ok since they are toys. Somewhat episodic in nature but builds on each episode, good fun stories and characters, great opening and ending sequence/song; good shit.

13. Eromanga-sensei

Ah yes, the spiritual successor to Oreimo is pretty good and I must say does a pretty decent job of living up to it’s predecessor. While not as otaku-centric as it’s predecessor considering that this time most of the wife candidates are all involved with light novel production, it does still manage to put out a good amount of laughs and comedy, ensuring to stay true to it’s name of eromanga to some degree. The main guy is basically the same as in Oreimo but is a bit more competent with some better motivations such as becoming a better writer and all that jazz with the main girl being his non-blood related sister (very important), the titular “Eromanga-sensei” herself being a closet illustrator of ero animu and mangos of our main boy’s light novel series. The first few episodes are dedicated to the two finding out that they have unknowingly been working together as author and illustrator to much surprise and comedic fanfare. Once that is out of the way another cast of side characters are introduced namely two other female authors, elf-sensei and murasame-sensei I think due to some contest thing to be the best new author or whatever, fighting for who will be Eromanga-sensei’s partner in their next novel project. Lest to say that the best girl in mai opinion is elf-sensei with Eromanga-sensei not too far behind and murasame following in a very very distant third place. There is like 2-3 other side girl characters that were introduced but never got any coverage but I suppose if there is going to be a second season, they will be more of a focus. Elf is the best. Opening sequence is ok, catchy but not ipod worthy. Animation is solid good and captures that good old Oreimo faces and the like. The pacing is good although I do feel that some episodes feel very filler oriented but that is to be expected from a harem-ish slice of life comedy show like this. There is also a Oreimo cameo as well in the last episode with Kirino, kuro-neko and friends crossing paths walking in Akihabara with the two main guys exchanging glances or something, kinda funny. For the record, the light novel that the main dude in this show is more or less  writing is Oreimo since fuck it, why not, gotta make it meta with the little sister thing I suppose. Overall good show with potential payoffs for future season two, but who knows when that is coming.

12. 3-gatsu no Lion

Holy shit this show is still going? FUCKKKK. I did not expect to invest this much time into this show when I originally picked it up like last year. While technically this is season 2, I am reading that a third season will also air sometime again in 2018. Damn, so this show is going for a pretty long run indeed. I still call this shit “I killed your dad” even though it doesn’t make sense now since the tone and direction of the show is fully known to me. It’s a mahjong show yes but first and foremost it’s a coming of age story with mild slice of life elements and moments of intense drama and feels. Since this show isn’t really done yet I can’t really say much other than so far this season has been pretty enjoyable with lots of character progression and most importantly progression for the 3 girls that our main boy likes to hang out with after school for dinner as his pseudo adoptive family of sorts. Drama has happened and bullying is a central story pillar this arc I suppose with the middle sister this season with the drama of main boy’s ho sister taking a bit of a step back after some more info comes to light. Yea, it’s still inner struggle for main boy but he’s getting by and surviving. At least he has a reason to live and drive to win now. I hope that the fat kid rival dies of his illness, that would make for an excellent twist but I don’t know if they will. Great pacing, storytelling and reflection anime, excellent show if you are feeling lost in the world or kinda depressed with issues or whatever. Yea, I killed your dad.

11. Love Live! Sunshine!! S2

Our seaside town school idols are back in the second season of love live sunshine. Will they win love love? Guess what? they do. End show. Yea, well, if you are watching this show you are not really watching to see if they win or not, since it’s kind of a foregone conclusion. What’s important then are the cast of cute idol girls and their character development. Yes, You is still like one of the best girls along with all of the first-years being so outrageously better and likeable than the second and third years that it’s so obvious that they tried really hard to design them well after the shit first years they used in muse for the first love live group. There is a few twists in this season which I didn’t expect such as their rivals losing so early and quickly becoming friends and main center girl chika being a worse leader than I could have predicted but yea, this show was good. Animation is excellent and 3dcg dance segments got upped considerably, the line between 3d and normal hand drawn animation is blurred very well. All of the girls range from cute to ok and as mentioned previously, the first years are so good. I admit that the story moves a bit slow which is kind of to be expected since this is a character-centric show which is good by me. I still find it very awkward that after every performance and show, they NEVER EVER show the girls reflecting or talking about their concert post-dance sequence, it’s always like after the song is done and the dance has finished, you see them the next day walking to school or on a plane going home as if it never happened. The same can be said about even the first love live series. Also, there is no men shown in the entire world so yea, that’s a thing too, gotta make sure to put the illusion in to hide the truth. Despite it’s shortcomings in story and pacing, I did find this show very enjoyable and very easy to do open live commentary while watching it, which is always fun. Good shit for idol show this year.

10. Net-juu no Susume

This was something of an unexpected show for me. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did considering that is was a female oriented show about a neet 30-year old former office lady playing online mmorpgs like Raganrok online and shit but I did. Maybe because I could relate to her situation but maybe because it was just funny and the online game aspect is what drew me in. Either way, this show is essentially a slice of life drama romance comedy and do you know what the best part is? Fucking show actually has a sound decent conclusion. FUCK YEA. Does our main girl eventually reveal her identity to her online in game lover? Does it happen for the dude and vice versa? Yea, pretty much and what’s most important is that they do kind of get it together and become a couple, although it’s not confirmed, you can pretty much conclude that it’s a happy ending. The reactions of the main girl are part of what makes this show so fun, because it’s funny and the other half of the enjoyment is trying to figure out what in-game character correlates to what in real life person that she meets, since all of her guild mates are like living in close proximity to her but she has no idea who anyone is, at least at first. Decent animation and pacing, interesting characters and good story. Good shit. I am not sure if this show is done done or if they are going to try and continue it pending progress of the original source material which is a web manga I think, but my guess is that maybe in the future since there are many characters which never got elaborated on/ have their real life identities revealed so I am betting on that. Good shit, different take on a tried and true kinda formula.

9. Himouto! Umaru-chan R

Ah yes, one of the best slice of life comedy shows returns this year again and keeps up with the hype and cute funny girls. The show more or less takes off after the first season ended and that’s good because there is no need to re-introduce characters or even lead in into what the show is about, in fact the opening sequence is more than enough to get the gist of the premise of the show. We get alot of new backstory on Umaru’s friends and their history and such and surprise surprise they all involve their big brothers, keeping with the theme that pretty much all the girls in this show are little sisters. They also introduce a new character, Hikari, which is the little sister of Kanau, Taihei’s friend from highschool that just so happens to be a boss at the company where he works. Kanau was showed a bit in the previous story but never really elaborated upon. This time however, we go in depth which is cool. Hikari is pretty cute and is I think about the same age as Umaru, maybe a year or so younger? It’s not entirely known for sure but they do go to the same school together, although they never knew each other until later on in the show. Hikari’s eyes are funny and has white hair, kinda filling in that gap of quiet very shy sister that doesn’t talk much but just wants to be loved, or something like that. She’s good, I like her design, it’s basically a modified base Umaru normal form expect shorter. Good shit. Animation is still good, pacing is on point and good sentimental stories and funny moments, good shit. Everything that I wanted in a second season is here and fulfilled, hope they have enough material for a S3 but who knows. Good shit.

8. Kakegurui

This was overall an excellent show, combining the best parts of kaiji, akagi, saki and several other gambling anime shows mixed in with some sexy girls and a crazy hype main girl and we got ourselves a winning formula. From episode one I knew I was going to follow this show till the end, the tone and the faces, they are just too good to not watch. The character designs are pretty good, they are very bold and the lines are quite defined, the colors, very vibrant, further aided by the red colored school uniforms. The main girl, Jabami is one hell of gambling addict and what makes this show so good, her pure insanity and the “Oh SHit” kind of faces that come out of everyone in general. While I admit that it was sometimes hard to follow some of the rules of the games that they played even if you didn’t fully get it, the ride itself was a good enough experience. However, despite it’s overall good pacing and story and characters, it still suffer the dreaded “SHIT GOT RUSHED” ending and to make things even more bitter they also throw in the “THIS SHIT IS STILL GOING SO WE CAN’T REALLY END ANYTHING CONCLUSIVELY, WE ARE JUST GOING TO MAKE IT SO EVERYTHING RESETS”. So yea, we got that kind of ending, where everyone’s status and shit get reset so that Jabami and friends can gambling all the way to the top once more and whatever. Yea, I knew this might have happened but what do you expect from an ongoing series. Good shit, but still a bit sad how they ended it, hope they make more anime.

7. Blend S

One of the top new moe comedy shows this year that I enjoyed. Blend S combines many other shows into one, such as Is the order a Rabbit, kinro mosaic and many others. I think I went into greater depths in my initial review of this show but for the most part everything that I wanted from this show it delivered. All of the characters are likeable with my favorite probably being Maika and Kaho. I did not really expect the fifth “girl” to be a trap but yea, got trapped by the “surprise”. Animation is outstanding, top notch voice work by relatively unknown voice cast and subjects of discussion in each episode vary greatly to much comedic value. The central pillar of the show is the store owner and Maika’s love plot, or rather the store owner’s fail attempts at professing his love for Maika and her inability to take a hint. I didn’t mind this as the main driving factor of the show but to be honest it does get tiring when it’s done repeatedly. Good thing that they do indeed focus on the backgrounds and personalities of the other girls that work in the cafe which is cool and balances everything out. Very catchy extremely well done opening, this show is kind of similar to Hinako Note, perhaps even done by the same studio but overall Blend S is better. Hope they make more in the future.

6. Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon

Airing very early in 2017, it feels so weird including this show on the list because it feels so long ago since I watched any of this show but nevertheless, Maid Dragon definitely deserves a high spot on my list. Kyoto animation has done it again, they have manged to take a series that most people would otherwise wouldn’t give a shit about and made it a wonderfully animated fun and heartfelt show about dragons living a daily slice of life fare. Amazing, fucking amazing what Kyoto animation can do. Everything about this show is top notch, excellent animation, excellent voice cast and voice work, tone, pacing, story, comedy, drama, character designs, it’s all good. I can’t really think of anything bad about this show other than the fact that some characters did not get as much attention as others such as boob dragon quetzalcoatl and that black butler dragon which is fine since it’s really about the main dragon girl Tooru and her super gay crush for her master/roomate Kobayashi. Loli dragon Kanna has been elevated to something along the lines of meme territory with her cuteness and shy personality.  Yea, it’s good. The opening song for this show is pretty damn good as well as the visuals, they match perfectly. Hope they make more in the future.

5. New Game!!

Oh shiitttttt, last year’s top show has been dethroned to #5 this year. What happened? Well to no fault of New Game in particular, the show is still outstanding and fully enjoyable in all respects, but facing tough competition this year from brand new shows it’s hard to justify a sequel taking anything higher than where it is now. Everything in this show picks up right after the events or at least a few weeks after the end of the first season and a bunch of new characters are introduced who end up joining and or wanting to join the company. With Aoba and Kou’s story still kinda going with rivalry the show focuses more on the new girls and their struggles offering a different perspective the the already established cast. New designer girl and new programmer girl are cool and do their own thing and have their own backstory and such, which the show does a great job at covering. The ending left me kind of sad however, as Kou eventually decides to leave the company and work abroad after realizing that in order to get better she needs to challenge herself and get outside of her comfort zone, so working with western games and shit in France. It’s a sad but necessary conclusion and like 2-3 episodes are dedicated towards it but yea it’s ok, Aoba will be fine without her senpai hero. From what I understand this series is still continuing despite Kou leaving which is great since there is still so much more stories and cute girl moe moments to tell for Aoba and friends at Eagle Jump. I’m not sure if they will ever make a S3 as the way they ended here was pretty satisfying but who knows, maybe one day. Excellent show.

4. Isekai Shokudou

So I heard you like food porn? Well, this show is pretty much it minus all the shonen level cooking battles of Shokugeki no Soma. I like fantasy settings with high elves, faeries, knights, dragons and magical shit, this show takes place in that kind of setting; what more can I ask for? Overall a wonderful show with simply outstanding animation, character designs, storytelling, pacing and relaxing tone probably one of the best slice of life chill shows this year. Each episode chronicles the tales of various races/professions/magical creatures and how certain individuals find the restaurant to another world where they can enjoy modern Japanese/western fare such as curry rice, pork bowls, sandwiches, pasta, hamburger steak, fried seafood and many desserts once a week on Saturday when the door opens. While episodic in nature, all stories loosely tie in with each other in some form or another giving great depth and characterization to the fantasy world that this show has created. For instance, high elves are vegan, they don’t eat meat, so in one story is a high elf who finds the door and asks for a meal that does not contain meat or any meat products. In a later episode that same elf shows up later to talk with faeries who only eat fruit stuff and recommends the fruit sundae because they have similar dietary restrictions. Or another one where you see an old man eating pork cutlet in episode 1-4 who has no backstory and just take him for granted as a generic nameless background character but in a later episode there is an entire story about him how he was once an admiral for a great fleet but got shipwrecked and found himself on an island with only the door to the restaurant. Shit like this is what makes this show stand out, everything is not just an adhoc story to serve a singular purpose to highlight some dish or whatever, everything is coherent and makes sense based on the rules set by the show itself. Even dragons are customers by taking human form and one of them even ends up working as a server for the restaurant as well.  Excellent show, with an very good catchy opening sequence and ending song to boot.

3. Gabriel DropOut

Gabriel DropOut is another rare show that I honestly could not find almost any fault in it’s execution, design or premise, it’s probably the best comedy slice of life moe shows this year hands down. Everything about this show is so good, all of the characters are excellent with great character designs, personalities and voice talent, excellent voice talent in fact. With a mix of top veteran voice talent and rising new stars the voice work for this show is done flawlessly. The voice actors for Gabriel and Satanichia are especially noteworthy as they are both relatively rookies to the voice acting scene and are probably the best characters in the entire show. Satanichia and Gabriel’s interactions are what makes this shit so good, it’s pure animu comedy gold from Gab’s don’t give a shit attitude to Satanichia’s holier than thou chuunibyou try hard personality to beat Gabriel, but gets bullied and defeated by Gabriel regardless. While some slice of life comedy shows have a unbalanced composition of characters leading to some to feel almost as dead weight, Gabriel Dropout has none; all of the characters contrast and balance each other out perfectly with all their unique niche and character archetypes being wholly fulfilled in anime terms. The jokes are so fresh and come quick and at a steady pace, there is hardly any lull in a episode unless they want to try and get sentimental or heartfelt which thankfully only happens occasionally. For a show about demons and angels going to school on earth who end up being friends it’s certainly a joke point in itself, shit’s good. Top class opening song and ending song credits, extremely catchy denpa song by the 4 voice actors, I love it when the actual voice actors sing the songs themselves. Excellent show, I hope that they make more in the future but I don’t know for sure, from what I read, the anime is pretty up to date with even the latest chapters of the manga, so who knows how long it will be. I will be eagerly waiting for that day.

2. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou

This show was an experience that I have not felt similarly since probably Mushishi, the best show ever created. Known as “Girl’s Last Tour” I decided to nickname it as “Winter Tanks” because the first episode the girls were in a snow landscape and riding their vehicle for the lack of a better term I called a tank, which it totally wasn’t. Through and though this is a slice of life adventure traveling show with lots of deep philosophical themes embedded in it’s stories and the people/things that they meet/discover. My first impression of this show was, “What the hell is this show, where are they going with this? why do they look so squishy and round?”, well after the end of the first episode I knew I was going to watch this show to the end and I have no regrets whatsoever. It’s quite a high bar to say that this show reminds me of Mushishi, the best show ever created but honestly that’s the best thing which I can compare it to, with the next closest thing being Kino’s journey which also aired this year and is a traveling show learning about things/people. While Kino’s journey explores various socialpolitical ideologies and relationships, “Winter Tanks” approaches philosophical and metaphysical concepts on a basic, primal and existential level; in a fun and cute kind of way of course. Questions such as “why do we exist”, “what is hope”, “what does it mean to be alive”, “what’s the point of remembering the past” are some themes that are often thrown about by the two girls traveling in this distant post-war apocalyptic ruined cityscape. Littered with old weapons of war and relics of the past during humanity’s peak, Chito and Yuuri, two girls wandering about without a particular reason just keep on going. The tone of the show is very relaxing and at times very ambient with peaceful music during times of rest and fun but sometimes urgent and dramatic depending on different situations. Make no mistake, this is a slice of life show, but the most purest slice of life that it could possibly be without sacrificing it’s chill and relaxing tone and pacing. With character designs that are extremely round and squishy, it looks a bit awkward to have these two girls roaming around in army gear and a military vehicle but that’s part of the charm and a great contrast that makes this show stand out. Despite being somewhat episodic in nature, the ending of this show was extremely satisfying and answered many of the questions that had come up throughout the duration of the show. Being based off a web comic, I would be perfectly content if they did not continue on with more of the anime, with the way that they ended this show, it doesn’t need to, simply brilliant. The opening and ending sequences of this show are very catchy songs and animation really good, some episodes have open-less credits and or special endings which make the experience even more immersive and draws you in. Episode #9, the robot factory episode is a masterpiece. One of the best shows this year only being beaten very closely by a slim margin by…

1. Made in Abyss

And here it is, the best show of 2017 is Made in Abyss. While just as ambitious and adventurous as”Winter Tanks”, Made in Abyss takes the survival and mystery aspects into another level. I did not expect this show to be so grueling and graphic as it was, especially near the end which I am sure was a total surprise to many viewers. Much like “Winter Tanks” it’s easy to be fooled by the simplistic yet cute round looking character designs of Riko and Rig, if one did not know any better you might even say that this could pass off as a Disney or Studio Ghibli production which is a good thing. The character designs, while are very childish looking, work perfectly for the setting and story that is being told in Made in Abyss, a grand adventure one way ticket into the depths of hell pretty much, which much like the former, gives great contrasts to the reality of what these two characters are trying to do. I was previously acquainted with Akihito Tsukushi’s fantastical landscape illustrations and was pleasantly surprised that this was his work, originally a web comic that has been running for quite some time. While this show technically beat out “Winter Tanks” I wouldn’t compare it to Mushishi like I did for that show, the tone and style of the show is totally it’s own thing, far more linear with a grand unique adventure to tell, which in it’s own right deserves no comparison. Everything seems at first like it’s going to be smooth sailing for Riko and Rig as they journey to the bottom of the Abyss in search of Riko’s famous adventurer mother who has been missing for years. That’s what you think is going to happen, but NOPE, time and time again they face huge challenges and hurdles which they barely make it out alive and in some instances suffer great loss along the way. The first 70% of the show is a slow progression of Riko and Rig as they go further and further into the levels of the abyss, all the while gradually gaining each other’s trust and honing their strengths and abilities. In the remaining 30% of the show they introduce Nanachi, the new furry friend character that pretty much hijacks the show with her origin story and background of Mitty, her pet friend. If I was a weaker man, tears might have been shed, but I am not, so no tissue was necessary for this mini origin story, at least not for me. Despite what you may or may not have felt, the show’s ending here is nevertheless a very blunt and brutal reflection of perhaps what is to come for the future of our young adventurers. Excellent. Everything in this show was done well with the upmost of quality and production value, the animation is excellent, backgrounds very painterly true to Akihito Tsukushi’s style, pacing never boring or any filler, voice acting excellent, which is something to note since the voice actor of Riko is the same girl that does Gabriel in Gabriel Dropout, cool, showcasing a great range of her talents. Everything in this show is mastercraft unlike anything else that I have seen for many years, truly an original experience. With Nanachi eventually joining the party at the end of the anime, we can only expect more crazy and dangerous situations to arise. Season 2 of Made in Abyss has already been announced and is currently in production, I am looking forward to seeing it in the near future.

Congratulations Made in Abyss, you are Mai Top Anime of 2017.