I never thought this recap series would make it to 30 installments. I was due for a week of shows so bad that I would be embarrassed to write about it and then I would eventually stop as it would seem like I hated anime. This was very nearly that week.
So what exactly set the stage for this. First, Maoyuu didn’t air a new episode this week, just some recap special episode 9.5 or something like that. It’s probably a compilation of Female Knight and Demon King in various states of undress trying to seduce Hero. Second, there was epic bed-shitting when it came to shows that were even mildly okay. Third, the prospect of watching live-action Anno-directed terribad was so bad that the time was spent talking about the silliness of societies based entirely around one staple food, deconstructing deconstruction and some sort of music quiz. On the plus side, you get a new show cracking my top 5 this week for the first time. I hadn’t even written more than a comment on it prior to now.
Currently Airing Top 5
Zetsuen no Tempest
Tempest provided an absolutely wonderful episode this week. Aika revealed herself as the instrument to her own downfall. Why? Because she had to make sure that Hakaze wanted to destroy the Tree of Genesis after meeting Yoshino and Mahiro. The cruelty of it all gets to Hakaze and she fights in vain against Aika. At the same time, I think there are problems with the plot in general. Mainly how Evangeline managed to come up with this theory that proved correct. Plus, the motivation of testing humanity seems to be ignoring the question of why that has to be the case. The romantic storyline is fine though, but the ending may not be ideal.
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT
Senran Kagura
Yes, I have been watching this show. Efforts to write about this at The Classiest Anime have proved a little fruitless. The issue is that this show has been too painfully aware that it’s stupid fanservice bait with little substance. That’s unlike say Queen’s Blade or Symphogear which play it completely without irony. This week’s episode was really a curveball of sorts. The dark ninjas aren’t actually that evil, they just ended up there because of each of their circumstances. Also, Hibari is still useless, but at least contributing to the plot now.
Senyuu.
There’s a cat. It’s a masochist pervert talking cat. That was about it for plot elements in this week’s Senyuu. Otherwise, Alba’s ribs continue to be a running joke with even meta commentary on why this was still coming up. But the best moments in this show seem to be in the introduction now where Yamakan lets it fly with looking cheap. He’s definitely not afraid to poke fun at himself.
Ishida to Asakura
Ishida’s work as the maid Alice haven’t been discovered yet, but he has to split time between treating Yamada as a customer and brutally killing him twice. The deep voice as Alice gets me every time. I just can’t help it. I do wonder if they are going to end this in a few weeks, they have one character left to introduce based on the OP animation, and I can’t see them coming up with something new every week even if they only have to fill 90 seconds.
The Rest of the Week
GJ-bu
I continue to criminally underrate this show. From early on, I thought it was just a cheap looking, do nothing anime of the likes of Hidamari Sketch. This seems to do the job much better to the point of almost cracking my top 5 each week. There are certainly worse ways to pass the time than seeing Kyoro brush each girl’s hair, try to act more masculine than his character appears, Mao acting like a child despite being the oldest one in the club, Megumi being constantly insecure, Shion being adorable in that cool way and Kirara just sitting in a corner eating meat. Ok, that last one doesn’t sound so hot. It’s turned into a middle-tier show of a group of friends doing fun activities for the purpose of having fun. It does the job magnificently.
Space Brothers
With each new character that gets introduced by name, my heart sinks about this series that much further. The prospect of this continuing on for several years tests my patience. I say that because they have started the “Walk to Amarillo” arc. That’s literally the goal of this survival training. In a bit of unintentional NASA racism, the groups of potential astronauts were split into groups. Conveniently, all of the candidates from Asia ended up in one group with the rest composed of European, American and Canadian prospects. This episode was about as exciting as a walk through a desert should be.
Kotoura-san
This latest arc feels as though it is dousing itself in gasoline and preparing to light a match. It’s suicidal writing of the highest order. That epilogue just made this show lose all credibility in my eyes. It’s a shame too as it looked like this was a good episode about Haruka starting to get closer to her mother. Now, I’m just starting to feel sorry for all of the people who started believing in this show early on when it did combine tragedy and comedy well. It’s just all over the map now.
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
I’ll admit this episode at first made me angry at the injustice inflicted upon all of the characters in this show. After thinking about it a little, I was directing that anger in the wrong direction. It should really have been anger at the fact that these characters have no resilience at all and they continue to fall into the same melodramatic pits time after time after sweet infamous time. If society in general had the same attitude as Sorata and Jin, 90% of the world would either be raging about how talent is unfair or walling themselves off from the rest of the world. It would suck tremendously. That’s why no one makes characters like this who are supposed to be inspirational because eventually you settle for the opportunities given and trying the best you can.
Robotics;Notes
After slowly creeping around for a while, this is heading to an ending perfectly fitting for the Noitamina block. Hopelessly pretentious, horribly irresponsible, recklessly rushed and brazenly silly. It can all be summed up in one moment in this week’s episode. Airi has a gun ripped out of her hand by a parrot as she was firing it on herself. Let me write that again. Airi has a gun ripped out of her hand by a parrot as she was firing it on herself. If that’s not silly then you’ve probably had too many hyperoats.
Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru
There was an episode of Oniai last year that qualified for last year’s worst of year terribad special. This week’s episode of Oreshura brought back those terrible memories. So much wasted time on trying on swimsuits that it felt like the exact same thing. I didn’t even have Anastasiya to provide the only source of entertainment this time. Nope, I was left a mess having terrible flashbacks to watching that episode of Oniai last season. The only saving grace of this episode was Eita’s aunt in the epilogue. Finally, this show got kicked out of its harem comfort zone.
Little Busters!
There was a lot of crying in this week’s episode. At the same time, I was sat there with an expression that looked something like this -_-. Maybe it was the fact that Riki was inexplicably able to read Russian that made me stop caring. Perhaps it was the constant feeling that this part of the story was written by a man who never got to see his dying mother, but was badly projecting it through a girl. It just didn’t have the feeling that it should have for a tragic event having happened. It was way too introspective for its own good basically.
Minami-ke Tadaima
Looks like the good run ended for this series now. The fact that they are back into fall just serves as a reminder that though the characters have developed over 4 separate iterations, time has not actually passed at all. The premise of this week’s episode is being cheap and saying its friendly for the environment. Then, doing things that aren’t cheap because it feels good. It’s almost as though moderation is a bad word to base a plot on. It never feels like the Minamis struggle with household expenses either. I guess what I’m saying is that anime shouldn’t aspire to feel like a Judd Apatow film where people lament about only being upper middle-class.
Updated Average Seasonal Ranking
| Season Rank | Change | Series Average Rank | Change | |
| Maoyuu Maou Yuusha | 1 | – | 1 | – |
| Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT | 2 | ↑1 | 2 | – |
| Zetsuen no Tempest | 3 | ↑1 | 3 | ↑2 |
| Uchuu Kyoudai | 4 | ↓2 | 5 | ↓1 |
| Senyuu | 5 | – | 4 | ↓1 |
| Robotics;Notes | 6 | – | 6 | – |
| Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru | 7 | – | 7 | – |
| Minami-ke Tadaima | 8 | – | 10 | ↓1 |
| Senran Kagura | 9 | ↑4 | 11 | ↑4 |
| GJ-bu | 10 | ↓1 | 12 | ↓1 |
| Ishida to Asakura | 11 | ↑1 | 13 | ↑2 |
| Little Busters! | 12 | ↓2 | 14 | ↓2 |
| Kotoura-san | 13 | – | 15 | ↓2 |
| Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo | – | – | 8 | – |
Lower Mid-Table 
Wait so Terribad didn’t actually watch the film?
Nope, it was coincidental with the fact that Scamp returned.
Is that Robotics;Notes episode even worth watching for how bad it is?
The parrot scene and landing a plane without landing gear because the fucking could were the only 2 unintentionally funny parts. Otherwise it was just pretty bad.
How can you underrate GJ-bu! It’s so wonderful ;-;
I was just judging on the first few episodes which I thought were a bit rough