As always, here are our final thoughts on some of the shows from the previous anime season~

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to start watching many different shows this season, but I did pick up 3, and this one was my favorite! Queerbaiting or not, Kyoto Animation again created a show that I simply couldn’t help but love. You could say they yet again used the right formula to make me fall in love with it: cute, lovable characters + believable drama + great animation + STRONG yuri subtext.

Now, even if the yuri part of the show had some obvious flaws, it’s still one of the most enjoyable shows of this whole year.

As the show with the highest yuri potential of this season, I had high expectations. I can’t say that it really delivered a very good story, very good characters, and simply that perfect watching experience that I always hope to get when I watch something that might contain some yuri. However, despite all its flaws, this show still delivered what I was desperately craving for. And that is some nice yuri.

You guys already know that I’m a sucker for yuri characters that have the ability to create a yuri harem. Eruna, despite not quite making it all the way through, definitely started out the right way. She has the potential to become one of the few yuri girls really worthy of her own yuri harem. That alone is quite noteworthy.

Like an F5 moe tornado, Hello!! Kiniro Mosaic touched down and left a trail of adorable destruction in its wake. It was nice to see that there was more yuri than in season one, with all five main characters being involved to some degree. Well, Aya x Yoko may not have progressed as much as I would’ve hoped for, but there was still some great moments between them, so I shouldn’t complain. Honoka turned out to be a great addition to the cast, and seeing her fawn over Karen was the cherry on top of this anime sundae.

It’s hard for me to determine if I liked this season more than the first, but it’s safe for me to say that this is my favorite slice of life show since we were first introduced to the gang two years ago.

Re-Kan! is a series that started off with a promising yuri outlook, but episode by episode, that positive outlook faded further away, and nothing really became of it. Taking a look at what it is, instead of what it isn’t, I felt it was an overall generic dramedy with mostly forgettable characters and a subpar storyline. Neither the comedy nor the drama were all that great, and even though the “I see dead people.” premise was somewhat entertaining, nearly everything else could’ve been much better. At the end of the day, I doubt this show was popular enough to receive a second season, and considering how average this season was, it’s probably a good thing that it’ll probably never be made.

This was another music-based anime, but it was very different from more conventional fare like K-On! or Love Live!. Alright, so the story was pretty strange, but at least it tried something different from the standard stuff we’re used to. The Plasmagica girls were cute (especially Cyan), but I still found Shingancrimsonz (the male metal band) to be a bit more entertaining than them, despite having a fraction of the screen time. For me, the music was closer to Love Live! than K-On! in terms of how memorable it was, which is somewhat disappointing. There was a brief glimmer of hope for some yuri subtext, but that hope faded away pretty quickly and nothing really became of it. All in all, this was a decent series, but it still fell short of most of the other anime I watched this past season.

It only just started airing in May—and airs an 8-minute episode per month—but content wise, this is pretty much more of the same from season one. It’s basically a parody of Mazinger Z and combines action with ridiculous comedy. Only two of the planned six episodes have aired thus far, but a yuri-ish character has already appeared, just like the first season. And just like Baranga M2 from season one, Grangen is the token perverted yuri character we’re all used to….

There’s less emphasis on the trio of girls from Team Z, but it’s still mindless fun and something that’s a bit different from what else is out there at the moment. There are still four episodes remaining, so if you’re into over-the-top action-comedies, you might be interested in it.

What I liked most about Kekkai Sensen was how larger-than-life everything was. The characters, the action, even the world itself, was overflowing with personality. In some ways, it was like a summer blockbuster but chopped up and wrapped into anime form. And like a blockbuster movie, the story could’ve been better, but things got better towards the end and it’s peaked at the perfect time. The balance of action and comedy was great, and even a little bit of emotional drama was thrown in for good measure. Volume 1 of the series has sold really well on Blu-Ray and DVD in Japan thus far, so I’m hopeful that a second season gets made, because there’s still so much more to explore in that universe. Now if only the last episode would finally air….

Nisekoi: just finished airing, and I can’t really say I liked it as much as the first season. It felt like the series lost some of it’s focus over the course of the season and forgot what actually transpired in season one. And since the plot continuation went practically nowhere, it’s likely there’ll be at least one more season (which isn’t a bad thing in itself, but it still feels like this past season was a waste). Shifting to the actual content, the harem aspects were toned down, and the girls were isolated from each other too much for my liking. A lot of other things changed from season one as well; Marika was forgotten, Kosaki and Tsugumi were underutilized, Paula was introduced, then quickly written off, and the season essentially turned into The Chitoge Show. Haru was a welcome addition, but it still feels like it wasn’t enough to offset the losses. Unlike the first season (which was 20 episodes), this was only 12, so that has to be looked at as a major contibutor to its faults. Overall, it was a bit underwhelming, but knowing there’ll probably be more Raku and company in the future gives me hope things will get better.

It should be noted that this is a two-cour series that’s still ongoing, but this was definitely my favorite show of the spring season. Ore Monogatari!! has a simple premise, but it’s incredibly charming and sweet, and it’s hard not to fall in love with the three main characters. The romance between Takeo & Yamato is awkward yet amusing, as they’re both head over heels for each other, but their inexperience and timidness prevents them from asserting themselves in the relationship. The third wheel in all of this, Suna, is basically their relationship coach who guides them along the path towards romantic happiness. What a pal.

While it isn’t an incredibly original series, the romance and comedy elements feel fresh, mesh together extremely well, and go a long way towards making Ore Monogatari!! the highest rated show on this list, according to MAL users.

Even though it wasn’t able to sustain its epic start that was reminiscent of Shingeki no Kyojin, business really picked up towards the end, and the last three or so episodes were pretty great. Well, the final episode was anti-climactic, but it was pretty much just picking up the pieces after the penultimate episode.

I think everyone can agree that vampire slaying is inherently awesome, so it isn’t that much of a surprise that this series turned out well. It turned out so well, in fact, that a second season has already been announced for this fall. Come October, there’ll be even more bloodsucking adventures heading our way.

I know I seemed pretty excited after the first episode, but my glee quickly wore off when the series started to stray from what made Inferno Cop so special. To me, it just became a half-assed effort that fell somewhere in between a parody and as a serious action anime. After five episodes, I had grown tired and wound up dropping it. After Kill la Kill, I wanted to give Trigger the benefit of the doubt, but after Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de (which was mediocre) and now Ninja Slayer, that’s no longer the case. Come back, Ryuko! Anime Trigger needs saving.