A Small Hiatus, Maybe
Some of you are probably wondering why APR emails weren’t sent out this past week. I made a bit of an announcement on Twitter stating that I won’t be doing APR or writing for a while. The reason for that is that blogging and maintaining APR by myself has been more stressful than it has been enjoyable. To be quite honest I’ve been losing some sleep over the past few weeks over it because I was always so critical over how things were being done and for the sake of my health I really don’t think I can continue doing it with the heavy workload I have ahead of me.
I really wanted to keep APR going for the long run, but certain things in my personal life have come up in the past couple of months that have more or less restricted me from keeping APR on a consistent schedule. So because of that I don’t feel like I can keep up with writing, for now. But don’t take this as another end to APR. kevo was more than willing to give me the resources to do APR and I will do the same for anyone interested in keeping it going.
I can’t say this is really the end for me writing about anime. I just feel this wasn’t really the right time for me. I want to thank all of you for your support these past months. Hopefully once I sort things out I’ll be able to return the the aniblogsphere (you guys still call it that, right?)
Anime Power Rankings: Summer 2014 Week 2
| Rank | Anime (First Place Votes) | Studio | Episode | Change |
| 1 | Zankyou no Terror (7) | MAPPA | 1 | — |
| 2 | Aldnoah Zero (4) | A-l Pictures | 2 |  1 |
| 3 | Barakamon (2) | Kinema Citrus | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | Glasslip (3) | P.A. Works | 2 |  1 |
| 5 | Ao Haru Ride (1) | Production I.G. | 1 | — |
On the Cusp: Hanayamata (2), Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (0), Free! -Eternal Summer- (1), Space Dandy (1), Tokyo Ghoul (0)
Zankyou no Terror stormed out the gate this week, with a first episode that both delivered as a thriller in its own right and offered the promise of great developments to come. Watanabe shows are often most distinctive for their music and choreography, but this episode’s highlight was the “lighting” – the over-saturated daylight scenes really hammered in the oppressive heat, and the understated night scenes were just as beautiful in their own way. Any show can fall apart, but Zankyou no Terror’s immediate confidence is a very encouraging sign.
Bobduh (Wrong Every Time)
Zankyou no Terror takes week two of Anime Power Rankings by storm with a commanding lead over last week’s number one Aldnoah Zero. Not only that, but APR this week was incredibly top heavy. Zankyou no Terror lead Aldnoah Zero by twenty-one points, which lead Barakamon by 17 points, beating out Glasslip by 16 points, and everything below Glasslip had a point differential of one to two points each. While I’ve always been the one to say that Summer is one of my least favorite seasons out of the year, I have to say that this is possibly the best start to a Summer season I have seen in recent memory.
Anime Power Rankings: Summer 2014 Week 1
| Rank | Anime (First Place Votes) | Studio | Episode | Change |
| 1 | ALDNOAH ZERO (2) | A-1 Pictures | 1 | — |
| 2 | Barakamon (3) | Kinema Citrus | 1 | — |
| 3 | Tokyo Ghoul (3) | Studio Pierrot | 1 | — |
| 4 | Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal (1) | Toei Animation | 1 | — |
| 5 | Glasslip (2) | P.A. Works | 1 | — |
On the Cusp: Space Dandy (2), Free! -Eternal Summer- (1), Black Bullet (1), Haikyuu!! (1), Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (0)
Despite my problems with Aldnoah Zero – mainly with how it delivers exposition – I honestly think it’s one of the stronger premieres of the season. The premise of an Earth without the moon and a princess trying to settle a war between two different planets is intriguing, and whilst the characters aren’t established yet, the show hasn’t given them a major focus so that can be excused as long as they grow up later. Plus, the sight of people evaporating due to a nuclear missile gives me all kinds of thrills. Looking forward to more of the show.
Mr. Flawfinder (Standing On My Neck)
The first APR top five of the Summer season is more or less how I predicted it would look. However I may need to pull out a can of crow after seeing Aldnoah Zero’s pilot episode. I didn’t predict it would make the top five but it makes it’s debut at the #1 spot. It brought a lot to the table in terms of it’s exposition and what it hopes to shoot for in the future. I can only wonder if the decision to be a split-cour series will hurt it later on down the road.
Anime Power Rankings: Summer 2014 Predictions
The Summer 2014 season has arrived! A new slate of shows each with ample opportunities to make their way into the APR top 5 spotlight. Here are my quick thoughts on how each show from this season will favor in the coming weeks. This list includes shows that will be eligible for APR based on whether or not they will be subbed (and don’t take this as a final list of shows that will be eligible on APR during the Summer season).
Anime Power Rankings: Spring 2014 Week 13
| Rank | Anime (First Place Votes) | Studio | Episode | Change |
| 1 | Isshuukan Friends (2) | Brains Base | 12 | 4 |
| 2 | No Game No Life (2) | Madhouse | 12 | 2 |
| 3 | Sidonia no Kishi (3) | Polygon Pictures | 12 | 4 |
| 4 | Hitsugi no Chaika (1) | Bones | 12 | 8 |
| 5 | Haikyuu!! (1) | Production I.G. | 12 | 4 |
On the Cusp: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (2), Mekaku City Actors (0), Love Live: School Idol Project Season 2 (1), Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushi (1), Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka? (0)
As the Spring season draws to a close, and the more popular shows from the season have also ended, some shows sitting on the cusp for weeks get one last opportunity to sit in the top five on APR. Sidonia no Kishi, which hasn’t been in the top five since week seven, finishes at number three for it’s finale, No Game No Life ends at number two, Isshuukan Friends becomes the last number one show for the Spring season, Hitsugi no Chaika earns it’s first, and last, spot on the APR top five at number four, and last but not least, Haikyuu!! rounds out the top five at number five.
I feel the only surprising outcome for the final week was seeing Love Live not make the top five. The low voter count this week definitely explains it but it’s still very odd seeing how people talk about that show like it’s the best damn thing since sliced bread. My thoughts on Love Live are a bit lopsided. After finishing the first season I absolutely fell in love with the series. But something about the second season left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. A lot of the melodrama made the show a bit unbearable to watch at times and were only offset by it’s comedy and character interactions like them imitating each other on the school rooftop or Honoka and Hanayo trying to stay on a diet. Overall the show was fun to watch, but left me feeling a bit disappointed. Maybe the movie will change my view on the series once that gets released two years from now.
I would go into how I felt about the ending to Isshuukan Friends and how my expectations for that show were killed off faster than the USA’s hopes of beating Belgium in extra time after only give a one minute extension, but I won’t because I don’t want to end on a sour note. I want to end the Spring 2014 APR on a a good one. Spring 2014 was a great season of anime. We got to see an old favorite in Mushishi, experienced new series like Ping Pong: The Animation, Sidonia no Kishi, No Game No Life, etc. and watched how they held up week to week. But most importantly, I believe that most of us out there found a new favorite show out of the Spring 2014 season.
Or I could just be bullshitting and most of you despised this season and couldn’t wait to see it end. Either way we came out clean on the other side and have an exciting Summer season of anime to look forward to. I look forward to seeing how you guys vote on each show in the months to come.
Anime Power Rankings: Spring 2014 Week 12
| Rank | Anime (First Place Votes) | Studio | Episode | Change |
| 1 | Ping Pong: The Animation (11) | Tatsunoko Productions | 11 | — |
| 2 | Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (1) | David Production | 12 | 5 |
| 3 | Mushishi Zoku Shou (3) | Artland | 10 | 1 |
| 4 | No Game No Life (2) | Madhouse | 11 | — |
| 5 | Isshuukan Friends (0) | Brains Base | 11 | 3 |
On the Cusp: Love Live: School Idol Project Season 2 (4), Sidonia no Kishi (0), Mekaku city Actors (2), Haikyuu!! (2), Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka? (0)
The first week of finales of the Spring 2014 season has come to a close (although this is coming out during the second week of finales). And with no surprise Ping Pong: The Animation takes the number one spot for the very last time with eleven first places votes, rounding out it’s run on APR with eight first place spots. Ping Pong is without a doubt the most popular, and most well-received anime of the Spring season. While I truly believe that Ping Pong: The Animation is one of the best shows of the season alongside Mushishi Zoku Shou and No Game No Life, I feel a bit empty after watching the final episode. It’s not an empty feeling because the show is over, but an empty feeling because I wanted more out of the show. And before anyone starts jumping to any conclusions, no I don’t think Ping Pong is bad in any way and I’m not going to make the argument that it needed more episodes to be better. It’s because the show was so great that I wanted more from that story, more from those characters, and more from the entire atmosphere that Masaaki Yuasa created in those eleven episodes. I just hope that one day Yuasa will escape from the noitamina time slot and be given the opportunity to make a two cour anime with as much freedom to do what he does best. We as viewers would only be so lucky.
Anime Power Rankings: Spring 2014 Week 11
| Rank | Anime (First Place Votes) | Studio | Episode | Change |
| 1 | Ping Pong: The Animation (7) | Tatsunoko Productions | 10 | — |
| 2 | Mushishi Zoku Shou (4) | Artland | 9 | — |
| 2 | Isshuukan Friends (1) | Brains Base | 10 | 1 |
| 4 | No Game No Life (3) | Madhouse | 10 | 1 |
| 5 | Love Live: School Idol Project Season 2 (4) | Sunrise | 10 | 2 |
On the Cusp: Akuma no Riddle (1), Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (1), Sidonia no Kishi (0), Haikyuu!! (1), Mekaku City Actors (2)
You guys had a lot to say about this week in anime so I’m going to say something quick and leave the rest to you. This week was a bit lackluster outside of a few good episodes. Mushishi was a bit weaker this week but still good because it’s Mushishi and you can go wrong with Mushishi. No Game No Life is still being the great show that I hoped it would be. It’s still funny and it’s still incredibly enjoyable to watch with it’s buildup to the game with the Eastern Federation. And last but not least, Ping Pong did what that show does best and make a game of table tennis incredibly captivating to watch. The match up of Peco and Kazama was one of the highlights of the season so far, but begs the question of how the foreshadowing from episode seven will play out in the finale. We will just have to wait and see, won’t we?
Anime Power Rankings: Spring 2014 Week 10
| Rank | Anime (First Place Votes) | Studio | Episode | Change |
| 1 | Ping Pong: The Animation (4) | Tatsunoko Productions | 9 | — |
| 2 | Mushishi Zoku Shou (4) | Artland | 8 | — |
| 3 | Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (1) | David Production | 10 | — |
| 3 | No Game No Life (2) | Madhouse | 9 | 1 |
| 3 | Isshuukan Friends (1) | Brains Base | 9 | 1 |
On the Cusp: Akuma no Riddle (2), Love Live: School Idol Project Season 2 (2), Sidonia no Kishi (0), Haikyuu!! (2), Hitsugi no Chaika (1)
Soooooooooo I may or may not have written about Love Live episode nine last week when I was supposed to talk about episode eight. Forget that I did that. Take everything I said about it last week and put it onto this post. Kay? Kay.
You guys are making these APR posts hard to write because really the most change that happens each week is in the bottom five. The top five has just been dominated week to week by practically the same five shows with a small variation here and there with either Love Live, Sidonia no Kishi, and one instance of Haikyuu!!. But I can’t really disagree with it. Ping Pong, Mushishi, Jojo’s, No Game No Life, and Isshuukan Friends are, in my opinion, the best five shows this season.
Anime Power Rankings: Spring 2014 Week 9
| Rank | Anime (First Place Votes) | Studio | Episode | Change |
| 1 | Ping Pong: The Animation (7) | Tatsunoko Productions | 8 | — |
| 2 | Isshuukan Friends (3) | Brains Base | 8 | 1 |
| 3 | Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (3) | David Production | 9 | 1 |
| 4 | No Game No Life (3) | Madhouse | 8 | 1 |
| 5 | Love Live: School Idol Project Season 2 (4) | Sunrise | 8 | — |
On the Cusp: Sidonia no Kishi (1), Tonari no Seki-kun (2), Mekaku City Actors (1), Haikyuu!! (1), Akuma no Riddle (1)
This week in APR was very, very top heavy. Ping Pong remains the crowd favorite keeping it’s number one spot for the third consecutive week. It had a great episode with Peco knocking off the best character in the show Wenge from the national ping pong tournament and showing just how much better he has gotten in the past year (although it is kind of odd to have them brush of a year time skip like that but for the sake of it being a noitamina show I guess they really don’t have a choice in the matter). It also stood twenty-three points higher than Isshuukan Friends which bumped itself up to number 2 for the week. Isshuukan Friends shows off the generic beach episode without really being a generic beach episode if that makes sense to anyone else. The relationship between Hase and Kaori is starting to make a bit more progress outside of the consistent rooftop scenes and I’m starting to think that Hase is less of a pushover now.
Jojo’s remains in the top five for the second consecutive week with one of the weirdest episodes I watched all week. I mean seriously, who eats cherries like that? On the other hand we do find out who the man with the two left hands is and the Stand identities of everyone still hunting down our main characters. I’m starting to think that the reason Jojo’s dropped off so much two weeks ago was due to the fact that the story really wasn’t progressing as much as it has the past two episodes.
No Game No Life drops a spot from last week and is sitting comfortably at number four. No Game No Life has been hitting it out of the park these past few weeks. It’s blend of drama and comedy is incredibly seamless and it’s being the show that I believe Hataraku no Maou-sama should have been. I started making that connection around episode four of No Game No Life but since then the show has become leaps and bounds better than Maou-sama in every way. If this show keeps progressing this way all the way to the finale, then I can almost guarantee that it will end up on my top ten by the end of the year.
And rounding out the top five is Love Live and Sidonia no Kishi both tying for number five this week. I would go more into those two shows but 1. Love Live played Snow Halation for their final preliminary which was no surprise to me because it’s one of their most popular songs so why wouldn’t they do that and 2. I still haven’t watched Sidonia no Kishi like I promised you guys I would because I’ve been really busy these past couple of months and because I’m a horrible person so feel free to berate me all you want on that. What I really want to get into is a show that is making it’s second, highest, and final appearance on APR. Tonari no Seki-kun has been on of the better comedy shows to air in some time. While it’s not one of the most “laugh out loud” funny shows in recent memory, it is really clever with it’s comedy and it’s funny enough to where it puts a smile on my face with every episode. I’m really sad to see it end. It’s a great comedy show that everyone should take time out of their day to watch.
Anime Power Rankings: Spring 2014 Week 8
| Rank | Anime (First Place Votes) | Studio | Episode | Change |
| 1 | Ping Pong: The Animation (1) | Tatsunoko Productions | 7 | — |
| 2 | Mushishi Zoku Shou (6) | Artland | 7 | 1 |
| 3 | Issuhuukan Friends (2) | Brains Base | 7 | — |
| 3 | No Game No Life (3) | Madhouse | 7 | 1 |
| 4 | Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (3) | David Production | 8 | 15 |
On the Cusp: Love Live: School Idol Project Season 2 (1), Selector Infected WIXOSS (1), Sidonia no Kishi (1), Akuma no Riddle (0), Haikyuu!! (1)
Things seem to have gone back to normal now that Mushishi has returned from it’s week hiatus. Mushishi receives the most first place votes this week in APR but drops one spot from it’s number one spot two weeks ago to give Ping Pong it’s third number one spot this season. Both shows were strong this past week so it’s no surprise they share the top two spots. Mushishi introduces us to a woman who has been, for lack of a better term, infected with mushi that causes her to expel moisture from her body in the form of rain. So whenever she attempts to cry or sweat, she brings a rainstorm upon the Earth. The episode shows both the good and the bad that can come from carrying such a burden and is portrayed in such a sad, yet beautiful way that I think only Mushishi can.
On the other hand, Ping Pong puts a great deal of it’s attention on Peco’s return to ping pong and Smile’s situation of either joining Kaio Academy or continuing to train with Butterfly Joe (and I will continue to refer to him as such). The most interesting part of this past week’s episode has to go to the blatant foreshadowing presented to us by Butterfly Joe telling Smile his story of how he became known as “Butterfly Joe” and a ping pong match he had with an old friend of his. I’m intrigued to see how, and even if, the show plays on that foreshadowing later on down the road.
After spending a week all the way down at number nineteen, Jojo’s decides to rear its ugly head once again and catapult all the way to the number four spot. It seems to me that you, the voters, want a more bloody and gruesome Jojo’s with hotel employees getting their faces cut off by demonic puppets rather than a more silly one with an orangutan in a captain outfit who controls a Stand that’s a giant frigate. I’m guessing my thumb isn’t on the pulse of the voters of APR. Granted, it is nice to see Jojo’s back in the top five. I only hope that the show picks up from here on out.
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