It’s the end of the year…and since this is the first year of doing end-of-year rankings on the Spellbook, I’m doing things a bit differently this time.

…Scratch that. It’s very different, and thus a lot longer than usual. It’s so long, in fact, I’m posting part II (Spellbook Awards) in 24 hours’ time. 

I also decided since the fall 2017 post took up valuable weekly Wednesday space, I’ll do future prediction/final thoughts posts for each season off the usual schedule and just post them whenever I manage to slog through all those debuts/shows, with the exception of the one that just happened a few weeks ago. Fall 2017’s ranking was already fairly solid by the time I posted it, so it counts under those categories too.

Traditionally, I would only be doing an end-of-year ranking of simulcasts I’ve seen (this is also the reason this is not a weekly Wednesday post, but it does take the place of one). This year I stepped up my backlog-watching speed and so I can now do a “past years’ shows” ranking and individual categories.

Of course, these are all my opinions and the bunch of shows I’ve seen, so recommend me shows I haven’t seen and ask me/debate about shows I have seen in the comments.

Top 10 Worst Dropped Anime 2017 (As According to Their Rank on My AniList)

1. Hand Shakers
2. Renai Boukun (Love Tyrant)
3. In Another World With My Smartphone (tie)
4. Henkei Shoujo (tie)
5. Battle Girl High School (tie)
6. Armed Girls’ Machiavellianism
7. Urahara (tie)
8. Tsugumomo (tie)
9. Room Mate (tie)
10. Dynamic Chord (tie)

For a lot of these, it’s obvious why they made the list – nonsensical plots, strange artstyle choices…or just “not worth the time”. I specifically shuffled a few rankings to get Hand Shakers in the death slot (at 13 on my AniList), but that’s okay, right?

Placing Henkei Shoujo could count as cheating, considering it’s 2 minutes each and 5 episodes, but the central concept was kinda interesting. Enough to have me out of apathy, at least.

Top Non-Simulcast Commentary Anime Finished in 2017

Note: If you have no idea what the simulcast commentary is, see the note above the “top anime 2017” ranking. This list only includes full-length (10+ episodes) seasons of anime, as I did watch a few OVAs/movies that would mess with the ranking.

1. Mob Psycho 100
2. Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru (s1)
3. Kuroshitsuji s1
4. Servamp
5. Hozuki no Reitetsu s1
6. Birdy the Mighty: Decode s1
7. Nurse Witch Komugi-chan R
8. Saiki Kusuo no Sainan (s1)
9. Masamune-kun’s Revenge
10. Scared Rider Xechs
11. Nazotokine
12. Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!/Wanna Be the Strongest in the World!

A few of these shows had season 2s coming or some other reason I had to catch up on them – Kuroshitsuji I finished for Book of the Atlantic, for example. Masamune-kun’s Revenge is one of three odd ones there, and that’s because I accidentally said to a friend at my anime club “I watched it”. What I meant was I’d seen the first episode, but in order to avoid further problems on the situation, I watched the rest of the episodes after the season had ended.

Wanna Be the Strongest in the World…well, the explanation for that one happened already…

Nazotokine was because I wanted to see Kaito x Ansa but no one picked the latter up. It’s a short episode series so it might not count, but I watched it all in one or two days as part of that Kaito x Ansa hype because I’ll do anything for bishies.

Top Anime 2017 (Short)

I’ve never had enough anime to make a short anime ranking, so here we are.

1. Kenka Bancho Otome
2. Nobunaga no Shinobi s2
3. MahoYome

Show-specific notes:

• Nobunaga no Shinobi: S1 wasn’t even on my radar, which is why that never charted in 2016. I bingewatched the entire s1 before approaching s2.
• MahoYome: This is the shortest show on the ranking at about 1 minute each episode. Kenka Bancho Otome, unsurprisingly, is the longest at about 8 minutes per episode (but it could easily punch above its weight, no pun intended). It also wasn’t very funny, but it did flesh out the Mahoutsukai no Yome characters a bit.

Top Anime 2017

Note: This ranking only includes full-length shows I finished in 2017, or will finish in 2017, that made themselves eligible for the simulcast commentary. All shows which made the cut for the simulcast commentary are documented here.

Note 2: It was actually quite hard to pick a number 1 for this year, so I had to separate shows through my personal liking of the show as well as pondering both critical qualities and overall quality.

1. Showa Genroku: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen (same position as season 1)
2. Houseki no Kuni
3. Mahoutsukai no Yome
4. Netjuu no Susume
5. Boku no Hero Academia 2 (down 1 position from season 1)
6. Princess Principal
7. Seikaisuru Kado
8. Juuni Taisen
9. Saiyuki Reload Blast
10. Girls’ Last Tour
11. Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine (The Royal Tutor)
12. Code:Realise
13. Katsugeki Touken Ranbu (Hanamaru did not chart in 2016)
14. ACCA
15. Tsukigakirei
16. Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga 
17. Classicaloid s1 (2016 carryover, down 6 positions)
18. Grimoire of Zero
19. The Reflection Wave One
20. Nanbaka s2 (2016 carryover, down 8 positions)

I completed 20 anime from this year (up from 2016’s 17), and if it weren’t for Amazon, Netflix and Sentai Filmworks, I could’ve had a few more entries on there. Even though this was the first year I had with an anime club, I managed to somehow watch most of the debuts within my access before my club did. (Hooray for simulcasts!)

That means winter takes the top position in my yearly rankings for the 3rd year in a row. Another common trend from the data is that fall is well-represented in the top 10, but winter is not.

Show-specific notes:

• Houseki no Kuni/Mahoutsukai no Yome: I realised when the second episode about Ruth rolled around Mahoutsukai no Yome was pretty dark (visually speaking). That, plus Mahoutsukai no Yome’s ever-present creep factor (even though the OVAs didn’t show that), knocked Mahoutsukai no Yome from the no. 2 position. Conversely, Houseki no Kuni consistently did its job wrecking my poor heart as well as delving into themes about humanity/purpose in life, all the while gluing me to the screen and enchanting me with its bright colours. (Note I always favour bright colours over dull ones.) Mahoutsukai no Yome is continuing into 2018 though, so expect it to chart there too. The fact Mahoutsukai no Yome charts at number 3 is a testament to the strength of the top 3.
• Kado: I realised when I was trying to put down a rating for Kado and Tsukigakirei Kado‘s “good part” lasted significantly longer than Tsukigakirei‘s.
• Netjuu no Susume: It was my favourite of the fall, but now that it’s finished, I took a good look at it and realised it’s a bit bland, critically speaking.
• Saiyuki Reload Blast: I did not know much about Saiyuki prior to watching this.
• Code:Realise: It got on to the list by default due to Netjuu no Susume‘s 10 episode length (+ OVA, but apparently that’s for Crunchyroll premium members only).
• Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga: I’ve seen the manga for this one which probably affected the placement of its anime version. Also, it did feel dragged out in a Dragon Ball sort of way, although the ending was as nice as I remember it. The Illuminati arc is where Blue Exorcist hits prime greatness, though. As to why season 1 never charted, I only joined the simulcast game in fall 2014.
• Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu s2: SGRS conquered my list last time, so it’s no surprise s2 landed at the top here as well. I admit it’s not perfect – nothing ever is – but it’s a well-deserved position.