An idea started by Cameron (Iniksbane).

I’ve been around for every #ATW which was possible for me and which I hadn’t watched already. A lot of my memories of these anime are vague because…let’s face it, I watched some of this stuff up to 6 or 7 years ago.

Spoiler warning: Spoilers for Gridman are briefly discussed.

Not watched: Princess and the Pilot, Another

• Rolling Girls: Colourful and wacky, this anime about travellers finding their way was a treat. It reminded me of Concrete Revolutio (which I think fondly of). It’s got fight scenes and a random octopus alien or few: what more could you want? Yukina is under-developed, like Iniksbane says in his post, but getting to see the tale of Chiaya, Nozomi and Ai more than makes up for it. Also, that OST is awesome.
• Gridman: A hybrid of tokusatsu and anime which wasn’t quite what I was looking for when I first watched it and I still have rather complicated feelings on that front, as you can see from the fact I’ve discussed it multiple times on this blog. It still has some quality morals that should be heeded, but I think it jumped the shark when it started being revealed Akane is the true protagonist and the good guys are actually potatoes in comparison. Dynazenon, as its successor (…+Ume, of course) should be cool.

Note from the future: I wrote this dot point before watching the 1st episode of Dynazenon, so a fresh take on it should be headed to this blog Soon (TM).

• Perfect Insider: Not perfect at all, but definitely an interesting ride. Probably more memorable for its ideas and potential than what it does.
• Girls’ Last Tour: Occupies a weird liminal space between “contemplative slice of life” and “war story”. I don’t remember why I took it on weekly…not even my notes are any indication on why. The nuko-related developments were out of left field.
• Rampo Kitan: Unique aesthetic style, enough for me to cling to it back in the day when it was airing, but more style over substance.
• School Days: Twisted as heck, but most of the gore happens off-screen. It may have been provocative back in its day and it’s certainly a lot more provocative than most live-action dramas, but paired with the deliberately (?) dumpy visuals that are meant to evoke memories of days even further back than the time it aired, it doesn’t really work.
• Shin Sekai Yori (provisional position for now): This anime is clearly not showing all of its cards yet and…that’s kind of boring me for now, but it might be like Shiki in that stuff will start hitting the fan sooner or later.
• Wandering Son: An anime that needed to be made, because this topic is discussed more in Anglophone circles more than anime-centric ones. Its repetition made it hard to like the ending because having the threads be so half-baked at the end didn’t really bring the morals home.
• Kanon: Happened to land when it should have hurt most, but didn’t quite hurt as hard as it should have. Overly melodramatic in that way I don’t vibe with in general.
• Seki-kun: A short anime which may be fun in the moment, but doesn’t leave any lasting impression – I finished my watch through in 2019 and can’t really tell you anything about it except it has Rumi Yokoi and Seki (who doesn’t seem to even have a first name) and a robot family, even though I can recall most other anime I watched in that year with some clarity.

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So out of the 12 or so anime (and counting!) do you like the best out of them all? I’ve certainly forgotten a lot, so feel free to remind me of something.