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What manhwa are you currently reading? I have a blog set up to keep track of all mine.

The title of 'best anime' is super subjective. It depends on what anime you enjoy watching, what types of anime you enjoy watching, and why you enjoy watching anime in general. I haven't read either series either(it being difficult and expensive to do so in Australia, especially for poor uni student) and am making judgement based on the first 3 episodes.
I grew up playing the Kingdom Hearts series during my formative years. They were action-RPG games with a strong plot, good character design and great character development, and fun gameplay set to the kind of music I now enjoy. Those games have had a large impact on me personally, and I can find a lot of connections between the things I enjoy now and Kingdom Hearts. Going back to Asterisk, it has (subjectively) awesome fight scenes set to some kickass music, and that's worth major brownie points to me. The plot may be a bit throw-away, but it's not terrible, and there are some things about it that intrigue me(such as that prologue). And the characters are interesting and nuanced(so far, also, subjectively).

I notice you are watching Mekakucity Actors. I greatly enjoyed that show, but then I love a good kudzu plot(There's that Kingdom Hearts influence again. 2 games and 5 sidegames on 5 different consoles will do that to a plot(although, nowadays you'd be set with just a PS3)) . It gets better the more you understand about what's going on. I've seen it 4 times now, and I can appreciate all the foreshadowing and such. If you haven't, I highly recommend you watch the post-credits scene in each episode. They take the form of a story-book of sorts, and it gives a back story about the characters introduced in episode 10. If you haven't been watching those bits, I expect the change in character focus at episode 10 would come out of left field.

I decided to write that first comment because I had made the exact same recommendation, but for rather different reasons. I hoped that despite our differences of opinion, we might be able to have a respectful discussion of anime, and I was not disappointed on that count. I'm not watching any of your favourites from this season with the exception of One Punch Man, which honestly hasn't done anything interesting for me yet. The others are continuations of series that didn't interest me at first impression (although I have watched Noragami, the first episode of Aragato felt like it was just spinning it's wheels, and I wasn't enjoying it, so I dropped it).

I also note that you gave SAO a 2. I'm not an idiot, and I know that SAO is a super controversial thing for me to like, but I do have my reasons. SAO was one of my first anime, so I had no real objective measure for how bad it might have been. I binge-watched the entire show just as Season 2 was wrapping up, and I watched the first season in dubbed format, and I can say in retrospect that the dub of SAO is pretty good as far as dubs go. Watching it dubbed as an archive binge probably helped with immersion and characterisation. The premise drew me in in a big, BIG way(There's that Kingdom Hearts influence again), as the entire concept of Full-Dive was very intriguing. The background art was good and fit the setting, and it also had good fight scenes set to kick-ass Yuki Kajura music, which, as I have mentioned, is important to me. Overall, SAO has managed to stay one of my favourites since I first watched it at the start of this year. Our difference of opinion on this is as clear as night and day, and I hope you aren't going to dismiss what I've said out of hand just for bringing up SAO.

Back onto what you said regarding how Asterisk and Rakudai are similar: While they are certainly similar, Asterisk has a lot more depth that I can appreciate. They are both magic high schools, but Asterisk takes a minute to show us how much the world has changed to allow such a place to exist. The female lead in both is a high-ranked pink-haired girl with flame magic, but Julia's Defrosting the Ice Queen(Shame I can't link TvTropes here) routine makes for better comedy. Not to mention, Stella is literally the best in the school, and she's already been soundly beaten by the MC, so until he's facing opponents from outside the school, the outcome is basically a given, where Julis is only ranked #5, and there are people who choose not to participate in the ranking system, and Ayato's duel with her was interrupted. Basically, Asterisk's MC is just a strong transfer student, whereas Rakudai's MC is specifically set up to be an underestimated weakling, and then he goes and beats the best fighter in the school on day one.(Granted, Asterisk's #1 ranked fighter is talked about on the companion site, and also features prominently in the OP and ED, so it's likely possible Ayato will get to kick her ass at some point, but then we're talking first 3 episodes, so it's not relevant yet.) They are quite similar, but Asterisk nails a lot of things for me that Rakudai does not. Which is why I can't understand why popular opinion rates Rakudai higher than Asterisk.

I have to respectfully disagree with what you said in your recommendation of Asterisk War about the relationships. I feel that Rakudai goes far deeper into harem territory far more quickly. While Asterisk does currently have 3 female characters to Rakudai's 2, Rakudai uses far more harem tropes. -The two mains in Rakudai are made out to be literal opposites (at least in terms of natural ability). Then Rakudai's MC has that weird response to walking in on the girl (Both shows do this first thing, but only Rakudai has the weird response). The whole master-slave-bet-thing just SCREAMS harem misunderstandings. Rakudai has co-ed dorms, where Gakusen does not. Then Rakudai goes full siscon in the second episode, AFTER lampshading one of the excuses siscons generally use, and then not using any excuse at all, with all the harem-y weirdness that comes with that. In direct contrast, Gakusen's MC's sister dies in the prolouge. Gakusen only feels like a harem to you because the MC is interacting with a diverse cast of characters, the majority (3-2, of the recurring characters) of which are female.

With all that said, the reasons I far prefer Gakusen over Rakudai are many and varied. One is Rakudai's general harem weirdness, as outlined above: Rakudai seems almost ecchi (but for the fact that they haven't shown much nudity(yet)), where Gakusen isn't tying itself into high-school romance plotline, instead focusing on the action (which I find spectacular). The real selling points for me for Gakusen are the action (duh, it's crazy fun to watch), the soundtrack (OH MY GOD THE SOUNDTRACK IS PERFECT(Perhaps not ~perfect~, but definitely one of the best I've heard in quite a while)), the characters (Julis's Ice Queen routine is fun, I dont hate the MC, and the soft-spoken moe childhood friend character quietly subverts all those tropes and has some brilliant lines that shouldn't fit her character but somehow do, and the antagonists so far are pretty cool, too (except for their deliberately lame sidekicks)), and the setting (Asterisk City has some neato visual motifs, and makes for a pretty cool backdrop. Anyway, Asterisk War is my favourite this season for those reasons. Please feel free to respectfully disagree with me on this. I'd quite like to hear your thoughts, especially which one you're enjoying more and why.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who has this opinion :D

Ahri.

cunt