I essentially score by gut feeling mainly based on the emotions the story and characters manage to make me experience, but I don't dismiss technical factors either.
FAVOURITE SHOWS 10 – Something that wholeheartedly kept me entertained from start to finish. Touching, impactful, clever and just in general among the best shows I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Does something special that no other show manages to do quite the same. 9 – An almost perfect show with multiple noteworthy positive aspects. An enjoyable and predominantly entertaining experience that resonated with me considerably; in this case, enjoyment and emotional value can override minor technical flaws. Includes most of my seasonal obsessions.
GOOD SHOWS 8 – A really good, memorable show that has at least one excellently executed attribute. With just a few weaknesses, the positives greatly exceed the negatives resulting in a relatively recommendable experience! However, the flaws are severe enough to not justify a higher score. 7 – Something I mostly enjoyed, but wasn't thoroughly convinced by. The show is definitely worth watching and has more positive than negative qualities, but loses points due to few unignorable issues such as poor production value, lackluster writing or a certain frustrating/boring narrative.
AVERAGE SHOWS 6 – Something I might have enjoyed more if certain aspects of it were done differently. A show with both notable negative and positive qualities. The gripes I have with these shows tend to be fairly specific compared to the more vague nature of one point higher. 5 – A complete nothing burger with no standout qualities on either side of the spectrum. Mediocre shows can be tolerable in rare cases, but most of these stories are either forgettable, draggy or feel completely stakeless. 4 – It's bad beyond saving but I honestly didn't mind watching it! I may have not enjoyed the show completely unironically nor would I recommend it but I did vibe with it to a "so bad it's kind of good" extent – a sigh of relief may have been let out after completion though.
BAD SHOWS 3 – It's bad, but it's mainly because of either lack of personal enjoyment or productional difficulties such as poor pacing or a clumsy script. It may be boring, cringy or otherwise an unenjoyable experience in its majority, but in the end it's just a harmlessly crappy flop that won't hurt anyone. 2 – It's bad in a way that is deeply rooted in the narrative itself. The show exhibits either awfully handled storytelling, harmful values or problematic portrayal of a topic, character or behavior in a way that is not justified and considerably takes away from an enjoyable experience. 1 – Besides fulfilling all aforementioned bad show criteria, it's a story that I genuinely can't find a single thing to praise from a narrative viewpoint. It's either disturbing, scarring or just in general among the worst, unenjoyable, cringy dumpster fires I've suffered through. Either way, every cell in my body despises this piece of media and tries to repel it's existence. Even a word as strong as "hate" can be used to describe my feelings towards the things I've rated 1.
I don't score shortform series because I find it hard to rate them fairly. I don't list OVAs and specials unless they're central to the overall plot~
Dropped list includes only shows I watched 3 or more episodes of (and a few, especially jarring exceptions) and excludes any sequel series.
Unrated manga are most likely things I either can't settle on a fair rating for or don't remember properly enough to score.
The one and only, Rinne Amagi, the bee who gambles.
I love this man a completely normal and healthy amount.
"I'm interested in anything high-stakes or gambling-related" I also love show's like these!! tbh death games are also my soft spot if done well enough XD!
It's pretty interesting that Liar Game doesn't have an adaptation yet [I didn't read it, but I sure hear about it], I would love to see one!
OO I love Toudou! Just not in a husbando-sense haha, his backstory was well... extremelly tragic, from the guilt, being unable to get over yips - but the moment he met his senpai and had a good cry, damn It was so good!!! ngl I wondered if Chihaya backstory will be more tragic than him, but it was hard to top hahaha. As much as I love his design, sometimes his eyes were drawn so small XD, whenever I saw it, I couldn't help but forget about it haha
going back to One Outs... where's the rest of the anime??? XD like come on, give me anything!! [I doubt it haha], I love Tokuchi! My only critisism of the anime being that some chill/"slice of life" moment's would be alright, anything that wasn't part of the baseball itself would be good, to see how he acts outside court etc. and well many characters didn't had any time to shine anyway with the rotation of matches, few memorable faces were seen only to dissapear and the show ended, before it had a chance to go further, which is dissapoiting! But well maybe someday, or I'm gonna read the manga XD.
I liked everything about it! Firstly it's not typical sport anime [meaning It's not like Haikyuu, KNB etc.] It's more grounded, making it unique between show's that take place 85% of their runtime on the court. [which is not bad, I like both]. It's for me also kinda funny that it ended up being my second baseball anime, my first one being "One Outs" which also wasn't part of "basic shounen sports anime" - as I called it "psychological baseball" [It's a really good show btw].
Going further - animation was great! [should I expect anything else from Mappa anyway?] [I remember that in their phase between sakuga filled show's and what they did before, they made a different sport's show - Re-Main and I would love to see it animated with their current "standards"]
Directing was great, I'm a fan of long shot's, posting character's against a very vast space [sky/court in this example], watching stuff from character's point of view [Kei when he was a catcher] etc. and just more dramatic/arts'y directing.
Dynamic's between the character's are simple, but the banter is really good [for example the last match, when Kirishima even though he wasn't playing at all, he teased the other guy on the field all the time and was cracking up/commenting in his head everything that was happening but in such a way that it wasn't boring/too busy, but just enriched the scene all together]. Anything between Todou, Chihaya duo snickering in the distance, Haruka comment's, Kei just being Kei and Yamada commentary [in his head of course, he's too kind for that XD], It's all well done.
Amnesia plot is unique, I didn't expect that - Kaname Kei is the heart of the story, source of both comedy and tragedy [I mean It IS really tragic if you think about it, his mind litteraly going back to the state before he played baseball, so he could feel some joy from the sport? All the notebooks he left behind in the OP? The scene on the beach with Haruka?] [there was also one pretty haunting shot of a trail of footstep's on the beach, only for water to cover one of them - Kei's probably, making him dissapear under the water] [it's simple? yeah but oh so good]
When it comes to the comedy, Gintama taught me that screaming = funny, Yamada being the straight man [in his head] and Haruka deadpan reaction's are so good, I don't know how any show can make a guy yelling "nipple hair" every episode funny, but they did. Actually a lot of the humor reminded me of Gintama itself, except Gintama would show a blurred picture of nipple hair, 100% - also the amount of "straight" humor is pretty surprising [the porn videos, girlfriend jokes, shit] for sport anime's that tend to be BL bait's without crossing the line to the BL genre'a and this one leaned more into them being just guy's was pretty refreshing. [also the gag with Haruka's brother being the god of porn for some reason is pretty funny XD]
Also when it comes to the "mean senpai" joke, that guy that leaves every practice because "he has date with his girlfriend" only for Yamada to comment in his head "no, he doesn't" - I'm pretty sure that conclusion to this joke is going to be, him actually having a girlfriend, I'm calling for it right now XD
Also Kiyomine Haruka character - you look at him and think "ight this is just Haruka from Free", focused on the sport, talented, honest but well-meaning - most of those thing's are right except the "well-meaning" part, cuz him being an egoist and kinda a dick is so hilarious XDD - still his dynamic with Kei is both heartwarming, hilarious and tragic [yet again the scene on the beach]
so yeah I liked it XD, I could probably write more but I already wrote a lot haha
[Husbando count: 4 - Kaname being the best boy, with Chihaya, Haruka and Kirishima being after him]
Hey there gyanburubii!
Thank you very much for the Oblivion Battery recommendation this year! As you could probably tell looking at my list, I don't normally like watching Sports Anime (aside from volleyball, since I like watching that sport in general), especially ones that are mostly just one long tournament arc, so I do appreciate you trying to fill out this gap in my list!
I would say though, that in order to get my to like a Sports Anime (aside from being about volleyball), having it be about a bunch of goofballs having a great time is a good way to get me to watch it! The premise of the series and your writeup made me think of Big Windup which I've heard also involves Silly Bishounen Boys playing Baseball and have always been undecided whether to check it out or not... I can definitely say that I have heard too much about Oblivion Battery aside from maybe once or twice in passing!
In terms of the show itself, sadly I haven't had much of a chance to watch too much of it yet and have only seen the first two episodes. The two episodes were essentially just the premise and the regular club recruitment-type episodes that are mandatory for these type of series so I have not seen enough to get an impression of it yet, but so far it's been good enough that I will be finishing it! If you'd like I can tell you my thoughts once I finish the series (and get past the infamous episode 11)!
I did see in the list that you are an elf and not in the same group as me, so I'm guessing that my original Santa had some kind of issue getting a recommendation for me in time! A bit sad, but thank you very much for stepping in and getting something for me!
Interesting, I see! I only spent like a year being into Enstars, but even I could probably write an essay on how Gintoki is Rinne XD gin-san sibling arc when
I think Kagura better fits as Kohaku with her, ahem, family issues and general foreigner vibes. But if Sadaharu weren't there (and they both share the very hungry child trait), I'd very much agree that they both share too much to differentiate.
Awwww HappyHolidays and a Happy New Year as well! I'm gathering my brain cells first to put out a lengthy reply so please bear with this for now hehe ●| ̄|_. For this year, I got Tomodachi Game and Hare-Kon for anime and manga. Do you know about these titles? (๑>◡<๑)
All Comments (263) Comments
It's pretty interesting that Liar Game doesn't have an adaptation yet [I didn't read it, but I sure hear about it], I would love to see one!
OO I love Toudou! Just not in a husbando-sense haha, his backstory was well... extremelly tragic, from the guilt, being unable to get over yips - but the moment he met his senpai and had a good cry, damn It was so good!!! ngl I wondered if Chihaya backstory will be more tragic than him, but it was hard to top hahaha. As much as I love his design, sometimes his eyes were drawn so small XD, whenever I saw it, I couldn't help but forget about it haha
going back to One Outs... where's the rest of the anime??? XD like come on, give me anything!! [I doubt it haha], I love Tokuchi! My only critisism of the anime being that some chill/"slice of life" moment's would be alright, anything that wasn't part of the baseball itself would be good, to see how he acts outside court etc. and well many characters didn't had any time to shine anyway with the rotation of matches, few memorable faces were seen only to dissapear and the show ended, before it had a chance to go further, which is dissapoiting! But well maybe someday, or I'm gonna read the manga XD.
I liked everything about it! Firstly it's not typical sport anime [meaning It's not like Haikyuu, KNB etc.] It's more grounded, making it unique between show's that take place 85% of their runtime on the court. [which is not bad, I like both]. It's for me also kinda funny that it ended up being my second baseball anime, my first one being "One Outs" which also wasn't part of "basic shounen sports anime" - as I called it "psychological baseball" [It's a really good show btw].
Going further - animation was great! [should I expect anything else from Mappa anyway?] [I remember that in their phase between sakuga filled show's and what they did before, they made a different sport's show - Re-Main and I would love to see it animated with their current "standards"]
Directing was great, I'm a fan of long shot's, posting character's against a very vast space [sky/court in this example], watching stuff from character's point of view [Kei when he was a catcher] etc. and just more dramatic/arts'y directing.
Dynamic's between the character's are simple, but the banter is really good [for example the last match, when Kirishima even though he wasn't playing at all, he teased the other guy on the field all the time and was cracking up/commenting in his head everything that was happening but in such a way that it wasn't boring/too busy, but just enriched the scene all together]. Anything between Todou, Chihaya duo snickering in the distance, Haruka comment's, Kei just being Kei and Yamada commentary [in his head of course, he's too kind for that XD], It's all well done.
Amnesia plot is unique, I didn't expect that - Kaname Kei is the heart of the story, source of both comedy and tragedy [I mean It IS really tragic if you think about it, his mind litteraly going back to the state before he played baseball, so he could feel some joy from the sport? All the notebooks he left behind in the OP? The scene on the beach with Haruka?] [there was also one pretty haunting shot of a trail of footstep's on the beach, only for water to cover one of them - Kei's probably, making him dissapear under the water] [it's simple? yeah but oh so good]
When it comes to the comedy, Gintama taught me that screaming = funny, Yamada being the straight man [in his head] and Haruka deadpan reaction's are so good, I don't know how any show can make a guy yelling "nipple hair" every episode funny, but they did. Actually a lot of the humor reminded me of Gintama itself, except Gintama would show a blurred picture of nipple hair, 100% - also the amount of "straight" humor is pretty surprising [the porn videos, girlfriend jokes, shit] for sport anime's that tend to be BL bait's without crossing the line to the BL genre'a and this one leaned more into them being just guy's was pretty refreshing. [also the gag with Haruka's brother being the god of porn for some reason is pretty funny XD]
Also when it comes to the "mean senpai" joke, that guy that leaves every practice because "he has date with his girlfriend" only for Yamada to comment in his head "no, he doesn't" - I'm pretty sure that conclusion to this joke is going to be, him actually having a girlfriend, I'm calling for it right now XD
Also Kiyomine Haruka character - you look at him and think "ight this is just Haruka from Free", focused on the sport, talented, honest but well-meaning - most of those thing's are right except the "well-meaning" part, cuz him being an egoist and kinda a dick is so hilarious XDD - still his dynamic with Kei is both heartwarming, hilarious and tragic [yet again the scene on the beach]
so yeah I liked it XD, I could probably write more but I already wrote a lot haha
[Husbando count: 4 - Kaname being the best boy, with Chihaya, Haruka and Kirishima being after him]
Thank you very much for the Oblivion Battery recommendation this year! As you could probably tell looking at my list, I don't normally like watching Sports Anime (aside from volleyball, since I like watching that sport in general), especially ones that are mostly just one long tournament arc, so I do appreciate you trying to fill out this gap in my list!
I would say though, that in order to get my to like a Sports Anime (aside from being about volleyball), having it be about a bunch of goofballs having a great time is a good way to get me to watch it! The premise of the series and your writeup made me think of Big Windup which I've heard also involves Silly Bishounen Boys playing Baseball and have always been undecided whether to check it out or not... I can definitely say that I have heard too much about Oblivion Battery aside from maybe once or twice in passing!
In terms of the show itself, sadly I haven't had much of a chance to watch too much of it yet and have only seen the first two episodes. The two episodes were essentially just the premise and the regular club recruitment-type episodes that are mandatory for these type of series so I have not seen enough to get an impression of it yet, but so far it's been good enough that I will be finishing it! If you'd like I can tell you my thoughts once I finish the series (and get past the infamous episode 11)!
I did see in the list that you are an elf and not in the same group as me, so I'm guessing that my original Santa had some kind of issue getting a recommendation for me in time! A bit sad, but thank you very much for stepping in and getting something for me!
Hope that your holidays have been great and have a great 2025!
I think Kagura better fits as Kohaku with her, ahem, family issues and general foreigner vibes. But if Sadaharu weren't there (and they both share the very hungry child trait), I'd very much agree that they both share too much to differentiate.
(also your ep 10 comment. relatable )
screw it. I'm starting this as my New Years resolution (watch me fail like I did with HxH)
starting from ep 3, watching pilot fillers later if I feel like it
EP7 edit: call me crazy but the main trio is giving me Crazy:B vibes
EP10 edit: a week into this show and I'm already simping for Gintoki hard
Thanks for helping out with
Secret Santa again ♥
Hope it'll be a good year for you!
✧。٩(ˊᗜˋ )و✧*。