As this season is rapidly coming to a close, I wanted to see what people thought about the season, what they watched, what they liked, what they disliked, what they dropped, and more. Feel free to post reviews, general comments and anything else that really comes to your mind about the season. However, to prevent this thread from becoming a disaster, try not to post too many spoilers (minor ones are unavoidable), and if you are reviewing a series, try to wait till the last episode has finished airing to have a complete picture.

To kick things off, I'll be writing a short review of fate/Illya, one of the first shows to finish this seasos.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Yay the first moderate budget show that Silver Link did not screw up (C^3 didn't sell that well and Kokoro Connect had the horrible advertising scheme). As you can expect from most mahou shoujo shows. It has a fairly basic start with the typical Hero's journey call to action and a female rival (Nanoha formula), but it all takes place in Type-Moon's universe. Even though the dialouge in this series was more humorous than some of Silver Link's previous work (c^3), viewers will probably get a little bored by the first few episodes being as cliched as they are. Then you have the amazing Saber versus Archer fight. This was probably my favorite battle scene of all season (though Railgun's Touma versus Accelerator does come in at a close 2nd). You have a nonstop fast paced battle scene with wide varieties of attacks from simple slashes to mid-range sword throws to giant laser beams (what mahou shoujo doesn't need this in some form?). IMO, this was a lot better than watching some of Fate Zero's combat that had too much staring and posing, creating a very stop and go feel to the fights. Sadly, from there the series slows down a bit to focus more on plot, backstory, and the necessary yuri!!!

For mahou shoujo fans, I would recommend to give this series a shot because it was a decently done mahou shoujo series with silver link's great use of gradients creating a unique artistic feel (c^3 was more unique, but whatever). For those who dislike mahou shoujo and/or yuri but want to see some action, I highly recommend you watch at least watch the 2nd half of episode 6 for one of the better animated fight scenes out there. For everyone else, this show doesn't really offer much else, so watch if you care about Type-Moon or just ignore it completely

Dangan Ronpa: The Animation: I really shouldn't have expected so much out of this. Instead of 13 episodes, what it really needed was 26 to fully cover it. The voices were still good since they kept the original voice actors, and the animation was overall pleasing. But the plot of it was very rushed. The investigations were almost non existant in a sense. But at least it didn't take a huge spin from the plot into some other shit. Also, the trials. Oh god the trials. I am still laughing over the metaphorical bullets. I know it was said they wanted to stick to the style of the trials from the game, but I didn't realise they were sticking to it that much. Many of the scenes felt very rushed or barely touched on or not even touched on in ways.

I don't recommend that anyone watch this unless they have first played the VN, because I feel like one would be very lost with the anime if they haven't played the VN first. I can't call this anime bad because it wasn't really bad, it just only comes off like that because it was so rushed.

Nothing of emphasis has came out of this season, except probably Silver Spoon, whose author is the author who created FMA: Brotherhood.

Free! was a step, pushing yaoi into mainstream entertainment, but it's quality was only mediocre.

I will have to agree that this season has not been the greatest, but I can't say this season is that much worse than any other season for me.

I'll go into more details when the series finishes but my current #1 in this season is by far Symphogear. They far surpassed my expectations with a much more solid and suspenseful story while still keeping its amazing fights and its great song selection (admittedly some of the songs are badd enough that I laugh while listening to them *cough*Goodbye Lullaby*cough*).

As for my #2, a bit more suprising, Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku. After getting past it s horrible first episode, it just got better and better. Animation is still terrible and jokes are not for everyone, but if you have time I recommend trying episode 4 to get a taste of what the series is like.

As Dangan Ronpa & Shingeki no Kyojin are the only real animes I really followed, I can't say that i'm completely satisfacted with this year's summer season, but hey - Fall season is gonna be twice as much hype.
Highschool DxD NEW for the obligatory weekly fanservice intake (which still had a better story than most of the same genre though lol) and Blood Lad which was really friggin' amazing and got me positively surprised, though in the end disappointingly ended in 10 episodes. (Probably because the manga wasn't far enough yet so they had no further material to animate)

Dropped Gin no Saji because the protagonist was pretty damn retarded and I really couldn't enjoy a story with a person that's coming from behind the moon. Same as Free! that escalated into way too much Bishounen-service. It looked promising at the start and I enjoyed the first 3 episodes as it seemed like a kickstart into a cool plot, but in the end was just way too yaoi.

Enjoyed some of Love Lab, have to admit it was really funny and enjoyable, but didn't have the needed spice to make me keep watching it

PS : Might note that DR & SnK are pretty damn epic

Only 5 shows from this season that I actively follow

Uchoten Kazoku: This one is a big surprise for me. The first episode, to me, is kind of a "what the heck is this show about". I started to fall in love from the 2nd episode on ward. The pace, the gorgeous background, the characters, the "feel", etc, everything on it is really what I search from an anime show.

Gatchaman Crowds: I've never watched the original series, so at first I kinda reluctant to watch this, but the suit sold me. I like Tiger & Bunny suit design so when I see it on Crowds, I'm totally looking forward on it. Hajime is another things that kept me watching this show. I can see why people can hate her but there are more from her always cheerful high tension personality, she is different from the most of the typical heroine character (for me anyway).

Blood Lad: A nice shounen show. The comedy is great, the fights might be not flashy but it still entertaining, and the plots may be simple but it's still engaging. Too bad it only have 10 episodes.

Senyuu S2: I've been watching this since the first season and it's still great. And with new characters on board the comedy just double the "hilarious-ness" of the show

Yami Shibai: Another short anime the I like. It's very short but it's still scary in it's own way (episode 7 is my fave). The animation further strengthen the creepy factor, it totally suits the horror genre.

Magicphoenix wrote:

Highschool DxD NEW for the obligatory weekly fanservice intake

don't forget Hyperdimension Neptunia and Loliball SS for weekly loli dose.

Synchrostar wrote:

Magicphoenix wrote:

Highschool DxD NEW for the obligatory weekly fanservice intake

As long as they do the final fight of this season correctly, all will be well

SPOILER

“This is for Buchou’s breasts!”

A hit to Vali’s abdomen with my right fist! In my mind, Buchou’s breasts shook!

[Divide!!]

At the same time I activated the Hakuryuukou power I had just transplanted and felt the aura covering Vali decrease sharply.

“Guha!”

Vali spat out bile from his mouth! I continued attacking like that without interference!

“This is for Akeno-san’s breasts!”

A hit to the face! Alright! I completely broke his helmet! In my mind, Akeno-san’s breasts bounced!

“This is for Asia’s still growing breasts!”

The jets on his back from which his wings of light originated were destroyed! In my mind, Asia’s breasts grew!

“This is for Xenovia’s breasts!”

I vigorously kicked him high into the air! In my mind, Xenovia’s breasts were pleased!

“Finally! This is for Koneko-chan’s breasts that would disappear if they were halveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!”

don't forget Hyperdimension Neptunia and Loliball SS for weekly loli dose.

P-Koooooooooo!!!!!!

4 Shows that I followed this Season :

Fate／Kaleid Liner Prisma☆Illya: Nice "Mahou-Shoujo Themed" Anime, especially It's A Spin-off from A Popular Anime Fate/Zero. The Comedy is hillarious. Too bad only 10 episodes, but don't worry... Season 2 will be released sooner or laterl.

Hyperdimension Neptunia: Rather says "Too Much Fanservice!!". Kinda like the Story though, but I don't too much like the FS Side (Especially the Vacation in R-18 Island). The Comedy is really Nice actually.

Love Lab: BEST Anime this Season for Me! The Comedy is REEALLY Hillarious! and the Story is quite acceptable too. And firstly I thought It will be A Soft-Yuri Anime, but It doesn't.

Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C³-bu: Girls play Soft-Gun, I like this theme (Military-Type, like Girls und Panzer in the last Fall 2012). The Story is Nice and the Comedy aren't too bad.

Dropped Danganronpa, Highschool DxD NEW, Monogatari 2nd Season, Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS, Rozen-Maiden 2013, and ServantxService (Some I don't like the story much, some I haven't watched the Previous Season yet)

Also I followed Shingeki no Kyojin and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S from previous Season

Edit : Likes, Neutral, Dislikes

Still watching (I rarely follow episodes every week):

Silver spoon - Always leaves me with a warm n fuzzy feeling, This one I followed the farthest so far. Also very funny!

Inu to hasami - Even though it's pretty lacking plotwise I still enjoyed it a lot so far.

Blood lad- Amazingly entertaining. Funniest animu this season.

Sunday without god - I'm like on episode 5 or so and I reeeally freaking love it. Impressive start also.


Dropped:

Danganronpa - at first it was interesting, but as I kept watching it became more and more obvious that I didn't give a crap when people died. I didn't find it interesting the slightest.

On my phone, can't really check the chart for more series I watched atm

Highschool DxD just finished up, so writing a quick review on that.

For those unknown to the series, be warned that the series has a huge amount of fanservice. If you are uncomfortable with that, do not even bother to watch. Now about the series, it pretty falls exactly in line with what s1 did with very few changes with the formula, an accurate retelling of the 3rd and 4th volume of the VN with lots of fanservice, mostly low budget action scenes, and a faithful to the novel dialogue. This creates a decent retelling of the series with 6 episodes per arc accurately retelling the 2 volumes of the anime. In addition, unlike last season, there are no short stories added in between the 2 volumes, so you get a full 6 episodes for each arc. However, 6 episodes did make the 3rd volume feel a bit slow at times, but that is a minor problem.

The other thing to note about the series is how well they execute the big fights. After saving money for 5.5 episodes, they usually execute the end of the arc really well, so if you are a reader of the series, you will definitely enjoy it.

In the end, if you want to enjoy this series, be sure to enjoy ecchi humor. Issei is very straightforward with his beliefs and the anime makes sure you understand that. If you are uncomfortable with ecchi humor or not a fan of it, avoid the series (Strangely enough, I do know some girls who like the series, so you might want to give the humor a try...)

So, I'm in the midst of catching up on things since I got a little busy this summer.

Uchouten Kazoku is, by and large, the standout artistic achievement of the season, and easily my favourite title of the year. Prose can be poetic and the first episode feels like a giant haze, but it's a haze that eventually forms into a very coherent narrative, and a truly dramatic slice-of-life anime that shows the ties between a broken, confused family. Its tie-ins with basic folklore also make this more impactful if you've familiarized yourself with them, but it's still watchable without because you can infer everything from viewing. It's a show where not everyone is always likable, and yet you find yourselves rooting for them. Where you see the fact that despite a family being broken, they're still a family that is there for each other. It's poignant and not what I expected.

Gatchaman Crowds is a show I did not expect to like. I came off the first episode wanting to punt Hajime through a window and finding the entire sentai idea on display kind of tired, with garish and pretty low-budget visuals. What I did not expect was it to turn into a sentai version of Eden of the East, except following through on its not-so-subtle social commentary with statements that you, indeed, have to look under the surface to see. However, it's not impenetrable and you don't need to be a scholar to see why it works. Hajime ends up becoming one of the most intriguing figures I've seen in recent anime memory and I cannot wait for the last episode.

Watamote, well, I've defended in another thread. It's uncomfortable, darkly humorous, and it has social anxiety pinned right down to a T (including the lighting choices, which are box-like in nature; if you don't see the correlation, look into the disorder some). It's a show that's not for everybody, and I liken it to Welcome to the NHK, even if it's not as extreme as that. It does, at the end of the day, extend a hand of benevolence to its main character, though, and when it does, it becomes increasingly obvious that the show does want Tomoko to start getting over her disorder, but it approaches it in a relatable fashion. OH LOOK, COMEDY WITH PATHOS.

Free! is delightful. It's a good fanservice show aimed at people who like dudes. KyoAni-moe-lovers can look forward to their continued lame panderfests with Chu2koi and Tamako Market continuing in winter.

Yamishibai has been very hit-or-miss with me. Some stories I love, some I am not fond of, some I just outright laugh at (the entirety of that copy machine ghost episode was so try-hard-y that I just hated it). Hope it eventually gets more episodes.

Dog and Scissors is a fucking terrible show, guys. Worst thing I've seen all year.

Attack on Titan is good! Not as good as the general fanbase thinks it is, but y'know, it's solid! Definitely not as bad as some people make it out to be, but overhyped to be fair.

Need to catch up on Kiniro Mosaic, Genshiken 2, Rozen Maiden, Blood Lad, and Silver Spoon.

Dropped Dog and Scissors, Brothers Conflict (boring), Hyperdimension Neptunia (are you fucking kidding me), Daybreak Illusion ~pretentious Italian bullshit~ (want to hear how this ends since it just should not function), Symphogear G (got really bored of it), C3-bu (I am not one for gun fetishism in general), Dangan Ronpa (play the fucking VN), and Servant x Service (it's like Working!, which means it's boring and uses the same unfunny joke ad infinitum).

Danganronpa I really loved this anime. It was such a good concept, I had to watch the new episodes as soon as they came out. It made me wonder what would happen if something like this happened in real life.

Highschool DxD The first season was really good. (Not to mention the fan service) But this season is really good as well, can't wait to watch the final episode today ^-^

Shingeki No Kyojin This anime is amazing. Everything about this anime is simply amazing. It always keeps me on the edge of my seat and I never know whats going to happen next (Except for the obvious few). I really recommend this anime for you all to watch. Final episode is going to be amazing.

Monogatari Second Season I loved the first Monogatari and I loved Bakemonogatari. This season is very interesting and it always keeps me guessing. If you are looking for a good anime to watch, I suggest this.

I must be getting really lazy with not updating this. Oh well, time to share about a few more shows.

Neptunia: I think everyone who has heard about the series before, knew what to expect. A moe show with a great seiyuu lineup. With that said, the show was nothing special, it was funny at times with its mix or moe and video game humor but never made me laugh continuously for minutes on end. Besides the low animation budget, you can't really say they did too much wrong either. You get what you came for, nothing more, nothing less.

In short, watch if you just need your quick moe fix, but don't expect too much

Danganronpa: As many have said already, playing the game will probably give you a far better experience than watching the anime. However, I will not say the anime was horrible. What it did was focus on the storyline while taking away the investigation sections, which basically made the cases insolvable for the viewers, but did give the viewers the plot of danganronpa in a quick and easy to digest method. While the plot was rushed at times, I can't say the anime did too bad in conveying the plot. My only real problem was that the rushing killed some of the emotional buildup ans suspense of the series, but for a 13 episode anime, I say they did an okay job.

This brings up the next debate. Some people were saying the series needed 24 eps to be solid, and I would sadly have to disagree. I think 24-26s eps would have been too much for the series. Since after cutting out the exploration parts and relationship sections of the game, the anime only missed the investgations and a rushed 5th, which would not add up to 24 eps unless they did it really slowly, which would be annoying. I believe the anime needed about 16-18 eps to get everything that should have been said, so rounding that to the nearest season of epsiodes, 13 eps was the logical choice.

For everyone else who doesn't care about my rants, if you can watch a lets play or play the game, do so. If you think that is too long and want an okay mystery anime, I won't say this is a horrible choice

Edit: How did I forget Free, well time to write a bit more on Free and that really long named tarot card show

Free: = Bishonens + swimming + drama + kyoani.... that is all the show is. Imagine a k-on arc with some plot filled with fairly simple drama (the k-on movie for example) sub out all girls with males, and replace music with swimming. There you have Free. The dialogue and animation are up to kyoani standards, but focused on a mostly male cast. Try it, you might like it, you might not but it is really not that different from the typical kyoani formula (okay fine, it doesn't have the silly romance scenes that severely hurt tamako market and chuunibyou)

Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyou - Il Sole Penetra le Illusioni: I really wonder at times, why in the world I watched this show to the end. I never really cared much for it, but I didn't hate it either. Again nothing sepcial here. In fact the cheesy plot and the episodic drama probably hurt the series more than anything else. Still, if you overthink the plot, and wonder how many problems these people are feeling, you start to care for them a little... (Who am I kidding?) It is your typical low budget mahou shoujo show with some dark scenarios, but in the end friendship and love triumph over all.

Highschool DxD - More oppai. Much better than the first season imo.

Senyuu S2. - Still funny as the first season.

Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C3-bu - I expected it to be another Girls und Panzer and I'm right but the show didn't reach the level of Girls und Panzer. It started off quite decent but the story falls as the story goes. The protagonist didn't get any better at all.

Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai: Megami-hen - Best arc of the series. Manga is still better though.

Kimi no Iru Machi - Disappointed with this one. I read the manga and yes, it was good and kinda fell off but the anime is worse. Too rushed and too many cuts and flashbacks out of nowhere.

Danganronpa - I haven't played the game yet but I watched some gameplay of it and I must say that the game is better. Investigation section were rushed but overall it's a good one.

Neptunia - Like Danganronpa, the game is better. Moe-ness of Neptunia didn't reached my expectations but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Watamote - I decided to watch it because it gained interest in it when I saw posts of watamote in my groups. I thought Hikigaya Hachiman of Oregairu is the best example of me in anime but I was wrong. Kuroki Tomoko, the protagonist, is the best example of me and so I enjoyed watching it because it suits me pretty well. And those references (pop n' music, SOS Brigade etc.) plus that OP and Miku ending made me enjoy it more (fanboy activate lawl)

Shingeki no Kyojin - Lost the hype before I reached episode 5 but I enjoyed it until the end. imo, previews are too long.

Monogatari S2 - That short-haired Hanekawa that made me like her and short-haired Senjougahara that made me like her even more. Still as enjoyable as the prequels.