What Are You Watching?

[LumRanmaYasha]

ANN has a vote for Best anime of 2015 if you feel like voting.

I already know my votes!

1. Blood Blockade Battlefront
2. Ushio & Tora
3. One Punch Man
4. My Love Story!!
5. Haikyuu! Second Season

1. JoJo
2. Ushio & Tora
3. One Punch Man

Mine would be:
1. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc
2. Blood Blockade Battlefront
3. One Punch Man
4. Assassination Classroom
5. Ushio & Tora

I would expect Lupin III Part IV to be in my top 5, but I haven't watched past the first few eps yet. 

Great lists! This was a pretty good year of anime, and I really enjoyed a lot of shows myself. If I were to go so far as a top 10:

1. Blood Blockade Battlefront
2. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders -Egypt Arc-
3. Gintama
4. Ushio & Tora
5. One-Punch Man
6. Osomatsu-san
7. Lupin III (2015)
8. Assassination Classroom
9. My Love Story
10. Death Parade

Really, a lot of good stuff this year. I was pretty satisfied with most of what I was watching the whole year-round.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was not a fan of the second half of UBW. Really not. A lot of the characters and plot threads felt wasted, and Shirou and Archer's fight and discussion lasted two episodes too long (and Shirou's rebuttal to Archer's point was nonsense, imo), and a lot of beats in the story came across as convenient, contrived, or a waste of time. I like the characters and world a lot, so I'm hoping the Heaven's Feel film/s will be more what I'm looking for, but the series far from Zero's level of quality for me, personally.

Not quite as against the second season as you, but I do agree about the Shirou vs. Archer conflict. That was painfully boring to deal with, and Shirou's ideals were just stupid.

I do think that season 2 had some good points, though. But the series as a whole is not nearly as good as Zero. The lack of Urobuchi's involvement is clear with this one.

[Foggle]

I'm honestly surprised UBW season 1 was as good as it was. Season 2 is much closer to the writing and general quality of the original VN's narrative (even though it adds tons of new, pointless scenes), whereas the first season felt like it was completely rewritten by the more talented Nasu of today.

The Heaven's Feel anime is going to be shit, by the way. It's confirmed to be only one 90-minute movie. It is virtually impossible to tell that story in less than 2-3 hours (and even that's being generous).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, why did UBW get the full series treatment (as well as the Fate route, several years ago, for that matter)? I get the feeling that Heaven's Feel seems to be the most popular story-line from the original VN, so how come that doesn't get a proper adaptation?

It sort of reminds me how after several years we've STILL never gotten a proper adaptation of the Revenge arc from Rurouni Kenshin, while somehow we have had the Kyoto arc done not once, not twice, but THREE goddamn times! Even the video games usually tend to be based around that arc. It doesn't matter that the manga, despite having ended over a decade and a half ago, is still incredibly popular in Japan and still sells volumes to this day. Furthermore, fans have been clamoring for a proper adaptation of the final arc for years, but somehow we just keep going back to Kyoto, which was already done incredibly well the first time.

The closest that we've gotten to the Revenge arc being adapted were the OVAs. In that regard, Trust and Betrayal was excellent, but literally only told Kenshin's Origin story, which was merely just a flash-back in the arc and was meant more to explain Enishi's animosity towards Kenshin. Then there's the Reflection OVA, which is a fan-detested abomination.

I'm also reminded of how fucking long we had to wait before some studio finally had the bright idea to adapt the rest of Full Metal Panic, despite the light novels selling incredibly well, and the series even having a successful spin-off (in terms of sales, anyways; FMP Another is ass, don't read it).

And then there's still the final arc of Slam Dunk which has inexplicably never been animated, despite that series' massive popularity even to this day (it still ranks within the top 5 of most WSJ popularity poles for its' best series of all time).

My point being, what's with Japan and always avoiding making adaptations of stuff proven to be successful and that tons of people actually want to see?

[gunswordfist]

  I could go on and on about how much manga should already have been animated at well. It's like they decide things via throwing darts on a wall.

[Foggle]

So, why did UBW get the full series treatment (as well as the Fate route, several years ago, for that matter)? I get the feeling that Heaven's Feel seems to be the most popular story-line from the original VN, so how come that doesn't get a proper adaptation?

Unlimited Blade Works is by far the most popular part of FSN, actually. It's less boring than Fate (no idea why they even bothered animating that) and more "fun" than Heaven's Feel, so most people like it the most. Also, they kind of had to animate UBW before HF, since HF only makes sense with the context provided by the previous route.

That said, HF is by far the best one IMO. There's a reason why it's the final part of the story and Fate/Zero directly connects to it...

[LumRanmaYasha]

The Heaven's Feel anime is going to be shit, by the way. It's confirmed to be only one 90-minute movie. It is virtually impossible to tell that story in less than 2-3 hours (and even that's being generous).

Really? That's a shame. It shouldn't be so hard to make F/SN into a satisfying, well-paced and plotted anime...

[VLordGTZ]

I thought the whole thing about Heaven's Feel being only one film was just a rumor based on a mistranslation of an interview.  I don't think Ufotable has confirmed anything since the initial announcement.

[Foggle]

They confirmed it at a Japanese convention earlier in the year I believe.

[VLordGTZ]

I can't seem to find any information on that, but it's a real shame if that's true and kind of surprising considering how Ufotable handled The Garden of Sinners.   

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I still have a lot of catching up to do from this and last year's anime, but both Ushio and Tora and Digimon Adventure Tri will probably remain my two favorite things that I've seen from Japan, this year.

The Boy and the Beast looks great, but I'll have to wait until it gets a wide release early next year in order to see it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

They are up there for me, too. BBB would be tops as well.

Truthfully, there's a lot of time to catch up. There isn't much anime to watch in the winter season unless you like Assassination Classroom. I'll be waiting until Spring to reactivate my CR account since that's when a lot is on its way.

Ushio & Tora: 2nd Season
Magi: Adventures of Sinbad
My Hero Academia
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

There's even Rinne season 2 for VLord and CX. Between then and now I'll probably just use the time catching up on what I missed.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Don't forget thato the next 4 DAT episodes will be released in theaters in March and will probably be streamed on CR by the time that the Spring season starts, or at least a few weeks after that.

That combined with a new FMP anime covering the rest of the story means that there is a lot to look forward to next year in terms of anime output.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yikes, I actually forgot about those two. Spring is packed!

[VLordGTZ]

Outside of the final cour of DurararaX2 and Assassination Classroom season 2, there isn't really anything else I'm currently interested in watching in the winter season.
The spring season, on the other hand, has six shows that I'm looking forward to (possibly seven shows since I'm pretty confident that Food Wars season 2 will be announced for a spring premiere as well).

There's even Rinne season 2 for VLord and CX.

This reminds me that I still need to finish the first season.