Anime Rankings Blog (Winter 2023)
Anyone else feel like time is flying by? I swear it was 2020 last year…
Small life update: Why can’t things be easy? It feels like the way my life is shaping up, I’m going to be stuck in low-paying jobs. In before future me is a depressed 28-year-old stuck in a 30k/yr job in one of the most expensive states to live in (: My actual life has been good, but between my future and the way the world is shaping up, I’m getting more and more skeptical of the years past 2026…
Anywayyssssss. Anime. Also, this blog is early! Yeah, I’ve decided 6 months is too long of a wait. 3 months is at least something more reasonable. If I want this to be of any kind of legitimacy, a more realistic schedule is required. Ideally, it is once a month, but sometimes I would only have 1 entry, so I think 3 months per post is a happy medium. Let me know your thoughts!
As a reminder, here are what the tiers stand for: A tier is for great shows, B tier is for good shows, C tier is for OK shows, D tier is for below-average shows, and F tier is for shows that I didn’t finish. And S tier is for my favorites out of the top of A tier. Just because I didn’t finish or didn’t like the show doesn’t mean that the show is inherently bad, it just means I didn’t get as much enjoyment out of the show compared to others on the list. The vast majority of the shows out there can be enjoyed by certain types of people depending on their tastes, so keep that in mind when reading these entries!
Devil is a Part Timer Season 2 was one of the worst things I’ve ever watched. A great season 1 with lots of potential for future seasons ends up being absolutely ruined by season 2. Everything that made season 1 great is removed in season 2, and it is turned into the most generic anime ever. The characters lost a lot of their charm, the animation is not that much of an upgrade considering the TEN year gap between season 1 and 2, and in general, the show feels less funny and has lower stakes in tense moments. I barely didn’t quit watching this season, and season 2 is bottom of D tier. However, where does that place the series as a whole? My tiering system of including every season (but not spinoffs) when considering the ranking usually works great, slightly raising or lowering a show when a season does well/somewhat poorly. But when there is this dichotomy of seasons, it’s difficult but overall, Devil is a Part timer is being brought to low C tier. Season 1 is genuinely solid. Not amazing, but a great premise that was executed well. Season 2, unfortunately, ruins all of that.
Verdict: Lowered from B tier to C- Tier. Season 2 specifically is D-, overall the show is C-.
Bocchi the Rock is the modern version of K-On. Cute girls doing cute things, where they form a band, and have the slice of life setting. However, this show is definitely different than K-On. For one, the characters are much more quirky, for better or worse. While I highly praise K-On overall, its easy to see how someone could see characters like Yui, Mio, and Ritsu as generic, even if they were, in some ways, the trendsetters for these generic traits. Bocchi and her band are much more eccentric, almost to a fault. Bocchi is not just a band girl, but an introverted, socially anxious band girl, who genuinely has 6 screws loose in her brain. The rest of the cast is not as intense as this, but if there is one thing, it's that these girls aren’t generic. Many people are claiming that Bocchi the Rock is the new introvert exposure show, topping things like Komi Can’t Communicate (which is only social anxiety but I digress). To an extent, I agree, but it is more nuanced. Bocchi is an introvert, yes, but she also has social anxiety, which are two things people often mix up. In addition, with how crazy Bocchi is, it could be easy for misinformed people to claim that introverts have her crazy tendencies. Don’t get me wrong, us introverted and socially anxious people are weird, but we aren’t daydreaming about how horrible the beach is and being lost in a trance as soon as the word is mentioned. We may dread the beach, but we aren’t in a trance. This is why I’m not the biggest fan of the blanket statement of “Bocchi The Rock is the best anime for showing off introverted behavior”, because social anxiety and her loose cannon brain is also a factor. You might think I dislike the show because of that, but no, that is just my dislike to certain media outlets or opinions. The show is great. I’ve watched… way too many girl band anime, and this was definitely a top 3 among them. I really look forward to season 2 and beyond.
Verdict: A
The Quintessential Quintuplets has finally come to a close in anime form with their movie. It was one of the first shows I watched, so its rating was unusually low for how solid this anime is. So we’re going to touch up its rating. I will look into doing this a bit more in the future as well, but for now it is just Quint getting this treatment. The ending is… an ending. Solid, what you would expect. It is pretty long (2+ hours) and, I will stay as spoiler free as possible, but I will say; one of them wins. This is not a harem. So keep that in mind with your expectations. There isn’t much to say beyond what I’ve already said about this anime, but it’s been a while so I’ll recap. Great characters, pretty much every person who is into women will have a character that is pleasing to their tastes. An MC that is decent, and genuinely gets character development by the end. A bit of fan service as well, but not too much.
Verdict: Updated from B to A-
Persona 5 The Animation… yeah, it's a thing. Really, you shouldn’t watch this unless you can’t afford the game, or you want to compare and contrast the anime and the game after playing the game. I’ll give you a hint: the anime is worse. Not bad, but still worse. We follow the baseline persona 5 story, which we can’t even access anymore, so certain events are changed from royal, like when you meet specific characters. Other events are also changed to make a bit more sense for an anime story as opposed to a game, and there is no royal exclusive content. The only other comment is that the anime also has more fan service than the game. Persona 5 Royal only had a couple of fan service segments, but the anime has a handful more of them added in. Anime is gonna anime I guess. Overall, niche but decent. The first few arcs aren’t adapted super well, but the second half of the anime is good with the exception of a few things placed awkwardly in order to “make the story work” in anime form. The game is amazing, genuine 10/10, but this is a 6 or 7/10 adaptation.
Verdict: B
Takagi-San has finally come to a close with its movie. This movie, just like with everything else Takagi-San, is just the same ol’. More cute moments between 2 middle school students. I can’t quite tell if this is the end for Takagi-san or not in terms of anime content. I know there is a similar series by the same author, and you bet I will be watching it in a couple of months. But yeah, not much to say. Cute, wholesome, romance, playful teasing, all of it. It’s great. Watch it!
Verdict: Remains A.
There are a few anime out there now that showcase the general premise of girls being FBI agents, or secret agents, or part of a secret task force. However, none of them cut quite as hard as Lycoris Recoil does. Not only is this the best-executed anime of this type, in my opinion, but it also has more memorable characters and a significantly better story than most. This show is a perfect blend of drama, slice of life, and action, and the “villains” of the story are significantly better written than most. I think that this was a hidden gem released in 2022, because I saw virtually nothing about this anime other than a few shipping posts, shipping two of the MCs, but this anime is really, really good. The last three episodes have some of the most intense, insane moments, but also a few middling moments as well, which leads to an interesting destination. The ending also seems a bit fake in my opinion, and some build-up for the ending led to a slight letdown because of it. But there is also merit to that ending as well. All in all, this anime was an unexpected home run, and if you like cute girls doing cute (and violent) things, or an action drama, this is a great watch.
Verdict: A+
Rent-a-Girlfriend season 2… I really want to drop this show. It’s so painfully cringe that it irks my soul. Some people find the cringe to be good or nice, but it’s just so… intolerable. And yet, on the other hand. Sumi and Mizuhara. Enough said. They single-handedly keep me watching and will continue to keep me watching. Mizuhara is great and Sumi is just so adorable. That said, this anime is still not rising above C tier. There are so many things weighing down a few positives. Not many anime make me go crazy or pause to yell at characters, but Rent-a-Girlfriend is one of them.
Verdict: Still C.
How was the shorter blog style? Should I update this more often? Go back to longer, 6-month blogs? And most important, should I stop being a lazy person and actually make a website?! Please give me any and all feedback, including your ratings. I have adjusted ratings slightly based off of feedback, either through DMs, or through seeing a new side of something, for better or worse. At the end of the day though, this is just my opinion. Have a great day all!
