Anime Tier List (July 2019)
I have had a brief but interesting experience with anime. I haven’t even watched anime regularly for a year yet, but I have found plenty of animes that I enjoy. Feel free to recommend me anime to watch in the future, but keep in mind I have a backlog of at least 30 anime I’ve found interesting, which is probably 2 years worth at least of anime. This is a personal tier list and not objective in any sense. Also, keep in mind, I think every single anime I’ve watched is a slice of life anime in some fashion or another. Some have more dramatic stories than others, but it's just so that you don’t get mad that I haven’t watch Attack on Titan yet, I’m just not interested in that genre. Without further ado, the tier list. I’ll be starting from the bottom and working my way up.
C Tier: The anime’s in C tier isn’t inherently bad. They aren’t F tier, which would be the anime I haven’t finished due to being unsatisfied (currently that tier is empty), and I haven’t watched enough anime to make a D tier quite yet, but these anime have lots of holes and are at best just ok, and at worst have many problems that even good characters can’t redeem. There is enough there to finish the anime but generally is a mediocre anime.
My very first anime, Girls und Panzer, is in this tier. Regardless of its problems, this anime will always hold a special place in my heart. I watched way back in 2014 when I thought that anime would just be a 1 and done type of thing. It’s got a cool concept but has a lot of gimmicky plot points. At the end of the day, it’s an anime about girls going to a tank academy, in a world where tanks fighting each other is a sport, and the villains, in a pokemon-esque style, aren’t even that bad and more comedic than anything. While it was fun when I really liked tanks back in 2014 (my main game at the time, World of Tanks, advertised this anime and was how I got started), there are a lot of holes and the anime has a general feeling of mediocracy in most areas.
Sakura trick was the second anime I watched after coming back to anime in 2018 (I’ll talk about how I came back to anime when I get to the anime that started it). Ironically I actually found Sakura trick on accident while trying to find another anime, Yuru Yuri. For whatever reason, I wanted to watch on youtube rather than on literally any anime website. Sakura trick somehow was the first result over any actual Yuru Yuri content. Sakura trick is an interesting anime because it sacrifices almost everything to do 1 thing really well. If you want to watch dramatic, over the top kissing scenes between 2 girls, this is your anime. It starts from episode 1, which is insanely fast. But like I said, it has lots of problems. The side characters are actually really good but almost get very little screen time, and their interesting plots are explored for 1 episode per side character couple, which is really disappointing. The whole plot is around the big sister not finding out about the 2 main characters being more than friends, but it’s one of those hindsight plots that realistically, who cares if the sister finds out. She ends up being really supportive of it in the end.
B Tier: B tier animes are solid and have mostly positive elements to them, and are generally the “good but not great” anime. They have plenty of things going for them, but enough drawbacks that it isn’t necessarily a “must watch”.
Gabriel Dropout was the first anime I watched after coming back in 2018. My return to anime is embarrassing, to say the least. Raphiel, one of the female characters, has uh, very large boobs. And I saw a meme based around them and the “FBI open up” meme. Being the teenage male I am, I investigated more to find out what the anime was like, and I ended up really liking the anime for more than just the boobs. The characters are funny and fresh, with each of them having their own strengths and problems that are put to comedic effect. The animation is beautiful and the writing is excellent. My biggest problem is that it doesn’t have more seasons and that the ending is a bit gimmicky. Many of the animes coming up will be multiple seasons long, so from here on out, only having 1 season is a negative point, since slice of life anime is about enjoyment more than plot, so the more episodes there are, the higher the rating can be. Overall this is a solid recommendation from me, and I seriously hope there will be another season even though nothing has been announced.
Kinmoza is one of the most popular animes, popularized by the AYAYA meme. The anime was amazing and I really loved watching it. It fulfilled on the hype I had for the anime, albeit the pacing was quite slow, and I ultimately had to watch a few faster-paced animes afterward. Even with the amazing characters, the pacing for even a slice of life was really bad. One thing I did enjoy about the pacing though, was seeing the progression in the students. Not only did they grow as people where you can see improvements made in their attitude or lifestyle, but you actually see the progression through the grades. Some animes that are school slice of lives make the mistake of realizing that the school is not actually shown much. Kinmoza shows the progression fairly well. Nothing else is particularly bad about the anime, and Karen makes this anime actually so fun to watch. Everything else about the anime is solid but not necessarily the best, and that’s what earns this anime the B tier.
A tier: A tier anime is really amazing to watch and have more emphasized strengths than the B tier, or fewer flaws. The difference between S tier and A tier is pretty minor, but still, there are small things that prevent these from being S.
The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is an anime I’ve really enjoyed watching this summer. The name may make you react awkwardly, but once you get 3 episodes in, you will understand the name more. Shiina is uh, special. yeah special, that’s the right word. In more ways than one. Anyways, I really loved this anime and I actually disagree with the public that the MC Sorata is bad. I think he goes through a very relatable struggle that makes him very likable to me. This anime still makes me sad for Aoyama, but she did do the right thing I think. Really this is just a solid all-around slice of life anime. It has unique characters, strong plot development, and a great animation style that makes all the characters look different and unique to fit their personalities. While it is solid all around, it isn’t quite phenomenal in every area, in the same way, I think the S tier anime is.
At last, it’s time to talk about Yuru Yuri. I cried at the end of Yuru Yuri, not out of the sadness of its ending, but because it was my first anime I had truly bonded with the characters if that gives you an idea of how attached to it I was. Kyouko and Chinatsu made me laugh to no end, and this was the anime that cemented the idea in my head that slice of life animes are for me. One of the better feel-good animes out there. It has only 3 problems for me. Firstly, they need to stop bullying Akari and hurry up making season 4. Secondly, I was really not a fan of the character Chitose. Most people seem to love her but I just found her annoying when she had her fantasy moments. And lastly, there is almost 0 progression. After the first 5 episodes, you hear nothing about their classes, or how they are doing in them. You have no sense of what their life in school is like. I’m not even sure if they have moved up a grade or not yet, like it’s been 3 seasons and 3 OVAs, and the weather has clearly changed over the course of the anime, but I have no episode where they talk about what their class is like, so I cannot be certain. If these weren’t my favorite characters of all time this would be B tier, but I cannot in good conscience put this anime below A tier at the moment.
Release the Spyce is like if Yuru Yuri was remade but this time the girls are also ninjas in secret. Both were made by Namori, so the character similarities are apparent yet also given their own flavor to still be unique enough. And unlike Yuru Yuri, this anime actually has a plot. I do wish that this anime got a second season, which it may still since it is quite new, and there is plenty of material to make 1 or 2 more seasons. If they do make a new season, I hope they put in more personal episodes in. Episode 3 or 4, can’t remember which, was amazingly done and was entirely a personal episode and not them fighting or plotting against a crime lord trying to take over the world, and I wish I could see something similar for all of the main characters. Also, the opening song is maybe the best soundtrack of all the anime’s I’ve watched. Like a few other animes, it does everything solidly but not quite excellent. I had no complaints about the anime, but I didn’t feel it was quite S tier material.
Clannad earns the highest spot in A tier because this anime will destroy your emotions. It initially starts off as a very slow, slice of life, enjoys life type anime. I was actually about ready to give up on this anime at episode 8. It was very repetitive and boring for the past 5 episodes and nothing was different. This may come as a surprise for something that is put in the A tier, but for the rest of the anime this would probably be the best anime I’ve ever watched, and this is merely the main drawback. As boring as episodes 3–8 were, they gave the backstories of the characters and that becomes really important later. Once you get to episode 10, the anime really gets going and by the time you get to Clannad: After story, you better check yourself. I cried 4 times during episodes 16–20, and I don’t exactly cry much. Out of recent memory, I’ve only cried during Yuru Yuri, Life is Strange, and my grandpa’s funeral. Crying isn’t exactly an emotion I frequently use. This anime messes with your feelings and be ready for a wild right for the last 1/4 of the anime.
S tier: The best of the best anime’s I’ve watched. No complaints, or very minor ones that don’t bother me much.
K-On is my vote for the “must watch” slice of life anime. It embodies everything great about slice of life anime without the many drawbacks. My heart hurt real bad when this anime ended because it made me feel so nice for a solid 2 months. I don’t generally “claim” or “have” a waifu, but if I did have to choose one it would without a doubt be Azusa. I saw a lot of myself in Mio, and the anime was relaxed but not slow. Many slice of life anime, as I’ve talked about previously, go way too slowly to emphasize being relaxing as they should, but K-On does it in a very natural way that feels authentic. The characters, the progression actually existing, and not having any cheesy endings or themes give this the S tier. The singular downside for me is that the final movie is a bit sour compared to the sweet anime it had been up until this point. But it still wasn’t that bad, and I still enjoyed it. I have nothing particularly bad to say about K-On and it’s an anime I’d recommend to anyone who is fine watching a slice of life anime.
Lastly on this list is Konosuba. Probably the most popular slice of life anime at the moment, and for good reason. The character design is excellent, the humor was hilarious in a new way compared to any of the previous anime, and it takes “being put in a fantasy anime world” to a whole different level. Megunmin is a close second to Azusa as my favorite anime character of all time, and the comedy of this anime is unparalleled. I actually had to pause about 1 time per episode just to give myself a chance to freaking breathe after laughing so much. The only negative, which is kind of big but not enough to demote it from S tier IMO, is that the anime is just a promo for the visual novel. And not to hate on the VN, because its good from the bit of gameplay I’ve seen, but the anime being just a giant advertisement was a bit discouraging. I read though, that there are plans for more Konosuba, with a movie coming in August and a season 3 likely to happen, albeit not confirmed. Even with it being a giant ad, it is a work of art and I love it to bits.
Thanks for reading this far. This was a huge mind dump I have stored up over the last 8 months since I started watching anime, and it feels nice to put it down somewhere. I will probably do this again in December once I have enough anime to actually make a D tier. I don’t think an F tier will happen since I will not finish it if it’s actually that bad.
