2017 had a lot of highs and lows, but one things for sure; it sure was a great year for anime! On the film side, big blockbusters like Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, A Silent Voice, In This Corner of the World, and Your Name made their way over to the States. For broadcasting, we got a nice diverse mix of shows for every kind of taste.
Still, I have to have some favorites in the mix; as is the point of this Top Ten Anime of 2017 list. For the purposes of a year-end list, expect there to be unmarked spoilers for the most part.
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10) Sakura Quest
There’s something about the simplicity of girls trying their best that so appealing, and P.A.Works is such a great studio when it comes to portraying that. Shirobako was another pleasant watch for me personally this year, and Sakura Quest strikes a similar cord.
Yoshino’s aspirations for not wanting to live a normal life in the middle of nowhere and move to the big city instead isn’t just a bullet point on her character sheet. Throughout the series, she grows as a character alongside her friends who each have their own aspirations.
Does Yoshino succeed in revitalizing Manoyama as she was hired to do? No. But the real beauty of Sakura Quest isn’t the end result. It’s the small victories, the community strengthening, the traditions that make Manoyama and its citizens the beloved country town and people they are.
An anime like this doesn’t set the world on fire, but it helps remind us of the little things in life we may take for granted. That makes Sakura Quest a standout for me in 2017.
9) Anime-gataris
Anime-gataris starts off like most high school club anime, this time with an anime otaku theme. Besides a weird out-of-place encounter the main character Minoa has with a beret in a secret closet, it’s played pretty straight.
As we progress, we dive into the other aspects of the subculture, like anime production, merchandising, and pilgrimages. All the while it makes sly winks to the camera with tons of legally distinct anime references.
However, it ramps up significantly in the final few episodes. So much so that I really don’t want to go into detail on it even with the spoiler warning at the beginning of the page. While the ending is
relatively weak, Anime-gataris is still a great watch.
8) Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
Like with any studio, it’s nice to see them use their talent to adapt a property with a different style. Such is the case with Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. Striking line work, spikes in animation density, and a softer color palette makes what is essentially a slice-of-life anime look even better than it should.
Visuals aren’t all that it has going for it. Stellar voice work paired with good writing helps give life to these characters. The juxtaposition of powerful mythical creatures in a normal human world is played for laughs, drama, and character development for both the dragons and humans involved in the story.
With that mundanity of the human world, the plot does spin its wheels along its way to the finale (as can be expected of this type of show). Still, a mediocre ending doesn’t take away from the fun of watching the series, and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is so well put together that I’m willing to forgive its flaws for the sake of a good watch.
7) KonoSuba: God's Blessing On This Wonderful World Season 2
Oh, how wrong I was!
KonoSuba Season 2 ramps up the crude humor and gags of the first season in new and more hilarious ways. From the non-OVA inclusion of Megumin’s rival YunYun to the dastardly Demon King general Vanir, the new characters mesh so well with the returning cast.
As needed by a comedy such as this, the writing is fantastic and jokes flow so well, even in translation. Animation is sloppy, but that’s just what is needed to highlight just how obnoxious and crude these dorks are.
It’s not all perfect, as there are a couple of episodes and extended scenes that were clearly handled by a different director. These make for better action scenes, though at the cost of a cohesive character look.
Another comedy series I’ve watched this year does rank higher on the list, but KonoSuba Season 2 is by no means any weaker as a result. If you want some good hearty laughs, watch it. If you haven’t seen any of KonoSuba, the first season is well worth the watch as well. Heck, even if you’ve seen it already, just watch it again. That’s what I’ll be doing!
6) Magical Circle Guru-Guru
Spoofing classic JRPGs like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, we see a plethora of gags and jabs at the absurdity of children saving the world. It doesn’t just depend on nostalgia, though.
As Nike and Kukuri journey across the world, the sheer variety of characters and monsters makes for tons of humorous situations. Voice direction helps even more to add to the humor of the show.
The result? Practically every episode was more hilarious than the previous one. This trend continues until the very end of the 24 episode series; something that utterly surprised me. Simply put, Magical Circle Guru-Guru is an excellent comedy and one of the best show of 2017.
5) Recovery of an MMO Junkie
Not only does this show explore more adult characters and relationships, it also touches on a seldom-realized aspect of MMOs; social interaction and the ambiguity of an online identity. All of this is presented with the lense of someone who has experience with MMOs unlike certain shows (*cough* Sword Art Online *cough*)
Voice acting and presentation is also on-point. However, its animation is probably MMO Junkie’s weakest aspect. Many still frame and recycled animations can be seen, all with a relatively low frame rate for TV animation.
Flaws aside, the show was still very much enjoyable in my experience. If you want a genuinely sweet love story watch, I can’t recommend Recovery of an MMO Junkie enough!
4) World's End: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?
This doesn’t mean that there can’t be good ones. Shows like Spice and Wolf make changes to pacing and flow in their adaptations for the better, and Re:Zero is the poster child for how to handle light novel adaptations and isekai well.
2017 got a flawed but nevertheless potent entry in the form of World’s End: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?
Hilariously long name aside, World’s End actually has some substance behind it. It doesn’t really break new ground with its high fantasy setting, and the protagonist does have touches of Mary Sue. Despite this, the show does an awesome job of getting you emotionally invested in the characters.
Romance in these types of adaptations tend to be unrealistic love-at-first-sight stories or tsundere-turned-waifu trash. However, in World’s End, Chtholly’s attraction to Willem is believeable. Willem’s apprehension towards indulging in Chtholly’s attraction is fitting for his character, as he still sees her as a teenager. As the series progresses, this budding relationship and it coming to fruition is so heartwarming to see unfold and makes for an absolute dynamite gut punch in the finale.
I enjoyed seeing this series dubbed as well as subbed, and I can honestly say the dub does a great job investing me in the characters even more. It’s not a masterpiece or even a must-watch like most of this list. However, if you want to watch something to clean your palette of light-novel adaptations, World’s End is worth it.
3) Princess Principal
Some shows like HandShakers have too much freedom and lack a cohesive vision that turns it into a trash fire. However, one of the highlights of this season is from the fledgling Studio 3Hz, the team behind the surreal Flip-Flappers. That show is Princess Principal.
With its strong steampunk spy-games aesthetic and Western sensibilities, I fell in love with Princess Principal from episode 1. Even with a team of waifus, each girl in the principal cast (pun intended) is likeable for their own reasons and get proper development.
Presentation is also well done here. The direction and cinematography on display during the action scenes is clearly professional. Slow scenes and character moments benefit from great voice acting and musical composition.
However, this series has a similar problem that Flip Flappers does. It starts of strong in episode 1 and ends well with episodes 11 and 12. The downside is that pretty much every episode in between is just spinning its wheels.
This especially hurt Flip Flappers as the only thing that indicated a different episode was a change in landscape. Luckily, this doesn’t hurt Princess Principal as much due to its larger cast with broader characterization.
Ultimately, Princess Principal overcomes its weaknesses to become an excellent series to watch. If it had come out at a different time, I’m sure it would probably have been the best original anime of the year. However, one other show clearly beats it.
*wink*
2) Gamers!
The first episode starts out typically enough; the school princess Karen Tendou taking an unusual interest in our dorky protagonist Keita Amano due to his interest in video games. Unsure as to why the prettiest girl in school is talking to him, Keita stutters and flubs his words as it’s revealed that Karen just wants to invite him to her Game Club. Because, really; who would be romantically interested in a loser like him?
Honestly, that start made me drop the show before finishing it, and it wasn’t until a few days later that I decided to finish the last two minutes of the show.
Yes, my perception of the entire series changed after watching the last two minutes of episode 1. Keita, contrary to typical club anime, rejects Karen’s invitation. This feeling of self-doubt isn’t exclusive to Keita as all the major characters in the show have their own issues.
This ramps up into ones of the best scenes of the year in episode 6, and it only gets better from there. Gamers! is easily one of the best shows I’ve seen this year, but there can only be one better.
1) Re:CREATORS
If you followed me on Twitter as this show was coming to a close, It’d be pretty obvious what my favorite anime of 2017 is. I was worried that I would be so easily caught up in the high of the moment, but Re:CREATORS is genuinely an amazing show.
How exactly the show accomplishes this is a pretty broad subject, but I’ll try to condense it down as best I can.
The writing is easily Re:CREATORS’ strongest aspect. Pacing tends to skew on the slower side over its 22-episode length. However, the quality and density of the writing in the slower scenes makes up for the toned down action and animation.
The density of the plot means that the show is best watched in spurts or by bingeing. Don’t worry if you want to take it slow, though. It still is enjoyable as long as you pay attention (something that’s much easier to do than I’m making it out to be, but I’ll point it out nevertheless).
The presentation is excellent with very strong art and character designs. As mentioned before, the slower moments are used to cut down on animation complexity. Luckily this ramps up during the action scenes as needed. Music is also phenomenal and it wouldn’t be hyperbole to say that this is Hiroyuki Sawano’s best work.
Besides all of that, what really sets Re:CREATORS apart (as well as what makes it my favorite anime) is the meta narrative.
Meta has been getting a lot of play in 2017, but the way Re:CREATORS approaches the concepts of creativity, storytelling, and character writing across a variety of mediums puts in in a league of its own. All of this is topped off with the best recap episode of any show I’ve ever seen!
Not only is Re:CREATORS my favorite anime of 2017, it’s my favorite of all time! This show easily goes down as a classic, and if you have the means you owe it to yourself to watch it.
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And there we have it; my Top Ten Anime of 2017. Watchful readers may have noticed my lack of mentioning Your Name and A Silent Voice in this list, and you know what? I noticed that too.
I think the best option would be that honorable mentions go to these movie. Even though these could fit in the list here, I still feel that I don't have enough expertise on movie critique, let alone anime movies. I would like to take a more in-depth look at them in future. In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoyed this list and that it will you inspire you to check out some anime you haven't seen yet!
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