Top 13 Anime and Top 13 Characters of 2013

Here is my final review for the anime that aired in 2013.  Focusing only on the most excellent, most remarkable and most memorable of 2013, this review will document and explain my favorite 13 characters of the year and my favorite 13 anime of the year, too.  It’s been a rather exciting year of anime, especially with the recent publications of my season reviews for 2013, so let’s see how everything comes together with one last look at the anime of 2013.

Winter 2013 – Season Review

Since I never wrote a season review for Winter 2013 at the end of the season, I’m finishing it up here at the start of Winter 2014.  Let’s take a moment to look back and revisit the anime of yesteryear and see what my final thoughts, opinions and grades are for these anime.

Autumn 2012 – Season Review

Yes, you’re reading that right.  Yes, this is for 2012, not 2013.  Yes, this post is over an entire year late. Yeah… about that…

So, remember all those wonderful anime from 2012?  All the ones I forgot to provide my opinions and reviews and closure on?  Well, here it is, my final review for the anime of Autumn 2012.

Robotics;Notes – 22 (Finale)

Robotics;Notes is an anime that progressed through a series of ups and downs.  During its ups, the anime was amusing and entertaining with an ominous mystery and a robotics theme that was both strong and appropriate.  During its downs, the series was a curious and confusing mess with a story that felt disjointed and incoherent that bounced between two very different sides in a ‘Robotics’ half and a ‘Notes’ half.  And though the series cycled between these high points and low points, the second half of the anime saw a general trend downward with its obvious peaks in the first half and its lowest valleys in the latter half.  Just what happened to Robotics;Notes to take it from a promising and entertaining anime to one with an unclear, directionless plot with highly questionable storytelling.

Robotics;Notes – 17

The purpose of the seventeenth episode of Robotics;Notes was to show Aki regain her fortitude, determination and perseverance; for her to recognize her dreams of completing a giant replica of Gunvarrel in the wake of the disbandment of the Tanegashima High School Robotics Club and when facing the orders to dismantle and scrape GunPro-2.  But you have to really question, how was this challenge or a problem for Aki?  How and why was this viewed as an obstacle for her to overcome?

Winter 2013 – Week 6 Anime Review

This week: Robotics;Notes losing credibility, identifying with a character in Chihayafuru 2, the decentralization of the township in Shin Sekai Yori, the distinctive and original school uniforms in Tamako Market and why Zetsuen no Tempest is a fanservice anime.

Robotics;Notes – 15

It seems as though the spirited and cheerful Airi, the shining, sunny personality we knew and loved, is no longer with us in Robotics;Notes.  And though it seems like a cruel and heartless event to occur in the series, essentially the death of a character with her artificial intelligence being lost to digital nothingness, it does serve an ultimate purpose in the series from this point going forward.  That is to say, her character has fulfilled her duties and her intended purpose and now, is no longer necessary.