Super Official Anime Discussion Thread

[Super_Boom]

Boom's 2016 Rankings

Best Guy: Koro-Sensei (Assassination Classroom)

Comments: Koro-sensei was the heart of Assassination Classroom, and was the main reason for me ranking it as high as I have. He starts off as a very simplistic character with seemingly one-dimensional motivations, only to get more and more fleshed out as the story goes on, culminating in one of the best backstory arcs I've seen in this genre. I was really impressed at how it was done; he suffered a lot, but at the same time, he definitely wasn't a blameless person in his first life, keeping it from seeming like suffering for its own sake (which is honestly overdone in these type of manga/anime). Hard to believe I'm talking up something that just appears to be a clone of the Wal-Mart logo, but he definitely deserves this spot.

Best Girl: Erina Nakiri (Food Wars)

Comments: Admittedly I'm basing this somewhat off her later developments in the manga, but looking back at her actions this season and knowing her background, I definitely find her more symathetic than anyone else. Even ignoring that though, seeing her jump from Ice Queen to Derpy Teenage personas is absolutey adorable, and shows that she's much more awkward than her initial impression belies.

Best Villain: Yoshikage Kira (Jojo)

Comments: Kira is not only my favorite villain this season, but is probably one of my favorite villains in any medium. Rather than seeking world domination, his primary goal is to live peacefully outside the public eye (while maintaining some creepy hobbies; which is what gives the arc its conflict). He's a coward, and is willing to do anything to live his life, which only makes his character even more terrifying. The only anime villain I can think that really compares to this type of motivation is a short-lived villain in One Piece (Captain Kuro), but the character is handled much better here, without a doubt.

Best Bout: All Might vs. Noumu (My Hero Academia)

Best OP: Rough Diamonds - Screen Mode (Food Wars)

Best ED: Refrain Boy - All Off (Mob Psycho 100)

Best Studio: BONES

Biggest Dissapointment: Kiznaiver

Comments: I think I ended up giving this a 6 or a 7...so it's not the worst anime out there, but I had such high expectations going into this that seeing this turn out to be so..mediocre...was incredibly dissapointing. The anime had a great few first episodes, but failed to really takes its premise anywhere, making most of the characters feel either pointless or driven by forced motivation, only for it all to fizzle out with an incredibly asanine resolution (seriously...the adults were spending all this money to make kids become friends? Just...why?)

AOTY Ranking:

5.) My Hero Academia

4.) 3-Gatsu no Lion

3.) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - Diamond is Unbreakable

2.) Food Wars: Shokugeki no Souma S2

1.) Assassination Classroom S2

Comments: This was hard to put together, especially the top 3, and there were a lot that I couldn't fit into the top 5 (Mob Psycho 100 and Erased were left out for example). Overall, Jojo was probably the highest on average, and though I loved the anime overall, I had a few issues with underutilized characters and violations of the Chekhovian Gun Trope (the invisible baby, Josuke's savior, and Okuyasu's Dad plotlines in particular didn't satisfy me, and though these issues may have existed in the manga...they're still issues with the story as a whole, minor as they may be). Assassination Classroom won for essentially two single episodes, which absolutely blew me away on multiple levels, and for portraying one of the most well-written and realistic death scenes i've ever seen in this medium (certainly this year, without question). On a pure emotional level, nothing I watched this year came close to Assassination Classroom Season 2, and in the end, this was enough to push it above the rest of my list this year.

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Anyways, it's been a fun year, and I'm grateful to Versy and Shad for all the work they put into this thread. I had my eye on this thread even back in my lurking days, and so I'm grateful to have this here, given the focus of this forum. I hope to spend more time here next year, so here's hoping our OP overlord keeps things fun for everyone.

Merry Christmas anime thread friends, and Happy New Year!