I've recently started rewatching Skip Beat.  One of my favorite anime of all-time, without question.  I don't understand how it can be so damn funny and yet so dramatic in the space of a heartbeat.  It's just so freaking good.  I really miss anime like this or Nodame Cantabile.  Not many series like that anymore, not with the kind of story that just keeps drawing you in deeper as the character evolves as a person.  

Zombieland Saga was a lot of fun and I really hope we get some kind of continuation.  That bit with Tatsumi was definitely a surprise that I didn't see coming.  I was thinking all along that he was in love with Tae-chan.  

Shinobu is definitely your spirit animal.  It's an awesome series and the voice actress for Karen seriously did one of the best jobs I've ever come across as making a character her own.  It's almost iconic at this point.  

I finished SSSS.Gridman yesterday. Overall, it was okay. A visual spectacle with a lot of detail clearly added into it, but unfortunately held back by bland characters with very little noteworthy development. I can understand it was intended to be campy given it was an homage to old kaiju/sentai type shows, but unfortunately that also held it back from being anything memorable. Still, I don't regret watching this one, which is more than I can say about my last few Trigger anime. Awesome OP too!

Anyways, my AOTS goes to Boarding School Juliet as I expected. Really enjoyable rom-com that either met or exceeded my expectations every episode, and had me grinning ear to ear multiple times. The final fight scene was amazing, I love seeing the MCs faking their hate for each other. Definitely planning to rewatch this, and jump into the manga after I catch up on my current backlog series.

Most of my anime this season are continuing into next, nearly half of them actually, which is kinda crazy. Only show I haven't finished is Goblin Slayer, but since I'm not expecting anything big to change there, I'll put together my seasonal list now. If my mind changes I'll add it to my AOTY list in a few days.

Gosh I have Karen's voice in my head constantly after watching it, it just stays with you. Definitely my favorite character, even if I already loved her from the infinite memes of her. Nao-chan is amazing!

The more I think of it, the more I believe Zombieland was a complete dud. I gave it a 9 but I'm strongly considering reducing it to an 8. It had great style but was so incompetently executed in both production and writing. Nothing mattered, nothing was resolved and a crowd staying in an already half collapsed building? It basically went downhill from the first episode with little highlights that just cannot bear the weight of all its faults.

I really wish someone competent handled this new IP.

This episode just kills me.

It's harmless. Just more details with minimal effort on why people like the shows that they do.

But for me personally, I don't do any of it, and I can hardly pick a favorite anime of the season or year. The only thing I can really do is pick a top 1 or top 20 of all time. I don't have a myanimelist or any other thing to rate so I just go by memory.

Yeah I am always 1 season behind, due to my hatred of filler, censorship and cliffhangers. I prefer full seasons, so I often have a huge backlog at once along with highly acclaimed older shows.

Probably not...you can do anything for any reason whatsoever.

That being said, I'm sure you rank the anime you watch on some level in terms of enjoyment right? Some people take a more formal approach, and some rank different parts of the shows they watch. Everyone's got their own jam.

For me personally, characters are always a bigger driving force for enjoying an anime, so my rankings tend to focus on that. My personal stance is that, a lame anime can be redeemed with awesome characters, but supposedly awesome anime can be absolutely ruined with bland characters. Same thing for shipping...though my bias is more obvious there. Gee hee.

Probably the last anime of the year I watched: Scum's Wish or Kuzu no Honkai.

An anime with a ton more inner thoughts than most anime. Lots of mature themes, and yet all the characters go about it childishly. Certainly an interesting psychological show within the minds of young people. The ED "Parallel Line" was almost perfect for each time the show ended and the full ED was great, as is common with the artist. Not everyone would be happy with this show and how it went about, but it is a bit more realist and quite contrary to the common tropes in anime. I do love how everyone is basically scum and have quite a few flaws. Lastly the ED's title is quite significant as I feel like I am on a Parallel Line myself, just hoping to meet my other Line :P.

Ton of gifs and images incoming! Apologies in advance if you're on a data plan, but it's that time of year again!

2018 Anime Summary

Best Guy: Toshinori Yagi "All Might" (My Hero Academia)

Best Guy (runner-up): Tatsumi Kotaro (Zombieland Saga)

Best Girl: Juliet Persia (Boarding School Juliet)

Best Girl (runner-up): Erina Nakiri (Shokugeki no Souma - Season 3 Hokkaido Arc)

Best Villain: Kenny Ackerman - Attack on Titan Season 3

Best Ship: Romio x Juliet (Boarding School Juliet)

Best Ship (runner-up): Souma x Erina (Shokugeki no Souma)

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

Best Comedy: Yuru Camp

Best OP: Grand Blue - Shonan no Kaze (Grand Blue Dreaming)

Best ED: Akatsuki no Requiem (Requiem der Morgenröte) - Linked Horizon (Attack on Titan - Season 3)

AOTY: Boarding School Juliet

AOTY (runner-up): Tada-kun Never Falls in Love!

Overall Thoughts: Really good year overall. Boarding School Juliet was a late game surprise, but really hit every right note with me, which is why I gave it so many gifs. Lots of other great surprises as well, including Grand Blue Dreaming, Yuru Camp, and Cells at Work, and the usual long-running shounen stuff was also largely great. The My Hero Academia climax was one of the best anime moments I've seen in a long time...holy cow was that well animated. 

Don't want to ramble after slowing everyone's computer down...but I just want to say thanks to everyone who contributes in this thread. I know I'm not the most active user here anymore, and this is a hard thread to keep alive in a community like this anyway, but it's thanks to the few active people here that this thread is still around. Let's all hope for a great 2019. Cheers!