My early take on Summer 2015? With apologies to Marty Feldman, “Could be worse.” Spring has turned out to be pretty good, though not the breakthrough season anime has been hungrily searching for since 2012. The top tier mostly held up their end, Kekkai Sensei comfortably exceeded expectations, and there […] Read more
Give yourselves a pat on the back. No huge surprises in the Spring 2015 poll – Fate always figured to come out on top (though Ore Monogatari!! gave it a good fight) and it’s obviously a disappointment that 4th-place Digimon Adventures Tri has been delayed at least until Summer (the […] Read more
Hope can be the cruelest thing of all. Is Spring of 2015 the season when anime finally emerges from the long, dark tea-time of the soul that’s enshrouded it over the last couple of years? There’s reason to believe it’s possible, but to me, this is a season that has […] Read more
This season’s poll comes with a big disclaimer. The total number of votes cast in this poll is down quite a bit from Fall, though I don’t think that’s too much of a surprise. I’m covering fewer series this season, and next season is one of the least-anticipated ever. Hopefully […] Read more
Is it Spring yet? There’s no sugarcoating the headline here – this is the shortest preview post I’ve ever done. Eleven series, that’s all – and believe me, this was not the most stringent selection process I’ve ever used. If this preview wasn’t going to be one I could send […] Read more
The big names win the day. Established franchises and mainstream shows – especially those with Urobuchi Gen connections, even if he’s not involved any longer – dominated the Fall Preview poll. Only Kiseijuu broke up a top 5 of sequels, and two of them were shows that didn’t even make […] Read more
Old Mother Hubbard’s got nothing on fans of good anime this season. Pre-season expectations aren’t always met by performance. And thank goodness for that, because a pretty mediocre 2014 doesn’t look as if it’s going to be bailed out by its final slate of shows. Is Fall 2014 the worst […] Read more
It’s all about having Tokyo in the title. Thanks to everyone for a magnificent turnout – participation was up 40% from the Spring Preview Poll, and the largest ever for a season preview poll. As for the results, I don’t see any huge shockers here – Zankyou no Terror and […] Read more
Summer 2013 made history, and for the right reasons. Can 2014 follow suit? By the time Summer 2014 begins, anime’s year will be half-over. And with a few weeks left in Spring, it’s looking like we’re on track for a pretty mediocre year. I’d call 2013 roughly average (2012 was […] Read more
Mushishi wins it wire-to-wire. Mushishi Zoku Shou never trailed in this season’s poll, and won by a quite comfortable margin. I think it was a fait accompli as soon as the series was announced, though it’s always interesting to see how LiA’s readership differs from Random Curiosity’s (their poll is […] Read more