Welcome to the Best of Winter 2018 post where we look back on and celebrate everything great about the last season in Anime. While we always find things to criticise and nitpick, it is important to remember the great things that anime gives us each season (which would be why we all keep watching season after season). Below are some of my favourites as well as the reader’s choice for the season.
To the awards…
Best Story – Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
Is it the most original thing ever? Not really. It isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but it is competent. This is a story that knows not to introduce things without a purpose and doesn’t drag out its moments. With great pacing, some interesting developments, and some very cohesive writing, this is definitely my pick for story of the season.
Best Visuals – March Comes in Like a Lion 2
Do we need another retelling of why I think this show is visually amazing? This show just manages spot on representations of emotions and those intangible ideas that usually elude us when we try to explain them. It is fantastic to watch and always remains interesting.
Best Opening – Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
Okay, it might just be something with me and jazzy openings but much like ACCA’s opening last year, this one I just genuinely enjoyed listening to week after week and it always put me in the mood to watch the show.
Best Character – Hina (March Comes in Like a Lion 2)
No doubt about it, Hina underwent the most interesting character arc of the season and even after her moment was done, she kept growing from the incident and interacting with others in a meaningful way. Hina and Rei are definitely amazing together and Hina was my favourite character of the season.
Bonus Category – Cutest Anime Character of the Season – Mii-Kun
And now…
Best Anime of the Winter 2018 Season – March Comes in Like a Lion Season 2
Was there ever any doubt? Really?
Seriously, I loved this show. I loved everything about this second season. It had such an amazing impact on me and I looked forward to it each and every week. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to fill the space March has left in my line up (given it isn’t just watching the show, it is the processing of the episode that takes the time and then the rewatching, the basking in the screen caps, the discussing it, etc). Thanks everyone who followed along with my reviews of this one and joined in the conversations each week.
Finally, Reader’s Choice
Once again, the full graph wouldn’t fit properly, but here are the shows that were voted for. I will point out, that until the last hour, March Comes in Like a Lion was winning. In the final hour, two votes came in and knocked it down. Instead, we give the Reader’s Choice to A Place Further Than the Universe, which is more or less what I expected to see win when the voting started. It just took awhile to get going.
The vote was incredibly tight the whole time. Still, the top 3 titles have been decided and they will all go into the poll at the end of the year for anime of the year. So, I have three more seasons to convince everyone to vote for March Comes in Like a Lion (assuming nothing better comes out).
Again, thanks everyone for participating and hopefully you have had fun finding out what has won. Looking forward to what the Spring season has to offer and hopefully we’ll all do this again in three months to pick the best and worst of Spring.
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
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