Great effort is made to make each character more than just a cardboard cutout. There are plenty of tropes around, but they actually get explained.

Saekano manages to pull off being the harem show for people who don’t like harems and take aim at the harem connoisseur. If not for some pacing issues, I’d say really good.

Once the show hit it’s stride though, it proved to be quite good. Sadly, I think a lot of people were turned of by the fan service in the hot springs episode or simply found the first couple of real episodes boring (because they were). There is little in the show’s early episodes to indicate how good Saekano is going to be later. This may be because I hadn’t warmed up to the subtleties yet, but the show didn’t even attempt to do what any really successful show needs to do. The first couple of episodes were almost painfully slow, and to be honest a bit boring. Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata (Saekano) – Saekano is like that slacker, that barely pays attention and doesn’t really care, but then suddenly makes a real effort and does an amazing job. The second half of the season just felt flat to me. Whether this is a direction issue or problems with the original LN, I don’t know. Really, the only interesting thing in the second half of the season was Mikado’s development. The Orihara sisters antics and Heiwajima’s bizarre romance weren’t bad, but the mafia/yakuza story and the return of the street gangs were very skipable.

It just isn’t as funny the second time around. It might be like watching a comedian that relies heavily on shock factor. Perhaps the “I bet you didn’t see that coming” style doesn’t work as easily on the second go around. It wasn’t really until the last couple of episodes that I realized how disappointed I’ve been with this season. That, I’m sad to say, is not what happened. I kept waiting for everything to come together, and when something happened that I wasn’t that fond of, I excused it with the thought that the show would iron it all out in the end. Shirobako does a great job of showing the pitfalls that cause bad anime or at least shows how a number of flaws, from bad frames of animation to airing delays happen.ĭurarara!x2 – Watching the second season of a show you like is a bit of a trap, particularly with the kind of juggling act style that Durarara! uses. While not an anime I would recommend to everyone, I think that the educational elements of the show make it a must watch for anyone who consumes a lot of anime and manga. Still, despite (or perhaps because of) playing things a bit safe, the show was consistently good from start to finish. Down the stretch, I was as interested in what was going on in Aerial Girls Squad as I was what was going on in the animation studio. Shirobako avoids falling into this trap by being educational, but I feel that the setting and characters could have handled more drama pretty effortlessly. The problem with a really good slice of life show is that if you’ve spent the a lot of effort on the characters, they are going to outshine the plot. The biggest issue I had with the show though, is that I feel like it could have reached higher. The little doll and bear were unnecessary, and a bit of a crutch. Shirobako – Shirobako was good, not great, but solid. Here are the my thoughts on Shirobako, Durarara!x2, KanColle and Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata (Saekano):

Saekano season 3