Was 2016 really the worst year ever?: End of Year Wrap-Up

I may be a little late to the bandwagon, but it’s finally a new year – a new chapter.

2016 was full of ups and downs, really, but an up was certainly creating this blog during the summer holidays. I’m not here to chitchat about personal issues, though, I’m here to talk about anime and I think it’s time for a small recap on the year’s anime, particularly the ones I watched. And what other way is there to do that than to create a blog post containing a lot of hyperlinks? I was influenced to do this after reading Rayz’s post here – please do check it out! (Also, I’m really sorry for stealing your idea, Rayz! ^^”)

Best Season of 2016
Statistically, the best season of 2016, for me, was Summer, although, arguably, this is probably due to having the best part of three months away from university work and had the entire summer vacation to do what I wanted – watch anime. You have to admit, though, with shows like 91days,  Orange and the third “season” of Danganronpa being shown in that season, it wasn’t bad content either! (Even if I am still to finish some…)

Worst Season of 2016
If we were to go back on to numbers, it’d be a three-way tie, which I don’t want, so I’m going to actually base this one on quality and I’m going to have to say, quite controversially, maybe, that the worst season was Spring 2016. Honestly? The shows I watched from this season aren’t very memorable in comparison to the other three. Entirely my opinion, though, of course.

Shows That Met My Expectations
There have been some brilliant shows in 2016 and what better place to mention a few here? Erased was a brilliant series from the beginning of the year, as was Haikyuu!! if I’m allowed to mention that as well. Spring 2016, as suggested above, didn’t really meet my expectations, so we’ll skip over that one and go straight for Summer, where it all kicked off! ReLIFE, 91days, Amaama to Inazuma, Danganronpa 3 and Cheer Danshi!! are all series that I have enjoyed from the Summer 2016 season. And last but not least, Winter 2016 saw the brilliant Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku and Izetta: The Last Witch appear on our screens – both great shows in with lots of action!

Shows That Failed To Meet My Hype
Ha. There’ll be more to follow on these no doubt, but DAYS, Mob Psycho 100 and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress were all shows that, unfortunately, failed to meet my expectations and I do honestly think that that is a shame – all three of these shows certainly had potential to be great. But, like I said, more about those later, I imagine.

Shows With Good OPs
Ohhh boy, this is a good question. As much as I just slated it, I will admit that Mob Psycho has a great OP and Kabaneri’s OP is a bloody orchestral masterpiece. The OP to 91days is definitely a good contender in the running for ‘best OP’ as well. The cutest OP award for this year has to definitely go to Amaama to Inazuma, however, the best OP from 2016, for me, has to be Kiznaiver’s OP by Boom Boom Satellites, even if I haven’t seen the actual show. So good!

Shows With Good EDs
I don’t really pay much attention to EDs, but there are some good ones, that I can’t deny. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, despite not actually seeing much of the show myself, has a pretty good choice of soundtrack in Savage Garden’s “I Want You”, however, ERASED has some pretty cute lyrics in its ED and I quite like Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku’s ED as well, so it’s a tough competition!

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That’s as much as I’m going to include here. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve not finished many of the series I’ve spoken about here, or if I have the review is on its way anyway, so it wouldn’t really be fair to discuss them in too much detail for the time being.

I’m quite looking forward to 2017, though! I’m currently hyped for shows such as BanG Dream!, Idol Jihen and DIVE!!, as well as movies such as the Kuroshitsuji: Book of the Atlantic movie. What about you guys? What are you looking forward to in 2017? What were your favourites of 2016? Let me know in the comments below!

All the best for 2017!

– Amelia xo