We’re well into the Summer season but this past weekend has been the first weekend for a month that I didn’t have to work so I only just finished my Spring anime:

1. Natsuiro Kiseki gets my top spot – like Evirus. And for many of the same reasons. This was the series I looked forward to the most every week and devoured with gusto when I got hold of it. The story made the most of Saki’s impending departure, using it to give structure as well as wistfulness. I liked all the girls but my favourite ‘insert’ moments were whenever Passionate Natsumi was on the verge of tearing up, not wanting to let Saki go.
2. Fate/Zero S2 was entertaining and I have a much better understanding of Saber’s beliefs and behaviour in Fate/Stay Night. Still… I preferred Butch Gen’s script for Madoka Magica where he didn’t have to balance the unwieldy mix of the ponderous Nasuverse vs. It’s Comes From a Game Which is Really All About Having Sex with Cute Girls. And ufotable/Kajiura-wise, F/Z still ranks below Kara no Kyoukai, in my book, in terms of epic production values and music.
3. I had no expectations of Medaka Box but I enjoyed it more and more as Medaka got more and more ridiculously over-powered and then the story-telling turned towards allowing me to understand her as a person. The final arc, which crystallized the Student Council as team and friends, was beautifully executed.
4. Mouretsu Pirates was an odd kind of series for me because there wasn’t that much pirating. Or bodaciousness either. Until I read somewhere (likely via Ani-Nouto but I can’t remember) that the director wanted this series to be about how someone decides to be a leader. Marika has talent, luck, support etc. But what fascinates me most about her is her overwhelming need to be free, to be herself. The two flashes of her closely guarded inner self – the only time she calls Ririka “Mom” after the first Yacht Club cruise and allowing herself a small smile when Chiaki says she believes in her – accentuate her indomitable, independent streak.
5. I’ve not read the manga but I really liked how the Tasogare Otome x Amnesia anime resolved the Kage-Yuuko issue. Yuuko is a great character and I particularly enjoyed how she punctured many ghost story tropes but I really hated the ending.
6. Sankarea ended too abruptly and left me frustrated with all the untied loose ends especially the connection to Chihiro’s mom. But it seems that there’s still a prequel OVA, a final episode and a subsequent OVA that is bundled with the DVD/BD release.
7. I only managed to finish Haiyore! Nyaruko-san because I really enjoyed how Asumin was having a riot with the title character. But my favourite role of hers is still Hidamari Sketch‘s Yuno. The final arc where Mahiro (voiced by KitaEri!!) realized he did miss having a harem was especially heavyhanded and clumsy.
8. Liked all the episodes of Upotte!! without the teacher and would have preferred it if they had just concentrated on the friendship and camaraderie between the girls. I especially liked how this was done in the Eru and Ichiroku arc but the final arc’s attempt at seriousness and drama fell flat.
9. Ozma was mercifully brief but when it ended, I felt somewhat shortchanged: it could have been so much richer – even if many of the defining themes (e.g. environmental degradation, human evolution, women as leaders)  had already been explored, I was waiting – in vain – to see a different take/vision from Ghibli’s.  Didn’t help that I didn’t like the retro character designs at all.
10. The Itou Shizuka doctrine dictates that I will try any series where she appears. But it doesn’t guarantee that I’ll finish it. Jormungand never made sense to me, in terms of its treatment of organized crime and gangland norms, and the characters and the world they inhabited was never compelling in the way Black Lagoon was. In the end it was too much to expect Shizu-sama to carry the whole series and I dropped it at Ep 5.
11. I dropped Nazo no Kanojo X at Ep 4; I need some kind of device or gimmick to sustain me through a high school romance series and drool didn’t fit the bill. Again, the retro character designs didn’t help either as I need my modern eye candy.
12. I had gone into Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan with great expectations of eye candy but alas. The moment I saw the Kos-Mos girl, something snapped. Dropped at Ep 3.