Well, the end of 2018 is closing in quickly on us and I have no idea where this year has gone. It has flown by so fast and it doesn’t feel that long since the year started never mind finished. This year has been packed with so many anime series. It’s been another year of amazing anime, mediocre anime and some just plain awful anime. I’ve complied a list of some of the anime that have made some form of impact on me throughout 2018, whether that be good or bad. I present, my anime wrap up for 2018.
Happy Sugar Life
This has got to be one of the best anime I watched this year. As a big fan of horror genre I knew this had a lot of potential and it delivered the most beautifully horrific tale I have seen in 2018. The topics that were covered were all very well explored and the story kept me glued to the screen. The relationships which were created between lovers, stalkers, families and pink haired yandere girls was incredibly done and left a rather sweet taste in my mouth despite being full of dark and bitter content.
Junji Ito Collection
Oh boy, this anime was a disaster. I, like many others in the anime community was pretty excited when this series was announced. Unfortunately the Junji Ito Collection failed to deliver on any of the horrific content I was hoping for and seemed more laughable than frightening. After exploring more of Ito’s work in its original source I found that there is no comparison between the anime and manga. Considering Ito is the Stephen King of horror manga I wanted a series that would chill me to the bone and explore some of his most famous characters such as Tomie. Instead, it presented laughable horror from the likes of Souichi.
Mahou Shoujo Ore
I am absolutely smitten with this series. The sheer hilarity and ridiculous concept of the story satisfied a lot of what I look for in comedy anime. Whilst I know it didn’t receive the best response from many in the anime community I found it to be a pure joy to tune into each week. Comedy and parody anime will usually always go down well with me and the amount of fun the poked at the magical girl genre was well, magical. With all the gender bending, brutal comedic violence and range of over the top characters it was bound to be a winner with me.
Citrus
Citrus was unfortunately my first real encounter with the yuri genre. It left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth and I’m not exactly sure how I managed to finish it. The series was so problematic. I couldn’t route for either of the main girls in the slightest because of how awful their personalities and actions were. I don’t care if Mei and Yuzu aren’t sisters who are related by blood, it still makes me want to vomit that they are romantically attracted to each other. It felt so forced, toxic and all kinds of wrong. Whilst Citrus hasn’t put me off exploring the rest of the genre it definitely wasn’t a good stepping stone into the world of yuri.
Aggretsuko
I never expected to love a Sanrio character so much until I watched Aggretsuko on Netflix. Whilst I have always been a fan of the Sanrio franchise I can’t say I’m their number one fan or anything like that. The little red panda known as Retsuko however really stuck with me as a character. The fact that her sweet little face and voice can so drastically change to that of a true metalhead is fantastic. As a lover of both cute things and the heavy metal genre I couldn’t ask for anything better than this. Aggretsuko turned an average, boring office setting into something so much more, showing the reality of office work and its many problems which employees cannot do anything about. Retsuko expressing herself and her frustrations through singing death metal was just a joy to watch.
Tokyo Ghoul;Re
Whilst the first season of Tokyo Ghoul;Re was enjoyable for me the second season made me give up entirely on the series. After only three episodes of the season two I had to drop it for the simple reason of I had no idea what was going on. I wanted to continue it but I couldn’t because none of it made any sense. It wasn’t just me either, so many people including those caught up on the manga were scratching their heads at the season. Season two made me feel like I was expected to know what was going on even though they didn’t bother to explain anything. I’m not sure whether read the manga or just give up on the franchise all together.
Darling in the Franxx
When it was announced that Studio Trigger would be working on this series I was jumping for joy as some of my favourites have come from their neck of the woods. Darling in the Franxx caused quite the stir whilst airing back in the winter season as it started off as hit but slowly fell into a slippery slope of disappointment for many. Whilst this anime was far from perfect and had a really awful ending (seriously, it sucked) I did enjoy it overall. Zero Two is a great waifu and it’s the only mecha that has ever peaked and kept my interest.
I could go on forever with the amount of anime that came out of 2018 so these are just a select few anime that left the biggest impact on me. I’m excited to see what new anime 2019 brings our way.
Until next time thanks for reading and I hope you’re having a great day!
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A Nerdy Perspective 
I gave up on Tokyo Ghoul as a franchise after the first RE series. As an anime it didn’t respect its audience in the slightest and demanded that we had caught up with the manga to have a clue what was going on. Even doing some online reading to gap fill, the series itself was messy and dissatisfying. There was no way I was going to give it any more of my time for a second half and from the reviews I’ve read of episodes from the second RE season I’m glad I made that decision.
I felt much the same way about Citrus as you seemed to have and I ended up dropping it because I just didn’t like either character so didn’t care if they ended up together. Out of curiosity, have you been watching Bloom Into You this season. It’s really been great.
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Yeah I totally get that, I think with season one of RE I thought explanations for things would come later and pieces of the puzzle would begin to make sense. It isn’t fair to fans that we were expected to do that and I’d love to know what possessed the team to do that with the anime. I’m glad I dropped it when I did and I’m so over the series at this point that I cannot be bothered with it period haha. Yeah I really wanted to give Citrus and I watched to a point where I felt I might as well complete it but yeah I didn’t care what happened to them in the end. I haven’t watched Bloom yet but it’s been on my TBW list since it came out! I’m hoping to check it out soon though as it sounds like a great series!
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So many of your thoughts mirrored mine. I did not get to Happy Sugar Life. I’ve been meaning to watch it.
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I’m glad to hear we have similar opinions haha 🙂 I do recommend checking it out if you feel like it! It’s a really good series in my opinion 🙂
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I loved DitF until about ep 8, when it started to stumble (IMHO). Zero Two would still be a great waifu tho.
Incest doesn’t bother me but it needs to be handled honestly. Citrus turned me off more for the level of coercion than anything else.
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Yeah, for me the series really went downhill in the second half especially towards the end for me personally but yes she is still a fab waifu haha!
I see what you mean with the coercion side of the series. None of it sat well with me and I wish it could have been handled better!
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Am I the only blogger who thinks DitF *could* have become another classic cautionary dystopian tale? Like 1984, Brave New World, Logan’s Run, or Fahrenheit 451? I think too many cooks ruined the soup.
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I wish I could comment on this but I can’t unfortunately because I haven’t delved into any of those works!
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Fred: “Am I the only blogger who thinks DitF *could* have become another classic cautionary dystopian tale?”
That’s why I reacted so badly to the change in direction. It was on track to be something special! I hate seeing unrealized potential.
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“It felt so forced, toxic and all kinds of wrong.”
I dropped it half way through. I still call it “Nonconsensual Touching: The Animation.” I’ll second Karandi’s recommendation of Bloom into You. I’ve fallen behind, but only because of time. I found the characters and plot to be enjoyable.
“Retsuko expressing herself and her frustrations through singing death metal was just a joy to watch.”
My daughter and her husband introduced me to this show just tonight! A “joy to watch” is a good description!
“this anime was far from perfect and had a really awful ending (seriously, it sucked)”
I still can’t forgive them for abandoning the interesting story they setup (up to the point where we found who the real bad guys were). Or even worse — for weakening Zero Two the way they did towards the end. They domesticated her! Ugh! But I’ll grant you that it still had its moments, and I loved the OP (both versions). There are some moments that still come back to me, like the young Zero Two showing Hiro her first pretty thing. And especially early on, the show generated a lot of interesting blog posts!
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