Winter 2020 Anime Awards

Hey guys! So this week was the last week of the Winter 2020 Anime Season so I thought it would be fun to shout out some of the my superlatives for the season!

(Original) Anime Of The Season

ID: Invaded is my pick for best anime of the season cause it was able to keep me interested from beginning to end! I loved the concept for this show and how unique it was despite taking cues from other anime like Psycho Pass and it left me scratching my head almost every week. It was able to make me question what's right and wrong especially with the way it endeared me to serial killers but also at the way it looked at society. Each weekly case was super fun to watch and I was always curious to see how each new id well would look like. I enjoyed being able to play along with the overarching mystery which kept me coming back for more cause the show gave you all the information available to the detectives making the audience able to figure things out alongside the characters in the show. The world this show built was incredible and I liked the way it all ended even though it left me craving more! Click here to read more of my thoughts about this anime.

Runner Up - Jibaku Shounen Hanako-Kun

Hidden Gem 

In/Spectre is my pick for hidden gem of the season. I really actually struggled to decide which of the anime I watched should go here cause I did watch so many this season that I feel like no one talked about but in the end I went with In/Spectre cause it was the one that I feel like practically no one talked about. I loved the way it looked at the supernatural and the way it treated it's plot points and characters so uniquely despite treading pretty common ground. Both of the leads were so incredible in their own ways and I loved that everything happened in the show based on intellectual battles rather than psychical ones. It was able to balance some truly horrific things with humor so that even if the tonal switch was severe from one scene to the next, it never took away from the heaviness we were supposed to feel by cutting it with comedy or making it seem like it was less important than it was.

Runner Up - Smile Down The Runway

Best Sequel 

7 Seeds Season 2 is my pick for sequel of the season. Once again I went back and forth between two anime this season and I debated if 7 Seeds should even count cause it was released all at once on Netflix at the end of last week but in the end I decided that I had to listen to my heart! This second season will always have such a soft place in my heart just cause of how soundly it switched my opinion about this show! I wasn't the biggest fan of season 1 and the characters that it chose to focus on so the fact that season 2 was able to make me glued to the edge of my seat and make me crave more episodes once it was all over was everything. This anime like ID: Invaded made me want to like some truly horrible people and pity them while also adoring every single member of the crew we got this season and seeing each one for their strengths and weaknesses! Click here to read my full review.

Runner Up - Haikyuu!!: To The Top

Greatest Animation/Character Design

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-Kun is my pick for best animation/character design for the season. There was no debate for this one cause the first thing I think of when I think about this show is the incredibly unique way it's animated. I love that it feels so much like reading a comic book (or a manga in this case) when you're watching this show even if you don't like reading them in real life! The thick lines, bright colors, and chibi figures really stand out especially when you think about how dark the story beats in this show can get and it keeps you coming back just for the curiosity of what will happen next!

Runner Up - ID: Invaded

Best OP 

Mr Fixer by Curse from ID: Invaded is my pick for best opening song of the season. Once again there was no other pick than this one for best OP cause every time Mr Fixer came on, I was jamming along and I even went as far as downloading it on Spotify so I can keep listening to it. I love the upbeat nature of the song and the lyrics are fun too and I also want to shout out this anime for having the best OST of the season too with Butterfly and Samurai 45 by Miyavi being standouts.

Runner Up - Mononoke In The Fiction by Uso To Chameleon from In/Spectre

Protagonist Of The Season

Sudou Kaname from Darwin's Game is my pick for best protagonist of the season. Kaname was so fascinating as a protagonist cause he went through this amazing character arc throughout the anime but I think the most interesting part of him is how he subverted my expectations. I went into this show thinking that he would be the typical anime death game protagonist in that he would place his emotions above his reason and do anything for his friends while avoiding killing at all costs but instead I found that he was much more than that. Though he did care for his friends and allies, he never went into a scenario without a real plan to save them and he ended up being okay with killing as long as it protected his loved ones. He went from this timid character who wanted nothing to do with Darwin's Game to being the badass leader of the Sunset Ravens and ruler over the city so much so that he even worried the creator of this game.

Runner Up - Iwanaga Kotoko from In/Spectre

Antagonist Of The Season

Rikka Sakuragawa from In/Spectre is my pick for best antagonist of the season. This one was a little hard cause most of the anime I watched didn't exactly have antagonists and if they did, they weren't anything to write home about. In the end I think I chose Rikka cause of what a strong impact she had on the characters of this show and their actions without even being a main cast member. She preferred to plot in the shadows and was able to give our leads a run for their money and it was only by the skin of their teeth that they were able to defeat her. We got a backstory for her that allowed us to pity her but at the same time see her as somewhat of a sociopath for how little she cared about the pain she was leaving behind as long as she got what she wanted!

Runner Up - Ayano Too from Smile Down The Runway

Ship Of The Season

Nene and Hanako from Jibaku Shounen Hanako-Kun are my pick for the ship of the season though it was fairly hard to pick them cause there were so many ships I loved this season. In the end though I went with these two over the runner up and the ship from Darwin's Game cause I felt like Nene and Hanako actually really did love each other though of course at this point in the show the love is more platonic with hints of it turning romantic. I love that both are so protective of each other and that they trust each other more than others believe they should. Nene sees that Hanako is lonely and wants to help him with that while Hanako though he's constantly teasing Nene knows when to back off and just be there for her.

Runner Up - Kotoko and Kuro from In/Spectre

And with that I'll see you all in the Spring 2020 Season!

xoxo Allie

What Shows Am I Watching This Week?

Hello everyone and welcome back! It's a bit of a slow week cause of Coronavirus stuff but as long as there's at least one show on air, I'll be here! So let's dive right in shall we?

FINISHED 7 Seeds Season 2

As I sat down to write the review for this season of 7 Seeds, I realized that I never actually wrote a review for the first season which is totally awkward. In case you don't know this is a post-apocalyptic show where the Earth was destroyed but several groups of people were put into stasis and awoken after the Earth was livable again and there's all sorts of secrets that come out and questions about who's good and who's not. I actually really liked this season a lot more than the first and that's mostly cause I find that my favorite characters in this show are actually the ones from Summer B so with last season focusing on Spring and Autumn and Summer A, we spent almost this whole season with Summer B! I low key had to take a second to remember everything that happened in the previous season but luckily with the exile of Ango and Ryo from camp we were able to get a pretty solid recap. It was super weird how much of this season was focused on redeeming those two and like part of me wanted to fall for it but the rest of me was like while I can forgive Ryo for the murders he committed, I can't excuse Ango who really is a bad guy no matter how much brainwashing he went through cause he tried to rape Hana and that's a step too far for me. It was especially weird that the show was trying to get me to ship him with Natsu and I'm just like can we please not? Having said that I did think that it was sweet that it was the reject group of misfits that ended up showing these two military men what living was really like. I really enjoyed Natsu's development through this season too cause she went from someone who was super shy and scared all the time to someone who tried to help whenever she could and I hardcore ship her with Semimaru too. The whole arc in the ship was really interesting and I thought the way it ended was super creative but more importantly that everyone made it out alive and we were even able to get our ship up and running again!

I'm assuming that since it took almost a year between the first and second season that it'll be another year before we get the next one but whenever it comes out, I'll be here!

FINISHED ID: Invaded Episode 13

The finale for this show aired this week and I'm low key sad that this show is ending cause it's been so much fun to watch but at the same time, the story feels like it's come to a natural end and other than maybe one thing, it doesn't feel like anything is left for another season unlike most of the anime I've been watching this winter! I really enjoyed the way Sakaido and Hondoumachi outwitted the Chief and got him stuck reliving his death over and over again in Fukada's well with no way out. With Fukada dead and the eject button destroyed, there's no way for the Chief to leave and honestly he deserves this horrible eternity for all he did. The weirdest part of this whole thing was the reveal that Kiki didn't mean to put the whole police building into wells and that she wasn't working with the Chief or brainwashed which leaves me to wonder why it took Momoki talking to her for her to realize that she did wrong. On another note, it does super suck that poor Kiki has to go back into the Mizuhanome cause it's like either she does that or it's death or maybe a medically induced coma and of all the options at least as the brain of the Mizuhanome she has some sort of cognition cause Kaeru had been trying to help the brilliant detectives when she could. I do kinda wish that the show would have shown us that the wells changed with Kiki now consenting to being the brain of the Mizuhanome but I guess maybe that's a step too far for this technology? I do love that Hondoumachi and Sakaido became friends of a sort and that they work together to solve crimes now. 

Batwoman Season 1 Episode 16

It was going to be hard for this show to follow up on last week's incredible episode and while at first I found myself struggling with balancing what I wanted the show to give me and what the show did, about halfway through the episode, I was all the way on board with what the show was giving me. Kate turning to Alice and helping her get Mouse out of Arkham worried me a little cause I was afraid that she wouldn't know how to deal with what happened with Cartwright which is why the twist near the end where we find out that she had been playing Alice with Jacob's help shocked me. I do wonder who's after Alice though and if it's connected to everything else that was going on with Lucius Fox's death and the clear attempt at a cover-up. Speaking of, I am super into this idea cause from the start I had been thinking that it was totally crazy of this show to not want to milk the drama that comes from a major Batman character's death and the hunt for his killer so the fact that Reggie was set up and that something big is going on is everything. I mean if the case is big enough to call for hits out on the leader and the second-in-command of the Crows, Batwoman might have found her next Big Bad! In other news, I was thrilled beyond measure that Julia Pennyworth was back cause I absolutely adored her when she first appeared and I ship her with Kate so much more than I ship Kate with Sophie for so many reasons starting with the fact that Kate feels comfortable enough to tell her everything. I was so relieved when Kate opened up and told Julia about Cartwright and Alice cause she needed someone to listen and to tell her that she's not Alice. Though they did end up kissing at the end, I have a feeling it was more of a spur of the moment type of thing than real feelings stirring which does suck a little but I'm hoping that once the door is pushed open a crack that it'll be easier to fall through it especially since it seems like Julia might be sticking around. 

We didn't get a promo for next week after this episode aired cause it'll be taking a break until April 26th so I'll see you all then!

The Magicians Season 5 Episode 12

Now that we're here at the penultimate episode before the series finale, I'm totally crushed cause I want like a hundred more seasons of this show! Having said that this was an awesome episode and it was very smart of the show to leave the heist until tonight so that the last two weeks will be action packed and no one will feel let down! The Couple ended up wanting the World Seed cause they wanted to build a family but with everyone hating them in this world they wanted to start their lives in a whole new one and once again I'm brought back to why not work with our crew and ask if they could live in this new Fillory unless it's all a lie and they want power alongside a baby which I could buy. It was funny that they ended up being not as badass as I thought they were at the start or maybe we're supposed to assume that as a crew our heroes are stronger together and the only reason Alice and Kady failed so hard earlier is cause they were separated from everyone. I did love the reasoning behind having the musical episode and it's really funny cause I never feel like there's enough singing from Kady when she's clearly the best singer in the cast! I also really loved everything we got with Penny but his mom was totally awful for not wanting to help cause even if she was scared, wouldn't she want what was best for Penny being his mother and all? Low key I also don't entirely understand why the whole mother-child psychic bond is a terrible thing cause it's like psychics lives perfectly normal lives and there are ways to block the psychic powers they have so why can't Julia do that or even live with it normally? On another note we sent Fogg 17 to the same place our Fogg is and I wonder if this is how our Fogg will come back cause if the realm needs a Fogg, why not Fogg 17 over Fogg 40?

Next week is the finale and I'm interested to see how we'll wrap up all our storylines. We have to build a new Fillory, transport all of our current Fillory to the ark without bringing Rupert, destroy Fillory and then move all the Fillorians to the new Fillory all while making sure the Couple or Rupert don't stop us. I'm also sure that Julia will end up giving birth and we've obviously gotta break the mother-child golden bond too!

xoxo Allie

My Anime/Cartoon OTPs and Ships

As promised, here's part 3 and these are my anime OTPs and ships! I also added my favorite cartoon ships to this! Again, I broke up my list into ships and OTPs which I separated cause my OTPs are the ones that I am super emotionally attached to while the ships that I've listed are couples I like but I'm not as emotionally attached! 

Again if you're interested, check out my My Book OTPs and Ships, My Asian Drama OTPs and Ships, My TV OTPs and Ships and My Movie OTPs and Ships as well as my favorite Anime/Cartoon Youtube videos and Anime Fanfiction.

OTPs (In Order of My Love)

ContestShipping (Pokemon)

Kim x Ron (Kim Possible)

SoMa (Soul Eater)

Kyoru (Fruits Basket)

Zutara (Avatar: the Last Airbender)

Ships (In Alphabetic Order)

Adrinette/Ladynoir (Miraculous: Tales Of Ladybug & Cat Noir)

Aleheather (Total Drama)

Alice/Nino x Yuzu (Fukumen Noise)
*Alice picks him over Momo in the movie if you're curious*

Arisa x Kureno (Fruits Basket)

Black Sun (RWBY)

Celty x Shinra (Durarara!!)

Chiyuki x Ikuto (Smile Down The Runway)

Claire x Shuichi (Gleipnir)

Dikkory (Teen Titans: Judas Contract)

Dinah x Oliver (Young Justice)

Duncney (Total Drama)

Freela (Futurama) 

GaLe (Fairy Tail)

Gardita (Young Justice)

Gidgette (Total Drama) 

GrayLu (Fairy Tail)

HikaHaru (Ouran High School Host Club) 

Hikari x Kei (Special A)

Jerza (Fairy Tail)

Kajika x Rumati (Hanasakeru Seishounen)

Karuizawa x Ayanokouji (Classroom Of The Elite)

Katarina x Gerald (My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom!)

Kisa x Hiro (Fruits Basket)

Kotoko x Kurou (In/Spectre)

Lena x Shin (86: Eighty Six)

LoLu (Fairy Tail)

Louise x Saito (Zero no Tsukaima)

Mahiro x Yoshino (Blast of Tempest)

Mayu x Hatori (Fruits Basket)

Misaki x Takumi (Kaichou wa Maid-Sama)

Misha x Anos (The Misfit Of Demon King Academy)

Mitsuki x Takuto (Full Moon wo Sagashite) 

Miyuki x Tatsuya (The Irregular at Magic High School) 

NaLu (Fairy Tail) 

Nanami x Tomoe (Kamisama Hajimemashita)

Natsu x Semimaru (7 Seeds)

Nene x Hanako (Jibaku Shounen Hanako-Kun)

Nike x Livi (Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii) 

Pokeshipping (Pokemon)

Rachel x Zack (Angels Of Death)

Ririchiyo x Soushi (Inu x Boku Secret Service)

RobStar (Teen Titans) 

Ryuuki x Shuurei (Saiunkoku Monogatari) 

Saki x Masaomi (Durarara!!)

Satowa x Chika (Kono Oto Tomare)

Shego x Drakken (Kim Possible) 

Shirayuki x Obi (Akagami no Shirayukihime) 

Shirayuki x Zen (Akagami no Shirayukihime)

Shuka x Kaname (Darwin's Game)

Spitfire (Young Justice) 

Suuka (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Téa x Yami (Yu-Gi-Oh)

Usagi x Mamoru (Sailor Moon)

Vorona x Shizuo (Durarara!!

Winry x Ed (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

WonderBat (Justice League)

Yin x Hei (Darker Than Black)

Yona x Soo-Won (Yona of the Dawn)

Yuki x Zero (Vampire Knight)

Zervis (Fairy Tail)

xoxo Allie