We watched 48 series this year, including six carryovers from 2011. We dropped eight of them and became better at not sticking with shows we didn’t like.
In August, we changed our rating scale from 1-4 to 1-10, meaning more colors and more nuance in our ratings. We started documenting car cameos, kept track of common tropes, and even drew a few org charts. We dabbled with summaries-as-cocktail recipes. We started a successful Tumblr and a not-so-successful Twitter account.
But all that aside, this site has been and always will be about the reviews, and what we thought of those 48 series and hundreds of episodes we watched. From that large collection, we present you the top 15 of 2012, by average rating (Current as of time of publication).
15. Rinne no Lagrange – Winter/Summer (7.708) – “Competent action and space battles take a backseat to the characters and their bonds”
14. Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! – Fall (7.727) – “We can never totally reject the extraordinary from our lives, because the fact of the matter is, when you take a moment to look at it, every aspect of life is extraordinary”
13. Kokoro Connect – Summer (7.769) – “We liked all three arcs, all the characters, and cared about what happened to them. Their interactions under duress were always engrossing”
12. Natsuiro Kiseki – Spring (7.917) – “4 parts high school girls yearning to stick together, muddle a few wishes on a big rock, top with club soda and a scoop of ice cream. Repeat”
11. Moretsu Pirates – Winter/Spring (7.885) – “Lots of cool sci-fi procedural action tempered by hearty heaps of heart”
10. Aquarion Evol – Winter/Spring (7.923) – “Mix everything, ever, for thousands of years. Doesn’t matter what. Just MIX. MEEEEEEKUUUUUUSUUUUU!”
9. Kamisama Hajimemashita – Fall (8.000) – “A veritable smorgasbord of neat supernatural concepts and story twists”
8. Hyouka – Spring/Summer (8.045) – “The festival arc was epic in its scope, complexity, and conclusion, never neglected the little details, and gave the whole cast something to do”
7. Another – Winter (8.077) – “The horror series which gets the fundamentals right, even if it isn’t breaking any particularly new ground”
6. From the New World – Fall (8.308) – “As the characters age, the danger intensifies, and the tension over their fate continues to build”
5. Sakamichi no Apollon – Spring (8.333) – “1 part each rich egghead pianist, poor delinquent drummer, cute earnest girl, pretty adventurous girl, and depressed trumpeter. Combine and shake well to the stylings of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.”
4. Nazo no Kanojo X – Spring (8.385) – “1 part each strange, horny girl with an unusually natural voice and normal, horny guy. Pour in mixing glass with a whimsical soundtrack, retro 80’s character design, and liberal amount of saliva. Stir well, garnish with hundreds of lemons.”
3. Zetsuen no Tempest – Fall (8.583) – “Everything happens for a reason. The daily tragedies and misfortunes are all meaningful events, leading toward an ideal conclusion.”
2. Sukitte Ii na yo – Fall (8.615) – “Mei and Yamato both prove inexperienced with romantic relationships (though in different ways), but at least they’re trying to overcome their stumbling – and mostly succeed”
1. Natsuyuki Rendezvous – Summer (8.636) – “A short, sweet, mature, and absolutely moving romantic drama”
