Blood Blockade Battlefront

My Top Ten Anime List, a Decade in the Making

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Over a Christmas break in 2013, I binged Attack on Titan and became an anime fan. This often surprises the friends that I’ve made since then because, what with how I talk about this industry and my favorite shows therein, one would think I’ve been this way since I was a kid. My high school pals have been watching Dragonball and Naruto since they were kids, but they would likely call me out as the biggest weeb in the group.

A few years ago, I decided that when 2024 struck, I’d have a list of the top ten anime I have watched in those ten years. And then, New Year’s came and went and I realized I’d completely forgotten to write this. Thankfully, I already had the skeleton of a list ready to go and only had to make a few adjustments. I know I haven’t kept up with this blog as much as I would have liked, but I wasn’t about to miss this occasion.

So without further ado, whether you’re a friend or mutual anime blogger with whom I have been blessed to share this platform, here are the best anime I have ever seen.

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My 5 Favorite Anime Endings

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It’s the end of 2020… nearly. For December, I’m taking another hiatus to do some fiction writing. While I wouldn’t call it a grand finale, given how rough the year has been for many, it’s still worth celebrating that it is still ending. To celebrate, why not shout out the stories that know how to conclude the best.

Glass Reflections on YouTube often has said that “the ending is paramount” and despite my disagreements with him, I can’t disagree with him on that one. The ending of a story can make or break it. The conclusion of SAO: Ordinal Scale made the plodding narrative leading up to it all worth it. On the flip side, the last five minutes of Black Butler II ruined an otherwise exciting season in retrospect.

So here are a few of my favorite endings that left on a high note, redeeming lesser qualities or acting as the culmination of greater ones. They made me cry, they made me giggle uncontrollably, or they left me without the will to speak.

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Kyousougiga and The Career of Director Rie Matsumoto

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It says a lot when I can fall in love with a director after just one of their works. Rie Matsumoto stole mine and many others’ hearts after season one of Blood Blockade Battlefront. While at times her chaotic direction could produce scenes difficult to parse, I defend that she has a way of conducting a narrative unforgettably.

I’d always heard that there was one other show that she directed but I never got around to watching it. One day while walking through a movie store, I found a copy of a series that immediately caught my eye. Something about the art and its dynamic composition spoke to me and I thought it looked familiar. Sure enough, when I looked it up on my phone, there she was.

Kyousougiga, a Toho Animation series directed by Rie Matsumoto. Just recently I took the time to dive into it and get a sense of what an original work of hers looks like. Additionally, today I want to look at Matsumoto’s career past and present to get a better sense of her style and where she comes from.

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“To The Stray Dogs” – A Bungo Stray Dogs Retrospective

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[2025 Update: This has consistently been one of the most-read blog posts on this site. So I decided to take a trip back in time, do a little grammar check, update the formatting slightly, but for the most part, leave my past opinions as is. However, if you’d like to check out my more current opinions on this wonderful series, check out my Season 4 and Season 5 reviews over on GameRant. Plus, like 90% of the Bungo Stray Dogs coverage on that site was probably written by me, so just search Bungo and go nuts.]

Recently, I enthusiastically wrote about Bungo Stray Dogs as it was in the middle of its third season. In the middle of writing it, I remembered that somehow I had avoided reviewing any of the series prior. In that same post, I also realized I have a lot of positive things to say, as it turns out. Three seasons and a movie may seem like a tall order for one review, but I’m nothing if not a man of (too) many words.

For a series that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to my friends, the first season of Bungo has a few more problems upon second glance. This happens a lot with good shows, I feel. There is a first season that catches your attention with some elusive quality you can’t quite put your finger on. Next up, the sequels build on the formula, turning the show into something even grander than you first envisioned.

The real tricky part is getting people into it without over-hyping it purely on the grounds of how good it gets later on. Like, I’m sure if I kept watching Breaking Bad season four, I would love it, but I didn’t wanna watch Skylar try to buy a god damn car wash for half a season. Where was I? Oh yeah, allow me to start by giving you an honest look at this show’s humble beginnings.

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Imagining My Perfect Anime

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The “best” anime of all time is different for everyone. Across all media, in fact, you would be hard pressed to find a unanimously agreed upon “best” thing, outside of the agreements found within one’s own tight-knit group. Even then, there will be differences in taste.

“It’s all subjective,” is the point I’m trying to get across, but perfection doesn’t have to be dismissed in critique just because it’s improbable. If the perfect anime is different for everyone, and no consensus can be reached, then perfection is purely personal taste. It is absent of objective standards of quality and instead panders to the greatest amount of our interests.

I believe most people have not found their perfect movie or TV show, possibly because it doesn’t exist yet. We all have favorites though, so it stands to reason that if I took three of my favorite anime of all time and picked them apart, I could get a sense for what my perfect anime would be. Bear with me, this is going somewhere.

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A Review of Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI0OE71dmBM

Sequels can be risky. This is true in any medium, but to many, Anime has a particular reputation for dodgy sequels. Some shows see changes in production staff that rob the sequel of what made the first so great, such is the case with Psycho-Pass 2. Other times, we may never even get a sequel due to low Blu-ray sales and miss out on the closure that any good story needs.

Thankfully, some of my favorite shows have gotten worthwhile sequels, but often I just hope that whatever 12 episode show I watch ends conclusively enough that I won’t be heartbroken should it not get renewed. So it’s with great pleasure that I say that season two of Kekkai Sensen manages to continue the show strong, sticking closer to the source material without disregarding the Anime-original story that made me fall in love with season one.
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First Impressions of Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond

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It’s been two years since the end of Blood Blockade Battlefront, arguably the best show of 2015 and one of my personal favorite Anime of all time. You can check out my review of season one here.

Now, I won’t act like I didn’t have my doubts going into the currently airing sequel. I was cautious after hearing that Rie Matsumoto would not be directing this time around. The loss of one creative mind can mean a big difference in determining whether the ship will sail or sink. Thankfully, Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond has not just sailed in its first three episodes, it has soared.
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Sequels to Watch Out For

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This season alone we have received the long awaited sequel to Attack on Titan and the sequel to one of the best shows of 2016, My Hero Academia. This has gotten me thinking about what other sequels are coming soon. After all, there are so many new and great shows each season, but every once in awhile, we get a sequel to an acclaimed series, an old classic or even an obscure gem. In the spirit of sequels, here are a few sequels I am interested in or would like to see in the future. I highly encourage you to check out each of the shows I will be addressing and to share them with others. Enjoy!

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A Review of Blood Blockade Battlefront (Originally Posted January 17th, 2017)

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Kekkai Sensen 3Kekkai Sensen hooked me right from the very beginning with our main character narrating a letter to his sister, as we are treated to a stunning montage of what is clear to be the climax of this 12 episode series. A wide array of colorful and sleek characters are seen dismembering ghoul after ghoul across a vast and expansive metropolis under the night sky, all the while our hero scales a tall staircase approaching what he hopes to be direction needed to stop the chaos and save the day. The main title flashes on the screen with dazzling effect and we are brought back to the beginning of the story.

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Is Bones The Best Animation Studio in the World? – Parts 2 and 3

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At this point, it is pretty clear that Bones are masters of choreography and even clearer that I am a HUGE fanboy of their work. Last time I showcased fight scenes from the Cowboy Bebop movie, Sword of the Stranger, Darker than Black, and Mob Psycho 100. The quality of those fights truly speak for themselves but fights alone aren’t what make Bones special. It is their reputation for constantly creating new, imaginative works across genres and demographics, and still managing to approach each project with love and care. In that respect, today I will talk about consistency and variety, two qualities that make Bones one of the best in the business.

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