2017 is a wonderful year to the anime industry. Many big franchises released their anime spin-off, and there were too many original shows that surprised us. It was hard (or cruel) to choose just 10. In order to come up with this list, we suffered great internal struggle. We had foul words thrown at each other because of arguments like, A: “this anime has tough women that complement the plot”, and B: “but they are all just harem characters!”. The list below is the result of a bloody war.
After reading this top 10 TV anime list, remember to check out the top 10 anisong list too!
Spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.
▍1. Kino’s Journey
Consider Kino’s Journey a fable for grown up. With each episode featuring an individual story about the people Kino meets on her never-ending journey, the anime teaches us something in a serious and clever manner (but it is quite casual sometimes). If someone can’t learn anything or reflect upon anything after watching it, they are probably a born-to-be devil.
Kino is a complicated character who often shows little emotions in her speech. She can be sarcastic, sad, cheerful, and yet she never shows much though what she says – a difficult character to be portrayed indeed. Aoi Yuki’s voice acting is completely perfect. Before Kino, she also voiced a wide range of characters with TOTALLY different voices. The anime staff really did a good job in casting!
▍2. Made in Abyss
Loli! Shota! Kawaii design! Cuteness overload! But a few episodes into the show has already surprised us with intriguing mysteries and complex settings. Starting from the 10th episode it is choutenkai (a common term for describing a surprising turn of event in anime, game, etc.) – blood, blood, blood, and death that frees oneself from pain. Feel like Puella Magi Madoka Magica all over again? Not really. While Madoka uses gore to describe sophisticated emotions and ideas, Made in Abyss uses gore to highlight children’s pureness, simple heart, and courage – this is why this show can make people cry tons of tear.
▍3. Re:CREATORS
An original TV anime that started from scratch. Re:CREATORS is the best original anime of the year.
First, the idea is novel. We can hardly think of any prior works about creators and their characters. Underlying the story about their love-hate relationships is creators’ confessions of their intention – characters and plots are not consumable entertainments, they are creators’ very own way of expressing their feelings. Perhaps unrelatable to many of us, but definitely relatable to those hard-working creators who live on minimum just to make something meaningful and beautiful.
Second, the characterisation is extraordinary. There are so many characters in this anime. They each have different skills and backstories. And yet somehow their attributes are not overlapping and we can all remember them perfectly. Imagine designing the settings of 11 unique new works that appear in the same anime – that must be a lot of work. Props to the creators of Re:CREATORS!
▍4. Gintama
Gintama has two series aired in 2017 – Gintama° and Gintama° Porori-hen. Gintama° focuses on the serious main story, while at the same time it does not forget to make jokes in between all the heart breaking moments. After Gintama° aired in January, Gintama° Porori-hen arrived in October to deliver humors again, while at the same time it does not forget to leave important messages. This is Gintama, a show that never fails to make people laugh and cry simultaneously. When life is a bitch, go watch Gintama, learn the way to have fun amid adversity and dance to your own beat.
▍5. My Hero Academia
A typical Jump’s anime about friendship, diligence, and victory. My Hero Academia in 2017 proved itself to be even better than the first season. With the story getting more and more intense in season two, the action scenes become more and more exciting. Sometimes we get too indulged in the detailed animated fighting scenes and forget to pay attention to the plot.
Besides, season two has one of the best opening we have heard in years – Peace Sign. This song can get us hype as hell even before the show starts. Once the show begins, we can never calm ourselves down. Only My Hero Academia has the magic to make us feel this way!
▍6. Children of the Whales
A fairytale-like art style doesn’t promise a happy story.
Although Children of the Whales has a simple theme – the ruthlessness of war and the preciousness of emotions, it is complemented by good editing, character design, and script writing. The protagonist being an average boy instead of a hero with great strength definitely determines the entire atmosphere to be melancholic – the average “children of the whales” like him are helpless, and they do not deserve to die for sins they do not commit. When the scence where Neri sings a folk song while the children are brutally murdered plays, it is a “beautifully sad” moment. Instead of tear jerking, this show makes our ache more.
A little criticism is that some characters do not harvest enough attention for us to be very emotional about their deaths. What a pity.
▍7. Katsugeki Touken Ranbu
We never expected this from Touken Ranbu. Hikaru Kondo from Ufotable really outdid himself again.
Instead of making it easier to be digested by young female fans, Kondo made it a heavy, profound story mostly about samurai spirits. He describes the relationship between master and sword as father and son. The sons look up to their fathers, learn the way of samurai from them, and in the end have to watch them die in the way a samurai dies. The sons can do nothing about it because dying in a war, dying for what they believe in is noble. This idea goes well with Touken Ranbu and the tragic background of the Bakumatsu period.
We love the entire series until the last episode, where the happy ending seems a little bit cliche. In Asia, many fans say the anime would have been a kamianime (an extremely well done anime that is timeless, ex. Eva and Gundam) if Kane-san really kills Kunihiro.
Last but not least, that animation…that damn animation is the most beautiful thing we have seen in 2017! Watch this:
▍8. The Ancient Magus’ Bride
The Ancient Magus’ Bride can heal. Many of us see themselves in Chise – a girl who has lost the will to live, but starts appreciating life and even saving others after meeting her special one – Elias. Each episode features them going to complete a commission. Whatever jobs they do, Chise is inspired by how life can be beautiful and how strong love is. As Chise changes, she takes the audience along with her.
Another thing worth mentioned is the scenery. The cliff, the rural house, the forest – they are just as beautiful as the story.
▍9. What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?
How this anime remains faithful to the original light novel contribute to its success. The animation may not be top rated, but the story is depressing as hell. At the beginning we, and even the heroine herself, already know her fate. Watching her being bubbly around the main hero Williem despite knowing they are never meant to be together hurts us. The anime captures this kind of bitter yet optimistic feeling well with soothing music and well-directed sequences.
We are quite tired of how fantasy light novels’ anime adaptions tend to highlight harem scenes. This anime is refreshing, and it certainly prompts people to read the novel.
▍10. Acca13 Kanasatsu-ka
Those who haven’t read the manga will have a better experience watching Acca13.
It is hard to describe Acca13 in one word. It is stylish, a bit Persona like, slow-paced, casual. The first episode really confuses us. It introduces a character called Jean, who works as an inspector and really likes cigarettes. We could smell something coming in the end though. As the anime proceeds, we gradually realise that cigarette serves as a motif and start to put pieces together.
In the end, we got really hooked to this anime for its clever execution of mysteries. For a realistic show/manga that doesn’t involve any fantasy or high tech stuff, this one is surely an exciting ride.
READ MORE:
• The top 10 anisong of 2017
• QooApp 2017 Best Games of the Year