My Favorite Anime of 2016 Part 1 Winter/Spring

As we get into the new simulcasts of 2017 where there's lots of excitement with the new season of Blue Exorcist and the announcement of Attack on Titan 2, let's look back at 2016 where there was a wide variety. Here are my top anime that I have watched throughout last year. 

Winter 2016

ERASED

Those who have watched this know that this is one of the best anime of the year. It's about this 29 year old named Satoru who is a struggling manga artist but has a unique supernatural ability of being forced to prevent deaths and catastrophes by being sent back in time before the incident occurred, repeating time until the accident is prevented. The way this anime was directed was amazing, it was like I was watching a mystery/thriller film. This could easily be a top film and that's the dynamic of this anime. I don't really want to spoil much since this is an anime full of suspense so I'm going to leave it at that.

Haruta & Chika

If you've watched Hyouka and Sound Euphonium, it's basically a great mixture of the two. Haruta and Chika are members of their high school wind instrument club that is on the verge of being shutdown because there are only four members. The two are childhood friends that got split up, but reunited nine years later and they spend their days studying and also trying to recruit new members. When a mysterious event occurs within their school, they band together in order to solve the mystery. It's a great anime because you get to see the relationship between two childhood friends as well as the backstory of the members they try to recruit and their relationship to club when they attended previously.

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 

As opposed to being in a virtual reality like in SAO or Log Horizon, this is set in a fantasy world where they physically live in. The story follows a group of people who suddenly find themselves in a fantasy world with no memories from before their arrival, and chronicles their struggles to survive and make a life for themselves. I want to tell you that A-1 pictures did a beautiful job animating this series, the background was done in watercolors so it give off this simple look to the anime. Although there's a few battle scenes in the anime, I think the main focus is the teamwork and relationships in this group that didn't know each other until they woke up in this world.

Snow White with the Red Hair 2

This is my favorite romance anime of 2016 and in a while. The last romance anime I enjoyed was Blue Spring Ride and My Love Story. I don't want to spoil much from the first season, Shirayuki is a normal herbalist citizen in the kingdom of Tanbarun with one rare unique feature: her beautiful red hair. However, her hair gets her noticed by Prince Raj, who orders her to become his concubine. Refusing his orders, she cuts her hair and leaves it behind as part of what he wanted and escapes to the neighboring kingdom of Clarines. On her way there, she meets and befriends Prince Zen the Clarines and his two aides Mitsuhide and Kiki, becomes a court herbalist. That's the basis of the first season. What I love about the second season is more the development in relationships between all the characters and how some mature overtime. 

Other anime I watched in Winter 2016:

• GATE: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri 2
• Musaigen no Phantom World
• Luck & Logic

Spring 2016

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

So this Anime is an Amazon exclusive and can only be watched with Amazon Prime (I have Prime Student so lucky me) so anyone watching this outside of Amazon are watching on pirated Anime sites D: I know Crunchyroll got rights to a home release soon so please watch it then and don't support pirated sites. I know a lot of people compared this to Attack on Titan but the only thing similar is the apocalyptic settings, personally I think the characters in this anime are more better personality wise. Plus it's from the same studio so I think the reason for WIT Studio putting out anime like this and Seraph of the End, which I enjoyed more, is because of the delay of Attack on Titan 2. This anime was animated beautifully, the art design is somewhat similar to old school anime series. 

A mysterious virus appears during the industrial revolution that transforms infected humans into Kabane and rapidly spreads. Kabane are aggressive, undead creatures that cannot be defeated unless the glowing heart, which is protected by a layer of iron, is pierced. One day, a hayajiro hijacked by the Kabane crashes into Aragane Station and they overrun the city. A young engineer called Ikoma uses the opportunity to test with success his anti-Kabane weapon, the "piercing gun", but is infected in the process, although he manages to resist the virus and become a Kabaneri, a human-Kabane hybrid. 

The animation is beautiful, it has 

Kuromukuro

As you guys may know, I'm a big P.A.Works fan. I love all the anime they made, it's animated beautifully with great story line. Kuromukuro was produced to celebrate P.A. Works' 15th anniversary and what a great way to do so. I'm not the biggest fan of mecha anime but I've watched shows like Comet Lucifer or Heavy Object that really enjoyed.

During the construction of the Kurobe Dam, an ancient artifact was discovered, and so the United Nations Kurobe Research Institute was established. Intellectuals from all over the world gathered to study the object, and the children of those researchers attend Mt. Tate International Senior High School, including the institute head's daughter, Yukina Shirahane. In the summer of 2016, a lone samurai once again awakens. Kennosuke, the lone samurai, mistaken Yukina as the princess he was protecting back in the Sengoku era.

This was my favorite anime of the year, there was great character development, action scenes, etc. I recommend everyone to watch this.

Mayoiga (The Lost Village)

This Anime was one of the more interesting one since it's about the human physiology.   A group of 30 young men and women go on a bus tour to Nanaki Village, a shadowy village with an urban legend of being a utopia. Many seek either to start a new life or escape the troubles of their old one. Upon arrival, they discover the village has no inhabitants, with small signs of life that are slowly deteriorating. The truth of Nanaki Village has yet to be discovered. 

All of them have some sort of deep issues physiological issues that they want to get away from but in Nanaki Village, they have to face them. I'll leave it at that since I don't want to spoil it since it's an important part of the anime. 

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad

The spin-off/prequel manga titled Adventure of Sinbad follows the origins of Sinbad, years before he becomes the King of Sindria. Sinbad conquers Baal and gains the allegiance of the Djinn residing there, thus becoming the first ever Dungeon Capturer. Sinbad returns home in time to have one last encounter with his mother at her deathbed and leaves Parthevia to start his own journey to change the world.

I love the Magi series and so I was excited to see this spin off. This was a fun series to watch as we get to see Sinbad meet new friends that are seen in the main Magi series. 

Other anime I watched in Spring 2016:

• Sailor Moon: Crystal 3
• flying witch
• Gakusen Toshi Asterisk 2