You can tell Saki is the Best Girl because she has a turntable.

Of the shows I watched spring 2013, the first one to end was the last one I started: Aiura.1 I don't actually have much to say about Aiura because it is such a short show. Practically everything I could say about it I've said before: Crabs. Steve Jobs. Cancer. iUra. Gams. So many gams. Saki is the Best Girl. Are girls named Saki more like to be a show's Best Girl? Sure seems that way. But what I suppose I can do is use Aiura to talk about a show I didn't watch—one that everyone appears to adore: Yuyushiki.

Wet socks are actually kinda gross.

That's right. I didn't watch Yuyushiki at all and know basically nothing about it except for what people have gushed in IRC or on the Twitter. I think there might be heavily implied lesbianism? I know there are girls in it who close their eyes a lot as they let their jaws hang slack—sort of like a reptile's smile. I haven't watched it because I'm not actually a big fan of the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things sub-genre. I struggled to watch K-On! and still dropped it at episode four of the first season.2 I liked Aiura, but its short episode length probably helped quite a bit. For me to enjoy a Cure Girls Doing Cute Things show, the primary draw needs to be its humor or some other gimmick. E.g., Azumanga Daioh, Ichigo Mashimaro, and Natsuiro Kiseki. I never finished Lucky☆Star, though. It's not that I feel it's a "cancer killing anime" or anything like that. I'd just rather see the characters doing something more interesting. Maybe operating tanks.

Note 1: Technically Straight Title Robot Anime ended first, but that was a carryover from winter 2013.

Note 2: I liked the movie well enough though.

The Golden Time anime starts autumn 2013.

While perusing a list of upcoming anime planned for summer and autumn 2013, I took the time to make note of sequels to shows I enjoyed, original content, and adaptations their with source material readily available. Golden Time fits in this last category; several chapters of the original light novels and the manga adaptations have already been translated. Based on what I've read so far, Golden Time seems very promising. If the anime adaptation is at least competent, this should be a layup. The biggest single draw is that it's a romantic comedy set in college, so it's free from all the high school and middle school bullshit that plagues nearly all anime romantic comedies. The original work is by the author of Toradora! and appears written at least as well (again, with the additional benefit of being free from high school rules of engagement). Golden Time is medium wacky, so your receptiveness to its antics will depend on how you feel about that sort of thing. However, if the anime balances the comedic elements with adequate emotional resonance, Golden Time stands a good chance of being closer to Honey and Clover than Toradora! with regard to how it navigates the minefield of anime romance.

It probably doesn't mean she has crabs.

I forgot to mention that I started watching Aiura. It's a pleasant enough show, but I don't have much to say about it because it's so short. (It's another one of those jobbies with four-minute episodes.) I guess I can say I also have no idea why crabs and Steve Jobs are in the OP. There has been some speculation that crabs refer to the zodiac sign Cancer1 since Steve Jobs died of cancer, but I'm calling that one a coincidence absent some more compelling reason why that would be in the OP either.

It's not easy being best.

I can also say that the show does appear to be the labor of love of somebody with a deep appreciation of the bare thighs of teenage girls. There is that. Oh, and it's the second show this season (along with Valvrave the Liberator) where the BEST GIRL is named Saki. If you include Saki from Natsuiro Kiseki, that makes girls named Saki three-for-three in shows from recent memory seizing BEST GIRL honors. When Genshiken Nidaime starts in a few weeks, girls named Saki will go four-for-four. I might be on to something here.

Note 1: Or possibly the genus, since hardly anyone in anime outside of The Melody of Oblivion seems to care about the western zodiac.

Even the band must face the music.

Although it is not anime, Game of Thrones attracts many of the same fans. As such, the outrage over the penultimate season-three episode somewhat overshadowed the near contemporaneous shock some fans felt this week over Suisei no Gargantia episode nine. (Not the ones who saw this coming from a league away, but some viewers nonetheless.)

Looking for love in all the wrong places.

I am, of course, referring to Melty's inexplicable ongoing inability to find a partner with whom to mate despite her open enthusiasm for courtship rituals and her eye for desirable phenotypes. It also doesn't help that she has drastically reduced the size of her available population by joining the squid-squishing diaspora comprised of greedy seabed scavengers and other folk hoping to avert certain death when Team Rocket rapes and pillages the fleet after learning its command now lies in the hands of a myopic 22-year-old girl who appears to have achieved supreme executive power largely thanks to nepotism.

P.S. Pooterballs are made out of people! [Spoilers]