Shiny Chariot's Magical Festa is a tough act to follow.

Overall, the spring 2013 season was a little bit of a letdown considering it started fairly strong. (I can sort of prove it too.) From a subjective standpoint, it probably felt worse because the start of the season coincided with the release of Little Witch Academia and Death Billiards which are both excellent short films, although not part of the spring 2013 anime season itself. As you can probably predict, both the best show and the worst show I watched were pretty consistent episode to episode.

Rin, Saki, and Natsumi realize by now that Yuka
with an idea can be a dangerous thing.

I've already explained why Natsuiro Kiseki is my favorite show from spring 2012. However, I didn't mention how shabby the animation looks at times. I'm really surprised to see such lapses from Sunrise, but the show is otherwise so good I'm willing to ignore those faults.

Hibiki has large headphones.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is badical. If you can't enjoy teenage girls fighting with the power of song, you can't enjoy anime. I am a little perplexed by the numerous (coincidental?) similarities with Suite Precure♪, though. Both shows are music-themed and feature superpowered teenage girls named Kanade and Hibiki who fight inhuman adversaries known as Noise by using either their magic or a science sufficiently advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic. Senki Zesshou Symphogear is much better than Suite Precure♪ so far, though, even if it does have comically large swords.

I guess Rihoko is kinda fat for an anime character, but
not really fat enough to be the Fat Love Interest.

Amagami SS+ is a worthy sequel to Amagami SS. It follows the same format, although the girls are sequenced in a different order this time. From the looks of it, Amagami SS+ will be 12 episodes offering two-episode arcs for each of the six lead girls, continuing from where the original four-episode arcs in the first season left off, not including timeskip epilogues. Probably the only real problem with Amagami SS+ is that Potato-kun continues to be a bit of a tool with very little to offer in the way of explaining why any of these girls give him the time of day (let alone explaining why some even deigned to sleep with him). Such are harem comedies, I suppose. Even serially monogamous ones.

Damn it, Athrun, who did you let die now?

I'm not sure if I should lump the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED "HD" rebroadcast in with the rest of the winter 2012 shows, or group it with my "Also Watching" cluster. Technically, there is new material, where Sunrise was unable able to crop the original 4:3 broadcast without terrible framing problems. Aside from the shortscreen upscale with sporadic new shots, there's not much to this rebroadcast aside from a new ED arrangement I don't like as much as the original. Still, Gundam SEED is pretty good if you aren't carrying too much U.C. baggage. Let's not confuse it with the dreadful Gundam SEED Destiny sequel, at least. In other news, re-watching SEED makes me wish Hummy would have worked in a "Cosmic Era 70" intro to at least one episode of Suite Precure♪. I like seiyuu jokes.

Ayase decides it's time to tear shit up.

Guilty Crown is not nearly as bad as people claim—it's just juvenile. Some degree of tolerance for tropes intended to appeal to children and teenage boys is required to fully appreciate Guilty Crown. That said, there are elements of the show that don't make any damn sense. Still, I enjoy it for the nice production values and the sufficiently tolerable male lead. Nevertheless, it is a little hard to stomach a successful terrorist organization run entirely by teenagers.

The kids in Detective Conan are drawn comically short.

Detective Conan is Detective Conan. This season appears poised to be as good as it ever was. Detective Conan also remains the best source for regular Hayashibara Megumi and periodic Kansai-ben Miyamura Yuko (Neon Genesis Evangelion's Rei and Osaka-type Asuka) content.

Kokoro's I.Q. dropped this season, but so did everyone else's.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes II isn't quite as good as the first season yet, but it's nothing more Kokoro and Arsène couldn't fix.

Shana should leave her hair on fire at all times.

I'm not going to call the plot of Shakugan no Shana III complicated, but it seems a bit more convoluted than it needs to be. There's a lot of stuff going on at the same time now, and not all of it makes good sense. It's mostly interesting, or at least amusing, which is a huge step up from Shakugan no Shana II which I'm trying my best to forget even though it's only been a few months since I watched it.

You know, Carmel doesn't really appear to Manipulate
Objects any more than anyone else does.

It turns out J.C. Staff is not only bad when it comes to fight scenes. It's also bad at war. At least with that arc over, Shakugan no Shana Final can finally answer the important questions: Whatever happened to horny dude after his afternoon of life-threatening copulation with horny chick? Obviously she fucked him into next year, and they were still airborne last we saw them, but what's going to happen when they hit the ground?

I guess Rebecca looks sober here, even with her trousers unbuttoned.

Speaking of which, if Margery is the Shakugan no Shana drunken office lady, then Rebecca is the Shana drunken sorority girl, even though I think she's been sober the whole time. The girl just don't look sober. Ever. I like Rebecca.

Piracy goes in here.

Moretsu Pirates seems fine so far, but it's kinda boring, even if it does have schoolgirls wearing skirts in zero-G. For being "bodacious space pirates," they don't seem very bodacious, spacey, or piratey.

Potato-kun is a pretty half-assed vampire.

I am watching Nisemonogatari. It's pretty good if you like that sort of thing, but it's painful to watch if you have a low tolerance for SHAFTisms. Nisemonogatari is a pretty ambitious harem comedy, but I guess that's still a lot better than typical low-brow ones.

Cure Melody dies.

Suite Precure♪ is a disaster at this point. Worst Pretty Cure series ever. I hope Smile Precure! is a big improvement. With a starting cast of at least five Cures, I hope Smile tries to tap the focus on interpersonal relationships that made Yes! Precure 5 so successful. I will also accept wall-to-wall mahou shoujo beatdowns a la the first generation, Futari wa Pretty Cure.

Just so you know, the top three mecha pilots of all time are as follows:

1. Shinji's mom.
2. Kira Anime Jesus Yamato, Gundam SEED Destiny edition—as long as he isn't piloting Strike Rouge
3. Sagara Sousuke, assuming Bonta-kun qualifies as a mecha

Mecha, powered armor, odious fursuit...it's a fine line.

That is all.

I really am tired of pacifism dominating shows about WAR. I mean, I understand a kids' show can't really glorify war (except on Palestinian stations, apparently), but conceited characters who just happen to be able to whale all other charcters, yet refuse to fight (except to thrust their hippie dogma on everyone else, 'natch) are infuriating as all Hell.

This, of course, was the biggest reason (albeit among many) why Gundam SEED Destiny sucked.

"What? Why's everyone looking at me?"

Pacifism is only entertaining when it is rife with hypocrisy. SEED III Empress Lacus Clyne, I trust you will not disappoint.

Speaking of Lacus Clyne, I've also been looping Tanaka Rie's Lacus Clyne pacifist ballads for some time now. I hope this isn't contradictory....

Unfortunately, Gundam SEED Lacus Clyne Destroys the World is going to have to wait until after recently-announced ALL NEW GUNDAM, which I'm not at all excited about because apparently the show takes the shittiest part of Destiny and makes it the main plot. Sigh.

Someone finally punches Basara in the face.

Macross 7 manages not to annoy me because it's so goofy. I mean, the best way to win battles in the Macross 7 universe is to SING HARDER. Also, I've determined that Macross 7 doesn't belong in the Cho Jiku Yosai Macross continuity, so it doesn't seem a sacriligous as it might otherwise be.

Don't worry; I found someone to watch the place while I'm gone.

Lunamaria without her skirt. Oh, and Kira in a ZAFT uniform for some reason.
And Meyrin needs to take Athrun to the mall again.
I think all his non-Orb clothes went down with the Minerva.

I somehow completely failed to notice that Lunamaria ditched her skirt in the final moments of the fourth Gundam SEED Destiny compliation movie until Zyl pointed it out.

This raises the question as to WHY?

1. Hack job by Sunrise animators suffering from the Itis after too much free Pizza Hut caused genuine error.
2. Wants to be taken seriously as a Gundam pilot. (Hey, it could happen.)
3. Finally realized that all those elevators at PLANT are made of glass.

It was probably the first reason, but I can almost argue that it was the second reason since Lunamaria did get herself some non-trampy street clothes with phony FAITH logos on the lapels.

Lunamaria, this is a prime opportunity to start sucking up.

Clearly Lunamaria has Special Forces envy.

I didn't spot any major changes to the fourth and final Gundam SEED Destiny Special Edition compliation movie. The biggest thing I noticed was an additional scene showing Cagalli taking off THE RING and stowing it in some random box in a desk, just in case the original scene was just TOO SUBTLE for some of y'all. I guess it also serves to eliminate any potential doubts such as fears that maybe Cagalli just lost it down a sink one day while washing dishes.

At least she didn't throw it into Mount Doom.

Oh, they did fix Meer's Engrish note from the double-date segment.

Help!! I'm trapped in an Idol Factory.

God damn, those really were shitty Soldats knockoffs.

The fourth movie also clearly showed that Shiho Hasenpfeffer is now one of Empress Lacus' goons. Oh, I guess the fourth movie also showed that Kira now apparently holds a ZAFT command position in the Clyne Empire, although Athrun had to settle for being an Orb flunky.

Empress-type Lacus greets ZAFT-type Kira.

Empress Lacus and her goons. So much better than Meer's goons.

Ha ha. It's ARTHUR!

I guess that's the biggest change right there: Remember how Gundam SEED Destiny screwed up by first being about Shinn Asuka, and then switched gears trying to be about Athrun Zala and his harem of girls with the bedroom-type eyes and the aerodynamic-type boobs, and then fucked everything royal by being about Kira's pacifistic moralizing and brush with omnipotence? Well, the movies basically said, "Forget all that, the series was really about Athrun Zala narrating the epic story of Lacus Clyne's sinister rise to power." It's quite an accomplishment for the "Ara? Ara?" airhead of yore.

Everything else was pretty much from the Final Plus version of the last episode, including Shinn finally being introduced to Kira.

"So sorry I accidentally killed your family."

Anyway, I hope there is a third SEED season that reveals Lacus was behind it all, and that the source of Kira's newfound strength arises from the ghost of Flay, whose regular Obi-Wan Kenobi-isms get him through the night when he's blueballed from his years of impenetrable celibacy with Lacus. And Meyrin and Athrun should go on more dates that get interrupted because people keep trying to kill them.