Anime Girl Rankings

Weekend Wonderland

We're starting off the weekend right with 33 new characters! Let's go over the breakdown:

First is Renkin 3-kyuu Magical? Pokaan, a slice-of-life series about four princesses from the netherworld who move to the human world and encounter all sorts of cultural confusion. I remember seeing artwork for it years ago when it came out and liking the character design, but never got around to seeing it back then. It wasn't a masterpiece by any means but it was a fun watch.

Second is Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!, a series about a college student who takes it upon himself to raise his three nieces when his sister and her husband tragically die. I'm not alone in being skeeved out by the title and not expecting much of it, but I'm also far from alone in being surprisingly and utterly taken in by the story and characters. Other than one side character who ruined every scene he was in, the series turned out to be an excellent pull-at-your-heartstrings experience.

Third is Wedding Peach, a by-the-numbers magical girl show that deserves nearly every Sailor Moon comparison it receives. Yet, there's something very comforting about the repetition and tradition inherent in magical girl shows like this, plus as is standard for me my affections fell upon a secondary character.

Fourth is Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth a story that takes place in 19th century France, in which Yune, a young Japanese girl, is taken in by a blacksmith and his grandson. Think of it as a cross-cultural slice-of-life show that is utterly charming. Yune and spoiled rich girl Alice are aggressively cute but thankfully the series rarely panders in that regard.

Fifth is three new characters from the A Certain Magical Index Movie, The Miracle of Endymion. It's the first anime movie I've seen in a while that has actually felt structured like a real movie instead of a long episode. I love the 'A Certain' universe as it is, so I enjoyed the movie.

Sixth is Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge, a sort of low budget series with a pretty cool story structure. One half of each episode focused on a duo of superhero girls who acted more like villians, destroying whatever they disagreed with, while the other half focused on a family of girls who would attempt to be evil villians but just didn't have the heart for it. It had some funny moments from here to there, but I'm not expecting to ever watch it again.

Last is Chocolate Underground, a cute but very short ONA about two boys who come to lead an underground chocolate bootleg operation after sweets and sugars have been banned. At five minutes per episode with a total of 13 episodes there wasn't much story to tell, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

The march toward 2,000 characters continues!