== Looking back at the Winter 2013 anime season

It's time (and past time) for another look back at another season,
following up on [[my early impressions Winter2013Brief]] and [[my midway
views Winter2013Midway]]. In fact this is kind of a retrospective on two
seasons, since so many of [[the Fall 2012 shows Fall2012Retrospective]]
continued into this season; as such I'm splitting into two parts, one
for a handful of this season's shows and the other for the big four
heavyweights from last season.

For this season, in order:

* *Sasami-san@Ganbaranai*: This was the clear success of the season for
  me, delivering entertainment and surprise turns right up to the final
  episode. I quite enjoyed it, including all its references to Japanese
  mythology and vague randomness.

* *Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo*: This delivered
  exactly the popcorn entertainment that I wanted from it. I've got
  nothing to say about it that I didn't cover in [[my midway views
  Winter2013Midway]].

* *Yama no Susume*: What this show really is is another 'cute girls
  doing cute things' show, just with a different framing premise and a
  certain amount of geekery about mountaineering equipment. I misled
  myself about its real nature based on the early episodes and then felt
  let down by the later ones (which is not the show's fault). On the
  whole it was okay but I'm left with no more than vague feelings of
  affection for it.

  (If I'd known at the start what I know now, I'm not certain that I'd
  have watched it at all. If you're going to, it's probably best watched
  all in one batch.)

* *Vividred Operation*: There are shows that are actively bad and then
  there are shows that are just empty somehow. VO is the latter; it
  goes through the motions but nothing ever really engaged. Despite
  what I wrote in [[my midway views Winter2013Midway]], I watched all
  of it for no clear reason (perhaps partly stubbornness). For more,
  see Evirus's lovely summary of the show in [[his season wrapup
  http://karmaburn.com/?p=5302]] (he is more charitable than I am).

  Given VO's excessive levels of fanservice and general emptiness,
  I think that people should give it a miss. If you want to watch
  something with this level of twitch-inducing fanservice, my
  understanding is that *Strike Witches* is actually much more
  interesting and emotionally involving. See also [[my early
  impressions Winter2013Brief]].

In the end I tacitly dropped *Hakkenden Touhou Hakken Ibun* because
I just felt no particular urge to watch any more. This is less a
commentary on the show than a commentary on me; my understanding is
that it was actually decently good, and it's getting a second season
later on.

The fall shows, in order:

* *Shin Sekai Yori*: [[I wrote about it at some length
  ShinSekaiYoriWords]] but the short version is that I love it and think
  it's a great show. It is the best show from both this season and last
  season and it had the best ending. See also [[my Fall 2012
  retrospective Fall2012Retrospective]].

* *Girls und Panzer*: The delayed last two episodes totally delivered
  on the promise of the first ten episodes. They were a satisfying and
  exciting [[sports action GirlsUndPanzerSportsAnime]] capstone on an
  excellent and fun show. All I can possibly really say is PANZER VOR!

* *Psycho-Pass*: The show is far from perfect (for a start, it's far too
  much in love with violence to women) but after a terrible start it
  managed to turn itself into a pretty good show by dint of trying hard
  and having Akane. I've already written a bunch of words [[on Sibyl
  PsychoPassSibylView]] and [[on the ending PsychoPassNotes]] so I don't
  have anything else to say here.

* *Zetsuen no Tempest*: This was an excellent show pretty much from start
  to end, almost without a fumble or a misstep (the bait and switch at
  the end of the second last episode costs it style points). It lacks the
  power (and the brutality) of *Psycho-Pass*, which is why I'm reluctantly
  ranking it below PP; I suspect that people will remember and talk about
  PP much longer than they will ZnT.

  (One problem for ZnT is that Aika is clearly the best character and
  she's dead for the entire show. Not that the other characters are bad,
  several of them are great, but they can't measure up to Aika.)

If I look only at the Winter 2013 shows, this was a good but not great
season. If I throw in the four powerhouses that started in the fall,
this is a stunningly excellent season, one that I have no complaints
about at all.