== Looking back at the Fall 2012 anime season

This season is atypical (or at least feels so) in that almost all
of the series that I'm following are continuing into the new year
(even if one of them, *Girls und Panzer*, has simply been postponed to
March). This is going to make for an unusual retrospective but also
gives me no reason (or excuse) to delay writing this. So, [[as before
Summer2012Retrospective]] this is an attempt at an honest look back
at the shows of the Fall 2012 season (as much as that's possible with
most of them not finished yet), following on [[my early impressions
Fall2012Brief]] and [[my midway views Fall2012Midway]].

(The quick summary is that [[my midway views]] haven't changed much with
two exceptions.)

In more or less the order of enjoyment and quality, shows that I finished
or am still watching:

* *Shin Sekai Yori*: The show started out being a mystery, shifted
  for a bit to being horror, and now I feel that it's more or less become
  tragedy. With a lot of answers revealed from episode 10 onwards, what's
  going on has acquired the same sense of inevitability as an avalanche
  coming down a hill (and I think that poor Saki sees a lot of it coming,
  after what she's been told).

  *SSY* is (and remains) my favorite show of the season and, on the
  strength of the episodes so far, one of my favorite shows of the year.
  I'm not bothered by the sometimes odd art or the stylistic shifts and
  the more I see the ED sequence the more I like it.

  (Much like *Star Driver*, it could let me down during the remainder of
  its run and fall in my estimation. But the episodes so far are great.)

* *K*: I quite liked this in all of its oddity and peculiarity (and
  frequent use of colour filters and other tricks). It wrapped up with
  what I felt was an entirely satisfying conclusion. Yes, it doesn't
  answer all our questions and leaves things dangling, but then life
  is often like that.  I'll be happy to watch the second season when
  it happens but at the same time I don't think a second season is
  necessary. *K* is a rare anime that said enough during its run and
  came to an actual conclusion.

  Many series would have stretched *K*'s plot out over more episodes,
  focused on fewer characters, or explained things more; I feel that
  it's to *K*'s benefit that it didn't make any of these missteps. The
  end result is something that feels like we're dropping in on the lives
  of these characters for a bit, even if it's a very eventful period
  for some of them; they all have pasts and futures that extend off the
  screen, ones that we are not magically privy to all of the important
  details of.

  (If you're watching *K*, [[this timeline (spoilers)
  http://marchen-v-friedhof.tumblr.com/post/39371178624/basic-timeline-of-k]]
  ([[via https://twitter.com/hachikurooo/status/286069081944244225]])
  will help. [[See also
  https://twitter.com/hachikurooo/status/280078737393995777]] and [[also
  https://twitter.com/hachikurooo/status/284420355228057600]].)

* *Girls und Panzer*: [[My midway views Fall2012Midway]] haven't changed;
  it remains great and [[a good sports anime GirlsUndPanzerSportsAnime]].
  I just wish that it hadn't had scheduling problems so we could have
  gotten the last two episodes already; however, I'm confident that
  they'll be up to the standards of the rest of the show when they do
  show up.

* *Zetsuen no Tempest*: The show keeps surprising me and the characters
  remain great. I do wonder how it'll sustain all of this for another
  season but I feel fairly confidant that it's going to manage. I really
  liked the shock twist in episode 12 and how it now means that I've got
  no real idea of what's actually going on.

* *Psycho-Pass*: This has turned into a show that I can't tear myself
  away from without actually enjoying it (much like [[my experience with
  *RideBack* RidebackView]]). It's wrenching, compelling watching without
  actually being, you know, pleasant; brutal things keep happening one
  after another and any successes that the protagonists have are very
  conditional and partial. It's almost horror and I suspect that people
  who have bad reactions to horror will actively hate it.

  I expect that at the end of *Psycho-Pass* I'll be happy that I watched
  it but also have absolutely no desire for a rewatch.

  (*Psycho-Pass* is probably a better constructed show than *Tempest*
  and *Girls und Panzer*, but for me it's clearly less enjoyable
  than either; given a choice I watch either of them before *PP*.
  Sometimes I'll watch anything else before *PP*, simply because *PP* is
  wrenching.)

* *Robotics;Notes*: It keeps moving slowly but getting places in the
  end. I have no idea what's really going on so I'm mostly watching
  to see the characters bounce off each other. I'm sure it's going to
  go all conspiracy theory and fate of the world on me at some point;
  I can only hope that it will be well executed when it happens.

* *Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo*: The first 12 episodes prospered on
  the strengths of periodic sharp edges and characters being brutally
  honest. The end of the 12th episode clearly marks a sea change in the
  overall plot direction but I'm going to trust that the show's team
  will keep things edged even with the new direction.

  (Translation: I could easily get let down here.)

* *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure* #10-#12: Although I bounced hard off the
  first episode because it was too over the top for me at the time,
  the ongoing praise for the show has gotten me to try jumping into
  *JoJo's* starting with the second arc since it has a mostly new cast,
  new setting, and a timeskip (I may backfill part of the first arc
  later, since I understand it has internal breakpoints). I honestly
  don't know yet how I feel about it. It definitely still has that MANLY
  SHONEN ACTION thing going on and it's still painting with a roller,
  but I can also see how it's EPIC in an all-caps way. For now I'm taking
  it episode by episode.

* *Sword Art Online*: It ended. [[It's flawed SAOViews]]. For the rest,
  I will just quote [[my tweet
  https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/282732463300698112]]:
	In the end, for all that I said grumpy things about #SAO it
	did know how to be enjoyable and to craft likeable, watchable
	characters.

  (Okay, see also [[Evirus's comments http://karmaburn.com/?p=4910]].)

Right at the end of December I also finished up two shows from earlier
in the year that I feel are worth mentioning:

* *Aquarion EVOL*: [[My views AquarionEVOLStillWatching]] about this
  compared to the original *Aquarion* didn't change; I like
  the original's characters and plot more, but *EVOL* is far
  more gonzo.  *EVOL* maintains this right through the end
  and it gave me a smile throughout; [[as I put it on twitter
  https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/285633590082039808]], the ending
  was cheesy but it was good cheese. I think it helps that I knew a
  certain amount of spoilers when I watched eps 18 to 26, because I
  could enjoy noticing certain things.

  Andy and Mix remain the best *EVOL* couple. The drama only improved
  their status and I'm glad Mix got a happy ending.

  Also, [[episode 23 is an epic troll
  https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/285634323292508160]]. As someone
  who watched the original *Aquarion*, I can assure you that the big
  revelations in episode 23 were definitely not so much as hinted at in
  the original (at least as far as you'd notice).

* *Joshiraku*: This was fun to watch (generally in a low key way) but
  generally not something that I actively found funny. I enjoyed
  following the games of verbal tennis and keeping track of the topic
  shifts even when it didn't make me laugh. To a certain extent I
  appreciate the chance to see something like *Joshiraku* simply because
  it's different and strange; it's a facet of Japanese anime and writing
  that I don't have much exposure to.

  ([[The translation notes for gg's *Joshiraku* subs
  http://notredrevie.ws/tag/joshiraku/]] were also quite helpful and
  definitely increased my ability to enjoy the show.)

Now declared a miss:

* *Magi* (#10): I realized that Morgiana was the only character I
  actually cared about and she's not the focus of the show. Alibaba is
  terminally naive and stupid in the finest shonen tradition and I got
  tired of Aladin's 'I'm an innocent and don't know anything' schtick.

Overall Fall 2012 has been my strongest season of the year, even
if I can't call most of the shows in it because they're only half
over. Looking back at [[the Winter2012Retrospective]] [[other
Spring2012Retrospective]] [[seasons Summer2012Retrospective]] of this
year, there are only a handful of shows that I'd currently stack up
against anything down to at least *Psycho-Pass*.

(As always I may be suffering from a recency bias, plus all of these
shows except *K* could still blow their foot off.)