== Looking back at the Spring 2013 anime season

It's time and past time for [[another one of these
Winter2013Retrospective]] post-season looks back, to go with [[my early
impressions Spring2013Brief]]. I didn't do a midterm view this season
because, frankly, my anime viewing flagged a lot in the middle of this
season (that's also why this retrospective is delayed).

For this season, in order:

* *Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (2012)*: This is so good that
  paradoxically I only watch it sporadically (partly because I spent
  a bunch of the season hammered by my usual spring allergies). It
  continues to be excellent. I don't really have anything coherent
  to say about it apart from that.

  Oh wait, yes I do: this is epic in an excellent way. This is
  (lovingly produced) space opera and I cannot help but love it
  for that.

* *Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince*: The show has gone from strength
  to strength, having a heart and being quietly serious without losing
  its goofy charm and weirdness. Chunks of the story are kind of silly
  and over the top but MJP makes them work by taking them seriously but
  not too seriously. I'm really enjoying it as it continues.

  Let me summarize it this way: MJP paints in broad strokes and then
  quietly goes back to fill in little subtle details here and there.

* *Valvrave the Liberator*: The show spent most of the season
  being utterly crazy, dipped into unpleasant territory at the end of the
  infamous episode ten ([[see Evirus http://karmaburn.com/?p=5478]]),
  and in the end did manage to convince me to sort of care about some
  of the characters. I've wound up looking forward to when it resumes
  in the fall season.

  (I actually think that this show is crazier than *Aquarion EVOL*,
  which is quite an accomplishment. In *EVOL* most of the stuff sort
  of makes sense within the context of the show, where *Valvrave*
  comes across as simply piling escalation on escalation.)

* *To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S*: I stalled on this for most of
  the season (and I'm still behind). I've found this very erratic
  because I'm not really interested in anything except the action
  and action-related bits. The character interaction, goofing around,
  and much of the angst isn't terribly exciting but the Mikoto fights
  have been good. When the show focuses on action it's nice; when
  people are standing around talking we get into [[the *Railgun* cycle
  http://re-jinx.me/2013/04/13/first-impressions-on-railgun-second-times-the-charm/]].

  Despite stalling out on it much more than I did on *Gargantia*, I'm
  more fond of *Railgun S* because I like it more on the whole. Our cast
  of characters continues to be great, I just wish that most of them had
  more substantial things to do with the story (as opposed to either
  being excluded entirely or nattering away on side things).

* *Suisei no Gargantia*: My feelings on *Gargantia* aren't amenable to
  easy summaries. On the whole I think the show was emotionally satisfying
  and well made at a technical level (some of the battle sequences were
  great and the animation always felt decent). Unlike a lot of shows
  it's willing to shut up and let things speak for themselves, which
  lends it a certain air of subtlety; sadly, that air is misleading
  because the overall plot often uses a sledgehammer. And while the show
  is emotionally satisfying, any number of things don't actually make
  much sense if you look at them at all closely.  The plot sledgehammer
  meant that I felt very unenthused about the low points of the show
  (the latter parts of episode 9 through much of episode 11) and stalled
  out on it for a significant amount of time.

  (But those low bits are actually a great illustration of how it's hard
  to call this show: with a few exceptions, Ledo's emotional turmoil and
  ultimate decision was handled subtly and much more gracefully than,
  say, Mikoto's angst in *Railgun S*. The overall plot used a sledgehammer
  but the execution had a light touch.)

  I believe that I've seen *Gargantia* called a well-executed collection
  of cliches designed to appeal to the fans. This is not a bad way to
  put it and goes well with how almost all of the female characters are
  designed to be (overly) fanservice-y.
  [[Unlike Evirus http://karmaburn.com/?p=5478]] I have no desire to see
  more. This story is done and nothing about the show makes me interested
  in seeing the same sort of execution of any others.

  I'm not convinced that *Gargantia* was ultimately worth my time. I
  don't really think I would have missed anything I'd regret much if I
  hadn't watched it and if I'm being honest I only finished it out of
  some sense of completeness given that people were saying that the last
  few episodes were quite good (which they mostly are).

Stalled:

* *Hataraku Maou-sama!*: I stalled out on this immediately after
  writing [[my early impressions]] for fuzzy reasons. I theoretically
  intend to try picking this up again because people praise it but I
  just haven't had the energy.

Excluding *Yamato* as a special case I genuinely enjoyed *MJP*
and *Valvrave* and sort of slogged my way through *Railgun S* and
*Gargantia*. At my low and slow points in the season I was watching
only *MJP* and *Valvrave*; only after the end of the season am I
catching up on the other two.