It's been almost two months since I started trying to watch MAL's top 100 and I haven't said anything here because I haven't finished a single series on it. Not one. I figure at best I can give monthly updates.
I watched like 25 episodes of Gintama before realizing that it was just Excel Saga. And while I did choose to watch all of Excel Saga, I was younger, dumber, and it only lasted 25 episodes. Gintama is not generally funny. I thought the Train Samurai and the nabe pot episodes were good, but other than that... The characters are not that well designed. The show constantly teases that there's more serious stuff to the backstory, but you have to go about 10 filler episodes to get more. I'm at the point now where there are more story arcs, so maybe that will help? To be fair, I'm not yet watching the version of Gintama that is ranked #4 on MAL... just the one that's ranked #16. I'll be taking a break after I watch the first movie.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms anime I've always wanted (and I was saying that long before the fucking imperial seal shows up). It's not much of an anime, being made on a $10 budget. All characters look alike and never move very much. But you're really here for the story, and the slow political war is everything people like out of Game of Thrones but without any stupidity. Sometimes things move way too fast between episodes, I assume because it's based on a series of books. In one episode a character plans a coup, and in the next episode we assume that it's already worked spectacularly. But still, the ending of the first season affected me more than Infinity War did. Very high recommendation. Hurts me to take a break from this one, but it's very long.
Hunter X Hunter is really the best battle shonen? It's not even a battle shonen yet. It's got probably the worst protagonist I've ever seen in one of these shows and a discount Sasuke. Leorio is obvious best character. I know this "gets better", but I can't think of a battle shonen that wasn't better at the point where I'm taking a break (end of exam arc), including One Piece. Somewhat watchable at least.
Starting 3-gatsu no Lion and Bakemonogatari soon.
Fate/Apocrypha was dumb. Sometimes it's brilliant, but then you remember all the times that it is stupid. Doesn't end on a decent note either.
I'm not surprised that Fate/Extra is its lowest rated Fate series. It's not an adaptation of an obscure (but amazing) PSP game. It's not a rewrite of it. It's a sequel masquerading as a rewrite. And even I don't understand it sometimes. I'll probably have to watch it again to unpack it all. And I would, because it's probably the next best Fate show to Fate/Zero. It's at least visually very brilliant. I like this Saber, but it's weird because she's basically just Illya.
People told me a lot of bad things about Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya, but I watched it anyway because the movie was so good. But nobody told me that the show was so boring. It was hard to care at all about the first 10 episodes, and it didn't answer any of the questions I had about the movie. Maybe it gets better?
Castlevania is not an anime. But it's pretty good as a proof of concept. Hard to get too excited over only four episodes. Looking forward to the next eight.
Devilman Crybaby is one of my favorite things I'm watching right now. It's certainly the best looking Newground animation I've ever seen. It feels like unrestrained artistic expression and Akira is one of the most likable characters ever. Hope my heart doesn't get much more broken over the final two episodes I have yet to see.
Any recommendations for stuff off the top 100? I'm watching three from it and one that peaks my interest off of it. I plan to watch Flip-Flappers and that one with the witch that blows things up that people say is actually funny.