I tweeted :

It's taken me a while to finish it, but I can now declare SenkiZesshou Symphogear to be the best show I watched in the Winter 2012season.

Ever since I started hanging out on Twitter , I've been hearing praise and enthusiasmfor Symphogear (and there was also enthusiasm from eg Evirus , who is on Twitter but I read directly ). Back in winter 2012 I wound up 'suspending' Symphogear for various reasons, but a coupleof weeks

Once again it's time for my usual look backat the shows I watched this season to see how my early impressions and my midway views stacked upin the end.

Excellent:

• Sound! Euphonium : This stayed excellent right through the end,although much of the real emotional climax was in the second lastepisode. I said a lot in my midway commentary and recently wrote some more about Euphonium and sports shows . There's so much to praise here thatit's a bit daunting; the show pleasantly

In reaction to my spring midway views on Euphonium , Author wrote :

When I mentioned that Euphonium was essentially asports show with girls, a few folks were sceptical , but thatclassification seems even more apt now.

My view is that while Euphonium certainly has elements thatalso appear in sports shows, it is not one itself. A sports showlike Ping Pong , Haikyuu!! , Yowamushi Pedal , or even Girls und Panzer strongly features the actual sport. Goodcharacters and their stories are important, but in a normal

Once again it's time for the traditional 'midway' update on my initialimpressions . You probably saw this one coming; I wasoverly optimistic in a number of my initial impressions.

Great:

• Sound! Euphonium : This has become the smash hit of the season forme and a strong contender for one of my shows of the year. It continuesto be great in many ways; its collection of characters, its excellentdirecting, how willing it is to tell the story with small things andsmall gestures,

It's time for my usual early impressions post for this season ( asbefore ). Every season I seem to be optimistic (I called last season 'strong' in my early impressions post,for example), but this time I think I might really be right. Which wouldbe nice, because I'm enjoying everything I'm still watching (okay, almosteverything).

Clear winners:

• Knights of Sidonia - The Ninth Planet Crusade : This is more of thesame thing as we got a

Once again it's time for me to look back atthe recently finished season to see how the shows I watched wound up,following on my early impressions and my midwayviews . The short version is that not much changed from my midway views , and especially nothing that was new this seasonpulled itself up.

Excellent:

• Shirobako : What a show and what a finish. The second last episodewas amazing all the way through ( especially at the end ) and then thelast episode brought us home with everything I

Once again it's time for the traditional part way through update on myinitial impressions , which I can't really call 'midway'any more. On the whole I have somewhat mixed feelings about this season;on the one hand there's a bunch of watchable shows but on the other handthere's relatively little that I feel really enthused about, especiallyamong the new shows (as opposed to the ones continued from last season).

Enjoyable:

• The Rolling Girls : This has turned out to

When I look back at the first season of Mushishi , what really sticksin my memory is not the individual stories but the things we learn aboutthe mushi, the mushishi, several recurring characters, and especiallyGinko himself. In particular, learning more about Ginko over the courseof the first season added special poignancy to any number of moments;for example, when Ginko turns down an attractive offer to stay longerwith a family rather than venture out into the snowy winter, we alreadyknow that he can't accept

It's time for my usual early impressions post for this season ( as before ), which has been delayed mostly because I foolishlydecided I'd write my best N in 2014 entry first andthen didn't do that very fast. But hey, I've also been distracted byhow strong this season is and how many shows I'm still watching.

Clear winners:

• Durarara!! X2 : The first episode was bland, with too muchreintroduction of characters and too little