Anime Resolutions (The New Year’s kind)

I was good yesterday. Instead of watching the first two episodes of yet another boring isekai premiering this season, or the equally boring first episode of a mobile game adaptation, I rewatched the first three episodes of 1999’s To Heart.

You don’t really get this sort of aspect to aspect mood setting scene anymore in anime, do you? Based on a Aquaplus romance simulator, To Heart is a nice little romcom centered on Hiroyuki, the guy at the end of the clip. Hiroyuki has a little bit more to him than the usual potato-Kun, even if his personality consists mostly of being helpful than any girl he meets (except for middle school friend Shiho) and wanting to sleep. But there isn’t that much romance in these first three episodes and they’re mostly told through other characters than him, mainly his childhood friend Akari, who very much has a crush on him, unlike Shiho, who sees him as her rival and a nuisance.

I first watched this years ago, in 2016 and thought it was good, but not that special. The only reason I started rewatching it was because various people I follow on Bluesky were talking about how good it was, independently from each other (for Bless it was his anime of the year, frex). Yes, I am easily influenced.

But I also did it because I wanted to get out of the habit of trying every bucket of slop that’s released in season and then continue to watch it out of habit. There is so much good good anime I still need to watch I’d really should start being more ruthless in culling the crap from my diet. Especially because there are a number of series on my backlog I really want to finish this year as I’m starting to feel guilty about them. In order:

1. Mazinger Z (1972), 54 out of 92 episodes to go:
   The super robot show that saved anime from being crushed by the Tokusatsu craze of the early seventies. A kids’ show, but one in which in the last couple of episodes I watched we see a bus full of innocent people being murdered by the bad guys, a plane blown up and crashed and similar violence. Started out episodic in a monster of the week format but starting to deviate slightly from the format in the last few episodes. Not really made to be binge watched which is the problem.
2. Kingyo Chuuihou! (1991), 28 out of 54 to go:
   A comedy series set in a school full of weirdos, done by the same staff who would go on to work on Sailor Moon directly afterwards. I started watching this a couple of years ago as part of a group watch but fell behind and stopped. The problem I have with it is that I like it when I’m watching an episode, but rarely find myself wanting to watch it. It is very funny but also something that I can only watch in small doses.
3. Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986), 42 out of 47 to go:
   The third series in the OG Gundam chronology, the problem I have is that it’s a) an incredible mood swing from the previous series and b) its protagonist is an even greater jackass than Kamille or Amuro ever were. I first started watching this in 2020 (!) and never got more than five episodes in, even restarting it last year didn’t work. Just never build up the momentum to get over my dislike of Judau.

There are many other series I started and need to finish, but those three are the most important ones. If I managed to finish any of them I’ll be happy.