It’s December again! Another year is coming to a close. A lot of things had happened this year – a lot of series were watched too.Year after year we are blessed and cursed with a mix of good and bad series. This year, we take a trip down memory lane and take a look at this year’s Time Wasters Series ( It can only get worst!)

Active Raid

Aired: Winter 2016
Stars: Ari Ozawa, Masayo Kurata, Nobunaga Shimazaki, Sakurai Takahiro
Summary:
The story of an assistant inspector, Asami Kazari (CV: Ari Ozawa) and her mission to revive the lifeless “The Eight” division of the bureau, dubbed as the Special Public Security Division Third Mobile Assault Eighth Unit. This division is handled by senior superintendent,Rin Yamabuki(CV:Masayo Kurata) and her two equally capable lieutenant, Takeru Kuroki(CV:Nobunaga Shimazaki) and Sōichirō Sena(CV: Sakurai Takahiro). The unit is out to fight crimes and save Tokyo from pending abomination.
Why was it a waste?
There was a glimmer of hope that this anime will change the current state of anime. We’ve been dying to find a series to talk about since Code Geass. After all, this series was brought to us by the same creative team of Code Geass. Alas, this was not the case. The series was anything but a reminisce of some tokusatsu series with a weak story line. The story focused too much on the personal woes of the characters. We can choose to watch our own soap drama, thank you very much. There was never an insight on the true motives of the villain in the series, it didn’t have any suspense as we thought it would have nor was there any element of surprise. Since the series did not have clear motive, the series didn’t have direction. They could have thought of something creative and memorable! Just looked at all the merchandising opportunities that this series could have generated had this series been well-received and well-loved.
Wasted time hours : 13 episodes x 22 minutes ( season 1)

Mayoiga

Aired: Spring 2016
Stars: Kōdai Sakai, Yuka Aisaka, Taku Yashiro, Kaoru Sakura,Tatsuhisa Suzuki
Summary: 30 people on a tour to an elusive, unknown village of Nanakimura — a place promised to be the perfect utopia. When they arrived at the village, they saw that there were no signs of life in the village — which is far from what they were promised and what they had imagined. What’s in store for the crowd of 30? What mystery the village beholds?
Why was it a waste?
An original series would mean that they would have creative control over things. They can control what will happen to the series, which characters will die, the settings, and plot of the series – but it was all wasted on this series. It was a wannabe mystery series coupled with characters that were on the verge of a mental breakdown.  One annoying oddity of this series was that of a character named Lovepon(CV: Ai Kakuma) who was just screaming “Kill! Kill!” most of the time. Her outbursts were so erratic and irritating that we seriously hoped that she’d be out by the next episode. At eight (8) episodes into the series, they were still unraveling the mystery, where in fact, they should wrap up and introduce some shrill-inducing, spine chilling scenes. There was neither thrill nor suspense in this series. It could have been a better series had they not introduced too many characters in the story to which most of them were unnecessary. The whole series was also not properly paced. They throw in those flashbacks to their convenience. Sadly, they wasted one good plot with a badly written story line.
Wasted time hours: 12 episodes x 22 minutes

So what did we learn from this year ..
1. One should learn to stay away from obscure titles – If you don’t want some misfortune to befall unto you, better steer clear! *name drops* “Heavy Object” *name drops* “i” .. Believe me, you’ll thank me for that!
2. It doesn’t mean that with big seiyuus come stellar series – There was a period of time when that was true. The more popular seiyuus there are, the more popular and outstanding the series will be. After all, they know what they are doing. But such is a thing of the past. Now, it’s all about the money (Hit it, Jessie J “♪ ..it’s all about the money, money! ♪”). Be careful of these traps. More often than not it’s a ploy to have your precious time lay waste.
3. It doesn’t mean that if it’s an original series it would be good. No siree! they are not! I do wonder with all that creative control that they’ve got, how can they still mess up a series with a good plot.
4. It doesn’t mean that if everyone is watching it, one should watch it too – This is very subjective, as different people have different tastes and likes. To each his/her own! It doesn’t mean that it’s this season much talked about series, then you have to watch it too, right? You have the power to choose. You’d be the judge, the choice is always yours.

Well, here’s to more good series in 2017! Happy Holidays everyone!