Category: Other:

Some Quick First Impressions: Another, Ano Natsu de Matteru and Aquarion Evol

by psgels, posted in Another, Aquarion Evol, Some Quick First Impressions

Another

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student.
To the people who claimed that the season sucks after only half of the shows had aired: perhaps a bit of patience would have been in order, because this season also has a very good horror series. Another again doesn’t have the best premise. Heck, it yet again takes place at a high school. If there’s one flaw of this season, it’s that everything is centered around bloody schools. In any case though, this show understands horror. This episode built up this wonderful horror atmosphere with a good script, neat camera work and some subtle mystery that combined all really drew me in. This was the kind of horror series that combined the ordinary life with a lot of creepy hints. This episode was very uneventful, but it slowly revealed more about what was going on, which will very likely get continued into the next episodes. The ordinary parts about this episode in any case were a neat way to flesh out the cast, and in particular the script gave them some character that made them interesting to watch. They all had something interesting to say here.
OP: Ah, the ALI Project. That’s long ago. Their style still doesn’t really match here though…
ED: Dull ballad with dull images.
Potential: 85%

Ano Natsu de Matteru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets killed and then revived again.
Here is the thing with this season: its premises are crap. In fact, it’s been years since we had a season with less interesting original series. And yet, it’s got so many big names, there are so many talented people working on all kinds of different series this season. The best example of this is Ano Natsu de Matteru. Here we have a show which follows all of the romance cliches… only it actually is well executed. What does this mean? The characters act and feel real. The animation and acting is realistic and believable, rather than the overacting moe stereotypes that you usually see in those types of series. On top of that, this doesn’t feel disjointed, but introduced a few different subplots that should keep the show interesting, rather than having it hang apart from random incidents. This show has a degree of believability that a ton of other shows of the genre lack. And yet the lead character is wimpy, there were quite a few romance cliches, there is the ditzy blond girl. And yet it feels strangely interesting when it’s delivered so much better than usual.
OP: Finally some J-pop I like this season. The really good use of instruments did it.
ED: Simple yet interesting graphics. The j-pop was a bit dull, though.
Potential: 75%

Aquarion Evol

Short Synopsis: Our lead character can pilot a mecha.
There is one way in which this season stands out: the amount of teenaged sci-fi mecha epics in it. Rinne no Lagrange, Mouretsu Pirates and Aquarion Evol are all ambitious action/adventures, while they still all pursue a different direction with a different kind of execution. Rinne no Lagrange focuses a lot on its direction and script, Mouretsu Pirates placed emphasis on its characters, and Aquarion meanwhile has gorgeous action and a ton of eye candy. I mean, this is the kind of big budgeted flick you’d expect in the big seasons, not the small ones. Besides that, Aquarion has the least interesting characters of the three, yet they’re still an interesting bunch. Their biggest problem is that most of them blend into each other due to the cast being huge. A long show can fix that nicely (and it’s Mari Okada behind the script. She has shown often enough that she’s able to do this). The plot had these interesting elements of males versus females. I haven’t seen the first season, but heck, I’m curious where this will go.
ED: A well produced song that fits the epic nature of this series really well.
Potential: 80%

Some Quick First Impressions: Brave10, Nisemonogatari and Mouretsu Pirates

by psgels, posted in Mouretsu Pirates, Some Quick First Impressions

Brave10

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a bunch of famous figures from the Sengoku Era.
Well, the good news: the lead female is better than her counterparts from Sengoku Otome and Hakuouki because she actually tries to act. The bad news is that she is far from out of the danger zone because she still remains a female who gets thrust in the midst of these famous Sengoku Era figures through really shallow reasons (this time it’s because she possesses some sort of really powerful thingy of doom). The good news about the males is that they are better than the other bishie show this season (Prince of Tennis), because they too actually remember to act. Again though they’re still pretty one-sided. This is really one of those shows that needs time to show whether it’s really going to be worth it. It’s got potential to grow and the characters were at least fun to watch, but this show will have to put a lot of time developing these characters, and not just rely on their famous names. Also, the lead female. She kept hopping back and forth from interesting to Mary Sue to trying to use her female charms a bit too forcedly.
OP: A bit of a bland j-rock tune.
ED: Was it really necessary to put auto tune on these vocalists?
Potential: 65%

Nisemonogatari

Short Synopsis: Our lead character talks a lot.
I want to like Shaft. I really want to like the way they use their storyboards, the way in which they try to show a lot with limited efforts. I really want to like how they use their creativity. But dammit they make it so hard! Nisemonogatari is exactly like Bakemonogatari; most of the things I disliked about it are still there! Or at least the flaws that can be apparent after only 1 episode: this episode did not have any budget issues yet, so thankfully I didn’t have to watch an incomplete episode. Still, my other issues with Bakemonogatari still stand. First of all, watching this episode didn’t feel like watching characters, but it felt like watching a slide-show over which a bunch of voice actors read a script. The first half didn’t have this problem, but unfortunately it returned in all its glory in the second half. The camera panned way too often to random scenery, random images, or the characters making weird poses that had no relation to what they were saying or doing. Second of all: what really happened in this episode? I mean, all it consisted of was Araragi talking to various members of his harem, and his sister. One of the other sisters, who this show apparently is supposed to be about, didn’t even make an appearance. Heck, this arc is supposed to be about this girl named “Karen”, but even she was completely absent here. All this episode did was restore the status quo and reiterate that Araragi is some weird pedophile (seriously, what the hell did he do to Hachikuji?). As for the dialogue: yeah, it had its witty moments and there was some nice wordplay, but it also had its moments where it just blatantly wasted time for the sake of wasting time or deliver bad 4th wall jokes. Now, Shaft does have this habit of airing troll first episodes, so at this point I can only hope that I’ve been reverse trolled and that the next episodes will have something genuinely interesting and new to offer.
OP: More staples. How are these still relevant?
Potential: 50%

Mouretsu Pirates

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a space pirate.
Haha, it’s just as I hoped. This series may look silly, but the acting is very good here: it actually treats its characters like actual characters. The result is a mostly mellow episode that’s full of subtle quips that the characters make towards each other, followed by a random action scene. This is what I’ve been looking for: a show that gets the balance of both silliness and subtlety. That made this a fun episode, even though it was just an introduction episode in which the characters haven’t even entered space yet. There are a lot of parallels with Rinne no Lagrange: they have the same length, same director, they both air outside of the season you’d expect them to air in, and they both advertise themselves as fun teenaged mecha series with a serious undertone. The big difference is that Rinne no Lagrange’s direction is better, while Mouretsu Pirates has better characters. They both can become quite fun, though.
OP: “Hey, let’s try to stuff as much audio ideas into just one song and see how it works!”
ED: Very uninspired visuals and all, but the song could be worse.
Potential: 80%

Master Keaton OVA Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

The OVA of Master Keaton is pretty much what you’d expect of it: more Mater Keaton episodes that keep the standards of storytelling quite high with well researched settings and characters. What makes this particularly interesting is that it was written not so long after the Berlin Wall collapsed, and therefore it offers quite an interesting look at Germany compared to the one we have now.

Also, it’s too easy to label the new episodes as more random episodes of Master Keaton, because what the OVA also does is fill in a bit of the gaps here and there. There is an episode that goes for a really intense survival story, every main member of the cast gets his or her own episode, Keaton’s past also gets explored a bit, The cast definitely got better after the OVAs.

And at the same tme I do have to say that the episodes of Master Keaton that made the most impact were in the television series, so it is a bit of a tradeoff. Not to say that the episodes of the OVA aren’t great, of course, although there are a few weak points here and there. It stands out when in a series that prides itself with using really well researched stories, one of the episodes takes out members of the maffia in a way that is surprisingly similar to the way in which most kids movies take care of mafia members…

Those are just small incidents, though, but with a show as well written as Master Keaton, they do stand out. In any case the Television did have surprisingly little character deevelopment, and that’s exactly what this OVA gave us, so I’m happy.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Still well told, still well built up, the fights and heartwarming moments are still very neatly written, with a few exceptions this time, though.
Characters: 9/10 – Some nice extra character development for the main cast really helps.
Production-Values: 8/10 – This was pretty much produced in the same way as the TV-series.
Setting: 9/10 – Still well researched, and it still adds to the universe where this series takes place.

Suggestions:
– Mushishi
– Yugo the Negotiator
– Darker than Black

Some Quick First Impressions: The Knight in the Area, Zero no Tsukaima Final and Sesshou Zenki Symphogear

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

The Knight in the Area

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to play soccer.
This is a strange season. It’s not the best out there, and yet my standards of it are really high due to the best stuff airing right at the start (and don’t get me wrong: I’d love this statement to be wrong). The Knight in the Area finally came with a show that impressed me again, although it definitely isn’t perfect. Sports series are known for being really well executed, but this show doesn’t have that. What it especially lacks is subtlety: the foreshadowing is obvious as heck, it had some really overdone and annoying cliches like the hot transfer student childhood friend classroom introduction, and the acting overall lacks the refinement that you usually see in sports series. Nevertheless, this was an interesting episode that did a great job of fleshing out its lead character. We’re not looking at someone who wants to be the best, but just a guy who is passionate about the game, and this episode already looked at who he is, what drives him, what’s in his past. We really got to know him already, and that’s definitely a plus this early in the series. The soundtrack also is pretty well done, and the drama also works.
OP: Generic sports tune.
Potential: 75%

Zero no Tsukaima Final

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has ended up in a fantasy world.
With these first impressions, I also like to include episodes of series whose prequels I didn’t finish, for the small chance that I did miss something interesting. However, with this season’s trend to concentrate all of the bad shows together, I was really prepared to rant at how bad this franchise had turned out… but yet this episode was better than I imagined. Oh, it still has plenty of bad parts, like I have no idea how Saitou managed to make four girls fall in love with him, or how this episode immediately started with all kinds of boob jokes, but afterwards this series showed that it can actually… tell a story. I have to say, this episode did have some solid build-up and nicely balanced exposition with things that actually happened. What surprised me the most though, was that Saitou and Louise actually talked to each other to sort out their differences, rather just not saying anything to each other for the sake of drama. I like that. Whether I’m going to keep watching this time though… the harem elements really have to improve for that, because it’s still really annoying and I still fail to see the point in Saitou dating anyone but Louise. Also, THAT VOICE! MAKE IT STOP!
OP: Cheese.
Potential: 35%

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to be an idol who fights crime.
Good lord. Were they actually serious about airing this thing? You know, I criticized a lot of series this season for being too bland. The problems with this series are completely different, but it still has the worst and most uselessly pretentious plot of the entire season so far. To explain exactly how wrong this show is means to delve into spoilers, but here it is: finally we’ve got another animated musical. It’s about a bunch of idols who battle incredibly deadly alien monsters who only they can beat, apparently. So here is what they do at the beginning of this episode: they h old a concert, gathering ten thousands of people in one spot with really bad escape routes and no security whatsoever. And after that they get all surprised when the aliens indeed do attack and kill thousands of their fans. What the hell, people? Did nobody read the script and consider what an incredibly shameless premise this is? And the worst thing is, that that was just one of the plotholes and issues the plot has. Another plothole magnet in this episode was the female lead, a random girl. The main idols of this series watch thousands of people get slaughtered, but they don’t get sad at all. But when the main character gets shot in the chest, they suddenly break down in a huge slur of melodrama. Later when the main character is revived (yes), the same alien monsters who before slaughtered a ton of people… just stand a bit around her to give her the time of escape. I mean hell, I thought that High School DxD was the most shameless of the season here, but this just takes the entire cake. This is the problem with shows that are entirely meant to promote a bunch of idols; they do nothing but glorify them. Seriously, this is a really strong contender for worst first episode of 2012, because it’s been a long time since I watched a plot that was so offensively bad. And it’s a pity, becaus eyou can really see Satelight’s influences in the battle scenes: everything is grand, the transformation sequences are intense and imaginative. But when the script feels written in five minutes by a guy whose mind was on something completely different, it’s just completely wasted.
OP: Random J-Pop
ED: Random J-Pop
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: High School DxD, Amagami SS+ and Recorder to Randoseru

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

High School DxD

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a really horny teenager.
Aaand we’ve got another bandwagon. Really, only in Japan it’s possible for a guy to be murdered in a gruesome way, only to be revived by a cute girl able to become an overused cliche. In any case, High School DxD pretty much has the least pretense of any other show this season. What this show is about is incredibly simple: boobs boobs boobs boobs action boobs boobs action gore. So yeah, if you’re looking for porn: go ahead. If not, then it’s not worth it. It’s well made and certainly doesn’t have the worst direction or anything, but when it’s already so honest about what it’s going to be about there is little to make it worth watching aside from that.
ED: Fanservice
Potential: 0%

Amagami SS+

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to date a cute girl.
Thursday used to be a day where many groundbreaking and interesting series aired all at once. This season, only Hyouge Mono is left of those, and that will too be ending soon too. Instead, we get many dull and lifeless teenaged comedies. And here AIC comes and adds even more insult to the injury. They are by far the worst of the big animation companies out there. Amagami SS’s sequel stood for the task of how to continue with this sequel. After all, the lead character had already scored six girls in the first season, and apparently the concept of being in a healthy relationship is completely unknown to the moe show. So what premise do they come up with? A love triangle! Sure, the third girl isn’t really in love with the male lead (who by the way still is incredibly dull and terrible to watch, especially when horny), but the end result is just the same: a ton of drama is created when she suddenly kisses the male lead, jealousy, yadda yadda yadda. Moving on…
OP: Decent vocalist, wasted on this bland song.
ED: Dull ballad
Potential: 0%

Recorder to Randoseru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is really tall.
Ugh, I really hoped that the creators would get something nice out of this premise, but alas. From the makers of Morita-San wa Mukuchi comes an even worse series. In fact, this pretty much was the worst episode of the new season and I’m getting really tired of seeing all these lifeless productions here. The thing with Kill Me Baby was that at least it had some good jokes beneath its blandness. Recorder to Randoseru then comes with a bunch of really bad innuendo jokes that everyone has already seen before. A show about a kid stuck in a grown up body has been done before with Yoiko, but even though that was a fanservice fest, it actually did treat its characters like actual characters, rather than some random cardboard box to tell bad jokes.
ED: As dull and uninspired as the rest of the show.
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Kill Me Baby, Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki and The New Prince of Tennis

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kill Me Baby

Short Synopsis: Our lead character knows a ninja and an assassin.
This one was really dull, but not in a way that I expected it to be. For one: it has a troll OP. It’s all fast-paced, well animated and exciting, only for the real episode to be nothing but two girls talk to each other in a classroom. Second of all, it’s not like this is a completely hopeless premise. This episode did show me that the source material that this series is based on has a few good jokes here and there. Here and there the characters have some nice quips to each other, and some jokes are built up well. It’s just the execution that’s incredibly dull. Seriously, the delivery of all these jokes is incredibly lifeless. The animation is incredibly simplistic and refuses to bring the characters to life. The timing is really bad. It’s clear that the creators of the anime just took a look at the 4koma it’s based on, and just decided to animate the individual pages without thinking about how to make them work in animation-format. What should have been an enjoyable comedy now has turned into an utter chore to sit through. The days in which comedies could really take things easy as long as they delivered a bunch of good lines is over, yo.
OP: Madness, using instruments and vocals that completely don’t fit together, but it would have worked for a comedy. Definitely the best part of this show.
ED: Weird song and a weird dance. Again, though the delivery was better than the actual episode.
Potential: 30%

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a cat of the same family as Tamayura’s Momoneko-sama.
Well, this one turned out to be pretty much as expected. What would have been a really average comedy series is really brought to life by Akitarou Daichi. The episodes of this series are only three minutes long, but it’s quite amazing how much he manages to put into just that. This show doesn’t have his extreme pacing as with Gag Manga Biyori or Sugoi-Yo, Masaru-san, but he still manages to make it fast-paced, and at the same time a relaxing little comedy. It’s perhaps not the funniest, but a cute way to spend 3 minute. And for once people actually note that these fat cats are completely unlike other cats.
OP: Yeah, just 30 seconds long generic tune.
Potential: 70%

The New Prince of Tennis

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is very good at tennis.
The impossible has happened: something actually airs on Wednesday! In any case, with this one episode I can already see why this is such an infamous series. First of all it’s the equivalent of the moe fanservice series for guys, just like with flicks like Koi Suru Tenshi Angelique: it packs a ton of different bishies who all try to look cool, yet all have one or two single quirks that define them. Apparently the taste of females in guys is much more diverse than the rather simpleminded guys, and so this show really has a ton of different characters to anticipate any kind of fetish. I of course don’t know how the first Prince of Tennis was, but to be 200 episodes further, and still seeing the characters act in nothing but stereotypes: there is something really wrong with that. The characters are on top of that way too busy with looking cool. One particular scene had one character so busy doing double-takes that he failed to look into the eyes of the one he was talking to (he was challenging him to a match)… who was standing right next to him. And then there is the completely ridiculous tennis aspect of this series. I understand that this show is a parody of tennis and all, but at times I doubt that it actually forgets about this sometimes. The animation also is really bad here. There was one big tennis match here, and that showed like… three or four scenes of character actually hitting a ball. Apart from that it was still frames, or the camera conveniently panned to other characters and just played a bunch of sound effects in the background. Also, the entire cast is a group of collective idiots. How many grades to you need to skip in order to still be middle schoolers at this point?
OP: That vocalist sounds like he’s having an orgasm…
ED: Cheesy J-Rock
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Natsume Yuujin-Chou Shi, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2 and Rinne no Lagrange

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou, Rinne no Lagrange, Some Quick First Impressions, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Natsume Yuujin-Chou Shi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character can see youkai.
Usually the best of a season is aired last. This time, it’s completely different when the first three series are the big original series, the best comedy, and what’s likely going to be the best overall series for the next three months. Seriously, I can not imagine the rest of the season to live up to these three shows at all; perhaps only Rinne no Lagrange will get trumped. In any case, this was another very solid story for Natsume Yuujinchou. As opposed to the other seasons, it immediately starts off with an arc. And compared to the other first episodes of the arcs we’ve seen so far, it really holds up. This episode was both heart-warming as tense as a cat and mouse game between Natsume and what looks to be the series’ villain Matoba. Nyanko-sensei was as delightful as ever, the animation was also as rock-solid as usual. Now let’s hope that the series will capture the same heights as the third series.
OP: Very clever little op, completely dedicated to character development. The song could have been better, though.
ED: In the same style as the previous ED, with some nice animation and a gentle song.
Potential: 95%

Tantai Opera Milky Holmes 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective. Or at least she’s supposed to be one.
Oh my god. What the hell did I just watch here? You see, comedy sequels are very hard to do. Most of the times, the sequel is the point where the jokes get stale, overused, and there the creators get too scared to deviate from the formula that made the first season successful. Milky Holmes does not have that problem. Oh no. This episode was actually different from the first season. The creators definitely went into a slightly different direction. I mean, the first season wrapped up pretty conclusively, so the creators had to go for something different. I did not expect that “something different” to mean complete madness. Seriously, this show has turned into an extreme self-parody. This entire episode made the entire first season look completely ridiculous. This only was the first episode of the year, but already I cannot imagine any other show this year to have a DUMBER cast than this here. It was crazy beyond belief. And it was utterly hilarious. Also, what the heck is Artland doing here?
OP: Really, really bad.
ED: Really, really bad.
Potential: 90%

Rinne no Lagrange

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to pilot a mecha.
Happy new year, everyone! And so the Winter Season of 2012 starts, and it already does so with the original production of the season. Because of this, it was one of my most anticipated non-sequels for the upcoming start of the new season, despite the obvious problems. The obvious problems here are the fanservice, and indeed this episode had quite a bit of the pointless variation, from some of the outfits to the lead character running around in a swimsuit. Overall though, it definitely has promise, and in particular the direction of this episode was good. This show knows how to deliver tense mecha-battles, and the acting too is quite well delivered. Madoka as a lead character so far has her pluses and minuses. I like how she is a strong female character who is confident and gets along quite easy with others. On the other hand though, the creators also made her just too perfect: she excels at everything, whether it’s kendo, acting, sports or anything else it seems, and she manages to pilot the big mecha of the show like it’s nothing. The creators had better provide an explanation of why 1) she’s able to do that, and 2) she somehow is the only one who is fit to pilot an alien craft.
OP: Quite a standard set for the visuals for the rest of the year. The song is generic, but the use of colours and textures is excellent here.
ED: Dull song, but neat visual ideas.
Potential: 75%

Master Keaton Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

Okay, I know. I’ve been keeping up with this blog for quite a few years now. And only now was the first time I witnessed a work of the living genius Naoki Urusawa. I figured that before watching Monster, I’d check out another adaptation of his: Master Keaton. It consists out of a television-series and a 15-episode sequel OVA (this review covers just the former, a review of the latter will come up soon). And here is the thing: out of all of Naoki Urusawa’s works, you hear the most raves about Monster, 20th Century Boys and Pluto. Master Keaton is completely overshadowed by them. I cannot imagine how good these series could be when they overshadow a brilliant series like this.

These past 24 episodes told me enough: whoever wrote this did a ton of background research. This is a completely episodic series about a guy named Taishou Keaton. This guy is a former member of the SAS, studied archeology and works as an insurance advisor. And at all of these, he is very knowledgeable. This anime convinced me that he indeed is.

Professionalism is a big theme of quite a few of the episodes in this series. The thing with writing very smart people is that they’re much harder to write than stupid people. This anime manages to perfectly portray how much knowledge Keaton has about his area of interests, and the action related episodes turn into really good battles of wit because of this, because most of the people that Keaton goes up against are visible professionals too. Once in a while this show also takes detours into other fields of study, for example in a very excellent episode about wine-making. Those too succeed in portraying craftsmen.

The episodes of Master Keaton can be divided into two broad categories: thrillers and heartwarming stories. The thrillers rock because the abovementioned professionalism, not to mention the wide variety of people that Keaton faces as an insurance investigator who sometimes gets to play for detective. The heartwarming stories also really succeed in what they set out to do due to very good characterization, and playful storytelling that toys nicely with all sorts of twists.

The beauty of Master Keaton is that every single story is just one episode long, and yet every episode is interesting and delivers. I did not see one weak moment, and a lot of the people that Keaton meets feel very much like real people. My one criticism is that there are too many “generic thugs” tropes walking around in this series, although it does subvert a few of those when you don’t expect it.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Intelligent, well paced, especially considering how this show consistently is able to tell interesting stories that are just 20 minutes long.
Characters: 8/10 – Keaton is very well acted and portrayed as a genius, the people he meets feel real, although the set-up leaves little room for actual character-development.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation is nothing special, although the character designs are very good and the soundtrack is nice as well.
Setting: 10/10 – Very well researched and very authentic. Top-notch in how it describes various European cities, and all sorts of fields.

Suggestions:
– Mushishi
– Mouryou no Hako
– Darker than Black

2011 Summary Part 5: TV-Series and Top 10-1

by psgels, posted in Yearly Summaries

And with this, the year has nearly ended. This will be the final post of me this year, and I wish a happy new year to all of you in advance. All I’m left with now is to throw a number of genre awards, along with my favorite series of the past year (oh and of course this is all just my humble opinion; feel free to share your own top series of the year). Take care, and be careful with fireworks, everyone.

Worst First Episode

Mayo Chiki

This year featured a lot of very crappy flash shows that are all strong contenders for this award, if they weren’t just five minutes long. The pain thankfully stops quite soon. The same unfortunately could not be said for Maken-Ki, C3, Hoshizora e Kakeru Hoshi and worst of all: Mayo Chiki. This show is the kind of bad that becomes horrible. The convenient stupidity of the plot was just way too much, beyond all of the bland characters of the other bad shows these year, these were the most offensive.

Worst Series

Dragon Crisis

I’m not handing out this award to series that I dropped somewhere along the way, or the shows that haven’t finished yet. Persona would have been a good contender if it wasn’t for that rule, and alongside that are Sacred Seven, which completely failed to be even remotely entertaining beyond the unintentional, Dragon Crisis really takes the cake though. I have no idea how it did it, but this series somehow pulled it off to actually get progressively worse with every single arc of its. It started off… okay, I guess. The kind of “okay” that made me silently hope that it would get better. Instead, the creators just completely gave up and ended off with some of the most uninspired arcs out there that completely failed to be any kind of interesting and instead just went for a dull harem route.

Biggest Disappointment

Guilty Crown

This is not just about Noitamina delivering a bad series. It has been unimpressive in the past (for me it did so with Library Wars). This is about Noitamina delivering a bad series, while selling out at the same time. 2011 marked a very sharp turn in Noitamina’s usual strategy, and the timeslot started to focus itself on a teenaged audience. Fractale in this already was a disaster, but that was just a show that was really poorly balanced. With Guilty Crown, the creators are intentionally making it very generic. Shu is intentionally being a wimp, the cast is intentionally just a set of tools to make Shu look awesome. That is really the worst part about this show. The runners up for this award were the shows that had some really good promise, but in the end were botched by huge pacing problems, like Kaiji and Fractale.

Most Pleasant Surprise

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai

Major surprises this year include Gosick turning great, Blade spending so much time on backgrounds and Enma-Kun’s sudden chance into insanity after its very mediocre opening episodes, but the biggest has to be Ano Hana. I said this before, but when I first just saw the promo art of this series, I really had my doubts whether it would work, as it just included a picture of a ditzy looking Menma. After that more and more information about it got released, and it started to look more and more solid, but I really did not expect to be such an emotional roller-coaster, right from episode 1. I literally threw my hands in the air as I saw it.

Best Animation Studio

Brains Base

Nearly every year, there is just one studio who stands above the others. This year, it was Brains Base. When in a year, you release four series at once, more than any other year so far, and the worst of them is something of the caliber of Kamisama Dolls, you’ve got something to be proud of. I mean, Kamisama Dolls just pales in comparison to the other shows they did this year, from the crazy Enma-Kun to the refined Natsume to the roller-coaster ride that was Penguin Drum.

Most Promising Studio

Jinni’s Animation Studios

Every year I give this award to a small animation studio who either just started out, or showed signfiicant improvement. This year… was rather dry on that department. There is Wao World, who finally headed into television-series, but Showa Monogari wasn’t exactly an improvement over movies like Furusato Japan and Symphony in August. There was… um… 8-Bit, which delivered the middle-finger that was Infinite Stratos, but then my eye turned to the 3D CG Studio that was Jinni’s Animation Studio. They worked on the first season of Fireball before, but the differences between Fireball and Fireball Charming definitely shows that they learned a lot during the past years. Appleseed meanwhile also showed that they are very solid at rendering, although they still need to overcome the botox faces problem. Still, I believe that these guys have potential for the future.

Best Old Series I Happened to See This Year

Gankutsuou

I wached a lot of real gems this year, ranging from Kurau Phantom Memory, Rose of Versailles, Black Jack and Infinite Ryvius to finally getting to check out the now legendary Cowboy Bebop and Legend of Galactic Heroes. But all in all, I do have to say it: Gankutsuou was pretty much the best thing I watched this entire year, bar none. What Gonzo did here with its re-imagination of the classic story by Alexander Dumas is just completely amazing. The graphics are completely stunning in every single way, the character-development is just completely amazing, the story is incredible. Everything just fits in 24 episodes of awesomeness.

Best Action

Ben-To

This was a tough one to decide. For me, great action isn’t just a lot of pretty animation, but also depends a lot on the direction, tension and use of characters, music, etcetera. This really came together with series like C and Blood-C, where the former was fast-paced and very creative with both its visuals and ideas, whereas Blood-C’s choreography was just completely amazing and a very solid second place for this award. In the end though, the food battles in Ben-To deserve this award. It’s the first time that I hand this to a comedy series, but even though the series itself had its problems at times, the food battles were just the point where everything fit. The entire concept of fighting over food was just completely unique, but every battle here stood out in the creative uses of every day items, the actual use of strategies, the camera angles wer awesome, and the music was just fantastic for these skits.

Best Comedy

Level E

This one was a no-brainer. Level E has been the best comedy to appear in years. Especially its first arc was just completely fantastic, but even beyond that, it had some of the funniest banter I had seen in a long while. There are a ton of characters here that kick ass, but the prince, Kraft and Yukitaka take the cake here. This show was wonderful in how it both trolled its characters and its audience. The runners up this year also were completely hilarious, though: Ben-To and Dororon Enma-Kun would have also made this a great year alone if Level E wasn’t there, not to mention Hyouge Mono’s unique physical comedy.

Best Horror

Blood-C

Blood-C’s horror style was not the easiest to get into, since it depended heavily on atmosphere. If this atmosphere didn’t work for you, then this series was not for you. However, if it did work, then this turned into an incredibly tense and brutal horror series with an agonizing build-up. Steins;Gate also had a great atmosphere, and Supernatural also succeeded in achieving this.

Best Slice of Life

Tamayura ~ Hitotose

I’ve always found the definition of “Slice of Life” a bit tricky. For example, Natsume Yuujinchou had some wonderful slice of life moments, but I with its focus on Youkai stories it’s not exactly a true slice of life series. Ano Hana I guess is about the lives of a group of teenagers, but it’s not about how they live their daily lives. As for the ones that do feel like focused on portraying the daily lives of the lead characters,there are five that stood out this year: Hana-Saku Iroha, Usagi Drop, Kimi to Boku, Tamayura and Ikoku Meiro no Croisee. I decided to go for Tamayura because it best encapsulated how these characters are spending their time and living their lives, while at the same time showing how they evolve over time and develop their hobbies.

Best Romance

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai

There were two romance series that stood miles above the others this year. Like, there’s no contest beyond them. The first is Hourou Musuko, who broke many traditions, and featured what was by far the most realistic romance I’ve seen in a while. The best however, was Ano Hana, which managed to make me bawl my eyes out surprisingly often through its romance.

Best Mystery

Steins;Gate

Un-Go was great at writing short mystery stories with a ton of twists. Mawaru Penguin Drum used its own symbols very neatly to create a very mysterious series. Blood-C used its mystery in a very daring way by only waiting for the last possible moment to explain everything. The best mystery of the year though, belongs to Steins;Gate. The story for one is incredibly well constructed, and it makes terrific use of the fact that it’s about time travel throughout its plot, though through subtle clues that are never overstated.

My top series of 2011: #10-1

#10: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica really tried to redefine the mahou shoujo genre for the older audience, and as a deconstruction of the whole genre, it really succeeded in this. With a story that flows like water, it started off with a seemingly innocent mahou shoujo setting, and in the end completely subverted everything about it. It’s pretty much the best thing Shaft had made in years, and the visual direction was consistently stunning throughout the entire series.

#9: Hourou Musuko

Hourou Musuko really surprised me in how it started off already very good, and it just kept getting better with every single episode. The acting was just amazingly down to earth and realistic characters. Its decision to start in the middle of the manga, rather than at the start really worked in the way that it already gave the characters a very complex background, and it continued to develop them into better and better characters. The drama it got out of them int he end was amazing because of that.

#8: Steins;Gate

The plot of Steins;Gate was just completely stunning, as I’ve said quite a few times in this summary before. It’s multi-layered beyond belief, and in ways that at first you wouldn’t even hold imaginable. Especially the second half just keeps changing. Now granted, it does have a very unusual concept of time travel, which at times I found a bit hard to buy, Okabe’s rants also tended to get a bit monotone after a while, plus the otaku references all flew a bit above my head. But what this show did well, it did incredibly well.

#7: Tiger & Bunny

Tiger & Bunny just was that show that immediately caught my attention with its unique concept of having sponsored superheroes fight crime. It’s both meant to be a criticism to the modern media, but also an homage to the superhero genre. It’s chock full of likable characters, who work especially well as a team, but in particular the lead character Wild Tiger stands out as memorable, where his characters is really well balanced between his strengths and flaws. The only shame about this series is that it suddenly dips in during the finale. This show is the most fun when it shows the different stories about its characters, whereas the main storyline unfortunately paled a bit in comparison.

#6: Heartcatch Precure

Okay, this show aired for only one month in 2011, but I still really want to include it in this rankings, because of what a great job it did in redefining the mahou shoujo genre. Everything just fit with it, the action was amazing, the characters were all really well developed, with Tsubomi and Yuri being the best, and the finale of the series really was the epic finale we’ve hoped for. Everything about this series just looks so much more professional than usual and even though it’s fifty episodes long,I enjoyed every episode of it.

#5: Natsume Yuujin-Chou

With this third season, Natsume Yuujinchou actually slightly surpassed itself, which is really an impressive feat considering how good the first season was. The individual stories of this season in particular stood out as really heart-warming and down to earth, but the real gem is how much attention it devotes to Natsume’s development. Every episode adds something to his character, and he already was very well developed to start with. I love how this show looked into his past and also his future, and how it stressed how much he has grown as a character, and yet despite all that happened, this show just remains consistently subtle, and about a boy who just felt very isolated for a long part of his life due to his ability to see something that most people can’t.

#4: Hyouge Mono

Now, this was without a doubt the most unique series of the entire year. I still cannot fathom how the heck Bee-Train actually got the funding to go with a project as crazy as this. I still cannot imagine who in their right mind green-lighted the production of this show. Whoever it was though, I really want to thank him or her for opening up the road to long series that are miles away from the mainstream, and allowed a show that is about a bunch of old guys talking to be produced. The amount of attention that this show put on aesthetics and the so-called “Wabi-Sabi” is just amazing, and it did so for three entire seasons, and it’s still not finished. And as if that wasn’t enough: the facial expressions. The acting in this series is just completely priceless, where characters on one hand are able to deliver some really solid acting, and on the other make some of the silliest faces imaginable. You wanted Bee-Train to branch out and do something other than gunfights? Hah! You got it!

#3: Level E

Now, Level E was just completely delightful as a comedy. It was masterful at trolling, it contained the most hilarious episodes I’ve seen this entire year, and the way it consisted out of a number of unrelated stories made it a very varied series that was different for every single arc of its. The characters were all just awesome to watch, the banter between them was just wonderfully hilarious, but also its backdrop of aliens on earth had some very neat ideas and was a very interesting setting to play with. In this year Studio Pierrot and in particular David Production really showed how awesome a comedy can be when you add in a little bit extra and really try to make it stand out as unique.

#2: Mawaru Penguin Drum

Oooh, deciding my top 2 of this year was really hard. I love both series, and both series completely dominated my monthly rankings in the seasons they were shown in. Penguin Drum was the long-awaited comeback by Kunihiko Ikura, of Utena-fame, and it delivered an incredible character-study. It had a plot full of symbolism that seemed random at first, but fit in the context really well. It’s a show that’s open to quite a bit of interpretation, and it really requires you to read inbetween the lines. There were parts at which it perhaps got a bit too surreal, and I guess that there were a few twists that it just pulled for the heck of it, but it was a consistently entertaining ride that kept throwing interesting twists around the characters. I’m definitely looking forward to Kunihiko Ikuhara’s next work, although I hope that it won’t take 12 more years for that to happen… In any case, I loved this show and its ambition, but in the end I have to give the best show of the year title to another show….

#1: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai

Ano Hana is a show that made me cry more often than probably all other series combined this year. It was the single most emotional series for me, and in the end, it even hit me more than Penguin Drum. Every episode of this series developed the characters of this series immensely, and it turned into one of my favorite Noitamina-series ever made. In just eleven episodes, this show didn’t just nail its main character, it nailed all of the side characters as well. This series really aimed to become an emotional roller-coaster, and therefore it perhaps got a bit too dramatic at times, but it never delved into cheese, and just kept getting to me, closing off with a really emotional finale. It’s a close call, but Ano hana in the end stands as my favorite series of 2011.

2011 Summary Part 4: Movies, OVAs and Top 20-11

by psgels, posted in Yearly Summaries

This will basically be three lists, one of the best OVAs, one of the best movies, and one continuing the countdown of my favorite series of the year. Oh, and at the start there are a few “Worst of”-awards that I found to be typical for this year.

Biggest Waste of Great Visuals

Houkago no Pleiades

Houkago no Pleiades was a short little OVA for Gainax, to promote the Subaru Car brand. They knew that they couldn’t get a good story out of this even if they tried, so they just delivered some random story about schoolgirls and magical powers that instead just looked really good. And while the visuals indeed were pretty, I would rather have them seen back up something interesting, rather than a freaking car commercial.

Biggest Disappointment

Armored Trooper Votoms – Case;Irvine

Don’t get me wrong here: I am all for trying out new things. For that, I applaud this move. The thing is, however, that this just was not very good. In fact, now that I think back on it I can’t remember anything about it anymore, other than that it had some really annoying and underdeveloped characters. It was half-assed and I expected a lot of this, and as a Votoms-fan, that made this my biggest disappointment in terms of movies and OVAs this year.

Biggest Rape of a Franchise

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira

Now this is just an atrocity. Especially the first episode completely raped the Higurashi franchise of its status of an original franchise that takes cute girls into a completely different direction than usual. I mean, it would have been fine if this OVA would just show some random punishment games, like they did with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira. Heck, the creators could have made these episodes fun and I would not have complained. With this though, the creators threw away all pretense and just made this a pandering OVA. The second episode was just dull, with a very bad attempt at a mahou shoujo parody, but the first episode. Oh dear god. Why did it have to ENTIRELY focus on the male cast of this series, IMAGINING things? Why did it have to focus on their sexual fantasies?

My Top 10 OVAs
2011 was a very interesting year for the OVAs. Whereas 2010 involved big productions that often had more than 3 episodes, the best OVAs this year were on a smaller scale, with a lot more one-shots than usual appearing. There were in particular a lot of one-shot originals and one-shot epilogues that caught my attention this year.

#10: .Hack//Quantum

I’m a fan of the .Hack franchise. Heck, .Hack//Sign ranks amongst my top 5 favorite anime ever, and even though some other installments of this franchise aren’t as… solid (*coughduskrootscouch*), I still find it a fascinating series to be based in a giant MMORPG. The pity with .Hack//Quantum is that it was way too short. We need more TV-series for this thing, but the story that it told in 3 episodes was interesting, solid and quite charming.

#9: Otona Joshi no Anime Time

Now here is one that caught me completely by surprise. Before it appeared I didn’t even know it existed. And here it comes and delivers a surprisingly heartfelt episode about a single mother and the memories of her childhood. It has a bit of an unfortunately cheesy title, but make no mistake: the rest of this 20 minute OVA is surprisingly well written and realistic Josei.

#8: Norageki

The great thing of these 20 minute OVAs is that they’re great to experiment with. Norageki was a fun little thriller with a ton of mystery, that wrapped itself up surprisingly well. Its characters weren’t particularly detailed, but they were enough to keep the plot interesting, and it was the plot that really made this little OVA memorable. We don’t often get science fiction anime in bite-size chunks like this, and it was well worth the 20 minutes invested.

#7: Tales of Symphonia

This has really turned into one ambitious OVA project. Heck, I remember that it was announced back in early 2006, and it’s still going on. Ufo Table are really taking their time with this, and the results show in the script here: this is an OVA that translates the game’s core concepts, yet takes plenty of freedom to actually tell its own story, rather than just being a commercial for the manga. This year’s installment wasn’t the best this series has shown, because of the characters it focused on, but that’s just personal preference.

#6: Armored Trooper Votoms – Alone Again

This was the widely anticipated conclusion of the Votoms Franchise. And in the end it turned out to be completely different from what I expected it to be, and yet it was a really good story here, focusing on the grown up kids of Cocoa and Vanilla. This was a very welcome surprise, because I had been interested in these kids ever since they appeared in the Gen-ei hen. This movie again did a great job of expanding upon the Votoms franchise without being derivative.

#5: Kyousogiga

More one-shot OVAs, and with this we pretty much get the single best standalone OVA in years. The direction of Kyousogiga was just amazing, the visuals were incredible. And if that wasn’t all: it also has a lot of heart. Toei went all out on the graphics here, but they also made sure that it was an incredibly charming ride. The plot itself was a bit confusing, and you have to pay attention to actually be able to understand what the heck is going on, but that made it even better.

#4: Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail

This year showed the conclusion of Roberta’s Blood Trail, and I’m amazed at what a solid job Madhouse turned it into. Every episode was very solid to what it aimed to be, and the build-up and eventual unexpected payoff was just excellent.

#3: Kara no Kyoukai – Epilogue

The more I think back to this epilogue OVA, the more I love what the creators did here. It’s hard to describe exactly what without ruining the surprise, but let’s just say that this OVA just focused on one thing alone, and did that brilliantly. It was exactly the thing that was needed to give the different involved characters some significant extra insight. Heck, this OVA was deep and incredibly well written.

#2: xxxHolic Rou – Adayume

xxxHolic succeeded where Tsubasa Chronicle failed: even though I’m not a manga reader, I could follow it and sympathize with it. The character development at this point is just completely amazing, and more than worth it, considering how incomplete the anime is. It was a short OVA, but it just added so much to the cast with so little.

#1: Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi

Ryousuke Sawa was before active as the animation director of Birdy the Mighty Decode 02, Noein’s Key animation and he was the animator behind the running scene of Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. And now someone gave him the opportunity to actually direct a full 3-episode OVA series. The result is just glorious. There was so much eye candy put in these episodes, ranging from the most insane and over the top action scenes imaginable, to highly expressive characters whose personalities just sparkled off the screen. This was the best possible reboot that this show could have hoped for.

My Top 10 Movies
These are my top movies of the year, or at least the ones that got released this year, because there always is about a nine month delay for these things (one particular movie on this list even took 2 years to finally show up). This was a big year for the family movies. Seriously, half the movies on this list are intended to be watched by all ages. To balance things out though, there also were a bunch of movies with very mature themes, along with a few great ones that were aimed at teenagers. It all balances out pretty nicely this way.

#10: Towa no Quon – 03

In this list, I list movies individually, so yes, it would have been possible that I listed all four the Towa no Quon movies separately. Now, it is not THAT good of a franchise, so that didn’t happen here, but what made the third movie stand above the others was that it ditched the cheese and action, and instead turned into a full on thriller in the middle of a dream sequence. It became a bit non-linear and a story that was hard to tell what was real. An as an added bonus it significantly improved the characters who in the first two movies clearly struggled to stand out.

#9: Mardock Scramble – The First Compression

Mardock Scrable was one gorgeous looking movie, and it also was the prequel of a very interesting story to boot. It had a ton of nudity and sexual violence, but it also was very good at fleshing out its characters, and in particular the main ones. The meat of the story definitely was saved for the future movies, but a very solid start it definitely was.

#8: Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo

Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo was Makoto Shinkai’s attempt to do something different from what he had done before. The result is a mix between his style and that of Ghibli. I wouldn’t really call it a rip-off, because it definitely has its own story to tell here, and in any case the two styles here blend really well with each other. It’s got some great character development, although the big flaw here is that the female lead’s motivation is very weak. I mean, she has no goal throughout the entire movie, and is more like swept away with the events. It’s a bit hard to create good tension out of that.

#7: Heartcatch Precure Movie – Hana no Miyako de Fashion Show… desu ka?

Rie Matsumoto, she’s a new director that we should keep our eyes on. She did two major works this year, the Heartcatch Precure movie and Kyousogiga, and both were just full of heart. The Heartcatch Precure Movie captured exactly what made the TV-series so great, and even though it was a random side story it stood on its own as a worthy addition to the series with some very well developed characters and an excellent scenario about a trip to Paris.

#6: Karigurashi no Arrietty

Arrietty was the movie version of the story of the Borrowers. And with this, Ghibli again did an excellent job bringing it to life. It created a unique culture of little beings who thrive on borrowing small things from people, and it built some very nice characters out of them. It had a bit of a strange villain overall, making the conflict around this movie a bit lackluster, but it really captured the emotions of the main characters here. I also loved how well the animation was able to capture how big everything looks to the titular Arrietty.

#5: Yona Yona Penguin

Since Rintaro is one of my favorite movie directors out there, I was really eager to watch his latest work, Yona Yona Penguin. What I got was a movie aimed at very young kids, that was just completely adorable. The lead character running around in a penguin suit alone made it more than worth watching, but he really captured the emotions of young children here. The finale of the movie also really worked. All of the subtle build-up really come together there and made for a really heart-warming climax. Oh, and the soundtrack too was really excellent.

#4: Uchuu-Show he Youkoso

This was a space adventure movie that was one hell of a ride. It’s just about a bunch of kids that gets pulled into an intergalactic storyline here, but the amount of creativity that has gone into the different worlds they visit is really impressive. It’s got an interesting story with some well developed characters, that actually fits for a show that’s all about children. It was one of A-1’s first attempts at making an actual movie, and yet the animation looked really interesting. The best part of this movie was the huge amount of creativity that went into it, though.

#3: Fafner in the Azure – Heaven and Earth

It’s rare for a movie to actually be as good as the series it was based on, but Heaven and Earth actually did it. It pushed the story of Fafner further and developed its setting more, and actually evolved the franchise in quite a limited time-frame. All of the characters were able to show off their development, the graphics also kicked ass. Thanks Xebec, for finally showing again that you can also make good series.

#2: Redline

The top 2 of this year stands miles above the others. Redline was just completely unique. The visuals are by far the best of the entire year. So much talent has gone into this movie, and its storyline is simple, yet mature. It had a few too many one-dimensional characters to really make it an outstanding movie, but still, this is one of those movies that you just need to watch.

#1: You Are Delicious

Yes, the best movie of 2011 is a dinosaur movie! Don’t look at me, I was also completely surprised when I watched it and realized what an incredible gem we have here, and I really nudge everyone who is looking for a family movie to give this one a chance, because this was pretty much the best family movie we’ve seen in many, many years. At first sight this movie just seems to be your standard story about this tyrannosaur that takes care of a small baby dinosaur, but I was amazed at how much detail this movie puts into these characters. The premise of the movie is just a tiny part of it. So much more happens to these characters, and the character development that resulted from it was just amazing. The cast of this movie turned out to be incredibly likable, and I definitely recommend checking this movie out.

My top series of 2011: #20-11

#20: Letter Bee

Letter Bee’s final quarter that aired this year was not as strong as what it had previously been. The reason for that is that the creators went into anime original territory, and they suddenly had to wrap up a story in 13 episodes that belongs in a much longer time-frame. However, it definitely deserves points for actually realizing this, and starting off as early as possible, in order to prevent one of those last-minute rush-jobs of endings that you see everywhere, and they actually did wrap up the story in the end. It just wasn’t as good as what it could have been, but it still was worthwhile here. The big flaw here was that the main threat they chose to go with was a bad one, and didn’t allow for interesting storytelling at all. There was no complexity whatsoever to that. The creators did keep true to the characters, though, and they actually came up with some very good character development in the end that fitted in the story.

#19: Fate/Zero

I wasn’t the target audience for this one. Ideally you need to have seen or played through Fate/Stay Night in order to fully enjoy it. It remains a great series if you haven’t done so like me, though. This series rocked in the way that it didn’t really have one main character: it had a whole bunch of important characters, all with their own goals, personalities and backgrounds, and those meshed together really well. The show is strongly rooted in ancient wizardry and that painted a great picture of the world this played in. There were a few times the dialogue went on for a bit too long, though, like when characters are in the midst of a battle and decide to break the mood by explaining what they’re doing.

#18: Chihayafuru

At first sight, Karuta seems like a really simple game compared to other games like Shougi or Go, especially if you’re good at memorization. It was Chihayafuru’s task to convince us that it indeed was a challenging game with a lot of depth. And after 12 episodes, it did exactly that. Courtesy of a terrific characterization and a story that is perfectly paced so far, all of the different characters together showed through their passion for the game how interesting it can be if you put your mind to it. In particular the lead trio has an excellent chemistry for this.

#17: Kamisama no Memo-Chou

This year had three major shows that were about a small girl who solves mysteries: Gosick, Dantalian no Shoka and Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou. The best of the trio turned out to be the latter, and this also was pretty much the best thing JC Staff had put out since Aoi Hana. The key here was the script, which was both excellent at creating mystery with great twists, as well as creating great dialogue between the different characters. Alice’s monologues were always fun to watch, and the dialogue between the rest of the cast felt very genuine, especially for a mystery series. There’s a lot of nice character development for the lead male as well, which made him grow above the usual male lead quite nicely. The main problem with this show was that it was too bloody short. It clocks in at 12 episodes, with one double-length first episode, but at the end of the show there still is a ton of potential left in the setting. It only took an in-depth look at about half of the cast. A second season would be perfect for this show. Alas, though: it bombed in terms of the DVD sales.

#16: Hana-Saku Iroha

Hana-Saku Iroha was another one of those series that threw many people off with its first episodes. Its first two episodes were completely different from what it would showcase after that. The show started off with two really tense dramatic episodes, only to change into a strange slice of life show with colourful characters afterward. It took me a long while to get used to that, especially since the individual episodes tended to get really forced at times. The third episode is the prime example of that. And yet, after 26 episodes, the character development it got in really was impressive. This show was at its best when it took in-depth looks at its different characters, both the main and the side characters. it’s a series that celebrates hard working, and around this theme the cast really grew together. They were awkward at first, but it really was fun to watch the adventures of the cast together as they kept an old inn running, all combined with an excellent graphics budget.

#15: [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

C was ambitious. It probably was one of the most ambitious series of the entire year with its promise of building an epic story around economics with pokemon elements and aiming to be a social commentary. Its ambition was massive, and in the end I’m still surprised that they actually managed to make it slightly fit in just 11 episodes. Sure, it’s rushed beyond belief, but it still got to make the points it wanted to make, it ended on a strong note, it still turned into a very entertaining series and it still got to showcase the great ideas it had. The character department is just one mess that didn’t really produce any likable characters. The visual also probably would have been amazing… if it wasn’t for that damned earthquake. That definitely was a shock when I found out about it, and I hope that everyone in the affected area had the best luck in trying to recover from it.

#14: Dororon Enma-Kun Meerameera

Now this show was complete madness. It started off with two very mediocre episodes, but after that it completely fired off in one ride of complete insanity. And with that, it ended up as the best fanservice comedy I have ever seen. There is just so much energy in this series, even though its mindset is completely juvenile. The music also was the best of the entire year, with the creators showcasing modern renditions of classic tunes from the 70s, for which this show turned out to be an excellent homage to. Oh, and then there was the ending. It was here where this show departed the realms of crazy, and just went into the complete surreal with one of the most unique endings I have seen in a long while. I of course refuse to say exactly what went on, but if you’re looking for entertainment that doesn’t care how dumb or stupid it gets, then this is a show for you.

#13: Blood-C

Blood-C definitely had a ton of people who hated it, and yet also a ton of people who loved it. Belonging to the latter, I can see how it is very easy to be turned off by this show, thanks to is extremely risky pacing. For a really long time, hardly anything of considerable significance happens. Instead, we have a lead character who lives her life and fights monsters, in a slightly odd world. It’s a series that thrives on atmosphere, and as the show slowly goes on, you’re supposed to get a clearer and clearer idea of what the hell is going on, until everything is revealed in an amazing climax. In the meantime, it had some of the best fight scenes of the year, an excellent soundtrack, and some completely brutal gore. This show is SO not for everyone, but I really love what an enormous risk it took with such a series structure, and how it kept kept its trump cards to itself until the last moments. Usually I dislike shows that take too long building up, but for me the storytelling and mystery really were enough to make this an exception.

#12: Supernatural the Animation

Blogging the episodes of this series was… a challenge. This show released its 22 episodes as a series of OVAs in about two months time. Despite all that though, Supernatural had a very good story that nicely combined random stories with an overall storyline. It had a few weak episodes here and there, but overall it was consistently excellent. It used a lot of flashbacks to a lot of different periods in the lives of the main characters, and therefore painted a very good picture of who they were the storyline packed some great twists, the show looked excellent with its interesting use of colour palette and it made great use of the fact that it was a story about adults, rather than teenagers.

#11: Un-Go

Un-Go was a series that like C, tried to stuff as much as possible into just 11 episodes. The big difference is that this series actually got away with it, thanks to some smart use of fleshing out the characters through the story and dialogue itself. The show overall had an incredibly tight pacing, and every line of dialogue had a meaning to the story. Every episode here delivered, and the different mysteries in this series did a great job o involving the setting of this series into the core of each mystery. This show really loved pulling twists that turned out to be completely different from what they first seemed, and that was the fun about this series.