Category: Yearly Summaries

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with these “Decade Summaries”. I first thought of listing the most memorable moments for me during the past 10 years, and actually tried writing such a post, but eventually I got stuck with it: I just can’t to justice to those moments. In the end, I figured that I’m so often trying to pick out my Top 3 for each season, so why not show a compilation of my three favourite series for every season of the decade?

So yeah, this is obviously going to be a quick-fire post with a lot of one-liners. This post contains 40 Top 3s, so it’s mostly used to give readers a glimpse of the good shows that aired during the past decade (the ones I’ve watched, anyway). In the second half of this decade summary, I’ll go more into detail. You can expect it around the end of December.

Basically, every anime is only eligible during the season that it originally started airing. Spring is from March to May, Summer from June to August, Autumn from September to November, et cetera.

Winter 2000

#3: Mushrambo – Yeah, this season sucked. Dragged on for way too long in the end, but had its moment of creativity as a shounen series.
#2: Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran – Simple yet fun samurai comedy.
#1: Boogiepop Phantom – Unique mystery-series that really requires a user to think in order to actually understand it.

Spring 2000

#3: Love Hina – The first harem I ever watched, and pretty nicely done compared to the other shows of this genre.
#2: NieA Under 7 – Very charming slice of life series with awesome character-designs. I should have rated this one higher when I reviewed it.
#1: FLCL – Crazy, but well written and engaging little OVA.

Summer 2000

#3: Brigadoon – Marin to Melan – Sunrise Mecha with its own unique style. Very well developed characters.
#2: Jin Roh – The Wolf Brigade – Very intelligent movie (Mamoru Oshii was involved, so how could it not be?). Very well written with a great ending.
#1: Strange Dawn – Everything fantasy should be. Incredibly detailed storytelling with an incredibly strong cast of characters.

Autumn 2000

#3: Legendary Gambler Tetsuya – Very interesting look at Mah-jong and cheating. Never drags on.
#2: Sci-Fi Harry – Imaginative and deep mystery-series that may have bitten off a bit more than it could chew.
#1: Argento Soma – Seemingly average mecha at first, but becomes really good near the end with simple but well developed main characters and storylines.

Winter 2001

#3: Earth Girl Arjuna – Great graphics, nice characters, but way too damn preachy.
#2: Tales of Eternia – Interesting choice to go with a side-story instead of a full fledged epic rpg-storyline. Nothing special, but fun enough.
#1: Spirit of Wonder – Scientific Boys Club – Strange little OVA, but very imaginative slice of life.

Spring 2001

#3: Soultaker – Back when Shinbo’s style was still new and fresh. Very nicely written and layered mystery-series with plenty of nice action.
#2: Zone of the Enders – Dolores – Awesome mecha epic with a great emphasis on family values and probably one of the oldest protagonists I’ve ever seen in a TV-anime.
#1: Figure 17: Tsubasa & Hikaru – A truly excellent character-study that combines gentle slice of life with tense and intelligent battles.

Summer 2001

#3: Fruits Basket – Shoujo series done well. Great characters, but especially the dialogue stands out.
#2: Arete Hime – Very quiet but engaging medieval movie that really takes its time to show the lead character.
#1: Spirited Away – In my top 3 of favourite Miyazaki-movies. Lots of details and imagination in just about everything.

Autumn 2001

#3: X – Well executed character-study from Clamp.
#2: Kaze no Youjinbou – Wonderfully animated and detailed look at local Yakuza, combined with an engaging mystery-plot
#1: Millennium Actress – Satoshi Kon’s excellent homage to various movie genres. Absolutely lovable cast.

Winter 2002

#3: Full Metal Panic! – Successfully combines moe with a war drama.
#2: Voices of a Distant Star – A very impressive short by Makoto Shinkai. Awesome graphics and a sense of distance that only he can pull off.
#1: Hunter X Hunter OVA – Everything a shounen series should be. This story is imaginative, intelligent focused and very well built up.

Spring 2002

#3: Comedy – Don’t get fooled by the name: this 10-minute short is a beautifully animated short story about feudal Ireland.
#2: Full Moon wo Sagashite – Long build-up is long, but this idol mahou shoujo becomes truly heart-wrenching eventually.
#1: .Hack//Sign – A unique concept, focusing on character interactions inside MMORPGs. Awesome philosophical themes and characters, but not for those expecting action.

Summer 2002

#3: Sentou Yousei Yukikaze – Beautiful graphics. A bit confusing of an OVA, but the action and characters make up for it.
#2: Saishuu Heiki Kanojo – Perhaps not the saddest series out there, but the quiet scenes among the death and destruction are truly worth it.
#1: The Cat Returns – Fun, whimsical and charming story with great characterization for the various cats around.

Autumn 2002

#3: Overman King Gainer – Seemingly average mecha show at first, but it stands out due to its beyond awesome OP and incredibly creative ideas thrown into the setting and scenario.
#2: Hanada Shounen-Shi – The lead character is very, very hard to like. An annoying brat in every single way. And yet this series is really heart-warming.
#1: Haibane Renmei – I have hardly ever been so emotionally moved as with this series. A fantastic character-study and with incredibly well explored themes.

Winter 2003

#3: Wolf’s Rain – I’ve only seen three shows of this season. I didn’t quite like this one. The concept had potential, but the main plot and characters didn’t.
#2: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou – Quiet Country Cafe – I’m still wondering why they didn’t make a TV-series out of this, but ah well. Relaxing slice of life OVA.
#1: Ashita no Nadja – This is how good shoujo adventures can be. Really fun characters, and a surprisingly deep and well developed plot during the second half.

Spring 2003

#3: Kino no Tabi – The Beautiful world – Thought-provoking travelling series with a very likable lead character of Kino.
#2: Oseam – One heck of a tear-jerker of a movie. Korean animation at its finest.
#1: Kaleido Star – An anime about circus performers, and it’s a really well developed one. It makes optimal use of its long length to really show a memorable development for the lead character.

Summer 2003

#3: Narutaru – Shows what kids are really going to do when you give them a bunch of violent monster. Very disturbing, to say the least.
#2: Rumiko Takahasi’s Rumic Theater – 13 stories written by Rumiko Takahashi, all about random, ordinary adults who run into extraordinary problems. Very down-to-earth and the creators make every story count.
#1: Tokyo Godfathers – Satoshi Kon at his best. This movie is crazy, fun, adorable and deep, so that even a few deus ex machinas won’t prevent it from truly shining.

Autumn 2003

#3: Gilgamesh – Very interesting horror-series with an imaginative plot that breaks quite a few traditions. It’s got interesting themes, the fights are very tense, though it might be a bit slow for some.
#2: Gungrave – Ah, the character-development! An in-depth look into large mafia-organizations and some really good animation by Madhouse.
#1: Mermaid’s Forest – Rumiko Takahashi Again, this time her Mermaid Forest stories are adapted. Disturbing, and the individual short stories make optimal use of their time to make an as big of an impact as possible.

Winter 2004

#3: Maria-Sama ga Miteru – Takes a while to get going – even for a 13-episode series – but proves to be a very nice character-study with yuri elements in the end.
#2: Jubei-Chan 2: The Counterattack of Siberia Yagyu – Has some of the best fight choreography out there. The plot itself is a bit predictable, but the characters and action totally make up for this.
#1: Paranoia Agent – Satoshi Kon yet again takes a number one-spot with this witty, paranoid, mysterious, diverse, intense, screwed up series of his.

Spring 2004

#3: Samurai Champloo – Manglobe’s debut, and what a well-directed debut it is. Even though this show is about nothing, it’s fun enough to see the three lead characters interact.
#2: Hi no Tori – Incredible adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s classic stories. Every arc stands out, among which are a number of true gems in terms of storytelling.
#1: Mahou Shoujotai – I still consider this to be my favourite anime ever. Experimental in every way, truly excellent characterizations, a great world for the story to play with and a very original set of graphics and animation.

Summer 2004

#3: Mind Game – This top 3 was rather hard, because I hardly saw anything in this season. Still, even though the movie underwhelmed me when I watched it, I do have to admit that that final scene in this movie is something truly unique and entertaining.
#2: Elfen Lied – The problem with Elfen Lied is that it tried to combine harem stupidity with very serious and depressing themes about mass murderers. They don’t mesh! Nevertheless, I really liked the good parts and the ending.
#1: Otogizoshi – Folklore, divided into two distinctly different arcs. The second one is quieter, but superior.

Autumn 2004

#3: Zipang – Very interesting concept about cause and reaction. Asks deep questions but unfortunately is a bit too short.
#2: Rozen Maiden – This is what I’d like to call a series in which everything went right. No second is wasted, and both the plot and characters went where they should have.
#1: Fantastic Children – An amazingly told series with a great cast of characters. It´s perhaps a bit confusing at the beginning, but the plot twists near the ending are more than worth it.

Winter 2005

#3: Kimagure Robot – Short but quirky comedy about robots (yeah, there wasn’t much else this season).
#2: Starship Operators – Space Opera done right. A huge focus on complex tactics rather than brainless action, with a powerful ending.
#1: Air – Starts as another one of those harems. Ends as a gripping and heart-wrenching story with some very neat ideas in its style of storytelling.

Spring 2005

#3: The Law of Ueki – I consider this both as one of the best comedies and shounens out there. It’s pretty silly, but you have to love all of the weird powers that these people have. Not to mention the huge amount of creativity that has been put in the different battles.
#2: Glass Mask – An incredibly in-depth look at acting. This series surely took that extra step towards developing its cast, and what a wonderful drama it turned into.
#1: Eureka7 – A bit of an unbalanced series, but where this series hits, it hits really hard. Renton and Eureka start out as a bunch of random mecha-piloting teenagers, but their development throughout the series is truly memorable.

Summer 2005

#3: Kamichu – Very charming slice of life series. Period.
#2: xxxHolic: A Midummer Night’s Dream – A Very interesting mystery-movie, despite being just a side-story in the xxxHolic franchise.
#1: Pani Poni Dash – Remains funny throughout the majority of its airtime, quirky style. A successful comedy.

Autumn 2005

#3: Jigoku Shoujo – Talk about atmosphere. The first season of Jigoku Shoujo was gripping, had some twisted episodes and a great conclusion.
#2: Mushishi – Episodic series can hardly get any better than this. Wonderfully subtle storytelling about deep and thought-provoking characters
#1: Noein – Fantastic action, incredible characters, awesome soundtrack, wonderful storytelling, I’m running out of adjectives here.

Winter 2006

#3: Yomigaeru Sora – Rescue Wings – An anime about the rescue forces. A really good portrayal of what these people can be up against.
#2: Ayakashi – Japanese Classic Horror – Especially Bake Neko was a triumph in storytelling, but Yotsuya Kaidan was also a very good and especially disturbing horror story.
#1: Ergo Proxy – Weird but very imaginative and complex story. There always was something interesting going on with this series.

Spring 2006

#3: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – When this series first aired, it blew my mind with its gripping mystery-story, characters and disturbing footage. All behind such a seemingly cute exterior.
#2: The Third – The Third has struck me as a very balanced show, with a bit of action, slice of life, science fiction and intrigue, but first and foremost it stands out to me because it features one of the best characters I’ve seen: Honoka.
#1: Simoun – This series is what I consider the best character-study ever. The creators took a very imaginative concept, a group of fascinating characters, and turned into one of my favourite series.

Summer 2006

#3: Otogi Juushi Akazukin – THE series for modern fairytales. It has lots of cameos, and a very cute style of storytelling that makes it a lot of fun to watch.
#2: Flag – A unique series. The entire story is told through the perspective of cameras and photos. The story itself is really slow, but very detailed, realistic and imaginative.
#1: Le Chevalier d’Eon – Despite a slow start, this series eventually turns into a well developed and very strongly directed epic in 17th Century France.

Autumn 2006

#3: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto – On top of the action, this show was also a very nice history-lesson for me. Especially the first half had a very strong direction.
#2: Red Garden – Another show with a great cast of characters. What made this series stand out was the amount of detail that was put in their characterization, and especially the dialogue was phenomenal at times.
#1: Asatte no Houkou – Body-swapping: it’s often done for comedic purposes. This series showed how high a serious execution of this trope can reach.

Winter 2007

#3: Master of Epic – For this MMORPG adaptation, the creators decided that instead of creating a serious story like what would happen with most other shows of this kind, they would parody the heck out of it. The result is a very fun and successful collection of sketches that make fun of tons of MMORPG tropes.
#2: Nodame Cantabile – This series succeeded, both as a comedy and as a look at performing classical music and especially directing. Very strong cast of characters.
#1: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – The revival of the World Masterpiece Theatre delivered an incredible series with memorable character-development for just about any member of the cast.

Spring 2007

#3: Toward the Terra – Space operas at their finest. Toward the Terra’s story is bold, imaginative and gets the best out of its cast of characters.
#2: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – An adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic. A really charming slice of life-character study, about living towards your dreams.
#1: Bokura no – I really have to praise Mohiro Kitoh for his truly thought-provoking ideas, but also the staff of the anime, who took an unfinished story, and managed to turn it into something memorable and gripping that perfectly fitted the 24-episode timeframe.

Summer 2007

#3: Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei – A really good comedy, full of nice references, subtle jabs and witty humour that didn’t turn stale within its 13-episode timeframe.
#2: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai – This sequel to the Higurashi series provided all of the answers we needed. The pacing was much slower, but that really allowed us to get a good view of the characters.
#1: Baccano! – You have to praise Baccano for the way it managed to weave so many different stories about so many different characters into just one series of 13 episodes. There’s always something interesting going on because of it.

Autumn 2007

#3: Mokke – Charming and heart-warming slice of life series about two sisters as they meet various people and supernatural spirits.
#2: Ghost Hound – A horror-series with an incredibly thick atmosphere and a huge focus on psychology.
#1: Shion no Ou – An awesome combination between murder mystery and shougi, thanks to a very snappy sense of storytelling and an awesome cast of characters.

Winter 2008

#3: Hakaba Kitarou – A very interesting combination between horror and comedy. It’s always a guess what this one will go for.
#2: Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino – Ah, who cares. I liked this. Completely different style when compared to the first season, but nevertheless it had a haunting atmosphere, and it did manage to catch the essence of this concept.
#1: Porfy no Nagai Tabi – An exceptionally well written and realistic travelling series, combining charming and relaxing slice of life with the dark and lonely parts of Porfy’s life.

Spring 2008

#3: Amatsuki – This show stood out with its really heavy emphasis on dialogue and very strong direction. Now where is that second season!?
#2: Himitsu – The Revelation – I personally loved how this series’ mystery knew exactly how much it should reveal. Suspense at its utter best: you’d never know what would happen next, or where an episode would focus on.
#1: Kaiba – An incredibly imaginative concept with a fantastic story to work with. Very haunting and thought-provoking.

Summer 2008

#3: Ultraviolet: Code 044 – A bold direction along with a very nice storyline to work with. What I loved about this show was its atmosphere and strong cast of characters.
#2: Natsume Yuujinchou – Natsume’s stories in which he’d meet various spirits is nothing new, but yet again it’s well executed, and Nyanko-sensei is a gem to watch.
#1: Bonen no Xamdou – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a full fledged TV-series that was better animated than this gem. The action was fantastic, and yet this show also spent plenty of time in quiet scenes to flesh out its characters properly.

Autumn 2008

#3: Clannad – After Story – The first Clannad was very interesting, but still a bit formulaic. Then the second season came, and blew all stereotypes away with a heart-wrenching second half.
#2: Michiko e Hatchin – You can trust Manglobe to deliver an incredibly accurate portrayal of Brazil of a few decades back. With incredibly strong characters and an always fun scenario, Michiko e Hatchin really stands out among its season’s best.
#1: Mouryou no Hako – What an intense focus at dialogue. I don’t think that any other series has this much and complex dialogue as Mourou no Hako here, but everything is just so interesting and well detailed, not to mention that the plot is incredibly well detailed.

Winter 2009

#3: Shikabane Hime Kuro – Despite some initial hiccups, Hikabane Hime Kuro continued to raise the bar set by its predecessor, developing its characters and delivering ver exciting action-sequences into a great series.
#2: Kemono no Souja Erin – This really shows the power of long-running series. Throughout the 50 episodes of airtime, the creators are able to provide a very detailed portrayal of its lead character, Erin the beastiarian.
#1: Birdy the Mighty Decode 2 – The first season wasn’t really anything special, but the second season came and improved on it in every single way. The animation is incredible, the characters are really well developed, the story saves enough time to show a bit about the setting and how it dynamically interacts with the main storyline. A real gem.

Spring 2009

#3: Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – For me, this one beats the original series by far. It has a terrific concept and a very well developed setting. (This was another top 3 that was hard too choose: so many series with place 2 and 3 potential).
#2: Guin Saga – Now this is what epic fantasy should be. A large focus on politics and slow character-development. The intrigue was what made this series really memorable.
#1: Phantom – An incredible soundtrack, combined with some really strong development for the lead characters. Phantom stood out with its bold execution

Summer 2009

#3: Spice and Wolf II – This series continued where it predecessor left off, and delivers two well written and intelligent arcs full of witty dialogues and character-development.
#2: Aoi Hana – A very interesting and especially very subtle character-study about a lesbian romance. And for once it isn’t filled with anime stereotypes of this genre.
#1: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 – A depiction of what would happen if Tokyo were to be hit by an earthquake of the 8.0 on the Richter scale. Shocking, sad, and very emotional.

Autumn 2009

#3: Darker than Black – Ryuusei no Gemini – This sequel went into a completely different direction as its predecessor, but still retains is incredibly strong direction and its message that people die when they fight to the death.
#2: Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra. – A breath of fresh air in the intrigue-genre in the way that it continues to defy expectations and twist around seemingly unconnected stories into a whole
#1: Aoi Bungaku – Not only is this series an example of really good storytelling, it also completely changes style for every of the six stories it’s animating. Each of the stories has this unique feel about it, all in their own way.

I originally wanted to wait with posting this until Porfy no Nagai’s final episode got released, but its time is nearly running out here. The Share-uploaders have a very cruel sense of humour: out of all the episodes they could have picked to delay, it became that one. In any case, here’s the second half to my review of 2008.

Most Pleasant Surprise

Kaiba

Well, here’s a no-brainer. When I wrote my preview (apologies for the lack of images there), I originally ignored this series, mistaking it for a simple kiddie show. Then when it was finally time for the show to air, it totally blew me away. Other nice surprises this year were Chi’s Sweet Home (never knew that cats can be so awesome) and Blassreiter (which for a Gonzo action series turned out to be actually really good).

Best Action

Bonen no Xamdou

This was a tough one to decide, as there wasn’t exactly one series that really stood out in the action-department. Blassreiter featured some amazing fast-paced camera work because of the CG, the very few fight scenes of Real Drive were detailed and exciting, and Shikabane Hime featured some great typical Gainax-action scenes. But I guess that none of them really is able to beat Bonen no Xamdou: amazingly detailed animation, an amazing soundtrack and characters made for the best action scenes I watched this year.

Best Comedy

Gintama

Obviously, Gintama takes this award for the second year in a row. It’s not just funny, it’s been funny for nearly 100 episodes, and it still simply getting better and better. Runner-ups as Hyakko, Skip Beat and Chi’s Sweet Home may have been hilarious, but they still just didn’t match up to some of the most hilarious episodes of Gintama this year.

Best Old Series I Happened to See This Year

Mysterious Cities of Gold

Yeah, so what if the series is already 26 years old. It’s still everything an adventure series should be: a fast non-linear pacing, original setting, there’s always something going on. The cast of characters was awesome, especially Mendoza was brilliant, and it’s got to have the best soundtrack of any anime of the seventies and eighties. Runner up is Air (more than simply a bittersweet series).

Best Character-Development

Porfy no Nagai Tabi

Yeah, it’s probably no big surprise that a WMT-series is running off with this award again. This series has 52 episodes of nearly pure development in not just Porfy, but every other important character of the series, making them feel not only incredibly real, but also extremely dynamic, with lots of different sides. Especially Porfy is an excellently rounded character, and it’s an award well-earned. Runners up include Saiunkoku Monogatari (obviously) and in terms of shorter series: Blade of the Immortal (the growth of Rin, and the bond between her and Manji is definitely memorable).

Best Animation

Bonen no Xamdou

I can’t really give this one to Macross Frontier. Sure, it had a huge budget, but nevertheless the characters art kept looking inconsistent. A good use of messy animation would be something like Kurenai: things didn’t always flow well, but it was nevertheless full of life and detail. The only series that managed to beat Kurenai in that aspect this year was Bonen no Xamdou: the animation shined in everything through the series, and the creators really managed to pay attention to some small details. While not as good as the series that got this award last year (Seirei no Moribito), the work that the animators did on Bonen no Xamdou remains very impressive.

Best Script

Casshern Sins

From the outside, Casshern’s individual episodes seem like mere fillers, and yet the creators manage to use the time of each episode to the full potential through imaginative dialogues that get the best out of each characters. The scripts of the runners-up as Amatsuki and Mouryou no Hako was also very impressive.

Most Imaginative Setting

Kaiba

This is an award that I didn’t hand out last year, but I decided to include it this time for the series that have spent a significant amount of time to flesh out the world they’re set in, with the key word being imagination. Real Drive is an excellent example of this, with the vision of the world in sixty years it tried to create. Bonen no Xamdou also has some excellent ideas that are hidden in its setting, from the Xam’d designs to the imaginative locations that the series visits. But yeah, none of them can match up to Kaiba: there was hardly anything about the series that didn’t feel imaginative.

Best Slice of Life

Mokke

The definition of Slice of Life is of course a bit ambiguous, as it can mean different things depending on how you look at it. Still, I consider the daily lives of Shizuru and Mizuki to be part of the genre, and the combination of the two of them made for a compelling slice of life drama, with both parts equally interesting.

Best Thought-Provoking Anime

Mouryou no Hako

Runner-ups as Kaiba (questions what it means to have a body) and Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae (never afraid to be completely politically incorrect and yet it’s very critical of this) were already very interesting, but none of them really match up to the dialogues of Mouryou no Hako. There’s always something going on, and even when the characters aren’t discussing the plot, they’re delving into some sort of topic that vaguely has something to do with it, in order to flesh it out.

Best Supporting Character

Vanilla – Kaiba

The guy remains a total bastard for some of the things he did, but you can’t help but love the guy as the story unfolds. His quirks were a lot of fun, and also the serious scenes around him were downright awesome. The runners-up for this category probably are the side-casts of Amatsuki and Shion no Ou: thanks to them, there always was something interesting going on in their respective series.

Best Male Character

Akihiko Chuzenji – Mouryou no Hako

A bit of a strange choice, but let me try to explain. In 2008, there wasn’t really a male character that stood out for me in a way like: “Yes! He’s going to be the best male character of the year!”, so I had to turn to the runner-ups: characters that didn’t stand out per se, but nonetheless were excellent to watch. Those were Gintoki (Gintama, whenever he appears you know you’re going to crack up), Watanuki (xxxHOlic, I really liked how his character grew through the second season) and Akihiko. While we hardly know anything about him, compared to other characters in other series, the guy has an air of presence, similar to Ginko of Mushishi.

Best Female Character

Shion – Shion no Ou

When I watched the series, Shion struck me as a very headstrong character, despite all of the things that she had to cope with. She grew into an absolutely adorable one by the end of the series, and it was always fun to watch her rise in the tournament. Runner-ups are Minamo (RD Sennou Chousashitsu, a downright lovable character) and Hatchin (Michiko e Hatchin, sarcastic, independent and awesome to watch).

Best Mystery

Mouryou no Hako

Since mystery is one of my favourite genres, I was a bit let-down by 2007 due to the very small amount of good mystery-series in that year, but thankfully 2008 came back with some excellent series of the genre. Kurozuka was simple, yet effective, and Kaiba made optimal use of the unknown in creating its downright awesome storyline. Still, Mouryou no Hako gets this award for me, due to the sheer complexity and creativity of all the weird things that happen throughout the series. The questions are satisfying, but the eventual answers even more.

Best Drama

Shion no Ou

It’s always a bit vague what really belongs in this category, since nearly all anime has some sort of drama. The best drama I watched this year came from Shion no Ou, though. It was powerful, and yet never really melodramatic.

Best Story

Kaiba

Even though it only had 12 episodes, in those episodes Kaiba accomplished what most other series can’t even do in 26 of them. Kaiba’s story is complex, multi-layered and continuously interesting. Runners-up: Mouryou no Hako, Shion no Ou, Bonen no Xamdou.

Top 20 Anime of 2008: #10 – #1

#10: xxxHOlic: Kei

A very worthy successor to the original xxxHolic series. While the series was a bit short and the Kohane-arc disappointed a bit, the beginning and ending were downright excellent, and definitely the best stories that the series has shown us thus far. Even with the many crossovers to Tsubasa Chronicle in the manga, this series still kept its identity as an anime about modern folklore, and I really enjoyed it.

#9: Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino

Perhaps a controversial entry on this list, since according to many people it ruined the first season. I, however, don’t care, since the story was downright excellent. Artland’s adaptation was definitely different, yet at the same time a very enjoyable series, with an especially haunting cast of characters.

#8: Amatsuki

Amatsuki is one of the two big “lots of talking”-series this year. Still, it worked really well, not only because of the depth of the dialogue, but also the strength of the storytelling and characters. At times it may have been a bit difficult as a raw-watcher to understand what went on, but nevertheless it was one of the highlights of the past spring season.

#7: Ghost Hound

2008 may have been a relatively bad year for Production IG, but none of this reflected in Ghost Hound. It’s a unique series with its extreme emphasis on sound effects and psychology, but nevertheless it was a very interesting series to watch, and it did the seemingly impossible by making a bunch of teenaged brats into excellent characters.

#6: Porfy no Nagai Tabi

Ah, the latest World Masterpiece Theatre series. Unlike Les Miserables, it didn’t have an enormous story to work with, and instead it was a simple travelling series, but it put such an amazing amount of detail into just about everything. Porfy and Mina are some of the most rounded characters of the year due to their non-stop development, and I haven’t even mentioned the amazing background art yet.

#5: Bonen no Xamdou

Really, if there was some sort of book called “the ultimate guide to writing a good story”, then Bonen no Xamdou would be mentioned everywhere in it. It never takes anything for granted and slowly builds up just about everything that might be important to the storyline later on. There are no forced climaxes, and yet the attention to detail is amazing.

#4: Himitsu ~ The Revelation

If Madhouse’s domination in this year’s anime wasn’t already obvious enough: 3 of my top 4 series come from them. Himitsu had a concept with so much potential handed to it, and it used this to deliver one awesome series during the past spring-season. It was delightfully unpredictable: you never knew what the next story would be focusing on, or whether an episode would be simply entertaining or downright awesome. I also really grew to like the cast of characters more and more, and especially the series’ final quarter was one hit after the other.

#3: Mouryou no Hako

Mouryou no Hako really took me by surprised. Before it aired, I was almost certain that nothing would be able to beat Amatsuki this year in terms of complex dialogues, and then this series came and either equalled or even surpassed it in just about every aspect. Even though the series is filled with dialogues, the creators also succeeded in a very subtle chemistry between the characters, and wasted no moment to further flesh out its cast through either this dialogue or through their expressions. Clamp’s character-designs and the very solid production values made it continuously pleasing to look at, and the plot itself also was really well written.

#2: Kaiba

This year I again had a lot of difficulty choosing my number one. Both Kaiba and my number one pick for 2008 were downright incredible and just as good -if not better- than my top picks of 2007, though in the end I put this one on number 2 because of its rushed ending. Apart from that, though, this series felt like one that was its time far ahead. Masaaki Yuasa succeeded in delivering by far his best work. It’s series like this one that show the beauty of experimental series to its fullest.

#1: Shion no Ou

In the end, I really have to give my top pick of the year to Shion no Ou, the only series of 2008 to make it in my top 10. I hardly knew anything about Shougi, and yet it turned into an awesome series that managed to exploit the tournament setting to its fullest. The awesome cast of characters also made nearly every episode a success and the addictive pacing never let any episode get anywhere near boring. The animation was also daring, but ultimately it gave the series a unique and excellent look. I’m hoping to run into more series like this one in 2009.

Okay, that was it from me for 2008. A happy new year everyone, and the best wishes for 2009!

Well, it’s the time of the year again for the obligatory posts that look back at the highlights (and some of the lowlights) of the past year. This time, I decided to split this entry in two halves, otherwise the list would simply become too huge. I’ll post the second half tomorrow, after Porfy no Nagai Tabi and Mouryou no Hako finish.

Overall, what has struck me the most about 2008 is the surprising amount of series that just took up 13 episodes. When compared to previous years, there was a much bigger share of series that just went on for one single season, or that divided its airtime up in multiple of those short seasons. It’s perhaps because of this that there weren’t as much top-tier series as in previous years, and yet at the same time the average quality of the series that aired did rise, and this year had a fine selection of outstanding series.

Biggest Disappointment

Nijuu Mensou no Musume

Disappointments are the worst if created from high expectations, and that’s exactly what happened for me with this series. It went so well during the first half, the premise was intriguing, the plot twists kept you guessing, and then it all went down the drain because of that lacklustre final arc. Such a shame. Also disappointing were Hatenkou Yuugi (promising manga ruined by downright lazy staff members) and Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei (went from absolutely hilarious to incredibly dull in just one season, but then again it had it coming).

Worst First Episode

Akikan

At the start of December, I was certain that I would be handing out this award to Bihada Ichizoku, the cheesy shoujo series that was advertising make-up products to young kids. Then KissXSis and Akikan aired, surpassing even that one in terms of badness with their ridiculous premises. In the end, Akikan gets the award because of the most pathetic excuse to get a guy and a girl to kiss each other.

Worst Series

Chocolate Underground

Of course, this only goes for series that I managed to finish. Who knows, perhaps Bihada Ichizoku became the best thing since sliced bread after its first episode? In any case, this one pretty much goes to Chocolate Underground. I kept watching it because I had faith in Production IG, and I’d like to thank this series for destroying that faith…

Best Cheese

Suteki Tantei Labyrinth

Um, yeah. I just had to include this series somehow. ^^; There’s good cheese and bad cheese. I’m not going to deny that Suteki Tantei Labyrinth was bad at times; it really had some horrible parts, and yet it never ceased to be amusing, especially the second half was just full of weirdness and delicious cheese.

Most Promising Studio

P.A. Works

In 2008, these guys for the first time went and produced a series of their own, rather than simply assisting random projects. The result was True Tears, a very solid romance series with equally excellent animation. If their future projects are as solid as that one, then these guys are something to watch out for.

Best ED

“Candy Line” by Hitomi Takahashi – Gintama

There were not many EDs that stood out for me this year. The ones that did the most were Mission E (way too much sweetness and yet somehow it worked), Shikabane Hime (Excellent vocals and nice imagery) and Gintama’s fifth ED: an excellent song, that also succeeds in putting its cast into a completely different setting and making it actually seem plausible. No really, Gintama: The High School Days would actually have lots of potential.

Best Movie 2006/2007

Kara no Kyoukai – Remaining Sense of Pain

I didn’t watch that many movies this year, so I don’t have many choices for this one. I’ve yet to see Ponyo and the Sky Crawlers, which I suspect would have gotten this award if I did. Still, the third Kara no Kyoukai movie was a good movie, with excellent visuals and a nice story to keep the viewer busy for an hour.

Best Suspense Series

Himitsu ~The Revelation

In terms of Suspense, Himitsu really was the best this year. A number of episodes was simply mind-boggling. The creators knew exactly how to keep the viewer’s interests, revealing just enough information at a time while keeping the viewer hungry for more. Also excellent in this depart are Kurozuka and the third season of Jigoku Shoujo.

Best OP

Mononoke Dance – Hakaba Kitarou

Lots of great OPs this year, but the best of them definitely was the one from Hakaba Kitarou. It’s a funky song, and the comic-book effect that pays homage to the original Gegege no Kitarou manga really works. Other series with great OPs this year include Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei (so the show went pretty downhill, but at least the opening rocked), Ultraviolet (surprisingly good Engrish), Mokke (just cute), Shikabane Hime (great vocalist) and Kaiba (haunting). I was also going to list Kurozuka, but then again, that’s basically a song you get when you drink too much and happen to be near a recording studio…

Best Romance

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora

This was a tough award to decide, since I’m usually not that much into romance, although there were a few series that really stood out. Porfy no Nagai Tabi had a very strong episode dedicated to it, and Saiunkoku Monogatari and True Tears also were really good in this aspect. Still, in the end the best has to be Natsu no Sora, with its incredibly subtle storytelling that really shows the best and most natural form of romance, rather than the overblown and overly cheesy one.

The This-Needs-A-Sequel-So-Badly Award

Amatsuki

Gunslinger Girl, Blade of the Immortal and Amatsuki: three excellent series that have so much potential left if they receive another season. The most annoying is Amatsuki, though. It really ended just as things were getting good, and it’s a Studio Deen-series: it usually makes sequels for every one of its series that needs one, APART FROM THIS ONE.

Best Background Art

Porfy no Nagai Tabi

Sorry Macross Frontier, you may have a very amazing backgrounds here and there, but in no way did it match up to Porfy no Nagai Tabi: every single episode treated us with the most amazing and detailed backgrounds, perfectly representing the area that Porfy was in at the time, and it did so for fifty-two consecutive episodes.

Best Music

Blade of the Immortal

And for the third year in a row a Bee-Train series walks away with this award. It’s not as much overkill as in last year with El Cazador, though. The soundtrack from Himitsu, Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino, Kaiba and Bonen no Xamdou were also simply awesome, but Blade of the Immortal’s soundtrack really delves in the surreal at times. It’s completely unpredictable and will work on many people’s nerves, and yet for me it strangely really worked.

Best Animation Studio

MadHouse

No question possible here. Sure, they may have had a few screw-ups here and there, but some of the strongest series of the year came from their hands. In this year, they’ve proven to create a wide variety of different series with imaginative premises and excellent executions. Runners up for me were Studio Deen and Nippon Animation. I’d love to list Production IG with them, but for that to happen they really need to break their ties with Trans Arts…

Best Horror

Ghost Hound

With horror, I obviously mean the Japanese psychological kind, that tries to capture the viewer with intense storytelling, rather than lots of scary images (anime never was that scary anyway). The best horror this year came from Ghost Hound for me, since I absolutely loved the way it emphasized sound effects to create its creepy atmosphere. The other excellent horror shows this year were of course Kurozuka (combining horror with action) and Hakaba Kitarou (combining it with comedy).

Best-Looking Graphics

Casshern Sins

For this category, I’m not looking for animation quality, but simply a series that “looks good”. Madhouse was very good in this department this year: Himitsu ~The Revelation~ was a visual feast, despite the at first sight simple character-designs, and Kaiba too looked very original. Outside of the studio, Michiko e Hatchin also had lots of eye candy, but I’m going to give this award to Casshern Sins, the series with definitely the best character-designs of the year, and the architecture of some of the buildings also looks downright gorgeous.

Top 20 Anime of 2008: #20 – #11

#20: Saiunkoku Monogatari

This series isn’t as high on the list as usual, due to the constant hiatuses that the series kept taking and that it ended at the point where the juicy part was only about to begin. Still, despite that the series’ final episodes were great at building up, and making every character count despite the already huge cast of new and old characters.

#19: Blade of the Immortal

This turned out to be an experimental series, where Bee-Train was trying out a few new things here and there. The result was a series witha number of creative and interesting fights, surrounding a very enjoyable leading couple. The only shame is that there still isn’t some sort of second season announced.

#18: Hakaba Kitarou

Combine horror with comedy. You just have to think of it. Hakaba Kitarou stood out in the past winter season as a series with incredible amounts of imagination stuffed into it. The different goons that Kitarou would run into were all fun to watch, and it made this series nothing like its Gegege-counterparts.

#17: Natsume Yuujin-Chou

Brains Base have proven themselves yet again to be a high-quality animation studio. Natsume Yuujin-Chou is the perfect summer series, with a calm atmosphere, and yet very impressive episodic stories and characters. Not to mention the awesome Nyanko-sensei.

#16: Michiko e Hatchin

Anime that are set outside of Japan are already a minority, but setting a series in South America is nearly unheard of (I can only recall two other series that did the same, but both are more than twenty years old at this point). Michiko to Hatchin may have only just started, but it’s already an engaging and true to life series, with a staggering contrast between on one side the cute adventures of a ten year old, and on the other side the brutal and complex inner struggles of gang wars.

#15: Gintama

As usual, Gintama is the best comedy on this list. What makes this series so special, and a step above 95% of all other comedies is that it’s not just funny, but it’s been funny for NEARLY 100 EPISODES ALREADY, and the series is just getting better and better. Not to mention that the best moments of the series actually aren’t the comedy-ones, but the moments when the serious storylines pop up, filled with manly tears.

#14: Crystal Blaze

This year, I became a big fan of the kind of short series that don’t try to go extremely deep, and simply want to tell an interesting story or create a nice atmosphere. These shows were Ultraviolet, Kurozuka and Crystal Blaze, of which I enjoyed Crystal Blaze the most. From the outside it doesn’t look like anything special, and yet it succeeded in making optimal use of its short length by providing a thriller. It was a lot of fun to watch from beginning to end, and that’s why I’m including this series on this list.

#13: RD Sennou Chousashitsu

So it had a few balance issues, but nevertheless RD Sennou Chousashitsu or Real Drive did succeed in creating a very imaginative view of what the world would look like in sixty years time. The genre combination between slice of life and science fiction really worked and it was overall a very interesting series.

#12: Casshern Sins

If this series would already have been finished, I just know that it would have ranked even higher on this list. Casshern Sins has already proven to have an excellent sense of storytelling. The individual episodes may be episodic, but they’re masterful in fleshing out the characters that appear in them. It’s a very emotionally powerful series, which you wouldn’t suspect from a series that is about robots.

#11: Mokke

Yeah, this series completely sold me with its heart warming and sappy atmosphere. It’s not the first time where we have a series where the lead characters interact with youkai, but Mokke did it with personality. Mizuki and Shizuru were just too cute to not watch.

Well, so that’s the first half of the list, the rest follows tomorrow. In the meantime: what were your favourites of 2008?

And so it’s finally time to say goodbye to 2007. It’s been another great year, and what way to close it off better than with the obligatory end-of-the-year-rankings and -awards. Like mentioned before, this post has turned out a lot bigger than last year now that I’ve had multiple days to work on it. Oh, and if this is the first time you’ve visited my blog: yes, I do have an unusual taste. There are no awards for Lucky Star nor Gurren Lagann. In fact, I’m actually surprised that Death Note also didn’t get any mention…

Best Anime of 2007: 20-11
This year, I decided to go for a top-20, instead of the usual top-10. Here are the first ten, you can find the rest down below, after the individual awards for this year. Overall, I must say that 2007 has been an excellent year for anime, and even though less series have come out in comparison to 2006, it somehow feels that the overall quality was higher instead.

#20: Master of Epic

I was probably one of the few people who actually stuck with this series, but still I consider Master of Epic to be the best parody-series of the entire year. No other series had so many parodies that hit the spot. It’s also one of the very few comedy-series that knows it’s a comedy-series: there’s no forced drama at the end, and instead the laughs just came rolling. Master of Epic gave me a lot of laughs in the early months of 2007, and for that I decided to include it at #20.

#19: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

While the finale was a bit too straightforward and predictable, this remains a memorable series. The animation and character-designs were excellent, and the soundtrack was smashing. One thing I realize now that I’m writing up this list is that the winter-season of the past year had a lot of shows with excellent historical backgrounds: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi, Chevalier and Les Miserables all provided great insights in the politics and culture of the Japan and France from a few ages ago.

#18: Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei

Of course, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei can’t be omitted on this list. I’ve always liked Shinbo’s original style of direction, and this could quite possibly his best work up till now. But the real strength of this series is that it’s critical on just about anything. It makes a fool out of many taboos on modern-day society.

#17: Gintama

Gintama is still on-going, but that doesn’t stop me from adding this series to this list. It may have had a few episodes where it lost its spark a bit, but in the episodes in which it delivered it was absolutely hilarious. Gintama has a brilliant sense of humour that doesn’t seem to tire, even after forty episodes. Added to that comes the fact that it’s one of the few comedies that actually get improved when the occasional drama is added. This is one series that will have you cry manly tears, either because of laughter, or because of sadness.

#16: Otogi Juushi Akazukin

The finish was weak, but apart from that Otogi Juushi Akazukin has been an awesome fairy-tale experience with a lot of memorable characters. This series was incredibly cute, from start to finish, and the characters made sure to keep this one engaging.

#15: Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori

I can’t deny that Jigoku Shoujo is repetitive. Still, it’s the same as with Revolutionary Girl Utena: the repeated scenes and themes give the series some kind of ritualistic feeling. It also helped a lot that the storytelling for some of the stories was incredibly strong, and especially the best stories were truly memorable. An in-depth look into revenge and what causes people to throw their souls away, just to get rid of one person.

#14: El Cazador de la Bruja

Those who’ve been visiting my blog regularly probably know by now that I’m a Bee-Train fan. Their slow style of storytelling is easy to hate, but I couldn’t help but love the character-development between Ellis and Nadie. The two of them, along with the amazing talents of Kajiura Yuki turned El Cazador into a huge success for me.

#13: Flag

It’s a real shame that the subs for the second season still haven’t come out. I watched the series raw, back in March, and it was even better than the first one. If you’re tired of all those idealistic and unrealistic war-stories, then this is the series you should check out. Never have I seen a war-anime that was as realistic as this one. The decision to make a bunch of photographers into the main characters was an excellent one. The only downfall you should be aware of is that it takes quite a long time to build up.

#12: Saiunkoku Monogatari

Saiunkoku Monogatari is definitely not a fast-paced series. Nearly seventy episodes have passed now, and the end of the series isn’t even in sight. But because of this, the characters have gotten a huge amount of attention, to the point where none of them feels two-dimensional. The writers spent a lot of time on them, to flesh out all of them. The result can be seen in the climaxes, which were absolutely amazing.

#11: Red Garden

This was basically one huge character-study of the four heroines, with all of them having their own problems. It was quite angsty, yes, but the second half really developed the characters into a memorable cast for me. For me, this was the first proof that Gonzo can be good if they want to. One thing I also found out after watching is that this series followed Mahou Shoujotai’s example of recording the voice-acting first, before producing the animation. This is the reason why the dialogue for this series felt so intense and genuine.

2007 Individual Awards:
Biggest Disappointment:

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

At one point, this series had so much potential. But it ruined itself with its too many coincidences, and instead of political intrigue, it went towards a harem- and emo-fest. Things like these sell, yes. But they’re not my idea of good storytelling. The second place is the Hellsing OVA. The first and second episodes were nice, but with the third episode, I understood why Gonzo originally diverted from the manga at that point. Pure genocide isn’t exactly my definition of entertainment.

Worst Series:

Shining Tears X Wind

Of course, I can’t speak for the series I didn’t finish. Goshushou-sama Ninomiya-kun would have had a fair chance to win this title as well, but on the other hand, even that series has to try really hard to surpass the pain that was Shining Tears Episode 12. I still recall how I fell off my chair out of agony when I watched it.

Worst First Episode:

Buzzer Beater

While I of course didn’t have the chance to watch every series, I did get the chance to watch the first episode of the majority of series that aired this year. There was a lot of bad stuff among them, like Goshushou-Sama Ninomiya-kun or Koharu Biyori, which were just fanservice-fests. Still, the worst has to be that episode of the 2007-remake of Buzzer Beater. The main character was even more annoying than Makoto from School Days, for goodness’ sake!

The this-anime-seems-to-have-gone-up-in-smoke-award:

Dead Girls

Seriously… what happened? The OVA for Red Garden was supposed to come out in August, but no subs have come out at all. Did it really ruin the series so much?

Most Pleasant Surprise:

Le Chevalier d’Eon

Due to the slow subs, I was only leisurely watching the first half of this season. That’s probably why I never saw the huge increase in quality coming, once this series hit its second half, and after that, it remained one of my favourites of the time until the end.

Best Animation:

Seirei no Mobirito

2007 was a very good year in terms of animation. Dennou Coil featured simple, but consistently detailed animation. FLAG was shown for its entirety through the lens of various cameras and photos, and Baccano!’s art, while incredibly messy, never gave off the feeling that any still frames were used. Still, none of them can compare to the amazing details of Seirei no Moribito.

Funniest Series:

Gintama

2007 was also another excellent year in terms of comedies. From the more popular series as Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei to the obscure ones of Power Puff Girls Z and Master of Epic, a lot of them were hilarious. Of course, there were disappointments. Potemayo and Lucky star just didn’t cut it and got stale fast, but thankfully Gintama more than made up for this. It has along with the Law of Ueki and Excel Saga the most awesome sense of humour I’ve ever seen in a comedy, and cracked me up many times after each other. It may take a few episodes to get into, but Gintama is a perfect recommendation if you’re looking for laughs.

Best OP:

Uninstall – Bokura no
(Why yes, I was a bit too lazy to take screenshots)
Most opening themes look like each other, with the cheesy J-pop and J-rock and all. But there were some great songs this year among them. Especially the OVAs came with a great selection (especially Tales of Symphonia and FREEDOM) and Wellber no Monogatari, with its textless song formed an excellent introduction to the series. But still, Chiaki Ishikawa, member of See-saw delivered an excellent song, which combined with the excellent visuals for Bokura no to my favourite OP of the year.

Best Thought-Provoking Anime:

Bokura no

Especially when thinking back, the two series that stand out for me as the most thought-provoking of 2007 are Kaiji and Bokura no; both ask deep questions about human nature. Kaiji delves into the darkest corners of the human-mind, while Bokura no shows us how the different characters all deal with the dark situations that they’re put into, and especially how every characters reacts differently.

Best Studio:

Production IG

For me, there were four big animation-studios in 2007: Gonzo, Studio Deen, Madhouse and Production IG. All four of them delivered multiple excellent anime. Gonzo and Studio Deen, however, also were behind some of the crappiest series of the year, and with Madhouse you’ll never know when their series turn out excellent or just mediocre. Still, Production IG only messed up with Reideen. All their other series this year were of a huge quality. Seirei no Moribito and Chevalier were brilliant, Wellber no Monogatari was very entertaining and Ghost Hound is also shaping up to be an excellent series. Here’s to hoping that they’ll be able to continue this trend for 2008!

Best Drama:

Kaze no Shoujo Emily

This was quite a hard award to give away, simply because most of the shows I watched could be considered drama in some sort of way. Still, in the end I decided to go for Kaze no Shoujo, as the interaction between Emily and the people around her is exactly what drama should be.

Best Movie 2006/2007:

Tekkon Kinkreet

This year premiered a lot of interesting movies, but for me the two best ones turned out to be Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo and Tekkon Kinkreet. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo was exactly how a high-school drama should be and the lead character was really likable. Still, the clear winner for me was the sad tale of two orphans that grow up on the streets of Tekkon Kinkreet. Studio 4C has shown yet again that they know exactly what they’re doing.

Best Music:

El Cazador de la Bruja

This was an easy category for me. Yuki Kajiura shines with the work she’s done for El Cazador, and especially the main tune is among her best works yet. As for runner-ups: that honour belongs to Toward the Terra and Seirei no Moribito this year. Two soundtracks which fit the series they’re made for perfectly.

Best Action:

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

I won’t deny that Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann had good action; for me it takes up the third place in this department for 2007. On the second place comes Seirei no Moribito. It may not have had many action series, but the choreography of the ones that were there was amazing. Still, the swordfights from Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto did remain to be the best action-sequences. It had the combination of the quality of Seirei no Moribito with the quantity of Gurren Lagann, with very exciting results.

Best ED:

FREEDOM
No question possible here. Ike Yoshihiro smashes all competition with the incredible song he composed here. The only others who can come close to the ending for this series are both the endings of Bokura no, yet again two excellent songs to close off the series.

Best Romance:

Saiunkoku Monogatari

Okay, romance indeed isn’t my preferred genre, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like it when it’s done well. The best of this year in terms of romance definitely comes from Saiunkoku Monogatari. Every single couple of the series is awesome and well-developed, so it’s an award well-earned. As runner-ups, there is the later half of El Cazador (which was yuri, though) and the final episodes of Kaze no Shoujo Emily.

Best-Looking Graphics:

Bokura no

Unlike with the Best Animation-award, I’m not looking for detail here. Things just have to look good. For me, Red Garden, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, Toward the Terra and Wellber no Monogatari all looked gorgeous. Still, I decided to go with Bokura no. I really like Mohiro Kitoh’s character-designs. They’re simple, yet effective and they work perfectly when combined with Gonzo’s graphics.

Best Non-2006/2007 Movie:

Tokyo Godfathers

Those who’ve been reading my blog for the past year know that I’ve been checking out all kinds of older movies for the past months. While I saw a lot of good stuff from Studio Ghibli, the best were two movies called Metropolis and Tokyo Godfathers, two productions which shined in nearly every department. Because Metropolis had a few predictability-issues, I decided to give the award to Tokyo Godfathers. The perfect Christmas-movie.

Best Mystery:

Dennou Coil

2007 has been a disappointing year for mystery when compared to 2006, something which I, as a mystery-fan, didn’t really like. Series like Darker than Black and Baccano may have been good in their own ways, but the mystery just wasn’t as good as some of the mystery-series that 2006 brought us. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni also stopped being a mystery-series with its second season, and that only leaves Dennou Coil to stand on the top, with definitely the best mystery of the entire year.

Best Old Series I happened to See This Year:

Haibane Renmei

While the second half of 2007 kept me busy checking out different movies, in the first half I was watching various thirteen-episode series. The best of the bunch definitely were Figure 17 and Haibane Renmei; two fantastic character-studies. Haibane Renmei ended up winning because of the brilliant scriptwriting that was showcased in the final episodes.

Best Script:

Baccano!

It hardly comes as a surprise that Baccano! walks away with this award. Three timelines happen all at once, the cast of characters is enormous for a thirteen-episode series, and still everything comes together like a charm in the end, leaving every character with a well-defined role, fleshed out and at least with a tiny bit of development.

Best Story:

Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette

The two big series for this category are Toward the Terra and Les Miserables. Les Miserables managed to win because of the immense attention it put into both building-up and wrapping up its storyline. Here’s one series that makes perfect use of its 52 episodes.

Most Promising Studio:

Ufo-Table

There’s one reason why I give this award to Ufo-Table. Before 2007, they were just a measly studio with only the bad titles of Ninnin ga Shinobuden and Coyote Ragtime Show behind their name. Then they started the year with Manabi Straight, and continued on with Tales of Symphonia. While both may not be the best titles, they’re a huge improvement of what the studio showcased before, and they’re now also promising to do a great job for Kara no Kyoukai, which airs in 2008. These guys are really working to improve themselves, and it would be lovely if this could continue.

Best Character-Development:

Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette

There are a lot of strong contenders for this year, which is why I decided to include this award. We have Chevalier with Durrant, Toward the Terra with Jomie and Keith and Red Garden with its four main characters. Still, the champion in the character-development for this year is Les Miserables, where the entire cast underwent some kind of memorable development, with the highlight being Eponine, who underwent so many changes from her initial spoiled brattiness.

Best Anime of 2007: 10-1
#10: Ooedo Rocket

A series that went mostly under the radar during the spring-season, which rather surprised me as it was being directed by the same guy who directed Full Metal Alchemist. Still, it featured a memorable cast of hilarious characters. It was so much fun to just see them interact with each other. I also admire the guts this series had for its final episodes, but I’d rather not spoil this.

#9: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

It took me a while to get used to the completely new pacing of the second season, when compared to the chaos of the first one. But still, the second season made Higurashi feel a lot more complete due to the huge amounts of attention it paid to the storyline and setting.

#8: Le Chevalier d’Eon

This was a real surprise for me. I was just casually watching this series, until it suddenly turned to much better than I could have imagined. I keep a list of rankings on this blog at the end of each month, and Chevalier was one of the only two series to be my favourite series for two consecutive months. The incredibly deep characters and the well-developed setting in France during the reign of Louis XV are the ones to thank for that.

#7: Seirei no Moribito

And with that, we come to another Production IG-series: Seirei no Moribito. No single series can even dream to come close to the amazing production-values of this series. Everything, absolutely everything has been incredibly detailed to perfection. This made for a few awkward and boring moments, but boy, did it deliver in the end!

#6: Dennou Coil

The spring-season had an incredibly strong line-up, and yet, Dennou Coil was my most anticipated series, and with a good reason. The setting has been incredibly imaginative. Mitsuo Iso went much further than just “creating a cyberspace that can be viewed with special glasses”. Dennou Coil has been an excellent example of science-fiction that’s different from all the space- and mecha-battles, and it was blessed with an incredibly strong cast.

#5: Baccano!

I don’t think I can add anything to what has already been said about this series. Baccano came and delivered in 13 episodes something that takes ordinary series twice as much time. No single frame or scene was wasted. And even though there were a huge amount of stories going on at the same time, everything came together like a charm, resulting in one of the most well-written series of the year.

#4: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette

To be honest, the Top-4 of this year is incredibly close. Last year, I had no difficulties selecting the order for my top-series of the year. Mahou Shoujotai, Noein, The Third, Simoun and Mushishi all made some special impact on me, they clearly stood above the rest of the series for 2006, and ranking them was quite easy. Though with 2007, choosing my favourite series was incredibly difficult. I know that the series I ranked in my top-4 are the highlight of the year for me, but there’s hardly a difference in quality between them. They all were awesome in their own way. Les Miserables is the only series this year that can boast to have a better-developed storyline than Seirei no Moribito. On top of that, the characters have been amazing, and the entire series has been wrapped up very carefully. This is one series that deserves to get subbed.

#3: Toward the Terra

Space-operas at its best. You won’t find any cheesy giant robot-battles here. Toward the Terra is the story about the Myu, who are searching for just a place to live. The multiple time-skips made sure that this series featured some of the best character-development of the entire year. Outstanding in every way, Toward the Terra is my biggest recommendation for the series that aired in 2007.

#2: Kaze no Shoujo Emily

Without a doubt the most underrated series of the year, even when compared to Les Miserables. Kaze no Shoujo Emily had an amazing combination between slice-of-life and gut-wrenching drama, and seeing Emily and her friends grow up was a true delight. For me, this has been one of the most consistently good series of the year, hence the high placement. The feeling of working towards your dreams proved to be excellent material for this series to work with.

#1: Bokura no

The perfect example of why changing from the original manga can be a good thing at times. The concept for Bokura no already was amazing, and the director used this concept perfectly to provide an amazing storyline for the characters to work with. Bokura no wasn’t about the characters freaking out, but about how they all individually chose to deal with the situation that was forced upon them, despite a few coincidences in the storyline, but I couldn’t care less about those.

Okay, it’s time to list my favourites of 2006. My 2006 Summary is going to be a bit different from my usual montly summaries, seeing as it just consists out of a bunch of awards and one top-10. Still, seeing as it’s been a very good year this time, I’ve got lots of awards, and I had a really tough time deciding for some. Here’s hoping that 2007 will be even better. To those who already are in 2007: Happy New Year! For those (like me) who still need a few hours to go: Happy New Year In Advance!

Funniest Anime: The Law of Ueki

The series, entirely devoted to comedy like Muteki Kanbanmusume and Magikano may have been hilarious, none cracked me up like Ueki did. It’s hilarious cast of characters combined with their special powers just cracked me up majorly during some of the better fights in the series. Special credit goes to the guy with the sewing-talent and the badass punk guy who could change his sacred treasures into cute and fluffy animals. ^_^

Most Pleasant Surprise: Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror

After the first episode, I expected NOTHING of this show. Just another dull anime about medieval Japan in which some bloody things happened. Then the second episode came. Boy, did it blow me away with all its brutal killings, murders and people going crazy. And if I even knew at that time how amazing the third arc ended up to be.

Best Music: .Hack//Roots

I actually had a tough time choosing between .Hack//Roots, Noein and Night Head Genesis. Night Head Genesis has some brilliant atmospheric music, while Noein just blasts out of the speakers at times, while at other times it produced some extremely sad tunes. Still, in the end, I dediced to go with .Hack//Roots, seeing as the ALU Project really knew what they were doing. The music also was one of the reasons the final few episodes turned good again.

Best Not Really a 2006-Anime: Popolocrois 1998 and 2003

Yeah, even though these anime never really appeared in 2006, only now they started to get subbed. Still, that doesn’t means that I don’t love both series. The 1998 series had some incredibly funny moments and action scenes, while 2003 especially turned awesome with its second half. Both series have some great characters and character developments. At this point, I can’t choose which one of these is the better. I’ll do that as soon as the entire series have been subbed. I hope that happens fast, as there haven’t been any subs appearing at all lately.

Best Old Anime I Happened To See This Year: Revolutionary Girl Utena

I blogged this series, even though it aired eight years ago, for a reason. It’s got some of the best character development and studies ever, and especially the latest episodes were insanely good. Honorable Mention: Hi no Tori.

Best Thought-Provoking Anime: Ergo Proxy

There’s some heavy contending with Mushishi here. While Mushishi asks questions about life itself, and how to spend it, Ergo Proxy keeps toying with the minds of its viewers over and over again with some very interesting cases. While the later part of the anime may have become a bit stale, the first two thirds were excellent in this.

Best-Looking Graphics: Noein

There’ve been some anime with interesting graphical approaches in the past year. Kenomonozume, with its messy art, for example, or Good Witch of the West with its beautiful approach to both character designs and backgrounds, or xxxHolic, with its rather simple character designs, which in the end did turn out great. Still, none of them managed to beat Noein. Its great blend of CG and messy character designs immediately had me captured from its first episode.

Best Drama: Mushishi

This was a very tough choice between Simoun, Mushishi and Asatte no Houkou. Still, in the end, I went with Mushishi, seeing as most of its stories truly are unrivalled. The extremely serious approach to the stories, some of which are hopeless cases, while others can be cured, though each of them affect the lives of the people involved tremendously.

Cutest Anime: Otogi Juushi Akazukin

Seriously, the characters turned out so incredibly CUTE. This goes for both the male and the female ones. Akazukin, Shirayuki, Ibara, and the others just have the greatest character designs, while the males, like Souta, Hansel and especially Baru are extremely cute in their behaviours. Especially Baru has to have it hard, being surrounded by people such as Shirayuki and Ringo. ^_^

Best RPG-adaptation: Tales of Phantasia

I have no idea what people have against RPG-based anime. Okay, Final Fantasy Unlimited may have been garbage, and Star Ocean EX’s final episodes may have been the king and queen of Deus ex Machina, but when it’s done right, it really works. Just look at Popolocrois, Ragnarok the Animation and Makai Senki Disgaea. In any case, the best one in this year definitely came from Tales of Phantasia. It’s a great four-episode OVA adaptation of the game, Especially Arche, Klarth and Suzu were awesome. 🙂

The this-anime-seems-to-have-gone-up-in-smoke-award: Hime-Sama Goyoujin

Remember this one? It only got one episode subbed, and that’s all. After that, nobody talked about it, or said anything about it. It’s a shame, seeing as the first episode was rather funny. It actually was a tough choice, along with Shoujo Chang Geum no Yume, though the latter managed to save itself from this award when its second episode got subbed. Still, I liked both series, and hope to see more of them.

Biggest Disappointment: Ouran High School Host Club

It’s a shame. It started out so good and funny, though because it kept milking the same jokes over and over, it sort of ruined itself. It’s a pity, as it really had a great concept. I almost wanted to put Haruhi Suzumiya here, seeing as it went from an excellent first episode to just a mediocre show, till I dropped it at episode 4, though I feel that because I only beared the first few episodes, I had no way of knowing whether the later episodes would turn out good or not. Not that I expect them to, or something.

Top 10 Anime 2006
Okay, these are my favourite series of 2006. This definitely has been a great year for anime. 🙂

#10: xxxHolic

When it comes to Watanuki’s antics, no one can beat him. He’s been a great character through the course of the show. The situations he was thrown at, the decisions he made, his annoyances at both Yuuko, Domeki and Mokona turned this into a great series. The cases of each week also were extremely interesting to see. From a woman who lost herself over her internet-obsession to a pipe fox who eats evil spirits.

#9: Saiunkoku Monogatari

When it comes to strong female characters, Shuurei definitely has to be mentioned. I love how much thought has been put into this series to provide a nice political drama about a woman, rising into a male-dominated society. The antics of the different side-characters also helped this series a lot. I really hope to see more of this in 2007.

#8: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Okay, it may have had it’s bad moments. The animation when characters went berserk did look fake, and the fifth arc was a hell to get through. But when this series turned good, it really turned GOOD. It successfully managed to combine horror, touching characters and a plot full of mysteries, mysteries and even more mysteries. I’m a fan of all three of these parts, so that means that I really enjoyed this anime.

#7: Eureka 7

A surprise hit for me, seeing as it only started getting good after ten episodes. Still, after that point, this series turned out extremely touching, and even more disturbing. The final episodes also turned this show also into one of the few anime that made me cry about its characters.

#6: Otogi Juushi Akazukin

I’m surprised to see such lack of interest about this show, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love this one. I really love well-executed fantasy-stories, cute character and a good dose of mystery, and that’s exactly what this show has to offer. Each of the characters are a joy to see, and I really look forward to each week’s instalment.

#5: Mushishi

We now turn to the anime that made a huge impression on me this year. The first one being Mushishi. Nothing much happened during the episodes, there wasn’t any action of some sort. But the stories, holy god, the stories. Whether sad or happy, they blew me away, especially the better ones.

#4: Simoun

Simoun created a large cast of amazing characters for its setting. Through the course of the anime, we got to know them, love them, hate them and feel along with them. That resulted in some truly magnificent scenes. The ending, although unorthodox, was a great way to end this series.

#3: The Third

Ah, Honoka. What an amazing character you’ve been. You definitely were the best female character of 2006. When you combine that with some other absolutely great characters, great action scenes and a great story, the result becomes amazing. When it still aired, I really loved this series.

#2: Noein

The only negative thing I can say about Noein was that the subs were coming out rather slow. Apart from that, it really has been one amazing ride, from start to finish. It’s huge number of plot twist, incredibly touching characters and amazing story turned this anime into one of the definite highlights of the past year.

#1: Mahou Shoujotai

Yes, I know that this technically isn’t a 2006-series, but seeing as its final two episodes got subbed January 1st, I do consider this as a part of 2006. Besides, this anime is too awesome to leave out of this list, seeing as it’s one of my favourite shows of all time. Too little people really know about this hidden gem, and it definitely needs more love than it’s getting right now.