December Summary

As usual in December this summary is a little earlier and smaller than usual in order to give me some time to work on my 2010 summary. I’ve planned three posts and for some reason I found it a good idea to make this year’s summary much bigger than I did with previous years, so I really need that time.

As for the past Autumn season, it was definitely an interesting one. In all of the years I’ve been blogging, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a major season (as in Spring and Autumn) with so few series that go beyond thirteen episodes. This lead to a lot of short but sweet series. Nothing is really in the realms of classics, but there still was a lot to like about the different series that aired. Probably the thing that I liked the most about this season is the many surprises it carried: for every show that performed disappointingly, there also was a show that came from nowhere and turned out to be much, much better than expected.

#24 (new) – Starry Sky – (3,75/10) – Ten minutes, just to glorify an incredibly overused cliche. Studio Deen, what the heck do you think you’re doing?
#23 (25) – Iron Man – (5,25/10) – The end was completely generic, just like the entire series. Any hope for this show to redeem itself went down the toilet with the decision for who got to be the final villain.
#22 (23) – Togainu no Chi – (5,5/10) – This show completely lost it in its final two episodes. It really feels like the creators stopped caring, that’s how bad it was. Il Re’s changes were just completely baffling, and the entire conclusion was just a mishmash of poorly built-up plot twists and incredibly poor animation.
#21 (20) – Arakawa Under the Bridge – (6,75/10) – Well, this ended with a big resounding “meh”. I hoped that the final episodes would at least show the journey to Venus, but even that got shafted in favour of this random unfunny fighting tournament that just went on forever.
#20 (17) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (7,25/10) – Agh, what a disappointment. This entire month I was waiting for some sort of hook for a second season, and it never came, delivering a boring final battle against a boring villain instead. That second season is really going to have to make up its mind: either go entirely for an anime original arc, or just stay faithful to the manga. This series just showed that you can’t do both at the same time.
#19 (21) – The World God Only Knows – (7,5/10) – the book girl arc was certainly not the worst of the series, although it still was rather cheesy. That final episode was just weird, though. And I’m still not sure whether this was in a good or a bad way.
#18 (19) – MM! – (7,5/10) – So in the end, this show never really concluded anything. It has passed by as a very messy harem, but this month again was quite enjoyable enough.
#17 (16) – To Aru Majutsu no Index – (7,75/10) – The current arc of Index is about average. The back-story is nice, and the characters have their good moments… but also their annoying moments. It’s a good thriller, but a number of the female side-characters were just beyond obnoxious: Mikoto’s mother is just a giant boob joke, while Index is more annoying than she ever was in this arc.
#16 (18) – Fortune Arterial – (7,75/10) – The ending was strong, but I really would have liked to see a 10 minute epilogue: the way it is now this show is inconclusive. I have to praise this show though, because the build-up to the finale was surprisingly good.
#15 (14) – Bakuman – (8/10)

This show is nicely bubbling along. The pacing is sloooow, but nothing bad has happened yet: every episode so far did progress the characters, so only time can tell whether it’s going to work out or not.

#14 (9) – Yumeiro Patissiere – (8/10)

I really did not expect this show to end at episode thirteen. It was also a completely silly conclusion that just screamed convenience. Still, it advanced quite a few relationships and it was a lot of fun to watch in the process.

#13 (15) – Katanagatari – (8,25/10)

I didn’t really like Emonzaemon’s final fight, but overall the end here was a pretty interesting one, with nice twists that still retained the dialogue.

#12 (12) – Shinryaku! Ika-Musume – (8,25/10)

The ending sucked! Seriously, I have no idea what the creators were trying to do with the final two segments, but it didn’t work. But also, that’s about the only thing of this series that I didn’t like this month, so it all evens out. Especially Squid Girls interpretation of Teruterubouzus was just completely hilarious.

#11 (13) – Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru – (8,25/10)

Overall this was a solid conclusion to a solid series. Its trips into the supernatural were unexpected, but worked well most of the time, and I especially liked that old guy. This month too gave a lot of neat characterization to the main cast, and overall I’m very happy with how things turned out.

#10 (11) – Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – (8,25/10)

Haha! Even the finale was taking the piss out of itself. It really was brilliant, and at the same time an action-packed finale, which is something that you don’t often see in comedies (see Squid Girl).

#9 (9) – Otome Youkai Zakuro – (8,5/10)

It’s a great conclusion for this series: most of the characters received a final bit of development, and this final month really did justice to them. The backstory of Zakuro’s mother was especially interesting and it’s as wonderfully told as ever.

#8 (6) – Star Driver – (8,5/10)

Star Driver is finally coming together as a character study now that it’s revisiting previous characters, and the cast is definitely getting more and more depth. Let’s hope that it can keep this up for its second half.

#7 (10) – Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt – (8,5/10)

Panty and Stocking really was on fire this month: they tried out a ton of interesting ideas, and the finale kicked ass in many different ways. My only complaint was that the pre-finale was a tad cheesy, but apart from that the creators really made up for the lackluster first episodes of this series.

#6 (2) – Kuragehime – (8,5/10)

Kuragehime is still great, but it lacks the energy that made the previous two months so addictive. Most of this can be blamed on a sulking lead character, but even when this show kicked down a notch, it still packs some great characterization and jokes.

#5 (3) – Shinrei Tantei Yakumo – (8,5/10)

Completely opposite of what the first half of the series was, the final arc of Yakumo really took its time to fully tell its story and it was a great little ending that did justice to the different characters.

#4 (8) – Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – (8,5/10)

For its finale, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu pulled something completely unexpected for its final two episodes… and it actually worked. I mean, there still are huge holes in the story with so much material left unanimated, but for a series that once really annoyed me, the final two episodes really left a good aftertaste for this series.

#3 (5) – Letter Bee – (8,75/10)

Letter Bee has a wonderful cast of characters, and that really was the main focus of this month, as they really allowed the plot to shine. On top of that, it was also a major month for the storyline itself and I really like how things are developing.

#2 (1) – Heartcatch Precure – (8,75/10)

This month was mostly building up for the big finale, and it was utterly adorable while doing so, which made the latest episode in which Dune finally arrives hit extra hard. Now that the ending is so near, this series really managed to stay true to itself, while also carrying on to add to its different characters.

#1 (4) – Shiki – (9,25/10)

This series just became utterly amazing in its final stretch. After months of build-up, it finally ends up using its final trump card and that has lead to an incredible climax. It hasn’t ended yet, but I see very little that can get in this series’ way of delivering the best ending of the season.