A bit of a boring list this time perhaps, since it looks mostly the same as last month’s with perhaps a few small differences. Nevertheless, this was a very good month. The winter season has proven to be an excellent one, and quite a few series spent this month getting even better than they already were. Oh, and I dropped Kemono no Souja Erin for those who were wondering. Wake me up if it turns out to be more than just a World Masterpiece Wannabe.
#24 (new) – Fresh! Precure – (7,5/10) – … why am I still watching this thing!?
#23 (24) – Kurokami The Animation – (7,75/10) – I still can’t quite grasp where this series is going, but it’s still mostly building up and fleshing out the Mototsumita-setting. So far, it’s solid, though it hasn’t hit any heights yet. My highlight this month was the episode with the other Mototsumita who made a contract with a substitute.
#22 (33) – Hetalia: Axis Powers – (7,75/10) – Okay, so my attempt at blogging this series failed, but it’s still a pretty fun and random series with interesting historical references. I’m looking forward to see the other countries show up.
#21 (20) – Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – (8/10) – Oh, I just hope that the finale is going to be all right for this series. Some parts of the past months have been really good, but at the same time the action has been repetitive apart from the two episodes about the coup d’etat, and the Saji vs Louise storyline STILL hasn’t become better, even after nearly fifty episodes.
#20 (10) – Gintama – (8/10) – Ouch… This episode saw the subbed versions of the episodes that were jointly directed by the old and new directors of the series, and there’s one thing that immediately becomes clear: the jokes start feeling flat. It may just be me getting used to the new style, but the timing just felt off and most of the jokes missed their mark. Thank goodness the serious parts were still as awesome as ever, but I’m worried here. Let’s see what the new director can do when he’s alone in the director’s seat.
#19 (19) – Minami-Ke – (8/10) – I’m a bit behind on this series, but overall while it’s not proven to be something awesome it remains pretty enjoyable to see the different antics of the Minami sisters. There’s hardly anything annoying or flawed, so I’m glad to have picked up this series.
#18 (23) – Koukaku no Regios – (8/10) – This turned into a pretty sold series, and the stereotypes are getting less and less apparent and annoying. My only gripe is that horrible, horrible Engrish, but I’m interested to see where this series can go.
#17 (22) – Ride Back – (8/10) – I really have a hate/love relationship with this series. On one hand, it continues to tug on my suspense of disbelief (why out of all people did the younger brother get involved, and why was everyone shot down and brutally killed, while he managed to survive long enough or Rin to arrive), but on the other hand, the characters do remain excellent.
#16 (13) – One Outs – (8,25/10) – So in the end, this series didn’t turn out into a very deep or thought-provoking one, but instead one that’s just a lot of fun to watch. I’m getting more and more warmed up to the cast of characters.
#15 (7) – Tales of the Abyss – (8,25/10) – This month was mostly build-up for the big finale of this series, but it’s nevertheless been very solid. The development on the two characters who originally made me question where this series was going (the two little girls who rather felt out of place in a war between countries) was quite good and appreciated.
#14 (21) – Skip Beat – (8,25/10) – I have so many issues with this series that it’s going to have to need an entire review in order for me to be able to list them all. For now, let me just say that I may have chosen the wrong time to watch Glass Mask: the parts about acting in Skip Beat feel downright shallow and oversimplified when compared to that series. Still, I’m surprised that the different characters’ antics still remain hilarious.
#13 (8) – Natsume Yuujinchou – (8,25/10) – I’m still not exactly sure what I’m missing that the rest of the people do see with the second season. I still like this series a lot, but when compared to the stellar first season, there seems something missing, and my guess would be that the novelty of the premise is wearing out for me. Still, the soothing atmosphere is still there.
#12 (16) – Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai – (8,5/10) – So, the glorified recap is finally over and this series can finally start filling in the huge holes that the original OVAs left behind. The pacing is still really fast, but I so hope that this series is going to last for 24 episodes.
#11 (17) – Druaga no Tou – (8,5/10) – This is really typical of Druaga no Tou. First you have episodes like the one with the shadows, which really were quite terrible and full of holes, and then when you’re about to give up on the series, it hits you with some really good and solid episodes that completely make up for the past screw-ups and silliness,and they fully explained what Neeba and Kaaya had been doing for the past six months.
#10 (14) – Tytania – (8,5/10)
A bit of a quiet month for Tytania with only two episodes aired, but there was some good stuff in it. This series sure took a long time to get fired up, but the end results are worth it.
#9 (12) – White Album – (8,75/10)
Ah, I’m so in love with the subtle execution of this series. It’s also proven to be quite a thought-provoking series: what does it mean to cheat on your girlfriend, and in what cases is it justified. There are lots of different opinions and ways to interpret this series, which I feel is yet another one of its strengths.
#8 (9) – Genji Monogatari Sennenki – (8,75/10)
Now this is what Noitamina should be. After seven episode,s this series is still going solid, with some beautiful eye candy along the way. Now let’s see if the creators can give this one a solid conclusion.
#7 (15) – Jigoku Shoujo – (8,75/10)
Muaha! It’s time for the real meat of the series to show up at last. I’m very excited to see what the creators have in store for the climax this time.
#6 (6) – Hajime no Ippo – (8,75/10)
Episode eight was pure slaughter, and yet this series is just getting better and better. If the original series was just as good as this, then I can understand why it became so popular.
#5 (11) – Shikabane Hime – (8,75/10)
Screw the shounen cliches, this series rocks! Especially the characters are excellent, thanks to all the build-up that the first season put into them, and there seems to be no end in sight for the character development of the second season.
#4 (3) – Michiko e Hatchin – (9/10)
As solid and fun as ever.Michiko to Hatchin continues its perfect balance between intelligence, action, fun, drama, romance, and a whole lot more things. Every episode this month has been a delight to watch.
#3 (2) – Casshern Sins – (9/10)
Everything is finally coming together for this series, and the results are awesome so far. The series is evolving, and yet the creators aren’t forgetting what made it so awesome in the first place.
#2 (4) – Clannad – (9,25/10)
Well, there you have it. The past few episodes have been nothing short of incredible. Ushio has pushed this series into a unique direction, going even further than Itazura na Kiss went.
#1 (1) – Birdy the Mighty Decode – (9,5/10)
I’m still amazed at how incredibly good and awesome this series has become. Nearly every episode so far has been utterly amazing, and I just have to love the animation style.
No mark for Haruhi or Churuya? I enjoy Haruhi (episode 3 was the funniest for me), and Churuya was… weird. I understood it came from the fan comic, but I never understood the fan comic and I don’t understand this. I usually find randomness pretty funny, this was just randomness to me without being funny.
Normally my list is pretty much the same as your but not any more. With the exception of Casshern I’m really not mad on any of your top 10, although I haven’t seen Ippo.
One Outs, Hetalia, Ride Back and Casshern top everything else this season for me
Toradora is my number 1, the recent episodes have been breathtakingly good and it’s on its way to compete with Honey&Clover as my favorite romantic comedy ever.
For the others, Shikabane Hime and Birdy are going strong, I’m not the biggest fan of Clannad but I have to admit that the last few episodes really made me feel emotional and Michiko to Hatchin is just great fun.
Still trying to catch up on a lot of anime,i’ve just watched the first episode of one outs:kaiji was different from akagi that’s why i wanted to watch that show ,but in the 1st episode it just seems like toa is like akagi,am i getting a wrong impression based on 1 episode or is that the case?
You should put some stuff on back order and watch the first Ippo series.
yay for clannad!
Kalandra: I enjoyed neither of them, to be honest, possibly because I’m not a fan of the show. They were so bad that I didn’t even bother to include them in this list.
Totoum: I haven’t seen Akagi, so I can’t be sure, but throughout One Outs Tokuchi pwns everyone who dares to oppose him.
Wow, I’ve come to notice that you have rather arbitrary taste in anime.
As a follow up to that and to clarify that what I said wasn’t necessarily meant to be critical, I’ve noted that you are at least very reasonable within your own set of criteria and I have yet to see you apply different standards of judgement between one series and the next like a lot of other review blogs. Kudos for avoiding that pitfall.
Birdy as top? I can’t agree more.
I don’t really understand people’s dislike for the engrish in Regios. I can’t honestly begin to take those flashbacks seriously, and that just makes them more enjoyable. (I CAN SHE ZA BURRET)
Munto is much higher in enjoyment for me. True, that might be because of EXPLOSIONS HURR but I am generally enjoying it much more than I would have expected from a KyoAni show about mystical elves.
I still need to catch up on Casshern Sins.
Considering your comments about similarities, next month should probably be the same, except most of these series will be finishing.
I’m looking forward to Spring 2009, are you going to be using your “no insight” method of approaching new shows like usual?
What?!? No “Kemono no Sou Ja Erin” in the top 10?!?
There MUST BE something wrong…
I think you’re expecting the wrong things from Kemono Souja no Erin.I think it’s not supposed to be something like the WMT series but more like Xam’d,where a big grand war will happen with mystical elements involved.Just instead of the BONES style of story telling,they did a chapter by chapter,more linear type of story telling.
Of course all of what I said is just my own take on it,but so far I’m loving Erin and I really don’t feel the WMT series vibe for most of the time(the episode with the bride was really pushing it though :p).
btw,psgels you should definitely watch Turn A Gundam.It’s like a WMT series,with Gundam!Though you might want to watch it after finishing 00,’cause you might start to hate the Gundam franchise after seeing them so much :p
On that note,any prediction for the ending of 00?
Denizen: yup; that’s my plan at least.
c160: I myself just kept seeing it as some sort of combination between the early episodes of Les Miserables and Porfy no Nagai Tabi, but with dragons, so yeah, I just dropped this series because I know that it’s going to be near-impossible for it to live up to these expectations. ^^;
As for Gundam 00, my prediction will be an ending where nearly all of the main characters die with lots and lots of screaming. I really hope that that prediction will be wrong.
@C160: I think Erin is way more similar to Moribito than Xam’d. Even if I loved both of them, the only thing I can figure out Xam’d could share with Erin is the role of the female as a guide for the main character (Nakiami/Haru for Akiyuki, Soyon always in Erin’s mind). I just hoped to see at least a monthly post by Psgels concerning this little masterpiece ^^
to Mu: sorry if you misunderstood,my post was directed at psgels.Your post wasn’t there when I typed mine ^^;
When I compared Erin to Xam’d,I was actually referring to the war theme that both series have(or seems to have for Erin).Sorry,bad comparison there 😛
to psgels: Yeah,that’s what I predicted for 00 too >_
well,I have the same opinion about Erin as Mu does….What we hope now iz the sub wasn’t going to stop because its damn 51 ep long …xp…
BTW,psgels,are you dropping Viper’s Creed? I don’t see it anywhere on your list
What episodes of Druaga did you find so terrible? I actually think the show’s been really solid… not a bad episode yet, and no signs of any to come. It’s honestly becoming one of my favorite fantasy series of all time, and depending on how it ends, it stands to usurp that throne from PopoloCrois – and as you might imagine, coming from me, that’s saying a whole hell of a lot. (:
-Tom
I’d be enjoying Munto a whole lot more if I could make any sense of the story or if it would at least stop taking itself so goddamn seriously. Right now the characters seem more brooding then anybody in Gundam 00 could ever hope to be.
Move Gundam 00 up in the rankings and bring Munto down (in fact you could almost just switch their spots) and you’d have something closer to how I would rank the shows.
yes – “Birdy the Might Decode” has been a pleasant surprise this season
mds: yeah, I also dropped Viper’s Creed because I ended up watching too many shows otherwise, and this one sounded like the one with the least amount of potential of the shows I’m watching.
Tom: The episode that mostly did it was the one with the desert. I was really disappointed at the huge amount of plotholes that appeared, and also the huge incompetence of the group of soldiers that was sent after the lead characters also was very annoying, but the past two episodes have really made up for them.
I’ll admit, that wasn’t the best episode, but it was conceptually interesting, and I still found it very enjoyable to watch. I also think they did a nice job of explaining most of the plot points introduced therein.
And I didn’t see anything wrong with the behavior of the group of soldiers. Have you ever personally experienced being in a group of people that large being led by an incompetent person? It happens all the time – my job is a good example – and the decisions made by people in groups like that can be pretty gloriously bad. I thought that was actually some pretty realistic behavior. (:
-Tom
God… The last episode of Kemono no souja Erin had some horrible, horrible animation and they also cycled animation to the point where I just wanted to claw my eyes out over how horrible it was. I’m usually not the person who notice these things either, so that makes it all the much worse. I think they showed the same picture of roaring lizards about 10 times in a minute.
If they go for a simplistic artstyle they have no fucking right to go ahead and skip out on the animation… and why the hell do they insist on using animated lizards when the artstyle is so simplistic?
It’s pissing me off so much that they decide to go and ruin a series like this.