Some Quick First Impressions: Minami-Ke Tadaima, Haitai Nanafa and AKB0048 Next Stage

by psgels, posted in AKB0048, Some Quick First Impressions

Minami-Ke Tadaima

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are three sisters living together.
I watch Minami-ke really if I have nothing better to do: it’s not bad or anything, but the pacing is a bit too slow for me to actively watch it if I have other stuff to do. Having said that though, this episode did make me laugh. It’s got the type of humour that tries to be funny by being annoying: the entire episode was basically Kana (one of the three sister) being an ass towards everyone. And that did lead to some funny moments. There were other parts that were formulaic, though. For example, for some reason the creators found it a good idea to have these chibi-shorts in between the different sketches here that are just unfunny and just serve to turn the characters into caricatures of themselves. We’ll see. It’s not like there’s much competition this season.
OP: Dull and generic.
ED: Again dull and generic
Potential: 60%

Haitai Nanafa

Short Synopsis: Our lead character finds a magical girl from a tree.
Three minute moe shows again! Alert! This is even a remnant of past seasons that took forever to get released. I have no idea why. Out of all the 3-minute moe shows though, this one is the best, because it actually impressed me with something: it’s got eye candy! I really did not expect that, but this show’s art design looks really good actually, something that I really did not expect. The rest though…. it’s about a bunch of magical girls. This was just the introduction but its comedic timing felt flawed (bad build-up). It was nothing special, but heck: people actually spent some effort into this one so I guess it’s at least something and I guess it was charming… enough.
ED: Way too long, but again quite pretty.
Potential: 60%

AKB0048 Next Stage

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are idols who fight in guerrilla concert against an evil government.
Hell yeah, one of the two bright lights of this season has finally aired. The gorgeous visuals along with the well produced songs are as addictive as ever, making this a really enjoyable animated musical. The characters themselves set themselves apart by being so energetic and expressive, so that even the pointless fanservice felt charming, rather than annoying. This episode served as the set-up for the second season, really: it gave a face to some parties that were previously just mentioned and it changed the way in which the idols are selected from some random force to viewer-based voting. I wonder how far it will go with this, actually: there are so many dodgy sides about this, and I hope that the creators get the freedom again to address this. This episode already started by hinting at how competitive it can be, but it needs to do more. But there are plenty of episodes left to do this. The villains, the people from DES, remain a bunch of idiots, though.
ED: Visually boring (recap), but a good song, and well used with the climax of the episode.
Potential: 85%

Some Quick First Impressions: Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru, Cuticle Detective Inaba and Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to date the hottest girls in school.
Okay. Here is the thing with this series: its premise is crap. This episode did its best to hide this a bit by at least giving the main couple a bunch of similarities (they hate love) and building this up well, but I see no way whatsoever for this series to work. I can totally see where this is going: they both hate love and gradually across the series they fall in love. That alone should be fine, but then this series comes and stars three more girls, one of which was confirmed to be the dreaded childhood friend. How the hell are they going to contribute to this series beyond being a shallow harem? This is like this fancy-looking boat with a gigantic hole in it: waiting to sink any minute after it heads out. I mean, this is A-1: the production at least was not cheap and the acting was far from as bad as some of the other shows of its genre. It’s just… that terrible premise.
OP: FANSERVICE
Potential: 30%

Cuticle Detective Inaba

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective with special dog powers.
Oh my god. I originally was not interested in this show that much, but I did not expect it to be this bad. Here is the thing: the people who adapted this thing seemed to have put no thoughts whatsoever in figuring out how the jokes of the manga this is based on translate over to anime. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a bad delivery of what could have been some good jokes if the creators took their time to build them up. Right now, this episode just keeps pulling jokes out of its ass without any eye for continuity. This feels like it was written by a bunch of amateurs who don’t know the basics of comedy: they sortof have an idea of what it means to be funny, but have no clear grasp of the details. The result is an episode chockful of random anti-climaxes that feel just put in there for the sake of having tons of anti-climaxes. It tries so hard to put in as many jokes as possible, without making sure to make any of them count. I can tell that the manga that this is based on has a sense of humour: that made me laugh a few times. But holy crap, this is not being translated well here…
ED: Again: trying waaaay too hard.
Potential: 10%

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to own a demon king with BOOBS.
Cynical synopsis aside: this was the first episode I liked this new season. And it comes from ARMS of all people. For the record: that studio is known for making absolutely horrible fanservice fighting shows over and over. This episode had politics, and very interesting ones at that! I like how this series emphasizes that the war between the humans and demons has become too necessary to make it stop, and it can actually get quite interesting for the main cast to try and solve that. Now if only the main cast was a bit more interesting. It’s basically this sexually frustrated demon queen who just glomps the first guy who she manages to run into, and this typical teenaged male lead hero with very little personality. The only thing that was interesting between them was their dialogue: that was well written. But their actual characters… nah. Their chemistry feels very clunky together. Also, boobs.
OP: Interesting vocalist, pretty good use of music.
ED: An actual good ED that is not about fanservice. Arms, you surprised me.
Potential: 75%

Sukitte Ii na Yo Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

One very annoying aspect of romance shows is what I’d like to call the “soap opera effect”: some drama happens, and instead of the characters voicing their problems to others, they remain silent, only inflating this drama. Characters taking forever to confess to each other also are among this. Sukitte Ii na Yo plays with this, and is also part of the excellent line-up of romance shows of the past season.

This is pretty much what Kimi ni Todoke should have been: the main couple talks to each other, despite the anxieties of the shy female lead. In thirteen episodes, we see her crawl out of her shell and gain more confidence, and grow as a character. She starts with nothing but insecurities, and grows significantly and yet believably as she confides in others. Not just her boyfriend, but also her other friends.

The other friends who actually are also very interesting characters. This show takes care in giving many of them their own story and even growth. And the thing is that when their stories are over, they don’t just disappear or just stand in the background, but form active members of the cast and show off their character development. There is a lot of drama in this series, but you don’t get the feeling like it’s trying to be as dramatic as possible, or letting things escalate for the sake of creating extra drama. I really like how this show restrained itself from going too far. There is one group of characters that this series ignores though: the villains. The girls whose only job it is to make nasty comments. They… stood out at times as annoying, one-sided and clichéd.

Zecxs is a strange animation studio: most of the shows they produce all look the same and generic, and then once in a while that really has its own style. Sukitte Ii na Yo is one such series. The animation may not be anything to write home about, but it does its job well in bringing out the emotions of the different characters. Combined that with the believable acting and good character-development for a 13-episode series, then I’d recommend this for those looking for a shoujo romance. And yeah, it has a manga that’s still going on so the story isn’t complete, and yet I actually liked the life-goes on ending a lot.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Very solid romance, puts a lot of thought into the pacing and plot progression.
Characters: 9/10 – Characters actually do something rather than remain quiet for way too long. Great character-development for just 13 episodes.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Simple but effective animation.
Setting: 8/10 – Standard school setting. Nothing special.

Suggestions:
– His and Her Circumstances
– Hitohira
– Whisper of the Heart

Medaka Box Abnormal Review – 76/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

Poor Medaka Box. Its second season had the worst timing imaginable. Here’s the thing: for the past few years, me and Shounen Jump Adaptations didn’t have the best relationship. Sure, there was the occasional gem with Level E, but most series got on my nerves like no other by taking so many ages to actually get somewhere. There are so many of these adaptation that are paced out too long in order to keep the story going in their constant fear of getting cancelled. The first season of Medaka Box actually took advantage of that by actually doing something interesting within the first 13 episodes. It didn’t take ages to change and move somewhere. There was variety.

And then the past autumn season happened. And the juggernauts of Hunter x Hunter and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure came and challenged just about every boundary of the shounen genre, showing among the best of what Shounen Jump has to offer. And Medaka Box tried to air is second season alongside those two. Yeah, it paled in comparison, unfortunately.

The first season of Medaka Box was a generic school series that at a certain point goes over 9000. The second season is different, though: it consists out of a collection of fights between people with all sorts of powers. You can see that a lot of thought was put into these powers, how they work and how they can be beaten. It goes further than most shounen fighting series do, and you can see that the series has quite a bit of fun in analyzing all of these powers along with their stories. And that’s about all this series does.

The problem with this series, like most other nisiOisin’s works, is that the balance is lost. The problem is that this series spends so much time and focus at talking and explaining how all these powers work, that it forgets to put focus on the rest. This show aims to break some traditions of the shounen jump genre with how elaborate these powers, but at the same time it also falls in the same pitfalls by having way too many characters pointlessly talking and analyzing the fight.

And the fights themselves… it’s not like they are of the kind that remain interesting for 12 episodes. The first season had novelty: the characters did other things than just fighting. Here, they don’t and it becomes obvious that Gainax didn’t put their top people on this series: for their standards, the animation is rather bland, and feels too much like they directly copied and pasted manga panels and moved a few things here and there, that ends up looking a bit bland.

Then here is another thing: the characters of this series have their wrong priorities.I mean, this series understands that characters need to have back-stories, and those stories are indeed often insightful and all. The show is not good at all at fleshing out its characters, though: most characters jus have one or two sides to them. They’re not fun to watch because all of them are defined by their powers and backstories, instead of their actions, if that makes any sense.

I am indeed a tsundere for nisiOisin: up till now despite my annoyances of him, I have watched every adaptation of his that came out so far, because I do think that he is a talented writer. The tsun in me though is starting to win terrain because of how unbalanced all of his stories are. I really care about the big picture how all the small pieces are used together. I’m missing that a lot with his series due to the obsessive focus he puts on his dialogue and Medaka Box is the same: it had some very interesting ideas. But did I enjoy myself for the most part with this series? Well, only the final two episodes really ended up catching my attention to be honest, but they did not succeed in making up for the rest of the episodes, especially because this season was supposed to be the part where the story really started, and to be honest I prefer the variety of the first season over the second.

Storytelling: 7.5/10 – Lots of dialogue that is well-written, but also gets in the way of the rest of the show.
Characters: 7/10 – They’re not interesting, they have backgrounds, but aren’t fleshed out enough.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Gainax does a decent job. Nothing outstanding, but nothing bad either.
Setting: 8/10 – Lots of interesting ideas being explored. Not interesting enough to really lift the series to a higher level, though.

Suggestions:
– Law of Ueki << This show is pretty much Medaka Box if it did focus on actually being fun. Yes, this my favorite comedy ever. That's a big difference there... - Hunter X Hunter
– Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Some Quick First Impressions: Nekomonogatari, Ai Mai Mi and Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Nekomonogatari (Black)

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an ex-vampire in love.
Nekomonogatari. Just the first episode today. Here is the thing with me and this series: it’s improving. It really is. This episode still had the annoying pointless fanservice and the random focus on pointless things like ahoges (those plucks of hair on top of the head that a ton of different Shaft-characters have; this was a joke they milked out eight years ago with Pani Poni Dash by the way), the pacing here was a lot more bearable than with Nisemonogatari: stuff actually happened at a fair pace for once. Here is the thing though: I did not enjoy this episode. The problem with the Monogatari series is that thanks to Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari getting on my nerves so damn much, I’ve started to hate the characters. I did not warm up to them whatsoever and I do not enjoy watching them at all. My question now is: is it all worth it? Is the sometimes witty dialogue about love worth it? Is the really creative animation worth it? Do I want to keep watching this for TEN FREAKING SEASONS?
OP: Surprisingly normal for a Shaft Opening, but well animated.
Potential: 60%

Ai Mai Mi

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are high school girls.
Enough with the three-minute moe shows already!! Jesus christ, this is a very annoying trend here. And you know what the bad thing is? None of them come even remotely close to being as fun and creative as Teekyu last season. It’s not like that’s a particularly high bar to pass, but at least that show was fun. I can’t say that about any of these shows whatsoever. Ai Mai Mi comes closest to Teekyu in the way that it also tries to have perverted jokes and randomness. The big difference is that the jokes are all terrible, and the pacing is a lot slower. To get a sense of the jokes in this episode: lots of sex jokes made by cute high school girls. If you’re into really bad sex jokes you might give this a chance, but even then the delivery remains poor, so be aware of that.
ED: Really cheap, but at least it’s creative. More that can be said of those other EDs so far…
Potential: 0%

Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a sister from Osaka.
Here is one series I missed, but really: don’t bother. If the title of the show didn’t already give you some suspicions: yes, this is a crappy flash animation; yes, this is about a brother and a sister, and yes, the sister has lived apart from the brother for nearly her entire life. Helloooo incest. Thankfully, the two characters don’t seem to be in love… but yeah the other signs are all there. Apart from that, the only point behind this series is to illustrate the difference between people living in Tokyo and Osaka. In the end this all boiled down to how they have silly names for things in Osaka. It’s not worth it at all to make an anime
ED: You couldn’t get this any more shameless, could you?
Potential: 0%

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki Review – 84/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Okay, so I crowned Poyopoyo as my favourite comedy of 2012. Here I have some more room to explain that. First of all, this series did not make me laugh the hardest out of the comedies of 2012. It did, however, make me laugh the most and it was the most consistently funny series of the year. I can perhaps recall three or four of its 2-minute episodes that did not make me chuckle out loud.

That’s the beauty of this series: it’s short, yet has a ton of content. Every episode is divided into four to eight sketches that describe the daily lives of the main cast, and hardly any of them feel like they have been put in there just to fill time. They all have a point or a joke to make, and really few of them feel flat. When it’s able to do that for 52 consecutive weeks, it really manages to be something special.

And what makes this show funny? Well, most importantly its cast of characters. The show follows a farming family and the people around it. They don’t exactly develop much, but this series is masterful at fleshing them out: showing their different sides in different situations, showing how they typically and un-typically act. And all of this with a good dose of humour. They become really fun and enjoyable to watch, already quite quickly into the series.

About the animation… yeah don’t expect too much of it. It is solid for what it does though: you don’t need to expect crappy flash animation, and the camera angles are consistently sharp for its designs. Voice acting is really good though: the voice actors really manage to bring their characters alive. In terms of background music, there is not much variety: one track is just constantly being played, but it is a very good track nonetheless.

Poyopoyo as a series is more than just funny. It’s also very relatable. It contains tons of scenes that hit home. Sometimes for just pet owners, but also for everyone. Beyond that, if you’re interested you can just give it a try. It’s a really accessible series that you can just jump into whenever you feel like.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Very consistent comedy that is hilarious.
Characters: 9/10 – Down to earth and character who feel real, and remain funny and charming.
Production-Values: 7.5/10 – Simple animation, but quite effective nonetheless.
Setting: 8/10 – Believable and realistic.

Some Quick First Impressions: Yama no Susume, Mangirl and Puchimas! Petit Idolmaster

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Yama no Susume

Short Synopsis: Our lead character climbs mountains and is afraid of heights.
Again, three minute episodes. If they were actually good, I wouldn’t mind, but this is yet again a moeblob series like the two before it. Although granted, of Puchimas and Mangirl, this one stands out the best: at the least it has things that resemble characters, rather than cardboard boxes. The two lead characters actually have a past together. A bland past, but a past. And bland is just about the right way to describe this episode. I guess that it’s nice to see a girl with a passion for climbing and all, and the focus on their past was something I did not expect in a 3-minute episode, but this episode just was boring. Way too much of the episode was dominated by cute girls trying to be cute, that we’ve already seen so many times before. If the creators want to make this work, they really need to avoid the focus on this, and instead focus on being heart-warming (I know from my holidays that the reward for mountain climbing is a set of breathtaking views).
ED: More bland j-pop…
Potential: 35%

Mangirl

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to start a manga magazine.
It’s no surprise that I consider this season to be awful. Here we come with the series that has one of the absolute worst puns for its title. This time it only has 3-minute episodes as it shows the characters try to compile a manga series despite being teenagers. I guess it had some nice trivia when it comes to actually producing this… but that was pretty much buried beneath the tons of obnoxious jokes and moe that filled this episode. Especially the jokes were bad, and the characters rely way too much on them. I don’t feel like watching bad jokes here over and over.
OP: Really bad j-pop
Potential: 10%

Puchimas! Petit Idolmaster

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has to take care of idol blobs.
Well, let’s get the worst out of the way first for the new season: a crappy chibi-spin-off for the Idolmaster franchise. The Idolm@ster was a show that I thought was… decent enough. This however is just there to be a cute as possible without anything else. In this episode (which didn’t even last three minutes, by the way) we just see them adapt a bunch of idol blobs and that’s it. It wasn’t funny, it was trying way too hard to be cute. Only go for this if you’re a really big fan of the Idolmaster franchise and want some random fanservice.
ED: Obnoxious j-pop that gets on my nerves with dull visuals.
Potential: 0%

Kamisama Hajimemashita Review – 84/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kamisama Hajimemashita



Romance galore for the past season! Not to mention that there were so many good ones: Sukitte Ii na Yo, Sakurasou, and apparently Chuuninbyou and Tonari are also really good but I did not watch them. Kamisama Hajimemashita for me stands out as the best though. Why? Execution.

For the people who haven’t heard me repeat this over and over yet: the director of this series is Akitarou Daichi. He did Fruits Basket, Kodocha and Bokura ga Ita before so yes, he can direct really good romance, and yes, he can do this incredibly consistently. Kamisama Hajimemashita feels the most like 13 episodes of Kodocha, with a bit of its energy calmed down. Though it’s still a series that is full of energy, especially if you watch its first episode.

The trick with this series is that it has perfected its timing: shots last for the exact right duration. Jokes are timed perfectly. The energy is built up over each episode really well. The show managed to use its camera work to bring out the emotions of the characters really well, and especially the feelings of love and laughter. This show is really good at juggling these around, making you laugh hard one moment and feel sorry the next. No other romance this series was as balanced as this series.

And the thing is, that this is not the most ambitious series: the characters are simple, they don’t try too hard to be likable at all. The storylines are also really quite simple when you boil down to them. The character development too: simple. Yet this series shines in it, and due to this simplicity and polish it is really enjoyable. Not to mention that without exception, it manages to end every single episode with a really charming climax that is full of warm feelings (that ED works brilliantly with it). I don’t see many other shows pull the same.

The problem mostly is that this series really needs to be a 26 episode series. With 26, its story just cuts off in the middle with a hasty end boss, and the characters don’t develop as well as they could have. It loses most of its points on that.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Awesome timing, really uses its simplicity well and knows really well how to build up.
Characters: 8.5/10 – Simple but effective characters. At first they might not seem much, but they grow on you.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Well drawn camera angles, although they don’t move much. Catchy soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – It’s the same old setting about youkai, but well used.

Suggestions:
– Kodomo no Omocha
– Bokura ga Ita
– Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge

Kamisama Hajimemashita – 13

by psgels, posted in Kamisama Hajimemashita

Aack! Writing up the 2012 summary took way too long and I am now stuck with a huge backlog of shows that still need to be reviewed!

So yeah, blah blah Nanami runs away but then she doesn’t an then beats the spider. I’m saying this rather blunt because really: who expected otherwise? By the way though Kamisama Hajimemashita has a great ending.

The reason both of these things are possible are due to the execution, and the aftermath. I mean, who cares about that stupid spider, it’s what it did with the characters that matters here. Even when Nanami was still running away, the characters and their quirks were great to watch. The creators actually kept in the comedy, compared to other comedy shows that pull such an ending that drop all of the comedy in favor of drama.

I’m quite surprised though: this episode had a really corny plot. Yet, Nanami’s dance scene was a highlight, and the kiss at the end of this episode also was a highlight that was rather well built up, even though there are tons of romance shows that end with a kiss, and yet this one felt really special because everything came together.

The charm of this series really lies in its characters. It’s unambitious, yet they work so well that een such a cliched ending works well. Seriously, there are so many other series that would bore me to death with this kind of ending. I applaud.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

2012 Summary Part 5

by psgels, posted in Yearly Summaries

Happy new year everyone! And apologies for the delays. Compiling this post took a bit longer than what I first anticipated. In any case, 2012 was a great year for anime. I can see an upward trend with studios trying out more and being more experimental than previous years (finally more good 52-episode series and Noitamina-series running full cour). Let’s hope that 2013 will be even better!

Worst First Episode

Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!

Every year I had out these awards for the first episode that I checked out that was the absolute worst. And yet again, it’s the godawful incest shows for me that were the bottom of the barrel: Oniichan Blahblah makes for a good runner up for this award. But even then I wasn’t prepared to how bad this was. I mean, this show isn’t even trying anymore. I still remember how it just pulls off the car accident without a shred of irony, only to have the supposedly dead character walk away like it was nothing.

Biggest Disappointment

Liche Light Club

Disappointments are created by high expectations. Last year for example this was Guilty Crown for all the hype it built up for. 2012 didn’t really have such a series though, since I already knew that Guilty Crown was bad at the start of the year and everyone kept telling me that Sword Art Online’s ALO arc would be pretty bad. However, there was one series that just screamed “Waste of Potential”: the story of a bunch of sexually frustrated high school guys who design a robot powered by Liches and go kidnap people. It’s such a great concept for a show with tons of bleak and dark humour… if only it had gotten adapted by some people who actually had some shred of ambition. Now the anime of Liche Light Club is just a collection of bad SM-jokes.

Most Pleasant Surprise

AKB0048

Runner up would be Nazo no Kanojo X for being actually good, AKB0048 really takes the cake: it’s a show about idols who hold guerilla concerts to fight an evil government that has outlawed entertainment. It s such a hopeless premise, and yet the creators made it work by not just glorifying the idol business, but also shows the darker side of the business.

Best Animation Studio

A-1 Pictures

For the first half of the year, it looked like Satelight would end up as my favorite studio of the year with their work on Aquarion Evol, Mouretsu Pirates and AKB0048. Then A-1 came and blew all these titles away with Uchuu Kyoudai and From the New World. Then Magi delivered very solid adventure and not to mention Tsuritama ‘s addictive fun, and then they pretty much out-produced all other studios this year.

Most Promising Studio

TMS Entertainment

This is an award that I hand out every year for promising new studios or small studios that made huge improvements. Dogakobo would have gotten this award with their work on Natsuyuki Rendezouvs. This year was a bit different though, because something very interesting happened with a studio that was already very well established: TMS Entertainment have made a name for themselves decades ago by animating all kinds of western Disney series and the company itself was founded in 1946 as a fiber manufacturer, not to mention that they did make one of my favorite series with Kaze no Shoujo Emily. In the past number of years though, things have been a bit quiet around this studio. They brought their focus more and more on kiddie shows and nothing else, so I had given up hope. And then in 2012, something happened: they delivered three series that were experimental, three series that did not care about living up to their peers, or keeping true to conventions. Lupin, Kamisama and Zetman’s execution bursted with creativity and despite limited budgets, these three series really tried to make the best out of their limited budget and airtime. I am not sure what happened: but keep this mentality going. Try to get this mentality into series of 2 cours length. That would be just amazing.

Best Old Series I Happened to See This Year

Monster

I did not watch many older series this year because my private life got much busier, but I did manage to watch Monster. What a series that was. Slow-paced with breath-taking characters. Johan Liebert in particular shines as one of the best villains out there, not to mention how well the creators managed to capture Germany and the tensions around the Berlin Wall and its fall.

Best Fanservice

Eureka Seven Ao

Fanservice is often used for nudity, but it basically means stuff that is just there to please fans. Although 2012 did have two series that made very good use of nudity: Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and Lupin the Third. Sakurasou had the tension that it created with its fanservice that brought a spark to the characters, while Mine Fujiko’s sensual portrayal had a really unique effect. Eureka Seven Ao meanwhile was fanservice at its truest sense: even though the story and focus of Ao was entirely different from the first Eureka Seven series, it did pay a brilliant homage to it by having its characters return and be much more than just dead weights who are only in the way for the younger generation.

Best Action

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

So, Aquarion Evol and Eureka Seven Ao had very solid action with gorgeous CG effects, Zetman had very tense action, but what really did it for me was the incredibly over the top action. That gives us on one hand Black Rock Shooter that just kept pulling all sorts of awesome stuff in its alternative world, and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, a show that manages to be ridiculously over the top, and yet focus on the small details. This series is completely crazy and its action shows it. It’s a thrilling roller coast er ride from start to finish that hardly ever seems to let go.

Best Comedy

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki

At the beginning of the year, Milky Holmes sold me with its incredibly random humour that was incredibly stupid on so many levels. After that there came Polar Bear Cafe, whose best episodes actually rivalled it, and Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki, which actually brought some thought into its humour, which is why it got this year’s award. This series was full of those kinds of jokes and it never dragged: it always tried to be fresh and new and it never aimed to waste time.

Best Horror

Another

There really weren’t many horror series in 2012: only Another and From the New World had some. I’m giving it to Another because it was fully dedicated to it, rather than From the New World which just occasionally moved into the genre. Both really managed to create a really freaky atmosphere though.

Best Slice of Life

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki

Most comedies I watch are just for laughs, but Poyopoyo did something more: it was really relatable to watch the every day lives of its characters. It had tons of situations that wer ment to be recognizable for lots of people. Mostly pet owners, but probably everyone else will find a few moments that hit home.

Best Romance

Natsuyuki Rendezvous

2012 had lots of great romance series that treated their casts seriously: Sakurasou, Sukitte, Nazo no Kanojo, Inu X Boku, Kamisama Hajimemashita, Kokoro Connect, Sakamichi no Apollon and Uta Koi. None of them came close to Natsuyuki Rendezvous though. A romance about adults, which blended in the supernatural really well. The lead couple is amazing to watch in their struggle and the chemistry they have with each other. Heck, for me this was the best romance show in years.

Best Background Art

From the New World

Last Exile still looked gorgeous, although not as gorgeous as in its first half. Fate/Zero managed to look even better with its background art, but From the New world sold me the most with its art that is really varied, detailed and imaginative. The creators really give the artists freedom here, and you can really notice that.

Best Animation

Fate/Zero

Again, From the New World deserves credit for giving its artists so much freedom, and also K’s incredibly smooth animation deserves to be mentioned, but I think that in the end, it’s Fate/Zero that had the best animation of the year in how clean and crisp it was, and yet how incredibly solid the show looked through its entire run. It’s hard to get that kind of consistency for 26 episodes.

Best Looking Graphics

Lupin III – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

This award is not for the best animation, but just for the graphics that looked best. This one was a no-brainer: the creators went with their complete own art style that didn’t care about conventions whatsoever, and it looked amazing. From the New World (again) takes second place.

Best Script

Zetsuen no Tempest

The best script this year was from Zetsuen no Tempet, and how it used this so wonderfully in order to not just create its own mind games, but also have them build up to each other. Runner-up is Space Brothers with its unseeming ability to make every situation it’s in incredibly funny with an anti-climax.

Best Story

Uchuu Kyoudai

Uchuu Kyoudai: Uchuu Kyoudai has an amazingly uplifting story, about a guy in his thirties trying to make it for an astronaut. This is the series that returned my faith into slow pacings, and how much you can do if you take your time. Because of that the creators managed to add so many details to the storyline of this series, ranging from a wide variety of characters to so much background detail on what it means to be an astronaut. Eureka Seven Ao, Mouretsu Pirates and Shin Sekai Yori had really good stories too.

Top 15 TV-Series 2012
#15: Lupin the Third

For this re-imagining, the creators gave a very different spin on the Lupin franchise, putting the focus on Mine Fujiko instead, and on her sexuality. Hey turned this into an episodic series that at times seemed a bit random, although the story that appeared in the second half of the series had some really interesting points, not to mention a very good ending. It’s by far the most experimental series of the year, and I really appreciate the creators taking all these risks.

#14: Psycho Pass

Psycho Pass will very likely end up a lot higher on the list next year, but for now 14th place is good for a series that’s only halfway there. It’s a series that looks into psychology, at what defines a psychopath and how people can survive in a society that expects everyone to be mentally healthy. In its first half it packed some really good suspense, symbolism and dialogue, combined with a very good script and that really sold me on this series.

#13: From the New World

From the New World is heavy, putting children and innocent themes of friendship on one hand, and dark horror on the other. The show is halfway finished, and we’re right at the point at which the cast is really being forced to grow up in a very cruel way. On top of that though, this show managed to create a fascinating setting around all this, with its own customs and culture, not to mention the folklore that it put into it.

#12: Fate Zero

Fate/Zero’s second season was one of the most hyped series of the year. From that standing point, it slightly disappointed me, in the way that in the end, you are required to know hat happens in the other Fate instalments of the Fate franchise to really be able to enjoy this, and I have not. Because of that my suspense of disbelief was occasionally broken at some unfortunate times. That’s the reason this is not in my top 10, but despite that it still is a really good series with rock-solid characters and rock-solid production values.

#11: Hyouka

Hyouka showed us a very interesting approach to mystery: instead of showing us epic mysteries with world threatening consequences, the mysteries that our characters had to solve were small, instead of a corpse there is a small prop stolen, or something like that. This show really was good at trying to delve into these mysteries and make their solutions pay off. It stuffed tons of small details into each of these episodes to make them worthwhile, and I love how it gave this series such a down to earth approach.

#10: Mouretsu Pirates

Yes, this is an incredibly girly science fiction series, especially as the show goes on and you realize the size of the part that the local school’s yacht club has in a show that is supposed to be about pirates. But as the show goes on, its strength shows up more and more: it’s an incredibly fun pirate show. It just takes its time to set everything up by creating its own view of how pirates survive in the future, establishing all of the characters and make them act believably. The thing with this series is that every single arc is more interesting than its predecessor as it keeps spiralling out of control. That completely sold me.

#9: Hyouge Mono

Hyouge Mono was only there for one month, so I’m not going to rank it higher than this at the moment, but still, the month still aired in 2012. And Hyouge Mono remains a delight: how on earth were they able to fund it? How on earth were they able to make a series about a bunch of old dudes making silly faces? I do not know, but THANK YOU Bee-Train, for taking this risk. The conclusion to Hyouge Mono was slow (which was the reason why I didn’t rank this show 90 or above), but it made such an impact.

#8: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

This show is unbelievable. With just its first half, it completely blew away nearly all manly actions shows with how ridiculously over the top it was. With a fantastic soundtrack and voice actors who really like to yell their lines out as loud as possible with as much passion as possible, combined with the way how this show can give huge powers to incredibly weak things. It’s constantly glorious to just watch this show surpass itself time and time again with its bombast. And to think that this originated in 1988.

#7: Zetsuen no Tempest

Zetsuen no Tempest took a while to get going in its first half. But holy crap, did it take off! The way in which this show built up its climaxes was amazing, and especially the way in which it used its mind games was awesome beyond belief. It just kept throwing around the table and toyed with things as logic and fate. And that’s just its first half.

#6: Sakamichi no Apollon

Playing music is something that is really difficult to animate. And yet, here the creators did it. Using rotoscoped animation, the soundtrack is perfectly played by the characters. This makes for a bunch of stunning musical performances. I also really liked the romance between the different characters: instead of padding out, the characters here wasted no time and just kept adding things and events to their development. It does have the flaw that sometimes it tends to throw in a twist for the sake of having a twist, but the character development all makes up for it.

#5: Eureka Seven Ao

This one is very likely my most controversial item in my top 10, because a lot of people disliked it. It definitely is a series that is not for everyone. First of all you need to be a fan of the original Eureka Seven, and second of all you also need to like the completely different direction. That the series headed in. This series also takes no prisoners: some plotholes are plotholes, others are just explained episodes earlier but are things that are so easily missed through everything that goes on. This show does not plan to hold your hand, but it also provides amazing fanservice for those who manage to enjoy it.

#4: Natsume Yuujin-Chou

Natsume Yuujinchou’s fourth season had the best opening and closing episodes of all four seasons combined. These really were amazing, and gave it such a strong impression. The middle episodes in comparison were a bit below the quality that we’re used to from this series, but even then this series made such an impact. We can only hope that there will also be a fifth season.

#3: Chihayafuru

For a long while, I kept saying that Chihayafuru’s only flaw was that it would end prematurely. So yeah, with that second season now around the corner… I really can’t find any faults in this series anymore aside perhaps that it’s about teenagers. Its energy is just so addictive. It managed to make Karuta fun and exciting, even its second half contained so many exciting games that still remained fresh, even though the game from the outside looks fairly repetitive. The characters were the final seal for me: incredibly charming and already well developed even though there still is so much more material left.

#2: Natsuyuki Rendezvous

I already suspected that this show would be awesome with a name as Kou Matsuou behind the direction, but I did not expect this show to be THAT good. Everything about this show is amazing: the voice acting is perfect, the pacing is perfect, the story fits perfectly, it knows exactly what it should do, the characters fit each other incredibly well, the music is wonderfully used, the characters are amazingly life-like and expressively animated. Heck, there were two series this year that stood above all the others, and Natsuyuki Rendezvous may not have the biggest or most ambitious storyline, but everything just worked in its favor here. And yet there is one series that I liked more than this. You can probably already guess which one it is.

#1: Uchuu Kyoudai

Uchuu Kyoudai is amazing. At the expense of a rather slow pacing, it managed to create a fantastic cast of characters around one guy’s quest to become an astronaut. Nanba Mutta is one of the single best characters we’ve had in years. His wit is just amazing and he is an incredibly charming character to follow. Add that to its incredibly genuine style of storytelling that loves to combine anti-climaxes with climaxes that one moment make you laugh really hard and the next feel incredibly sorry or inspired, and yes: you have my favorite series of 2012 that can also very easily become my favorite show for 2013.