Star Crossed Anime

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

Worst First Episode

Mayo Chiki

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

Worst Series

Dragon Crisis

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

Biggest Disappointment

Guilty Crown

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

Most Pleasant Surprise

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

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

Best Animation Studio

Brains Base

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

Most Promising Studio

Jinni’s Animation Studios

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

Best Old Series I Happened to See This Year

Gankutsuou

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

Best Action

Ben-To

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

Best Comedy

Level E

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

Best Horror

Blood-C

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

Best Slice of Life

Tamayura ~ Hitotose

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

Best Romance

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

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

Best Mystery

Steins;Gate

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

My top series of 2011: #10-1

#10: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

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

#9: Hourou Musuko

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

#8: Steins;Gate

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

#7: Tiger & Bunny

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

#6: Heartcatch Precure

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

#5: Natsume Yuujin-Chou

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

#4: Hyouge Mono

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

#3: Level E

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

#2: Mawaru Penguin Drum

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

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

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

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

Biggest Waste of Great Visuals

Houkago no Pleiades

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

Biggest Disappointment

Armored Trooper Votoms – Case;Irvine

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

Biggest Rape of a Franchise

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira

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

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

#10: .Hack//Quantum

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

#9: Otona Joshi no Anime Time

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

#8: Norageki

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

#7: Tales of Symphonia

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

#6: Armored Trooper Votoms – Alone Again

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

#5: Kyousogiga

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

#4: Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail

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

#3: Kara no Kyoukai – Epilogue

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

#2: xxxHolic Rou – Adayume

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

#1: Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi

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

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

#10: Towa no Quon – 03

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

#9: Mardock Scramble – The First Compression

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

#8: Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo

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

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

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

#6: Karigurashi no Arrietty

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

#5: Yona Yona Penguin

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

#4: Uchuu-Show he Youkoso

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

#3: Fafner in the Azure – Heaven and Earth

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

#2: Redline

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

#1: You Are Delicious

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

My top series of 2011: #20-11

#20: Letter Bee

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

#19: Fate/Zero

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

#18: Chihayafuru

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

#17: Kamisama no Memo-Chou

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

#16: Hana-Saku Iroha

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

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

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

#14: Dororon Enma-Kun Meerameera

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

#13: Blood-C

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

#12: Supernatural the Animation

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

#11: Un-Go

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

This list will be all about the characters, just like I did last year. At the end, you’ll find my choices for my top 30 to 21 series of the year. Overall, I hope that I got everyone here. Compiling these includes an awful lot of management and it’s very easy to overlook something (I actually nearly accidentally overlooked Heartcatch Precure, but thankfully I realized this just in time). But yeah, these are my personal choices. Feel free to share your own character highlights, of course. 😉

Most annoying character

The World God Only Knows – Elcea

In terms of annoying characters, there were two big ones that stood out. First is Yosuke Haramura from Persona, who I keep labeling as the Pee guy (seriously, he enters a new world, and what’s the first thing he does?). Every single moment this guy is whining, yelling or just being an ass. That’s just too much. The one who really took the cake though, was Elcea from the World God Only Knows. I mean, stupidity is one thing, but this was taken way too far here. This kid has the IQ of a sheep. There is nothing fun about her. She just keeps making the most moronic and self-unaware statements. If this was meant as a parody, it completely failed because it adheres to the exact tropes of the things it tries to make fun of, without anything else.

Worst Character

Sacred Seven – Yuuji Kenmi

Like with the most annoying character category, I am not counting the characters of series that I dropped at some point. It’s just not fair to judge characters of which I just didn’t watch everything of. The choice of worst character of the year was a difficult one, because there were a lot of really, really bland characters this year. Think The world God Only Knows, Fractale, Dragon Crisis, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka, or Guilty Crown: it makes it hard to really pick one who stands out amongst them. Because of that, I decided to hand this award this time to a character who is so bad that he becomes hilarious: the main villain of Sacred Seven. What makes this guy stand out is how most of the series, he’s trying really hard to not stand out as a villain, only to fail miserably, only to completely derail near the end of the series with some ridiculously overacted monologues and some character designs that make me really wonder who in their right mind found it a good idea to approve them.

Best Cast of Minor Characters

Tiger & Bunny

These are the side characters who collectively ended up the most memorable to me this year. Level E deserves a honorable mention for creating so many interesting characters who go beyond the usual tropes. Hourou Musuko had a huge cast for only 11 episodes, and yet put down every character really realistically and dynamic. The side cast of Tiger & Bunny takes this prize though, because all of them were just really fun to watch, and they did an excellent job as supporting characters, to the point where I’d really with that the creators devoted more time to them, in order to really show what they’re made of.

Best Voice Acting

Hyouge Mono

Hyouge Mono’s voice acting was exquisite: it knew exactly when to be subtle and when to be over the top. Sasuke’s voice actor delivered both in his delirious speeches, his over the top reactions and the more subdued drama, but every major voice actor here pretty much nailed his character. There are a ton of memorable performances in this series. Very solid second places are Hourou Musuko with its wonderfully subtle acting, and Ano Hana, where the cast knew exactly how to make their characters part of the emotional roller-coaster.

Best Character Development on a Single Character

Natsume Yuujinchou – Takashi Natsume

Before the start of the third season, Natsume already was an excellent character. And here that season comes, and ends up completely devoted to developing him even more. This show showed his coming of age as he matured and grew closer to his friends, and grew to accept who he was. This show examined his past, present and future, with amazing results.

Best Character Development on an entire Cast

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

The collective cast of Hana-Saku Iroha grew really nicely through the course of its series. Hourou Musuko had a ton of characters who matured wonderfully. Penguin Drum’s characters and plot twists made for a very cast who just kept changing (they indeed get very solid second place for this award) and No6’s characters never were static, and always were pushed forward. The best though, was Ano Hana, who delivered a heart-wrenching story about lost childhood friendships being rekindled. It examined how people change, and how easy it is to grow apart. It wasn’t just the main character Jinta who did this: it was the entire cast; everyone delivered to it.

Top 7 Supporting Characters

#7: Blood-C – The Big Villain

Um yeah. It will be a bit difficult to praise this character without spoiling everything. Being as vague as possible:usually villains who only reveal themselves very late in the series suffer from being dull and uninteresting. Not so much here. This character’s air is over the entire series, even though its identity is a mystery for most of its airtime. I know that this series got a ton of criticisms, but yet this ended up being one of my favorite villains of the year.

#6: Chihayafuru – Arata Wataya

Thankfully this guy is a bit easier to praise, because his biggest role in the story is right at the beginning. On top of being fantastically animated as a Karuta genius, he sparked this passion that convinced me: yes, this is the guy who inspired the titular Chihaya to start playing the game as well. When his biggest part is over, he still remains really present in the series to serve as Chihaya’s inspiration, on top of being very well developed himself.

#5: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai – Chiriko Tsurumi

Of course, the entire cast of Ano Hana is amazing, everyone stands out. Chiriko however took that extra step due to her level headedness compared to the rest of the cast. She’s surrounded by characters who have mental problems, and still manages to act level headed throughout most of the series, with some notable exceptions that only get better because of this. She was the voice of reason needed for the rest of the cast, and yet she ended up stealing the show herself quite a few times anyway.

#4: Level E – Kraft

Kraft is just adorable. Usually the straight men in a comedy are dull and formulaic, but this guy breathes new life into this trope with his ramblings that know exactly to stay outside of the borders of melodrama, but on the other hand being such a charismatic guard person with a huge sense of responsibility.

#3: Fate/Zero – Rider

When I first started watching Fate/Zero, I did not expect a side character to steal the show like this. I mean, Rider is by far the best character of the entire series. His monologues are fast and witty, and even though he looks like this huge fighter, he’s very intelligent and witty. He’s got his own ideals that he keeps shoving down on everyone, but he does it with so much force and charisma that it becomes almost impossible to retaliate.

#2: Hyouge Mono – Oda Nobunaga

If I had to mention the one highlight of Hyouge Mono, then it’d be the way they portrayed Oda Nobunaga. That was by far the best portrayal of the guy I have ever seen, and I’d go as far as saying that there will probably never come an anime that will do it better. The creators just perfectly succeeded in creating this megalomaniac ruler with a thirst for both conquest and the fine arts. And his crowning moment of awesome (the ones who reached that point know what I’m talking about) was just a beautiful display of wit and character.

#1: Supernatural the Animation – John Winchester

Numbers 2 to 4 are really larger than life characters. Heck, two of them are rulers, and I do tend to like these characters whose personalities are all over the place. As for the question of my favorite side character of the year though, my choice goes for someone completely different: a tormented father who is stuck between taking care of his sons and getting revenge on the murder of his wife. The series explores a ton of facets of his life, and tries to explain as much as possible why he did what he did. This show tries to relate to him by using different, yet similar cases and stories. And in the end, this leaves a surprisingly well developed character here that in the end is a step above the other side characters this year.

: Top 7 Female Characters

#7: Chihayafuru – Chihaya Ayase

Overall in 2011, unlike 2010, the male characters overall tended to overshadow the female characters, so I’m doing the female characters of the year first. Still, Chihaya as a character deserves to be mentioned. This girl has passion, and part of the fun of watching Chihayafuru is to see how far that passion drives her. She single-handedly managed to inspire a ton of people around her in a believable way, and her virtually limitless energy made every episode really fun and interesting to watch.

#6: Gosick – Victorique de Blois

Victorique took a while to crawl out of her shell. It’s only as the show goes on that we learn what exactly she went through, but also as what a strong character she grew into despite all that. It’s a shame that her male lead often was a bit of an idiot, just to show how smart she was. She didn’t need that. Even without him it was apparent that she was a genius, and I especially liked how she was constantly looking for a challenge to get rid of her boredom. Gosick as a series perhaps wasn’t the best out of the three “small girl detective”-series that came out this year. But in the end, it did have the best female lead.

#5: Hourou Musuko – Yoshino Takatsuki

I was really doubting whether to put her amongst the side characters or the list of the main characters. Technically Yoshino is a main character, but I also think that she gets the least amount of screentime out of all of the other characters on this list. In any case, I really have to praise her for putting forth such a believable portrayal of a young girl with gender issues. She’s very realistic and likable, and yet the drama around her was ridiculously well done.

#4: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – Homura Akemi

This is another one of which I’m not going to say much due to the spoilers and all, but Homura made one heck of an impact on Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. She’s strong and well developed, even though she’s a big mystery for most of the first half of the series.

#3: Heartcatch Precure – Yuri Tsukikage

The beauty of Yuri was that she was much older than the rest of the main cast of Heartcatch Precure. Suddenly in a shows about kids, a mature high schooler suddenly stole the spotlights and was pretty much involved in all of the kickass fights, and the best part was that the creators acknowledged that she was awesome, and didn’t just put her on the sidelines just so that the younger characters could shine. Yuri was caring and confident, but her own story and background in the series are along with Tsubomi the most charming.

#2: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai – Meiko Honma

Oh, I remember when I first saw the promo art for Ano Hana, I was like “What? Even more moe? What’s this doing in Noitamina?” And then a little more about this show was revealed and it seemed to take itself quite seriously. And then the show aired. The beauty of Menma was that she adheres to some moe tropes, but also subverts them just as hard. Yes, she’s ditzy, but she isn’t stupid. She’s innocent, but not clueless. She’s bratty, but she’s nowhere near the stereotype you’d expect her to be. She helped really well in order to make this show the tear jerker it was, as the character around which everything revolves. Many of the heart-wrenching moments of the series were because of her. I really would not have guessed that from my first impression.

#1: Mawaru Penguin Drum – Himari Takakura

Himari is important, not just for what she means to the other main characters in this series, but also because she’s so damn well developed. In a series with as much flashbacks as Penguin Drum, we get to see a ton of different points in her youth that shaped her to who she is, and why she’s so important to the other characters. She really was the glue that kept everything in this series together.

Top 7 Male Characters

#7: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai – Jinta Yadomi

Jintan was sometimes hard to watch, because of how passive and miserable he was as a character. Part of the goal of the series was to heal him, and make him grow into a better character. And that was done so well here that made me place him on this list. While Menma was the center of the story, he was the one who carried it and with that he did a really good job.

#6: Tiger & Bunny – Kotetsu Kaburagi

The competition really is fierce for this list, and I’m surprised at how many characters I loved I had to eliminate, just to cut it back to just 7 entries. I just couldn’t not mention Kaburagi Koutetsu, though. This guy is very unlike your average hero. He’s much, much older than usual, and even has his own daughter. He’s irresponsible at first, but as the show goes on you get a much better insight in his character. It makes him both fun to watch, and a very engaging character during the dramatic parts.

#5: Supernatural the Animation – Dean Winchester

How many different parts of Dean did we see in the series anyway? Of the two brothers, Sam always struck me as a bit too angsty, but Dean struck the balance perfectly. He here had everything: he was funny, he was caring, he was mature, he was independent and as a character, his development over the years was amazing. In particular his past makes him quite a complex and interesting character.

#4: Mawaru Penguin Drum – Kanba Takakura

Kanba is a hard to follow character a times, but what really struck me about him was his determination. He really was completely devoted to Himari, and that leads to some incredible scenes at times. Overall his character development also is amazing, and especially the ending of Mawaru Penguin drum really utilizes his character to the best.

#3: Hourou Musuko – Shuuichi Nitori

Part of the brilliance of starting the adaptation somewhere in the middle in the manga, is that this gave Nitori already a terrific background. And then he used that to turn into an even better character. I mean, cross-dressing is really often just played for laughs. This guy actually treated his own problems seriously, and managed to convince us of the same. There is nothing cheesy about this guy. His character development especially in the second half turned out to be incredibly detailed and engaging.

#2: Hyouge Mono – Sasuke Furuta

Sasuke… sure is a character. I mean, his ramblings are unique. There is no other character out there like him. Sure, there are plenty of over the top characters out there, but none of them really comes close to what this guy does. On one hand he marvels over some ridiculous aesthetics, on the other he tries to play a serious part in a period drama. The faces he makes are just completely ridiculous, but the comedy around him is always just hilarious. This guy is an eccentric through and through, and by far the most unique main character of the past years.

#1: Natsume Yuujin-Chou – Takashi Natsume

I already said it above: Natsume already was a very well developed character when the third season started. And here this show came and developed him even better. And to think that we’re still not done yet with him after a fourth season got announced. This third season showed some more tidbits around Natsume’s past, but also how he changed as a character. The different characters he runs into illustrate that perfectly: he’d would have treated them quite different when he would have met them in the first series. And yet, everything remains so incredibly subtle. All of the details in his development fit, and the acting for this guy turned him into a really believable character.

: My top series of 2011: #30-21

#30: Fireball Charming

This year didn’t have one comedy sequel that was better than the original. It had two of them. In Fireball’s case, you can really see that the creators wanted to surpass the first season of Fireball; it was much more ambitious. The CG graphics looked much better, the dialogue was faster and even more nonsensical. And it actually worked here. The combination between random yet strangely interesting banter and the random yet strangely interesting poses that the characters kept making really worked.

#29: Last Exile ~ Ginkyou no Fam

After two years of absence, Gonzo returned with a bunch of very poorly produced series, and one heck of an ambitious comeback of Ginyoku no Fam. It left some things to be desired overall, and the quality of each episode varies greatly, but where it delivered, it really delivered. It successfully expanded upon the Last Exile setting, expanding it even further, the graphics and backgrounds looked amazing and Fam and Giselda, despite first appearances, are likable leads. When compared to the first half of the first Last Exile though, it loses out.

#28: Gosick

Gosick had its problems. The arcs that it used to build up its story had some serious issues, including a very annoying male lead and a female lead who looked more like she had access to the script, rather than she was a genius at solving crimes. And then, good episodes showed up. To a point where in the final third, the bad episodes were completely gone. This show suddenly turned into a very engaging adventure series, and the lead characters who had once been flat, stupid and annoying grew into very relatable characters. This definitely was a welcome surprise.

#27: Usagi Drop

Overall I probably wasn’t the biggest fan of Usagi Drop. Of course it was adorable, and I love it as a look upon what it means to be a father, but I dunno, it could have gone a bit further than what it did. It’s still very gentle slice of life though, and pretty much the most realistically acted show of the year. It definitely gets points for that. Daikichi in particular was a very interesting character to watch.

#26: Ikoku Meiro no Croisée

Beyong being completely adorable, Ikoku Meiro no Croisee also was a very interesting look at cultural differences. Every episode featured interesting little tidbits about the differences in every day life between Japan and France of about 100 years ago. There was some really good chemistry between the different characters, and even the seemingly annoying rich girl had something to offer here. As a pure slice of life series though, it was a bit too forcedly dramatic, so if you want more heart-warming slice of life you should probably go to some of the other shows that this year had to offer. The different cultures however were enough of an addition to make up for this.

#25: Tamayura ~ Hitotose

Now, if there was any director on fire this year, it was Sato Junichi. He was behind three series this year (twie as the director, once as the main writer), all of which made it into my top 40 at some place. My favorite production of his was Tamayura, due to how incredibly solid it was as a slice of life show. It’s a genre that is usually very hit or miss for me, but this show really nailed it for me. It had a well developed cast, a heart-warming atmosphere, very nice animation and really succeeded as an Iyashi-kei series as well.

#24: Dantalian no Shoka

Dantalian often baffled me when I watched it, but looking back I can definitely claim that I don’t regret watching it. It’s a show that took the episodic series structure, and completely nailed one part of what makes the genre great, only to completely ignore the other part that’s required for the genre to really work. The individual stories were excellent. They all were diverse and examined some great characters with fascinating stories. And yet the main storyline or cast never really was important here. They were just tools to show these stories. Even overall themes were not really existent. All this show was was 12 standalone episodes. But granted: those episodes were very interesting.

#23: Blade

This year had more shows that went under the radar than 2010. The king of those shows though, is Blade. I was utterly surprised when I found out that in AniDB, it ranked overall even below a rating of 6/10. What this means is that it ranks amongst the 20 worst TV-anime ever made that had more than 100 votes on that site. I know that ratings like that should be taking with a salt shaker and all, but even then this is something it does not deserve at all. After watching Iron Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, it really surprised me how much this series delved into Blade’s past and how it focused to develop him as a character. Out of all of the marvel series, it also had the best female sidekick, and how one episode delivered one of Wolverine’s characters better than what Wolverine did. Plus, the entire series was pretty much a tour through South-East Asia. This show visited so many locations that go completely against the convention. Speaking of conventions, it’s great to finally see another black main character again.

#22: Star Driver

I only realized this after compiling these places 30 to 21, but this show illustrates something interesting about this year, compared to 2010. You see, Star Driver as a series stayed pretty much consistently interesting. It never really got better than what it was, but it also didn’t dip in. Last year when I compiled my top list of the year, I ranked Star Driver at the nineteenth place of the year (because yes, I do include incomplete series just like any finished series here). And still: the shows that I ranked below Star Driver then are still shows that I’d rank below it, and the same goes vice versa and for 2011 as well, meaning that 2011 had actually slightly more great series compared to 2010. Anime is dying? Hah! In any case, Star Driver was pretty much the younger brother of Mawaru Penguin Drum. It featured much more action, but also had a lot of parallels, like the use of tons of symbolism. And I have to give credit for this show that when everything finally unraveled and was explained, it took some neat risks and chances. It’s definitely not the most balanced show though.

#21: Ben-To

After so many dull and uninspired fanservice comedies, this show finally delivered with an awesome premise. A show entirely dedicated to food battles. You just have to come up with it. This show proved that even though there may be fanserivce and moe, it can still be incredibly entertaining. The storytelling was very solid: the jokes were hilarious, the action scenes were really well directed, the music was awesome, the characters were well acted. It was one heck of an entertaining ride. The only shame is that at times it indulges in pointless fanservice a little too much, and it was probably about two episodes too long.