I approached the second heroine’s arc of Amagami SS with both apprehension and excitement. If you’ve read my post on the first arc, it should be obvious why. The identity of the new heroine was actually not really on my mind, but she proved to be the one interesting bit in a story that felt almost sterile at times. Indeed, this arc was bad, but not spectacularly so like Haruka’s. And it was actually kind of good at times, which made it all the more painful to see it fall.

The Good: Sex Hair

Let’s start with the positives. Kaoru was a much better character than Haruka. She was energetic and playful without feeling forced. Her relationship as a friend with Junichi was fun to watch, as was the beginning transition into a romantic one, at least in the first couple episodes. Plus, she’s not called “Sex Hair” for nothing. That wavy hair was one of the things that drove me to this series in the first place, and it didn’t disappoint.

Having the path diverge immediately following Junichi’s failed Christmas Eve date 2 years ago to have Kaoru cheer him up was a pleasant surprise. If they were so bold as to change what was such a central element in the first arc, perhaps the stories would diverge so much as to leave the first arc but a bitter memory? Plus, it was much easier to cheer for someone who wasn’t still hiding in his closet from a singular event 2 years ago. Even if the star lined closet made a return in the final episode, not having the entire pretext of the story be of Junichi trying to get over that date by finding a new love made the story significantly easier to swallow.

In fact, the whole high level story of friends becoming lovers was handled pretty well for the first two episodes. The self doubts and struggles of emotions they went through seemed genuine, even if exaggerated. The second episode was kicked off by a refreshingly open and honest conversation between the two regarding the nature of their relationship (it’s a sad commentary on the medium that having a mature conversation about romance and friendship in anime stands out as exceptional). A shame that scene ended with the classic accidental kiss then embarrassment trope.

Even the fetish of the month – belly button this time – was handled much better. Under the context of these curious teenage friends and with Junichi basing it on the first thing he saw, I might even go as far as to say it was done tastefully. At the very least, it didn’t linger any longer than necessary and certainly wasn’t a key building block to their relationship as was the case with Haruka’s arc.

The Bad: The Entire Second Half

So that was the first two episodes. While nothing amazing, they were entertaining and provided a pair of protagonists we could really root for. It’s too bad that it all fell apart in the last half, where pretty much nothing happened.

Of course, this points to pacing – something that was also very problematic in the first arc – as the culprit. I could go on about its failures, stacking all the interesting parts at the front and leaving a pair of content free episodes to limp to the finish line. I could explain what a waste of time the third episode was and how the show lacked any sense of urgency given its unique time constraints and squandered what little time it had. I could get down to specifics, like how the entire set-up sequence at the start of the final episode was a complete waste of time.

But I think it would be most effective to sum it up concisely: All the interesting stuff happens either before or after the events shown in the anime.

Kaoru and Junichi have known each other for three years. The show is not shy about this fact and often references past events from their friendship, usually to hit on some sort of emotional note. The problem is that we never saw these moments. We caught the tail end of the friendship at the beginning of the arc, and it was fun. Hearing about these memories isn’t fun. Furthermore, since we weren’t a part of their history together, the impact on Junichi or Kaoru from being reminded of a past event is lost on us. You can’t shove years of character and relationship development into a few flashbacks.

But at least we got to see their friendship, with some ear biting and imaginary German suplexing and belly button licking. As I wrote above, the start to this arc was fine. The opposite end, on the other hand, called in sick. All the fun stuff regarding their romantic relationship happens only after the arc is over.

The last two episodes – the entire last half of the arc – were aimless. I wrote about the first arc that I felt that the show suffered from its lineage i.e. that it emulated the storytelling of a dating sim visual novel to a fault. This could not have been more true in these 2 episodes. It is common to go through the mundane in visual novels. Most of the time, it is trying to insert you into the life of the protagonist, after all, and most of life is mundane.

Unfortunately, this translated to episode 7 being able to be summarized by, Junichi looks for Kaoru and eventually finds her, and episode 8 by, Junichi and Kaoru go on a date on Christmas Eve.

OK, there are some details I’m missing, but they were entirely superfluous. Kaoru’s problem with her mother proved to be a red herring. Its purpose seemingly was to have Junichi look for Kaoru and be reminded of her on the way, and then help her through this little conflict, but those things failed in having any impact. I already wrote above about how the flashbacks and reminders to past events were not effective due to us, the viewers, lacking a connection to those scenes. But having Junichi show up and solve everything by saying a few cliche lines was borderline insulting.

And, of course, episode 8 had a very heartfelt conversation between Junichi and Kaoru as they stood on the glass at the top of the tower (psych protip: people tend to become more easily attracted when in situations that cause stress, such as being at a great height). Or rather, it would have been very heartfelt and sweet had it not been on their first date. When people on their first date declare that they want to spend the rest of their lives together, it’s more comedic than romantic.

And then, how did the episode (and by extension the story arc) end? When the day ended. Hey, that’s kind of like in a dating sim! There was no ending, no conclusion. The closest thing to a climax was the aforementioned humorous confessions of love atop the tower. Literally, the arc ended right after Kaoru teased Junichi with a climax before falling asleep. There was nothing of significance other than their first date. It was the start of something, and then, oh, The End. Kaoru deserved better.

The story of Junichi and Kaoru doesn’t end there. It’s just that our view of it does. We know that the two will go through the same things any romantic couple goes through. There will be fun times, sad times, angry times, happy times. Maybe they won’t make it past a second date. Maybe they’ll grow old together. Maybe they’ll marry each other, madly in love, at 20, then get divorced by the time they’re 30. These are the interesting stories that we are not privy to. Instead, we were served just the things leading up to it. And not even the good stuff like when they used to be just friends, but that magical, most boring moment in between, when nothing of interest happened.

In Conclusion: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

While watching the aforementioned conversation atop the tower in the final episode, I thought back to the first 2 episodes and regretted the potential that had been wasted. Already, with so little time remaining, I knew that things couldn’t end well (I was hoping for a 10-years-later segment like in the first arc, at least, but we didn’t even get that). There was content in here to make a genuinely entertaining romance story. One that was both funny and emotional. The rooftop conversation at the start of episode 6 was a breath of fresh air in its mature handling of romantic emotions in anime. Kaoru was fun without being fake. That conversation at the top of the tower would have made for a very good climax to any other story about middle/high school friends becoming lovers. There just needed to be more leading up to it. They needed to have been together a bit longer. Junichi and Kaoru were afraid of getting together. It’s telling that the final episode was titled Development and started with their friends forcing them together. All that’s fine and natural, especially given their preexisting relationship, but when that takes over the entire story, you end up with one very boring story. Or rather, a very boring portion of a story. And that’s the portion we got to see.

We’ve had 2 full story arcs now, enough to get a semblance of a feel for what to expect. I’m most surprised by how different the two arcs were. Haruka’s was back-heavy with almost all the content dumped into the last 1.5 episodes. Kaoru’s suffered from the exact opposite problem. Haruka’s fetish kiss was a hilarious disaster that proved to be a core part of the arc’s downfall, while Kaoru’s was barely a speed bump and actually kind of fun. What both stories had in common were that they both ended abruptly with a first date on Christmas Eve (though Haruka’s was kind enough to provide us with an epilogue), with all the good stuff of a romantic relationship left to our imagination.

Going forward – and I do intend to stick with this show all the way to the bloody end – I fear that that is exactly how every story will end. That this show will be all about the build up with no release. The first date is aptly named because it is the first of something. It is the start of something interesting. Certainly, the lead up to that can be entertaining – countless harem anime are proof of this – but when the curtain falls just as things get good, it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Amagami SS has nothing up its sleeve besides the core romance story between Junichi and whichever heroine it is focusing on at the time. The comedy is banal and passable at best. The 4 episode limit per heroine leaves no time for other developments. It is with that romance story that this show lives and dies, and the show simply can’t afford to keep messing it up. A continuation of this ending pattern is a surefire way to guarantee failure.

Last week’s episode prompted me to post and to wonder (or perhaps to predict) if this show was going to be, as they call it, a train wreck. To be fair to the show, it’s only 1/6 of the way through, but that does mean that the first story arc is complete, and I can at least say that this story arc was an unqualified train wreck. That being said, I can’t help but grin from ear to ear as I write this. I have to give it credit. Plenty of shows have sucked and been unwatchable, but it’s rare for one to still make you want to keep watching.

The phrase “so bad it’s good” comes to mind. This is a phrase used appropriately to describe movies moreso than TV shows. When you’re spending a 90 minute stretch to watch something, the phrase makes a lot of sense. But when you’re watching something week in and week out, if something is bad, it’s just bad. It’s a rare breed that can still entertain for such a long period of time, not despite, but because of how bad it is. Amagami SS is one of those special shows.

So why was it so bad? I could point to the extremely poor pacing, which saw almost nothing happen the 1st 2 episodes, followed by a bizarre 3rd and then a 4th that hit us with more shit than the 1st 3 combined. I’ve already written on the awfulness of the 3rd episode and its misogyny, on which the final episode of this arc happily builds. Then there is the 4th episode by itself, which was crammed so full of cliches – not the good kind – that I’m still in awe and wonderment at the enormity of the feat.

Really, if I were to write about every little thing, this post would go far too long. Suffice it to say, I got a good laugh out of the revelation that Junichi and Haruka had met before, at an important moment of both of their pasts, which was also intricately tied to Haruka’s actual dog. And the laughs just kept coming, from somehow sticking a swimsuit scene into a Christmas Eve setting to having Haruka surprise Junichi with the dream date, hotel room and all.

But the moment that sticks in my mind, that offended my sensibilities too much for its own good is just when Haruka came out of the bath, upset that Junichi didn’t try to peek at her. This is, to quote @8C from Twitter, “misogynistic idealism.” The same can be said about the 10-years-later gag that they pulled immediately after. We are never shown the actual difficulties of the romance – the parts that are interesting – and are told that, as soon as you get the girl – or rather, as soon as the girl gets you – everything will be hunky dory from then on. Your “work” is finished.

Anime in general and especially visual novels such as the one on which this show is based are known for their misogyny. Visual novels get away with this because most of them are wish fulfillment porn anyway. Anime shows get away with this because they tend to be pretty absurd comedies, where multi-dimensional characters and realistic relationships aren’t needed.

But those things are needed in a somewhat serious romance story like Amagami SS. It just doesn’t work when the climactic, super dramatic moment is dependent on the girl acting like what a “misogynistic idealist” believes she should act like. Or if the build up to that involves the girl fulfilling the guy’s weird fetish of being a dog. Let me quote chaostangent from an astute post he made after only the first 3 episodes had aired:

These are not even char­ac­ters but amal­gam­a­tions of the most tired, staid and all-round tedi­ous aspects of arche­types that have mutated into a hideous, cringe­worthy diorama of what sociopaths believe real­istic or dra­mat­ic­ally enga­ging human inter­ac­tion is.

And yet, I must laud Amagami SS for being so bold in its adaptation of a visual novel. Most anime adaptations of visual novels tone down the obviously misogynist and wish fulfillment fantasy aspects in favor of creating a story better suited for the medium. Not Amagami SS. I have not played or read any of the source material, but I’m confident that this anime has embraced its heritage fully.

That’s why, despite the show’s insurmountable flaws, I enjoyed this first story arc of Amagami SS. Most anime shows tread that misogynistic line shyly, afraid to reference the fact that it’s an overarching theme in so many works in the medium – there’s an entire genre devoted to it – all the while partaking in it. Amagami SS outright celebrates it, and, most importantly, it does it without a hint of irony. In a way, it is a reflection of the expectations of the current otaku community at large.

This is a show that is fully aware of the path to failure that it’s marching down. And far from despairing it, it revels in it, inviting us, the viewers, to join in as well. I won’t be joining it, but I’ll happily look from afar at what other droplets of idealistic misogyny lies in its path.

I know in my Ookami-san episode 2 post I wrote that I would be posting only every 4 episodes of this series, but I’m sure if you’ve seen episode 3, you can sympathize with me for having some thoughts on it. I just… I’m finding it hard to put into words my reactions to this episode.

Junichi is understandably happy about the kiss he got from Haruka last time. On the eyebrow – he made sure to be that specific, just “on the forehead” wouldn’t do. That’s nice enough.  Then one thing leads to another, and before you know it, they’re alone in a shed, Junichi getting to be the one to give the kiss this time. All well and good, as they say.

Then things took a weird turn. I’m not going to go into the gory details. Plus, pictures do a much better job telling the whole story. So enjoy:

What can’t be properly communicated with pictures is the scene later on in which Junichi and Haruka do some kidnapper/kidnappee role playing… in the school cafeteria. I get that Haruka is supposed to have an impulsive, carefree personality, but come on! And that behind the knee kiss? Again, I understand that it’s an extension of the Junichi as Haruka’s dog metaphor – something which I found problematic to begin with – but what girl wouldn’t be running for the hills if someone tried to pull that kind of shit?

Before, I was worried that Amagami SS was too plain and boring. My concerns were entirely misguided. No, just 3 episodes in, it’s well on its way to being a certified train wreck.

And just like one, everything feels like it’s going in slow motion, there are pieces landing awkwardly at places they shouldn’t, and I can’t look away. I admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Not as a guilty pleasure, but as a spectacle. To be sure, this episode was a sucker punch after being such a mellow, boring show the 1st two episodes. So kudos for that, I guess.

Whatever hopes I had of this being the telling of 6 different good romance stories have been dashed. Instead, what I’ve ended up with is a neat amalgamation of things that can create a horrible a romance story: start with an uninteresting premise and a protagonist without an ounce of charisma, have him do practically nothing for the first half, then overcompensate by suddenly presenting situations that are so ridiculous that the only proper response is just to shake your head.

If this is what the writers of Amagami SS are capable of, I am very much looking forward to seeing just how low this show can go before all is said and done.

So I’ll be blogging Amagami SS this season. For the uninitiated, this is a high school romance series based on a dating sim for the PS2 called just Amagami. A trailer for the show is available on YouTube. This is normally the type of show I avoid, as it’s very rare that something interesting comes out of a high school harem show. What caught my attention, though, was that the show will actually not be a harem, but rather feature separate stories for all the heroines, ala Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. So instead of one crappy harem story, I see the potential for 6 decent romance stories. We’ll see how that pans out. This episode didn’t do much for me, but it’s too early to tell.

So this first episode set everything up, but it still managed to fit in some plot development. To begin with, Junichi Tachibana is a 2nd year high schooler who got stood up on Christmas 2 years ago (presumably between his 3rd year of middle school 1st year of high school) by some girl who never appeared again. He is still affected by this, being afraid of having his heart broken again. I find his method of protecting himself – sleeping in his closet that he’s lined with glow in the dark stars like a planetarium – to be rather odd, but, well, the premise of a kid his age being so heartbroken is pretty odd to begin with.

Given the show’s parallel world structure, and the fact that each heroine has only 4 episodes dedicated to her, I was a little surprised that every single major character was introduced in this episode, but I guess it’s just getting that out of the way early. The lead in this arc is Haruka Morishima, the 3rd year school idol character. Unbefitting of her status as school idol, she’s very tomboyish and matter of fact. She takes a liking to Junichi right away after seeing him help a 1st year, and she doesn’t make any effort to hide this, literally jumping on him and humping him at one point.

Haruka is portrayed by Shizuka Itou, who’s probably best known for playing Hinagiku in Hayate the Combat Butler, though my favorite role of hers was Akiha in Lunar Legend Tsukihime. With the long dark hair and the hairband, her character design actually reminds me a bit of Akiha, though their personalities couldn’t be more different. She’s also playing the title character in this season’s Ookami-san and the Seven Friends.

All the flirting Haruka does with Junichi eventually leads to him confessing to her at the end, which Haruka brushes off rather lightheartedly. I guess we can’t have the protagonist “winning” in the very first episode. Well, Junichi still has 3 more episodes to win her heart.

I find Haruka’s character to be a bit refreshing. Even if she fits the straightforward, unflappable character archetype a little too well, that’s still an unusual character to see in anime. So at least that makes me more invested in seeing how her story goes.

Junichi, on the other hand, doesn’t have enough charisma to fill a thimble. He really is the dating sim protagonist and pretty much nothing else. The “trauma” of his past seems rather mild compared to what some other harem leads had to go through. Like Shiki from the aforementioned Tsukihime, who was stabbed nearly to death, or Kakeru of 11eyes, who watched his sister die in front of him. Being stood up on your first date on Christmas really must be rough, especially on a middle schooler, but it’s been 2 years – it’s time to move on. His little internal pep talk halfway through the episode in which he decides to give love another shot just didn’t have any impact because of this.

The OP and ED were relaxing, soft pieces, befitting a show like this. But also not memorable in the slightest. Shizuka Itou sang the ED, which I knew coming in, because one of the gimmicks of this show is that each heroine’s arc will have the ED sung by that heroine’s voice actor. I like what I’ve heard before from Itou who does have some CDs out, but her singing felt strained and off to me.

So nothing to write home about this first episode. Really, besides Haruka’s character, it felt entirely generic. Hiraike Yoshimasa, the director of last season’s excellent (and my personal favorite show for that period) Working!! is also directing this, so I do have hopes for this show. Of course, this is a very different type of show from Working!!, and it’s going to have to pull off some serious drama in order to succeed, but here’s to hoping.

Note

• If you’d like to know more about all the other characters who will be featured in this series – particularly the 5 other heroines I didn’t mention – there’s a post on Hashihime that shows each of the characters and their voice actors.
• One voice actor whom I thought was spot on in this episode was Kana Asumi, who played Junichi’s little sister Miya. Last season, she had voiced the adorable Poplar in Working, though she’s probably most well known for playing Yuno in the Hidamari Sketch series. Her high-pitched, almost-but-not-quite squeaky voice fits well for a little sister character. And no, she’s not one of the 6 heroines. This isn’t that kind of show, for better or for worse.

AIC is one of those animation studios that really puzzle me. Most larger animation studios have multiple animation teams that can work concurrently but AIC seems like the only animation studio that so formerly breaks it down; there’s AIC, AIC Plus+, AIC Spirits, and AIC A.S.T.A.. Each sub-studio has done good work, for example, AIC A.S.T.A. was responsible for the excellent comedies Tenshi Senshi Sunred, Sora no Otoshimono (which is getting a second season and was just licensed ) and Bamboo Blade. AIC Plus+ with the slice-of-life/comedy G.A. Art Design Class and AIC Spirits with Ga-Rei: Zero. Of these studios AIC A.S.T.A. has been the most consistently good studio and the most inconsistent has been AIC. They did very well with Sasameki Koto, Asu no Yoichi!, but only  slightly good work with Nyan Koi and yawn-inducing work with Ookami Kakushi. With Mayoi Neko Overrun being produced by AIC, this makes prognosticating the quality extremely difficult but it was worth a look.

Rating for episodes 1 to 7 – 5/12  C+
Anticipation Level: 1.5/5  Below Average – Low

The Story

The owner of a rundown bakery known as the Stray Cats likes to take in strays, be them orphans, cat-girls, or an occasional rich girl with a lack of friends. She also likes to travel the world, helping those less fortunate then herself, leaving the strays to struggle together to keep the bakery open (the bakery’s main selling point is the beauty of the owner which only brings in so much money).

The Fine Print

Perhaps the strangest thing about Mayoi Neko Overrun is the lack of an overall director; each episode is directed by a different person. The results of this production decision – being wildly uneven (genuinely good/hilarious one episode and a real snoozer the next) and the story feeling very disjointed – seem obvious to me and leaves me scratching my head, trying to figure out why an animation studio would want two completely unnecessary strikes against it’s own show.

Another problem with a setup such as this is the tone of the show is off. It is possible for a show to be both comedic and emotional/drama-esque, Key shows for example, but it takes a fair degree of talent and mastery to do it right. And, apparently, it takes a single overseeing director that can weave the various threads together and get them to work because Mayoi Neko Overrun has failed to successfully pull this off. When the show is in comedic mode it’s to the detriment of developing the characters and story and when it’s in serious mode it’s to the detriment of the comedy and keeping the show entertaining. An overloaded semi-tractor trailer has more agility then Mayoi Neko Overrun.

The show is further hindered by it’s characters, or, more exactly, the lack of development of the characters beyond their initial stereotypical character-types. At the start of the show we had the clueless, kinda loserish, male main character; the violent, easily angered female childhood friend to the male main character that harbors deeper feelings for him but doesn’t realize she has these feeling but for some reason gets angry when other girls pay attention to him; the mean and haughty rich girl who’s unconsciously unhappy with life and just needs a friend; the perverted male sidekick who’s just interested in 2-D girls and being an otaku. And seven episodes in we still have these stock characters.

If Mayoi Neko Overrun was a full-tilt comedy then developing the characters would not have been so important but it’s not and so developing these 1-D characters into at least 2-D characters would be much appreciated.

I can almost hear the voices that will be out there reading this post and thinking – this show sounds bad, how did it get a C+ and not something lower? I’d respond by saying that it’s amazing how a smallish percentage of a show being legitimately good brings it’s overall score up when the rest of it is doesn’t out-right stink. Two episodes have stood out so far, eps. 4 and 6; if the whole series could have been as good as episode 4, Mayoi Neko Overrun would be a solid B show and if the whole series could have been as good as episode 6 then Mayoi Neko Overrun would have been a solid A show. What made these two episodes good was the show pushed itself into 100% full-tilt comedy mode with a heaping helping of absurdity. It was deliciously good; much better then the slice-of-life/drama/comedy show Mayoi Neko Overrun is trying to be and not succeeding at.

At this point, I can’t recommend this show to anyone; even the most devoted cat ears fans would be wasting their time with Mayoi Neko Overrun. Part of me wishes I could just drop this show but the occasional flashes of competence makes another part of me worry that I might miss something good and, since the latter takes precedence, I’m left watching this mediocre title.  The upside to this is that I will be able to definitely say if Mayoi Neko Overrun is worth a watch or not – keeping others away from it, if it’s not and getting people to watch it, if it is.

Filed under: anime, first impressions

The final set of awards before going to my top shows of the season cover the music, vocal actors, and animation aspects of this season’s anime. Or the three parts to anime that are heavily dependent on the preferences of the individual viewer.

Best Male Seiyuu

Winner: Souichiro Hoshi as Tomoki from Sora no Otoshimono
Runner-up: Masato Sakai as many roles from Blue Literature

I often wonder how much does a great character improve how I think of a seiyuu’s performance and, conversely, how much does a great job by the seiyuu go into improving that character. One way to separate the two is to look at other roles that the seiyuu has done and see if they’re consistent. In the case of Souichiro Hoshi, I adored his voice in Sengoku Basara when he played Sanada Yukimura (the hot-headed red guy) and in Phantom when he played the scheming brother Toru Shiga and I still remember another role he did as K1 from Higurashi. So, I have some confidence to say that Souichiro Hoshi does a great job injecting the right level of manliness into Tomoki’s character and thus earns the fall season Best Male Seiyuu award. Here’s a video of him singing from episode 10:

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Best Female Seiyuu

Winner: Saori Hayami as Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono
Runner-up: Satomi Arai as Kuroko from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

If I apply the same test to Saori Hayami, I find that I loved her voice as Kou, the shrine maiden, from Wagaya no Oinarisama and Saki from Eden of the East. And more importantly, for the purposes of this award, her work as Ikaros impressed me. Which I found odd at first because Ikaros comes off as very emotionally flat but thinking about it more, that might be the reason why I’m impressed with her work so much. Namely, Saori Hayami does such a good job making Ikaros feel emotionally detached and then does an equally great job voicing Ikaros as she tries to learn what it means to be human. So Saori Hayami wins this award and here’s a video of her singing from episode 10.

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Best OP

Winner: Astro Fighter Sunred
Runner-up: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Sasameki Koto

A good crop of openings this season which made it hard to pick just one. Sunred squeaked past everyone else based on the superior use of the animation to channel the humor of the series and distill it down into a minute and half of hilarity.

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Best ED

Winner: Sora No Otoshimono
Runner-up: Kemono no Souja Erin, Hetalia Axis Powers – America version

Sora no Otoshimono had a different ending song and completely different animation to accompany that song for each of it’s thirteen episodes. My favorite was the one that ran a blooper reel of “mistakes” made during the filming of the show. So for going well above-and-beyond what one expects for even the best anime, Sora no Otoshiomono easily wins this award.

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Best Background Music

Winner: Blue Literature

Blue Literature holds the special place as the only anime that my sister has ever wanted the soundtrack album for. Of course, I can’t seem to find any information if one is going to released which is just my luck because I had the very same reaction to the background music as I watched this show the first time. My favorite piece was the one that the woman played at the beginning of Kokoro and elsewhere.

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Best Dressed Characters

Winner: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

It was obvious that J.C. Staff received a large enough budget for Railgun that they could attend to all the small points. And a large wardrobe for it’s characters is definitely a small thing but it correlates well with high-quality anime. I also think it’s a great non-time consuming way to let the viewers know more about a character’s personality.

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Best Animation Style

Winner: Kimi ni Todoke
Runner-up: Blue Literature

The lovely animation style to Kimi ni Todoke made it a difficult show to drop but eye-candy does not automatically make a show a high quality one. So, eventually, I just couldn’t stand watching more of Kimi ni Todoke but that does not mean I would deny it an award that it deserves. And Kimi ni Todoke’s lovely, lush watercolor style does deserve this award.

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Best Animation

Winner: Blue Literature
Runner-up: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

While each story of Blue Literature displayed a varying amount of animation style which made it difficult to pick it for Best Animation Style, each and every story displayed a high level on animation quality. I’m not surprised by this because, after all, Madhouse animated Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, all of Satoshi Kon’s works, and a bevy of other high quality animated shows. It inched past Railgun mainly because Madhouse was able to make all the varied animation styles work.

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Top Animation Studio

Winner: AIC

AIC is not one of the anime studios that get talked about often; they lack the star power that a Gainax, J.C. Staff, or Kyoto Animation has and at the same time they lack the negative attention that a Sunrise, Studio Deen, or Gonzo has. They’re probably best known for the Oh My Goddess franchise to most people though maybe some know them from animating Bamboo Blade, Asu no Yoichi, or Ga-Rei: Zero. This season they released four shows: Sora No Otoshimono, Sasameki Koto, Nyan Koi, Astro Fighter Sunred; and a glance at the awards I’ve given out so far sees all four getting mentioned and winning a fair number of them. The weakest show of the four, Nyan Koi, was still a pretty good show and better than much of the rest of this season’s shows. Therefore, they were the easy pick this season with Madhouse a very distant second.

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That’s it for part 3 of my summer 2009 anime awards. Stay tuned for my top overall picks of the season.

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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards
Part 1 – Cast and Character Awards
Part 2 – Genre and Misfit Awards
Part 4 – Top 8 Shows of the Fall Season

Posted in anime, awards, youtube