I’m always leery of writing top all-time posts because I realize that I don’t have the encyclopedic knowledge that a decade long anime fan might have so I always worry about missing obvious picks. And I’d probably skip them all-together if I didn’t realize that such lists give readers and potential readers a large amount of information about a writer (as was pointed out elsewhere just recently). Before I tackle an overall top all-time list, I want to start with an easier list that I’m more sure upon – my picks for top anime comedies.

The reason I’m more confident is twofold. The first is that of all the shows I watch, it’s the comedies that get rewatched the most so I know how well a show will hold up. After all, if a comedy is only funny one time then it’s nothing more than a flash in the pan. And every show on this countdown has been watched at least twice and a few have been watched more than that. The other reason I’m more confident is because I don’t think I’ve missed too many older series that should be on this list. When people talk about comedy animes, I don’t see many titles that I’ve never watched. I’m sure there’s some out there (and if one wants to point them out – please do) but I’m fairly confident that this is a good list and it does reflect what I consider a good anime comedy.

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(5) – Azumanga Daioh

I just know that my ranking of Azumanga Daioh at only number 5 will get a sizable percentage of anime fans out there angry. And I could try to deflect these comments by saying that just getting on this list an honor but even I want to rank this show higher. The problem is that when I rewatched Azumanga Daioh recently, I still found myself laughing at it but at times I felt a bit bored and wanting the show to get to the parts of the story I especially liked. I think Azumanga Daioh might be suffering from the same fate that individual songs sometimes do – they’re overplayed by everybody and one gets tired of hearing that song over and over again. So, I don’t think there’s a flaw with the show itself and it remains funny enough that it definitely deserves it’s spot.

In case there’s readers out there that have not heard of Azumanga Daioh, let me say that you’re missing out on a very hilarious show. The main characters are an eclectic band of high school girls – very memorable as individuals and their relationships are even more memorable. The show follows them through all 3 years of high school life as they tackle the common pitfalls of school life – immature teachers, mean cats, low test scores, and placing first in the classroom athletic competitions. The show was done by J.C. Staff (Hayate Season 2, Toradora, Honey & Clover, Aoi Hana) and remains one of the best shows that they’ve done.

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(4) – Lucky Star

Where a recent rewatch hurt the previous show, a recent rewatch significantly raised my feeling for Lucky Star. And for the record, I’ve always considered this a comedy and not a slice-of-life show.

Controversy, drama, and sky-high expectations have dogged Lucky Star from the beginning and as a result, it became very difficult for someone to just watch the show and react to it as if it was a normal comedy anime. Collectively, I feel this contributed to many people coming to dislike the show and I’d probably be in that boat if I hadn’t stuck it out long enough for the characters to really grow on me (about 8 episodes). Once I hit that point, I liked the show in ever-increasing amounts; I still wouldn’t have had Lucky Star here if it wasn’t for the rewatch. I realized the second time through that the early episodes where just as funny as the later episodes and the lone defect of these episodes was how long it got the viewer to like the characters. Once the viewer gets to know the characters, the entire show is a stellar comedy and is even better the second time.

For those readers that have not heard of Lucky Star, it follows the not-so-typical lives of 4 high school girls (including a pair of twins). Of the four; the visual novel and MMORPG playing Konata is the main focus, troublemaker, and engine that drives most of the show’s comedy. The show was done by Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) and the director of the first four episodes went on to work on Kannagi (which I was disappointed with) and the rest of the episodes were directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto who did the hilarious Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu. (Which almost made it on and speaking of FMP, there really needs to be a new season of that).

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(3) – Potemayo

This is probably the least well-known or more accurately – the least watched show on the countdown because many people looked at a couple screenshots and decided a “moe blob” show couldn’t possibly be worth the time and didn’t stick around. And it’s a shame because these people missed a truly funny show.

Potemayo is a cute little thing that appeared one day out of the main character’s refrigerator and took up residence in his household. He didn’t seem to mind, naming her after the potatoes and mayonnaise that where in the fridge, and allowed her to come with him where he went. She had the vocabulary and apparent mental capacity of a year old baby but that wasn’t the only source of humor. For one, the show had a twisted sense of humor that came out every now and again, for instance I still can’t get enough of the scene that shows a bird eating a piece of fried chicken.

Something that separates this show from the others is that it occasionally swings from being a comedy to being somewhat serious. Never for a long time but it’s enough to get this show a slightly different feel. These transitions are always handled perfectly and never feel out-of-place (the wonderful closing song helps). This show was also done by J.C. Staff which makes them the only studio with 2 shows in the top 5.

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(2) – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Take one teacher prone to despairing over anything and everything, mix in a classroom of oddballs, and flavor with “Shaft being Shaft” and you end up with a very hilarious show. In particular, the second season is (to date) the strongest all-around season and was what pushed this up to number 2. That’s not to say the other seasons were bad but the first season had to introduce the show and it wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders yet and the third season had to split time with Bakemonogatari so it’s animation was a bit lacking.

There’s so much to enjoy with this show. I love to see what Mr. Despair will despair over. I love when the item that he despairs over is actually something I despair over because oftentimes it’s things that I thought I was the only one that did so. I love the societal commentary that shows up in the show. I love the students and their quirks. I love the high quality voice work and the unique animation. I love the songs used. I love how there’s a whole layer of comedy in the background signs (even if that means I have to pause numerous times to catch them all). And I love how it’s a perfect vehicle to allow Shaft to be Shaft.

It’s probably the hardest show I watch fansubbed (between having to read the signs and trying to understand the 15% of jokes that are really Japan culture centered) but it’s really worth the effort.

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(1) – Minami-Ke (Season 1)

I needed to call out only the first season of Minami-Ke because production of the second and third seasons was given to another animation house (for some reason) and they were know where near as good as Studio Doumu that did the first season.

This show follows the everyday lives of the three Minami sisters – one high school aged, one middle school aged, and one in elementary school and their social circles. The eldest sister is the mature one, the middle one is the trouble maker, and the youngest is the smart one that can’t stand stupidity. One of the exceptional components is how effortlessly Studio Doumu was able to handle the rather large cast and the various ways the different people added humor to the show. And trust me, there’s so many ways to find humor in this show that I won’t start listing them because I’m sure to leave several out. My favorite single character is Hosaka and his fantasies.

I still hold out hope that whatever prevented Studio Doumu from doing the other seasons will get fixed and we get a true sequel worthy of this season.

Posted in anime, anime rants/views

The final part of my look at the spectacular summer season is the countdown of the best titles of the season. This is always a difficult process since I enjoy so many different types of shows and there’s no clear-cut way of comparing a slice-of-life show to a shounen action show to a thought provoking SF drama set in the near future but at the same time, it’s fun because it helps me focus on exactly why I like certain shows.

The first step in the process is to figure out how many places will this season’s top list include. The number changes from season-to-season based on the number of quality shows that I feel deserve to be mentioned. This time I realized that if I included all the titles I thought were “very good”, the list would be much too long so I restricted the list to those shows that I consider “great” shows.

This narrowed the field down to seven shows and now the task turned to ranking these seven shows that I considered great shows. Picking the number one spot was fairly easily but the rest of the list felt like pulling teeth so; whereas, I’ll argue that all seven of these shows belong on the list, I won’t argue to hard over the exact order.

And with that, let’s head to the countdown.

Honorable Mention – Sora no Manimani

Of the shows that almost made it onto the list, Sora no Manimani was the closest and because it was such an enjoyable series, I figured it deserved to at least get an honorable mention.

I’m convinced if this had either had one of the big name studios attached to it or had eye catching animation like a Bakemonogatari then it would have been a popular series. Instead it was done by Studio Comet and outside of the nicely done night sky scenes, the animation was very average. Which makes it sounds like I’m calling anime fans shallow but I understand that with the sheer number of titles (and so many being good) that some way to filter down the number of shows that a person watches needs to be employed.

So, in case you’ve missed this show, Sora no Manimani is a slice-of-school-life show featuring the school’s astronomy club and focuses more on the unique challenges facing a club of this type with a lesser focus on the problems of it’s members. Almost every episode also mixes in a few interesting tidbits of astronomy. I plan on trying the easy method they showed for taking pictures of the night sky with just a normal camera. It’s strength resided in how it stayed entertaining and enjoyable without resorting heavily clichéd characters and became an even stronger series when they introduced some of the neighboring school’s astronomy clubs and their own quirky characters – gotta love the constellation fangirls.

And if the animators get a chance to do a second season (the ending gives that type of feeling), I’d definitely be excited for more Sora no Manimani.

7 – Aoi Hana

The term yuri is such a loaded term for the anime fan because 9.9 times out of 10 a show with yuri is using it for comedic purposes and fan service (think Maria+holic or Kampfer) or the story is so grounded in fantasy that it can’t be taken seriously. Using this term is helpful the vast majority of the time but in that 0.1 times are shows like Aoi Hana that are completely different then the normal yuri show. There’s very little, if any fan service, and the show is a more serious one and yet the story is told in such a way with the right characters that it feels very plausible.

A better way to describe this show is that Aoi Hana is yet another quality slice-of-school-life show from J.C. Staff that will remind the viewer of other J.C. Staff shows like Honey & Clover and Toradora. This show also features the best example of the sheer beauty that J.C. Staff’s watercolor look can lend a show. And speaking of animation, remember how people would talk about the attention to detail the KyoAni would show in their works – I got that same feeling of almost obsessive attention from watching how well Fumi’s hair was animated and how the snow was animated in the last episode. This is another show that if the animators wanted to do a second season, they’re more then welcome since I’d be really happy to see more from these characters.

6 - Kemono no Souja Erin

Earlier in the season, I talked about finally catching myself on this series and how I felt bad about missing out on such a great show for so long. Since than I’ve patiently and not so patiently waited for the next installment because after every episode I find myself liking the show even more.

The show continues to focus on developing Erin’s character and unfolds in ways that keep the viewer guessing even after 30+ episodes. For example, in the last episode I watched, Erin has become a teacher at the Beastlord school that she schooled in and graduated from. In hindsight, it’s clear that she’s perfect for the job but I wasn’t expecting something like that to happen which just reinforces how all these developments keep the show fresh and exciting to watch. Now we’re moving to the final set of episodes and I can’t wait to see what happens; there’s a very good chance that this’ll be near the top next time.

5 – Cross Game

One of the shows that will get in Kemono no Souja Erin’s way next season will be this show – I just know it. The drop in ranking (from being #1 in the Spring season to #5) might imply some drop off in quality but that’s not the case here. This show is as impressive this season as last.

The original manga author has a real knack at creating good, believable characters and then finding ways to tie these characters together and the animators have done a great job carrying this through into the anime. And if new opening/closing animation is to be believed, we’re in store for another big shack-up among the characters. Another strong point of the show is how the show can be riveting and full of tension without having to resort to cheap tricks and creating bad guys that need defeated. Occasionally, there are people who show up and feel like they should be considered bad guys but so far almost every character like that has been given the chance to redeem themselves. (Azuma is a good example and the spoiled, rich baseball manager is an example in progress.) The only two that haven’t still have time and I won’t be surprised if they see the error of their ways.

And you don’t need to like baseball to enjoy this anime, my younger sister only has a rough understanding of the game and zero interest in it but this is one of her favorite currently airing anime.

4 - Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Season 3

Conventional wisdom states that Goodbye, Mr. Despair is either – not funny, too cultural for English speakers to find funny, or that the only decent season was the first season and from there it went down hill rapidly. I disagree with all three; I think that the majority of the comedy is gettable by even a newbie anime fan (if you like the type of comedy present in the show – which is a different matter all-together) and that the second season was the best season so far.

The difference between the second and third season almost wholly stems from Shaft being overtaxed doing this series and Bakemonogatari. The result was while the material of the show held up well to the second season, the animation looked very poor compared to the second season. I normally hate to dock a show for items not related to the actual content of the show but SZS is different, in that, the presentation of the show became a very important part of the show. I still haven’t seen the final two episodes of the series but I’m pretty sure Shaft has left the door open to make more and I think they should because when the world runs out of things to despair over, it’ll be the day the world ends.

3 - Taishou Yakyuu Musume

On one hand, I’m surprised that Taishou Yakyuu Musume ended up this high but on the other hand, I wish I could have ranked it higher. This type of show normally doesn’t garner much praise – that goes to shows like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 or East of Eden or Bakemonogatari so I might have chickened out and put it lower. What stopped me is that of all the summer series I finished this is the only one I’m already re-watching and loving every second of. If anything, I’m enjoying this show more the second time.

The show featured a theme I love to see – the underdog vs. the world. I loved it in Rocky, Karate Kid, Major League (am I showing my age yet??) and I loved it here. I deeply wanted to see the boys put in their place and have to acknowledge the girls as equals which ensured that I’d tune in every week to see what happens next. Taishou Yakyuu Musume also showed how the girls had to work hard to get to level of being able to challenge the boys which is another thing I like to see – hard work paying off. (Not saying they beat the boys because I’m not going to spoil the ending here.) At the same time though, the show was never boring or overly sports anime-esque; it was perpetually entertaining and light-hearted and slice-of-lifeish that I wished it had run 26 episodes. I don’t expect this show to be totally historically accurate but I also liked how the show was set in 1925 and they spent a little time showcasing how in this era the people where really caught between the old customs and the western influences that where invading all aspects of the country and culture; for example, some of the girls wore kimonos to school and others where wearing the new thing – sailor uniforms. So for all that, Taishou Yakyuu Musume earns it’s number 3 spot in the top anime of the season.

2 - Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

With the overlap of the original series finished by the start of this season’s episodes, Full Metal Alchemist had no reason not to shine and has easily proved that remaking the series was the right decision. That part of me that has never stopped believing that shounen shows are the most awesome thing in the world is a very happy camper right now and even the slice-of-life part of me has to grudgingly agree that this show deserves it’s high position.

Watching the show and seeing it’s fights, revelations, twists, and reveals leave me on the edge of my seat and forgetting to breathe until the credits start to roll.

1 - Bakemonogatari

Like I said earlier, picking Bakemonogatari was a fairly easy choice for me. It had the characters, the witty dialogue, the story, the animation, the OP/ED, and it had the single best episode of the season (episode 12). Thankfully, this gem was picked up by much of the anime fan community so I don’t need to go into a long rant as to why this deserves the spot. So, I’ll end it here saying that Shaft better put together a second season quickly – I’m not going to patiently wait 3 years.

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Well, it’s finally done. Now I can fully get to the fall season which I’ve sampled a few shows so far but will get to a full recon now. A couple of the shows, Kampfer and Nyon Koi, have left me really torn about how I should feel about them so they’ll need a couple more episodes before I can write their impression posts. Then there’s Natsu no Arashi season 2, it seems that Shaft has kicked the show up a notch over the first two episodes and that will make it one of the stronger shows this season – I’m sure.

Posted in anime, awards

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: Hiroshi Kamiya as Araragi from Bakemonogatari and Mr. Despair from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3

I realize that Hiroshi Kamiya getting both roles is more of a result of Shaft doing both shows and having a bias when casting for Araragi’s vocal actor but I think he did an excellent job with both roles. And to take it further, I think using the same voice actor for both helped highlight the similarities in character between the two.

Best Female Seiyuu

Winner: Chiwa Saito as Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari

Yeah for easy award picks. Chiwa Saito had this award locked in by the third week of the season and never looked back.

Best OP

Winner: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3

Runner-up: Kemono no Souja Erin

Yeah for difficult award picks because that means there was lots of good opening songs to choose from. In the case of Kemono no Souja Erin, the one I’m picking is the newer one where it sounds like the same song is used but the singer has been changed and the animators have updated the imagery to reflect the second time skip used in the series. For SZS, I think this is my favorite OP of the series and while the series itself might have not wowed with it’s animation, they went all out for the OP and ED.

Best ED

Winner: Bakemonogatari

Runner-up: Umi Monogatari

The ending of Bakemonogatari was awesome before it was tied so nicely to the show in episode 12 so no other show really had a shot which makes me a little sad because there were some great endings this season.

Best Background Music

Winner: Umi Monogatari

If I’ve learned anything from doing these awards is that invariably, I’ll have several people point out that my pick for best background music should have gone to another show. And more-often-then-not I find that they’re probably right so this time I wonder which shows will be mentioned as being better picks than Umi Monogatari. I don’t mind the comments and will probably agree with them but for right now, I can say that I liked several pieces from Umi Monogatari and remember thinking that the music complements the show nicely.

Best Dressed Characters

Winner: Bakemonogatari

Runner-up: Aoi Hana

The traditional KyoAni award goes to a non-KyoAni show this time for the superb effort shown by Shaft for Bakemonogatari.

Best Animation Style

Winner: Bakemonogatari

Runner-up: Aoi Hana

Remember, animation style is not the same thing as overall best quality. That’s not to say that either show lacked in animation because both shows provided many moments that impressed me but in both cases the most memorable feature was the style itself. Aoi Hana showcased J.C. Staff’s watercolor look and is, I feel, the best example of just how beautiful this style is. Bakemonogatari is a great example of Shaft being Shaft but at the same time the exact style of the show is different from their other work and does a terrific job establishing the mood of the series.

Best Animation

Winner: CANAAN

Canaan is the second series by P.A. Works and once again the animation is just gorgeous. I think they still have much room to grow, in the storytelling and character development departments, but they do know how to animate.

Top Animation Studio

Winner: tie – Shaft / J.C. Staff

I probably would have outright given this to Shaft if they could have pulled off doing both of their shows without any problems but that wasn’t the case and J.C. Staff had a trio of very enjoyable shows. So, in the end, I gave it to both.

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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.

Posted in anime, awards

I’ve never seriously thought of making The Null Set a team blog mainly because doing so, I think, would lessen the personal drive towards becoming a better writer. However, I do wonder sometimes how it would look but until now, there’s been no real why to see. What’s changed is that Janette over at Borderline Hikkomori decided to do a summer seasonal review using the same format as I have here. Which is really cool by itself, but by using the same structure, one could mentally splice the two features together and imagine what a combined piece would look like. The result is very interesting so maybe there’s something to the idea of a team blog.

Enough rambling, let’s head to the next batch of awards.

Best Action

Winner: Phantom ~ Requiem of Phantom ~

Runner-up: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

My dislike of the ending of Phantom won’t get in way of praising it for what it did right which includes it’s action scenes. The show wasn’t overloaded with action scenes; instead, it balanced the quality action scenes with building the plot and characters – never allowing one to overrun the show.

Best Fight

Winner: Mustang vs. Lust from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Easiest. Decision. This. Season. This fight alone made redoing the series worth it.

Best Comedy

Winner: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3

Runner-up: Taishou Yakyuu Musume

I initially feared that the drop in animation quality (thanks to Shaft doing Bakemonogatari as well) would translate to a weak season of Despair but I wrong. There’s still plenty of laughs to be had as the world continues to serve up things to despair over. And it’s the perfect vehicle to allow Shaft to be Shaft.

Most Entertaining

Winner: Taishou Yakyuu Musume

Another easy pick. If I had to pick one word to describe Taishou Yakyuu Musume it would be “entertaining” because no matter what was going on, the show always left a smile on my face and a feeling of warmth in my heart.

Most Interesting Setting

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

A world where alchemy actually works opens up so many possibilities – both good and bad – and Full Metal Alchemist has done a very good job is showing both. This is further augmented by the addition of different lands (that I don’t remember the first iteration talking about) and different alchemy traditions.

Best Plot

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Runner-up: Phantom ~ Requiem of Phantom ~

During the spring season, watching Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood felt weird and largely boring because I was familiar with the original series and the compressed storytelling glossed over many of the parts I liked. I knew we’d get to new material but it was still surprising how quickly the show went from ho-hum to awesome. It seems like every episode this season has been chalk full of shocking revelations and unexpected twists which leaves me on the edge-of-my-seat and wanting more.

Best Story

Winner: Aoi Hana

Runner-up: Taishou Yakyuu Musume

I read the review that ANN posted for Aoi Hana and I was liking it until the reviewer started talking about the character’s selfhoods and their sexuality because, while I’m sure the reviewer meant well, I think when the reviewer focuses on issues like that – people will not give the show it’s full due. Chances are the readers will come away with the idea that Aoi Hana is a good show within the yuri genre, much like someone might say that Cross Game’s Aoba is a good baseball player, for a girl. So I wanted to say that Aoi Hana has a great story (period) featuring great characters that feel like real people with real problems (period) and is another example of how few studios can match J.C. Staff when it’s working to it’s full potential (period).

Best Villain

Winner: Sedna from Umi Monogatari

Going into Umi Monogatari, I had no reason to expect anything from the title, it was based on a line of pachinko machines afterall. And it was this lack of preconceived notions that allowed me to enjoy the show for what it did have to offer. So now that I’m mentioning it in places like this, I worry that I’ve poisoned the well for potential viewers because now these viewers will be watching the show and expect it to perform like a Bakemonogatari or Tokyo Magnitude 8.0.

It’s not that type of show, so even though I love Sedna as a villain – if one goes looking for the next Demon King (from last season’s winner, Sengoku Basara), they will be disappointed.

Most in Need of a Sequel

Winner: Bakemonogatari

Runner-up: Spice and Wolf

Both shows need a sequel as quickly as possible. The only thing that comforts me about Bakemonogatari is that Shaft seems to know that striking while the iron’s hot is a good idea. In the case of Spice and Wolf, the company that did this season of it, Brain’s Base, doesn’t do many series and they’re also doing Natsume Yuujinchou and I’m worried one will interfere with the other which would be horrible since both are fabulous shows.

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That’s it for part 2, the next part is the VMA awards.

Posted in anime, awards

Around this time of the year I like to pretend that it’s still summer because I know when I stop pretending, the coming winter will just depress me. Of course, the falling leaves and cool temperatures make it hard to pretend it’s something other than autumn. This extends to anime as well, just today, I watched two of the new fall shows and I realized that I can’t be dragging my feet anymore – it’s time to award my summer seasonal anime awards.

This season turned out to be a very impressive one. Between the carry-over shows and the new shows, I think just about every genre had at least a couple shows to pick from and at least one of those shows were a winner. Nor was there any shortage of fuel to fan the flames of fandom. KyoAni took the title “Endless Eight” way too literally, at times Shaft/Shinbou couldn’t quite pull off doing two shows at the same time, Bones left some unhappy over the “scientific” Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and the animators behind Phantom didn’t seem to mind that the ending of their show was rather “nice boaty”. So it was an all-around good season for anime, and now let’s head for the first group of awards the cast and character awards.

Below is a listing of the shows that I watched this season and are the pool from which the picks for all the awards are coming from. There were a few shows that should be listed since I intended to watch them and I still intend to get to them but for various reasons (time, releases suddenly slow, and apathy) they didn’t get watched. They’ll be included during the yearly awards, assuming I finish them up by the end of the year.

Also a reminder, I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum but there’ll be some because of how they’ll relate to specific awards and for the continuing shows, only the part of the series that ran during this season is under consideration for this season’s awards.

Carry-over shows watched this season (8): Phantom ~Requiem of Phantom~, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Hayate Season 2, Cross Game, Kemono no Souja Erin, Tears to Tiara, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009), Hetalia Axis Powers

New shows watched this season (10): Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Bakemonogatari, Spice and Wolf 2, Taishou Yakyuu Musume, Aoi Hana, Sora no Manimani, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3, CANAAN, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Umi Monogatari

Shows that got dropped (3): Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!, Needless, Kanamemo

Best Female Main Character

Winner: Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari

Runner-up: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin, Horo from Spice and Wolf 2

I really, really wanted to award Erin best female main character because she has shown her worthiness multiple times over (and I felt bad that I took so long before catching up with the series which probably cost her the best female main character award in the spring season). I even penciled her into the winners spot but seeing Senjougahara as the runner-up spot just didn’t seem right because Senjougahara is a truly great characcccter that will long be remembered and loved. The Senjougahara fascination movement has reached levels that I really haven’t seen since the Melancholy of Haruhi came out in 2006 and she is certainly worth the fuss. Much like how Araragi’s vocabulary was insufficient to describe the night sky in episode 12, I don’t posses the vocabulary to accurately describe why Senjougahara deserves this award – words like awesome, interesting, unique, intelligent, witty, and strong seem too shallow and my thesaurus isn’t giving me anything better – so instead I’ll just submit episode 12 of Bakemonogatari as the needed proof.

Best Male Main Character

Winner: Kou from Cross Game

Once a character or show has won in a particular category one season, it becomes very hard for that same show to win the same category again in a later season. I think this helps guard against having the past goodness of a show affect it’s chances in the current season. However, if the show continues to make a convincing enough case then I will reward it a second time.

Kou won best male main character for the spring season which makes it much harder to win a second time but there wasn’t another male character that was able to compete against Kou. He continues to display all the attributes – maturity, selflessness, kindness, understanding, being an awesome pitcher but still being humble, and his continued remembrance of Waka – that easily ensured that he’d win this award the first time.

Best Supporting Character

Winner: Roy Mustang from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I just have the feeling that I’ll get at least one person who will comment that Mustang is a main character and not just a supporting character. So let me say that while he is an important character to the show, the only characters that I consider main characters are Ed and Al because these are the only two characters that the entire show revolves around and are in the show enough. Nor is there anything wrong with just being a supporting character because this doesn’t lessen the greatness of his character.

In the first incarnation of the anime, the climax of the first season should have prodded Roy Mustang into action and it didn’t – which ultimately lead to the inferior anime-only ending. This time around, with the source material in place, this climax event propels Roy Mustang into action and allows the viewer to get the full measure of his character. His quixotic quest to find justice, along with his fierce loyalty, and being a true bad ass (see episode 19) makes him an easy pick for this award.

Best Screen-grabber

Winner: Shamisen from The Melancholy of Haruhi (2009)

Runner-up: The pitcher on the female baseball team from Cross Game

This award goes to those characters with small roles to play in an anime but are still able to leave a big impression. In the case of Shamisen – the talking cat first seen three years ago in Haruhi’s awful movie – his appearance in the renewed Haruhi series was the answer to a figurative itch I’ve had for these past three years. After all, as everyone knows talking, sarcastic cat = epic win and making us wait for more Shamisen was just cruel. Or to put his epic awesomeness in another way, Shamisen was able to wash the lingering distaste that Endless Eight left right away and made me excited about the eventual true second season of Haruhi.

Best Couple

Winner: Kraft Lawrence and Horo from Spice and Wolf 2

Runner-up: Senjougahara and Araragi from Bakemonogatari

I sometimes wonder if I watch different shows then other people because the talk about this series was that it was a boring show about economics and merchants but I found Spice and Wolf to actually be about the relationship of a normal guy, who happens to be a merchant, and a wolf harvest goddess that takes a nearly human form (add a tail and ears). Each person has their own strengths and this allows their relationship to be a balanced one – which is somewhat rare in anime because one side of a relationship is normally shown as the much more dominant like in Bakemonogatari. One of the things I really liked in this season was the dawning realization by Horo that humans don’t live a long time when compared to gods which is starting to color how she interacts with Lawrence and adds even more complexity to their relationship. Hopefully, a third season will be on it’s way so we can see how the story unfolds and maybe this time they’ll do a 26 episode run – 13 just isn’t enough time.

Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Haruhi’s ability to alter reality to suit her whims

I have been able to resist the temptation to read further in the light novels so I’m still really in the dark about what exactly is Haruhi. For all I know, Haruhi is within the Matrix and one day she’ll meet Laurence Fishburne and we’ll find out that Haruhi is “The One”.

Whatever the root cause to Haruhi’s powers, the thing that the new episodes really showed is that she does have vast powers and under the right conditions, she’ll use them quite frequently. The only drawback, at least from Haruhi’s standpoint, is that she’s unaware that she has this capability. Maybe it’s a good thing that she has these powers since the world has been largely unaffected and could you imagine if a normal, hormonally driven teenage boy got these powers – I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that the only woman ruined for marriage would be Mikuru.

Best Cast of Characters

Winner: Cross Game

Some shows lose steam as more characters are introduced because the plot quickly bogs down; some shows, however, thrive with a large cast and Cross Game is one such show. Every character is unique and interesting; no cookie-cutter characters here. I get excited whenever a new character gets introduced because there’s always a good reason for that character’s introduction even if it’s not apparent at the beginning and it’s sometimes surprising to see how he/she will interact with the other cast.

Best Character Development for Cast

Winner: Umi Monogatari

Recently I wrote how Umi Monogatari kept itself simple and was able to end up being a good anime. One of the reasons why this show turned out good was, instead of relying on unlikely coincidences and contrived events that force the characters to change and grow, the plot was left to the characters acting according to their own strengths and weaknesses. The result was that we still got to see the cast face challenges that caused them to grow but Umi Monogatari felt natural and more real than many other shows that aired this season.

Best Character Development of a Single Character

Winner: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin

As much as I’ve love Kemono no Souja Erin, I realize that even after 35 episodes – the animators are still building Erin’s character and getting her ready for the hero role that she’s going to have to play in the future. This has entailed two time skips and enough hardship that many people would have despaired. Erin hasn’t, she resolutely moves forward to face the next problem and to protect those that she feels need protected. When all the plot threads that have been hinted at finally come together and whatever the exact crisis turns out to be, Erin’s going to be ready to face it and overcome it. I really can’t wait to see how the rest of the series will play out.

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That’s the end of part 1; I hope to have the second part up within a day. Comments and feedback are always appreciated – I’d love to see what others would pick.

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Posted in anime, series review

I had planned on reviewing every edition of Asimov’s this year but it turned out that I only got to the January edition. So, what I’ll do is give a quick review of the year before moving onto my Reader’s Choice Award ballot.

There are 3 different length categories: (NA) - novella, (NT) - novelette, (SS) - short story. Novellas are the longest and can run around 50 pages and short stories are the shortest and can be at most several pages.

Best Stories in Asimov’s

January

• (NT) Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders by Mike Resnick
• (NT) The Beautiful and Damned By F.Scott Fitzgerald by Tanith Lee
• (SS) Unlikely by Will McInTosh

February

• (SS) From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled by Michael Swanwick
• (NT) The Ray-Gun: A Love Story by James Alan Gardner

March

• (NT) Following the Pharmers by Brian Stableford
• (NT) Master of the Road to Nowhere by Carol Emshwiller

April / May

• (NT) Memory Dog by Kathleen Ann Goonan
• (NA) The Room of Lost Souls by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

June

• (NA) Hob Carpet by Ian R. MacLeod

July

• (NT) Vinegar Peace, Or, The Wrong-Way Used Orphanage by Michael Bishop
• (SS) 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss by Kij Johnson

August

• (NT) Divining Light by Ted Kosmatka

September

• (SS) Horse Racing by Mary Rosenblum
• (NT) Midnight Blue by Will McInTosh

October / November

• (NA) Truth by Robert Reed

December

• (NA) The Flowers of Nicosia by David Ira Cleary

First off, I want to congratulate Sheila Williams, the editor, for another strong year of Asimov’s.

I continue to be amazed how a mere $32.97 a year gives me so much. It truly is one of the best ratios of entertainment / cost that can be found with at least 100 pages (200 for double issues) of fiction per issue. The stories listed above were the best of the best from Asimov’s this year - the stories that I’ll remember and talk about for years to come. I didn’t include the stories that were only excellent and above average because that would have made the list too long.

And let’s not forget the columns that are in Asimov’s. My favorites are the Editorial column that’s written Sheila Williams and the Reflections column by Robert Silverberg. Both Sheila Williams and Robert Silverberg have been lifelong fans of science fiction and this love pervades their columns. Even when many of Sheila’s columns deal with meta things like reporting on the results of the Reader’s Choice Award, what she’s looks for when buying a story, and why Asimov’s physical dimensions were slightly changed – She can still slip in interesting story. Like how for awhile Asimov’s had the same dimensions as the TV Guide magazine so it could be printed on the same presses as the TV Guide. On the other hand Robert Silverberg has free rein to talk about anything and he does. The topics he covered ranged from the high-tech toilets of Japan to how humanity is rapidly running out of certain elements like Gallium to talking about a story written in 1946 that actually predicted the home computer, the internet, and how society would become dependent on the computer.

The most memorable column, however, was written by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Among other things that she talked about was research she had done about America in the year 1969. That year, if you remember, was the year that American astronauts became the first people to land on the moon. During that same year there were over 3000 bombs that were detonated in America – mainly by domestic terrorists – so many that it was no longer national news when one went off. She also found that in the United States alone there were 37 airline hijackings during the same year. My brain has trouble even imagining what it must have been like to live through that and still be able to pull off the something so ambitious as a Moon landing.

The final thing I wanted to mention before moving to my picks was that I got my name mentioned in the September Asimov’s. Sheila Williams used my comment summing the 2007 year of Asimov’s in her Editorial column about the 2008 Reader’s Choice Awards. Seeing my name in print like that was really, really cool and makes me want to try to become a published author.

2009 Reader’s Award Ballot

Novella

1. Truth by Robert Reed
2. The Room of Lost Souls by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
3. Hob Carpet by Ian R. MacLeod

One of the certitudes in reading short form science fiction is that a Robert Reed story is always good, sometimes great, and occasionally sublime. Truth falls into the sublime category. Set a few years in the future, it recasts (as only science fiction can) current events in a totally different light. It gripped the reader from the start and held us on the edge of our seats to the very ending. It was also supremely imaginative and thought-provoking as great science fiction should be.

Truth squeaks past the sole story that takes place in space, Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s The Room of Lost Souls. The story takes place in the far future where humanity has colonized the universe and has had time to learn and forget many technologies. This makes wreck diving popular because some fantastic technology might be hiding on a long abandoned star ship. One such technology is perfect stealth which is what drives the events around this story and an early story set in the same universe. Rusch has a talent at creating characters that feel like real people and making the reader care about what happens to them. I hope that Rusch will revisit this interesting universe in the near future.

Novelette

1. Memory Dog by Kathleen Ann Goonan
2. Divining Light by Ted Kosmatka
3. The Beautiful and Damned By F.Scott Fitzgerald by Tanith Lee

Much like Truth, Kathleen Ann Goonan’s Memory Dog takes place in a near future that feels plausible and connected to our world. It examines one person’s extreme feeling of loss and regret and how it personally drives him to insanity but also gives humanity the chance to start acting sane. This one packs a emotionally wallop as well as featuring some great technology.

In any other year, Divining Light by Ted Kosmatka would probably have easily win this award but it had to come out this year. That doesn’t detract from the fact that this story was one of the few times that reading or watching something has produced a feeling of vertigo in me. It was further unsettling when I went online and found that much of the quantum mechanics used in this story was true and the fictional parts are only fictional because no one has tested to see if their true or not. From a story standpoint, I picked Memory Dog over this story because of slightly better characterization among the characters.

Short Story

1. From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled by Michael Swanwick
2. 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss by Kij Johnson
3. Unlikely by Will McInTosh

I’ve been enjoying Michael Swanwick’s well crafted stories for a long time now and his latest, From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled, is no different. The story is told by an AI inhabiting a space suit and takes place on an alien planet where a delegation of humans look to trade with the inhabiting alien race. The story is well written with good characterization and the aliens felt realistically alien and it’s all the more amazing that Swanwick was able to do this in such a short story.

The other two stories: 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss and Unlikely, are more lighthearted but still very well written. 26 Monkeys is about a traveling circus act that involves 26 monkeys and a bathtub that has some sort of portal attached to it that allows the monkeys to disappear at the end of their performance. And Unlikely is a story about how injuries and accidents are decreased within a community when a certain guy and girl are in close proximity with each other. Is it fate or is it a statistical anomaly? Many of Asimov’s stories are serious, melancholy or downright depressing and it’s stories like these two that help balance it out the reading experience.

Poem

1. Classic of Science Fiction: “The Cold Equations” by Jack O’Brien
2. Where Seelie Shop by Greg Beatty
3. Return of Zombie Teen Angst by Mike Allen

I’m not a good judge of what makes a good poem but all three that I picked, I remember reading even months later so I figure that means they’re the good ones.

Cover

1. March
2. December
3. January

One of the weakest elements of Asimov’s is the covers. Most of them make me think that they were done 50 years ago – hardly the image a SF magazine should have. Sometimes there’s a decent cover like the second and third pick but only very rarely is there a good cover like my top pick. I’ve often thought that they should run a contest looking new cover art and it would target college art students and art professionals just starting out who would love the chance to get their work shown nationally and even internationally.

Posted in Asimov's SF Magazine, general anime interst, science fiction, SF awards

We’re finally here, the last part of my reflection on the best anime of 2008 – the top 5 anime. If you’ve looked at the other parts then this list probably won’t be much of a shock so let’s not waste anymore time and get to the list.

5 Ga-rei: Zero

The show I called the second most surprising show of the fall season starts this half of the countdown.

I like to see animators willing to take chances with a series because that means creativity isn’t dead. The creators of Ga-rei: Zero could have just done a straight adaptation of the Ga-Rei source material; instead, they decided to create a prequel that would fill in the scant information given in the manga and explain how things got the way they did. Since this would involve a lot of character development and not action, they had to make sure to hook action-philes that might grow bored of the character development and they came up with a doozie. It was probably the best first episode hook since Haruhi and left me completely mystified and wanting to know more.

Overall the show kinda felt like watching the Star Wars prequels because you knew what was going to happen but Ga-Rei: Zero differed in that this show was actually good. I loved the character development, the animation was very well done, top-notch seiyuu work, action scenes where well done and cool weapons. All that and the animators gutsy-ness propelled this show to #5.

4 Bamboo Blade

I absolutely loved Kamina’s voice - Katsuyuki Konishi - and after Gurren Lagann, I wanted to hear more so when I saw that Bamboo Blade was going to feature him as the kendo teacher, I had to watch. After enjoying a few episodes of listening to Kamina’s voice I realized that I actually liked the show itself. It wasn’t a kendo sports show but a show about a group of characters that happened to all belong to the school’s kendo club.

In a lot of ways it’s similar to Wagaya no Oinari-sama. It let the characters drive where the story went, it blended a bit of comedy and drama into itself, and it never tried to be overly complex or forget to be entertaining. Where this show had an edge over Wagaya no Oinari-sama was the kendo actions scenes were suspenseful and generally very well done. I was really sad to see this show end and I hope when there’s enough source material to do a second season that a second season is made.

3 Toradora

I just adore Toradora.

Last year I mentioned that I could believe if someone told me that Gainax sold their souls to the devil in return for Gurren Lagann because it didn’t seem possible that Gainax could do something that great anymore. This year, I could almost believe that J.C. Staff sold their souls over Toradora because they haven’t shown this level of ability for quite a long time and their other show right now, Index, is no match for Toradora either. Is this really the same group of people that mutilated the first half of Shana 2?

I could spend 2000 words praising the different parts of this show that deserve praise like how the characters feel like real people and not clichéd character types or how they never act intentionally dumb to force the story to go in a certain direction or how well the individual episodes flow together or … you get the idea. This is one of the few shows that I think that any anime fan could watch and like a lot, even those fans that hate school-based anime shows. As an aside, I was just reading that the author plans to end the light novels series at 10 volumes so with like 6 episodes left and 7 volumes already covered, we might get a real ending to this anime series.

2 Natsume Yuujinchou

Natsume Yuujinchou, aka Natsume’s Book of Friends, was the best slice-of-life show of 2008 and definitely one of the best of all-time. Watching it felt akin to watching a world class orchestra perform – every note was struck perfectly and nothing felt out-of-place. Even when the show ran, late summer into early fall, helped contribute to giving the show a bit of a melancholic, reflective mood which I associate with good slice-of-life shows.

One aspect I thought real different about this show is that the spirits that appear are mostly very lonely creatures. If they want to harm humans, it’s often because of cruel things that humans have done in the past or because they’ve been lonely so long, they get all twisted up inside. This loneliness reminds Natsume of his own loneliness that being able to see spirits has caused in his life and this pushes Natsume to help these lonely spirits with their problems.

If the second season wasn’t already airing, I’d take this opportunity to complain about how it was only 13 episodes long but it’s running, so I’m happy right now.

1 Kaiba

No other show was discussed more on The Null Set this year then Kaiba and with good reason because it was the best show of the year. The story was definitely intellectual but at the same time it focused that on the individual characters and was able to remain compelling and entertaining. I was surprised on a couple of occasions that this show was able to get me to shed a few tears. The animation was artistic and unique but it never forgot that it needed to tell the story and impress the viewer. I remember there were several sequences that literally made my jaw drop.

I don’t know what else I can say that I already haven’t repeated several times by this point about Kaiba so I’ll just end now saying this show was awesome and one I’d really like to buy on DVD but probably will never see licensed.

Well, that’s it. I hope everyone that took the time to read this look back at the 2008 year of anime found it worthwhile. I tried my hardest to make it so. This year, I’m kinda sad that two of my favorite bloggers, Jason from Derailed by Darry and Jeff Lawson from Hop Step Jump, are taking a break from anime blogging and thus haven’t written their look back at the year. I wouldn’t want to see them forcing themselves to write when they didn’t feel like it but I do miss their writing.

Posted in anime, awards      

Only a month later then just about everyone else .

I thought 2008 was another very solid year of anime, with good shows to be found in most, if not all, major genre types. The fact that I became an anime blogger this year pushed me to watch more shows then I would have otherwise and I was rewarded in finding several quality shows.

Before getting to the countdown I wanted to clarify the status of a few shows. Last year, I decided to consider Kanon a 2007 show and the first season of Clannad as a 2008 show in the matter of ranking the show. The same reasoning will push the second season of Clannad to 2009 so for this countdown only the first season is eligible. Also pushed back are Xam’d: Lost Memories and Michiko to Hatchin because too much of the story was unresolved by the end of 2008. Toradora is getting split, the first 13 episodes will be considered for this countdown and the rest for the 2009 list. I did this because the show seems to have been structured in such a way that it could have been aired in 2 – 13 episode seasons.

10 Soul Eater

Shounen series were what got me into anime and they still hold a special place in my heart. One of my favorites had been Bleach but it had finally struck out from the combination of poor filler, failing to excite even when they finally got back to the storyline, and the appearance of Soul Eater. Soul Eater oozed style and felt fresh when compared to the well-known shounen series so I could finally stop torturing myself with Bleach and watch a better shounen show.

It wasn’t quite smooth sailing at first though. Up until about episode 20, the show felt a little slow. The individual episodes where good but collectively they didn’t feel like they were really building towards anything. That changed at the episode 20 mark and since then the show has really been on a roll. So for 20 episodes of good anime, 16 episodes of great anime, a unique style, a likable cast, good animation, and for showing that a shounen show can still feel new, Soul Eater makes the top 10 at number 10. Now, I’m just hoping the final 15 episodes of Soul Eater won’t disappoint.

9 Someday’s Dreamers Season 2

Count me in the small camp of people that actually liked the animation style of the series. It wasn’t perfect but I thought it worked with the subtle nature of the show because it helped deemphasize the individual characters. And the show was subtle which caused me on several occasions to rewatch a scene to make sure I saw what I think I saw.

This slice-of-life show had many excellent qualities: a diverse cast of characters that were likable, good vocal performances by the seiyuu, an interesting setting, an engaging story and memorable music. The one thing that prevented it from ranking higher was the ending. The ending itself isn’t the big problem but how abrupt the show shifts it’s tone to get to that ending. It could have been handled better; maybe if the series had been longer, they could have. I’d still recommend this show to anyone looking for a great slice-of-life show, just know that the ending will probably feel different then what would normally be expected.

8 Wagaya no Oinari-sama

This was a show that I really only caught because I was blogging and thought for completeness-sake to catch an episode or two before dropping it for being generic and fan service laden. I was surprised when I found myself starting to like the characters, especially with Sakura’s appearance in episode 3, and not being subjected to mindless fan service in the place of real content. So it didn’t get dropped like I thought it would and my opinion even slowly creeped up with each passing episode.

At about episode 8, I fully realized why I liked this show. It was always entertaining, it focused on the characters and allowed the characters to drive the events of the show, the story never felt stale and it could make you laugh or suck you in with a bit of drama. The show also ascribed to the K.I.S.S. rule – Keep It Simple, Stupid. It never tried too hard or made itself overly complex; it never relied on the latest meme or character type to be funny and entertaining. I wish more shows would follow this show’s lead.

7 Library War

The show’s slightly absurd premise and short episode count only mildly marred my liking of this show because this show seems to have been created with me in mind. I loved the idea of libraries creating armies to defend themselves from the censorship proponents and their thugs.

A quick way to describe this show is to compare it to Planetes because they share a lot of similarities. The big difference is that at only 12 episodes, Library War wasn’t as able to explore the topics relevant to the setting as Planetes was so it focused more on the relationship of the two main characters. I hope we see more Library War in the future, it was too good of a show not to want more.

6 Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

If you found this show’s warped sense of humor funny and odd visual style interesting then you’ll agree that the show belongs somewhere on this list. If you didn’t then you won’t and probably wonder what’s wrong with me.

I thought the first season tailed off at the end a bit too much but this season stayed more interesting throughout it’s run. I liked the introduction of more male characters during this season, it helped set up different possibilities with the show. Assuming there’s still plenty of source material, I would like to see a full third season in a year or two.

Posted in anime, awards