At the beginning of the year, the biggest mayhem surrounded the announcement of a second season of Fullmetal Alchemist and rumor of a second Haruhi series. Now, though, we’re all hyped up over the potential of SoRaNoWoTo and other ambitious projects scheduled for 2010. Lots can change over 365 days, and anime fandom is one of those things that’s fickle and subject to change in as little as 25 minutes of an episode.

It’s basically been a crazy year, with some particularly crazy things happening in the anime world. Now it’s time for BH’s writers to discuss and vote on the Bests and Worsts of 2009. A few quick notes on the proceedings:

- Only series that A) aired in 2009 or B) were released in North America in 2009 are eligible for awards.
- “Continuing Manga” refers to series that began serialization before 2009 and continued into/through 2009. “New Manga” refers to series that started in 2009.
- BH’s staff were allowed to compose “Dissenting Opinions” if they strongly disagreed with the winner of an award and wanted to argue on behalf of what/who they think should have won.

Now without any further jabbering…

Best OP:
only my railgun (fripSide, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun)

It’s like a DDR song… Only without the spazzy flashing arrows. It’s catchy and electronic, and its vocals steer away from the screechy end of the audio spectrum, making it a solid pick for BH’s Best Opening Theme Award. Other contenders included Yui’s “again” (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) and Do As Infinity’s “Kimi ga Inai Mirai”  (Inuyasha: The Final Act)

Best ED:
Don’t Say Lazy (Yoko Hikasa, K-ON!)

Even the gratuitous Engrish couldn’t keep us from enjoying K-ON!’s best song. The catchy rock tune is very prone to getting stuck in one’s head for hours or even days. Yoko Hikasa’s awesome vocals make it even more enjoyable (partly because she doesn’t sound hyper-cutsey)

Best Music Overall:
K-ON!

With insert songs that top most other series’ (and some that are even better than Haruhi’s “God Knows”) K-ON! was an obvious pick for this award. The songs range from pop-ish to rock-ish and appeal to pretty much everyone… unless you have a deep hatred of cute female voices. If you ignore the tracks’ bizarre titles and gratuitous Engrish (a la “Don’t Say Lazy” above) you’ll like the series’ music. Even the background music is epic, albeit fluffy at parts. Other contenders for the award were the Macross Frontier movie and Darker than Black ~Ryuusei no Gemini~ OSTs, but neither of those were released in time for voting (and DtB’s STILL isn’t fully out yet ;_;).

Best Male Character:

Battler Ushiromiya (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)

Regardless of what you think about him and Beatrice’s shippability, Battler’s one GAR redhead. He’s even more beast than Keiichi, the protagonist of Umineko’s spiritual predecessor Higurashi. Battler stares down witches and fights truth with truth throughout Umineko’s (currently) 26-episode run, and he totally earned this award. So let’s hear it for the best of the GAR men out there (and not sissy bishies and harem heroes!)

Best Female Character:
Mikoto Misaka (To Aru Kagaku no Railgun)

She gives new meaning to having an electrifying personality! Mikoto Misaka is Railgun’s electricity-wielding protagonist, and most would say she’s even cooler than the franchise’s original lead, Index. Mikoto’s tough but friendly, and she’s definitely not useless moe-bait who relies on a male protagonist for help. She’s a serious Saimoe contender, too, with her adorable schoolgirl uniform and stunning eyes.

Dissenting Opinion (CJ) : I fail to see what’s so awesome about an electricity-shooting loli! Why didn’t we award this to the best abnormally-powered loli in history: Darker Than Black II’s rifle-summoning Contractor Suou Pavlichenko? She’s cuter and has a talking flying squirrel, for crying out loud! Plus she’s rather close with that sexy beast Hei, which makes up for how her other relationships essentially get destroyed. (Tanya ;  _;) More importantly, though, she has a very complex character that avoids the Mary-Sue pitfalls common to super-powered characters. I didn’t even watch Railgun, but I’m almost positive superpowered Japanese schoolgirls get trumped by superpowered Russian ex-schoolgirls.

Dissenting Opinion (Icystorm) : Bakemonogatari’s Senjougahara fascination. Do I really need to say more?

Best Characters (Overall)
Tie – Soul Eater & Bakemonogatari

We just couldn’t come to a consensus on this one, and it sort of makes sense: how could you choose between Maka and Hitagi? Soul and Koyomi? Suruga and the Thompson Sisters? Nadeko and Tsubaki? Despite the series’ vast differences, they both contain lovable characters with unique personalities that add a lot to their respective plots.

Best Concept:
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

It’s natural for people to be afraid of the possibility of an earthquake, and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 takes that fear and twists it into an awesome idea for a series… without going over-the-top just to scare us. The premise of the anime is simple: what would happen if an earthquake that measured 8.0 on the Ritcher Scale hit Tokyo? Fortunately for viewers, the series glosses over the science of it, for the most part, to focus on character development and drama.

Best TV Series
Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Maybe it’s because we’re a little warped in the head, but most of us couldn’t get enough of Beatrice and Battler’s UST-laden debating and questioning. Of course, that wasn’t the series’ only strong point: the interesting characters rivaled those of Soul Eater and Bakemonogatari, and there were enough epic fights to keep Higurashi veterans entertained. Even with the occasional animation issues, Umineko kept us glued to our laptops in anticipation.

Dissenting Opinion (Icystorm) : Bakemonogatari, even with its lack of frames due to SHAFT’s lack of money, did not have terrible animation a la Umineko and it did not have a terribly confusing storyline riddled with holes like Umineko.

Best Romance & Drama:
Aoi Hana

We had a ridiculously hard time deciding on a winner for this, but after a revote for this category, we finally decided on Aoi Hana. The yuri series is sweet and believable without being boring; the drama in it even rivals series like Fullmetal Alchemist. Though Aoi Hana barely beat out Kimi ni Todoke for this award, it’s a stellar example of the best of the romance genre and the potential of yuri anime. Plus, it avoided angsting too hard – a pretty nice feat for a series with so much adolescent uncertainty.

Best Art/Animation:
Kobato.

Not only did Clamp’s character designs keep us in awe, but the animation actually remained solidly adorable throughout the series! If you enjoy chibis and other adorable antics, then Kobato. is a much-watch for you. Even if cuteness isn’t your cup of tea, the more serious expressions are also well-done, making this Madhouse series a visual treat.

Best Fanservice:
Bakemonogatari

Nuff said?

Best New Manga:
Tie – Nanoha Force & GE – Good Ending

This year was full of awesome new manga, but in the end, Nanoha Force and GE – Good Ending took the top tier. After all, who can deny that we needed another round of Nanoha awesomeness? And for a manga without any (current) game or anime ties, GE certainly made a name for itself among fans of romantic comedies.  Other top contenders were Darker than Black – Shikkoku no Hana and Ao no Exorcist.

Best Continuing Manga:
Soul Eater

Soul Eater is on its way to becoming a must-read among shounen fans. It doesn’t waste time with tournament arc crap, and it doesn’t attack its readers with tl;dr angst… like some series we know of.  It’s managed to juggle multiple storylines fairly well, even as it transitioned out of a major story arc. Plus, the series has avoided serialization drama… unlike some other series.

Best Meme:
Boxxy

So one day, this crazy chick’s videos got plastered all over 7chan for no particular reason, and she turned into a running joke. D0rama ensued, and some people got really obsessive over it and then a lawyer got called in. Us normal people just sat back and laughed and made macros. The end.

Dissenting Opinion (CJ and Crisu) : Helloooooo, what about “Kyon-kun, denwa~“?!? I mean, really, you can’t beat this:

We even tried to make it a trending topic on Twitter, and got pretty darn close! Yeah, everyone hated Endless Eight, but Kyon’s sister is still awesome…

Best Rumor That Never Happened
D.Gray-Man Movie/OVA

… This one should hardly count as an award, since there was only one vote cast, but that’s not the point! Rumors of a D.Gray-man movie or OVA of some sort abounded for a short time, mostly on Livejournal, but they faded away around September (the one-year anniversary of the TV anime’s finale.) Some of us got our hopes up really, really high; if they could make over9000 movies for Bleach and Naruto, why not at least one for DGM? With the state of the anime industry the way it is, though, being reluctant to make a movie when DVD sales are low is understandable.

Biggest Letdown:
Haruhi Season 2 (and the Endless Eight madness)

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(Does this one require any REAL explanation? No?  Good, let’s move on.)

Worst Ending:
Soul Eater

We didn’t have a problem with Studio Bones kinda BSing the final fight with Ashura, since they didn’t have enough manga to continue. We didn’t even mind them BSing Medusa’s evil plans (because said evil plans resulted in a Stein/Marie moment, k?) But we sure took issue with the “power of courage” crap that ruined the final fight scene, and therefore the entire ending. We demand an OVA at the least.

Best Series We Never Watched:

CJ: Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~
Rakuen: Bakemonogatari
Crisu: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou
Icystorm: Ristorante Paradiso

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So~! With all that said, we wish all of our readers a very happy New Year, and best wishes for 2010! We hope to keep postin’ like maniacs and spurrin’ discussion in the blogosphere… but keep it chill at the same time. We don’t want things ever turning into School Days, amirite?

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

Erin-sensei!!

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

SZS reminds you to troll or be trolled.

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

Real pitchers use the knuckleball.

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.

–

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.

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.

I feel bad that I didn't give Sora no Manimani any awards so this is it's consolation prize.

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.

            I tried to write a part 3 of the awards, but it sounded either bullshity, or like I had no idea what I was talking about. Between voice acting, music, and art, I kinda have an appreciation of music, and a large appreciation of art, but those two just wasn’t enough to make a post. So I’ve skipped ahead to the top seven of the season.

 Without further to do…

7. Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Umineko no Naku Koro Ni got off to a slow start, working to flesh out and introduce us to the characters. However, at the end of episode II things truly started to pick up and episode III opened with a bang. We’re only two episodes into episode III, but I’m very excited. While Umineko has a tad too many characters, they’ve introduced a few I’ve become huge fans of, including Beatrice, Battler, and Shannon, who all have won their own awards this season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this show improve vastly over this season.

6. Baseball Playing Girls

“There’s no crying in baseball!” One of J.C. Staff’s three shows this season, this was probably their weakest show, although my no means a bad show. Baseball Playing Girls is the light hearted story about girl power, baseball, and 1920’s, and provides many entertaining moments. However, it also provides some wtf? moments and a few episodes that probably could have left out, or better yet, used to flesh out more of the supporting cast. While Akiko and Koume get plenty of screentime, the series fails to expand on the supporting characters. I would have liked to see every character get their own episode. Also, the show simply doesn’t have much depth. Although the show makes it obvious that it knows and accepts this, it doesn’t prevent it from being a weak point.

5. Cross Game

Cross Game is an excellent show with a well-paced story and well developed character. Over the course of the summer season, we did have some very excellent moments, especially with the addition of Azuma as an ally to the team. However, what knocked it down to number five on the list are a couple things. First off, it’s still an ongoing series halfway through its show. Cross Game continues on at a slow and steady pace, and is still in the stage of what would be rising action while other series have a completed story. Second of all, I have a few personal grippes with the series. Basically, the cousin creeps the hell out of me, and my enjoyment drops when he appears on the screen. Secondly, the creators have started indicating romantic interests between Kou and Aoba, but I don’t feel like there’s actual chemistry between the two yet. Hopefully, they’ll fix this as the series continues. Who knows? Maybe I just want Aoba for myself.

4. Pandora Hearts

Pandora Hearts is a kind of sore point for me, because I know people would have been all over this series if the animation had been better. But with the animation as bad as it is, you have to appreciate other parts of Pandora Hearts…and I don’t mean the convoluted story with its loose ends left unsolved. What Pandora Hearts does have going for it are for the most part well done and interesting characters, which it’s been proven many times over that if you can like the characters, it’s makes us for many lacking aspects. What else this series has going for it a better then average soundtrack. The second half of Pandora Hearts brought us the best the show had to offer. The was the development of the characters the show already introduced, especially Break who went from a character I didn’t like in the first half to a character I loved in the second half. We also met other characters, who while they didn’t get the screentime the deserved, still made the most of what they had, such as Elliot and Oliver.

3. Haruhi

I think this says something about the team behind Haruhi. I knocked it down to 3 because of The Endless Eight, but without it, who knows where Haruhi would have been? Haruhi makes it to #3 because of Signs. I loved Signs to death, and found it well done. With Mikuru beams, pigeons changing color, a talking cat, and an episode that brought on the fanwank Haruhi proves to use that it still have the potential to be epically awesome. Unfortunately, the high quality of Sighs only increases the wtf? factor of Endless Eight.

2. Sora no Manimani

Sora no Manimani is one of those show that gives me exactly what I want. Well-done interesting characters and a show that actually made me laugh out loud. The background music is surprisingly really well-done. Sora no Manimani was well executed, and for a show no one really knew what to expect, really outdid itself. However, the animation isn’t top notch, and Sora no Manimani doesn’t have such a strong storyline as our first place winner

1.Aoi Hana

Probably the only flaw I found with this show was the disappointing ending. Great characters, great animation, great plot, and one of my favorite things in the world, yuri. There’s so much I could say I love about this show, I could fangirl on for quite awhile. I think it’s safe to leave it at this show really showcases what makes an excellent anime, and deserves it’s number one spot.

Once again, you should check out the The Null Set if you haven’t. But as this is great advertising space, I’d like to add on that you should check out www.rabbitpoets.com for another great blog.

Now for the winners…

Best Action

Winner: CANNAN

Runner-up: Pandora Hearts

I was stuck between these two series as the both had some pretty awesome fights. While I felt Pandora Hearts action was just a tad better, we’d have it broken up by a few quieter episodes, while the action happened more often in CANNAN.  

Best Fight

Winner: Pandora Hearts with Xerxes Break and Chestire Cat

The best fight of the season was actually a fight that happened at the beginning of the season. An intense brutal fight with great dialogue, it lasted over a few episodes, and definitely pleased.

 Most Entertaining

Winner: Sora no Manimani

Sora no Manimani never failed to be entertaining with high energy and amusing situations. I always come out of it each episode feeling rejuvenated and with a smile on my face.

Most Interesting Setting

Winner: Baseball Playing Girls

Baseball Playing Girls is set in 1920 Japan. While 1920 in America brings up images of flappers, jazz, probation, and The Great Gatsby, Japan was a different place with a lot of social expectations. As I’m not overly informed about the Japan in this time setting, I find this extremely interesting.

Best Plot

Winner: Aoi Hana

Aoi Hana was an example of drama done right. With surprisingly revelations, and constants plot twist, this show did not fail to please.

 Best Villian

Winner: Beatrice from Umineko

Runner-up: Alphard from CANAAN

This season presented us with two fabulous villains, the unconventional Alpahrd of CANNAN with her obvious disrespect for anyone else yet refusing to kill both Maria and Cannan when she had the chance, she was also effective as she nearly killed off world leaders and defined the word ‘terror’ in terrorist. However, Beatrice proved even more fearsome then Alphard. Heck, she is forcing Battler to rewatch him family and friends die over and over. Her rap list doesn’t stop there, with the gruesome matter she kills his family, the humiliation of Battler whenever she admits defeat, and the feast she serves Maria’s mother. Her villainy only seems more fearsome when contrasted with her soft side she demonstrates on a few occasions, usually toward Maria.    

 Most in Need of a Sequel

Winner: Aoi Hana

Aoi Hana ended with Fumi realizing she loved Akira. I don’t know about anyone else, but I definitely want to see what happens next!

[Please warn before posting spoilers of any sort.]

Again, credit goes to The Null Set for the idea and the catagories. Check the blog out!

And without futher to do, the winners.

Best Female Main Character

Winner: Alice from Pandora Hearts

Our ever cheerful Alice.

Alice, who has been my fandom obsession for the past two seasons, takes the award for best female main character. The monstrous chain proved to a surprisingly complex character. Alice may have a tough exterior, but inside she was a rather lonely insecure person. She was also rather childish and playful. Still, unlike Oz who tended to be emo about his insecurities, she fought to overcome them, being blunt and straightforward with what she wanted. Not to mention her quite strong obsession with food. 

Best Male Main Character

Winner: Battler from Umineko

Any guy who has the line of ‘Slice up those cowtits and make me a sandwich,” is a pretty awesome guy. I rather like Battler have a character, he’s clever and tough, but he’s not perfect, as shown by his shameful loss in episode II of Umineko. Battler also shows himself as probably the only character in Umineko who can keep his head screwed on straight when everyone else is losing it.

Best Supporting Character

Winner: Shannon from Umineko

Runner-up: Itsuki from Haruhi and Break from Pandora Hearts

I place her as a supporting character because I view all the characters not in the metaworld as supporting character. I personally really like Shannon, her fighting spirit impresses me, as does her willingness to change her own destiny rather then accept it. Shannon also refuses to let Beatrice break her, choosing to treasure what she has at the end, rather then grieve over what she lost. Not to mention a yummy tattoo on her upper thigh.

It was hard to choose her over Itsuki from Haruhi and Break from Pandora Hearts. Itsuki is just an entertaining character who never fails to get an interesting response from Kyon. His manner of approaching problems is also unique, it’s not often in anime we get a good example of passive-aggressive character. Break is also a unique character, often hiding a very intelligent self under the mask of a complete clown. One of the interesting parts of Pandora Hearts was watching Oz manage to unravel who this man was.

Best Couple

Winner: Fumi and Akira from Aoi Hana

I know Fumi and Akira are not a canon couple, but the canon couples this season really didn’t appeal to me. There was the necrophilia couple in CANAAN, Akiko and her fiancée, Sugimoto and Fumi, as well as the Umineko couples.

Fumi and Akira are horribly cute, with the many activities they do together that feels very couple like, such as going to the movies, and their sleepovers together. The two also contrast each other very well, the quiet Fumi contrasted with the energetic Akira. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a couple that invoked so many ‘D’awww’ moments.

 Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Mikuru Beam!

While it may not be the most practical power, and while people could argue that there were cooler powers this season, I’ve always wanted to shoot laser beams out of my eyes. Have a character with no idea how to control said power randomly shooting laser beams is a recipe for win in my book.

Best Cast of Characters

Winner: Sora no Manimani

Sa no Manimani gives a cast of lovable and thoroughly enjoyable characters. We’re given not only the members of the clubs, which includes an anemic President, but the two-sided head of the student council, the astronomy network, the museum staff, and so many more. All of these characters never fail to entertain, and receive a decent amount of screentime for a large cast in a 12 episode anime.

Best Character Development

Winner: Pandora Hearts

While there were a fair amount of characters that didn’t get much screentime, most of the ones that did grew and changed as characters. Although near the end of the series that tried to hit you over the head with how much the characters developed, it was indeed interesting to see how much the characters changed from point a to point b. The characters and the character development was the main draw to Pandora Hearts, and was done pretty well. It was enough to make up for lacking art and at times confusing storyline.

Best Character Development of a Single Character

Winner: Saku from Sora no Manimani

Watching Saku change as a character is a very interesting experience. He goes from a person closed off from the world and solely involved in books to a person openly interacting with the world around him, and noticing what’s happening. The metamorphous is startling, and beautiful to watch, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.

Alright, I wanted to do an awards for the summer season, based on the awards that The Null Set always does. But I’m one of those people who wants to give everyone an award, and I thought this be a good way to introduce all the canidates for the catogories. So without further to do, let’s give out the awards.

Aoi Hana: The ‘most sudden growth of a backbone’ award
One of the best moments in Aoi Hana is when Fumi stands up for herself and turns on Sugimoto. Well done Fumi!

Baseball Playing Girls-The ‘awkward’ award 

Koume and Akiko were told they had to become like man and wife. Nuff said.

CANAAN-The ‘got me the most interestings comments and pingbacks’ award
CANAAN was apparently serious business this season! From angry fanbrats to rather serious comments, CANNAN blog posts never made my day boring.

Cross Game-The ‘cutest minor character’ award

I'd hit that so hard.

Haruhi-The ‘most epic fanwank award’

There was no lack of fanwank in this season of Haruhi, especially with Endless Eight. It was all very entertaining.

 NEEDLESS- The ‘anime that pratically makes motivational posters itself’ award
Usually, one has to wrack their brain for a clever comment to put with a motivational poster. Not with this shows odd sense of humor.

Pandora Hearts- The ‘most ridiculous number of outfits’ award
The 27 dresses episode showed Alice in a ridiculous number of outfits, but we got to see Alice in more outfits then that. From a schoolgirl to a opera outfit to a lovely nightgown, Alice sported more outfits then the typical anime character.

Sora no Manimani-The ‘best references to other anime’ award
Sora no Manimani wasn’t afraid to reference other anime, from the older and kinda obscure Galaxy Express 999 and Rose of Versalies to DBZ, their wasn’t plently to fangirl over.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.o-The ‘best ending’ award
Not only was this season fairly lacking in the good ending catogory(although to be fair, I haven’t seen the end to Sora no Manimani or Baseball Playing Girls yet), Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 did a really good job wrapping up the show, ending on a strong note.

Umineko-The ‘creepiest loli’ award

On top of that, she wants to be eaten by her mother…