I love doing these seasonal awards but I have to admit to feeling a weight falling off my shoulders now that I’m about to finish. But let’s not terry, it’s time to countdown anime.

4 – Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

At the beginning of FMA:B there was no mention of it animating the whole manga (or that the manga was ending) so I kept wondering how Bones would finish the show without repeating the debacle that was the first Full Metal Alchemist. I figured there was a good chance at another poor ending since so many of their otherwise great shows end so terribly. Prior to the Spring season this wondering became worrying and started to intrude upon how much I enjoyed the show. I was relieved when it became known that the manga was ending and Bones was on-track to animate the ending.

I breathed a big sigh of relief; not only did I not have to worry about the ending, getting the manga ending promised to see Full Metal Alchemist go out with a bang.

Which ended up happening, gloriously so. And I even loved how they managed to make the ending completely satisfying while leaving themselves with an angle for a sequel (which I really, really hope they do).

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3 – The Tatami Galaxy

When I found out about The Tatami Galaxy, I was giddy because it was being directed by Masaaki Yuasa who’s last series was Kaiba, my pick for the top anime of 2008. I tried to keep the giddiness in check since sky high expectations often only result in disappointment but I was only partially successfully. Good thing for me that The Tatami Galaxy was able to beat my high expectations. It had the interesting animation style that hid how well-animated it was animation that I expected. It had the intellectually interesting premise while not forgetting to have good characters, solid character development and an entertaining story that I expected as well. It had that unique quality to it that set it apart from everything else even while reminding me of so many other books and shows vibe that I expected from an accomplished master of storytelling like Masaaki Yuasa.

I also expected that The Tatami Galaxy would be largely unwatched by people like Kaiba was but that turned out not to be the case. It was shown (as many people know) on the TV block Noitamina in Japan which has earned a fan following around the globe for it’s consist high-quality anime programing. This pushed many people to give the show a shot and, in a not very shocking to me turn-of-events, they liked it. Now, I hope the popularity of The Tatami Galaxy will spill over to Masaaki Yuasa’s other works and get people watching them as well (hint, hint go watch Kaiba ).

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2 – Rainbow – Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

In the rush of trying to catch all the new shows at the start of a new season, invariably, there’s a few that I miss. During the spring season one of those shows that I intended to catch was Rainbow because Madhouse was animating but it somehow slipped through the cracks. Several weeks later, after the dust had settled some, I looked around at the various blogs to see which shows I missed and if t
hey were worth sampling. There wasn’t much coverage of Rainbow and most of what there was considered the show way too melodramatic to be any good. Star-Crossed had a more positive outlook about the show so I decided to give it a shot.

And I’m glad I did, Rainbow is an awesome show.

I had a moment of cognitive dissonance when I started watching Rainbow; I kept waiting for the absurd, over-the-top drama and waiting and thinking that surely I was watching some other show then everyone else. The moment passed and I realized that I was watching the same show but I got it. Granted, I was maybe more ready to watch Rainbow then some. I had just finished reading Samurai! and it touched on the brutal hardships faced by many after the war and how the war disrupted the basic fabric of Japanese society. Which fit well with what I learned of the time period from reading and from anime like Millennium Actress, Magical Arcade Abenobashi and Natsu no Arashi. I think the portrayal of the time period is accurate and anything less would be a fanciful fantasy that would paint over the despair and grittiness of the time period.

If I had to pick an anime to compare Rainbow to, I’d pick Gurren Lagann. The two share many of the same qualities that made Gurren Lagann more then just a dumb movie with giant robots. For starters there’s the single-mindedness of our main characters to overcome the perceived wrongs of their world with hard work and self-determination and the help of their friends. And let’s not forget that society is often a poor judge of people as both anime remind us as well as the hardships of trying to be a hero. Rainbow and Gurren Lagann also show the power, beauty, and majesty of a courageous person which always warms my heart to see.

It’s comes juuusst a bit short of the top spot but if it can continue on this same level over the summer season, it might just be snagging the top spot. Before moving on there’s another similarity the two anime shared that I want to mention. It was how both far surpassed what I imagined the end point of the anime to be. For Gurren Lagann, I thought it was going to end with the defeat of the Spiral King and for Rainbow, I thought it was going to end with the kids getting out of prison. I know I wasn’t the only person who thought this of Rainbow and it sounded like it might have kept some from giving Rainbow a chance which is why I wanted to mention it.

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1 – Arakawa Under the Bridge

Inching ever so slightly ahead of everyone else this season is Arakawa Under the Bridge. When Shinbou and Shaft get it right, they really get it right; not only was this my top show of the season, it was the one I would most look forward to between episodes.

It’s perfect. That’s the only word that feels right when describing why this show deserves to place in front of so many other fine shows but it’s not terribly descriptive. It’s perfect in the same way that the perfect way to end the day is eating your favorite ice-cream, on the beach, listening to the waves lap at your feet, as you watch a spectacular sunset with family and friends. Which is still not very descriptive but will have to do.

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So there it is. I finished the spring awards just in time to start considering the summer seasonal awards . I’d like to thank all the people that read my 5000+ word review of the Spring 2010 season; I hope you enjoyed it and maybe discovered an anime or two that you want to watch now.

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Spring 2010 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Spring 2010 Awards Part 2: Genre and Misfit Awards
Spring 2010 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #8 – #5

Filed under: anime, awards

It’s that time again – the voice, music, and animation awards – or as I like to think of them: the set of awards that are completely subjective and some of the most difficult awards to pick as a result. And this season was no different.

Best Male Seiyuu

Winner: Hiroshi Kamiya as Izaya Orihara from  Durarara!!, Hiroomi Souma from Working!!, Otonashi Yuzuru from Angel Beats, Kou Ichinomiya from Arakawa Under the Bridge and I think I missed some

The Overall 2008 Best Male Seiyuu and Summer 2009 Seasonal Best Male Seiyuu makes it a hat trick. Then again, it was essentially impossible for any other guy to win this time since so many shows featured Hiroshi Kamiya in leading roles and he continues to do a great job.

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Best Female Seiyuu

Winner: Maaya Sakamoto as Nino from Arakawa Under the Bridge and Akashi from The Tatami Galaxy

Runner-up: Yukari Tamura as Yamada from B Gata H Kei and Togame from Katanagatari, Aki Toyosaki as Yui from K-ON!! and Kena Soga from Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou and Satsuki Hyoudou from Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Picking the best female seiyuu was a much different experience with a bevy of strong performances from many different women. In the end I had to decide on a tie-breaking criteria so I chose to pick the seiyuu with the best characters to win. And that was, Maaya Sakamoto, for voicing two female characters that came off as slightly odd at times but were really deep, interesting characters.

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Best OP

Winner: Working!!

Runner-up: Rainbow, House of Five Leaves, Durarara, B Gata H Kei, Arakawa Under the Bridge

There were a lot of openings I liked this season but no one single opening was able to break from the pack to be the easy pick, at least initially, because I remembered the old argument about picking the MVP in a sport. Do you pick the best player in the league or the person that contributed the most to a team even if the team didn’t do well? In this case, I’m picking the opening to Working!! because I loved it and it was the sole reason that I didn’t drop the show. Working!! eventually got watchable, barely, in the last 3-4 episodes but before then, it was the desire to see the opening one more time that kept me watching.

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Best ED

Winner: B Gata H Kei

Runner-up: The Tatami Galaxy, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

And I’m picking the ending to B Gata H Kei because it was by-far-and-away the best ending and it was always like the cherry that one leaves to eat last from a piece of awesome cake.

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Best Background Music

Winner: K-On!!

This award is one of the awards that I almost never feel real comfortable picking the winner because I often don’t remember the background music to most of the shows I watch. There are exceptions, in the case of K-On, the BGM is light and airy and it perfectly compliments the show which is what the BGM is supposed to do.

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Best Dressed Characters

Winner: K-On!!

Much like the award for best action going to Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood was completely apparent and needed no justification, this award going to K-On is also completely apparent and needs no justification.

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Best Animation Style

Winner: The Tatami Galaxy

Runner-up: House of Five Leaves, Katanagatari

I fell in love with the animation style of Masaaki Yuasa in Kaiba so it shouldn’t be a big surprise that I’m picking The Tatami Galaxy with it’s similar style to Kaiba. What kinda surprised me was the number shows that were more stylized in nature this season. When I see animators willing to experiment and these shows actually given air time, I relax when thinking about the future of anime.

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Best Animation

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Runner-up: Angel Beats, K-On!!, Durarara

There were several very well animated shows this season but Full Metal had this award in-the-bag when it took it’s already great animation and bumped it up even higher this season for the final arc of episodes. Durarara was it’s closest competitor and might have pulled it out if there had been more cool action scenes.

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Top Animation Studio

Winner: Madhouse

The Fall 2008 Seasonal Top Animation Studio and Overall 2008 Top Animation Studio makes it a hat trick this season as well by producing two of the best anime of the season – The Tatami Galaxy and Rainbow. Both were very original works that showcased the best anime has to offer viewers. Both works also turned out to be, surprisingly, heart-warming series that always left me impatiently waiting for the next episode. And it’s possible that Madhouse could win this award again in the summer season because Rainbow continues on which puts them in a strong position.

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That’s it for part 3 of my spring 2010 anime awards. Stay tuned for my top overall picks of the season.

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Spring 2010 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Spring 2010 Awards Part 2: Genre and Misfit Awards
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #8 – #5
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #4 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

Before we get to part 2, I wanted to mention that I’m going on vacation in a couple of days but I plan on getting all sections of my picks for the spring season written and queued up before leaving. If you know me, it’ll take only one guess to figure out where I’m going. Which was what I wrote assuming I’d get this up before leaving on vacation but I couldn’t finish enough of the parts so it had to wait till after the vacation.

This time around I’m adding two categories that probably should have been included earlier in my seasonal awards and the inaugural winners are very well deserving.

Best Action

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Easiest.Decision.This.Season.

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Best Fight

Winner: Shichika vs Kanara from ep.5 of Katanagatari

And yet when I started thinking about specific fights, I kept going back to this fight and not one from Full Metal (an example of not being able to see a single tree in a forest). The fight in Katanagatari wasn’t the most flashy, complex, or intricate fight but it was unique, unexpected and felt very important in terms of developing the main characters and the story.

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Best Comedy

Winner: B Gata H Kei

Like many awards I give out, this one is very subjective. For example, some people thought Working!! was funny; whereas, I found it to be probably the least funniest show of the season – the awesome yet very serious anime Rainbow made me laugh more often. And some people disliked B Gata H Kei when I thought it to be, easily, the funniest show of the season.

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Most Entertaining

Winner: Arakawa Under the Bridge

Runner-up: B Gata H Kei, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

A comedy entertains but not all entertaining shows are comedies; thus, the need for two separate awards. And once again, a different show wins each category. Arakawa Under the Bridge wins for it’s superior ability to mix it’s comedic side with it’s heartwarming and surprisingly poignant side while always maintaining it’s high entertainment level.

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Most Interesting Setting

Winner: The Tatami Galaxy

Runner-up: Durarara

Durarara gave The Tatami Galaxy a strong run but it’s near impossible to beat a show that involves dozens (if not many more) parallel worlds connected by a 4.5 tatami mat dorm room with the only constants being a castella cake, a hidden 100 yen bill and a stress toy.

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Best Plot

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Runner-up: Rainbow – Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

Full Metal has been working for a year to build up to this final climax and boy was it an awesome ride, topped only by events of this season. Those that followed the manga probably had a good idea about where the story was going but, after the debacle that was the first Full Metal series, I stopped following the manga and got to be surprised as a result. (The type of surprises that I like. )

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Best Story

Winner: The Tatami Galaxy

Runner-up: Durarara, Arakawa Under the Bridge

The story of Watashi’s quest to find his rose-colored college life and subsequent enlightenment in The Tatami Galaxy could have been a SF story I read. That probably sounds like weak-sounding praise but, being a life-long fan of print SF, I’ve come to accept that in America (at least) television or movie SF will, 99.9% of the time, lack the depth found in print SF. Which is fine, sometimes, but I love it when somebody makes a TV series that equals the quality of the best print SF. Incidentally, if you liked The Tatami Galaxy, I’d suggest reading The Walls of the Universe from Paul Melko; it lacks the cool animation style (obviously) but it was a good read and the theme was similar to The Tatami Galaxy.

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Best Villain

Winner: Izaya from Durarara

Runner-up: Father from FMA: Brotherhood

Izaya falls into the conniving, intelligent villain category. It doesn’t seem like he’s out to cause the same level of villainy that Father from FMA:B was planning to do but, on the smaller scale, Izaya’s ability to manipulate everyone around him to his messed-up whims earns a great deal of respect from me, even if I’d wish he got more of a comeuppance at the end of the series.

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Best Final Episode

Winner: The Tatami Galaxy

I wasn’t sure The Tatami Galaxy was going to be able to pull itself together by the end but I shouldn’t have worried. The final episode showed exactly how in control of the story the director was even when each episode felt completely disjointed and the final episode was also just plain epic. If I could, I’d lock the people behind Angel Beats into a room and force them to watch this show a few dozen times and hope they learn the right way to do a final episode.

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Best Ending

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

The ending to FMA:B took up the entire spring season so for the same reasons why it won Best Plot, it’s also winning Best Ending.

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Most in Need of a Sequel

Winner: B Gata H Kei

Runner-up: Durarara

I liked Durarara a lot and it would have won this award easily (since it seems like there is so much more that could be done) but I’m not convinced that the sequel could surpass the first season in “awesomeness” and I want a Durarara that was just a bit more “awesome” then the first season. (If that makes sense .) Therefore, my desire to see a second season of B Gata H Kei was able to pull ahead to win this award. In the case of B Gata H Kei, I think the next season has to include Yamada finally getting what she and Kosuda desires to be a successful show. (Which then kinda ends the point of the series but the creators could then go off in a new direction and have the luckless couple make a mistake and Yamada get pregnant. They’d probably never do something like that but it would be hilarious and completely different.)

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

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Spring 2010 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Spring 2010 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #8 – #5
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #4 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

After one of the weakest anime seasons in recent memory (Winter 2010) and the accompanying apathy nixing it last time, the seasonal top anime awards returns to The Null Set for one of the most diverse and interesting season of anime in a very long time. We had alchemy, parallel worlds, demon kings, train wrecks, socially-inept samurai, pretty boy samurai, surprisingly deep commentary on what’s truly important in life disguised as a comedy about homeless people living under a bridge, a cute and sweet love story disguised as a comedy about one girl’s quest to bed 100 boys before graduating high school, an uplifting story of heroism set in post-war Japan, a neighborhood full of bizarre people in Japan, and a high school band known as much for the cake they serve in their clubroom as for their music, to name just a few anime.

Before starting, 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. 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 (3): Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Katanagatari, Durarara

New shows watched this season (12): B Gata H Kei, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Angel Beats, K-On!! Season 2, The Tatami Galaxy, Kaichou wa Maid-sama, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, House of Five Leaves, Working!!, Mayoi Neko Overrun, Rainbow – Nisha Rokubou no Shichijin, Hakuouki – Shinsengumi Kitan

Shows that got dropped (1): Heroman

Best Female Main Character

Winner: Nino from Arakawa Under the Bridge

Runner-up: Yamada from B Gata H Kei, Yui from K-On!!

There was tough competition in this category but the self-proclaimed Venusian won out by being awesome enough that Ko still looks like he hit the jackpot by becoming her boyfriend even if it meant having to live under a bridge with a bunch of very weird people.

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Best Male Main Character

Winner: Sakuragi Rokurouta aka Bro from Rainbow

Runner-up: Kosuda from B Gata H Kei

I love heroes with their ability to act contrary to self-interest for a greater good so I was unsurprised when I developed such a quick liking of Sakuragi from Rainbow. Alphone Elric almost made runner-up for the same reason but the large cast to Full Metal lessened his time onscreen too much. Sakuragi, much like Kamina from Gurren Lagann, also oozed awesomeness and had the gravitas to make being a hero look really cool.

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Best Supporting Character(s)

Winner: Celty from Durarara

Runner-up: Ozu from The Tatami Galaxy

A headless mythical creature from Ireland, Celty rides a black motorcycle, wields a scythe, communicates by writing messages on a cellphone and somehow isn’t the oddest person inhabiting the Japanese neighborhood where Durarara takes place. She’s loyal and handy to have around in a fight and the only thing that really scares her is a tough-as-nails traffic cop. She was one of my favorites from Durarara (obviously) and pretty much had this award locked early on.

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Best Screen-grabber

Winner: TK from Angel Beats

Runner-up: Misato from B Gata H Kei, Shizuo from Durarara

Screen-grabbers are characters that don’t have much screen time but make the little time they are onscreen very memorable. This season seemed to have an abundance of great screen-grabbers but TK from Angel Beats won this one pretty easily. Just goes to show you how far speaking nonsensical English phrases in a Japanese anime and just randomly dancing can take a character.

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Best Couple

Winner: Ko and Nino from Arakawa Under the Bridge

Runner-up: Kosuda and Yamada from B Gata H Kei

This was a super tough pick and I debated it back and forth for a long time. One could argue that Kosuda and Yamada should have won because they’ve done more couply things together but there’s just something about how Recruit and Nino interact with each other that’s so nice to see.

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Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Fortune Teller’s ability to send people to parallel worlds from The Tatami Galaxy

The animators never come right out and say it specifically but they show her living inside the clock that always runs backwards when Watashi jumps universes and she is aware of his parallel world jumping so I’m pretty sure she does have this ability. And it’s a very cool power, useful in gaining enlightenment or making a fortune by taking a popular invention from one world to another that never invented it.

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Best Cast of Characters

Winner: Durarara

Runner-up: Rainbow, Arakawa Under the Bridge, B Gata H Kei

There was a plethora of shows with great casts this season but Durarara pulled ahead by having a large cast of very eclectic characters that somehow meshed well together and were truly awesome by themselves as well. At times I thought Durarara wasn’t trying it’s hardest but it was always the fault of the plot and not the characters.

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Best Character Development for Cast

Winner: Rainbow

Runner-up: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I did not expect Rainbow would be as strongly character driven and focused on character development as it turned out to be though I should realize, by this point, that it’s often the most unexpected show that turns out to be. Just look at the past winners of this award – Railgun, Umi Monogatari, Cross Game, Asu no Yoichi, Toradora, Bamboo Blade. And I can’t wait to see where the characters go as Rainbow continues into the summer season.

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Best Character Development of a Single Character

Winner: Watashi from The Tatami Galaxy

A look at the past winners of this award – Kemono no Souja Erin, Phantom, Toradora, Clannad ~After Story~, Natsume Yuujinchou, Ga-Rei: Zero – showcase some of the best anime that have aired in the past 2 years and The Tatami Galaxy is no exception. A common thread connecting these shows is the director and animation company excelled at telling a story that focused on a few main characters and allowing the characters to grow naturally. In the middle of The Tatami Galaxy, I was a little worried that all the reboots were not doing anything to help the show along but I should have had more faith in Masaaki Yuasa and Madhouse because the final episodes show just how in control of the story they really were.

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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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Spring 2010 Awards Part 2: Genre and Misfit Awards
Spring 2010 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #8 – #5
Spring 2010 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #4 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

The final part of my look at the surprisingly decent fall 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 narrowed the field down to eight shows and now the task turned to ranking these shows that I considered great shows of the season. 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 eight 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.

8 – Blue Literature

The use of classic modern Japanese literature as source material pretty much assured that Blue Literature was going to be this season’s most unique and thought-provoking anime. And because it was Madhouse animating this, Blue Literature also had this season’s best production values as well as high quality storytelling. So, with all that going for it, it might seem strange why this isn’t ranked higher; I’m even a bit shocked why I just couldn’t place this higher and believe me, I kept trying. In the end, I realized what stopped this from going even higher is that, while it’s obvious the stories picked are very well written, only one of the five stories used ended happily and it’s much harder to really get swept away by sad or depressing stories. I know that sounds shallow, and maybe it is, but I read plenty of depressing books and it’s not like current events have looked positive in a long time so is it so bad to gravitate towards those anime that make me laugh or feature characters that are just a bit better/heroic then the vast majority of people walking this planet, myself included.

7 – Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I continue to deeply love where the story of Full Metal goes; the conspiracies get deeper and more insidious, the dangers get more threatening, and the world of FMA gets more complex as new characters and their ambitions get introduced. The majority of this season, however, had the show in build-up mode with very little pay-off which explains why this didn’t get ranked higher; I expect next season to contain much more pay-off in the form of super-awesome confrontations/fights and resolutions to at least some of the plot threads that have been introduced and will probably rank much higher.

6 – Sasameki Koto

At first, I wasn’t expecting too much from Sasameki Koto but I was quickly won over by the quality of the characters and the show became one of my favorites that just happened to be a yuri show. The main character, Murasame Sumika, was dealt a very tough hand – she likes her best friend, Ushio, in that way and Ushio likes girls as well, just not tall athletic girls like Sumika so Sumika has to bite her tongue and be the caring best friend after Ushio gets rejected by the cute girls – and her struggle to do the right thing over what she wants to do help made Sasameki Koto a great show. Other memorable characters included the boy who fell for Sumika and started cross-dressing (and became a female model) because he knew she liked girls or the girl who always, and I mean always, had some sort of food in her hands. Sasameki Koto could have finished higher if the ending had been better.

5 – Sora No Otoshimono

The biggest surprise on this countdown is the presence of Sora no Otoshiomono on it; not because it’s a terrible show but because it wasn’t a terrible show. It should have been just like almost every other ecchi comedy series – generic and not very good or funny. Instead, Sora no Otoshiomono expertly cultivated an absurdist, over-the-top feel that repeatedly surprised and delighted.

4 – Cross Game

What can I say, Cross Game just continues to chug along making awesome look easy. The highlight of this season was to see how a new character shook the show and it’s characters up but that was hardly the only thing that made this cour of Cross Game good. We got a marriage proposal whose answer depends on if Kou’s team can make it to Koshien, new possible pairings like Azuma x Aoba, general Kou coolness, and new storylines like Aoba trying out for Japan’s national female baseball team.

3 – To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

After the second episode of Railgun I was ready to drop it because I was sure that the manga author had once again screwed up; this time focusing on shoe-horning as much Kuroko antics as possible into a manga and disregarding such important items as plot, characters, and story. Then a funny thing happened, the show started to actually work. The four main characters were fleshed out and developed a great chemistry between them, a deeper story was first hinted at and then expertly told, and let’s not forget how cool Misaka’s rail gun ability is (especially when J.C. Staff has the budget). I think I actually squealed in joy when I realized that Railgun was going to run past the fall season into the winter season.

2 – Astro Fighter Sunred Season 2

Okay, I admit to holding this list up so I could watch enough of this season of Sunred that I could place it on this list and feel justified in doing so. I just love this show to bits. I was a little worried that the second season would start to feel a little stale but each episode seems to offer a different reason why this show is so awesome. For example, one episode featured the leader of evil organization explain how they have to itemize all their expenses so the worldwide headquarters will reimburse them, another episode featured both the hero and evil leader attending the neighborhood meeting and the hero get called to task for not properly sorting his garbage like the evil leader, another episode featured a gadget the evil organization created that allowed them to pinpoint where the hero is but all this did was force them to attend a funeral, go to a very high-end restaurant, and almost receive a very serious beat down by two other heroes when they finally realized that they could just call the girlfriend of the hero (who has made friends with the evil organization) when they wanted to know where he was located. I’d go so far to say that once I get around to rewatching this show, I think there’s a good chance that Astro Fighter Sunred would earn a spot on my top 5 comedies list.

1 – Kemono no Souja Erin

And as much as I loved Sunred, it still didn’t get real close to unseating Erin from this season’s top spot. Once I realized how good this series was, I just knew that this last cour of episodes when all the various stories were threaded together would seriously rock and it did. What I didn’t expect was the little tease they did at the very end for the next two books of the source material that’s coming out this summer. It’s a great scene by itself but I’m already salivating over the idea of Kemono no Souja Erin getting a sequel. One of the ways this show really sets itself apart from a lot of other anime is the process in which the show’s hero is tried and tempered before stepping into the role as hero; it made her an especially memorable character and made her convictions that she fought for all that more real and worthy to fight for. I’ll say right now that Kemono no Souja Erin has better than a 50% chance of getting named my top anime of 2009 when I get to that list.

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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards

Part 1 – Cast and Character Awards
Part 2 – Genre and Misfit Awards
Part 3 – VMA Awards

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So this fall season turned out better then I initially thought it would but I don’t see myself saying the same thing for the winter season. There’s a couple of good shows but it’s just a couple and I’m be talking about them soon.

Filed under: anime, awards

For this next set of awards, a surprise show is making an appearance. (Maybe not so much of a surprise if you realize where the top picture comes from .) Based on how much I was loving Sora no Otoshimono this season and GA: Art Design Class from summer, I decided to give another show from AIC ASTA a chance after passing it over before. After devouring the first season over the past couple of weeks, I’ve just started on the second season – which started airing during this season – so while I’m not far enough into it that it has a chance to rank as one of my top shows of the season, there’s a few awards that I know it deserves to win.

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

Best Action

Winner: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Runner-up: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Neither of these shows is a true action series because a significant amount of the series is devoted to character development and story development. I know this disappoints some but I greatly prefer it this way; caring about the characters and worrying about what happens to them makes their fights much more attention-grabbing and emotional. In both of these cases, though, when we get a fight – it’s a good fight. Railgun edges out FMA mainly because I liked how varied the character’s powers where used in Railgun and stay slightly disappointed by a lack of variance in the alchemy of FMA.

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Best Fight

Winner: Railgun vs. Multi-skill and Monster from ep.11-12 of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

This fight is a great example of what I mean in how a character will use their power in many different ways. Misaka uses her power to stick to the side of a bridge column, as a taser, as a way to read someone else’s memories, as a way to pull iron from the ground and use as a shield and a weapon, as a way to literally cook her opponent, as a cutting blade, and of course as a rail gun like her nickname implies. And when all this is going on we’re still getting character development and plot development.

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Best Comedy

Winner: Astro Fighter Sunred

I had to give this award to Astro Fighter Sunred; it’s simply one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. The basic setup to the show is that Sunred is the local hero tasked with keeping his city safe from the clutches of General Vamp and the evil organization Florsheim. A typical setup but the twist, and the reason why it’s here, is this show subverts what we expect from this sort of setup. Sunred is a lazy, good-for-nothing jerk that mooches off his live-in girlfriend Kayoko and General Vamp is a kind, considerate guy who always sorts his trash and helps old ladies cross the road. Kayoko considers Vamp a friend so she gets Sunred to help Vamp move and Vamp will invite Sunred/Kayoko over to dinner. And so on. It initially took a few episodes to get used to the animation style and show’s sense of humor but that’s common for many comedy shows. I’ve really glad I gave this show a shot and I think many other people out there would also like it too.

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Most Entertaining

Winner: Sora No Otoshimono
Runner-up: Kobato

One of the easiest picks this season. Oftentimes this season I’d have 7-8 anime episodes to watch and invariably I’d pick Sora no Otoshiomono first or second to watch. At first I was surprised when I found myself picking that one but eventually I realized that I was guaranteed to enjoy my time watching this show.

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Most Interesting Setting

Winner: Tatakau Shisho ~ The Book of Bantorra

While I really wish that this show’s storytelling was done better (it feels very disjointed), the show’s setting has been a constant source of interest and a main reason why I continue watching.

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Best Plot

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Runner-up: Kemono no Souja Erin

This season of Full Metal has been full of plot revelations and twists. It’s really kept me on the edge of my seat and I’m really glad that the decision was made to remake this series.

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Best Story

Winner: Sasameki Koto
Runner-up: Cross Game

Since Sasameki Koto follows on the heals of Aoi Hana (last season’s best story winner), it needed to distinguish itself from Aoi Hana if I was going to think highly of it. It did, as you might guess, in part by adding a comedic bend to the show and being able to switch from drama to comedy and back again without the show feeling awkward. Sasameki Koto would have easily won but I disliked how there was no resolution at the end, hopefully that means there’ll be a sequel in the future.

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Best Villain

Winner: General Vamp from Astro Fighter Sunred

When I say best villain, I don’t necessarily mean the most evil, the most devious, etc. Oftentimes I’ll pick that truly evil villain like the Demon King from Sengoku Basara and if that was case this time I’d’ve picked somebody from Full Metal but the single most memorable villain from this season is General Vamp, even if he’s a poor villain and a pretty nice guy. (And there’s so many villains in FMA maybe that’s the problem, it’s hard to focus on any one villain.)

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Most in Need of a Sequel

Winner: Kemono no Souja Erin
Runner-up: Sasameki Koto, Sora No Otoshimono

In the case of Sasameki Koto, I want to see the story advance and for Sora no Otoshimono, I want to see more of Tomoki being manly and those supposed higher beings getting what they deserve. Neither of these, however, was able to dislodge Kemono no Souja Erin from the top spot as most in need of a sequel. It is true that the ending of Kemono no Souja Erin was truly satisfying but the author of the original two books that Kemono no Souja Erin is based on is releasing the next two books this summer and just that thought (and the one scene that the animators slipped in from these books) makes me giddy for a sequel.

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

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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards
Part 1 – Cast and Character Awards
Part 3 – VMA Awards
Part 4 – Top 8 Shows of the Fall Season

Posted in anime, awards

I remember complaining about this season and how weak it was, and it was a pretty weak season, but now that we’re into the second week of the winter season I look back at the list of shows and can’t help feeling a little sad that many of these shows have ended. I’m sure there’ll be shows this season that I’ll get attached to (Hanamaru Kindergarten is a strong possibility) but they’re not there yet. So, maybe, it’s a good thing that I waited this long to do my seasonal anime 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. 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 (5): Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Cross Game, Kemono no Souja Erin, Hetalia Axis Powers, Umineko no Naku Koro ni

New shows watched this season (12): Natsu no Arashi! Season 2, Kobato, Sasameki Koto, Sora No Otoshimono, Nyan Koi, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Tatakau Shisho, Seitokai no Ichizon, Miracle Train, Trapeze, Blue Literature, Kampfer

Shows that got dropped (2): Kimi ni Todoke, The Sacred Blacksmith

Best Female Main Character

Winner: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin
Runner-up: Kobato from Kobato, Sumika Murasame from Sasameki Koto

There is no qualms this season about picking Erin as my best female main character and, truth be told, she pretty much blew everyone else away. She had always been an excellent character but it wasn’t until this season where she was able to step onto the world stage that she was able to shine at her full brilliance.

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Best Male Main Character

Winner: Tomoki from Sora no Otoshimono
Runner-up: Kou from Cross Game

Tomoki was able to stop Kou’s quest for a three-peat as Best Male Main Character by pretty much being the most epic manly character in ages – running on the same level as say Kamina, Hosaka, or Maid Guy. He was so manly that even getting turned into a woman didn’t damper his burning manly soul.

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Best Supporting Character(s)

Winner: Kuroko, Uiharu, Saten from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun did a very good job of spreading the limelight out to all the characters so it almost feels like Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten are on the same level as the main character – Misaka aka Railgun but I don’t quite think they’re on that level; hence, that’s why they’re showing up here. I tried to narrow my pick down to only one character but that proved impossible since I equally love all three characters for their strengths, weaknesses, personal motivations and quarks that so enriched the show and made it one of the best shows of the season.

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Best Screen-grabber

Winner: Nagi Ichinose from Nyan Koi
Runner-up: America from Hetalia Axis Powers

Nagi was to Nyan Koi as Hosaka was to Minami-ke and if that’s not a good enough reason for picking her then I don’t know what is.

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Best Couple

Winner: Erin and Ial from Kemono no Souja Erin

Up until the final half of the final episode this pair would have been more of a viewer pairing based on a handful of scenes that Erin and Ial were onscreen together but I’m almost positive that we are to conclude that they do in fact become a couple and marry in the future. The closest competition in this category was from Cross Game but with the addition of a new character there seemed to be a reshuffling of the couples/potential couples in Cross Game and it’s not entirely clear if the new pairings or the older ones will eventually win out. Personally, I like the idea of a Aoba and Azuma couple but I also still like the pairing of Aoba and Kou.

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Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Kuroko’s teleporting ability from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

Misaka’s Railgun ability is most definitely the flashiest power of the season but I just love what Kuroko can do with her teleporting ability. It may be that I’m surprised that Kuroko is more than just a joke character that she appeared to be after the first couple of episodes which helped make her ability more impressive than it is. However, at most, that’s probably just a very small part because there was multiple times where Kuroko was able to show off how cool being to teleport herself and others can be. And also, we’ve never really seen Kuroko get to go all out with her power like Misaka was able to do.

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Best Cast of Characters

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Runner-up: Cross Game, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

This season of Full Metal Alchemist saw many new and varied characters introduced to compliment an already great cast, both on the good side and on the evil side. And not only are these quality additions, these characters have pushed the show down very unexpected and delightful avenues. As someone who became very disappointed with Full Metal Alchemist after how the first show ended and consequently stopped reading the manga, I love that this series has rekindled all my excitement over this most worthy show.

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Best Character Development for Cast

Winner: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Runner-up: Cross Game

One of the ways Railgun was miles better than Index was how well the characters were put together and how much time was focused on developing the cast. I don’t know if it’s strictly from the change in directors or if giving the original creator a second chance at getting the series right accounted for the difference but I love the changes and thrilled that Railgun will continue into the winter season. It’s a shame that the first two episodes will make many people drop the series and miss out on a finely crafted show.

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Best Character Development of a Single Character

Winner: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin

Erin wins this award again for pretty much all the same reasons why she won it during the summer season. What so impressed me was for every awesome thing she did as the hero that saves the day we could look back and remember the events that she had to endure and overcome to be able to do those awesome things.

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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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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards
Part 2 – Genre and Misfit Awards
Part 3 – VMA Awards
Part 4 – Top 8 Shows of the Fall Season

Posted in anime, awards