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?