Bamboo Blade

One of the great resources in anime fandom of late has been this guy. His charts have become almost indispensable when trying to figure out what to watch in the upcoming anime seasons. Recently, he’s started to compile these charts for previous years and the information that can be gleaned from these charts are extremely interesting and a real eye opener.

Last year, 2008, was the first year of this blog and as a result I watched many shows I probably won’t have otherwise and tried to make sure that I discovered all the “good” anime of a season so I could help other people discover these anime shows. So one of the first things I wanted to figure out was how much of the 2008 anime did I watch in the end.

Percentage of Shows Watched

This is the chart in question that I’m using; you can find it and more here. It lists 130 total anime shows that begun airing in 2008 and looking over these shows I realize there is a handful of shows that are aimed at very young viewers and these shows are never fansubbed, talked about, or licensed so the first step I’m going to do is remove these shows from consideration. I then tabulated how many shows I’ve watched, dropped and completed and I’ll summarize them here.

• 114 total shows (19 from Winter 07/08, 34 from Spring 08, 21 from Summer 08, 37 from Fall 08, 3 from Winter 08/09)
• 50 shows watched (5, 15, 9, 18, 3)
• 19 shows dropped (0, 9, 3, 5, 2)
• 31 shows completed (5, 6, 6, 13, 1)

I should note that the Winter 07/08 season was a season that I essentially took off. I needed the break and the only new show I watched that season while it was airing was Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei s.2. Yes, It is strange that I decided to start a blog during a season I wasn’t actively watching but that just how I like to do things. Because of this, the only shows I watched from this season where ones that I really wanted to see at a later time. This skews some of the results I’ll highlight below.

• Overall watched percentage by season – 26.3% of Winter 07/08, 44.1% of Spring 08, 42.9% of Summer 08, 48.7% of Autumn 08, 100% of Winter 08/09
• Overall watched percentage of 2008 – 43.8%
• Percentage of watched shows that were dropped by season – 0.0%, 60.0%, 33.3%, 28.8%, 66.7%)
• Percentage of watched shows that were dropped in 2008 – 38.0%

While going over the list of shows, I’ve noted that there were a few shows that I still have some interest in catching and could see myself watching at some point in the future, time willing.

• Possible unwatched shows that may be watched in the future by season – 2 from Winter 07/08, 2 from Spring 08, 0 from Summer 08, 4 from Fall 08, 0 from Winter 08/09
• Total unwatched but still interested in shows for 2008 – 8
• 2008 Total of shows watched and possible shows watched in the future – 58 or 50.9% of all 2008 anime shows

This leaves 49.1% of the entire 2008 year of shows as shows that I have not watched nor am I interested in doing so. Just looking at the raw number, it seems like I’m leaving a huge percentage of shows unwatched but looking over the shows the I’ve missed – I don’t think I’m missing much. I wonder how this compares to other anime fans.

Soul Eater

Excellent Shows and Strong Seasons

Next, I compiled a list of shows that I consider being the best of 2008 – the titles that I would recommend to other people and would be worthy series to own on DVDs, if possible. I was curious to see how these shows were distributed and if the general thinking about the spring and fall seasons being the strong seasons seemed justified.

• Excellent shows from Winter 07/08 – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S.2 and Spice & Wolf – (2)
• Excellent shows from Spring 08 – Wagaya no Oinarisama, Library Wars, Kaiba, Soul Eater, Kurenai (5)
• Excellent shows from Summer 08 – Natsume Yuujin-chou, Birdy the Mighty Decode, Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, Ryouko’s Case Files (4)
• Excellent shows from Fall 08 – Toradora, Clannad S.2, Shikabane Hime:Aka, Ga-Rei:Zero, Mouryou Hako, Kurozuka, Michiko to Hatchin (7)
• Excellents shows from 2008 – 18

Looking at the pure number totals, it appears that the fall season was the strongest season and that’s definitely on way to look at it but I wanted to see it from another perspective.

• Percentage of overall shows that were excellent by season – 10.5% of Winter 07/08, 14.7% of Spring 08, 19.1% of Summer 08, 18.9% of Autumn 08, 0% of Winter 08/09
• Percentage of overall shows that were excellent for 2008 – 15.8%
• Percentage of watched shows that were excellent by season – 40.0%, 33.3%, 44.4%, 38.9%, 0.0%
• Percentage of watched shows that were excellent for 2008 – 36.0%

Looking at the number of excellent shows in the context of the rest of the season shows, it turns out that the Summer season squeaks in front of the fall season as having the highest percentage of excellent shows. If the saying about how only 10% of anything is worth fighting for and the rest is garbage then one can’t complain about the quality of anime from 2008 since it beat that by a bit.

Kaiba

Why It’s Hard To Be a Fan of Anime Without Resorting to Fansubs

I want to say up front that I’m not writing this to defend fansubs per se nor am I trying to pick a fight – it’s been my observation for a while that oftentimes when an anime is announced as being licensed, I’m disappointed because it’s not one that I felt deserved to get licensed and I want to see if this observation is backed up by the data.

The first thing that needed done was to compile a list of what shows where licensed from 2008. I started with the list that animesuki keeps of shows that are licensed and thus they no longer list and then I checked out the various licensing articles from anime news network and finally I checked crunchyroll. I might have missed a couple but they won’t be enough to change the conclusions that I discovered. Onto some data.

• Total number of anime shows licensed from 2008 – 32
• Total number of licensed shows that I watched from 2008 – 13
• Total number of licensed shows that I completed from 2008 – 9
• Total number of licensed shows that I consider excellent shows from 2008 – 5
• Total number of excellent licensed shows that will come out on DVD – 3
• Total number of excellent licensed shows that will be dubbed on DVD – 2

I’ll note here that of the 19 licensed shows that I have not watched, none are on my list of shows that I might be interested in watching so those figures are final. Without running the exact numbers it’s pretty apparent what can be concluded but let’s run the numbers for completeness sake.

• Percentage of total anime shows that were licensed from 2008 – 28.1%
• Percentage of total anime shows that were not licensed from 2008 – 71.9%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I watched – 40.6%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I completed – 28.1%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I consider excellent – 15.6%
• Percentage of excellent licensed shows that will be released on DVD – 9.4%
• Percentage of excellent licensed shows that will be dubbed and released on DVD – 6.25%

The one glaring conclusion that I have to conclude is that the “anime fan” that the North American companies are going after is not me. If they were, I’d expect to see almost all of my excellent shows as having been licensed. (Afterall they should be picking the best titles to maximize the number of DVDs bought.) That’s not the case, though, and looking over the shows that did get licensed I find a lot of shounen/fighting shows, fan-service shows, and shoujo shows. I can’t help but feel that one of the results of a licensing pattern like this is that once an anime fan has been sated with enough shounen, fan-service, and/or shoujo shows that these fans discover they are no longer anime fans because anime has become either too childish or repetitive.

The reason I took the category down to excellent licensed shows that will dubbed and put on DVD even when I’m not the biggest dub fan is because there’s a segment of anime fandom that are people who like anime but don’t want to read subtitles and also want to watch on a TV. My one sister is like this and in the end she buys almost exclusively manga because she can find so little anime that interests her. When I was starting up my blog she told me that she’d read my site to find shows to buy but she quickly realized that this was not possible. I don’t blame her, of all the shows that I’ve watched and blogged about in 2008 there is a total of two shows – Soul Eater and Spice & Wolf that I could possibly recommend to her to buy and I don’t think she’d like Soul Eater. That leaves Spice & Wolf as the only anime out of the 114 anime that started airing in Japan during 2008 that I could recommend her to buy.

I feel like I should repeat that; for the entire 2008 year of anime, there is only one anime that I could recommend to my sister as being good enough that it’s worth buying on DVD. And these companies complain about the fans – maybe it’s not the fan’s fault.

I realize that 2009 saw a large increase of shows getting quasi-licensed on crunchyroll so by now it’s possible that my title about having to almost having to resort to fansubs may not hold as much water but I’ll leave that to a follow-up article in the future to see how the numbers work out. I want to hold off for a while to see how many of the 2009 shows get physically licensed and which ones will get dubs. Also left for a later article is my thoughts on how exactly to get the North American anime scene going in the right direction; here’s a hint, I don’t think there will be many people who will become fans of anime from having crunchyroll stream subtitled anime.

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As an aside, if you happen to be looking to buy a good anime series on DVD (maybe for a Christmas present) and want a quality show that will get rewatched more than once, let me point out that Bamboo Blade is coming out soon. And there’s Spice & Wolf as well but it’s coming out the week of Christmas.

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

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

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(5) – Azumanga Daioh

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

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

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(4) – Lucky Star

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

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

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

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(3) – Potemayo

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

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

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

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(2) – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

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

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

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

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(1) – Minami-Ke (Season 1)

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

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

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

Sure it’s easy to say this is a weak fall season of anime but how do you quantify it?

I could say that as of right now, I’ve seen only 2 shows that are good enough that I would consider placing them on my fall seasonal top anime list when it gets compiled in the future. Which is true, however this doesn’t really enumerate the problem well enough so instead I’ll make the following comparison:

Let’s call the following group of fall shows Group A:

4 episodes of Kampfer +
4 episodes of Nyan Koi +
4 episodes of Armed Librarians +
4 episodes of Railgun +
3 episodes of Sora no Otoshimono +
3 episodes of Miracle Train +
4 episodes of The Sacred Blacksmith +
1 episode of Trapeze +
3 episodes of Seitokai no Ichizon +
3 episodes of Kimi no Todoke

If I take all the entertainment and enjoyment from these 33 episodes of anime and compare them to a single episode – episode 12 of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Season 3, I find that episode 12 wins. Or to write it a little more mathematically:

Group A < Ep.12 SZS s3

Sadly, I’m completely serious and if I want to rub some salt into that wound, I’ll add that episode 12 wasn’t particularly that much better from the rest of the series. Here’s a recap.

Want deep discussions on science?

Want commentary on current affairs?

Want explosions?

Want chicks with weapons?

Want genderbending?

Want fan service?

I should run a poll: Kaere-sensei or Yoko-sensei?

Episode 12 had it all and it only took 23 minutes to cover all these bases.

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I’ll probably get some feedback about including Kimi no Todoke in group A and because I haven’t written up my impression post let me just say that I do like the show but right now it’s seriously lacking in providing any sort of tension / conflict and I wonder why this show needs to run more the a couple more episodes.

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.

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

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.

What a difference a year makes; last summer I was watching only a handful of shows and thought only a couple were truly great shows – this year there’s so many watchable shows that I’m considering dropping at least a couple B-level titles to free up needed time. I don’t think it’s too early to proclaim this as the best summer season of anime in recent years and there’s a good chance that when it’s over and we look back at it – this could be a golden season like Spring 2006 was.

Below, I collected links to my earlier written impression posts that cover each of the new summer shows that I watched. These were written over the span of many weeks since some shows were easier then others when determining quality and how likely a show could maintain a certain level of quality. I’ve taken this opportunity to rank them by the average score that they earned at the time of the impression post because it provides a quick-n-dirty way to rank the many new shows.

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As you can see, a pretty strong season of new shows and I’d be happy if it was just these shows but there’s also several shows continuing from previous seasons as well that are great as well. So, to get the full picture of how good this season, I want to talk about them before further covering the new shows.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: The first dozen or so episodes of this redo of the Full Metal series condensed 30+ episodes of the first incarnation and as a result it lacked the narrative punch of the first series. Once over that hurdle, the show shifted to new material and I was quickly reminded how good this show can be. The world was expanded – hinting at very interesting future plot points, new characters where introduced, and existing characters where given an awesomeness injection. The results have been spectacular; Episode 19 contains a fight that easily makes my top 5 anime fights of all time and was so good that I seriously had to remember to take a breathe when it was over because I hadn’t in awhile. Then I was worried that I’d be let down but episode 20 came right back with it’s own shocking revelations showing that this series has plenty of curve balls left to throw it’s viewers.

Kemono no Souja Erin: I’ve recently posted how I’ve finally caught up with this series and the few episodes I’ve watched since then just continue to prove to me that this is a great show. Recently the show has been very character driven with the plot fading into the background which has been okay since this show has good characters. I do think the show is getting ready to swing back towards advancing the plot because in the latest subbed episode, episode 30, another time skip occurred and now Erin is 18. Definitely old enough and with enough experience to the save the kingdom like I think she’ll have too (I like that they’ve worked at making Erin a believable hero).

Cross Game: Cross Game continues to chug along, offering it’s viewers the same level of goodness that we’ve grown to love. This season has seen some characters leave unexpectantly, new characters get introduced, and existing characters develop in surprising ways. Something that I’ve really grown to like about this series is how most of the characters that seem to be the “evil” characters of the series are given a chance to rehabilitate their image (at least the non-adults are).

Hayate the Combat Butler, Season 2: This summer J.C. Staff has really hit it’s stride with Hayate. They’re still focusing on advancing the story of the series but the humor level has increased steadily and I’m finding it as funny as the first season. I wish this was going to run ~52 episodes like the first season and not end at 26 episodes, especially since J.C. Staff is proving that they can do 3 shows at once. I’ll guess I’ll have to console myself with saying that J.C. Staff likes to do sequels so maybe a third season will be coming around soon.

Haruhi, Season 1.5: My thoughts about Haruhi would run a full post so I’ll just include a couple. The first is that from the beginning, I’ve refused to call this season 2 and now that we see how the extended episode count was used – it really does feel like a fleshed out first season. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a true season 2 announcement within a month or two. Also, I do think that the fans put Kodakawa and KyoAni in a bind because whatever they did, the fan’s expectations about Haruhi would not be met and much wailing and grinding of teeth would happen.

Phantom ~Requiem of Phantom~: One last huge plot twist means, even after amazing me for 18 episodes with great plot and character development, the show still hasn’t peaked and that the ending promises to be amazing. There has been one immediate side-effect of watching this show; namely, for being so accomplished at creating a realistic feeling plot even with fantastical elements (super-powered assassins) it makes CANAAN’s storyline and it’s attempt at being serious seem laughably fake.

Tears to Tiara: Yes I ended up continuing to watch this show. While I wouldn’t call this a top-tier show, it’s a solid second-tier show. It’s well animated with pretty decent fight scenes and has a touch of humor to itself. I haven’t really gotten wrapped up into the show’s story so how the good guys will prevail isn’t a big concern to me but there’s still plenty to like about Tears to Tiara to keep watching.

Hetalia – Axis Powers: The second season picked right up where the first season stopped. I really wish it was more consistently funny but there’s enough to love about this show to keep watching.

Further Thoughts on the New Shows

It used to be, I’d be happy if J.C. Staff could turn out something decent since they were so hit-n-miss with their shows – even within a show (I still can’t reconcile how bad the first half of Shana 2 was with how awesome the second half of Shana 2 was). Recently they’ve done superb work with Toradora and Hatsukoi Limited and promising work with Hayate, so when summer season rolled around – I was cautiously optimistic about their two new shows Aoi Hana and Taishou Yakyuu Musume and sitting at the halfway point I’m really glad that both turned out to be hits. Aoi Hana is a love story done right; it doesn’t take the easy way out by throwing in a bunch fan service or by making things absurdly dramatic – instead, there’s a realism about the characters and how they drive the story forward that is refreshing and enjoyable. Of course the gorgeous animation, great music and voice work along with all the attention to detail only enhances the experience. Taishou Yakyuu Musume has done a very good job of separating itself from the other currently running and recent slice-of-school-life shows. The setting, 1920’s Japan, is helpful in this regard and does make for an interesting twist on things. Also, the focus on the characters having a goal and having to actually work towards it provides all the structure and drive to continue watching. I still don’t see how they can beat that boy’s baseball team but hopefully by the end, they’ll be able to do it.

Another huge question mark about this season was how Shaft would be able to do Bakemonogatari and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3 at same time. I’d like to say that Shaft was able to flawlessly execute both shows but that would be stretching the truth. I’m currently re-rewatching season 1 of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and being able to compare the two seasons crystallize my observations on the new third season. Namely, the humor and comedic situations have held up well but the art work has definitely suffered this season. It still does it’s job but it feels like what you’d get when an a third party was asked to ape a particular style. Which is probably the case since Bakemonogatari definitely displays the artistic creativity that you’d expect from the Shaft/Shinbo team. Bakemonogatari also is chalk full of witty dialogue and unexpected plot developments – it really is a good match for Shaft/Shinbo’s talents.It always seems to be able to keep the viewers hungry for more, like the recent week where there was no episode, it was a killer wait to get to see the next episode.

A couple of shows (Sora no Manimani and Umi Monogatari) are performing better then I thought they would. I know I gave both relatively high marks initially but I also thought my liking of these series would wane as I watched more episodes. That’s not the case, however. Sora no Manimani has been able to use the astronomy angle to fullest effect, overcoming it’s very poor animation (though it has very good night sky animation) and somewhat clichéd characters/school situations to be an enjoyable series to watch. The informational tidbits about astronomy have also been interesting. In the one example, they explain how to take pictures of stars with just a normal camera and it’s so easy I want to try. For Umi Monogatari; a combination of animation style, some very nice background music tracks, and characters ranging from watchable to scene-stealing has gotten me to like it. That’s not to say it’s a smashing success, the plot feels very generic, even for someone who is not a fan of the magic girl genre and thusly doesn’t which shows have used this type of plot before. There are little touches to the plot that I do like. In a recent episode, the one human character needed to find a family heirloom that has magical powers because it would allow her to breathe underwater. She eventually finds it – the mom had been using it to make their pickles taste better.

I find it funny that as soon as I started to like the characters in Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, the story would start to threaten my enjoyment of the series. In episode 5, the brother and sister main characters finally stopped being annoying and I was set to like the rest of the series when the next two episodes pushed the story’s shortcomings forward. The one focused on the woman that’s been helping the young brother and sister since the earthquake. She’s been very admirable so far but she turns down the opportunity to quickly check to see if her own child is okay to stay with the brother and sister. (Heck, she could have driven to where the brother and sister live and see if their parents are okay.) I would call her a very bad parent in real life but since this is an anime, this really felt like a not-so-subtle way to extend the episode count of the series. The other episode was a fairly cute episode featuring robots that were helping in finding survivors trapped in the rubble but again, it felt like the series is trying to extend it’s episode count by using another careless parent. In this case the robot nerd’s parents didn’t see the danger of their child running around a bunch of building that are tittering on the verge of collapse. (This episode also kinda felt like a 25 minute commercial created for a company that makes robots.)

And I can’t forget about Spice and Wolf 2, which proves that anything can be made interesting if done the right way. I’m not much of an economist or merchant; the closest I got was after a college economics class that I aced even with a super hard professor – I received a hand signed letter from the dean of the economics program saying that I should consider changing my major to economics. In the end I didn’t because I thought it would be too dull but maybe I was wrong, though there’d be very little chance of a pagan wolf goddess accompanying me while I worked. I can now concur with the general consensus that this season has improved over the first season since I’m now almost done watching the first season but I still don’t understand how so many said the first season was boring.

Dropped Shows

This time there’s not a huge list of dropped shows. The only for sure one at this point is Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! (of which I won’t speak of any more). Needless and Kanamemo are on the borderline right now. I have no real desire to watch any more episodes of either (I’ve seen 7 and 6 episodes, respectively) which is normally the point at which I drop a show but it’s not official yet. The only other show that has the chance of being dropped is CANAAN, though that’s very unlikely. There are some very genuine reasons to continue watching this series which will probably get me to continue watching to the end. At the same time, CANAAN’s attempt at being a serious show has so laughably failed that I wish I hadn’t started watching it in the first place.

Conclusion

Looking over this 2300+ word post I realized there’s a facet to being an anime fan that reminds me of being a science fiction fan. Namely, there’s serious grumblings within the last couple of years about the long-term health of the anime industry, with more then a few voices talking about the death of anime. This type of talk has surrounding print SF for the last couple of decades. People would try to get you to believe that soon, maybe only a few years from now, there’ll be no more science fiction. In both circumstances if one just looks at what’s being done – it certainly doesn’t feel like they’re about to die. There’s still too much vibrancy in both to feel like they’re dieing anytime soon.

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For reference, this was my preview for this season – it’s interesting to compare the two.