After looking at the characters in part 1 and then the show built around those characters in part 2, the third group of awards will focus on the extras in an anime; namely, the vocal work, music, and animation quality. These components aren’t among the core reasons why an anime is successful or not but they can exert a surprising amount of influence for either outcome.

Not that I’m implying correlation equals causation; maybe that’s something Okabe from Steins;Gate could study after he was done changing the world’s ruling power structure and defeating the secret organizations – he could study how integral are the vocal work, music, and animation quality towards an anime’s success or failure.

Best Male Seiyuu

Winner: Mamoru Miyano as Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate and Shinku Izumi from Dog Days

The best part of the rather uneven Star Driver was Mamoru Miyano’s vocal work for the main character, Takuto Tsunashi. As a result of that role, I decided this season that it was worth checking out both anime that he was voicing the main character, Dog Days and Steins;Gate. He was merely good as the Hero in Dog Days but that had more to do with limited nature of the role and the animators behind the show. The role as mad scientist in Steins;Gate gave him much more room to perform and he took advantage of that.

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Best Female Seiyuu

Winner: Aoi Yuuki  as Victorique from Gosick and Tooru from A Channel

Runner-up: Yuu Kobayashi as Mariya from Maria+Holic Alive and Undine from Yondemasu yo Azazel-san and Ruka Urushibara from Steins;Gate, Aya Hirano as Katja from Seikon no Qwaser II and Shizu Shidou from Maria+Holic Alive

The meteoric rise of Aya Hirano’s career opened many doors for her but it also attracted a lot of noise from detractors that sometimes makes it difficult to remember underneath everything Aya Hirano is a very good voice actress. Both of her roles this season were smaller then I’d like but combined they showed that she has it. As for Yuu Kobayashi, I’ve been a fan of her unique talent for awhile now. I like the wide assortment of voices that she can bring to a role and this season saw her utilizing many of those voices in her various roles. My favorite was the cross-dressing Mariya. However, the winner just had to go to Aoi Yuuki for carrying, not one, but two anime series she starred in with just her vocal work. If it wasn’t for her, I’d’ve dropped both Gosick and A Channel for being complete wastes of time. Instead, in the end, I found both decent enough shows.

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Best OP

Winner: Maria+Holic Alive

Runner-up: Nichijou, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera, AnoHana

If this award was based solely on the song itself AnoHana would have won; I’ve had Aoi Shiori by Galileo Galilei on heavy repeat for weeks now. However, I also have to factor in the animation and how well the two work together to create the right mood for watching the episode. Using the full criteria, Maria+Holic Alive edges out the competition for the win.

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Best ED

Winner: AnoHana

Runner-up: Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Nichijou, Gosick

This time AnoHana does win, in part, because they did that thing where the ending song starts playing as the last climatic scene plays out before going to credits in just about every episode. So now I associate the song with all the best moments of the show and the song’s soothing, cathartic nature was perfect for the show’s ending.

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Best Background Music

Winner: Nichijou

Nichijou is just the latest in a long string of anime series by Kyoto Animation that feature stellar background music. I’m sure there were other series that had good background music but I can’t remember any other leaving much of an impression on me.

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Best Dressed Characters

Winner: Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Runner-up: Hyouge Mono

I’m slightly disappointed that Nichijou didn’t win this award; it might even be the first KyoAni series that didn’t place since I started giving this award out. There chances dimmed primarily because we don’t see many characters ever wearing non-school clothes. On the other hand, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, had a plethora of different outfits that the characters wore (having one of your main characters never attend school helps this); so, it was the obvious pick. Hyouge Mono earned the runner-up spot for it’s characters sporting a nice amount of wardrobe changes including the Demon King’s eclectic fashion sense.

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Best Animation Style

Winner:  Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Runner-up: Hanasaku Iroha

These last few years has seen the Shaft/Shinbou style of anime mature and hit that sweet spot of being just right for the series being animated. For Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko another layer was added – extremely attractive character designs. In most of Shaft/Shinbou series the characters will, at best, look decent but many series have down right fugly looking characters. (Natsu no Arashi is one example.) I actually like this since it will help make the characters seem more realistic but it’s a nice to see something new coming from them. Also working in Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko’s favor is Shaft/Shinbou creates the absolutely nicest night sky shots – no other animation company can match them.

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Best Animation

Winner: Nichijou

Runner-up: AnoHana, Hanasaku Iroha

As for the highest animation quality, Kyoto Animation is still incredibly hard to beat when they go all-out and this season no one could make this category a competitive one.

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Top Animation Studio

Winner: A-1 Pictures

Though with the frequency of financial home runs that A-1 Pictures has so quickly racked up along with consistently nice animation, Kyoto Animation may have a serious contender in the near future. (And yes, for the record, I loved the animation style to Birdy Season 2 and I continue to rank it as probably having the best done fights of any tv series that I’ve watched.)

The one weakness they’ve shown so far is not having a core group of directors that can ensure a consistent level of quality from their anime series. This season they had two series; the first, AnoHana, was directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai. Normally he directs for J.C. Staff and for them he’s directed Honey and Clover 2, Toradora, and Railgun. Their other series is Ao no Exorcist, directed by Tensai Okamura who’s done Wolf’s Rain and Darker Than Black (two series I haven’t seen yet but hear much praise for). By this point it should be obvious how much I liked AnoHana but Ao no Exorcist has been a small surprise itself; as a shounen-series-set-in-a-school-with-kids-who-have-special-powers, I wasn’t expected to particularly like it but I’ve come to enjoy my weekly doses of Ao no Exorcist.

So for fielding two hits for the spring season, A-1 Pictures gets the Top Animation Studio award.

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That’s it for part 3 of my spring 2011 anime awards. Stay tuned for my top overall picks of the season.

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Spring 2011 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Spring 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and Misfit Awards
Spring 2011 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #8 – #5
Spring 2011 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #4 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

The near-totality of Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s dominance in the various categories made writing up a winter seasonal awards post pretty pointless. This season, however, saw a more diverse and larger group of noteworthy anime to choose from.  There was shows about ghostly girls, alien girls, superheroes both in America and Japan, demons of Hell with undemon-like behavior (4 different ways), conspiracies,  cautionary tales about monetary policies and privately owned prisons, the everyday life of various people from metaphorical trolls to lesbian stalkers to high school girls, historical tales set in the Sengoku period (both genderbent and tea-centric) and an alternative 1920’s where Victorian fashions were still worn along with the standard handful of decent to poor shounen series and low-budget/low-quality fan service shows that every anime season seems to have. So let’s take a look back the spring anime season.

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, as 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. As 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 (1): Gosick

New shows watched this season (20): X-Men, Dog Days, Tiger and Bunny, Nichijou, Yondemasu yo Azazel-san, Hanasaku Iroha, Fireball Charming, Steins;Gate, Hyouge Mono, Hidan no Aria, A Channel, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera, Maria+Holic Alive, Ao no Exorcist, The World God Only Knows II, Seikon no Qwaser II, C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (AnoHana), Deadman Wonderland

Shows that got dropped (8): Hen Zemi, Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi, Sengoku Otome – Momoiro Paradox, 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku, Sket Dance, Sofuteni, Astarotte no Omocha!

Best Female Main Character(s)

Winner: Nano from Nichijou, The Professor from Nichijou

Runner-up: Ohana from Hanasaku Iroha

Nano’s eternal quest to slow how quickly The Professor gets into trouble, pass as a human and go to school makes her an obvious pick for this award but leaving out the other half of this comedic duo dynamo – The Professor – with her precocious intelligence bent on world snack domination just felt wrong. They beat out Ohana; she was a character that I was sure at the beginning that I would detest but she turned out to be the exact opposite.

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Best Male Main Character

Winner: Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate

Runner-up: Tiger from Tiger and Bunny, Furuta Sasuke from Hyouge Mono

Early on, when I was still unsure how the plot to Steins;Gate would play out, the reason I kept watching was mad scientist Rintarou Okabe was an absolute treat to watch. I was worried, however, that he’d become boring after a while if the “mad scientist” shtick got old but, with every episode, we learn more about him and what makes him tick and he’s pure distilled awesomeness.

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Best Supporting Character

Winner: Grandma from Hanasaku Iroha

Runner-up: Matsurika from Maria+Holic Alive

A couple of years back I wrote a short post about how anime needs more old characters. One of the reasons is their age instantly gives them the a body of experience that quickly and easily gives them a depth to their character that younger characters have to struggle to obtain. The grandma, Sui Shijima, from Hanasaku Iroha is another great example of this and is easily the best part of the show.

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Best Screen-grabber

Winner:  Meme from Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Loud, brash, and egocentric Meme becomes a screen-grabber whenever she’s onscreen, even if the other characters would rather her not be. I still don’t particularly like Meme because of her complete lack of decent parenting shown at the beginning of the series but throughout the series she’s shown that there is a decent human being inside.

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Best Couple

Winner: Prince Enma and Princess Yukiko from Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

I keep this award just to actual couples in the anime so that sadly left AnoHana out of the running, even with it’s tantalizing hints at how the characters would couple-up after finally moving on from the memory of Menma. Instead, I choose the oddball couple of Prince Enma of Hell and Princess Yukiko, the ice demon. I’m not sure how it’ll work out but this relationship was on the smaller reasons for how good Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera ended up being.

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Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Rintarou Okabe’s ability to remember past world lines from Steins;Gate

Runner-up: The ability to control an element from Seikon no Qwaser II

By rights, being able to control an element should win this category but, much like the alchemy in Full Metal Alchemist, it’s never exploited to it’s full potential. (For example, who cares if one can make cool iron scythes; let me see that person fight if his lungs are full of helium or that person has all the calcium drawn out of his bones, breaking them, and then having a heart attack from having way too much calcium in the blood or that person’s sodium levels are changed causing diarrhea, disorientation, lethargy, seizures and a coma or one of my sister’s favorite, the nursing student one, have his potassium levels changed causing paralysis, a heart attack and an inability to breathe among other fun things.) Rintarou Okabe’s ability to remember past world lines in a normal person wouldn’t be that noteworthy except he happens to be studying time travel and one of the side-effects of the type of time travel he’s perfected causes him to jump to alternative world lines.

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Best Cast of Characters

Winner: AnoHana

Runner-up: Hyouge Mono, Tiger and Bunny

This was almost as easy to pick the winner as the next award but Hyouge Mono and Tiger and Bunny put up a spirited charge. I could even see Hyouge Mono edging AnoHana but there’s only been 5 episodes subbed so far and the characters are just now getting a chance to shine.

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Best Character Development for Cast

Winner:  AnoHana

This is the easiest award to pick for this season and should be self-evident.

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Best Character Development of a Single Character

Winner:  Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate

I love how Steins;Gate started out with a great character, Rintarou Okabe, and has slowly built him up even more. Episode 13 gave us some tantalizing hints at how much room there still in for Rintarou Okabe to grow. I could very well be back next season calling him one of the greatest characters of the year (if the ending doesn’t stink and he gets the chance to continue improving).

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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 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and Misfit Awards
Spring 2011 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Spring 2011 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #8 – #5
Spring 2011 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #4 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

The sheer number of shows I’ve decided to try this season – 29 – has had the unintended side effect of making it quite difficult to find the time to then blog about the anime I’m watching. A horrible problem, I know . To help rectify this problem, I’m going to temporarily stop watching new episodes and finish this two-part post which will function as my first impressions posts for all 29 shows and a means to call attention to good shows that might be falling through the cracks within such a huge field of anime to watch.

Before we get to those good shows, we first have to start at the very bottom with …

(29) – 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 2/12  F

This anime from the animation company Gathering was, on paper, a potentially interesting anime about helping romantically challenged men in finding their groove and scoring with the lady-folks but it turned out to be a complete failure by every measure. It even failed at trying to be such a train wreck that it was fun to watch. Stay away.

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(28) – Sket Dance

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 2/12  F

At one point in the opening song the animators make a very understandable, yet unfortunate, simple English spelling mistake; when, instead of using “Sket”, use the word “Skat” in very big letters. If they were native English speakers, I’d imagine this slip was a Freudian slip because that  pretty much describes the quality of this show. It finishes only second to last because it did actually briefly amuse me once during the three episodes I watched.

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(27) – Hen Zemi

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 3/12  D

The first of two bottom-dwelling series from Xebec this season follows the story of a shy, straight-laced college girl that somehow ends up in Abnormal Physiology Seminar where she’s exposed to a class full of students with very odd fetishes and kinks. Hilarity should ensue but it doesn’t. The presence of the voice actress Kana Hanazawa pushes this slightly above the other really bad anime of this season.

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(26) – Sengoku Otome – Momoiro Paradox

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 3/12  D

By my count this is the third recent anime to be adapted from a line of pachinko games. The first, Umi Monogatari, and the second, Rio ~Rainbow Gate~, were pretty decent anime in their own ways so I wasn’t going to discount Sengoku Otome until I caught a few episodes. Now that I’ve seen a few episodes I can conclude this show is a complete waste of time. It’s primary problem is that it’s too timid. If your anime is supposed to be an ecchi comedy then throw everything out that’s not needed like “a story” and “character development” and focus on creating characters that are appealing to the eye and putting these characters into constantly new absurd situations. It worked for Rio ~Rainbow Gate~ and it could have worked here.

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(25) – Hidan no Aria

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 4/12  C

Remember when J.C. Staff could be counted on to make at least decent anime? Quickly has that time started to fade into distant memory and Hidan no Aria does nothing to slow the decent of J.C. Staff into obscurity. Everything here is a poor facsimile of their past series like Shana with only about a quarter of the animation quality of those old shows.

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(24) – Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 4/12  C

The complete lack of anime from AIC this season (probably because they’re working on the Sora no Otoshimono movie coming out this summer) has left a huge hole that no other animation house can seem to adequately plug. Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi takes a swing at being this season’s high production values/ecchi comedy that’s funny, entertaining and completely underestimated by the snooty anime fans but it strikes out. Don’t waste your time with this; I recommend sampling (or rewatching) recent AIC shows like Amagami SS, Asobi ni Iku yo!, Sora no Otoshimono, Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai instead.

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(23) – Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 4/12  C

The ADHD television channel changing motif worked for AMV Hell 3 but not Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai. One problem is the character designs are so generically similar that it’s easier to figure which lump of metal is which Transformer during a fight in the live action movies then it is to figure out who is who for this anime. Another problem is how generically similar each story line is to each other. I’ll repeat the same advice I gave for Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi and suggest checking out AIC’s vastly superior recent work like Amagami SS, Asobi ni Iku yo!, Sora no Otoshimono, Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai instead.

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(22) – Sofuteni

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 4/12  C

The second new anime from Xebec for this season and it manages to marginally do better then Hen Zemi but it still has a ways to go before it can aspire to be “watchable” anime. I won’t repeat for a third time my advice given above but it still stands for Sofuteni.

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(21) – Astarotte no Omocha!

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 4/12  C

Ranking this high is actually a small victory for Astarotte no Omocha! because I was all set to give this my lowest rating based on the premise of the show – a young succubus living in a fantasy world turns 10 and is required to start her male harem but she happens to hate men. I wanted to be fair so I watched a few episodes and it appears that this anime will skew more towards heart-warming but it doesn’t skew enough to keep me watching.  There’s still the problem of fan-service I don’t want to see and cringe worthy aspects like the human male she ends up picking turning out to be 23 years old, who happens to have a 10-year-old daughter that he brings along when he agrees to live in the fantasy world with the succubus.

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(20) – Dog Days

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 5/12  C+

Dog Days does just enough right to become the first title on this list that I’ve not dropped and plan on continuing to watch. Just barely though, it helps that Norio Wakimoto voices one of the side characters. I have to admit that the unique system used in the fantasy world of Dog Days that replaces traditional war actually is a really good idea – I wish a similar system could be implemented in real life.

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(19) – Deadman Wonderland

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 5/12  C+

After a genuinely dark and well-thought-out anime like Puella Magi Madoka Magica the wannabes like Deadman Wonderland just seem so lacking. It’s case is not helped when I can’t take this show seriously but it wants me too. For example, I’m supposed to believe that in the future Japan decides that basic CSI and forensics work is not needed and no one notices that the explosion that killed those kids occurred outside of the school building. I’m willing to give it some slack with it’s story but if it doesn’t improve quickly (which includes reducing the number of glaringly large plot holes I have to accept) then I’ll be dropping this.

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(18) – Ao no Exorcist

Rating for episodes 1 to 2 – 5/12  C+

The first of two anime series coming from A-1 Pictures, Ao no Exorcist also suffers a bit from coming right after Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Feeling despair after learning that you’re the son of Satan? Just imagine what it would feel like to be the son of Kyubey. It’s not all bad news, though, I actually think A-1 has done a better job then Manglobe has done with Deadman Wonderland so far and there is potential for this anime to become a pretty decent anime.

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(17) – Seikon no Qwaser II

Rating for episodes 1 to 2 – 5/12  C+

I actually finished about half of the first season of Seikon no Qwaser before becoming bored with it. The highlight for me was Aya Hirano doing her best vocal work since she voiced Haruhi. Since the plot isn’t that important for this show, I figured that I could start watching the second season without finishing the first and by-n-large I was able to drop right back into the show. I missed the explanation why our male main character has to cross-dress as a busty girl to attend an all-girls school when there’s several female characters that could go undercover but, like I said, the plot isn’t important and I can just roll with this plot development. This turn of events has created a situation where the guy is on the receiving end of some of the same discomforts that he’s perpetrated on the female characters up to this point and it’s actually pretty interesting.

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(16) – C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 5/12  C+

This is another anime that feels like there’s a potential for it to become a pretty decent anime; but, so far, I’ve only been mildly impressed by it. I’d have even more faith that it’ll end up being a good anime since it’s running in the noitaminA block but Fractale’s extremely poor performance last season is still a little too fresh in my mind.

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That’s it for part 1 of the spring 2011 anime season impression countdown. Based on which shows I’ve already covered I wonder if anyone can guess my top 5 shows . Part 2 should be up in a day or so, that is, if this incessant rain doesn’t wash me away first.

Filed under: anime, first impressions