Only a month later then just about everyone else .

I thought 2008 was another very solid year of anime, with good shows to be found in most, if not all, major genre types. The fact that I became an anime blogger this year pushed me to watch more shows then I would have otherwise and I was rewarded in finding several quality shows.

Before getting to the countdown I wanted to clarify the status of a few shows. Last year, I decided to consider Kanon a 2007 show and the first season of Clannad as a 2008 show in the matter of ranking the show. The same reasoning will push the second season of Clannad to 2009 so for this countdown only the first season is eligible. Also pushed back are Xam’d: Lost Memories and Michiko to Hatchin because too much of the story was unresolved by the end of 2008. Toradora is getting split, the first 13 episodes will be considered for this countdown and the rest for the 2009 list. I did this because the show seems to have been structured in such a way that it could have been aired in 2 – 13 episode seasons.

10 Soul Eater

Shounen series were what got me into anime and they still hold a special place in my heart. One of my favorites had been Bleach but it had finally struck out from the combination of poor filler, failing to excite even when they finally got back to the storyline, and the appearance of Soul Eater. Soul Eater oozed style and felt fresh when compared to the well-known shounen series so I could finally stop torturing myself with Bleach and watch a better shounen show.

It wasn’t quite smooth sailing at first though. Up until about episode 20, the show felt a little slow. The individual episodes where good but collectively they didn’t feel like they were really building towards anything. That changed at the episode 20 mark and since then the show has really been on a roll. So for 20 episodes of good anime, 16 episodes of great anime, a unique style, a likable cast, good animation, and for showing that a shounen show can still feel new, Soul Eater makes the top 10 at number 10. Now, I’m just hoping the final 15 episodes of Soul Eater won’t disappoint.

9 Someday’s Dreamers Season 2

Count me in the small camp of people that actually liked the animation style of the series. It wasn’t perfect but I thought it worked with the subtle nature of the show because it helped deemphasize the individual characters. And the show was subtle which caused me on several occasions to rewatch a scene to make sure I saw what I think I saw.

This slice-of-life show had many excellent qualities: a diverse cast of characters that were likable, good vocal performances by the seiyuu, an interesting setting, an engaging story and memorable music. The one thing that prevented it from ranking higher was the ending. The ending itself isn’t the big problem but how abrupt the show shifts it’s tone to get to that ending. It could have been handled better; maybe if the series had been longer, they could have. I’d still recommend this show to anyone looking for a great slice-of-life show, just know that the ending will probably feel different then what would normally be expected.

8 Wagaya no Oinari-sama

This was a show that I really only caught because I was blogging and thought for completeness-sake to catch an episode or two before dropping it for being generic and fan service laden. I was surprised when I found myself starting to like the characters, especially with Sakura’s appearance in episode 3, and not being subjected to mindless fan service in the place of real content. So it didn’t get dropped like I thought it would and my opinion even slowly creeped up with each passing episode.

At about episode 8, I fully realized why I liked this show. It was always entertaining, it focused on the characters and allowed the characters to drive the events of the show, the story never felt stale and it could make you laugh or suck you in with a bit of drama. The show also ascribed to the K.I.S.S. rule – Keep It Simple, Stupid. It never tried too hard or made itself overly complex; it never relied on the latest meme or character type to be funny and entertaining. I wish more shows would follow this show’s lead.

7 Library War

The show’s slightly absurd premise and short episode count only mildly marred my liking of this show because this show seems to have been created with me in mind. I loved the idea of libraries creating armies to defend themselves from the censorship proponents and their thugs.

A quick way to describe this show is to compare it to Planetes because they share a lot of similarities. The big difference is that at only 12 episodes, Library War wasn’t as able to explore the topics relevant to the setting as Planetes was so it focused more on the relationship of the two main characters. I hope we see more Library War in the future, it was too good of a show not to want more.

6 Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

If you found this show’s warped sense of humor funny and odd visual style interesting then you’ll agree that the show belongs somewhere on this list. If you didn’t then you won’t and probably wonder what’s wrong with me.

I thought the first season tailed off at the end a bit too much but this season stayed more interesting throughout it’s run. I liked the introduction of more male characters during this season, it helped set up different possibilities with the show. Assuming there’s still plenty of source material, I would like to see a full third season in a year or two.

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Last year I had a single award given to the most memorable moment of 2007. It went to episode 10 of Manabi Straight when it’s revealed that the school festival will be held. This year, I wanted to go a little further in depth to spotlight my favorite episodes and memorable moments. Since I don’t want to spoil a bunch of shows for those readers that haven’t seen them yet, I’m going to just list these without explaining why. First though, there’s a couple final awards that felt like they belonged in this part.

Best Final Episode

Winner: Natsume Yuujinchou

How do you end a slice-of-life show and still give the show a bit of closure that non-structured shows normally don’t have? You do what Natsume Yuujinchou did and bring back several of the characters from the series and reflect upon how Natsume has changed over the course of the series. It simply was perfect.

Best Ending

Winner: Bamboo Blade

The ending of Bamboo Blade was able to walk the fine line that shows based on source material that continues past the end of the anime series has. It was able to give an actual ending that tied up the plot threads introduced in the first season. As well as slipping in a few tantalizing hints at possible plot points if there is a second season without these new characters and stories interfering with the feeling of a satisfying ending.

Best Show No One Saw

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Wagaya no Oinari-sama

If this award was based solely on the number of people that talked about the show then Wagaya no Oinari-sama would have won because I saw far fewer people mentioning this show. Wagaya was a good show and if the animation had looked a little better or if it had come from a more popular studio then it would been a huge hit. Kaiba did get talked about more often but I could tell that outside of the more adventurous viewers and the SF viewers, almost no one watched it. In the end, I gave Kaiba the award because they were both relatively unwatched but Kaiba was a better show.

Memorable Moments

• Ending of episode 1 of Ga-rei: Zero
• Tennis match from episode 18 of Clannad
• The play from episode 22 of Clannad
• Tomoya’s marriage proposal from episode 12 of Clannad season 2
• Iku Kasahara’s media interview from episode 12 of Library War
• Air reference from episode 11 of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
• The race from episode 13 of Toradora
• The Soul Ascension ceremony from episode 5 of Wagaya no Oinari-sama
• Sora’s first official job as a mage from episode 12 of Someday’s Dreamers Season 2

Favorite Episodes

• Episode 26 of Bamboo Blade
• Episode 3 of Kaiba
• Episode 7 of Kaiba
• Episode 52 of Hayate the Combat Butler
• Episode 2 of Natsume Yuujinchou
• Episode 7 of Natsume Yuujinchou
• Episode 9 of Ga-Rei: Zero
• Episode 2 of Toradora
• Episode 4 of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Next part of my 2008 anime year in review is the first half of my top 10 anime of 2008 and should be posted within the day.

Posted in anime, awards      

Or if I rearranged the words, the VMA Awards or the AMV Awards .

It is certainly possible for an anime show to be good or at least watchable without stellar music, voice acting, or animation; however, it does definitely help. For example, for the first half of Shana 2, the only redeeming features of the show was the well-done OP/ED, Rie Kugimiya as Shana, and the good animation. So this part celebrates those components of an anime that aren’t vital but significantly help it along.

Before I get to the awards I wanted to mention that I’ve been having computer troubles with the computer that’s connected to the internet. Between spending a day trying to fix it so it wouldn’t need a reformat, moving all the important files off so we can reformat and taking this opportunity to finally back up our digital pics onto dvd discs, I haven’t had the time to finish writing these or watch much anime. Luckily, I have an old laptop (it has a Pentium 3 chip in it ) that I can use to keep connected to the internet until it’s fixed.

Top Seiyuu “Discovered”

Winner: Marina Inoue

Yes, Marina Inoue is not a new seiyuu and I’ve liked characters she’s done in the past like Yoko from Gurren Lagann. What’s different is that before this year I never really paid attention to how well she voices her roles and recognizing when it’s her. It was the perfect match of her voice to the character of Kana in Minami-ke that really started my deeper appreciation of her work. From that point, I started to look for her roles and I continued to be impressed with how well she can match her voice with the character’s thoughts and actions.

Best Performance by a Seiyuu

Winner: Rie Kugimiya as Taiga from Toradora

Runner-up: Rikiya Koyama as Kogarashi from Maid Guy

Rie Kugimiya often will play the short tsundere with violent tendencies character in a show. It’s a combination that always will spice a show up and is one of the reasons why she’s one of my favorite voice actors. I figured before Toradora started that she really couldn’t surprise me by doing another short tsundere with violent tendencies role but it became readily apparent that I was wrong. While it’s still obviously her doing Taiga, she’s never been this good before. Some of excellence with Taiga is due to the great story but she’s definitely been a huge factor in taking a well-worn character type and making it feel authentic. When she’s tsun-tsun, her anger fits the situation and when she’s dere-dere, her love-sick attitude is realistic as opposed to when she was Louise in Zero’s Familiar where her personality was artificial and lacked vivacity.

Best Seiyuu

Male: Hiroshi Kamiya

Since no single male voice actor really stood out from the crowd this year, I decided to prepare of a list of favorite performances to see if I could find any overlapping names. Two roles on this list were Natsume from Natsume Yuujinchou and the Sensei from Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I was surprised when I found that Hiroshi Kamiya did both roles. The pair of characters are polar opposites; one’s theatrical, loud, likes to over-react and is prone to huge emotional swings whereas the other is calm, cool under pressure, mature, and considerate of other people. The fact that I didn’t realize or even think to myself that either performance sounded familiar speaks highly of his ability. As does the way he was able to fit his performance and delivery to impeccably match the type of character he’s playing.

Female: Marina Inoue

Marina Inoue kept appearing in shows I watched and kept impressing me with her voice work this year. Often the characters that Marina Inoue voices have to have a very scary and imposing “I’m ticked off” voice in their repertoire. Marina has one of the best angry voices around. When you hear it it’s easy to understand why the other characters wither when being subjected to it. And yet when these same characters are supposed to be happy, Marina can infuse their demeanor with such boisterous happiness that it’s contagious to the viewer. What really impressed me and helped her earn this award is that, even though it’s relatively easy to recognize a Marina Inoue role, each character is distinctly different from each other. For example, Kana from Minami-ke is the sneaky middle sister but Iku Kasahara is the energetic idiot in Library War and Chiri Kitsu is the angry perfectionist in Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

Best Seiyuu Cast

Winner: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Runner-up: Toradora

Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei inherited a large number of characters from the first season and added even more characters during it’s run. One of the things that is needed for shows with big casts like this is many distinct voices so it’s easy to pick out who’s saying what. With every additional voice used, though, the chance of duplicating a voice or picking a bad one increases. This problem didn’t plague this show though; in truth, almost every single voice used was unique and well done. I already mentioned Hiroshi Kamiya’s Mr. Despair and Marina Inoue’s character but the list goes on. Of particular note is the illegal immigrant Maria and the student that’s known as Kafuka.

Best Overall Opening

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Tastes in music are really subjective to begin with and for me this is compounded even more in regards to anime because I don’t know Japanese. Therefore any category that relates to music is going to subjective.

Kaiba’s opening was great on many levels. It had a song that was good all by itself and it helped get the viewer ready for the show by getting them in the proper state of mind. The animation used showcased many of the characters of the series and helped reinforce some of the core concepts of the series. It was also pretty to look at, which always helps as well.

Best Overall Ending

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Someday’s Dreamers Season 2

The ending got picked for essentially the same reasons that the opening got picked. I do think it’s a bit funny that the same singer of the OP/ED also did the ending to Chaos;Head and just about no one liked that song.

Best Overall Music

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Clannad

If the music in the series is average then I’ll not even notice it enough to form an opinion about it. Therefore, any show that I can remember some of the background music after the fact means it’s above average. The music to both Kaiba and Clannad are used to good effect but it was only Kaiba that had music that actively wowed me while I watched it.

Best Music Soundtrack

Winner: Somedays Dreamer’s Season 2

I often don’t like anime soundtracks even to shows that I liked the music because the full versions of the songs aren’t as good as the parts used in the show. However, I found that I liked the soundtrack to Somedays Dreamer’s Season 2 better then when the pieces where used in the show. One reason why I like this soundtrack is the wide variety of instrumental music genres on it. There’s a couple Celtic songs, a blues rock one and a synth-pop track to name but a few. I also think it’s entirely possible to like this album without ever watching the anime which is another way it’s different from most albums.

Best Animation Style

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

I think the reason most people thought Kaiba was an experimental anime was because of the odd animation style employed. It certainly does appear odd when looking at screenshots but it’s a totally different story when watching it in motion. I found that the style of the animation works very well with the story, it’s ideas and the overall tone. If the creators had decided on a more realistic or detailed animation style then I really think that it would have been an impediment to the show.

Best Animation

Winner: Kurozuka

Runner-up: Xam’d: Lost Memories

I mentioned earlier that I liked Kurozuka even though it was almost a purely action show. To successfully pull off that type of show and not rely on character development and plot, the action needs to wow us almost continuously. In anime, that also means the animation needs to impress and Madhouse’s Kurozuka impressed. It looked good, it moved good and it was artistic, detailed and imaginative.

Top Animation Studio

Winner: Madhouse

There’s no question that Madhouse deserves this award. No other animation studio had the sheer number of quality shows this year that Madhouse had. Some of there shows included Kaiba, Maid Guy, Kurozuka, Mouryou no Hako, and Chaos;Head. I’m surprised how infrequently their name comes up in the anime community when talking about great animation studios. And I hope 2009 sees more great shows from Madhouse.

Posted in anime, awards, youtube      

Soldiering on, this next set of awards cover some of the many different types of anime out there. I enjoy many of these types of anime and this sometimes leads to odd pairings; for example, I remember watching Kaiba and Maid Guy back-to-back on several occasions. There are a few categories you won’t see like best shounen or best shoujo because I just don’t watch enough to feel confident in those picks. Though I can say that in matters of shounen, Soul Eater is superior to Bleach and probably Naruto but I only watched the first 25 or so episodes of Naruto before I was bored of it – maybe it got better. As for shoujo, I liked Earl and Fairy and Skip Beat so maybe I should watch more.

Best Action

Winner: Kurozuka

Runner-up: Shana 2

Kurozuka is a bit of aberration for me because it never took the time to really do much character development and the story was only the barest of skeletons for most of the series; and yet, I didn’t mind because I was too busy enjoying the polished, pure action series that Kurozuka was. The fights where excellent and I loved when Kuro slipped into vampire bullet-time because I knew he was about to cleave a path of destruction through those around him.

Best Fight

Winner: The Sabrac fight from Shana 2

The best overall fight went to the Sabrac fight towards the end of Shana 2. Anytime a fight lasts for two episodes, it’s going to either feel epic or boring and drawn out; this fight was a stellar example of the first. The first reason is that all the characters where going all out, none of this “I’ll use 43.25 % of my full power” that artificially extends a fight. Another reason is that the good guys had to out-think and plan actual strategy to beat Sabrac and when they did get him, it wasn’t because Sabrac did something stupid to allow them to win. It also helped that by this point in Shana we’ve gotten to really like the good guys so it was like we we’re personally invested in the outcome. And the final thing that really made this an awesome fight was the way Shana and friends finally beat Sabrac, it was unexpected, theatrical, and just plain cool.

Coolest Weapons

Winner: Ga-rei: Zero

Runner-up: Soul Eater

Ga-Rei: Zero had one of the most diverse set of weapons I’ve ever seen. We had the standard sword and guns but we also had a guy wield two suitcases that shot small missiles, a guy that used a weapon that turned his hands into drills, a woman that had a Gatling gun for an artificial leg, a motorcycle that had anti-monster incantations in the tread of the tires – just to name a few. There was several more spare weapons that are shown like an iron that used holy water steam. And even some of the more standard weapons had their own twist like a sword that would use the recoil of discharging a bullet to speed up the user’s swing and also allow the wielder to change directions mid-swing very quickly.

Best Comedy

Winner: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Runner-up: Maid Guy

The year didn’t have many pure comedy shows that were genuinely funny but it did have many non-comedy shows like Clannad, Toradora, and Natsume Yuujinchou that used humor for great affect. Instead, many of the comedy shows like Kemeko DX and Kannagi tried too hard to either be different or be more then just a comedy show. Maid Guy was one show that did a good job remembering it was a comedy show and if the ending had been stronger, it could have won. Another show that never forgot it was a comedy and still found the time to comment on society and poke fun at people was this year’s best comedy, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I will admit that this comedy isn’t meant for everybody but it’s unique blend of comedy was something I just love.

Best Slice-of-Life

Winner: Natsume Yuujinchou

Runner-up: Someday’s Dreamers Season 2

You really can’t go wrong with either show but I gave the slight edge to Natsume Yuujinchou, aka Natsume’s Book of Friends, because it gave me a better relaxed slice-of-life feeling and I like the ending more. Natsume excelled at those areas that you’d expect a slice-of-life show to do so such as: interesting characters that develop over time and a story that can make the viewer feel a wide range of emotions. One little thing I particularly enjoyed was how everyone had a different name for Nyanko-sensei.

Best Science Fiction

Winner: Kaiba

Kaiba is a really good example of what’s possible with science fiction. It extrapolated a future to tell a story that would be impossible using our current level of technology but at the same time it was able to make the story resonant with us, the viewers. Another reason I was impressed with Kaiba was that most SF shows can’t match print SF in terms of depth, intellectual complexity, and creativity but Kaiba was able to.

Most Entertaining

Winner: Library War

Runner-up: Wagaya no Oinari-sama

For any type of show to be successful, it needs to entertain on some level so I’m going to define “Most Entertaining” as the show that the best at making me feel good after watching it. Library War wins because I enjoyed the characters and how they interacted with each other. I also thoroughly enjoyed when the Library forces where able to beat the censorship thugs, if only it was so easy in real life.

Best Mind Trip

Winner: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Watching Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a rather unique experience.

Every aspect of the show seems designed to give the viewer a very surreal feeling. There’s the animation – at times it’s very standard looking and other times it’s hyperstylized or made using various other mediums. Add to that the amount of text we see. Some of it on signs in the background, telling jokes and making references that oftentimes has nothing to do with what’s going on in the foreground. Other text is conjured by the characters to prove a point and will often fly by so quick that it’s only possible to read by pausing individual frames. And let’s not forget the use of a real picture of some guy’s hairy face. (I know he’s connected to the manga but can’t quite remember how right now.) He pops up multiple times in an episode and in various locations; though, he is frequently used when they want to censor something. The show also has a touch of ADD to itself and can feel like the show’s creators are randomly switching channels in their minds. I do mean all this, in the best possible sense because I like the uniqueness of the show – as you’ll see when I get to my actual top ten shows of the year.

Best Story

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Xam’d: Lost Memories

The story of Kaiba accomplished a lot in the time it had. The first half of the show focused on the main character, Kaiba, as he tried to figure out who he was. A more complex question when a person can swap bodies and add/subtract memories from their mind. It also introduced to the viewers many of the problems that mind uploading would present to society. The second half of the show focuses on the efforts of a terrorist group to usurp the king and Kaiba’s effort to reconnect with the woman he loves after her memories have been altered to further the terrorist group’s agenda. One of the things that surprised me was that I had thought, based on the rather experimental animation, that the story would be too artsy for me but it turned out to be very accessible and down-to-earth.

Most Interesting Setting

Winner: Kurozuka

Runner-up: Kaiba

The mix of the familiar with the alien that post-apocaleptic worlds often have is something that has greatly interested me since I was very young. In this case, the world of Kurozuka helped set the proper mood and make the show feel plausible instead of pure fantasy. I’m not saying Kurozuka was plausible; but, like how the recent Batman movies feel more realistic then the previous movies and series, the setting helped give the show a more realistic feel.

Posted in anime, awards