It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Most would rate a year based on the best anime of the season, this is why we tend to look so longingly at 2008 or 2011. It’s fine to look at anime that way, since there’s only enough time in the day to watch the good stuff. When you start watching a little too much anime, that’s when you also have to look at everything else. Particularly, I’m speaking to the BAD anime; and BOY was there a metric ton of that this year. In terms of contrast between the worst of the worst, and the best of the best, this was the best year of anime we’ve had.

People throw around top 10s based on whatever flippant standards they have for anime, but mine follow the same set of rules:

• The show FINISHED in 2014
• No season 2s, movies, or OVAs
• Based only on author’s awful opinion in anime

This means that some odd picks that you may remember from last year will pop up on this list, such as Shirobako *hint hint future me*.

10. Akuma no Riddle

Also known as “Riddle of the Devil,” the story is about a bunch of girls living normal high school lives.

Their lives are about as normal as you’d expect from a batch of homicidal maniacs stuck in class with one another. They basically have a mission to kill one girl in the class. First to kill her gets anything they want. Problem is, one of the girls in the class would rather protect her than kill her, so she has to take on the rest of them by herself.

We’re kicking off this list on a high note again, just like last year. The issue here is that this show is obvious yuri-bait (girls kissing girls, you get my drift), but I’d be lying if I said it was the most-obvious one this year. Frankly, the show ran a tight schedule of jamming a lot of action every episode, and that made it a fun watch every week. The character dilemmas were pretty weak, and don’t even get me started on the ending. Still, the show rocked an A-list cast of voice actors, and it was nice not having to listen to the same 3 male voice actors every other show.

+Action-packed

+voice acting

-Gap appeal

9. Zankyou no Terror

Thank you no terror is about terrorism in Japan. You would think that it was trying to draw parallels with 9/11 or the subway bombing in the UK, but really it doesn’t.

The plot revolves around two young, handsome terrorists that don’t actually kill people; making them the WORST terrorists ever. Regardless, they succeed in blowing up a building and cyberterrorism.

What’s interesting about this show is the lengths the show goes to bring some realism to the series. For some reason they describe exactly how to make thermite, and some real (but dated) methods of hacking computers. Then, there’s the art; stunning, to say the least. Reflections off of helmets, water, explosions: totally unnecessary levels of detail throughout. Then, of course, the soundtrack is by Yoko Kanno. Yes, you can tell. No, we don’t need to say more about it. Please, I watch anime.

Where the series falls flat is in the plot, which gets pretty strained when they introduce Five. Who knows why she’d work with Americans to be worse terrorists than Twelve and Nine, but she does. A lot of uncertainty develops in terms of who’s on who’s side, really depreciating all that terrorism this show was supposed to be about. Let’s remember that very few people are actually terrified from most of these attacks. Lastly, they wrap it up with one of the worst love stories ever told. At least I knew it was coming. Fun fact, the writer for this also worked on the second season of Psycho-pass 2.

+Art

+Soundtrack

+Educational

-Zankyou no “terror”

8. Amagi Brilliant Park

Kanye West abandons his career in rap to manage a failing theme park. He can do anything, so there’s no reason he can’t do this too.

Obviously this isn’t a normal crumbling theme park, it’s a magical one made by people from another dimension. There are a lot of parallels with Disney here, and that’s really endearing. 50 cent already works at the park, and shows Kanye around. 50 cent’s description of various aspects of the park indicate that everything is magic, but obviously Kanye doesn’t buy it.

The jokes are all pretty on-point, but if you’re willing to check or play along with some of the more vague ones it’s far more enjoyable. It’s difficult to explain every little joke in the show, but we’ll try to go back to some of these character names. For starters, the main character, Kanie Seiya, has his name written as 可児江西也. If you play any mahjong, you should see the character for “West” in the last name (西) and “Kanie” should be pretty self-explanatory. Isuzu Sento is the other character, where “Isuzu” means “50 bells,” which is another obvious pun. Queen Latifa is also in the show.

The show is very funny, but doesn’t really stray too far from typical anime formula. This was a year for Gary Stu protagonists, and you’ll find one here. At least this one is willing to make fun of itself a little.

+Comedy

+Art

-cliché

-Kanye West opens a theme park

7. Aldnoah.Zero

This started as one of my least favorite of the year. Gary Stu was the name of the game this year, and there’s nothing I hate more than a protag that is practically perfect in every way. Maybe this is that self-insert thing, but I don’t get it at all.

Aldnoah.Zero’s title refers to a robot that it the best at murdering other robots. Aldnoah in general is some magic thing that powers all the robots. Anyway, people from Mars that look exactly like people from Earth are racist against people from Earth. I don’t get it but roll with it this gets better.

The plot is godawful, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to always bet on Urobochi Gen. Just in case no one has been paying attention to directors, he notably directed Fate Zero and Madoka (the one about magical girls with PTSD). This one was timed perfectly, and the whole show was worth the ending. Sure, some may call it a cliffhanger (it’s getting a season 2 in January), but really, I think I’d be ok with it ending right where it did.

The whole season was literally a buildup to the plot twist at the end, it’s great.

+Urobochi Gen

+Robots

-Inaho

6. Kill la Kill

Also known as “Kill la Kill,” the story is about a bunch of girls living normal high school lives.

Trigger didn’t really make enough money from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (or Dead Leaves, for that matter) so they threw together another over-the-top show about a young girl out to kill la kill everyone that looked at her the wrong way.

She’s out to find out who killed her dad and exact blunt revenge on the edge of a sharp half of scissors. Unfortunately, some other wiseass princess gets in her way and Ruuko makes a point to reason with her through murder.

Going through the checklist this show does everything right: Art, Soundtrack, Voice acting, and plot. It’s got all of the good stuff so now we’re already at the point in this list where anime starts getting REALLY subjective. Thing is, the show piddles about with a lot of filler from the start, but once it gets rolling it’s a roller coaster ride that never ends. Think Mr. Bones but fun (and actually ends).

I tend to dislike Shounen for the predictability, but this one’s got a lot to show before the inevitable ending rolls around. You know how it ends, it’s the journey to get there that really matters.

+Plot

+Soundtrack

+Art

+You get the drift

-Can’t show it at a good Christian anime club

5. Selector Infected WIXOSS

Also known as “Weak Sauce,” the story is about a bunch of girls living normal high school lives.

It’s particularly rare to see a card game show decide that selling a card game is secondary to telling a good story. WIXOSS is one such show that chose instead to tell a depressing story about what happens to girls when they make wishes a là Madoka Magica. This one’s directed toward young girls though, unlike Madoka.

The second season also completed this year, and that’s well-worth watching, unlike some OTHER season 2s this year. Not gonna name names, but it rhymes with psycho piss brew.

+plot, that was all right

+oh yeah soundtrack, that was good. I liked the dubstep.

+literally every single star that JC Staff keeps in a vault on-site voiced in this show

+/-Art ranged from dull to mindblowing

-Tad on the slow side

4. No Game No Life

Ok yeah, another sniveling Gary Stu otaku-pandering MC snuck its way to a decent rank on this list, but hey, it was really good!

Madhouse adapts a light novel series about games and gaming, and takes us to a world where real otakus honestly wouldn’t stand a chance of doing even a quarter as well as 『　　』. I’m a real sucker for a series that is passionately respectful to the source material, and makes it look good. The nods to familiar anime and games were noted, and it’s uncommon for references to add so much to a show that has no business making the references in the first place.

I said something about respecting the source material, but Madhouse had a stroke at the end of the series and accidentally skipped about 4 volumes at the end. Here’s hoping they chalk that up to making a mistake and just give us the Dhampir/Mermaid arc.

+If you play games and watch anime, watch this show

-Best of luck explaining it to your parents when they walk in during any scene involving Shiro

3. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

Ufotable’s got the Midas touch, and we’re all thankful they revisited this classic.

This was the next logical step after finishing Fate Zero 2 years ago, and holy hell, did that sell. No seriously, look up the sales figures for highest-selling anime of all-time, and you’ll find that one sitting comfortably next to the likes of Bakemonogatari and K-ON.

But, that’s not a good measure of anything, otherwise we’d have to start saying things like “Avatar was the greatest movie of all time” when we know that’s just not true. Ufotable is to the rest of anime like an HBO series is to network television: it’s movie-quality material next to sitcoms. I could nerd out on all the little qualities this series draws on the source, but ranking on this top 10 is proportional to the amount I write about it.

I love that this series stands alone, so no, you don’t need to have seen Fate Zero or the original FSN to “get” this one. I have a minor issue with the way every character basically spells out their motivations any time they do anything, but writing like this was never anime’s strong suit. Characterization is where it shines, and this one’s got it in spades.

+”The only people a superhero can save are the people he sides with.”

-”An imitation made by copying people should be turned to junk.”

2. Sidonia no Kishi

“Knights of Sidonia” is not a typo on a MUSE album, it’s a sci-fi anime that premiered exclusively on Netflix.

If you’re as pretentious of an anime fan as I am, you probably tipped your nose to the sky and refused to watch this show “because it doesn’t LOOK good.” Then, you probably had the gall to do the same thing to a show themed around fanservice “because I watch anime for the PLOT.” Well, I certainly had to put my money where my mouth is here, and when I finally got around to watching Sidonia, I only wish I had done so sooner. I made the mistake of starting it on a Wednesday night, with school starting bright and early the next day. I didn’t finish until around 4 the next morning.

It’s easy to fault the show for the playmobil-looking characters, and with little understanding of the plot to transparently complain of the MC being too “harem-y”. Sidonia’s about much more than that, though. The source work by Tsutomu Nihei is probably the most approachable of anything he’s written. Characters are not even the secondary, tertiary, whatever-ary focus of anything he makes.

The dude creates worlds. Worlds created by man where no man could possibly survive in in the first place. In recent memory, Sci-fi of that nature are rare. Sci-fi lately tend to focus on the characters: their quirks, who do they like, what they do – still fun stuff. When a show decides to throw back to making a society so engulfed by science that barely humanity remains (and thrives!), that’s real science fiction. Knights of Sidonia is written like a classic of its genre.

It’s another Gary Stu in the cockpit of this show, but don’t let it bother you. ~~~~

+A refreshing Sci-fi series

-They could have made it look a little better

1. Ping-pong the animation

This is the greatest show of the season, with everything I didn’t know I wanted. No, this is NOT a joke. (You have to say that any time you recommend this show)

Ping-pong is less about the sport and all about competition. What does it take to be a winner? Is it 10,000 hours? Is it just working hard and never giving up like all that shounen taught me to believe? Who is that guy that “wins” in the end, really? A lot of people imagine that, in any competition there’s a good guy and a bad guy. The good guy always gets down on his luck at some point and faces hardship, but through the power of friendship/hard work/eating vegetables the hero always comes through. This story is about the hero.

When one competes in sports – ping-pong or otherwise – there’s an understanding that people are playing against people. One would think this is the baseline, where the team/person that wins must’ve been the one that worked harder. Ping-pong rejects this premise, but still embraces the fact that in competition, people play against people, who all have lives outside of just the sport they play. People don’t just exist in the sport, they’re human beings too. This is the story of people that happen to play ping-pong, and compete to be the best.

Once again, you might’ve dismissed this on the basis of the art looking like a Picasso painting left out in a rainstorm. Truth be told, the OP to the first three episodes being a compilation of scenes used in the same episode shown leads one to believe that time was not budgeted well for the show and the OP wasn’t finished on-time. Yet, the art is more believably a stylistic choice, and the show wears it well.

There’s little else to say past the recommendation with a wink and a nudge without revealing too much about the plot. It’s paced well, it’s written well, and it’s a thrill to watch. Trust me, I am NOT joking.

+THE HERO APPEARS

+THE HERO APPEARS

+THE HERO APPEARS

-The art’s not that bad, get over it

Post-script

That’s all I’ve got. This was a fun year for anime, with surprise, disappointment, excitement, and a heaping helping of season 2s. I don’t rank these but I want to throw out there that I largely enjoyed the shows that continued into this year, and brought some closure. Stardust Crusaders this season was very much an “antagonist of the week” season, but with the conclusion coming soon, there’s a lot to be excited about. Hunter x Hunter finally ended, which only indirectly affected me because I don’t have the anime stamina to stick with a series that long. Responses to psycho-pass season 2 became my litmus test of an anime fan’s level of pretentiousness (if someone liked it, they probably aren’t a jerk like me). There was more Sword Art Online that taught me that anime characters can catch literal AIDS too. I watched all of Chaika this year, but the best I can do is shrug my shoulders and say that it was okay.

Look forward to hearing way too much about Kantai Collection next year.