Yeah, I’m late with this. If you read my comment on the back-to-school post, you’d know that I blame the Guild Wars holiday event offering ridiculous rewards on a certain quest. Fortunately, said event is over and I’ve reached mostly endgame content, which bores the shit out of me generally, so less time on that and more time on anime. And this post. And/or other posts. And/or me procrastinating in spite of that. Or maybe that whole school thing.

Anyway. Final tally puts my “watched anime” list at somewhere around 20, plus a smattering of shows from the club showings. I didn’t follow up on many of the shows we watched in the club anyway, so they’ll be ignored. Plus, you guys (the 5 or so of you who actually read our blog here) probably saw the same amount of the show I did, meaning I really couldn’t offer much more of an insight to the show than you could yourselves. I will, however, be starting with an “Honorable Mentions” list, which is everything that was good enough to get me to watch it, but not good enough to hit my Top 10 for the year. Why? Because I can.

Having finished this, I also realized that I wrote a lot (almost 5000 words). I don’t have the effort left in me to go back and pare the whole thing down, so just put up with my rambling, mmkay? Feel free to skim/skip sections.

Oh, and general spoiler warning in the top 10. When I mention a show I think you guys might not have seen, I put short synopsis in the review, although I do try to be vague in the Honorable Mentions.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

K-On!(!)

Sometimes, you just want a little moe. K-On is moe, covered in moe, smothered in moesauce, with a side of moe finished with a dessert of cake. I sat through the thirteen episodes of the first season, and skipped most of the second. Season one plus a smattering of season two (for azu-nyan) should be enough moe for anyone.

Black Rock Shooter

I suspect that if the OVA gets continued somehow, this will wind up a later top anime list of mine. As is, it’s just way too short and a little vague. By the end it all mostly made sense, but it just didn’t have enough meat in its current form. A neat curio formed by a good idea snowballing into something awesome.

Amagami SS

Remarkably unremarkable. Exceptionally average. Incredibly normal. Amagami is obviously tailored to play to just about every trope you could expect from a dating sim or a romance anime. And yet, it wasn’t bad in any way, and the multi-arc format was a really good way to go about converting a dating sim, I think. I only made it through the Morishima and Kaoru arcs before skipping to ep25, but I’m sure the rest were just as enjoyable in the same way.

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi

There’s a scopophobic guy, tsundere girl, and their 7 or so friends in a vaguely shadowy organization that “loans” favors to high schoolers in exchange for their assistance with later requests, and pretty much every character is a reference somehow to a fairy tale (both eastern and western). Naturally, hilarity ensues, pushed steadily along by Satomi Arai (Shirai Kuroko from Railgun/Index) narrating the whole thing in her voice, which either has a good bit of mental baggage attached or just naturally sounds perverted somehow.

Cat Shit One

We watched this one on OVA night. CGI bunnies fight CGI camels in a Middle East expy location. Impressive to see a different take on what “anime” could be, and I do look forward to seeing the rest of the series when it gets made.

Tales of Symphonia: Tethe’alla Hen 1-3

It’s Tales of Symphonia: The Anime. If you liked the game, you’ll like the show. If you haven’t played the game, you might still like the show, but should start with Sylvarant Hen before these three. It’s a fantasy saving-the-world(s) story with nice visuals and a good soundtrack.

Iron Man

I only watched one episode. It seemed pretty meh, until some kind of mechanical monster that belonged in a super sentai series showed up at the end. One “lolwut” later and I was done with it. The only reason I mention it at all is because I’ve never dropped an anime at episode on before; props for being that bad Iron Man.

Squid Girl

Slice of life comedy anime where the main character is a squid-girl gestalt. I think this would have hit my top 10 if it had either had more of a plot, or dropped its one plot point altogether. Ika Musume continually references her intent to invade the surface world, but nothing ever comes of it, and we know this, so it just started to grate on me after a while. Otherwise, a decently written comedy with decent jokes and decent characters. Degeso.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun EX

More Misato, more Kuroko, more Saten, more Uiharu. It’s like an extra 30 minutes of Railgun, which I really can’t complain about except to say that it was otherwise unremarkable. If you liked Railgun, you’ll like this. Also, Fripside cranks out another couple of rockin’ songs for the show.

Megane na Kanojo OVAs

I. Like. Big. Frames and I cannot lie;

You other brothers can’t deny.

And When a girl walks in

with a little skinny bridge

and big lenses in your face

you get HNNGGG

That is all.

And now, the top 10. Not that I haven’t wasted enough pixels rambling already.

JACK’S TOP 10 FROM 2010

10. Kaichou wa Maid-Sama

Gotta start the list somewhere. Of all the shows that I liked but didn’t find particularly memorable, Maid-Sama came out on top and thus eeked into my top 10.

You may remember that we watched the first few episodes at a showing early in the semester (alongside Kimi ni Todoke, which I also liked but aired over 2009 and 2010, so I left it out like Railgun). Misaki Ayuzawa is the first female student council president at her school, and she’s trying her damnedest to get the boys to behave with just an ounce of chivalry. She’s burning herself at both ends of the candle to help support herself, her sister, and her all-but-bedridden mother, however, by trying to hold down a secret job at a maid cafe while staying at the head of her class. Of course, someone (Usui, the love interest) finds out about her embarassing employment position and hilarity (and romance) ensues.

I immediately noticed something different about the show. Usually (at least in my experience) RomCom anime will sacrifice either the Rom (hokey plot) or Com (lame jokes), which still winds up entertaining yet disappointing somehow. Maid-sama, on the other hand, manages to find a good balance between the two.

I suspect this has to do with how slowly the series plays into the romance angle. Rather than have the Destined Couple bump into each other in episode one, start hanging out in episode 2, and then begin awkwardly shuffling around each other in episode three through to the end, they don’t even start significantly playing off each other romantically  until maybe the halfway point of the series. There’s still plenty of hinting that the two obviously feel something for each other, but it was more subdued than I was expecting, which allowed the show to set up running gags and character traits that would ease the comedic burden later in the show when the romance aspect took over.

And, really, for all it did right with its comedy, Maid-Sama ultimately had to succumb to the fact that it was still a RomCom. The two flirt, fight, separate, have their relationship strained, have a challenger approach, and eventually wind up admitting their feelings to each other with a kiss set against a backdrop of fireworks at a school festival. As if it could end any other way, even though it throws in the requisite twists and subversions. Which is why Maid-Sama only barely squeaks in to spot number 10, buoyed by its quirky premise and well-executed humor overpowering its otherwise rather derivative love plot.

9. Kuragehime

The first of the two “otaku coming out” shows on my list. You may have noticed I skipped 9. This is because I had to call a tie between this and OreImo, which I’ll explain in OreImo’s section. For now, I’ll just cover Kuragehime.

Tsukimi is an 18-yr-old jellyfish otaku, and lives in a self-titled “nunnery” (read: girls-only-apartment) with a fujoshi, a train fanatic, a Romance of the Three Kingdoms nut, their landlady who obsesses over traditional kimonos, and a hyper-reclusive yaoi writer. Obviously, they’re all weird. Really weird. Socially crippled weird. At the mere sight of a “hipster,” they petrify as a defense mechanism. Eventually, Kuranosuke, a male crossdresser, becomes entwined in their lives as he tries to draw Tsukimi out of her otaku shell. Also, he starts to fall in love with her, but that winds up secondary to (but not entirely ignored in favor of) the actual plot of the series.

Said plot being the nunnery girls slowly emerging from their protective isolation and trying to join the “real” world to save their apartment complex from redevelopment. And it’s mostly a failure in the end. Everyone winds up exactly where they were at the beginning of the series. Except Tsukimi, who makes a little progress when she fulfills her promise to her mother (who died long ago) to “become a princess” by being shoved onstage in front of a throng of fashionistas in a jellyfish-themed dress she made herself. The entire affair requires a large amount of suspension of disbelief, but luckily I have to keep my disbelief tied down at all times when watching anime or it goes flying off.

So the entire thing is an inconclusive but heartwarming story about an otaku coming “out of the closet” while dealing with the emotions of friendship and romance that she should have confronted long ago, if not for the rut she got herself in by shutting out the outside world. It’s cute, it’s funny, but it’s all a bit contrived.

Also, Tsukimi is voiced Kana Hanazawa, but I’m sure none of you guys care about that. :3

8. Ore no Imouto

I’ve pointed out that I didn’t like this show before. Kirino’s a bitch who gets away with everything (teen model, popular, and a successful “writer”?). Kyousuke’s a spineless loser who takes shit from everyone without ever standing up for himself. The plot is entirely too contrived (even my disbelief can’t suspend itself on the whole novel subplot, especially the “date”), and the PLOT that occasionally shows up has no good reason for being there. The show’s only saving grace, in my opinion, is everyone who isn’t Kirino or Kyousuke.

So why is it on here? Because, in retrospect, I realized that it at least tried.

Here’s where I have to start comparing to Kuragehime. Both shows feature a closet otaku who starts pushing their boundaries and trying to reconcile their habits with the world at large. And while Kuragehime took the idealized path of a safe interest (jellyfish) developing into a socially acceptable profession of sorts, OreImo uses the more deviant, but also more probable, interest in siscon/lolicon games and anime to make it a much more serious matter for Kirino to go public with her secret hobby. The show is clear with how perverted her interest is, even if it’s played for laughs from time to time: there is no way a girl of Kirino’s age should ever be interested in the sexual fantasies portrayed in her games and anime. (Meruru literally gets called out on being a seinen show rather than a shoujo one)

And this is where it became necessary for Kyousuke and the rest of the cast to step in. Unlike Tsukimi’s simple obsessive reclusivity, which was resolved to a good degree by the actions of a single other person, Kirino (as headstrong as she is) would stand no chance if she just came out and declared her secret hobbies — her modeling company would probably drop her like a rock, and her friends at school would abandon her in a heartbeat (case in point: Ayase). So she needs a support net to fall back on when the shit does inevitably hit the fan; and thus, Saori, Kuroneko, and Kyousuke.

And I think this really would have made a great premise if it had been handled better.

Kirino’s vaguely incestuous relationship with her brother could conceivable have developed from her siscon interests — or vice versa. Instead it gets mostly played for laughs or fanservice. It was a great chance for some introspective psychoanalysis on the part of Kirino, ruined by the necessities of selling the same types of collectibles and memorabilia Kirino was addicted to.

The strangeness of Kirino’s hobby could have been played up more by putting it against more normal hobbies for a girl her age, or having her realize the actual target audience for the stuff she buys. Everyone except Kirino seemed to be up on the fact that the things she was interested in are not normal.

The fallout from her coming out could have been expanded on: all we see are Ayase getting all crazy at Kyousuke and Kirino, and their dad getting understandably protective of his daughter. This is good stuff, I have to admit. It shows off the misunderstanding/distrust directed at otaku in Japan today, in a reasonably believable fashion; there’s just not enough of it.

This brevity is, on the whole, what prevented the show from fully realizing itself. With just thirteen episodes, AIC Build had to choose between putting in enough examination of Kirino’s coming-out to make a lasting impression, and putting in enough anime staples to sell merchandise and turn a profit. I’m disappointingly aware that asking for something deep in just thirteen episodes is a tall, almost insurmountable order; doing something like that is a huge risk for a company to take with rather slim chances of success.

There’s still a handful of extra episodes to come, though, leading up to a “True End.” With any luck, we’ll see something better than the main series delivered, since the difference between a “Good End” and “True End” sounds like nothing more than a degree of cynism to stave off the comfortable idealism already present in the show.

So, to the explain the tie: Kuragehime and OreImo share a vaguely similar premise, but both dropped the ball on execution and really missed out on their potential. OreImo needed to make its main characters more likeable or devote itself more fully to exploring Kirino’s difficulties in coming out, while Kuragehime needed to be more developed in either its coming-out-story or its romance plot. I wish the enjoyable one had been more profound, while the profound one had been more enjoyable. Here’s looking forward to the “True End.”

7. Soredemo Machi wa Mawaitteru

I love slice of life comedy anime. You get to just relax and enjoy the ride, without worrying about romance, or big struggles, or thinking too hard. SoreMachi plays right into this, with surreal events that don’t impede the ride along the way.

Hotori is an absolute klutz who works in a maid cafe owned by a really cranky old widow who doesn’t serve tea. Just coffee and basic homestyle Japanese fare. Hotori (who thinks she likes her match teacher) and her friends Sanada-kun (who likes Hotori), Tatsuno-chan (who likes Sanada), and Kon-senpai (who likes no one) solve the little mysteries of life, like the spooky Hot Udon machine at the laundromat, the strange Rainbow Delight candy from the future, the mysterious alien gun that repairs things, and why Anubis makes a cameo in the last episode.

If you like slice of life comedies, give SoreDemo a shot. If you liked P-ko, give SoreDemo a shot. If you can’t stand P-ko due to the whiny, nasally, scratchy sound of Aoi Yuki’s voice, you may not want to give SoreDemo a shot. It was the number one complaint I found about the show online.

6. Break Blade

Honestly, the main reason this one is on here is because it’s fucking gorgeous. Pants-jizzingly, chin-droolingly, budget-destroyingly gorgeous.

Other than that, it doesn’t have much going for it. You could spot the main character from a mile away, knew the plot twist the moment it was mentioned he couldn’t pilot a normal quartz-mech, and there’s no way Rygart isn’t going to wind up playing the lead role in every battle he shows up at. Of course, if I was proven wrong on these, it  would be a pleasant surprise and a good reason to like the series besides an average (but not entirely unenjoyable) plot being held up by very pretty animation.

Did I mention it looked really good? Because it does.

5. Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Alright, KyoAni. I guess this makes up for that whole Endless Eight thing. We wanted more Haruhi, you gave it to us. All 2 hours and 40 glorious minutes of it. Same of us watched the shit-tastic camrip and are likely still suffering from degenerative terminal eye cancer, but that Blu Ray. . . hot damn that Blu Ray. 😄

*Ahem* That out of the way, I wouldn’t have put Disappearance this high if I wasn’t fan of the series (like 90% of everyone who watches anime, but still). It’s 2 hours and 40 minutes of Kyon doing his sarcastic, self-deprecating thing while the rest of the cast also does their things (although mostly on either end of the movie, considering the plot). And it’s 2 hours and 40 minutes of movie that’s well directed but will leave you rather confused as to WTF happened three years ago if you haven’t seen (or read, I guess) Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, although those of us who have only seen the anime are still left with unanswered questions about what happened in the last scene in the unaltered timeline/universe. (Season 3 pl0x, KyoAni)

Which is why despite the buckets upon buckets KyoAni no doubt spent on making Disappearance garners it a position at number 5, its nature as a part of the Haruhi series (which means you have to watch the series to be up to speed and fully enjoy it) keeps it from rising any higher.

4. Angel Beats

I cried at the end. So hard. I had to pause every 10-20 seconds just so I keep myself able to the read the subtitles. That’s quite the accomplishment. And a lot of the rest of the series had my weeping from time to time as well. “The effect of cutting onions,” as Gene put it.

I really wish Angel Beats had been a 26 episode series. It would have given some much needed time to devote to everyone who showed up to the office meetings and wasn’t Otonashi. It would have been great to have the time to give all the main characters their own horrific backstory that gets perfectly resolved so they can move on, since that was what I identify as the main purpose of the show. I watched this show for a bit of comedy to tide me over until I’m given an emotionally scarring backstory to cry over and then watch it get heartwarmingly resolved. It’s like this:

Introduce Character –> Comedy –> Sad Backstory –> Fight with something/one –> Resolve backstory so character moves on –> Cry for several minutes –> Repeat

There’s a plot, and a bit of romance-like something between Otonashi and Kanade, but this cycle is why I watched through it all. I can’t think of any other piece of media where I can enjoy the emotional whiplash that Angel Beats puts me through. It’s a unique sensation that I really enjoyed.

3. Katanagatari

Spots 2 and 3 were hard to decide for me. Eventually I decided to put Katanagatari here, due to the giant WTFness that went down in the last couple episodes.

Yasuri Shichika is the seventh head (those of you who know how to count in Japanese should be snickering right about now at the terrible pun) of the Kyoutoryu style of swordplay — a sword style that fights without a sword. His family’s sword style was deemed too powerful to be allowed to roam free, and thus he and his sickly sister are exiled on a faraway island away from civilization. The shogunate strategician Togame comes to seek him out to assist her with collecting Shikizaki Kiki’s 12 Deviant Blades, which corrupt their wielders (which Shichika, being a swordless swordsman, would not be affected by).

For twelve 40-minute episodes, released once a month for twelve months, the two fight (and naturally, defeat in the end) twelve holders of the 12 Deviant Blades. And Deviant describes them well — the “blades” range from an unbreakable straight sword, to a bladed suit of armor, to a pair of guns. It was fun coming back each episode, eager to see what crazy new sword ability would be introduced that episode.

The characters clearly had plenty of love put into them, even though most of the sword-holders are very one dimensional. The opponent who Shichika and Togame are trying to take a given sword from is generally defined by two things: who they were before the sword, and why they’re trying their damnedest to keep ahold of it. This is usually enough to drive Shichika’s inevitable twinges of angst as he fights the swordholders, who generally have some pretty good reasons to keep hold of the swords (like the shrinekeeper giving runaway girls confidence with her blade made of 1000 swords, or the kendo practicioner trying to keep her family dojo alive). The real stars, though, are the Maniwa Ninjas. They get curbstomped by everyone in the series, and have zero rep at the start of the series. But you just can’t help but feel bad for them, because they’re trying so hard; especially the Insect Squad and Pengin. They’re the best anti-villains I’ve seen in a long time, since their goal isn’t anything nearly so grand as ruling the country/world (at least not immediately), but rather to just make their clan known again after their absolute botch of the first sword-hunt.

The animation is crisp and stylized, although the fight scenes do occasionally suffer from the effect of a limited budget. You’ll see multiple arms in a screencap when things start to get moving fast, or even entire limbs disappear in a blur of speed (especially in the last episode). Despite this, I found the art style to be delightful to look at. Lines are bold and the vibrant colors really pop, even in backgrounds, unlike the usual budget-saving tendency in anime to have walls and floors just fade away at the edges and avoid drawing intersections. It’s very nice to look at.

As for that WTFness, well, I need to rant about the ending in detail, so in full knowledge that I previously warned you about spoilers in the Top 10, I warn you again:

THERE BE MEGA MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD. YE BE WARNED.

SERIOUSLY. THE NEXT FEW PARAGRAPHS SPOIL THE ENTIRE ENDING OF THE SERIES. I’M NOT KIDDING.

It turns out that Shichizaki wasn’t actually just a master swordsmith as was generally believed, he was actually a prophet who could see the future; he uses this power to make technology-powered swords and spark a rebellion to avoid Japan losing its chance at world dominance due to weak leadership. This part of the story makes sense, but is foreshadowed in no way whatsoever before the last 10 minutes of episode 11, wherein it is tossed into the audience’s lap.

And then at the beginning of episode 12, Togame is dying after being shot with the twelfth Deviant Blade. She tells Shichika that falling in love with him was part of some crazy plot her subconscious mind had cooked up, and would have eventually killed him in the end. And that she’s glad to be dying there so she doesn’t have to do that to him (because she really did fall for him). Again, somewhat believable, but in no way hinted at prior to it being revealed.

And then shit hits the fan. Shichika, like any good hero who just lost his love, goes into a coldhearted rage against those who killed her. He intends to throw himself futilely against them so that that he can die instead of living without her. He storms the shogunate castle, goes on an ass-whooping spree in which he destroys the other 12 Deviant Blades and their new wielders (Kyotoryu being the 13th Perfected Deviant Blade itself; also not foreshadowed) which is, admittedly, morbidly fun to watch, then kills the shogun and destroys the castle. He then lives to go on a mapmaking journey with Princess Hitei, the villainess for the majority of the series.

Wait, WHAT?

The rest of the series was a well-intentioned adventure featuring quirky antagonists wherein Shichika and Togame can overcome their major personal flaws (lack of humanity and coldhearted nature, respectively) together, but the ending just falls apart somehow. I can’t help but feel like the series needed just one more episode to really have everything wrap up more nicely, unless the original author just got bored with the light novel series or something.

SPOILERS END HERE.

Wow. Sorry about how long that turned out. It just really bothered me how badly the show dropped the ball with its ending, and I didn’t want to leave anything out.

Still, a very fun cast and a lusciously drawn art style combined with a memorable release schedule and runtime (anything to stand out, right?) are enough to earn Katanagatari a number 3 spot on my list.

2. Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.

Ah, Gainax. What would we do without our regular doses of LSD in anime form?

In case you didn’t watch this show, here’s the setup: Panty and Stocking are a couple of Bitchy angels, and the entire show an excuse to make large amounts of crude jokes and avoid the censor by swearing in English.

Or is it?

One of my favorite interpretations of the series is that it’s a deconstruction/parody of the hypersexualized state of otakuism. Some highlights of this theory:

The sexualized nude transformation scene is taken to the extreme; Panty and Stocking poledance to the delight of onlookers.

The consumerism mentality driven by sexuality in anime collectibles is mocked by the crowds offering to spend ridiculous amounts of money to buy the duo’s discarded clothing.

The oversexualization of everything in the show is needed to be able to get a reaction from the audience at all: it’s a desperate attempt to get the audience to realize just how desensitized they had become to sex in anime.

The duo are absolute reversals of the moe main character stereotype, English swears are thrown left and right to mock the tendency towards Gratuitous Engrish, the main pair are so important and famous and idolized that even when the art style switches completely, they are utterly unaffected.

It’s not an ironclad theory. There’s plenty of space and evidence to argue that Gainax really was just taking refuge in audacity. Even then, though, P/S+G is still something utterly new and fascinating to watch. The PPG-inspired visuals area nostalgic throwback to cartoons of our childhood days, and the vulgar humor eventually loops back around to funny from offensive.

Also, second season! GOD. MY. OHHHH!

1. The Tatami Galaxy

This was a no-brainer straight to the top of the list.

It has a unique look, which I like.

It has a cast of memorable, nuanced characters, which I like.

It has “time travel,” which I like.

It has well executed “time travel,” which I like.

It has a strong but not preachy moral, which is giant mega bonus points.

Really, this should be required viewing for college-age anime fans. Everyone else should be strongly recommended to watch it anyway. Madhouse scored a home run with this intellectual piece that doesn’t succumb to navelgazing or dry monologuing to deliver its message; it’s cleverly wrapped up in a story that gets you invested in the main character’s struggles to find his place in the world. The completion of his journey is the closure that a story like this needs to give the audience a sense of finality so that they reflect on what happened rather than look forward to a second season or an OVA or a movie or merchandise or anything like that.

Intellectual elitism aside, it’s also just damn fun to watch. Which we all have, I believe. If you haven’t, go now and watch it.

And that’s that. I’d throw together some fake awards or something if I didn’t think it would take me another week to get done. As is, I’m only just getting this posted before classes start. If you made it this far without skimming or skipping … good job? Go find yourself an internet cookie or something.