Hello!

Many of you probably don’t know me, but I’m a friend of Gene and Steve’s, and have met many members of the club. A few days ago, Gene asked me to write a list of my favorite anime this year, and when I had nowhere to post it, I was asked to come here instead. I’ll refrain from adding a bunch of information that nobody cares about relating to myself, and just get right into this.

It’s a common saying among all of us that “man, this year was an awful year for anime” starting from as early as 2008. While it is, in the end, not true (as most years are pretty much the same) 2011 spoiled us with quite a few top notch anime (including, but not limited to: Madoka, Steins;Gate, and Penguindrum) and it leaves a bit of a hollow feeling for 2012. Additionally, I (being the plebian that I am) have not watched some of the better shows that even aired this year, including Nichibros, Girls Und Panzer, and Aquarion EVOL. Aside from that, I think that this year will be looked back upon as a year of good anime with a few standouts, but nothing that will stand out forever. With that being said, onto the list! (Oh, and still no Full Metal Panic Season 3. Fuck you Kyoani.)

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Honorable mention: Guilty Crown

Before people start freaking out and asking how Guilty Crown could have possible been a show worthy of top 10 – it wasn’t. Guilty Crown was a pile of trash, matched only by the likes of ChäoS;HEAd and Psychic Detective Yakumo. Why does it deserve an honorable mention, then? Well, because I’ll be the first to admit that I hyped the ever-living Jesus out of this show. When I saw the trailer, the production designers, the Seiyuu, and everything else, I was the first person out yelling and screaming that Guilty Crown was going to be the anime of the season, that we would see something like the western film Crash, and instead we got, well, a Crash. Not a good one, though.

Guilty Crown was awful. It failed in so many aspects that I actually feel bad even hyping the anime up. There were many, many points when I was watching this with my girlfriend that we looked at each-other and went “What the hell is this?” So, Guilty Crown gets an honorable mention for being the shittiest shit that noitaminA has aired, even worse than Fractale. Fuck you, Guilty Crown.

The ACTUAL top 10.

10. Kokoro Connect

The premise of Kokoro Connect paints it to be awful, generic, and unappealing. Personally, I had no interest in this show until a friend of mine said that I should check out the first couple episodes. Instead of a generic, boring show, it was pleasantly surprising to see a show that could read and start off so uninteresting be, well, interesting. It had some definite miss-steps, but so do many anime that have potential for greatness. I was pleasantly surprised with Kokoro Connect, and it reminded me that watching an anime instead of just reading the premise is always a good idea.

9. Acchi Kocchi

For a show about nothing, and people being nice to each other to a degree of pain, both things I despise, Acchi Kocchi was, for some reason, hilarious. I laughed almost every episode, and it had a calming feeling that I’ve never experienced watching a Slice of Life show before. It had its fair share of amazing moments, including the parody of the legendary Evo Moment #37. I don’t think I would watch Acchi Kocchi a second time, as one time through is enough for me, but It still made me laugh where many other shows have failed miserably.

8. Fate/Zero

Fate/Zero was probably an excellent show. I rated it an 8 on both seasons, so it couldn’t have been awful, right? For some reason though, I didn’t really enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Ufotable, and Urobuchi Gen is an excellent writer, but for some reason, Fate/Zero didn’t quite click with me. It might have been that Gene spoiled for me who Berserker was in the 3rd episode (Thanks, Gene) or it might have been that I just don’t enjoy the Nasu universe. Either way, Fate/Zero was still an excellent show and one I enjoyed – just not as much as I felt like I should have enjoyed it.

7. Sakamichi No Apollon

Another joke common among our circle of friends is that Josei is saving the industry. Well, SnA did try to save the industry, but It wasn’t all together successful. The ridiculous love penta-hexa-decagon of whatever the hell it was supposed to be and all of the melodrama that was played out was…interesting to say the least, but Sakamichi no Apollon would have been about 10 times more successful if it was just awesone jazz music and less love penta-hexa-deca bullshit. But hey, it’s saving the industry!

6.  Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

This show was depressing. Everything about it is so at ends with eachother, and goes against everything, from the pastel colors in a clearly depressing world, to how the story progresses. I’m really not sure how I feel about this anime at the end of the day. It was incredibly depressing, but all the more beautiful for it.

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Going from the top 10 to the top 5, is in my opinion, a huge jump in quality. Therefore, I’ve added a little space here to emphasize this point. All the anime in the top 5 were significantly better than their predecessors.

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5. Thermae Romae

I’m not really sure if this should be counted as OVA’s or a TV series, but I enjoyed it immensely. At 3 episodes, the show rides itself out on its premise almost entirely, and manages to be amusing in places that it really shouldn’t.

4. Nisemonogatari

Ah, the -monogatari series. Bakemonogatari easily ranks within my top 3 favorite anime of all time, and Nise was the sequel. I think deep down, I knew Nise wasn’t going to be as good, but that doesn’t make it bad, either.

The entire -monogatari series in itself is a bit of an anomaly. Everything that I hate about anime is present, from the Circle-jerking, long winded dialogue to the minimal animation, to a huge focus on characters over story. Yet for some reason, In doing all of this in such a manner, Nisiosin and Shinbo instead create this amazing world that I thoroughly enjoyed, including one of the greatest episodes of anime I’ve ever seen. In terms of Nise, it definetly had its moments, including the one moment from the -monogatari franchise that will never be forgotten and forever remembered more than any other scene. I guess I do have the courage to admit that I am, indeed a pervert.

3. Mirai Nikki

I went into Mirai Nikki with incredibly low standards set for myself. When I originally read the manga, I marathoned all but the last ~15 chapters (at which point I had to wait, like everyone else, for them to be scanlated) and the ending of the manga left a very bitter taste in my mouth. Combine this with the god awful OVA that aired shortly afterwards, I had completely forgotten how much I had originally liked this series. The adaption was great. I was very happy with how everything went, and the ending to the anime helps to take away from some of the manga ending that leaves such a bitter taste in your mouth.

I wish more writers would realize how much impact a story can have at its end, and how it can really influence how people feel about a show, even if it is or isn’t good. Bleh.

2. Rinne no Langrange

There really isn’t much to say about this show. It’s another show that falls into the category of “Stuff I should hate by all means, but end up enjoying” and I really can’t describe why I liked Rinne, only that I loved it and watched each episode as soon as it was released. It’s a hard feeling to describe. Maybe my taste in anime is just turning into shit now.

1. Sakamichi No Apollon Abridged

Hey, I could try, right?

1.Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun

Remember that “Josei is saving the industry?” well, this is shoujo, but I have to say, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun was an incredibly refreshing take on shoujo romance, and romance in general. There wasn’t a ridiculous love triangle instantly (thanks shoujo/shounen) and there wasn’t a lot of fan service. This show reminds me a lot of Kimi ni Todoke, another incredible take on Shoujo, and if liking this show makes me a woman, then I’ll yiff in hell with the furries for liking Holo too. This show is unquestionably the standalone best show of 2012.

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I rarely listen to ED’s, but there were quite a few amazing OP’s that I would also like to mention (since apparently Gene said this was a part of it as well) None of these are ordered, just OP’s that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Jinrui OP

Mirai Nikki OP

Psycho-Pass OP

Jormungand OP

Tonari no Kaibutsu OP

And with that ends my Top 10 post. Thank you, everyone for letting me guest star in the CSM anime blog! Hopefully this isn’t too early, either!