Well, this has been an up and down year for anime. I am getting a little more critical of anime, and i have a lot less time to watch these days, but there were a few gems in the mix. Criteria for me is rather simple. Have i seen it and did it air in 2008.
Best Comedy: Hayate no Gotoku
HM: Minami-ke Okawari
Not a terribly difficult choice. Crop of Comedies this year was quite thin. Hayate was simply an off the wall Otaku pleasing anime. Constant pariodies and halirous characters makes this the best comedy of the year. Minami-ke was funny, and might have won any other year.
Best Romance: Ef A Tale of Memories
Honerable mentions(HM): True Tears, Clannad
Another easy choice. Ef was an amazingly detailed and emotionally powerful anime. While short of the original it was still the best of 2008. True tears fails to win simply because i didn't watch it. A lot of great reviews made my honerble mentions list. Clannad i felt was powerful, but fits better in other catagories.
Best Action: Gundam 00
HM: Soul eater, Code Geass
Gundam 00 does not dissapoint. The series start left be much to desire as i expect more explosions and destruction by our heros, but by the end of the year it managed to pull off amazing action scenes and epic fights.
Soul eater has good action scenes, but was few and far between. Code Geass simply wasn't as good as Gundam 00
Most WTF: Code Geass
HM:Chaos Head
Not really a competition. This is like something straight out M night shamalan. Constant plot twist left us guessing if anyone we knew was dead was really dead, and nobody was character shielded. Chaos head has a very WTF plot, but no real plot twists.
Best Mecha: Gundam 00
HM: Code Geass
Tried to avoid giving two awards to one show, but there is little doubt in my mind this deserves to win two. Many will argue that code geass deserves this title, and i disagree. The mech designs are much weaker, yes even guren and lancealot falls to the mighty 00 and cheurdim. A also simply felt gundam 00 was a better series overall.
Best Soundtrack: Macross
No HM here. The soundtrack to macross was fantastic and without equal. Every episode seemed to feature a new song, and everyone one of them amazing.
Best Fanservice: Sekirei
Pretty fun anime. Nice plot that reminded me of the battle royal in Fate/Stay night, only about 8 times bigger. A nice dash of humor adds a nice touch to a still medeocre anime.
Best Visual: Clannad
HM: Macross
The other world scenes are still as fluid as ever. with soo much detail in every episode every drop of emotion is amplified. Macross had its moments, but some episodes simply fell off the animation cliff.
Best Male: Yuuto (Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu)
HM: Michael(macross), Setsuna (gundam 00), Lelouch (code geass)
I felt this little known anime deserves some recognition so in a unexpected turn, Yuuto wins in a crop of high powered, adenaline pumped action heros. He wins for being one of the rare male leads in a romance/comedy that is not a complete idiot. He knows when to ask the right questions and always knows what to say. Michael, Setsuna, and Lelouch may all have had the brawn, but only Yuuto had the brain and heart.
Best Female: Hinagiku (Hayate no Gotoku)
HM: Tomoyo(Clannad), Horo (Spice and Wolf)
Hina is very close, if not the perfect female character. She definatly wins best female of the year, and has became my favorite female of all time. She is cute, strong, kind, and funny. Her secret love of Hayate goes unfufilled because she knows he has eyes for someone else, but she still puts on that cheerful face wholeheartedly. Any guys dream girl. Tomoyo's appearance in 2008 was rather limited and Horo simply missed the charm quality Hina had. To me, this wasn't even close.
Best Villian: Ali al Saches (gundam 00)
HM: Schneizel, Charles vi Britannia (code geass)
IF the goal of a villian is to make you hate his guts, Ali is by far the winner. He plays a perfect enemy to Setsuna, Lyle, Teirea, Saji, and Nena on a personal level. While i disagree he is the best pilot in the series, he definatly has the skills to back up his arrogance. Charles and Schneizel are interesting, but they dont make me want to see him mangled by every character in the series like Ali does.
Worse Character: Suzaku (Code Geass)
HM: Louise (gundam 00), Nena (Code Geass)
Unlike the above catagory, these characters are just annoying and wont die like we want them to not because they play an important role, but because we are sick of seeing them. Suzaku has no morals, no ideals and runs around like a chicken without a head trying to avenge his dead princess which was not Lelouch's fault. Then by the end of the series, in a span of 3 mins he forgets all of it and joins him and takes out Kallen. The whole redemptions thing for all the Code geass charcters simply didn't work for Suzaku. Table girl is rather MIA in 2008 so her annoyance wasn't as bad. Louise could have easily won this any other year and gives suzaku a run for his money with the same betraying ideals mentality that landed Suzaku here.
BEST ANIME OF 2008: Gundam 00
To all those who say code geass was the best anime of the year, i disagree. Gundam 00 was jamed packed with action, great villans, amazing fight scenes, moments of shere halarity, and deeper plot than just thorwing plot twists around everywhere. Its one of the few shows i sit at the edge of my computer waiting for that download bar to reach 100. Cherudim impressed me with its nice design that made the blockness come in handy later (bit shield FTW) and the 00 is one of the most pwnage suits in gundam. Every kill is a feast for the eyes.
Well thats it for this year. Note these are only my personal opinions on the year that was 2008 so dont get your panties in a bunch if i didnt give your show the win.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
Well for best action anime I would have to go with D. Grey-Man for the awsome fight sceens and the amazing plot. But you have never seen D. Grey-Man.
Anyway I also disagree with your best male, who in my opinion is Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji, but I have never seen half of what you are talking about so I really can't comment.
I have to say that the best villan for me would have to be the Millenium Earl and the Noahs from D. Grey-Man. They are really well rounded characters who at some points you actually feel bad for. Somehow the villians in D. Grey-Man don't always seem like villans but then once again they surprise you.
Lastly I say that the best anime of 2008 for me was D. Grey-Man but once again you have never watched so you can't tell me what you think of it. My points are firstly that Gundam 00 has really disappointed me as of late. The Gundams haven't really been all that special and they have only really been using 00 and Cheridum, and shafting Arios and Serevee. There is more cheese in this season than the last, and it is really starting to hurt because it was such a good series. Also contrary to the typical belief, D. Grey-Man is not the typical battle manga with the hero that is overly cocky and extremly powerful. There is a general like-able feeling about all the characters, even the villans and you find yourself lost in the world of exorsists and Akuma. The battle scenes arn't few and far between but there is at least one every episode if not more. Also they don't play up one suit or character as much as 00 or other series. Each character is focused on equally and each and every character always finds some way to surprise you.
Anyway thats how I feel. I don't really watch comedies and romances and there are tons of animes that I didn't watch that you put on your list so tell me what you think of my little disagreements.
Well, i can't comment on D-gray man or Kuroshitsuji. Gundam 00 was definatley the best overall anime of the season for me. While it would be nice to see the gundams pick off a few more kills, its nice we wont have Strike-Freedom type uberpwnage so the battles will be actually exciting.
I do admit Arios/Alle/Halle will find little reason to like second season, i still hope he will show off real skill soon.
Thank You for the second bit! Watch D. Grey-Man and Kuroshitsuji. Kuro is a little fluffy for you I guess but D. Grey-Man is amazing for so many different reasons. One of these days I will make you watch!
Post a Comment