Anime of the Year 2009

Time for my annual Anime of the Year list. How this works: I usually pick my favorite three anime series of the year. However this year I've watched a lot of different shows, and felt that I could bump the list up to 5 top shows. In previous years I allowed shows to be qualified as long as they were at least still airing during the year. This year I decided only to include shows that started airing this year only. Still wasn't hard to pick five, as there were quite a few good shows this year. So with the introduction out of the way - here's my top 5.

5. K-On

Oh, what a surprise. A Kyoto Animation series on my Anime of the Year list. What can I say? K-On generate quite a bit of buzz when it came out, and it seems to have died down a bit in the past few months, perhaps even seeing some back lash. But this moe-injected show was pretty cute and funny, and was really enjoyable to watch every week during it's short run. I can tell you exactly what I was thinking going into the show: "It'll be like Live A Live, but throughout an entire series". Sadly, that wasn't the case, and the few performances the girls did weren't nearly as epic. Still, as I said - very cute, and funny.

Mio is my, as well as many other people's favorite character. She's the band's sexy bass player. She's pretty shy at times, but somehow remains "cool" throughout the whole series, except for a few parts where she finds herself in embarrassing situations. Some of which are the best moments in the series. The other characters all have their own personalities and charms, but Mio is still my favorite. Something worth noting: the show's ending theme "Don't Say Lazy" is fucking amazing. It's easily one of the coolest endings to an anime that I can remember. Sadly it also acts as the girl's greatest performance in the whole series, and it's not even part of any actual episode.

If you were a fan of Lucky Star, or any other slice of life moe series check out K-On. However I understand it's not for everyone since there isn't much substance to be had.

4. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun

First off, sorry - the wiki for Railgun seems to be tied to the main series "Toaru Majutsu no Index". They take place in the same world, with the same characters. So hey - if you're interesting in Railgun, might as well check out Index. Anyways...

I liked Index, it was a pretty cool show, and if my list was bigger last year I might have included it. Sadly it got really complicated, and the show's name sake, Index, became a secondary character half way through the series. Luckily a side series based off one of the original series more interesting characters was made. Though... it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Where Index remained a pretty "serious" series throughout most of it, dealing with big battles and a rather convoluted plot. Railgun is actually a more lighthearted series, that only gets "serious" in the last leg of the show. Like K-On, there are many funny/cute moments, but it's not nearly as moe themed as K-On. Also the show is almost an excuse for fans to salivate over the yuri "relationship" between the series main character Misaki, and her roommate Kuroko.

I was expecting the series to give some more backstory on Misaki, her clones, and Accelerator, all of these things were part of her story in Index, and really it was the most interesting part in that series. Sadly none of the is explored here. That doesn't make the show bad, just different then what I expected.

Instead I got an interesting side story, that was entertaining to watch with my roommate every week. It's sad that it was such a short run, but that seems to be a trend among recent anime series lately.

If you liked Index, I'd suggest checking out Railgun. Also, if you didn't like Index I'd suggest checking out Railgun, just because it's quite a bit different. If you've never had any involvement with the series at all, well you might still enjoy it, but you'd be missing out on a lot of Misaki's story. And none of the Touma parts would make sense. But hey, maybe you don't need any of that.

3. Valkyria Chronicles

Again, sorry. The wiki page is tied to the game seemingly. Both have the same story though, so if you're interested - check it out. Valkyria Chronicles made it onto my Game of the Year list last year despite the fact that I never finished the brutally difficult game. Which was sad, because the story of Valkyria Chronicles is actually quite good. Luckily they were kind enough to make an anime based off of the game, and finally I was able to witness the whole story. Well... with a few minor changes.

One of the best parts about the anime is that it still looks pretty amazing, like the game. The animation is great, and the art is simply beautiful. Especially Alicia's various facial animations which are just fantastic to watch. And as I mentioned before, the story is quite good. Though it's a typical war drama with a few scattered moments of cuteness when the team isn't on the battlefield.

Though I guess it's worth mentioning the changes I was talking about. Now obviously I haven't finished the game, so I can't comment on everything, but from what I read they don't stray from the story too much. However, I'm guessing for the sake of making the show more entertaining - they made Faldio a major character. I was a bit put off by this at first, but ultimately it helps strengthen the story.

There's some pretty emotional scenes in the series, but that's to be expected out of a show that revolves around a war. Still, it isn't all doom and gloom. If you're a fan of the game at all, I think it goes without saying that you should check out the anime. Even if you know the whole story, as I said there's some new things to see anyway.

2. Darker Than Black: Ryūsei no Gemini

I liked the original Darker Then Black, and am honestly having a hard time trying to figure out why I didn't include it on my Anime of the Year list back in 2007. Having just watched the whole series again recently makes it even more confusing. Still... we're here to talk about the new season of the show.

Ryūsei no Gemini, or Twins of the Meteor if you prefer is a continuation of the original series. I'm not sure how many years it takes place after the original series, as details of what happened in between the two are pretty vague. It's a bit disappointing that we don't really get any answers about what happened at the end of the first series, but the new story is still pretty interesting. Plus it's nice to see familiar faces return.

Like the first series, RnG is mainly an aciton show dealing with people with special abilities. Also like the first show there's a bunch of conspiracies taking place in between the action. My favorite part about the series is that the idea of a Contractor is pretty cool. They have all these neat powers, but they usually have to pay some sort of weird price to use their abilities. It's an interesting concept that provides a few "what the fuck?" moments.

Accompanying those powers are all the interesting characters in the series. Not only do most of them look cool, but they all have different personalities and quirks. Which is weird considering Contractors are supposed to be emotionless.

If you're looking for a good action show, with a plot that's a little more complicated than clear cut good vs. evil, give RnG and the original series a shot. And if you liked the first season, might as well check out this way.

1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Ah, Fullmetal Alchemist. I was a big fan of the original series. Little did I know it deviated so much from the Manga. Not that it was a bad show, but the original anime was full of a bunch of filler and had some made up ending. Luckily Bones has decided to revisit the Fullmetal Alchemist well and put out a reboot of the anime. This time following the manga's story much more closely.

The first 13 or so episodes of this new series cover story events that happened in the first anime, after that it has been all new content. It was still entertaining to rewatch the old stuff, sans filler. It's some of the events that have happened since then that really make this my favorite anime of the year.

Sure, it's a shonen anime. Think of that what you will, I happen to love the stuff. I especially like the whole antiquated technology meets magical alchemy setting of the series. And while the characters might not be as deep as the ones found in a series like Darker Than Black, there are still some really cool ones, each with their own stories and goals.

It's nice to see a continuation of the story that was suddenly ended in the first series. The story isn't super complicated or anything, but it's engaging and there's enough mysteries and surprises to keep me waiting anxiously for a new episode each week. There's also some really good Opening and Ending themes in the series. The second ending is actually used in a pretty amazing way to end one episode.

I dunno, it's hard to describe why I like this series so much without going into specific story events and spoiling them. There are just quite a few moments where I get pumped up, as I'm prone to do with these shonen shows. Fullmetal Alchemist has been around for a while, chances are if you were ever interested in it you've checked out the first series. If not, but you are looking for a good shonen show, check out Brotherhood. It's better than the original, and covers all the story you need.

Honorable Mentions:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya Season 2: Yes, Haruhi Season 2 finally happened. No, it's not on my list for Anime of the Year. Why? Endless Eight. For those unaware Endless Eight is a series of eight nearly identical episodes that take up a good portion of this new season of Haruhi. It's pretty infamous at this point, and honestly I felt it ruined this season. Still, the rest of the season, all 5 other episodes or whatever are quite good. If you were a fan of the first season, check this out. And do yourself a favor and go look at the trailer for the upcoming movies "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzimiya" It's going to be amazing.

Eden of The East: This series started off so great, and then fell on it's ass near the end. I guess they wanted to save the rest of the series for two full length movies that are coming out. They might be good, but that doesn't stop it from really putting a downer on the series. It's a pretty crazy story though, and poses an interesting question: What would you do with a shit ton of money?

Bakemonogatari: Honestly, I was going to put this on the actual list, but I had such a hard time trying to think of things I liked about the series. It does some really interesting things, but at the cost of making what would otherwise be a really amazing series feel pretty incomplete. It still has a really cool story, with some awesome characters. And when you're actually watching the characters the series looks really nice. Sadly it doesn't look like they even began to scratch the surface of the whole story though. Still, Japan seems to fucking love it. Check it out.

The Sacred Blacksmith: This is easily one of the best looking, if not the best looking anime this year. The productions values are ridiculous, and the animation is amazing. My only complaint about it would be the length. The show seems to just get going when they wrap it up. Hopefully there will be another season in the works, because there is still a lot left to be resolved. If you like fantasy anime, this is definitely one to watch.