Best Anime of 2010

I lied.  I got one more post for you all and it’s basically my Christmas present to the rest of my team and your viewers who take your time to come to this site.  As a tradition, we award the best anime shows of 2010 but this time, we’re doing things a bit differently.  Regardless, here’s a bland generic picture of a 2010 anime to get things started before you guys have to click on the “Click here to read more button”.

How we’re basically going to do this is we picked a bunch of shows from the different seasons and gave each season a pick.  Of course, we have one runner-up who also should get credit for having a fun and/or good anime.  Don’t expect Sekirei ~pure engagement~ to be on this list because as much as some of us enjoy bouncing boobs, ripping clothes, and hot girls fighting, that doesn’t define anime.  Imagine what would happen to us if we followed that stereotype.

Winter 2011 Anime Preview

To me, a good anime blog keeps up with their seasonal previews.  That’s how I came upon myself – I simply typed up ‘2010 winter anime’ on Google and came upon Bokutachi no Blog.  That being said, this post essentially marks my one-year anniversary.  I have racked up 280 posts and covered more than 20 series this year.  Not as much as RandomC or some other sites, but still good enough I feel for my first year of anime blogging.  Blogging has been fun and with its ups and downs, I feel myself ready for yet another year and have decided to do something that I have been thinking about: I am leaving Bokutachi no Blog and joining CSW.   It was a hard decision to make but I give to you all my final and perhaps greatest post I have done.

Unfortunately, I do not have a guest commentator with me nor any of the other Team Zero members having the time to help me with this post.  No matter!  It’s now my time to shine!!!  Watch out, Yurripe-chan – SPIRAL is going to stomp on your little SSS ground.  Speaking of Angel Beats, I’m hungry for some mapo tofu, among the many of things this year.

Amagami SS – Ayajitsu Tsukasa arc

The ultimate arc that has everyone on the edge of their seats from the last several disappointing arcs of Amagami has finally ended after its casual run of four episodes.  Initially, Ayajitsu Tsukasa was voted as the most popular girl in the Amagami world hence the producers decided to do her arc last.  Plus, she’s the girl with the most developed problem unlike others who either can’t speak too loudly or can’t swim well enough or can’t continue their tea club.

I’m not pointing any fingers when I’m saying that this was potentially the most satisfying arc in terms of during and after.  I’m surprised that they showed that the two had a kid and even how Tsukasa changed her hair a lot.  No matter – she’s still sexy.  A sexy cunning devil at that.

Amagami SS Rihoko arc

There are many things that are going on through my mind right now as I keep asking myself how the arc played out.  There are many things that confuse within the whole arc and there are certainly more things that piss me off.  There are things that throw off the whole idea of Amagami SS when it could be toned down for the final arc.  Regardless, what could’ve been the arc with the greatest potential turned out to be a very dull and somewhat pointless four episodes.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it was necessarily bad.  I’ve been reading various blogs on the latest Rihoko-arc in Amagami SS and it seems that many bloggers wanted the best ending for Rihoko noting that she had the best-friend card.  True, while it did make me feel bad that Rihoko, being the sweetest and perhaps most innocent of all the heroines, got perhaps the lamest ending with the boy she loves, you have to remember that if she did get a “love” ending, people would probably rage and say that every arc is the same thing.  Then again, by giving the ending that they did, let the raging begin.

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls episode five

Already I’m busy posting up my episodic reviews just days after my ultimate comeback simply because I am fuqing awesome.  What I forgot to mention earlier in the comeback post was about the music in this show.  Now if you guys know me, I really like faylan’s music [see Canaan’s OP or Seikon no Qwaser OP] but this time, not only were the lyrics completely messed up and had no relation to the plot (maybe except for that “storm of flowers” bit) but faylan just undid any popularity she has with this series.  Of course, I’m probably one of the only few guys that actually pays attention to the music and lyrics while watching the opening and not the parade of samurai girls hacking away at the ground and getting in possibly cool stances for the camera and fanboys.

After the last episode, I figured that this episode would basically have Sen become the next Master Samurai.  I mean, it makes sense since Yukimura is no bigger a character than Sen and since Yukimura got her alter ego last episode, I imagine Sen would get hers in the next one.  Not much really to talk about in terms of predictions except that I hoped that Sen’s issue with kissing Muneakira would be a lot deeper than Rie Kugimiya’s tsundere characters’ tendencies.  Thankfully, I was proven right but interestingly enough, we were introduced to yet another character that I would imagine will eventually join Muneakira’s collection of Pokemon.

Bakuman update

I won’t be blogging this, but you have to watch it.  And you must read it.  Bakuman begins with Moritaka Mashiro, a junior high student, leaving his notebook containing a drawing of his crush and classmate Azuki Miho in class. When he notices and returns to the classroom after school, his classmate Akito Takagi is waiting for him with the notebook and tells him that he believes Azuki likes Mashiro too. He then tries to persuade Mashiro to become a mangaka and draw the stories Takagi writes. However, Mashiro is reluctant due to disillusion with modern society and the fate of his uncle, a formerly serialized mangaka who died from overwork trying to regain that status.  Later when Takagi calls Mashiro in which he is told that Takagi confess to Miho, Mashiro runs down to Azuki’s house to find Takagi waiting for him. Takagi then calls for Miho and tells her that he and Mashiro are aiming to be mangaka. Mashiro then learns that she wants to be a voice actor and Mashiro, thinking of the romantic misadventures of his uncle, proposes to Azuki who accepts under the condition that they will only marry after both achieve their dreams. With a goal before him Mashiro sets out to make this dream a reality. His goal is to have Azuki voice the heroine of the anime adaptation of his manga. Due to the highest probability for success, he and Takagi vow to become serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump and attempt to become the most popular manga in that magazine.  Great show.  Obviously the big project this season, and for good reason too.

You might wanna watch: Yosuga no Sora

For those of you that didn’t know, this anime is an eroge that was released in 2008 for the PC.  For those of you that paid attention to our season preview, I mentioned that I played the game and successfully accomplish all routes in it, and then I went on how deep the story was when it actually is just a game where you try to get with all the different girls in the different routes.  Same can be said about Amagami SS, although this PS2 is not an eroge.  Unfortunately after watching the first four episodes of Yosuga no Sora, I realized that feel./AT-X were basically doing what Amagami SS is doing – different four episode arcs for different girls with Haru getting with each one in some event through each arc.  And sadly, I can’t bother watching more than one anime that has parallel love arcs.

That probably means I won’t bother watching continuing this series let alone blogging it – it’s simply just too much and that’s not even getting into the content of the anime.  This show actually has a lot of deeper meanings that people wouldn’t know about unless you played the game and my head actually is starting to hurt.  Plus, the artwork in the game is a lot better than the artwork in the show with greater detail and more attention to the shadows (after watching Bakuman, I feel like a pro-mangaka MWAHAHAHA), and when the voice cast is the same as it is in the game, I find no real reason to basically watch a story I already know in lower quality.  Then again it has a lot of serious issues, both romantic and not, that are actually pretty decent for anyone to deal with, so you might want to check it out before you judge me and my post.

You should be watching: Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

This essentially acts as my ultimate return from my tired venture up into the North.  You see, I have been shipwreck for the past couple of weeks without any sort of internet and have been feeding off mice, lizards, and the occasional seagull.  Despite the stereotype of deserted islands having nobody, my deserted island was filled with people from the roaring 1950s and I was soon treated as a deity among the natives.  More on that later.

The new shows for this season are heavily disappointing.  Apart from three or four shows, I find that none of them are particularly worthwhile to watch.  Of course, my return post has to be nothing short than epic but first of all I’d like to thank blindability for keeping up the site while I was on my journey.  Poro and Loba also can take credit with their interesting Baneling and Iron Man post as well.  Anyways, first post will be on the show you should be watching other than Bakuman (if you’re not watching Bakuman, I can’t speak to you): Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls.