Support NeoGAF

[SDBurton]

10.) Gokujyo

Hilarious comedy that I believe flew under most people's radar earlier this year. Toss in a gangster sister, airheaded friends, a hardcore lesbian, and a cocky, perverted female lead and you have one of the most ridiculous shows to premier this year.

9.) Binbougami ga

Another show that had amazing gags with inside jokes ranging from DBZ to Rosario Vampire. Not to mention they had Ranmaru who is probably the most shounen girl ever.

8.) Teekyu

Probably one of my favorite shows from this fall season. You may be wondering why a an anime that only airs for 2 mins a week deserves a spot in the top 10, but this show has some amazing jokes and delivers them ridiculously fast. All of the characters are likeable, with Marimo being my personal favorite

Spoiler

(the girl with her classmate's panties on her head)

.

7.) Nisemonogatari

Was a fan of Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari was pretty solid in my eyes. 'Nuff said.

6.) Rinne no Lagrange

Mecha? Check. Interesting characters? Check. Yuri? Triple check. While season 2 kind ended with a sputter, it still had its moments (as pictured above). So with that it snags the number 6 spot.

5.) Girls und Panzer

Sleeper hit show of the fall season. I was incredibly skeptical of this, so to find out that it's not only decent, but actually a joy to watch I had to put this in my top 5. Never would I have expected to be holding a show about girls driving and blowing up other tanks in higher regard than Rinne no Lagrange; a show that pretty much had a 3-way relationship of yuri.

4.) Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb

SHAFT's best show. Don't know what happened behind the scenes, but this season had more yuri-goggle moments than the previous seasons combined. I'm not sure if I should even say 'goggles' because the scenes in question were pretty straightforward. Anyway, great characters, great supporting cast (Natsume is the best!), and great visuals. A definite must see.

3.) Jojo's Bizzare Adventure

Man... this show. The fighting, the dramatics, the music, all of it just feels right. If it wasn't for the hype train that was passing through when it first began I would've missed out on one of the best shows that premiered this Fall. I also give a show bonus points when they can transition into their ED seamlessly, so you can imagine my enjoyment when they pulled that off beautifully with 'ROUNDABOUT'; the best ED theme of 2012.

2.) Smile Precure

Smile Precure is definitely one of the best installments to come out of the Precure series. While I have only seen Fresh, Suite, and only a quarter of HeartCatch Precure, this show has provided some of the coolest fight sequences I have ever seen from a show of its genre. Sure you have the cute super power finishers that you would expect, but soon enough you'll see these girls tapping dat shounen power in their hearts and beating the hell out of their foes. I'm not talking about that love tap garbage either, I'm straight up saying some Bleach shunpo blitzing, Gundam beam blasting shenanigans.. And it's fucking awesome.

1.) Yuru Yuri

It has "Yuri" in the title, so you already knew it was going to be successful. All the characters, Akari, Yui, Kyouko, even Chinatsu were fantastic. But what made this show really stand out was the supporting cast that had wonderful chemistry with the main leads as well as each other. Akari who tended to vanish into the background (quite literally at times) shone the brightest when time was fortunate to focus on her. Group her with the energetic Kyouko, the straightman Yui, and the two-faced lesbian Chinatsu and you have a godlike quartet of hilarity.

 

[amishpriest99]

No votes for the K-ON!! movie?!

AnimeGAF am disappoint.

I think someone missed my post on the first page...

 

[sleepykyo]

1. Fate/Zero 2nd Season; Waver+Rider bromance, delicious betrayals and Kiritsugu.

2. Chihayafuru; I love the way individual players' personality came across in their play

3. Kuroko's Basketball;

4. Natsume Yuujinchou Shi; Still an entertaining tale of supernatural beings.

5. Dusk Maiden of Amnesia; Takes about 3 episodes to get going. After that it becomes one of best shows of the season.

6. Girls und Panzer; Those that look past the moe and ridiculous premise will find some amazing cinematography during the tank battles.

7. Humanity has Declined; The end of humanity has never been more amusing. Oh and bleeding bread.

 

[duckroll]

Which wouldn't be a problem if one only watches a select few episodes.

But as the person doing the recommendation, armed with the knowledge I have, it would be irresponsible to promote the show in any positive light at all, knowing how bad it is, and knowing how no one who worked on it deserves to be recognized for anything simply by enabling the existence of the show.

Recommending good episodes in an uneven series is great. Recommending anything in a series that is not only dogshit but something that is actively offensive is not something I will ever do.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

And I doubt anyone gives a shit, but my favorite OP/ED of 2012:

OP:
1. Kalafina - To The Beginning (Fate/zero S2 OP)
2. Aoi Eir - Innocence (Sword Art Online OP2)
3. Nana Mizuki - Fearless Hero (Dog Days' (Dash) OP)
4. FLOW - Braveblue (Eureka Seven Ao OP2)
5. LiSA - Crossing Field (Sword Art Online OP1)


ED:
1. Black Raison d'etre - Inside Identity (Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! ED)
2. (shared) Haruna Luna - Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau (Fate/zero S2 ED), Kalafina - Manten (Insert ED for Ep.18/19)
3. Haruna Luna - Overfly (Sword Art Online ED2)
4. Ho-kago Tea Time - Singing! (K-ON! Movie ED)
5. fumika - Umikaze no Brave (Robotics;Notes ED1?)

 

[Unknown Soldier]

No votes for the K-ON!! movie?!

AnimeGAF am disappoint.

Several people voted for it.

 

[Gutsy Frog]

But as the person doing the recommendation, armed with the knowledge I have, it would be irresponsible to promote the show in any positive light at all, knowing how bad it is, and knowing how no one who worked on it deserves to be recognized for anything simply by enabling the existence of the show.

Recommending good episodes in an uneven series is great. Recommending anything in a series that is not only dogshit but something that is actively offensive is not something I will ever do.

Man, you hate Fujiko far more than I do. It annoyed the fuck out of me but I still recommend the few episodes that I actually had fun watching.

 

[Defuser]

1. Tsuritama - Hot blooded shonen fishing against the odds.
2. Hyouka - High artistic production values as usual by KyoAni
3. Jojo's Bizzare Adventure - It's jojo nuff said
4. Girls Und Panzer - A surprising show about tank action and strategy instead of the usual pandering
5. Daily Lives of Highschool Boys - Gintama high school version.
6. Binbougami-ga! - Another comedy sunrise show by the Gintama team.
7. Accel World - Better than SAO
8.Sakamachi no Apollon - Mid performance is good enough for me to get into the top 10
9. Kokoro Connect - Despite over the top drama the VA is excellent and really put in the emotions.
10. Ano Natsu - Team Kanna for life!


Honourable mentions :
Psycho Pass, Chihayafuru, Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Magi, Chunnibyou, Robotics;Notes, Another, Nyaruko, Phi Brain, Persona 4, Space Bros, Themae Romae, Shin Sekai Yori, Yuru Yuri, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojou, Moyashimon Returns, Jinrui wa suitai shimashita, Rinne no Lagrange.

Dishonourable mentions:

Sword Art Online Sword Art Online Sword Art Online Sword Art Online Sword Art Online Sword Art Online

Eureka 7 : AO - The ending invalidate and probably killed the franchise.
Nisemonogatari - Pointless ramblings by Nishio Oshin and toothbrush.

 

[wonzo]

Recommending good episodes in an uneven series is great.

Which really isn't any different from recommending good episodes in a bad series like Fujiko Mine!

 

[duckroll]

Which really isn't any different from recommending good episodes in a bad series.

It's different if I feel the bad series is offensive and should never have existed.

 

[chickdigger802]

1) Yuru Yuri S2 ; show is fucking awesome and cute and stuff and what.
2) Hunter x Hunter ; Great adaptation, great pace, great animation. Wish they didn't use the same OP all the time though.
3) Bodacious Space Pirates ; Fantastic show that touches all my interests of cute, hardcore space science, space naval combat, slice of life.
4) Tari Tari ; great glee like show with great va and flat faces.
5) Tantei Opera Milky Holmes Dai-2-Maku ; fucking insane of the best type.
6) Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun ; surprise show that ended up quite good with great chemistry and Natsume <3
7) Polar Bear Cafe ; Fantastic show with animals. Don't suck me up~!
8) Space Brothers ; Pacing is a bit sluggish at times, but this show has the most 'feels' yet. Soundtrack of the year.
9) Nyaruko-san ; crazy hyperactive crazyness of references. loved it.
10) Smile Precure ; great cast, great transformations, best precures since heartcatch.

 

[Thoraxes]

1.) Humanity has Declined;

This is basically the funniest show of the year and the most interestingly written. Dark, witty, sarcastic, and dystopic, the show is filled with likable characters, concepts, and a twisted and demented view of the world in a dim future that uses its disconnect with the present as an incredible strength through creating new innovation/hardships/technology of the human race, but simultaneously draws on it to create hypothetical answers to what has become of everything we are familiar with in our present day and age.

From Time Paradog to Curly, the show delivers on its premise through Watashi, someone that is not only skeptical of society and the ulterior motives of everyone around her (and is a little misanthropic), but she judges everything around her with great insight, thought, and rationalization (mostly only caring about herself at times), which leads to interesting character growth

Spoiler

once you figure out the correct order of the episodes and the timeline.

Watashi is a lot like many of us (judging by the later episodes), and seeing that part of my brain and personality be the main character of a show was just awesome.

My favorite type of writing/shows/movies are dark comedies.

It was pretty to look at with an interesting art style and color palette (and dat gorgeous Watashi cotton-candy hair), the voice acting was wonderful from all parties involved, and the faries were just awesome. The civilization creation episode? Genius. The ED is also one of the best of the year, with Yume no Naka no Watashi no Yume just being great.

Spoiler

I liked the nano.RIPE OP. Deal with it.

And man, Miyuki Sawashiro was great as Y.

2.) Jojo's Bizzare Adventure; SO NO CHI NO SADAME... JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JOOOOOO
3.) Fate/Zero 2nd Season; Great action, great foil to Kiritsugu in Kotomine, great story and character interaction, great demented parts, Waver and Iskander's bromance, loli Rin. What more do you want?
4.) Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb; This show makes me berry happy, you guys have no idea. It pretty much is just the greatest and will calm your heart with all the wide and warmness the world will ever know.
5.) Rinne no Lagrange S1; Fun, cute girls, robots, clean art-style with nice colors, and an easy to follow story. Mix in a genki hot-blooded pimp-ass (to all genders) protagonist, and you have this show in a nutshell. (Edit: just read the OP and see you split the cours into two separate votes I don't wanna push GuP out of my 10 so I guess i'll just leave S2 out for now. If I did push things out, I would like to put S2 at number 6, but I can't disturb my balance I took a while to think about.)
6.) To Love Ru Darkness; I love this smut and Yabuki has truly ascended to godhood. Having it animated is even better.
7.) Joshiraku; It's a Kumeta stream of conscioussness word-dump. I love his word-dumps and trains of thought even more than NisiOisiN's. Stream of conscioussness tends to be my favorite kind of writing style because of the shift and interconnectivity between subjects and their relations.
8.) Medaka Box Abnormal; Dat fighting, dat Kumagawa, dat I wish Ajimu gets a 30-minute episode dedicated to just talking down to me, dat NisiOisiN word-dumping.
9.) Moyashimon Returns; Fermenting has never been better, and going to France was awesome.
10.) Girls und Panzer; Who would've thought this show would turn out as fun as it did?


Best Backlog shows I watched/started to watch

Gunbuster
Cardcaptor Sakura
Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san
Moyashimon
Martian Successor Nadesico
Girls Bravo

Best VA

-Chiaki Omigawa

Best VA I Discovered for the First Time This Year

-Kaori Ishihara

Best Roles

-Everybody played by Chiaki Omigawa

Best Crazy Girl

-Elena Peoples

Best Cute Girl

-Nazuna

Best Maid

-Mami Endo

Best Bitchy-Yelling Voice I Didn't Know She Was Capable Of

-Kana Hanazawa

Best Kanna Award:
1.) Kanna Tanigawa
2.) Suguha Kirigaya
3.) Wanko Sa&#333;ji
4.) Natsume

Most GIF-able Show

- Nisemonogatari

Mostly Widely Spread on the Internet GIF I Made Before I Learned What Dithering Was So I'm Slighty Embarassed By It But It's Still Awesome

Best Hygiene

-Nisemonogatari

Worst Haircut

-Akane Tsunemori

Special Mentions

The Olympics for ruining fucking EVERYTHING

 

[SolarPowered]

1) Hyouka

A real curveball of a series. I went into this show expecting slice of life or high school romance, but I got much better. The main cast(four highschoolers) is great. We have a borderline savant detective in Oreki who prides himself on low energy living, an intensely curious girl in Chitanda Eru that has to straddle the line between upperclass life and her scary curiosity, Mayaka whose strong personality results in many clashes with the boys and Satoshi, a poor man's renaissance man. Behind the veil of ordinary life you'll find tons of mystery, great character interations/growth and an overall tone that strikes a great balance between the fantastic elements of the show(Chitanda's curiosity and Oreki's disturbing analytical skills) and the more mundane everyday life in their small, but old town.

2) Joshiraku

I couldn't find a series more Japanese in it's dialogue, setting or overall tone if I tried this year. Most of the dialogue(really, it is mostly skits) takes place in a small Rakugo(closest comparison would be comedy, I guess?) theatre. The five girls are all studying in the art of Rakugo and spend their youthful days talking about a wide range of subjects ranging from dreams to politics and even unique locations in Japan whenever they have the chance to go out. The only thing really stopping it from being on top is the unfortunate fact that this show's true charm may never be fully appreciated unless you are a homegrown Japanese person that could keep up with the references, locales, wordplay and tone. Soak in the music, the stinging jokes, the mood swings and the occasional bullying that takes place. This is still a show that no one should miss if they enjoy comedy, cute girls doing cute things or a show that is truly a product of it's time and place.

3) Space Brothers

This is an ongoing series which is the one thing holding it back from the top spot. Still, the quality, charm, music, tone and characters are all lovely. I have to make a fist pumping motion at least once per episode because it is so uplifitng. Two brothers decide they want to become astronauts after witnessing a lifechanging event and their first target is the moon. This is the story of the older brother, Namba who fell behind and is now trying his best to run ahead of his younber sibling who is well on his way towards accomplishing his dream. We get some neat pictures, some great testing related episodes as he works towards becoming an astronaut and a unique theme that few anime touch upon(Can't think of much else besides Planetes). This is a must watch for anyone who is a big fan of Space and anime centered around the subject(very few I can think of). I think this anime would be particularly well liked among Western circles. Seriously, guys... don't miss this one. It is a diamond in the rough. Just a little more heat and pressure and I have a feeling the anime world will be rewarded with another timeless classic when this show is done.

4) Humanity has declined

A great post apocalyptic show with a colorful exterior that belies it's dark nature and cynical bite. The protagonist is a young girl and one of the last students on Earth. She is about as far removed from your standard wilting flower archetype or energetic girl as it can get. Humanity's days are numbered, but they still have to coexist with cup sized fairies that inexplicably manage to thrive under conditions that have cripped humanity so she takes up the responsibility of being a mediator of sorts. The art is solid, the characters have their charm and the show itself is mostly great. Watch this if you enjoy watching someone become God, if you like seeing civilizations rise and fall in a matter of days or if you enjoy seeing humanity slowly struggle in vein while having to coexist with fairies that possess fantastic and terrifying(seriously creepy stuff) technology that rears it's head throughout the show.

5) Girls und Panzer

Another ongoing series that is supposedly going to finish it's first season in Spring 2013. This a short series about Tankery(tank battles and the culture surrounding tanks) and the young women who take it up at a relatively unknown school. Some might dismiss it at first glance based looks alone, but it picks up very quickly after the slow first episode and immerses you in wonderful tank battles, tank trivia, tank foods and some great back and forth between the girls at Orai academy. This show is about friendship, courage, love and girls driving tanks. There isn't much else to it. Oh, and they live on a freaking

Spoiler

supertanker

. The fanservice is kept at a minimum and the backgrounds are kept simple. The show is held back mostly by how quickly the story shifts gears. It might be a funding issue, but it kinda sucks when they spend an entire episode training for a battle that is literally resolved in three seconds. The world, characters, music and IP really deserve the budget to do these battles justice. Hopefully that might happen thanks to the rumors of a second season. Panzer vor!

6) Kids on the slope

A beautiful show set in Japan about 20 or so years after World War II. The show is mostly centered around a trio who love Jazz music and practice it everyday as they become closer with one another. Sentarou is a jock with a heart of gold, Kaoru is a frail young man from a well off family and Riko is the daughter of a local Jazz afficianado. The setting is absolutely gorgeous, the character design is great, the voice work is excellent, the animation is good and the music is absolutely top notch. This is an adaptation headed by Shinichiro Watanabe(of Bebop and Champloo fame) and Yoko Kanno who does the soundtrack. The characters are down to Earth and the setting is realistic. It's not your typical happy go lucky type of anime at all. I wouldn't miss it if I were a big fan of Jazz tunes or animation that is distinctly Japanese in it's setting and period.

7) Tsuritama

A show about fishing and friendship. It sounds simple on paper, but it looks and sounds ridiculous for the first three episodes or so. That didn't stop me from pushing on to find one of this year's anime gems. The story revolves around Yuki who arrives at a small town named Enoshima. After several bad social experiences/introductions he learns to open his mind and heart through the art of fishing thanks to a strange boy named Haru. The art is absolutely, positively oozing with color and life. The main cast(Akira, Haru, Natsuki and Yuki) are really fun together and the supporting cast is very charming(especially Tapioca which has the best pet name I've heard in a while). Some basic fishing terminology and technique is covered, but the practice is mostly a confidence building experience for Yuki. Through fishing he gains friends, stability and slowly comes out of his shell. I don't think I've ever seen an anime make fishing so imaginative and exciting. This is a show to watch for anyone who wants a lighthearted show for those rainy days. I think it'll make you crave some nice seafood too!

8) Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!

Part slice of life, part comedy, part romance and part eigth grade dillusions of grandeur. Chuu2 is the story of two youngsters living their days close together despite being completely at odds socially and mentally. Yuta is a former dreamer turned pessimist and realist. He used to go by an alias and enjoyed dabbling in the dark arts despite the damage it did to his social life, but has turned a new leaf for high school. Rikka is a seemingly long time sufferer of eighth grade syndrome and she is not afraid to show it to anyone. The art is solid, the characters are hilarious(even though the archetypes are common enough) and the music is nice. The supporting cast members(Dekomori, Kumin, Shinka and Makoto) provide tons of fun on the side when Rika and Yuta aren't growing closer together on screen as well. The first half is mostly comedy, but he second half takes a darker turn to explain Rikka's eigth grade syndrome in ways that few people might notice beforehand. It may be a bit derivative by most people's standards, but I loved what I saw and I hope you guys do too.

9) Nekomonogatari(Kuro)

One of the more conflicting shows for me as a big fan of Bakemonogatari. Nisemonogatari may have had much more content than Nekomonogatari, but they idled too much on certain subjects best not discussed unless you are very fond of dental hygiene. Neko Kuro itself is a four episode arc that covers the golden week period during which Black Hanekawa(Hanekawa's alter ego) was born. The newborn abberation is considerably powerful thanks to Hanekawa's encyclopedic knowledge and wreaks havoc until Araragi Koyomi(her friend, and former abberation) stops her with the help of friends. The action is bloody, the... questionble family bits that plagued Nisemonogatari are fewer in number and the dialogue remains strong between Araragi and Black Hanekawa(regular Hanekawa as well). Oshino, a powerful demon exterminator has quite a few lines here which is good news seeing as he is one of the cooler characters in the show imo. This arc is hurt by the fact that it is airing after Bake and Nise even though it is one of the first books canonically, but it still deserves a spot in the top ten for 2012 since mostly everything about it was done well(animation, music, art). It is an excellent way to start your journey into the -monogatari series if you haven't done so already. I highly recommend starting here before you head out to Bake. Kizumonogatari is the first(where Koyomi, Oshino, Hanekawa and Shinobu meet), but the movie is not out yet.

10) Shin Sekai Yori

Another ongoing show that shows great promise despite a small number of seriously inconsistent(mostly artistic imo) episodes. This show is set in a Japan no one would recognize due to certain events that will remain a mystery for the sake of avoiding spoilers. The lore is interesting, the art is usually great, animation is good most of the time, the characters are believable(usually) and the setting makes for some gorgeous scenes. The main cast consists of four young students in an academy that find out much more about their dark history than they should ever know. It makes for a great atmosphere if you are into science fiction and the non human characters are very well designed. Hopefully this show will rate much higher as more episodes come out.

Honorable mentions:
Gintama; A long running(and ongoing) series that has yet to end. Gintama is probably one of the best comedies I've seen in anime yet. The main cast consists of a saiyan-like alien girl named Kagura, a bespecled young samurai named Shinpachi and Sakata Gintoki, an experienced samurai who has seen many bloody battles and prefers to slink by in life. Most of this series' time is spent in a variety of locations where the trio find themselves merely trying to survive. Their odd jobs business leaves them with very little financial flexibility which results in them forming the oddest alliances and friendships in order to survive in a modern Japan that has been absolutely swamped by alien activity for better or worse. The trio may be the main focus, but you'll find a Simpsons-like assortment of weirdos, deadbeats and celebrities that makes up their city of the night. Watch if you enjoy crude humor, intense action, references to oldschool anime, borderline copyright infringement and oddball characters. It would normally rate much higher, but the number of repeat episodes has gotten kind of excessive as of late.

Natsuyuki Rendezvous
Mysterious Girlfriend X
Yuru Yuri S2
Wasurenagumo
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
Say "I love you"
Teekyu

 

[Thoraxes]

1) To Love-Ru: Darkness (Bluray) ; I watch it for the story.

Hell yeah!

Also, i've read and watched what your avatar is from, and I greatly approve.

 

[amishpriest99]

And I doubt anyone gives a shit, but my favorite OP/ED of 2012:

OP:
1. Kalafina - To The Beginning (Fate/zero S2 OP)
2. Aoi Eir - Innocence (Sword Art Online OP2)
3. Nana Mizuki - Fearless Hero (Dog Days' (Dash) OP)
4. FLOW - Braveblue (Eureka Seven Ao OP2)
5. LiSA - Crossing Field (Sword Art Online OP1)


ED:
1. Black Raison d'etre - Inside Identity (Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! ED)
2. (shared) Haruna Luna - Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau (Fate/zero S2 ED), Kalafina - Manten (Insert ED for Ep.18/19)
3. Haruna Luna - Overfly (Sword Art Online ED2)
4. Ho-kago Tea Time - Singing! (K-ON! Movie ED)
5. fumika - Umikaze no Brave (Robotics;Notes ED1?)

Oh, I care...since you clearly have great taste. To The Beginning is certainly amazing.

Despite not liking the show, I do like SAO's OP's.

 

[Chet Rippo]

I'm starting to get the feeling that Lafiel either hates you guys or can't read. I'm gonna go with both.

I'm truly hurt.

 

[gashikunFLCL]

01.) Humanity has Declined; Loved the show enough to import all the light novels from japan, to continue reading watashi's story.
02.) Hyouka;
03.) Jojo's Bizzare Adventure;
04.) Girls und Panzer;
05.) Fate/Zero;
06.) Chu2Koi;
07.) Space Brothers;
08.) Polar Bear Cafe;
09.) Chihayafuru;
10.) Tsuritama;

Willing to put K-ON! Movie but...I don't know wouldn't it be better at a movie category? Oh well, should be this for now.

 

[Durante]

Maybe I'm getting picky in my old age but I feel like this was a terrible year for anime. Bright spots:

1. Humanity has Declined;
Far more interesting than all other new shows this year that I sampled. Amusing social commentary and great pacing.

2. Gintama';
It's Gintama and it still manages to make me laugh out loud.

3. Daily Lives of High School Boys
Humorous, especially during its more subversive moments.

4. Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb;
Feel good medicine.

Yeah, and that's it. Seriously, many new shows this year felt creatively bankrupt.

Edit: added Daily Lives of High School Boys, thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I'm starting to get the feeling that Lafiel either hates you guys or can't read. I'm gonna go with both.

I would be sad if lafieru hated me, because I've always <3'd him!

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

1. Rinne no Lagrange S1 - Great marus, great wans, and dem mugis. Also something something beautiful mech animation, charming characters, fantastic ending etc
2. Persona 4: the Animation - The animation was like a brown bag full of burning regurgitated dog shit and the pacing was a bit wonky, but as an adaptation the writing was incredibly clever and consistently entertaining.
3. Fate Zero S2 - The first season lost its way toward the end, but Fate/Zero's second season quickly meets and exceeds its initial excellence. It would probably be in second if not for its rushed and sparse finale.

 

[Thoraxes]

1. Rinne no Lagrange S1 - Great marus, great wans, and dem mugis. Also something something beautiful mech animation, charming characters, fantastic ending etc
2. Persona 4: the Animation - The animation was like a brown bag full of burning regurgitated dog shit and the pacing was a bit wonky, but as an adaptation the writing was incredibly clever and consistently entertaining.
3. Fate Zero S2 - The first season lost its way toward the end, but Fate/Zero's second season quickly meets and exceeds its initial excellence. It would probably be in second if not for its rushed and sparse finale.

Awwwww yeaaaaaah!

 

[Haly]

I'm starting to get the feeling that Lafiel either hates you guys or can't read. I'm gonna go with both.

Perhaps he has everyone on ignore, and to him, the anime thread is just his posts and a lot of empty space.

 

[Liseda]

1. Hyouka​

I was really hooked, Hyouka is a visual masterpiece and something you can really expect from KyoAni. Everything is visually pleasing, every background character looks amazing (Hello Irisu and Sawakiguchi) the whole show is filled with amazing scenes full with colour and beautiful animation. Every character is really unique and fun, they all have really different personalities and doesn't really apply to "typical stereotypes". Even if the show was kinda "slice of life" which I kinda dislike, they still managed to make it entertaining even though the mysteries were quite obvious there was still plenty of things to think about. I just loved the festival arc, hilarious and cute.

2. Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita / Humanity Has Declined​

Oh boy, here was something totally different. Totally weird but hilarious at most of the times. I really loved that I actually had to think after every episode about what happened and tried to link the things together, without spoiling for people that actually manages to read this for some reason. The show really opened with a bang and me laugh and beg for more, which it actually followed up with.

3. Sakamichi no Apollon / Kids on the Slope​

A friend suggested me to watch this and god I'm happy that I did, amazing soundtrack and hilarious characters. Even though the story makes you think its some silly love triangle cliché, it really isn't. It's really a journey about growing up in life, even if you don't like jazz I really suggest you to watch this!

4. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun / My Little Monster​

This season really was the shoujo season, but this was the easily the best one.
Amazing voice actors, holy shit I hope Natsumes voice actor does more work after this, cute as hell. This was filled with the correct amount of romance and comedy, I actually REALLY like the art of this, it just looks so "clean" and good. The character design are probably the best thing about it. The manga is awesome too and I recommend it.

5. Binbougami ga!​

Oh god, the parodies. The voice acting is superb and the characters itself are hilarious and designed well. Binbougami ga! manages to have its "serious" moments and still be taken serious even though the whole show is filled with parodies.

6. Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! / Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions​

KyoAni really does it again, even though it doesn't beat Hyouka, it's still very good. I was really surprised how good the MC was. It was really funny most of the time but really had some heartbreaking moments, Chuunibyou wins the award for the most seizure-opening too.

7. Accel World​

I'm not going to lie, guilty pleasure. I was really surprised how much you can tell that SAO was written before Accel World, Reki Kawahara must have really improved, because Accel World is a masterpiece compared to SAO. AW easily have the best soundtrack this year, just too good.

Runnerups. (Don't count them, some are still airing and I don't feel like rating them uncomplete)

Girls und Panzer - I was really surprised by this, I think I'm enjoying this too much.
Psycho-Pass - I really really love this and I'm looking forward to more episodes.
Robotics;Notes - A bit slow start but it's starting to ramp up, I like it.
Jojo - Oh really, I actually have to say why? It's JoJo and it's fucking glorious.
Zetsuen no Tempest - This really surprised me too.
Ixion Saga DT - Another guilty pleasure, really hilarious at times.
Joshiraku - THE BEST ED. (if I can't count Psycho-Pass)
Kamisama - Enjoyable at times, decent!
Kokoro Connect - With the latest episodes from the blu-ray, I think I actually like it more, after all the best girl won.
Sukitte Ii na yo. - Another good shoujo, I really enjoyed this one too.
K - German speaking japanese, cute.
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojou - I actually like this, a lot.


Disappointment.
Natsuyuki Rendezvous - It started so well but really lost it.
Sword Art Online - Ugh

Probably some mistakes in the text.

 

[yn-neko hates a cat]

Is the following possible?

Spoiler

No, seriously... is it?

01) Humanity has Declined; Loved the show enough to import all the light novels from japan, to continue reading watashi's story.
02)SAO;kayos90
03)SAO;is
04)SAO;going
05)SAO;to
06)SAO;eat
07)SAO;a
08)SAO;mini
09)SAO;top
10)SAO;hat

 

[Crash Station]

Oh, cosmic, you are just too adorable.

I had hoped it was more clear that I was doing the same.

Yay! Sometimes it's hard to tell, as was the case with Branduil. Thought my joke may have been taken the wrong way.

Maybe I'm getting picky in my old age but I feel like this was a terrible year for anime. Bright spots:

1. Humanity has Declined;
Far more interesting than all other new shows this year that I sampled. Amusing social commentary and great pacing.

2. Gintama';
It's Gintama and it still manages to make me laugh out loud.

3. Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb;
Feel good medicine.

Yeah, and that's it. Seriously, many new shows this year felt creatively bankrupt.

What have you tried? Animegaf could give reccomendations based on your tastes if you want?

You should probably try Daily Lives of High School Boys if you're a fan of Gintama. It's the exact same style of humor.

 

[Warnen]

1) Sword Arts Online, like the 1st part much better then 2nd part but still great.
2) Fate/Zero
3) Accel World
4) Kids on the Slope
5) Ano Natsu de Matteru
6) Eureka Seven AO
7) Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb
8) Moyashimon Returns
9) Natsuyuki Rendezvous
10) Tsuritama

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Awwwww yeaaaaaah!

I'll get back to watching anime and finish season 2 eventually.

 

[madp]

1. Fate/Zero S2

In a fairly weak year for "instant classics", Fate/Zero S2 managed to stand out as the one series that immediately cemented itself into "the canon" of recommended works for people interested in the very best that the medium has to offer. S2 managed to improve on the already-great S1 in virtually every way possible with some of the most nuanced character development this year, highly engaging dialogue, great emotional intensity, satisfying resolution for the various strong personalities in the story, and high 2D production values. Nothing came close for me in terms of being the total package.

2. Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (Daily Lives of High School Boys)

Genuinely good comedy is even rarer than genuinely good drama, and I've ranked Daily Lives highly to express this. Almost completely devoid of the awful SHOUT ANYTHING AND IT BECOMES FUNNY humor that plagues anime, Daily Lives primarily relied on clever subversion, absurdity, and the ability to find humor in the mundane for its jokes. The show had spartan production qualities and wasn't particularly memorable from an audiovisual standpoint, but the direction and comic timing were so pitch-perfect that I felt that almost every gag was a home run. Try this if you liked Cromartie High School.

3. Smile Precure!

It's definitely not for everyone, but the latest entry in the long-running magical girl franchise was my weekly injection of pure happiness for the past year. Generally simplistic and colorful with a positive and optimistic message, there's a definite appeal for something that just tries to be entertaining without needing to appeal to the basest desires of the otaku market. I guess that, for the most part, it's not as "legit good" as most of the other stuff on this list, but I had more fun watching this than anything else this year and that warrants a high spot on my list.

4. Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope)

Watanabe Shinichiro's first television series in nearly a decade was pretty great on the whole. The material sometimes suffered from being compressed into a single cour which made for some screwy pacing and subplots siphoning valuable time from the main narrative, but it was still a really solid romance/bromance set against the refreshing backdrop of 1960s rural Japan and the era's jazz scene. The characters are endearing and multi-dimensional, character interaction feels nicely organic and is mercifully free of bad anime tropes (it's all still pretty shoujo), and the direction is, as you'd expect, really sharp. I loved the whole thing.

5. Shinsekai Yori (From the New World)

Both a flawed gem and a slow burner, I'm hesitant to vote for the show because it's not yet complete, but I'm going to have faith that things won't go to shit. A couple of ugly, meandering episodes aside, the combination of rich world-building, conspiracy, horror, and generally superior art and direction make this a really stimulating viewing experience.

6. Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity Has Declined)

This post-apocalyptic black comedy came from nowhere to have the strongest start of any series this year. It had a fresh premise and art style, awesomely sharp dialogue lead by the beleaguered protagonist's frequent internal dialogues, and smart humor that dealt with unconventional (for anime) subjects ranging from consumerism to metaphysical horror. The only reason why it doesn't top my list is because of some weak middle episodes that withdrew into otaku metahumor and failed to adequately build on the ideas introduced in the first two episodes, but it managed to rebound with several stellar episodes to the point that the experience is still hugely entertaining on the whole. It also winds the award for best ending theme of the year.

7. Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)

It feels odd to reward a show that I dropped, but I have to give Space Brothers credit for being so fucking powerfully inspirational and upbeat that my cretinous depressive defeatist self was forced to shrink in disgust from its greatness like a cockroach from holy light. It's anime for happy, well-adjusted people, and considering that the viewer base for anime is typically the total opposite of these things, it's impressive that this even exists at all.


8. Hyouka

I never expected that I'd be putting this show in my top ten as I initially dropped it a few episodes in, but after hearing "it gets better!" from enough trustworthy people, I decided I'd give it a second shot. I'm incredibly glad that I decided to, as, while the series is definitely a very slow burn, in retrospect it's fairly astonishing. While the series bills itself foremost as a mystery show, the mysteries themselves are mildly intriguing at best. There's nothing inherently wrong with the mundane subject matter, but it took me a while to accept that the mysteries were merely vehicles for good character interaction and really fantastic character development, and this is the lens through which the show shines brightest as the characters slowly evolve from being definable by a handful of quirks to something much more human. From a technical standpoint, Hyouka is also KyoAni beast mode with both the best OST and best production qualities of any television anime this year. One arc in the middle of the series looks better than some films.

9. Code:Breaker

By all rights this show should be absolutely awful, but great production values and skillful direction that straddles the line between silly and serious took what would have otherwise been a lame vehicle for pretty boys and elevated it to an ever-so-slightly self-aware camp action experience that can only be called pure amusement. Don't listen to the rest of the internet, give it a chance!

10. Sengoku Collection

Full disclosure: there is some serious Stockholm Syndrome influencing my choosing this over several other shows that are near-objectively more deserving of being in this list. I originally decided to watch this in the venerable animegaf tradition of "sufferwatch" wherein someone tries to make it through a particularly awful-looking show precisely because it's so awful. And you know what? The series, as a whole, is awful, loaded with bad writing and some of the most abhorrent character design in the history of anime. But, the thing about Sengoku Collection is that it's intriguingly awful--imagine, if you will, Konami asking one of the most consistently-talented anime studios to create a series starring characters from a DLC scam social game about 16th-century Japanese warlords turned into adolescent girls. The studio can do whatever the fuck they want with the series so long as the characters are advertised--total creative blank check.

So what does the studio, Brains Base, do? They contract the background art to a studio that decides to fill the series with avant-garde and impressionistic architecture and set pieces while Brains Base itself decides to turn each episode into an homage to a famous film. They then give several episodes to some of their hotshot directors who churn out single self-contained episodes that are, without hyperbole, better than 90% of entire anime that aired this year scattered in amongst the crap episodes. The total dissonance between the high-minded aspects of the production and the unfortunate obligation to peddle its uguu~ wares for Konami is just so shocking that, by the time I'd finished the series, I was weirdly in love with the end product in all of its bizarre badness. No sane person should ever try to watch the whole thing, but I can't help but use my vote as a soapbox to generate awareness. There's really nothing that can adequately describe the utterly strange nature of the end product.

 

[Durante]

What have you tried? Animegaf could give reccomendations based on your tastes if you want?

Well, outside of the ones in my list I tried Eureka Seven AO (I liked the original... ugh), Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing (same story, ugh²), Girls und Panzer and Persona 4, and didn't really feel any of those. Oh, and I watched the entirety of Mirai Nikki for some reason, and on reflection it's mediocre at best. And I watched a single episode of SAO, to see what everyone was going on about, but it's clearly not for me.

Admittedly, for a lot of stuff this year just reading the description turned me off. I forgot that Fate: Zero and Yuru Yuri were this year when I wrote my list -- I liked those well enough.

You should probably try Daily Lives of High School Boys if you're a fan of Gintama. It's the exact same style of humor.

I'll have a look, Gintama is one of my favourite shows of all time.

 

[littlerat]

1. Humanity has Declined
2. Hyouka
3. Girls und Panzer
4. Sword Art Online
5. Chuunibyou
6. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos
7. Chihayafuru
8. Dog Days'
9. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
10. Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb

I was thoroughly entertained.

 

[firehawk12]

(Preliminary but I probably won't change it) Top 10

1: Hyouka: KyoAni's best show... well, maybe second to K-On!!. It's really damn close though. Special mention to 11.5, not only because it'll annoy duckroll, but because I think it was the turning point of the show that elevates it beyond... well, meer anime.

2: AnoNatsu: If not for Hyouka, this probably would have been number one for being the most complete television experience I've seen in anime this year. As a RomCom, it's nothing special, but as 12 episodes strung together, it just works magnificently. There are no wasted episodes, no overly complicated relationship diagrams... just good characters in a good story. Also, Kanna-tears is my favourite thing this year.

3: K-On! Movie: There are two ways to milk a franchise through films - Rebuild of Evangelion and the K-On! movie. Here's a movie that milks the franchise not once, by being a movie that is not based on any manga material, but twice by being set in London and having a home release during the London Olympics and serves as fanservice for the franchise's hardcore fans. Yet, far from feeling extraneous, the Yamada/Yoshida combo gives us a story that fits in with the original theme raised in the second season and lets us revisit the characters one final time. Tamako Market will be grand.

4: Space Battleship Yamato 2199: This show singlehandedly restored my faith in Science Fiction. All it took was for a series to throwback to the stories of old. Of course, there are a lot of flaws that I'm willing to forgive - genderbending an original character to create an unnecessary triangle and having a lot of anime fanservice, but the core idea of the show is great and pleases the part of my brain that loves military science fiction stories. And hey, there are no Cylons with a PLAN or anything this time around!

5: Nisemonogatari: Anime David Mamet. As a series thematically about lying and putting on false faces, having all of the conflicts resolved through fast paced dialog is almost pornographic for me. I really would be happy if these were audiobooks/radio dramas, because that's all I would need. I'm looking forward to going through the Bakemonogatari commentaries this year.

6: Tsuritama: Another favourite of mine from this year. It had a fun soundtrack and was probably the most visually expressive thing I've seen this year, with a tight story about four bros being bros and expressing :cosmic nakamaism through fishing. Also, moe grandmas.

7: Polar Bear Cafe: The show doesn't do anything special as a comedy, but it is basically anime comfort food. It has to make my list.

8: Smile Precure: I couldn't get into Heartcatch or Suite, but Smile was with is simple optimism and great cast of characters hooked me pretty much after the team was assembled. As someone watching a show that is clearly meant for little girls, I can now sympathize with "Bronies". Although I don't think I'll ever be as (publicly) emotionally invested in Precure as some of these Bronies are with MLP. lol

9: Jormungand: This is one of my two intellectual picks. The directing and art is so pedestrian that I almost don't want to recommend it, but the actual writing of the show is good enough to make the show rise above its average underpinnings. Quite frankly, this is the technothriller war story that Kojima wishes he could tell but doesn't have that talent to do so. Maybe I should give most of the credit to the mangaka though... but having not read the book, I have no idea if the directors/writers added their own spin to the manga or not. Also, Koko is a fabulously fun character and her weird little theme song (Koko is loco!) is hilarious.

10: Suki-itte Ii na yo: This is another intellectual pick, since I probably enjoy this show more for what I think it represents more than what it actually is in reality. It is probably the only time I will ever see stretch marks in an anime, let alone in ANY TV show, and for having a serious arc on body image and self-esteem issues, I feel like I need to recognize it somehow. Yes, the middle parts of the show are painfully shoujo, but the parts that aren't shoujo deal with themes of alienation and isolation that doesn't necessarily rely on being saved by a man.
(And yes, if this was a live action show, I probably wouldn't give it a second thought. But hey, anime has such low standards that anything that rises above expectation is enough to catch me off guard).

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can't think of anything else to cut so this has to be #11: Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - What is there to say? Hidamari is Shaft's best franchise, hands down. I have no idea if the 4koma is still going, but there's clearly enough room for one more season.

Arrrrgggggggghhhh etc etc etc #12: One Off: I love this OVA, because it is both a SatoJun and it features Yu Kobayashi (as a :chet blonde Australian lol). Yeah, it's a commercial for Hondo bikes, but SatoJun makes the most of it and turns it into a short story about a girl who needs to learn to take risks and explore the world around her. Tamayura S2 is going to be so awesome.

Shows that might make my top ten but I can't really think of anything to bump in no particular order
Space Brothers: I love the concept but I feel it fails as an adaptation. It's why I love the movie anyway.
Chuu2: A nice show, but probably could have been better scripted.
Tari Tari: This should have been two cours.
Uta Koi: A very pleasant surprise show that showed some of the horrible sacrifices women had to make in Japan.
Jinrui wa Suitai Shimasta: It hits a lot of right notes for me; I probably liked it more than most here.
Saki: Side A: Moe-jong. Enough said.
Joshiraku: This makes me wish there was a final season of SZS more than anything else.
Tanken Driland: A pleasant fantasy show... if only it was licensed.
Sakurasou Pet na Kanajo: The first cour was fine, if not repetitive. I'm curious enough to see where it goes next season.
Tasogare Otome: Natsu no Arashi Season 3. Perhaps this should be my secret number 11?
Ginga e Kickoff: My favourite sport show of the year. Also, Yu Kobayashi.
Kintama (lol): If this was a real season, maybe it would have made my top ten.
Daily Lives of High School Boys: I think I liked the Yu Kobayashi segments more than the main show. lol
Amagami SS+: Rihoko gets the ending she deserves. Otherwise, fairly extraneous cash grab.
Kamisama Hajimemashita: A pleasant shoujo, arguably the best of the season. Also cheap as hell though.
Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun: If only Natsume was the main character.
Moretsu Pirates: Despite the horrible start and the stupid yuri/loli fanservice, this hit a lot of the right notes for the lapsed SyFy nerd in me. But, Space Battleship Yamato also came out this year so...
Rinne no Lagrange: The first season set up so many possibilities... until the second season came back and was stuck in Kamogawa yet again.
Girls und Panzer: I turned off my brain and enjoyed the :Yoshida and the fake 50s American rock song. I still don't get the fetshism though.
Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru: Probably would be my guilty pleasure of the season if it weren't for...
Oda Nobuna: Teehee. This show was so dumb, but you know what? Assassin's Creed 3 would have been better if it was about Connor fucking a genderbent Georgina Washington.
Moyashimon Returns: The Paris/France arc was fine, if not a little bit aimless. It was funny to see Japanese cynicism of France anyway.
Natsuiro Kiseki: I like this more than I should because of the :firehawk. Otherwise, there's no real reason to watch this show.
Kokoro Connect: This show had Inaba... so there's that?
Kids on the Slope: I'm sure there's a good story here... but when your secondary romance is better than your primary romance, you probably fucked up.

Holdovers
Kimi to Boku 2: This would be another :Yoshida pick... but honestly, I don't remember much about it.
Chihayafuru: This is a show that doesn't deserve its soundtrack. Arata > Taichi, etc, etc.
Natsume Yuujin-chou 4: The BL version of Kamisama Hajimemashita. lol I hope they make more anyway.

OVAs
Traveling Daru
Dudu the Floatie
Both of these share the same concept - an toy comes alive and a wonderful adventure ensues. I really enjoyed both of these shorts... but as shorts, I couldn't justify putting them up.

Backlog award: Letter to Momo - yeah, I should watch it.

Why is SyFy bad award: Sword Art Online, Psycho Pass, Shin Sekai Yori, Eureka Seven AO. Although that would lead to...

Fuck Japan award: Sword Art Online. This is the worst show ever to have been produced by a culture. Take the solipsism of The Newsroom, the depravity of K-Town or any other reality show of that ilk, and the sad humanity exhibited exhibited in shows like Honey Boo Boo and you'd STILL get a show that is morally, ethically, and spiritually more justifiable than Sword Art Online. The bar has been set so low that I can even see merit in a show like OniAi. Fuck you SAO... just fuck you.

 

[Crash Station]

Well, outside of the ones in my list I tried Eureka Seven AO (I liked the original... ugh), Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing (same story, ugh²), Girls und Panzer and Persona 4, and didn't really feel any of those. Oh, and I watched the entirety of Mirai Nikki for some reason, and on reflection it's mediocre at best. And I watched a single episode of SAO, to see what everyone was going on about, but it's clearly not for me.

Admittedly, for a lot of stuff this year just reading the description turned me off. I forgot that Fate: Zero and Yuru Yuri were this year when I wrote my list -- I liked those well enough.

Hmmm. Maybe try Space Brothers and Tsuritama as well if you want some nice feel good shows. I don't know, not enough information just from knowing your top 3 to really recommend a ton of stuff.

What else do you like?

I'll have a look, Gintama is one of my favourite shows of all time.

Binbougami Ga might also be worth a watch since it's from the same director as Gintama, but there are some key differences that it wouldn't be surprising if you weren't a fan.

 

[duckroll]

Fuck Japan award: Sword Art Online. This is the worst show ever to have been produced by a culture. Take the solipsism of The Newsroom, the depravity of K-Town or any other reality show of that ilk, and the sad humanity exhibited exhibited in shows like Honey Boo Boo and you'd STILL get a show that is morally, ethically, and spiritually more justifiable than Sword Art Online. The bar has been set so low that I can even see merit in a show like OniAi. Fuck you SAO... just fuck you.

Hawt.

 

[firehawk12]

Hawt.

The low bar has been set. Even Busou Shinki, which is about action figures coming to life and becoming your waifus, isn't as bad as SAO in terms of its representation of Japanese sadlife.

 

[Ultimadrago]

Fuck Japan award: Sword Art Online. This is the worst show ever to have been produced by a culture. Take the solipsism of The Newsroom, the depravity of K-Town or any other reality show of that ilk, and the sad humanity exhibited exhibited in shows like Honey Boo Boo and you'd STILL get a show that is morally, ethically, and spiritually more justifiable than Sword Art Online. The bar has been set so low that I can even see merit in a show like OniAi. Fuck you SAO... just fuck you.

Hawt.

lol

 

[Durante]

Hmmm. Maybe try Space Brothers and Tsuritama as well if you want some nice feel good shows. I don't know, not enough information just from knowing your top 3 to really recommend a ton of stuff.

What else do you like?

Hmm, let my filter my all-time top 20 for stuff I'd probably still like:
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
- Utena
- Mushishi
- Baccano!
- Dennou Coil
- NGE
- Mononoke
- Azumanga Daiou
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu

Wow, now I remember why I love anime.

 

[Pooya]

Psycho Pass second half will be good and set the chats on fire,
I still believe in you


if there is a most disappointing award it should go to PP. The premise was too good...

 

[Thoraxes]

Hmm, let my filter my all-time top 20 for stuff I'd probably still like:
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
- Utena
- Mushishi
- Baccano!
- Dennou Coil
- NGE
- Mononoke
- Azumanga Daiou
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu

Wow, now I remember why I love anime.

Going off Utena alone, you should check out a newer work by Ikuhara, Mawaru Penguindrum.

 

[duckroll]

Hmm, let my filter my all-time top 20 for stuff I'd probably still like:
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
- Utena
- Mushishi
- Baccano!
- Dennou Coil
- NGE
- Mononoke
- Azumanga Daiou
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu

Wow, now I remember why I love anime.

I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy Tsuritama and Joshiraku. There's Letter to Momo too, which came out on BD/DVD in Japan in 2012.

 

[Jasconius]

1. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun ; Came out of nowhere for me (oh hey, another new shoujo show, better check it ou... whaaa this is great!) to be my favorite show of the year and also the one I kept hoping I had forgotten to watch the last week's episode so there would be a new one already... Shizuku <3
2. Shin Sekai Yori ; This has gone up and down as the episodes go on, but I'm going to put it here just because it has had a lot of good to balance out the bad. Also has the best ED of the year~
3. Hyouka ; The culture festival arc was the best thing all year!
4. Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb ; Wideface forever.
5. Inu x Boku SS ; One of my favorite mangaka gets an anime and the characters are great!
6. Yuru Yuri &#9834;&#9834; ; Not as good as the first season but still pretty great
7. Dog Days' ; I skipped Dog Days when it first aired so I made up for it this year by watching both series. Didn't expect it to be so much fun~
8. Tari Tari ; Once again, great characters. Would join Choir and Sometimes Badminton Club if I went back to high school. Wakana <3
9. Suki tte Ii na yo ; I actually thought this would be higher but ended up merely being good. Ep 13 kind of soured me on it a little bit, too. Mei wins most unrealistic character of the year, but I still enjoyed watching all the shoujo-y goodness, lol.
10. Ginga e Kickoff!! ; Football~
11. Kamisama Kiss ; Kamisama Hajimemashita~
12. Kids on the Slope ; ending kicked it out of my top 10, still good though
13. Papakiki ; 2nd best ED of the year! For some reason this was a good year for ED songs as I would rate these two above all the OP songs.
14. Ano Natsu de Matteiru ; I liked it when I watched it but it just didn't catch me that much, I guess.
15. Another ; Over the top but fun. Pillar crashing down made me laugh the hardest out of anything this year!

 

[Durante]

Going off Utena alone, you should check out a newer work by Ikuhara, Mawaru Penguindrum.

Thanks, I never even heard of this, but it looks interesting.

I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy Tsuritama and Joshiraku. There's Letter to Momo too, which came out on BD/DVD in Japan in 2012.

Those also look like stuff I'd enjoy, especially Joshiraku.

I think the reason I was down on 2012 is that I didn't really follow anime this year (or even 2011... or 2010) as much as I used to, and when I recently wanted to check out what the year had to offer I used Google -- which of course directed me to popular shows like SAO. I guess I just missed some of the good stuff.

 

[SDBurton]

I'll get back to watching anime and finish season 2 eventually.

We miss you Hobo.

 

[Thoraxes]

Well, I fucking fixed it, and I had all these long and fancy (mostly long) descriptions written out before my browser decided to crash on me. Now I just feel like hitting something.

Maybe the first list was destiny.

Edit: OK, good idea.

 

[Brazil]

We miss you Hobo.

srsly

 

[Thoraxes]

I'll get back to watching anime and finish season 2 eventually.

We miss you Hobo.

srsly

Me three!

 

[cajunator]

I'll get back to watching anime and finish season 2 eventually.

come back, Hobo

 

[Liseda]

Fuck Japan award: Sword Art Online. This is the worst show ever to have been produced by a culture. Take the solipsism of The Newsroom, the depravity of K-Town or any other reality show of that ilk, and the sad humanity exhibited exhibited in shows like Honey Boo Boo and you'd STILL get a show that is morally, ethically, and spiritually more justifiable than Sword Art Online. The bar has been set so low that I can even see merit in a show like OniAi. Fuck you SAO... just fuck you.

I like you.

I really should start watching space brothers, but the backlog D:

 

[cajunator]

I like you.

Lol I didnt notice he posted that before.
I hate it as much as he does, except I did like silica and Lisbeth. Except the show saw fit to completely ignore them. So fuck that show.

 

[Syrinx]

I'll get back to watching anime and finish season 2 eventually.

Seriously KO, get yo ass back in Anime-GAF asap. You can read my Yami To Boshi To Hon No Tabitito impressions.

 

[Chet Rippo]

He's a traveling hobo, he will come back around eventually.