Up to this point the awards have mostly been silly and nonsensical. The final two days of our award show, however, will be a little different. We’re putting aside the random awards in favor of a few more traditional categories. Today we’ll be talking about the best the year had to offer in music and voice acting, and then tomorrow wrap things up with the “Best of the Best”.

Music is one of those things that sometimes gets overlooked. A good soundtrack, however, can really define and enrich a series. Great sound and music make cinematic moments all the more captivating and engaging. Music creates an intricate bond between the images in a work of cinema and the emotion displayed in a given scene. If you’ve ever listened to a song and immediately thought of a film or TV series, then you know precisely what I’m referring to. Today we catalog some of those bits of sonic excellence that helped define the past year. Read the rest of this entry »

There was a time when the genre “Action” didn’t have the connotation of mindless protagonists, clichéd “take over the world” plots, and gratuitous vehicle explosions in every other scene. Then a very silly man named Michael Bay came along, and well…the rest is history. A very sad history.

Thankfully, several folks in the anime realm still have the vision that good action means epic tales and captivating adventures, and this year was certainly no disappointment in that department.

Also, just to give fair warning for folks who have not seen all of Darker than Black and Gurren Lagann, major spoilers ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

A gripping and intense story is something that captivates us regardless of the medium, be it film, anime, theatre, or literature. The term “drama”, however, is used pretty capriciously nowadays and usually has the connotation of trite relationship infidelities or other such drivel. Disregarding that unpleasant parlance, we felt there were some pretty epic moments this year worth mentioning and reminiscing about.

I’ll warn you upfront that today’s awards are also a bit of a mixed bag, and are a lot heavier overall than our previous awards posts, so get your serious business pants on. Read the rest of this entry »

As much as we all love a good dramatic, action packed series, there’s really nothing better for relaxing after a hard day at work than some lighthearted humor. Well, unless there’s a new episode of Aria, in which case everything else goes out the window.

Fortunately, this year had a pretty strong showing when it came to comedy, with enough variety that there was something to appeal to everyone. Read the rest of this entry »

The award ceremony marches onward, now with more silly categories and some slice-of-life awards!

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Sometimes you just need a good pick me up. Of course, personally I usually turn to caffeine, tobacco, or alcohol.

When it comes to anime, however, there are time when you really just need something relaxing, simple, and entertaining. That’s where slice-of-life goodness comes in. This year, we had quite a bonanza of shows to choose from. Composing this list of awards was very nostalgic, bringing back many fond memories of the year gone by. Hopefully this post will do the same for you. Read the rest of this entry »

Wai~! Wai~!

Another year has come and gone, and with it a number of excellent and entertaining shows. It brought moments that made us roll with laughter, moments that made us shed manly tears, moments that made us smile and nod, moments that healed our spirits, and moments that made us thrust our hands into the air, finger upraised, pointing to the heavens.

Thus, in recognition of our favorite series from throughout the last 12 months, we are very proud to present to you the 27th Annual Epic Win Best of the Year Anime Award Show!

In this segment we discuss a number of notable shows from 2007, and give out awards to those series that we feel are the most deserving. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just for fun.

Speaking of just for fun…as you may have already guessed from the title, this first day of the awards is our own tongue-in-cheek equivalent of the Razzies, acknowledging the best of the worst and the worst of the best – the Cream of the Crap, if you will.

Don’t think just because we’re talking about epic failure that things can’t get competitive. It was difficult to catalog the most embarrassingly awful moments in the past year, but through meticulous effort we’ve managed to come up with the biggest facepalm inducing catastrophes of ‘07. Read the rest of this entry »

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!

メリークリスマス!

¡Feliz Navidad!

Joyeux Noël!

Fröhliche Weihnachten! Read the rest of this entry »

The Gurren-dan motto of pushing and smashing every obstacle in the way has never seemed more sinister.

But then, sinister and provoking is the kind of storytelling that Kaiji does best.

Kaiji is essentially out of the frying pan and into the furnace. Though he’s escaped with his life from the Espoir, the conditions are pretty dismal. Read the rest of this entry »

Click to see it full-size

So I finally got around to checking out ADV’s new online streaming video service, and I have to say, I’m pretty impressed.

There are some issues with the player itself, as well as the translations, but hey, you can’t complain too much when it’s free. Overall it seems like an excellent first foray into the wild world of digital distribution; one that has huge potential for growing the number of fans who follow newer anime, and thus the industry as a whole.

Detailed breakdown and analysis after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

That’s right, I said “winners”. Since we ended up having so many responses to our contest, I felt bad only giving away one prize.

To make up for it, in addition to the $30 Amazon online gift certificate grand prize, we decided to also throw in a $15 second place prize! Read the rest of this entry »