The Good, The Bad, and the Moe: Spring 2009 Anime Rankings – Part 1
Posted by 0rion on June 2nd, 2009 - 1:30 pm
How many references can you identify?
Incoming Dekkai Huge Post of Long.
Yes, that’s right, I’ve decided to satisfy my penchant for attaching meaningless numbers to things by putting together yet another Anime Season Ranking Post. Haven’t done this for a couple years now, come to think of it. Lazy me.
A couple quick notes:
• I’m ranking them from best to worst this time around. Sure, it takes out some of the “dramatic suspense”, but I figure most people will get TL;DR Syndrome after about 4 or 5 anyway. Feel free to just read the convenient bullet points and save yourself time if you’re that guy. I’m also splitting this post up into several segments, which you’ll see going up on the site over the course of the next couple days.
• Haruhi Suzumiya won’t be on this list for 2 reasons. First, only one episode so far has been new material, since after episode 8 the series is back to old first season stuff for a while. Second, I’m so biased toward the show it would still be #1 even if it was horrible. Of course, the rest of the rankings are going to be completely biased as well, so that doesn’t really change anything. =P
• All these are based completely on my own judgment, so obviously your preferences may differ. If you feel a certain show doesn’t to deserve to be so high / so low, by all means feel free to make a comment or blog post with your counter perspective.
Your mileage may vary, etc. etc.
“Go step in front of the train, Al. I’ll put you back together afterward, promise!”
1. Fullmetal Alchemist
• Story reset, following the manga plot
• Mostly the same vocal cast
• Amazing blend of dark drama and light comedy
• “Barry Za Choppaaa!”
A faithful reproduction of one of the greatest shounen manga ever. What more could you want?
It should be no surprise that this is at the top of the list. FMA ranks as one of my favorite manga of all time, and I loved the first anime series even despite its flaws and different ending storyline. To get a second run, especially one that intends to follow the manga storyline through to the end, is a dream come true.
While not the best in the world, the animation quality is extremely solid. A few speedlines here and there, and a couple close-up copouts, but for the most part the fight scenes are excellent as well. Most of the original voice cast are reprising their roles here as well, and of the ones that have changed, they all changed for the better in my opinion. Casting Hideyuki Umezu (narrator from Death Note) as the voice of “Barry Za Choppaaa” was a stroke of genius, for example.
I always loved Barry’s character in the manga (“I kill, therefore I am!”) as an unexpected source of comic relief as well as having his own interesting character developments, and Hideyuki really captures both the creepy and funny sides of his character well. Inoue Kikuko as Lust was another great choice. Although I wouldn’t have expected her to do well in that kind of role, so far her performance has been awesome – creepy evil but with a little bit of sexy too.
Pretty long coat for such a short guy
One thing I do miss is that awesome “equivalent exchange” intro sequence the old anime series had that played at the beginning of every episode; the new one is nowhere near as cool. Also the new OP is kind of lackluster as well, in my opinion.
I’m also disappointed that it seems they decided to skip over the “train hijack” episode, since that was always one of my favorites and served to help introduce a lot of important characters and series concepts. Ahh, and while I’m nitpicking, the eyecatch “Fullmetal Alchemist!!!” Engrish is a bit over the top. Reminds of the eyecatch they used for Initial D back in the day. That guy was just so excited to say the name of the show he couldn’t stand himself.
Overall though, these are minor complaints. The story is awesome enough that I would watch it even if the animation was all kinds of terrible and QUALITY. With solid animation and a brilliant vocal cast, though, it serves to bring to life one of the most excellent manga there is.
2. Higashi no Eden
• Brilliant animation quality
• Intriguing, very different sort of plot
• Johnny snipping
• NEET-tastic
Coming in at number 2, Higashi no Eden (Eden of the East) is a brilliant and well animated series that deals with many of humankind’s age-old questions.
How can mankind make the world a better place? How can we best address the ills of society? How can one live a fulfilled or meaningful life? What would it be like to live in your very own shopping mall? Should useless men have their Johnnies snipped? Why shouldn’t we ship all our useless NEETs to Dubai? And how come dogs don’t have wings by default anyway?
Higashi no Eden tackles all of these questions and more. And really, I think that is the secret of its genius. The series gives the viewer the opportunity to consider some pretty big questions, but does it from a very down to earth, bite sized entertainment perspective. Like Darker than Black and other similar series, it packages some serious philosophical material in a candy wrapper of action, drama, and comedy.
Guff and I wrote a lot about this kind of storytelling in our posts on Darker than Black and Kaiji, and as I’ve mentioned before, I think it’s a great mechanism for making deep concepts approachable and understandable. It also makes for good entertainment because it can be as deep or as shallow as you want, depending on how much you engage with it.
Add in the amazing animation quality and great soundtrack that Higashi no Eden brings to the table, along with lots of facepalm inducing randomness and a bit of romance on the side, and this series is really is a complete package that has something to appeal to everyone. Or almost anyone, at least – for some reason that I can’t fathom, this series has been met with a fair amount of criticism and meh from people I would’ve expected to enjoy it.
I’ll spare you from the rant for the time being, but Guff and I do have a few random rant-ish comments and things we hope to clarify about the series and why it’s awesome. Keep an eye out for our full review of this series, coming soon to a blog post near you.
3. Phantom – Requiem for the Phantom
• Gripping psychological drama
• Brings a knife AND a gun to a gunfight
• GARawesome
Another year, another BEETRAINwreck girls n’ guns extravaganza… is what I thought when I saw the promo material for Phantom. Surprisingly though, it’s turned out to actually be a rather compelling psychological drama with plenty of gunplay mixed in. As a big fan of Noir, I was always disappointed that the following series Madlax and El Cazador were somewhat lackluster in both departments, with too little action and too little plot movement to keep my interest.
Phantom, on the other hand, doesn’t skimp on either. The building existential crisis and moral conflict of Ein and Zwei, the two members of the assassination team that make up Phantom, gives the whole series a ticking time bomb sort of feel as they slowly begin to crack under the pressure of the lifestyle they’ve been forced into.
Combine that with some good old fashion yakuza backstabbing and underworld power struggles and it makes for a pretty good all around action drama. Also Zwei becomes more and more GARawesome as the series progresses, so by the time this thing is finished he’ll be practically a Hei caliber badass.
The animation quality and music are also quite good, as one would expect from BEETRAIN. For some reason this show really seems like it’s slipped under the radar. Except for a few faithful fans, I haven’t seen much publicity or blogging about the series.
For what it’s worth, I highly recommend Phantom; if you haven’t checked out it out yet, you probably should rectify that immediately.
4. Gambling Apocalypse Saki
• Crazy loli yuri mahjong
• That is all.
Saki has been a personal favorite of mine ever since I stumbled across the manga while living in Tokyo a few years back, so anything I say about it is liable to be incredibly biased (more so than everything else I write, that is). Regardless, I think Saki is an interesting series that’s worth a try for anyone who’s a fan of the stereotypical lighthearted comedy fanservice show, or anybody who likes mahjong.
I mean, if it made a convert out of usagijen it can’t possibly be bad, right? (Edit: oops, looks like it was actually her co-blogger Seleria! Sorry!)
Belt kitten sees through your strategy.
Also, for those who have complained that there’s not enough actual mahjong in the show – fear not. As the series progresses you’ll get to see a bit more actual strategy and the development of some interesting hands rather than just “aaaaand Saki completely destroyed the competition enough though we don’t get to see it at all”. Of course, it’s never going to be at the level of something like Akagi; it’s first and foremost a comedy after all.
That said, you can read our more detailed discussion on the series in our previous post here, so I’ll save my breath and just let you read that if you’re so inclined.
Squishy.
5. K-On!
• Puni-puni squishy comedy
• Fuwa fuwa music
• Sawako-sensei costume rape
You know, originally I wasn’t too enamored with K-On. I mean, of all the projects Kyoto Animation could have taken on this year, why this? Instead, they could’ve devoted their considerable talents to animating something more worthy… like setting their full team to work on Haruhi, or something like Full Metal Panic season 3, or maybe more Lucky Star.
Oh well, at least it’s not another damn Key game for once.
Once I got over that initial disappointment, though, and actually started watching the show, I have to admit it is pretty funny. It definitely has its weaknesses. The first few episodes didn’t do much for me, for example, and as a guitarist myself I’m still kind of miffed by Yui’s sudden transformation from noob Guitar Hero wannabe to rockin’ out rock star.
But then again, I’m not the only one who started off unimpressed and was gradually enslaved won over.
You know you want to wear it.
I’ve often said that to enjoy a series you have to be able to appreciate it for what it is. In the case of K-On it’s a trope filled moe moe comedy full of caricatured one-dimensional characters. I can enjoy it for that, though. Like Lucky Star, or Potemayo, it’s the kind of series that is best appreciated by overlooking some of the more ridiculous details and just being able to laugh at the funny faces and improbable situations.
Well, also the appearance of a certain tsundere costume-raping teacher might possibly have positively influenced my opinion of the series somewhat as well… oh who am I kidding. Clearly the main reason to watch this show is Sawako-sensei. I mean, obviously.
And maybe Azu-nyan. Maybe.
Meh, I haven’t watched Eden of East, so I can’t say anything about that…
but FMA was one of the first anime I watched so there’s a special place reserved for it in my heart.
Phantom is nice…
I don’t really understand my own view on dark characters lol. I mean…I like it when the protagonist isn’t like…the archetypical ‘nice guy’. But for some reason I always get turned off when I ‘get what I asked for’ and the lead begins to ‘kick the dog’.
I don’t really want either one of the protagonists to live…so yeah.
Nevertheless, I’m still watching it so it deserves second place for meh I guess.
Actually Saki is horrible lol…I bet that if I would go six years back in time, my younger self would spit me in the face for watching this…
Many years of exposure to anime must have some degenerative effect.
Can’t say I care about K-On!. Many people seem ecstatic about it but just like Saki it just has nothing to offer lol. It makes your inner child cryn so I’m not following it. Saki is all I can muster for now.
Most annoying lead character award goes to Kuniko of Shangri-la. I just want to smack some sense into her lolz. Horrible attitude.
Oooh and Time of Eve (not Spring anime though) is ongoing (ever so slowly) but I like it quite a lot. Ep 1 was a bit of a turn-off but from there on it seems quite promising. Once they’re in the cafe it’s pure awesomeness. Really a nice show to watch in the afternoon or early morning with a hot cuppa coffee.
Just recently watched Cowboy Bebop (really a nice show to watch in the evening, night or verrrry early morning with a dram of Laphroaig), Monster, Moyashimon and Mushishi again. Somehow the past is always brighter.
Ending Dekkai Huge Comment of Long.
I’m currently watching only #2 and #5, plus Tayutama. OAD KissXsis too.
Am currently trying out Natsu no Arashi out of desperation, gods this is a dry season for me! Its so bad i’ve turned to live shows like Coffee Prince, T:SCC, House MD, Supernatural, etc. to pass the time.
Let’s see… I recognize a Geass eye, a Cheese-kun, an automail arm, a Bleach sword, an SOS-dan armband, a Yoko hair piece, a tiny Shinigami-sama skull on the floor, some Hikaru no Go stones, a Death Note, a Konoha headband, a Hei mask, a black Mokona, and a Lelouch poster. My otaku knowledge is only at 50%. Help me out, people! :’(
Aside from that, this post helped me realize just how far behind I actually was in keeping up with anime. Thanks, Epicwin! You’ve crushed yet another weeaboo ego. -thumbsup-
K-ON didn’t have an impressive start, but I think the beach episode is what really did it for me. How can you ever say no to Mio after that!? XD
It really blows how Saki’s match in the tournament was skipped out. Even if she did pwn everyone, it would have been very satisfying. Not really sure if most people can handle any advanced strategy, since it’s already pretty easy to get completely lost with whatever Saki is already dishing out.
wah, I think the Saki convert is supposed to be my co-blogger Seleria XD Sorry for the confusion… x__x; I haven’t watched it yet (please don’t hurt me!)
4 episodes in, and I have yet to warm up to K-ON. Though for some reason, I’m in the mood to catch up till the latest ep… I wanna see Azusa! XD
I can only hope Cross Game will make it to your watch list!!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s still enjoying Eden of the East – after an impressive start it did start to flounder but episode #8 revived my hopes somewhat. It’s frustrating on occasion, but the fact that it’s genuinely *different* is enough to carry it through the more facepalm-inducing moments.
K-On isn’t nearly as bad as I thought…or at least, I’m finding the mindless fluffy nature of its comedy to be inoffensive and, well, actually comedic. Taking the core concepts of Beck and telling it in the style of Lucky Star is a surprisingly enjoyable combination. No doubt I’ll catch up with it this week.
There was a new series of Mazinger Z recently too…from what I saw (one episode so far) it makes no sense whatsoever but has huge-ass robots fighting in it. As for FMA, it’ll almost certainly be on DVD at some point so I’ll wait until then.
@ Grimmer
Of course the past is brighter; you’re comparing the best of the best from the last decade of animation to the the random fare from one specific anime season! As much as I’d love for every season to be full of shows of that caliber, you have to recognize that there’s only going to be 1 or 2 shows of that kind of excellence in a given year.
I do agree with you about the Bebop Laphoaig combo, though, no doubt there.
@ Passingass
I actually feel this season has a surprisingly strong showing overall. Perhaps not many big “blockbuster” series, but a very large number of “good” shows that are fun to watch.
@ Jupe
* crush crush stomp *
Haha fragile weeaboo ego, take that!
Just kidding, good job on identifying all the references in the image. Honestly of the ones you didn’t get, even I’m not sure what they are supposed to be.
@ Nekonron
It definitely can be easy to get lost with all the intricacies of mahjong hands and strategy. Then again, if people can enjoy Akagi without really knowing what’s going on, they certainly can enjoy this, what with all the fanservice and whatnot.
@ usagijen
You’re a convert too, you just don’t know it yet. Bwa ha ha!
And I felt the same way about K-On, but it’s been slowly winning me over as the season progresses.
Seriously, though, sorry about the error in attributing that to you. The writing style seemed like yours so I just assumed. And we all know what happens when you assume. =P
@ Martin
I’d be curious what it was that frustrated or bothered you about Eden of the East. I’ve enjoyed it all the way through. I genuinely believe it’s a masterpiece of a series, so I’m having a hard time understanding what it is about the show people don’t like.
Without invalidating your list, since I don’t watch a number of the shows, here’s mine:
1. Shin Mazinger Z Shogeki Hen: a grand mashup of various characters from the Nagai Go archives, in the larger-than-life visual and narrative style of Imagawa Yasuhiro. It’s amazing.
2. Souten Kouro: A playfully innacurate bombastic take on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It has epic ambitions and so far it’s working splendidly.
3. Sengoku Basara: similar to Souten Kouro in that it’s a playful retelling of Japan’s warring states period, but the absurdity is amplified to ridiculous levels to achieving epic lulz entertainment value.
4. Hatsukoi Limited: Rabu-rabu hijinks in a school setting, with charming payoffs. A fanservice vehicle featuring JC Staff character designs that’s even better than Toradora. I didn’t expect to like this at all.
I’d put K-ON! at 5 I guess. I’ve put Eden on hold for marathoning later on. The top 3 on my list are shows I’ve written about. Check out my archives if you’re interested.
As my esteemed cohort already mentioned, we’re planning on doing a more in depth post on Eden of the East fairly soon here. With that in mind, I just wanted to make a few notes here.
One of the things we were perplexed by was the rather lukewarm reception the show seems to have garnered by a number of folk. It might just be that our tastes are starkly different than others, but I think part of the issue might be that people were expecting something entirely different with Eden of the East.
I think it is fair to say that the art and animation are breathtaking and the character models are also quite captivating. If anything, what seems to be rubbing viewers the wrong way is the story structure. The story reveals itself entirely through the experiences of the cast rather than imposing a greater structure of the world itself from a third person, omniscient view.
Darker than Black was similar in this regard and rather than relying on a more familiar mythic structure chose to invest the narrative development purely in the characters rather than spending much time espousing the intricacies of the setting: the details of the gate incident, the contractors, Hei’s past, etc.
In DtB you learned about the world through the characters, not vice versa. It’s Philip K. Dick not J.R.R. Tolkien.
Sorry for the rant.^^;
Ah well, just watched a couple of episodes…I’m rather positively surprised…
From the very start you know it’s something special…it’s probably the first opening song I’ve ever heard that doesn’t require the tags ‘J-pop’ and ‘Engrish’.
I wonder how Japan reacts to Oasis though. It’s already nice that the Americans don’t talk Japanese, but it’s absolutely shocking that they don’t talk Engrish.
So far I’ve only seen 2 episodes (watching nr. 3) and I like the artwork. On the other hand I do suppose the main characters react strangely to the situations they’re in…particularly Saki. The whole situation is quite grim and zetsubou-inducing but all they can do is smile and act careless. That just doesn’t seem convincing considering all the mystery stuff.
Taking in account all the references (Jason Bourne, Dawn of the Dead,…) one would think it’s an American-made ‘anime’ (like avatar). Personally I’m rather pleased that they’re willing to look beyond their own border for ideas and content. It ends up enriching the whole.
PS, currently watching episode 3 and just had a massive lol at the “the world is yours” globe in his room…now all we need is an M16A1 assault rifle and an ID saying he’s Tony Montana.
While I enjoy the new FMA and Penis of the East, I can’t say I’m much of a fan of the others. Phantom just never clicked for me, Saki is just bad and K-ON is just more of the same moecrap. The same character archetypes and the same unwillingness to try something really different.
Writers can effectively recycle the same characters over and over, changing small details and adding a gimmick here and there and sell their things. The fact that most moe shows are a guaranteed sell – especially if they’re based off an already popular property – discourages taking risks with more creative or at least original productions. While adaptations of popular franchises will always happen and can turn into entertaining shows, I have more respect for a studio that will take a risk with an occasional original production every now and then than one which relies almost exclusively on adaptations of already popular franchises. To me, shows like K-ON are a cancer. That and Yui is just too damned retarded. That’s beyond “cute” and far, far into “actually handicapped.” It’s a little… Creepy.
Having said that, it’s difficult to talk about how much I love Sengoku Basara without sounding like a bit of a hypocrite, but an over-the-top adaptation of an already over-the-top franchise makes for some serious fun. Despite lacking any real depth, the extreme craziness and badassitude makes me wish Japanese history was really like this. And it has a good soundtrack.
Meh personally I’m not too sure about Sengoku Basara. The Warring States and DBZ superpowers just don’t seem to mix. Pretty much everyone besides the handful of main chars is cannon fodder…
I do like the comedy scenes. Yukimura and Takeda punching eachother is plain funny.
I can accept the over-the-topness (after all I love TTGL) but the fact that there are huge armies and tacticians and all is pretty meaningless. You just need one super soldier to blow everyone else away…
That pretty much kills all the entertaining stuff that you usually get when watching epic war shows.
(Also amusing that when the main characters clash there’s always some sort of humongeous explosion to express their awesome powers, but when they’re up against a few folks with medieval guns they’re like OH NOEZ! Weaponz! We’re so DEAD!)
I really gotta catch up on FMA. I don’t know why I’ve been neglecting it so much despite loving the original series… and I’m tempted to watch Saki. If its really playful, I guess I can marathon it sometime.
D:
Let’s see… I see Bleach in there, Code Geass, Hikaru no Go, One Piece, Reborn, Beck, FMA, Haruhi, Tsubasa Chronicles, Naruto, D Gray Man, Maybe Air Gear?, and Maybe Death Note?
I think there is Full Metal Alchemist, D.Gray-man (Allen’s curse and Timcampy), Bleach, Code Geass, Death Note, One Piece (the “Wanted”), XXXHolic (Mokona~♥), Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, ect…
PS: sorry for my bad English
OK!!! Gurren Lagann Hair Skull, Code Geass Lelough of the Rebelion Eye and Poster, Full Metal Alchemist Automail Arm, The Melancholy Of Suzumiya Haruhi Brigade Leader Arm Band, D. Gray Man Eye Curse Thingy (sry only watched 1 ep so far ^^”), Naruto Ninja Head Band, BECK Band Poster, One Piece Luffy Wanted Poster, A Death Note, Phantom Requiem for the Phantom Mask(i think), Bleach Sword, Air Gear ‘Air Treks’, GO peices from Hikaru no GO!, xxxHolic/Tsubasa Reference from Black Mokana!!!! *sighs out of breath*….THAT’S EVERTHING I KNOW!!!! WHAT ARE THE REST????????? I NEED TO KNOW!!! X3333333 PLZ AND THNK U!! URS TRULY AN ANIME FREAK! ^^ Bye!~