17 different shows from the summer ‘09 anime season, analyzed and ranked from the bottom up.

Disclaimer: These rankings are purely a reflection of our own opinions and tastes, which are admittedly rather different from your average anime fan. Just because we don’t like a particular show doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. Your mileage may vary, etc etc. However, if you do have a different opinion about a show, by all means post a comment so that people reading have more than one opinion to go by.

Summer often gets a bad rap as the “filler” season in between the generally much more packed spring and fall anime seasons. This season, however, summer boasts an excellent crop of new shows for fans of all different genres. Although I’m ranking these shows numerically according to my favorites, almost all of them are enjoyable in at least some respects.

Almost all. Read the rest of this entry »

And yet I’m still watching it, anyway.

That’s not hyperbole, either. This series literally made me fall asleep on two separate occasions when I was trying to watch it. Just, face on the keyboard snooze. I don’t know if it’s something subliminal in the funky music or what, but it’s practically an Aria-class sedative drug. Maybe I’m just hypnotized by the trippiness of the whole thing.

All that isn’t to say that Bakemonogatari is bad, though. To the contrary, while the series definitely has its share of flaws, I’d say so far it’s one of my favorite shows of the summer 2009 anime season.

The characters and dialogue are definitely the show’s strong point. Ararararagi seems to take all the surreal circumstances around him in stride, narrating with an almost Kyon caliber dry wit. His back and forth verbal sparring with Hachikuji and Senjougahara alternates between awkward and hilarious constantly, and the show actually has a fair number of terrible groaner puns, although many of them get lost in translation.

If nothing else, Bakemonogatari is certainly the leader this season for spawning memorable lines and internet meme fodder (although “Kyon-kun denwa” x 16 does give it a pretty good run for its money). Rararagi’s conversation with Hachikuji after he accidentally cops a feel while fighting with her was hilarious, as was Senjougahara’s unexpected confession. Read the rest of this entry »