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 »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Shigofumi is one of those series that has an intriguing and quirky setting that can either become amazingly brilliant or turn into absolute rubbish, depending on the execution of the story. Speaking of which, using the phrase “execution of the story” when talking about J.C. Staff and light novel adaptations conjures an entirely different mental image from what that phrase usually means (Zero no Tsukaima or Shakugan no Shana, anyone?), and will almost certainly bring bad luck to the production, so I’m going to refrain from saying that ever again.

Shigofumi (死後文) basically means a “letter from beyond death”, and refers to a letter which a recently deceased person writes to someone still living. These letters are delivered by Fumika (pictured above), along with her talking staff sidekick, Kanaka. The series seems to be more or less episodic, with the duo delivering a different letter to a different person each time. Read the rest of this entry »

30 different shows from the fall season, analyzed and ranked from the bottom up.

Two Shows with emo woes and mecha in the sky,
Seven pieces of crap that got released too soon,
Six moe series, each with one lucky guy,
One for the Lolicon in his dark room

In the Land of Internets where Shadows lie.
One Blogger to watch them all, One Blogger to find them,
One Blogger to rank them all and on the web deride them
In the Land of Internets where Shadows lie.

…

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that 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.

Disclaimer 2: These reviews are based solely on the episodes which have aired up to this point (October 22). We take no responsibility for shows which unexpectedly become epic or go to crap after this point. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the climactic conclusion we’ve been famished for here at Epic Win, and might I say that few words other than “epic” can adequately describe the ending of Darker than Black. With the impending demise of all the contractors will it be Li or the Black Reaper that has the final say?

The final episode was excellent; I felt that the true essence of the story and the question that it asks was brought forth in poetic fashion. That question being, “Is there hope for peace, and do differences only bring about conflict and war, or is it those differences that make us unique, shape our experiences, and define our lives?” Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t enjoy it at all.

You know, it’s funny…after all the build up, all the delays, all the bloggers flaming away at Makoto with the heat of a thousand internets, when I finally got to see the long awaited moment – it didn’t make me happy at all.

Watching the cast slowly spiral out of control throughout the series, and then finally crash and burn at the end, was like watching an impending train wreck. You knew it was going to be horrible, but you couldn’t pull your eyes away from it. Read the rest of this entry »

Because 24 just wasn’t enough.

4-koma by our very own guest artist, Jupeboxgal.

After hearing Motteke! Sailor Fuku over and over and over again, it’s certainly lost some of its charm, but nevertheless I still find it enjoyable. The song’s sugar-crack catchiness is much like the show itself – although I soon became accustomed to it, now that it’s gone I find myself missing that Sunday night Lucky Star fix.

* hands shake *

“C’mon man, just…just one more episode, I just need one more episode, man! I can stop any time I want, I swear! C’mon, just one more time…”

Even while working on this post, when I went through the older episodes to get screenshots, half the time I ended up getting distracted and watching the entire show. I’ve already watched through the series roughly three times, and yet it’s still fun. I think one of the strongest signs of a good anime series, much like a good video game, is in its replay value, and in my book Lucky Star certainly delivers.

Therefore, we are very proud to present our top 48 reasons why Lucky Star is an amazing show that almost anyone can enjoy.

(Warning: LONG POST IS LONG! Not recommended for small children, nursing mothers, and people still running on 9600 baud modems.) Read the rest of this entry »

In a little under a month, the Fall Anime Season will kick off and a whole slew of new and interesting shows will start up.

The fall season is, in my opinion, generally the strongest season of the year. Four years ago, during the fall of 2003, a number of excellent new shows aired, most notably Fullmetal Alchemist, Read or Die TV, and Gunslinger Girl.

Fall ‘04 saw the beginning of many popular (infamously so, in my book) series, including Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Rozen Maiden, and Bleach, all of which have proven to be tenacious as cockroaches, continuing to air all the way up to the present.

Fall of ‘05 brought us such classics as Akagi, Aria the Animation, Shakugan no Shana, and of course Mushishi, all four of which still reside on my Top Ten list.

Fall 2006, while a comparatively weak year, nevertheless had a few diamonds in the rough – Code Geass, D. Gray-man, OtoBoku, and the Kanon remake, among others.

This fall also shows excellent potential for new anime, with a number of strong sequels premiering, as well as several intriguing new series. More after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »