Best of 2006 (Anime-hen)
It’s time to take a look at what was hot and what wasn’t in Animeland this year. I don’t think 2006 was quite as good as 2005, but perhaps that’s because a lot of the shows I’m enjoying are still running.
The Best of The Best
My favourite show of 2006. I hadn’t expected to like this reverse-harem show; but the bright, fluid animation, charming characters, brilliant soundtrack and great voice-acting won me over.
One of the prettiest shows this year. Nice music courtesy of Mitsumune Shinkichi, a good story and great character development; though it could perhaps have done with a couple more episodes to flesh things out.
I was in heaven when it was announced that the ARIA sequel would be 26 episodes, but it still feels way too short. More Aria-shachou (and Ai-chan), please!
My second favourite Haruhi of the year. People who say it’s overrated are talking out of their arse. The Day Of Sagittarius is quite possibly the best 23 minutes of anime I’ve watched this year.
Technically it shouldn’t be here (as it started its run in 2005), but most of it actually aired in 2006. Who cares? The visuals may be simple but the storytelling is superb. Mushishi is one of my all-time favourites.
The Best of The Rest
It’s cute. That’s really the only reason you’ll ever need to justify why you’re watching these…. creatures going about their uninteresting lives. But they’re cute!
Not as good as the first season, but still a worthy effort. Still, there were some good moments involving Yamada and Nomiya and it remains one of the best shoujo series around. What a shame it’s all over….
It’s not going to win any prizes for its story, but Kasimasi has a great cast of characters voiced by a talented bunch of seiyuu. Oh, and the yuri doesn’t hurt either.
Another gender-bending anime. Apart from Shion’s surprising lack of airtime, OtoBoku for the most part was a fun and enjoyable show (as long as you switch your brain off beforehand).
It could’ve been worse….
So it spent 26 episodes going around in circles when it could have cut out loads of crap and finished it in 13. Still, it had the best ending of the year for me, cliched as it was.
I doubt KKM will feature highly on people’s best of lists, but despite its lameness there was something charming about it. I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen a burdock being used as a weapon anywhere else….
It looked promising, and was pretty good for most of its run up until the Mamiina incident. Then it all went downhill, and the ending was dull and anti-climactic. Oh, and I still don’t feel the Nevriril-Aeru love.
I knew it was going to shit once they brought the science stuff in, but it was a fun ride for the first 15 episodes or so. The animation was patchy at best, but the great cast made up for it.
How Not To Make Anime
J.C. Staff are a wildly inconsistent studio, with the ability to produce stuff as good as Asatte no Houkou and Hachikuro, but also capable of churning out turd like this. Here’s hoping they don’t screw up Nodame.
It actually started off pretty well, but the screwy animation and tired cliches doomed Crescent Love to a millenium’s worth of cabbage jokes. Pity, cos Feena is a great looking character.
I’m not a Type-Moon fan so God knows if Studio DEEN butchered up F/SN or not, but what I do know it’s amazingly slow and boring. Thank God for Rin and Archer.
‘Surely it couldn’t be any worse than Tsubasa’, I thought as the show started its run. Well I was wrong. Best to stick to the manga, CLAMP fans.
Fingers Crossed…
Assuming Sunrise don’t go all SEED on us, this should turn out to be one of the best anime of the fall season. I was enticed by the huge & amazing cast list, and now I’m hooked, line and sinker.
Watching it tends to be a bit of a pain cos of the quality (damnit, why does it have to air on GyaO?). It’s got Satou Rina in one of her most interesting roles yet. Here’s hoping the second half is as good as the first.
Eat that, XEBEC. You can tell the PPD team did this, it’s brimming with references and nods to all manners of video games and anime. I just hope the original storylines hold up well, and that Eva gets more airtime.
Woah, a GONZO show. Smack at the midway point, and things are starting to heat up now. I really like the cast of characters, and I hope GONZO doesn’t screw the story up.
Would you believe it, another GONZO show! It’ll be interesting to see if they can build on the good work they’ve done so far. The noses still bother me though.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
[...] had to apply the code to the majority of my almost 200 posts. A royal pain in the arse. Some of my earlier posts using different layouts are still messed up, but I hope to fix those [...]