I'm back again, for all five of you who will read this.
2012 was...mediocre, to be honest. It's not that there was a lot of bad stuff, there just wasn't any great stuff. For comparison, none of my top 10 of this past year would have made it into my top 5 of 2011, and only a few would stand a chance of reaching into my 2011 ranks 6-10.
Thus, my top 10 (and even bottom 5) were fairly hard to pick. Every single one of them I scored 8/10 (or am planning on)...and they are the only shows from 2012 that I gave 8/10. And I didn't give anything any higher. I mean, I didn't pick my top 10 based on the scores I gave them alone (that tends to be helpful, though), but when I wrote out the list of potential candidates for top 10, I only had 10, and they were everything I had given that score. And I decided to discount continuations and sequels for this, as well.
And unlike 2011, I actually watched a good 85-90% of anime that aired (and it was hard). I can't think of anything I missed that was supposed to be really good, except potentially The Daily Lives of High School Boys, which I don't expect to be my cup of tea.
So yeah, my standard (lol, 1 year to go on for that) top 10/bottom 5 is pretty dull this time around, so I'm adding a lot of special categories. Basically, I'm saying everything I want to about the anime scene in 2012. Here we go.
Oh, and nothing is going to be ordered this time unless I specifically say so. It's really not easy to accurately position ten things I think of in basically the same way.
No theme songs this time because that's just too subjective, and honestly kind of boring to talk about.
Oh, yeah, uh, spoiler warning. Read at your own risk.
Top 10 Anime of 2012:
Honorable mentions:![]()
Humanity Has Declined
An odd art style, backwards chronology, and horribly annoying OP song. It wasn't always the most fun, but there's one thing you have to admit; it's different. It definitely is not your typical anime. It parodies and criticizes many anime tropes with its rather subtle style of humor, even having an episode fully dedicated to pointing out all the ludicrous tools mangas use to keep readers (the best episode). It gets merely honorable mention because of its hit-or-miss nature, but I'd recommend it just as much as anything else here.
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Ixion Saga DT
Dick jokes, dick jokes everywhere. A typical setup, but completely atypical execution. Very little of this will you see coming. Lots of manservice and trolling for you to feed on.
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K-On! Movie
I know, I said above that I wasn't counting sequels. This is also technically a 2011 anime. However, the English-speaking community didn't get a chance to see it until 2012, and it was so surprisingly good - even for someone like me who isn't a big fan of the series - that I just had to give it a mention. If it were eligible, this would have been my #1 of the year for sure.
The Ten:
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Acchi Kocchi
I have a new standard for cute romcoms, and it's called Acchi Kocchi (or Place to Place as the recent license would have it). It's just...your typical romcom, only with better jokes and an art and animation style that will have cute-lovers dying of nosebleed. Tsumiki is just too adorable.
That's about it, really. It's a simple show. Simple, yet very good.
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AKB0048
Surprise of the year, indeed. Everything about this show should have doomed it to failure. An anime about...idols who battle while they perform...during an "entertainment ban"...with hearts constantly in their eyes...and voiced by a pop idol group without a record of voice acting. But somehow, inexplicably...it worked. They took their ridiculous premise and treated it well, developed their world and characters, and built-up to an incredibly intense finale. It should have just been a cash-in for milking AKB48 fans, but someone cared enough to do a good job, and it shows.
Oh, and some of the music is good, too.
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Waiting in the Summer
Maybe I should expect things to fail more often, because that's how I went into this one. First off, anyone who thinks this is just a copy of Please Teacher clearly hasn't seen both shows (I have, so I know). They share similar art and a somewhat similar premise, but are otherwise pretty different.
That said...I was surprised. Yeah, there's a bit of fanservice here and there, but it's still a refreshingly innocent take on teen romance (with supernatural elements). A big point is also that the characters are not totally dense. There's nothing more annoying than a romance not developing because the characters "just can't decide on their feelings" or some crap like that. Nope. The characters know how they feel in this one and they accept it, and the problems that come their way are not a result of someone's stupidity, and are thus much more enjoyable to watch. Plus, this show has one of the best characters anime has ever seen!
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Binbougami ga!
Contrary to the two above, this one met the standards I had for it pretty well. An outrageous comedy with dabs of drama put in at the appropriate times. Some of the side characters are mostly annoying, but the two main characters are great and very well-used in the setup of the show. It's just too bad it doesn't look like it will get more.
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From the New World (first half)
This is a very odd title, even moreso than Humanity Has Declined. For a while I had little idea what was going on, and yet, I never disliked it. It's the kind of show that doesn't spend time explaining the terms, then using them, but implementing them on the way and letting the viewer develop an understanding of them through that. Done right, this is always the superior route in terms of quality writing. There are a lot of intriguing mysteries in this show, and I look forward to it every week to see more.
The surprise yuri (and yaoi?) wasn't bad, either.
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JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (first half)
The long-awaited TV adaptation of a very old manga. This is something that is the same, yet different. On the surface it is another battle shounen (though bloodier than most), but it actually steps things up a notch by trying to be really smart about it. It's hard to explain, but while it usually comes off as ridiculous, it also manages to stay smarter than others like it instead of just being dumb.
It's also very nice to see protagonists with balls. Manly balls. And damsels in distress with a spine. It's like this show does the same stuff as everything else but just does it so much better that you don't even care.
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Kuroko's Basketball
It's alright, you can be confused as to who this is aimed at. I'm not entirely sure myself.
An anime about sports, basketball specifically. I don't want to waste a lot of time here; you can guess pretty well if you'll like this or not. It's very good at what it does, and that's all that's really important. Although it can get pretty ridiculous as far as the tricks they employ.
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Natsuiro Kiseki
When I watch a series, even if I don't agree with the general consensus, I can usually see where such a consensus comes from. I've always believed that there's a reason a lot of people do or do not like something.
But I don't get this. This series has been the source of much criticism and only barely made it into MAL's top 3,000 when it finished airing. And honestly? If I had to pick one of these ten as my #1 for the year, it would probably be this. It definitely kept my attention the most consistently (not easy!), keeping me entertained from start to finish, and it's pretty unique for its genre. It uses teenagers, but during the summer instead of in school. The episodes aren't generic slice-of-life mundane activities, but consist of the characters solving real problems brought on by their own wishes. It doesn't overuse anything and its characters are written very well, cute, but not defined as such.
Sure, it has more than one moment of QUALITY animation, but that shouldn't be such a huge deal. I honestly wouldn't mind owning my own copy of this, for the right price.
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Psycho-Pass (first half)
To me, this series feels like a big "what if?" That is, "what if we let machines decide who's good and who's bad?" And I'm sure that's been done before.
How do people react? How do people feel about it? What happens when the system doesn't appear to be working properly? Do you trust it or should you take matters into your own hands, even if doing so will end up with you labeled as a criminal? Is this really freedom, or is everything controlled?
Think about it.
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Upotte!!
This time I know why it's not rated well; people don't score ecchi highly. Ever.
But...I couldn't help but love this series. It's premise is so dumb, but it was so damn fun. The jokes worked and the battles were surprisingly intense. The biggest problem is that it was too damn short.
Top 10 Characters of 2012...sort of:
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Kazuto Kirigaya, aka Kirito
It's official: Jesus has returned in the form of Kirito. He is our lord and savior and we shall all follow him to the promised land where many waifus and ass-pulls await us. We shall be struck down by the powers given only to the Holy One and we will worship in awe of his glorious being that none can find fault with.
No, not really.
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Remon Yamano
She's not even part of the love...line in the show, yet she was still the most fun to watch. Remon is basically playing the part of the viewer (not in a self-insert way), just watching and enjoying the show, doing what she can to spice things up. I can still hear that laugh in my head.
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Asako Natsume
The show lost a lot of steam for me by the halfway point, but I always loved seeing Asako. She's the only character that I felt was consistently fun to watch and really learned a little something throughout the course of the show. I wish she was the main character.
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The entire cast of OniAi (even the guy)
Characters can really make a show, and these people knew their stuff.
The little sister who is very open about her enormous brother complex but just starts screaming randomly when another girls comes onto him because she doesn't like it but doesn't know what to do.
The rich girl who only verbally abuses the main character, but does so because she just likes to tease him.
The horny girl who just wants to have sex with...everyone, actually.
The childhood friend who tries to be the level-headed one but often gets caught up in the mess.
The token loli who is also a genius and their manager and thinks she's the main character's fiance and is actually kind of generic but still cute.
The editor who...is actually pretty dull in comparison. They didn't use her much.
The main character who doesn't turn red at every sexually suggestive moment, but is instead completely nonchalant and is often able to fire back. Very refreshing.
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Jonathan and Joseph Joestar
Anime, and shounen series in general, tend to do a lot of "training." But back in the day there were things like Rurouni Kenshin and Fist of the North Star with characters who were already strong. These worked just as well, and sometimes even better.
We also had JoJo, and now we see them animated. Huge muscles, a fighting spirit, and not a shred of cowardice. That's how it's done.
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Ichigo Hoshimiya
Ichigo here is probably the character I resonated the most with this year. She saw something, and she realized she wanted to do it. An opportunity arose and she took it, but it's not as easy as she'd hoped, and she screws up plenty of times along the way.
But she always bounces back. She learns from her mistakes, and even though giving it her all can be hard, she manages to pull through.
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Kuroko Tetsuya and Kagami Taiga
The loud musclehead and...wait, there was someone else...Oh yeah, the guy no one notices. Together, somehow, they create a force to be reckoned with. They are each other's complement. One without the other just isn't as effective. On their own, they are both kind of dull characters, but they make a great duo.
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Tsumiki Miniwa
As much as I like romances that result in a relationship, I feel like I could watch Tsumiki vye for Io's attention forever. She's just so damn adorable, trying to catch up to him to walk with him to school, nearly fainting when he hugs her...and chomping his head when he just doesn't get it.
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Rick Elwood
Rick is the man every man should aspire to be. He makes bread, but he doesn't give a shit if you think that isn't manly, and as a result he becomes even more manly, and his bread also becomes manly. Then he gets hired to defend a castle because the royalty knows that only this bread man is man enough to fend off criminals, then he ends up needing to save the world, and he does just that because he's fucking Rick.
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Yuka Hanaki
As far as I know, this is the character people tend to like the least (big surprise...). However, there's no doubt in my mind that she is most realized character in here.
Yuka likes to act before she thinks, and it gets her into trouble more than once. However, she also breaks down when things get tense. For all her talk, she isn't good under pressure, and when big moments come, it's usually her that screws them up. And that guilt messes her up, too.
She was given a basic personality (what isn't these days?), but broke out of it when the time called for it. A simple plan, but a working one.
Worst Anime of 2012: That which came from the anus of Nihon:
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Bodacious Space Pirates
I wanted to like this show, I really did. I liked the main character, I liked the ridiculous premise, and I loved the yuri implications.
But it was just...so damn boring. It was basically 70% techno-babble, 25% high school shenanigans, and 5% interesting. But even that 5% wasn't very interesting because it relied on an understanding of all the unending, dull techno-babble.
This is a series that would have benefited a lot from letting the viewer gain understanding through usage. And a halved run time.
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Nisemonogatari
Bakemonogatari had a fine share of fanservice, but still managed to be very artsy and intriguing. Nisemonogatari is just fanservice. I'm pretty sure if you took out all the fanservice, you'd have about 3 episodes worth of plot material.
The problem? It thinks it's smart. When fanservice shows think they're smart, they suck. The title really works, because the whole story is one big fake.
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K
It looks so good, so why is it so bad? K feels like it wanted to be a spiritual successor to Durarara, but it failed pretty horribly. It has an incomprehensible excuse for a plot and many character actions make no sense (I'm going to kill you, but after dinner. And after this. And this). Then the show starts throwing kings at you everywhere and you don't know who's who anymore, and then random flashbacks often keep you wondering what time you're in, and then we get the worst rendition of Hitler ever seen.
As a close friend said, it's named 'K' because the only thing anyone can say after an episode is, "K." Moving on.
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Arcana Famiglia
With the first episode, everyone was ready for something great.
Little did we know we were in for ten episodes of filler. In a twelve episode series.
Arcana Famiglia tells us something awesome is going to happen, then does boring shit for four hours, and when the something awesome arrives, it's made so very underwhelming because none of it was actually animated. I know this is based on an otome game, but come on...
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Sword Art Online
With the first (and second) episode, everyone was ready for something great.
Why didn't this cause the same kind of disappointment as Arcana Famiglia when it manages to be even worse?
Sword Art Online is the big anime of 2012. It's basically taken over Madoka's position as that one anime that everyone is talking about. This time, however, the fanbase is split; those who love it, and those who know how shitty it is. It has spawned so many discussions, so much controversy, and all it has to do is bask in the glory. Guilty Crown has nothing on this.
I don't feel the need to talk about why this anime is so horrible. Read my review for that. This is not just the worst anime of 2012, it is the worst anime ever. Good riddance.
And now for the fun stuff! The individual categories that I am basically making up as I go along.
Most Randomly Funny:
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Kill Me Baby
And I don't mean randomly as in "that was so random it was funny!" I mean "this is so dumb, this is so dumb, this is so dumb, HOLY CRAP THAT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY FUNNY."
It really is not a good show overall, but it would be great if it cut out all the good stuff and put them into 2 or 3 episodes.
Worst Finale:
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Senki Zesshou Symphogear (What's with the stupidly long title on MAL?)
I am one of the few who largely liked this show as it was going. The plot wasn't the most unique, but it was enough to keep me and I liked the characters.
Then the last episode came and I was blinded by the end from all the blood in my eyes because I kept slamming my face into my desk.
Characters who are supposed to be dead rise from the grave for no reason, completely unharmed. The villain breaks the damn moon and no one fucking cares. The main character goes completely out of character and tries to comfort the villain without a shred of logic. The main character and the two who were supposed to be dead do an attack that kills them, only they randomly show up to the main character's friend a month or two later with a "hey, we're back" like nothing special happened in what is actually a continuation from the very first scene of the series that had basically told us the main character would die by the end (little did we know she showed her face 30 seconds later).
By the way, if I did have a Best Theme Songs category this year, the ED from this show, Meteor Light, would win hands down.
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Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
A different case from the above, but fits here regardless. Save the first few minutes, this final episode was fantastic. The settings, dialogue, and music all meshed wonderfully for a super emotional, bittersweet ending.
Then she comes back out of nowhere. I want my tears back, show.
I Don't Think I Should Like This But I Do:
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High School DxD
Boobs.
That's all you need to say to get someone to watch this anime, because it delivers. It's just a trashy fanservice anime, right? Yeah.
Uh, maybe? I mean, it definitely sells itself as that. But then why do I like it for more than that?
Because someone behind High School DxD wanted to do a little more than that. He wanted a likable protagonist and well-used support. He wanted a plot that isn't there just to fill air time.
It's basically a great guilty pleasure.
So Pretty:
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Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan
I actually liked this show, and in a rare turn of events, the art is a big reason why. I absolutely love the setting and character designs here. It does feel like there should be more, but I'm pretty happy with what we got.
Is That A Yuri Harem?:
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Queen's Blade: Rebellion
Why is there no full-on yuri harem out there yet? I know yuri is a niche genre, but come on. Just take the guy in your standard harem and make him a girl instead. Yes, the other girls stay girls, so not a reverse harem. Surely there's demand for this.
Queen's Blade: Rebellion was far from focused on that idea, but it actually implemented it in a couple episodes with all the girls crawling over Annelotte. It was pretty fun. Come on, Japan, do one for real!
Best Individual Episode:
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Sengoku Collection 18
This show has very inconsistent quality. One episode might be good while the next will suck. I guess that happens when most episodes are entirely unconnected (insofar as even using new characters).
But episode 18 might have been the best anime of the year. We see the unlucky life of a lone girl, but then she finds a pen pal to whom she begins writing back and forth, and she realizes that sometimes bad luck can actually lead to good luck: random good luck, as they call it. Twenty minutes and a tragic ending, but so well-done for its short run time. I need to watch it again...
There Is Nothing To Say About This Show:
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Joshiraku
There is nothing to say about this show. It's just five girls talking about uninteresting topics.
Random Moments Of Absolute Brilliance:
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Girls und Panzer
Have you ever watched a show that might not have been so great overall, but has one specific part, one short, simple scene that is just amazing and worth remembering the show just for that?
Girls und Panzer has two.
Japan comes through again with an absolutely ridiculous premise. It shouldn't even come as a surprise to us anymore when these things show up. Girls und Panzer is not the most amazing show. The tank battles can be rather interesting, but otherwise most of what happens is entirely forgettable.
Luckily, it has random moments of brilliance to make sure we won't ever forget it.
The first is when a tank battle is about to start (I honestly don't remember any other details). The opposing team is setting out in a group, riding their tanks through the snow, and then...they start singing. In Russian. A real, legitimate war song. And I don't know Russian, but from I heard, they sung it pretty well. And I looped it for an hour sometime later. I was barely even paying attention before the scene started, and when it did I was like, "Wait, what?" Also, Crunchyroll was forced to remove this scene from their official stream.
The second is just before the climax of the above-mentioned tank battle. Our girls are holed up in some kind of shack or something, basically at the mercy of the enemy, without much hope for winning. Then, Miho starts...doing the anglerfish dance from a few episodes ago. Everyone is confused. But then her teammates get the point (although I never really did...) and they all start doing it with her. And they're being televised, so an entire audience is watching them do this ridiculous dance in the middle of a tank battle. It was amazing. I have thus dubbed the scene "Trolls und Panzer."
If you haven't seen the show, you probably don't really see what I'm getting at and why these moments are brilliant. But if you have, you probably know exactly what I mean.
Stop Moving Around So Much:
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Blast of Tempest
This is Shounen, so you'd expect it to make itself on battles. For the first...6 or something episodes, it does. Or, well, it tries. I was bored to death of these episodes. The story seemed to be moving so slowly and the action was mostly dull.
Then they all stood in one spot for about six episodes straight. A huge contrast. This is when I started enjoying the show.
It was really weird. They went from fighting to standing around debating. But to someone like me who enjoys a good debate...it was fun. The logic they used wasn't exactly something anyone could come up with, but was still easy enough to understand and follow. Every rebuttal and new argument seemed to make sense. You don't that kind of thing very often.
That's all! I hope you enjoyed it. I can't promise I'll do this again for 2013 since I don't plan on watching so much, but we shall see.
Honorable mentions:
Humanity Has Declined
An odd art style, backwards chronology, and horribly annoying OP song. It wasn't always the most fun, but there's one thing you have to admit; it's different. It definitely is not your typical anime. It parodies and criticizes many anime tropes with its rather subtle style of humor, even having an episode fully dedicated to pointing out all the ludicrous tools mangas use to keep readers (the best episode). It gets merely honorable mention because of its hit-or-miss nature, but I'd recommend it just as much as anything else here.
Ixion Saga DT
Dick jokes, dick jokes everywhere. A typical setup, but completely atypical execution. Very little of this will you see coming. Lots of manservice and trolling for you to feed on.
K-On! Movie
I know, I said above that I wasn't counting sequels. This is also technically a 2011 anime. However, the English-speaking community didn't get a chance to see it until 2012, and it was so surprisingly good - even for someone like me who isn't a big fan of the series - that I just had to give it a mention. If it were eligible, this would have been my #1 of the year for sure.
The Ten:
Acchi Kocchi
I have a new standard for cute romcoms, and it's called Acchi Kocchi (or Place to Place as the recent license would have it). It's just...your typical romcom, only with better jokes and an art and animation style that will have cute-lovers dying of nosebleed. Tsumiki is just too adorable.
That's about it, really. It's a simple show. Simple, yet very good.
AKB0048
Surprise of the year, indeed. Everything about this show should have doomed it to failure. An anime about...idols who battle while they perform...during an "entertainment ban"...with hearts constantly in their eyes...and voiced by a pop idol group without a record of voice acting. But somehow, inexplicably...it worked. They took their ridiculous premise and treated it well, developed their world and characters, and built-up to an incredibly intense finale. It should have just been a cash-in for milking AKB48 fans, but someone cared enough to do a good job, and it shows.
Oh, and some of the music is good, too.
Waiting in the Summer
Maybe I should expect things to fail more often, because that's how I went into this one. First off, anyone who thinks this is just a copy of Please Teacher clearly hasn't seen both shows (I have, so I know). They share similar art and a somewhat similar premise, but are otherwise pretty different.
That said...I was surprised. Yeah, there's a bit of fanservice here and there, but it's still a refreshingly innocent take on teen romance (with supernatural elements). A big point is also that the characters are not totally dense. There's nothing more annoying than a romance not developing because the characters "just can't decide on their feelings" or some crap like that. Nope. The characters know how they feel in this one and they accept it, and the problems that come their way are not a result of someone's stupidity, and are thus much more enjoyable to watch. Plus, this show has one of the best characters anime has ever seen!
Binbougami ga!
Contrary to the two above, this one met the standards I had for it pretty well. An outrageous comedy with dabs of drama put in at the appropriate times. Some of the side characters are mostly annoying, but the two main characters are great and very well-used in the setup of the show. It's just too bad it doesn't look like it will get more.
From the New World (first half)
This is a very odd title, even moreso than Humanity Has Declined. For a while I had little idea what was going on, and yet, I never disliked it. It's the kind of show that doesn't spend time explaining the terms, then using them, but implementing them on the way and letting the viewer develop an understanding of them through that. Done right, this is always the superior route in terms of quality writing. There are a lot of intriguing mysteries in this show, and I look forward to it every week to see more.
The surprise yuri (and yaoi?) wasn't bad, either.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (first half)
The long-awaited TV adaptation of a very old manga. This is something that is the same, yet different. On the surface it is another battle shounen (though bloodier than most), but it actually steps things up a notch by trying to be really smart about it. It's hard to explain, but while it usually comes off as ridiculous, it also manages to stay smarter than others like it instead of just being dumb.
It's also very nice to see protagonists with balls. Manly balls. And damsels in distress with a spine. It's like this show does the same stuff as everything else but just does it so much better that you don't even care.
Kuroko's Basketball
It's alright, you can be confused as to who this is aimed at. I'm not entirely sure myself.
An anime about sports, basketball specifically. I don't want to waste a lot of time here; you can guess pretty well if you'll like this or not. It's very good at what it does, and that's all that's really important. Although it can get pretty ridiculous as far as the tricks they employ.
Natsuiro Kiseki
When I watch a series, even if I don't agree with the general consensus, I can usually see where such a consensus comes from. I've always believed that there's a reason a lot of people do or do not like something.
But I don't get this. This series has been the source of much criticism and only barely made it into MAL's top 3,000 when it finished airing. And honestly? If I had to pick one of these ten as my #1 for the year, it would probably be this. It definitely kept my attention the most consistently (not easy!), keeping me entertained from start to finish, and it's pretty unique for its genre. It uses teenagers, but during the summer instead of in school. The episodes aren't generic slice-of-life mundane activities, but consist of the characters solving real problems brought on by their own wishes. It doesn't overuse anything and its characters are written very well, cute, but not defined as such.
Sure, it has more than one moment of QUALITY animation, but that shouldn't be such a huge deal. I honestly wouldn't mind owning my own copy of this, for the right price.
Psycho-Pass (first half)
To me, this series feels like a big "what if?" That is, "what if we let machines decide who's good and who's bad?" And I'm sure that's been done before.
How do people react? How do people feel about it? What happens when the system doesn't appear to be working properly? Do you trust it or should you take matters into your own hands, even if doing so will end up with you labeled as a criminal? Is this really freedom, or is everything controlled?
Think about it.
Upotte!!
This time I know why it's not rated well; people don't score ecchi highly. Ever.
But...I couldn't help but love this series. It's premise is so dumb, but it was so damn fun. The jokes worked and the battles were surprisingly intense. The biggest problem is that it was too damn short.
Kazuto Kirigaya, aka Kirito
It's official: Jesus has returned in the form of Kirito. He is our lord and savior and we shall all follow him to the promised land where many waifus and ass-pulls await us. We shall be struck down by the powers given only to the Holy One and we will worship in awe of his glorious being that none can find fault with.
No, not really.
Remon Yamano
She's not even part of the love...line in the show, yet she was still the most fun to watch. Remon is basically playing the part of the viewer (not in a self-insert way), just watching and enjoying the show, doing what she can to spice things up. I can still hear that laugh in my head.
Asako Natsume
The show lost a lot of steam for me by the halfway point, but I always loved seeing Asako. She's the only character that I felt was consistently fun to watch and really learned a little something throughout the course of the show. I wish she was the main character.
The entire cast of OniAi (even the guy)
Characters can really make a show, and these people knew their stuff.
The little sister who is very open about her enormous brother complex but just starts screaming randomly when another girls comes onto him because she doesn't like it but doesn't know what to do.
The rich girl who only verbally abuses the main character, but does so because she just likes to tease him.
The horny girl who just wants to have sex with...everyone, actually.
The childhood friend who tries to be the level-headed one but often gets caught up in the mess.
The token loli who is also a genius and their manager and thinks she's the main character's fiance and is actually kind of generic but still cute.
The editor who...is actually pretty dull in comparison. They didn't use her much.
The main character who doesn't turn red at every sexually suggestive moment, but is instead completely nonchalant and is often able to fire back. Very refreshing.
Jonathan and Joseph Joestar
Anime, and shounen series in general, tend to do a lot of "training." But back in the day there were things like Rurouni Kenshin and Fist of the North Star with characters who were already strong. These worked just as well, and sometimes even better.
We also had JoJo, and now we see them animated. Huge muscles, a fighting spirit, and not a shred of cowardice. That's how it's done.
Ichigo Hoshimiya
Ichigo here is probably the character I resonated the most with this year. She saw something, and she realized she wanted to do it. An opportunity arose and she took it, but it's not as easy as she'd hoped, and she screws up plenty of times along the way.
But she always bounces back. She learns from her mistakes, and even though giving it her all can be hard, she manages to pull through.
Kuroko Tetsuya and Kagami Taiga
The loud musclehead and...wait, there was someone else...Oh yeah, the guy no one notices. Together, somehow, they create a force to be reckoned with. They are each other's complement. One without the other just isn't as effective. On their own, they are both kind of dull characters, but they make a great duo.
Tsumiki Miniwa
As much as I like romances that result in a relationship, I feel like I could watch Tsumiki vye for Io's attention forever. She's just so damn adorable, trying to catch up to him to walk with him to school, nearly fainting when he hugs her...and chomping his head when he just doesn't get it.
Rick Elwood
Rick is the man every man should aspire to be. He makes bread, but he doesn't give a shit if you think that isn't manly, and as a result he becomes even more manly, and his bread also becomes manly. Then he gets hired to defend a castle because the royalty knows that only this bread man is man enough to fend off criminals, then he ends up needing to save the world, and he does just that because he's fucking Rick.
Yuka Hanaki
As far as I know, this is the character people tend to like the least (big surprise...). However, there's no doubt in my mind that she is most realized character in here.
Yuka likes to act before she thinks, and it gets her into trouble more than once. However, she also breaks down when things get tense. For all her talk, she isn't good under pressure, and when big moments come, it's usually her that screws them up. And that guilt messes her up, too.
She was given a basic personality (what isn't these days?), but broke out of it when the time called for it. A simple plan, but a working one.
Bodacious Space Pirates
I wanted to like this show, I really did. I liked the main character, I liked the ridiculous premise, and I loved the yuri implications.
But it was just...so damn boring. It was basically 70% techno-babble, 25% high school shenanigans, and 5% interesting. But even that 5% wasn't very interesting because it relied on an understanding of all the unending, dull techno-babble.
This is a series that would have benefited a lot from letting the viewer gain understanding through usage. And a halved run time.
Nisemonogatari
Bakemonogatari had a fine share of fanservice, but still managed to be very artsy and intriguing. Nisemonogatari is just fanservice. I'm pretty sure if you took out all the fanservice, you'd have about 3 episodes worth of plot material.
The problem? It thinks it's smart. When fanservice shows think they're smart, they suck. The title really works, because the whole story is one big fake.
K
It looks so good, so why is it so bad? K feels like it wanted to be a spiritual successor to Durarara, but it failed pretty horribly. It has an incomprehensible excuse for a plot and many character actions make no sense (I'm going to kill you, but after dinner. And after this. And this). Then the show starts throwing kings at you everywhere and you don't know who's who anymore, and then random flashbacks often keep you wondering what time you're in, and then we get the worst rendition of Hitler ever seen.
As a close friend said, it's named 'K' because the only thing anyone can say after an episode is, "K." Moving on.
Arcana Famiglia
With the first episode, everyone was ready for something great.
Little did we know we were in for ten episodes of filler. In a twelve episode series.
Arcana Famiglia tells us something awesome is going to happen, then does boring shit for four hours, and when the something awesome arrives, it's made so very underwhelming because none of it was actually animated. I know this is based on an otome game, but come on...
Sword Art Online
With the first (and second) episode, everyone was ready for something great.
Why didn't this cause the same kind of disappointment as Arcana Famiglia when it manages to be even worse?
Sword Art Online is the big anime of 2012. It's basically taken over Madoka's position as that one anime that everyone is talking about. This time, however, the fanbase is split; those who love it, and those who know how shitty it is. It has spawned so many discussions, so much controversy, and all it has to do is bask in the glory. Guilty Crown has nothing on this.
I don't feel the need to talk about why this anime is so horrible. Read my review for that. This is not just the worst anime of 2012, it is the worst anime ever. Good riddance.
Kill Me Baby
And I don't mean randomly as in "that was so random it was funny!" I mean "this is so dumb, this is so dumb, this is so dumb, HOLY CRAP THAT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY FUNNY."
It really is not a good show overall, but it would be great if it cut out all the good stuff and put them into 2 or 3 episodes.
Senki Zesshou Symphogear (What's with the stupidly long title on MAL?)
I am one of the few who largely liked this show as it was going. The plot wasn't the most unique, but it was enough to keep me and I liked the characters.
Then the last episode came and I was blinded by the end from all the blood in my eyes because I kept slamming my face into my desk.
Characters who are supposed to be dead rise from the grave for no reason, completely unharmed. The villain breaks the damn moon and no one fucking cares. The main character goes completely out of character and tries to comfort the villain without a shred of logic. The main character and the two who were supposed to be dead do an attack that kills them, only they randomly show up to the main character's friend a month or two later with a "hey, we're back" like nothing special happened in what is actually a continuation from the very first scene of the series that had basically told us the main character would die by the end (little did we know she showed her face 30 seconds later).
By the way, if I did have a Best Theme Songs category this year, the ED from this show, Meteor Light, would win hands down.
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
A different case from the above, but fits here regardless. Save the first few minutes, this final episode was fantastic. The settings, dialogue, and music all meshed wonderfully for a super emotional, bittersweet ending.
Then she comes back out of nowhere. I want my tears back, show.
High School DxD
Boobs.
That's all you need to say to get someone to watch this anime, because it delivers. It's just a trashy fanservice anime, right? Yeah.
Uh, maybe? I mean, it definitely sells itself as that. But then why do I like it for more than that?
Because someone behind High School DxD wanted to do a little more than that. He wanted a likable protagonist and well-used support. He wanted a plot that isn't there just to fill air time.
It's basically a great guilty pleasure.
Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan
I actually liked this show, and in a rare turn of events, the art is a big reason why. I absolutely love the setting and character designs here. It does feel like there should be more, but I'm pretty happy with what we got.
Queen's Blade: Rebellion
Why is there no full-on yuri harem out there yet? I know yuri is a niche genre, but come on. Just take the guy in your standard harem and make him a girl instead. Yes, the other girls stay girls, so not a reverse harem. Surely there's demand for this.
Queen's Blade: Rebellion was far from focused on that idea, but it actually implemented it in a couple episodes with all the girls crawling over Annelotte. It was pretty fun. Come on, Japan, do one for real!
Sengoku Collection 18
This show has very inconsistent quality. One episode might be good while the next will suck. I guess that happens when most episodes are entirely unconnected (insofar as even using new characters).
But episode 18 might have been the best anime of the year. We see the unlucky life of a lone girl, but then she finds a pen pal to whom she begins writing back and forth, and she realizes that sometimes bad luck can actually lead to good luck: random good luck, as they call it. Twenty minutes and a tragic ending, but so well-done for its short run time. I need to watch it again...
Joshiraku
There is nothing to say about this show. It's just five girls talking about uninteresting topics.
Girls und Panzer
Have you ever watched a show that might not have been so great overall, but has one specific part, one short, simple scene that is just amazing and worth remembering the show just for that?
Girls und Panzer has two.
Japan comes through again with an absolutely ridiculous premise. It shouldn't even come as a surprise to us anymore when these things show up. Girls und Panzer is not the most amazing show. The tank battles can be rather interesting, but otherwise most of what happens is entirely forgettable.
Luckily, it has random moments of brilliance to make sure we won't ever forget it.
The first is when a tank battle is about to start (I honestly don't remember any other details). The opposing team is setting out in a group, riding their tanks through the snow, and then...they start singing. In Russian. A real, legitimate war song. And I don't know Russian, but from I heard, they sung it pretty well. And I looped it for an hour sometime later. I was barely even paying attention before the scene started, and when it did I was like, "Wait, what?" Also, Crunchyroll was forced to remove this scene from their official stream.
The second is just before the climax of the above-mentioned tank battle. Our girls are holed up in some kind of shack or something, basically at the mercy of the enemy, without much hope for winning. Then, Miho starts...doing the anglerfish dance from a few episodes ago. Everyone is confused. But then her teammates get the point (although I never really did...) and they all start doing it with her. And they're being televised, so an entire audience is watching them do this ridiculous dance in the middle of a tank battle. It was amazing. I have thus dubbed the scene "Trolls und Panzer."
If you haven't seen the show, you probably don't really see what I'm getting at and why these moments are brilliant. But if you have, you probably know exactly what I mean.
Blast of Tempest
This is Shounen, so you'd expect it to make itself on battles. For the first...6 or something episodes, it does. Or, well, it tries. I was bored to death of these episodes. The story seemed to be moving so slowly and the action was mostly dull.
Then they all stood in one spot for about six episodes straight. A huge contrast. This is when I started enjoying the show.
It was really weird. They went from fighting to standing around debating. But to someone like me who enjoys a good debate...it was fun. The logic they used wasn't exactly something anyone could come up with, but was still easy enough to understand and follow. Every rebuttal and new argument seemed to make sense. You don't that kind of thing very often.