Last year’s anime list appeared in July, so I am definitely making progress at getting this done earlier in the year. Who knows, by next year it might appear in January! Then again, it could happen in August…

As always, this is not a review of all of the year’s anime as there is far too much crap out there. Instead it is a collection of my opinions on the anime that I thought were good enough to watch in the first place. There was definitely a lot of decidedly average anime during this year. There was not necessarily anything bad about them, just there is nothing to make them stand out as worthwhile either.

Anime of the Year

Steins;Gate
(TV, 25 episodes)

It took me until at least the eighth episode to have some sort of idea what was going on here. Bananas in microwaves that turn into green goop… But even though I had no idea what was happening, the early episodes still are intriguing enough that you want to watch more and it gets even better once the plot points all begin coming together.

Recommended

Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail
(OVA, 5 episodes)

If you like the two previous series of Black Lagoon, then you will probably like these episodes. It is just more of the same thing, but given the previous series were very, very good…

Mawaru Penguin Drum
(TV, 24 episodes)

This series made it into my Recommended list based entirely on its uniqueness. And I am sure there is some deep underlying meaning in there (probably something about abandoned children being able to find happiness) and there appears to be a large number of metaphors too (the boxes, the apple). But there were too many twists and turns for me to fully grasp what was being implied. I still have no idea what the penguins were…

Tiger and Bunny
(TV, 25 episodes)

Remember those days of getting up early on a Saturday morning to watch cartoons? Tiger and Bunny is like an American superhero cartoon, but with more awesome. Almost enough awesome for me to select it as the anime of the year. I even found the shameless sponsor promotion to be quite amusing. But in the end, there is nothing amazing or original about this series, it is just damn entertaining.

Usagi Drop
(TV, 11 episodes)

Not the usual style of show for me to watch, but it was a solid drama so the risk paid off. However, if you like this show and want to find out more by reading the manga, then you should wipe that thought completely from your mind. Pretend the manga never existed. Seriously… No arguing. Just don’t. As one blogger wrote, he should have just let sleeping, scrotum-eating, rabid dogs lie.

Average

A Certain Magical Index II
(TV, 24 episodes)

Worse than the first series and far worse than Railgun. But given both of those were very good, that is not bad in itself. However, my overall impression was that they were running out of ideas so they had to stretch out the little that they had, which resulted in a fairly slow pace. And the superpower that only negates other superpowers gets boring.

Blue Exorcist
(TV, 25 episodes)

There was a few quite good episodes in this series. However, its storyline is overly predictable and has too much filler (including a beach episode…).

Broken Blade
(OVA, 6 episodes)

I have never been a fan of mecha anime, but this was one of the better ones. Well, it was for the first four episodes anyway. I found the finish was bland. Almost as bland as the characters… But at least they were not teenagers because the addition of boring teenage coming of age crap (that normally is in mecha anime), would have killed this for me.

Deadman Wonderland
(TV, 12 episodes)

The theme park style prison where inmates have to compete in fights in order earn points to buy their continued living is not particularly original… But at least the superpowers were interesting. The ending is also far too non-conclusive, but I am not sure if it was because there was nothing to conclude or if everything was kept open to make a sequel.

Dragon Ball Kai
(TV, 97 episodes)

I watched this mainly for nostalgia reasons and because I have never seen the final 50 or so episodes from Dragon Ball Z. While this version was significantly more fast paced than the original (the 97 episodes covered what took 193 in DBZ), I think it could still have moved faster in lots of places. Also, the remake is not complete and so I still have not seen the second half of the Majin Buu Saga. Maybe one day…

Fractale
(TV, 11 episodes)

This anime started off well, but got progressively worse. But I can not actually say how it got worse… it just became bad. And I think I mean genuinely bad and not just bad because it did not live up to the potential shown in the first episode.

Gosick
(TV, 24 episodes)

This tries so hard to be a good show. But I think I am already bored of shows that involve some sort of detective with a side-kick. The first few cases are examples of entirely amateur writing. I think someone just jumped on the internet and searched for “crime cases with minor twist when solving”. It all just seemed too familiar. But the series was rescued as story did go beyond a pure detective drama and turn into something much more interesting.

No. 6
(TV, 11 episodes)

After lots of war, only six pieces of land remain. Guess which number this is? This is another series that I think started off strong but just did not go anywhere spectacular. Just a typical Dystopian Society storyline.

Subpar

The Mystic Archives of Dantalian
(TV, 12 episodes)

You can always tell a show is bad when there is some sort of super power transformation sequence that lasts so long that you starting thinking to yourself that you could have killed both of the lead characters multiple times by now and that would not necessarily be a detriment to the show. It is even worse when that superpower is unlocking a girls chest with a key and then reaching in a pulling out a book. That takes forever, but then the book has to be read aloud for it to work. With only minor exaggeration, in total this sequence takes about three quarters of every episode.