The final set of awards before going to my top shows of the season cover the music, vocal actors, and animation aspects of this season’s anime. Or the three parts to anime that are heavily dependent on the preferences of the individual viewer. 
The reason I put these awards third is that in the grand scheme of things, the areas that were covered in the first two parts are much more important in making a good anime then what’s covered here. They’re important in their own way but if the voice work or music or animation is a little shoddy or average, it’s still possible to make a good show. For an example, look at Pandora Hearts, it’s animation quality is very poor but it’s still been a good watch because the story and characters have been above average. But I won’t deny if the animation quality had been higher – say if Bones had done it using a style similar to Soul Eater – it wouldn’t have been a better show.
As I’m writing this, I’m half-surprised to see no one mention a certain show not getting any awards and I’d be even more surprised after this part so I figured I should mention it’s lack of showing. The show in question is the Full Metal Alchemist remake. The reason why it hasn’t shown up and won’t today is that as a fan of the earlier adaptation (at least for the first 25 or so episodes) I appreciate that their trying to rush through the material that overlaps both series but the compression has made for a much weaker series. As a result, the show just can’t shine against the competition this season though next season might be a different story. So, while I won’t mind terribly if a reader still feels the need to post a comment saying that FMA deserved to win a category, know that I have watched the show and I find this remake inferior to the original at least for now. (Now if it has a good ending, I’ll be a very happy camper since I rather disliked how it ended the first time.)
With that out of the way, let’s head to the next batch of awards.
With the spring season winding down, it’s time to look back and reflect upon the great moments of the season.
Back at the beginning, I thought this was going to be a very weak overall season with only a few noteworthy series but it turned out to be a much stronger season. To help reach that point it took a few unconventional shows which reinforced my belief that a show shouldn’t be judged before watching it. I’d’ve missed good shows if I let generalities dictate what I watch. Even so, this season new shows were light in the comedy and slice-of-life genres and heavy with the medieval-esque fantasy setting. Next season seems to contain more shows of the comedy and slice-of-life feel so I’ll probably be complaining about something else next time.
Potential Dangers of Watching Anime Non-Linearly or Sometimes a Rice Bowl Is Just a Rice Bowl
Just about everyone remembers this famous rice bowl from K-ON! It was probably the most talked about serving of food at least in this season, if not longer. You might be wondering why I bring this up weeks after the episode aired and everyone talked about it to death already.
Well, those that watched the episode know what this bowl of rice is meant to represent so I won’t bother repeating it. As a result of how big K-ON! is, it’s very possible that we’ll see this get referenced in other anime in the future. No surprise there but what happens when you watch a show that came out years before K-ON! was even just a manga?
I continue trying to finish my winter season series reviews before the spring season ends with a review to the sequel of one of the best slice-of-life series in recent memory – Natsume Yuujinchou or Natsume’s Book of Friends. Before it started, I was a bit apprehensive; on one hand, I was excited to get more Natsume but I was also worried that the sequel wouldn’t be able to captivate me like the first season did. Were my fears unfounded or were they right on the money?
Munto TV is notable for a few reasons and it’s long actual name isn’t one of them (“Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Seikei”). The first is that it’s based on the Munto OVAs that are an original creation by Kyoto Animation. The second is that by running during the winter season of 2009, this marked the first time that Kyoto Animation ran two shows at once (the other being Clannad ~After Story~). Notable as it my be, the more important question is how good is it really?
Paranoia Agent was my first experience with the master Satoshi Kon, though it wasn’t until later that I would connect the dots to his other work. This title earned a spot on my top 10 most influential anime post but I’ve been waiting to rewatch it till I could watch it with my sister (she was too young originally). The time finally came but I was a little apprehensive if I’d still enjoy it as much after all this time.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Gainax has been one of the most important studios in anime for well over a decade. Many people point to their Neon Genesis Evangelion as the work that evolved the entire anime industry into what it is today. They went a thru a bit of downturn a few years ago but when Gurren Lagann aired, they signaled to the world that they’re still one of the top dogs.
Recently, they released a character single for Yoko, one of the characters to Gurren Lagann. A bit strange since the show aired two years ago and the second movie aired back in the spring but the song was good so I wasn’t complaining; after all, Marina Inoue is one of my favorite voice actors. I was surprised when further reading brought to my attention that Gainax did an animated music video for the song. Score!!
This seems to happen every time, just when I’m finally feel like I’ve got used to the season’s mix of shows, a new season comes along and offers a completely different set of shows to watch.
At the start of the spring season, I was unsure if there’d be as many quality titles as the past several seasons had. As a result, I looked at the early previews of the summer season with a bit of longing because it looked like a much stronger mix of shows. Going through the spring season though, I discovered many great shows this season and now the summer season doesn’t look as strong as it did. For example, the spring’s high concept show, Production I.G.’s Eden of the East, turned out very good but will summer’s apparent high concept show, Bones’ Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, be able to match. Or will either of J.C. Staff’s two new summer shows be able to match the great characters and storytelling found in the superbly entertaining Hatsukoi Limited – the spring offering by J.C. Staff? I don’t know but I looked over the entire season’s offerings, found all those shows that I think have the potential of being good shows and will display those choices below, ranked roughly by how excited I am about the title and how likely the show will a great show.
A week ago, everyone and their brother was talking about Haruhi and there was good reason do so – the reairing of the first season of Haruhi included a completely new episode. This momentous occasion definitely deserved all the attention it received and I wanted to chip in but, at the time, it all felt very surreal and I was having trouble parsing what I thought about it.
A couple of rewatches of Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody (the new episode) and some time has helped solidify my thoughts so, before we get even more new Haruhi, I’m going to reflect on the episode.
