Last part of 2007 Anime Awards

Sorry for the dragging but here’s the end of the 2007 anime awards

Outstanding Sub Group for 2007

The group Eclipse with their cohorts gg and SS (Static Subs).

Runner-up: a.f.k.

a.f.k.’s work for Lucky Star really need to be lauded and is probably one of the best fansubs done for an anime ever since he was able to take a dialog heavy show with alot of references to Japanese culture and make it accessible and funny for us foreigners. But I had to give the overall award to Eclipse/(gg and SS) since between the two collaborations I watched Manabi Straight, Kanon, Hayate, Shana 2, and Clannad this year. They also where of the highest quality and for most of the shows listed they were able to keep up with the schedule (I’m not complaining about the times they did fall behind because I know how time consuming and thankless this job is).

And a big thank-you goes out to all people who worked on bringing fansubs to the people this past year.

Best pre-2007 Anime watched in 2007

5: Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu (Tweeny Witches)

4: Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple

3: Aria the Animation

2: Mushishi

1: Azumanga Daioh

Most people have heard about numbers 1-3 before but I’m betting not as many people have heard of either 4 or 5. Number 5’s Mahou ShoujoTai Arusu is from Studio 4°C. After watching their Global Astroliner and Kung Fu Love I wanted to watch other stuff from them and came across this. The main character was a tad annoying in the beginning but that fell away as the series progressed and became a very enjoyable series with a one-of-kind animation style that was worth picking up the series for by itself. Number 4 - Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple was a show I don’t think I saw anyone blog about, which is a shame. Watching this by yourself might give a different result but I watched this with my younger sister and we had a blast trying to solve the mysteries. I seem to have a knack of guessing the culprit during the first episode of a 4 or 5 episode mystery which ticked my sister off but she was better at putting the pieces together in the end.

Best Seiyuu

Aya Hirano

Runner up: Rie Kugimiya

A soft spot for the character’s that Rie Kugimiya often voices almost pushes her to the front of the list but the work Aya Hirano does as Konata in Lucky Star was simply outstanding. The above clip shows Aya Hirano switching from her Konata voice to her Haruhi voice and back. I would guess that almost no one would guess that she voiced both of those characters since they sound so different.

Best OP

Shakugan no Shana’s - “Joint” by Mami Kawada

Runner ups:

• Potemayo’s - “Katamichi Catchball” by Mosaic.wav
• Minami-ke’s - “Keikenchi Joushouchuu” by Satou Rina, Inoue Marina, Chihara Minori,
• Lucky Star’s - “Take It! Sailor Uniform” by Aya Hirano, Emiri Katō, Kaori Fukuhara, and Aya Endo

A great song by itself but with top-notch quality and content the animation pushes this to the front of a crowded list.

Best ED

Clannad’s - “Dango Daikazoku” by Chata

Runner ups:

• Sakugan no Shana’s - “Triangle” by Mami Kawada
• Gurren Lagann’s - “Minna no Peace” by Afromania

So deceptively simple of a song but it really resonated with me.

Best Insert or Other Song

Gurren Lagann’s - “Libera from Hell”

Runner up: Minoru Shiraishi from Lucky Star - “Koi no Minoru Densetsu -Kanzenban-”

Libera from Hell is the ultimate song to get your blood pumping - who knew opera and rap could be combined so well.

Favorite Character Type

North American Exchange Student

Prime examples: Kate from Sketchbook and Patty Martin from Lucky Star.

Even if real foreigners with bad Japanese should be used since the English that these two characters used is not convincing to my ears. Maybe there are some who would be offended by how these characters depict someone from over here but I love them.

Favorite Design Techniques in Anime

Tie : Tear-drop mouth as seen in Minami-Ke and Gradient hair as seen in Potemayo

Gradient hair is somehow geeky. It could be because most of the gradients I’ve seen used are the same gradients that are built into Microsoft products like Word or Publisher. Here’s hoping we’ll see more gradient hair in the future.

Tear drop mouthes definitely took a little while to get use to but when I did I was able to enjoy this design choice immensely.

Most stupidest death

L from Death Note

Seriously. I have no problem with a show killing main characters, side characters, etc. if it’s logical and needed for the storyline but L’s death felt like the writer didn’t know how to advance the story without wiping the slate clean and he did so. It was kinda like in X-Files when the writers just killed the Cigarette Smoking Man’s group because it became too complicated for them to write. The result never matched how the previous show was and the same applies to this show.

Person I’d most want to have my back in a dark alleyway

Tamaki Kawazoe aka Tama-chan

Sure Kamina might be a good pick for this but I’d have to worry about him getting distracted or something. Tama-chan on the other hand would fight with a single-minded desire to protect that nothing could interfere with.

Favorite moment

Episode 10 of Manabi Straight when it’s revealed that the school festival will be held.

When they flashed to the school superintendent and she was asked if Amamiya Manabi got the needed 70% to hold the school festival, I was literally on the edge of my seat because I didn’t know if they did or not. Oftentimes, as many of you know, in American programing it’s a foregone conclusion but watching anime and playing Japanese RPG’s we don’t always know - good people suddenly die at the end for example. So, the superintendent replies that they didn’t get 70% and I felt my heart drop and my mind telling me how making the effort was worthy in itself but then the superintendent said they actually got 76% and I nearly and quite literally almost jumped for joy. I didn’t but I had that everything is right with the world-walking on air feeling the rest of the day.

Favorite Character

Kamina

As if it could have been anyone else. I couldn’t even come up with a worthy runner-up for him.

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