Top Picks – Fall 2009 Anime, Part 1: Cast and Character Awards

I remember complaining about this season and how weak it was, and it was a pretty weak season, but now that we’re into the second week of the winter season I look back at the list of shows and can’t help feeling a little sad that many of these shows have ended. I’m sure there’ll be shows this season that I’ll get attached to (Hanamaru Kindergarten is a strong possibility) but they’re not there yet. So, maybe, it’s a good thing that I waited this long to do my seasonal anime awards.

Below is a listing of the shows that I watched this season and are the pool from which the picks for all the awards are coming from. Also a reminder, I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum but there’ll be some because of how they’ll relate to specific awards and for the continuing shows, only the part of the series that ran during this season is under consideration for this season’s awards.

Carry-over shows watched this season (5): Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Cross Game, Kemono no Souja Erin, Hetalia Axis Powers, Umineko no Naku Koro ni

New shows watched this season (12): Natsu no Arashi! Season 2, Kobato, Sasameki Koto, Sora No Otoshimono, Nyan Koi, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Tatakau Shisho, Seitokai no Ichizon, Miracle Train, Trapeze, Blue Literature, Kampfer

Shows that got dropped (2): Kimi ni Todoke, The Sacred Blacksmith

Best Female Main Character

Winner: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin
Runner-up: Kobato from Kobato, Sumika Murasame from Sasameki Koto

There is no qualms this season about picking Erin as my best female main character and, truth be told, she pretty much blew everyone else away. She had always been an excellent character but it wasn’t until this season where she was able to step onto the world stage that she was able to shine at her full brilliance.

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Best Male Main Character

Winner: Tomoki from Sora no Otoshimono
Runner-up: Kou from Cross Game

Tomoki was able to stop Kou’s quest for a three-peat as Best Male Main Character by pretty much being the most epic manly character in ages – running on the same level as say Kamina, Hosaka, or Maid Guy. He was so manly that even getting turned into a woman didn’t damper his burning manly soul.

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Best Supporting Character(s)

Winner: Kuroko, Uiharu, Saten from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun did a very good job of spreading the limelight out to all the characters so it almost feels like Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten are on the same level as the main character – Misaka aka Railgun but I don’t quite think they’re on that level; hence, that’s why they’re showing up here. I tried to narrow my pick down to only one character but that proved impossible since I equally love all three characters for their strengths, weaknesses, personal motivations and quarks that so enriched the show and made it one of the best shows of the season.

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Best Screen-grabber

Winner: Nagi Ichinose from Nyan Koi
Runner-up: America from Hetalia Axis Powers

Nagi was to Nyan Koi as Hosaka was to Minami-ke and if that’s not a good enough reason for picking her then I don’t know what is.

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Best Couple

Winner: Erin and Ial from Kemono no Souja Erin

Up until the final half of the final episode this pair would have been more of a viewer pairing based on a handful of scenes that Erin and Ial were onscreen together but I’m almost positive that we are to conclude that they do in fact become a couple and marry in the future. The closest competition in this category was from Cross Game but with the addition of a new character there seemed to be a reshuffling of the couples/potential couples in Cross Game and it’s not entirely clear if the new pairings or the older ones will eventually win out. Personally, I like the idea of a Aoba and Azuma couple but I also still like the pairing of Aoba and Kou.

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Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Kuroko’s teleporting ability from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

Misaka’s Railgun ability is most definitely the flashiest power of the season but I just love what Kuroko can do with her teleporting ability. It may be that I’m surprised that Kuroko is more than just a joke character that she appeared to be after the first couple of episodes which helped make her ability more impressive than it is. However, at most, that’s probably just a very small part because there was multiple times where Kuroko was able to show off how cool being to teleport herself and others can be. And also, we’ve never really seen Kuroko get to go all out with her power like Misaka was able to do.

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Best Cast of Characters

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Runner-up: Cross Game, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

This season of Full Metal Alchemist saw many new and varied characters introduced to compliment an already great cast, both on the good side and on the evil side. And not only are these quality additions, these characters have pushed the show down very unexpected and delightful avenues. As someone who became very disappointed with Full Metal Alchemist after how the first show ended and consequently stopped reading the manga, I love that this series has rekindled all my excitement over this most worthy show.

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Best Character Development for Cast

Winner: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Runner-up: Cross Game

One of the ways Railgun was miles better than Index was how well the characters were put together and how much time was focused on developing the cast. I don’t know if it’s strictly from the change in directors or if giving the original creator a second chance at getting the series right accounted for the difference but I love the changes and thrilled that Railgun will continue into the winter season. It’s a shame that the first two episodes will make many people drop the series and miss out on a finely crafted show.

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Best Character Development of a Single Character

Winner: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin

Erin wins this award again for pretty much all the same reasons why she won it during the summer season. What so impressed me was for every awesome thing she did as the hero that saves the day we could look back and remember the events that she had to endure and overcome to be able to do those awesome things.

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That’s the end of part 1; I hope to have the second part up within a day. Comments and feedback are always appreciated – I’d love to see what others would pick.

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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards
Part 2 – Genre and Misfit Awards
Part 3 – VMA Awards
Part 4 – Top 8 Shows of the Fall Season