Top Picks – Fall 2009 Anime, Part 2: Genre and Misfit Awards

For this next set of awards, a surprise show is making an appearance. (Maybe not so much of a surprise if you realize where the top picture comes from .) Based on how much I was loving Sora no Otoshimono this season and GA: Art Design Class from summer, I decided to give another show from AIC ASTA a chance after passing it over before. After devouring the first season over the past couple of weeks, I’ve just started on the second season – which started airing during this season – so while I’m not far enough into it that it has a chance to rank as one of my top shows of the season, there’s a few awards that I know it deserves to win.

Enough rambling, let’s head to the next batch of awards.

Best Action

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

Neither of these shows is a true action series because a significant amount of the series is devoted to character development and story development. I know this disappoints some but I greatly prefer it this way; caring about the characters and worrying about what happens to them makes their fights much more attention-grabbing and emotional. In both of these cases, though, when we get a fight – it’s a good fight. Railgun edges out FMA mainly because I liked how varied the character’s powers where used in Railgun and stay slightly disappointed by a lack of variance in the alchemy of FMA.

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Best Fight

Winner: Railgun vs. Multi-skill and Monster from ep.11-12 of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

This fight is a great example of what I mean in how a character will use their power in many different ways. Misaka uses her power to stick to the side of a bridge column, as a taser, as a way to read someone else’s memories, as a way to pull iron from the ground and use as a shield and a weapon, as a way to literally cook her opponent, as a cutting blade, and of course as a rail gun like her nickname implies. And when all this is going on we’re still getting character development and plot development.

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Best Comedy

Winner: Astro Fighter Sunred

I had to give this award to Astro Fighter Sunred; it’s simply one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. The basic setup to the show is that Sunred is the local hero tasked with keeping his city safe from the clutches of General Vamp and the evil organization Florsheim. A typical setup but the twist, and the reason why it’s here, is this show subverts what we expect from this sort of setup. Sunred is a lazy, good-for-nothing jerk that mooches off his live-in girlfriend Kayoko and General Vamp is a kind, considerate guy who always sorts his trash and helps old ladies cross the road. Kayoko considers Vamp a friend so she gets Sunred to help Vamp move and Vamp will invite Sunred/Kayoko over to dinner. And so on. It initially took a few episodes to get used to the animation style and show’s sense of humor but that’s common for many comedy shows. I’ve really glad I gave this show a shot and I think many other people out there would also like it too.

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Most Entertaining

Winner: Sora No Otoshimono
Runner-up: Kobato

One of the easiest picks this season. Oftentimes this season I’d have 7-8 anime episodes to watch and invariably I’d pick Sora no Otoshiomono first or second to watch. At first I was surprised when I found myself picking that one but eventually I realized that I was guaranteed to enjoy my time watching this show.

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Most Interesting Setting

Winner: Tatakau Shisho ~ The Book of Bantorra

While I really wish that this show’s storytelling was done better (it feels very disjointed), the show’s setting has been a constant source of interest and a main reason why I continue watching.

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Best Plot

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Runner-up: Kemono no Souja Erin

This season of Full Metal has been full of plot revelations and twists. It’s really kept me on the edge of my seat and I’m really glad that the decision was made to remake this series.

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Best Story

Winner: Sasameki Koto
Runner-up: Cross Game

Since Sasameki Koto follows on the heals of Aoi Hana (last season’s best story winner), it needed to distinguish itself from Aoi Hana if I was going to think highly of it. It did, as you might guess, in part by adding a comedic bend to the show and being able to switch from drama to comedy and back again without the show feeling awkward. Sasameki Koto would have easily won but I disliked how there was no resolution at the end, hopefully that means there’ll be a sequel in the future.

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Best Villain

Winner: General Vamp from Astro Fighter Sunred

When I say best villain, I don’t necessarily mean the most evil, the most devious, etc. Oftentimes I’ll pick that truly evil villain like the Demon King from Sengoku Basara and if that was case this time I’d’ve picked somebody from Full Metal but the single most memorable villain from this season is General Vamp, even if he’s a poor villain and a pretty nice guy. (And there’s so many villains in FMA maybe that’s the problem, it’s hard to focus on any one villain.)

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Most in Need of a Sequel

Winner: Kemono no Souja Erin
Runner-up: Sasameki Koto, Sora No Otoshimono

In the case of Sasameki Koto, I want to see the story advance and for Sora no Otoshimono, I want to see more of Tomoki being manly and those supposed higher beings getting what they deserve. Neither of these, however, was able to dislodge Kemono no Souja Erin from the top spot as most in need of a sequel. It is true that the ending of Kemono no Souja Erin was truly satisfying but the author of the original two books that Kemono no Souja Erin is based on is releasing the next two books this summer and just that thought (and the one scene that the animators slipped in from these books) makes me giddy for a sequel.

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That’s it for part 2, the next part is the VMA awards.

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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards
Part 1 – Cast and Character Awards
Part 3 – VMA Awards
Part 4 – Top 8 Shows of the Fall Season

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