anime, anime awards, anime season review

Top Picks of the Spring Season, Part 2

3 Comments

This would have made too large of a single entry so here’s part 2.

Best Seiyuu

Male – Rikiya Koyama for Kogarashi

Rikiya’s voice is instrumental in turning Kogarashi into the character he is so he gets my nod as best male seiyuu.

Female-Aya Hirano for Chizuko and Kaoru Akashi from Zettai Karen Children

Aya Hirano won my award for best seiyuu last year and she starts this year off with a bang. Her work as Chizuko really impresses me and her Konata-esque character in Zettai Karen Children is just icing on the cake.

Best OP/ED

Tie: Kyouran Kazoku Nikki / Kaiba

I feel like I should apologize for liking Kyouran Kazoku Nikki’s OP/ED as much as I do, especially since I’m saying they’re as good as Kaiba’s but I can’t help it. The OP for Kyouran reminds me of the OP for Lucky Star because it features fast paced nonsensical words. I liked it for Lucky Star and I like it here. There’s a bunch of different endings for Kyouran and they’re all different and fit there characters nicely.

Kaiba’s OP/ED are sung by the same woman, Seira Kagami, and they are a perfect fit to the show (they’re also in real English not Engrish). i guess that shows that I have different sides when watching anime.

Best Overall Music

Kaiba

The background music for Kaiba is so awesome that I think the music alone is better than a fair amount of anime out there. It’s range of pieces elicit a wide range of emotions from sadness to remorse to danger to happiness. Really no other show comes close.

Best Story

Kaiba

Really no contest here as well.

Best Animation

Kaiba

Okay, may be some flak for this one. The animation style of Kaiba does not initially seem impressive but as the series goes on I’m more and more struck by it. I think if the animation was done in some other style – for example, a more realistic style – I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the series as much as I do. It’s kinda like the video game Katamari Damacy, it’s not badly drawn but stylized that way for a reason (just think if it looked hyper-real and we rolled up people then).

Top Animation Studio

Studio Bones for Daughter of 20 Faces and Soul Eater

Neither Kyoto Animation or Gainax is around this season so one might think that winning this award does not mean as much but Studio Bones deserves as much credit as possible for their work on Soul Eater and Daughter of 20 Faces. Both shows are executed well with great animation and voice work to boot. Madhouse came close because of doing both Kaiba and Maid Guy but everytime I watch Maid Guy I can’t help but think the animation is very sub-par. With as much good quality anime that Madhouse has put out couldn’t Maid Guy look a little better?

3 thoughts on “Top Picks of the Spring Season, Part 2”

  1. Kogarashi-san took quite a few prizes on your lists, isn’t it? 😛 I just love his signature laughter: kukuku. lol

    Best Opening and Story should definitely go to Kaiba 🙂

    Animation. Hmm… It seems you are discussing style more than animation in your review. I appreciate the artwork in Kaiba, but for animation I’ll have to vote for Macross Frontier and Kure-nai. Kure-nai has the best character design imo.

    There should be a category for best song performance and the award should go to Kure-nai episode 6 😀

    Like

  2. I’ve been watching Kaiba, and the style seems to be from certain graphic designer, which name I don’t remember.

    It’s amazingly simply, and yes, somehow the animation style of Kaiba looks a little….mmm…neglected, but is powerful. And beautiful.

    Loved your blog! See ya later!

    Like

Leave a comment