This post is dedicated to the good, the bad and the WTF’s of this year. It’s really been an interesting year…..

Heh, I was supposed to post this yesterday, but with all the shopping, satelite tracking, celebrations and epic rickrolling, I only finished it today. I guess this will be my first real post of 2009, hehehe.

Anyways, the point of this post is to relive the more memorable moments of 2008 for me, in terms of anime and such. Another year filled with good things, bad shit and “just WTF were they thinking?!” craziness.

The Good.

Redeeming ending of the year: Code Geass R2

I have to admit, despite the general descent to craziness, R2 managed to cap it off with one of the more touching endings of this year. Rest in peace, dear prince, rest in peace.

Studio of the year: Studio Gonzo

Despite the general decline of their quality, one thing makes Studio Gonzo stand out this year, the beginning of their free online streaming of their shows, WITH SUBTITLES, on major video-sharing sites such as Youtube and Crunchyroll.

Probably the single most celebrated initiative by any Japanese production company in this decade, Gonzo braved through critisicm from their peers in the industry and semi-legalized what most fans have been doing all along anyways.

Besides, their shows this year weren’t all that crap. Strike Witches even made it in to my Top of 2008 list, not to mention the more significant milestone of topping the DVD sales chart. Let’s just hope news of their near-demise is greatly exaggerated.

Pose of the year: Ranka’s (ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ pose, Macross Frontier

Seriously, is there any challenge for this award? Ranka’s (ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ pose has been spotted even on politicians. There’s something to be said about that pose that’s so powerful it disarmed an entire platoon of rebelling alien giants.

GAR Male of the year: Negi Springfield, Mahou Sensei Negima.

Sure there was Ozma Lee and Orange-kun, but this year’s GAR award goes to Negi for sure. Especially after single-handedly pwning a professional bounty group with his bare fists.

Furry of the Year: Horo

Anyone disagrees?

Miko of the Year: Kou

I thank the gods for Wagaya no Oinari-sama for fulfilling my miko quota this year.

Gym Shorts of the Year: Fujibayashi Kyou, CLANNAD series

Legendary episode is legendary. CLANNAD 17 nearly pulled my trousers down me over the edge. That said, balancing two coins on top of each other is a task I still fail to achieve T_T.

Imouto of the Year: Sunohara Mei, CLANNAD series

“What are you saying? Onii-chan, you’re acting strange~”
“Why can’t I call you ‘Onii-chan’, Onii-chan?”
“Onii-chan~ what should Mei do?”

Saishuu Heiki Imouto Sunohara Mei. God damn you Sunohara for having such a cute lil’ sister!

Cosplay of the Year: Hiiragi Kagami, Lucky Star as Hatsune Miku, VOCALOID series

It just fits her so well. KyoAni really has a knack to stir up their fans and hit them right where it counts.

The Bad

Disappointment of the year: ef – a tale of melodies.

After the highly praised ef – a tale of memories, the inevitable announcement of the sequel was a happy news for me, but sadly, the show itself didn’t quite match up to the first season in terms of connecting the audience to the characters and the pacing was, quite frankly, awful. Even the ending lost some impact despite of its intended tear-jerking qualities due to how rushed the final two episodes were. SHAFT… if only… if only…

“I only watched this because of my favourite seiyuus were in it” show of the year: Kanokon.

Oh, the power of a seiyuu(s) doing crazy roles compels me to watch even the shittiest of shows.

“I can’t believe I actually finished watching this show” of the year: D.C. II. S.S & Zero no Tsukaima III.

Honestly. The fact I actually followed both those shows until the very end should win me an honorary title or something. Especially for finishing the piece of shit that was ZnT III. Even the DVD OVA.

Controversial Ending of the Year: Akane-iro Somaru Saku.

Akane-iro seemed like it went down the much more supported Yuuhi end, made more significant since it was the first time in YEARS that Rie Kugimiya voiced an ACTUAL tsundere, but betrayed all expectations of Yuuhi camps to choose a WINCEST ENDING with “Imouto of the Year” runner-up, Nagase Minato. Really reminds me of a certain 2005 show….

Most Tragic Death of the Year: Shirley Fenette, Code Geass R2

SHIRLEY!!!!!!!!!! BAWWWWWWWWWWWW. That homo shota totally misunderstood her and killed her despite that she actually kept Lelouch’s identity a secret even after she remembered it. It was made even more painful as she confessed her love for Lelouch as she lay dying in his lap. I could write volumes more about her death, but I’ll just leave it at here, it’s too painful to continue talking about it.

The WTF?!

WTF Ending of the year: H2O ~Footprints in the sand~

H2O almost ended up in the previous category, but thanks to it’s ending, it barely escapes that and instead making it over here. Sure the ending had its good bits, but dear god, it was still bloody “WTF?!”. One thing’s for sure, H2O managed to rock my soul.

WTF Father of the year: Mikawa Kirameki, Shigofumi

Norio Wakamoto nearly ended up here, but Mikawa Kirameki really is the better (or worse) choice for this award. Probably the biggest narcissist ever seen in an anime, you really have to admit his dedication for beauty was awe-inspiring and disgusting at the same time. Poor Fumika T_T.

WTF Mother of the year: Queen Marianne, Code Geass R2

After making Marianne out as some sort of heroic existence throughout most of Geass, it was surprising to discover that she was still alive all this while, hiding inside the body of a loli. Then when she finally appears before Lelouch, the first damn thing she does is to do a single can-can styled twirl to greet him. And to think she was one of the big reasons that Lelouch became a ruthless manipulator who would sacrifice even his siblings to find out the truth behind her “death”. Sigh…

Control Mechanism of the Year: Nipple controllers from Magical Heart Kokoro-chan.

Really one of the single most WTF moments in anime this year, the supposedly April Fool’s joke that was Magical Heart Kokoro-chan actually came to life as an OVA and 0verflow sure made a lot of people 0verflow with it.

Prettiest Male of the Year: Saotome Alto, Macross Frontier

Admit it. Alto is undeniably the prettiest amongst the trio, especially when he is in his Sakurahime-mode.

Trap of the Year: Hamaji Yakumo, H2O ~Footprints in the sand~

Solely in this list because not only he’s 99% a girl already, he actually manages to score with his best friend to the point of marrying and having kids AND THE WIFE DOESN’T MIND HIM STILL CROSSDRESSING! Living proof that traps can still achieve real happiness.

Wasted yuri potential: Sheryl x Alto x Ranka

Macross Frontier would’ve been 100x more awesome if Alto was really a girl. Yuri love triangle three-some…. ooohh I shiver at the thought.

“What was I thinking when I was doing this” Post of the Year: “I am now heartbroken….. T.T”

The Suki Suki Sat-chan fanclub is still accepting membership applications.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Well, yeah, as the title goes. Junichi went for his little sister instead of rich tsundere Yuuhi. It was pretty expected seeing how last week’s episode went.

I don’t disagree with it but they could’ve paced the last episode a bit better. Dragged out the “internal conflict” drama in Junichi quite a bit. The parents are still pretty damn “WTF?!” though.

Also according Guncannon™ Surveys, 65% of Japan went “GOOD END!”. What about you? Do you agree with this ending?

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Kinda pointless episode but at the least still watchable compared to episode 4. Seriously, what the fuck was the mecha-shit doing in this episode. Lack of Junichi actually makes me sad.

For a gakuensai episode, it was rather bland. Well, I can’t really expect much, can’t I? The show’s writers can have a drastic drop in IQ sometimes. At least this episode had some redeeming factors to talk about.

Toradora!

Rather than “food”, I’d say Yuuhi’s cooking skills and imagination belongs in a totally different bioweapon class on its own. Then again, the “unable to cook” jokes are actually getting quite tiring and non-funny…

Next episode looks like it’s going astray even more by focusing on Tsukasa. I also wonder what’s the deal with the Nagase parents subplot we keep seeing around the series. I hope they don’t do a cop-out ending…

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Reasons for Minato:

• Imouto.
• Cooks well.
• Handles awesome with knives.
• Looks awesome in a yukata.
• Master-class in armlocks
• Can communicate with animals. Beastmaster Minato?
• Resembles a certain Magical Cannon Girl.

In short, she can do ANYTHING. No wonder Junichi is such a siscon.

On a sidenote, is Ayanokouji yuri for Yuuhi? There’s an odd-sort of romantic tension between them.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Man, Yuuhi is the best Kugyuu tsundere role I’m enjoying in a long while. Shana was fresh at first, but when they followed up with Louise (arguably taking it to an extreme) and to a lesser extent, Nagi, I just didn’t really feel they were true “tsundere”’s anymore, mainly for the lack of real romance development in their respective characters. All you were getting were the “tsun” parts but not really any “dere” ones. It’s kinda like ordering fried chicken only to find they are mostly skin and bones, with the real meat hiding somewhere else.

Akasaka’s Yuuhi finally returns Kugyuu in the role of a real tsundere (in my books at least), and the latest episode just proves that for me. It’s really the gradual transition from “tsun” to “dere” that catches my heart in any romance story and Akasaka pulls that off quite decently in Yuuhi’s attitude towards Junichi.

Of course, it does quite help that Yuuhi has the advantage over the other Kugyuu tsundere roles by being quite a normal girl except for her being rich and as well as being quite the tennen type when left to her own devices. You just can’t beat expressions like this..

… as well as parodies like this (can someone tell me where this is from? It’s familiar but I don’t know what it is)

On a less-related but quite important sidenote, Minato, which is playing out to be quite the top-tier imouto, has hinted of a darker past which is gradually revealing itself bit by bit. I just hope the show doesn’t pull a SHUFFLE! on us. I’d like to add that Aya Hirano is proving quite impressive with her seiyuu work on Minato as well, and she seems to be leaning towards her Konata-voice this season, judging from her other role as Ayu in Hyakko.

Lastly, I hope the writers won’t try to put in to much distracting filler character episodes. It quite seems when they do that, they suddenly have the IQ of a mentally-retarded child, especially when it comes to Ayanokouji’s spotlight-stealing antics. Episode 4 was just plain torture and now that episode 6 is about her inviting them somewhere again.. I’m a bit worried about the future of this show.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.