Another year passes. Man, it’s hard to believe I’m already in to my 9th year of being an otaku as well as my 4th year of blogging. Time sure flies. I’m now well over 1500 posts with nearly 16k comments, and it’s thanks to everyone’s support that I’ve gotten so far.

This year was marked by an increased number of good shows, but surprisingly, it wasn’t as “happening” as last year. To put it in another way, while the average increased, the top end of the bell curve wasn’t as high as last year. Nevertheless, this year still had its moments.

My choices here aren’t particularly graded using a strict measure, it’s more of an overall rating of shows of this year that I greatly enjoyed in one way or another, so please view it as that rather than a solid indicator of quality.

Of course, being a mere mortal with a real life outside of the Internet, I will inevitably miss a few gems here and there, so feel free to voice up any other shows that you, my dear reader, believe I should have watched and not missed for this year.

With that said, here’s the list.

14. Spice and Wolf

Mmm… economics animu. Well, actually calling “fox god animu” would suit it better because, seriously, everyone only watched it for the bundle of furriness that is Horo.

13. Lucky Star OVA

Kagamiku! Tsunderella! Cherry-dog! Christmas-cake Nanako! Kagamiku! Oh wait, already said that.

Anyways, the Lucky Star OVA was awesome because we all missed the cast of Lucky Star so badly, especially in this KeyAni-dominated year. Not to say that’s a bad thing but we all missed the light-heartedness. Here’s to hoping for another extension or a spiritual successor of the awesomeness that was Lucky Star.

12. Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

Honestly, Noto-sama as a closet otaku ojou-sama? I’m sold.

While NHnH seemed like it’ll be a one-trick pony, it had a surprisingly coherent plot and good character development, characterized by a few choice episodes. That, and Mika is fucking jailbait.

11. Itazura na Kiss

The Nana Mizuki show of the year. Honestly after last year’s Tokyo Marble Chocolate, I realize Nana’s niche is the slightly naive yet earnest young adult women where she really can be her character. (I suspect it’s because she seems to draw it from her own experiences)

Itazura na Kiss was mainly enjoyable because of that and we even got a full season of Nana Mizuki from it. I realize a lot of people didn’t like the show’s pacing, but it was quite fine to me considering how they were putting in nearly 10 years of story in to 25 episodes.

10. Natsume Yuujinchou

Natsume Yuujinchou wasn’t really in my fielding range until someone IRL recommended it enthusiastically and I tried it out. Oh boy I sure got hooked on it. With tinges of Mushishi and a very likable cast (moe moe fox shouta!) I just couldn’t stop watching it. So glad to hear there’s a second season to it too, premiering next month.

9. Detroit Metal City

GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC!

8. Kurenai

kurenai, characterized by the moe-moe bundle that is Murasaki and the tight writing and direction by Kou Matsuo, really deserves mention for this year. The ending was kinda unexpected, but it only served to enhance the “deep”-ness of the story.

7. Strike Witches

One of the surprises this year, I initially balked at the premise of SW’s no-pantsu flying mecha musume. I mean, for god’s sake, the fanservice is just so fucking blatant. Despite that, and to my own pride, I finally watched it in a batch once it was finished and I was so hooked I finished it in two sittings.

SW’s appeal, once you get over the lack of proper lower body wear, lies in the light-heartedness and optimism of the characters. Gonzo also managed to give equal exposure to every one in the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, and the pacing meant that the show wasn’t too “draggy” unlike the other mecha musume anime Sky Girls (still struggling to finish it). The infamous pantsu-stealing episode also nearly killed me from all the laughing I did.

So, despite my initial hatred of the series, it’s really surprising how things can change, and now SW’s in my Pick of 2008 list. Well, if you can’t win ‘em, join ‘em. :P

6. CLANNAD

Gym-shorts Kyou! Killer violin Kotomi! Tomoyo Raptor Kick! “Why can’t I call you onii-san, onii-san?” Mei! Sanae Rainbow Bread! Dictionary attack! Starfish girl! Nagisa x Ryou!

Yeah, I could probably go on and on, but suffice to say, CLANNAD was pretty damn enjoyable despite being the third KeyAni outing in the past 4 years.

5. Code Geass R2

Despite the illogical plot, despite all the mindfucking, despite all the copying from Evangelion, it’s undeniable that Code Geass R2 was the most entertaining show this year, singlehandedly. Being surprised after every mind-fucking episode and subsequently reading the reactions from other fans really drew out the worst from me. Never had I had so much fun with post titles, ha ha.

Despite all that, the ending was surprisingly epic and half redeemed the series for me. Lelouch BAWWWWWWW!!!! Still, I don’t think I can rewatch the series again if for the lack of Geass Sundays. That was practically 75% of the reason I persevered on till the end.

4. Ga Rei Zero

Can’t mention this year w/o talking about the yuri croquette that is Ga-Rei Zero. First, it rickrolled us all by presenting a totally unrelated cast for the promos and the first episode, only to kill ‘em all by the end of it. Only then it went for the real deal, the untold past story of Kagura and Yomi from the original manga, justifying the “Zero” part of its name. It also gave me another reason to like Pocky, XD.

Ga-Rei Zero is also notable for the crazy inventory of weapons, ranging from the gun-katanas, an iron, a boiler and the bloody weaponized wheelchair. Oh and not to forget the bike-fu from Natsuki in episode 1 too. That was awesome.

3. Kannagi

Kannagi oh Kannagi. This quirky comedy show about a bunch of crazy shrine maidens by the much-talked about Yamamoto Yutaka sure delivered the laughs. The karaoke episode also made its mark on me. Oh god Takako made me shat bricks.

While the show was generally light-hearted, Kannagi veered in to serious “self-existential” drama for its final arc, proving Yamakan’s directing chops isn’t limited just making people laugh. This is one show I wouldn’t mind seeing more of in the future.

2. Macross Frontier

Ah, Macross Frontier, my first foray in to the world of Intergalactic Song Wars and Variable Fighters. The show started off a strong note, but really tapered down towards the end, ending with an non-ending kind of ending.

Despite that, the love triangle was still pretty epic towards the end, and the songs of the show are inevitably the best I’ve heard this year. The songs were the biggest redeeming factor for the show as things went rather downhill. God bless Yoko Kanno \o/. I still wish there was a solid ending though…

1. true tears

The only show this year that was so good that I made a rare and passionate opinion post about it. P.A. Works first independent work, it was initially expected to be another eroge adaptation, but quickly turned out to be something much more different.

true tears took everyone by surprise by the clean, crisp visuals, leading P.A. Works to be given the moniker of the second KyoAni. Director Junji Nishimura also kept the story and character development really engaging, coupled with how he kept everyone guessing about the final resolution until the very end, provided weeks of debates amongst fans as to who would end up with whom.

Movie of the year: Evangelion 1.01 You are (not) alone

It was technically released last year, but Evangelion 1.01 is more of a 2008 show for me since the DVD (which I proudly bought) came out this year and even made it in to local shores, which was a real surprise for me.

While many critized it for being another attempt by Gainax to cash in on the franchise, it’s undeniable the show has gotten a much needed facelift from it’s original 1995 incarnation. The action cinematography culminating in the sniping of Angel Ramiel was simply awesome.

Sure it might be another milking of the fans, but Anno Hideaki is delivering the goods here too. Looking forward to 2.0 in 2009. Asuka \o/!

And that wraps up my first 2008 in Review post. There’s another one coming up after this, where I’ll be talking about the other noteworthy things that happened this year.

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

Presenting to you… THE MOST “DANGEROUS” EPISODE OF KANNAGI!!!

She snapped. She. FUCKING. Snapped. (<— was half expecting NICE BOAT here)

Ouch, Jin. Ouch.

Anyways, glad to see the final episode still has the humor in it. The serious arc was serious, but it just didn’t felt like Kannagi anymore to me. Good to see that getting resolved smoothly for the finale. Crying Nagi was really… もえええええええええええええええええ！！！

That said I really wonder where she got the black dress from. It mysteriously disappeared when Nagi went back home. If there’s anything, Nagi needs a better variety of outfits from time to time.

Anyways, another nice show finishes. I was holding out for this episode so I could do my 2008 in review post. Please look forward to it here (and in next month’s GameAxis magazine) !

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

PREGNANT NAGI OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

Yeah, that screencap is REEEEEEEEALLY inviting people to take it out of context.

Otherwise this episode was really EVA-ish. It’s a big change from the usual light-lightheartedness of the series so far.

Ending illustration this week is a bit bland. It’s of Nagi in a mahou-shoujo generic pose. Anyone know the artist?

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

The Kannagi 10 ending song is… amazingly addictive. Don’t you hate those catchy ad songs that get really stuck in your head even though you don’t want them to? Dammit.

On another note…

Takako made me shat bricks a second time, dammit. God I seriously want the full single now. Will they cut it as a single like Akiba says?!

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

No. This is not Lucky Star.

I DID SAY THIS ISN’T LUCKY STAR DIDN’T I?!!

Right. So we have the karaoke episode. With Yamakan directing this, you seriously can’t NOT expect to have him not do a karaoke episode seeing as how much he made waves with Lucky Star using this technique. So, err.. let’s begin Kannagi Idol!

But before we begin…. KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIII WA DARE TO SUWATTERUUU! ATASHI SORETOMO ANO KOOOO?!! (SORRY BUT I COULDN’T RESIST DAMMIT!)

Song title: 「イチバンボシ」 (Ichibanboshi)
Lyrics：Yamamoto Yutaka 　 Composer：Satoru Kōsaki　　Performer: Aoba Tsugumi

Ahem, so first up on the chopping block is Tsugumi. She.. well.. okay fine, she kinda sucked. It wasn’t too horrible, but it sucked. Still A+ for effort. Next!

Oops, random Zange hijack. Again, next!

Song title: 「I believe you forever」
Lyrics：Hideyuki Kurata　 　Composer： Satoru Kōsaki　　Performer： Hibiki Daitetsu

Daitetsu, oh Daitetsu. This guy is a GENIUS. He sang so unbelievably well, ON HIS FIRST TIME AT THAT, that poor Jin got traumatized and ran to the toilet. Some people are just blessed by the god aren’t they?

Song title: 「君とランナウェイ」 (Kimi to RANNAWEII)
Lyrics：Hideyuki Kurata　 　Composer： Satoru Kōsaki　　Performer： Akiba Jun

Akiba did pretty well too, and it’s apparently an anison (whaddya expect!) too so he’s pretty comfortable at it. I’m pretty sure they’re parodying some title or such with this song, but I don’t really know for sure. He mentions it’s the theme for an old OVA “Chaos Blade”. Is he referencing Chaos;Head?

Song title: 「アモーレ青春」 (Amore Seishun)
Lyrics：Takanashi Eri　 　Composer： Satoru Kōsaki　　Performer： Mikuriya Jin

Jin… just fails. I think the reaction by the rest says it all.

j1mone’s worst fears came true. Look at Takako’s expression! Next!

Song title: 「ハロー大豆の歌」 (HAROO Daizu no Uta)
Lyrics：Takanashi Eri　 　Composer： Satoru Kōsaki　　Performer: Nagi

We have Nagi. Honestly, it was good, but I’m in agreement with the others on their reaction to her song.

AWESOME CM SONG IS AWESOME!!!!! つぎ！！

Song title: 「純♥愛・ジェネレーション」 (Jun♥Ai Generation)
Lyrics：Takanashi Eri　 　Composer： Satoru Kōsaki　　Performer: Kimura Takako.

HOLY SHIT I SHAT BRICKS. I FUCKING SHAT BRICKS.

I gotta say. Takako is GOOD. FUCKING GOOD. THERE IS NOTHING きもい ABOUT HER! SHE WINS! WINSSSSS!

Song title: 「Delicateにラブ・ミー・プリーズ」 (Delicate ni RABU MII PURIIZU)
Lyrics：Yamamoto Yutaka 　 Composer：Satoru Kōsaki　　Performer: Zange.

And finally we have Zange-chan singing. We also have our winner for the worst singing performance in this episode. Admittedly, I never did expect Hanazawa Kana to be able to sing properly, but goddammit she’s cute!

If you guys think I’m forgetting something, I didn’t. Yes, Shino never sung. Apparently, when she sings, her eyes open and it’s a bad thing. A very bad thing. Or is it a very good one? I don’t know. I can’t seem to remember what happened when her eyes opened. There’s this gap in my memory of when she did.

The ED illustration this week is done by Takahiro Kimura and Ookouchi RICCA. Kimura’s famous for Code Geass, but I can’t find any info about RICCA.

As for the songs used this episode, they’re all original works in case you haven’t been reading the credits, so we’ll have to wait for the inevitable flood of Kannagi character CD’s. Or if they feel really nice to us fans, I guess they’ll release them all in one CD. I’m personally going betting on the character CD router. Would love to hear the full versions of Daitetsu, Akiba and Takako’s songs.

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

Too “pure-pure” boy isn’t too “pure-pure” this episode anymore…

Oh Jin you PIMP!

From homo to pimp in a single episode. Why is real life never this interesting? Also, Zange-chan is HAWT. FAP FAP FAP. Kana Hanazawa bitchy/slutty voice is win.

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

I forgot what I wanted to say about this episode. No matter. A picture is always worth a thousand words, right?

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

Nagi-sama supports Blu-Ray!

LOL cocktease episode. Not bad for a filler I suppose.

Short summary; Jin makes Nagi mad and she barricades herself in his closet. He tries desperately to get her out, all the while hinting he’s sorry for “what happened when you were in the bathroom” and what not. Tsugumi is pretty much useless. Zange comes over to seduce Jin. Takako and Shino come over to join the fun and even Daitetsu barges in. Jin’s white knight comes in the form of Akiba-kun and we find out that Jin accidentally recorded another show over one that Nagi hasn’t watched and Akiba is in possession of said show. Akiba proves to be useless however when he records it in BD-R and Betamax when Jin’s house only has a VCR.

Loved how the episode kept us guessing on what happened with Jin and Nagi “in the bathroom” and why Jin specifically requested Akiba-kun to help out. Then practically the whole cast come over at first to busybody. Zange’s “anna koto ya, konna koto ya” antics was so Zange and I lol’ed at the “cockroach-cam” in the episode. Did felt a bit disappointed when they revealed the actual incident causing the the situation in the show.. I expected something more “ahem ahem ahem”.

Gotta LOL at Akiba’s Sony-loving mania and recording the stuff on BD-R and Betamax. Subliminal product placement or sponsor request? Sony should know if they want BD to be embraced by the masses, they should do something about RM 2000 players/writers and the RM 50 discs first even if they try to steal their way in to the hearts and minds of us otakus.

The ED got replaced with a trailer sequence of Mahou Shoujo Loliko-chan (or smth), the show that Nagi is infatuated with. Man, it looks so f*cked up for a mahou-shoujo show. Sadly no special Nagi art this week.

Oh look, it’s reverse-bikini girl!

lol cockroach-cam

Yeah, I know the last picture is disturbing. Dammit, is Yamakan pandering to (most probably not watching this show) YFG’s too?

Postscript: I forgot to mention Takako’s “Too shy shy” jibe on Tsugumi as well. She’s probably the second most awesome character in the show after Akiba-kun. Also Shin_Asuka notably points out that Shino is a walking Nunnally, wwwwwww.

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

Did I just spot Haruhi in that screencap?

LOLWUT, is that Nico Nico Douga I’m seeing?! I think that’s a jab to all the nicovideo viewers, LOL. I wonder what’ll the comments be when they watch that part.

Pettan~ pettan~ tsurupettan~

Nagi with boobs?! Surely you jest!

I know it’s not right, but somehow the images of Takako and j1mone are overlapping each other on my brain for some reason….

Oh god, dere-dere Nagi! *huff* *puff* *huff* *puff*

“You’re too cute until I can’t look you in the eye!”… Jin is such a pure-pure boy ahahahaha

Awww… Tsugumi ._.

As they say, no bad deeds go unpunished. Zange-chan receives some karmic payback. What’s with Hokuto no Ken-esque owner though!!

The screencaps tell all, and this episode is another entertaining addition to the series. While Nagi was in top form this episode, the real fun this episode for me was Tsugumi, especially seeing her in the meido cosplay and going from embarassed to tsun-tsun to jealous and finally, dispirited when seeing the difference of Jin’s reactions towards Nagi and towards her. She’s the kind of character that’s really cute and all but never seems to make much headway in terms of love life, doesn’t she?

Jin, on the other hand, seems to be the poor victim of the all the sexual exposure he’s receiving, made even more worse (or dreadfully fun to watch, if you’re ドＳ) with his..errr, “Pure-pure”-ness, haha. His reaction towards Nagi was just so funny.

The story after this will be new for me, since the manga scanlations have only reached this chapter. Wonder what’ll be the next episode about. Need more Zange-chan, XD.

Finally, this week’s ending illustration is by Naruko Hanaharu, a familiar name amongst certain circles *ahem ahem*.

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

OMG LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! Yamakan cameo in Kannagi thanking her for finally making him a director. Is he still pissed off about getting taken off Lucky Star? Anyways, this sure gave me a good laugh.

Also, in this episode…

… Super Nagi World! 8-bit Nagi for the win! I am so gonna lol if someone makes a real game out of this idea.

Finally, this week’s ending illustration is Nagi rendered by Aoki Ume-sensei. Nutbladder Nagi \o/!

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