Random Curiosity

「少年ハート」 (Shounen Heart) by HOME MADE 家族 and 「創聖のアクエリオン」 (Sousei no Aquarion) by AKINO
I really couldn’t decide on this one. There have been plenty of good opening songs this year, but only 「少年ハート」 (Shounen Heart) by HOME MADE 家族 and 「創聖のアクエリオン」 (Sousei no Aquarion) by AKINO stood out. The Aquarion OP is part of what got me so interested in that series (from watching the first episode), and the Eureka Seven OP is just a lot of fun to listen to.

「ほうき星」 (Houkiboshi) by Younha
Unlike opening songs, there were a LOT of good ending songs this year. It ended up being between 「ほうき星」 (Houkiboshi) and Suneohair’s Waltz, and this won out. Younha’s song about becoming a comet has been my favorite ever since I heard it way back spring of this year. She’s is quite the talented singer, but I have to admit that I haven’t liked anything else of hers nearly as much as this song.

Kamichu! Original Soundtrack
It’s really hard to choose a favorite OST because every one of them features a few songs that I like. But one of the defining features of Kamichu! is how much it resembles a Miyazaki work, and I think that the OST truly exemplifies that. My favorite tracks include 「自転車で帰ろう」 (Jitensha de Kaerou) and 「神々Cガール」 (Kamigami C Girl), which are some of the slower pieces.
As a side note, the only reason Honey and Clover didn’t win this category is because few of the insert songs made it onto the actual soundtrack. If you include all the Spitz and Suga Shikao, then H&C wins this in a heartbeat.

AIR (by Kyoto Animation)
Done by Kyoto Animation, AIR has very cleanly animated characters, almost unnoticeable CG integration, and most importantly, breathtaking sky backgrounds. The sky I see in AIR is more beautiful than any I’ve ever seen in real life. AIR is definitely one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, series I’ve ever seen.

Honey and Clover’s Shinobu Morita
For me, Shinobu Morita became the comedic face of Honey and Clover, and he was quite good at it. But aside from his wild antics, Morita had many a hidden talent along with a great concern for the other people in the H&C group. He’s simply a loveable character and the kind of guy you’d want to be friends with.

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid
Sequels are very murky ground. Too often, they feel empty, like the producers just wanted to eek out a little more cash from a franchise. Fortunately, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid turned out to be nothing like that. With a very good set of novels to work off of, every aspect of this series is as good as, if not better than, it’s two predecessors, with the exception of comedy (which was what Fumoffu was all about). From when it opened in the Republic of Balic to the final battle in Hong Kong, FMP! TSR had me hooked.

Bleach
There’s really no contest here. I don’t watch any other the other long-running series (i.e. Naruto or One Piece), but Bleach’s Soul Society arc is one of the best written shounen stories I’ve ever seen. Plot twists and turns abound with a massive cast, yet everyone gets their own bit of development. Bleach this year never had me bored, and always had me wanting the next episode.

Honey and Clover
I know some people are going to argue that Honey and Clover isn’t purely a comedy series, and I’d agree that it’s more than that. However, this series got more laughs from me than anything else I’ve watched this year. Notable scenes include the Christmas party in episode four, the Twister game in episode eight, and all the scenes with Takemoto’s teachers in the later episodes. In fact, the later episodes used a lot of the supporting cast - Takemoto’s teachers, Leader, the Fujiwara brothers - for hilarious comedic relief.

SHUFFLE!
If I remember 2005 as anything in terms of anime, it would be the year of romance dramas based on h-games. But out of all the series I followed, there is only one clear winner: SHUFFLE!. For me, SHUFFLE! simply did the romance and drama aspects better than any other series. That’s with heavy emphasis on drama because this really had some of the best character relationships and interactions in recent memory.

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid
There are a lot of strong contenders in this category, including Bleach and Sousei no Aquarion, but in the end, FMP! TSR had the best action. Armed with its R-15 rating, this show was not afraid to display blood, gore, nudity, and fast-paced mecha battles. And with Kyoto Animation behind the helm, it never failed to impress on the battle sequences, whether it was the underground battle in Nanjing or the high-speed car chase in Sicily.

Futakoi Alternative
If you watched the first Futakoi series, you’d know that it was an average harem series about sets of twins who liked the main character (whose name I don’t even remember). So imagine our surprise when they took those same sets of twins, gave them a strong male lead that was Rentarou, and completely changed the landscape by arming them with guns. Add in killer squids and now you have a series that had most of us asking if this were the same Futakoi characters we had seen angsting in the previous series. I don’t think I can see Sara and Souju in the same way ever again. Futakoi Alternative definitely goes down as the biggest surprise of the year (in a very good way).

Tsubasa Chronicle, Sousei no Aquarion, and Lamune
A lot of series start off well and then get boring, or just start off poorly, but some series manage to pick it up again at the end. This year, Tsubasa Chronicle, Sousei no Aquarion, and Lamune were such series. Tsubasa had a good manga behind it, but the story doesn’t really get interesting until they get to Outo country. In the anime, it seems like it was then that the budget went up for animation and music. Everything was suddenly more interesting. Aquarion, on the other hand, started off with a bang, but tapered off in the middle. However, the story got quite good again in the final set of episodes, and made this series a great sentai mecha show. As for Lamune, the first half of the series is just plain boring, but once they got past introducing the characters and moved onto focusing on the main couple, I really started to enjoy the series. The ending even brought tears to my eyes.

I think Eureka 7, ARIA the Animation, Genshiken, Victorian Romance Emma all deserve a little recognition for being good series, but I just never got around to watching any of them. All of these series have gotten pretty good reviews from multiple people, but again, I just didn’t have the time. Maybe in this upcoming year I’ll get a chance to watch them…

Mushishi
Each story of Mushishi is like a folk tale complete with heroes, heroines, mystical creatures (usually the Mushi), and the main character Ginko, who plays the wise-man part. At the end of every week, there’s always a moral or some understanding about human nature. And despite it’s episodic nature, Mushishi has one of the deepest storylines I’ve seen in a long time, not to mention some of the best instrumental pieces of music. However, it feels like this is one of those series that doesn’t get a lot of viewership, which is why I vote this to be the best show you’re (probably) not watching.

SHUFFLE!
If you had told me at the beginning of the year that one of my favorite series would be based on an h-game, I probably wouldn’t have believed you - for me, SHUFFLE! really is one of the most unexpected hits of the year. You always wonder at the beginning of such a series who the main character will end up with (if anyone), but I never predicted that Asa would be Rin’s choice. And then there was the journey getting to that point, including the Lycoris/Nerine/Primula arc and then the Kaede arc, all of which was way above and beyond what I thought I’d be seeing in a series like this. The gut-wrenching drama is really some of the best I’ve seen in years.

Honey and Clover
It’s a close contest between SHUFFLE! and Honey and Clover for best series of the year. What clinches it for Honey and Clover was the bevy of musical talent. Between Suga Shikao, Spitz, YUKI, Suneohair, & THE BAND HAS NO NAME’s songs and Hayashi Yuzo/Salon’ 68’s compositions, this show gave me something new to listen to almost every week. Meanwhile, the animation had a very unique, watercolor feel to it. And as I mentioned in the best comedy series blurb, this really is more than a funny show, because it explores the intricate relationships between Takemoto, Morita, Hagu-chan, Yamada, Mayama, and the large supporting cast. We grow to love these characters and share their moments of laughter, romance, and friendship. And the final theme/lines about finding what you’re looking for someday is really something that I feel I can connect with. For all those reasons, I feel that Honey and Clover deserves to be number one this year.