Random Curiosity

As you may have noticed, the Reader’s Choice poll is showing wildly inaccurate vote totals right now, much of it thanks a few individuals who thought that ballot stuffing would be cute. Now part of this is my own fault for not having the correct poll settings to prevent this kind of cheating and so that the results weren’t visible until the conclusion of the poll, but unfortunately I don’t have the time to tinker with it and run a second poll.

So what does this mean? I’ve closed the poll early, and network admin Maestro and I have gone through the database of votes. We found that the last legitimate total before the massive ballot stuffing began was at approximately 7AM server time. We’re going to take the results at that time and go with it since it’s pretty clear who the winner will be anyway. Final results for all choices will be posted tomorrow with my Best of 2008 post.

In the future, we’ll be looking at alternate, more secure solutions for polling.

It’s time for the Third Annual Reader’s Choice Poll!

Every year there are so many good choices, and I’m still in the process of choosing my own favorites (GEASS, Macross Frontier, and true tears are at the top of my list), but below, you can vote for your Favorite Anime of 2008 from a list of every single series that’s ended this past year.

The criteria for a series being included on this list is that it had to have been a complete TV series that ended in 2008 or will be ending very soon. The general idea here is that you can’t really judge a series until it’s over, and that means that fans of shows like Toradora! will have to wait until next year’s poll. I also wasn’t able to include any OVAs because there were just too many of them, though I’ve added Detroit Metal City and Kara no Kyoukai to the list by special request. In addition, I’ve combined series that were split into two parts into one listing (i.e. Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight Guilty). Still, if there’s anything you think I omitted that fits into the above criteria, feel free to email me, and I’ll add it to the list.

Choose your favorite, tell your friends to come vote, and the winner will get included in a post later this week!

This poll will close Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 11:59 PM EST.

Edit: There were some problems with the polling software, so voting got frozen for a few hours. Please try voting again if you weren’t able to earlier.

The poll has been closed early. Please see this post.

Summary

Seemingly long ago, an older version of Kaname with long hair walks through a desolate landscape in the red sun. In the slightly more recent past, a young Kaname reads a book with a very small Yuki while she dreams of being able to see such beautiful landscapes.

Summary

As Elizabeth slowly turns into a doll, she recalls her childhood with Ciel…

Summary:
After escaping from Baticul, Luke and company are reunited with Jade’s group and the Albiore.

Summary

In Vermelha 12 years ago, Michiko teased Hiroshi while doing laundry together because he said he wanted a photo of her…

Summary:
The Katharon forces face not just a Memento Mori that can shoot space-ward, but also a rebuilt Gadessa piloted by Healing Care plus the rest of the A-LAWS fleet.

Summary:
Unaware of everything that’s going on with Touma, Komoe explains to Index and Himegami how espers acquire powers by separating from the proper reality and obtaining their own reality.

Summary:
Taiga enters the beauty contest wearing a dress worked on by Ryuuji, and although she thinks her father is late to come see her because of his job, she goes ahead with what she wants Ami to say for her introduction onto the stage.

Summary:
Buttataki Joe has arrived at Shibusen, but the real reason for him being there is a mystery to Kid, and the man himself doesn’t reveal anything when Kid questions him.

Summary:
The airship - called the Albiore - is the help that Peony sent, and its pilot is a girl named Noelle.

Summary:
While Rukia and Sado are recovering elsewhere in Hueco Mundo, and while Ichigo directs Inoue to heal Nel before him, the battle between Nnoitra and Zaraki rages on.

Well, after a week with family and being away from the website, I’m back. I mentioned in the previous post that I was visiting a sick family member, however I don’t want to get into the details other than to say that my grandfather is doing relatively well for the time being. What I do want to say though is that nothing drives home the importance of family and friends more than this kind of experience, and it gives new meaning to the themes often touched on in shows like CLANNAD.

In any case, the next couple of days will be spent catching up on the series I missed, and regular blogging shall return shortly.