Review of 2011 Anime Part 4 ~Fall~

More kiddy shounen shows aired this fall that I didn't watch. Another season of Digimon Xros Wars, Battle Spirits, and Cross Fight B-Daman. I watched the Tamayura OVA when it came out last year and was bored to tears. Decided that it was best to start actually not watching shows I won't like and put Tamayura: Hitotose on my won't watch list. Sengoku Paradise: Kiwami I would have watched if I could find subs of it. Something tells me they won't show up for a long time if ever. I know it's about pretty boys and all but the episodes are 3 minutes long!

A lot of falls (still airing) shows might end up with a rating change (the 7-8 ones) but for now this is how they stand. I'm excited to see how much better Gundam Age can get for me. It's been quite fun so far. Bakuman 2 is going strong so far and I'm very happy that we can all look forward to a Bakuman 3 next fall! Ben-To, Persona 4, and Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere were a lot of fun to watch. I'm happy with how they went from me wondering if they would be good to being AMAZING. Persona 4 is continuing on into winter so there's more to look forward to of that.

Best Show of fall should be Last Exile: Fam but since it's still airing I'm going to award this honour to Fate/Zero. As said before I haven't played any of the games but I did watch Fate/stay night and enjoyed it a lot. So much that I even re-watched it before Zero aired so the bf could experience it. I can't wait for S2! What a mean cliffhanger to leave us with.

Worst Show of fall is of course Mashiro-Iro Symphony. Eroge. Harem. Yeah...

Here's my big list of Best to Worst shows of fall 2011:

1. Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing (still airing) 10/10
2. Fate/Zero 10/10
3. Ben-To 10/10 
4. Bakuman 2 (still airing) 9/10
5. Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere 9/10
6. Hunter x Hunter (still airing) 9/10
7. Guilty Crown (still airing) 8/10
8. Kimi to Boku 8/10
9. Un-Go 8/10
10. Mirai Nikki (still airing) 8/10
11. Persona 4 (still airing) 8/10
12. Chihayafuru (still airing) 8/10
13. Chibi Devi! (still airing) 8/10
14. Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (still airing) 7/10
15. Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle (still airing) 7/10
16. Working 2 7/10
17. Squid Girl 2 7/10
18. gdgd Fairies 6/10
19. Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi 2 6/10
20. High Score 5/10
21. Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai 5/10
22. Morita-san wa Mukuchi 2 4/10
23. Shakugan no Shana 3 (still airing) 4/10
24. Maken-ki! 4/10
25. C³ 3/10
26. Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!! 2/10
27. Mashiro-Iro Symphony: The Color of Lovers 1/10

Surprise enjoyment: Guilty Crown simply because everyone else in the whole wide world likes to hate on it. How I'm not a hater with the haters is amazing honestly but I like the damn show! Kimi to Boku could have gone either way for me honestly. Something drew me into it though and it may or may not have to do with cats~ Can't wait for more come spring. Chihayafuru is super girly for me but this 'Karuta' game they play keeps me interested. I'm not fond of her or the game but I do like watching them play it.

Surprise fail: Honestly there were no anime that I found bad that I thought weren't going to be already. That just further proves how awesome the fall season of 2011 has been!

Honorable mentions: High Score & Chibi Devi! I'm actually blogging! Un-Go was everything that Shinrei Tantei Yakumo wanted to be. Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai I wanted to like very much but deep down I knew it wouldn't be for me. It just drove me crazy with the 3 main characters being very unlikable as well. Phi Brain is the funnest shounen to sit back and enjoy... As long as you like puzzles... It helps when the very awesome tweets by @fathomlessblue are around to be read for it too!

~A Look at Anime to Come~ Fall 2011

 Using the chart from here. I give you the below edited for my preferences:

8 anime made it to the super looking forward to and will watch. Hilariously only 2 of those titles aren't season 2's and of course they both happen to be the noitaminA titles Un-Go and Guilty Crown. The only 2 season 2's I don't give a crap about are Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi (lol yaoi) and Shana III (lol tsundere). I'm currently trying to watch Shana Season 1 and it's not going so well enjoyment wise so who knows if I'll even get it watched by the time III starts. I find it rather amazing that Shana is the only show I have to watch to catch up with what's airing. Generally I got 2-3 titles to do that for when Spring and Fall roll around but only 1 is just a little shocking for me.

The one anime I'm most pumped up about is Hunter X Hunter. I love the original series and always hoped that they would make more.  I really can't wait for it! I dunno what I'll do if it disappoints me.

Gundam Age has been getting a lot of flack but I still think it'll be enjoyable. I gotta watch it anyway cause then I wouldn't be able to say I've watched ALL gundam titles! (Somehow I made it through all of SEED) Still waiting on more awesome Gundam Unicorn. An episode of that should be out pretty soon.

Ben-To has me interested for the silly factor. I don't really know what to expect but I do expect to laugh! It's probably the silliest anime I'm looking forward to this fall. I do hope that Kimi to Boku proves to be entertaining and not some kind of Ouran knock off without a reverse harem. Hori­zon on the Middle of Nowhere I hope it wow's me. I just want something that I think might be trash to actually be good.

I really hope that Last Exile and the new Fate/Zero do not disappoint me. I probably could live with Fate making me sad but if Last Exile is crap... I dunno...

I'll be interested in how Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai AKA "I got me no Friends "will do. There's a fair bit of hype about it but I'm still not so comfortable with it personally. Something about it just screams run away to me. Kinda like how Tamayura does along with those other few red highlighted titles...

I won't be blogging any of these but I might start that strange Busou Shinki Moon Angel soon because it's got 5 minutes episodes but I haven't decided on that yet. I've been doing pretty good with the Nyanpire posts so if that keeps going I plan on keeping up! I'm totally going to re-start blogging TORIKO as it's a shame I had to stop. It'll be fun catching up with it because GUTS GUTS GUTS is awesome!

 Fall anime is going to be exciting! YAY for season 2's of shows I actually like! Bakuman, Ika, and Working woooot!

chii Finally Made One!

Favourites are a great thing. What makes these shows mine is that I think about them very often when I'm thinking about anime and wish to watch them more than once. Some of them I've already watched 5+ times. To be a favourite they also must be entertaining as a whole series. So if they have season 2's or more, I should have loved them just as much as their season one. Everything on the list below applies! I've been meaning to make this kind of list for many years now and I've finally sat down and mulled through all my anime titles and picked these 100 to be my absolute favourites.

Like digitalboy I'll be updating this list regularly from now on but not once a month. I will only update when I feel an anime has stood up to my standards to break into this 100 anime list. I will keep a list at the bottom of this page which of which anime has moved in and which it has kicked out. I doubt that it'll happen very often but time will tell. Check out my Does Not Want List for a taste of my dislikes.

1. Legend of the Galactic Heroes

2. Fullmetal Alchemist

3. Full Metal Panic!

4. Hikaru no Go

5. Macross Plus

6. Romance of the Three Kingdoms

7. Jyu Oh Sei

8. Baccano!

9. Ristorante Paradiso

10. Infinite Ryvius

11. Mushishi

12. Princess Mononoke

13. Serial Experiments Lain

14. Ninja Scroll

15. Berserk

16. Super Dimensional Fortress Macross

17. Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

18. Strawberry Marshmallow

19. Hi no Tori

20. Nasu: Summer in Andalusia

21. Gintama

22. Neon Genesis Evangelion

23. Koi Kaze

24. Oseam

25. Rose of Versailles

26. You're Under Arrest!

27. Durarara!!

28. Kare Kano

29. Kita e ~Diamond Dust Drops~

30. Twelve Kingdoms

31. Kemono no Souja Erin

32. Cowboy Bebop

33. Crest of the Stars / Banner of the Stars

34. Mobile Suit Gundam 00

35. Himitsu: The Revelation

36. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni / Umineko no Naku Koro ni

37. 3 x 3 Eyes

38. Whisper of the Heart

39. Honey and Clover

40. Now and Then, Here and There

41. Katanagatari

42. Kurenai

43. s-CRY-ed

44. D.Gray-man

45. Hunter X Hunter

46. Yakitate!! Japan

47. Detroit Metal City

48. Battle Angel Alita

49. Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

50. Last Exile

51. Turn A Gundam

52. Guin Saga

53. Blue Submarine No. 6

54. Haibane Renmei

55. Astro Fighter Sunred AKA Tentai Senshi Sunred

56. One Piece

57. Detective Conan

58. Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of Sinners

59. Bokurano

60. Claymore

61. House of Five Leaves AKA Sarai-ya Goyou

62. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo

63. Chobits

64. Vandread

65. Hotori: Tada Saiwai o Koinegau

66. Tytania

67. Heroic Age

68. Dirty Pair

69. Millennium Actress

70. Neko Rahmen

71. Kuruneko

72. Kuragehime

73. Puni Puni Poemy

74. Excel Saga

75. Arakawa Under the Bridge

76. Giant Robo

77. Dominion Tank Police

78. Canaan

79. Antique Bakery

80. Tokyo Godfathers

81. Iria: Zeiram The Animation

82. Nodame Cantabile

83. Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind

84. Grave of the Fireflies

85. Trigun

86. Alien Nine

87. Gunbuster

88. Texhnolyze

89. Rurouni Kenshin

90. Patlabor: The Mobile Police

91. Junjou Romantica

92. Ryofuko-chan

93. Gravitation

94. Gungrave

95. Sora no Otoshimono

96. Video Girl AI

97. Simoun

98. Shangri-La

99. .hack//SIGN

100. X: The Movie

365 Days of Anime Characters: Day 18/365 Hisoka

Day 18/365

From the anime Hunter X Hunter, Hisoka is a "bad" guy but doesn't care for either good or bad. He's a free spirit and does whatever he wants, when he wants. He becomes a Phantom Troupe (organized crime group) member solely for the purpose to someday fight their leader because he is so powerful. He also has 2 powerful Nen Abilities which are Texture Surprise and Bungee Gum. Both mean exactly what they sound like.

Why I like him: What's not to like. He's powerful, awesome, and pretty darn sexy. I dunno why almost every female I know finds him attractive but it must be that "bad boy" appeal.

Why I hate him: Over powering with self confidence which makes him super arrogant and cocky. Sometimes a joy to see, sometimes you just want to reach into the screen and smack some sense into him.

Overall: Hisoka's roll in HxH is very interesting. He'll always keep you wondering what he'll do next because he is so unpredictable. He's a character that you'll want to learn more and more about. He's super good at creeping out people as well.

My Top 20 OVAs of the Decade 2000-2009

The first installment of my decades list are the ovas of 2000-2009. I went through my watched list and basically wrote down everything that I thought was good and took into consideration the rating I gave them as well. When I first listed everything it came up to 17. So I decided to search through again to make it an even 20 as I think that sounds better to say "Look at my top 20 list!" than to say "Look at my top 17 list!" XD

Lots of other bloggers have already put up their lists and you can find them all listed over on Kitsune's page. Check them out! There's a lot of great lists to be had for all those list crazy people!

Putting this list together was pretty easy but putting them in an order took a lot of thought. It's always difficult to pick a favourite out of favourites. I also noticed I have some pretty quirky tastes going on with some of these ovas.  So without further delay here is the list!

20. ) Papa to Kiss in the Dark (2005) - Yes I hear you all screaming already... "oh great another yaoi crazed fan girl" but I can't help that part of me. Maybe it comes with being female maybe it just comes from enjoying a completely silly story about boy boy love! I'm going with the latter on this one as I know plenty of women that don't give a crap about yaoi titles. This ova takes a thrilling  leap into 2 different taboo's that a lot of people would consider very risky!

19.) Early Reins (2003) - Now this one is nothing special at all but it holds a special place in my heart as I love westerns. This took that and gave it an amazing spin that only anime could do. Strong and mighty female hero's battling it out against foes.

18.) Bleach: The Sealed Sword Frenzy (2005) - This ova is by far the best spin off from Bleach that there is. It was exciting and engaging all the way through and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. I can't imagine any Bleach fan not liking this amazing ova.

17.) Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu (2005) - Military, war, and love generally do not mix very well. Let alone with children. But I found myself gripped by the tragic story of these two young lovers and the animation was very lovely to look at.

16.) URDA (2003) - I've always enjoyed weird tales of WW2 involving time travel. Especially ones that take women as the lead rolls. This short ova does not disappoint with the drama and thrilling action!

15.) TANK S.W.A.T. 01 (2006) - Tanks, action, twins, and general kick ass! This quick ova was a great addition to a old beloved series Dominion Tank Police that I grew up with.

14. Ghost Talker's Daydream (2004) - Following the story of a S&M dominatrix that can see and talk to ghosts. This alone was a seller for me! Hilarious situations and characters. My only regret from this show was it should have had more episodes. Endless stories could have been created with this amazing idea.

13.) Ryofuko-chan (2007, 2008) - Me being a huge fan of almost anything that has to do with the stories of Romance of the Three Kingdoms I found myself laughing so much my sides hurt. Seeing beloved characters put into perverted loli bodies was more than enough to make me love this short but entertaining show.

12.) Spirit of Wonder: Scientific Boys Club (2001) - Now science and anime never seem to sound like a good combination but this ova pulled it off. Being able to take its self seriously and having a strong suit for drama and character development I found myself enjoying every moment and urge people not to overlook it because of its scientific feel as you'll be missing out on a terrific story.

11.) Read or Die (2001) - It's been a really long time since I watched this show and it's one of my first anime DVD's I bought. I always find myself saying that when I see the title and it always makes me wonder why I haven't watched the Read Or Die TV series but then I always ask myself "What if it doesn't live up to my expectations?" I have such fond memories of the characters, action, and drama that went on in this ova that I'm too chicken to potentially ruin that memory.

10.) Animatrix (2003) - A compilation of 9 amazing shorts to go along with the blockbuster movie The Matrix. The Wachowski brothers were greatly inspired by anime and thought it would be fun to collaborate with famous anime creators to make this amazing collection of work. I for one enjoyed the outcome of this partnership.

9.) First Squad: The Moment Of Truth (2009) - Studio 4C does it again. This ova took me by surprise at how much I enjoyed it. It takes place during WW2 but gets twisted in such a strange way to tell an amazing fictional story in such a way it makes you think it really happened. Real life Soviet and German war veterans are shown telling stories about the real war throughout the ova but made to look like they are talking about the events occurring in the show. It's a great confusing watch!

8.) Hotori: Tada Saiwai o Koinegau (2005) - This touching story is about a girl who suffers from a disease where her memory rapidly deteriorates. One day she meets an android that is being trained to take on the memories of a boy who has died. It's really hard to say what is so amazing about this series without giving anything away so if you haven't watched this wonderful ova I suggest you do so.

7.) Karas (2005 - 2007) - This ova is mixed with thrilling characters, great action, and an amazing story to go along with it. It has a very unique animation style that I found to be very eye pleasing. It took a very dark tone but added amazingly bright colours to contrast that feel.

6.) Voices of a Distant Star (2002) - This short space + romance + time travel ova took me away. I'm generally not one for romance in general but this was well done and gorgeous to look at. If it would have been any longer than 30 minutes I think it would have been ruined.

5.) Alien Nine (2001) - Elementary school children generally don't do it for me when it comes to anime but wait... They have to wear alien's as hats to fight off the bad alien's that crashed on Earth. Wow ok you got me there. This show starts off simple and pleasant enough then dives into a messed up world of confusion.

4.) Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari (2009) - A new interesting take from the Tenchi franchise. This one has got to be my favourite yet. Stunning animation, beautiful music, and a huge cast of characters. It holds true to keeping things on the funny side while maintaining that serious feel. I'm aware that this ova is still airing but it is just too good not to put into my list.

3.) Detroit Metal City (2008) - For a show about music that I generally do not listen to (Metal) I found myself falling in love with this short series. Laughter was created throughout all 12 of these 10 minute episodes. I even went as far as making friends of mine that do not normally watch anime to watch this. Music is a big part of my circle of friends and I knew it would be appreciated greatly. All characters were very well developed, especially the oh so confused main character Negishi Souichi. It was a delight to watch this show and I look forward to another series to appear someday.

2.) Hunter X Hunter OVA (2002) - This ova took what I loved about the later half of the HxH series and completed it. The story was stunning and always kept me pushing the next button on my player to see how the story would wrap up.

1.) Puni Puni Poemy (2001) - A hilarious parody anime that doesn't shy away from making fun of everything and anything! Taking Excel Saga much much further with its energetic, eccentric, and exotic feel. It takes you on a ride that you don't know if you want to stay on over and over again or get off.

Look forward to the next in line for the decades list! My Top 20 Movies of 2000-2009.