Best of Animes (2008)

2008 is my 4th year of watching anime and has came to a close with its wide array of great animes, not to mention some does not meet expectations as well.

Here i would like to present you my list animes i watched in 2008 and my annual award to conclude the year. The overall anime list here are listed with the rule that the anime is finished aired in 2007 or 2008. So it means anime airing in 2006 and before wont be listed here anymore because its already being ‘considered’ last year.

Why include 2007 also? This is because i will watch some anime that i didn’t follow when it was airing in japan. However, 2007 anime listed last year wont appear again.

Let us start first:

(click image for larger view)

Most disappointing anime of 2008:

Minami-ke Okawari

Minami-ke Okawari (2008)

Minami-ke Okawari is continuation of Minami-ke that aired in 2007. Minami-ke features the three Minami sisters: Haruka, Kana and Chiaki, who have an average life. The girls only have each other to depend on and help each other get through everything from love confessions to cooking.

original Minami-ke series (2007)

The original Minami-ke aired back in 2007 was great. But the 2008 version (Okawari) quite disappointing. The art and animation greatly differs from its 2007 series, and for me ~Okawari~ is towards worse. A great comedy anime has been ruined by the uncute emo faces and out-of-place jokes. Failing to meet or exceed my expectation, i tag this Minami-ke Okawari as most disappointing of 2008.

Worst, there’s third instalment of this anime, Minami-ke Okaeri, animated by this same studio, to further ruin this anime.

Minami-ke Okaeri (2009)

Most Favourite Opening Song

Opening songs are usually used in introduction sequence of anime. Sadly, there’s no Opening song that sticks in my head for this year

Most Favourite Ending Song

The Ending songs, same as opening song, are used to roll out credits and sometimes previews next episode in anime. There are plenty of ending songs that are great.

My most favourite Ending song is….

solita - Tokyo et Paris

Nodame Cantabile ending - Tokyo et Paris sung by solita, violin by Emiri Miyamoto, with variations from Maurice Ravel’s Boléro. Simply love the violin! Click to listen!

Some great ending songs are:

PNGN4 - Yurete Hajikete Afurechau Miwaku no Penguin Musume

Penguin Musume Heart Ending song – Unique song with unique animation as well! Click to listen!

Aimmy - Kaze no Kioku ~to the end of the world~

World Destruction – sung by Aimmy Click to listen!

Most favourite Character (Non Human)

This is awarded to characters that does not have human appearance. For 2008, the most obvious winner is….

Chi from Chi’s Sweet Home

Chi's Sweet Home

A grey and white kitten with black stripes wanders away from her mother and siblings one day while enjoying a walk outside. Lost in her surroundings, the kitten struggles to find her family and instead is found by a young boy, Youhei, and his mother. They take the kitten home, but pets are not allowed in their housing complex, so they try to find a new home for the kitten. This proves to be difficult, and the family eventually decides to keep the kitten, naming her “Chi”.

Chi

Chi never fails to show it’s cuteness throughout the anime The third picture is when Chi is first being taken photo, surprised by the camera flash!

Most favourite Character (Human)

Fumika from Shigofumi

Shigofumi

Shigofumi

Fumika is the main character in the anime series. She works as a mail carrier from the afterlife realm of Shigo, delivering what are known as “shigofumi” to people in a Japanese city that she has been assigned to. These shigofumi are letters written by those who have recently died, and it is Fumika’s job to deliver the letters to whoever the dead wanted them to go to. The letters usually contain things that the now-deceased could not say while they were alive, such as things they wanted to say before they died, or even to inform others about who killed them in the case of a murder.

Best Comedy

Definitely Detroit Metal City OVA. Among the anime i watched in 2008, Detroit Metal City made me laugh hardest and longest!

Detroit Metal City... DMC

Detroit Metal City features Souichi Negishi, a shy young man who came from the rural Ota Prefecture to Tokyo for college and wished to become a kindergarten teacher. However, he became the singer and songwriter of a metal band named “Detroit Metal City,” with a stage name “Johannes Krauser II.” Whenever he wears the heavy makeup, Negishi becomes a completely different person, shouting the most vulgar profanities beyond anyone’s imagination.

DMC

I decide to follow this anime after i seen the incident of Negishi with old man Shige See how he rapes Tokyo Tower

Other great animes for laughs worth mentioning are:

Kemeko DX!

Kemeko Deluxe! – The story centers on a high school boy and a super-deformed, doll-like robot. The robot declares itself to be the boy’s wife, and only then does a beautiful girl emerge out of the robot’s mouth.

Penguin Musume

Penguin Musume Heart! – Sakura Nankyoku is a total otaku. Due to a fluke, she gets elected as her class’ Student Council President. Everything takes off from there into a series of crazy misadventures revolving around Sakura, her family, and her classmates.

Kannagi

Kannagi – Crazy Shrine Maidens is also a good anime. Our unlucky protagonist Mikuriya Jin, uses the trunk of a sacred tree to carve a statue for a school project. When he takes it outside, it begins absorbing the surrounding earth and transforms into a girl! So like all similar setups this guardian deity is pretty pissed that her tree was cut down and lives with Jin while she takes out her anger on squashing bugs….er, cleaning the “Impurities”.

Kannagi is really good in terms of bringing joy and laughs. The girl (Nagi) is cute and i think fluid animation is also important in animating slow (non action-packed anime), it’s entertaining to see Nagi in this anime My favourite episode in this anime is when Nagi locks herself inside the closet.

Minami-ke Okawari (2008)

Another anime good in comedies is Kyouran Kazoku Nikki. The story: Thousands of years ago the God of destruction, Enka, died saying thats its child would destroy the world.Thousands of years later the potential children of Enka are found (some human, some not) and take part in the Peaceful Family Operation in order to discover who the true child of Enka is and stop them from destroying the world by teaching them the importance of family love.

The novels depict the not-so-normal life of a “family” that includes a catgirl “mother,” a lion “son,” a living land-combat android weapon “son,” a jellyfish-like otherworldly “daughter,” and a hapless 27-year-old military officer as their “father.” This motley “family” was assembled as part of the Imperial Japanese Anti-Paranormal Phenomena Section’s Special Operations Forces to save Earth in 2063.

The creativity of the writer in terms of characters and story really amuses me and never fails to make me laugh in every episodes. My favourite story and character from this anime is during the Shinigami-san arc.

Most surprising anime:

Ga Rei -Zero-

Ga Rei -Zero-

Ga Rei -Zero- is aired on 5th October to 21st December 2008. Its story is about has an anti-paranormal special forces group Japanese Ministry of Defense, called Supernatural Disaster Prevention Office which is responsible to protect Japanese soil and its people from supernatural and paranormal events. In this anime series, they fight off evil spirits and ghosts… (highlight text to see spoilers!) …or so it seems. The “main cast” in the advertisements and posters are actually a side characters meant to be slaughtered to make introduction to the main series, Isayama Yomi. This anime leave viewers clueless again after slaughtering yet another cast in episode 2, including another main character of the series Tsuchimiya Kagura. The story finally settles to the past on how Yomi and Kagura lives together, become very close friends and also the unfortunate events turning Yomi to dark side. Great introduction and plot.

In promotions and in its official site, the characters in episode 1 is protrayed as main characters of the series, meant to trick the viewers. Their site layout is eventually changed when the series progressed. Opening and ending sequence are not revealed until few episodes in the anime (thus concealing any hints of surprise!). The poster of this anime later can be viewed in the spoiler image here.

…Ga Rei Zero packs surprise!

Best Action:

Mai Otome S.ifr OVA

Mai Otome S.ifr

The battle scenes in S.ifr is tremendous especially the final episode. Fluid and smooth battle animation, coupled with great music makes this OVA deserve my ‘best action’ award. The time setting in S.ifr is years before the Mai Otome timeline.

original Mai Otome series

Other great actions in anime:

Kurozuka

Kurozuka – Kurozuka features a samurai that flees into the mountains after losing to his brother Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first Shogun to rule all of Japan. History records that he committed suicide, but instead, Kuro meets a strange, beautiful woman named Kuromitsu in her mountain hermitage. Kuro falls in love with Kuromitsu, but then realizes she conceals a dark secret. He learns that he is unable to die and continues to live for a thousand years as Japan evolves into a future society.

…And the best anime for 2008 is…

2008 Best anime

Ga Rei -Zero-

Ga Rei Zero

Ga Rei -Zero- serves as the prequel to the Ga Rei manga. This anime starts off as an average zombie-and monster-fighthing anime by a certain military forces. They failed miserably and the special task force consisting the main characters of Tooru and Natsuki enters the scene and fight them with ease. Their partnership and Natsuki’se usage of the motorbike to fight off the zombies are superb. Click to see its trailer (highlight text for spoilers) As mentioned in spoiler before … this main characters in this first episode are fake “main characters”. They are all killed off by Yomi in first episode. The main ones for the series just appear on episode 2 and 3 onwards.

Yomi are adopted child in Isayama family, raised and will inherit the shishioh (sword) and the family head role. Yomi and Kagura develops relationships like sisters and they went to fight off evil spirits. As the anime progresses Yomi suddenly loses everything due to the internal conflict in Isayama family – she lost everything – her shishioh, inheritance, her adopted father, badly injured, can barely move, loses ability to speak (throat pierced) and possibly loses her boyfriend and also labeled as murderer. Never being able to justify herself, and cannot bear to see Kagura sad about her and later comforted and tempted by Mitogawa (evil boy!) Yomi finally accepted the evil powers to take revenge to the world that mistreated her. Scenes like her battle with Isayama Mei are very intense. The scene where Kagura and Yomi in hospital is also a very touching scene.

… To conclude it, Ga Rei -Zero- has great animation, good storytelling(which includes surprise elements), character design, weapons, battle and also the music. Recommended to watch, but not for those who cant stand the violence in battle. Viewers that can’t even stand the “violence” in Bleach should stay away from this anime.
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Here’s a long list of animes i completed watching on 2008 with my ratings out of 10:

3 = bad, 4 = lower than average, 5=average,

6 = good but not interested, 7=good, 8 = great, 9 = highly recommended

2007:

• Doujin Works (6)
• El Cazador de la Bruja (7)
• Kyou no Go no Ni OVA (7)
• Potemayo (7)
• sola (8)

2008:

• Akane Iro no Somaru Saka (7)
• Allison to Lillia (8)
• Chi’s Sweet Home (7)
• Detroit Metal City OVA (9)
• Ga Rei -Zero- (9)
• H2O ~Footprints on the Sand~ (6)
• Hidamari Sketch x365 (7)
• Hyakko (7)
• Kannagi (8)
• Kemeko DX! (7)
• Kurozuka (7)
• Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (8)
• Lucky Star OVA (8)
• Macross Frontier (7)
• Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ (7)
• Mai Otome S.ifr OVA (8)
• Minami-ke Okawari (4)
• Moetan (5)
• Nijuu Mensou no Musume (The Daughter of Twenty Faces) (8)
• Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter (8)
• Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (7)
• Penguin Musume Heart (7)
• School Days ~Magical Heart Kokoro-chan~ OVA (7)
• Seto no Hanayome Jin OVA (8)
• Shigofumi (8)
• Spice and Wolf (7)
• Telepathy Shoujo Ran (7)
• Tetsuwan Birdy Decode (Birdy the Mighty Decode) (7)
• True Tears (8)
• World Destruction (8); but very bad ending
• Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess of Rondo~ (7)

Dropped series; never want to finish watch it (2008):

• Rosario+Vampire (4)
• Rosario+Vampire Capu 2 (4)
• H2O ~Footprints on the Sand~ (3)
• Kimi Ga Aruji De Shitsuji Ga Ore De ~They Are My Noble Masters~ (4)
• Persona~Trinity Soul (5)
• ToLoveRu – Trouble (4)
• Druaga no Tou – The Aegis of Uruk (6)
• Amatsuki (5)
• Himitsu -Top Secret- (5)
• Real Drive – Sennou Chousashitsu (5)
• Crystal Blaze (4)
• Golgo 13 (4)
• ToHeart2 Another Days (4)
• Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (6)
• Strike Witches (6)
• Koihime Musou (4)
• Blade of the Immortal (3)
• Seikirei (3)
• Kanokon (3)
• Kuroshitsuji (5)
• Kyou no Go no Ni TV (4)
• Tytania (6)
• Minami-ke Okawari (4)

Currently Watching:

• Casshern SINS
• Hidamari Sketch x365
• Michiko to Hatchin
• Penguin no Mondai
• Tentai Senshi Sunred
• Toradora!

*The list does not contain animes either i havent get the chance to watch.

Looking forward to…

Full Metal Alchemist

The new Full Metal Alchemist anime, to be aired in 2009!

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image and information source: MyAnimelist.net, wikipedia, AnimeNewsNetwork, play-asia, cdjapan

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séeput is hungry

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Tags: 2008, aimmy, anime, best animes, chi, chis sweet home, detroit metal city, dmc, fma, full metal alchemist 2009, fumika, ga rei zero, kemeko, krauser, kurozuka, mai otome, minami ke, negishi, nodame cantabile paris chapter, okaeri, okawari, penguin musume heart, shigofumi, sifr, tokyo et paris, world destruction

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