Last Love for 2010

Final salute to the year that has gone by, Team style~

Kyokai:  Oh boy, haven’t I already done enough listing for 2010… From 10 categories to fan favourites and my personal version. Still, I wanted to get a varied opinion on that and what could be a better version that displaying my Team’s choices for Top 10? Of course, being that much diverse and spread across the world, it took some time to compile and here is our last salute to the year gone by. Definitely, it was very good~

Hato-kun: In making this is, I got a little confused. 2009 and 2010 kind of blended together and when I first wrote it I included KnT and Eden. Which didn’t make sense. However, I’m back rocking 2010 list V.2 and it’s going good so far.

1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood It’s really a no brainer. Nothing for a long time will come close to the amount of epic this show produced. The characters were brilliant,  the development was top notch and from what I remember there was only one re-cap episode. ONE. That’s what I call awesome. Managing to fill 63 out of 64 episodes with astounding anime is a great achievement. Hats off to FMA, people.

2. Sora no Woto I only know a few people who watched this, and I can’t understand why. Military uniforms just make everything better. And to think that it’s like K-ON, but in a war, is pretty much wrong. Sure, there are some people playing trumpets, and Mio (Rio, lol) is there, and Mugi, Yui and Azusa, but they don’t have Ritsu! Instead they have a Yuki (Noel, yay!) that drives a mecha tank with legs. So like a mecha spider. And despite my ramblings there was also a nice story underneath all this that did have the potential to be an amazing end. Unfortunately, it didn’t go that way. Secretly, I’m hoping for a second season…

3. K-ON!! I’m Hato. I like K-ON. The second season was awesome. There was a movie announced. There wasn’t enough Ritsu in the second season and there was way too much Azusa. K-ON would be better without her. And yeah, K-ON made me cry.

4. Kuragehime Probably one of the biggest surprises of last season for me. I didn’t even give it a second look when I first glanced but when I accidentally downloaded the first episode (yes, I did actually accidentally download it) I was hooked. It was such a constant series and stayed hard against its roots. The ending was super disappointing and I hope to God that there will be a second season. It’s too good to let go ;_;

5. Ore no Imouto I think this show takes award for ‘Show That Seems Super Dirty, But is Actually Alright’.  Seriously, I wondered what I had gotten myself into at first, but it really turned out to be something awesome. Not the mention the (now standard) sarcastic and monotonous character, Kyousuke. He made the show. It wouldn’t be the same without him. Just how SHnY wouldn’t be the same without Kyon. Also hoping for a second season. Let’s hope we get one.

6. Bakuman It’s not done yet, but that doesn’t stop it from being great! I’m glad the pacing has started to speed up, it’s one anime where I just want to know what will happen next. I’m so pleased it’s a 25 episode series. I couldn’t live with it only being 12 or 13 episodes. HATTORI FOR LIFE.

7. Katanagatari I STILL HAVEN’T FINISHED THIS. I’M ONE EPISODE AWAY. WHY HAVEN’T I WATCHED IT YET, OH GOD. THE SERIES IS SO GOOD. OH GOD, WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DO THAT TO PENGIN. *CRRRYYY*

8. Occult Seikimatsu Gakuin In my books this is up there for best OP of the season. such an awesome song. Aside from that (and the amazing Spoonman inspired ending) the show just felt like a really good supernatural-mystery-kinda thing. The awesome ero-witch from nowhere was also a pretty badass decision to keep everyone interested and it was great to see magic actually being used after that. Too bad it ended nicely. I wanted another season.

9. Angel Beats I think this one wins ‘Best Worst First Episode Ever’. I liked the episode, but it was just bad. After that though, the show was just awesome. The cast of characters was freakin’ awesome and the only reason I ranked it lower was because it tried to do too much. Comedy, Romance, Mystery, Action, everything. It did comedy pretty well, I’ll give it that. Also, the end was heartbreaking. I cried multiple times.

10. Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Episode siiiiiiiix.

Overcooled:This has been a pretty darn good year in anime, I’d say. It was pretty easy to choose my top 10 though, I’m not gonna lie. I had almost exactly 10 series that I really liked this year, how convenient. Now, I tend to be the one with an aversion for some of the more popular shows for whatever reason (*cough* Kuragehime) so we’ll see how my tastes compare to everyone elses. XD

1. Durarara!! YES, it is an overrated show with an ever-growing fanbase, but I still love it to bits. It hits all the right spots for me…a large cast of WELL-DEVELOPED characters, wonderful seiyuu, a unique plot, and those nifty, non-chronological order events! It was the show I looked forward to every week the most, and it had IZAYA, a character who seriously made me question the way I see humans. It’s the anime of 2010 that you SHOULD NOT MISS!

2. Shiki My beloved dark horse in the running. I generally scoff at horror anime and their inability to affect me at all, but Shiki has a way of showing characters on the descent to madness that is utterly captivating and horrifying (AT THE SAME TIME). Also, vampires. Who could resist?

3. Ookiku Furikabutte Season 2 HNNNNGGGGGGG I LOVE THIS SHOW. It is the only show I can marathon without getting tired of it. Keep in mind that I don’t even LIKE baseball and this show is my 3rd favourite. What made me able to withstand a show about a sport I couldn’t care less about? The minute attention paid to the psychological/tactics aspect of the game and the deep (i.e. SUPER GAY) character relationships. Pure win <3

4. Arakawa Under the Bridge 2 seasons of this precious show in one year! I really appreciate a show that can make me so much as smirk while watching it…I am very picky with my comedy in anime. Great humour, GREAT characters and great, meaningful drama.

5. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Another glorious show that had the power to make me laugh! It has the cute concept of using your scores in school as the level of your personal summoned creature, and battling it out between students! It’s full of creativity and lulz, this is the perfect show to watch after writing an exam to unwind XD

6. K-ON!! Some mandatory moe for ya. How could I say no to cute girls doing cute things? I can’t place what is so addictive about matching a bunch of girls waste their time and play music every once in a while, but it is oddly satisfying.

7. Angel Beats! Ahh, good old Angel Beats! Short, but sweet. I would’ve loved for this to go on longer, but there’s not much that can be done now. I ALMOST cried at the ending

8. Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Episode 6. That is all.

9. Sengoku Basara 2 This is another one of those SUPER EPIC MANLY anime. Sometimes it is so manly, it transcends the very definition of manliness. It has a bit of corny moments, but they are MANLY corny moments, so it’s all good.

10. Katanagatari This has been going on for a full year, if you haven’t noticed. It’s very hard to get into at first, but once you get to the end, you will realize how the journey was worth it. Yes, yes, there’s a lot of talking – BUT IT’S SO GOOD!!

Hoshi: Is it just me, or does 2010 seems like the godly year of good anime? (Even though I haven’t seen much really…)

1. Kuragehime I have never been so torn on what to call my number one favorite anime in my entire life. It’s a hard question, and there are too many answers. Yet, when I thought it over and over in my head, I realized Kuragehime is taking my top spot, despite my obsessive love for Kuroshitsuji and the epic awesomness that is Durarara!!. This show just has so many things I love; a crossdresser, otaku girls, comedy every episode, BRILLIANT animation, amazing opening and ending songs, a decent story, and extremely hysterical and memorable characters. Not only can I actually physically laugh at the comedy, but I can connect to this show in so many ways, both fandom wise and personal wise. I literally started balling as the last episode ended because I’ve gotten just so attached this series, and the fact that now my favorite show of the year, maybe now even my favorite anime of all time, won’t be there waiting for me.I-I can’t even express anymore words on much how much I adore this series, and I wish it would last just a bit longer ;A;

2. Durarara!! As someone said, “the most over-rated series of the year”, but for a good reason. When I first started watching it, it was quite slow, but I was quietly hooked by the mysterious characters and ominous head-less motorcycle rider. Even though there were many characters, they didn’t clash and were actually all connected in a way that I thought was so genius! Not to mention the story, something you can’t sum up in a few words, nor explain, has to be one of the most original stories in the anime world (at least to me). I think I really got into the anime though once Izaya and Shizou started having their epic battles, and Izaya seriously started trolling everyone xD The one and only problem I had with the anime was the ending. I imagined something more…explosive but got a rather lovey-dovey ending, which I don’t mind but I was left a bit disappointed. I’m still praying along with Kyokai for that second season…*___* I WILL NOT GIVE UP HOPE.

3. Kuroshitsuji II If you know me, OF COURSE this is going to be on my list! I had some serious fun blogging about this show, and when it ended, it left me wearing all-black the next day at school in mourning x’D Though I will always prefer the manga over the anime for Kuroshitsuji, I have to say this second season was really good. The story was rather interesting with the appearance of our slutty shota Alois and serious demon butler Claude. While it did have some low points, my doubts were always lifted with the next episode. The animation was lovely, especially when it came to my darling Ciel (I’m not a pedophile I swear)~. I would like to say I thought this season was better than the first one, but I should probably finish (or rather buy since they’re releasing it in the U.S finally) the first season before making any such statements |’D

4. Arakawa Under the Bridge I only started watching this series maybe…two months ago because I had seen it on Metanorn before, but never really forced myself to watch it until the second season started. I loved both seasons, both equally because I truly can’t say I love one more than the other. Its random, hysterical comedy always has me busting out laughing, especially Hiroshi Kamiya’s despaired-style screaming that comes from Ric XD I don’t really care that Arakawa really has no plot-line at all, because the jokes and comedy are just too good~.

5. Bakuman Another anime where I prefer the manga, but that doesn’t mean the anime is bad! I look forward to each episode every week because it weirdly gives me a lot of enthusiasm (BAKUMAN ENTHUSIASM INJECTIONSSSSSS) to do not only the posts for it, but for school too which I RARELY have enthusiasm for. I love all the characters, especially my man Takagi, and I also get to learn about the production of manga of which I’m so very fond of xD As for its animation, I find it really plain, a little too simple compared to the manga’s pop-out-ish art, but I’m not complaining since the story and comedy is great. The one, and only thing, I do NOT like about Bakuman is its opening song. I imagined a more rock-ish song, not some slow romantic ballad. It pisses me off every week and I’ve never watched it since the first episode. Other than that, Bakuman is up there as one of my all-time favorites. Let’s hope its second season doesn’t kill it~

6. Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (I know this started in 2009 but hey, I have to give some love) FMA was one of my first animes when I started out in the fandom, and I frequently forget about it sadly, even though it is one of my all-time favorites. I actually didn’t understand what FMA Brotherhood WAS when it came out |’D Finally someone told me that it was a remake and I managed to catch it late night on TV where I instantly found myself fangirling about Ed again~. I absolutely adored the animation more on this version, obviously because it’s a lot newer compared to the first version (not saying the first version animation was all bad, it was pretty decent). Plus…it’s FMA!! The story and characters and just everything about it is awesome! I can re-watch FMA forever and ever, seriously~

7. Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt The show so vulgar, so dirty, so WTF, it’s become epic. I remember I dared myself to check out the first episode, which literally left me going, “WTF?!” already xD Yet no matter how disgusted I get from watching this show, I can’t help but love it. Panty and Stocking are just so WIN when they’re fighting ghosts, plus there’s no stopping my giggling when it comes to the dirty jokes~.

8. Black Rock Shooter Yes I know it’s an OVA, but it was my first review here on Metanorn, so I feel like this deserves a place~. I really enjoyed the OVA, despite all the bad reception it got. Sure there could’ve been a better, more interesting story, but I still thought it was nice, a bit cheesy, but nice! The main attraction from this though was the glorious animation that left me in awe and screen-capping like crazy. Not to mention Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master looked freaking AWESOME; their characters almost made me by a figurine of them both |’D

9. Shiki All right, I must admit, I haven’t even finished Shiki yet because I decided to marathon Panty and Stocking instead since I didn’t have much episodes left to finish. Yet it’s on this list because I know, I KNOW, I’ll end up on this list regardless. I’ve heard too much good stuff about this show. Up to the episodes I’ve watched, I really enjoyed it even if it’s just agonizing slow at first. The only thing that bothers me are the character designs, which is why I doubt I’ll ever check out the manga x’D

10. Hetalia: World Series MAKE FUN OF ME ALL YOU WANT, I love this show. A lot. My fandom for this show developed quickly, and was hidden, until now. It’s short, it’s funny, it’s random, and I just love it to pieces. That is all~.

Foshizzel:

1. Shinryaku! Ika Musume And finally my last choice for 2010! Squid girl! At first I thought the idea was really dumb and stupid for a plot about a half-girl, half-squid. However after seeing the first episode and hearing Ika talk was like what the hell?! But she is what kept me wanting to see more. The gag of her saying Squid after every sentence was also strange, even though that is not original at all, still was funny to hear from her. They even managed to throw in a dramatic episode with that whole super tiny squid girl, so sad!

2. Durarara!! Ah, Durarara my first real shot at blogging this show started it all for me anyway. After seeing the trailers and previews I was like, I have to see this! It was really addicting mystery and all the fantastic characters. Like the others who enjoyed this show I would put Shizuo as the best character next to Izaya of course. Can’t wait to get my DVD in the mail! Mostly due to me being curious about the dub cast, lots of great actors so far! But we shall see.

3. Shiki This show starts off extremely slow until they finally get into the vampires snatching people up! Finally a show about vampires that get it right, not no sissy vamps these are real ones. Close to the end I found myself hating the humans, mostly due to all of them going on a rampage killing all the shiki. After finishing this series I would re-watch this anytime! Fingers crossed for Funimation giving this a good dub cast, well we can only hope they can.

4. Angel Beats! After seeing the first teaser trailer for this and the artwork, I think it sold me quickly just on that, but after seeing a few episodes I was hooked. The story was strange too having everyone already dead and in another world were interesting and how they each leave too. The best character for me was Yui even though there are some that really hate her annoying and random side. I found her to be so fun to watch, her story was a bit dramatic and kind of personal to my own but all around crazy character and awesome couple with Hinata.

5. Highschool of the Dead Zombies and fan-service! Two things you would not think could be combined but Madhouse pulled it off in a rather crazy way. As well as completely ignoring real world physics, well mostly on the girls anyway left many just staring in amazement and shock. Best moments would have to be Saeko going crazy when she gets to own some zombies! But I think most would agree Rei sucks and not in a good way either.

6. So-Ra-No-Wo-To Don’t think many watched this show as it was quickly called K-ON with military slapped on. I would agree to that point, first off the characters do have that look to them being all cute and what not. But the story was also interesting set in the future and everything is like destroyed made for a nice setting. A big surprise was the music thrown into this! When they started to play Amazing Grace I was like whoa! That is very cool, mostly because I hear that all the time at church so was nice to see that floating around that series. Also there is a slight bit of Mecha thrown in, sure it was more of a tank with legs but quickly made me have visions of Metal Gear Solid with moe characters…

7. Bakemonogatari This was my first time watching a SHAFT show, yes I know fail! But at the time I wasn’t familiar with the various studios. I think the thing that stuck in my mind was the visual style and crazy camera angles. And the arc format really worked quite well for me, Tsubasa arc was probably my favorite due to the cat form and the way she talked! And Araragi for the main lead was fun to watch.

8. K-On!! This was a hard choice to put on my list, I didn’t like K-ON Season one too much but found myself still watching it, not sure why! I blame the MOE it’s like crack I guess. The girls’ personalities were the best parts for me anyway, for a show that is centered on a club about music it works well for anime. Now to the most important part the songs! There are some great songs in the series and nice performances, wish there were more but can’t complain too much about them.

9. Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt The show I was going to avoid like the plague but after watching the first episode I was instantly hooked! Panty is quite into her favorite pass time of messing around but has a comical view on the whole sexual thing. Glad to see a story develop about halfway through after introducing us to Scanty and Kneesocks, for bad guy types, those two quickly became so fun to watch! And I can’t forget all the awesome transformations for the characters too.

10. Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou Ichiban! This show was slow at the start and quickly became harem style but not sure why I liked it so much, maybe it was the variety of characters and magic elements. I liked the idea of the school picking everyone’s roles was kind of interesting but screams harry potter of course. My most favorite character has to be the oddball redhead Keena Soga, the rice addict; she loves that stuff a bit too much.

Captain: Bang bang! Captain here, not-so-sick anymore but I’m actually having a hard time deciding which animes shall be on my list >n<;; I did watch a lot of anime in 2010, though, since…since Metanorn… you know… took-over-my-soul-and-I-felt-the-need-to-be-more-immersed-in-fictional-cartoons.

1. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood There’s no doubt FMA would top my list. I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned it, really! And it isn’t even in the year-ender poll. Even though I’d been following the manga before this anime came out, everything was just… different when you see it animated. Plus, it was by Bones. BONES. Bones has very good animation skills. It’s FMA, what can I say? I loved every bit of it, especially monster-fied Envy. I do miss the series, though. How I wish for it to continue, yet I do not want it to become like what Bleach currently is. Although if I could, Gintama would totally be in this spot.

2. Arakawa Under the Bridge Arakawa was just one of the animes that I fell in love with on the first episode, and refused to give up watching it afterward. The characters are really original, and the opening series looks like it was made when the animators were high. How often do you see a guy in a Kappa suit? And well, it’s comedy. Captain loves comedy. Also, the romance in it is just makes me feel all fluttery on the inside~

3. Durarara!! You have no idea how surprised I was to find out that this was situated in Ikebukuro. This is only number 3 because it’s based in the place I come from. *shot* No, just joking. But it certainly does make Ike seem really badass, with the gangs and all. (We don’t have that, honest) Other than that, though, Durarara really is the most over-liked of 2010. The characters are original, the twists in the plot and that irritating information broker which should die in a vending machine. Of course it’s number 3~! The cameo appearances of Isaac and Miria nearly sent me into cardiac arrest.

4. Occult Academy The series started out a bit slow, but things just started getting better and better towards the end, ending with a super powered spoon. Nostradamus Key, Mothman.. Did Captain ever mention that she’s actually an Occult fan? I honestly enjoyed this anime, no matter how ridiculous the ending seems. All the supernatural stuff sold me, honest. It had me looking through my occult book and studying the Nostradamus Key with a few episodes. I have to say this was really good xD

5. Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Gainax came up with the very idea of PnS while they were drunk, and I’m not surprised they came up with the ending at a drinking party, too. Just waiting to troll us all with the Gainax ending. The first episode made me go “WOAH, AM I SEEING THIS. AM I SEEING THIS?” This is one anime which I’m not afraid to recommend to my non-anime fan friends, too, since most of the time the characters look like something out of Powerpuff Girls. But the innuendos and sexual references do get me feeling a little unsafe watching this in the living room.

6. Shiki I officially have all the volumes of Shiki manga, now. I couldn’t resist myself in it’s three week hiatus, with all it’s cliffhangers and unpredictable plot. I have to say, though, I didn’t actually want to watch Shiki because of the art. But I was sold, anyway, with a Ozaki using medical terms all the time, I just had to watch it. Oh, the times when I would scream at the screen and say, “OZAKI, ARE YOU STUPID. Vampires. VAMPIRES. Not MOF or anemia!”

7. Angel Beats! After Kyokai made me translate the album artwork, I finally decided to continue watching Angel Beats. I LOVED IT. The storyline is just..wow. The music is also just..wow. The artwork, to me, not so much. A bit moe to me. Other than that.. number 7, Angel Beats, not too bad. I only just started watching it recently, too, after dropping it at episode 3 or so. Jun Maeda is now my writing hero, gosh! I so don’t regret watching this anymore.

8. Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto WHY DO PEOPLE HATE THIS, I’M SERIOUS. You really just had to give it a few more episodes. Even though the whole Ginga Bishounen thing does seem kind of ridiculous, I’m still in love with this anime. You know, I am actually being a little biased here, since this is actually the first anime I’m reviewing on Metanorn. Other than that, pretty boys, mecha, and Bones combined, just Captain’s cup of tea. I really enjoy this anime! Kiraboshi!

9. Kuragehime This just had to trail off from the manga, seriously. If not it would have been number 7 or something higher. Anyway! Kuragehime is indeed another shoujo on my list, but this one is just special. A jellyfish loving wannabe princess meets a cross dressing bishie? I’m still in love with the plot, and well, I can’t wait to see episode 11~ Fujoshi, NEETs, and nuns – when is the last time you see an anime about these kind of fashion haters?

10. Nodame Cantabile Finale Toru Kikuchi – “A womanizing cello player and one of the founders of the R☆S Orchestra along Chiaki, Kiyora, and Kuroki. Easily recognizable by his crew cut and small glasses. He had been studying in Boston prior to the creation of the R☆S Orchestra, and at the end of that year, had returned to Boston.” And that had me SOLD, completely. If you didn’t know already, yes, Captain plays the cello and is a classical music freak. There’s Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, Bach and Tchaikovsky in it, do you expect me not to watch it? Nodame is definitely not something like La Corda d’Oro. NOTHING LIKE IT. Deer meat.

Sassy: Roughly in descending order, though not completely since I like them all:

1. Kuragehime This one’s really a no-brainer, though I was surprised at how much I liked this series. I didn’t plan on watching it at all after reading the summary because it sounded really stupid, plus the art didn’t attract me initially, but at some point I was really bored and checked out the first episode. It was love at first sight.

2. Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin Oh yeah, this is where my supernatural/mystery craze kicks in. I can’t talk about this series objectively at all. I didn’t even read the summary before watching it – I just saw “Occult” and went “Hell yes!” I don’t think people will disagree with me when I say it was an amazing series, but seriously, I went into it just expecting to love it. It’s all about the positive attitude, dudes. Beethoven in the soundtrack was a bonus.

3. Highschool of the Dead It’s basically a cross between horror and hentai, and being a horror loving MALE, that’s all that truly needs to be said. Also, I can relate with Takagi: we’re both freakin’ geniuses. I actually first got into it because 1) I read the manga and 2) this was during my Inoue Marina phase, but I’ve since ditched her for Itou Kanae.

4. The World God Only Knows I first learned about the anime adaptation while reading the manga – which, by the way, is ongoing – so naturally I enjoyed seeing my favorite characters animated. I’m also totally obsessed with the character song CDs right now. You’d expect to get tired of Koi no Shirushi after hearing it the 10th time (no joke, there’s that many versions), but I just love that song so much. Unfortunately, we didn’t see Haqua in the anime… YET!

5. Angel Beats! I was a bit skeptical of this at first because Yurippe’s design was basically a Haruhi clone with a different color scheme, but it definitely exceeded by expectations by leaps and bounds. I’m not really a KEY fanboy since, unlike someone else who lurks around here, I’m not completely obsessed with Clannad, but Angel Beats! was a great ride. It’s just a shame that it didn’t last longer – that OVA was not enough.

6. Amagami SS I’m not usually a fan of romances, so this will be the only one you’ll catch me favoring for a while. I guess I enjoyed the more natural, realistic pace that it provided in contrast to all of the harem garbage I’m used to ignoring. I wasn’t a fan of every one of the girls, but hey, who was?

7. Oreimo Earlier in the season, I asked myself the question, “Which series did I rush to watch week after week?” At the time, I couldn’t figure out why Ore no Imouto was up there, but now I know exactly what I loved best about this series. It’s not the lolis, and it’s definitely not the voices or anything like that… it’s Kyousuke’s Overwhelming Manliness.

8. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2010 was really long, wasn’t it? I didn’t even realize that this series was in 2010, but it was! But yeah, the interaction between Akihisa and Yuuji was hilarious because of how stupid Akihisa is. As a bonus, we also get a pointless, random trap thrown in there for no reason whatsoever. This is not a bad thing. And season 2 is incoming!

9. Arakawa Under the Bridge Wow, how did I get to number 9 without mentioning Arakawa? This should be way up near the top of the list, but I’m too lazy to cut and paste, so now it’s 9. We have not one, but two seasons of it this year, much of which is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever watched. I remember laughing so hard after watching the first episode. It’s so trippy and stupid that it’s just my type.

10. Ookami-san I really liked the art for this series. I really, really, like the art for this series. Some episodes were great, some episodes were not so great, but I kept coming back for more because I really like the art for this series. The ending didn’t really resolve the main conflict with that other school, which was disappointing, but I won’t let an ending ruin it for me. Also, Itou Kanae.

Ness: Looking back at 2010, I find that I haven’t been following the anime season on the dot and watched a good amount of pre-2010 anime series. So my end of the year choices will probably differ from others, it will feature what I have actually watched and be determined by if I’d re-watch the series.

1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Although this series started in 2009, it ended in 2010 and thus it has made the cut for me. I was surprised upon finding out that there was a remake of the 2003 series but when I actually watched Brotherhood, I was taken in excitement. The story is just as good but with more depth and explanation to some things that was not touched in the original. The action was just as awesome along with the music.

2. Major Season 6 My enjoyment for sports anime started with the Major series. Well, I’ve played baseball growing up but I could just never watch it on TV. But anyways, this series is just awesome in the sense that you can really get into the story aside from baseball. You start off with the main character, Goro, as a child and as the seasons go by he grows up and matures while aiming towards his goal. There’s tragedy, hardships, comedy and baseball fun. This last season gives a happy and somewhat satisfying end to this wonderful series; which makes me sad but it was bound to happen.

3. Ookiku Furikabutte ~Natsu no Taikai-hen~ I’ve watched the first season and loved the way that they depicted baseball to be strategically. The main character, Mihashi, might at first give the feel of annoying and wimpy but as time goes on you’ll find him to be amusing and funny. As well, Mihashi’s teammates and coach are just as cool and funny. This second season let us see a few more baseball games for the tournament and showed some reality of how baseball for high school students in Japan probably is. There’s no happy ending for the tournament but you get the feeling that there will be another season to come filled with more hard work towards other tournaments (which I’m excited for).

4. Durarara!! Well, I do say that the story is interesting and the characters are cool. I understand the rave on peoples likeness for this anime. Now I need to make time to read the manga because I hear that there’s still more to this series than what was animated. But overall the story is interestingly awesome, the characters are each cool and there’s lots of good humor and action. Shizuo’s story is awesome and the two anime fans are cool with their torture methods based on mangas.

5. Nodame Cantabile: Finale I first found out of Nodame Cantabile through the J-Dorama and loved the anime-like feel along with the music. I was even more happy to find the anime series to so similar to the dorama. This last season of Nodame Cantabile finally focuses more on Nodame’s feelings on piano and her relationship with Chiaki. There’s a good amount of comedy balanced with music and love. The conclusion to this series was satisfying and happy.

6. Angel Beats! While it was interesting to see this sort of scenario for an afterlife. I would sum up this series as a super power, tragic past life, mystery solving yet everyday life is filled with exciting action type of series. Yet the story was good, the comedy was hilarious, the action was cool and the characters each stand out individually.

7. Kuroshitsuji 2 How can I not add Kuroshitsuji when I liked the first season as well. I was happy to hear that there was a sequel and that we get to see Ciel again (alive). I wasn’t interested much in the new characters but afterwards I found them to be intriguing. The plot twist and character turn outs were so enjoyable.

8. Kuragehime A second season better come.~ This series is too short for 13 episodes and the love relationships are left unsolved. But other than that, the story is cute and all the characters are interesting and humorous with their well established individuality.

9. Shiki I was in a vampire genre frenzy when Shiki came out and this anime wasn’t as how I’d expect it to be but way beyond. The events might at first seem obvious but you get some anticipation and suspense. The animation isn’t my style but once past it, this series is really good.

10. Giant Killing While this series has a lot of talking, it’s actually interesting and the way Tatsumi coaches is humorous. But just as well, there’s a good amount of football action with strategy and competition. I’d love for another season.

Hime: I was extremely hard pushed to name 10 shows that really left an impact on me, hence the movie in there, but after much deliberation here is my Top Ten anime titles of 2010!

1.Durarara!! No surprise here, I’m sure Durarara!! will be topping most people’s lists as the years favorite. It was so off the wall, creative and constantly slugging you in the face with it’s exciting pace and unforgetable characters. It is equally as good as Baccano! And I am dying to see more of these guys at work. They are so hypnotic in colour and dialoge and their ability to inject a real place with such bizzare images so seemlessly that they don’t seem odd at all…well, that’s just great directing. I am humbled. With a kickin’ soundtrack and slick futuristic feel, Durarara!! took you into a complex labyrinth of events, and with the POV constantly shifting you could really revel in all the little details that made Durarara!! so fun to watch.

2.Detective Conan: The Lost Ship In The Sky (movie) I know I’m cheating a lil’ bit here but this was without a doubt one of my favorite anime experiances this year. I know I’m pretty late to the DC party but the size of the series always put me off. So I decided to marathon the movies over a week and see if it was for me before I got stuck into the series. After doing that, this was definately one of my favorite DC movies. It’s exciting, funny, mysterious and will have you on the edge of your seat; it’s everything that makes Detective Conan so watchable and why it’s still alive and kicking after so long.

3.Katanagatari Just to show how much I pay attention, for the majority of its run I thought this was being done by SHAFT. The whole thing reeked of it!I thought that, in style, it was nearly identical to Zetsubo Sensei, but alas it was done by a relativly new studio called White Fox. It was definately taking it’s ques from SHAFT at any rate. While the art style was certainly an attraction I was more interested in the story. Not put off by the “sword of the month” scenario, I loved seeing what each blade was going to be along with how Shichika would kick ass to get it. While it did get a bit confusing towards the end with motives and master plans not really explained or lost in their own plot holes, I still think Katanagatari was one of the best shows this year simply because of it’s funky artwork and interesting pace. And I’ll be watching you, White Fox ¬¬…you done good.

4.Shinrei Tantei Yakumo This swapped places with Shiki more than once on my list, but seeing as how I was blogging Yakumo I have to place it higher. Both shows are in a simillar vein but could not have ended on more different notes. I think this is one of Ono Daisuke’s best acting roles, he really shines as Yakumo for me above other shows I’ve seen him in. I always got all the emotion and subtle humor when Yakumo spoke and I’ve been playing the OP that he sung pretty much constantly since I heard it. While I wish Yakumo would have been more exciting than it was, it just meant that when big stuff did happen it made it all that more impactful. The dull, muted tones and soap operaish music really gave me the feel of something that would work equally as good as a live-action drama as an anime. Maybe more so, it would be interesting to see how they would do the ghosts, anyway.

5.Shiki Now, here were some pretty kick-ass vampires. I love how much attention they gave to the whole moral issue of having to drink blood to survive. Tohru… ;_; And I’m hard pushed to name anyone I didn’t like. Everyone had something different to bring to the show and the amazing character designs really sucked me in to what was a misleading slow start. But once it picked up and the madness kicked in it never stopped! And I loved it for that. I have this thing about watching people slowly dipping in their own madness, it’s the most entertaining thing for me xD Twisted as f*ck, I know. Shiki was brutal, bloody, gross and, with the help of Tatsumi, FABULOOOOUS~!

6.Working!! This seems to have dissappeared off the radar now, but I remember being very entertained when it first came out. It’s a bit like a toned down version of MM! Since Jun Fukuyama is the lead and one of the other characters is a manphobe as well. It’s a bit more sensetive, I would say. And while the animation is simple it’s in no way cheap looking. I found it really cute and fun to watch. Can’t say there was anything spectacular about it, it just hit a good nerve in me and made me laugh.

7.Baka to Test to Shōkanjū This is another one that made the list purely because it made me laugh. It was the best kind of FAIL class there is. Not much else to say, it was just loads of fun and sillyness married with colourful characters and plently of yaoi humor 😛

8.Legend of the Legendary Heroes This is a tricky one. I enjoyed it, but the only way I made it through was because of the characters. Otherwise its formulaic, cliche and sometimes down right senseless plot twists would have had me dropping it within a moment. I love fantasy/adventure animes, but having said that I’ve only seen a handful of them that can really pull it off. This isn’t one of them. But somehow I still enjoyed it immensely. Sure the ending made no sense, they tried to cram in about a million new plot points in the last 3 episodes but hey! No one’s perfect! I loved Ryner and Ferris’s banter and the explosions and magic effects were nice. What else can I say? Just some more much needed brain candy for this list.

9.Nurarihyon no Mago This is purely fangirl indulgence for me as Jun Fukuyama who plays the lead uses both of his signature voices. His gruff and sexy one and his super-uke-omg-I’m-melting-it’s-so-cute one. It was nearly too much for my poor fangirl heart to take! But I pulled through, and besides all the squeeing it was a pretty solid show (for DEEN, anyway) I hate DEEN, I mean I really hate DEEN. And I was just waiting…waiting…for the animation quality to slip or for the ending to be completely botched and fail-tastic. But it didn’t happen. Much to my shock and elation, the animation stayed constant, actually it was even bordering on impressive in some scenes, and the ending was actually taken up a notch in terms of bad-assery. Was very surprised by this show, yes it is very shounen, the comic relief is annoying and it can get pretty dumb, but all in all I thought it was a step in the right direction for my most hated studio.

10.Giant Killing This is another cheat, as I dropped it halfway through. XD But what I did see of it, I liked! I have no interest in sports what-so-ever. I can occasionally be tempted by figure skating or gymnastics, but that might have more to do with the men in leotards…who knows. For it to hold my interest as long as it did was pretty impressive. The designs were nice and spiky, I loved the whole team. It was just a fun show with great characters I’ll definately be putting some time aside to finish it.

Kyokai: I will just say, this was VERY HARD!

1. Bakemonogatari: It finally ended but quite EPICLY so. Senjougahara is always going to be awesome and same for Araragi-kun~ This was one of the shows that really got me hooked to SHAFT and amazingly twisted cast kept me busy. My favourite of course would remain to be that episode twelve but the last episode is at number two and just for personal biasness, this gets the top spot!

2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: This will remain to be one of my all time favourite anime. There were few shows that really got me addicted to anime and the original FMA, Death Note and Samurai X are the starting point from where I have not looked back. Imagine, I spent around 60 full days last year watching anime… Yeah. FMA: Brotherhood had everything that a classic series should have and being fan of manga, seeing the end animated within two weeks was just too good to be true. Arakawa-sensei, I hope you work on another EPIC story like this.

3. Durarara!!: Do I really have to say something here? I loved it, the whole massiveness of it, along with its quick twists and turns. I can never get enough of Shizu-chan and the same terribleness of Izaya; of course, the trio needs mentioning and same for the Dotachin gang. This will always remain close to my heart because it was one of the first titles I picked for aniblogging.

4. The Tatami Galaxy: As I mentioned in my list, one of those anime of the year that was not watched by many SADLY. I only knew Flags watching it except for me while it was airing. I highly recommend this wacky story and hope you enjoy it!

5. Arakawa Under the Bridge: I’m a SHAFT fangirl but not to the extreme that I would love everything they produce. Though they definitely have a big winner with Arakawa in 2010 for which they aired two seasons of the same year! Being a brilliant comedy, it made me laugh and tear up at the exact right time. I wish there was another season! *fingers crossed for a third*

6. Katanagatari: This was so good! I love it for the fact of amazing design, character development and storyline. Of course, there’s nothing original about journeying out to collect the trophies (in this case, the hentai blades), but somehow or the other I came to love the characters and everything about them.

7. Kuragehime / Kimi ni Todoke: So, you see the numbers ran out and I still had some things to talk about! I tied Kuragehime with Kimi ni Todoke because well, they were my shoujo drug for 2010. I mean, they had so many lovable characters that even the ones who were bad; I was empathizing with them by the end. These have the best romantic couples and an amazing trap!

8. Shiki: I love, love, loved this! Boo to all those who thought it was slow or erratic or whatever. Good horror shows are not all about WTF just happened but pacing as well. Not to mention, this had loads of WTF just happened, thrown in as well. The best thing about it is the thematic and background music along with unique character designs. Highly recommended to mystery lovers, also people who like a well rounded series with actual character development.

9. Nodame Cantabile: Finale One of my all time favourite shoujos with amazing music and perky protagonists. There are times that you want to really facepalm and tell them to get over their slowness but as it works out in the end; I’m a happy camper. GYABUN!

10.  Angel Beats! I was one of those who didn’t like the first episode but it just goes to show that first impressions are not always last. As I said earlier, few episodes short yet the characters really got it home. This happens when the support cast is strong enough to stand on their own. Loved the music as well but a suggestion Jun Maeda, go for the right pacing next time.

Alright, it’s done. Thanks for all the awesomeness of 2010 FANDOM! I hope we have a better year of anime in 2011!