Blog Archives
Janai’s 2010 Year in Review: Top 5 Best and Worst Anime
In 2010 we found out what a squid invasion would be like. We learned about what’s it’s like to attend high school in the afterlife. We were treated to yet more of those famous pantsless heroines we love so much. And on top of all that, zombies and boobs. Yes, 2010 was an interesting year, and while there were a good number of shows I thoroughly enjoyed, some shows ended up quite terrible. Here are my best and worst of 2010.
Oh yeah, I wrote this post at 2:00 in the morning while on a caffeine high, so I’m sorry if I’m more vicious and sarcastic than usual. 
Best of 2010
#5: Angel Beats!
Take some of everyone’s favorite character archetypes, throw in an awesome sci-fi/mystery story with some drama and top-notch animation, and you have Angel Beats! KEY’s original production certainly turned out to be a fan favorite, and it’s easy to see why. If you dismissed this show as “hurr durr generic moe crap” or you just really hate KEY, then you should clear your head of your bias and give this show an honest chance, because it’s one of the more interesting and creative shows to come out recently.
Anime Review: Highschool of the Dead
Highschool of the Dead is the most overrated show of this entire season. While it does have a satisfying beginning and conclusion, a few exhilarating fight scenes and a dark atmosphere, the overabundance of fanservice, painfully slow mid-point, and a lot of poorly acted scenes really do a lot of damage to what could have been a fun show about the zombie apocalypse. It also doesn’t help that the show suffers from an identity crisis, as it tries to be both a horrifying story of survival and an over-the-top testosterone fest, resulting in a show that fails at being scary or thrilling.
HOTD follows Takashi Komuro, a high school sophomore who is depressed over losing his girl friend Rei Miyamoto to his best friend Hisashi Igou. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have time to mourn over his loss, as the zombie apocalypse begins for no adequately explained reason (It’s a show about zombies! Who cares?). In the midst of an attack on his high school, he groups up with various survivors, such as Rei, Hisashi, Kouta Hirano, a gun otaku, Saeko Busujima, a psychotic kendo master, Shizuka Marikawa, the useless nurse, and Saya Takagi, the arrogant, if intelligent, student council president and escape the high school. The rest of the show has the survivors trying to survive in a zombie-infested Japan.
Otaku in Review Podcast – Black & White and Pokémon All Over
I give my final thoughts on Highschool of the Dead (spoiler: I hated it) and Strike Witches 2 (spoiler: I loved it) while Scott continues to facepalm at how much I love the show. I also do a quick review of the PlayStation Move and give my initial impressions. We get into a mini-debate over Square-Enix and why I don’t like them too much. Scott is also not amused by my inability to care about anything Pokémon.
In the news… Redline gets an awesome trailer that makes me want to see it. Section23 licensed an anime about cats. Some jackasses ruin things for everyone by stealing valuable Bakemonogatari art. Live action Cowboy Bebop apparently costs half a billion dollars. And someone actually invented the Dragon Ball Z scouter (insert “OVER 9000″ joke here).
Eric’s Summer 2010 Anime Preview
While not as good as the Spring 2010 season, this Summer season has had quite a few impressive shows. Having seen eight shows so far, I plan on watching more later on once I have the time. For now though, here is a list of shows I’ve seen this Summer season.
Amagami SS
Amagami SS is a show that I looked at with great anticipation. Having seen the realistic and good looking character models in the trailer, I thought that it looked promising enough to be a great series this season. What I got was a bit of a disappointment. The story of Amagami SS follows Junichi Tachibana, a high school student who is basically going to hook up with six girls in each four to five episode arc in this series. I can sympathize with this show, as it’s part of a genre that isn’t really known for its wealth of unique ideas; however the problem with Amagami SS isn’t that it’s based on a dating sim game or that it doesn’t really offer anything new. The real problem is that it’s quite a boring series.
The main factor that causes its dullness would have to be the male lead, who is probably the blandest protagonist I have seen this season. While he isn’t an unlikable character, he has the personality of a blank sheet of paper, thus making the viewer not care what happens to him. While the female leads do provide some personality to the show, the male lead does enough damage to make this a snorefest. That doesn’t mean it’s a horrible show though, as the fast paced development of the relationships between the male lead and the female leads does create some drama. Bottom line: If the show does not make become interesting later on, I’m probably going to drop this soon.
