My Top Anime for 2010

2010 will be over in a few days, so it’s time for that year-end exercise:  the year-end rankings of the shows that I watched.   I’m quite early from my usual schedule.  Whew!  Now what else to do on New Year’s Eve?  😀

[Lists 2010] All-time Faves and Rankings: Yuri and Shoujo Ai

This is what I have been referring to in my New Year post.  I will rank the shows I’ve watched for each genre/grouping.  I am not yet sure about the complete list of genres/groupings that I will tackle, because I doubt if there is enough material for most of them.  But the major ones are slice of life, comedy, shounen, and of course, mecha.  But today I will tackle yuri/shoujo-ai.  (Warning:  There might be some spoilers, but just a few.)

My Top Anime for 2009

I said I would not do this list.  However, I made an about-face (for reasons I cannot say).  Unlike last year, my room is not such a mess today.  The weather’s still fine though.

Another thing for this year, I’ll be including shows that I haven’t finished yet but where I’m halfway through (or are ongoing shows).  The shows are Aoi Bungaku, Bakemonogatari, Cross Game, Kimi ni Todoke, Sasameki Koto.  I cannot include Kara no Kyoukai because I’m only into ep 2 and the show is still an unknown for me.  Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood doesn’t count also because I stopped watching and am saving everything for a later date.  Fairy Tail is probably gonna go on forever, and I’m still undecided on it overall.

Anime Progress Report: Blues and Strawberries Edition

Yep, finally got the urge write a progress report again.  And spoiler warnings for Aoi Bungaku.

Aoi Bungaku 01-04 / No Longer Human

I really don’t like Yozo, how weak he was, and how unfortunate that he couldn’t help even his wife who was being abused.  His friend, Horiki, was also despicable–taking advantage of Yozo, also not helping Yozo’s wife.  I cannot understand, despite being men, how they could be so spineless.  Come to think of it, most men in this story are a-holes.  The only thing that I was wondering was, could Yozo have been saved?  At that time period, it must have been hard to get real treatment for him.

Also, that part where Osamu Dazai’s life was explained really helped a lot.  I was wondering, why write such a depressing story?  Then because of that explanation I was like, ok, so that’s why.

Anyway, since I didn’t like this tragic story (what happened to Yozo’s wife was really, really bad), I banished the thought of reading the original work.  I saw a copy in one bookstore, but the fact that it was expensive prevented me from buying it.

On the other hand, according to Wikipedia, a movie is being made which stars Ikuta Toma!  Because I liked Ikuta Toma in HanaKimi, I’m very interested in watching how he performs in this one.  He’s got good looks, but can he act Yozo’s part convincingly?  We’ll see.

And so it’s time for the 2009 summer anime…

And as usual, doesn’t look like there’s a lot of promising shows.

I’m checking out only the following shows:

• Aoi Hana – Hmm, shoujo-ai?  But it’s directed by Kenichi Kasai, and I enjoyed even KimiKiss.  So will watch.

• Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 – Bones.  Gave us Bounen no Xamdou.  Ouran.  Etc.  Will watch.

• Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou – It’s comedy, and it’s been some time since I’ve seen some (Hayate 2 just disappointed me).

• Canaan – The only anime in my list with some fighting action in this line.  (It’s safe to assume there’s probably gonna be lots of action, right?)

• Taishou Yakyuu Musume – I think I’ve had an overdose of baseball, but if I get bored with Major S2 I’ll probably turn to this.

As usual, my source is hashihime.