The Anime Review of the Year 2008 Part 1
Wednesday, 24th December 2008, 15:53

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Villain of the Year

I can tell you right now that there isn’t going to be a hero of the year, they are just too dull. But villains who can creep me out, who can chew the scenery, who can send chills down the spine, or can just make laugh, are all not to be sniffed at. You certainly wouldn’t sniff at the Valentine Brothers, Luke and Jan, who would probably rip your head off and spit down your neck for your trouble. The two vampires thought they could match up to Alucard in Hellsing Ultimate, and Luke wanted to be so much like his nemesis that he even adopted the same haircut. Meanwhile Jan pimped and hip-hopped his way through the bloodbath. They may have met grisly ends, but they sure entertained us on the way. Black Lagoon is a series replete with villains, even the protagonists are villains, so it takes a special sort of assassin to make a permanent impact. This show had two, twins to be precise, Romanian twin children who bathed in the blood of their victims, tormented their targets and who would creep out Hannibal Lecter with their incestuous murderous antics. Basilisk had the worst kind of villain, the one that just doesn’t stay dead no matter how many times you kill him. Tenzen of the Iga would do whatever it took to dominate Oboro and twist her will, going as far as raping her if necessary. And they were on the same side. Then there is Light Yagami, who once he got the Death Note, figured it would be a nice idea to be a God. He’s the sort of villain you like, the sort that you agree with, the sort you actually support, until he crosses that certain line.

The winner is…

Papillon. Buso Renkin’s arch nemesis is the most memorable villain of them all, because no one else was evil enough to wear this…

Prettiest Anime of the Year

It’s only fair that I extol the virtues of pretty anime after I pointed out the ugly side, and there have been some dreamy animations this year. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an absolutely beautiful piece that shows the best of traditional 2D animation, while 3D CG fans are catered for by the amazing techno tour-de-force that is Vexille. I have never seen as warm and lush a series as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, while for sheer ethereal beauty you’d be hard pressed to better Mushi-shi.

The winner is…

Time Of Eve. It’s a made for Internet anime, depressingly short at 15 minutes an episode, only six episodes at that, and released achingly slowly at an episode every three months or so. But there is a reason for this slow pace, as the care and attention that goes into each episode is astounding. The character designs are excellent, the world design is lush, intricate and rich beyond belief, and each episode is an exquisite package of perfection. It is the prettiest anime on the Internet.


Mindtrip of the Year

Animation is a diverse medium, one in which the animators’ imaginations can be allowed to run riot. It makes for some entertaining anime to be sure, but it also means that some shows head off in directions that require the use of certain chemical enhancements to fully appreciate. Fortunately there weren’t so many anime this year as to cause an overdose, but there were enough to justify inventing an award. Class A anime this year included Berserk, a historical mediaeval action series, full of character development and politicking that in its final arc descended into the lower rings of hell. All of a sudden, the wimples and armour, the jousting and the lute music were replaced by a blood red landscape of faces, an army of demons, and a whole sackful of WTF! In a good way. Then there is FLCL, or Fooly-Cooly, or Furi-Kuri. When your series begins with an alien girl on a Vespa clouting the protagonist over the head with a bass guitar, leading his brain to be replaced by a dimensional gateway from which emerge all manner of odd robots, you know you’re not in Kansas anymore.

The winner is…

The Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie. Picture the scene. You’ve been hard at work creating an anime series about a girl who goes to a boarding school, pretending to be a boy, who then winds up fighting duels for the hand of the school princess. You’ve just made almost 40 episodes of this series, and it’s really quite popular. Suddenly you get a budget and are told to make a movie of the show. Do you edit the best bits of the series down into the movie, do you create a new animation from scratch that tells the same story, or do you carry on from where the series ends, making a movie that only fans would appreciate? Director Kunihiko Ikuhara did something different, he tore up what had been done before, and started from scratch, putting the characters into an alternate universe, one in which the laws of physics just don’t work, and telling the whole story as metaphor. I watched it twice in a row, and I still only have the barest grasp of what’s going on.



Worst Anime of the Year

This year, I realised I missed the whole boat on the Lupin III thing when I got to watch my second Lupin movie, The Secret of Mamo (The Castle Of Cagliostro doesn’t count as Miyazaki directed that, and he is a genius). No genius directed The Secret of Mamo and it tells, with a dated and tiresome film that I found utterly charmless and unsatisfying. I’m not going to be popular among Lupin fans… Or Gravitation fans for that matter, as it’s not a good start to have as your protagonist a character that the audience wants to kill, then resurrect only to kill again. These two titles saved Gonzo from taking a clean sweep, although I only count Burst Angel: Infinity on value for money grounds. The same can’t be said for Black Cat, which was a narrative mess, overloaded with forgettable characters, while Trinity Blood was all this, with the added deficit of the worst ending in anime history. (Before you ask, yes, I have managed to erase Voltron from my brain).

The loser is…

Blassreiter. I now understand why some anime is given away free on the Internet. I tuned in weekly for this drek like a well programmed drone, and watched from beginning to end everything I hate about Gonzo, a tired post-apocalyptic future setting, a load of conspiracy theories, awful storytelling, miserable characterisations, and a sense of self-importance that is laughable given how tired, worn out, and re-used the formula actually is… with zombies.



All votes were cast by me, tallied by me, and the results decided by me. The judges’ decision is final. I am the judges. All proceeds of the phone vote go to my wallet. There were no proceeds of the phone vote. Coming soon, my top ten of the year.


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Posted by Jitendar Canth