Best Anime of 2011?

My list of the best anime of 2011





Best 10:





Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – This show is to Mahou Shojou
what Evangelion was to Mecha. The
darkness was manifest, but wonderfully balanced. Heavy, but with a balanced and satisfied ending, this show is
unequivocally best of the year.





Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam – Still ongoing, but so far it is
a worthy successor to the original Gonzo/Range Murata masterpiece. Beautiful design and an amazing world.





Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail – Black Lagoon as it was
intended, unyoked from TV censors.
Brutal violence and blood, but violence that is integral to the
story. The characters were 3
dimensional and engaging.





Nichijou – The funniest show of the year. The surrealism of making the abnormal normal
works well and is hard to find now a-days, but Nichijou does it and does it
well. It is a great balance of humor
and the warm-fuzzies.





Usagi Drop – The quite tone helps present a difficult and
serious topic that will give you the warm fuzzies on the inside and put a smile
on your face. Daikichi is also a
paragon of true manliness.





Tiger and Bunny – A western-style superhero show in my
anime? It works well. It may have its silly moments, but the
crossover appeal is great.





Working’!! – A wonderfrul character driven show with quirky
and weird characters that isn’t so over the top that you loose all suspension
of disbelief. Some of the most
memorable characters this year.





Mirai Nikki – Insanity and violence with a suspenseful
story. Another show that hasn’t
finished yet, but one that makes you want to watch to the very end.





Shinryaku!? Ika Musume – A relaxing and silly show that
never fails to amuse. It’s on the top
ten in large part to the mini-Ika-tan segments that will make you “d’awww.”





Morita-san wa Mukuchi – Short episodes that are light and
amusing. Doesn’t wear out its welcome





Honorable mentions:





Fractale – Good premise and potential for world building
that could have done better with a more fleshed out and extended story.



Is this a Zomibe? & C^3 Cube x Cursed x Curious – Both
these shows were great when during the scenes of ultra-violence, but otherwise
were “Meh.”





Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu – Perverted humor done strait that
works





Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko – A lot of shows with crazies
this year. This one felt a bit more
heart-felt then others





Maria Holic Alive – Same good old SHAFT insanity and
lesbianic shenanigans.







A Channel – Another “cute girls doing cute things” that
manages to hold its own




Hen Zemi – Not as good as the OVAs, the pervertedness is
nonetheless funny at times.



Hanasaku Iroha – A decent slice of life show. I don’t usually go for shows like this, but
I enjoyed it nonetheless.





Ikoku Meiro no Croisee – Cuteness full of “d’awww”

Kamisama Dolls – The backstory could have been better, but
the fighting was great

Yuru Yuri – “Cute girls doing cute things” (like lesbianic
fantasies) made the show entertaining.





Ben-To – Silly premise that worked.
Hidamari Sketch x SP – Shinbo + SHAFT + Slice of Life
goodness.

Boku wa Tomadachi ga Sukunai -- What saved this show from the dregs of "yet another harem anime" were the characters having real problems and serious flaws, though that still makes them better then all the harem anime girls that blindly try to [censored] the milquetoast lead...

Magi Madoka also gets my vote.

[SPOILER ALERT]

Already thinking of Witches for other anime characters.

No mention of Mawaru Penguindrum? For shame.

Madoka (if it can be called 2011, it certainly aired almost entirely in 2011, but considered part of the winter 2010 season) and Penguindrum are probably tied for first in my book.

Personally, I thought 2011 didn't have quite as many hits as years past, but nonetheless, here are some favorites:

Madoka:
As far as the Eva comparison, I am not that much of a fan of Eva, but I loved Madoka. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that hooked me on the series, but the sheer epicness that is Akemi Homura definitely was a part of it. Also, I have something of a weakness for characters with a tragic backstory, especially if they overcome it in the end (Asagami Fujino of Kara No Kyoukai is another example of this). Although the fact that Kyubey is still alive at the end of the series is something of a loose end in my opinion. The little bastard has it coming, they finally came up with an anime character more hate-able than GsG's own Jean Croche or Makoto Itou of School Days.

Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail:
Keeps up with the standards of the original series with intense action sequences and well developed story and characters. My only complaint would it is only a three episode OVA. They should have made a third season.


Mirai Nikki:
So far, the series is looking pretty good. Definitely has a similar feel to Higurashi, while Minene reminds me of Revy and Roberta of Black Lagoon. While I won't say it surpasses Higurashi and Black Lagoon, I will say it is a very good series.

I had 12 shows with an A or A- grade for 2011, so that would be my "Best of".

(In Alphabetical Order)

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutach wa Mada Shiranai
Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
Hanasaku Iroha
Ikoku Meiro no Croisee
Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season
Nichijou
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Squid Girl: Season 2
UN-GO
Usagi Drop
Wandering Son
X-Men

For 2011

I'll say X-Men and Usagi Drop. Gundam Unicorn's offerings this year was also solid stuff.

Madoka I find to be incredibly overrated and I failed to see what made it so great with fans. Such a chore watching it. The only saving grace of this anime was the soundtrack was done by Yuki Kajiura.

Nuke is Good wrote:Madoka I find to be incredibly overrated and I failed to see what made it so great with fans. Such a chore watching it. The only saving grace of this anime was the soundtrack was done by Yuki Kajiura.

The last set of episodes made the show, for me.

Entropy wrote:No mention of Mawaru Penguindrum? For shame.

I just burned through the last 10 episodes and I really have no clue what the heck was going on.

I give it kudos for the scope of the story, but it's a "one and done" when it comes to watching it for me.

Nuke is Good wrote:Madoka I find to be incredibly overrated and I failed to see what made it so great with fans. Such a chore watching it. The only saving grace of this anime was the soundtrack was done by Yuki Kajiura.

Agree on Madoka being a chore to watch, at least after the first few episodes. It probably didn't help that it invited comparisons to Mai-HiME, which is one of my all time favorite anime series. It reminds me of the final third of HiME without the lighter hearted first two thirds to develop the characters and make me care about them.

As for top picks for the year... well, I'd like to rate Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing highly but while I was initially quite impressed a rewatch of the original (in addition to reading the interquel manga that features the original anime's cast) made its flaws rather apparent as it continued on. I still really enjoyed the show and recent developments give me hope that it will be getting very good, but the parts that aired last year don't really feel like they justify my designating it show of the year.

So TV series wise I think I'm going to go with two shows that really left an impression on me: Ben-to and Infinite Stratos. Yeah, they're comedies with a fair bit of fan service (Infinite Stratos is an outright harem series) but they left a strong impression when I have trouble even recalling some of what aired this year. Besides, Charlotte Dunois is awesome.

(I should throw in a caveat here -my tastes for "show of the year" and "all time favorite series" tend to differ quite considerably. The latter tend to be more dramatic shows that have grown on me over time, they often don't become a top favorite until quite some time after they aired. My show of the year picks by contrast tend to go to a comedy series or two that stood out from among the crowd.)

OVA wise Gundam Unicorn is awesome.

Movie wise we had a pretty spectacular feat of animation in Redline, which not only looked awesome but was rather fun as well even if it's not the kind of thing that I think will make it onto my top favorites list. There's also Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa, which did an excellent job of completing the movie version of the franchise. I'm really attached to the TV version of Frontier and at present that remains my favorite version, but the movie version is in many ways superior.

Here's another question -what do you people think is the best anime to get a North American release in 2011?

My pick of the ones I'm aware of would be Ga-Rei Zero. It's one of my all time favorite series. Carl Kimlinger's review on ANN does a great job of explaining what makes this little gem of a series so great (although I think the overall letter grade he assigns is a little low): http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/ga-rei-zero/dvd/blu-ray-complete-series-limited-edition

Y'all crazy, yo. I can barely get through two or three anime series a year.


My vote for best anime of the year goes to Gundam Unicorn.

Summer Wars, which I believe was released in North America in 2011. I can't be sure, since the Internet is closed today in protest of SOPA.

Kisk I agree that sumer wars was an awsome movie but I think it was released in the fall of 2010.