Best Anime Series of 2002 – All About Haibane Renmei & Azumanga Daioh
Posted: November 24, 2013 Filed under: Anime, Series, Top Ranking | Tags: Anime, Anime of 2002, Anime series, Azumanga Daioh, Best anime series, Haibane Renmei, Japanese animation, Top 10 6 Comments
I’m really interested to look at 2002 because the year contains one of my favourite series (Azumanga Daioh) and the series that came out on top on the decade list I made (Haibane Renmei). I want to know how they actually rank against other series and am rooting that they do well! Below are a list of the top 10 series from this year based on the various Western source. I have also interested a few interesting findings from this research and an initial comparison with the 2ch list, which produce markedly different results.
Best Anime Series of 2007 – Top Ten Best-Rated
Posted: September 30, 2013 Filed under: Anime, Series, Top Ranking | Tags: Anime, Anime of 2007, Anime series, Azumanga Daioh, Best anime series, Code Geass, Death Note, gurren lagann, Japanese animation, Top 10 6 Comments
After a few posts on AKB48, here it is back on an anime topic. Many people on the netsphere considers 2007 to be one of the best, if not the best years of anime. They certainly contain some of the most well-known animes, both widely and within specific anime community (Death Note, Gurren Lagann, Lucky Star, Nodame Cantabile among them). Therefore, this is the year that I am particularly interested in seeing which anime series comes out on top. Note that similar to other analyses I did recently, I am considering an anime to be of a particular year based on when it finished, thus Code Geass, Death note and Nana (all released in late 2006) are considered as 2007 anime in my book.
Without further ado:
Best Anime Series of 2009 – Meta Ranking & Analysis
Posted: July 5, 2013 Filed under: Anime, Series, Top Ranking | Tags: Anime, Anime of 2009, Anime series, Best anime series, Japanese animation 12 Comments
Now that I have just over a month of free time before I start working again, I finally have some time to write a few more articles for my blog. Since we are still have a year away from a 2013 anime review, I am going back in time and catching up with earlier years, which brings us to 2009. Here are the top ten anime series based on composite scores from different anime websites:
Best Anime Series of 2012 – Meta Analysis From around the Web
Posted: January 20, 2013 Filed under: Anime, Series, Top Ranking | Tags: Anime, Anime of 2012, Anime series, Best anime series, Chihayafuru, Japan, Japanese animation, Top 10, top anime series 5 Comments
Another year, another set of animes to analyze. Similar to previous years, I try to collect as much data from around the web as I can to see what are the best anime series in 2012. Coming into the exercise, I have no idea what good series there are that I should follow so this yearly analysis benefits me as much as anyone else. I hope a few of you also find some use in it too!
Below is the final list of anime based on all the sources (listed in the appendix at the end)
Top Recent Anime Movie Director Comparison
Posted: August 23, 2012 Filed under: Anime, Director, Ghibli, Movies | Tags: Anime, Ghibli, hayao miyazaki, hosoda mamoru, Japanese animation, kon satoshi, mamoru hosoda, Miyazaki, satoshi kon, spirited away, Studio Ghibli 10 Comments
One thing I sometimes wonder is how movies from all the great directors stack up. Over the last decades, the four directors whose films consistently come up on the best of list are Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Hosoda, Satoshi Kon and Makoto Shinkai. I also want to add Mamoru Oshii in to the mix as well. To judge which films are better than others, I look at their rating across the websites listed below. Note that the methodology is similar to the one I used to measure the Ghibli films:
Best Anime Series of 2011
Posted: February 21, 2012 Filed under: Anime, Anime 2011, Series, Top Ranking | Tags: Anime, Anime of 2011, Anime series, ano hana, Best anime series, bunny drop, Chihayafuru, fate/zero, Japan, Japanese animation, madoka, steins gate, Top 10, top anime series, usagi drop 25 Comments
We are now in 2012 and that tells me that it is time to visit all the polls, wrap-ups, ratings of anime in 2011 and see which one is rated above all others in 2011. I still like having a comprehensive ranking that I can personally look to with some confidence for the best animes to watch over the last year (considering I’m so far behind and have not heard of most of the top 10 before I wrote this!). Unlike 2010, there seems to be a consensus that 2011 is a very good year for anime with as many as five titles acclaimed as the best in the last few years. The roster at the top is more loaded with a clear consensus on what the top animes are. I sure cannot wait to watch them alll!
I have now also extended the data research to cover MAL among others, making the list more comprehensive that the 2010 version.
Best Anime Series in 2000s Rank 1-10 Previews
Posted: June 9, 2011 Filed under: Anime, Series, Top Animes of 2000s | Tags: Anime, Anime series, Haibane Renmei, Japanese animation 1 CommentIn the very first post in this blog, I wrote about an analysis of the most highly rated anime of the last decade. However, the post is definitely for serious anime fans only as most people will likely have a hard time recognizing a lot of those titles in the top 10. I would like to use this post as previews of each series in the top 20 and hopefully entice the reader to check them out:)
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1). HAIBANE RENMEI
Number of episodes: 13
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Slice of Life
Follow up?: None
Similar anime titles (if you like this, what else you should check out): Mushi-shi, Kino’s Journey, Someday’s Dreamer
Date shown: 9-October-2002
Studio: Radix
Director: Tokoro Tomakazu
Synopsis: Rakka, a newly born Haibane (Angel), awakens into an unfamiliar world with only a strange dream of falling from the sky as her only memory. Alone and scared of who and what she is, she is cared for by fellow Haibanes as they try and search for the meaning of their existence as well as what lies beyond their town’s imprisoning walls. [ANN]
Pros: Rife with symbolism and metaphors; completely original setting; gripping in its oscurity; rich atmosphere; [Anime Academy] sountrack is very soothing and haunting
Cons: Nothing happens; Pace can be very slow
Excerpts:
- Haibane Renmei started off a bit slow, but it closed off with one of the strongest finales I have ever seen. It has both a very imaginative setting, and truly excels at its character-development. [Star Crossed Anime]
- Haibane Renmei sings of wisdom and beauty too elusive and immense for our comprehension. A truly special place is Haibne Renmei, where we can spend an eternity swimming in a pool of thoughts, or losing ourselves in its rejuvenating warmth. [Guri Guri Blog]
- This anime is, in a nutshell, a philosophical one that concentrates on character development. So expect no high octane, fast and furious action. At thirteen episodes, the focus, plot and pacing is just right. It neither drags nor contain unnecessary fillers or recaps [THEM Anime]
In My Own Words: Story is originally based on a doujinshi produced by Yoshitoshi ABe (Serial Experiment Lain, Niea_7) Series was ranked FIRST 7 times (the highest frequency) and also rank in the TOP FIVE 14 times (also the highest). THis is also the only series on the list for Radix. I also love the soundtrack in this, especially ‘Ailes Grises’
More reviews: Anime Academy (87%);
Source: Wikipedia, Anime News Network
Top Anime Directors in 2000s – Movies / OAVs
Posted: June 8, 2010 Filed under: Anime, Director, Ghibli, Movies, OAV, Top Animes of 2000s | Tags: Anime, Japanese animation 29 CommentsAfter having learnt how to put pictures on the blog and make it look more attractive, I want to present the top movie directors again in a more accessible, non-technical format. I have mentioned most of the top ones to death but it never hurt to actually highlight them out again since they all deserve as much attention as I can give them. For this exercise , I will combine both movies and OAVs together. The next eight directors (with multiple films in the list, ranked in order of how many times their works are being mentioned in all of the lists used to compile the results) are definitely among the best short-format anime directors you will find in 2000s.
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1). Shinkai Makoto
Why he is listed: 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007), The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004), Voices of a Distant Star (2002)
My one-title recommendation (if you want to check one of his works out, I recommend this): Voices of a Distant Star
Other noteworthy works: She and Her Cat (1999)
Affiliated studios (studio that the direct has done the most works with): Comix Wave Inc.
Comment: The way this guy used lighting is as good as it gets. The quality of his animation is always top-notch. He can be quite a one-trick pony with his story-telling but when it’s told this well and look so good, I don’t consider that such a bad thing:) Hailed as ‘the next Miyazaki’ I really hope he can live up to such title for years to come! If anyone has not seen it yet, I would really urge you to check out Voices of the Distant Star for what this guy is capable of. This is the 25 minutes OAV that he, other than music and voice acting, essentially create by himself. It’s so well-done and the animation looks so great that it is pretty unbelievable that this is a one-man effort. Plus, it’s pretty short too so you won’t be wasting too much time if you happen not to like it!
Top Anime Directors in 2000s – Series
Posted: May 24, 2010 Filed under: Anime, Director, Movies, Top Animes of 2000s | Tags: Anime, Japanese animation 17 CommentsThis post is a continuation of the top 100 anime series analysis I posted earlier. This time, I want to look at the directors, who are most responsible for shaping the series to be as good as it is (at least that is my assumption anyway). To tell you the truth, I am as guilty as anyone in not being able to name the directors of a lot of my favourite anime series, so this is a pretty good exercise for me to recount them. Also, I hope you also find it useful as a brief guide of which director has the best track record and that you should probably pay some attention if you come across their names in any future anime. I will be listing the directors who have more than 1 features in my top 100, as that should somewhat suggest a sustained pattern of excellence for these directors, from most number of titles first.
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1). Sato Junichi
Why he is listed: ARIA The Origination, ARIA The Animation, ARIA The Natural, Princess Tutu
Latest Offering: Maria’s Great Sea Story (2009)
Other noteworthy works: He also direct Sailor Moon, Junker Comes Here and Gatekeeper
Comment: He tops the list but 3 of his 5 comes from the ARIA franchise. He also directs ARIA The Arietta (Another OAV from the franchise). The only surprise for me about this guy is he directed Sailor Moon back in the day! He definitely have some longvity over 1990s and now 2000s
Analyzing Anime Movie type from 2000-5
Posted: May 16, 2010 Filed under: All Anime Analysis, Anime, Movies | Tags: Anime, Japanese animation 4 CommentsHaving been able to collect data up to 2005, I got a bit curious about how the segmentation of the movies and how many ‘original’ anime films are actually released in each year, as opposed to ‘sequels’ or ‘franchise’. The root of this comes from the fact that in my top anime of 2000s analysis, there are only 34 films good enough to be listed in the whole decade (3.4 films a year). The number sounds a little on the low side (Only under 4 good anime films released per year?), so I want to substantiate that by looking at all movies being produced during the same period and put this number into a bit more perspective.
When analysising the group type of the films, I have separated them into 3 categories as followed:
a). Original – Films that are not based on any prior anime series or franchise
b). Sequel – Follow-on from anime series or movies
c). Franchise – Part of a franchise of anime or game series. Tend to relate more to more popular series
Blue Sweater Story 
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