Your Spring '12 Anime Survivor Champion!

This is no secret, so I'll just come out and say it. Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon) was the real winner to this season's introductory Anime Survivor. I purposely left it out of the equation, because I felt the variable was too obvious. Judging by the first episode and its staff, it was going to be the last show standing, not matter how good or bad Spring 2012 turned out to be.

However, I was also quite skeptical about the rest of the lineup. Would we all still have our faces buried in Bodacious Space Pirates, Fate/Zero and Phi Brain? Would we all be bitter about the dormant Winter 2012 performance?

Suffice to say, this season failed to disappoint me, and that in itself was a bit of a beautiful disappointment.

Now that the season's over, it's time to see what made Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine so damned good.

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Anime Survivor: Spring '12 - Second Place!

It feels almost inevitable that the final act during this Anime Survivor experiment would be between two shows that know how to use a squirt gun.

The tale of the tape in this last showdown couldn't be any more lopsided. Tsuritama is vibrant in both atmosphere and appearance, its characters rarely frowning, even in defeat or the midst of an oncoming natural disaster. Meanwhile, the Fujiko Mine animation is almost too dark for its traditionally-comedic roots, the improbable stunts by the Lupin the Third cast marred by Fujiko's tormented beginnings.

It's interesting that the squirt gun itself in one show is a portal displaying the other show's general vibe. An unexpected comedy relief in The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, yet an actual device that could be dangerous in the wrong hands in Tsuritama, the water pistol is pretty much the central device in this spring. It seems we'd need something to cool down an anime season that's been hotter than most in recent memory.

Enough of the chit-chat. That makes the announcement anticlimactic. The fifteenth show to be eliminated from Anime Survivor and this season's runner-up is...

(And yes, there are some spoilers ahead...)

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Time out! Time out.

You know, playing soccer without stretching isn't a great idea.

I missed out on posting the Anime Survivor finals this weekend, but not a problem! With a major holiday this week, we can end it with a bang! (We really can—it's "buy one, get five free" at the fireworks marketplaces set up every two-tenths of a mile.)

Also, there are plans in motion to give AniMaybe a major face-lift. We're looking to change the overall design, as well as the name. If you have any good ideas (other than "Geoff's House of Suck-tastic Cardfight! Vanguard Reviews") for names, we're all ears!

And all knees, too. Man, those shiners are going to look bad tomorrow.