Top 25 Opening Themes for Fall 2012

Perhaps it's more due to the expectations I had assigned to the fall season after such a fruitful spring session, but I had high hopes that we'd get some creative approaches to the openers this season. Overall, while I think the music itself has gotten easier on the ear and catchier in the brain, I'm finding myself sighing more after the first ninety seconds of the episode.

I'm uncertain if it is due to the content of the shows. Long-distance hikes such as Space Brothers and Gintama' have resigned themselves to glancing out the window and appreciating the scenery, while shows granted a second season such as Sword Art Online and Medaka Box are sleepwalking, plenty satisfied with their content keeping the viewer's interest. Outside of the eternally-enjoyable Polar Bear Café and the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure remake, all of the shows in the Top 10 are first-time appearances.

The decent shows have managed to make ripples, but I can guarantee you this: the bad shows sank like shrapnel. You won't see To-Love-Ru Darkness and Girls und Panzer in these rankings, but you will see a show I wish we could scrub from the collective fanbase's memory, only for its incredible failure. I'm sure you've already guessed by now.

With that, I give you the hardest rankings I've ever had to sit through—the Top 25 opening themes of Fall 2012.

(Clicking the title of the song will bring you to the YouTube'd OP; clicking the artist will bring you to their PV for the song.)

Read more »

Top 25 Ending Themes for Summer 2012

To tell the truth, part of me didn't want to do these rankings. I honestly never made it as far as the ending theme in some shows (Dakara Boku wa H ga Dekinai, Ebiten), so it's required some forced research. That may be why some shows fell through the cracks this season, but in all honesty I'm rating the OPs higher than the EDs this summer. There was just part of me that appreciated the beginning of some shows instead of their ending.

What did I see a lot of? Scrolling. Miles and miles of top-to-bottom scrolling that probably didn't need to be done. Hey, I suppose it beats "running shots" by a mile, but at least five shows tried that pan.

What didn't I see a lot of? Good endings. Apart from the Top 5, a good season may have left a lot of these endings off the chart. I suppose the producers were as sleepy as we all were this summer.

So let's get on with it already. Here are your Top 25 EDs of Summer 2012. Cuddle up to them and get some good Z's.

Read more »

Selling the Sizzle: The Summer Anime Season in Logos

Call me a sucker for commercialism, but a well-crafted logo sometimes is enough to draw me into purchasing a mindless product. You could throw all the testimonials and infomercials at my proverbial wall and hope that something sticks, but more often than not, the five-year-old in me will opt for the colorful mascots and neon signs. I'm the type who can't really enjoy the wooden nature of Wheel of Fortune or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, but Press Your Luck is a different animal altogether.

I found myself applying this to Summer 2012's selection of anime. Amongst those that qualify as "mindless drivel", I found myself disliking three shows to the point of not bothering to care how they end (Campione!, Love and Election and Chocolate, Ebiten). All are chock-full of mindless plot lines and unnecessary sexual escapades, but I found myself ranking them in a manner that correlated to how bad their logo was.

Love and Election and Chocolate (Koi to Senkyo to Chokoreeto) wasn't as bad as the first episode suggested, but it was still bad. Like its logo, a melted and messy confection, the show was good in construction, but bad in organization. Perhaps it was too complex for such a simple design?

Campione!, like its own logo, was incredibly difficult to view. If there is symbolism surrounding its "Pick-Up-Stix" design, I certainly can't see it. I mean, considering the show started in Italy, I haven't the foggiest idea why the exclamation point is stuck with a rose bloom. It's like the staff assumed France and Italy were the same country.

This brings us to Ebiten, a show so horribly disfigured by multiple personalities that it can't decide on an anime logo. I'd show you what they look like, but I don't want to be reminded that there's a train wreck like Ebiten out there. I'd be doing a disservice if I even showed the logos to people. (Out of mind, out of sight.) The manga's logo is relatively better, but a logo written solely in Sans Serif would look better.

So that got us thinking—which anime shows from this season have the best logos?

Read more »

Top 25 Ending Themes of Spring 2012

It took me a few minutes to get myself together for the 25 Best Endings to Spring 2012's anime season. By the time I was done a few hours later, I liked only one of the positions, and that was naturally the top spot.

So to hell with keeping it a secret until the end—I loved the music in Kids on the Slope, and its ending was naturally the best and only one I wouldn't change. Hell, I may end up building my own soundtrack from the jazz greats that appeared in the show.

I will say one thing about the endings this season—I was severely disappointed. In a way, I put a positive spin on that statement, as there was so much that was good about Spring 2012 that there was very little to find flawed in general. Therefore, by default, the endings get my scorn, as I really only liked about ten of them.

So perhaps we should guess to see which one I didn't like at all? Come on. Guess. Betcha you get it right.

Read more »

Best Opening Themes of Summer 2011

It's me! Whatever you do, stay away from R-15 and Mayo Chiki!

Somehow I must have sent a D-mail to myself from the future. I have the faintest feeling that I had warned myself not to watch much anime this season, and running the first three episodes of each anime over and over again in my mind pretty much confirms what I've thought.

There really wasn't anything in anime this season that was new enough to drag my attention away from the Spring 2011 shows that I've continued to follow. Likely it had to do with the waving flag of surrender constructed out of recycled anthology pages—eight shows from Shônen Jump ran on Crunchyroll, Funimation and Viz Media—but it probably has a lot to do with the deluge of average shows. Still plenty of beach episodes on shows that could have been mistaken for other shows. (Was I watching A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives or Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? I can't remember.)

I did manage to stay awake enough to pay attention to the songs in the beginning and end. At least, I hope I did. Many of them, much like the shows themselves, failed to impress.

Read more »

Your Investment Portfolio: Spring 2011 Goldmines

If anime shows could smoke, these would be kickin' with Cubans.

(Astarotte's Toy, you'll find yours next to the Doublemint gum.)

Let's cut to the chase. It's a hard-knock life for anime shows. Unless you have a huge cult following like the powerhouse Shônen Jump machines or the untouchable Doraemon / Chibi-Maruko-chan / Crayon Shin-chan slice-of-life shows, you have the shelf life of a can of beer. It can last a few months with refrigeration and careful storage, but it will eventually skunk.

That's not to say that some shows can be the best of the skunky beers. Of the 30+ shows we reviewed this season, five clearly came out of the vat with the cleanest taste and thickest foam, rich enough to be bottled as a premium lager. After watching these shows, I felt satisfied from those that came to an end and thirsty for more from those that have not.

Get out your glasses, folks—these are your King of Beers*.

(*All apologies to Budweiser, but your beer sucks.)

Part 1: Spring's biggest gainers!

Part 2: Spring's biggest losers!

Part 3: Spring's incomplete deals!

Part 4: Spring's bankruptcies!

Part 5: Spring's best investments!

Read more »

Winter 2011: The Awards

The winter anime season for 2011 is just about over, and as expected there really wasn't that much to be thrilled over, in terms of successes. There wasn't much in terms of hype, as a lot of the big titles had been saved for the Spring season, but there were a few gems in the rough. The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan really did make this season an afterthought, especially with the lack of closure on what was considered one of the best shows of the year, so perhaps we shouldn't be all that picky.

In addition, the departure of winter also signals the departure for Bradley, as he will be leaving the pages of AniMaybe for now. The contributions from him in the forms of reviews of Beelzebub and Star Driver (as well as the late-night tweets) are immeasurable, and I hope that the endeavors for which he leaves are constructive and beneficial. Saraba, Bradley.

Here are our choices for the Bests and Worsts of Winter 2011:

Best In Show (single-season)/ Best Overall

Geoff's Choice: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

To be honest, the past few weeks have made me skeptical of this choice for the best single-season anime show for Winter 2011. As you may know, Madoka Magica's broadcast is currently being delayed as a result of the tragedies over in Japan, likely as a precaution due to its subject matter. I still have my suspects that the show hit a little too close to home, as the apocalyptic imagery in the series did involve "flood damage".

While there could be more development to the characters—Madoka's wishy-washy nature makes Usagi from Sailor Moon look like Sir William Wallace—the rest of the show has been nothing short of outstanding. SHAFT has once again gone for broke with enthusiastic approaches towards animation, some of the scenes bordering on modern art. The twists and turns in the plot were so shocking to behold that I found myself wondering just how the show could end without some miraculous happy ending.

However, the one thing that makes the show animation gold? Kyubey. Never before has there been a magical-girl mascot that is so innocently dastard in its machinations, and I don't recall ever seeing a frothing contingent of fans that have wanted one to die this badly before. Yeah, the likes of Luna, Yûno (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha) and Kero may not have had a raging fan base in the past, but to have thousands of fans take their anger and frustrations about Kyubey to Twitter and express it so openly is a wonder to behold. It's hard to imagine what fate the critter has in store for him.

Bradley's Choice: Level E

Honorable Mention: Wandering Son

Worst In Show (single-season)

Geoff's Choice: Freezing

While Onii-chan no Koto was high on my "AUGH!" list, Freezing really takes a significant step back in the way females are portrayed in anime. Much like To Love-Ru before it, the show is heavy on the "Panty Blocking Ray" censor smudge, mostly due to the unnecessary skirt flips and shredded clothing during battles. Main characters Kazuya and Satellizer are stereotypes in anime, with Kazuya being the "magical average-boy" patrolling his tall, big-breasted meganekko. The nudity is humiliatingly egregious, and the fact that the partnership between the male Limiters and female Pandora warriors forces the females to take the brunt of the violence just shows disrespect towards women.

Yes, despite the differences in culture one may cite between Japan and the U.S., I dare play the "sexism" card here.

Bradley's Choice: Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janai'n Dakara Ne!

(Dis)honorable Mention: Infinite Stratos

Best In Show (multi-season)

Geoff's Choice: Star Driver

Really, everything I spoke about Star Driver last season still applies to the series here. There is a distinct separation between the show's comedic moments and serious drama, and the production crew has done an admirable job at sticking to the patterns that work. I absolutely loved the twist from the story that involved the twins Mizuno and Marino. Granted, the relationship between our two main male protagonists, Takuto and Sugata, already had a tension to it that felt like it was ripped from CLAMP's X series, but it was pretty inevitable. While I haven't finished the series as of yet, it's an enjoyable romp and, like Madoka Magica, should be viewed as a complete show. Here's to hoping that it gets licensed for the U.S.

Bradley's Choice: Star Driver

Honorable Mention: Mitsudomoe

Worst In Show (multi-season)

Geoff's Choice: Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector (GT)

It's disheartening that I must choose SRWOG: The Inspector as the "worst" continuing show of the season, as there's likely no significant reason to do so, but the show did have its difficult points. There were displays of mecha that didn't really impress me like they did in Star Driver, and any impressive moments just seemed to be nullified by the use of a complicated plot. There were too many characters for me to really concentrate on, and it didn't help that Obari's directorial presence made it feel like I was watching Gowcaizer. I really did want to get into this show, but sadly the show made me want to watch other mecha shows instead of those from the SRW franchise.

Bradley's Choice: N/A

(Dis)honorable Mention: Kimi ni Todoke, 2nd Season

Most Potential (continuing series)

Geoff's Choice: GOSICK

There are not many new shows that are being stretched to a second season this winter, so GOSICK pretty much wins by default. I still do like the Holmes/Watson dynamic between the diminutive Victorique and her partner Kazuya (no relation to the one in Freezing, thankfully), and the appearance of new characters in each episodical arc gives the show a refreshing reset that we get from detective shows like Meitantei Conan. We do get some carry-over between cases, so there's also this feeling the show will stay in one piece throughout its two-season presentation.

There may be a little hesitance to proclaim GOSICK as having "potential" from the show's use of lengthy explanations and not enough drama from battles, but that's usually the case when it comes to detective shows. I'm hoping that we get a solid presentation and a formidable villain that we have yet to see in the cases of some of the other shows from this season. GOSICK will likely be bombarded by the presence of other shows in the spring, but here's to hoping it shines through.

Bradley's Choice: Beelzebub

Honorable Mention: Rio: Rainbow Gate! (if the 'cliffhanger' counts for anything)

Least Potential (continuing series)

Geoff's Choice: Cardfight! Vanguard

(Yes, the image isn't of the actual series, but it's a much more entertaining card fight...)

Does this show have potential? As an anime, it likely is through with its season, as another incarnation of Yu-Gi-Oh! hits the store shelves and television waves soon, but as a card game, I can't imagine Cardfight! Vanguard surfacing as a commercial success. The gameplay is confusing enough as it is, and there's just not enough distinction to keep it separate from Yu-Gi-Oh!'s stranglehold on the card-game industry. If the show was created as a spinoff, it might get sprinkled with some of the pixie-dust from Yu-Gi-Oh!, but as its own entity Cardfight! is merely a paper cut.

Bradley's Choice: GOSICK

(Dis)honorable Mention: N/A

Biggest Surprise

Geoff's Choice: Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?

While Rio: Rainbow Gate! did surprise me by how mindlessly fun it was, KoreZom was the biggest surprise for me, since it was a harem show that didn't overload on harem devices. The main character Ayumu actually had more brains in his head than most male leads in harem animes, and he was a zombie! While the show didn't particularly end the way I had hoped it would end, I was glad to finally see a main character with a spine.

It's also funny that I was able to enjoy the supporting characters, even if they picked on Ayumu like he was some sort of carcass to vultures. None of them appeared to sincerely interfere with Ayumu's appreciation for the necromancer Eu's company, and it provided a unique dichotomy between characters—we didn't have to hear complaints between the two like many relationships these days. Luckily, the tsundere character (Haruna) was not too meddlesome. While the show ended with a shrug, I was happy to have it do the best of all the harem shows this season.

Bradley's Choice: Rio: Rainbow Gate!

Honorable Mention: Dream Eater Merry

Biggest Disappointment

Geoff's Choice: Dragon Crisis!

I honestly wasn't looking for shows like Dragon Crisis! to save the season, but I certainly saw it as a possible selection for a show that could bring a good story and let the other shows drag the season down. I had my hopes raised quite a bit by the voice actors provided for the main protagonists and their enemy, but I can't say that the show allowed them to shine. The pattern of introducing sub-characters in two-episode arcs was too simple to predict, and they weren't vivid enough to make for an exciting climax.

Come to think of it, I can't really put a finger on why I let the acting alone determine this show to be better than advertised. Rose (Rie Kugimiya) wasn't all that exceptional as a character (read: with the tsun extracted), and Ryûji (Hiro Shimono) turned out to be a serious wimp. Team that all up with a third wheel (Eriko) and what had to be the worst ending theme and animation I had ever seen, and you have hot garbage.

Bradley's Choice: Fractale

(Dis)honorable Mention: Haiyoru! Nyaru-Ani; Starry Sky