Monday, January 3, 2011

Introducing AniMaybe's first contributor!

Happy 2011 to all of you loyal readers out there in the Internets! Yes, we may not have been able to escape from those ridiculous oversized novelty glasses (Seriously, there's one zero! Opt for the monocle instead!), but we can at least look to improve ourselves past last year.

We here at AniMaybe see our own opportunity to improve things. A new year, a new resolution, and a big announcement so big that it requires a generic YouTube drum roll!


(We spare no expenses here at AniMaybe.)

First of all, our New Year's resolution? Well, for me, that would be to stop talking in the corporate "we" when I type here. Seriously, I shouldn't be this schizophrenic when it comes to typing my mind. From now on, you're getting the first-person singular efforts from myself.

This resolution has a lot to do with the big blog announcement—AniMaybe now has a population of two! Introducing the first major contributor to AniMaybe's blogroll—Bradley C. Meek! You may have seen some of Bradley's work on the T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews website, as well as his "Snap Judgment" coverage of anime seasons at Anime 3000. A little introduction from the young squire himself would be appropriate, so take it away, Bradley!

When Bradley Meek was a small child, his life was saved from certain death by an anime blogger. Now as we all know, this isn’t something anime reviewers do often, since most of them are self-absorbed pricks, but this was a very special anime blogger. He was the mysterious King of the Anime Bloggers, that legendary writer who has forgotten more about Japanese animation than anyone could hope to remember, and prolifically wrote with wit and passion about his favorite hobby . But after a strange series of circumstances, he disappeared, leaving his crown up for grabs. Thus dawned The Great Age of Anime Bloggers, when every acne-riddled nerd with even a small shred of knowledge about these mysterious Japanese cartoons took a laptop into their sweaty hands and posted powerful screeds on their LiveJournal accounts. Inspired by his childhood hero, Bradley became one of these nerds. He quickly set himself apart from the others, for he had two special powers: a passionate love for anime and animation in general, and a legendary ability to bluff that made people think he actually knew what he was talking about.

Burning with manly spirit, he set off on a quest to join that legendary group of writers, the Habanaraburna’bumkiss, which roughly translates as, “They Who Actually Get Paid Do This Crap.” When he isn’t busy saving distraught princesses and defeating villains in excruciatingly long story arcs, he might be doing such heroic things as getting his degree in Computer Science, playing PC games, listening to classical music and watching kung fu flicks. His goal is to be a prolific, knowledgeable, passionate and articulate blogger about anime, and he hopes that by joining AniMaybe will make the online conversation about anime richer, wittier, and more introspective.

Thanks, Bradley! I'm not entirely sure if joining AniMaybe would help you save the kingdom—I'm still being told on each of my own quests that the princess is in another castle. Damn you, Toadstool!—but I'm sure your addition will bring a different and fresh perspective on the anime industry and its constant supply of moe. Thank you for volunteering your services, and yoroshiku!

Be sure to follow us both on Twitter for our opinions (you can follow myself at @GTebbetts and Bradley at @BradleyCMeek) and keep your eyes peeled for reviews this Winter anime season. Now that you all have a second blogger here from which you can get opinions, the two of us will do our best to give you more feedback and updates about the upcoming shows. If we don't, you certainly can't blame it on our lack of a staff.

(See, now I really CAN get away with using the corporate "we"!)

Saturday, January 1, 2011

2010: Yes or No...or VERY NOOOOO!


You know, there are just way too many shows in 2010 to cover. By Wikipedia's count, they have 109 shows listed, while The Cart Driver has it at an unofficial 110. That's probably not including all of the long-running shows (Happy 300th, Bleach! - Ed.) and the very long-running shows (Happy 2190th, Doraemon! - Ed.), but we started a little late this year. We're guessing we caught at least an episode of 67 series this year.

How many would we watch again?

Instead of giving the "Best and Worst of 2010"—we'll make it quick and tell you that Shiki, Durarara!!, and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt were our Top 3, with Yosuga no Sora, Motto To Love-Ru, and kissxsis bringing up the rear—we're flipping a coin here and giving you the thumbs up and thumbs down for the shows we caught a glimpse of this year. You could probably call it our "Siskel & Ebert" coverage of 2010

Actually, make that "Siskel, Ebert & Pedro from Excel Saga". Some shows were just plain horrible.

Winter 2010
Chu-Bra!! - Yes
So Ra No Wo To - Yes
Ladies vs. Butlers! - No
Omamori Himari - VERY NOOOOO!
Baka to Test to Shôkanjû - No
Hidamari Sketch Mittsuhoshi - Yes
Qwaser of Stigmata - VERY NOOOOO!
Hanamaru Kindergarten - Yes

Spring 2010
Heroman - Yes
Ketsuinu - VERY NOOOOO!
Big Swing! - No
Working! - Yes
Hakuôki - No
Senkô no Night Raid - No
Mayoi Neko Overrun! - VERY NOOOOO!
Rainbow - Yes
K-ON!! - Yes
Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru - No
The Tatami Galaxy - Yes
kissxsis - VERY NOOOOO!

Summer 2010
Amagami SS - No
Sekirei Pure Engagement - VERY NOOOOO!
Strike Witches 2 - VERY NOOOOO!
Shiki - Yes
Asobi ni Ikuyo! - VERY NOOOOO!

Fall 2010
Iron Man - No
MM! - No
Tegami Bachi REVERSE - Yes
Hakuôki Hekketsuroku - No
Bakuman - No
Oreimo - Yes
Arakawa Under the Bridge*2 - Yes
Star Driver - Yes
Psychic Detective Yakumo - No
Yosuga no Sora - VERY NOOOOO!
Motto To Love-Ru - VERY NOOOOO!
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru - No
Togainu no Chi - VERY NOOOOO!
Toaru Majutsu no Index II - No
Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector - No

Doing the math, that comes out to a total of 32 shows that we would watch again, 20 we wouldn't watch again, and 15 we wouldn't touch without a hazmat suit. That's a little under half of the shows that we would at least say were decent at some point, but that also means that we would be burying at least 20% of the past year in our backyard.

Call it an unscientific approach to the year, but it's better than ranking them all.

From all of us here to you...

Happy New Year!
May your next 12 months be ill-fated moderately lucky.