Leaders of the Pack: 2000-2009
I used to keep somewhat-up-to-date top 10 lists for several categories, including favorite characters and favorite anime. It’s a tool to introspect, and an excuse for said exercise, so why not revamp my top list of anime at the end of 2009 and make it 2000-2009 only? Two birds with one stone, so they say.
Ultimately it’s an excuse for me to migrate some writing from elsewhere to here.
I originally baselined the list about five and a half years ago. And it hasn’t changed a whole lot in some aspects; a couple things moved and I adding a couple things. It’s a sure-fire sign that I’m an old fart, in internet terms. A new generation of netizens have already taken their place and drowned out the likes of me. Heh, remember when people used the word “netizens” and climbed hills to go to school both ways in the snow with no shoes &c?
The below is just a list of anime that I really liked in the past 10 years or so. There were some “franchises” that I was enamored with but they never really materialized in the form of an anime that I liked–Sakura Taisen being the most obvious example–so they’re off the list. And of course just because I like the anime doesn’t mean I like the other parts of the franchise, too. It really is a case-by-case analysis.
One more thing–this list is not ordered. Because it would take too long and honestly the order has no meaning beyond what it means to me, and I can’t be bothered to count any more angels on the tips of pins. So here it goes:
Millennium Actress - It is personal, as with most of this list. However I would say that I watched it during a period in my life where chasing dreams was the stuff that I wish I was doing. In some sense I still feel that I am not? The whole actress-idol angle was beside the point, although it is through that particular lens that we observe a form of beauty that can go beyond the limitations of real life. But in good Japanese tradition of mono no aware, it’s the chasing after an empty dream that beautifies, and perhaps it is the memories of that, which is eternal. Chiyoko’s fervent and undying sentiments powers her journey through time, but “Hollywood Magic” is the true substances of her dreams. No longer a person, she transforms into a conduit between her emotions and the silver screen, purer than the drab reality we’re a part of.
FLCL - Mad pimp style. In fact I still haven’t seen anything this stylish since. I mean this is a 2000-2001 show, so a lot of anime have gone past us since, in a medium that is known for its stylishness. There have been attempts, and some come pretty close, but as they bear their fangs to accomplish what they set out to do, FLCL has already been there, done that, and done it earlier. It also introduced America to the Pillows. LOL. I also think it’s the true complement to Gainax’s Evangelion. One is African-American blues stuff, and the other is, well, rock.
Scrapped Princess - I like this show for its drama and setting. While it’s fun and exciting to see how the story play out in its [super-spoiler-statement-removed], Pacifica and her siblings rise beyond just mere anime characters and into very personable entities that I see everyday. The high fantasy feel also comes across fresh and it unveiled itself like a pleasant surprise. I also blame Sutepri for dooming me to follow every blasted abortion of Ichiro Sakaki’s novel adaptations, because neither the Sutepri novels nor any of his consequent anime adaptations were up to snuff. If I had to say one key thing about Sutepri that I liked, it was Fumiko Orikasa’s Pacifica.
Rahxephon - I don’t know if I like Rahxephon, or Akihiro Yamada :) But nonetheless it’s a very pretty show that just doesn’t stop at being its own exotic, senseless shounen exposition. It has some great moments, and even blundering through its cloudy plot there’s a lot of wonderful tension. It’s also one of the best scripted giant post-Evangelion robot shows, although I can’t really vouch for the likes of Gasaraki or Betterman. The ensemble cast comes alive, albeit stubbornly, to put together enough interesting parallels and polygons to warrant a few essays at least.
Evangelion - Just because it’s mostly in 1996 doesn’t mean I can’t let it in… I added it back to my list partly because I think most of the Eva fans have already gone off and rant about other crap so it’s a topic that is generally less annoying now. Also over the years I’ve never really stopped appreciating what this show has to offer. It helps me to rewatch this because they keep on re-releasing it, lol. And what is there to appreciate? It’s definitely top notch as 90s TV anime goes, in terms of production values. The writing, designs, direction, music, theme, acting…well you can go on. It’s a perfect storm of some sort, as far as getting the right talents (and large number of them), the right crazy people, the right time and generation of Japanese people, the right way to frame the issues… So many factors contributed to its success. Lastly, the rebuilding isn’t so bad so far. Maybe I should’ve limited this entry to the Rebuilding, separate from the TV series, but that saga just started.
Manabi Straight - this is probably one of the new title I latched onto this list after a drought of personal inability to really like a show–basically it’s not to say there haven’t been many great shows to recommend others between 2004 and 2007, but this one manages to strike a chord in me that elevates it above others. It’s a feel-good high school affair with a lot of heart, but that alone wasn’t enough. What makes Manabi Straight work for me is the way the story manages to build a powerful allegory about vision and about fulfilling it. If you can cut through the cutesy loli appeal (or rationalizes it away), there’s a gem waiting for you.
Simoun - What wins with Simoun is its intricate writing to display the really odd human relationships wrapped around a very creative sci-fi/fantasy backdrop. It doesn’t help if the ensemble cast is also awesome and full of “good girls.” It’s not the kind of good girls that grace a Key game, no sirree. To me this was probably the ultimate example of the anime storytelling format in combining elements of high fantasy and drama, all together with just enough of those frown-upon meta elements that it doesn’t get in the way of the story. Unfortunately the production value was lacking in places, and it’s a difficult show to get into regardless on how you feel about yuri and fanservice. Nobody is perfect I guess.
Notable mentions–shows I like but don’t want to put on a pedestal:
GunParade March - I’m amazed that it’s still on my list, but for a romance-in-the-military story, it really captures that whole ishin-denshin idea excellently.
Witch Hunter Robin - Does goth style right. And Robin is…simply wonderful IMHO. Shukou Murase’s problem with pacing just wasn’t so pronounced here as it is with Ergo Proxy.
Ghost in the Shell TV - The unlearned man’s version of Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell. With twice of the cuteness and half the nudity! The less cat-ish Major might be more mainstream-appealing at any rate. Yes, I mean both Stand Alone Complexes and the OAV thing.
Planetes - No man’s an Island, and no man should go without seeing PLANETES because it’s awesome drama. Oh, it’s an exemplary piece of hard, near-SF with a sense of humor, too. It may also be one of the earlier no-nonsense post-911 works from Japan, as far as its vintage.
Dokkoida?! - It’s one of the best self-referential style of comedy that I can recall. The sisucon episode is perhaps the funniest and yet the most riveting episode of LOL ever. Also, in before ufotable. Futakoi Alternative gets a nod here, but I don’t think it’s got enough to make it to this list proper.
Koikaze - Speaking of sisucon, while this anime tackles a subject matter that’s all too taboo (incest), it is directed and put together with superb craftsmanship that it even does the subject matter with some justice, if at least superficially.
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - just for the fact how it raised the bar for TV animation alone is worth watching. It’s a boon that it’s also one of the best adaptation of juvenile science fiction for anime that I’ve ever seen. The out-of-order broadcast is brilliant and it is a ballsy move that paid off. Too bad Endless Eight did not; I would probably recommend season two anyways.
Full Metal Panic Fumoffu - Possibly the widest-appealing slapstick anime ever, and it manages to be not-too-gross most of the time!
Cowboy Bebop (TV, Film) - You already know this. Hi Robert Rodriguez and Quintin Tarantino! And Keanu, lol. While most of it took place before 2000, the movie didn’t come out until 2001, and for the most part Bebop is more of a “this decade” thing than a “last decade” thing anyways.
Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna - It’s a little too new-agey for my taste, but it is a solid production with a daring message. I liked the music and the production as a whole.
ef - I’m reluctant to include this title because there hasn’t been enough time since I last watched it, but to call it a novel thing is understating the creative effort behind a seemingly plain eroge-turn-animated-companion. I’m not sure if it rises fully to the occasion however, as only the test of time will tell.
Xam’d - Like Haruhi, it belongs to this list just because it is animated like a champ, and the rest of the package is quite above average. I think it makes a cheap substitute for Eureka 7, at half the length and twice the visual goodness in exchange for a less satisfying story. Still to some the story might stand stronger than those who are more picky about linearity.
True Tears - There is something oddish about this show which just doesn’t make it stand out beyond its harem trapping, even if it most deservedly is beyond that. Characterization and production value are top notch. It’s almost needless to say that True Tears is a charming affair, no matter who you root for.
Rurouni Kenshin (OAVs, Kyoto Arc) - It’s possibly the only shounen fight anime that I truly liked, and probably the last. And the 4-episode OAV (or 1, director’s cut) of the Tomoe tragedy… It’s just so good, even if it lacks the grit of what we typically associate with samurai films. In its place we get a very early taste of, say, and euphoric field kind of thing. I can’t really say much about the TV series though, besides that it’s an enjoyable rump with some worthwhile meme powers even so many years after. Besides that, it is a 90s show. Unlike Bebop, the Kenshin experience is a very 90s kind of thing anyways, so I don’t want to highlight it (much).
That’s more or less it. I know this list skews old, especially considering the volume of anime available the last 5 years, but passing the test of time is a major criteria for me, and a lot of the shows in recent years just don’t stand out too much, you know?
For a very different list but possibly even more a trip down memory lane, check out Psgel’s. There are other holiday festivities that may grace this site, as such.
[edit: I removed Utena the Movie, because I don’t think it’s a 2000+ title if we go by the screening dates! I don’t know why I thought so the first place.]
Chasing Zefiris; Please! Yuti
“Is that Suppi-kun or are you just glad to see me?”
So this guy has been reading the TokyoPop novels. I’ve been reading some too recently and the 4th installment of the translated light novel series from Ichiro Sakaki (and Mugodan doing the drawings) needs to come out already. I read somewhere the release date is actually the 31st of January but I couldn’t find it anywhere online the day after.
At any rate, it is a totally different kind of read than what I’ve been reading. It’s like, lol. I mean it’s not even lol like crappy Magic: The Gathering novels or stories about Thrall and LORELOL. This is Ichiro Sakaki putting forward a really darn good fantasy setting with a fairly rich story about Driving Miss Pacifica. Albeit heavy-handed at times and sort of melodramatic to a point, I’m not sure I can sift through its popular brand of justice cleanly with what’s in the psyche of the Japanese fantasy reader. There’s a crossover between the two, I suppose.
Which is to say, it’s been a long, long time since I cracked open a fiction novel.
It was a Suddenly Raquel moment, to be sure. It’s a fluffy read. Nonetheless that did not stop the rather tranquil expression I carried while plowing through the short novels in a couple hours.
What would really be a Suddenly Raquel moment is they canceled book #4 like a ninja and we had to go find this out ourselves! Grr.
So. Onto the more serious topic: licensing limbo. The thing about ADV is not really worrysome, much like how I don’t worry about Geneon’s non-distribution of DVDs. The one fact remains: there’s money to be made. The question is how to make that money. As fans, we just want to be able to watch it, to own it, to enjoy it.
We want to avoid what has happened to the licensing quagmire that is Macross. It’s just cruel to show us how good something is and then to butcher it and yank it away. And it punishes no one except those who are actually paying the buck. I hope with all these corporate back-end maneuvering we don’t orphan anything.
Fur in the Ointment
I too thought Wolf Spice (Old Spice’s traditional brand name?), better known as Spice and Wolf, an anime adopted from another light novel series, was spot on.
The right vibe is there at least in the first episode. Someone told me that it makes him think Tony Taka. Must be all that nudity. But I sort of see where he’s coming from. There’s a sense of realism in the way how character art is chiseled out of ink that is most relevant in good anime porn which, coincidentally, was also part of what made Scrapped Princess good (as in, style, feel and suspension of belief rather than “woah can you believe her boobs?”). Honestly nether show really did a great job about character design at this point, when compared to their peer. Classics like Lodoss War OAV still put the typical TV sword & sorcery production to shame when it comes to design and stills. It’s not really a minus for Spice and Wolf, at any rate, but a very good thing.
Anyways, I suppose it’s much more palatable to put human-animal lead characters in a verbal narrative than a visual one, simply because those who reads it exercise their free will to visualize what they read …or not. Put it bluntly, the freedom to selectively ignore things is one of the growing strengths of the traditional print media. I can forget that Horo is practically a werewolf in appearance if I’m just reading a book about Horo, unless the author wants to mention that she has has a tail and wolf ears hanging out to dry every time the imaginary camera in my head (as directed by the book) points her way. In a TV show or movie, I don’t control the camera so I don’t control what I see. And even if I give the show the benefit of the doubt that they want to drive this point home in the pilot episode, it’s a great distraction to an otherwise perfectly fine episode of anime.
In my own experience I think most fantasy authors do make an effort to wow their audience with a hook; but most know enough about the pop knowledge level of their readers to not make a big deal about the setting unless you are doing something really neat. I can’t decide if all that nudity and fur is there to wow the audience, or just to provide exposition and set the tone and theme for the series. I only know that it bothers me a lot. Despite my furry-phobia, I think it’s just not the best take to tell a serious story. It’s not to say that strange fantasy things and nudity can’t make a good first impression (I think Sister of Wellbur is a good example of the right first impression you can make, contrary to my feeling of that show), but it has to be used with a lot of care that I’m not sure I’m seeing right now.
How serious is Spice and Wolf going to be, anyways? The whole”moeblob” thing with today’s anime has never been better treated, IMO, than how Sutepri introduces Suppi-kun. I hope they don’t just stick that aspect of “genre norm” into the characters and rend that feeling of “immersiveness,” the distinction that separates great fantasies from forgettable ones.
Science Fiction Anime
There are a lot of anime with a sci-fi backdrop. And I mean a lot. Some are silly little things like Aria and Manabi Straight. Some are long and grand like Legend of Galatic Heroes and all those Gundam shows. Some are sort of pandering like Vandread or Gravion. Every once a blue moon we get a mind twister like Serial Experiments Lain or Megazone 23. But more interestingly, we’ve got everything in between as well, as anime in a science fiction setting.
Trying to pin it all down is sort of hard, at first glance, but somehow it feels like they fall into three, non-exclusive, all-encompassing categories:
1. Drama-oriented. I’d squarely put shows like Manabi Straight and Gundam in here. Often times the plot revolves around some sci-fi/fantasy device based on the setting (eg. hijacking a school-wide video podcast or fighting some never-ending war between Earth and the Colonies), but for the most part the viewer can give a damn about them. In other words, these are the same old stuff, but lightly flavored to give us something special and neat. Some other examples would include Utawarerumono or Eva; LoGH is totally a space opera show, for obvious reasons. Tenchi Muyo is a franchise that, for practical purposes, is a Star Wars rip off…and no one cares. We just care who gets to sleep with the guy.
2. Setting-oriented. To be fair, setting here includes also the subject matter for discussion. Feeding the gnome-sized Tom Clancy fan in me, GITS:SAC is a whole lot of fun because of that elaborate geopolitic backdrop in a what-if future that’s all too humorous. It’s what makes Starship Operators so awesome, partly because of the politics but also of its focus on low-tech space warfare. Everyone’s favorite PLANETES does this very well. Last Exile has cute characters and developing personalities, but the steamy setting takes your breath away. Early and late episodes of Evangelion really hones in on this as well.
3. Idea-oriented. Here I’d categorize any show that harps on the idea over the substance of its setting, and the expression of the central idea(s) shadows the character drama. GITS is a bit in this realm, especially if you’re talking about the theatratical films. Serial Experiments Lain seems apt. Bubble Gum Crisis, maybe; but it really relies on the setting as well. Maybe the Eva movies.
Some anime are really strong in all three departments, but I think all sci-fi shows fall into at least one category. Just to practice on a few, something like Haruhi Suzumiya would be sort of setting and drama oriented, even at heart the show revolves around one idea. The plot as a juvenile sci-fi mystery focuses on “what happens” but the viewers are also concerned about “who and who’s” relationship. Eva is in all three categories, but it really focuses on the drama to get its basic ideas across. When it does, the show goes postal. A show like Scrapped Princess is also very similar, structure-wise. It has a simple theme so it didn’t have to beat you over the head. The elaborate setting, like Eva, is to just reel you in. Ergo Proxy, Solty Rei and Kurau all have that fantastic setting to get you started but those shows are just character drama with a sci-fi mystery plot as hook.
I guess I’m just trying to say that all these three things are while present in the genre categorically, they serve very different purposes. Asking for one is not likely to help you satisfy the want of another.
Buyer’s Regret Strikes Back, Too
Maybe watching that expensive brick oft called “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” volume 1 special edition from Bandai Entertainment USA can put Manabi Straight away for a moment. Oh how ironic that I turn to gnostic pleasures to forget my higher calling…? LOL.
Anyways, this post is sort of a review of that brick that got here. And in short, it is so not worth spending nearly 3x more money on the expensive brick. To put it in perspective, the limited edition episode 00 R2 DVD (volume 1) was 4600 yen, volumes 2-5 were 6600 yen each for the limited edition, and volume 7 LE was 4600 yen. If we exchange 110 yen per dollar, that’s only about 60-70 dollars to match MSRP of $64.98 times 4. Even if volumes 2-4 of the R1 release is $5 less, it makes you wonder if you get what you paid for.
Maybe I’m just slow on the uptake, but when Bandai reneged on the broadcast order thing, either I heard about it and paid it no mind (forgetting I pre-ordered the box), or just entirely forgotten about it. I was even looking forward to that…
Anyways, yea, buyer’s regret. But the main source of it isn’t because the DVD and R1 release was crappy (as it wasn’t–in fact I liked the dub a lot (but still hated Ryoko’s voice though…) and the production was solid). The extras was good and the box was…neat. What I hated about it was its … how should I put it… lame design. There’s no mind paid to how the box art should look, or the purpose of this luxurious box. Hey, it’s got magnets, yay. So I spent an extra $30 on that? It looks like someone went and designed a neat box mechanically and some doof just plastered official images all over it (when some of them I’d fully consider as SPOILERS?) paying no mind of the overall vibe the box gives off. I hate it.
But that’s no compare to what actually is contained inside the box. I never was a big fan of “worthless trinket” like the iron-on or the ribbon, although I’m partial towards the ribbon. Art collections like pencil boards or post cards are more my thing, but even then that just “tickles” my collector’s senses and unless you’re Range Murata you’re not going to see me jump after them. After opening the box I scratch my head, trying to ease that sensation of “I just got sooooo ripped.” It was just sad how, not unexpectedly, this fanboy got played.
To be fair, Bandai did one thing awesomely as far as the packaging: including the CD single AND ALSO RELEASING IT FOR INDIVIDUAL SALE at the same time. I’m so happy about it I bought the Hare Hare Yukai US release separately, because it was cheap and LOL, I’m just happy that this was possible.
Because it totally removes any reason whatsoever to buy those crappy boxes with nothing good in them.
Sigh. I wish more things were released like Scrapped Princess. Now those limited release box sets rocked the house. If you want my otaku dollars, you can’t just bank on the lame-ass collector’s mentality that too many of my peers suffers from. I’m more than ready to buy volume 2 in its simple, DVD-only form.
