Nyarth’s Top 10 Anime of 2010

K-ON!! number 1 in my top 10? :0

Update: Repost! Updated grammar and wotnot, enjoy!

From god tier series like Angel Beats and SYD, to downright shit tier from the likes of Chuu Bra and House of Boku. Despite the circumstances of the industry and wotnot, 2010 has been a rather good year of anime safely tucked into its ever-growing catalogue. And so, like other animu blogs have done, I’ve narrowed down all my top considered favourite series of this year right down to my final top 10.

Click the jump to see who made it into my top 10 anime of 2010. 10.

10. The World God Only Knows

Yes, I know, shocker. Although I heavily anticipated this at the start, soon after I realised how bland it was to watch something that I’ve already read and covered and the climaxes and plot twists already knew. Despite this TWGOK surprisingly turned out much more greater than its original manga counterpart with its many extra exclusice quirks, cliche and exaggerated gags. Unfortunately TWGOK was meant to be around at 5-4 at first in my list, then came along episodes 6-8 and I realised how much the quality had crashed and burned. Was pretty surprising to see the depleted quality from the top notch studio Manglobe known for other top quality shows like Ergo Proxy and Champloo, but compared from the other “mature” titles Manglobe produced TWGOK seems to the first few bunch Manglobe did which was more shonen-like.

Overall it was actually a tough decision, and TWGOK comes in tenth place in my top 10.

9. Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

Hmm… can this be even called an anime? Nevertheless somehow PSG makes its way into my top 10 in ninth place! When the news came at around spring time Gainax was working on a new series. Estatic imo after watching the previous Gainax work which was Eva and TTGL for me, I actually couldn’t wait for what they were doing next. That thought soon fell into the depths of hell (literally!) as I saw a scan of a page from Newtype advertising Gainax’s new work; Panty and Stocking!! That moment of time I felt shocked, betrayed too as I thought it was a joke. Gainax. One of the post-veteran studios who did the ut most quality mature and DEEP titles, came up with THIS bullcrap. Well not bullcrap, but shit. It was like Gainax suddenly turned Cartoon Network and did a much more immature and perverted version of Dexter and the Powerpuff Girls (not to the extent that ISHIHARA comes knocking on your door!). It turned pretty sour then when more teaser stuff came out with a short comic strip revealing that Panty was some bitch prostitute whore and Stockings a suger addict.

That said, later in October when the series premiered, it turn out pretty great. Aside from the irregularities said above; the visuals was smooth, clear, fabulous, almost as good as American cartoons with their poor framerate and slack (from even the 30-sec OP/ED and episodic format!). The jokes and gags and adult humour was all rather round-a-bout for a 15 year old lad watching this. Later, the series soon started to jump out of the usual episodic wagon (holding its main basic plotline of our Anarchy angels being kicked out of Heaven and wanting to return) and became more continual. Antagonists Scanty and Kneesocks soon appear that made the whole show a lot more worth watching (not forgetting the catchy r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-l-l-ll-l-l-l-l-l-l-lules!). While I have yet to watch the final episode that seems to coming towards a climatic closed ending, it appears Gainax’s controversial move and PSG’s rep and popularity was all worth doing. And so – in my top 10!

8. Shinryaku Ika Musume

SHINRYAKU SHINRYAKU SHINRYAKU SHINRYAKU SHINRYAKU SHINRYAKU SHINRYAKU SHINRYAKU IKA MUSUME!

Derrp our little innocent walking talking squid invader comes around eigth in my top 10! I instantly grew fond of this series just like how I came to love SYD. It’s constant humourous gags and running continuity makes the show worth watching while going beyond the typical 2-part episodic and making it a 3-part episodic! Half-doubling the fun each week in little bitesize chunks! The animation looks fluid and the colour pallette nice and simple, heck looking at it looks as if Ika was meant to be a kids and family show! Though sadly it airs on late night Tuesdays…

I have no idea, but Ika holds this strong sense of impact that just makes you come back for more. Probably than eccentric cast and that the show relies strictly on downright humour and no intentional fanservice at all, excluding the innocent unintentional parts with girls in bikinis as they ARE on a beach…

7. Mitsudomoe

Like Ika like SYD. Mitsudomoe and its legendary hilarious humour surprisingly falls down in seventh place in my Top 10. Was originally planned to be at somewhere third and fourth but then came along narrowing it down, it unfortunately came crash landing down to seventh…

Mitsudomoe sees the life and times of the Marui triplets, and their ill-formed class in their Elementary School along with Satoshi Yabe a still developing young man in his 20s who just started his new life as their home teacher. The plot here is very basic, but appropriate as the show heavily relies on its episodic plots and running gags. It was also really shocking for me that Mitsudomoe, along with SYD the most perverted show of the year was thought up by a woman! A HAWT woman that is!

The animation looks as smooth and really detailed as ever (especially the OP), the sound track sounds great too even listening to it by itself. Goes to show how the staff of Bridge are really dedicated into this series… that or they too are fellow perverts…haha

6. Durarara!!

Remember all those Durarara!! chats people made when this was airing? Yeah me too…

When I first started watching Durarara!! in the early days of 2010, aside from the depression of the lack of vitamin D and the other relatively crap shows in the Winter season, Drrr!! was one of the few many that was pretty decent of the season. Despite agreeing that the series had a slow start, it soon picked up its pace when it came to its second half of the season, and that was what really kicked things off for the plot and my liking. Drrr!! offers more of a mature theme to the series – one that seens lacking in most recent years and jumps out of the cliche box filled your moe and slice of life and high school themed shows. Sadly although at the end of the series some things were left unexplained it concluded with a suitable “half” closed ending and was acceptable. Unlikely that a second season is on its way as its spiritual counterpart; Baccano! (written by the same author) turned out to be a success too but never recieved a sequel.
Alas, with its mystic celtic wonders and typical gang wars wielding knives and wrenches, Durarara! Comes in at 6th place in my top 10.

5. K-ON!!

Haha, you must be thinking I’m joking right? Well… I’m dead serious.

Despite all the K-ON! hate going around after the first season premier, and even though I too sometimes join the haet bandwagon, somewhere deep down I actually have a soft spot K-ON in all its one hit wonders and the classic moe blobs, and you should too. Not gonna go into detail about the K-ON! hate battle here so I’ll just stop there.

When I first started watching K-ON! back in the early years of Spring 2009, it was the first few bunch of anime I began to watch at a new fresh weekly basis. It was also the first series for me to watch just hours after the Japanese broadcast since before in 2008, I didn’t have the luxuries to own a laptop for myself so I only have little time to watch old eps of HnG and MAR and even Bleach on the family PC. Surprisingly enough after the first episode I found the series to be really good, aside from the lack of knowledge from the anime tropes and ways… Before long after that I started watching series in the same format and grew fond of it ever since. Now, almost at the end of my 8th anime season follow up, I’m now watching over 70% of the shows available airing in Japan (although it may change next year as I have finals and stuff to tend to before sixth form/Uni ._.).

All in all, I remain to have this soft spot for K-ON! despite knowing all the hate for it (which I kinda agree) and knowingly, the songs written for K-ON! are godly (my favourites are U&I, Don’t Say Lazy! and No Thank You!). I may be a bit of a hypocrite, but that’s life for you.

4. Katanagatari

Katanagatari was one hell of a ride. Was pretty smart for them to air each episode of Katana once every month this year as it continues the series at a more slow and coherent pace, and heck did it work well. I was typically love/hated this series from the beginning. Had a slow start, was dialogue heavy, low cut action, couldn’t possibly spend 50 minutes watching this monstrosity I said. But over the course of months about after I came back from HK/VN to marathon eps I was behind on, it actually began to be pretty good. While the ending… well not gonna spoil it here, but it was shocking. Shocking that I never saw it coming. And I guess that was the reason why I suddenly gave this 10/10 on MAL considering the buildup to it strictly from episode one. Overall Katanagatari was simple a pure masterpiece and deserves fourth place in my top 10.

3. Angel Beats

You knew this was coming. Anticipated this series from when the preview for Spring 2010 came out along with many AB! teasers, other than K-ON!! and another few shows Angel Beats was literally the only interesting series for me for Spring, and man was I right at the end. Not only that I knew this was going to be awesome since it’s created by Key/Jun Maeda, but also the concept which was pretty original and interesting at the time. Not once in my animu watching career have I seen a series with an epic mix of funny humour, heavy action and sad tear jerking scenes, and angels. Don’t forget the angels. From love to violence, Angel Beats covers a variety of themes and manages to combine them all together effectively to create an all around heartwarming story. Unfortunately, only downside is that there was only 13 episodes. Considering the plot and the deep progression I thought 26 episodes would’ve made the cut. Overall, great story, awesome visuals, god-tier songs. Deserved third in my Top 10.

2. Ore no Imouto

inb4 alternate ending :P

Again, you knew this was coming too, I think. The recently concluded (on TV) Ore no Imouto claims second place in my Top 10 in all due matter. Although I originally intended for Oreimo to my #1 best this year, but sadly SYD has claimed that spot – which, will be explain later on. When I discovered Oreimo in a bookshop in Hong Kong this Summer and Wiki’d its synopsis at a Internet Cafe later when I went to Vietnam, I knew from then on Oreimo was going to be something big. An older brother with a little sister, both never get along to an extreme, older brother finds out little sister is a crazed otaku and plays erotic imouto eroge = WHAT OTHER ANIME HAS THIS KIND OF PLOT? Though I can say that this kind of setting seems a tad too unrealistic and can be classed as some deranged otaku’s fantasy, the plot is actually pretty decent if you place it under innocent light. From what I can tell Oreimo has rather a deep plot which in a sense reflects upon RL and how society looks down on otakus. Other than that ironically Oreimo flares a lot of rumbustious fanservice and incest elements, other than Kirino’s entire imouto eroge collection but how close Kyou and Kirino become at the end. The series also keeps limited upon its cast as it mainly consist of Kirino’s “RL” and “otaku” friends, plus the other lot from the likes of Manami and her family, and a few bunch of others too that appear much later on in the series and never made it into the anime.

In a nutshell, for me Oreimo has this sense of a “shallow-deep” serious plot bounded by the good things in the story that comes with it. Thus, Oreimo arrives at a close defeat of #2 in my top 10.

1. Seitokai Yakuindomo

You did it! LITTLE GIRL.

Instant best of 2010, c’mon, you gotta admit. From the constant innovative perverted jokes to original wacky fanservice, and also the godly animation quality from the hands of GoHands, you couldn’t resist SYD. Just look at the list of traits!

1. Millions from obvious to the plain inevitable perverted/adult/sexual jokes, TOLD BY HIGHSCHOOL GIRLS.
2. Main male character the only normalfag in the whole series and puts up with the girl’s bantering, IT’S LIKE IT’S IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE!
3. One average girl, one busty, one loli = INSTANT HAREM
4. Makes mockery of all the current affairs surrounding the morals of animu, including Agnes-chan and the goddamn feminists.
5. Funny inappropriate censoring, annoying but funny at the same time!
6. Pokes fun of the many tropes and cliche of animu (THAT seat, LATE for school with a toaster in your mouth, JAPAN’s birth rates, the possibilities are endless!)
7. HAAAAAAAATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DEEEEEEEEESUUUUUUUUUU
8. GEEEEEEOOOOOOOOORRRRRRGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9. Shotacon teacher
10. Innocent Judo girl voiced by the legendary Chiaki Omigawa!
11. +more I forgot to mention at this point.

Anyways, SYD is a fun and ergonomic series made with the up-to-date otaku lites in mind. Fluid sparkling animation, masterclass casting, addictive OP, funny tropes and “adult” jokes and most of all; SUUUZUUUUUUUU ↓! Alas, SYD in all its manner deserves the #1 spot for my 2010 Animu Top 10~