2014 was a bit of a weak year for me in terms of anime, with nothing to unconditionally root for like
Yamato 2199 or
Hyouka before it. But while there wasn't anything I absolutely loved, there are still a whole slew of shows that I enjoyed. Here we go.
TV anime:
1.
Ping Pong
Ping Pong was a really hard sell for me based on the premise alone. My longstanding distaste for most sports anime combined with my ambivalence for Yuasa as a director (I believe the first episode was described as "style vomit" by someone in AnimeGAF) made this something that I probably would have just overlooked. Perhaps it was the allure of the noitaminA branding, or some other intangible reason, but I ended up giving the show a chance and boy am I glad I did.
Production wise, the show looks amazing, with the depiction of the sport of ping pong being visually exciting as a result of the abstract "Yuasa-ness" that is a signature of his shows. They also managed to find real Mandarin speakers to play the two Chinese characters on the show, which if you've seen enough anime, you will appreciate as someone (with Yuasa or the casting director) taking the extra step to try to make sure they could find these actors in the first place. It's a small touch, but it shows that they actually cared about what they were trying to make and weren't willing to compromise the quality of the show in order to save a few bucks. Of course, the flip side of that is the lost Bahi cuts, but that's just the reality of TV anime I suppose.
But presentation aside, Ping Pong is just a very strong sports story that is told in a way that celebrates the people who play the sports rather than the sport itself. There are no 20 minute digressions about the different types of spin that someone can place on a ping pong ball, or long arcs interminably stretching out a single match over 5 episodes. It's a show that asks why people play sports in the first place. Some simply see it as a mechanical task, testing the limits of human kinetics. Some see it as a chance for redemption, to make up for failure in the past. Some see it as a way to seek out new challenges, to try to find a way to break out of the rut they find themselves in. Some see it as something they were simply born to do, through sheer passion for the sport. This is a show that celebrates the people who play ping pong, giving us several stories that we can root for because we can sympathize with each character's motives. That's what makes this show special and why it's, by far, my #1 show of the year.
The honorable mention sports show:
Free Eternal Summer. Although the story is simply not as strong, since the anxiety is tied up with graduation angst, it's still better than the other sports shows this year in terms of telling a simple story about its five lead characters. They even use the
Friday Night Lights ending, so you gotta give them credit for that!
2.
Sabagebu
Sabagebu or Survival Game Club is quite simply the best comedy to have aired this year. I first glammed onto this show as this year's version of
Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku when I watched that grainy Nico Nico pre-release version of the first episode, inasmuch as it is an Absurdist five girl slice of life comedy, and it surpassed my expectations.
The writing is extremely sharp, and Masahiko Oota's comedy direction, honed through the other all-girl comedies he has directed like
Minami-ki,
Mitsudomoe,
Yuru Yuri, and
Love Lab, is perfect. It's a show where the comedy feels so spot on that not only did I feel the need to take apart a in order to appreciate how the staff has crafted the show's punchlines (
http://firehawk12.tumblr.com/post/97537669627/sabagebu-and-the-art-of-comedy), I went the extra step of making a video because I wanted more people to appreciate why this show is funny (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1422579428&x-yt-cl=85114404&v=W9mN3V2_Y0k).
To be more specific about why I love the show, the chemistry of the cast is outstanding, and the tension that is built around Momoka's selfishness gives rise to so many perfect character moments throughout the show's run. She might get ahead in one part of an episode, only to be brought back down several segments later, resetting the characters in order to set up the next cycle of character jokes but in a way that doesn't feel like the characters are regressing.
The directing you can read about in my links above, but the writing of specific jokes is just amusing as well. No joke ever feels stale, and the callbacks and metatextual references never feel forced. I'm at the point in my life where my reaction to most comedy is to simply say "that's funny", because I'm thinking more about the construction of the joke than the joke itself. Sabagebu is one of the rare shows where it makes me physically laugh, allowing me to suspend my capacity for critical thought for one brief moment in order to enjoy a moment of pure emotion. I don't know if I'll ever find a comedy anime like this again, but I'm glad to have enjoyed it while it lasted.
3.
Yama no Susume
Yama no Susume or Encouragement of Climb (or what I would call Mountain Girls) is one of many "all-girl mono no aware spiritual healing friendship" shows that I watched last year, and I had a hard time deciding how to rank this show. I'll talk about
Hanayamata a bit later, but I feel like the rankings for these two shows could swap for me at any time.
But let's talk about why I like this show in particular. People who are familiar with my posts or even my lists from previous years know that this type of show is right up my alley. Like
Tamayura or
Aria, shows that ask you to simply celebrate the moments where you are alive by sharing moments of growth and wonderment with Potte or Akari,
Yama no Susume asks you to come along with Aoi as she learns to appreciate and enjoy the small moments that she has with her friends as she struggles to climb mountains in Japan.
The longer episode length and episode count allows the show to give us the ups and downs in Aoi's life in a way that the first season, which consisted of 12 three minute episodes, simply was unable to do. We're able to follow her as she struggles with the Mt. Fuji climb and enjoy her happiness when she is able to climb Mt. Tanigawa with her friends. And like the second season of
Tamayura, the extra episodes also allow the producers to give a little more time to the other girls in the cast as well, and we are able to experience a small part of their own growth as well.
It would be remiss of me to not mention the fanservicey parts of the show - namely how Kaede is featured in many male gaze shows in her sports bra - and I really don't have an explanation or justification for it. But I'm willing to forgive the show that much because of what it does well. It's a show that, like all the "mono no aware spiritual healing shows", just makes you feel happy when you watch it because it gives you a chance to reflect on your own life. It's something that is unique to Japan and one of the reasons why I watch anime.
4.
Hanayamata
So... Hanayamata is very much in the same vein as Yama no Susume. Except instead of climbing mountains, we have four girls who bond over a Japanese dance called yosakoi. Why I had trouble deciding how to rank these two shows is because Hanayamata just has so much more energy and vibrancy compared to Yama no Susume. Where climbing mountains is portrayed as a slow and contemplative venture, yosakoi is a vibrant, energetic, uplifting activity that just sweeps you up into the happiness of its characters. It represents a completely different way to present the mono no aware spiritual healing story that proves that these types of stories don't necessarily have to be slow and, as some people might say, "boring".
But regardless of how you want to enjoy your mono no aware, I'm glad that both shows exist. Whether you are following Aoi's journey in Yama no Susume or Naru's journey in Hanayamata, either will help you appreciate the small moments of joy that happen in your every day life.
5.
Hanamonogatari (and
Tsukimonogatari, for the purposes of discussion)
So I suppose if I had to choose one, then I would choose
Hanamonogatari because it is the one that answers the most questions and features the most satisfying payoff for the four years or so that I've been following the Monogatari franchise.
Whatever anyone might say about Shaft and their direction, the Monogatari series shows so much thought and craft that every time one of these things airs, I can't help but just want to think and write about everything that happens on screen. I'm not going to talk about the specifics of either arc, simply because I have written up longer pieces already:
http://firehawk12.tumblr.com/post/95424821867/hanamonogatari
http://firehawk12.tumblr.com/post/107828897472/tsukimonogatari
But I will say that I think Hanamonogatari is one of the most satisfying television experiences that I've had all year - including True Detective and all the other "grown up" shows that I watch that are outside the purview of this list. It shows that Nisio Isin has really thought out every single detail of this story, knowing where the characters will end up right from the beginning, but it also shows that Shinbo (or whomever is actually doing all the work) has a grand vision in mind as well. It's a hard trick to both payoff long standing arcs while also providing a satisfying arc for the "star" of the current arc, but both Nisio Isin and Shaft are able to do it almost flawlessly.
I think at this point you know exactly what you are going to get with Monogatari, and you will either love it or hate it. But if you are on board this train, then you're in for one hell of a ride.
6.
Love Live S2
So the idol craze has reached a fevered pitch in Japan now, with Love Live and Idolm@ster competing for all seemingly limitless income of the Japanese idol-otaku and as a result, we have to have an anime to help market the songs and the franchise to the fans.
And while the Love Live anime could be a terrible cash grab, you can see that the people in charge of the anime at least care about trying to produce something worthwhile. Is it cliche and tropey? Sure. But it's also fun to watch, and much like
K-On, the second season is a vast improvement over the first by virtue of the staff having a handle on the characters and being more confident on the type of story that they want to tell. Funny, sentimental, and perhaps a bit too saccharine, the second season of Love Live is a show that is just good and earns both its comedic and its dramatic moments. Certainly when the piano version of Aisheteru Bonzai played near the end of the series, I got a bit choked up.
Sure, it's not
K-On!!, but even KyoAni hasn't been able to get back to that high again.
Honorable idol mention:
Locodol. This show is pretty much by the books, but there is something charming about a show featuring the adventures of a group of girls being small time idols or a Podunk town.
7.
Seitokai Yakuindomo *
Seitokai Yakuindomo * is my sentimental pick of the year, since I quite enjoyed the original series and the long running manga pack-in OVAs that have been released over the last few years. Nothing has really changed, other than the fact that the characters are a year older... so the show is still very much about a bunch of perverted girls making many perverted jokes. And I'll be the first to admit that not every joke works, but I will say that the strength of the show comes from the fact that it is structured like a very fast-paced sketch show. It's just joke after joke after joke, so if you don't find something funny, you don't have time to think about it because the next joke is already playing out in front of you. It's manic pacing drives the show forward, so that even if the novelty of hearing well-known voice actresses tell dirty jokes wears off, you can at least appreciate the comic timing of the series.
Sex comedies can be very boring at times, because typically they are told from the perspective of a man and are representative of male sexuality (how many times have we seen nosebleeds in anime?). But by flipping the script and showing women as sexual beings, stale jokes suddenly become fresh. That said, since this is technically the "third" season of the series, I can see the premise being tiring. For me however, I still find these girls funny to watch.
8.
D-Frag
I honestly had no idea that this would be a comedy heavy list, but here we are.
D-Frag is probably the most representative of "classic" Japanese manzai comedy of all the shows that I watched in 2014 and it does that type of comedy so well. Yes, Tsuda in
Seitokai Yakuindomo acts as the straight man in his show as well, but I feel like the strength of that show is its premise, not its manzai.
D-Frag, on the other hand, is very much about Kenji reacting and over-reacting to the absurd situations that he finds himself in and the absurd people he is forced to interact with. The comedy comes from seeing how shocked he is when he finds himself stuck in a plot contrivance that he is dragged into. It's a very Japanese (or perhaps Asian) style of comedy that doesn't really exist in the West, and when it's done well, it's quite enjoyable to watch.
9.
Atelier: Escha and Logy
I jokingly suggested that watching this show would absolve me of having to play through the game, and all the show did is make me want to play the game even more. The Atelier games have always been really pleasant, low key fantasy RPGs, where the stakes are much lower than you'd find in your typical JRPG, and
Escha and Logy is no different.
You have a fairly pleasant fantasy world, with a very simple "save the misunderstood character" ending, and a set of charming characters. As an adventure series, it's one of the more pleasant surprises that I had last year and gives me a greater appreciation of the Atelier series. Now if I could just find the time to finish one of these games!
10.
Gochumon wa Usagi Desu ka?
I would say that Gochumon was Usagi Desu ka is this year's
Kiniro Mosaic or
A-Channel. It's an all girl slice of life comedy that is simply amusing and pleasant to watch. I don't really have any deep thoughts about the show, other than if you enjoy slice of life comedies, then you should give this show a shot.
And hell, it features an old man who turned into a giant rabbit. Where else will you get that?
Movies/OVAs:
1.
Madoka Magical Rebellion
It's been so long since I've seen the film that it's hard to form coherent thoughts about it now. I will say it was, along with
Gravity, one of the most joyous theater experiences that I had in 2013 (when I watched it) and is just another example of the amazing things Shaft can do if they put their minds to it. Although this movie trilogy was entirely unnecessary, with the first two films just being recaps of the original television series,
Rebellion is a film that justifies itself through its artistry and sheer force of will.
When it came out, I said that this is what
Rebuild of Evangelion wishes that it was and I still stand by that statement. Yes, it can be see as a cheap way to exploit the franchise, but what it does to that franchise is just exhilarating to watch. Whether the film stands on its own, or whether it leads to more Madoka properties,
Rebellion is a film demands your attention.
2. Gintama: Forever Yorozuya
Since I watched this film pretty much right after it was released, I avoided writing a long post about why I loved it when it first came out and I kind of regret it now. Although I think my excitement for the film has passed, inasmuch as it doesn't really stick in my mind in the same way some of the best arcs from the television series are embedded into my brain, Forever Yorozuya is still one of the better Gintama stories that I've seen.
I could talk about how the movie starts, with the anti-piracy parody, so that what seems like a throwaway comedic bit ends up being one of the key moments of the film's dramatic climax. But that's just classic Gintama for you, and something that any fan of the series would be readily familiar with.
I could talk about how the film fulfills a long forgotten promise of telling us more about Gintoki's past as the White Demon, using time travel in a clever manner in order to bring up the well-worn themes of friendship, sacrifice, and heroism. But again, if you are a fan of Gintama, this is old news for you.
So all I'll say is that the film is a simply a great Gintama story that will make you laugh and also shed some manly tears. The new season can't come soon enough!
So I guess Gintama was a 2013 movie, so I'm going to adjust things a little bit.
2.
Kaguya-hime no Monogatari
Takahata's swan song, and perhaps companion to Miyazaki's
Kaze Tachinu, Kaguya-hime is a wonderful adaptation of a classic Japanese folk-tale. It's a film that evokes themes that we've seen Takahata explore in his previous work, and I'll just leave this longer post to stand in for my more specific thoughts on the film:
http://firehawk12.tumblr.com/post/106051473332/kaguya-hime-no-monogatari-or-the-tale-of-the
I will say that the film is everything that mono no aware represents, specifically how it ends. It's funny because several people have said that they found the ending sad, and while I can certainly understand that emotional reaction, personally I found the ending quite serene and comforting. In a way, I would suggest that the film is a celebration of life as a whole - from the moment of birth to the last breath before death - and that one should recognize the importance of each moment of life in between those two extremes.
3.
Kaze Tachinu
Miyazaki's final film is one that is both grounded in reality but perhaps as fanciful as any of his more fantastical films in is oeuvre. On the one hand, one expects this film to be a biography of the man who invented the Zero. But that's not what this film is at all. It's a film that celebrates the notion of creativity - literally on screen by depicting Jiro creating the Zero, but also by adapting Hori Tatsuo's "Kaze Tachinu" via the sanitarium storyline, and also through the very making of the film itself. It is meant to be revealing, but not about its subject matter, but about the actions that its subject takes and that Miyazaki himself takes in order to create animated art.
It's funny to see how my thoughts on the film changed over time, where I was initially bothered by it being apolitical:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=102703706&postcount=12387
To realizing that it was never really a film about Jiro or the Zero at all:
http://www.slashfilm.com/filmcast-ep-263-wind-rises/#comment-1285700505
A complex, and perhaps difficult to access film for most people, it is perhaps ironic that it is also Miyazaki's most personal film. As a sendoff to his career, it is probably just as fitting as Takahata's final film.
4.
Infinite Stratos: World Purge-hen
After the disaster that was the second season of
Infinite Stratos, this OVA feels like a return to form. I have long argued that the original series was directed by someone who was self-aware and knew exactly what he was making, and as such, had fun with the material and the OVA comes close to achieving the same effect.
This time, the girls are trapped in their own fantasies as they are seduced by their idealized version of Ichika. It's not a spoiler to say that each girl envisions an Ichika who is not a eunuch but a sexual being who wants them as much as they want him. Of course, it is up to the real Ichika to stop the fun and "rescue" the girls from being "corrupted" by their sexual fantasies, and this plays out in the most ingenious manner. The real Ichika must essentially fight his own sexuality, singlehandedly attacking and destroying these Ichika-specters in order to return everything to the standard-quo of the static harem. It's the Ego acting on the Id, but in the most pathetic way possible and that's why it's great!
I'm sure I'm the only one who feels this way about the OVA, and there will be those who think I am a madman. But I see the truth!
5.
Tamako Love Story
Perhaps as a result of the success of the K-On! movie, KyoAni seems to have taken to making film sequels or adaptations of most of their more recent anime properties. While the less said about the Chuu2 film the better, Tamako Love Story is a nice swan song to a good but flawed television series. Eschewing the Dera storyline altogether, the film focuses on Tamako and her relationship with Mochizou as they figure out their feelings for each other and plan their future for life after high school.
I don't think it's as strong as the K-On! film, but Yoshida and Yamada have produced a good coming of age love story that perhaps represents the last good thing that KyoAni will produce based on their recent output.
6.
Harmonie
One of the Anime Mirai short films for 2014, Harmonie is a nice short story about being isolated in high school and how you might feel if you meet someone who understands what you are going through. It's told through the metaphor of a synesthetic dream, but the just serves as allegory for the core moral of the story - everyone just wants to find someone that can see them for who they are and accept them for all their faults.
7.
Tamayura: More Aggressive 8.5 and
Girls und Panzer OVA
I'm cheating here, but honestly, I doubt either entry will even place in the rankings so I'm perfectly fine with doing so. Honestly, I just wanted to have an excuse to fit
Tamayura on the list... and hey, at least I didn't toss in the
Yamato 2199 recap movie!
But really, the Tamayura OVA was a great reminder of everything that I love about Tamayura as a show and SatoJun as a director and it was nice to be able to step back into that world for a short time. I'm looking forward to the graduation arc that will come out later in 2015 and I expect that it will be at or near the top my personal top ten of 2015.
The Girls und Panzer OVA was similarly a fun return to the world of Girls und Panzer, even if it repeats a lot of what we've already seen in previous episodes. The way they wrapped up the Anzio arc and explained why they weren't watching the final battle was unnecessary, of course, but it was a cute way to wrap everything in a neat bow. Here's hoping the movie lives up to the series.
Continued here:
http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=149933282&postcount=496
