Monday, December 31, 2007

F*head's Best of 2007!
I'm not really sure if this is a good idea, but since I'm bored and want to avoid doing schoolwork I'll give it a shot. Note that I've nixed all the shows that technically started in last year, even if they bled over into '07 (so no Death Note); I've also decided to cut the ones that are just new seasons for old shows (which really only effects Genshiken, but I've said enough good things about it anyways). Needless to say, I'm not even pretending to be objective here. So, let's get on with it:

1 - Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. Kind of a given, as this is pretty much the Bugatti Veyron of mecha shows. GL is an extraordinary achievement on just about every level; it's about the most ambitious series ever attempted, and certainly the grandest this year. This thing crams three seasons' worth of any other anime into the space of 27 episodes (all of them impossibly beautiful and well-made), it spins you around an emotional corkscrew the whole time (true to the Gainax spirit), and it does all of it while making it look easy. Mind you, it's not the show that I loved the most this year, because that'd be a little bit like loving the Sears Tower. One doesn't love GL so much as one respects it.
2 (TIE, because I'm a wimp and I couldn't choose) - Claymore. Now, this is a show that I loved. From beginning to end, it's in disarray. Quality is uneven from episode to episode, there's quite a few silly DBZ-isms (especially later on), Raki is annoying, and the ending... uh, isn't an ending. If you're looking for a really perfect series, one that you can't nickel and dime into oblivion for all of its mistakes, then you already got plenty to choose from in 2007 (many of them on this list). Claymore, in contrast, is a mess with a heart of gold, a whole that far outclasses its parts. GL is the best show, but it was Claymore that I craved most in the days between episodes.
2 (TIE) - Nodame Cantabile. As a show about classical music, it's got all the cliches that anime/manga dig out whenever they drag out a mediocre pianist or whatever. It's sappy, it's naive, it's so soaked in German romanticism that the characters may as well be wearing lederhosen, suspenders, and kneesocks. It does better than most, mind, and when it finally knuckles down and does the concerto episode the results are epic, but still. However, while it's not very good on music, as a romantic comedy nothing else this year comes close. The characters are all wonderful (especially the leads!), the funny bits work, and the drama comes through nicely. I whine about the music stuff, but really: as a series you can't do much better than this.
4 - Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Shaft (specifically the Pani Poni Dash squad) finally delivers. The PPP guys are now sort of like the Justine Henin of anime: nothing from them quite hit the level of great for whatever reason, but the potential always seemed to be there. With SZS, though, they nailed it. The wackiness is no longer random and empty, nor does it end up fighting against a story arc. Here everything's centered around characters and around the topics (the things to despair over) of the week. And, I might add, this show is relentlessly sexy - which isn't what you expect when the entire cast is made up of psychiatric cases.
5 - Kaiji. Kaiji is completely unironic MANime. In a year where everything else often seemed made of shiny surfaces and spun sugar, this show is all blood, sweat, and testosterone. And it's about card games and gambling for God's sake. If there's a single genre that I'm almost guaranteed not to like it's gaming and sports anime - yet somehow, the sheer dramatic gravity of Kaiji makes it work. Watching it is like slamming back a shot of gin: it burns like hell going down, but for some strange reason you want more.
6 - Potemayo. Somehow a show about freakish nonhuman moe abominations flew in out of nowhere and became the best slice-of-life series of '07. Potemayo, despite its cuteness, is laugh-yourself-coughing funny and easily one of the smartest shows of the year. And then there's Guchiko, who - I'm not ashamed to admit - is my favorite character of 2007. One may argue that I ought to pick someone a little deeper (Clare; Kaiji; Risa), but Guchiko is such a stroke of mad genius that she deserves the recognition.
7 - Dennou Coil. Despite all their differences, Dennou Coil is like Gurren-Lagann in that they're both shows which expand what anime can do. True, there hasn't been a shortage of those this year, but unlike the oddly unsatisfying Ghost Hound and the abominable Kissdum Dennou Coil actually works as a series. It does just about everything well, and the hops between funny and serious always ring true. Really though, the beard episode alone guarantees it a spot on my list.
8 - Minami-ke. The other great slice-of-life show from '07. Apparently they're remaking this for the coming season, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Like Zetsubou Sensei and Potemayo, what makes this series work is the characters, and they've picked a damn good batch of them. And I hope the reader can forgive me for having a little bit of a thing towards Mako-chan.
9 - Lucky Star. There's no way to justify liking Lucky Star. I'm sorry, there just isn't. The show says nothing and has nothing to do except pander to the audience. It's a cultural black hole; while watching it, I get the sense that I'm being swindled somehow. It lacks the dynamics of Genshiken and the darkness of NHK. It's the absolute worst among the otaku shows - and for that very reason, strangely, it's the purest. Lucky Star just IS lazy, unoriginal self-indulgence, it's well aware of that... and there's something brilliant about it.
10 - Shion no Ou. Every few seasons anime comes along and proves to me that I can and will genuinely like shows that I never believed would appeal to me; between this and Kaiji, fall '07 was the season that did it for gaming series. Shion, even more than kaiji, understands the golden rule of the genre: the less you make the series about the game, the better. I have no idea how shougi is played and I have no interest in learning, but damn does it work well as a spectacle. This show just does everything well, from puppy love to suspense to plotting to heated competition. It is, of course, quite absurd, but that comes with the style.
HONORABLE MENTIONS - Rocket Girl, Lovely Complex. I like simple shows - shows that know what they're doing and what their limits are, and don't try to go beyond themselves. Rocket Girl and LoveCom are like that: the first is cute girls in a space program, the second is short guy getting together with tall girl in Kansai. That's it. Both are basic, unadulturated animated entertainment. If Gurren-Lagann is a Veyron, then these are Miatas; they're just fun to watch, and not meant to be anything more.

All right then! Please write your own if you'd like, and I look forward to your nasty letters.
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