2011 Misc. Anime Rankings

Now for some fun lists. All lists are relative to 2011 only. Unlike with the top 25, I made no attempt to be objective.

* = In top 25 overall.

Still Bitter About

  1. Mashiro-Iro Symphony - The color of lovers
  2. Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Yeah. Still bitter.

Anime by Season

  1. Fall
  2. Spring
  3. Summer
  4. Winter

Sure, winter had Madoka, spring had AnoHana, and summer had Steins;Gate, but neither had fall’s quantity of quality. Wouldn’t fault anyone for ranking this any other way.

Anime I Didn’t Get Around to Watching That I Should’ve

  1. Chihayafuru
  2. Tiger & Bunny
  3. Gosick
  4. Hyouge Mono
  5. Un-Go

…and probably never will.

Original Anime

  1. Puella Magi Madoka Magica*
  2. Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai*
  3. Mawaru Penguindrum*
  4. Tamayura ~Hitotose~*
  5. Hanasaku Iroha*
  6. Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing*
  7. C - Control - The Money and Soul of Possibility*
  8. Guilty Crown
  9. Blood-C
  10. No. 6

A pretty outstanding year for original works.

Anime Based on a Light Novel

  1. Ben-To* (lulz)
  2. Fate/Zero*
  3. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon*
  4. Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?*
  5. Infinite Stratos*
  6. Shakugan no Shana III (Final)
  7. Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
  8. Dantalian no Shoka
  9. Mayo Chiki!
  10. Ro-Kyu-Bu!

Do light novel-adaptations just suck in general? Or is there some kind of trick to making the conversion successful that they haven’t found yet. Video games are still working on this, but getting better.

Anime Based on a Manga

  1. Hourou Musuko*
  2. Working’!!*
  3. Natsume Yuujin-Chou San*
  4. Kamisama Dolls*
  5. Kaiji*
  6. Ao no Exorcist*
  7. Usagi Drop*
  8. Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season*
  9. A Channel*
  10. Nichijou*
  11. The World God Only Knows
  12. Yuruyuri
  13. Shinryaku!? Ika Musume
  14. Mirai Nikki
  15. Bakuman. 2

Manga still makes for the best source material, but vidya had a pretty good showing this year.

Anime Based on a Game

  1. Steins;Gate*
  2. The IDOLM@STER*
  3. Mashiro-Iro Symphony - The color of lovers
  4. Persona 4: The Animation
  5. Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!

There weren’t enough (good) candidates for either VNs or pure video games, so I just mushed them into a single category.

Anime by Source Material

  1. Original works
  2. Manga
  3. Games
  4. Light novels

Anime Songs

  1. Magia (Kalafina, Madoka ED)
  2. Buddy (Sakamoto Maaya, Last Exile OP)
  3. Endless Story - (Tamura Yukari, C³ OP1)
  4. Shirushi - (Kitamura Eri, C³ OP2)
  5. secret base - (Various, AnoHana ED)
  6. Light My Fire - (KOTOKO, Shana III OP1)
  7. Okaerinasai (Sakamoto Maaya, Tamayura OP)
  8. Fukanzen Nenshou (Ishikawa Chiaki, Kamisama Dolls OP)
  9. Pride (SCANDAL, Star Driver ED2)
  10. Stardust Melodia (Ceui, Horizon ED)

This list was really difficult to make. I intended to stop at 5, but it was hard to limit the list to even 10.

Madoka’s and AnoHana’s endings certainly left lasting impressions. Intentionally or not, each episode felt like they ended on cliffhangers and the endings emphasized the moods the shows wanted to leave you to brood on for a week. I find it funny that one of the worst anime this year had such good OPs. For #9, I wanted to put a Star Driver song so I just picked my personal favorite, but any of the fine OP, ED or insert songs could go there. At #10, I just have a soft spot for Ceui songs. I won’t even get started on the songs I had to unfortunately leave off.

    Pleasant Surprises

    1. Ben-To*
    2. Kamisama Dolls*
    3. Yuruyuri
    4. Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai
    5. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

    Rankings determined by how much a given show outperformed the initial expectations gathered from PVs and preview articles and such. Really must say, Yuruyuri and OreTsuba were much better than I thought they would be. While I had reasonable expectations for Horizon (which were shot in the first three or so episodes), it still turned out much better than I expected.

    Biggest Disappointments

    1. Moshidora
    2. Fractale
    3. Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi
    4. Kami-sama no Memo-chou
    5. Ikoku Meiro no Croisée

    Basically the opposite criteria of the previous list. Out of all the lists in this post, this is the one I have the most confidence in.

    Worst Shows

    1. Dragon Crisis!
    2. Maken-Ki!
    3. Hidan no Aria
    4. Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi
    5. C³ -Cube×Cursed×Curious-

    The criteria being that I actually watched 3+ episodes of a given show. Sadly, I finished all of these except Dragon Crisis! and Maken-Ki!. I can find no fault if you liked Maken-Ki! since it’s perfectly reasonable to enjoy fanservice shows, but the others all pretended to have stories, but failed miserably. Notice that the two shows I’m most bitter about did not make this list; even if the outcome was not as desired they still outperformed these shows.

    Mostly Likely to Watch Again

    1. Working’!!*
    2. Puella Magi Madoka Magica*
    3. Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai*
    4. Mawaru Penguindrum*
    5. Fate/Zero*

    I think I’ve watched the first season of Working!! like three times already. Now to convince NIS America either to not make premium boxes or to lower the prices on them. I’ve already bought Toradora! from them, but shelling out ~$40 for 13 episodes is nuts. Which leads us to:

    Mostly Likely to Buy the US Release Of

    1. Puella Magi Madoka Magica*
    2. Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai*
    3. Kamisama Dolls*
    4. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon*
    5. Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?*

    The first two should be obvious. As for the rest, I really do like my strange, niche titles. Mostly because I can pick them up in the bargain bin if I wait a couple years. Also, anything with “zombie” in the title will eventually find its way into my collection.

    noitaminA Shows

    1. Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai*
    2. Hourou Musuko*
    3. Usagi Drop*
    4. C - Control - The Money and Soul of Possibility*
    5. Guilty Crown
    6. No. 6
    7. Un-Go (Unwatched, but it can’t be worse than Fractale, right?)
    8. Fractale

    I actually liked Fractale, but even I must say it was the worst of the noitaminA offerings this year.

    Anime That Deserve Continuations

    1. Kamisama Dolls*
    2. The World God Only Knows*
    3. Ben-To*
    4. Working’!!*
    5. Infinite Stratos*
    6. Toaru Majutsu no Index

    The criteria being they don’t already have one lined up (that I’m aware of) and that they have unanimated source material. This discounts original works, of course. Had to slip in Index because it really does deserve more seasons, even if its second season was garbage.

    Harem Anime (Anime with 3+ characters after protag’s genitals)

    1. Infinite Stratos*
    2. Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?*
    3. Persona 4
    4. Ro-Kyu-Bu!
    5. Mashiro-Iro Symphony - The color of lovers

    Rankings determined by how good the anime was. Persona 4 is kind of a stretch as a harem anime, but you know any of the females in that show would give themselves up to the swag master in an instant.

    Anime Harems

    1. Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!
    2. Infinite Stratos*
    3. Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
    4. Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
    5. Mayo Chiki!

    Rankings determined by how much I’d want said harem for myself.

    Girls I’d Want in My Harem

    1. Charlotte Dunois (Infinite Stratos)
    2. Wanko (Majikoi)
    3. Akemi Homura (Madoka Magica)
    4. Hoshii Miki (iM@S)
    5. Kikuchi Makoto (iM@S)
    6. Makise Kurisu (Steins;Gate)
    7. Inui Sana (Mashiro-Iro)
    8. Sakura Kyouko (Madoka Magica)
    9. Meat (Haganai)
    10. Shiguma Rika (Haganai)

    You have to have a deredere like Charlotte in your harem to make all the others jealous.

    Reasons Why I Think Infinite Stratos Isn’t Total Garbage

    1. Main character is dense as fuck, but he ain’t no pussy.
    2. Suspension of disbelief: it actually makes sense IS can only be used by women since Tabane is a raging dyke.
    3. Mecha action.
    4. Charlotte. But really, all the girls are good.
    5. Jelly. So much delicious jelly.

    Guilty Pleasures

    1. Ro-Kyu-Bu!
    2. Mayo Chiki!
    3. Yuruyuri
    4. To Aru Majutsu no Index II
    5. Infinite Stratos

    I know I just got through explaining why I think Infinite Stratos is actually good, but it still manages to register as a guilty pleasure.

    Best Male Protagonists

    1. Mad Scientist Hououin Kyouma (Steins;Gate)
    2. God of Capturing Katsuragi Keima (KamiNomi)
    3. Broducer (iM@S)
    4. Impossible (Horizon)
    5. Hentai-san (Ben-To)

    Satou makes it in because Hentai is too good of a nickname.

    Worst Male Protagonists

    1. Uryuu Shingo (Mashiro-Iro)
    2. Hoshino Kazuma (HoshiKaka)
    3. …

    Yep. Bitter. But really, they were actually pretty tolerable as far as harem protags go. Here’s the real list:

    1. Miyamae Kanako (Maria Holic)
    2. Shoe (Guilty Crown)
    3. Kisaragi Yuuji (Dragon Crisis!)
    4. Ouyama Takeru (Maken-Ki!)
    5. Touyama Kinji (Hidan no Aria)

    Yes, Kanako somehow makes #1 on this list despite being female AND beating out Shoe.

    Most Shafted Heroines

    1. Inui Sana (Mashiro-Iro)
    2. Hinata Ibuki (HoshiKaka)
    3. Sena Airi (Mashiro-Iro)
    4. Mashu (C)
    5. China (Infinite Stratos)

    Did I mention I was bitter?

    #anime#ranking list