Forum - View topic2014 Top Anime.
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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I noticed there is a new poll for the top anime of 2014. Well if you haven't voted yet, you should! I also didn't see that there was a discussion thread about it yet, so I figured I might as well open one up.
My first 4 choices were pretty easy. I didn't even have to think for more than a few seconds about them. Also, these are not necessarily in order, just alphabetical: Akame ga Kill! Black Butler: Book of Circus Log Horizon Parasyte: The Maxim I've been a pretty big fan of AgK!. It has a lot of really interesting characters in it, including most of the "villains," who were a very unique bunch of freaks. I think looking back, my favorite two villains were Esdeath and Seryu. That's not to say I liked them as people. However, they were the most intriguing villains that I have seen for a while. Both of them had so many different dimensions of development to them that it was a lot of fun watching them and wondering what they would do next week. Also, the good guys were pretty cool, although they didn't really stand out as much as the villains. But I really have liked Akame the entire time. She seems like pretty much the ideal female lead. Cool, competent, strong, highly-skilled, and yet still able to show her feelings when she wants to. I also have liked Tatsumi as a male lead. He's sort of an innocent nice guy, but he's also strong and doesn't curl up into a little ball whenever something bad happens. He shows his emotions, but when it is time to fight, he does what he needs to do. With Black Butler, they probably didn't have to work too hard at it since the franchise is already so well established and any new entry is probably going to be a fan favorite (as long as they follow the already-established formula). Well, they mostly followed the same formula, but also threw a few fun new things our way. First of all, Ciel is a much darker character in this arc than he has been in previous arcs. That was established in the very first episode. I enjoyed that, as it allowed us to see another side of him. The show plays off that a bit, making us question whether he is worse than Sebastian. The villains here were also very imaginative. The snake guy was hilarious, and some of the "bad guys" had very complicated stories which made them somewhat sympathetic. Doll in particular was an interesting bad guy, and I thought the relationship between her and Ciel was just amazingly well thought out and heart-wrenching in many ways. Log Horizon returned from hiatus and has been pretty solid week in and week out. It was one of my top shows from last year, so it's no surprise that it returns to my top this time around. LH is without doubt the most well written entry into the MMORPG genre. It has a huge ensemble cast (and when I say huge, I mean HUGE - as demonstrated in each season's OPs), and yet even with dozens of characters to develop, it manages to give us a strong sense of most of them as people. A lot of this is accomplished through character interaction and exposition, rather than dedicating entire episodes to telling people's backstories. It is a smart way to handle such a large cast, since they simply wouldn't have the time to go through so many backstories. On that same point, we don't really learn the true backstories of any of the characters in LH. Maybe that was done specifically to prevent some characters from becoming well developed while others were forgotten. Instead, the show forces us to "live in the moment" with all of these people who have been somehow transported into this world based on their MMORPG. It means that, although we do learn some hints about their past, we see them developing before our eyes. It was a smart choice to do things that way, and it works. If you are a fan of fantasy and RPGs, and you haven't watched Log Horizon, you are missing out big time. And of course, Parasyte has been a hugely fun show for me. It might be an oldie (as far as source material) but it is definitely a goodie. Shinichi starts out as the usual hapless, pitiable male lead, but it doesn't take long at all for him to start developing beyond that. I love that in a lead character. One of the things that annoys me most is when we have to sit around for dozens of episodes waiting for the writers to give the lead a backbone. We suffer through watching him/her sob and shy away from everything, curl up in a fetal position and whimper whenever trouble is coming. That's boring as hell. Shinichi's development hasn't been too fast either to make it seem fake. He's been a pretty great lead so far. Also, Migi is just awesome. He reminds me a lot of Kyubey from PMMM. However, he's much more intellectual than Kyubey was. Kyubey was a total utilitarian. Migi is more of a strategist. Their personalities are not too different though. My fifth choice was harder. There were other shows that I liked, but didn't stand out like these did. Barakamon, Chaika, Tokyo ESP, and Space Dandy were among them. If I absolutely had to go with one, it was Barakamon. It was able to bring out a lot of emotions from the audience without being too cheesy. The characters were all pretty intriguing and/or likeable. And, the subject matter was a bit more unique than the other shows. Well, those were my choices. What were other peoples'? |
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Hikari14
 Posts: 1040 |
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Akatsuki no Yona has the first place to me. At first, I checked it out for boredom, but it quickly ensnared me. I am a sucker for epic journeys and I find this very intriguing. The ending always leaves me waiting for more.
Sora no Method is in second place. Much like AnY, it leaves me craving for more. Unlike many people here, I adore the character interactions. It's very relaxing show. Nonoka and Noel are what makes it likeable to me the most. I also see myself in them, which adds to my enjoyement of this show. Third and fourth places go to two WIXOSS series. I don't really know how to explain those, so I'll just say they're amazing. A bit of mystery in them didn't hurt either. And those are my favorites. |
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getchman
 Space CowboyPosts: 9120 Location: Bedford, NH |
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there is a discussion thread for the poll, it just isn't linked to the poll. I've watched 103 shows on that list and I just cant simply narrow it down to five
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18179 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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There's going to be an article feature posted in connection with the results to that poll. You might want to wait with this for that response thread to avoid redundancy.
I won't lock this, though, in case people just don't want to wait. Last edited by Key on Tue Dec 09, 2014 3:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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Yea I figured people might want to talk about what they were thinking as they were thinking it (vs retrospective commentary). I assume the thread on the results will be more in reaction to the rankings. This is more to just say what you are voting for and why.
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A Mystery
 Posts: 1886 Location: Netherlands |
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Last year we had a thread where you didn't only pick your best shows, but also things like best villain, best animation, etcetera. Was quite fun.
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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I'll hold off on a more definitive pick or ranking for the ANN article. Besides, I can hardly pick. This has been easily the best year for anime in a decade.
Space Dandy season 1 was a whole lot of fun. Hit and miss but some really amazing episodes too. And then season 2 really took the show to the next level basically matching the best of season 1 but on a consistent basis. Fate/Stay Night has thus far been easily the best Fate show ever. And I actually like the original adaptation but this strips out many of the more dubious parts. It is also free of Fate/Zero's massive pacing issues so that's something. Parasyte is a bit of a slow burn initially. Not in any way bad but just leaving one to wonder when it was really going to but has really stepped up as quite possibly the best all around show of the year in the last little while. Rage of Bahamut also deserves a nod. It's a wonderful blend of Hollywood style adventure and huge scale high fantasy all supported by some excellent underlying character writing. Ping Pong was also outstanding. Really smart, character driven drama and probably my favorite Yuasa show visually. Plus I haven't even watched the new season of Mushishi or any of Tokyo Ghoul. (Plus there's Psycho-Pass although I've heard bad things). And I need to catch up on Shirobako which is definitely doing some at least interesting things. I also gotta give a nod to Nobunagun. While certainly not best of the year, it was a terribly fun and unique show that was really quite memorable. And hell, I even think Terror in Resonance deserves a little nod for being very pretty and at least trying to do something interesting even if it kinda collapsed into a giant mess. |
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DuelGundam2099
 Posts: 533 |
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I went with G-Reco, Cross Ange, Witchcraft Works, Nobunagun, and Nobunaga The Fool because I find greatness in all of them. Was Gundam-San on that list? I say this because do not remember it being on there.
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xyz
Posts: 243 |
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1. Still the world is beautiful (It's not perfect but I thoroughly enjoyed this. Sweet love story.)
2. Silver Spoon 2 (Nice and relaxing slice of life. It gives me good feelings.) 3. Nobunaga Concerto (Art is unique and the story keeps me interested. Main guy makes me laugh.) 4. Log Horizon (Characters are great and story telling is good in the first half. But things got off track from there. Still I like it and hope it will do better.) |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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I have two favorites so far:
1. Ping Pong (rating: 10/10) 2. Kill La Kill (rating: 9/10) Rest is weaker though I need to watch more from this year. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I am going to wait to analyse this year fully, today I have to focus on an assessment, so I might just say what my favourites were by season.
Winter - We had the second halves of some pretty good anime like Tokyo Ravens, Kill la Kill, Strike the Blood, Golden Time, and Log Horizon. They probably overshadowed the new shows, and I think it might come down to more personal taste side where I really liked Witch Craft Works, I thought it was J.C. Staff's best anime in a while. Spring - It is a bit hard to choose, Haikyuu made me care about sport anime, but No Game, No Life was just awesome so I will go with that. Summer - This season had some amazing comedy with Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, Sabagebu, and Barakamon. Each on probably could have grabbed the attention for comedy by itself, but Barakamon in whole stole the spotlight for being almost perfect. Autumn - I still have not quite made my decision, Gugure Kokkuri-san is really funny, but Rage of Bahamut Genesis is pretty much a cinematic experience in anime form. I think that it is Rage of Bahamut which has really captured my attention and at this point I am really interested to see how the last of it goes. |
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flylo
 Posts: 2 |
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TOP 5
Aldnoah.Zero - Im a fan of Gundam but this show just elevated the standard with a great soundtrack, solid storyline and interesting characters. Barakamon - What a gem! I didn't know I would enjoy a slice of life anime so much. It had me so attached by the end I didn't want it to finish. Thanks for the laughs Barakamon! Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works - Never have I seen any of it's previous outings but I'm loving this anime so much. The production values are so high everywhere, the action is awesome, the characters have strong personalities and the soundtrack is pretty good to boot. Might be my favourite this year. Ping Pong: The Animation - This show has character in spades. Just more anime like this, please! Your Lie in April - I grew up learning the piano and just have a fondness for anything with a classical score. The music delivers and more than that it has some deep characters all dealing with their own struggles to achieve greatness. "In the face of adversity, that's when you know if someone's the real deal or not... or so they say. The stars shine at night, you know!" (Kill La Kill - Would've added this somewhere in my top 5 but I guess this is considered a 2013 anime since I couldn't vote for it  )
HONORABLE MENTIONS Rage of Bahamut: Genesis - My favourite popcorn anime right now. Space Dandy - I haven't watched much of season 2 but I hear good things so I'll catch up soon. Sword Art Online II - Had a great time watching GGO then almost dropped it during the excalibur arc but I'm back onboard with this new storyline atm. Blue Spring Ride - Not the type of anime I'm normally caught watching but I really enjoyed this. No Game, No Life - Could be my favourite game based anime but it ended too early to tell... hopefully it's not like Log Horizon's second season... such a snore fest. Yet to watch... Parasyte - I own a bit of the manga and my friend really enjoys this so I'm going to get around to it soon. Witch Craft Works - Just looking through here it seems to be quite popular so I definitely wanna check this out soon too! 
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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AZ is probably one of the better known controversial series among the viewership for 2014, it should have been a GREAT series that we should be proudly speaking of but instead becomes bogged down by a questionably written lead who instead of coming across as "mysterious" was as flat as many of his line deliveries. AZ is going to be recognized but not for some of the positives it did execute decently, such as animated mech action scenes. |
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flylo
Posts: 2 |
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Maybe you're right but what I took away from Inaho was that he was supposed to be this empty character, blank and emotionless. Not some kind of mystery considering the effects his early experience with the death of his parents would have on him. It was also that quality that allowed him to be so calm and calculating in the face of the most desperate times of the show. It was those characteristics that made it all the more bittersweet in the end as he struggles towards Asseylum's side and is finally overwhelmed by his thoughts for her. Anyways, that's what I remember about it but it's been awhile so I might need to re-watch it again. Either way, I'm very excited for season 2! |
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A Mystery
Posts: 1886 Location: Netherlands |
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Ah here it is: Your Best of 2013 Awards thread
I'm gonna sleep now, but I'm gonna give my 2014 Awards tomorrow. Should I put it here or in a separate thread... oh well I'll also leave that dilemma for tomorrow 
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