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Conelead wrote:

I still believe that despite everything that has been said, Haruhi was the series of the year. I realize that a lot of people are going to balk at this, so I'm going to explain my reasoning.

Haruhi deserves the spot for a few reasons
1) In and of itself, it is a pretty good series
2) This series was the breakout series for KyoAni
3) Fan response

Series of the year is obviously a subjective term that will be judged by different criteria for different people, but IMHO the best criteria take into account not only the series itself, but the effect of the series upon the industry in general.

Was Haruhi, in and of itself, the best series of the year? Of course not. There were a number of series better than it this year, and there will continue to be series better than it. But, it was a good and memorable series.

Air was KyoAni's first series, and a good one at that. The series drew interest from fans and showed that KyoAni was a studio capapble of doing good things. Haruhi turned them into instant household names (as far as anime is concerned). The fact of the matter is, the popularity of Haruhi contributed greatly, and will continue to contribute to the success of KyoAni.

The third point is the fan response to Haruhi. This is the major reason I feel Haruhi deserves the spot for series of the year. Ten years from now, what will this year be remembered for? It won't be the year of DeathNote or the year of Mushi-shi. It'll be the year of Haruhi. Haruhi took the fan community this year by storm, spreading like wildfire. If the series holds up to long-term scrutiny (which I believe it will) 2007 will be the year of Haruhi.

Think back to years past, and what the community in general remembers.

1989 - DBZ
1992 - Sailor Moon
1994-1995 - Rurouni Kenshin
2002 - Naruto
2003-2004 - Fullmetal Alchemist

Were any of these the best series produced in their year? The only one I'd even consider arguing is FMA. That still doesn't change the fact that those years are remembered for those series. It's not always the best series that should be series of the year. It's the series that did the most. Haruhi did the most this year. It deserves the spot.

I'm gonna move the analogy to another field that should be familiar to a lot of people on this forum: Videogames.

In the last 10 years, there have been many video games produced. I would say that if there was to be an award for video game of the decade (1998-2008) there would be only two reasonable candidates:

StarCraft
Counter-Strike

Say whatever you want, but I feel that these two games have had far more impact on the gaming industry in general than any other game produced in the last ten years. These were the games that brought online play to the masses, that forged the pro-gaming community. These were the games that forever changed the face of videogaming. That is why they deserve the award. Are they the best games produced in the past ten years? Definitively not. Are they the greatest? Yes.

Haruhi deserves the series of the year slot not because it was the best series in and of itself. It deserves the series of the year slot because it was a very good series that generated a tremendous wave in the community.

I'm going to have to disagree with pretty much all of this. This WILL be remembered as the year of Death Note. It's the most popular thing to come out since FMA, and will be more popular than Haruhi Suzumiya in the long run, assuming it already isn't. I personally don't think it ranks in the top five anime released in the US this year, but that's just me, apparently.

JackCox wrote:

Tyrenol wrote:

I can't believe that you'd give a show like Haruhi's Melancholy such high marks.

Sticking a self-absorbed b#### in the spotlight along with a useless nobody, mixing up the episode numbers, rip off the Matrix and Evangelion; you have yourself an anime?!

All I remember was the pain Kyon must've felt when Haruhi slammed the back of his head on her desk. Evil or Very Mad

It's great to know I'm not alone, because nothing would give more pleasure then to see Haruhi get slammed on the back of the head.

Wow, you guys seem to be over reacting a bit to this. It's really not that big of a deal. No need to get his worked up over the article.

Zac wrote:

ikillchicken wrote:

Jesus Christ! How about a spoiler warning or something? Not everyone has seen these anime but many people may still plan to. But yeah...Thanks. I'm sure I'll enjoy FMP: TSR much more now. Rolling Eyes

Or you could not read something titled "Best Ending" or "Best Death Scene" if you're worried about spoilers.

Not to mention at the very beginning it's mentioned not to read those parts and why. Even being added later it was spelled out pretty clearly. I haven't finished GunxSword myself so I just skipped that part, as well as the part of Air. Try doing the same next time when it's obvious there's a spoiler such as with the best DEATH in an anime.

Tyrenol wrote:

Zac wrote:

What, anime fans tend to be socially maladjusted, bizarrely angry wierdos when it comes to women?! Stop the presses!

Seriously though Tyrenol has this thing where if a woman in an anime is violent toward a man and it's played up for comedy he immediately launches into a diatribe about "misandry" in anime. He figures out a way to work that angle into almost every single one of his posts here.

I guarantee you he will follow up your post with 2000 words about the injustice of it all.

Why 2000 when I can calmly explain it in around 30 words?

When someone attacks you, what do you do? Do you fight back? Or will you be on the ground whining?

Since when is it ever a good idea to not fight back?

So I suppose hitting a woman is ok in your book. Nice, real nice. You're telling me you couldn't say simply walk away instead of hitting someone? I guess just walking away from a fight is not a real option for you is it.

I'm just glad to hear they gave credit though to the dub of Black Lagoon. There's been other great dub roles this year but I don't think there's been as great of a complete dub job as the casting with Black Lagoon. Each role fits the characters brilliantly and they all deliver their roles with real passion.

I also get a chuckle from Theron's pick for a guilty pleasure. I find myself continuing to re-watch episodes of Mai-Hime and Mai-Otome in my spare time. I often wonder if there's some subliminal messaging in the episodes that makes the viewrs continue to watch the show heh.

Cowboy Cadenza wrote:

I'm going to have to disagree with pretty much all of this. This WILL be remembered as the year of Death Note. It's the most popular thing to come out since FMA, and will be more popular than Haruhi Suzumiya in the long run, assuming it already isn't. I personally don't think it ranks in the top five anime released in the US this year, but that's just me, apparently.

So that's why Death Note has an ending plastered all over youtube in various incarnations, and why Hard Gay chose to parody Death Note, and why Death Note has so many cosplayers, etc.

Although I will agree with you on Death Note. I don't see what's so awesome about it. Is it good, yes. Is it OMGWTFBBQ good? Nope.

Conelead wrote:

Cowboy Cadenza wrote:

I'm going to have to disagree with pretty much all of this. This WILL be remembered as the year of Death Note. It's the most popular thing to come out since FMA, and will be more popular than Haruhi Suzumiya in the long run, assuming it already isn't. I personally don't think it ranks in the top five anime released in the US this year, but that's just me, apparently.

So that's why Death Note has an ending plastered all over youtube in various incarnations, and why Hard Gay chose to parody Death Note, and why Death Note has so many cosplayers, etc.

Death Note has already been around for a couple years in the form of a super popular Shonen Jump manga, and has only gained popularity since its inception. It has two live-action movies, with another spin-off movie on the way. That's all in addition to an anime that, for some reason, is rated as the second best anime ever according to the ANN rankings.

Oh, yeah...didn't Madonna cosplay as a character from Death Note?

I have friends who are not into anime who know what Death Note is, but if I mentioned Haruhi Suzumiya, I'm positive I would get a "...what?"

Yeah, Haruhi is very popular; I don't mean to claim that it doesn't have a huge fanbase. My point is that Death Note has already been popular for a while now, and it's only gaining popularity. If you had to ask me which franchise will still be popular in five years, I'd have to say Death Note hands down.

Death Note has popularity and nothing more, I feel that anyone that read the manga would agree that the second half the of series is just filler leading up to spoiler[Light's demise]. As such a great deal of us expected nothing out of the anime (even those of us who perfer anime over manga) and got just that. Actually I'm not even aware of any internet memes for the series after 'Just as planned'.

Basically Death Note is the World of Warcraft of anime, it's an interesting idea in the beginning but quickly becomes boring. Yet it has massive popularity thanks to a large core install-base and massive hype.

The series is no where near deserving best of the year... but then again I forget that the choice pool is only things released in America so a box with a pretty picture doodled on it couuld be eligible for such an award.

Sentios wrote:

You might want to mark your spoilers in that post.

MetatronM wrote:

How people can take the hilarity that is Death Note seriously is still mind-boggling to me.

I've never seen the anime, but I happen to like the manga.

-t

Sentios wrote:

The series is no where near deserving best of the year... but then again I forget that the choice pool is only things released in America so a box with a pretty picture doodled on it couuld be eligible for such an award.

Boy, that last comment sure sounds like an insult. If you're going to get all bent out of shape on that point, then why did you bother even reading an article that so utterly clearly advertises itself specifically as the best "in America?"

Fine, so you and a few others have spent quite a bit of time here carrying on about how Death Note isn't the best. Then what is? What that was released in America this year is the best if DN isn't?

And again, remember that this is only based on the first nine episodes. If DN tanks later on then its evaluation for 2008 will certainly be different. Can anyone who is not familiar with the manga (as I am not) dispute that the series doesn't get off to a roaring start, however? And if this isn't that great a series, then why did an anime expert as well-versed as Anime Nation's John Opplinger (who watches at least some of nearly every anime title released every year) proclaim it the best series of 2006 in Japan?

Conelead wrote:

Air was KyoAni's first series, and a good one at that. The series drew interest from fans and showed that KyoAni was a studio capapble of doing good things. Haruhi turned them into instant household names (as far as anime is concerned). The fact of the matter is, the popularity of Haruhi contributed greatly, and will continue to contribute to the success of KyoAni.

Umm, not true.
Generator Gawl - 1998
I'm Gonna Be an Angel - 1999
Munto - 2003
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu - 2003

Air - 2005

And this is just a small sampling of series where they seemed to play a major "Animation" or "Production" role. They're listed in secondary capacities at least as far back as Tenchi Universe (1995).

It was a fun read and I agree with most of the things I've seen. I've read about half of death note and while I don't think of it as fondly as some series, it is definitely engaging and that alone makes it a treat. Haven't seen any of the anime yet. The blatant knee jerk to Haruhi is to be expected from everyone who didn't like it and must preach to the world in why everyone else is wrong. We get it, Haruhi got more 9's/10's than shows you like so you feel personally hurt. Oh well? After just looking, there is a reason it has 1901 masterpieces and the 70 votes for "so-so" has more weight than the 159 for "worst ever".

For me, Air didn't end better than it started. Plot wise, you're right, it definitely did. However the beginning arc's mood still stuck with me more than anything else about the series. Spoiler:spoiler[I've also got strong feelings for death scenes like that. I can't say they're always bad, but I don't feel good with them either. Especially when the death was "pointless" as there was no closure of the entire story but only this one plot line]

Mushishi was too beautiful to ignore and deserves all of its praise.

I've seen a few of the others and have scribbled some more titles on my must see list after reading this. I feel that I'm pretty sensible with what I like and trust a lot of the reviews from this site. Thanks for the article.

Conelead wrote:

Think back to years past, and what the community in general remembers.

1989 - DBZ
1992 - Sailor Moon
1994-1995 - Rurouni Kenshin
2002 - Naruto
2003-2004 - Fullmetal Alchemist

Were any of these the best series produced in their year? The only one I'd even consider arguing is FMA. That still doesn't change the fact that those years are remembered for those series. It's not always the best series that should be series of the year. It's the series that did the most. Haruhi did the most this year. It deserves the spot.

Your "community memory" is more selective than collective, but all those shows do have something in common. For illustrative purposes, I'm going to flesh out your list a little and re-order it by its least common denominator.
Astro Boy, Kimba, Speed Racer ('60s)
Robotech (1985)
Sailor Moon (1995)
Dragonball Z (1996)
Pokemon (1997)
Gundam Wing (2000)
Yu-Gi-Oh (2001)
InuYasha (2002)
Rurouni Kenshin (2003)
Fullmetal Alchemist (2004)
Naruto (2005)
Bleach(2006)

To which you could add:
Death Note (2007)

The thing they have in common, being (of course) year of first US television broadcast. And, of course, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya doesn't have one of those. I don't think that detracts from its qualities in any way. I like MoHS, so don't think I'm bashing it. I'm just noting that (as your list of 5 shows demonstrates) exposure via television broadcast counts for a lot of what "the community in general remembers".

MoHS shows its strengths in the categories for which it got the nod: best character, best scene, best closer. As something to cosplay, mash-up for youtube, or sing and dance to it is fantastic. But as an overall series (wonderful though it was) I think that it was too much a bit of a mess to get a Series of the Year pick.
As far as Carl and Theron's choices for Series of the Year go, I can't say I'd have much cause to disagree with them any more than they already disagree with themselves. Between both their picks and both of their lists of the best of the rest, the only one I haven't seen is Kurau: Phantom Memory (something that I probably need to remedy) and I thought all the others were pretty terrific. My personal favorite was BECK, but I wouldn't feel compelled to insult anyone's intelligence for picking Mushi-shi or Death Note over it.

I might want to grumble about Nerima Daikon Brothers getting shut out of the non-existent Best Musical category though.

Death Note is a good manga and a decent TV series. The people who say it's "ridiculous" or terrible or whatever are kneejerk backlashin'.

Not that it's impossible to dislike, which I'm sure plenty of people do, but to say it's totally awful and all the praise is unwarranted is pretty much wrong.

Zac wrote:

Not that it's impossible to dislike, which I'm sure plenty of people do, but to say it's totally awful and all the praise is unwarranted is pretty much wrong.

Not all of the praise is unwarranted; the art and animation are superb, the story is highly original, and it's very suspenseful (at least the first time through, when you don't know what's going to happen). However, I would say that most of the praise for the writing (which I thought turned sloppy near the midpoint, or at least after spoiler[L died]) and characterization is undeserved; Death Note is all about the story, and no insane fans rambling about symbolism in the way Light combs his hair will change that.

Zac wrote:

Death Note is a good manga and a decent TV series. The people who say it's "ridiculous" or terrible or whatever are kneejerk backlashin'.

Not that it's impossible to dislike, which I'm sure plenty of people do, but to say it's totally awful and all the praise is unwarranted is pretty much wrong.

I think the problem that some people may have with the Death Note pick is that it's based on the first 9 or 10 episodes, which doesn't really guarantee that the show will be the best of the year when it finishes. It also shoves out other great shows that have finished being released (or are much closer to ending) than Death Note. I agree with Carl for writing that Death Note, Welcome to the NHK and FLAG are all great series, but haven't had enough released to really be included. Recognizing them for being up there, but admitting it's too early to make a call.

That said, while I wouldn't have chosen Death Note for a spot next year either, I don't think the show is terrible; it's engaging and fun to watch. I just think shows like Beck, Chevalier D'Eon and Mushishi (among others) were better and have enough episodes released at this point to prove it.

psycho 101 wrote:

Zac wrote:

ikillchicken wrote:

Jesus Christ! How about a spoiler warning or something? Not everyone has seen these anime but many people may still plan to. But yeah...Thanks. I'm sure I'll enjoy FMP: TSR much more now. Rolling Eyes

Or you could not read something titled "Best Ending" or "Best Death Scene" if you're worried about spoilers.

Not to mention at the very beginning it's mentioned not to read those parts and why.

That spoiler warning was added after several others and I complained so you're kinda beating a dead horse here. Zac mentioned that he added it a few pages back. You really ought to read the whole topic before posting. Its teh rules you know. Wink

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