best of 2006, day 5: best action series of 2006
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Today we cover AoMM’s Best Action Series of 2006. Best Action usually means explosions, death, and generally fighting goodness. But first, some covering fire.
Best Mecha
Winner: Simoun, Simoun
I was thinking about how there wasn’t any superior mecha this year with Bandai having an off-toy year… their only serious entries were MS Strike Noir (boring black strike), MS Stargazer (boring science experiment), Zegapain (ugly), and the Code Geass mecha (rollerblades!). Well, the most intriguing mecha of the year was also the most ridiculous: the simoun. They attack by drawing patterns in the sky and then energize them by hawt lesbian action. One of the more interesting subplots of the series is the ability to draw the “Emerald” pattern which is basically a black hole… because none of the pilots can master it so the gender-less girls eventually use as a self-destruct tactic. Every time I see a pair try to draw the emerald pattern, I start thinking about how many times Heero blew himself and Wing up to save the day and kept hoping that Neviril would saying something like “I make the impossible possible!” But alas.
(Since I never really talked about it before, Simoun is a lot like Inukami. If you can get past the lesbian-powered drawing machines/macho gay robot pr0n, then you can start to enjoy the series. Some people just prefer to enjoy a series right off the bat, like Muketi Kanban Musume or Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, both strong starters.)
Runner Ups: Blue Breaker, The Third; Lancelot & Guren Nishiki, Code Geass; Sky Girl Project, Sky Girls, Hakuoro; Utawarerumono
I am disappointed that Sky Girls was only an one-shot OVA. Even if it were just eye candy. And I’m not sure if Hakuoro can be classified as a mecha… oh, what the hell. He’s in here as well.
Best Ability
Winner: Yuki Nagato’s Data Manipulation, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
If you can have the special ability of any anime character from 2006, what would it be? There’s a lot of interesting abilities: Lulu’s geass has definitely a myrid of possible uses, many of which Lulu needs to explore; Light-o’s death note has it’s charm, but it’s kinda limited to just killing people; Kiruru’s metroid-like ability may come in handy if I ever decide to take over a planet; Keita’s threshold for pain and humiliation is enticing; Emiya’s ability to fix desks and ignore hawt girls around him just plain sucks. I’ll go with Yuki’s ability to manipulate data. I can imagine this being handy for fantasy football.
Runner Ups: Geass, Code Geass; Death Note; Death Note; Accidental God Powers, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya; Sad Chick Magnet, Kanon; Ability to Use Large Caliber Rounds without Feeling Recoil, S-Strain and Coyote Ragtime Show
There was a great X-Files villain named “Pusher” who had this ability to make people do what he wants. As such, Mulder and Scully weren’t able to bring him down… until his jealous wife (also with the ability) comes along and brings him down. Someone reminds me of Lulu’s geass. Though like Ah-nuld in Commando, I’d love to be able to fire large caliber ammo meant for mounted guns by holding them at ab level without feeling any recoil. And then, like the CRS girls, miss sniping at targets 10 meters away. Lolilaika would wipe the floor with them… speaking of whom…
Best Tactical Mind
Winner: Lolilaika, Black Lagoon
Lolilaika is invincible. She’s by far the most with it leader of 2006, she’s an l33t sniper that I would love to see in a PPV match between her and Major Motoko, she’s ruthless and kills with the same glee as a Sonozaki, and she’s able to edit pr0n while doing of all of this. Plus, she has double ponytails… does that mean it’s Tuesday?
(Plus, I enjoy typing “lolilaika.”)
Runner Ups: Hakuoro, Utawarerumono; Yuki Nagato, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Hakuoro gets bailed out of some questionable tactics by his followers and by his ability to transform into a giant biological weapon thingie. Still, he can barely handle Aruru– I think if Kunnekamun were led by Lolilaika, there’s no contest. Poor Tusukuru would have gotten overrun more badly than the French in WWII. Hakuoro’s only chance is if he teams up with Yuki. I’m sorry… Space Fleet Commander / Retro Go-Go Girl Yuki.
Best Action Series of 2006
Winner: Black Lagoon
Revy. Love. Great manga-to-anime adaptation only marred by Revy’s seiyuu inability to speak English. I think there’s a lot of potential for this series if all the original voices were cast in the intended language originally: English. I just hope Geneon doesn’t screw up the dubbing. Anyway, two pantheon-class arcs (Mad Dog Meido and Hansel & Gretel), a shit-load of pantheon-class characters (MDM, H&G, Revy, Rock, Lolilaika), and crazy action propel this show to Best Action Series of 2006. And I mean mad crazy action. Reminds me of old 80’s action movies featuring either Van Damne, Stallone, or the current Governor of Cod-dy-for-ni-a. Good times. Good times. I get giddy everytime Revy pulls out her Sword Cutlass.
Runner Ups: Utawarerumono; Innocent Venus; Code Geass
Oddly, my favorite parts of Code Geass and Utawarerumono were the strategic portions. It’s been a long time… Gasarki‘s first half maybe… since an anime appealed to my inner military tactical junkie. Though these thoughts are quickly overpowered by Karura’s attempted rape of Hakuoro and C.C.’s Pizza Hut addiction.
20 Responses to “best of 2006, day 5: best action series of 2006”
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Sad Chick Magnet, Kanon lol.. I’d like some of that power, just 5 miligrams will do
> Plus, she has double ponytails… does that mean it’s Tuesday?
Monday is 0! Blue Wednesday it is!
Didn’t need Yuki’s data manipulation abilities or Ba-loli-laika’s tactical mind to see you picking that picture to represent Black Lagoon as Best Action Series.
50% Sonozaki + 50% Arucard + 50% King Kong = 100% emo facial distortion.
Sad Chick Magnet… reminds me of the movie Borat when he kept on asking the car salesman to put a certain magnet in his car.
Still, I think Emiya should go to Dr. Black Jack to get his special ability removed. It’s just like being impotent except people want to kill you rather than laugh at you.
Nagato-chi uber micro 4TW!
Thank goodness Lulu was not even considered for best tactical mind. I lost all hope for a stimulating and interesting tactical exercise when Lulu broke out the mudslide plan…I spent so many months in soil science that I still wonder how the hell all that water would just sit there, as well as how much energy would have been needed to bring all that water to a boil.
Still Lolilaika is one of the better aspects of Brezhnev’s legacy.
i’d like to throw in another category: Most Ridiculous Strategy/Weapon. Winner: The “Door Knocker” and Gespenst Jaeger of Pumpkin Scissors. i’ve been trying to figure out how they rationalized that idea for a while now, and so far, no dice. ok, sure, firing a weapon directly against a target gives a greater chance of penetration (airsoft poor-man’s chronos are done using coke cans with the muzzle an inch away). but when you look at the cartridges for those 13mm rounds, it’s not enough powder to penetrate even WWI era tank armor. even if it was, imagine the sheer recoil force. if it doesn’t wreak havoc on the shooter’s body, it certainly will on the weapon’s frame, since even Enfield and Webley break action revolvers were known to start experiencing frame warping despite their weak bullets. a 13mm round intended for anti-tank usage fired from a break action weapon doesn’t sound like it’d last long, especially if it were the size of a pistol.
end rant.
double ponytail means wednesday ^^~~
Well… if NeoRanga could be considered mecha then Hakuoro could be considered mecha as well. Otherwise he’s just a kaijuu, I’d suppose.
During Lolilaika’s intro, they were playing Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Ballet. So when they started talking about the Olympics, I thought that she was going to be a ballerina.
The music Balalaika sings to these days is probably the “Architecture of Aggression”. :p
Narf.
Re: bullet vs. tank — depends on the design and quality of the armor. It wasn’t unheard of for .50 cal bullets to penetrate Italian WWII tanks.
However, Yuki’s data manipulation winning best ability feels like a sop to make up for Melancholy being shut out of the Best Comedy Series competition. Seriously, Best Ability should have gone to C.C. for being able to scarf down all that pizza yet not gain an ounce of weight.
>> Ability to Use Large Caliber Rounds without Feeling Recoil, S-Strain and Coyote Ragtime Show.
Don’t forget Gretel from Black Lagoon.
Awww, Soukou no Strain had some pretty nice mecha, I thought…maybe not Simoun-class, but worth mentioning at least.
Ravage Says:
“>> Ability to Use Large Caliber Rounds without Feeling Recoil, S-Strain and Coyote Ragtime Show.
Don’t forget Gretel from Black Lagoon.”
A 50-60 lb, 4 foot tall (maybe) loli carrying a 20 lb, 4 foot long gun is an awesome thing. Said loli being able to fire at a rate of 300 .30 cal rounds a minute with said gun, with no visible recoil, is also an awesome thing…
Not exactly physically possible, but still pretty damn awesome.
I don’t think any kind of weaponized loli is more impressive than Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry which had – decades ago – even more advanced skills. You could say, there’s no such thing as free lunch unless you’re a toon?
>>she’s an l33t sniper that I would love to see in a PPV match between her and Major Motoko
Well, this would be sort of unfair, since Major Mokoto sports a fully cybernetic, semi-armoured, Titanium skulled, prosthetic body with nude-stealth.
Lolilaika may be skilled with the Druganov, but I wonder how she’ll handle targeting a pissed Makoto with a M95 .50 cal…
Does FLAG count as having mechas? They aren’t half bad to be honest. :)
I think the God ability of Haruhi trumps Yuki’s though – its the pure power of creation/destruction as opposed to manipulation that makes a god THAT dangerous.
Black Lagoon’s final arc is better than Mad Dog Meido, IMO: the Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise arc is just… well, you throw in a bunch of Russian mob hits + Revy in tights and a tight sweater + a swordsman + a Yakuza Schoolgirl = win all around. Especially since it has some of THE best fights of the second season, at least for me; that and Rock actually gets to play ‘bad-ass’ for once: when he gets to say “Crush them completely, wipe them out to the last man” to Balalaika – and she only smiles at him and leans in close enough to steal a kiss – then someone’s seriously graduated from the “Shinji Ikari Memorial School of Gaining a Backbone”; dedicated to the memory of anime heroes like Ikari Shinji and Emiya Shirou who just didn’t get any throughout the run of their shows.
Plus it has plenty of Balalaika. Between that and the Hansel & Gretel arc… :D
Speaking of recoil, you people are DEFINITELY forgetting about the “recoil is for pussies” show aka Soul Link. But that one was so bad everyone dropped it after two episodes, max…
Ah, ep. 24 of Black Lagoon. More squishy faces from Revy than in the whole series combined. Don’t forget to hang out til after the credits!