best of 2008: #10, #9, #8
Categories: best of 2008
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A mailman. A trap. And an idol.
#10: Shigofumi
“You’ve got mail!”
Also wins for 2008:
- Most Sarcastic Familiar
- Most Deranged Father
- Most Suicides In A Four Episode Span
- The Kozue-chan Memorial Personality Split Award
A year ago, I argued that anime about morality feel into three categories: the artistic, the scholarly, and the emotional. Those are the three avenues as to how the moral of the story would be drilled into us, and Shigofumi did a great job at presenting its morality in emotional terms. A very telling aspect is that throughout the filler, Fumika was always cold and calm, but when it got around to Kirameki, she fell apart.
I originally complained at the beginning that Fumika wasn’t the star of the show and how the stories overpowered her presence. Thankfully, this issue was rectified once Kirameki was introduced. Shigofumi ended up being an enjoyable show that I looked forward to every week, and it ended up seeming too short… by the time things got interesting, it was already over. Oh well, Best of 2008’s countdown kicks off with Shigofumi at #10.
#9: Minami-ke Okawari
“Everyone at once, ‘Thanks for the meal!'”
Also wins for 2008:
- Best Mako-cakes Being Mako-cakes
- Best Hosaka Being Hosaka
- Best Kana Minami Being Kana Minami
- Best Haruka Minami Being Amazing
Okawari started up right after the original series finished airing, so it’s hard to not compare the two. The original had better animation and a tighter focus on the three stellar sisters, while Okawari amped up Hosaka’s sex appeal as well as Mako-cakes, uh, Mako-cakeness. Okawari has a few stumbles, like the inexplicable black faces for the anonymous characters, way too much screentime wasted on Fubuki, and maybe too much Mako-cakes.
However, just based on the Minami sisters, Okawari was enjoyable enough. Their typical antics continued, and we got plenty the amazing Haruka. A few episodes, like the hot springs and the pool one were highly enjoyable. Minami-ke is still at its best when it focuses on the interactions between the sisters, the continuous barrage of in-jokes, and plenty of fanservice. While Okawari doesn’t score as high as the original series did, it still earns a place in the top ten shows of 2008. It is the strongest low calorie, slice-of-life entry on the list this year.
#8: Macross Frontier
“Kimi wa dare to kisu wo suru?”
Also wins for 2008:
- Most Gigantic Ranka Lee
- Best Evil Inoue Kikuko Role Since Demon Belldandy
- Most Awesome Cell Phone
- Best Chinese Restaurant Commercial
The music, rightfully, takes center stage for Macross Frontier. Between Yoko Kanno, Nakajima, and May’n, the music was some of the best in Macross lore having new material in addition to homages to everything from the original series to Dynamite. And I really liked all the little things, like Ranka’s awesome iSlug, Ranka’s Nyan-Nyan commercial, Klan’s glitch, Fufonia specials, the San Francisco rip-off city, and Sheryl’s “Hopes and dreams” line.
But I can’t help but think that the show could have been a bit better– there were one too many “Alto or whomever makes it just in the nick of time to save someone” scenes. And definitely, we could have used some conclusion to Ranka vs. Sheryl. I mean, Macross has always decided on a winner from Misa to Sara to the YF-19… until Frontier. Gah. Any, small quibbles compared to just being a fun series to watch… and sing-a-long to. What ’bout my staaar? What ’bout my staaar?
(And I did that episode-by-episode thing for this series…)
17 Responses to “best of 2008: #10, #9, #8”
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Man, if Okawari went down to #9
There is little chance the Okaeri will even make the top ten.
Okaeri was actually pretty good. Okawari was horrible with the black faces and concentration on a completely uninteresting character (the short kid next door with glasses). I’m glad Okaeri killed off both of those entitites without even a mention.
Anyway, for Okawari to be #9, 2008 must have been a hell of a weak year. That or the blog author’s taste is anime is equally as horrible as Okawari’s writers.
Didn’t Kikuko Inone also do I-No from Guilty Gear, too? She was evil in that too…
I see my opinion of Shigofumi diverges a bit from Jason’s: I loved the earlier, stand alone episodes and thought the plot-centric ones were the weaker portion of the series.
Okawari was a step beneath the first, but still quite enjoyable. Certainly still watchable animation-wise, and the jokes weren’t completely done to death yet, unlike Okaeri. And Fubuki was only slightly worse than Touma’s troupe of unfunny brothers this season.
I loved Macross F, mostly. The beginning and ending were the best, and the music was stellar.
’08 in general was thin pickings, despite some standout shows like Shigofumi and Macross F, so I’m a little puzzled as to how they rank as low as #10 and 8. Unless I’m just forgetting something, I stretch to think of 7 better shows I saw this year, so I can only chalk it up to Jason pulling some of his more “unique” favorites up at the cost of more popular ones.
Cobrafire: She did I-No, who was the evil bitch… and for that matter, she was The Boss back in the original Japanese PS3 release of Metal Gear Solid 3. Yes, she was THAT Boss, the one who taught Big Boss everything he knew, who gave birth to a child on the shores of Normandy during D-Day, and who was betrayed by her country when infiltrating Colonel Volgin’s operations, which forced Big Boss to kill her.
Besides, who needs an ending to Sheryl versus Ranka, when both together make a delicious combination?
Kikuko Inoue is so badass.
“It is the strongest low calorie, slice-of-life entry on the list this year.”
You must not have watched Hyakko. I put it off till it finished but after watching the first episode I couldn’t help but marathon it in one go and I’m often not much interested in slice-of-life.
OK, a quick google search confirmed that you did watch it so, uh. What, Jason? The original Minami-ke may have been able to overwhelm it with greatness but the second and third seasons get beat out. I only watched it a couple months ago and marathoned Okawari soon afterwards so I’m pretty sure it’s not me. I’m just hoping you didn’t forget about it when giving Okawari the title.
“There is little chance the Okaeri will even make the top ten.”
Personally, I preferred Okaeri but it’s a 2009 show.
She played The Boss too? I know she’s been trying to get away from the “Onee-sama” roles, WOW…..
I’d would’ve put Macross (a lot) higher, since I’m part mechaphile as well, and I really enjoyed the dogfights and all. Plus the animation was stellar, my brother and I loved it to bits. Combined with the power of Jpop, and I thought we had a surefire winner…
But since Jason isn’t the mechaphile, I’ll let it slide.
While it wasn’t the best trap, it was probably the one that caused the most recent damage in a long string of brokeness. While others may have been better traps, or caused more confusion…Mako-cakes probably became the poster child for the “Broken” as even the term “Mako-cakes” gets passed around from place to place…and the denial continues…partly because of the character itself, but also because Asread for whatever reason, made Mako-cakes cuter than the rest of the cast, only making the confusion worse.
Okaeri was actually pretty good. Okawari was horrible with the black faces and concentration on a completely uninteresting character (the short kid next door with glasses). I’m glad Okaeri killed off both of those entitites without even a mention.
Anyway, for Okawari to be #9, 2008 must have been a hell of a weak year. That or the blog author’s taste is anime is equally as horrible as Okawari’s writers.
Nope, Minami-ke is definitely a solid pick for 2008. Minami-ke always overperforms with it’s fresh and distinct semi-plausible-irl situations, and epic pair of traps. Go watch moar naruto imo.
Nope, Minami-ke is definitely a solid pick for 2008. Minami-ke always overperforms with it’s fresh and distinct semi-plausible-irl situations, and epic pair of traps. Go watch moar naruto imo.
No mention of the emo-kid next door (Fuyuki)? Did you not like that character? Half of Okawari was about that stupid kid!
Actually I rewatched Okawari. Fuyuki wasn’t focused on all that much really. He had rather little actual screentime outside of two episodes. While he was the cause of a situation (and has some screentime, the closest to a third focus episode) when they when on trash pickup, most of the show was on Kana and Chiaki’s group. The two he was featured in where number six (where I really hated him for being able to sleep with all three Minamis at once and yet be the so out of place that he didn’t want to stay…burn him I say) and episode 12 where he left for good (at they made us feel for him…but it was far, far too late for that). Other than that, most of his scenes were very short, or he was just there with stuff happening around him (like Chiaki’s friends getting drunk on “juice”).
The thoughts that he ruined the show are overplayed. He only really stole one solid episode where he didn’t fit in at all and ended up making Chiaki upset…even the snowball fight wasn’t fun…or using three women for warmth wasn’t appleasing because he won’t accept it correctly. The rest of the time he was irrelevent or in the end they actaully got him to work, but only enough to make us sorry for him because he was just starting to come out of hie shell to the Minamis when he is pulled away. (and again upset Chiaki because she didn’t know he was leaving).
Other than that…it is basically just Minami-ke. The problems where that Asread was being too experimental with their artwork, and didn’t have very good comic timing (several jokes that should have worked didn’t because of poor timing with cuts and reaction shots, or were not followed through when they should have.) At least at first. They got better at it about half way through the season, and have it down for the most part now in Okaeri. (just there art department went from experimental to novice in quality control).
The Minami sisters will be back. No worries.
“Nope, Minami-ke is definitely a solid pick for 2008. Minami-ke always overperforms with it’s fresh and distinct semi-plausible-irl situations, and epic pair of traps. Go watch moar naruto imo.”
Trap and reverse-trap.
What age are you that you can still tell someone to ‘watch moar Naruto’? It’s seriously old by now. Besides, don’t you think that someone whose only experience in anime was Naruto would think Okawari was genius? There’s a lot of shows in 2008, and despite being a solid show, Okawari wasn’t as good as it’s predecessor. It’s not difficult to see why some were disappointed.
The Minami-ke shows are a lot of fun and Jason writes about them a lot so it would make sense to me if he simply wanted it up on the 2008 best list because of that. Having it up there 3 years running would make a lot of sense on this blog.
Other than that, most of his scenes were very short,
Fuyuki is the anti-Hosaka. Like Hosaka, any amount of screen time leaves a strong impression. Unfortunately with Fuyuki, it is a strongly negative one.
Is there such a thing as too much Mako-cakes?
Oh shit— Macross F scored # 8 on your ranking… I wonder why…
Stiil, I agree with you.