Year In Review

Since everybody else is giving out awards and whatnot I'll do the same over here ;) Perhaps I should've done this in the audio update, but I already went on for far too long, lol. Anyways, moving on...

This blog first started off with some of the winter season shows such as Kita e and the very strange Paranoia Agent (which I still haven't finished). Kita e turned out well and has been licensed so I'll probably end up picking it up. For some reason, I also watched Yumeria then.... I also watched Figure 17 on DVD and ended up getting so much into it I downloaded the rest of the series and finished it within a few weeks. It was definitely worth it, and those who haven't seen it out there should give it a look. Probably one of the more overlooked anime of the past year, Twin Spica, ended in March, keeping the same emotional impact it had previously for me. Always needed to keep the Kleenex close by during those flashback episodes ;) I also blogged Popotan together with the Sea Slugs as I've mentioned previously.

The spring season was the first full one for the blog, and for me the first for watching things completely raw. I enjoyed Konomini... and Koikaze as well, though that one particular episode really surprised me. (I still can't believe they actually frickin' did it!!) Midori no Hibi had its fun parts, but trying to cram all the manga material into that short a series didn't quite work as well as I would've hoped it would.

The end of the spring season saw this blog change hosts after the UGA music school kicked everybody off their server. Thanks to Nyro for hosting me since then ;) Kurau started off the summer very well (I need to finish that.. or perhaps I'll just wait for the DVDs), and Elfen Lied in July made it even better. Girls Bravo was also a fun diversion, though all that steam was rather annoying :P

October kicked off a very busy fall season for me, and around that time it seemed like the readership of the blog exploded. Y'all have already heard what I have to say about those shows so I won't go on about those. Fullmetal Alchemist ended its run then and definitely goes down as one of my favorites of the past year.

As for other shows I caught up on not recently... Kaleido Star was great... Full Moon wo Sagashite is one of those I don't understand why I didn't watch earlier... and Mermaid Melody was enjoyable enough, though I could have done without the singing :P

Awards are as follows -- not necessarily all for shows that aired this year, just what I watched this year:

Best Openings
Elfen Lied - LILIUM: Beautiful Latin singing along with those visuals
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha - "innocent starter": I think I've already said how much I like this song more than a few times

Best Ending
Midori no Hibi - "Mou Sukoshi.. Mou Sukoshi": Nice song and the visuals to go with it summed up the show well.

Most Unique Opening
Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~ - "Neko Mimi Mode"/"Tsuku Yomi Mode": Somewhat surprised me the first time I saw it, but the song eventually grew on me. Neko Mimi Mode, y'all! ;)

Most Unique Song (Not OP/ED)
Konjiki no Gash Bell!! - "Chichi wo Moge": Folgore's song made me just about fall outta my chair when I first heard it. Hilarious ;)

Favorite Characters
FMA - Ed & Al Elric, Roy Mustang
Elfen Lied - Nana
Kaleido Star - Sora
Futakoi - Souju (kawaii!)
Rozen Maiden - Shinku
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha - Nanoha & Fate
Mermaid Melody - Hanon

Not So Favorite Characters
Yumeria - Just about everybody from that show
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien - Takayuki: Deserves special mention even though it was on before this year
Koikaze - Koushirou: I still can't believe you did that!

Tearjerker Award
Fullmetal Alchemist - More than a few episodes I'd rather not remember. Y'all who watched it know what I'm talking about.
Twin Spica - Those flashback episodes brought out the Kleenex rather quickly.

Most Improved
Futakoi - Started off slow for the first 4 episodes then finally got things moving as I was about to give up on it.

Ichiban Moe Award (that's "mo-eh", not "moe")
Futakoi - Souju definitely gets this one ;)
Honorable mention to Ichika (Uta~Kata) and Hazuki (Tsukyomi ~Moon Phase~)

"Why did I watch that?" Award
Yumeria - I don't know why...

"OMGWTF! Did I really hear/see what I thought I did!?! [Rewind]" Award
Koikaze - Y'all know what I'm talking about. I definitely was NOT expecting those two to get that far.

"Why hasn't someone licensed this already!?" Award
Full Moon wo Sagashite - I don't understand why not.. geez, even Yumeria got licensed. Would be Kodocha, but FUNimation finally picked it up, thank goodness ;)

Fanservice Award
Popotan - Easily takes this one. Desensitized me to most all fanservice with its constant barrage of bath scenes every episode.
Honorable mention goes to Uta~Kata for always finding a way to have a bit (or more) just about every episode.

And what you've all been waiting for...

Best Of 2004 Award
Elfen Lied - Easily takes my top award for the year as probably the only show that started/finished this year that I'll remember for a while. Read my entries on the show to get more of my impressions. I'll be picking up the DVDs as soon as they're released for this one :)

Best Of 2004 That Started In 2003 Award
Fullmetal Alchemist - I believe y'all all know why ;)

Anybody else out there want to give out some awards? Feel free to do so in the comments :) If y'all come up with some interesting ones I'll add them to the post.