D-4: The Best Anime of 2011 「MISCELLANEOUS」

Not entirely sure I should label this as 'Best of' but anyway. Again just my personal opinion. List of anime I watched can be seen here.


Favourite Characters
Male - Kinji Tooyama

Purely for the endless laughter at 'Hysteria Mode'.

Female - Touwa Erio

She's interesting and completely adorable. What kind of normal 16 year old girl believes she's an alien and constantly wraps herself in a futon?

Other - Inga

Inga gets a separate category because I simply have no idea if Inga is male or female. "He" can change into a woman so I really have no clue. In any case, I really liked Inga's characters and it was one of the things I enjoyed while watching UN-GO.

More than I Expected - Infinite Stratos

It's really nothing more than harem and mecha but it really wasn't bad like I expected it to be. I was pleasantly surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed this series despite everyone always asking me why I would enjoy such a thing. I really liked the mecha...

Not What I Expected - Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai

I wasn't expecting much out of this series to be honest, but I definitely was expecting to understand what was going on. This is the show where at the end you go "WTF DID I JUST WATCH?" I kid you not. Everything was so convoluted I had no idea what I was watching most of the time. I did tie in together at the end though... somewhat.

Mediocre Show of the Year - Dantalian no Shoka

It wasn't bad by any means but it wasn't really good either. It was just average. Never more never less. I never really enjoyed what I was watching it but I didn't dislike it either.

Worst Show I Saw - Sekaiichi Hatsukoi

Well, I don't know if I was expecting to enjoy this. I think I was expecting more than a shallow top/bottom yaoi but I suppose I should've known. I'm fairly sure I'm in the target demographic of this series but I just found everything about the series so shallow. The characters, the romance, everything.

IS: Infinite Stratos「REVIEW」

It was so close to perfect for me. The art, the animation, the music. Everything was so perfect except the story. The end. If the series had been extended to 24 episodes, there potentially could've been a lot more development in terms of plot and character but 12 was still great. A second series would be very nice. People were surprised I liked this as much as I was.

Initially, I was hesitant to begin this series and I didn't actually start until episode 9 was released. I read the plot and it just sounded like another badly done harem anime but what really caught my eye was the mecha. The nice mecha that didn't cover the entire body. It looked like a nice change from the typical mecha that doesn't interest me so much. I found the plot to be a little lacking in climactic battle scenes but it was 100% enjoyable regardless. It had many stereotypical harem elements but it was better than many other harem anime I have seen. (Seriously, why do I even watch so many harem anime? I'm a girl.)

With the harem lead, we obviously have the weak guy who is oblivious to all the girls that like him. I didn't like him very much but who ever likes the male lead in any harem? Name one likeable one. I dare you. The funny thing is I actually liked the girls in the harem. I found them all the be quite interesting and charismatic in their own way no matter how stereotypical they seemed on the surface. Actually except Cecilia. That blonde egotistical rich girl. She was a little annoying.

Another reason I simply adored this anime is because I just couldn't take my eyes off the screen. The art, the mecha, the backgrounds, the colours, the animation. It was all just so wonderful and eye-catching especially the battles. They were so EPIC. (I hate that stupid overused word but there are no words to describe how cool the battles looked) The music was also spectacular especially during the climaxes.

The ending was a nice attempt at a tie-in with the pilot even though I didn't even notice until it was brought to my attention. This led me to realise many things that were left unexplained but a second season would suffice.

Entertainment-wise IS was funny and dramatic. It was everything! Well, almost so a 8/10 on this one for me.