[IXI! Digest] The Top 10 Anime of 2010

Hello there and welcome to my Top 10 Anime of 2010 list. This is the second year I’ve done this, but the first time I’ve done it for IXI Studios, last year’s list having been on both the Starhill Podcast and Blog. Now, as usual, this list will only include anime I’ve actually seen, which, as large of a list as that is, is not all of them. So if you see a show that you think should have been mentioned that didn’t end up on this list, don’t get all up in arms over it, it’s possible that it just slipped past me. Though honestly, if a show I wasn’t watching was that good, I’d more than likely have heard about it and gotten to watching it anyways. Also, this list only includes anime that actually aired starting in 2010, so shows from 2009 that ended in 2010 do not count, though there may be exceptions to that rule depending on the situation.
Anyways, this season we’ve seen a lot of two things, classic horror movie monsters, and incest. I mean, KissxSis, Aki Sora, and Yosuga no Sora all in one year makes those line-crossing series seem a little commonplace. Plus we’ve had movie monsters galore, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Highschool of the Dead, and Shiki being prime examples. All in all though, it’s been a great year for anime, much better than 2009 anyways. Last year I had my list down to a top 12 in seconds, this year took me a lot of effort to get it any lower than 34. That fact should speak for itself. Now, let’s get this show on the road. Here are my Top Ten Anime of 2010:


10 (Tied) - Otome Youkai Zakuro

I won’t talk about this too much since I’ve already covered it just a month ago in my review of the fall season, but it deserves another mention. This was an excellent series from start to finish, with a little something for everyone. It was fun, light-hearted, and very serious when it needed to be, striking an excellent balance. The conclusion was nothing too special, a little unoriginal, but still a solid ending that wrapped up all loose plot threads while leaving the possibility for a season 2. This is a definite must-watch series for everyone.

10 (Tied) - Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Tied for the number ten spot, we have Kaichou wa Maid-sama, a series about the female student council president at what used to be an all boys school, trying to hide the fact that she works at a maid café. It was a fun series, full of little twists and turns, and a romance that for once in an anime was actually believable. That seems to be more of a trend as of late, but still, it helps the series immensely. Anyways, the coupling was cute, the stories were fun and entertaining, and even though it was kind of aggravating that it took the two of them that long to finally get together, the series was fun to watch despite that. I mean, you know you’re dragging things on when literally every single character in the series is pissed off that they’re not an official couple yet. Anyways, fun series, great to watch if you’re into romantic comedy style series.

9 - Yosuga no Sora

Yet another show from the fall season I mentioned only a month ago, so once again I won’t dwell on it too much. This series was based on an H-Game, but it managed to be so much better than the usual based on a game anime. The romances were endearing, and the only thing separating one path from another were little things that basically amounted to luck. There were all sorts of sex scenes in this series, but they didn’t ever feel forced or out of place at all. Honestly, I thought it was a little more realistic that way since it was more like a real relationship between young people. Especially the last two arcs where they happened more often. Two teenagers who’ve loved each other since they were little finally got together? Things are going to happen. Two teenagers who’re in love with one another living alone under the same roof? Things are going to happen a lot. While you can’t exactly call the format of the series original, considering Amagami did the exact same thing during the summer season, it was still fresh enough that it worked for it. If you’re into romance, give this show a shot, you may find you enjoy it.

8 - Nurarihyon no Mago

The premise of this series is simple. Yokai Yakuza. The rest just kind of writes itself, and in this case, it worked out well. I almost want to classify this as a shounen series, but I stop short of that because of how quick most of the fight scenes actually were. The series follows a boy named Nura Rikuo, who is a quarter yokai, and three quarters human. He is next in line to become the Lord of Pandemonium, Nurarihyon, the supreme commander of all Yokai. Problem is he can only take on his yokai form at night, though that does give him an interesting outlook on things. He spends his days as a human, and his nights as a yokai. He is both, and has trusted friends and allies on both sides of things. I really wasn’t expecting this show to be as good as it was, but the story was good, the characters were interesting, and frankly, I just like Yakuza films so that kind of setting really got me hooked. This is one of those shows where I was waiting every week for the new episode to come out, it was just that good.

7 - High School of the Dead

There is only one way to properly describe this show, and that is “So ridiculous that it’s awesome”. As anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock this year should already know, this is a series about the zombie apocalypse in Japan from the perspective of a set of high school kids. The show became known for several things pretty quickly, not the least of which being the amazing… umm… attention to detail when animating the girls as they moved around. As fanservicey as it was, it wasn’t any more so than most American horror movies, or B-movies anyways. That was only half the ridiculous part too, the other half being the absolutely insane combat sequences. Some of the insanely physically impossible moments while fending off the zombies, and the graphic nature of others. Then again, this is an anime with zombies, so you know they had to incorporate the usual anime way of dealing with things. Swords, guns, and whatever else they could get their hands on at the time became a good enough weapon to fend off zombies. So the show was less about holing up and surviving somewhere, and more about moving around in the midst of the zombie horde and taking out everything that got in their way. Now, there aren’t many zombie anime out there, and from what I hear, that’s because of some sort of taboo in Japan over the very idea of them. However, they seem to be getting a little better about that, so we’ll probably start seeing fewer vampires and more zombies in the future, which is cool. Also, glad to see they kept the American horror movie habit of making it easy to see who was going to die next. Like the guy in the first episode who said “I don’t need a weapon, I’m a black belt in karate”. That guy was totally going to die.

6 - Amagami SS

At number six we have a show that actually managed to do something original despite being based on a dating sim. Shock! I know right? The story itself was nothing to special, enjoyable and cute as it was in every arc, but the original part was the format of the show. In most H-Game based anime, they take each individual path from the game and try and meld them into one plot, where he only ends up with one of the girls, generally at random, despite doing the storyline for most of them. This show however, decided to do things differently. Instead of just sticking him with the main heroine of the game and leaving all the others out in the cold, it did all of them individually. The show was made up of four episode arcs where they would go through the story for a different one of the girls, and then reset back to the beginning for the next arc where it would start again with a different girl. This really works well for it, and despite being split up into completely different arcs with no relation to one another, it actually means everything flows together a lot better. Plus the main character doesn’t come off as either a complete dick or a complete wuss when he chooses only one of them and abandons the others, and that means you like him more than most dating sim protagonists. All in all it was a great show, and deserves a watch. Can’t wait for the OVAs to come out, if just to laugh at Chuck because of how much he hates the idea of one of those episodes.

5 - Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

This is the exception I mentioned at the beginning, since this actually aired in spring of 2009, and not in 2010. However, I had to add it here because I neglected to put it on my top 10 of 2009. That was mainly because the part of the series that had aired in 2009 had yet to actually get to the meat of the series. It was still kind of marred by the incredibly rushed retelling of the first series that was the first thirteen episodes, and what came after that was still only getting to the good part. The final 26 episodes that aired in 2010 though were absolutely amazing, and I have to give credit where credit is due. If you took the first 13 episodes of Brotherhood, and replaced them with the first 26 episodes of the original series, you would have a perfect anime.

4 - Shiki

This show got off to a bit of a slow start, but once it got going, did it ever get my attention. I only regret that I hadn’t started this show sooner than I did, only hearing about it about a month and a half after it started. The basic story is about a small town in the middle of nowhere that becomes the target of a clan of vampire-like creatures that call themselves Shiki. They plan to take over the town by using the population as a food supply, and creating more of themselves in the process. The main focus of the series though is on the humans, and how they react to the strange happenings around them as many people start dying. For a while it looked like there was nothing the humans could do, but then towards the end one character pulled a plot worthy of Code Geass and flipped the tables completely. The interesting part I found was how this show really blurred the lines between good and evil. It was sometimes hard to tell whether it was the humans or the Shiki that were supposed to be the evil ones. Especially toward the end where you couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Shiki. Hell, I found myself booing my own race and cheering for the ones who eat us for lunch. If a show can make you do that, you know it did its job.

3 – Katanagatari

For those who liked Bakemonogatari, you’ll probably want to look into this one as well since it’s based on a series by the same author. It is the story of a martial artist named Shichika, who uses an unarmed martial art made to combat armed opponents, and Togame the Strategian (long explanation for the joke in that name, I won’t explain it here so just watch the first episode if you’re curious). The story follows them as they go on a quest all over Japan to find the 12 perfected swords created by a legendary swordsmith in order to gain favour with the Shogun. Now, as you’d expect from the author of Bakemonogatari, this show has quite a lot of inane dialogue to it, but you’d be surprised just how much character development can happen in those seemingly pointless lines. Plus the action in this series, as well as the abilities of each of the swords are actually rather cool. It’s a fun, light-hearted sort of series for the most part, but it does have its serious moments. Also, the last episode of the series was just pure awesome from start to finish, and provided an actual, solid conclusion to the series. Something of a rarity in that way. The episodes aired one a month over the course of the year, and were each a full hour in length, allowing them to get through one sword a month. All in all, I enjoyed this series immensely

2 - Angel Beats!

At this point I’m pretty sure most people know what my number one choice is, but we’re not quite there yet. So let’s focus on the number two for now. Angel Beats is about a group of teenagers who died and found themselves in the afterlife. Not satisfied with the way they died, or the strange afterlife they’ve been placed in, with a girl named Yurippe as their leader, they decide to lead a rebellion against God himself, or so they think. Anyways, this was just a really good show, I don’t know how else to describe it. The world it created for itself was full of mystery, and the characters were all likable and entertaining. The music was absolutely amazing, and the storyline was interesting from beginning to end. Not to mention that massive double-twist at the ending. The entire series just drew you in and didn’t let go until it was all over. It’s definitely worth a watch, everyone should see this series.

1 – Durarara

Back in March, I could be quoted as saying that I really wished the anime industry could top this anime this year since it had three seasons to do so, but obviously that didn’t happen. Not that I mind, this year was full of amazing series, way more good than there was last year. Durarara was just an over the top, ridiculous thrill ride from beginning to end, and we loved it for it. It was fun to watch, the characters all had such depth to them, to the point where most had to get their own back story episodes just to scratch the surface. The series was filled with little twists and surprises, and above all, the unstoppable force that was Shizuo. The all star voice cast helped quite a bit too, and I don’t mean the female A-list that shows up in every slice of life show, I mean the male A-list who know how to just make their characters sound awesome.

Anyways, that’s it for this list, see you in a few weeks when I put up my first impressions of the Winter 2011 season of anime.