Year in Review: Factors for Consideration

You can read all about it’s wonderful to have a “your anime is lesser than mine” blog post here, but the more I think about it the more Jal left space for something even more wonderful to write about.

It’s not the “how” but the “why.”

Jeff alluded it to it briefly, but I’ll spell it out for myself: People like him and myself are not spiraling, burnt out fans finding every other anime a tripe, been-dun peddling in the shadow of some epic greatness of years past. Perhaps for all of us there were epic greatness in the past–some works that we found remarkable enough to hold onto like a light at the end of a tunnel. They may be our driving motivation to swim in this sea of Japanese modern cultural fandom, they may be our gateway drug. But for me it’s just a small part of a bigger picture. Even if every other anime under the sun is some cheap attempt at milking a dead cash cow, the anime industry proves itself that it still has soul left. There are creative creators working at it. There are still poorly-paid animators are still doing what they love to do. It shows. This is 2007 in a nutshell.

If I am to do a year-in-review Hop Step Jump style, I would have to rattle off ten anime titles that affected me the most this past year (with some reasonable limits), write a post describing the virtues and shortfalls, and how it affected me. That sounds reasonable…except that’s what I already do with my blog in general.

For every moment of existence this blog already records what little notable things I would share with you. Perhaps my threshold for what’s worth blogging is rather high, but don’t we all hold our Year-in-Review with a somewhat higher standard anyways? It’s worth your thought some long time before December 31 to get your stuff organized and show it off! Remember your anime has to be better than mine! It can be hard work! And since Jeff Lawson is so good at writing for marketing, he will probably win anyways.

So what the hell should we be doing? Well besides trolling his blog and saying his favorite anime sucks, we can just talk about why what makes our favorite anime this year our favorite. What makes Kimagure Orange Road the instant classic that it was? Why was Kidousenkan Nadesico so popular even in the shadow of an epic masterpiece of Neon Genesis Evangelion? Do these things hold true to your favorites today? Is Higurashi really a schooling of the 21st century harem? Is CLANNAD Kyoani’s third RBI or just a foul ball? Or not even the third? Does Shakugan no Shana stand against the test of time?

That’s my assignment: find that spark; the thing that keeps you watching and talking about anime, then see how this year’s offering fulfill those great expectations…and/or how this year’s offering fail to be something more beautiful. I think that’s a great way to cap a passing year and bring in the new one with a YAY!

• Introduction
• Part 1 – Makoto Shinkai
• Part 2 – Baccano!
• Part 3 – Sola
• Part 4 – Hitohira
• Part 5 – Gurren Lagann
• Part 6 – Code Geass
• Part 7 – ef, Hidamari Sketch, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei
• Part 8 – Manabi Straight
• Conclusion