To 2008 Edition-->
The twenty best anime of the decade, as they stand as of December 31, 2007:
20. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
19. Black Lagoon
18. Fighting Spirit
17. Monster
16. Le Chevalier D'Eon
15. Haibane Renmei
14. FLCL
13. The Twelve Kingdoms
12. Last Exile
11. Gungrave
10. Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
9. Psalm of Planets Eureka Seven
8. Millennium Actress
7. Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
6. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
5. Fullmetal Alchemist
4. Death Note
3. RahXephon
2. Mushi-Shi
1. Spirited Away
Insight
Out of over fifty years of Japanese-animated features, this decade has produced an exceptional amount of high-caliber titles, perhaps the most in its history. There were many good works to place on this list, so much so, I had a little hard of a time figuring out what anime would make it and which, unfortunately, would have to be left out. That meant ones like Ouran High School Host Club, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Metropolis, Samurai 7, Genshiken, Planetes, and Voices of a Distant Star were absent, despite the accolades they have received. To provide a bit of lip service to these and works that were good, but not quite "Top 20 good", I created a separate listing of 55 titles of "honorable mention" (bringing the list to a total of 75), in no particular order outside of "alphabetical." I did this (and not stretched it to 100) as a small way of creating "intrigue" in what "could have been" and allowing anyone to compile their own listings. This is basically an acknowledgement of the other great anime to have appeared thus far, so I suppose that ordering them numerically is rather moot. All rules pertaining to the Top 20 pertain here, as well, and this list will, too, be revised each year until the end of the decade.
::Honorable Mentions::
009-1
5 Centimeters per Second
Afro Samurai
Air
Azumanga Daioh
BECK
BLEACH
Chrono (Chrno) Crusade
Claymore
Denno Coil
ef – a tale of memories
Ergo Proxy
Fantastic Children
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Full Metal Panic [including sequels]
Genshiken [including sequels]
Guardian of the Sacred Spirit (Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit)
Gunbuster 2 (Aim for the Top 2! Diebuster)
Honey & Clover / II
Howl's Moving Castle
Kanon [2006]
Kino's Journey
Lucky Star
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
Metropolis
Naruto
Nodame Cantabile
Noein
One Piece
Ouran High School Host Club
Paprika
Paradise Kiss
Planetes
Princess Arete
Princess Tutu
Read or Die / -The TV-
Rune Soldier
SaiKano
Samurai 7
Samurai Champloo
School Rumble [including sequels]
Scrapped Princess
s-CRY-ed
Terra e… (Towards the Terra)
TEXHNOLYZE
The Animatrix
The Galaxy Railways
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo)
Tokyo Godfathers
Voices of a Distant Star
Welcome to the NHK!
Witch Hunter ROBIN
Wolf's Rain
X (TV)
Zipang
—One of a -very- few blogs that discusses about anime, boxing, and a little bit of randomness…
Easily one of the best lists around. I disagree with your placement of RahXephon and I'm hugely surprised that there is no Code Geass, but other then that its excellent. I've got this page bookmarked
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment! Even months after completing the list, I've waffled at times on RahXephon's placement. It's been highly regarded by others, though I sometimes wonder if I might have placed it too high (slight bias slipped through?). Then again, I think otherwise when I have considered its merits. I suppose only time will tell for the 2008 list...
ReplyDeleteThe reason I didn't place Code Geass on it is because it hadn't technically finished yet. I refrained from noting shows that were split into separate seasons or were still ongoing because the first part could be a masterpiece, but the other part(s) could be horrible or below-par. Should everything continue well, CG will most definitely be on it. Though exactly where on an already crowded list of greats remains to be seen--and that's not even including some of the other excellent works that have debuted since then. I'd wager the next list will be more tightly contested than the last.