Friday, January 11, 2008

:anime: Decade's Best…So Far (2007 Edition) :: Anime (Top 20) ::: Overview & Honorable Mentions

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

2 comments:

  1. 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

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  2. Thanks 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...

    The 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.

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