Forum - View topicAnime in America: Theron and Carl's Best (and Most Notable) of 2009
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britannicamoore
 Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
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I enjoyed the review for the most part- but there should be a spoiler warning at the beginning of the whole thing. In bold.
And I might put the two catergoeis - Bets Death/ Best Non- Death at the very end. That way people can read the rest of the article without running into it. Otherwise, I enjoyed the review. I agreed with several of the choices- and it makes me want to see Nana and Monster even more. |
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FeralKat
Posts: 402 |
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Hooray for Baccano!
 I REALLY enjoyed that show, dispite my aversion to blood and gore. Great English dub--Bryan Massey did a great job as Ladd.
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4631 Location: New York |
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Once again, the only category Moribito should be in is "worst". Or how about an honorary "killed anime on Adult Swim" award?
I really need to see Baccano... |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2634 |
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A fun read, although this year I find myself agreeing mostly with Carl's picks overall. I am especially glad Carl highlighted Honey and Clover whose reviews by others on the site have been less than it deserved in my opinion. And yes Takemoto's bike trip is one of my favorite moments in the series.
Also glad to see such deserving series as Monster and Baccano get mentions. Plus Cross Game is definitely my favorite 2009 unlicensed series at the moment. The only series I completely disagree on is Romeo X Juliet which I couldn't stand. But hey everyone has different tastes. |
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minakichan
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YES @ Eden of the East (despite not making any officials lists) and being followed by Toradora. YES @ Baccano! and Monster being everywhere. YES @ the Romeo x Juliet kiss scene being pretty much the best ever.
Among others, I really agreed with a lot on this list. And oh god, Monster's adaptation is way anally faithful. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4555 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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For unlicensed gems, there's the obvious choice of K-On!, my top anime of 2009 despite the backlash. It does what it does very well, and what it does is what I like. Though I'm pretty sure a licensing announcement is imminent.
The less-obvious unlicensed gem would be Sora no Manimani, a cute high school slice-of-life show with mild romantic elements, similar to School Rumble meets Nodame Cantable, but with the added bonus of being vaguely educational about astronomy, not to the point where you could call it an educational show with a straight face, but probably enough to get you interested in finding out more and maybe even seeking out an astronomy club in your area. Pretty much all the anime I bought last year was back-catalogue stuff except for Kannagi, so I guess that would be my licensed series of the year by default. |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7424 Location: Maine |
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I almost entirely agree with the "Unlicensed Gems" award, except for Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. At first I was totally behind this series, I thought it did a fantastically realistic job of depicting what an 8.0 earthquake would do to Tokyo... and then it ran too long so the writers filled the rest of the show with pointless and never explained death which they dragged out for several episodes just trying to squeeze in that last bit of shock, but by that point I just didn't care anymore. As a short OAV series or condensed into a movie this would have been a great experience, but as a TV series it eventually lost steam and was grasping for content. This was probably my biggest disappointment for 2009. I'd have easily chosen Nyan Koi, Magical Index, The Sacred Blacksmith, or Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari over it.
But I agree 100% with the other four titles, all were great, Toradora and Kara no Kyoukai are even masterpieces (and I suspect Cross Game will be as well, but I don't like to rate a series before it ends) and I'm hopeful that all will be licensed this year. Emerje |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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Hear that Funimation? Do it for the grannies. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Glad to hear so many nice things about Moribito. I recently blind bought the whole thing from BB's Media Blaster sale and I've been anxiously awaiting the whole thing to arrive (vol 5 & 6 are on it's way). -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fantastic Choice. I get teary eyed just thinking about it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I think Ikki Tousen is everybody's guilty pleasure. Because, like Carl said, you should feel guilty about watching and enjoying high school girls get their clothes ripped off while fighting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This was a very fun read. Even though I haven't seen most of these shows, they are on my wish list and have me greatly anticipating them. |
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Dop.L
Posts: 725 Location: London |
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Oh come on, Sentai's subtitles are practically a work of genius compared to the butcher's job Viz did on Honey and Clover.
Switching family names for given names in the subtitles was bad enough (and something Viz DID NOT do in the Manga, thankfully), but when the name in the subtitle is the name of a completely different character to the name being said - and that happens at least twice in the first box, as well as other bits where the subtitlers just made stuff up - then someone needs a good slap. That's even worse than the 'vile' in True Tears! |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18498 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Um, look right below where it says "The Standards" near the top of the article. The words SPOILER WARNING are in bold and caps.
Considered that, but they would have been horribly out of order in that case. And Dop.L: While Viz may have had some issues with that one series, Sentai's problems were pervasive across most of the sets they put out in 2009. |
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kyokun703
 Posts: 2505 Location: Orgrimmar |
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I'm praying that Toradora! gets announced in Funimation's roll out riot next week... otherwise, I wholly endorse Carl's granny-abuse spree.
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the Rancorous
 Posts: 2248 Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys |
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YAY! That song makes me happy everytime I listen to it. And yes, I've ripped it to my MP3 player and play it in my car while driving. It's one of the only times that Engrish doesn't bother me at all  .
I remember thinking, 'what is she trying to do?' *SLICE* 'OH!... umm, wow?'  I need to watch that series again, especially now that I completed that collection.
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Sailor S
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I do agree with a good part of this list, especially with Carl's assertion that Aoi Hana is in need of a sequel. It just doesn't feel right how it ended, at least trying to look at it as an ending. It felt more like the end of a first season rather than a series conclusion. I don't know how the manga or light novel or whatever it's inspired from goes about it, or even if it's concluded or not, but there needs to be more closure than that.
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Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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Toradora!... I still don't get it. That and K-ON! (maybe it's something to do with exclamation marks?). Out of the titles mentioned in the "Unlicensed Gem" category the only one I really want is KnK, and then I'd add Canaan and Bakemonogatari (as was said, S&W2 and DTB2 are--hopefully--gimmies, so no need to mention them).
Maybe if I was more affected by the anime I'd get this choice (though openers do still need to have good songs first and foremost for me), but as it stands I wouldn't put the AS opener anywhere near the best of 2009. It's just got such an insubstantial sound, especially next to the likes of Spice and Wolf. Or Baccano!, which is oh-so-catchy. And just because it was something that irked me when I was watching the series: I thought Darker than Black's first opener was decidedly better than the second; neither are particularly worthy of the "best of" title, though.
Uh-huh! Yep, that would be for me. Didn't help that they telegraphed it was going to happen in the freaking OP, thus filling the whole episode with a sense of foreboding. Having said that, spoiler[Lelouch's death] (not) was the perfect capstone on the series; it was just great for so many reasons. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8503 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I must be really out of the loop, some of those anime I've never even heard of, or just didn't care for their premises. It shows just how different my tastes are. Moribito I loved, though. An absolutely beautiful series. I was glad my first impression of it was wrong.
Monster would have been a better release if they hadn't replaced the music without warning. Not that the music is a huge part of the show, but it shows duplicity on the part of the studio and the licensor, and I dislike that. I've been lied to by Bandai, but Viz too, now? That really hurts. As far as anime that came out in 2009, I would say Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood fits the bill for my favorite. It is technically licensed, and has been streaming for months. So it wouldn't be a surprise that my favorite voice performance this year is Romi Paku as Edward Elric. She continues to deliver, and strong. As far as English dub performances... hm. Haven't heard very many English dubs this year, except on television. Was Darker than Black released this year, or last? That was the best dub I've heard in a while. Jason Leibert is great. If it doesn't count, Liam O'Brien was a good Doctor Tenma in Monster. Richard Epcar is great as Inspector Lunge. As far as "unlicensed gems", I pick Shin Mazinger, though I doubt it would have much of a chance on the North American market. It's such an extremely fun program. Imagawa always directs fun anime. |
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