Welcome Friends

It's the story about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda, named Po, who is the biggest fan of Kung Fu around...which doesn't exactly come in handy while working every day in his family's noodle shop. Unexpectedly chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy, Po's dreams become reality when he joins the world of Kung Fu and studies alongside his idols, the legendary Furious Five -- Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey -- under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu. But before they know it, the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard Tai Lung is headed their way, and it's up to Po to defend everyone from the oncoming threat. Can he turn his dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master into reality? Po puts his heart - and his girth - into the task, and the unlikely hero ultimately finds that his greatest weaknesses turn out to be his greatest strengths. Written by Anthony Pereyra

This would be an easy choice if it were 2009 and I had the option of choosing Soul Eater because that has some of the best action I’ve seen all year, and it does so very consistently. Since these aren’t the 2009 awards though, the decision gets a bit harder. I watched plenty of shows with action this year, and given my tastes, that skewed heavily mecha. From an action point of view, I have to choose Gundam 00 because it had a variety of battles that kept you on the edge of your seat and showed that Gundams weren’t all-powerful (unlike, for example, certain Knightmares in Geass R2). It helps of course that Gundam 00 had some strong animation quality behind it for all those action scenes, though Macross Frontier deserves some recognition as well for its CG action.
Honorable Mentions: Macross Frontier, Kurozuka

Since Divine watched a lot more comedies this year than I did, he made this selection and wrote the following:
While one could argue that almost every series had a comedy side to it, only a handful come to mind when it comes to being heavily focused on humor. Out of those, Kannagi comes out on top for its often subtle and witty comedy, which was full of timely comedic pauses. Instead of simply going for “cheap laughs”, Kannagi had a unique way of doing it, much like Lucky Star and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. The other series that comes really close in this regard is Minami-ke ~Okawari~, but I felt that it didn’t quite have the comedic flair that the first season by Doumu did (…animation style aside). The first season really established all the character intricacies, but the second didn’t seem to make good on them very well. As such, Minami-ke ~Okawari~ gets an honorable mention, as does Hyakko and Special A. Hyakko was another strong candidate due to its similarity to Ichigo Mashimaro (which I thoroughly enjoyed), while Special A had glimpses of comedic brilliance throughout.
Honorable Mentions: Minami-ke ~Okawari~, Hyakko, Special A

There’s not a doubt in my mind that the best romance/drama series this year was true tears. This had the quintessential love triangle, but the writers kept you hooked until the very end over what was going to happen with some great characters (good voice work as well) and an intricate set of relationships. Add to that the fact that it was never implausible and they didn’t even need to use supernatural occurrences or murderous intent - there was just a lot of pure emotion and drama. Clannad was good as well, but I don’t think the romance aspect of it was nearly strong enough (that will probably change in After Story). In fact, between the end of true tears and this most recent season (which includes notably Toradora!), nothing even came close to being as good a romance/drama series as true tears.
Honorable Mentions: Clannad, Kimikiss, ef - a tale of melodies

This is a new category for this year in which I highlight a show that deserves more attention than it’s gotten. My selection this year, after watching this series on the recommendation of a friend, is Kaiba. The premise for the series is that people’s memories and their bodies are interchangeable, and it starts with the journey of a boy with no memories of who he is. It’s kind of like the Little Prince or Night on the Galactic Railroad in the beginning and has a surreal feel, but by the end there’s a very coherent story about love and betrayal. The animation style might seem strange at first, but it was easy to get used to and not bad at all. Now I wasn’t happy with the way the series ended, but I give it a lot of credit for presenting plenty of interesting themes like the meaning of life and death when memories can be transferred or altered, and this is a series I’d recommend you at least check out if you haven’t already.
Honorable Mentions: Allison & Lillia, Natsume Yuujin Chou

There were plenty of series with shocking plot twists this year, but I think the king of them all has to be Code Geass R2. Some characters would die suddenly, others who were supposed to be dead would make dramatic returns, still others would die one week and then show back up the next…and that’s only scratching the surface. From beginning to end, one of Geass’s fortes was delivering plot twists, and that made for a very entertaining series, if ultimately imperfect. I also have to give a special shout-out to the shocking first episode of the recent Ga-Rei Zero which ended up being a complete fake-out to the rest of the series.
Honorable Mentions: Ga-Rei -Zero-

There were a lot of very well animated series this year, and if I could choose entirely based on a single impressive instance, Macross Frontier would probably win for the impression it made on me with its premiere episode. And that’s not to say that the rest of Macross Frontier wasn’t well animated, because it was. Rather, I just think that Kara no Kyoukai deserves recognition for some of the most beautiful animation this year with great cinematography, fluid motions, the works. As I said last year when I chose Byousoku 5 Centimeter, I know it’s kind of unfair to select a movie or OVA where a budget doesn’t have to be stretched over a long period of time, but if you want to see a visually stunning title, go watch Kara no Kyoukai.
Honorable Mentions: Macross Frontier

If this were any other year, a soundtrack like the one true tears had would have clinched this. Kikuchi Hajime did a wonderful job creating an array of memorable pieces, especially the piano ones. But this was a year with a Macross series, and it’s hard to compete against both Kanno Youko composing all the instrumental tracks (Prologue F remains my favorite) along with dozens of vocal tracks by the very talented May’n and Nakajima Megumi. I can honestly say that there’s not a single track on there that I don’t like. Music is just such a integral part of Macross titles, and the Macross Frontier soundtrack delivers with flying colors, whether it’s with epic sounding instrumentals or emotional love songs.
Honorable Mentions: true tears, Nabari no Ou

Given how much I enjoyed the Macross Frontier soundtrack, I was very tempted to choose one of my many favorites off of it - specifically Diamond Crevasse - but in the end, I have to hand this to Gundam 00’s second ED, Friends by Stephanie. She has a very strong voice, and I love the lyrics about the bonds between friends. It’s a song that’s stuck with me for a long time, and I can listen to it over and over without it getting old.
Here’s a YouTube link if you haven’t heard the song yet.
Honorable Mentions: Diamond Crevasse by Sheryl Nome starring May’n

Now before half of you burn me at the stake for this, let me say that this was an incredibly hard decision to make. Unlike last year, there’s no clear number one because all of my top choices were imperfect in some way. Among other things, Geass R2 got too convoluted and plot-twist-happy for its own good, Macross Frontier had a frustrating main character and ending, and both Gundam 00 and true tears started off rather slow for me. But the best isn’t about finding the perfect series, nor is it even about which series I will most fondly remembered five years down the road - it’s about what I enjoyed the most in 2008. In that light, Geass R2 was definitely the most entertaining, and despite all the problems that it had, I still enjoyed watching it immensely from beginning to end. Yes, the pacing and the script were pretty bad, but in terms of enjoyment, I just can’t justify anything else over Code Geass R2. Now flame away
Honorable Mentions: true tears, Macross Frontier

The Top 5:
CODE GEASS R2 - 662 votes (29%)
Gundam 00 - 275 votes (12%)
Macross Frontier - 187 votes (8%)
Clannad - 114 votes (5%)
Kannagi - 95 votes (4%)
Total Number of Votes - 2287
Here are the full results.
Despite the problems with the poll this year and having to end it earlier than expected, Geass R2 not surprisingly grabbed an early lead and never relinquished it. I was more interested in the fact that people rated the first Clannad series higher than true tears since I found the latter to be a better show (at least without After Story attached to Clannad).