The best sources for coverage of this event are here: http://www.animesaimoe.org/
And here: http://saimoe.wordpress.com/
Saimoe 2011 was a blowout in favor of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. There was barely any competition at all. But this time it's different. Puella Magi doesn't have any entries in the competition, but a bunch of other titans of the anime industry do: Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Louise, Strike Witches, Saki, Higurashi, K-On, Negima, Hayate no Gotoku, Toradora and Idolm@ster just to name a few. Basically, this is the most competitive field in Saimoe history. There are multiple entrants in this contest who have ALREADY WON in previous years, competing against each other directly for the first time. That's as cutthroat as a competition can get. It's like if the Kentucky Derby stopped running new horses and only fielded previous Derby winners against each other for just one year to see who was truly the best. Will it be Man o' War, Seattle Slew or Secretariat? I mean, it's just a sick roster of names. The sickest roster you've ever seen in any all-star game has appeared for Saimoe 2012.
I'll be cheering for the same girls as ever: Shana from Shakugan no Shana, Hirasawa Yui from K-On, Sanzenin Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku, Wendy Marvel from Fairy Tail, Cure White/Honoka from Futari wa Pretty Cure, and Cure Lemonade/Kasugano Urara from Yes Pretty Cure 5. Any of these girls would be such a delightful champion based not only on their extremely good looks, but also their great personalities and the fact that each of them represents a set of virtues to the extremes of our imagination. Wendy, for instance, is someone who tries hard even when she isn't any good at what she's doing, for the sake of not letting down the group. Honoka is a truly refined and mature woman who brings out the best in others while controlling the worst in herself. Urara is the sort of person who you instantly want to support, because she shines like a brilliant star. Nagi is a genius who refuses to conform to her lessers, sort of like the female equivalent of Keima from The World God Only Knows, perhaps the coolest male character in any anime (though there's always Simon, and Sagara Sousuke, and. . .but that's veering into a different post entirely). Yui is someone who cares about the things that matter, and doesn't care about the things that don't. And Shana is a badass with the courage not only to fight for her convictions, but to actually form convictions in the first place and refuse to budge on them for anyone.
If you look over this cast of 3,000 entrants, every one of them has their own strengths and weaknesses, every one of them has some long and exciting back story. But some are just such wonderful characters with such wonderful stories that the rest just seem to be pretty faces on a screen. I want the Saimoe winner to be not only pretty, but to be the 'face' of anime for the year. She should serve as an ambassador to what's so great about anime, by being great herself.
As to who I think will actually win? I'd guess Nodoka from Saki. Saki is currently the most popular series in Saimoe, and Nodoka is the most popular Saki character, so it only stands to reason that she'll win this year. I think Nodoka is a great entrant, just like Tomoe Mami was a great entrant last year, but I still think in both cases there were dozens of characters who deserved the title more. If Saki really does sweep this year's competition, it will be a shame because there are so many other deserving series this time around. I love Saki, but Saki's nothing compared to Pretty Cure, K-On, or Fairy Tail. . . And in K-On's case, this might be the last year they'll ever be able to compete. The K-On manga is over, as is the anime, and there's no sign that either is likely to restart ever again. If Yui doesn't win this time, she never will. And that's crazy, given that popularity poll after popularity poll has her as in the top three anime girls of all time.
In other news, Akira Toriyama has decided to make an additional story in the Dragonball universe. The new movie will come out in 2013 and, unlike all the previous movies, will be 'canon' and written by the actual creator of the series. Happy day! Does this mean they'll finally make a Kai version of the Buu arc next?
The World God Only Knows is getting an ova. Now, this could be good news, in that they haven't completely given up on animating TWGOK, or it could be bad news, in that they HAVE given up on animating TWGOK, but felt obligated to at least try to sum things up with an ova because the ending of the second season was such a teaser. Either way, even one extra episode of God Only Knows is something to celebrate. It's just such an amazing series.
As for the series I wasn't sure about based on the first episode, I believe I'll be dropping all of them except for Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru. To realize the greatness of Imouto, everyone should read this post by Scamp: http://thecartdriver.com/who-is-imouto-episode-1-the-burning-question-of-our-time-scamps-take/
You might also want to read the followup covering episode 2, http://thecartdriver.com/who-is-imouto-2-have-you-ever-danced-with-an-imouto-in-the-pale-moonlight/
I mean, how great are these titles? Have you Ever Danced with an Imouto in the Pale Moonlight? Ah, man. This series is the best, as is the reaction in the fan community to it.
As a result, I'll have 15 anime series to watch weekly for the next few months, 7 of which are ranked. That's a pretty good pedigree for airing series. In fact, when I look over my top 120 anime rankings, I'm simply staggered by the quality of my lineup. If I were to take the last 10 in my rankings, 111-120, and had said they were the top 10 series in anime history, no one would have blinked. There would be supporters for exactly those shows being the best ten ever. The same is true if I were to pick any other group of ten at random. The depth of my rankings is just incredible. Let's make use of the term 'peerless' as a good description. What I love about my top 120 anime rankings is that virtually all of them are peerless. IE, there isn't a single other series that is better than them at what they are doing. Or if you prefer, they are good in such a unique way that no other series has covered the same ground as well as they have. Because all sorts of people like all sorts of different things, that means that inevitably there will be someone who cares most about the field that any of my peerless anime is specifically strongest at. As a result, they'll be the first to claim it's the best series of all time. And this can be said of even my 'last' place at 120!
When I pick my series, I try not to just look at what is 'good,' ie, entertaining, but also what is 'great,' ie something that will stand out across the ages. You can be a great anime simply by being the first of your kind, like RG Veda or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Or you can be great by filling up an otherwise neglected genre, like Gosick did for detective stories, Lodoss War did for high fantasy, or Seikai no Monshou did for serious science fiction. There are many ways to get noticed in my rankings. Stellvia is great because the 'villain' of the story is simply a natural disaster, the first time I've ever seen such a story, and it was done so incredibly well. Papa no Iukoto was great because for the first time in anime it attempted to portray a 3 year old as one of the main characters in a story. No one else has dared to pay any attention to kids for fear that they would be boring and stupid, but Papa no Iukoto bravely stormed that beach and damned the torpedoes. RG Veda was drawn so well in a time period when everything looked cheesily terrible -- as was Guyver -- so these series put the rest of anime on notice and demanded better of their competition to not just relax with such sub-par nonsense as, say, They Were Eleven:
My top 120 anime all has something great as well as something good about it. From old famous movies like Akira and Ninja Scroll, to new stunningly beautiful series like Hyouka and Tari Tari, my rankings just go from strength to strength. There is no weak spot. There are no laggards. When Steins;Gate is 89th, it's not because I think Steins;Gate was a stinker -- it's because I simply couldn't fit it in any sooner. I didn't put Berserk at 71st because I hate Berserk. I love Berserk. It's one of my favorite series ever. That's just the depth of anime at this point!
And the depth of the competition just keeps broadening. I didn't intend to put AKB0048 or Natsuiro Kiseki into my rankings. They simply forced their way in by being so ridiculously good I couldn't ignore them anymore. Tari Tari was the same this summer. Last summer Idolm@ster and Usagi Drop simply blew me away, when I didn't expect much from either of them. And this fall will mark the beginning of Little Busters, perhaps the most important anime project of all time. Even though I keep including more and more series in my rankings, the quality of the worst ranked isn't going down. In fact, it's still going up. It's still getting Harder for an old series to qualify in my rankings, instead of easier, because the pressure of these new seasons is just that fierce. Some time down the road I'll have to introduce a top 130 anime, and when I do, I am certain that I can speak just as highly and with just as much praise for 121-130 as I have attested for any of my previous selections.
I mean, Death Note is 113! Death Note is one of the most famous series of all time! I wouldn't be expanding my rankings except that, if I ever stopped, things like Death Note and Ninja Scroll, totally deserving of attention and merit, would be left off the scope entirely. Not only have I ranked these series, I've also watched them all in full (except Gundam, Gundam's just too long), and when possible secured a copy of them for rewatching and archiving as well. These series are extraordinary. They are seriously worth viewing. I consider #1, Clannad, to be better than the Bible. I consider Stellvia, #48, to be better than Ender's Game. #94, AKB0048, is better than Star Wars. Hyouka, at #117, completely outclasses A Game of Thrones. And Howl's Moving Castle, #120, was better than 'the biggest blockbuster of all time,' The Avengers. Anime is good. It's Really good. Compared to even the weakest of my anime rankings, Western art struggles to get a SINGLE ENTRY. You'd do better to sit down and watch all 120 of these series before even trying to find something good on TV or the theaters, reading any popular author (yeah, Harry Potter? Twilight? Hunger Games? Really?), or listening to any music cd instead of the jpop at anime's openings and endings (Smashing Pumpkings? Green Day? Pink Floyd? Try listening to the opening of Railgun. Or Amagami SS. Or Macross Frontier, or Seto no Hanayome, or Da Capo II S.S. . .)
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