2012 Anime Retrospective:

It's the end of the year, so what better time to look at what series aired over the course of the whole year?

2012's Winter season was in many ways its best season of the year.  Looking at series that originated in 2012 and weren't just continuations of previous series, we get just one ranking series, but the highest ranking series of 2012, Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai, at #39.

There were also some good sequel series, Shin Prince of Tennis, Nisemonogatari, and Zero no Tsukaima F.  Of these, Nisemonogatari was the standout series and incidentally had the highest sales of any anime this year.

Some other sequel series started in Fall of 2011 and continued into winter of 2012, like Shakugan no Shana III and Bakuman II.  Still others have aired for many years and continued to do so throughout 2012, like Pretty Cure, Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail and Hunter x Hunter.  Lastly, Bleach continued into the winter of 2012 before surprisingly drawing to a close, while the manga continued on its own, after eight years of airing.

Once we reached the spring of 2012, as far as new series go, we got a wonderful new gift in AKB0048, ranked #59, Ginga e Kickoff, ranked #114, Natsuiro Kiseki, ranked #80, and Hyouka, ranked #81.

It also gave us some sequels to already good series, like Fate/Zero season 2 and Saki Achiga-hen.

In summer we got two new series, Tari Tari at #99 and Sword Art Online at #62.

They were joined by Yuru Yuri's sequel.

In the fall of 2012 we got from new series Little Busters, at #52, Girls und Panzer, at #75, and Shin Sekai Yori, at the second best rank of #41 for new series starting this year.

There were also some useful sequel series, including Bakuman III, Seitokai no Ichizon 2, and Hayate no Gotoku III.

Therefore, if we were to count only series that began in 2012 as properly 2012 anime, the top ten rankings list would look like this:

1.  Papa no Iukoto
2.  Shin Sekai Yori
3.  Little Busters
4.  AKB0048
5.  Sword Art Online
6.  Girls und Panzer
7.  Natsuiro Kiseki
8.  Hyouka
9.  Tari Tari
10.  Ginga e Kickoff.

There were also many movies and ova's of good series, like the Strike Witches movie, the World God Only Knows ova's, and so on, which all contributed their little part to the quality of the year.  Ten new good series in a single year is very impressive.  It is a disappointment that none of them were very highly ranking series, only Papa no Iukoto barely qualifying for the top 1/3, but this probably won't last long because Shin Sekai Yori, Girls und Panzer, AKB0048, Little Busters, and even Ginga e Kickoff are continuing on into 2013.  They still have the opportunity to rise in the ranks in the future, which will retroactively make 2012 a more and more banner year for anime.  Also, many good shows weren't considered good until their sequels came out, like Yuru Yuri and Seitokai no Ichizon, which means 2012 has as much a right to claim the 'birth' of the series as when their original seasons aired.

Looking forward into 2013, we get more Haganai, more Da Capo, more AKB0048, more Girls und Panzer, more Little Busters, more Ginga e Kickoff, more Pretty Cure, more Naruto, more One Piece, more Fairy Tail, more Hunter x Hunter, more Bakuman, more Fate/etc, more Hayate, more The World God Only Knows, more Sailor Moon, more Higurashi, more Saki, pretty much more of everything that made 2012 so good and then yet more still.

The winter season starts in just a few days, and initial reviews will be the next flurry of activity, but giving a bow to these 10 new anime franchises for breaking into my top 120 rankings is the best way to close off this obsolescent year.  The Hobbit sure wasn't worth watching, and the wrong president got elected, so in the end the only thing worth remembering about 2012 was the above, splendid, supremely commendable list of anime.