Best of 2010 (In Progress)

          It's been a good year for anime and there have been many exceptional new shows and movies. While I obviously haven't watched EVERYTHING that was released this year I watched most of what looked interesting to me, so this is a work in progress list of what I liked that I saw.

Top 5 Shows:

1. Angel Beats! - Definitely the best show this year, it's only shortcoming was it's length. I think a reboot somewhere down the line would be worth it, Key has created such a rich world and cast of characters here and it is a shame that the plot didn't have time to fully develop. 
2. Sora no Woto - In many regards very similar to Angel Beats, they throw you into a creative world but don't have enough time to fully explain everything, that being said I think that they did end this much better than Angel Beats!
3. Ore no Imouto - Best comedy by far and one of my favorite shows this year, again it's a short season. 
4. Amagami SS - Run of the mill high school romance, divided into 4 episode arcs, exceptionally animated, second only to Angel Beats! This only got bumped to 4th because some arcs weren't particularly good - I wish they had gone for more of a Clannad approach and chosen one arc to follow. This is a full length show, with 24 episodes and 2 OVAs. 
5. Index II - What can I say? I like the universe the creators of this series have developed and while I like the "science" arcs more the "magical" parts are much better done this season. Only 5th place due to over-use of fan service. 

Top 5 Movies: (work in progress)

1. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya - Simply incredible, this movie takes the Haruhi universe to new levels. There is litterally nothing I didn't like about it. This is second only to The Place Promised in Our Early Days.
2. Eden of the East Movie II: Paradise Lost - The long awaited conclusion to the 2009 hit show, many have complained that it was boring since it was all dialog. I really thought that they were able to tie together the various plot elements and I didn't mind the slow pacing at all. 
3. Time of Eve - This was a ONA that was released in short segments but was compiled into movie form this year and I have to say it was really clever. The android cafe serves as the only real locale but the interesting conversations the characters have with other people as well as with androids are amusing and sometimes even profound. I kind of feel that the plot was tacked on after the fact, and that it may have been better as just sort of a "future time piece". 
4. Black Rock Shooter - Another controversial movie (well, 40min OVA) but there really weren't that many good movies this year. I didn't think it was strange and confusing like many people seemed to, I thought that the good character design and quite well done art put it on this list. 
5. Macross Fronteir? Gundam? There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of other movies I want to put on this list, I will wait till the end of the year to see if anything catches my interest that I haven't already seen. 

Denno Coil (Review)

          Denno Coil (電脳コイル), directed by Mitsuo Iso, is the story of a group of children who use augmented reality glasses to explore a virtual world where they are free to make their own rules. The show starts when the protagonist, Okonogi Yūko, moves to Daikoku City with her family. Shortly after she and her sister Kyoko arrive by train, Kyoko and the sisters’ cyber-pet Densuke wander off. While searching for them, Yuko meets Hashimoto Fumie, a girl her age who is part of an investigative organization: The Coil Denno Investigation Agency. She is able to modify the virtual world around her through the use of metatags, which resemble o-fuda (paper talismans), and other illicit items. Together they rescue Densuke from an obsolete space, a part of the virtual world that has come to be out of sync with the real world. From there Yuko becomes involved with the world of hacking, illigals, metabugs, Satchi, and encoders which is popular among the kids living in Daikoku.
          Denno Coil throws you into a complicated world from the beginning, and you find out over the first half of the series, which is much more lighthearted, what the illegals are and how the children collect metabugs (a form of currency used to buy illicit hacking tools).  By the time you reach the midseason break, you should be familiar with all the terminology. At that point the tone of the show becomes more serious as Yuko is forced to confront her past and that of the girl who shares her name, Amasawa Yuko. I think that this shift works well to advance the plot to the finale. The consistency and forethought that went into the script is apparent upon re-watching the show, when you notice elements much later on foreshadowed in even the first episode. The conclusion is satisfying, leaving no open ended plot holes or inconsistencies. The exceptional storyline is one of Denno Coil’s greatest strengths, and you will find yourself eager to watch the next episode.

          From the get go I felt like I was watching a Miyazaki film. Denno Coil’s superb art style and characters effortlessly draw you into this unique and creative world. It is hard to pin down at first what it is about the characters that make them so compelling as they are for the most part fairly generic. After the first few episodes I decided that it is a combination of the uniquely fluid animation and the exceptional voice acting that really makes the viewer able to identify with the characters, despite their young age, something not typical for many shows, anime or otherwise.
          The director, Mitsuo Iso, is known for a style of animation that he refers to as “full limited”, which uses more key frames and allows for much more detailed motion. Characters will fiddle with their hands or jump up and down while they are talking as one would expect of a fifth-grader. This is something many anime shows fail to capture when depicting children, often giving them the same composed motions of adults. The animation does not try to appear photo realistic, and keeps a consistent medium level of detail throughout the show rather than changing periodically for comic relief, something that is done quite often nowadays.
         Accompanying Dennou Coil is an excellent original soundtrack that makes the exhilarating chases through Daikoku by the anti-virus program nicknamed Satchi all the more entertaining. The opening title “Prism” and the ending title “Sora no Kakera” both do a good job of setting the mood before and after the episode.

          Denno Coil is a rare gem of a show that manages to do everything nearly perfectly, from its excellent plot and characters to the fluid animation and exceptional score. Unlike many shows I would recommend this to almost any age group. The children’s games and pranks would entertain anyone and the complex plot keeps older audiences hooked. Even for people who wouldn’t ordinarily watch anime, this series shares the same universal appeal found in Miyazaki films. This is, without a doubt, the best anime series I have ever seen.