{"id":10268,"date":"2011-03-03T03:32:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T09:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/?p=10268"},"modified":"2011-03-03T03:32:53","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T09:32:53","slug":"2010-anime-oscars-glens-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/?p=10268","title":{"rendered":"2010 Anime Oscars: Glen’s Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Apparently\u00a0Jon rarely watches anything good<\/a>, so\u00a0I’m doing my own version of the Anime Oscars. Actually, hardly any of the other Project Haruhi writers have watched most of these\u00a0shows. A lot of them aired when I was taking a break from anime earlier this year, but I’ve recently dug them up after hearing a lot of positive reviews. There’s a lot from 2010 that I haven’t\u00a0seen, but I think I’ve picked the best ones to backtrack first. Therefore, I’m confident in awarding Oscars to shows that truly deserve it.<\/p>\n

You can look forward to hearing the rest of the gang’s picks and more about mine on next week’s episode of Bakacast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Best Anime<\/h2>\n

Tatami Galaxy<\/h4>\n
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It might be difficult to believe after recent offerings, but Madhouse can make really good\u00a0shows when they feel like it. There’s also a reason the NoitaminA slot\u00a0has\u00a0such a huge reputation among the more pretentious<\/del> intellectual\u00a0subset of anime fandom. When both of these things combine, expectations\u00a0soar and bloggers’ WPM increase as they all\u00a0struggle to be the first to talk about it before it becomes mainstream.<\/p>\n

That\u00a0sort of hype can\u00a0strangle even the best\u00a0shows, but Tatami Galaxy<\/em> just\u00a0strides along and\u00a0surpasses it anyway. Introspective coming-of-age\u00a0stories are nothing new, but one this well-written and brilliantly directed hasn’t been\u00a0seen\u00a0since FLCL<\/em> premiered a decade ago. Its\u00a0small cast of\u00a0strange characters are funny, heartwarming, thought-provoking and, above all, highly entertaining to watch. It’s a good reminder that you don’t need a complicated internal mythology or ground-breaking philosophy to tell a great\u00a0story. Sometimes making\u00a0a simple\u00a0premise as bizarre as possible works just as well.<\/p>\n

Runner up: <\/strong>Squid Girl<\/em><\/p>\n


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Best Movie or OVA<\/h2>\n

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya<\/h4>\n
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Jon already covered everything I would have\u00a0say about this, except that I vehemently disagree with his preference of moe Yuki over Haruhi. This is probably just because of my weird fetish for crazy girls, though.<\/p>\n

Runner Up: <\/strong>A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA<\/em><\/p>\n


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Best Male Character<\/h2>\n

Ichinomiya Kou (Arakawa Under the Bridge<\/em>)<\/h4>\n
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Anime tends to have an overwhelming lack of male characters who do anything meaningful. I tend to believe it’s because the usual target demographic is male, and males tend to\u00a0stop being friends and turn into rivals once women appear. Since everyone knows\u00a0you can’t make a\u00a0successful\u00a0series<\/a> without cute female characters, the male lead is forced to become a blank projection character for the viewer. All the characters we’re\u00a0supposed to care about just have breasts added.<\/p>\n

Kou is not a blank\u00a0slate. In the beginning of the\u00a0series, he’s almost completely unrelatable to the 99% of people who have never owned a Lamborghini or flown in a private helicopter. He’s also completely oblivious to the fact that not everyone wants to be just like him.\u00a0As the\u00a0series goes on, his entire perception of the world around him is\u00a0slowly deconstructed and rebuilt by his eccentric neighbors. However, he’s never being dragged around or forced to do\u00a0what others believe is correct. He remains his own independent person while reevaluating himself according to his environment. It’s rare that\u00a0such massive character development can be accomplished without railroading their personality.<\/p>\n

Runner Up:<\/strong> Protagonist<\/em> (Tatami Galaxy<\/em>)<\/p>\n

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Best Female Character<\/h2>\n

Aikawa Chizuru (Squid Girl<\/em>)<\/h4>\n
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This is the only girl\u00a0so intense that\u00a0she makes invaders retreat with a glance. She was unanimously voted as the most appropriate method of dealing with<\/a> dangerous wild animals by the Bakacast\u00a0staff. She’s quick on her feet, easily improvising a new sentai hero to distract Squid Girl or pulling a\u00a0quick\u00a0switcheroo to win a volleyball tournament. She commands attention\u00a0simply with a\u00a0sideways glance because\u00a0she can kill you with her fingernails.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0she’s a\u00a0sweetheart as long as you don’t horse around in the\u00a0shop. She’s one of the first to treat Squid Girl as an equal and is always keeping the American\u00a0scientists from dissecting her. Yes,\u00a0she only uses her powers for good. We can only hope her abilities are never appropriated for Squid Girl’s\u00a0nefarious\u00a0purposes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Runner Up: Celty Sturluson (Durarara!!<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n


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Best Animation<\/h2>\n

Tatami Galaxy<\/h4>\n
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I’m lumping ‘art direction’ in with this\u00a0since it’s pretty much the\u00a0same thing to me, and I’d give both awards to the\u00a0same\u00a0show even if I tried to\u00a0separate them.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0show utilized almost every trick in the book when it came to blending live-action\u00a0shots with\u00a0animation. It wasn’t always necessary, but it WAS always interesting. The rotoscoped hand and chopsticks picking up beef was really cool, even if it was completely pointless. A better example is in the later episodes when the protagonist is wandering through the endless 4.5 tatami rooms. They’re mostly live-action\u00a0shots, with the\u00a0sole character and various important items being the only things animated. It parallels the loss of his grip on reality as live-action overtakes his animated world. I love the flipped parallel it draws between real-life hikikomori, who tend to lose themselves in a an animated world, to an animated one who loses himself in the real world.<\/p>\n

Runner Up:<\/strong> Samurai Girls<\/em><\/p>\n


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Best Character Design<\/h2>\n

Celty Sturluson (Durarara!!<\/em>)<\/h4>\n
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How do you make a medieval faerie who rides a horse\u00a0fit into an urban\u00a0setting? How do you make a female character with no head appealing to people other than\u00a0guro fetishists?\u00a0By turning the horse into a motorcycle and giving the girl a helmet with cat ears on it. This\u00a0reimagining of a dullahan<\/a> is brilliant in how\u00a0straightforward,\u00a0sexy, and consistent with the original mythology it is. And the way the\u00a0smoke that comes out of her neck fills up the room when\u00a0she blushes is pretty cute, too.<\/p>\n

Runner Up: <\/strong>Squid Girl (Squid Girl<\/em>)<\/p>\n

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Best Soundtrack<\/h2>\n

Yoshimori Makoto (Durarara!!<\/em>)<\/h4>\n
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The\u00a0sheer variety in\u00a0Durarara!!<\/em>‘s music is incredible. Tracks include such varied styles as acid jazz,\u00a0swing, blues, funk, rock n’ roll, ska,\u00a0classical, baroque, Celtic and Russian. As any musician or composer knows, it’s one thing to\u00a0study the mechanics of a\u00a0style of music to imitate it, and a completely different undertaking to experiment with it and create good music at the\u00a0same time. Yoshimori has managed to do the latter with nearly every track. The wildly different flavors on the CD parallel the\u00a0strange hodgepodge of characters that is the\u00a0series’\u00a0selling point, with many of the\u00a0songs having a tendency to attach themselves to a particular character. They never quite become de facto image\u00a0songs, but do begin to remind you of characters who aren’t even onscreen when they play.<\/p>\n

Runner Up: <\/strong>Takahashi Taku (Panty & Stocking<\/em>)<\/p>\n

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Special awards:<\/h4>\n

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Best OP<\/h2>\n

Kuragehime (Koko Dake no Hanashi by Chatmonchy)<\/h4>\n

[yframe url=’http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UKrSF3hGVvc’]<\/p>\n

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Best ED<\/h2>\n

Arakwawa Under the Bridge x Bridge (Goodbye Days by Suneohair)<\/h4>\n

[yframe url=’http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N80eH-0N8WI’]<\/p>\n

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Best Hair<\/h2>\n

Shiki<\/h4>\n
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The whole cast, really, but mainly that.
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Best Transformation<\/h2>\n

Star Driver<\/h4>\n

[yframe url=’http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gvk0flArz3o’]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Apparently\u00a0Jon rarely watches anything good, so\u00a0I’m doing my own version of the Anime Oscars. Actually, hardly any of the other Project Haruhi writers have watched most of these\u00a0shows. A lot of them aired when I was taking a break … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1479,1247,31,1299,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2010-fall-season","category-summer-2010-2","category-anime","category-editorial-2","category-fandom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}