Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

Honestly the only anime film I saw this year that wasn't on Toonami was the latest Conan movie and the first Hunter X Hunter movie. Because I find it hard to care about what happens in a single movie vs an entire show (even short shows are longer than long movies). Also because movies are way better in an actual movie theater.

Is it anime which came out this year or anime which I watched this year? Because with the latter I'd honestly have no idea

1. Silver Spoon
2. Servant x Service
3. Little Busters!
4. Samurai Flamenco
5. Watamote

I surprised myself with how much I watched this year! Had I watched Attack on Titan or The Eccentric Family, I would probably have put them pretty highly on my list too.

As for movies, I haven't even watched a single one this year but The Garden of Words wins for being a Makoto Shinkai film with Kashiwa Daisuke as the composer.

I'll just do a top 10 shows I watched this year, then maybe go into detail with a few of them later:

1) One Piece
2) Hunter X Hunter
3) Space Battleship Yamato 2199
4) Magi
5) Yu Yu Hakusho
6) Brave of Gold: Goldran
7) Gundam UC/Gintama
8) Summer Wars
9) Toriko
10) Fairy Tail

Honorable Mentions: Bleach, Broken Blade, The Unlimited, Wooser, Senyu.

Not sure if I mentioned this or not, but I watched well over 500 episodes this year. Not bad, considering I've yet to finish anything this year...but I'm close with Yamato, so we'll see.

List of anime that I liked watching this year, starting with the best.

Best of the Year:
Monogatari Series: Second Season, OreGairu, Noucome, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Haganai Next, Gatchaman Crowds,
Love Live! School Idol Project, Beyond the Boundary, Oreimo., Kill la Kill, Love Lab, GJ Club, HenNeko.

Decent:
Tokyo Ravens, Date A Live, Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Animation, Servant × Service, Outbreak Company,
Log Horizon, Non Non Biyori, Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos W, Watamote, Saint Seiya Omega, Naruto.

Best Other:
Puella Magi Madoka Magica, K-ON!.

My Top 10 Anime of the Year

1) One Piece - I saw the entire Thriller Bark and Summit War (Sobady, Amazon Lily, Impel Down, Mainford, and Post War Arcs) Sagas. 'Nuff said.

2) Hunter X Hunter - This show is amazing! It does something different with every arc and nails them all just right, even going above and beyond expectations for some Arcs. The Yorknew City arc was all kinds of intense, and the Greed Island arc has to be one of the best arcs I've seen in anime in a long time, even rivaling some arcs in One Piece! I can't wait until I watch the Chimera Ant arc in June!

3) Space Battleship Yamato 2199 - Easily one of the best sci-fi shows to come out in decades, perhaps since Dougram and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The story is heartfelt and interesting, filled to the brim with surprising yet sensible plot twists. The characters are all great and connected to eachother in some way, and Leader Desslock is one of the best villains I've seen in years. The dialogue is excellent as well, and its rare that I bother noting that, but there are some memorable lines in this show. The animation is simply superb, and it modernizes certain things while still staying true to its 70's source material. The battles are all intense and well-done, absolutely filled with surprises, and everything works within the story. Seriously, some of these scenarios are downright clever, though I nothing I could say could would do them proper justice. If I had one complaint, it would be that it can be a little episodic at times, but never to the point where things feel pointless or the story's not moving forward. It's all very well paced, actually, its just that sometimes I want the story to go faster just because I'm so invested in it. I'm still a few episodes from finishing it, but its gonna be hard for it to disappoint me at this point. Easily the biggest surprise of the year.

4) Magi - Seriously, the Balbadd arc sealed the deal, and this show is worth watching just for that. And that's only 11 of the 25 episodes.

5) Yu Yu Hakusho - I only watched the first 25 episodes, but those were a great 25 episodes! The same mangaka also made Hunter X Hunter, and his brilliance shows through here as well. Great story with perfect pacing, a good mix of slower moments and perfectly thought-out battles with plenty of tension. I loved it as a kid, I love it now, and I can't wait to watch more!

6) Gundam UC/Gintama (Tie) - I haven't seen enough of these to really count them separately, but what I did see of each of them was positively superb, and I decided to tie them up. Gintama is turning into my 4th favorite Shonen anime with its crazy world and characters, and its perfect balance of comedy, drama, and action. Gundam UC on the otherhand, has been drawing me in with its intense story, and it has me on the edge of my seat as the next episode draws this fantastic show to a close. Of course, the action scenes have been amazing, as is the animation and music, but the story here is easily the best Gundam has seen since Zeta Gundam back in 1985. To think, this was a side story. What's even more exciting is finding out what will (probably) be announced once the final episode is out...

7) Summer Wars - Actually, this is probably the second best movie I saw all year, just edged out by Ender's Game (which has the luxury of being a faithful adaption of a beloved book from childhood). It was a very heartfelt tale, and I loved every minute of it. It was a perfectly balanced movie, and I can't say there was much I felt needed to better. Second biggest surprise, as despite all the hype, praise, and trailers, it still exceeded every one of my expectations.

8) Brave of Gold: Goldran - There's actually nothing spectacular about this show, but achieves what it sets out to do, and that's be a whimsical comedy adventure in a world full of unexpected surprises and things that aren't quite what they appear to be. It was just so heartfelt that I couldn't help but love it.

9) Toriko - Another fun show, but this one manages to go above what's expected of it from time to time. It plays straight some of its silliness a little too much sometimes, but I get the feeling like I'm supposed to take everything seriously. It's just pure, unadulterated fun a lot of the time. And when it gets intense, it's really intense. That said, it may be a while before I watch more.

10) Fairy Tail - This one has been one hell of a rollercoaster ride. Its highs (the entire Phantom Lord and Loke Arcs) are really high, and it's lows (The first 3 arcs and Tower of Heaven) are underground...still, I enjoyed it for the most part, and there are few anime that I felt strongly about in so many different ways.

I'll edit in the honorable mentions in a minute...

10 huh? ...this is a fitting topic considering the thread I plan to make at the beginning of the year...

1 TWGOK: Yes seriously, right at the end of the year and only three episodes in, and it's really the first one and a half that did it for me. That was amazing, I'm kinda stunned at how good that was. I can;t even imagine if it gets better...maybe I'm exaggerating, but right now this is the best thing as far as I'm concerned.
2. Detective Conan: While quite frankly on average this series is not as good as it once was (for a number of reasons, though most I don't blame just on the current quality of it tbh), it's still my favorite, and they went in a bold direction (well compared to normal) in order to keep this ridiculous neverending arc interesting and in general the writer has finally decided to not just rely on old tricks, which is highly appreciated.
3. Watamote: This is the closest I've seen an anime get to the genius "drama comedy" thing involving how ****ed up people can be since Welcome to the NHK and the fact that it is a nerd girl with serious issues makes it fascinating. I didn't even realize the symbolism in the Opening until I was told about it and I'm not a huge symbolism guy but that was brilliant. Also helps that it's really funny, but like NHK, after a while the comedy just kinda makes it worse and more depressing but that's part of the genius.
4. One Piece dub. Hey, I haven't seen this since 2007 and I don't want to risk something not very good on a list so...yeah. And it's dubbed now1!1! But yeah, One Piece rules my face forever and I was reminded about how good Davy Back Fight is. I did see past where Toonami is now with the dvds and OMG I can't wait to see people's reactions. Only reason this isn't even higher is because of filler of course, but even that wasn't that bad.
5. Kill la Kill: I never saw Gurren Lagann (sp?) past the first episode but from what I know about and the fact that the same person is behind this, this is supposed to be Gurren Lagann for girls. It's a very odd and somehow kinda smart fanservice-y action show and while the characters (especially Mako) and story are good, it's really how shameless and insane and action-packed it is that makes it so much fun. I'm not huge into fanservice anime but this one really knows what it's doing with it and somehow is actually pretty smart about it...in a dumb way. I think.
6. Evangelion 1.11: Like a lot of 90s anime that the internet adores, I'm not a huge Evangelion fan and have buried it for the same reasons everyone else has but this was really good and it seemed to do everything better than what the original series could.
7. Evangelion 2.22: This is a better movie than the first one (despite a not so great first half) but I don't like it quite as much as the first one, maybe because I actually had good expectations for this. And yes, I wasn't that much into the first half and loved the 2nd half for the exact reason you think it is.
8. Soul Eater: I didn't fully realize how good this series was until it aired on Toonami this year, and I had even seen a few episodes of the anime before but this is great. Hunter X Hunter as a series isn't on this list solely because my love for the Chimera arc is more because of parts and the climax rather than as an arc as a whole (though it's still solid). But Soul Eater is just great shonen, ridiculous, interesting, looks great, well animated (not necessary for great shonen let's be honest, but it helps) and filled with memorable and fun characters.
9.Hunter X Hunter movie: I like Hunter X Hunter a lot and this is a solid movie for it. It does exactly what it needs to, be a solid, better animated little arc that would fit in well with the stories and characters without going against canon in any way.
10. Summer Wars: It was a really fun little movie that I can't praise to the levels some people can, but it's just an enjoyable mix of ridiculous and heart-warming and fun and realism and sci-fi...it all worked together really well.

Eh, I'll just quick do my Honorable mentions as a new post:

Bleach - If I hadn't limited it to 10 this would've made it. I only watched the first 65 episodes and those were a great 65 episodes...at least before Aizen showed up.

Broken Blade - The fights are great - the mechs have a lot of weight to them, the battles are never really one-sided, and our hero isn't exactly a prodigy. Sure, the story and characters are pretty cliche, but I still kinda want to know where things go...if only so we can see more of these fights.

The Unlimited - The first two episodes were fantastic...but that's the problem - I only saw the first two episodes...had I seen the rest, I could've listed it.

Wooser - Introduced me to the pleasure of comedy shorts. This sort of thing just works better in short bursts, and it was the only show this year that I followed on a consistant basis. It was pretty funny sometimes, too.

Senyu. - Reinforced the precedent, with lots of quick-fire jokes, though this one actually had a story to it instead of just being Jokes, and after a while I was genuinely interested in where the story was going, though I never did finish it. Still, it had some memorably funny jokes. Probably one of the best comedies I've seen since Binbougami-ga and Sgt. Frog.

So...that's happening.

I mean, I'm not surprised, but the announcement had to be on New Years Eve? That's just active sabotage of my overall opinion of 2013.

Supposedly the books after the second one are really good, so hopefully this one pans out better than the second half of Season 1.

Yeah, I've heard that too. But the thing is, I keep hearing that from people who like Sword Art Online, making me extremely hesitant.

To be fair, I heard it from someone who only liked the first half since it was based on the first book.

Just finished the newest chapter of History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi!

I have a question...
When it comes to One Piece with the manga and anime, why isn't the anime close / on the same time with the manga?
What I'm trying to say is... why has the anime has not caught up (in story line) with the manga? Sure this thing happens since it takes time to animate, etc, but to me this "distance" seems a bit far apart. Why aren't they closer? Doesn't Oda have some sort of control over Toei/FUNimation?

I hope this made sense...

EDIT: @RR529
How do you spoiler? I've tried this: