28 Oct 2007 1515H

Best anime of 2007?

I can’t say I’ve been watching much in the way of fansubs this year — seems that the number goes down and down with each passing year — but I have watched some in the last year, mostly to fill the vacuum left by Heroes and Galactica. And I’d almost say that the anime win out over those series.

For ‘07, I would recommend Angel Heart, Heroic Age, Seirei no Moribito, Legend of Daiku Maryu Gaiking (which is probably 2005-2006), and most recently, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

Angel Heart

Angel Heart, the feel good anime of 2006, continues to be the feel good anime of this year too, although the drama is overcoming the comedy in rather saccharine doses. And the quality of the animation is uneven and not quite up to snuff even compared to the 1980s City Hunter series. Still, I watch out of loyalty to the franchise.

Heroic Age

Heroic Age. Take elements of Homeworld, the Game of the Year 2000, some elements of Starship Troopers, and some elements of Battlestar Galactica, and you have yourself Heroic Age. It’s not to say it’s a sheer rip off of those titles. Heroic Age stands on its own in its epic space opera-ness: giant bugs, godlike creatures, massive capital ship battles. Hasn’t been licensed yet, so, take a look. Might be on YouTube.

Seirei no Moribito

Seirei no Moribito/Guardian of the Sacred Spirit. You’ve got your woman warrior with the mysterious past, your prince who winds up protected by her as he’s forced to flee from his destiny, and the assorted characters who usually wind up helping or hindering the protagonist. Never mind my pithy summary. Just watch the damn thing. Fantastic story and animation. I’m looking forward to the Scholastic books, under the Guardian series. Licensed by Geneon, but who knows what will happen now that they’re bankrupt.

Gaiking

Legend of Daiku Maryu Gaiking, the 2006 reimagining of the classic 1976 Gaiking show, was surprisingly entertaining. I was sucked in by its flamboyant heroics. It seems to be a series for kids, but I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. Hasn’t been licensed yet, and you should be able to watch a lot of it on YouTube.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

And that brings us to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which, quite simply, is the epic, over-the-top anime series of the year which brings Gainax back at long last into the realm of solid, big stage storytelling. Got licensed by ADV in June, so who knows when it’ll be out here, but, that is the must get. I’m kind of surprised that Bandai Entertainment didn’t get dibs on it, though. Oh well. Bring on the drills!

I did watch a few other series, such as the remake of Dancougar, and also the remake of Reideen, and while they were fun, they weren’t really worth recommending. So save yourself the bandwidth and enjoy the ones I mentioned.

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