Best Anime of 2011

It's a bit early to make a "best of" list, what with about a fourth of the 2011 shows having yet to conclude. I know I have trouble ranking the top two shows in relation to each other as it is.

Anyway, my tie for the best of the year as it stands :

• Mawaru Penguindrum
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica

A notch lower, but still very good :

• Steins Gate

Coming some way behind, but very good at what they do :

• Tiger And Bunny
• Bunny Drop
• Un Go
• Mitsudomoe Zouryuuchuu

... Wait a second. Did I really rate the second season of freakin' Mitsudomoe that highly ? I thought I had fixed my rating scale earlier this year, but somehow this is still my second favourite comedy anime ever. Uh.

Anyway, anything else I found too uneven or flawed to deserve being amongst the "best of the year". (And I say this as someone who watched about 50 shows across all genres and sampled at least as many.)

Is Wandering Son anime bad, or did just no one watch it in Tvtropes?

I think not a whole lot of people watched it, but I've still heard good things about it.

Anyways, here's what I would consider at the top of my list, but I like all of them practically equally for different reasons (and there's not much I can say that hasn't already been said).

• Mawaru Penguindrum. Admittedly, this is coming off the high of just finishing it, and I'm just a sucker for this highly stylistic form of storytelling.
• Madoka Magica. Now, I haven't watched this in half a year, but it is still very memorable in many aspects.
• Tiger And Bunny. I definitely did not expect this to become the suprise hit that it did, but man is it fun to watch.
• Steins Gate. A brilliant executed story of time travel and romance, and had a great time watching this with friends.

Honorable mentions include:

• Persona 4: While I haven't played the game, I binged this wiki for the story before I knew an anime was coming out. Even so, this is really enjoyable, with no final verdict since its still airing. But the Broswagonist is the best main character for all the years.
• The first two episodes of Blue Exorcist, which perfectly capture the intro to the series, but then you should just go read the manga. The first half of the anime is a good adaptation, but the latter half really went off the rails and didn't quite succeed.

So it seems like 2011 was a very good year for anime, which is great for me since this the first year I've paid more attention to currently airing shows, with a lot of hits showing up in the rest of this thread in varying ranks, so I'll probably give a go at most of them.

Does anyone remember how 2010 stands in comparison? All I really remember is Star Driver, which was a fun ride but didn't make too much of an impact.

edited 25th Dec '11 1:31:21 AM by Eschaton

I think no one mentions Wandering Son because everyone was busy with Madoka Magica. Haven't watched it either, but I heard good things about it.

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^^^It was my favorite show of the year, but I'm biased.

I still have to watch the ends of Fate/Zero, Ika Musume, and Kimi to Boku before I can make a definitive list. (Personally, I disqualify any show that doesn't end by the end of the year, which is why Chihayafuru won't be on my list even though it's really good. Next year, though.) Otherwise I run the risk of putting up a show that has an awful ending and no longer deserves to be on any best of lists.

I have not watched the whole of 2011 anime, but my current favorites include Wandering Son/Hourou Musuko and Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

I am also currently enjoying Hanasaku Iroha, a Spring 2011 anime. Mirai Nikki and Ben To are also on my watchlist.

edited 25th Dec '11 7:22:40 AM by Trollkastel

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Tiger And Bunny

Also Natsume Yuujinchou ; Season 3.

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Hyouge Mono and Usagi Drop, probably.

Mirai Nikki

The manga was epic, and the anime is loyal.

Seems like everyone loves Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I mean, EVERYONE

edited 27th Dec '11 9:14:38 PM by eternalNoob

If you wanna PM me, send it to my mrsunshinesprinkles account; this one is blorked.

The Wandering Son anime has... problems. Unlike Bunny Drop, it suffers a lot from the noitaminA 11-episode format, which shoots the pacing to hell. It starts with the mind-boggling decision to start the story at about volume 5 of the manga (leaving the newbie anime watcher baffled about who all these characters are, what's the deal with the two leads' breakup, or why they should care), and later on there's a whole episode worth of crucial plot resolution that's been relegated to OVA releases (and I'm not sure they're out yet).

Don't get me wrong, most of the time the anime series manages to recapture the magic of the original manga (which is very wonderful indeed). But it's flawed enough to fall short of being among my "best of 2011".

I enjoyed Hanasaku Iroha Good character development, you get a sense you know them. Minko was a bit*h though.

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