Halfway through the year 2021 when more people are getting vaccinated and going out and managers demanding that their peons go back to work in an office building with a shitty commute so they can have someone to lord over once again and everyone's trying to remember how to be social in public after being stuck inside for over a year of school or work...yeah this is the perfect time to drop a best-of anime list for last year. Maybe I'll add pictures later, but I wanted to get finish this list so everyone can agree with how right it is.

Others that didn’t make the cut or I didn’t watch too much of:

• Deca-Dence: Imagine being a NPC in a MMORPG with a story that never really ends. Heard the ending isn’t good but the little I have seen I liked.
• Adachi and Shimamura: a slow-burning lesbian schoolgirl romance with a weird girl who may or may not be an alien.
• Iwa-kakeru Climbing Girls: Shounen sports climbing/bouldering action but with various schoolgirls.
• Talentless Nana: Some kind of X-Men training school set on an island that quickly turns into Danganronpa 2.
• Our Last Crusade: The world’s dumbest governments send superpowered child soldiers to fight each other, but they keep dating in a neutral country instead. Can they find peace?
• Gleipnir: Surprisingly good fight scenes from the few eps I saw even though the show revolves around a crazy girl wearing a boy’s transformed flesh like a skinsuit to collect coins for an alien who keeps handing out superpowers like candy to various teens.
• Peter Grill: Nothing but trash but hey even I need a break once in a while.

Without further ado, let me introduce the...

Top 10 Anime of All Time of 2020

10) BNA (Brand New Animal)

Hey are you interested in yet another Studio Trigger anime? Do you like over the top action, giant corporations being evil alongside collaborating or enabling governments, thinly-veiled allegories for kids going through puberty and learning how to deal with their feelings, and a giant space monster from out of nowhere that pops in as the final antagonist? Well this anime has (most) of that. Set in a world where some people are born as furries and are exiled to the island of Anima City, the tanuki who was originally a human schoolgirl tries to find out who transformed her into a Beastman and how/if she can change back, while dealing with a sullen wolfman with a mysterious past. Also the ending theme is more relevant than you think to the story.

9) Appare-Ranman!

An anime-original Wacky Races where an eccentric inventor teams up with a cowardly samurai to build a racecar after the two of them are stuck in Los Angeles with no easy way of getting back home to Japan. Like a lot of anime (and other things) this one took a long hiatus as COVID19 hit and didn’t finish until next season. Evan Call’s music production especially helped elevate this show, giving the various characters and setting an interesting motif. Sadly this one dropped a bit in my rankings as the latter half of the show felt a bit too conventional after a very interesting start, and I would’ve liked to see more of the Thousand Three than the hints we got. And yet I still enjoyed it.

8) Kaguya-sama S2

More Kaguya and Miyuki playing mindgames with each other when they should just kiss already. Except now they threw in an election arc to introduce a couple new cast members and a sports tournament arc to add some depth to Yu’s character, who had mostly just been a blunt “straight man” until now. It might just be repeating a lot of notes from Season 1, but dammit they hit them so well and it’s one of the few shows that I find myself rewatching on occasion.

7) Jujutsu Kaisen

Another Shounen Jump manga that made the jump to the small screen with a banging soundtrack and incredible fight scenes. Punchy Naruto accidentally swallows the finger of an evil god while trying to save his friends at school, and ends up being drafted into working with Jujutsu sorcerers including inverse-Kakashi, slightly-older Sasuke, Sakura if she took up carpentry, a sarariman with a dull butcher knife, and more. Nothing super out of the ordinary shounen fare, but the team at MAPPA really put their back into the fight scenes, which makes me hope that they are giving their animators sufficient rest. (Ed Note: Apparently not!)

6) Nami wo kitekure! (Wave, Listen to Me!)

A very down-to-Earth show compared to others on this list. A restaurant shift-manager accidentally becomes a radio sensation after her drunken rant in the aftermath of a breakup gets played over the air by a smarmy producer at a station in Sapporo. Minare Koda is a hell of a disaster, and yet despite being essentially shanghaied into working as a radio host, she rolls with the punches and manages to make something of herself. The artwork isn’t bad either, even with the bear that she has to fight in the first few minutes of the show.

5) Somali and the Forest Spirit

Set in a fantasy world where humans have become an endangered species, almost literally eaten to extinction, a human girl named Somali travels with an unnamed golem who takes on the role of her father as they try to find some other humans to take her in, traveling across distant lands. It’s a relatively chill anime with some horrific scenes occasionally thrown in from various threatening flora and fauna that Somali stumbles across, but it fits within the world. Sadly the manga came to an abrupt end when the artist had to step back from drawing for his own health, so there won’t be a true ending, but I think you’ll enjoy it.

4) Majo no Tabitabi (Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina)

Literally just Kino no Tabi (Kino’s Journey) if Kino was a witch with a broom instead of a drifter with a talking motorbike, but that’s not a bad thing. Majo no Tabitabi is the story of a witch named Elaina who travels through different countries, writing a book full of notes on them like her inspiration, and the various characters she deals with: from weird puppetmakers, to dumb thieves, to lesbian witches, to wine-makers, and even her alternate self at one point. If you’re interested in a fantasy story without a ton of continuity and with yuri undertones, then you’ll love this show.

3) Dorohedoro

A talking lizard-man and his kung-fu gyoza master friend attempt to find the sorcerer responsible for giving him the head by introducing every sorcerer he meets to a face inside his mouth. Meanwhile the sorcerers have their own society full of masks, organs, and testing out their magic powers on the denizens of a large slum known as The Hole. It’s certainly one of the more unique stories I’ve come across. The artwork is a little rough, and definitely not for those squeamish about blood and organs and body horror. However, if you can tolerate that, you’ll find a very unique and interesting show that never quite goes where you think it will, in a good way.

2) Akudama Drive

An original anime from the original creator of Danganronpa who formed his own studio (Too Kyo Games). Several criminals (the titular Akudama) known only by their codenames and an unnamed office worker who got dragged into their group are hired by a talking black cat to rob a bullet train in future Kansai. This anime takes inspiration from several different movies like Blade Runner, The Usual Suspects, Reservoir Dogs, Ghost in the Shell, and throws them in a blender, and somehow they really made it work. There are no real good guys here, but you want them all to succeed in their own way. I don’t know if there’s a sequel in the works, but honestly everything they put down here is just fine, with a story arc that actually has something of an ending.

1) Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

It was really hard choosing the order of the Top 3 on this list, but when I think of what anime of the three that I would always anticipate the next episode after the last one ended, Eizouken was the clear winner. The story of a gremlin who loves drawing backgrounds and worlds, a rich diva who loves drawing people, and a tall girl who loves money and business, all coming together to form their own amateur anime studio in school. A microcosm of what it’s like to create an entire anime from scratch and bring it to life, while dealing with all sorts of problems that force the team to cut corners or work around various roadblocks. Yet despite all that, you see the various things that inspire Eizouken to become these creators of fantastical worlds in the first place: From Midori being a latchkey kid with access to her family’s Netflix account, to Tsubame trying to help her ailing grandmother walk, to Sayaka coming up with ideas to help her family’s business while not realizing that it was already doomed. All these experiences coming together to try and form some amazing art that others will see and enjoy, even if they don’t know it. Combine this with hints of a near-future setting and you have a great anime about anime that almost anyone can enjoy from start to finish.

I never got around to making a poll for 2019 for reasons but I figured I could at least write down my own Top 10 anime for everyone to read and acknowledge as the best.

1) Beastars

Did you ever watch cartoons or read stories as a child with mostly (or only) animal characters and wonder how they felt about eating burgers, or where their ears rested on their head, or how carnivores resisted the urge to eat the others? Beastars actually tackles those questions in a Japanese high-school set in a world where every animal has been domesticated to some degree, yet they are constantly struggling with their urges. The dwarf rabbit struggles not to screw everyone who shows kindness to her. The wolf struggles not to eat the rabbit or get violent with the others. The golden deer struggles with his own insecurities about being an herbivore despite being the most beloved student at school. The tiny animals struggle not to get stepped on all the time despite attending the same school with species much bigger than them.

Story aside, the presentation is great. Studio Orange shows off their amazing ability to take 3DCG imagery and make it incredibly expressive, as they did in Land of the Lustrous last year. I don’t know what devil magic they summon to do this, but to do it twice in a row is impressive.

Also a fun fact: the original writer of Beastars is the daughter of the writer behind the Baki series (also on Netflix!). Unlike her father, she prefers to avoid the spotlight, often wearing a furry mask when she does give interviews.

2) Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

He’s a hard-working student council President who has clawed his way to the top of the school from his relatively blue-collar origins. She’s the student council VP and an uber-rich daughter of a powerful Japanese family. Both of them try to make the other fall in love with them first. It’s a nice twist on a very simple rom-com premise, but the way they present it is amazing. Every single episode has something in it to make you laugh, and a couple even get emotional. Chika is the wild card in every episode where she appears, and usually the best character.

3) Carole & Tuesday

A poor girl who has trouble holding down a job teams up with a rich girl running away from home to become the greatest musical act that Mars has ever seen. From the subtle pokes at the class divide and the increasing reliance on AI to do things for us until humans are overtaken to the more direct story of two young artists struggling to make it big even as the world keeps kicking them down, Carole & Tuesday doesn’t let up for a moment. On top of that, the show has the old Cowboy Bebop team of Watanabe, Studio BONES, and Yoko Kanno, so there’s an excellent soundtrack with real artists from across the globe involved.

4) Granbelm

A bunch of little girls piloting magical mechs with a story that mixes the fighting Magical Girl stylings of Lyrical Nanoha with the increasingly darker twists of Madoka, all the way to the ending that actually made me feel sad for the “winner” for a bit. Some of the staff from Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans lent their talents to this show and you can see it in the mechs and some of the sound design.

5) O Maidens in Your Savage Season

I’m not sure how to say this without sounding very creepy, so bear with me here...five girls in a Japanese school literature club start to notice both subtle and not-so-subtle erotic messaging in the stories they read, setting off a chain reaction that involves each one dealing with puberty in their own way. From dealing with boys at school and in the neighborhood, to an awkward attempt at writing an R-18 novel, and a lot more. It’s funny, serious, awkward, sad, and charming all at once. Not for everyone, but if it is, you’ll love it.

6) Dororo

A village leader makes a deal with the devil, literally selling his firstborn son down the river to keep his land prosperous. What follows is an adventure story with a handicapped protagonist traveling across Japan with only a young, energetic guide (the titular Dororo) leading him along and serving as a moral compass. The fight scenes are great, and the variety of old demons that Hyakkimaru must battle to regain his form provide several interesting small stories that loosely connect into a larger tapestry.

7) Vinland Saga

A manga I never thought would be adapted until it was. Vinland Saga is loosely based off the life and times of real Vikings, with a kid named Thorfinn who is forced to grow up quickly after losing his father and joining the people who killed him in hopes of one day getting revenge. The story also puts him into the path of Cnut, the future ruler of Denmark. Might’ve been higher if I watched more of this show, but what I have seen so far stays true to the manga and works pretty well.

8) No Guns Life

A hard-boiled detective story with a cyberpunk setting is definitely my jam, but this show has an amazing twist: the protagonist is literally a walking, talking, smoking gun. Who can punch a train. Also notable that the staff used the latest Unreal Engine to help emphasize the lighting/shading effects in this show.

9) Gundam the Origin: Red Comet

A story that goes over the origins of the original Char and how he might’ve been a budding sociopath living in exile in space-Montana, biding his time for revenge Count of Monte Cristo style, before he became the prolific rival of Amuro in the og Gundam series. They also show the origin of that dumb white mask he and several spinoffs of him wear throughout the Gundam-verse, which was unnecessary but I'll take it.

10) Cop Craft

From the writer behind Full Metal Panic! and Amagi Brilliant Park comes another story adaptation in Cop Craft. An homage to ‘90s Western buddy-cop movies where a no-nonsense not!Elf knight teams up with a racist Japanese vice cop who’s a loose cannon with nothing to lose as they try to hunt down an evil wizard. Kind of like that Will Smith orc cop movie but better written. Unfortunately, the studio tasked with adapting this story was only given a budget of 1000 Yen and a bus pass, and multiple action-heavy episodes suffer for it, meaning I can’t rank the show much higher than this.

FINALLY, IT'S HERE

Welcome everyone to the...holy shit, I've been doing this unofficial poll for about 7 years now? That's insane. People have grown up, gotten jobs, lost jobs, graduated, dropped out, found love, lost it, joined the forum, abandoned the forum...it's been a heck of a ride. Don't know if I'll have the energy to do this one more year but no one else stepped up so here I am.

This year also saw the breakup of the partnership between Crunchyroll and Funimation, who teamed up to battle the potential menace of Netflix and Amazon trying to muscle in on their turf. as part of their effort, they gave everyone a huge back catalog of Funimation-owned shows in sub form to watch (Funi kept the dubs), allowing me to watch shows that were in my backlog for awhile like Star Blazers and Kurau Phantom Memory. Then Amazon's Anime Strike crashed, Netflix's anime offerings were pretty lackluster, while Funimation and Crunchy got bought up by different companies and ended the partnership. Now we're back to the cold war of streaming where your choices are to pay for five different streaming services to see all the anime you want, pray that someone has DVDs/blurays, or take your chances on certain other sites of questionable legality and quality.

Meanwhile, anime studios are relying on tons of young bright-eyed animators who either need rich parents or a ton of prayer because they aren't getting paid enough to live on the job alone. When they can't do that the animation gets outsourced to other studios, and there are some QUALITY scenes involved. It shouldn't be this way, it doesn't have to be this way, but this is the current way until either the artists rise in solidarity and unionize, the system gets broken down by some sort of crowdfunded structure, or Japan gets drowned by rising sea levels in the next few decades and the issue becomes relatively moot.

But I know, y'all didn't just come here to hear me or some youtuber ramble on about this. You want a top 10 list, and here it is. Will My Hero Academia repeat its performance from last year, or will a new show take the trophy from them?

About 45 users cast their votes this time around, a slight uptick in voting numbers compared to last year. As before, votes were tallied based on weighted value, and then unweighted value as a tiebreaker. If the results were still tied, then the two shows shared the ranking, as you'll see below...

9 (TIED!) SSSS.Gridman and Gintama [18 points, 5 votes]

Trigger made an interesting choice for their latest project: a sequel to a somewhat obscure live-action tokusatsu show that was released in the mid-90s. That’s right, the prayers of the Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad fandom have been answered! Both an homage to the aforementioned Power Rangers knockoff and a story showing what happens when otaku dive too far into their own fantasies to escape reality, SSSS.Gridman is a good reminder that you should stop writing fanfiction and clean your room already, even if you are a pretty girl on the inside.

Gintama has been around since 2003 (in manga form) with literally hundreds of manga chapters and anime episodes that started with “What if Admiral Perry and the ‘Black Fleet,’ but with aliens?” and just spun into a cast that covers roughly every notable Japanese person from the post-Sengoku era, making fun of them all and destroying everyone’s perception of the Shinsengumi in the process. This year featured the Silver Soul arc, where the gang has to save their town, their country, and ultimately the world from being destroyed by an immortal who wants to die so bad he's willing to take everyone else with him.

8) Violet Evergarden [22 points, 6 votes]

Violet Evergarden is a story about tragedy and coping with loss as a soldier with prosthetic arms and a large amount of trauma has to learn a new way of living as a typist in a post-war world. The story was relatively low-key, but I was able to find some meaning in it as Violet struggled to understand relating to others in a world where she had nothing left to fight for except the slim hope that her Major was still out there somewhere. The plot might be lacking a bit, but the large amount of care put into the art and animation of this series puts that of others to shame.

For the longest time I thought Violet in Violet Evergarden was suppose to be a robot of some kind. When I finally releazied that she was just a regular human that was when everything about the show fell apart for me. --@lentfilms

Just watching the eyes or hands animate ever so slightly to express feelings in Violet Evergarden made me cry buckets. My God. --@audiobusting

7) My Hero Academia [25 points, 9 votes]

This season of anime X-Men ramps up with an amazing fight that takes place between All Might with his One For All power versus his polar opposite in All For One. The studio saved a large chunk of their budget for this fight and it shows. A bit of a disappointment in the polls compared to last year’s performance for the defending champion, but there were so many better shows this year so I consider it a respectable showing.

6) Laid Back Camp [30 points, 9 votes]

This time in "Cute Girls Doing [X]," the theme is camping! Ever wanted to go out to Mount Fuji and pitch a tent, but don’t have the money or a clean record? Well curl up in a blanket and watch these girls do it for you. You might even learn something about camping too!

5) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind [33 points, 8 votes]

Another good showing for the JoJo Bros, as they take a top 5 spot this year, just barely missing fourth place by a couple of votes. This time, GioGio and his friends in Italy are having fun running around with Aerosmith, Tetsuya Nomura, and Zucchero as they try to reenact the Godfather and find the prankster who keeps cutting up their clothes. At least the soundtrack remains amazing.

Besides its outrageous character designs, stellar music and sound effect work, Jojo's greatest strength is its combat. Too much fighting in shonen fighting is mindless powerlevel bullcrap. You just win if you're strong enough. Jojo fights play out more like fantasy arguments of "who would win". --@redhotchilimist

4) Zombie Land Saga [33 points, 10 votes]

Part-idol anime, part-comedy, and part thinly-veiled advertisement to increase tourism to the Saga region of Japan, this show has something for everyone as a crazy guy turns several LEGENDARY idols who died into zombies as part of his mysterious plan to save Saga. Just like in Steins;Gate, Mamoru Miyano finds a way to steal the show with his voiceover work alone in what would otherwise be another forgettable idol show. Also noteable in that it had an unapologetic trans character and didn't treat her as a complete joke like so many other stories would have done.

Zombie Land Saga went in several directions I did not expect. First, it was a zombie idol comedy instead of a straight horror series. Second, despite the absurd premise, it pulls off some genuinely heartwarming moments. Thirdly, everyone is treated with a huge amount of respect and accepted for who they are. It didn't quite stick the landing at the end, but for most of its run it was a very enjoyable watch. --@azuregale

I was not expecting to like a show about A) zombies or B) idols and somehow both combined made my favorite anime in a long time. --@burncoat

3) Devilman: Crybaby [42 points, 9 votes]

Masaki Yuasa directs this remake of the old Go Nagai manga, Devilman, that appeared on Netflix real early this year. The story of a highschool boy who finds himself thrust into a battle between the forces of Hell after being possessed by one of its most powerful demons. It is gory, it is raunchy, it is violent as hell, and if you are good with all that on top of Yuasa’s unique visual style then you will love it. This might explain why so many of those who did vote for this show put it #1, and a few others put it at lower ranks on their ballots. It’s a show you’ll either really love, or just not care to watch.

Devilman: Crybaby was the most unique thing I have seen in a long time. The animation style alone sets it apart, but having a crazy WTF story elevated it up to something that should be considered a classic. --@offdutyninja

...somehow a Netflix adaptation of a 1970s manga is the anime pushing the boundaries of the medium. --@phoenicika

2) A Place Further than the Universe [48 points, 12 votes]

Another "Cute Girls Doing [X]" series, but this time in a relatively heartwarming tale about four girls who join a research trip to the Arctic Circle to connect, with friends, family, or simply to rekindle their own adventurous side. Another show that tells us that it really is the journey that matters as much as or more than the destination.

Sure, the polar ice caps might be melting due to several first-world nations demanding someone else make the first move in ending our reliance on fossil fuels so they can hoard more of a human-created concept some assholes invented long ago to claim power over the masses, even as we’ve already passed the Point of No Return on global warming, thus cutting down on future expeditions to Antarctica as the land mass shrinks and sea levels rise and will soon drown several major cities across the globe, especially those of island nations such as Japan, leading to large numbers of death and displacement for the people living there while saltwater intrusion and antibiotic-resistant superbugs awakened from melting permafrost creep even further inland…but this show will let you take your mind off that for awhile.

Not since Madoka Magica have I seen anime be as concise, as poignant, as powerfully focused as A Place Further than the Universe...no anime I would recommend to the average person more than this modern classic which has definitively and dominantly earned its spot on my top five anime of the decade list. --@clearandsweet

A Place Further Than The Universe sets itself apart from other works in the genre by intermingling the usual feel-good, breezy friendships and laughter that slice-of-life stories live by with genuinely emotional, heartwarming and uplifting moments in just about every single episode. --@hamst3r

and finally, the Number 1 Anime of the Year 2018 as voted on by the Giant Bomb Community...

1) Hinamatsuri [51 points, 16 votes]

A surprisingly heartwarming comedy about different girls from the future who mysteriously travel to the present for some reason that isn’t ever made clear. All that is clear is that a mid-level Yakuza finds himself turned into a de-facto dad of Hina, a girl who’s selfish, lazy, has a large appetite for salmon roe and amount of telekinetic power at her disposal. But more importantly are the other girls in this story: another psychic girl who learns to be a genuinely good person from living with homeless people, a third psychic girl who becomes a kung-fu master after nearly going insane from her own hand-carved puppet friends, and a normal middle-school girl who accidentally becomes the greatest bartender around because she can’t say no to helping anyone.

With the manga licensed for Western distribution at some point in the near future, hopefully even more people will be exposed to the hilarity that was left out of the anime, especially where Anzu sets up her own ramen stand or Hitomi's adventures in learning English from a private military training camp in Florida and hiring her dad for her own company. Am I telling the truth? You'll have to read the manga to find out!

Thank you all for Coming!

Raw totals can be below. Other categories will be posted shortly. If you have any comments or questions about the poll itself, feel free to ask in the comments and hopefully someone will answer them.

Raw Vote Totals

Hello there all you lovely Duders!

While you have been making Top 10 Game of the Year lists, the denizens and lurkers of your local Anime and Cartoon Megathread have been watching a bunch of Japanese cartoons and are now prepared to rank them in an order, so you know which ones to watch (or avoid, depending on your opinion). We've also continued with extra categories if anyone wishes, including best STYYYYLE, best QUALITY, best OP/ED, and more!

RIP Zucchero, at least your namesake is still alive.

This being a community thing, we've opened the floodgates to let everyone (with a Giant Bomb account) vote! So do your duty, let your voice be heard, and despair when some terrible Light Novel adaptation gets enough votes to push an actual good show out of the Top 10, further proving that democracy doesn't work.

Will My Hero Academia retain the belt from last year, or will some upstart knock it down? Only one way to find out! Vote!

How do I vote?

Click here, and enter your username and choices in the respective fields. You can ignore all but the first two questions if you wish, but you'll be missing out! If you need help remembering which anime aired this year, me and @takashichea compiled a big list to peruse through and pick out which show(s) are "Best of 2018" worthy.

How will the votes be counted?

The votes will be tallied by weighted vote first, followed by unweighted vote as a tiebreaker. So if you want your show to have a better shot at winning, you should put it higher on your ballot.

Is this an official Giant Bomb thing?

No, this is all me with help from taka and love from the denizens of the Anime & Cartoon Megathread. Feel free to stop by, we don't bite!

What if my favorite show started before but continued into this year?

For super-long shows or shows with separation between seasons, you'd be only considering the episodes or season that aired this year when making your choice. I don't have a real way of enforcing this, so we're just going to go on the honor system here.

Can I still vote for a show that's not on the list?

If it aired this year and it's missing, let myself or @takashichea know and we'll add it. If it didn't air this year, then feel free to vote for it anyways, just know that it probably won't count.

Anime is for Jerks!

Yes. Also, that's not a question.

How long do I have to vote?

I'll end this around the first weekend of January (subject to change, but that's a good bet).

Have fun!

Thanks! Just shoot me a PM or reply below if you have any questions or comments.

Welcome, Duders, to the 6th Annual Giant Bomb Anime Duders Anime of the Year Poll! Everyone in the Japanese animation industry is standing on edge for a small niche of people on a website catering to a slightly-bigger niche aimed at Western audiences to tell them which animes are actually the best this year. Though there weren't as many new hits that broke into the mainstream compared to previous years, the ones that did really stood out. This could also explain why the number of votes dropped to about 40 entries this year, down from last year's peak of 67.

As before, votes were weighed depending on their placement on each ballot: first place gets 5, second place gets 4, third place gets 3, fourth place gets 2, and fifth place gets 1. If there are any ties among the weighted vote, the entry with the most unweighted votes wins. If there are still ties after that, then the tied choices share the ranking. Though titles and quote excerpts might have been edited for clarity, the votes for each show remain unchanged.

I don't have much more to write for an intro here, so let's get to it!

The Top 10 Animes of All Time of 2017 (among those who voted on Giant Bomb)

10) March Comes In Like a Lion (18 pts)

A lighthearted story of a shogi player trying to deal with himself, a trio of sisters, and a bunch of cats. Admittedly I have not watched this one so here’s a quote from someone who did:

“March comes like a lion continues to stand out as a relatable and emotional story, accompanied by fantastic animation and a hint of the surreal art design Shaft is known for. You don't need to know anything about shogi to give this one a try” --@phoenicika

9) Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (19 pts)

The continuation of the Gundam spinoff involving child soldiers, space Yakuza, and life on Mars as the actions of the protagonists from the first season accidentally led others to ask “hey maybe this child soldier thing is cool, we should try it!” A lot of stuff breaks down and the ending is not very happy as everyone ends up losing something while trying to keep their organizations together. Definitely worth your time, though you should probably start at the first season.

8) Recovery of an MMO Junkie (20 pts)

A 30-year old woman chooses the NEET Life after burning out on her career, but her awkwardness at trying to form relationships with other people does not stop when she logs in. Unlike other anime with the “nerd stuck in fantasy world” premise, this one is less about the game world and more about the people using it as an escape, keeping it solidly planted in the real world. Also the twist of using adult characters instead of excitable teens makes it better.

“What starts out as a typical slice-of-life comedy ends up showcasing one of the healthiest and needed depictions of females in anime this year. What could have devolved into eye-rolling anime schlock, doesn't, and that is a damn miracle." --@zombiepie

7) Land of the Lustrous (22 pts)

I didn’t know much about this show other than it being about gem-people with 100% CGI animation. Surprisingly turned out a lot better than I expected, with relationships between gems, snails, and the mooninites that kept invading a strongly-implied post-apocalyptic Earth to turn them into pets or jewelery. It’s a world where even a fragile and brittle mineral like our hero Phosphophyllite can shine brightly with enough grit and polish.

“Land of the Lustrous has NO RIGHT to be as compelling and gorgeous as it is […] On top of this, the voicework and method of recording is *phenomenal*, and the themes of personal responsibility and failure ring truer than ever. I wasn't sold on putting this in my number one spot until episode 8, but it really blew me away...” --@peregrin38

“...it uses the CG to it advantage like lighting, movement, colors, and camera directions that others fail to take advantage of or use for cheap animation.” --@metalsnakezero

6) Interviews with Monster Girls (23 pts)

Vampires, Succubi, Dullahan, Yuki-onna, they’re just like us! A show about monster girls that’s surprisingly light-hearted, cheerful, and SFW compared to the more prolific counterpart from 2015 that kicked off a sort of renaissance of monstergirl anime and manga. In this one, a school doctor tries to understand the monster girls at his school a bit more, holding several one-on-one interviews with them.

“The initial impression for an anime with an English name 'Interviews with Monster Girls' might be the most anime-ass anime thing ever, but in reality it manages to tell compelling, heartfelt stories about the daily lives of their characters and is hilarious too.” --@imhungry

5) Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (28 pts)

Ever do some crazy things once alcohol removes your inhibitions? Maybe you buy expensive things online? Drive your car into a guardrail? Work up the courage to ask someone out? Travel to the mountains and then incidentally pull out an enchanted sword from a dragon who is then forever in your debt and comes to live at your apartment as your maid?

Okay, that last bit sounds really weird, but it’s the beginning of a show that turns out to be surprisingly cheerful and heartwarming. An increasing number of dragons stop by our world and a frumpy IT worker with an alcoholic streak and few real friends ends up dealing with them as they come to live or work with her. If you’re feeling down, this show will cheer you up.

Also, please don’t include the Ilulu parts from the manga if there’s ever a sequel. Thank you.

4) Little Witch Academia (TV) (32 pts)

Starting with a couple of short films from Studio Trigger (the second of which went through a successful Kickstarter), LWA turned into a full two-cour series about a girl with few magic powers going to a magic school in a manner of classic Disney meets Harry Potter. Whimsical, light-hearted, and filled with lessons about not giving up on your friends or yourself, no matter what the odds are. Whether she’s trying to practice transformation magic, or encouraging a yeti not to read internet comments, Akko’s spirit and unyielding energy is quite uplifting.

“Little Witch Academia and Tsurezure Children were some of the few shows from this year that I watched with my siblings, which is one of the reasons I had such a fun time watching them.” --@lentfilms

3) Made In Abyss (46 pts)

My personal favorite from this season with some Ghibli-esque artwork and surprisingly mature storytelling. It starts with a relatively simple premise of a little girl and some sort of cyborg boy trying to find her mother at the bottom of the Abyss from which very few people have returned alive. However, over the course of their journey, they run into serious hardship that takes a great toll on them, both physically and mentally. With incredible and sometimes horrifying visuals on top of a wonderful soundtrack, you have to watch this show.

"Made in Abyss is the most compelling world in anime in years - even with the show being over and catching up on as much manga as I could find, I want to see more. Add to this one of the best soundtracks in recent memory and you've got something truly special. It also wins bonus points for making me so sad I couldn't cry in the ending. I wish you the best, kids, even though I know the worst is yet to come...." --@peregrin38

2) KonoSuba S2 (49 pts)

A continuation of the isekai (short for “nerd who gets reincarnated into a fantasy world”) tale with the worst RPG party ever, featuring an idiot goddess who can’t stop herself from pulling aggro, a masochistic knight who must brave an arranged marriage to a kind-hearted suitor, an overspecialized mage who continues largely ignoring a one-sided rivalry, and the arrogant asshole who has to deal with all of them. If you loved the first season, then this has a lot more of what you love. If you did not like the first season, then this probably won’t sway you otherwise. Personally, I’m here for the top-notch animation and mature dialogue.

“Very rare to find an anime that is consistently funny. And top that off with amazing animation, at times. The characters may be fools but they are fools with heart, something that is lacking in anime.” --@bigjeffrey

“Konosuba's cast of derpy idiots continues to be the best thing about that show, and it's fairly obvious that the voice actors are having a lot of fun doing it.” --@arbitrarywater

Finally, the #1 Anime of All Time of 2017:

1) My Hero Academia S2 (61 pts)

A wonderful shounen tale wearing its western comic references on its sleeve, My Hero Academia continues the tale of Midoriya/Deku learning to deal with being the successor of the greatest hero, All Might, and his US State-based special attacks. If you loved the first season, then this season has the good parts distilled throughout! There’s a tournament arc, old heroes emerge, and dangerous new villains threaten the peace of the world! I guess when your name is Stain, your two career choices are either acting in a Tide Pod commercial or hero-killer. Either way, you’re a villain.

“The second season of My Hero Academia is perfectly paced action/drama perfection. It boils the previous seasons' best ingredients into a delicious syrup I gladly slurped up.” --@zombiepie

Additional categories will be posted below shortly. Thanks to everyone who voted, and to those who are just tuning in, hope you find something you like in the list below.

Raw Vote Totals

2017 sure was a year, huh? A year full of anguish, anxiety, panic attacks, recovering from a knee injury, 2 different moves as I found a good job that took me into another state, watching every single pro sports team I like crash and burn, a slight dip into alcoholism, and constant reminders that time is fleeting and we’re all waiting to see what’s finally going to kill off humanity between the effects of climate change, antibiotic-resistant superbugs, or World War 3 starting when some teen in Duluth tweets “Tronald Dump” at the White House on a bad day, setting off a chain-reaction that leads to us bombing Turkey.

But of course y’all don’t care about that, you came here to read my list of games that I liked and maybe tell me why I’m wrong because I didn’t have the time/money/inclination to play your game, or I did but didn’t rank it high enough. Well as my dad would always tell me, you can’t always get what you want. At some point I will actually buy a Switch to play all the wonderful games I heard about, on top of the ones for systems I already own, but I played enough games this year that I think the list will hold up.

Speaking of which, here are games I played that just missed the cut, in no particular order:

• Lawbreakers: Great gameplay, bad everything else. An 5v5 arena-shooter that had really good mechanics regarding movement in zero G and characters who had different movement abilities to use those free-floating pockets to their advantage. If it had just sat in beta for another half-year to test the characters and modes, the story might be different. But as it happened, things did not quite work out. Between the character designs that belonged more in UT 2004, to Cliffy B’s disastrous marketing campaign, to the lack of a proper offline or tutorial mode for new players, the player-base went into a death spiral and probably won’t emerge. At least we'll have the wiki page that I mostly contributed to.

• Tekken 7: It’s a really good fighting game for those who want more Tekken, and now Akuma from Street Fighter (and maybe Geese from King of Fighters?) is considered part of the canon! The story mode was garbage and the training mode was really bare-bones, but maybe I’ve just been spoiled by anime-fighters, who have done a much better job in both cases lately. I love playing as Katarina even if she's turned out to be a pretty low-tier character.

• Overwatch: Doesn't count for 2017, but Moira has been a welcome addition to the cast. If only I wasn't stuck in ELO Hell, that would be great, but Jay keeps insisting I swear this game off for...
• Rainbow Six Siege: Another game that didn't come out in 2017, but I've been warming to. For all the complaints about DLC and loot boxes and having to pay extra money or grind a ton for content that is already in the game, I might be part of the problem as I've paid for the extra Operators here. It's like a more grown-up, unforgiving Overwatch with characters who are geared exclusively towards penetrating an enemy base, or entrenching it on the other side, so you don't have a problem with, say, some asshole picking a defensive character on offense. I highly advise finding a good group to play with, as there is a higher probability of randos yelling about Jews or the N-word over team chat compared to Overwatch.

Also, a dishonorable mention goes to Valkyria Revolution. They couldn’t decide on whether they wanted to make a musou-style game or an SRPG with more magic, so they ended up trying to smush both systems together and made it all worse. It had the sneaking and cover systems from the Valkyria Chronicles series that you could use if you really wanted to, but it made little difference compared to running at enemies and hitting them with your sword until they died.

If there was any challenge from the game, it was the level system that forced you to grind to beat the bosses, and that your AI friends would get crushed by those bosses because they did not understand the concept of not standing in the glowing spot of doom before getting KO’d. With the announcement of Valkyria Chronicles 4, I think we can all agree to just forget this game ever happened.

The Top 10 Games of All Time of 2017 (that I actually played)

10) Yakuza Kiwami

Currently stuck at this car chase scene where a Triad gang has somehow smuggled in enough weapons and vehicles that the JSDF should be getting involved, and all Kiryu has is a six-shooter that is magically capable of firing 15 shots before reloading with infinite ammo. If they’re going to put in that much effort then just let them have the kid, they earned it. Anyways, considering I never played the OG Yakuza, this was a nice follow-up to Yakuza 0 (which I’ll get to in a moment) and the Majima Everywhere system was a nice touch.

9) Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2

Does it count if it's an expansion to an existing title? Well I'm counting it here. Possibly the best tutorial system you’ll ever find in any fighting game to date. Also, I appreciated the two new playable characters, as Baiken is extremely my aesthetic. Unfortunately, it turns out I’m a lot better actually playing as Potemkin. I still don’t really know what the story is and I’ve given up trying to figure it out, even with my above-average tolerance for anime bullshit. Shoutout to the GB FGC for holding a tournament in this like every 2-3 weeks, someday I'll be free enough to actually play in one of those again.

8) Cosmic Star Heroine

The tale of a secret agent woman on the run from the Agency she once served with pride when she stumbles across a terrifying secret on her latest mission. This one harkens back to the days of Chrono Trigger with the 16-bit sprites and the JRPG action with a twist, using attacks/items that you have to string together carefully in order to get through enemies in lieu of an MP system. Zeboyd Games has done impressive work here.

7) Ruiner

A game that I would’ve missed if not for Devolver Digital publishing it, Ruiner is a crazy cyberpunk action game where you play a helmeted dude just trying to get through a bunch of rooms with armed and armored goons trying to murder you while an unnamed girl calls you “puppy.” I guess I would snap into a murderous rage too after being jerked around by my cyberbrain by two different hackers. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission., but the action is spectacular on top of that.

6) Fire Emblem Echoes

This one went back to basics, a remake of the framblam before the multiple weapon triangles and timewarping kids and the anime bullshit both saved the franchise and made it a lot creepier to those not already "in the know." Also I really appreciate the addition of Mila’s Turnwheel as an in-game rewind button so I don’t have to keep soft-resetting every time someone dies. It found a nice balance between handing everything to you that you needed and being unfairly painful to get through (see Birthright and Conquest, respectively).

5) Children of Zodiarcs

With art from the lovely @aurahack! Zodiarcs is an SRPG that takes cards and dice and somehow makes it work to create a fun game, on top of the story featuring a small troupe of lovable scamps trying to stay one-step ahead of the bourgeoisie trying to take their relics and sell them for parts or whatever it is they do. I admit I have not actually finished this game yet, and it's a late entry onto this list, but I'm eagerly looking to play more.

4) Tokyo Dark

A short-but-sweet point-and-click adventure with several endings that I haven’t gotten yet. This one features the creepy and less-romanticized parts of Tokyo, which your Detective protagonist has to travel through to solve a supernatural case while trying to keep her sanity in check. Or watch her have a mental breakdown and get an alternate ending, if that’s your thing.

3) NieR: Automata

I have yet to finish this game, but the combat is great, the fishing is a nice touch, and other things about the story and atmosphere I could say here except that I might accidentally be spoiling you like the internet has spoiled me on at least a couple of the alternate endings. Fuck you, internet. Anyways, I really want to play more of this game, so it goes to the top of the list on games I have played but not finished yet.

2) Yakuza 0

One of the few 2017 games I actually finished in 2017 along with Tokyo Dark and the #1 title on my list. This one takes us back to 1980s Japan, before the bubble burst and led to the Lost Decade, where there was so much money flowing around that you could literally beat it out of people on the street. Seeing as I only played a little bit of Yakuza 4 beforehand, this was a great introduction to the franchise. You can do almost anything in Yakuza 0: Run your own cabaret club! Start a nicer real-estate protection racket and pay a literal chicken to manage part of it! Bet on an underground catfighting ring! Get shitfaced and try to win at darts! Get bullied by a crazy grandma! Play mahjong only to realize how complicated it is for someone whose experience is limited to watching the first few episodes of Akagi years ago! The possibilities are almost endless! And that's on top of the fast-paced street fighting with context-sensitive Heat Actions! I never get tired of watching Majima's Essence of Friendly Fire.

And now, for your Number One Video Game of All Time of 2017 (that I actually played)...

1) Persona 5

Yes, it had a few missteps in English VO with the weird pronunciation. Yes, the space base and cruise ship Palaces went on longer than they should have. Yes, Haru enters the game a bit too late to form as much of a connection compared to the others on your team. And yes, there was that fucking cat who insisted you had to go to sleep all the time. But fuck it, I put about 90 hours into this game (not counting the times my party got wiped and I had to reload the save), and it was everything I wanted out of a JRPG: Awesome soundtrack, expansive list of mythological beasts and gods to use in battle, fun combat, a story with themes that are still relevant stateside (if not as much as their Japanese origins), and characters that I actually ended up caring about in some way or another. I know there will likely be a million spinoffs and merchandise that will tie in with the ongoing Persona-verse (already an anime and a dance-fighting game have been announced), but this title deserves them.

Thank you for reading, drive home safe and don't tweet while drunk.

Hello there all you lovely duders! While you all have been making Top 10 Game of the Year lists (if your Top 3 don't include some combination of NieR: Automata, Persona 5 and Yakuza 0 then video games are Ruined Forever), the denizens and lurkers of your local Anime and Cartoon Megathread have been watching a bunch of Japanese cartoons and are now prepared to rank them in an order, so you know which ones to watch (or avoid, depending on your opinion).

This being a community thing, we've opened the floodgates to let everyone vote! So do your duty, let your voice be heard, and despair when some terrible Light Novel adaptation gets enough votes to push an actual good show out of the Top 10, further proving that democracy doesn't work.

Who will succeed last year's best anime ever, Flip Flappers Mob Psycho 100? Let's find out!

How do I vote?

Click here, and enter your username and choices in the respective fields. You can ignore all but the first two questions if you wish, but you'll be missing out! If you need help remembering which anime aired this year, me and @takashichea compiled a big list to peruse through and pick out which show(s) are "Best of 2017" worthy.

How will the votes be counted?

The votes will be tallied by weighted vote first, followed by unweighted vote as a tiebreaker. So if you want your show to have a better shot at winning, you should put it higher on your ballot.

Is this an official Giant Bomb thing?

No, this is all me with help from taka and love from the denizens of the Anime & Cartoon Megathread. Feel free to stop by, we don't bite!

What if my favorite show started before but continued into this year?

For super-long shows or shows with separation between seasons, you'd be only considering the episodes or season that aired this year when making your choice. I don't have a real way of enforcing this, so we're just going to go on the honor system here.

Can I still vote for a show that's not on the list?

If it aired this year and it's missing, let myself or @takashichea know and we'll add it. If it didn't air this year, then feel free to vote for it anyways, just know that it probably won't count.

Does Neo Yokio count?

I wish it were so, but after a brief debate with taka, it is considered not-Japanese enough for anime. However it can still win the non-Japanese cartoon category.

Anime is for Jerks!

Yes. Also, that's not a question.

How long do I have to vote?

I'll end this around the first weekend of January (subject to change, but that's a good bet).

Have fun!

Thanks! Just shoot me a PM or reply below if you have any questions or comments.

Remember, even the best anime is still anime; anime is still terrible.

--@bigjeffrey (R.I.P.)

Duders and Dudettes of Giant Bomb, welcome one and all to this relatively minimalist presentation of the 5^th annual Giant Bomb Anime Discussion vote for 2016 Anime of the Year! This was the year of the exclamation point! Multiple exclamation points!! One of the shows on this list even had eight of them!!!!!!!! Another had three!!! We’re really excited to see the results, so let’s get down to it!

[Note to all past and present English teachers: I am so sorry, please don’t break my writing hand. One of these days I'll write an actual blog post that isn't about this kind of poll.]

This time around 67 of you voted, plus 2 tossed-out troll votes, bringing us to a very nice total. Congratulations to those of you who voted, and hello to the lurkers out there who didn’t vote but are looking forward to the Top 10 list for recommendations on what to watch.

As before, votes were weighed depending on their placement on each ballot: first place gets 5, second place gets 4, third place gets 3, fourth place gets 2, and fifth place gets 1. If there are any ties among the weighted vote, the entry with the most unweighted votes wins. If there are still ties after that, then the tied choices share the ranking. Though titles and quote excerpts might have been edited for clarity, the votes for each show remain unchanged.

10) Haikyu!! (Season 3)

A kid scrapes together a sports team from otherwise reluctant students at their school. Though they face some troubles early on, they get it together and fight all the way to the championship. It is a classic sports story, but done with a boys’ volleyball team, and done very well.

9) KonoSuba (a.k.a. “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo”)

After a nerd from our world dies trying to save a girl from a truck, he finds himself in another fantasy world, where suddenly the knowledge that was useless to him now makes him the greatest hero in his new life!

Actually, KonoSuba is more like the story of an irredeemable shithead, stuck in an adventuring party with three girls who drive him (and everyone else) insane, as they try to earn enough money to live a carefree lifestyle and incidentally end up having to fight the Demon King and his minions along the way. Surprisingly funny show that has caught on fire over here, to the point where the light novel and manga adaptations are making their way stateside.

Rather than presenting a dark, horror filled world in peril, that is in dire need of shining protagonists to save them, Konosuba presents a relatively peaceful world with a party of completely terrible (personality and in terms of adventuring ability) adventurers. --@hunter456285

8) Keijo!!!!!!

On one hand, it’s a great sports show featuring teamwork, determination, and fighting against incredible odds stacked against oneself to rise above the challenge and take home the trophy. On the other hand, this story takes place in an alternate universe where butt-sumo is serious business and humans can twist their bodies into MC Escher-esque shapes to knock out their competition. The ultimate distillation of shounen battle tropes packed into the butts of various types of anime girls.

After reading that summary, you should be able to guess whether or not you will like this show.

Keijo!!!!!!!! is the most fun I've had watching anime in a long time. --@slay3r1583

7) Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

This one’s a bit difficult to explain, as Rakugo is a very Japanese style of comedic storytelling. Also, very few people seem to remember a different anime featuring rakugo performers as cute girls. However, in the sense that it provides a window into realistic adults dealing with each other as the main character seeks redemption both in his life and in his apprenticeship to a master of rakugo storytelling, it is a great show for those who prefer a slower-paced story.

A dense series featuring a uniquely Japanese sensibility to storytelling, unfortunately it's not something that's going to click with everyone. Subtle and detailed, those who enjoy reading between the lines will no doubt find this period piece worth the investment. --@zomgfruitbunnies

I had 0 expectations from this show and was immediately hooked on the first episode. It takes an insanely good voice actor to pull [off] a Rakugo performance in an animated medium. Hell, I didn't even know what Rakugo was before watching this show and now I really want to learn more about it. Watch this if you have any passing interest in the craft of voice acting. --@peregrin38

6) My Hero Academia

With more Western comic influences, My Hero Academia is the story of a boy who joins Professor Xavier’s Academy for Gifted…er, U.A. High School to train and battle with others who have special Quirks that can be harnessed for good, or evil. Despite being a powerless person at the start, the main hero slowly works his way up the ranks with help from an old mentor who gifts him the power of friendship. I’m only half-joking about that.

Oh hey will you look at that! You can make a light-hearted hero anime where the protagonist isn't as exciting as a cardboard box. --@zombiepie

My Hero Academia however builds a character that the viewer can become emotionally invested in, a boy who genuinely has a dream that is out of his reach due to factors out of his control. It is this slow journey, where he has to EARN (not handed, thus giving huge payoff) his power and acceptance by other heroes and the consistency between his personality and his actions that I found enthralling. --@hunter456285

HALFTIME!

To break from the Top 10 list for a moment, let's take a moment to honor Makiko Futaki. A longtime animator at Studio Ghibli, Futaki collaborated with Miyazaki on several films. Her last work before passing away in May 2016 was When Marnie Was There.

It's a good reminder that, as awesome and prolific as studio heads might be, they are nothing without the staff of hard-working animators behind them.

Back to the show, let's wrap it up with the Top 5.

5) ERASED (a.k.a. “Boku Dake ga Inai Machi”)

The story of a struggling manga artist who can shift back in time to help prevent disaster before it strikes must prevent the biggest disaster of his life: elementary school! Also, a serial killer who killed three of his classmates, and his own mother years later. Though this show got a bit of flak for having everything tie together a little too neatly by the end, it was still an interesting drama throughout. The show also featured a few actors more skilled in live-action roles than traditional anime voice-over roles, but they still gave very good performances for their respective characters in the anime.

4) Yuri!!! On Ice

A sports drama and romance story centered around figure skating, featuring a shy Japanese boy and his Russian rival/mentor who like each other very much as they aim for the top. The animation leaves a bit to be desired (especially in the later half of the show), but Yuri!!! on Ice has won the hearts of both anime fans and figure skaters alike, including actual US champion figure skater Johnny Weir:

3) Re:Zero

The Yang to the Yin of KonoSuba in this Top 10 list. Re:Zero is another story of a boy from our world who is tossed into a fantasy world and has to survive, but focuses on the idea of respawning after death in such a game world. Think of how terrifying/depressing it actually might be to go through that experience over, and over, and over, like in the manga “All You Need Is Kill” (or the movie “Edge of Tomorrow” if you want to see a Westernized version of the story with a happier ending).

Even so, much like other protagonists of this type of setting, our hero uses the knowledge gained from each time loop to do a bit of save-scumming, until he can earn some steadfast allies and search for a way back to his own world.

Re: Zero is a modern day classic. It will be talked about for years to come and I am glad I got to watch it while it was airing. --@daveyo520

2) JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable

Once again, the JoJo Bros push their franchise within striking distance of the podium, but not quite #1 yet.

The fourth story arc of the long-running JoJo series, and the one that supposedly provided a big influence for the plot of Persona 4. This one stars the third JoJo trying to hunt down both his younger half-uncle and a serial killer in a town half-full of people with their own Stand powers and a mythical bow-and-arrow that can supposedly create more. Unlike previous series, most of these Stand users are not looking for a fight and just want to live their live free of annoyances, but the musical references of the 80s and early 90s just continue to pile up, as do the dead bodies.

Jojo the only anime where time travelling David Bowie can be a bad thing --@kanpeki

#1 in my heart: Flip Flappers

The dazzle, the spectacle, the sheer amount of painstaking work that this show must have taken to have such colorful animation. It’s the story of two very best friends who end up travelling to different wonderous dreamworlds called “Pure Illusion,” with references from Miyazaki to Mad Max, in search of wish-granting crystals. Sure, the overarching story might be a little thin, but the rest of the show is so great that…

…wait, Flip Flappers just missed the Top 10? This is a travesty! It’s the Russian hackers! They’re everywhere somehow!

Okay, fine, we’ll finish with the real winner of the voting.

Presenting the official unofficial GBAD 2016 Anime of the Year

1) Mob Psycho 100

From the same mind that brought you last year’s winner One-Punch Man comes the new champion: an action-packed comedy featuring a very plain-looking boy who has an incredible hidden power. Enter Mob, so named because he is drawn like a background (“Mob”) character at first glance. Where OPM’s Saitama was able to punch his problems away while trying to be respected as a hero, Mob psychics his problems away while trying to be seen as a good, popular person.

Sure, he might quietly be one of the most powerful people on the planet, but Mob keeps trying to better himself every day without using his powers. Strangely enough, Mob is kept on the straight-and-narrow by a very crooked individual: fake exorcist for hire Arataka Reigen. Though his skills may be more suited for being a chiropractor, Arataka constantly teaches Mob to only use his powers for good, and never on other humans, though Arataka himself has no problems swindling them.

Of course, in contrast to OPM, the artwork is a bit simpler, to keep it more in line with that of the original webcomic. That doesn’t mean there aren’t epic battles or dramatic scenes to be found in this show, but the animation has a little more “budget” feel to it. However, that’s just a minor qualm in an otherwise fantastic show.

In sum, Mob Psycho 100 is your winner for 2016’s Best Anime of the Year, and well worth your time while you wait for the next season of One Punch Man to premiere.

One Punch Man but actually consequential […] Mob Psycho 100 has the same brand of humor, but also some heartfelt looks at feelings of inferiority and the importance of healthy emotional support. It has all of the silly potential that OPM did, but it takes it to a much more vulnerable place - and one that transcends the shounen tropes of "I want to be stronger." --@peregrin38

Mixing a distinct visual style with sharp, fluid animation, Mob Psycho is a feast for the eyes. One can knock it for the uninspired story or shallow characterization, but there's no denying this series is one hell of a fun trip. --@zomgfruitbunnies

Thank you all for making it to the end of this post! The raw vote totals are posted below, and the extra question responses will be addressed soon. Please pick up your chairs, toss any extra exclamation points in the marked bins on your way out, and feel free to leave a message in the comments about how perfect I am or why your show should have won.

It Begins...Again!

Hello Duders and Dudettes of Giant Bomb! As the holiday season approaches and final exam papers are...well, finalized, it's time to get voting on your favorite anime of 2015! In years past, we've had Daily Lives of Highschool Boys take home the first one in 2012, and then Kill la Kill seasons 1-2 taking home consecutive victories in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, One-Punch Man landed a decisive blow, easily sending the rest of the anime world flying. Now this year the field's open for someone else to take home the crown!

This season saw some unexpected continuations of older franchises, like Lupin III, Macross Delta (good luck finding a legal copy stateside, thanks to Harmony Gold), Dragon Ball Super, Osomatsu-san, and more. In video-game land, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney finally got an adaptation! So did PSO2 (sort of!) and Tales of Zestiria/Berseria! You like sports shows? This year had some real good ones, from rugby to ice skating to...butt sumo.

However, if I had to pick one big, overarching theme this season, it was normal people in strange new fantasy worlds, fighting to survive. Whether they were the more-serious fantasy of Grimgar, the true horrors of respawning found in Re:Zero, or the completely absurd RPG world of KonoSuba, one thing's for sure, you'll never look at these "fish out of water" settings the same way again.

Or maybe you will, but try not to get yourself killed so often.

How do I vote?

Click here, and enter your username and choices in the respective fields. You can ignore all but the first two questions if you wish, but you'll be missing out! If you need help remembering which anime aired this year, @takashichea has compiled a big list to peruse through and pick out which show(s) are "Best of 2016" worthy.

How will the votes be counted?

The votes will be tallied by weighted vote first, followed by unweighted vote as a tiebreaker. So if you want your show to have a better shot at winning, you should put it higher on your ballot.

Is this an official Giant Bomb thing?

No, this is all me with help from taka and love from the denizens of the GB Anime & Cartoon Megathread. Feel free to stop by, we don't bite!

What if my favorite show started before but continued into this year?

For super-long shows or shows with separation between seasons, you'd be only considering the episodes or season that aired this year when making your choice. I don't have a real way of enforcing this, so we're just going to go on the honor system here.

Can I still vote for a show that's not on the list?

If it aired this year and it's missing, let myself or @takashichea know and we'll add it. If it didn't air this year, then feel free to vote for it anyways, just know that it probably won't count.

Anime is for Jerks!

Yes. Also, that's not a question.

How long do I have to vote?

I'll end this around the second weekend of January.

Have fun!

Thanks! Just shoot me a PM or reply below if you have any questions or comments.

Introduction

Welcome one and all, Giant Bomb Anime Duders/Dudettes (collectively known as GBAD, or at least that's what our Steam group says) to the big thing where I post the results of the anime poll as voted on by you, the Giant Bomb community, or at least those who chose to respond to it. The initial OP will be a bit shorter as I wanted to get the main part out first. The results of the bonus questions will be appended later, but I wanted to write this up now or I would have kept putting it off forever.Also, my body decided to pick every week since Thanksgiving to be afflicted with some sort of malady: from gastroenteritis, to completing a final paper for a Masters-level class while recovering, then right into sinusitis, to flu or flu-like symptoms, and later bruised hands and a painful reminder of why I should probably invest in some handwraps before sparring with other people. On the bright side, it did give me more time to catch up on the anime I missed, some of which are even on this list!

Before we get started, just wanted to offer a few shoutouts to my homies in the Anime Megathread, which should be getting a new one very soon, or so the regulars keep nagging me. The new OP will be smaller and easier to peruse likely because half the links are be dead so look forward to that. We also have a Steam group, though it is mostly quiet, but with the newer anime-fightan games being ported to PC, hopefully there will be some life. Hopefully.

On to the poll itself: We had about 60 voters, minus a couple of troll votes, a small increase from last year. Votes were tallied first by weighted tally (1st place gets 5 votes, 2nd place gets 4, 3rd gets 3, 4th gets 2, 5th gets 1). Then they would be ranked by simple unweighted vote to serve as tiebreaker. If they were still tied after that, then congrats, they take the same spot. As you might notice in the final tally, this means that some shows might've gotten shuffled around if the tiebreaker was reversed. Having said that, I decided to stick with my previous rules.

10) Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works

Yet another retelling of that classic story about a boy and his kingly servant fighting for the Holy Grail. Feels like this franchise has been around forever, spawning around 100 different games, anime, manga, body pillow slipcovers, t-shirts, lunchboxes, flamethrowers, and that's before we get into the Type-Moon spinoffs. Honestly, what can I say about this story that hasn't already been said? Check it out.

9) Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma

A tale that really puts the food in "food porn." It's your standard battle manga where teenagers from Japan gather in one spot to fight each other for dominance, the snooty elites look down their nose at the up-and-comers while they train, and there's even more than one Tournament Arc, except their battlefield is the kitchen! If you like watching Chopped but thought it could use more dudes with burning spirit and people orgasming (somewhat literally) over every bite, then this is for you!

"[...]I would argue that Food Wars is the most intense action anime of the year, incorporating mouth watering animation and outlandish humor that slowly grows on you. By the end of this anime I was laughing at every taste reaction and getting hungry at the sight of every dish."--@hunter456285

7) [TIED!] Shirobako & Working!!!

Any slightly well-adjusted member of society has worked a shit job to help put things in perspective, especially when that job involves food service. So it figures that two shows about working in The Biz (though with very different perspectives) would make this list.

Working!!! is season 3 of a weird comedy of a dude who works at a restaurant, though this is less about the work than about the staff interacting with each other, and the kinda creepy dude who is the main character by default yet has all the girls fawning over him. Apparently people really like this show due to the interactions between the characters and the way the voice actors sell their lines. What makes this season better than the others? Well, according to one duder...

"Working!!! offered one of the best conclusions to a series that anime so rarely gets. Romances happen, conflicts are resolved, and most important of all you walk away from it feeling good about the whole thing."--@chainreaction01

Shirobako, on the other hand, is a fictional look at The Biz of making anime. Unlike the aforementioned two shows on this list, you won't find any tournament arcs, random punching of dudes who don't deserve it, or ladies carrying around a katana just because. It's an interesting (if idealized) look at what it takes to produce an entire anime series and the metaphorical shit the crew has to swim through to make their combined dream into reality.

"Shirobako is my anime of the year, because it's the most emotionally affecting series I watched this year. It's a fascinating (albeit somewhat idealized) look into the animation industry while also using that specific experience to comment on the difficulties of adulthood and finding one's place in the world."--@shinmaru007

6) My Love Story!! ("Ore Monogatari!!")

You've probably seen this story before, anime or not: ugly but good-hearted dude has a crush on this girl, but he has to compete for her heart with a handsome guy. The adventures of Takeo Gōda, an Ordinary High-School Student trying to go out with a girl from high-school, while getting past his classmates, friends, and his own insecurities. This one was surprisingly charming and hilarious, based off a manga that won the prestigious Taishou Award and even spawned a live-action movie.

"My Love Story is the cutest." --@hamst3r

HALFTIME!

On a solemn note, the world said goodbye Miyu Matsuki this year. She suffered from an acute case of pneumonia and passed away at the relatively young age of 38. She was known for her roles across several big franchises, including Hayate the Combat Butler and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. On the other hand, her last big anime work was in this show (slightly NSFW). Like Bernie Mac's last movie was the mediocre comedy Soul Men, and Raul Julia's last work was the awful Street Fighter movie, Matsuki's untimely passing reminds us that we may not get the chance to pick and choose when we go, and perhaps that we shouldn't be worried about our last mark defining us after we're gone, but what we did before then to make the life we had worthwhile.

Okay, enough seriousness and contemplation, let's wrap this shit up with the Top Five.

5) Yuri Kuma Arashi

I honestly don't know how to summarize this show, except to say it's from the very creative mind that brought you Revolutionary Girl Utena. Let's see...imagine there was a world with nothing but lesbians in it, okay? But half of the lesbians are cartoony bears. And the bears and the not-bear lesbians have this wall separating them and have sort of been at war with one another. But there's also a bear-court where occasionally some not-lesbian bears decide whether or not a bear's love for a human is a one-night stand or a "til death do us part" thing. And there's symbolism with bear-girls who lick honey off of lily petals. Actually, the whole show is chock-full of SYMBOLISM!

Whatever you think of this show, it did give us this dramatic sting.

"Super stylish and super interesting throughout. Even if it doesn't reach the highs [of] Utena I think it's one of the most interesting things I watched." --@jesushammer

4) JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders - Egypt Arc

JoJo and the Mystery Machine Gang take their Stands to Egypt this year! A cast of characters including a muscular Sean Connery, Benimaru from the King of Fighters, and a small ugly dog take the Mystery Machine on another adventure to find Ronnie James Dio before he turns Old Man Jenkins into a vampire. I'm pretty sure David Production's going to ride this franchise as far as they can go, and the JoJo Bros will be with them every step of the way.

"This season of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure features a death match between a smug bird of prey and a Boston Terrier." --@jesna

"A show that is formulaic in its set piece conflicts, but tremendous in its execution. Combine it with a cast of characters whose color can give Final Fantasy 6 a run for its money, and you have a hell of a show." --@turambar

3) Sound! ("Hibike!") Euphonium

A dramatic show about what happened this one time at band practice, as two girls and their teacher/conductor have to unite to help their school's ensemble reach the Nationals. If you liked K-ON! and thought it could use less comedy and more slice-of-life drama with awkward and frustrated teenagers trying to work through their issues while growing up, you've come to the right place. I mean that in the best way.

"Sound! Euphonium is high on my list because it is one of the VERY few shows I have ever related to on such a profoundly personal level. Namely, I was not only in the band in high school, but I was also in the low brass section. There were a lot of little things in this show that just worked for me for very specific reasons, and I love it for it. It also didn't go out of it's way to ever make fun of band people, and that's super cool." --@epidehl

2) Death Parade

Just barely edging out the #3 choice by one weighted vote, comes Death Parade. What lies beyond life and death? We may not know, but at least for those stuck in Limbo there's a swanky bar where you can throw back a White Russian and ruminate on life, at least until it comes time for a sort of Death Game to happen, and you'll be judged worthy of either heaven or hell. There is a story thread running through the show, but they all come back to the basic premise of redemption or damnation, and who's watching the ones who are passing judgment on us?

It might be difficult to see after that opening ditty, but please, take my word for it. This show is deeper than you'd think.

"Was it perfect? Hardly. Did I like every episode? Nah. But man, if this show wasn't trying harder than so many others to grapple with some heavier material. I've watched my share of Key dramas, cried my manly JoJo tears, but I have to applaud what this show was trying to do with themes of grief and acceptance and judgment, even if it sometimes felt a little canned or overwrought." --@peregrin38

"Death Parade is an unique look at life and regret that has wonderful characters and creativity. It's stories spoke to me in ways most other Anime's don't." --@makayu

Now here it is, the one you've all been waiting for...

Number One in My Heart: Ninja Slayer From Animation

Have you wanted a show that combined the ultra-violence of 80s anime, the animation of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and various kinds of cyberpunk ninja that take themselves seriously when the viewer probably does not? Well you're in luck! Studio Trigger, the minds behind the groundbreaking youtube anime Inferno Cop, have taken the brilliant series of short stories about a sarariman who decides to avenge his slain family by becoming a ninja that kills all ninjas, Ninja Slayer.

I mean, just look at this beautiful animation!

No wonder this anime won the coveted spot of... uh, wait a minute, there's some space dust on the letter, give me a minute and watch this classic animated clip...

...my apologies, here's the real winner:

1) One-Punch Man

Much like Saitama does to every bad guy he meets, this show blew a giant hole in the stomach of every other show on the list. Very simple premise of a rather plain, boring superhero in a world where associations of superheroes and supervillains constantly fight one-another with flashy special moves and dramatic monologues like any good old-fashioned cartoon character.

So what makes this different? The way they show it, and the heroes who aren't as invincible as Saitama yet still do what they can to fight against the evil that besiges the land every day. The best part? The animation, the care and detail put into nearly every fight scene. Though it may not match the great Murata's manga art, it's about as close as we're going to get with the time and budget that One-Punch Man had.

I'm sure more of this anime will be made in the near future, and the creators themselves mentioned that they would do what it took to have more episodes made. The only question will be if it can keep up this pace, or as our very own anime maso-mod ZombiePie predicted, if the story fades away into mediocrity following Saitama's last fight in this show.

One Punch Man has sort of become the new Dragon Ball Z; the transcendental anime. Everyone, even those not into anime, seems to be talking about it, and for good reason. The animation is astounding, the humor is top notch and amazingly survives the cultural boundary, and pacing is excellent from start to finish. There's no contesting this is the best anime of the year. --@soldierg654342

One-Punch Man might literally be the most perfect show (for me). Over the top action? Check. Heart? Check. Good comedy? Check. A bitchin' theme song? Check? Incredible animation? SUPER CHECK. --@epidehl

"I haven't watched Anime in years, but I watched one punch man several different times with a bunch of different people who don't care about Anime. It's a bad ass show that has goofy moments when it is taking itself too seriously." --@fink

Thank you all for tuning in to this award show. The bonus questions will be shortly appended to the end of this post, but I wanted to get the meat of this stuff out of the way before I crashed.

As always, suggestions/comments/praise about the perfectness of myself and this poll can be posted below.

VOTE RESULTS (sorted by WT then UT)