Duders and Dudettes! Welcome to the results of our 2nd annual poll about Japanese cartoons! First off, thanks to the folks at AV for letting me borrow their big-ass spreadsheet so I could remember which shows actually aired in 2013 and not just last season. Also, thanks to the anime/cartoon megathread. You're cool enough.

This year had a surprising mix of shows. Comedy, drama, serious topics, random craziness all popped up through 2013...we had Titans plunging humanity into the depths of despair, a Couturier who acted as the judge/jury/executioner of the fashion police, lessons about family sticking together through thick and thin, FAAAAABULOUS posing and diving...and yes, the uninteresting and uninterested guy who would have several girls with large chesticles passive-aggressively fighting each other in order to get an indirect kissu from him, or at least some kind of acknowledgement. There were plenty of those floating around too.

And yet, I still feel something's missing here. Specifically, the fact that NOT ONE OF YOU VOTED FOR THE REAL BEST ANIME OF ALL TIME EVER: INFERNO COP. With its high animation values, top-notch voice acting, and incredible plot twists, it should have been a shoe-in! You let me down, anime duders.

*ahem*

Anyways, we had 36 duders cast their votes. While a small number, it's an improvement from the 25 of last year. One person put down votes for AnoHana and Durarara!! While those are not 2013 animes, they are available to watch on Crunchyroll and you should watch them for different reasons. For my rankings, I took the weighted vote total depending on how high the show was placed on each ballot, and put tiebreakers to the unweighted vote total. Raw data will be posted after these rankings.

Without further ado, here are the Top Five Ten anime as voted on by you all.

#9 (tie): My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (a.k.a. "OreGairu") (a.k.a. "My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected") and Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (a.k.a. "Suisei no Gargantia")

One is a show about the Anime Hero we deserve, the other one is about the Anime Hero we want. I'll let you figure out which one is which. These two got the exact same amount of weighted and unweighted votes, and I didn't have a tiebreaker after that so they'll both get the honor of the #9 spot...whatever that's worth.

#8: Silver Spoon (a.k.a. "Gin no Saji")

A story about a city boy who goes to school in the country, loosely based on the life of the lady who created the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. A fun little slice of life show that definitely deserves a look.

#7: Samurai Flamenco

This show lures you into a sense of complacency. You go into the first few episodes thinking it'll be like a Japanese brand of Kick-Ass then suddenly POWER RANGERS, BABY! FULL TOKUSATSU JAMMED RIGHT DOWN YOUR THROAT! The seventh episode of this show either made you love this series or drop it altogether.

#6: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

An homage to old progressive rock bands with oddly muscled men doing fabulous poses. I could tell you the plot of the story but I don't know if it can beat a scoundrel R.E.O. Speedwagon being afraid of an evil, vampiric Ronnie James Dio. If nothing else, this show will introduce you to some interesting music albums you might be too young to have heard of.

#5: The Eccentric Family (a.k.a. "Uchoten Kazoku")

From the same writer who brought you The Tatami Galaxy (which you should also watch) comes The Eccentric Family. About a family of shapeshifting tanuki (racoon-dogs) trying to deal with the fact that a group of humans literally ate their dad in a hot pot and now they are trying to hang together while other tanuki are trying to muscle in on their turf. Also there are tengu that fly around and a girl who enjoys playing around with both sides.

This show teaches us quite a bit about sticking together, even when things are tough. It's also got a catchy opening theme. It isn't the most relaxing show, considering it deals with a few serious themes, but if you're looking for something sort of serious in your cartoons I highly recommend this show.

#4: Monogatari Series: Second Season

Not sure what to tell you about this one, considering last year's Nisemonogatari (which also made that year's Top 5, coincidentally enough) kinda creeped me out on the whole series, but apparently this show takes place before then, and is sort of less creepy, I guess? I saw one episode full of head-tilts and a little bit of No Need for Ararararagi and then I kinda forgot to watch the rest...I was hoping to fill this space with someone's quote from another thread, but apparently nobody felt like defending their vote for this one. Even so, enough people liked this show that they put it as their #1 vote and pushed it higher in the rankings.

*rapidly shuffles cue cards*

Um, uh...here, listen to this while I find the rest of my notes.

Let's move on.

#3: The Devil Is A Part-Timer! (a.k.a. "Hataraku Maou-sama!")

This show gave a new meaning to "Fish Out of Water." In this case, "Satan Out of His Hellish Kingdom." Because magic doesn't pay the bills (except maybe for that one guy who majored in Magic from my alma mater), and he has no other skills, he ends up taking a job at not-McDonalds to make ends meet. His vengeful rival? Working at a call center in the same town. Two different layers of hell that every well-heeled member of society has to deal with at some point in their lives.

That's probably what made this show strangely down-to-earth. That, and the fact that the hero kept having to balance adjusting to the new world, with the fact that her archnemesis was stuck in the same position. Though it kind of tapered off near the end once the main cast was all introduced and the plot suddenly got stuck, it was better than the other light novel adaptations this year, especially that Hero Works in an Item Shop one with the long-ass name.

#2: Attack on Titan (a.k.a. "Shingeki no Kyojin")

Show of hands, how many of you expected this to be in first? So did I, and this one came very close, but sadly, not enough to take down the upcoming champion with the more recent premiere.

Certainly the most epic anime that we could have asked for in 2013, a story about humanity being driven into an almost-literal corner by an enemy they have barely managed to stave off, until a literally-giant foot kicks in the door and all hell breaks loose. Suddenly, humanity finds themselves once again fighting for their lives.

Sure, this anime had a few problems with animation that wasn't quite finished, and the episode-long flashbacks squished within action scenes, and whether or not Eren's story should have gone the way it has so far...but fuck it, I loved this show, you loved this show, people who were mostly uninterested in anime loved this show. It had great action sequences, music, and the VAs all playing their parts on an incredible scale. Funimation's going to add an English dub and release it state-side. And already there's a spinoff or two being drawn up in manga form.

We can only speculate as to how the second season will be able to even match such the scale of epic, monstrous, huge, gigantic, TITANIC story.

Fuck, I couldn't resist that pun.

And now, your Number One Anime of 2013...drumroll please?

#1: Kill la Kill

From the team that brought you such masterpieces as INFERNO COP, Fooly Cooly, and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, comes a story about love, war and clothing. Dressed to kill and swiping the top spot from Attack on Titan, Kill la Kill proved that you don't need things like animation, or a coherent plot, just as long as you're willing to let it all hang out, the minds at Studio Trigger are not afraid to bare all as they make a statement with their choice of show.

Their statement, thumbtacked to the back of my head, that reads, "WE ARE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKERS AND WE DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU THINK." Talking school uniforms that give you superpowers? A one-eyed couturier who can impale you with a smile? A resistance group so dedicated to destroying special clothes they call themselves Nudist Beach? This show has it all. Wear it to the ball or leave it on the rack, there is no trying it out once you take it off the clothes hanger.

And of course, this description wouldn't be complete without a speech from the best character.

A show so crazy that a girl was almost arrested for cosplaying the main character. A show so fabulous that the teacher is sexier than anyone in Free! Kill la Kill is Giant Bomb's Number One Anime of 2013!

Thank you everyone for skimming to the end of this. The complete voting tally is below. Feel free to defend your vote in the comments. Or tell me how awesome I am. Or what you are looking forward to in 2014.