6th Annual GB AOTY Poll: "Is Neo Yokio Anime?" Edition

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 FlappersMob 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 @takashicheacompiled 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.

Equally important question. Does Castlevania count?

Made in abyss and gamers were really good last season. This season children of the whale is the stand out show. Though nothing this year comes close to My Hero Academia season 2. Holy shit look at this:

Seeing these polls is a good reminder that I am constantly behind on watching anime. Looking at the list provided, I don't think I've watched anything that came out this year.

@tjhall42: No, because it isn't anime. Japan had no hand in the making of that show.

ME

TOO

Also my "best non-Japanese show" this year is without a doubt Samurai Jack Season 5. Freakin great end to the series.

@pyrodactyl: Love the first half of My Hero Academia 2 but felt like the later half really dragged and the animation wasn't as impressive, like in the fight shown above.

@tjhall42: sadly, I must inform you that Castlevania falls under "not anime," though it comes real close.

For as much as I've gone down a deep, dark anime hole this year, I haven't actually watched a ton of stuff from 2017 proper. I guess I'm still not invested enough to want to get into the crazy zeitgiest of seasonal anime yet, especially since it seems like 90% of the hot shows from any given season are seemingly discarded as soon as the next flavor of the month rears its head.

I will say that I think the second season of Konosuba is pretty fantastic. Also, I'm going to be mildly disappointed when Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid wins it or something. That show has a super stylish, very cute look to it, but as a heartless cynical bastard, binge-watching it was a little like drinking a bottle of syrup.

@arbitrarywater: Sometimes I keep up with all the new stuff coming out but other times I let a couple of seasons pass and just check up on the series people are still talking about after the hype has died down. Konosuba 2 was on my top 5 from this year as well but my number 1 has to be the Little Witch Academia TV series. Was a huge fan of the first short film, even backed the 2nd film on Kickstarter, and the TV series somehow managed to be just as fun.

There are still a few shows I'm either still in the middle of watching or haven't started yet from this year. I'm really enjoying Recovery of an MMO Junkie and Fate/Apocrypha but I haven't finished them yet so they were not on my list. Blood Blockade Battlefront Beyond also looks awesome but I have yet to start watching it.

Yeah, the last arc was kind of disappointing in that regard. The All Might fight was kind of meh. The Stain arc/fight was pretty amazing though

According to Myanimelist, I've seen 19 shows this year, for a wide definition of "show". Two of them are specials for My Hero Academia that were pretty bad, one is a special for Tawawa on Monday that was alright, one's a good Konosuba OVA, one's some web specials for Rage of Bahamut and one's a special for that new Blade Runner movie. So basically I've just seen 13 shows, and some of them are still airing.

My favorites have been the second seasons of Konosuba and Attack on Titan, as well as Interviews With Monster Girls, Kobayashi's Dragon Maid and Made in Abyss. Tsurezure Children was cute and My Hero Academia keeps being basically good but not really engaging me except for a select few bits, like Todoroki's arc. But there weren't any better shonen fighting shows this year, excepting essentially Seinen Fighting show AoT, so what are you gonna do.

I'm currently watching Inuyashiki, Kino's Journey and Kekkai Sensen season 2, which are all good. Kekkai Sensen in particular is just a great action comedy show.

By backlog that I proobably won't get to this year includes Magus Bride, the second season of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, the Little Witch Academia series and March Comes Like A Lion. Overall, it's not a bad year, but I really missed Jojo and there wasn't any one new show that really cemented itself as a favorite. The big, international, mainstream hit is just My Hero Academia again.

@pyrodactyl: Mother's Basement can make up his own definitions all he wants, I don't change from a white Norwegian dude to a Japanese dude no matter how many katanas I import and no matter how much Pocky I eat.

@pyrodactyl: I've never watched that video, although I am familiar with the YouTuber, but Castlevania was made in Texas by Powerhouse Animation. And all those other shows in the thumbnail are written/directed/storyboarded by a mostly American staff and animated by a Korean studio. If you want to call them anime then go ahead (Anime News Network posted a review for Castlevania and Anime Planet has the show in its database) but I'll never call em anime myself.

I'm thinking I might just abstain this year. Weekly Anime didn't do a whole lot for me beyond some of the ongoing stuff I was watching anyway: My Hero, Gintama, Rakugo. Made In Abyss exceeded my expectations so I guess that but it would feel weird to just have that as my number 1 new show by default. Eh I don't know. Some decent stuff came out I suppose but nothing really knocked my socks off. Plus I've yet to even watch Your Name. It was the year I finally played Virtues Last Reward so maybe that's my actual winner.

To me the show looked more like Metalocalypse but with a few more frames of animation. Especially when there was gore on the screen.

I need t catch up on a lot of anime from the last 2 seasons. My hero academia, kinos journey, little witch academia and konosuba will definitely make my list. Along with dragon ball super. This time last year I hated it but now I love it apart from some bad animation.

Thanks for the first round of votes, and to those who haven't made their choice yet, you still have a few weeks. Unlike the last few years, there doesn't seem to be a consensus #1 pick emerging yet, but we'll see if that remains true.

Still some big shows I need to see before voting like The Ancient Magus Bride. Can people post their top 10 list to see what I may need to catch up on? Here is my list of stuff I've seen so I can start to think things through.

Winter 2017

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 2
Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon
Youjo Senki
Gabriel DropOut
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans 2nd Season

Spring 2017
Shingeki no Kyojin Season 2
Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season

Summer 2017
Kakegurui
Made in Abyss
Gamers!
Tsurezure Children
Ballroom e Youkoso
Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season

Fall 2017
Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara
Net-juu no Susume
Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season
Ballroom e Youkoso

@golguin: There's not much point in a top 10 when I watched 13 shows so far, but the ones not on that list that stick out to me are Inuyashiki, Kekkai Sensen & Beyond and Demi-chan wa Kataritai. At the very least I'm pretty confident Demi-chan is gonna be in my top five.

@redhotchilimist: at least you only have to vote for 5, but I tried to think of 10 shows from this year that interested me in some way and I came up with this shortlist (not in any order) of 15. Also note I didn't finish all of these shows, but I did find them interesting enough to mention here.

Ah, I somehow missed adding Interviews With Monster Girls to the list. Yes, I saw that one and it's a good show.

Oh hey no one is this thread is talking about Land of the Lustrous and I'm here to let y'all know that this is a mistake.

For those curious, my top 5 is:

1. Land of the Lustrous
2. Made in Abyss
3. The Eccentric Family S2
4. Little Witch Academia
5. Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond

but that said, there's a TON of good stuff from this year, including My Hero Academia, The Ancient Magus Bride, Rakugo S2 - plenty of stuff I never got around to as well that I should check out!

Is Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond worth watching before the end of the year? I saw the first season last month and felt kinda meh about it. It has some nice looking animation, but the protagonist was pretty bad.

@tjhall42: I nominated Castlevania for the Waypoint Forum Anime of the Year and someone seconded it there. So I'm going to say it's close enough for myself and someone else.

@golguin: there's probably no point. The change in director means there's no overarching filler story and everything is easier to understand, but everything else is the same.

@dochaus

I didn't you started this already. Something's buggy with notifications and e-mails. I didn't see your post until I saw the community spotlight. I take it that no one had anything to add.

I put my votes in.

• non-Japanese cartoon category

That's a good compromise. Over at AV, we went with Dark Horse for extra stuff.

For those who read manga and saw the manga tab, you are free to vote at Anime Vice Boards, just sign up

As long as I'm not completely alone, I'll consider it a moral victory...

Comparatively to last year I probably watched too few anime period. I'm just voting for this

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl

I don't add movies to the anime Gdocs. It's anime TV series. The only movie exception is Digimon Adventure Tri since it's a series of movies and it was legally stream on Crunchyroll, making it easier for public access compared to most movies release in Japan, you won't see them simulcast nor being released theatrically or home release in the west.

@takashichea: I voted. Good luck translating my sarcasm into something useful.

@zombiepie:

Awesome! Thanks. Good luck since DocHaus is the writer. I'm just the Gdoc guy.

I'm glad I binged Magus Bride before the end of the year. Is there anything else I should fit in today? This is what I've seen so far.

Winter 2017

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 2

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon

Youjo Senki

Gabriel DropOut

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans 2nd Season

Spring 2017

Shingeki no Kyojin Season 2

Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season

Summer 2017

Kakegurui

Made in Abyss

Gamers!

Tsurezure Children

Ballroom e Youkoso

Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season

Fall 2017

Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara

Net-juu no Susume

Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season

Ballroom e Youkoso

Finally finished my Top 10 Anime 2017 List only to remember that it only goes up to Top 5.

@golguin: Feel free to post your personal Top 10 list later on these forums if you feel so inclined, I would love to read it.

Do you have a solid date? I can do a "Last 24-hours!" announcement on Twitter if you want.

@zombiepie: I was thinking the end of the 8th as my attention will be elsewhere this weekend

Just reminding everyone in GB land that I'm closing the polls tomorrow, so this will be your last chance to get in your votes if you have not done so!