Last season's top 3

[shinta|hikari]

Hanasakeru Seishounen - This series has not ended yet, but it will end in the next few weeks, so I think this belongs to the fall season according to the rules of this thread. Really great josei series, with great characters even if it has tons of bishounens. The politics and plot really got me caught up in this show, and the minimal focus on romance is a really good aspect. It hasn't even ended, but they have to fuck up the last 2-3 episodes in epic proportions in order for me to remove this from my top 3.

Seitokai no Ichizon - This show is either hit or miss. Either the episode is fantastic, or boring. The boring parts are not nearly as bad as they may sound though, since it does push character development and back story to the forefront. The comedy is hilarious, and I have always liked shows that incorporate the 4th wall strategy for comedic effect. Also, Mokyu~ was so MOE (Marshmallow Over Evil). It is the contrast that clinches it.

Natsu no Arashi 2 and Sora no Otoshimono - I couldn't decide between the two, so I had to put them both up as a tie. Natsu no Arashi was a lot better this season, with more character development than the last, without sacrificing its own unique brand of gags and time trip shenanigans. Sora no Otoshimono, on the other hand, has awesome perverted jokes, and over the top episodes filled with utter nonsense, and that is what made it great. The nipple song and the flying flock of panties are things I will never forget. The fantastic action scene in the final episode, which rivals Railgun's episode 12, helps place it in my list.

[Ryllharu]

Nyan Koi - I might not be happy with the way the love triangles are going, but this series was one of the best this season. It had great animation that shifted nicely between detailed animation and super deformed shocked expressions. Also, a solid voice cast that could capture the range of emotions the series struck at. Even though I may have preferred one of the heroines over the others, I found it impossible to dislike any of them really. Each of them had hilarious quirks from being obsessed with gangsters to being a stalker that would put all others to shame. The cats also had personality, even if a lot of them were one-shot characters. The humor was always there, and the drama never spoiled the mood by being contrived or overbearing.

Kämpfer - This was a series I had one of lowest expectations I've ever had for a series. But it was damn funny. I laughed during every episode. This series kills brain cells, and it knew it. It played it up further by having the VAs often address each other directly or telling us to ignore the thin plot because it didn't really have any bearing. But where this series really excelled was at the art of the tease. It was charged with ecchi and sexual references, but they never showed anything, even for a moment. Everything was left up to the imagination, and it worked wonders. Perhaps the DVD versions will be a bit more overt, but it was very well executed. I'm sure it strays from the source material a great deal, but I found it to be very successful as the trash that it is.

Sora no Otoshimono - Rounding out the three is another comedy series. Otoshimono in some ways took the perverted jokes farther than Kampfer, but most were well below the depths that Kampfer took itself. The main character ended up completely naked a lot more often than I would have expected. The series also spent some time going for a serious angle, and while it was entertaining, the comedy was much better. This series also had great animation, and the voice cast was a great mix of rising talent, newcomers, and a few veterans. The characters and cute moments between them are what made this series successful.


I found most of the series that were trying to be serious to generally be letdowns. Some of them tried too hard, some of them just ended up being confusing, and others stumbled at the end when they appeared to be at their peak. These three were the most successful because most of them never really had a low point during their entire run (Kampfer's final episode was a side story and I'm giving it a pass).