2005 series I watched (a.k.a. possible candidates)
*=continued from 2004, not eligible for awards

Winter-
Air
Peach Girl
Jinki Extend
Girls Bravo 2nd Season
Mahoraba Heartful Days
Ah! My Goddess TV
Mai HiME*
Zoids Fuzors*
Bleach*
Naruto*

Spring-
Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime
Erementar Gerad
Tsubasa Chronicles
He is My Master
Futakoi Alternative
Honey and Clover
Sousei no Aquarion
Eureka Seven

Summer-
Okusama wa Joshikousei
Gun x Sword

Fall-
Black Cat
Happy 7
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s
Jigoku Shoujo
Rozen Maiden Traumend
Paradise Kiss
Mai Otome
Canvas 2

Best Series:
1- Peach Girl- Brilliant and addicting
2- Black Cat- I’ve become a bit too obsessed with this one
3- Paradise Kiss- Living up to the manga in every way

Runner up- Air- Amazing story, best production values I’ve ever seen

Best Male
1- Kiley- Peach Girl- Super hot angsty playboy
2- Train- Black Cat- Broody and hot
3- Fukuyama- Girls Bravo 2nd Season- Hysterical pervert, hot

Runner up- Jun- Rozen Maiden Traumend- Umm… Jun’s just cool.

Best Female
1- Saya- Black Cat- Why did she have to die?
2- Hina- Rozen Maiden Traumend- Adorable.
3- Mina and Nami- Happy 7- Adorable enough to make me forget about how clichéd they are

Runner up- Sugintou- Rozen Maiden Traumend- received amazing development

Funniest series
1- Girls Bravo 2nd Season- Making it more perverted was a great move by the staff
2- Mai Otome- Not really a comedy, but it has some great moments. The whole pool episode gave it this spot
3- He is my Master- From the little I saw, it’s quite amusing

Runner up- Happy 7- Amano’s klutziness and Mahiru’s fish amuse me

Best OP
1- Lonely in Gorgeous- Paradise Kiss- Constantly stuck in my head. I love it!
2- Daiya no Hana- Black Cat- addicting with great animation too
3- Forever- Erementar Gerad- nice animation, great song

Runner up- Eternal Blaze- Nanoha A’s- great song and animation

Best ED
1- Namidaboshi- Black Cat- cute chibis, catchy tune
2- Na na Iro- Canvas 2- the animation is a bit disturbing, but the song more then makes up for it
3- Loop- Tsubasa Chronicle- The show wasn’t very good, but I really like this song

Runner up- Bokura no Jikan- Futakoi Alternative- Probably the only likeable thing about this series

Most Annoying character
1- Sasuke- Okusama wa Joshikousei- Argh! I usually like perverts, but not him
2- Brickhead/Toji- Peach Girl- He’s a brickhead. Enough said.
3- George- Paradise Kiss- Not that I dislike him, but he’s distractingly difficult to understand

Runner up- Kiri- Canvas 2- Not that I dislike her personally (in fact I rather like her) but because of her existence there’s a very slim chance that Elis and Hiroki will get together

Special Awards-

The “I can’t believe I didn’t drop this” award- Jinki Extend- Not bad, just entirely forgettable

The “I kind of regret watching this wildly out of order and skipping episodes” award- Erementar Gerad- I really liked what I saw of this. I’ll have to fill in the blanks someday. Maybe when the DVDs come out.

The “Pleasant surprise” award- Okusama wa Joshikousei – I swear I downloaded the first episode on accident, but I watched it and it was quite fun

The “Surprisingly bad” award- Tsubasa Chronicles- With all the hype I expected this to be at least watchable. ZZZ…

The “deserves another season” award- Happy 7- It’s so fun. Why only 13 episodes?

The “surprisingly likeable character” award- Sakura- Okusama wa Joshikousei- I figured that she’d be as annoying as her son, but she’s actually generally nice

The “best developed character” award- Sugintou- Rozen Maiden Traumend- I went from hating her to loving her

The- “most anticipated” award- Rozen Maiden Traumend- I was dying to see this from the day it was announced. It did not disappoint

This was a pretty good season in all. While I wound up dropping everything I was watching in spring and starting over from scratch next season, that was for unrelated reasons, and I rather liked some of the stuff that came out then. I‘d be hard pressed to say whether this year or last year had better anime, so I think I’ll just call it a tie. As we move on to the next season, hopefully the ends of Okusama wa Joshikousei and ParaKiss will be fansubbed. Black Cat and Fushigiboshi no Futgo Hime will be continuing for a while, but the next season will feature the endings to Jigoku Shoujo, Rozen Maiden Traumend, Mai Otome, and Canvas 2. I’ve got a lot to look forward to. Until then, I hope everyone has a happy New Year.

Also, my CD Japan order shipped, so I should be getting a nice package in the new year. ^_^

Breif rundown:
- Isabella argues with his butler Sebastian about what to call each other
-George doesn’t like the color white since it’s to pure so he has everyone dye Isabella’s white flowers blue
-Yukari’s getting ready for the show while angsting over her relationship with George
-A girl named Asou Kaouri comes to town to see the show
-Hiroyuki meets up with Sunami Noriji, manager of his old building and more significant character in one of Ai Yazawa’s other mangas (Gokinjo Monogatari)
-Isabella tells Yukari that when he was in 3rd grade, George made him a dress. Though he was embarrassed at first, once he received feminine beauty, he gained confidence
-Time for the show, so of course the episode ends

Haven’t blogged this in a while. My level of enjoyment for the show hasn’t gone down though, even if this episode was lesser than others. Though I have no hate for him, I’ve never been a huge fan of Isabella. Since a main point of this episode was showing his background, that might’ve bored me a bit. Then again, I’m also sick yet again so maybe I’m less caring at the moment. That also explains my weird style entry. Interestingly enough, George was kind of funny in this episode. I didn’t expect that from him but it was amusing. This episode also shows how close George and Isabella’s relationship is. He knew that Isabella had little confidence as a man, and though he was still only a kid, he was able to find a solution to help put his friend. Poor Yukari has some interesting competition. The sereis is already over in Japan, so I really hope the fansubs speed up. I’d love to see the rest.

Tsugumi has a vision of Ai in a bookshop. She tells Hajime about it, who decides it was a porn book shop. For that, Tsugumi throws her rice bowl at him. Hajime may have gotten his nose hurt for his idiocy, but at least he’s got some new information for his research. He goes to the bookshop and after talking the owner and his super annoying parrot, eventually finds an article called Rengoku Shoujo (Purgatory Girl). It’s by a guy named Jigoku Ochiro, but that turns out to be a penname for Fukumoto. Hajime gets to see a picture that Fukumoto drew of the Rengoku Shoujo. It turns out that she’s Ai. Hajime is able to find Fukumoto and after bringing up Ai, is allowed to speak with him. Fukumoto reveals that the Jigoku Tsuushin used to be a newspaper ad, which appeared only to those who desired vengeance. After his “friend” Ookouchi raped Fukumoto’s wife, he was able top see the ad and used it. Next, he shows Hajime some paintings he did of Ai. He reveals that Ai has existed for at least as long as the edo period, but probably longer. Also, he believes that Ai wanted him to write “Rengoku Shoujo” and she also wanted him to tell Hajime about all of this. Fukumoto then proceeds to working a bit more on one of his paintings. One finished, the painting of Ai begins to cry. After this, Fukumoto dies and winds up in the boat. He wonders if he’ll have to see Ookouchi again, but Ai doesn’t think so because Hell is a big enough place.

This isn’t what I expected, nor what I was hoping would happen, but it certainly was good. Nothing about Tsugumi and Ai’s connection was answered. However, Hajime has now received quite an interesting history lesson on Ai and the Jigoku Tsuushin. It’s pretty interesting that it was once a newspaper ad. It seems like Ai changes her system with the times. I’m also interested in the fact that the ad only appeared to those who wanted vengeance badly enough. I guess that means that Ai didn’t want just anyone to use it. I wonder why, now, anyone can see the site. I guess she figures that only those who really want vengeance will go out of there way to go and use it at exactly midnight. As a newspaper ad it would get more exposure and people might use it just as a prank, not knowing what its true purpose is. Anyway, next week’s episode seems like it’ll mostly focus on a generic vengeance story but also have some Hajime and Tsugumi. As long as it’s interesting, I’ll be fine with that.

Hayate isn’t dead yet, but she’s in a bad condition. The kishidan will be okay because they separated from Hayate early enough, but Re-enforce (that’s the name of the alternate Hayate) must be destroyed or Hayate may not live. Nanoha and Fate are going to destroy Re-enforce but when Hayate can’t see it. However, Hayate senses what’s going on and shows up. She pleads for them to stop. Re-enforce tells her that this has to be done though. However, she’ll always be with Hayate, at least in spirit. She vanishes but gives Hayate a magical item. Later on, some little things get taken care of, closing up some things and destroying the chance of a next season. The hope for season 3 becomes more unlikely after a six year time jump. The kishidan still look the same, but everyone else has aged. Hayate, who can now walk, runs off to school. Lindy makes lunch for Fate, who happily takes it, calling Lindy “mother.” She then heads off as well. Chrono and Amy are on the Asura, and I’ll interpret the fact that since they’re still close 6 years later, they’re a couple. Yuuno is out walking, and he’s now wearing glasses and looking very hot. Nanoha, Suzuka and Arisa meet up with Fate and Hayate. Graham is looking very old and is with the cat girls on Earth. Nanoha and co. head to the roof of the school. She, Hayate and Fate throw their magical items into the air, preparing to transform.

I really liked the ending. I’m a sap for happy things, and they certainly didn’t leave even a small depressing factor here. At the very end, we even got to see a cute, chibi version of Re-enforce by Hayate, proving that her spirit is with her. Fate’s angst is over, as she’s accepted Lindy as her mother and seems to be quite content with her life. Aside from possibly Chrono/Amy, no pairings occurred, but I suppose I can live with that. I guess they’re leaving it up to the fans to decide if anyone will get together. Also, everyone (but Graham) looks awesome after the time jump. I’m sure some people are brooding over the loss of their loli’s but hey, they still have Viita. I love their new designs and wish to see the older characters in action if there’s ever a third season.

The result of the earthquake from last week’s episode was the emergence of a strange looking spaceship. It’s essential for Tomoya to reach his Nirvana. Amano turns into a ball of light, gets wrapped in bondage, and becomes a part of it. To make things worse, Kokuanten comes to attack. After a brief fight against her, some of the Happy seven are hurt, but Kikunosuke is eventually able to hurt her and knock away one f her swords. Unfortunately for them, she can heal herself. She stops attacking though when she sees Amano. Amano begins to speak to them, though she’s not herself and all her sentences are beginning with “we”. She’s now a part of an alien system who’s been watching them and collecting data. Tomoya arrives in full psychotic mode, hoping for the alien’s mass destruction. Sure enough, in about seven minutes the system is going to destroy everything. The happy seven have got to get Amano out of there. Four minutes have past though, and they still haven’t succeeded. To Tomoya’s surprise, Kokuanten doesn’t like this. Time is running shorter, but Shoujo has a plan. She gives Kikunosuke her energy, though she’s pretty weakened in the process. While Kuon takes care of her, the Happy Seven gives away there power too. Though Tomoya protests, Kokuanten joins in. Kikunosuke now has an aura and is powerful enough to stop the program, freeing Amano. He also gives her his cape to wear so she’s not nude anymore. The program is beamed back up into space. Amano is now alive again. Everyone’s happy and returns to there normal life. Kokuanten and Tomoya have disappeared, but Kokuanten is watching over them. Everyone, including Mimi and Nene, run off together, Still being a klutz though, Amano trips. ^_^

So there you have it. Another series is over. I’ve got some mixed feelings about the ending. It wasn’t at all what I would’ve expected. I really wanted to see more of the Lucky Three, so I was disappointed that they didn’t appear. What we got wasn’t so bad though. I watched the episode twice and picked up more the second time around, so I think that helped with my enjoyment. The best part for me was Kokuanten’s development. I’ve been waiting to see her good side for a while, because I knew she wasn’t all bad. It was nice that she could help out in the end. Tomoya was completely insane, so I didn’t really care what happened to him. One thing I didn’t get though is, are those two dead? Somebody probably picked up more then me and can tell me what happened. It’s nice to see that Amano and Kikunosuke can be together now. I kind of feel bad for the others, though Mahiru would’ve been more content if she was paired up with a fish. Actually, I’d like to see that. As much as I liked Kikunosuke x Amano, my OTP for this series was Mahiru x fish. Too cute! Being serious again, all in all, while the ending could’ve been way better it left me feeling happy. I think that’s the point of the show. It is called Happy Seven after all. Maybe if I’m lucky, they’ll make a second season someday. I’d love to see everyone in action again. One amusing thought I’ve had is the fact that I made fun of this series for being clichéd in the beginning, yet the ending surprised me by being unpredictable. Thank you Happy Seven. While not being the best show this season, you were easily the most fun.

Now enjoy a montage of caps!

I had to do an entry for this, just because it was really good. I’ve actually debated dropping this series, because though interesting it’s quite repetitive. However, this episode was particularly interesting and the next one looks like it will answer some of my questions about Tsugumi. ^_^

Sawai is a girl version of Jun from the first season of Rozen Maiden. (Translation: a hermit who never leaves her room and spends a lot of time on the computer.) She spends a lot of time, under the alias Anemone, talking to her online friend Cheppo. Her teacher Fukasawa, unbeknownst to the both of them, is actually Cheppo. However, Sawai dislikes Fukasawa do to his constant banging on her door, trying to convince her to go to school. Sawai knows he’s only doing this to better himself so she enters his name on the Jigoku Tsuushin. Eventually they discover the truth about each others identities. Surprisingly, Fukasawa isn’t angry when he learns of what the Jigoku Tsuushin is and that his name has been entered on it. He actually wants Sawai to send him to hell. She regretfully does this and without being haunted, Fukusawa is sent to hell. Ai lets him see that Sawai is mourning for him. She tells him to wait for her.

This was pretty wild. For once, the person sent to hell wasn’t really bad at all. Also, he was sent to hell without the usual haunting by Ai’s associates. Was this because he had suicidal thoughts? This certainly provides some interesting questions. Also, the little love story was sort of cute. Someday Sawai and Fukasawa can burn in hell together. What a pleasant thought.

Chances of me updating between now and Christmas will be rather slim. Just leaving a quick note to inform you. Also, I’ve been getting a boatload of spam comments lately and almost deleted a real comment today by accident. If I delete anyone’s comments, don’t take it personally or anything. It would just be a mistake on my part.

We begin with a flashback featuring a rather bloody battle. A man named Sakogami Sadakane, whom Amano is a descendant of, creates a strange seal on the ground. Back in present day though, everything’s occurring as usual. Amano is fangirling over Kikunosuke while Kokuanten and Tomoya are up to no good. The two meet up with Kikunosuke and Tomoya decides to mess with him a bit. Eventually he brings up Amano, causing Kokuanten to remember her interactions with Amano. She seems like she wants to warn Kikunosuke about what’s to come, but changes her mind. In school the next day, Kuriya is in the library. She accidentally falls off her stool but Kikunosuke catches her. The other Happy Seven members are jealous of course. Later, Amano gets a phone call from Kikunosuke, who has something important to tell her. Something’s definitely fishy though (besides Mahiru ^_^) because Kikunosuke is currently with the Happy Seven, about to tell them something important. Before going to the meeting place where Amano was supposed to meet Kikunosuke, she decides to pray at the shrine. She’s a bit surprised when she fantasizes that Kikunosuke wanted to kiss her. She then realizes the time and rushes off but Kikunosuke isn’t there. It’s Tomoya. He used a special phone to trick her. He then manipulates her by talking about how Kikunosuke dislikes her. After Amano reads the text on the back of the scroll with the original Happy 7, her eyes begin to change and she’s surrounded by lightning. She screams stop, creating an explosion. This stops Kokuanten. The Happy Seven hear this and rush out. Amano then somehow makes all the shrines in the city glow, forming the same symbol that Sadakane made. When the Happy Seven arrives she’s back to normal but near death. She apologizes several times and says that she likes Kikunosuke. The others are all horribly upset. Kikunosuke holds her hand and before dying she states once again “Watashi… sempai no… koto… su…ki” I like sempai. Kuriya seems to be the saddest of them all after this. Then a huge earthquake begins.

This was just mind blowing. The series has probably gotten as serious as it’s going to get. Amano can’t really be dead, can she? The main character never dies in the second to last episode… I think. Anyway, her death scene was still touching. She’s finally confessed the obvious to Kikunosuke, but now she’s dead so he can’t do anything about it. I also feel pretty bad for Kuriya. She saw Amano as a rival all this time. Even so, witnessing a rival’s death is still like losing someone close to you. Also, I think she knew all along that she really didn’t have a chance with Kikunosuke and knows now that she still doesn’t. The scene in the library made her seem pretty pathetic. She seemed to be trying to look good in front of Kikunosuke, probably in blind desperation. Of course, she fell, so that sure didn’t look good for her. Kikunosuke caught her because he’s nice, as I said last week. He wasn’t going to watch her fall on her butt and laugh. Anyway, I’ve got one real hope for the last episode and that’s Kokuanten development. After her experience in episode 7(?) and her brief scene with Kikunosuke in this episode, I don’t think she should just remain a villain. At least, I’m hoping she’s not as bad as Tomoya. Of course she won’t get together with Kikunosuke, but I don’t want her to have a completely tragic ending. I can’t wait for the finale. Again, no Happy Special this week but it would’ve been out of place.

I’m a bit bored at the moment, and it’s never too early to decide what looks interesting, so here’s some of my thoughts.

Very interesting:
1/3- Kagihime Monogatari Eikyu Alice Rondo -I’m thinking Rozen Maiden from what I’ve read about this. That automatically makes it worth checking out.
1/6- Fate/stay night -Anything getting this much hype is something worth looking at. Besides, I’ve already decided that Saber has a super cool character design.
1/7- Kage kara Mamoru -Looks like it could be good, mindless fun
1/12- Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora -The storyline sounds great
2/02- REC -Neat! It’s not everyday that you find an anime about a voice actor.

Maybe:
1/5- Rakugo Tennyo Oyui- Plot seems like it would be enjoyable
1/7- Tactical Roar -Don’t know much about it, but it’s just cool looking
1/9- Nerimadaikon Brothers -I like the weird character designs, so I feel the urge to see them in action

Though it’s no coincidence, Nina, Arika and Mashiro all have a birthday on September 7th. Another major thing happening that day is the arrival of a foreign prince. Mashiro is supposed to greet him, but has no desire to do so. Arika and Nina are supposed to pick up the prince from Zipang. When the two are out on their mission, they get distracted when the notice a boy that seems to be living on his own on the streets. Nina is reminded of herself and wants to go help him, but it turns out that the boy is a pickpocket. He steals the pocket watch that Sergey gave her for her birthday one year in the past. Nina and Arika run after him, but when they finally catch him, he throws the watch into the sea. Coincidentally, a boat was going buy and the watch lands there. Nina is fully willing to strip and swim after it, but Arika stops her and they wait until the boat stops to catch it. The man on the boat says that he saw it but a crow swooped up and took it. Meanwhile, Mashiro has ran off on her own with Mikoto. Mikoto’s found the crow and is trying to catch it (probably to eat) but feels and falls on Mashiro’s head. Takumi finds them and drags them away. The crow had dropped the watch and Sergei finds it. While Arika is trying to help Nina find the crow, Nina feels that it’s not really worth it. She likes Sergey but feels that the only reason he decided to celebrate her birthday today is because it’s the same birthday as the daughter of that person he loves. She’s also worried that something happened between Arika and Sergey during the test. Arika assures her that nothing happened. Sergey soon shows up, returning the watch. He’s surprised that it’s that important to Nina that she’d ignore her mission to search for it. He also tells her that he made this date her birthday because it’s the anniversary of the day he met her. Now she’s content, but Aoi and the others at the castle are very worried about Mashiro. They greet the prince when he arrives. He turns out to be Akira.

I particularly liked this weeks episode. I was a bit freaked upon hearing that Nina liked Sergey, though I should’ve picked that up earlier I suppose. I still think it’s wrong because it seems sort of pedophiliac, but nobody said Sergey would return the feelings. He sees Nina as family. Of course, Nina didn’t know this so now that she does, maybe she’ll have different thoughts about Sergey in the future. Eh… probably not. Nina’s development is quite enjoyable. Her relationship with Arika has gotten much friendlier. I was surprised that she told Arika her secret feelings about Sergei. Another pleasing thing is that Takumi and Akira are back now. I really liked the both of them so it’s cool that they’re also in this series. It looks like Akira’s crossdressing again. I find it hard to comprehend that she can pass off for some high ranking prince though. Being a male jr. high student is one thing, but being a prince is probably difficult. On the subject of royalty, while I’m still pretty convinced that Arika is the real queen, this episode threw out some hints that it could be Nina. As usual, I’m left in confusion by this series.