Winner/
Runner-Up
Favourite - My favourite anime of all-time is
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The original 2003 version was the first proper Anime I ever watched and got me started on what would become an obsession with Anime. Brotherhood of course is the refinement of that original which is now complete and the story as intended. It's story is immaculate, it's characters so memorable in a world so fascinating. It's 11/10 for me because it improved on perfection.
Shiit-Tier - I've seen my fair share of utter crap but some shows bring out legitimate rage in me and
Heat Guy J is one such show because it ends up being a massive failure despite having the potential to be something great. The characters are boring, the world uninspired and the stories dull and full of annoyance. I struggled so much with this series that I couldn't even finish it, I decided my time was far more important which when you read the other shows I considered for this spot are
Oreimo 2,
Rosario+Vampire 2,
Hi School Seha Girls,
Tenjou Tenge and
Air Gear and then learn I watched and finished all of those then I think it really says something when I decided to throw up the white flag for Heat Guy J.
Needs S2 or S3 - Plenty of choices for this one but I ultimately decided on
Big Windup. This is one of the very best sport Anime ever made with a truly wonderful cast of characters and a focus on realism in it's portrayal of Baseball. So many sports Anime are shonen focused with over the top special moves and presentation but Big Windup with it's light atmosphere and inviting colour palette instead focuses on realism and as such is often more tense and interesting as a result. The show despite the Manga's continued popularity has just 3 cours to it's name with a TON of the story left not animated. When I see peers like Ace of Diamond come along and get 150 episodes in no time at all it just makes me cry. Other choices I considered were further seasons of
Hajime No Ippo and
Kaiji.
10/10 - Obviously we all have multiple shows we have given full marks so picking just one other was really hard. I narrowed it down to the two shows I most often have inner debates about to which is second to the FMA franchise. I decided upon
Maison Ikkoku here over
Eureka Seven simply because less people have seen it as I just love both shows dearly. Maison Ikkoku just makes me happy, I love the characters, the romantic comedy, the settings of 80s Japan, it's just pure gold. At 96 episodes with a Movie and a couple of OVAs it's certainly a long series but it's just so damn charming and full of fun. It's like soul food to me because it just cheers me up whenever I watch it.
Waifu/Husbando - Favourite Female and Male Characters was a bit tough to choose as I have many favourites of both genders. On the male side I landed on my default choice Jean Havoc, the affable loser who made me smile so much while watching my first Anime FMA. I tend to really like the underdogs, the triers and ultimately the losers when it comes to characters in Anime and Havoc was the first one of those I really gravitated to. Especially after the Flame Alchemist episode in the original 2003 series. So while I certainly enjoy characters like Takamura (Hajime No Ippo) or Lupin, Harlock, Guts (Berserk) I just couldn't not go with Havoc. He isn't my avatar practically everywhere online without reason lol. Noa Izumi is a more recent thing, I just like her fun attitude and cute patlabor obsession. She is adorable and badass all at once. I also have a thing for short haired brunettes, I mean I actually bought the Noa Izumi Photobook haha. Runner-Up was Ai Tanabe who is basically just like Noa and I actually somewhat embarrassingly pretty much had a crush on after watching Planetes for the first time haha. Thankfully that only lasted a few days but it was a weird thing that I've never had repeated with any other female character. But she is only in this one series while Noa is in a bunch of stuff so Noa wins out. Other favourites are Nami (One Piece), Winry (FMA) and Revy (Black Lagoon).
Top-Tier Characters - This was actually easier than I thought it would be as I tried to narrow it down to what shows have the Characters that keep me coming back. I wanted to pick something that had multiple entries to emphasize that point. I eventually had a group of 4 of
Lupin III,
the Leijiverse, Baccano! and
Durarara!!. I decided upon Lupin because of it's longevity I mean we have been watching the Lupin crew and their adventures for almost 50 years and the formula just keeps working such is the brilliance of these characters. I just can never get enough of them, always looking forward to whatever TMS has instore for them next. They are everlasting and while I can say similar things about the Leijiverse unfortunately the Leijiverse is more spread out with Characters not always appearing unlike Lupin. While Baccano much like Durarara has an immensely fun variable cast but just doesn't have the same stature.
Shiit-Tier Characters - While there are many characters I don't like it's actually quite rare for me to hate a character. The main contenders here for me were
Kira Yamato,
Sasuke Uchiha and
Frieza. These are the characters of most importance to a show that I just could not stand. Still this was actually quite easy because only one of those characters is the protagonist of their show. Kira Yamato is an annoying contradicting whiny little bitch and I put up with this asshole for 50 episodes in Gundam Seed. He would whine at everyone to stop fighting all the while racking up a horrendous headcount of his fellow countrymen. He is god hand femto candidate material and I hate him! lol. In fact Kira is the reason to blame for me having seen so little of the Gundam universe of Anime even now, thankfully that is going to change soon but for years I avoided Gundam such was my hatred for Kira. Seed is heralded as the comeback Gundam needed back when it aired and while I'm glad it was successful in that regard I still find it baffling that this guy led that charge. As for the runner-ups Sasuke is just a brooding similarly whiny bitch baby and Frieza is just as annoying as shiit.
Best VA - This is one of those where I kind of just always default to my first favourite.
Crispin Freeman has a large body of work in Anime and Games and the reason I think I gravitate to him is because I just enjoy the tone of his voice and I always feel he makes great characters that much greater, elevating the enjoyment level when watching the escapades of Zelgadis in Slayers, Shizuo in Durarara or Tylor in Captain Tylor. I think he has decent range as well, it's not huge but often times he is in roles where it takes me time to even realize it's him which is more than I can say for some actors *cough*Greg Ayres*cough*.
Steven J Blum and
J. Michael Tatum are both fantastic also.
Thanks to
NormanicGrav for the details template
