Ten Years Ago…What Were You Watching in 2011?

I was happily watching Oh My Goddess, El Hazard-The Magnificent World, Chobits, Karin, Kami-Chu, The Story Of Saiunkoku, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Aria, Fushigi Yugi, Mnemosyne, The Slayers (Lina Inverse and all), Stellvia Of The Universe, Gall Force, Maho Shoujo Tai Arusu (Tweeny Witches-dumb name), Gun Buster and Diebuster, Godannar, Planetes, Geneshaft, Wedding Peach, Saber Marionette, Key-The Metal Idol, Serial Experiments Lain, Arjuna, True Tears, Save Me Lollipop, Infinite Ryvius, Magical Meow Meow Taruto, Angel Links, Mars Day Break, Brigadoon, Human Crossing, Ranma 1/2, Y's Legacy, Tattoon Master, Coyote Ragtime Show and tons more. And yes-I have that crapamation release of Noein with the sparkly case and the originial Manga dvd release. Everything I've listed here I currently own. BTW-I don't do spreadsheets, it's all in my head.
 
I love Karin I've just been rewatching it recently! :) I liked Kamichu though I preferred Read or Die (same director) and Key the Metal Idol is an underrated classic IMO up there with Lain and Boogiepop. Impressed you can remember so much :)
 
Prior to 2011, my main experiences with anime were through odd episode of Pokemon, One Piece, Sonic X and Hoshi no Kirby, either on TV or YT, as a few Ghibli films, and iconic films such as The Animatrix, Akira, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Fist of the North Star: The Movie, Ghost in the Shell, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars. I also played a ton of JRPGs and Japanese games, so I was aware of certain anime through YTbers I watched.

In late 2011, I decided to explore anime a little bit further than I had done before. After learning how to use DDL links and torrents, I completed my first anime TV series, Cowboy Bebop. After really enjoying it, I looked into recommendations guides to see if there were any other shows that looked appealing to me. Surely enough, there were, and in the span of two months, I had watched a fair amount of films, series and OVAs of different eras and genres. Some highlights include Outlaw Star, Angel Beats, Kino's Journey, Usagi Drop, FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cat Soup, Angel's Egg, Riding Bean, Baoh, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, Robot Carnival, Steamboy, Arion, Crusher Joe, Memories, Perfect Blue, Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, Wings of Honneamise, Windaria, Castle of Cagliostro, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Interstella 5555, Tekkonkinkreet, Sword of the Stranger, Colorful: The Motion Picture, and Redline.

Since then, I've grown a pretty sizeable physical media collection, with the main companies I support being AL and Discotek Media.
 
My physical collection collection got so big I ran out of storage space so now all I collect is purely digitial. Harddrives take up way less space,
 
I enjoyed the article. My favourite bits were @Demelza's praise for Sound of the Sky, and @Sarah's positive mention of Punch Line.

Always a late bloomer, February 2011 was when I got properly into anime. I'd seen Ghibli films before on Channel 4 and enjoyed them, but it was borrowing a copy of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on DVD from my local library that really changed things for me: this was something special. I bought my own copy of the film in HMV the next day — my first anime DVD.

That set me on the path to seeking out more to watch. The other big things I saw that year that have really stayed with me would be Evangelions 1.0 and 2.0, Summer Wars and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Those are some of the earliest shows and films I feel like I absorbed into my very being, and I'm still finding new ones that come to occupy a special place in my heart 10 years on. 🙂
 
@Neil.T : Thank you for the positive feedback - I'm glad that you enjoyed the article as we enjoyed writing it, even though it was hard to believe that ten years have passed since first watching certain shows! I have to say I've really enjoyed reading your and other forum members' memories - and it's interesting (though not surprising) how films like Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time keep popping up (oh and a certain Haruhi Suzumiya title... 🙃) as shaping our tastes in anime. :)
 
Looks like I was watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Eden of the East and Slayers Revolution/Evolution: R. Probably not a whole lot else since 2011 was definately one of the worst years of my life; searching for all the posts I made from 2010-2011 for the purposes of this thread I can even trace my own mental state deteriorating. Fun.

Dammit if I didn't used to be funnier though. I blame not having any good double act partners any more. That and y'know, the weight of the world crushing my soul for another decade.
 
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Interesting article, always nice & often scary (as someone mentioned) to reminisce. I properly got back into anime relatively recently so probably only saw the rebuild of Evangelion movies available at the time in 2011. Have since caught up on a lot of the fantastic series and movies mentioned here but as always, have added a few more off of the recommendations here (currently most looking forward to rumbling hearts - thanks WMD!).
 
2011 was a best of times/worst of times year for me, since I started it in the worst job I've had to date and finished it in the best. When I'm depressed, I tend to regress to watching the 80s cartoons that were on TV when I was a kid, or just lose interest in things altogether, so I might not have watched a lot of anime that year. It was also a couple of years before I realised that Crunchyroll had gone straight, and started watching seasonal anime in 2013.

Looking at my Amazon order history, the anime I bought in 2011 was High School of the Dead, Redline, Moribito, Evangelion 1.11 and 2.22, Ghost Hunt (which I have no memory of buying or watching, and no longer own), Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Air Gear. That's next to nothing compared to the amount of anime I normally buy, so yeah, I was in a bad way the first half of 2011.
 
OK so I would have found it waaay too head-scratching to figure out what I actually watched in 2011, but here is a list of anime I really like that aired in 2011. Sorry, it's the best I can do!

Puella Magi Madoka Magica TV (haven't seen the movies yet but hopefully will at some point)
Gosick
Kimi ni Todoke Season 2 (I liked Season 1 as well)
Wandering Son
Steins;Gate (I enjoyed Steins;Gate 0 a lot as well and want to see the Region of Deja Vu movie)
Blue Exorcist (don't think I'll watch season 2 as that adapts the manga arc that made me stop reading the series!)
Anohana
Nichijou
Tiger and Bunny (I didn't love this but it was worth watching)
Mawaru Penguindrum
Natsume’s Book of Friends Season 3 (I haven't watched season 4 and beyond yet but it's on my list)
From Up on Poppy Hill
Fate/Zero (still haven't watched UBW or Heaven's Feel but planning to)
Chihayafuru Season 1 (not perfectly to my tastes but well done for what it is, I will be watching Seasons 2 and 3)
The Princess and the Pilot (cheesy but enjoyable saw it at the same Anime Limited screening event as CWCLV)
Children Who Chase Lost Voices (flawed, but was an interesting experience at the anime film screening thingy I saw it at)
K-On! Movie

Honorable mentions:

Dream Eater Merry - not a great series but worth watching once as it's solid and the background art is unique and interesting
Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail - this is the point where I could no longer really handle how disturbing this series is but it's well done overall for what it is)

Things I want to see from that year that I haven't yet or haven't finished:

Beelzebub
Level E
Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Love(craft-sensei)
Bakuman
Star Driver
Oujisan no Lamp
Shouwa Monogatari
Hanasaku Iroha
Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl
SKET Dance
Hyouge Mono
Onigamiden
Buddha movies based on Tezuka’s manga
The Tibetan Dog
Green Days
Muybridge’s Strings
Usagi Drop
No. 6
Yuru Yuri
Baka and Test
The Mystical Archives of Dantalian
Sacred Seven
Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth
Nyanpire
Hotarubi no Mori E
Hunter x Hunter
Future Diary
Haganai: I don’t have many friends
Ben-To
Kimi to Boku
Phi Brain
Squid Girl
Last Exile: The Silver Wing
Gundam Unicorn
This Boy Can Fight Aliens
Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto Arc OVA
 
I loved Ground Control To Psychoelectric Girl, Croisee In A Foreign Labyrinth is a real sleeper, The Mystical Archives Of Dantalian wasn't reviewed very kindly but it really appealed to me, Hanasaku Iroha-heck yes!
 
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