Miscellaneous / Poll

Reader’s Choice – Favorite Anime 2009 Poll

It’s time for the Fourth Annual Reader’s Choice Poll!

This year, we’re changing the poll in a few key ways:

  • There are now two polls. One poll is for all regularly broadcast series and the other is for OVAs, ONAs, and movies.
  • You now get three votes for the regularly broadcast series poll and one vote for the OVA/ONA/movie poll. This lets you choose your top three for the year instead of just top one, which in past years has skewed the poll towards certain shows.
  • You can write-in your favorite show or OVA/ONA/movie if it’s not on the list. However, if you choose to write-in a title that doesn’t qualify (see below), then that’s basically wasting a vote.

    • The criteria for a series being included on the regularly broadcast series list is that it had to have been a complete TV series that ended in 2009. The general idea here is that you can’t really judge a series until it’s over, and that means that fans of shows like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood will have to wait until next year’s poll. The criteria for a series being included on the OVA/ONA/movie list is just that it has to have been released in 2009 on DVD or online. This means that Summer Wars does not qualify this year. Still, if there’s anything you think that deserves to be put as an option on either list that isn’t already there, then feel free to email me, and I’ll add it.

    These polls will close on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at approximately 08:00 AM GMT.
    I’ve extended voting 24 hours. These polls will now close on Saturday, January 2nd 2010 at approximately 08:00 AM GMT.

    The poll is now closed. The results will be announced soon!

    Season Preview / Series Introduction

    Winter 2010 Preview!

    With the new year almost upon us, it’s also time to look at the new series that will be premiering this Winter season! As usual, I’ll try to watch the first episode of as many shows as I can within certain parameters (in other words, not those kiddie shows), and what I list here are the chances of me actually blogging something based on my initial impressions from promotional material. However, even if I list the chances for a show as good or guaranteed, it doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll stick with it for more than a few episodes unless it actually is good.

    By no means does this list reflect every single anime series that is going to be aired, though I did try to be as comprehensive as I could. Check out MOON PHASE for an entire listing, syoboi’s calendar for specific airtimes, and Fansub Wiki’s Fall 2009 page for who’s tentatively subbing what.

    Technical Note: All times are given in a 24-hour, relative-day format where times are extended to show which day they belong to. For instance, Friday morning at 1:30AM would become Thursday at 25:30 to show that the episode aired late Thursday night.

    Dance In The Vampire Bund
    http://www.vampirebund.com/
    Premieres on January 7th, 2010
    Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Thursdays at 09:00
    Airtime in U.S. (EST, GMT-5): Wednesdays at 19:00
    Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi
    The first of SHAFT‘s two Winter series, and arguably the series I’m most excited about out of this entire list, is Dance In The Vampire Bund. It’s about the princess of all vampires and her bodyguard as they establish a new kingdom in Japan and all the challenges and dangers they run into with humans and with other vampires. The main girl is a bit like Nagi from Hayate, but instead of a comedy, this is a dark and much more mature series with a dose of politics and plenty of backstabbing. I could barely put down the manga because it was such a fun and interesting read, and hopefully SHAFT will do a good job with it.
    Odds I’ll Blog This: Guaranteed
    Katanagatari
    http://www.katanagatari.com/
    Premieres on January 25th, 2010
    Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Mondays at 25:10
    Airtime in U.S. (EST, GMT-5): Mondays at 11:10
    Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi
    From the author of Bakemonogatari comes a story about a guy who is the head of a sword style family that doesn’t use swords. He and his sister live on a remote island until a woman arrives asking for his help gathering 12 swords made by a legendary swordsmith. The original light novels were written one a month for twelve months, and in that same vein, the anime will have one episode a month for twelve months. The anime adaptation, however, is not being produced by SHAFT and is instead being done by WHITE FOX. That shouldn’t be a bad thing since they did some pretty nice work with the anime adaptation of Tears to Tiara, and the promo videos also show off the music that composer Iwasaki Taku (who also did Gurren Lagann and Soul Eater music) has contributed. All of that means that there should be a lot to look forward to with this series over the next year.
    Odds I’ll Blog This: Good

    Note: This is a rather long and fairly comprehensive list of January shows. Much much more after the jump, including a bunch of promo videos.