Category: Miscellaneous

Based on the responses from the initial Power Rankings post, and because I’ve watched an obscene amount of anime in the past week for the purpose of providing a better ranking, I’ve updated the rankings and descriptions for each, as well as removed/added shows. Keep in mind that I’m only doing this “reseeding” as a follow-up to the first post – just because a show might have dropped 10 spots doesn’t mean the latest ep really sucked! Subsequent power ranking posts will come about once a month!

June 2007	Rank (LW)	Title	Comment
	1 (1)	Gurren Lagann	A great beach episode that not only elevated Nia to the Tessa stratosphere, but also had Yoko using her much-needed screen time well. Notice how Yoko looked a tad bit cuter this episode? The action remained nothing short of insanity, we saw the dramatic death of one of the prime evils, and there was even time for a haircut scene. In terms of sheer volume of enjoyment, the other shows don’t even come close to this.
	2 (4)	Lucky Star	What’s this…consistency? Even the dialogue-exclusive episodes are really starting to be enjoyable. Whether this has to do with the dialogue getting better (maybe), the subject matter being more interesting (not likely), or just me getting used to this group of friends (there we go), Lucky Star has really, truly, deeply become a special, special show. Episode 11 was pure love.
	3 (6)	Claymore	One way I evaluate anime is how badly it makes me want to read the manga after a cliffhanger – for those who haven’t done it already, this seems to be an issue that becomes more and more prevalent every week. Meanwhile, the anime is doing a great job of keeping it together and keeping it legit – somewhat of a rarity these days so far into the series!

More after the jump….

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In Random Curiosity’s endless pursuit to distract you from real-world productivity, we’ve devised another way to hopefully make your summer days a little less boring. Introducing…monthly power rankings! Pachi pachi pachi.

Those who follow sports will be familiar with these – sites like ESPN typically have weekly power rankings to track teams’ progress throughout the season. If anything, it’s just fun to compare things. The difference with the anime rankings and those in sports is that we’re trying to compare things that pretty much fall in completely different genres, and don’t even go head-to-head against each other any sort of way outside of TV ratings, which we don’t have access to nor really want to bother with, since Japanese people have strange tastes anyways (who the hell watches crayon shin-chan).

June 2007	Rank (LW)	Title	Comment
	1 (1)	Gurren Lagann	Even (especially) with the unheralded loss of Kamina, GL grabs the top spot with its ability to maintain its distinct wackiness, feverish action, and likeable characters. The addition of flowery Nia to brighten up the gloom was a brilliant move – which begs the question, Yoko or Nia? Big guns are hot, but so are flower petal pupils.
	2 (2)	Denno Coil	DC is a lovable series because it dares to dream, and yet doesn’t get greedy. A great premise coupled with solid animation and upbeat action, together with an uncertain yet anticipated ending – all the makings of a great show. After a strong showing in episodes 1-3, an epic episode 4 bumps it to the second spot. Who would’ve thought, such a special show came so late in the season.
	3 (3)	Seto no Hanayome	I was a little surprised that the whole show moved to a generic school setting, but my doubts were cast aside as SetoHana keeps hitting us hard with uproarious humor and falling sakura petals, at the same time introducing several more interesting characters. Weird thing is, one of them is a Haruhi clone, the other an Akira-sama clone. Points for having the most unique beta-male character in recent memory.

More after the jump….