"Guilty" Pleasures of the Year
I feel no guilt for many of my tastes, at least for any on this list. There are titles however that have flaws, or even not highly regarded in the slightest, but fulfilled a pleasure for me. Three honourable mentions come to come. Gravion and Gravion Zwei (2002/2004) make up one great series, but the production felt it had to bank on something else to sell a giant robot show to the viewers of the early 2000s, including a castle of buxom maids (and unfortunately little girls too), which is a commercial decision that cannot be defended. (The irony that this leads to the cast mostly being female, and reliable figures, muddies this issue just as much). Amagami SS (2010), a unique spin on the romance story in which you follow six different versions of the tale from six different female characters as the girlfriends, has nothing problematic at all about it but does have an odd air to it due to this premise that cannot be ignored, alongside the fact the OVA bonus episodes failed and brought this issue up. And Lunar Legend Tsukihime (2003), which is an obscure Type-Moon adaptation which has major issues, significant issues, but also many little touches in spite of its generic horror-action story which won me over.
5) Evoking the horror genre, Calamity of a Zombie Girl (2018) was an ONA film which I came to with immensely low expectations, either getting an Island of Giant Insects (2020) or something very bland. Calamity... was much more entertaining and interesting prospect, a dash of the old lurid OVA era of gore and weirdness, only with a bit more unexpected (and likely deliberate) horror and many quirks, something I can appreciate.
4) In the Aftermath (1988), again, is a relic of peculiar context, a re-cut Americanised version of Angel's Egg (1985) which is meant to make more sense of the original art film, only to make even less sense. Contextually, we have never had Angel's Egg itself in the West on physical media, but In the Aftermath inexplicably has. At times it is utterly illogical and ludicrous just in some of the attempts at out-profounding a profound rumination on Oshii's own religious belief, once about to become a Catholic priest before he entered an animation industry and thus having a lot of baggage to un pack. It is however compelling. It is even at times eerie, both for its dreamlike nature, including the live action post apocalypse drama, and for the fact the original animation (especially in high definition) is still exceptional and unlike anything you could encounter.
3) The best way to despite my interest in Gundam Reconguista in G (2014) was that I willingly sacrificed my first ever Gundam work to watch this as the first. Reconguista in G, Yoshiyuki Tomino's attempt at a fun and lighter hearted take on the franchise, is one of the best produced titles I have covered for the last year, as Sunrise will drop the ball on their money maker over the years but put as much resources into each entry as they can, but good luck with the maddening (or pleasingly erratic) plotting and characterisation. For me, it was the latter, a gleefully mad odyssey without logic that I openly admit a perverse pleasure in unlike the other entries on this list.
2) Pupa (2014) is held as one of the worst series released in the 2010s, part of a fun of deliberately seeing a couple of notorious titles. Surprisingly none of them actually got on the Disappointing List - Arcade Fighter Fubuki (2002-3) is not talked about with the same level of infamy as the ones I did cover - as even Mars of Destruction (2005) was entertaining. Pupa, controversially, I will defend. Its biggest weakness is that, when it was originally meant to be regular length episodes, the produced nixed this for ones only a couple of minutes long, which excises so much potential context and layers. The premise however, whilst utterly gross, is too compelling even in this context to dismiss, of a deliberately unsettling incestuous cannibalistic relationship of a brother and sister. The little we get I found fascinating, even in its art style and aesthetic, leaving the fact it was still only minute long episodes the cause of this show being on this list.
1) Also crippled by a fatal production flaw, I confess a love still for X: The Movie (1996). Maybe it's expensive, or unloved, or the song by X-Japan, just before their original version was abruptly disbanded, adds a cost, but Rintaro's theatrical adaptation should be available again just for how gorgeous and moody the film is as animation. It looks incredible in the modern day as a production and, whilst a far more darker and violent take on the CLAMP manga by all accounts, it has a morbid beauty that is enrapturing. Tragically, they made the decision to adapt said CLAMP manga, which was unfinished at the time and would remain unfinished to the modern day with the likelihood it never will, into a film less than ninety minutes. It is still a dark and evocative piece, but obviously it has to get the award because that time crunch plays hell on the plotting.
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Best Episode
Sadly we have to include a dishonourable mention for a two part episode of Tesagure! Bukatsumono Spin-off Purupurun Sharumu to Asobou (2015), known technically as "Let's play with werewolves and yuri", but I have called the "Yuriwolf" episodes. From an alumni of the gdgd Fairies series, it involves the cast (in character) playing a game called "Werewolf" but with a yuri slant, part of that older series' tradition of letting the cast improvise on the fly around a silly scenario. The result is u-t-t-e-r-l-e-y tedious, and they even try to bribe the viewer with a bonus game that is a Japanese blu-ray exclusive.
5) The first good episode however helped a less than great series, LunarLegend Tsukihime, improve by stepping away from its generic horror action storyline for episode seven, "Blue Sin Mark". Entirely based around the cast going to a theme park, baring the one moment near the end where a corpse is left on a Ferris Wheel, the main conflict is when the male protagonist's sister and the female vampire/potential love interest are openly hostile to each other when they meet, whilst his school friends including another potential love interest are awkwardly there as this transpires. Eventually leading to a growth and secrets being revealed, it is a needed shot of banality that stands out greatly.
4) Gun X Sword (2005) had a few great episodes - possibly not the one about the matriarchal fortress where everyone still had to wear a bikini, even if it memorable - but I have to go for episode 6, "Light My Fire". Very early in the series, when it is still the first act of a genre masala, where a Western antihero in his wedding suit wanders a sci-fi frontier for revenge, ends out at a coastal town and puts up with a Bonnie and Clyde couple, in their transforming combat car, trying to take his giant robot when all he wants to do is actually eat. This is a great example of when a one off-story, especially for twenty plus episodes like this, can stand out.
3) Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (2010) has too many great episodes I could have chosen, from the music video to the finale. From the get-go with episode 1a and 1b, as like Cartoon Network shows I grew up with, the episode is split into two different stories, you get both sides of the show immediately, a perfect introduction provided for this series. Yes, the first half, about a poo ghost, is as appropriately gross to start with, but I am thinking specifically of the second half, "Death Race 2010", where the influence of Western animation and how its simpler look allows for movement immediately shows, following a high speed car chase with a literal speed demon. Combined with the fact that the music is already audibly exceptional, and the voice acting from the Japanese cast, and it's an exceptional piece.
2) Also a show with too many good moments, such as the one about why you should never anger the caretaker at any anime high school, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (2003) also has episodes usually split into two stories with exceptions, the second part of episode two, "A Fruitless Lunchtime", already winning me over already from the beginning. Following the leads having to dash from school to one of their homes to get study notes, than get back immediately, it has emotional bonding, as the male and female lead are seen clearly as friends and possibly with romantic feelings for each other, especially as these characters in the original Full Metal Panic have had time before in their history to know each other. There is also the perfect comedy deriving from very little which is exceptional, particularly one moment of a slow subtle change in attitude which is a testament to the animators as well. That it manages to have a cameo, or a parody, from an entirely different franchise, You're Under Arrest, just adds an amusing cherry to the cake.
1) But this award had to be for Himote House (2018) and the "Yuri Game of Life", episode 7 "A Journey Like a Prayer". Himote House had problems, a show that from another gdgd Fairies alumni which could have taken more consistency from the older, superior show. Yet from what is an amusing premise, playing The Game of Life whilst lovingly mocking yuri genre clichés, the comedy suddenly gets serious and pulls no punches in tackling the discrimination and treatment of LGBT women in Japanese culture. Even telling you this does not prepare for how effortlessly Himote House pulls this off. Just go find the episode and watch it.
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