Year end review of 2009?

Hey guys since it's almost the end of 2009 I just want to ask what are your thoughts about anime or the anime lineup of 2009 is it good? Is it bad? Just your overall impression of 2009 would be fine. I would suggest in coming in spring then till all the way to fall of 2009's lineup.

I'm going to expand this a bit past just anime if you don't mind.

2009, the Year of the Ox.

As a year in real life, I feel that it had more down moments than it did ups, for myself and many people I know.
As a year for anime (both new and old), it was quite good. FMA:B, Basquash, the end of Gundam 00, the promise of the 00 movie, the announcement of a simultaneous world-wide dub for Gundam Unicorn ... 2009 did its best to match 2008 in terms of spectacular releases.
Oh, and the rest of the animes in 2009 that were good but I never watched. I'm sure they contributed as well.
I also watched several more series in 2009, including Gravion, the entire Full Metal Panic series and Argentosoma, and caught the North American movie debut of Evangelion 1.0 in theaters. Which reminds me, I should go grab that on Blu-Ray.

Not only that, but I attended a completely different anime convention this year, and was quite pleased with the results. Plus I was able to identify a lot more costumes, including a Kamen Rider (apparently I was the first one to correctly identify him for who he was).

More on my thoughts later as they come. If they so choose. Now onto you ...

And lets not forget TMOHS season 2 was awsome, once you got past the Endless 8, which watching the first, middle, and last pretty much is all thats needed. And the announcement of a movie coming out next year is also awsome.

Canadaman, did you refer to Basquash in a way that would lead one to believe it was good?

Mitsugi wrote:Canadaman, did you refer to Basquash in a way that would lead one to believe it was good?

Yes ... yes I did.
SoulBro defends his men, I defend Basquash. To a point.

CanadaMan wrote:

Mitsugi wrote:Canadaman, did you refer to Basquash in a way that would lead one to believe it was good?

Yes ... yes I did.
SoulBro defends his men, I defend Basquash. To a point.

Canadaman always defends his claims.

Ok this is what I think about the whole year lineup for anime. I think it was a little disappointing and really taking a step back when it comes to good content in what 2008 had left us. With 2008 coming to 2009 anime aside, I think this is by far the year I get Bukkaked in the face with so much fanservice, with pantsu shots, weak gimmicks that serves as a story for a general basis of the entire thing, and oh don't forget about the moe. Then again there are some content that are one of the greats such as Eden of the East, Bakemonogatari (if you don't watch this fix that), Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood ( Yeah surprised me in how good this actually is). Other than that you get anime that have these archetypes listed as mentioned. Dissapointing year indeed but having high hopes for 2010 anime ( O KEY I wish you can do well with Angel Beats!).

I appreciate that you're willing to stick to your claims Canadaman. We already had a Basquash discussion in the Basquash thread, so I'm not going to discuss it here.

As far as 2009 is concerned. Not real good. We had gems out there, but out of the 100 some anime in 2009, I think probably only a fistful are to be considered something you might recommend to a friend. The list is short; Bakemongatari, Hajime no Ippo, Cross Game, FMA, Eden of the East, Spice and Wolf 2, I really can't think of any others...

So with that, we have 6 anime from a total of 4 seasons. I no doubt missed a few This season has taken a big transition in the way content is presented. I think it's geared towards the Japanese audience (as it always has been), but I think that the Japanese taste may be moving further away from a western taste, whereas before we were all satisfied with mecha and love stories.

My concern is that as the American Anime industry is dying off (I'll discuss in a different thread if you want), Japan is cranking out anime faster than ever and as a result I think we are seeing a mixture of superficiality due to the haste and the "new" Japanese taste. The result is an anime where the entire thing is just cute girls and panties. The anime that do reach for a more serious plotline, "To Aru....Railgun", still feel pressured to give into the trend.

I don't think I could give 2009 a score out of 5, however, I'll say that while the Japanese may be loving today's anime more than ever (I don't know), today's content is less compatible with Western audiences than it has been in along time. It'll be interesting to see what 2010 brings to the table and wether we will start to retract back to the way anime used to be, or if it'll continue to transition the way it has been.