Anime - 2006

My top 11 animes for year 2006 are:
ARIA The NATURAL
Mushishi
Hachimitsu to Clover II
Chokotto Sister
Binchoutan
Asatte no Houkou
Kashimashi
Binbou Shimai Monogatari
Bokura ga Ita
Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora
Tonagura!

No Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu? Higurashi no Naku Koro ni? Mai Otome? Probably I should make a top 100 anime list instead. There are other animes that I love in this year apart from those mentioned such as Ergo Proxy, Lemon Angel, Zero no Tsukaima, Shakugan no Shana, and also Fate/Staynight, but after all, only those 11 animes are the ones that I can easily say I can't 'live' without. 11? I'm just too indecisive. Those 11 are the ones that I love very much. It's hard too choose by the way.

But if I am to choose only one anime, I will definitely choose ARIA The NATURAL. I even make extra efford for this particular anime with screenshots for almost all the episodes, and manga-anime comparison tables. After all I have all the mangas too ^^ This is truly an ultimate iyashii anime for this year.

As for Mushishi, the animation is really wonderful, together with very nice, original storyline, plus probably one of the best BGM for anime. Though Hachimitsu to Clover II is more serious that the first season, it offers very nice insert songs, nice dialogues and monologues, and also Hagumi... However the ending is kind of unexpected to me. I should have read the manga first. Chokotto Sister is an ultimate anime to me, Choko is superb, and Yuri-pyon too is superb! Everything is superb. Uh... I want more Choko...

Binchoutan, as I said before, is a killer anime. Watch it or die! Anyone can resist the temptation of chibi characters in anime? Plus the iyashii value of it? Asatte no Houkou ended recently, so I'm still having vivid memories of the nice environment the story is set in, plus the superloli so called super-tsundere-loli Shouko-chan, and also not so superloli Karada-chan, since we can see her loli form in the 1st episode, opening, ending themes, and in some parts of the story only. I was really dissappointed that Shouko-chan returned back into her adult form. Too bad. By the way, even without loli element, this anime is very nice by itself though. Kashimashi is legendary for its "Anone" ending, frustrating many people excluding me :p Probably can be described as metaphoric Yuri anime, since there many dialogues that resort to metaphors and sometimes seem insensible. That is good by the way...

Binbou Shimai Monogatari, animation-wise is not really a good anime, but such heart-warming story has overcomed the short-comings from low budget animation. Bokura ga Ita is one of the nicest Shoujo anime I ever watch, this is such a rare gem. Such a story full of emotion, a tear-jerking anime.

I was so obsessed with Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora to the extend of buying complete set of the novel, but after reading the novel, I find that the novel version is better than the anime one, in which the storyline in the anime somehow feels a bit jumpy, and kind of hasty as compared to the novel, but given that the director had to compressed the novels into 6 episodes of anime, I think he has done a good job. The anime is only halfway through the novel though. There is a live-action version of Hantsuki, but I'm not really bothered to watch it until now, probably later. As for Tonagura!, I myself didn't really expect that I would like this kind of anime, but somehow I love it. Marie-chan is definitely my favourite character ^^ The hectic nature of this anime, plus that crazy onee-san, plus the emotionless Marie make up this anime.

It is worth mentioning that I also love Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu for the crazy hectic storyline, Mai Otome for the yuriness :p, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni for the superb murder scenes, Ergo Proxy for the very nice animations and mind boggling story, Lemon Angel for the nice songs and cute girls, Zero no Tsukaima and Shakugan no Shana for the ultimate tsundere loli, and Fate/Staynight for nice fighting scenes, but somehow they didn't make their way into my top 11 list.

Probably some may argue that Mushishi, Mai Otome, and Shakugan no Shana should be listed among 2005 animes, but since those animes ended in year 2006, I decided that it's better to list them among year 2006 animes. That's also the reason why I didn't put down Otogi Juushi Akazukin since it's still ongoing until year 2007.