Favourite Anime of 2013

It’s always a difficult task coming up with a simple list of my favourite anime that aired throughout the year, the list always seems to extend over several pages, only to be pruned and cut down to a simple selection of the series and films I truly enjoyed watching. This year I have decided not to put the anime in any specific order, or even give them a number as I feel numbering, and ordering the anime to be rather arbitrary. Apart from one specific series the anime in this list have all been equally enjoyable for a variety of different reasons. Interestingly most of the really popular series, ones that acquired lives of their own are missing from this list, largely because I found them almost universally boring, or didn’t particularly interest me in one way of another. But before the list proper a few special mentions, series that I certainly enjoyed, but have not made it onto the final list for a number of reasons.

The complex nature of anime

There are many anime series every season that are labelled as ‘bad’, or ‘rubbish’, with numerous bloggers, or people on twitter talking about how stupid they are, and how boring characters or stories may be. I do think that many anime are often mislabelled, with people taking their lack of cultural understanding to mean that a series is badly written or directed. Perhaps people forget that anime is Japanese and therefore incorporates aspects of the countries history, culture, and social norms. This may seem a little odd since it is fairly obvious that anime is Japanese, but perhaps western audiences have become so used to watching anime, that the notion of a culturally and socially embedded medium is either ignored, or never springs to mind.

Spring 2013 Anime Season Preview

So as the 2013 winter anime season draws to a close we begin to look forward to the spring season, one that has numerous interesting series, and a few that look to be potentially fascinating but I have yet to make up my mind on. I have to admit that I never really look into a new season until just before it begins, I also rarely watch the preview videos because I have yet to watch one that really demonstrated clearly what the series would be like. Instead I simply prefer to base my initial viewing off of the art, synopsis, and any other material that might be about such as manga adaptations, or original source etc. It is also very hard to really come up with a clear understanding or any real idea of what the season will be like purely based off of the series previews and ploy synopses. You can get a general idea of what a series may involve based on artwork and description, but from past seasons, and years there are always those hidden gems that at first look dull, boring and generally flat but turn into something that is truly wonderful. In a similar vein, there are series that start off well, but ultimately lose their way and become disappointments despite the talent and ability behind them.