Anime In America: Best Of 2007

[Otaking]

I saw an article on a website about what they thought was their favorites of 07 and figured to do my own here and to also see what everyone elses was.

Series Of The Year
Le Chevalier D'eon

Few series this year held my interest as long and as intense as D'eon. The political intrigue, great action, and supernatural elements kept me coming back for more even after I had finished the series. The story itself is loosey based off a real life Frenchman named D'Éon de Beaumont. The plot lines make interesting comparisons to his life as a spy and diplomat from France. The animation and artwork are what you would expect from a series made by Production IG meaning top quality work. The dub cast, while not the best of the year, certainlly are excellent in each role esp David Matranga as the lead character D'eon and Taylor Hannah as Lia de Beaomont, D'eon's sister. All in all Le Chevalier D'eon is an superb series that everyone should watch.

Movie Of The Year
Paprika

This was probably the easiest to pick simply becuase of the lack of competition is this area. While not Satoshi Kon's best work if you ask me, it is still a movie worth watching for anyone who likes his type of work.

Best Comedy
The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya

To me comedy in anime is hard to watch most times. Alot of jokes have cultural references that can be pretty hard to understand or the jokes in a series are used so much that it runs stale by the first few episodes. But with Haruhi the jokes kept coming and seemingly got funnier everytime.

Best Action
Black Lagoon

Let's not kid around, no other series released this year had better action than Black Lagoon. With extreme detail used for each action scene and the amazing gun fights it's not hard to see why I gave it to Black Lagoon.

Best Drama
Air

Few series had a conclusion that was as tear inducing as Air. While I won't spoil any of it for anyone just trust when I say it is easily the best drama released this year.

Best Ensemble Performance
Black Lagoon

When I first saw the cast listing for Black Lagoon I was a littled worried as it was for the most part filled with either unknowns or people who's previous roles I didn't care for. When I actually watched the first episode I was pleasently surprised at how great each of the role was pulled off. With Maryke Hendrikse and Dean Redman giving outstanding performances that equal or surpass there Japanese counterpart, these two have proven that picking unknowns can be a wise choice. Brad Swaile gives his first role that I have actually enjoyed watching and Brian Drummond gives an equally surprising performance. But not to kid anyone Maryke Hendrikse takes the cake for her performance as Revy.

Best Female Performance
Maryke Hendrikse as Revy

While I really wanted to give this to Wendee Lee and her performance as Haruhi, I just simply couldn't overlook Maryke's career making performance as Revy. Personally I thought it would be next to impossbile to find someone who could match Megumi Toyoguchi's performance of Revy, but low and behold Maryke did it.

Best Male Performance
Brad Swaile as Rock

I won't kid anyone, this one took a lot of thinking before I could come up with a clear winner, but considering I've had a strong dislike of Brad and the characters he does I felt he deserved to get this since his protral of Rock from Black Lagoon was the first role of his I've actually enjoyed listening too.

Best Opener
"Red Fraction" by MELL

With several great opening themes this year none could match the energy provided by the opening to Black Lagoon. Not only was the song itself one of the best but the visuals with it definatly set the tone for the series.

Best Closer
Hare Hare Yukai by Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto

Surprisingly this was a rather easy choice since there were not that many good closings released this year. It goes without saying that not only is the song catchy but the detailed animation during the closer is something that is very rarely seen in a closing.

Best Scene
ENOZ Performace

Few scenes during an anime have actually pushed the level of detail as far as the performance by and Haruhi and ENOZ during the concert scene. Hell even the english performance by Wendee Lee is great.

Well these are my picks from this year. Feel free to disagree with me or provide your own ides of what should have gotten the award instead of what I picked.

[Crimson_Hero]

The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya: I agree with everything you just said about it.
I'd also like to add that the dub was solid and enjoyable. "What is a glasses fetish?" was the greatest line I've heard all year, and I'm glad I didn't have to read it off some fansubs.
Plus, I have to give props to Wendee Lee for her awesome performance, especially with the ENOZ gig. She has heart.

I'd liketo note how the show goes above and beyond the call of duty in terms of fan-service.

[Otaking]

Yeah I really wanted to give Wednee Lee best female performance since Haruhi was I'm sure a very difficult order to fill. Seeing has as she done many great roles in the past but Maryke was an unknown when she did Revy I decided to give it to her.