Anime 2011 – My Favourites

WOOO. This has been a long time coming. Today, I tell ya’ll my favourite Anime of 2011 — which by far has proven to be the best year (in my opinion) in terms of quality and entertaining Anime. Please note, however, this list contains Anime that I personally enjoyed. They will not be numbered because I think they’re all number one in my books – enjoy x.

Anime: Anohana
Season: Spring 2011
Genre: Slice of Life, Supernatural, Drama

As many of you guys already know, I LOVE Anohana. To me personally, I think this is the best Anime of 2011. It had everything I really want in an Anime, friendship, drama, beautiful storyline, amazing art, great characters, a beautiful soundtrack; and most importantly, it has the feels. Anohana is that one Anime I love, but cannot watch because it hurts my heart everytime I get to the end of the Anime.

MyAnimeList Synopsis
Jinta Yadomi is peacefully living as a recluse, spending his days away from school and playing video games at home instead. One hot summer day, his childhood friend, Meiko “Menma” Honma, appears and pesters him to grant a forgotten wish. He pays her no mind, which annoys her, but he doesn’t really care. After all, Menma already died years ago.

At first, Jinta thinks that he is merely hallucinating due to the summer heat, but he is later on convinced that what he sees truly is the ghost of Menma. Jinta and his group of childhood friends grew apart after her untimely death, but they are drawn together once more as they try to lay Menma’s spirit to rest. Re-living their pain and guilt, will they be able to find the strength to help not only Menma move on—but themselves as well?

Anime: Steins;Gate
Season: Spring 2011
Genre: Thriller, Sci-Fi

Steins;Gate is a masterpiece of an Anime. This Anime is considered to be one of the best Anime ever to be aired, obviously, that’ll depend on who you ask. For me personally, the one thing that made this Anime stand out above all Anime was the storyline, I think it is unmatched and is something no Anime can top. I believe that to be true, even till this day.

MyAnimeList Synopsis
The self-proclaimed mad scientist Rintarou Okabe rents out a room in a rickety old building in Akihabara, where he indulges himself in his hobby of inventing prospective “future gadgets” with fellow lab members: Mayuri Shiina, his air-headed childhood friend, and Hashida Itaru, a perverted hacker nicknamed “Daru.” The three pass the time by tinkering with their most promising contraption yet, a machine dubbed the “Phone Microwave,” which performs the strange function of morphing bananas into piles of green gel.

Though miraculous in itself, the phenomenon doesn’t provide anything concrete in Okabe’s search for a scientific breakthrough; that is, until the lab members are spurred into action by a string of mysterious happenings before stumbling upon an unexpected success—the Phone Microwave can send emails to the past, altering the flow of history.

Adapted from the critically acclaimed visual novel by 5pb. and Nitroplus, Steins;Gate takes Okabe through the depths of scientific theory and practicality. Forced across the diverging threads of past and present, Okabe must shoulder the burdens that come with holding the key to the realm of time.

Anime: Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica
Season: Winter 2011
Genres: Psychological, Drama, Magic, Thriller

Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, an Anime which I consider to be one of the best magic based Anime that has aired. I believe that Madoka set the standard for how magic Anime should be, both story-wise and execution. How it executed its story, and its various action scenes are unparalleled to any other magic Anime; that is for certain.

MyAnimeList Synopsis
Madoka Kaname and Sayaka Miki are regular middle school girls with regular lives, but all that changes when they encounter Kyuubey, a cat-like magical familiar, and Homura Akemi, the new transfer student.

Kyuubey offers them a proposition: he will grant any one of their wishes and in exchange, they will each become a magical girl, gaining enough power to fulfill their dreams. However, Homura Akemi, a magical girl herself, urges them not to accept the offer, stating that everything is not what it seems.

A story of hope, despair, and friendship, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica deals with the difficulties of being a magical girl and the price one has to pay to make a dream come true.

Anime: Hourou Musuko
Season: Winter 2011
Genre: Drama, Romance, School, Seinen, Slice of Life

I love this Anime. I love it a lot. What really pulled me into Hourou Musuko was the main characters. The fact that this story is about the LGBT and the realities they face and hardships they have to face to be not only be accepted by the friends and family but also by society — really speaks to what is happening today.

MyAnimeList Synopsis
Effeminate fifth grader Shuuichi Nitori is considered by most to be one of the prettiest girls in school, but much to her dismay, she is actually biologically male. Fortunately, Shuuichi has a childhood friend who has similar feelings of discomfort related to gender identity: the lanky tomboy Yoshino Takatsuki, who, though biologically female, does not identify as a girl. These two friends share a similar secret and find solace in one another; however, their lives become even more complicated when they must tread the unfamiliar waters of a new school, attempt to make new friends, and struggle to maintain old ones. Faced with nearly insurmountable odds, they must learn to deal with the harsh realities of growing up, transexuality, relationships, and acceptance.

Lauded as a decidedly serious take on gender identity and LGBT struggles, Takako Shimura’s Hourou Musuko is about Shuuichi and Yoshino’s attempts to discover their true selves as they enter puberty, make friends, fall in love, and face some very real and difficult choices.

Anime: Fate/Zero
Season: Fall 2011
Genre: Action, Supernatural, Magic, Fantasy

Here’s another Anime which I think is one of the best Anime to aired during 2011, Fate/Zero. Obviously, the following seasons, especially Season 2 beat the first season; but for the purposes of this list today, Fate/Zero comes in as one of the best-animated Animes of 2011 — 150%.

MyAnimeList Synopsis
With the promise of granting any wish, the omnipotent Holy Grail triggered three wars in the past, each too cruel and fierce to leave a victor. In spite of that, the wealthy Einzbern family is confident that the Fourth Holy Grail War will be different; namely, with a vessel of the Holy Grail now in their grasp. Solely for this reason, the much hated “Magus Killer” Kiritsugu Emiya is hired by the Einzberns, with marriage to their only daughter Irisviel as binding contract.

Kiritsugu now stands at the center of a cutthroat game of survival, facing off against six other participants, each armed with an ancient familiar, and fueled by unique desires and ideals. Accompanied by his own familiar, Saber, the notorious mercenary soon finds his greatest opponent in Kirei Kotomine, a priest who seeks salvation from the emptiness within himself in pursuit of Kiritsugu.

Based on the light novel written by Gen Urobuchi, Fate/Zero depicts the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War—10 years prior to Fate/stay night. Witness a battle royale in which no one is guaranteed to survive.

Anime: Mirai Nikki
Season: Fall 2011
Genre: Action, Mystery, Psychological, Shounen, Supernatural, Thriller

I loved Mirai Nikki so much that even read the manga and it made me love this Anime even more. The story of this Anime is so interesting and so entertaining it does extremely well at making you want more and leaves you on the edge of your seat each episode. I don’t typically watch thriller Anime, as it isn’t my cup of tea, but Mirai Nikki is one thriller I’ll watch over and over again.

MyAnimeList Synopsis
Lonely high school student, Yukiteru Amano, spends his days writing a diary on his cellphone, while conversing with his two seemingly imaginary friends Deus Ex Machina, who is the god of time and space, and Murmur, the god’s servant. Revealing himself to be an actual entity, Deus grants Yukiteru a “Random Diary,” which shows highly descriptive entries based on the future and forces him into a bloody battle royale with 11 other holders of similarly powerful future diaries.

With the last person standing designated as the new god of time and space, Yukiteru must find and kill the other 11 in order to survive. He reluctantly teams up with his obsessive stalker Yuno Gasai (who also possesses such a diary), and she takes it upon herself to ensure his safety. But there’s more to the girl than meets the eye, as she might have other plans for her unrequited love…