Once more, with feeling: Finding the Best Anime of 2012

[Okami]

I'm in the same boat as Closet Otaku. I tried Hyouka because of its great praise here, and found I just couldn't get into it.

Again my vote rests with Wolf Children.

[blkmage]

[goldenspines]

I've been trawling blkmage's tumblr for a good Hyouka vote reason and I had to go three whole pages in to find anything Hyouka related. And you call yourself a fan... Anyway, my vote is for Hyouka because this thread made me want to go watch it again.

Nooooo, just when he stopped spamming his tumblr with Oreki gifs too! ;.;



This is indeed a hard choice between these two, though. One has to applaud both of these series for making it to the final despite not being licensed (except Wolf Children was recently, but not released yet).

I've already given my reasons on why Wolf Children was an excellent movie that you should all watch. And after quite a bit of thought, HYOUKA seems to outweigh its cons with pros.

But why Hyouka? What does this KyoAni series have that is so special?

I could rattle off all its great story telling and it's lovable and wonderful characters, but what pushes this over the edge into great anime for me personally is MYSTERY. Oh, you laugh, but mystery is a hard genre to do without being cheesy, horror or some sort of ghost story. Hyouka is not any of these, it's classy. While I could have wished for a more film noir feel, the Agatha Christi and Sherlock Holmes references were enough to keep me intrigued and guessing at every turn.
Many may have feared that Hyouka was going to turn into a one mystery per episode series from the way it started out, this was soon shattered as the story grew and developed along with its four main characters. There were laughable moments and jaw dropping moments and even very sad and very happy moments.

So yeah, I do have a pretty big bias because I'm a major Sherlockian and mystery fan in general, but Hyouka is a lovable story where four characters in the Classics club learn to solve their own mysteries in their lives.

So er, in case you didn't get it. I vote for HYOUKA.

[GeneD]

I've been trawling blkmage's tumblr for a good Hyouka vote reason and I had to go three whole pages in to find anything Hyouka related. And you call yourself a fan... Anyway, my vote is for Hyouka because this thread made me want to go watch it again.

Nooooo, just when he stopped spamming his tumblr with Oreki gifs too! ;.;

It's okay he fixed it.

If there had been some sort of global, hidden, nascent mystery -- the Walls of Haibane Renmei, the recovery of the mother in Fullmetal Alchemist, the dual worlds of RahXephon -- I might be intrigued. Instead, I feel like I'm being treated to a slightly more slice-of-life version of "Case Closed", and I'm welcome to leave any time I like.

I'm interested in what kind of overarching mystery you'd want to see. For the examples you mentioned (I don't know about RahXephon, haven't seen it), the stories are very much set in the extra-ordinary and the overarching mysteries are big players in the plot while also driving character development. Like Goldy and others have mentioned, Hyouka's mysteries are small, everyday and yes, very slice-of-life, but it fits the series' themes and feel very well. Sure Haibane Renmei is rather slice-of-life too, but I'd argue that the setting immediately makes that element much less important. I guess I'm just trying to say that I don't think the point of Hyouka's mysteries can be easily compared to something with strong plot elements. And if that's something that causes someone to not be able to get into the series then that's fine and just how it is. There's a lot of things I couldn't get into despite glowing recommendations here.




P.S. You guys don't know how tempted I was (and still am a little bit) to vote against Hyouka out of spite for it beating Tsuritama, but that wouldn't be fair to either series. Also Jimmy Wales compels me.

[ClosetOtaku]

If there had been some sort of global, hidden, nascent mystery -- the Walls of Haibane Renmei, the recovery of the mother in Fullmetal Alchemist, the dual worlds of RahXephon -- I might be intrigued. Instead, I feel like I'm being treated to a slightly more slice-of-life version of "Case Closed", and I'm welcome to leave any time I like.

I'm interested in what kind of overarching mystery you'd want to see.

I thought, perhaps, the mystery of Chitanda's uncle might have continued to dwell in the background. Or (now that I've watched Ep 11) who 'Me' from the chat is. Remember, I haven't seen the whole series, so maybe they do tie those up nicely -- but you have to drop a hint now and then. Remember Chekov's Gun, and how it can be used in your favor when developing a plot.

A series of minor mysteries is fine -- but again, how is it much different than 'Case Closed'? Even that wonky series has elements that made me curious (though never really brought me back after a couple episodes).

I suppose it is, like Star Trek, more of the issue of the ensemble cast that the strength of the show depends on. The second half is showing more promise, with actual character development and conflict emerging (about six episodes after it should have started), instead of everybody being 2-dimensional foils for Oreki's unintentional genius. If some of these issues had been introduced -- even momentarily -- earlier, I'd probably be on the Hyouka side of this discussion. But too much of it centered on Oreki and not enough of it on the others, and it is difficult to build the ensemble from that disparity.

[blkmage]

If you want to know who is あ・た・し♪ is, I suggest re-reading the chat logs.

They reveal that:
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: 1. It's someone older who's graduated already (senpai) because
2. They're on the other side of the world
3. And they also know that Oreki can pull off what Irisu is planning
4. Which implies that they knew Oreki before he entered high school

It's SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Oreki's sister.

I am enthusiastic about Hyouka.

[Maokun]

HYOUKA 7
WOLF CHILDREN 4

The people have spoken! We have a winner for the title of Best Anime of 2012!:

HYOUKA
TV, 22 episodes
Spring 2012 to Autumn 2012
Kyoto Animation
Defeated: Wolf Children, Tsuritama, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, Moyashimon Returns, Psycho-Pass, Evangelion 3.0, Persona 4: The Animation

Thanks everyone for participating! See you next year!

[ClosetOtaku]

Congrats to Hyouka!

I pulled an unusual anime marathon to finish it, and must admit Hyouka grew on me throughout the series. I would have preferred that some of the story line emerged earlier, but wouldn't mind seeing a second season. I think I would have still voted the same, but Hyouka is much closer to Wolf Children in my estimation than it was by Ep 10.

And, again, thanks to Maokun for running this as always. I'll try to catch more 2013 anime for the next time....

[ForeverInspired]

Man, that was a good year of anime. Thanks for running this! It was a great deal of fun, and it was so interesting to learn about new titles and other people's opinions. I can't wait for next year!

[Vii]

[GeneD]

@ClosetOtaku I'm glad Hyouka grew on you, and your posts actually made me remember that when I first watched Baccano, now one of my favourites, I couldn't for the life of me see what the fuss was about until episode 9, which is 3/4 through the series.

Thanks for hosting it Maokun and congrats Hyouka, I'm looking forward to my re-watch.

[blkmage]