Best Anime of 2010: Tournament-style

[blkmage]

What is the best anime of 2010?

That is a question we'll be asking ourselves in a few weeks time as the year draws to an end. There are many metrics and measures of quality we can look at, but in the end, nothing can beat a good old popularity contest. And how do we do that? By setting up a single-elimination tournament, of course!

I will be asking for nominations for anime. There is no restriction in how many you can nominate. In fact, I encourage you to nominate as many as you can (maybe even ones you don't like so you can watch them lose). But what qualifies an anime of 2010? Very simple. In order to qualify, the anime must have aired (if it's a TV series) or had a first DVD/BD release (if it's an OVA or theatrical feature) in Japan between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2010 inclusive.

Here are some examples:
Kimi ni Todoke qualifies even though it aired in Fall 2009 because it finished airing in March 2010.
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn qualifies even though it's not finished because it had at least one DVD release in 2010.
Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto qualifies even though it finishes airing in 2011 because it began airing in 2010.
Bakemonogatari hilariously qualifies because SHAFT is bad at planning and it aired some episodes in 2010.
Eden of the East does not qualify even though it got a North American release in 2010 because it aired in Japan in 2009.
Eden of the East Movie I: The King of Eden qualifies even though it was in theatres in Japan in September 2009 because it got a DVD release in March 2010.
K-ON! does not qualify because it aired in Spring 2009.
K-ON!! qualifies because it aired in Spring 2010.
Welcome to the Space Show does not qualify even though it was in Japanese theatres in 2010 because it does not have a DVD release in 2010.
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind does not qualify even though it got a Japanese Blu-ray release in 2010 because it did not first get released in 2010.
Doraemon qualifies because it's always airing.
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya qualifies even though the DVD hasn't been released yet because it will get a release in December 2010.

The final format and brackets haven't been decided yet; it'll be dependent on the number of nominations. However, the plan is to put up a poll for the match at 0000 EST with voting open until 2359 EST. In that thread, vote and fight verbally amongst yourselves to defend your favourite show.

In order to nominate an anime, simply mention it. Again, don't be too selective; this is just the nomination stage. And if there aren't enough nominations, then obviously, no one is interested and the deadline will pass and no one will notice.
Nominations are open until Saturday November 20 at 2359 EST

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Durarara!!
Bakemonogatari(even though I haven't actually seen any of the 2010 episodes yet, will remedy that this afternoon)
Star Driver:Kagayaki no Takuto

Does Summer Wars count? It takes place in 2010 :p. I don't know when it got it's DVD release, though.

EDIT:Also, I'm calling it now that Durarara!! wins.

EDIT2:I can't believe I forgot Brotherhood, which I'm also nominating.

[Lynna]

FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood It was finished in June 2010 so I assume it's valid

[Atria35]

Rainbow
House of Five Leaves
Tatami Galaxy
Bakuman
Jellyfish Princess
Summer Wars
Bungaku Shoujo
Tamayura
Durarara!!

[TheSubtleDoctor]

FMA Brotherhood*
Durarara!!*
Rainbow*
Giant Killing
Heroman
Tegami Bachi Reverse
Legend of Legendary Heroes
Sengoku Basara Ni
House of Five Leaves*


Bloody Curs**
Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector**
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works**

EDIT: *Added upon reading the following: [quote="blkmage"]2. Nominate shows that have already been nominated, because in the case of too many shows (ahahaha), the ones with more nominations will have priority]EDIT 2 ** Added for guffawz

[blkmage]

1. Nominate as many shows as possible, otherwise I will fill in the gaps with terrible, terrible anime that will make you regret not nominating more.
2. Nominate shows that have already been nominated, because in the case of too many shows (ahahaha), the ones with more nominations will have priority; the rest will be subject to the random number generator.
3. I'm thinking of including something like 64 titles. But that number is subject to change, depending on what we get.

[ChristianKitsune]

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
Princess Jellyfish
Rainbow

[MightiMidget]

Durarara!!
Legend of Legendary Heroes
Kuragehime
Star Driver
Shiki
Darker Than Black Gaiden OVA (added because forgot about it first time ops: )

[blkmage]

Oh right, mine (not the bad ones):

Durarara!!
Hidamari Sketch x STAR STAR STAR
Katanagatari
Ookiku Furikabutte: Summer Tournament chapter
K-ON!!
The Tatami Galaxy
Darker than BLACK Gaiden OVA
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto
Kuragehime
Black Rock Shooter
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
Summer Wars
Bungaku Shoujo
Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22: YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE

[TWWK]

Angel Beats!
OreImo
Fortune Arterial

[DangoDaikazoku]

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru

[Cadence]

Too bad most of what I actually watched in 2010 was (in my opinion) either utter crap (Angel Beats!), awfully average (Working!!), really obnoxious (Legend of the Legendary Heroes) or something I just couldn’t bring myself to finish (Durarara!!). But I guess there were a few things that I really liked, as well, so here are mine--or at least, the ones I actually think might deserve a nomination. If you really need more titles, blkmage, I suppose I could put in a word for everything I hated or was impartial toward, as well. :p

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Ookiku Furikabutte Natsu no Taikai Hen
House of Five Leaves
Yumeiro Patissiere (yes, I am completely serious)
Summer Wars (I watched this in 09, but the DVD was released it 2010...right?)
Eve no Jikan (the movie version)
K-ON!! (I didn't really want to put something that I haven't finished yet on here, but I think this one deserves it)

[Midori]

Oh, I see Blkmage got Black Rock Shooter, or I would have posted it.
The only other thing I can think of that hasn't been covered is
Sora no Woto

[Midori]

Oh, I see Blkmage got Black Rock Shooter, or I would have posted it.
The only other thing I can think of that hasn't been covered is
Sora no Woto

[Falx]

Sora no Woto
FMA: Brotherhood
Durarara!!
EVA 2.0
Summer Wars
Kimi no Todoke
K-On!!
Eve no Jikan (movie)
Black Rock Shooter (only barely)
Bakemonogatari
Edit: If someone already nominated something, do it again as multiple nominations get favoured!

[TWWK]

Too bad most of what I actually watched in 2010 was (in my opinion)...awfully average (Working!!)...

That's for the voters to decide (I loved Working!!). And so, next submission...

Working!!

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

So if we're supposed to nominate everything I'll add Tegami Bachi:Not Reverse and Heroman. Also, if since Summer Wars did have a 2010 DVD release, I'm putting it forward in case it didn't get counted before or something.

[Fish and Chips]

This thread has made me realize just how little *NEW* Anime I actually bothered to watch this year.

Durarara!!
The Tatami Galaxy
Shiki

Yep.

I could include Bakemonogatari, but really, it's a 2009 series in my mind.

[TWWK]

Redline

[blkmage]

Just a heads up that I'll be closing nominations one hour early because I forgot to take into account the time I'd need to put things together.

Nominations are open until Saturday November 20 at 2300 EST

[MasterDias]

FMA: Brotherhood
Cross Game
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
Durarara!!
Sora no Woto
Occult Academy
Shiki
The Legend of the Legendary Heroes
Tegami Bachi: Reverse
Bakuman
Otome Youkai Zakuro
Break Blade
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
Macross Frontier: The False Diva
Summer Wars

Is this really going to work though? I mean...I think it's pretty obvious that either FMA: Brotherhood or Durarara!! will win at a straight popularity contest here...and I'm not sure it would really work well to pit movies and OVAs against TV series.

Also, I'm really tempted to nominate Doraemon for the lulz.

[blkmage]

Nominations are now closed.

Check back shortly for details and brackets.

[blkmage]

So here are your participants:

Yep, we had a total of 45 nominated titles. Unfortunately, 45 is not a power of two, so that means that 13 titles that only had one nomination got the axe. Here's the result of my tallying and Python's random.shuffle():

8 Durarara!!
7 FMA: Brotherhood
6 Summer Wars
4 Kuragehime
3 K-ON!!
3 The Tatami Galaxy
3 Tegami Bachi
3 Shiki
3 Rainbow
3 Legend of Legendary Heroes
3 Star Driver
3 So Ra No Wo To
3 House of Five Leaves
3 Black Rock Shooter
2 Bungaku Shoujo
2 Bakuman
2 Eve no Jikan
2 Darker than BLACK Gaiden OVA
2 Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
2 Ookiku Furikabutte: Summer Tournament chapter
2 Heroman
2 Bakemonogatari
2 Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22
1 Tamayura
1 Otome Youkai Zakuro
1 Break Blade
1 Yumeiro Patissiere
1 Angel Beats!
1 Working!!
1 Katanagatari
1 Cross Game
1 Kimi ni Todoke
--- EVERYTHING BELOW HERE DIDN'T MAKE IT ---
1 SRW OG: The Inspector
1 Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu
1 The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
1 Macross Frontier: The False Diva
1 Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai
1 Sengoku Basara Ni
1 Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
1 Fate/stay Night: UBW
1 Togainu no Chi
1 Giant Killing
1 Fortune Arterial
1 Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru
1 Occult Academy

Voting
Slight change of plans from what I described. First of all, voting will be done for each match from some time around 0000 EST when the match goes up until 2300 EST of the same day, so that's 23 hours that you have to vote for each match.

Voting will take place in this thread. I didn't feel like mucking up the boards with poll threads, so we'll keep it in here. How? With each match, there'll be a code for you to copy and paste into your post. If you do not have this code exactly, your vote does not count, since it'll be what I'll be searching for (not by hand, of course).

For instance, the code for Sengoku Basara Ni will look something like this: <38::SenBa2>

Your post can have other stuff in it like about how great and awesome Sengoku Basara is. As long as you have one (obviously one person, one vote) post with that code in between the correct voting time period, that'll be your vote. For example, this post would be considered a Sengoku Basara Ni vote. Feel free to talk about the merits of and convince other people to vote for your favoured anime.

Hopefully, that's not too complicated and if it ends up blowing up, then it might change.

Matchups
As mentioned before, the tournament will be single-elimination. In the case of a tie, we'll let random chance decide with a good old method from Python's random module. Speaking of random, as MasterDias has pointed out, the outcome of this little contest seems like it might be a foregone conclusion. So, in the name of spicing things up, the first round matchups were determined by random seed. And here they are:

22 November: K-ON!! vs. So Ra No Wo To
23 November: FMA: Brotherhood vs. House of Five Leaves
24 November: Break Blade vs. Summer Wars
25 November: Katanagatari vs. RAINBOW
26 November: Black Rock Shooter vs. Legend of Legendary Heroes
27 November: Yumeiro Patissiere vs. Cross Game
28 November: Angel Beats! vs. Ookiku Furikabutte: Summer Tournament chapter
29 November: Tegami Bachi vs. Mobile Suit Gundam UC
30 November: Otome Youkai Zakuro vs. Time of Eve
1 December: Darker than BLACK Gaiden OVA vs. HEROMAN
2 December: The Tatami Galaxy vs. Bakemonogatari
3 December: Bakuman vs. Tamayura
4 December: DRRR!! vs. Kimi ni Todoke
5 December: Working!! vs. Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22
6 December: Kuragehime vs. Shiki
7 December: Star Driver vs. Bungaku Shoujo

Voting for the first match begins in approximately twenty-four (24) hours. Feel free to express your feelings about the matchups in the meantime.

[Midori]

22 November: K-ON!! vs. So Ra No Wo To

I will be decked out in full battle gear. Only one moeblob show can be on top, and even if defeat is imminent I shall make my stand bravely!

[TheSubtleDoctor]

I apologize to you, Cross Game. I forgot that you, in fact, did run in 2010 (considering my avatar, I feel a bit silly). Thank your loyal follower, MasterDias, for remembering.

Votes shall come forth!

[Cadence]

Thoughts going through my head as I read this.

22 November: K-ON!! vs. So Ra No Wo To

Oh, crap.

23 November: FMA: Brotherhood vs. House of Five Leaves

Double crap.

27 November: Yumeiro Patissiere vs. Cross Game

Triple crap. I came in here prepared with a sales pitch for YumePati, too. Too bad. I somehow thought that Cross Game had finished its run in 2009.

28 November: Angel Beats! vs. Ookiku Furikabutte: Summer Tournament chapter

Haha.

And, yeah, I can only see the winner of this popularity tournament being one of maybe two titles here...ah, well, it will be fun anyway. You never know...CAA might surprise me.

[MasterDias]

I apologize to you, Cross Game. I forgot that you, in fact, did run in 2010 (considering my avatar, I feel a bit silly). Thank your loyal follower, MasterDias, for remembering.

Votes shall come forth!

Yeah, I was sort of wondering why no one else nominated it, as I knew there were a few other fans here.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

So wait, this is a stupid question, but can you vote for shows you haven't seen?

[blkmage]

Of course.

[CrystalChalice]

So here are your participants:
4 December: DRRR!! vs. Kimi ni Todoke

Oh man. I guess that means I better get prepared.