Every week, the Fandom Post community suggests and votes on a new Top 5 list about something in anime, most often from the current season. It’s our way of highlighting something fun or interesting or strange—or even meaningful—about what’s airing now, or about anime in general.
Thanksgiving was a couple weeks ago, in the United States, the singular American holiday where we are—in theory—supposed to look back on the year and give thanks for what we have, or have been through. Instead we practice conspicuous consumption more than usual. It’s the more sincere American emotion, anyway. Speaking of sometimes conspicuous consumers: anime fans. While we missed the holiday, we’re still in end-of-year times, and if we couldn’t remember to give thanks for everything else, we can at least do it for anime. At least we hope so.
Our cabal of list deciders had, as one might expect, a variety of things in anime-land to be thankful for in 2015. Shows that aired, shows that were licensed or released on physical media, certain company practices, even principles that make us pleased with how anime is being released or produced these days. Following are five relatively different things that managed to make the cut.
Please join us in giving thanks for:
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#5: Discotek’s Robot Carnival Release
Robot Carnival had last been released in North America in 1993 (on VHS and Laserdisc!), which means for a certain generation of anime fans it’s a defining title in their expectation and understanding of anime, lesser known but akin at the time to Akira or My Neighbor Totoro. And for latter generations, it was often only legend or curious artifact. The nine-part anthology, produced in 1987, is steeped in the sci-fi vision and style of 1980’s anime, and features a powerful group of still young animators who helped define that decade and would continue to shape the anime industry for decades. Discotek, popular for their attention on classic properties like this, fulfilled dreams that those now (a little) older fans had been hoping for for at least 20 years, as many other titles from its day were released even multiple times in the intervening years. It took awhile, but Robot Carnival got its due.
#4: Right Stuf’s Magic User’s Club Re-License
The generation that followed those late-80s/early-90s anime fans came of age just before or around the turn of the millennium, when licensing exploded, DVD premiered, and the Internet heated up. Suddenly there were a lot more licensed titles to choose from and the combination of those factors led to pockets of fandom coalescing around one hidden gem or another. For AnimeonDVD.com, an ancestor to this site, there were several titles that spread among the local “club” but weren’t major hits by the standards of the larger world outside. in 2001, Princess Nine, from ADV, was one; Magic Users Club, the ecchi and later surreal magical girl/boy comedy, from Media Blasters, was another. (Both are notable because their dubs were in many ways the catalysts to their hype.) While it’s only been about 12 years since this was last released, as a collection, for several voters to the list who were around AoD then, this re-license by Nozomi was a nice throwback surprise to a headier time, to a show that also defined expectations: especially regarding magic girls, comedies, and what to expect from Junichi Satou and Ikuko Itoh in the years to come.
#3: Good English Dubs Still Being Made
Our thanks so far have been for things we were at least somewhat surprised to see. And English dubs that felt new in the sense of offering something a little different, but still well-executed—as we used to expect more regularly a decade ago—can be counted with that sentiment. The original formulation of this one gave thanks more to the individual fortune of still finding quality dubs on the titles one likes to begin with. The intersection, as the nomination put it, of good dubbing and personal taste. While the number of dubbed properties, and the variety of locales and people who dub them, is obviously much declined, there is still a decent range of choice for most individual tastes. Each company had one or two dubs in 2015 that received wide acclaim. Just as positive, and just as much thanks, dubs announced in 2015 to be released next year portend just as much good fortune to come.
#2: Shirobako
The only 2015 simulcast title in the top five, out of several put forward from all over the year, and it’s not for nothing. Shirobako, which saw its memorable and powerful second half air in the 2015 Winter season, about the eccentric employees and clients of the small Musashino Animation studio, feels to some who watched it like a signal title, something that defines (as we’ve alluded to with the earlier list sections) its era. In that same way, it also defines those who watched. While it doesn’t intersect with #3 on this list (there will sadly be no dub for its release by Sentai) it does offer a bounty to be thankful for nonetheless, even if we can’t know them all for every person who enjoyed the show: the enjoyment of a fun character-based story about five young women starting out, the intimate and humanizing and even challenging looks into the way anime is made and who makes it, the humor and friendly and welcoming touch director Tsutomu Mizushima and crew use to guide fans old and new into this world, the character drama and criticism of their world that they do not avoid. Simply, we’re thankful for experiencing this love letter to anime, and for receiving a copy ourselves.
#1: Sequels to Enjoyable Franchises
Last, and finally, we are thankful for the bounty. The return of the crop we sowed with our hopes and wild, unhinged expectations a year—or more—ago. This can be both a general, almost perennial, sentiment and one addressed to the specific sequels the anime gods bestowed upon our multitudinous streaming platforms in 2015. Non Non Biyori, Yuruyuri, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Utawarerumono, iDOLM@STER, Wagnaria/Working, Durarara, a new Mobile Suit Gundam series, more in the Monogatari Series, more Fate/etc., somewhere in the Haruhi-verse, K, Aria the Scarlet Ammo, Fafner, Miss Monochrome, I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying, High School DxD, Kin-iro Mosaic, Attack on Titan (if back in Junior High), and Gatchaman Crowds are among (or at least most) of the sequels that aired or are airing this year. (If that seems like a lot, keep in mind there were dozens more brand new properties.) Add in, for the heck of it, remakes or reboots like Yatterman Night, Ushio & Tora, and Mr. Osomatsu, and there’s a lot for the fan-who’s-stuck-around-for-a-few-years to rediscover, relive, and, of course, enjoy all over again.
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Now for something a little different.
While our little group voted for the above five from a list of twenty-two, it’s worthwhile, just this once, to include the remaining seventeen items. Because they aren’t simply wants or needs, they’re what we’re glad to have received this year, most of which we did not know we wanted or needed at all. Many things, in fact, we were simply fortunate to have. Some are things we do not know if we will ever see the likes of again.
And it’s always a good idea to thank someone or something for that.
In alphabetical order, 17 more things We’re Thankful For in 2015:
- Aria on BD (JP/10th Anniversary)
- Crunchyroll’s Manga Expansion
- Death Parade
- Discotek’s Castle of Cagliostro BD Release
- Food Wars
- Increase in Affordable Premium Editions
- Maiden Japan’s Patlabor Movie 1-3 BDs
- Miyu Matsuki’s Last Performances
- Monster Musume
- The Muv-Luv Kickstarter
- Neon Genesis Evangelion on BD
- NISA’s Licensing and Releases
- Non Non Biyori Repeat
- Overall Striving for Quality by Licensing Companies
- Right Stuf Introduces Blu-ray
- Sentai’s Licensing and Releases
- Wakaba*Girl
Many thanks, all of you who help to make anime, wherever you are, from all of us here at The Fandom Post.
And that’s What We’re Thankful For, this year. (If you have some of your own that aren’t mentioned above, please add them in the comments.) Join us next week for the Top 5 Best OP/ED Combos of the Year. To have a say in what makes it on that list, and the next list after that, check out the forum thread, read up on the rules, and join the Fandom Post Anime List Project today!
