Ten Years, Ten Animes

After listening to Anime World Order's decade in review (which took five hours and twenty minutes and spanned two months, which is why I love them) I'm trying to make a list of ten anime series (OVA or TV, not movies) from 2000-2009 that I would consider the must-see shows from that decade.  Not necessarily my favourites, not necessarily even the best, but the ones that, if you're only going to watch ten shows from that period, these are the ones.

My list of primary candidates so far:

Azumanga Daioh (in the cute girls doing cute things category)
Black Lagoon (in the power of cool category)
Brigadoon (in the where did that come from category)
Haibane Renmei (in the every reviewer made the same joke category)
Haruhi Suzumiya (in the let sleeping gods lie category)
Potemayo (in the weird is good category)
Princess Tutu (in the narrative causality Möbius strip category)
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (in the power of awesome category)

And alternates:

Full Moon wo Sagashite (in the shoujo squishies category)
Hajime no Ippo (in the mandatory category category)
Hand Maid May (in the robotics engineer recruitment campaign category)
Hidamari Sketch (in the cute girls doing cute things category)
Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu (in the weird is good and let sleeping gods lie categories)
Kamichu! (in both the cute girls and sleeping gods categories)
K-On! (in the cute girls and best internal soundtrack categories)
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (in the weird is good category)
Midori no Hibi (in the cute girls and weird is good categories)
Moyashimon (in the weird is good category)
Nanaka 6/17 (in the youthful-romance-and-head-injuries category)
Popotan (in the better than it has any right to be and also ferrets! category)
Rizelmine (best show with the worst legacy category)
Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar (in the cute cute being cute cute cute aargh poit category)
Zettai Karen Children (in the power of awesome and cute girls categories)

It's been a long weird decade, so naturally I'll have forgotten heaps of good stuff.  Input is welcome.

Update: Steven has his own take.

Update: Mitch chips in with a list as well.

Musings: If we eliminate anything over 26 episodes or so (I add the "or so" as a loophole for Gurren Lagann) that knocks out Hajime no Ippo - and pretty much every other sports anime - Zettai Karen Children (which I really like but am still watching) and Full Moon wo Sagashite. 

That leaves me to find another shoujo squishy series, and I can't think of many.  In fact, I can't think of any, off-hand.  Kimi ni Todoke would be a good choice, but I've already disqualified that because it ran well into 2010.  Hmm.

The other fun thing would be to work out which shows would be the runners-up - given these categories.  So Kimi ga Nozomu Eien would be a nominee for the best youthful-romance-and-head-injuries anime.  (And lose, obviously, because it's a horrible horrible show where Nanaka 6/17 is insightful and delightful.)  And the various flavours of Negima and Nanoha could be nominated for the best better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be-and-also-ferrets! anime.  (Though Popotan arguably best exemplifies that genre.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:17 AM | Comments (29) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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