Cthulhu's Best & Worst of Anime and Manga 2008~!

[aka Cthulhu]

Hey, Cthulhu here, and I made my own Anime/Manga awards after reading Koda's. Since I'm a usually lazy person, I'll post each category in seperate posts to give me lots of time to relax. Well, in any case, let's start with the Best and Worst of Anime OPs.

:::Best OP:::

Kuusou Rumba, by Kenji Ootsuki -- Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

One of my favorite OPs overall. Awesome style of animation, and the intro to the song is very badass, followed by a pretty crazy and enjoyable song. Used the OP of the final episode since it's in color.

:::The Runner Ups:::

Satsugai, by Detroit Metal City -- Detroit Metal City

It's a Death Metal Anime OP! Most of the lyrics when translated are kill, murder, rape, and in some subtitles, f***. In a way it's a parody of Death Metal itself, with the lyrics and the animation of the concert. It's a great song to listen to if you want something really loud, though methinks you should lower the volume when sane people are nearby.

Mizonokuchi Taiyou Zoku, by Manzo -- Astro Fighter Sunred

Another song, another parody of a genre. Good animation, and the song is fun to listen to as well.

Discotheque, by Nana Mizuki -- Rosario + Vampire Capu2

What's with anime and dancing these days? Well, in any case the animation and singing here is done nicely.

Kuusou Rumba, by Kenji Ootsuki -- Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

What? It's the same song as Zoku's, but the animation -- even though it's the same, had several things added in to make things more weird, making it a bit more awesome.

:::Worst OP:::

Suppin Rock, by Mana Ogawa -- Hyakko

Average song, nothing special in it. That's pretty minor for it to be on my Worst OP list, but the fact is that almost all the animation in the opening were scenes from the first episode, and they don't change that until the last few episodes. It does not help at all when the animation quality is mostly poor.

:::Runner Up:::

Bury, by Pay money To my Pain -- One Outs

Does not fit the anime at all, plus it has several shots of topless Toua, which is not a pretty sight to see.

[aka Cthulhu]

:::Best Fight:::

Eyeshield 21 -- Deimon Devil Bats vs. Teikoku Alexanders

For a shonen manga that has a lot of "fight" scenes, Eyeshield 21 is almost always enjoyable even after 300-plus chapters. In any case, if I had to pick one among all of them, it would have to be the final battle of the Christmas Bowl, without a doubt. I mean, for one reason it's the fight between the fake Eyeshield 21 Sena Kobayakawa versus the real Eyeshield 21 Takeru Yamato. There is a certain feeling that Deimon is going to win in the end, but at the same time the excitement does not go away from the almost-30 chapters in which this match takes place.

:::Runner Up:::

Soul Eater -- Shinigami versus Kishin


It's a short fight, but it's the first time in the anime and manga where Shinigami fights, plus he's serious about it too. We get to see an epic voice change, an epic Shinigami Chop, and a few more against the Kishin who had very easily destroyed Black Star and Death the Kid. Did I already mention epic voice change?

:::Honorable Mention:::

Nanashi vs. Rarou, second fight -- Sword of the Stranger

Well, the movie was released September 2007 in Japan, making it invalid, but in America it was released in 2008, so that's close enough, I think. Well, the movie had a lot of great fight scenes that had awesome animation, but I'll just take it easy and say that the best one would have to be the final battle between the hero and villian. It's a one-on-one fight to the death full of fast-paced action -- what more do you need?

Can't find a video clip, but here's the first battle during the start of the movie -- the video quality is pretty bad, though.

:::Worst Fight:::

The Tennis Battle -- Kamen no Maid Guy

Hello, the picture above is a Rabbit. Seriously, this is one of the many moments in anime when fanservice ecchi is crappy. The only reason why it's here is that, like Eyeshield 21, is a sports battle. Lots of underwear and nudity and very little anything to save your brain from melting.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Not bad. If only Shinigami-Sama wasn't limited to the area around Shibusen. If he wasn't, Kishin wouldn't have been able to do shit. I mean the dude took out half of Shinigami-Sama's face it all it did was make him more mad.

[aka Cthulhu]

Well, it's time to continue this. At the very least I'll do one before I take my afternoon nap~

:::Best ED:::

Koiji Romanesque, by Zetsubou Shoujotachi -- Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei


ZSZS gets another win with its ED. Good vocals, but the shoujo-ish animation style compared to the more simple style of the anime just makes it more interesting, methinks.

:::Runner Up:::

Omamori, by Zetsubou Shoujotachi -- Zoku/Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

What, ZSZS again? Well, once again, the combination of the song and the much more detailed animation gives this a win.

:::Worst ED:::

It is a tie, no runner ups.

Musushi no Toki, by Haruka Tomatsu -- Kannagi

It's an okay song, I guess, kinda boring, but what makes this the worst for my list is the lack of ED. This is for worst ED, so the animation is a factor for this too -- in any case, the vid doesn't seem to move, but what you see is basically the whole thing: a tree in the distance, and stars. At the very least near the end you get to see drawings of the characters (mostly Nagi) from different artists.

Namida Namida Namida, by Aya Hirano -- Hyakko


Hm, as much as I like Aya Hirano as a singer and seiyu, plus the fact that I have a crush on her, the song is pretty meh to me, not to mention that the mood of the song doesn't fit the general mood of the series. Plus the animation, mostly sketches of the anime, feels pretty lazy for me. Like the OP, the ED animation of Hyakko changes in the final few episodes, but the animation isn't good enough to salvage it from this award.

Hell, Hyakko is an okay anime, but animation is pretty below average most of the time.

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Moving on; later will be the character-oriented awards~

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

And still, I doubt any of those listed in the "sorst" categories is worse than the black hole that is Musashi Gundoh:

fr.youtube.com/watch?v=xo7Cp3GsyxQ

The sad thing is that the guy who pooped this is the same one who made Lupin III.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

So...Cthulhu....got a lot on your hands or something buddy? It seems that you can't keep up with anything that requires dedicated attention.

[aka Cthulhu]

Jan 22, 2009 4:39:13 GMT -5 Koda, Master Crunchyroller said:

So...Cthulhu....got a lot on your hands or something buddy? It seems that you can't keep up with anything that requires dedicated attention.

lol, I did say that I'm a lazy bastard. In any case most of my time is spent writing and the several hours of the day is dedicated to napping.

[Sharpy Snow]

Jan 13, 2009 22:44:18 GMT -5 aka Cthulhu said:

:::Best Fight:::

Eyeshield 21 -- Deimon Devil Bats vs. Teikoku Alexanders

I came into this thread hoping to see some Eyeshield 21 stuff in the best sections

I was not disapointed ;D

[aka Cthulhu]

edit: Sorry, I decided to change this post a little. In any case, there's no need to fear about my posting speed, as I promise that this award will end by the end of the month.