Anime Apocalypse Anticlimax: 2012 - A year in review - Sword Art Online Saved Anime!

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

So, tomorrow marks the end of the year 2012. Anime did not end even though it was supposed to! Yay! Sword Art Online was so amazing everyone decided that we should keep watching it after all.

In reality, several interesting things happened this year, and a lot of good anime came out this year (same as every year). Some notable events for me this year include:

1) The return of Shinichiro Watanabe with Kids on the Slope! I know I am not the only one who was really excited to see him back in action and surprisingly, in spite of eh disc sales for Slope Kids he'll be back next year with Space Dandy, a sci-fi comedy from Bones. Interestingly enough, in spite of anyone who knows anything being able to tell you Cowboy Bebop wasn't popular in Japan, the BD set that was just released did 14k copies, a huge number and higher than many successful shows that came out this year.
2) Hosoda saves anime for real with Wolf Children of Rain and Snow, which did extraordinarily well at the box office and since everyone seemed to love it, will do extraordinarily well on DVD/BD sales.
3) We begin to see the fruits of Aniplex throwing everything they have into Urobuchi with the currently-airing Psycho-Pass, which appears to not be doing so well on the sales side and is probably a pretty big disappointment for them. He has another show coming up in Spring that looks to be about the polar opposite of Psycho-Pass in addition to a movie from the 2003 FMA's Mizushima where we'll see if Madoka and F/Z will be his only hits.
4) Interestingly enough, as mentioned here we're now seeing some interesting results from the Anime no Chikara project that happened way back in 2010. I think it's really interesting that even though all the AnC projects flopped they paved the way for a lot of the original titles that are now coming out, though admittedly we'll see now if the financial failures of a couple of the Aniplex original titles this year (tsuritama and Psycho-Pass come to mind) will mean an end to the brief springtime from Madoka, Ano Hana, and Guilty Crown.
5) Kick-Heart got funded, so this is cool if you're a Yuasa fan or really like Kickstarter.

Well, my memory is apparently bad and I can only think of these four as big deals, so post whichever news events you think are important too!

So, for good/notable shows this season I think we did alright. Hyouka was fantastic and wonderful and lovely in all the right ways and will remain a favorite from now-on. tsuritama was very close to my heart and I am pretty excited to have it in my hot sweaty hands when Sentai puts it out. Kids on the Slope and Chihayafuru were touching and great dramas, and we got the Itano-circus half of Fate/Zero. Magi has been really fun and I've been enjoying Tempest even if some people are down on it. I think I can speak for everyone about how surprisingly good Bodacious Space Pirates ended up, and Ano Natsu de Matteru had good yelling drama. Humanity Has Declined and Shin Sekai Yori are both there if you like things that are weird, albeit in opposite ways, and I liked both of them quite a bit. SAO was pretty dumb but it had SWORDS to the background of Yuki Kajiura music so who am I to complain?

So, how was 2012 for the rest of you all? What are you predicting/anticipating in the next year?

[Neane]

Okay, my honest heart-opinion.

Overall, it was a very awful year. The whole year was so dead for me; not a single show beyond "watchable" status. This is by far the worst year in quality since 2000. The best TV anime series so far were From the New World and JoJo and they aren't finished yet. Everything else I don't care about.

[Zeldafan2]

I mostly enjoyed this year in anime, my favorite easily being Hyouka of the ones released this year.

For next year, I might not spend much timing watching the really new shows, but I'm anticipating one or two more really good productions from Kyoani.

[A_Yellow_Dress]

Between finishing high school and a BUSY summer job, I missed a huge chunk of this anime year. The little that I have seen I have enjoyed but, in comparison to last year, I have had fewer 'favorites' (*cough* Madoka, Penguindrum, AnoHana *cough*). Tsuritama is easily my favorite thing to come out this year, and I felt the fall season had a lot to offer this year (noted that this is the first time I have watched as many shows as I have this past season and I am behind on a couple shows). So, while I believe that this year was pretty good, I haven't seen nearly as many shows as I would have liked to.

Also, with the death of Bandai, I am really not sure how to interpret the skyrocketing number of new fans and the state of the anime industry.

[blkmage]

BEST ANIME: Hyouka
WORST ANIME: Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse
BEST CURE: Kise Yayoi/Cure Peace (Smile Precure!)
BEST ANIME OF 2013: Wolf Children
BEST HASHTAG: Tie between Kokoro Connect (#kokoroco) and Sukitte Ii na yo (#suki1178)
BEST MIYANO MAMORU: Wooser no Sono Higurashi
BEST OLD SHOW THAT I WATCHED THIS YEAR: Turn A Gundam
BEST VISUAL NOVEL: Rewrite
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME IN HISTORY: Katawa Shoujo
"BEST" VISUAL NOVEL: Hatoful Boyfriend
MOST BOOKMARKED TAG ON PIXIV: Sword Art Online
BEST PENGUIN ANIME: Minori Scramble
BEST NEW MANGA: Assassination Classroom
BEST ANIME I BOUGHT: Bakemonogatari BD Box
BEST MAAYA SAKAMOTO: Oshino Shinobu (Nisemonogatari)
BEST MIYUKI SAWASHIRO: Inaban (Kokoro Connect)
BEST TOMATOES: Asuna (SAO)
BEST CHIWA SAITO: Kanbe Kotori (Rewrite)
BEST BD COMMERCIALS: Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse
BEST POWER: Matsumi Yuu, attracting warm tiles (Saki: Episode of Side A)
BEST GAME OF MAHJONG: 74900 (+85)
BEST HAND IN MAHJONG THAT I ALMOST COMPLETED: haku + east round and seat + toitoi + honitsu + 5 dora = 12 fan

[FllMtl Novelist]

Hooray for Hosada~ \o.o/

I'm still kind of a newbie to this whole anime thing, but 2012 was a pretty good year for me. Chihayafuru further wormed its way into my icy heart, and then Natsuyuki Rendezvous made sure I understood that josei =/= good. Tsuritama and Slope Kids were excellent things to spend my library time on. I didn't love Brodacious Space Pirates, but it wasn't a bad way to spend my time either. Hyouka was a delight every week it aired and has continued to be every time I've rererewatched parts of it. (>.>) The fall season brought my dear Monster-kun, which is the first show I've seen since Princess Jellyfish where half the cast is me.

For 2013 I'm absolutely looking forward to moar Chihayafuru the most, followed by the Shingeki anime. (Or the manga-faithful parts of it, anyway?) Also super excited to see some of 2012's movies that aren't ~available~ yet.

[Neane]

I would give the "most underrated anime of 2012" award to the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 OVA. It's a pretty old remake of the Classic.

As far as movies go, the only 2012 anime movies I saw were the Madoka movies when I saw them in Seattle. They were rather good IMO and I really liked how they did Sayaka as a character, she was a my second favorite girl from Madoka after Kyoko, but she rose to being my favorite character from that series after I saw the movies.

[goldenspines]

BEST HASHTAG: Tie between Kokoro Connect (#kokoroco) and Sukitte Ii na yo (#suki1178)

#nichibros also. It was short-lived, but I still liked it.

BEST MIYANO MAMORU: Wooser no Sono Higurashi

Yes.


Overall, it wasn't a mind=blowing year for anime, but it had its shining moments, like Hyouka, Tsuritama, Kokoro Connect, and definitely Jinrui wa Suita Shimashita (Humanity has Declined) and many other things. =D
(there was also Joshiraku, but I doubt anyone actually watched that one. Maybe blkmage, though.)

Also, I apparently need to see Wolf Children if possible; I will get on that.


I have no predictions for next year besides hoping that Jojo will continue because it's pretty great and I don't want to cry over it being cancelled.

[blkmage]

I was only considering official hashtags :3c
Still, can't beat hilarious Japanese 4-moraic abbreviations and number puns