Top Ten Anime of 2011

An assignment I did for class :)

1. Mawaru Penguindrum
This anime’s use of themes and symbolism combined with it’s masterful art and style rockets it into the number one slot not only for 2011, but of all time. In fact, the style itself makes it seem simple on the surface just from color schemes and background designs but under that simplicity there's dark concepts and symbolism that you really need to think through to understand fully.

2. Steins; Gate
Steins Gate portrays time travel and its consequences/effects in a convincingly entertaining way, without being too confusing with parallel world lines. It has the perfect blend of sci-fi, thriller, drama, romance, and even manages to throw in lots of laughs along the way. The characters are developed well, with each of them getting backstory that adds depth to the overall plot.

3. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
In anime, it is very common to have little girls in cute costumes fighting against evil using magic, however, this one is a little different. Puella Madoka is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre, but it doesn't reveal itself as such at first glance. The show's specialty is its ability to elicit emotion from it’s viewers with its dark themes and plot twists, all while looking cute and lovable.
4. Tiger & Bunny
Most anime follow very strict cliches that can either make, or break them, the charm of Tiger & Bunny is that it doesn’t follow a single one. The main character is “old” (at least by anime standards), it’s set in a pseudo future America, and it’s about superheros (Okay, the last one is still cliche, but they usually don’t have capes)m all while keeping a connection to it’s target audience of Japanese teenagers.

5. Dantalian no Shouka (The Mystic Archives of Dantalian)

This show is the whole package, with stunning art and story to match, it blew me away. I really didn’t think they could wrap up such an amazing story in only an episode, having not exactly established a plot, but they did, and it left me craving for more.

6. Nichijou (My Ordinary Life)
This show embodies hilarity. Usually comedy anime isn’t funny to western audiences because of the abuse of puns the authors usually employ. Luckly, this anime uses themes everyone can laugh at.

7. Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day)

A heart-warming tale of five friends coping with the death of their childhood friend after 10 years. Each of them deals with it differently, having never really gotten over it. This anime made me cry, a lot.

8. Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai (The World God Only Knows)
This is also one of those anime that breaks cliches, being that an anime like this would usually either become perverted (like A LOT of anime) or too serious. It manages to do neither and still hold your interest, while the nerdy, jerk of a main character gains your love and respect just by how awesome he is.

9. Yumekui Merry (Dream-eater Merry)
This show is probably the generic kind of plot someone thinks of when they think about comic books and the like, but it’s the best of them. The character designs were personally my favorite part, who wouldn’t want to run around with those awesome tail-things flowing behind them?

10. Guilty Crown
Considering that this anime is only halfway through we still don’t know for sure, but so far the story’s plot still hasn’t solidified, which is why it sits neatly at the bottom of the list. In fact the, sole reason it even made it to the list was it’s incredible art and music, made by the extremely popular Redjuice (artist) and Ryo (composer), made famous through their work posted on the internet.