Number Five – Minami-ke. First aired on 10/07/07.

Minami-ke was an enjoyable series and I had a good time watching it. The Ninomiya-kun television drama was especially funny and the video game was epic. Hosaka was introduced in episode four and he turned out to be hilarious. His line, “I sweat three liters today” along with his trademark smile made me laugh over and over again. Overall, in my opinion the character designs had been done fairly well and although the three sisters seemed a little cliche when it came to their personalities, the way in which they interacted with each other helped Minami-ke to separate itself from the crowd. A second season called Minami-ke ~Okawari~ produced by Starchild and staffed by the same people that made Shuffle! is airing this winter season.

Number Four – Lucky Star. First aired on 04/08/07.

I can remember back to the very first seconds of Lucky Star that I watched. I was completely and utterly blown away by the epicness of the OP. However, after the initial WOW I quickly became bored with Konata’s talk of her choco crown. Surprisingly, this anime was well below my expectations for something produced by KyoAni. It could have just been me, but most of my time was spent trying to keep my eyes open during the huge walls of dialog that appeared in every other episode. However, this anime did have its redeeming points. Some parts were actually funny, Konata’s “Gokigenyou. kyaran~” and Tsukasa’s various cell phone antics come to mind. The fight between Kagami and her older sister and the reveal of Kanata’s history were two scenes that stood out from the rest showed what KyoAni was truely capable of. KyoAni should stick to what its best at doing and leave these 4-koma type anime to studios like SHAFT who excel at the genre.

Number Three – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. First aired on 07/07/07.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was probably my favorite series from SHAFT. SZS was an unusual anime much like Pani Poni Dash! where nothing seems to make sense and like Pani Poni it was completely filled with references with everything from Lucky Star to Code Geass to Negima. The one thing that I especially enjoyed was the animation. Each episode was filled with eye candy and the overall quality of the animation was top notch. The musical score was also very well done and the OP/ED were very impressive. My favorite character of the series was a bandaged girl by the name of Abiru who has an infatuation with animal tails. The characters themselves were very unique and it was fun to see how all of the characters interacted with each other. A second season called Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei produced by SHAFT is airing this winter season.

Number Two – Seto no Hanayome. First aired on 04/01/07.

My opinion of Seto no Hanayome throughout the course of the season could have very much been described as a sin curve. The show had its ups and downs as most do. It started out very strongly then started to die until Luna was introduced. Then it started to die again until it was revived again by some extremely awesome neko-mimi San shots. SnHY then continued to gain momentum until the final conflict was unraveled and finished at an all time high. Usually GONZO’s anime dies out after the first few episodes but along with AVEX they were able to pull through and finish strongly. Animation was top notch and the humor was always there. The music was especially good and the sushi bar ED was entertaining. The only qualm I have about this show is that the only true conflict of the entire series was introduced in the second to the last episode. But I guess thats what I should expect from a romance of the comedy type genre.

Number One – Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. First aired on 04/01/07.

Gurren-Lagann started out as “just another mecha series” in my mind and I cast it out along the wayside in favor of Lucky Star. However a few weeks later, I found myself backtracking to pick it up off the side of the ground and give it a chance. Little did I know that GL would evolve into the best anime of the season and the best anime of Gainax that I watched since FLCL. It took awhile for Gurren-Lagann to grow. The beginning was riddled with inconsistent animation quality. However, as the season progressed it was clear that GL was a show of epic proportions. The music was amazing. The opera music mixed in with Roll Roll Fight the Power!” made me wanting to get my hands on the OST as quickly as I could. Character development played a huge roll in this series and served as on of the major plot drivers throughout the first half of the show. Gainax was not afraid to make main characters die and many of them did. Gainax also did something that has rarely been done in the past. They had a time jump to when Simon and the rest of the characters had grown up. Simon’s relationship with Nia could be discribed in no other way but tragic and even though GL’s ending was bittersweet, I found it to be an appropriate and realistic end to a great show. There is no doubt in my mind that Gurren-Lagann was the best anime of 2007.

-exo