Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year! 新年おめでとうございます!

Happy 2011!!! ^___^  This past year really flew by. We haven't gotten as much yuri anime as in 2009, but there are still some gems. (And fun crap.) Here are...

My Top 10 Yuri Anime of 2010:

English Releases:

5. Media Blasters' Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny:
Because there isn't much to choose from and this craptastic, service-drenched series about well-endowed women fighting under the pretense of re-enacting the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is more fun than it should be. This season also introduces my favorite pairing.

4. Section 23's Taisho Baseball Girls Complete Collection:
I'm starting to re-watch this. Baseball normally makes my eyes glaze over, but this is a fun "We can build a winning team!" series set in the 1920's, with a strong feminist bent and a little yuri.

3. Funimation's Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne:
This is trash, but it's entertaining sci-fi trash. The yuri isn't very meaningful, but there's a lot of it.

2. Section 23's CANAAN Complete Collection:
Girls with guns! And some yuri. This show is not only a lot of fun, it's visually impressive enough to warrant a Blu Ray purchase from me.

1. RightStuf's season 4 box set of Maria Watches Over Us:
Because Marimite is one of the best shows ever ever ever and I love watching Yumi choose her petite souer even when I know who it'll be.

Airing in Japan:

5. So-Ra-No-Wo-To:
Not really yuri, but there were enough crumbs for me to list it, for whatever that's worth. lol I just enjoyed looking at the pretty scenery, listening to Kalafina's music, and piecing together the bucolic post-apocalyptic world the characters live in.

4. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun:
Kuroko's love might be one-sided, but she's a great major character in a fun sci-fi anime that ended with a bang. I'm looking forward to Funimation's DVD release.

3. Ikki Tousen Xtreme Xecutor:
For bringing the über-cool Kanu (my favorite!) and Ryuubi tantalizingly close to being a solid couple at the end. And again, for being more fun than it should be.

2. Shin Koihime Musou Otome Tairan:
Shocking, isn't it. I'm usually lukewarm towards Koihime Musou, but the one episode of the third season that focused on the one solid yuri couple (out of a number of canon yuri characters) in the show presented them as an adorable long-term married (as close as we're getting in anime without actually hearing "married" or "wife") couple. Pretty good for a seinen eroge adaptation.

1. Heartcatch Precure:
I've never really paid attention to Precure before, but I decided to check Heartcatch out after hearing the yuri buzz about it on Okazu. It's a cute, consistently entertaining show, and it makes me happy to think of a new generation of young whippersnappers enjoying Precure the way that I obsessed over Sailor Moon as a little otaku. For Tsubomi/Itsuki, Moonlight/Dark, and giving us a new shoujo series of yuri interest, I choose Heartcatch Precure. I'll review it after it ends.

Even though I didn't do a manga list, I'll name Aoi Hana as my favorite that hasn't been licensed in English from this past year and Hayate x Blade as my favorite English-licensed yuri title.

And that's it. I hope you all have a happy, healthy 2011!!

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