![\"KlaK\"](\"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/KlaK.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nRunner Up: Attack on Titan<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n 2013 was apparently the year of big epic action shows, as the impressive battle sequences in Kill la Kill<\/i> and Attack on Titan<\/i> seemed to have everyone talking.\u00a0 My pick ultimately goes to Kill la Kill<\/i> by virtue of its clever jabs at its own genre.\u00a0 It also managed to give us a sense of grudging respect for many of the villains, a rare feat when the easy option is to just make the bad guys a collection of despicable jerks.\u00a0 Attack on Titan<\/i> excelled at conveying the terror of fighting giant, hungry monsters, but didn\u2019t put much effort into breaking out of the action series formula.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Runner Up: Space Brothers<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n If 2013 was a year where loud action shows grabbed most of the attention, a quiet slice of life series like Silver Spoon<\/i> never stood much of a chance.\u00a0 Anyone who gave it a shot, however, was treated to an honest and well-researched account of modern farm life, along with a surprisingly intelligent look at our relationship with our food.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Space Brothers<\/i> deserves similar credit for continuing to make us care deeply about its cast of astronauts, whether they\u2019re facing a major crisis or the mundane difficulties of everyday life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Runner Up: RWBY<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n There was never any doubt that Free!<\/i> would be a major success amongst people who like watching handsome guys parade around in tight swimwear.\u00a0 What I never saw coming was the genuine quality of the show itself.\u00a0 The highs and lows of the Iwatobi Swim Club made for an entertaining season of episodes, and Free!<\/i> successfully proved that a fanservice show doesn\u2019t have to be shamelessly sleazy in order to get ahead.\u00a0 RWBY<\/i> broke a different stereotype by showing us that a small production team from outside of Japan can put together a solid anime series, and I commend the folks at Rooster Teeth for their work on it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Runner Up: Outbreak Company<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n When you take the cast of a typical fantasy series and have them work minimum-wage jobs in modern-day Japan, it\u2019s hard not to make an amusing comedy.\u00a0 The writers of The Devil is a Part-Timer!<\/i> took that premise and turned into far more than an amusing comedy: they made a great one.\u00a0 With a well-developed cast of endearing characters and an excellent sense of parody, Devil<\/i> works amazingly well on multiple levels.\u00a0 In another year, the clever otaku comedy of Outbreak Company<\/i> might have been enough to sweep this category, as its only mistake was coming out in the same year as one of my all-time favorites.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Runner Up: Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n While its first half ran at the end of 2012, I\u2019m still counting Psycho-Pass<\/i> for this year\u2019s awards.\u00a0 A sci-fi police procedural following in the footsteps of classics like Ghost In The Shell<\/i>, Psycho-Pass<\/i> mixes insightful social commentary with the genuine impression that things could go horribly wrong for its heroes at any moment.\u00a0 Being guided by the twisted mind behind Madoka Magica<\/i> and Fate Zero<\/i> certainly helps that sense of impending disaster.\u00a0 Gargantia<\/i> wasn\u2019t quite as engaging, but still managed to make us sweat when it threatened to destroy its little post-apocalyptic slice of paradise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Runner Up: Yowamushi Pedal<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n There was a time not long ago when I might have scoffed at the prospect of watching sports anime, laughing haughtily as I looked down my nose at the constant use of tournament structure for a plotline.\u00a0 Things have changed in recent years, thanks in no small part to absurdly compelling cast of Chihayafuru<\/i>.\u00a0 Even with my high expectations from the first season, the second installment managed to have me shouting at the screen as fictional people played a game about memorizing verses of poetry.\u00a0 If there isn\u2019t a third season in 2014, I shall be incredibly sad.\u00a0 At least I\u2019ll have Yowapeda<\/i>, which has managed to make bicycle racing fun without even having to use Queen\u2019s classic song.\u00a0 Biiiiicycle\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Runner Up: My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n Seriously, anime producers, stop with the paragraph-long titles already.\u00a0 It\u2019s no longer novel or amusing.\u00a0 Still, No Matter How You Look At It, It\u2019s You Guys\u2019 Fault I\u2019m Not Popular!<\/i> was an excellent piece of comedy, giving viewers the chance to laugh at the geeky social failings we\u2019ve all gone through at one point or another.\u00a0 SNAFU<\/i> makes the list for having enough confidence in its misanthropic protagonists that it didn\u2019t feel the need to bombard us with gimmicks or fanservice.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 It was all the better for doing so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Runner Up: Dusk Maiden of Amnesia<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n No one likes to talk about it, but we\u2019ve all got a backlog of shows that we missed the first time around.\u00a0 I wrote off Girls und Panzer<\/i> in 2012 because of its insane girls-with-tanks premise, but it\u2019s a charming show that was clearly crafted with love by its creative staff.\u00a0 It\u2019s absolutely worth a try, and Sentai Filmworks has recently been savvy enough to release the entire series on Blu-Ray<\/a>.\u00a0 The same goes for Dusk Maiden of Amnesia<\/i>, which made me laugh, cry, and look warily over my shoulder at night.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That\u2019s all I\u2019ve got for 2013, folks.\u00a0 It was a pretty impressive year for anime, and I had a difficult time narrowing down nearly every single category.\u00a0 Hopefully next year will bring us more exciting new shows to get into forum arguments over.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll even (finally) get around to covering the occasional manga-related topic this year.\u00a0 Happy 2014!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After an onslaught of man-eating titans and terminally unpopular high school heroines, another year of anime is officially in the rearview mirror.\u00a0 As we all huddle indoors and wait for the first Big Thing of 2014 to appear, I\u2019ve decided to jump on the bandwagon of year-end award columns.\u00a0 After all, it\u2019s a natural part [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions\/621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Best Series Nobody Watched: Silver Spoon<\/i><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBiggest Surprise: Free!<\/i><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMost Comedic Comedy: The Devil is a Part-Timer!<\/i><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMost Dramatic Drama: Psycho-Pass<\/i><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSportiest Sports Series: Chihayafuru 2<\/i><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBest Series With An Obnoxiously Long Title: WataMote<\/i><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBest Show From 2012 That I Didn\u2019t Watch Until 2013: Girls und Panzer<\/i><\/h3>\n
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