This year I haven’t seen, nor even completed most of the things I watched due to life things, but here goes my list of 2018! Once again: no one title gets more than one award, spoilers are marked, recipient can be released any year but I have to start/finish it in 2018, and every award is based solely on my preference.
As a side note, this is more of a ‘shove everything I watched/read’ into one post.
(I’m late because I just came back from a 10-day trip to Turkey and somebody had a heart attack on the plane and we had to land in Calcutta for four hours because the doctor didn’t want to risk him going on for around two more hours until we reach our destination and the emergency team hit the patient in the face with the stretcher while he was walking out from the plane)
Best Action (Anime): Sirius the Jaeger (2018)
Werewolf boy vows to kill all vampires.
Sirius the Jaeger is sort of overlooked. It has a typical vampire-werewolf revenge plot, but made it up here because of its excellent pacing, action choreography, and development of its main character, Yuliy. Each episode is fun to watch and spurs the story forward. It is one of my top favourite of the year.
Best Action (Manga): Gunnm – Battle Angel Alita (1990)
It’s tough being a cyborg.
Battle Angel Alita, or Gunnm (Ganmu), is an epic saga about the very long life of a female cyborg called Alita/Gally. It’s so good that I finished the entire series in two days. Looking forward to the movie adaptation coming out later this year.
Honorable Mention: Shirayukihime to 7-nin no Shuujin (2012)
Arm transplant gone wrong.
A depressing battle to the death between people whose special powers kill themselves. Shirayukihime is intense and is a page turner from beginning to end.
Best Sci-fi: AKIRA (1988)
Psychic boy crashes the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Well, should I say anything else? AKIRA is a loved classic and it’s very clear why.
Review coming out later.
Best Historical: Otoyomegatari (2008)
Mr. Smith in Central Asia.
Mind-blowing art, in depth research, lovable characters. What more does this manga need? I love Amir and Karluk and their day to day life, but Henry Smith’s adventures are just as great. Love this manga so much.
Best Psychological: Texhnolyze (2003)
Dude gets new limbs.
Confusing as heck but great portrayal of psychological trauma. Mostly about main dude grunting and guys pissing themselves and a lot of staring, but Texhnolyze is stylish and strangely enjoyable.
Best Drama (anime): Mahou Shoujo Site (2018)
It’s tough being a girl.
Everyone in this anime is living a crap life, and now they’re in danger of dying to top it off. But you know, their crap life is what makes Mahou Shoujo Site memorable. Not to mention what a crappy piece of human shite Aya’s brother is.
Best Drama (manga): 86 (2018)
Mecha and Apocalypse with Garter-belt.
Somebody has really gotta stop cutting onions. The “battle with zero deaths” is just a guise to get rid of people of color, and that is a very sad concept that is portrayed really sadly in the manga and the novel. I love this novel & its manga adaptation to death.
But you know that feeling when the thing you love gets a sequel and you’re afraid that it would ruin the original (like Uprising did with Pacific Rim)? Yeah I bought the second volume of 86 and I’m too scared to read it.
Best Comedy (anime): Pop Team Epic (2018)
POPUTEPIPIKKU
I continue to watch snippets of this on Youtube and it never fails to make me laugh.
Best Comedy (manga): Beast Master (2006)
She and her pet.
Beast Master is a typical shoujo about a normal girl and a weird guy, but for some reason the chemistry between the main couple works so well the whole thing is really funny.
Best Fantasy (anime): Goblin Slayer (2018)
Armor dude vows to kill all goblins.
I did not expect to like something I watched just because Mili is singing the opening theme, but after a rather…extravagant first episode, Goblin Slayer turns out to be good as a fantasy story about friendship and fighting goblins. Also, I like that the main guy is not some average overpowered dude with a dark past. He survives with his wits and is socially awkward and that is interesting.
Best Fantasy (manga): Angel Sanctuary (1995)
Your big bro is god’s favorite angel.
Wow, just wow. Angel Sanctuary started off as a typical 90’s fantasy shoujo, but grew into some epic tale about corrupted angels and cyberpunk heaven. Not to mention the art gets better with every chapter and the characters are memorable (save for the main couple, unfortunately).
Though it’s really confusing, Angel Sanctuary is a must-read for those who love gothic religious reference manga with angels and demons and a whole set of mentally disturbed characters.
Best Romance: Darling in the FranXX (2018)
Ogre girl vows to kill more magma monsters.
FranXX, in my humble opinion, is not so much about fighting than it is about two people trying to love each other in a world that tells them not to. It features a likeable heroine and a rather plain protagonist with a bunch of archetypes characters, but I like it. I don’t care what other people think.
Best Slice of Life: Tamako Love Story (2014)
“I want to eat Mochizou.”
A confession: I have not watched Tamako Market, but this movie sequel is simple enough that I enjoyed it throughout. Tamako and Mochizou are so cute together XD
Best Heartwarming: Mary and the Witch’s Flower (2017)
Girl and her nightshade.
^Forgive me for that. This film by Ghibli’s successor, PONOC, combines elements from many of Studio Ghibli’s beloved films into an adventure story with fluid and colorful animation.
Best Soundtrack: Sky Crawlers (2008)
Kids fly planes.
Kenji Kawai, enough said. Sky Crawlers has such a great soundtrack and a great animation that complement each other.
Favourite Art: Happy Sugar Life (2015)
Psycho girl kidnaps a loli with the loli’s brother chasing her down.
Though the plot is questionable most of the times, the color pages of Happy Sugar Life brought this title here. The characters are cute and insane and I love it.
Best Shoujo: Sekai no Hate/The End of the World (2011)
How to get away with killing your boyfriend.
It took me four freaking years to finally find and buy the final two volumes of the manga and it was so worth the wait. On the surface, Sekai no Hate is your typical dark shoujo, but then it develops into the main characters corrupting themselves just to be able to live a normal life.
Anime of the Year: Houseki no Kuni (2017)
Aliens vs. Minerals
Well, others have said enough about this ‘revolutionary’ anime. Houseki no Kuni combines professional CGI animation with gripping soundtrack and a dark story about minerals with existential crisis and whitewashed Asians from the sky which grants it the crown for me. Yes, sorry it’s not from 2018.
Other Random Awards
WTF Ending: Raqiya (2014)
(spoilers) Your best friend is god.
Raqiya actually deserves a lot of praise for the depth of research and the realistic art. However, a modern day crusade war turn ancient aliens is the upper limit of what is okay for me, but then their decision to top it off with ‘yo my poofy hair friend is god!’ killed the manga. Although I should’ve guessed from the author’s decision to name one of the MC “Isa”.
Honorable Mention: Fire Emblem if: the Crown of Nibelung (2017)
Fire Emblem Fates: Leo and his sister complex.
Soooo this made it up here because of the extremely rushed ending and plot holes that were just thrown out the window. It’s not bad. It’s just too damn rushed.
WTF in General (anime): Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2009)
And Then There Were None with magic and bunny girls.
It’s not that I don’t like Umineko. I love the manga and the game and how intense both were. Just that something went off with the anime. The violence seem more comedic than dramatic and the magical characters, instead of being insane and scary, make them look like a bunch of jokes. A mystery story that never solves itself, that’s what Umineko is.
Killing Bites should also be here but I already gave it something last year.
Honorable Mention: Yume Oukoku to Nemureru Hyaku-nin no Ouji-sama (2018)
Kihel recalls things.
This is not a severe case, but really, handsome ikemen cannot save a story when its plot is falling apart. I was so looking forward to this adaptation too. It has its moments, but something happened to the rest of it.
WTF in General (manga): Kiss x Death (2014)
Tongue parasite and deep kissing.
Kiss x Death is so weird and lewd but hey, it’s Japan.
Coolest Concept: Island (2018)
(spoiler) Guy sleeps through Ice Age.
Island is weird in many aspects and I don’t think it handled its ambitious concept well, but I like the idea of the world repeating itself every time Ice Age strikes. Although cold sleep is less justifiable than all the quantum mechanics time paradox stuff one of the characters go on and on about, it serves its purpose well enough.
Most Confusing: Mekakucity Actors (2016)
Kids with special eye powers defeat Orochimaru.
Yes, this thing tops even Texhnolyze. Typical Shaft. I didn’t have too much trouble understanding because I’m familiar with the songs, but the parts that diverts from the songs are incomprehensible. Like, they spend entire episodes just talking and talking (worse case than Juuni Taisen, I can guarantee you) and when the time comes when the story needs time to flesh itself out, Shaft tries to wrap everything up in three minutes. I don’t think this anime does Kagerou Project justice.
And there it is. 2018 in a single post. See you next year.
EDIT: Fixed the weird gaps between images and added some links for the reviews.
bonutzuu 
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