The summer season is all but over, and a slew of summer shows (along with some spring holdovers) draw to an end to make way for the much anticipated fall lineup — And what a lineup it is because it has me jizzing in my pants with excitement!

…Er, scratch that last thought. Before fall gets here, we have to say farewell and salute the summer lineup. What does that mean exactly? It could only mean it’s time to hand out inconsequential awards to the best shows of summer. It’s like the Oscars, except the results actually matter.

Best Animation

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Last season there was stiff competition for this category as FMA: Brotherhood had to compete with many notable competitors for best animation, including Eden of the East, Sengoku Basara and Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. Competition for best animation in summer tapered off with only Phantom and newcomer Bakemonogatari providing a challenge in this category, but I feel FMA deserves the award once again for its consistently fluid and gorgeous animation. FMA is still pure visual ecstasy to watch and enjoy, and I still can’t think of any faults to throw at BONES concerning this show. Phantom‘s animation was still equally great as last season but was edged out once again.

As for Bakemonogatari, I can hear the Bakemonogatari fans raging that it didn’t win Best Animation, but hear me out. While it does have gorgeous animation for the typically weak summer class, I feel the art direction is too gimmicky at times. Two marvelously animated scenes that stand out to me in particular are Koyomi and Senjougahara playing in the park (episode 3) and the absolutely stunning imagery presented in Senjougahara’s daring confession to Koyomi (episode 5). Bakemonogatari’s animation though is hampered by the many, many screens of text and overuse of still scenes, so I had to dock points. You can retort that those exact things are what give the show it’s overall flavor, and I’d give that much to you, but the pretentious artistry hampers the overall animation at times.

Best Music

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

Music is a major component of a great show, and an excellent OST can help and show make the transition from good to great. Phantom is one such case thanks to composer, Hikaru Nanase. Its OST was good while it was airing in the spring, but I had to hand this award to K-ON then because it was in its own league of musical greatness. Now that K-ON is out of the way, it’s time for Phantom to shine though. Like I said before the OST was good then, and it got even better as the show went on through the summer season and got progressively more intense, so Phantom is the clear winner for best music. The music is dark, moody, and fully draws me into this tale of assassins, betrayal and revenge. By far and away the best songs are the various orchestral renditions of the titular theme, “Requiem for the Phantom”, which I’ve included below, but the rest of the soundtrack, chock full of grand orchestral pieces, violin/piano solos and plenty of latin chanting also pulls its weight in enveloping the auditory senses of the user watching the show. If you couldn’t already tell, I absolutely love all of those things.

Runners-up in the music category include Bakemonogatari and Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou. The former has some really great piano solo pieces, but the rest of the OST is fairly forgettable. The latter is more charming than great with a style of music in tune with the show’s theme of old meets new (magic) with a soundtrack featuring orchestra and chanting meeting synthesizers and plenty of bass. I do like both of these, but they don’t hold a candle to Phantom’s epic soundtrack. I could fanboy over this Kajiura-esque soundtrack all day long. In fact, I think I will.

Requiem for the Phantom part I – Nanase Hikaru

I didn’t include more songs because they would take up too much space, but if you care to listen, “Canzone of death part I”, “Requiem last” and “Ame no Suteneko” are equally as great as “Requiem for the Phantom”. Also of note but not officially part of the OST are Ein’s image songs, “Crazy Darkness” and “ich beten”. You can thank me later.

Best Story

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

Story is the most subjective category, as what constitutes a good story varies much more between individuals compared to objectively measurable categories such as animation and music, and I’ll no doubt be bitched out since there’s no clear and away winner like last season’s Eden of the East. I give this to Phantom. Again, I hear the whining of the Bakemonogatari and Umineko Wafer fans, but Phantom has an all around stronger story to me. The show just sucked me in and never let go for a second, and it’s been the show I’ve anticipated the most every week of summer. Like the music, the story started good and progressively got better, gradually escalating into a masterful story. When talking about story, I’ve included everything that encompasses it including plot, pacing and characterization, all of which have been great. All three protagonists are complex and deep. The Phantoms; Ein, Zwei and particularly Drei each have their own motivations and act realistically as assassins. Their lives as assassins aren’t romanticized like we often see in movies.

The masterfully paced three act story, with each act building upon its predecessor leading up to the thrilling climax has been like a great theatrical play or opera. The theme of Phantom being a play is further seen with Scythe Master, acting as the puppet master, pulling all the strings behind the scenes to watch his puppets fight each other on the grand stage. The symbolism of the phantom masks that have been a big part of the show further cement its greatness. They play with the motif that the Phantoms (assassins) are ghosts without an identity (seen in the second ED), as evidenced by the blank masks completely covering the faces of Ein, Zwei and later the Number Sisters. Ein and Zwei later discard the title of Phantom and their masks to regain their identities. I feel like I’m getting on a tangent now. Nonetheless, the story has been something very special, and it makes me sad to think that something so great has to come to an end.

If you’re curious, the next runners-up for story are Bakemonogatari, Umineko and FMA: Brotherhood by a significant margin. While they’re all good in their own right, Phantom won this by a landslide.

Best Action

Tie
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

The action category is something of a two horse race this season between FMA and Phantom since summer hasn’t had much action, though Bakemonogatari became a surprise entrant with the stunning and stylish (albeit one-sided) fight featuring Kanbaru and Koyomi. But we all know Bakemonogatari was never meant to be an action show, so it can’t win this category even though that sole fight was absolutely awesome. I guess CANAAN is technically supposed to be here too, but it was disappointing in all aspects, especially the action.

I decided to cop out and make this a tie, mostly because FMA and Phantom have both been equally good in different ways. FMA with its mix of melee and magic has gotten certainly gets the testosterone flowing, but Phantom’s stylish gunfights are nothing to scoff at either. So to reiterate, hooray for cop outs.

Best OP

Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou

Natsuko Asou’s “Programming for non-fiction” narrowly edges Umineko for best OP of the summer. If an OP alone was enough to make a show great, then Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou would be a masterpiece. Unfortunately, that’s not the case as YWGM has merely been average at best, but damn I really love this magical (pun totally intended) song. As briefly mentioned earlier with YWGM’s soundtrack, the song is a pleasant mix of old meets new with orchestra and violin plucking combined with synthesizers. Asou’s strong vocals and some very slick art direction round out the entire song to create a grand OP for a pretty average show.

Best ED

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

Oddly enough, best ED came down to one assassin show against another. I was originally going to give this to CANAAN’s ED, “My Heaven”, but once Phantom got its new ED, the contest fell into the favor of Phantom. Annabel’s “My Heaven” isn’t bad, but KOKIA’s “Transparent” is better, due in part to her stronger vocals, a better musical arrangement and more interesting animation. In CANAAN’s favor, the ED does have naked yuri goodness… And that’s about all the show has going for it really. The next runners-up worth mentioning are Princess Lover with “S.S.D.” and Bakemonogatari’s “Kimi no Shira nai Monogatari” but those are more nice songs than great ones.

Best Character (Male)

Koyomi Araragi (Bakemonogatari)

As far as memorable males go, Koyomi is definitely odd in a good way. Most show’s involving harems (and let’s face it, Bakemonogatari is a harem) have bland males with equally bland cookie cutter personalities. Koyomi is one of the few with a personality discernible from cardboard, and he’s actually quite lively and energetic around the many females that mysteriously seem to come his way. Koyomi is cool guy. He doesn’t afraid to grope beat up annoying lolis and have his guts ripped out and swung around like a yo-yo.

We also can’t talk about Koyomi without mentioning his now famous sentient ahoge. The ahoge, especially of the sentient variety, is a feature usually attached to female characters (ie. Chiaki Minami, Himeko Katagiri) but Koyomi is the rare male with a moving cowlick. It’s normally a moe attachment, and seeing it on a guy is kind of weird. Scratch that. It’s really weird, but it works for Koyomi because he’s pretty weird himself. He also has a bitchin’ schizophrenic cellphone made of win and mind freak.

I’ll also give a heads up to Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko, Zwei from Phantom and the ever sarcastic Kyon from Haruhi S2, but none of the above can hold a candle to Koyomi — He just outranks them in sheer coolness. Blame the ahoge and cellphone.

Best Character (Female)

Hitagi Senjougahara (Bakemonogatari)

Senjougahara Fascination. Nuff said.

…I’m supposed to elaborate more…? Fine. Let me buckle down to say something about our beloved Tsundere-chan then. Just so you know, I totally. did. not. copypasta the following from something I wrote earlier. Never mind the fact it’s in italics either.

Ah, our troubled stationery wielding princess, Senjougahara. Even though your arc is already over you continue to capture our hearts in each episode with your backhanded compliments and snide remarks towards Ararararagi.

What started as a mere infatuation on both sides is blossoming into a genuine (and very unique) relationship. The Love-Hate relationship between Senjougahara and Araragi has been clicking on all cylinders so far. More importantly it’s been genuinely convincing and entertaining. On one hand, Senjougahara is smitten by the dense but altruistic boy that saved her from the dire fate she resigned herself to. On the other hand, she’s an insecure, possessive girl that flips faster than an American SUV speeding down a Japanese mountain pass as evidenced by *ahem*… Almost gouging out Araragi’s eye over a simple misunderstanding concerning their mutual acquaintance in episode 6.

An angry Senjougahara could even make Satan piss his pants. The average tsundere will tell you off, bop you on the head and then storm out of the room in a fit of anger — Typical Kugimiya tsundere stuff. What makes Senjougahara unnerving is the fact that you don’t see the normal signs of a tsundere getting mad. Her tsun side looks exactly the same as her dere side. You don’t know when you’re going to sail on a Nice Boat. Even worse, she’s temperamental and totally unpredictable. While she jokes around about stuff like killing Araragi… It may actually be more of a warning. I wouldn’t be surprised if she suddenly castrated Araragi one day for forgetting to buy milk on his way home. With Senjougahara, no physical abuse towards Araragi is too absurd.

Though Senjougahara is scary as hell, that’s what makes her so great. There aren’t a lot of girls like her. Beauty, brains, bravado and a killer personality. Crazy in and of itself is only entertaining to a certain point. Senjougahara is crazy without actually being crazy. I’ll liken her to Dark Knight’s Joker in that respect with their unique brand of controlled craziness. The other hallmark of her personality is arrogant bitch, but she’s also really nice too in her own twisted little way. She’s a unique combination of extremes that we don’t see a whole lot of in the vast sea of cookie cutter moe girls. If you’re tired of all the Mary Sue Mios out there, I wholeheartedly endorse Senjougahara, an icy lass with stationery under her skirt and fire in her eyes. Put ya Senjougahara Fascination on, kids!

Again, I did not copypasta that from a previous article. Though she isn’t nearly as interesting as Senjougahara, Beatrice from Umineko is certainly interesting in her own demented way. I also feel Ein and Drei from Phantom are worth a mention at the very least, but all these characters had the misfortune of going against Senjougahara. No contest.

Best Sleeper Title

Sora no Manimani

I don’t think I can say much about Sora no Manimani besides the fact it’s a cute little love story concerning childhood friends. Yeah it follows cliches, but since they’re executed fairly well I don’t mind too much. The show itself isn’t a sleeper proper because plenty of people have seen or at least heard about it, but it’s likely this flew under the radar of many an o-taco. It’s not great by any stretch, but Sora no Manimani is a pleasant mix of romance, drama, and comedy to make for an altogether above-average show.

If it was up to me, I’d also sneak in a quick recommendation for Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou as a sleeper show that’s more charming than actually good, but it’s not up to me. Cough.

Best Show With Staplers

Bakemonogatari

I heard you like Staplers that are Stable, Stable Staplers if you will. My love is a stapler. Etc.

Best Trolling

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (2009)

Endless Eight. I’ve already said what I wanted to say about this, but I still give massive props to KyoAni for making us look like idiots. Further props to KyoAni because as idiots, we’ll buy the E8 DVDs too. It took massive, giant, epic rubber balls to pull this stunt. NEVER FORGET.

Best Anime (Summer)

Bakemonogatari

Purely speaking in the sense of shows that premiered in the summer, Bakemonogatari is by far and away the best show of summer. It’s been incredibly fun and engaging, even more surprising since this is a SHAFT drama. Did I hit my head or something, or do we finally have a good SHAFT drama? I went in with medium expectations and have been absolutely blown away. Umineko has been something of a surprise as well considering my distaste with Higurashi, but Bakemonogatari is the king of the summer class. Ultimately it wasn’t the best show airing in summer though. That honor goes to the following…

Best Anime (Overall)

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

I’ve gushed about Phantom quite enough in the music and story categories, so I don’t have much else to say besides this — Phantom is pure, unadulterated greatness. If you didn’t watch this show, shame on you. If it was up to me I’d have you tossed into a pit full of Yorkshire Terriers with laser beams on their heads. Ugh, those things are friggin’ scary. Seriously though, Phantom was the best show of summer. If you dispute me on this, your wrong opinion is wrong, Mayor Wrong of Wrongville.

So that does it for Wolf Hurricane’s one-sided, heavily biased (in a good way!) Summer Awards. I absolutely gushed over Phantom and Bakemonogatari, because they were absolutely worth gushing over, so most of the significant awards went their way. Overall this was a more than decent summer class with three big hitters, Bakemonogatari, Umineko, Haruhi S2 (lolol E8) and a decent lineup of supporting shows to carry the extra weight. As always, it brings a manly, giant watery globule resembling a tear to my eye whenever a season comes to an end, because I form attachments to the shows and their characters. This summer in particular was especially good and seemed a lot stronger than previous summer lineups.

The fall season looks particularly impressive this year and is going to officially start in about a week or so, so my end of season melancholy will be short lived and subsequently replaced by the stress of preview and first impression posts. Speaking of which, the WH fall preview, where I tell you what I’ll watch and you readers pretend to care, will be up soon, hopefully within the week if I can motivate my lazy self to write it and vidya games don’t get in the way.