Some individuals have already decided on the best show of fall* 2008. Now, unlike some people I usually don’t express opinions about shows that I haven’t watched. I’m not making any accusations. It’s just that, contrary to popular belief, 38% of people are actually not entitle to their opinion.

I’m calling it here and now: Toradora! is the best show of 2008, and postemptively of all time.  Come on, you absolutely cannot disagree with me on this one. I mean, the name rhymes and, as if that wasn’t enough to tell you this show is new and original, it has a freak’n exclamation point tacked on. Yeah, you read that right, a freak-in-ex-clam-a-tion-point!

! – there, ’cause I like ya’.

Besides, Taiga is probably the cutest character since Zero Louise.

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* It was noted that the author of the link attributing a certain show to being “the best of 2008″ was actually declaring it as “the best show of fall 2008.” far away no where offers apologies for any inconvenience or violent beatings on the way home from school this may have caused. This statement does not represent an admission of liability or acknowledgment of good taste in anime.

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Rie Kugimiya’s wiki entry notes that she has been “typecasted to tsundere roles.” I thought I was the only one that had noticed…

It took a while for me to place To Aru Kagaku no Railgun into the coveted “Best Show Ever” award slot. The thought had crossed my mind earlier, but I was reluctant to make the assignment (read: to lazy to write this post). Readers that haven’t thought me dead and moved onto bigger and better blogs might recall that another show, Toradora!, held the title previously. I feel it is important to note that this new awarding does not reflect badly on Toradora! or any future/previous holders of the “Best Show Ever” award.

One might wonder what would make this show stand apart from other noteworthy offerings. This season has offered another Kiddy Grade, Kempfer, 11eyes, among others. Why Railgun…aside from the fact that one of the characters is a cutie who can totally smash sh** with coins? Was it because another character is a perverted love obsessed lesbian with a pantsu fetish? Believe it or not, these were on the lower end of the reasoning behind why Railgun achieved this ranking, the “Best Show Ever” award.

No, the reasoning was far more distinct to this show. It made this show stand out. It was the defining quality argument for this series. In one word “hair accessories.” I know that’s two words, but it should be one word, like “hairaccessories” or “hairccessories.”

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Interestingly, Valkyria Chronicles would have taken this award last season for the same reason, if it were not for my reluctance to upset Toradora’s standing (read: too lazy again).

I’ve been out of the blogging game for a few months, now. It isn’t that I haven’t wanted to blog. Time is simply not on my side. That beast eats so much of my life, ya’ know.

At any rate, to the point of this post. I’ve still been watching the anime. There were some good shows last season: Ladies x Butlers, The Book of Bantorra, Omamori Himari, Chu-bra (kinda). Of course, the last Best Show Ever winner, A Certain Scientific Railgun. BTW, Uiharu won the Best Hair Accessory That May Not Be a Hair Accessory award.

First Up: Angel Beats!

Okay, so this guy apparently dies and awakes in a strange world with a cute girl named Haruhi who is god. Umm…that’s not right. Her name is Yuri, she isn’t god, and she’s dead too. The basic story, follows the SOS brigade group of main characters in the “Afterlife Battlefront” while they try to destroy a mysterious organization, Angel, that may or may not be a single girl who happens to be the student council president.

Oh yeah, that guy I mentioned earlier, he lost his memory so he doesn’t know anything about anything at all. Also, he dies a few more times after waking up (Beat to Death Angel Dokuro-chan style).

Second: B Gata H Kei

Okay, so there is this really cute girl who every boy in school wants to go out with. The only problem is that she is a neurotic mess fixated on losing her virginity. She hides it well. Only her closest friends and family know about her secret obsession with sex. Despite her willingness, she has unfounded body image issues centered around her, for lack of better words, happy place. So, she decides to target a plain looking guy who couldn’t possibly see her in any other light than perfection, because he’s a virgin like her.

Normally, the ecchi factor of this show would make it a hard sell to the Best Show Ever committee. However, the first episode was more funny than ecchi, and it looks to be pushing a romantic aspect of the storyline, which garnered it points.

We will see.

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Edit:  Holy crap, I just found out Angel Beats! has an exclamation point in the name! You know how I feel about shows with exclamation points! They’re totally awesome and not overused at all!

Also, corrected the name…

One of the rules of the BSE (until I change my mind) award is that it must be chosen early in the airing of a show. I decided to make this rule, just now, because it seems to fit with what I had done for previous award winners.

B Gata H Kei was in the running against Angel Beats!, but pressure was being put upon the committee to make a decision, because of the rule mentioned earlier.

It may be a little too early to make a clear decision between the two shows. The committee had strong opinions about Angel Beats!. They felt that it had a very good chance of developing a seriously engaging story. Especially, after the excellent showing in episode three. On the other hand, BH has better comedy in all respects, and it has the inept horny female lead angle going for it.

Plus, there is a little god of nookie that is cheering for Yamada all the time. We just loved that.

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Think of the BSE as the Nobel Peace Prize of anime awards. It’s not necessarily given on merit but in the hopes that it will be earned in the future.