Sakura of DOOM

I watched A LOT of anime this year. I largely blame credit rilina and umadoshi for this, although octopedingenue and rachelmanija also deserve incriminating glares praise for their enthusiasm.

It seems a little lopsided to have 5 out of the 10 series I watched in the "favorite series" section, but I watched a lot of good anime this year. Also, it helped that I was getting the cream of the crop; rilina was doing a lot of the screening for me by watching a whole lot of series and then pimping her favorites to me. I also finally watched some oft-praised series which I've had on the to-watch list for a few years (namely, Princess Tutu and FMA).

This was actually a great way to watch anime, since I got the fun experience of the FMA and Princess Tutu pile up, and I got to squee to other people most of the time.

Unsurprisingly, I watched a whole lot of shoujo. Again, unsurprisingly, most of my favorite series were shoujo.

No spoilers below for any of the series. I'm also including pimping information for my favorite series, since I naturally want people to watch them. If you want more information on the other series, I'd suggest checking out rilina's giant 2006: the Year in Anime post, since she includes helpful links and info for all the series she watched, which overlap all of my series, with the exception of Gunslinger Girl. Or you can check out the series-specific tags below, or my Memories in the sidebar.

Series that I am not really fond of but don't actually dislike

( Bleach )

( Last Exile )

( Yami no Matsuei )

Series I am fond of

( Gunslinger Girl )

( Saiunkoku Monogatari )

Favorite series of the year

( Honey and Clover )

( Ouran High School Host Club )

( Princess Tutu )

( Samurai Champloo )

And my very favorite series of the year was easy to pick this time:

( Fullmetal Alchemist )

I ended up watching the first DVD of Yami no Matsuei instead of finishing Samurai Champloo like I intended because a friend came over, and we squeed muchly over the crack that is Yuki Kaori (I am currently on vol. 15 of Angel Sanctuary and completely confused as people suddenly acquire quadruple identities and I can't keep all the long-haired angels apart) and my Minekura artbooks.

Also, I figured episode 22 of Samurai Champloo was probably not the best of places to start her on the series.

It was a little odd watching YnM after my Samurai Champloo spree because the difference in production values is so large. Also, there is painful digital video game music whenever Tsuzuki calls on his powers and dukes it out with someone.

My friend insisted that YnM is a cross between X and Count Cain/Godchild, which I think makes sense, given the existence of YnM/Cain/Sweeney Todd crossover potential.

Thoughts on the characters:

Tsuzuki - he is cute and looks like he should brood but loves dessert. I adore him already because of his passion for sweets. I also like him because he's so fond of Hisoka.

Hisoka - he is small and grumpy with a Tragic Past involving the Sakura of Doom! How many more capital letters can I fit in? Obviously he is a refugee from X. This is even more obvious in the visuals, when he's kidnapped and restrained just like Kamui!

Muraki - he is insane. He disturbs me.

And since I can't find any more Saiyuki fic that I like and haven't read eighteen times already, I now want YnM fic. I'm going through untrue_accounts's entries as I type! Well, maybe not quite as I type. But close enough!

I can sort of see the hot enemy slash potential that Muraki brings to the mix, but seriously, he disturbs me. A lot.