A day earlier than when I made a promise to post this, but that’s never a bad thing! Anyway, I decided to participate in the Ani-Bloggers Choice Anime Awards, run by Kiddtic from Kidds’ Anime Blog, as it looks great and fun! The Ani-Bloggers Choice Anime Awards (ACAA) is exactly just as it sounds like: ani-bloggers will choose their 3 top anime series of each season this year, and then choose one top anime series to reign supreme amongst them all.
A minor disclaimer: As of this writing, I am at least 4-5 episodes behind on the current airing series, so the awards for Summer 2011 and Autumn 2011 might be skewed and different for other bloggers. And so without much ado, here are my top 3 anime series for each season!
Winter 2011 – Puella Magi Madoka Magica
It really should come to no surprise that this series would make the top choice for Winter 2011. After all, this is a unique magical girl series with a twist; the main character doesn’t even transform into a magical girl until near the end of the series! Hourou Musuko is also another great manga adaptation series, one that touches upon cross-dressing, and is certainly great as expected from one of my favorite mangaka, Shimura Takako. Fractale also deserves a mention as well, and although it did end off on a sour note for me, it did have a nice decent beginning.
Runners up: Hourou Musuko & Fractale
Spring 2011 – Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai
AnoHana was one of the better series of Spring 2011, and I admit that I shed some tears at the ending. For this and the evocation and nostalgia of childhood memories, I’m giving this series the award for Spring 2011. Although Hanasaku Iroha ended off on a small, bittersweet tune, I enjoyed some of the better defining (and comedic) moments of this series, and the characters were really likeable. Nichijou, KyoAni’s series, was also another nice series, and I did enjoy laughing at some of the slapstick jokes very much, so this gets a mention!
Runners up: Hanasaku Iroha & Nichijou
Summer 2011 – The iDOLM@STER
This was a really tough choice, but in the end, The iDOLM@STER barely won over Mawaru Penguindrum and Ikoku Meiro no Croisée on the basis that the series was just pure entertaining and having such great consistent quality animation and characters! Mawaru Penguindrum was extremely close, owing to its plot twists and tantalizing allusions! Ikoku Meiro no Croisée also deserves a great mention as well, since it manages to do its job very well as a slice-of-life series with just the right amount of cuteness and drama (check out my review for this series!).
Runners up: Mawaru Penguindrum (I really want to make this a tie, but there can only be 1 winner!) & Ikoku Meiro no Croisée
Autumn 2011 – Fate/zero
Fate/zero had the best storytelling and best movie-quality animation, and so this came out as the winner for Autumn 2011! (Well, I might be biased since I’m a huge TYPE-MOON fan…) If Fate/zero hadn’t aired this season, then Mirai Nikki would surely have won, because of its unique premise with the future diaries and the fascinating stalker, Gasai Yuno. UN-GO also deserves a mention for its great characters, who all have their own background and stories to be told through the solving of mysteries and crimes.
Runners up: Mirai Nikki & UN-GO
And now, my top anime series of the year goes to… *drumroll*… Fate/zero!
Once again, I might be too biased…
Runners up: The iDOLM@STER & Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Ephemeral Dreams 
Ha! I, too, had to control myself with choosing my summer and fall choices since quite a few of the former and all of the latter have yet to finish. We liked several of the same shows, though there are some deviations here and there. You’re the second person I’ve seen who has chosen Hourou Musuko, a show that I passed on watching without having seen any episodes. I’ll have to go back and give it a try 🙂
The summer and fall seasons have had some great series that makes it so hard to choose, definitely! Hourou Musuko is a great series with gorgeous art, and its theme is very interesting to think about. Hope you enjoy it! ^_^
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I’m surprised that you chose Idolm@aster as one of your seasonal winners, you don’t see many people talking about it. Other than that, i like your choices. I might have to give UN-GO a second chance.
I think the fact that The IDOLM@STER hasn’t been stirring up much discussion is because it’s so easy to watch this series and you can just let yourself enjoy it without too much thinking. I have heard that something shocking has happened recently in the latest episode, though… Gah, I’m really curious and want to catch up!
UN-GO is very enjoyable for me, and I like this show mostly for its characters. The crimes and mysteries are sometimes too easy to solve, but I believe that it is through the solving of these cases is where we get to see character developments. Plus, I love Kazamori’s personality. ^_^
Biased or not, Fate/Zero is more then deserving of best of the year. The only reason I didn’t pick it myself was because I wanted to pick a show that would finish airing in 2011. Also, seeing the iDOLM@STER as your summer pick makes me very happy. 🙂
I just went with the original rules of the ACAA, because my favorite past and airing shows coincidentally fitted with them. 😛
Now that I think about it, unless I missed it, I have yet to see The iDOLM@STER listed in any ACAA post… Need more love for it! ^_^
… And I just now saw that you have The iDOLM@STER listed on your choices. ^_^’ Great!
Fate/Zero definitely deserves the attention it receives ;D I’m both a Nitroplus fan and a Type/Moon fan but I ultimately chose Steins;Gate myself, with Fate/Zero coming second. I think Fate/Zero will be a beast once it progresses even more though O.O
Fate/zero is going to take a break for winter 2011, and will be back in spring 2011, I believe. I might be wrong, but even so, Fate/zero is certainly going to become even more of a beast near the end of the series!
And I’ve kept seeing Steins;Gate listed as a choice all around for quite a while now. I think I’ll watch Steins;Gate. ^_^
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As much as I love Fate/Zero, it’s a bit unfair to give it the top spot at this point seeing as how it’s still running. I mean, yeah, it’s great. But it could change in a number of ways.
Yeah, when I was writing this post, I was about 4-5 episodes behind, not to mention that the ACAA were due by December 16. And now, Mawaru Penguindrum is duking it out with Fate/zero for best anime series of the year so far. ^_^”
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