A look back: The Best Anime of 2011

The above is a decpiction of a scene from Hidan no Aria, one of the standout anime of last year.
Loljk, it was god-awful. Needed a picture at the post header though.

This past year's been a bit weird for me. Even ignoring random personal/life stuff, I mean just in terms of timekeeping and memory. The whole of 2011 seemed to pass by incredibly quickly in my mind, and I was reflecting recently that it had actually been a pretty poor year for an animeholic such as myself - presumably because of the abismal showing in this season just past. So I was surprised to learn, when I came to start making this post, that series which in my mind's eye were done with long before the start of 2011 actually fell into the confines of this list, i.e. they were from last year after all. More fool me. This was very welcome news though, as it widened the field sufficiently so that shows like Hidan no Aria warrant no further mention. Let's get on with it then, eh? What follows is a top 10 in no particular order:

Why does it have to end?!: Usagi Drop

As I've ranted on about it multiple times, you may well know that Usagi Drop has probably been my favourite anime of this season due to its utterly pleasant demeanour, interesting themes and the simply watchable aura it emits. In case you're out of the loop, the series follows Daikichi - a thirty year old working man - who takes it upon himself to look after his own grandfather's illegitimate child, Rin. Putting the frankly weird origins of Rin aside, the show is primarily about Daikichi trying to do what he can to play happy families in order to do what's best for Rin, but is then also about how his own character progresses and what he discovers about himself and others as a result of entering the world of "parenthood".

Status Update: Usagi Drop and other misc.

Status updates are for bloggers what Top Gear is for Dave - an easy way of filling up space and time. But there were a few half-baked things I fancied putting out there, so to avoid forgetting all about them by tackling them one at a time I'll post them under the vague category of "Status Update". Then everyone's happy, surely?