We’re never timely with these posts, eh? (Blame me – Bass) This was a tough one since it’s that time of year when break ends and school starts. But with the trees turned red in the north and the flowers sprouting in the south, we at Sekijitsu have finally decided to bid summer good-bye.

Welcome to Sekijitsu’s third seasonal awards! Summer was a really interesting season. There were a few two-cour layovers from spring, but most of the summer shows were low-key and one-cour. Instead of standouts, we received variety, which is well-reflected in our summer awards. We hope you can spot all your favorite shows!

We hope you’ll find a lot to love in this post. Maybe, you’ll find some awards to hate, too. Either way, come join our final summer festival, and let’s look forward to an awesome autumn!

WARNING WARNING WARNING: We’ve done our best to keep them limited, but there may be minor spoilers in this post. Don’t read a caption if it’s of a show you want to see and haven’t seen yet!

StoneCold//SacredSeven

Take a look at that video. Rainbows galore. Take a look at those lyrics. “Even in a single cold stone, I’m sure there’s a hot passion hidden within?” “The pebble is smiling if it opens just one door?” Now, this may be about rocks, but all we smell is cheese. Put it all to a catchy beat, and you’ve got the campiest opening of the season. It’s so campy that it can melt our stone-cold hearts, and get us pumped for Sacred Seven’s gravelly, er bumpy, ride. Rolling Stones, this ain’t, but this gem is still our Best Summer Opening. Rock on!

Yes,Prisoner//DantaliannoShoka

Gainax has hit a creative rough patch. They made their last decent anime a year ago, and one of their top directors has left to form a new studio. It’s no wonder, then, that Dantalian no Shoka ended up mediocre and disjointed. But even here, there is a minute-and-a-half sliver of Gainax brilliance. “Yes, Prisoner” is one of the best ending sequences not just of the season but the year. The combination of creepy melody with sublime live action is an inspired choice, and one that will haunt our best ED posts for years to come. “Yes, Prisoner” affirms that Gainax has still got it, and so it is our Best Ending Sequence of Summer.

RikuoNura//NurarihyonnoMago:SennenMakyou

Hello, ladies. Look at your man, now back to Rikuo, now back at your man, now back to Rikuo. Sadly, your man isn’t Rikuo. And even sadder is that he’s never going to have hair like Rikuo. Why? Because no matter how long you wallow in envy, wishing you can achieve that level of fabulous max, there will never be enough hair gel to replicate those luscious, gravity-defying locks. We here at Sekijitsu recognize that Rikuo’s hair is cooler than yours by awarding him Best Hair of the Season.

Kanade is truly sadistic with her use of words. She is the expert on tricking people, especially Jirou and Usami, and then turning them against each other. Even when she’s being moral, she can be two-faced. For example, if you tell Kanade to keep a secret, she’ll keep it, but she’ll turn other people’s suspicions on what you said for the worst.

You could name her whatever you want: the devil’s child, the devil’s mouth, the sadistic queen. While we wouldn’t want to meet her in real life, Kanade’s roundabout ways bring as much entertainment to us just they do to her. You can’t help but think that she’s such a likable villain because she is BAMF and well-worthy of the Best Sadist Award!

“Dogkeeper, you’re-!!” Oh, Shion, why didn’t you finish that sentence? Although it is heavily implied (though never confirmed) towards the end that DogKeeper is a female, people still spent all season scratching their heads trying to figure it out. With an appearance and voice that could easily belong to a guy or a girl, even Justin Bieber is less gender androgynous than DogKeeper (and that’s saying something!). It’s customary for us to give out a seasonal Best Trap, but Dogkeeper is more than that, so we award, uh, him, her, whatever, with our Gender Ambiguous Award.

KURANOSUKE?! He wishes. No, the person you are looking at is not Kuranosuke of Kuragehime, but Tsukimiya Ringo, a significantly less fabulous trap from the slightly more fabulous anime, Uta no Prince-Sama. We’ve decided to present to him the award of Try-Hard Trap for passing off as a believable female… until he opens his mouth and Nakamura Yuuichi’s voice comes out. But hey, he fooled Haruka pretty well for like 30 seconds, so that counts for something, right? He tried his best, and that’s what really matters!

TakashiNatsume/KanameTanuma//NatsumeYuujinchouSan

Surely you all saw this one coming, right? People have been shipping Natsume with various male members of the cast since the first season, but none of them come even close to the number of Natsume/Tanuma fanarts and doujins there are out there right now. They’re just so hard NOT to ship, particularly when the creators do things to drive the fangirls wild like making them have a SLUMBER PARTY or lean unnaturally close to one another when they talk. This season especially the yaoi vibes were pretty strong, which is why we name Natsume and Tanuma our Best Bromance of the Summer Season.

Honorable Mentions: Yoshii Akihisa/Yuuji Sakamoto (Baka Test)

AliceBlanche/Yune//IkokuMeironoCroisee

Much like the show it basks in, the relationship between Yune and Alice is a sweet, cross-cultural treat. Sure, Alice and Yune look like stereotypes; Alice is a bossy, spoiled French girl while Yune embodies the presumed serene nature of the Japanese. But over the course of this charming show and particularly in segments where they’re together, these two characters develop far past their initial appearances. Their budding friendship slowly brings out the best in both of them, and so brings out some of the best moments of the show. For making the simple things a wonder, Alice and Yune are our Best Summer Womance.

They’re both boys, but Nezumi and Shion are only a bromance if you count kissing and dancing as bromantic activities. Sure, they’re less touchy-feely than the horse-faced, yaoi rapists from Studio Deen, but they feel so much more intimate. After all, the boy on boy angle is only half of what makes Nezumi and Shion so memorable. The other half is their wonderful development, no forced sex or misunderstandings involved. These two characters are very different, but together, they manage to connect and grow. Had No. 6 been a romance instead of a trainwreck sci-fi, it could have been one of the better shows this season. Instead, the series will have to settle for our Best Couple Award.

Honorable Mentions: Himea Saito/Taito Kurogane (Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi), Ringo Oginome/Shoma Takakura (Mawaru PenguinDrum), Kinjirou Sakamachi/Subaru Konoe (Mayo Chiki!)

Ringo is polarizing. Is she a broken high school girl, or a complete psycho bitch? Is she a loathsome date rapist, or the victim of a cruel fate? Is she a supporting character, or the true female lead? For all these questions, the answer lies somewhere in between. What’s unequivocal is that we love her, whether she’s daydreaming, scheming, or fighting for fate itself. For a myriad of conflicting traits and constant entertainment value, Ringo is our Best Supporting Girl.

Honorable Mentions: Miki (The Idolmaster), Aoi Yuko (Nichijou), Yukari Nitani (Usagi Drop)

There’s a stereotype that anime’s white-haired pretty boys are always evil. This is mostly true, and Aki, a white-haired pretty boy if there ever was one, is hardly a benevolent dude. But, there is a lot more to him than just that. When he’s acting evil, he’s very interesting. His underhanded tactics and axe-crazy attitude steal the limelight from the do-gooder protagonists. But, even better, he’s just as interesting when he’s acting almost… good. His tragic back story and broken relationship with Kyouhei steal the show. Of course, Aki is our best supporting male. Stereotypical or not, boy’s got an edge.

Honorable Mentions: Keith “Sky High” Goodman (Tiger & Bunny), Kouki Nitani (Usagi Drop), SHINING SAOTOME (Uta no Prince-Sama)

Subaru excels in all kinds of sports and martial arts, making this female butler one big BAMF character. Also, Subaru is trap, and her presence leads to funny and romantic situations. But that’s not all there is to her.

Subaru’s sea-blue eyes mesmerize both girls and boys, both in anime and IRL. Plus, her blonde hair and her Punyuru glasses add to her overall appeal. But what really captivates us is her love for silent sheep, her relationship with Jirou, her overcoming of her fears, and her consideration for others, even when she may be hurt. These aspects of Subaru are exactly why she deserves the Best Female Lead award!

Honorable Mentions: Rin Kaga (Usagi Drop)

Imagine you’re a thirty-something man. No wife, no kids. Nice house, good job. Then suddenly you learn that your grandfather had a child with a mistress. The child’s six, and your grandfather is dead. The child’s outcasted by her relatives. No one wants her in their home. Do you take her in? If you were Daikichi, you would.

Often in anime, we love those young bastards who kick reason to the curb, put their lives on the line, or risk everything for revenge. But did they have to buy children’s clothing, and put their child’s hair into twintails? Did they have to worry about child-care and day-care? Did they have to combat their child’s flu? Hands down, Daikichi is our Best Male. He may not be over-the-top, but he’s a hero.

Honorable Mentions: Shoma Takakura (Mawaru PenguinDrum), Takashi Natsume (Natsume Yuujinchou San)

A villain doesn’t always have to be a killer or a thief. Instead, he can be like Renji, a man with the ability to rile things up, looking dangerous yet cool as he does it. He’s a menacing, strong leader of a group of thugs, and he’ll take down anyone who gets in the way of his revenge.

But despite being a tough villain, Renji has a goofy side in him, such as his tendencies to forget things and hang around public places for fun. He also has morals and honor, consistent with his inner logic. Some even mistaken Renji for a good person. But keep in mind, he’s a sly one. He strolls downtown like it’s nothing and riles things up in the process. As such a dangerous and BAMF guy, he’s deserving of our Best Villain Award.

Honorable Mentions: Sanetoshi (Mawaru PenguinDrum)

BloodC

With a name like Blood-C, you’d expect some blood. You’d expect some gore, some brutality, some intrigue. And we get all that in Blood-C along with petting puppies, skipping, and singing. Oh God, Saya’s singing. Do you realize that she sings for two minute segments? Do you realize that the singing could be replaced by blood and guts? We respect a show that tries to go against expectations, but sometimes, those attempts are a bit awkward. This is one of those cases, so we have to recognize Blood-C with our first-ever Awkward Singing Award.

Blood-C, Mayo Chiki!, Tiger & Bunny, No. 6. All of these shows ended with summer, and all ended with a whimper or a WTF instead of a feel-good bang. But not even No. 6’s teenage mutant wasp queen bonanza can compare to Sacred Seven’s baffling trainwreck conclusion. Sunrise’s mecha show tossed away all character and plot continuity for a big-budget high school angst brawl fest, complete with half-naked lolis and misplaced Christian imagery. Now, as Shallow Seven never had much in the way of development, this is more or less a good thing. So, thank you, Sacred Shit. You rewarded our patience for your three-hour school-antics tedium with this utter, entertaining nonsense, and so we bequeath you with our first-ever ending award. May all that follow be as glorious as yours though we insist you keep the trains.

BloodC

Purportedly, the “C” stands for “CLAMP,” but we suspect it really stands for “Crap.” Shame, because it didn’t have to. When Blood-C was announced, we waited with bated breath. CLAMP writes, Tsutomu Mizushima directs, Production IG animates? Bloody hell! But when Blood-C aired, we ran screaming to the less hyped summer shows, not because it terrified us but because it couldn’t excite. A show with vampires, gore, and noodle people should make us shake in horror, but all we could do was shake our heads at the predictable plot “twists” and mundane dialogue. Because it shed less blood than it did tears of boredom, Blood-C is our Biggest Disappointment of the season.

Many think Nichijou isn’t worth the time because, as a gag comedy anime, it doesn’t have much story, plot twists, or flow. And while the jokes are both hits and misses, there is a lot more to the show than that.

Nichijou is meant to be enjoyed with others. The characters seem simple, but many, like Nano and Mio, are very emotionally appealing. Although Nichijou is a gag comedy anime, there is even a hidden element of beautiful character development. For example, Nano slowly changes her stance to the screw on her back, and it’s only one of many lovely developments. Sales say this is not a show worth watching, and we vehemently disagree, which is why Nichijou has earned our Most Underrated Award!

Mawaru, or Spinning, PenguinDrum is an aptly-named show. It leaves our heads spinning after every episode. Get it? No, we don’t get the show either. What is the PenguinDrum? What is fate? Why are those penguins so funny, darn it, and where can we buy plushies?

The ride’s been frustrating, crazy, and fun, and we’re not sure if the show will ever reward our efforts and answer those questions. But we do know PenguinDrum has rewarded us already, not with answers, but with the theories, the gags, the fabulous max. And so, we award it with our Best Ongoing Show. Keep spinning, PenguinDrum, and we’ll tumble with you.

Steins;Gate

Could it have been anything else? This is the show that kept us waiting with bated breath, then subsequently took our breath away. This is the show that turned a harem set-up into a harem fake-out and made mad scientists cool. Sonuvabitch, thank you for the YouTube clips. Thank you for Christina and Tutturi and, most of all, Okarin. Thank you for Suzuha in that battle suit; sure, she didn’t do much fighting, but she did enough with our fantasies that it worked out anyway.

And in that vein, thank you for igniting our imagination and passion. Only Madoka has created more fanboying and fangirling in the anime blogosphere this year. So thanks for the good times and your twists and turns, Steins;Gate. We’re thrilled to announce you as our Best Summer Show.

And that’s it for the lovely season of summer. We’d mourn, but with the coming of autumn/fall comes amazing anime, and that’s something to celebrate. Still, we hope you liked our review of the Dr. Pepper and the penguins, the glory and the trainwrecks. Voting was, as always, ridiculously close. So, what do you think? Were the rightful winners honored here? Did they at least get an honorable mention?

Finally, credit must be given to all the fanart artists who drew the raw pictures. Bass, as usual, sprinkled these stunning graphics with his Photoshop magic, but no, we didn’t draw any of these.

Thanks for reading! Look forward to autumn/fall!