Best anime of the decade 2001-2010

[CromagnonMan]

Another vote for Ghost in the Shell : SAC.

Though im not a big anime watcher as its just too time consuming to watch all those 50 episode series. but GITS SAC was worth the effort.

Wasnt too keen on 2nd Gig personally.

Cowboy Bebop just missed out on being in this last decade.

[jesse_custer]

The Cowboy Bebop film would count, though.

[Ghost]

IMHO I think Miyazaki's last period of greatness was the previous decade, ending with Princess Mononoke. Spirited Away and Howl's are brilliantly animated and are ok for the first watch, but I don't think they manage the same level of timeless, "I could watch this again and again" feeling that his earlier works reached.

It is very, very hard top Mononoke.

That said, Spirited Away is a beautiful story, and while my first impression of Howl was a bit reserved, I actually found myself liking it more and more as I rewatched it. Today it's easily in my top five of Miyazaki's work.

I consider Princess Mononoke a misfire, the point where Miyazaki started to resemble a boring, preachy old man.

Hence, I am quite thankful for Spirited Away and Ponyo. (I could take or leave Howl's Moving Castle.)

You know, I find that Miyazaki's movies are kinda like Terry Pratchett's books, in that everyone seems to have their own particular combinations of favorites and disfavorites.

It's probably the mark of a great creator when his work so diversely appeals to people of such varying taste.

Biggest let down of the last decade: Tales From Earthsea. Goro Miyazaki proves he's not ready to take over from his old man.

Haven't seen that one, actually. Though, my brother claims it's actually not that bad, and apparently very close to the original novel, IIRC.

[Aziz Abbasi]

Bleach is what I can think of mostly
Naruto follows

Oh, and Sword of the Stranger, which still needs more respect.

That is one great movie, glad it got a mention

[sun tzu]

A vote for Death Note from me (I'm more a fan of the manga than the anime, though).
With highly honorable mentions going to Monster and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan.

[jesse_custer]

You know, I find that Miyazaki's movies are kinda like Terry Pratchett's books, in that everyone seems to have their own particular combinations of favorites and disfavorites.

It's probably the mark of a great creator when his work so diversely appeals to people of such varying taste.

Miyazaki reminds me of Spielberg in this regard.

[Pong]

IMHO I think Miyazaki's last period of greatness was the previous decade, ending with Princess Mononoke. Spirited Away and Howl's are brilliantly animated and are ok for the first watch, but I don't think they manage the same level of timeless, "I could watch this again and again" feeling that his earlier works reached.

I strongly disagree with the notion. Spirited away and Howl moving castle are the best Miyazaki movies.

[zomg]

In no particular order: Monster, Twelve Kingdoms, Aria, 5 cm per second (movie), Eve no Jikan, Planetes and Seirei no Moribito.

I'm disappointed that I'm the first to mention Seirei no Moribito, that series was an absolute gem.

[Robotech Master]

In no particular order: Monster, Twelve Kingdoms, Aria, 5 cm per second (movie), Eve no Jikan, Planetes and Seirei no Moribito.

I'm disappointed that I'm the first to mention Seirei no Moribito, that series was an absolute gem.

I'm fond of Seirei no Moribito. It isn't one of my top ten favorites, but it deserves special mention as a high quality piece of anime. I think it might have been stronger if it had been a bit shorter, no longer needing to add filler material to pad out some things, because I think the series only covers one volume, and there wasn't really a need for one book to have 26 episodes. Definitely high quality though.

[Hiromi]

Full Metal Alchemist would be my best long running series that ended within the decade
One Piece would be my best ongoing series that started in the decade
Normal Length Series would be a bit tougher, likely either TTGL or GITS:SAC
OVA I'm going to go with Ultimate Hellsing, even if its still ongoing
Spirited Away would be the easy choice for movie

[FalconX2000]

One Piece technically started in October 1999, but I'd definitely count it as the best anime of 2010.

That said, it has a lot of episodes to do it with and has chronic pacing issues, so pound for pound greatness I'd go with Bakemonogatari. Nothing I've seen in anime comes close to its razor sharp wit and comedy.

IMHO I think Miyazaki's last period of greatness was the previous decade, ending with Princess Mononoke. Spirited Away and Howl's are brilliantly animated and are ok for the first watch, but I don't think they manage the same level of timeless, "I could watch this again and again" feeling that his earlier works reached.

I actually disliked most of Princess Mononoke and loved Spirited Away. Haven't watched Howl's Moving Castle yet though.

[Nik Hasta]

Haven't seen that one, actually. Though, my brother claims it's actually not that bad, and apparently very close to the original novel, IIRC.

The narrative felt like it would've worked in a novel. As a film, not so much.

I've not read the book, so I imagine that hurt my experience a bit since a lot of stuff wasn't really gone into properly, but to me the characters were boring and flat, the plot didn't seem to have any sort of direction or ever achieved any kind of pace beyond hopelessly meandering through scenes that didn't really contribute much of anything and nothing really gets resolved at the end which just kind of left me going "Yes... and?" rather than with a sense of resolution.

Also the art style was also a bit... too clean, you know? A lot of heavy and obvious CG, everything seemed kind of glossy and unreal for my tastes.

In Ponyo they scaled it back again to more the sort of level of Spirited Away in terms of cleanliness which is a good optimum level in my opinion.

[Ghost]

I'm disappointed that I'm the first to mention Seirei no Moribito, that series was an absolute gem.

Been meaning to watch that one, just never got around to it.

Haven't watched Howl's Moving Castle yet though.

Like I said, I found it was a movie that drastically improved with a rewatch or two.

The narrative felt like it would've worked in a novel. As a film, not so much.

I've not read the book, so I imagine that hurt my experience a bit since a lot of stuff wasn't really gone into properly, but to me the characters were boring and flat, the plot didn't seem to have any sort of direction or ever achieved any kind of pace beyond hopelessly meandering through scenes that didn't really contribute much of anything and nothing really gets resolved at the end which just kind of left me going "Yes... and?" rather than with a sense of resolution.

Also the art style was also a bit... too clean, you know? A lot of heavy and obvious CG, everything seemed kind of glossy and unreal for my tastes.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that.

Guess I'll just get a hold of it and see for myself.

In Ponyo they scaled it back again to more the sort of level of Spirited Away in terms of cleanliness which is a good optimum level in my opinion.

Ponyo also had hand-drawn backgrounds. I wasn't very impressed with the story - mainly because it felt as if it was building up to a much bigger payoff that we actually got - but it was definitely a very pretty movie.

[jesse_custer]

I didn't feel like there was much of a build-up at all with Ponyo. It was a very simple, unpretentious, kooky movie.

[Robotech Master]

The narrative felt like it would've worked in a novel. As a film, not so much.

I've not read the book, so I imagine that hurt my experience a bit since a lot of stuff wasn't really gone into properly, but to me the characters were boring and flat, the plot didn't seem to have any sort of direction or ever achieved any kind of pace beyond hopelessly meandering through scenes that didn't really contribute much of anything and nothing really gets resolved at the end which just kind of left me going "Yes... and?" rather than with a sense of resolution.

Also the art style was also a bit... too clean, you know? A lot of heavy and obvious CG, everything seemed kind of glossy and unreal for my tastes.

In Ponyo they scaled it back again to more the sort of level of Spirited Away in terms of cleanliness which is a good optimum level in my opinion.

I've only read Wizard of Earthsea, which is basically Earthsea's equivalent of the Hobbit, but I guess Tales of Earthsea probably tries to incorporate stuff from the whole series. If it had just been "wizard", there would have been a clear resolution and stopping point.

On an interesting note, Ursula K Le Guin herself said of the movie that it was Ok, but it was definitely moreso his story than it was hers, with a number of different things happening--so while she wasn't exactly thrilled, she didn't seem to give it the scathing review like she did the Sci-fi miniseries. She also said that Miyazaki (Senior) should have stayed retired and stopped making movies.