Fall 2010 Season in Review – Fashionably Late

I was a little late in finishing up my reviews for this past season, so forgive the lateness of the awards post. This was a much stronger season than the last, with some strong shows in every category. We still couldn’t agree on a clear winner for best show, mostly because I have yet to finish Shiki and Katanagatari’s ending was such a letdown. So, without further ado, here are our picks for the season.

Yosuga no Sora Episodes 5 through 12 – Someone’s Dark, Twisted Fantasy

When I last left the anime adaptation of erotic dating game Yosuga no Sora, my interest was at an all-time low. A poorly though out story arc combined with a staggeringly unnecessary and exploitative sex scene all combined to make me lose interest in writing about the show.

But, as you can see, I kept watching the thing, even though the next arc was just more of the same. I kept at because I had a feeling that there would be one moment that would make the whole miserable endeavor worthwhile.

And finally, in the tenth episode, I found that moment.

Yosuga no Sora Episodes 3 and 4 – Fade to Gray

I don’t know why I keep getting my hopes up, thinking that a show will somehow rise above the torrent of cliches and sheer lack of creativity that mires the industry in lookalikes, shamelessly following whatever trend seems to be profitable.

It seems like every show dangles a hook, promising something unique or well-told, only to pull it away and replace it will the same tedious pablum after two or three episodes. It’s the rare show that manages to do anything but repeat the same elements of every other anime, like a dull and repetitive remix of a song you know could be so much better.

You soon realize that you have seen everything there is: beyond the rare and blessed exception, there will be nothing new, just a relentless parade of the same individual elements. Oh look, an unspeakably wealthy girl with a klutzy maid. Oh look, seemingly tragic melodrama resolved with a shocking revelation that actually surprises no one. Oh look, a beach episode.

Yosuga no Sora Episodes 1 and 2 – Kissing Siblings

One of the unfortunate things about otaku demographics is that most of the shows dealing with love and relationships are either romantic comedies or based on visual novels. Even if they aren’t pornographic in content, visual novels about romance tend to be relationship pornography, more about satisfying the reader’s desire to attain some generic vision of an unattainable beauty than telling an effective or moving story about a relationship.

This leads to a necessarily skewed view of relationships in anime, to the point where it makes sense that many otaku seek the palliative comforts of the 2D world to the exclusion of (or because of failed attempts at) relationships with girls that are multi-dimensional in more than one way.