Best New Anime of 2009 Tournament Results
Top-10 Best New Anime of 2009 (Extrapolated Standings):
1. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
2. Fairy Tail
3. Inuysaha -Final Act-
4. Gundam 00 2nd Season
5. K-On
6. Queen’s Blade
7. Spice and Wolf 2nd Season
8. Kampfer
9. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
10. Sora no Otoshimono
Last year I picked my top-10 favorite new anime of 2008, but I haven't been keeping up with all the new anime this year, so I decided to run a poll instead. As expected, it largely ended up being the more popular, well-known, big-name series winning, rather than the better ones--some of these series probably received votes from people who never watched them but were just familiar with the franchise.
The Shounen-anime took the first half, while the Moe-anime took the second half of the top 10. FMA: Brotherhood deserves the top-spot, despite them wasting so many episodes redoing stuff they already did in the first anime (frankly, I liked a lot of the changes they made from the manga in the first anime, minus all the filler). The Fairy Tail anime has been anticipated for a long time and so won the number-2 spot, and though I love seeing another long-running shounen-anime finally appear, it's just not that great of a series (I'm up to date on the manga). The series has no overarching nemesis / plot, the overall storyline never progresses, the series doesn't take itself seriously, Hiro Mashima (the mangaka author) exercises no forethought, etc. Personally, I'd definitely put Umineko no Naku Koro ni at number 2, but apparently no one watched that series, since it didn't even make it into the top 10. (I'll talk about them both more later.)
Read more for more details.
These are the details of the individual polls taken--only the top 2 or 3 from each round survived to the next round in the tournament. I could've done a better job (like changing the polls at more regular intervals, instead of random intervals, resulting in large fluctuations in the total number of votes for each poll, and in the semi-final round I should have made the poll consist of 5 - 5 - 5 competitors, instead of the unbalanced 6 - 5 - 4 competitors), but I don't think that influenced the final results at all.
Poll 758 (December 26th – 31st, 2009)
How much do you know about new anime series in Japan?
I know about all of them!: 312 (4.4%)
I know about most of them: 1,146 (16%)
I have a vague idea: 1,829 (25.5%)
I’m still watching anime series from a year or two back: 993 (13.9%)
I only care about big-name series (Naruto, One Piece, etc.): 2,491 (34.8%)
I’ve never heard of them: 389 (5.4%)
Total Votes: 7,160
So roughly only about 20% of our visitors will be making an informed vote. Oh well, I imagine presidential elections run on less...
Preliminary Rounds:
Poll 762 (January 15th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 1)
Aika Zero: 73 (1.5%)
Asura Cryin’: 139 (2.8%)
Bakemonogatari: 365 (7.5%)
Canaan: 92 (1.9%)
Darker than Black 2: 497 (10.1%)
Fairy Tail: 1,632 (33.3%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 2,099 (42.9%)
Total Votes: 4,897
Winners:
-Fairy Tail
-Darker than Black 2
-Bakemonogatari
No one has heard of the other series apparently, even though I talked about Aika Zero on the main page and posted screencaps for it for god’s sake!!. Lol, so much for that...
Poll 763 (January 16th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 2)
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: 1,385 (48.5%)
Guin Saga: 25 (0.9%)
Gundam 00 2: 373 (13.1%)
Hatsukoi Gentai: 9 (0.3%)
Hayate the Combat Butler 2: 170 (6%)
Hetalia: Axis Powers 2: 70 (2.5%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 824 (28.9%)
Total Votes: 2,856
Winners:
-Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
-Gundam 00 2
-Hayate the Combat butler 2
I’m amazed at how few votes the random little series got, I mean, Hatsukoi got 9 votes, less than a third of a percent. Wow, just wow--why did I even bother including it?
Poll 764 (January 17th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 3)
Inuyasha –Final Act-: 1,522 (30.1%)
K-On: 770 (15.2%)
Kampfer: 658 (13%)
Koihime Musou: 87 (1.7%)
Minami-Ke 2: 82 (1.6%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 1,937 (38.3%)
Total Votes: 5,056
Winners:
-Inuyasha –Final Act-
-K-On
-Kampfer
Kampfer did surprisingly well too—is it really that popular? Koihime Musou and Minami-Ke did predictably horrible, as you’d expect from contentless-moe-trash anime like them.
Poll 765 (January 18th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 4)
Needless: 230 (11.6%)
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 2: 81 (4.1%)
Pandora Hearts: 153 (7.7%)
Princess Lover: 162 (8.2%)
Queen’s Blade: 313 (15.8%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 1,047 (52.7%)
Total Votes: 1,986
Winners:
-Queen’s Blade
-Needless
I’m surprised at how good the losers did though compared to some other series—normally you’d expect them to get something like only 2 – 3% of the vote. I know a lot of people like Needless--too bad there are no doujins for it.
Poll 766 (January 19th – 20th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 5)
Sacred Blacksmith: 408 (10.4%)
Saki: 170 (4.3%)
Sengoku Basara: 327 (8.3%)
Sora no Otoshimono: 485 (12.4%)
Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo: 44 (1.1%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 2,489 (63.4%)
Total Votes: 3,923
Winners:
-Sora no Otoshimono
-Sacred Blacksmith
Wow, I didn’t see that coming! Man, the series I liked the most and thought would be more popular (Sora wo Kekeru Shoujo, Saki, and Sengoku Basara) did poorly, while some random series I’m not familiar with won? Wow…
Poll 767 (January 21st, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 6)
Spice and Wolf 2: 338 (18.8%)
Fresh Pretty Cure: 37 (2.1%)
Tears to Tiara: 65 (3.6%)
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun: 204 (11.3%)
Tower of Druaga 2: 131 (7.3%)
Umineko no Naku Koro Ni: 128 (7.1%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 895 (49.8%)
Total Votes: 1,798
Winners:
-Spice and Wolf 2
-To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Aww, Umineko lost. I guess Spice and Wolf became pretty popular after the first season.
Second Rounds:
Poll 768 (January 22nd – 23rd, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 7)
Bakemonogatari: 346 (6.3%)
Darker than Black 2: 388 (7.1%)
Fairy Tail: 1,427 (26%)
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: 1,742 (31.7%)
Gundam 00 2: 528 (9.6%)
Hayate the Combat Butler 2: 236 (4.3%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 824 (15%)
Total Votes: 5,491
Winners:
-Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
-Fairy Tail
Poll 769 (January 24th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 8)
Inuyasha –Final Act-: 1,384 (27.8%)
K-On: 771 (15.5%)
Kampfer: 609 (12.2%)
Needless: 401 (8%)
Queen’s Blade: 581 (11.7%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 1,236 (24.8%)
Total Votes: 4,982
Winners:
-Inuyasha –Final Act-
-K-On
Poll 770 (January 26th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (round 9)
Sacred Blacksmith: 333 (9.2%)
Sora no Otoshimono: 404 (11.2%)
Spice and Wolf 2: 645 (17.9%)
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun: 410 (11.4%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 1,814 (50.3%)
Total Votes: 3,606
Winners:
-Spice and Wolf 2
-To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Final Rounds:
Poll 771 (January 27th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (semi-final round)
Fairy Tail: 1231 (30%)
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: 1,370 (33.4%)
Inuyasha –Final Act-: 409 (10%)
K-On: 286 (7%)
Spice and Wolf 2: 248 (6%)
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun: 159 (3.9%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 398 (9.7%)
Total Votes:
Winners:
-Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
-Fairy Tail
Poll 772 (January 28th, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (loser’s circle)
Gundam 00 2: 679 (21.3%)
K-On: 385 (12.1%)
Kampfer: 296 (9.3%)
Queen’s Blade: 346 (10.9%)
Sora no Otoshimono: 209 (6.6%)
Spice and Wolf 2: 315 (9.9%)
I’m not familiar with any of those: 954 (30%)
Total Votes: 3,184
Poll 773 (January 29th – 31st, 2010)
Favorite new anime of 2009? (final round)
Fairy Tail: 1,863 (29.4%)
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: 2,533 (39.9%)
What? But they both suck!: 485 (7.6%)
They’re good, but not as good as (insert new anime here)!: 845 (13.3%)
I dunno: 619 (9.8%)
Total Votes: 6,345
Only about 21% of our visitors expressed discontent with the final two.
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