Without a doubt this year’s Secret Santa built on the success we had last year and was even more stressful than we could have possibly imagined. We tripled the number of participants and thankfully we did not have to pick shows for anyone like we did last year. The big winners this year were Dennou Coil and Baccano! that were not only picked more than any other series but both of them got universally positive reviews. We also got a decent amount of reviews of Satoshi Kon movies which is a great acknowledgment of his contributions even though he is sadly no longer with us. Other than that the rest of the mix is very eclectic with everything from mecha and harem to slice-of-life and romance; it is a tribute to the diversity of the medium and the people in the blogosphere.
The Secret Santa Stats:
- 60 Participants
- 65 Reviews in total
- 5 Reviews still have not come in
- 56 Different shows reviewed
Dennou Coil – 4 reviews
Baccano! – 3 reviews
Ah! My Goddess TV – 2 reviews
Kino’s Journey – 2 reviews
Kurenai – 2 reviews
Tokyo Godfathers – 2 reviews
.hack//Sign, 5 Centimetres Per Second, Aoi Bungaku, Armor Hunter Mellowlink, Asatte no Houkou, Bakemonogatari, Bamboo Blade, Bartender, Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Black Lagoon, Bokurano: Ours, Bungaku Shoujo, Cowboy Bebop, Cromartie High School, Dead Leaves, Fate/Stay Night, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, Haibane Renmei, Hatenkou Yugi, I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, Inukami!, Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, Kaiba, Last Exile, Le Chevalier d’Eon, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Now and Then, Here and There, Pale Cocoon, Pani Poni Dash!, Paprika, Patlabor: The Movie, Perfect Blue, REC, Roujin Z, SaiKano, Saki, Seirei no Moribito, Seraphim Call, Seto no Hanayome, Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed, Shigurui: Death Frenzy, Simoun, Sketchbook: ~Full Color’s~, Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, The Sea Prince and the Fire Child, Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Welcome to the NHK
As a bonus we also gathered together all entries we had for the 2010 Holiday Giveaway. To win our collection of fabulous prizes we asked readers to tell us what anime or manga license they are hoping to see in 2011. Hisui made an easy to read master list to see what titles were most popular and to look at any major trends in our little sampling of the desires of fandom. Notice that NisiOisiN was a bigger winner with overwhelming support for Bakemonogatari and Katanagatari. But the Noitamina block was the biggest winner of them all. While most unlicensed Noitamina shows only got one or two votes almost all the U.S. friendly titles were voted for by someone.
Holiday Giveaway Stats:
Bakemonogatari 4 votes
Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto 3 votes
Time of Eve 3 votes
Dennou Coil 2 votes
Detroit Metal City 2 votes
Flying Trapeze 2 votes
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 2 votes
Katanagatari 2 votes
Mononoke 2 votes
Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture 2 votes
Natume Yuujinchou 2 votes
Nodame Cantabile 2 votes
Angel Beats!, Cross Game, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, Kaguyahime, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Kaze to Ki no Uta, Kodomo no Jikan, Letter Bee, Mind Game, My Girl, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Princess Knight, Sailor Fuku ni Onegai!, Saint Young Men, Sket Dance, Souten Kouro, The Story of Saiunkoku S2, Umineko no Naku Koro ni
And now the part you have all been waiting for. The Secret Santas are revealed, the ancient conspiracy is foiled, and the destined couple finally consummate their relationship. This is the master list of all the participants, what they reviewed, and who gave them their recommendations. I know that several people are not going to finish on time because of various mishaps during the holiday season. So I will do my best to update this list at least once a day as reviews come in. Hopefully everyone watched something a bit unexpected and maybe learned something new about the range and scope of anime. Other than that Happy Holidays and I wish you and yours the best of luck in the upcoming year.
