“What’s your favorite anime” is always a tough question, but I have finally decided on at least my top four (almost top 5…):

1. Hikaru no Go – An amazing story about the world’s oldest board game. I love the characters and the fact that you get to see them grow and progress through the 75 episodes.
2. Ookiku Furikabutte (“Oofuri”, aka Big Windup!) – In real life, I couldn’t care less about baseball, but this show is spectacular. I feel closer to the characters in this series than any other I’ve ever watched–and who knew baseball could provide edge-of-your-seat thrills to a non-fan?
3. Senkō no Night Raid (aka Night Raid 1931) – This short 2010 series is set in Shanghai and Manchuria in the critical interwar years when Japan was building her empire. The backgrounds, setting and little details are superb–think Art Deco meets Far East. The characters are great and put an interesting twist on the show’s incredibly rich historical context.
4. Higashi no Eden (aka Eden of the East) – A fascinating story with plenty of mystery, intrigue and suspense, not to mention likable characters and a really interesting visual style.

By the way, the other picture in the banner is another show I like a lot, Katanagatari (I’ve only seen the first half so far, so can’t say it’s a favorite yet…). This is merely the tip of a very large iceberg, and I could go on at considerable length about the dozens of series and hundreds of episodes I’ve seen.

Here’s a link to my own Anime website (which I don’t update often enough and which I will soon be shutting down in favor of moving it all to this WordPress blog).