Best of 2011 in Anime
In the United States, 2011 was the year of the animated sequel (Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Hoodwinked 2, etc.) And many of the year’s best anime releases were also sequels, continuations or reworkings of familiar properties. But the re- imagined stories were often improvements on the original. Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) would be high on anyone’s list of the best series of the last decade. But the more recent Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, which follows the original manga more closley, boasts a more emotionally charged story and flashier special effects. The characters and storylines in many of this year’s best anime may be familiar, but the filmmakers have racheted everything up a notch—or in some cases, several notches.
1. Summer Wars (Blu-ray | DVD )
Director Mamoru Hosoda skillfully juxtaposes the brightly colored CG cyber-realm of Oz with drawn everyday reality in this sci-fi fantasy. But the two worlds are intimately linked. Über-nerd and teenage math wiz Kenji has to defeat a renegade AI program in one and cope with the large, fractious family of his pretty classmate Natsuki in the other. The skillful blend of romance, comedy, action, drama and disparate visual styles in Summer Wars marks Hosoda as one of the most interesting directors currently working in Japan. (Although it had a short theatrical release in America in 2010, Summer Wars made its video debut in 2011.)
2. & 3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Part Four (Blu-ray | DVD )
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Part Five ( Blu-ray | DVD
Fullmetal Alchemist was an excellent series, but it was completed before manga artist Hiromu Arakawa had envisioned her story’s outcome. Brotherhood, which follows the plot of the manga more closely, is even better. During the solar eclipse on the Promised Day, the "Father" of the Homunculi plans to activate a country-wide transmutation circle, killing untold thousands to create an enormous Philosopher's Stone--and activate the "Mannequin Army," a corps of deathless zombies. The Elric Brothers and their allies strive to thwart his machinations. The climactic battles are spectacular, but the emotional impact overshadows the visuals. Edward and Alphonse discover how just much they’re willing to sacrifice for each other in the appropriately dramatic and moving conclusion.
4. Neon Genesis Evangelion Movie 2.22 You Can [Not] Advance (Blu-ray | DVD)
In the second installment in his four-feature retelling of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno diverges further from the original storyline--and pushes the visual boundaries of his epic. The cinematography is more imaginative, the animation more polished and special effects more striking. The prismatic colors, thunderous explosions and eerie lighting in the final battle show that like the original TV series, Anno's new vision will be influencing artists on both sides of the Pacific for years to come.
5 & 6. Eden of the East: The King of Eden (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
Eden of the East: Paradise Lost (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
Although they were released a year apart, the Eden of the East theatrical features form a single story. In The King of Eden, Saki searches New York for Takizawa, who vanished at the end of the series. Takizawa and Saki return to Japan to end the game Mr. Outside created involving the 12 special agents known as Seleçaos in Paradise Lost. The theme of Eden of the East, the need for young people to revitalize the faltering spirit and economy of Japan, seems prescient in light of the reports of young Japanese volunteering in record numbers to assist in the cleanup of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Director Kenji Kamiyama brings the Eden of the East saga to a conclusion that feels appropriate yet remains ambiguous.
7. Bleach the Movie: Fade to Black (Blu-ray | DVD)
The most exciting and engaging of the theatrical features based on Tite Kubo’s best-selling manga, Fade to Black packs a stronger emotional punch than Memories of Nobody and offers more spectacular battles than Diamond Dust Rebellion. The result is a high energy yet moving film that will delight fans of the long- running Bleach series
8. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (Blu-ray | DVD) Disappearance reunites the characters (and crew and voice cast) of the popular series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in an extended and suitably offbeat adventure that has a darker tone than the often farcical TV series. Directors Tatsuya Ishihara and Yasuhiro Takemoto build the suspense skillfully, playing on Kyon’s (and the viewer’s) uncertainties. Disappearance is at least 15 minutes too long and suffers from multiple endings: It’s a good film, but if the artists had tightened the story and ended it more surely, it could have been a great one.
9. Trigun: Badlands Rumble (Blu-ray | DVD)
More than a decade after the Trigun broadcast series debuted (1998), Vash the Stampede is back. Although bullets fly, Vash keeps people from being killed, even when it means facing down his old friend Nicholas Wolfwood. Meryl, Millie and red-haired bounty Amelia add to the drama and the comedy. When the smoke finally clears and the credits roll, Vash learns that every throw of the dice can have greater consequences then he’d realized.
10. Transformers Japanese Collection: Headmasters (DVD)
In 1987, the toy company Takara and the Toei studio began producing an alternate version of Transformers, featuring characters and storylines geared to the Japanese market—that has never been released in America. The familiar Autobots and Decepticons are replaced by a new corps of robots who turn into tanks, helicopters, etc. However, the basic elements of the storyline remain the same: friendships are forged, battles are fought, allegiances shift, threats appear, and good robots triumph over bad ones. The animation is extremely limited, the Japanese voice actors chew the scenery, and the direction repeats many of the clichés of ‘80s Saturday morning kidvid. But for viewers who grew up on Transformers, Headmasters offers an enticing blend of nostalgia and new adventures.
In addition, two reissues warrant special mention:
Mobile Suit Gundam: Complete Collection 1: Anime Legends
Yoshiyuki Tomino’s landmark Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) launched a continuity that’s lasted more than three decades—and revolutionized the mecha genre with its anthropomorphic robots that are part space suit, part space ship, and part samurai armor. When his home satellite is attacked, teen-ager Amuro Ray stumbles into the cockpit of the top secret weapon, the Gundam Mobile Suit RX-78—and becomes a hero in spite of himself. Although it often feel old-fashioned, Gundam is still a landmark series, and this reissue includes the original Japanese dialogue for the first time.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
Hayao Miyazaki gained widespread attention in Japan for his complex fantasy manga series, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1982), which he adapted for the screen two years later. In it, he began to explore elements he would develop more fully in his later films: daring, compassionate heroines; exciting flying sequences; colorful side characters; strong interpersonal relationships; and a call for an ecological sanity. Although Nausicaä was only his second feature, Miyazaki was already an assured and strikingly original director. - -Charles Solomon
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HENRY ROLLINS: The reason why I come and do voiceover, for animation or documentary or whatever, is because I'm really not suited for it. And so I have to somehow pass myself off as someone who can actually pull this off. It makes me work really hard, and I love the challenge. I've been in a lot of films, and yet I’ve never taken an acting lesson. I've done a lot of voiceovers for all kinds of things, and I've never taken any lessons there. I've just shown up with a whole lot of enthusiasm, a great fear of failure, and a desire to please the people who have somehow trusted me to do the work. I come from the minimum wage working world of the late '70s, early '80s, so stuff like this, to me, is gravy. It is so not standing on my feet, carrying something to the back of a truck. I know how to do all of that. Many of us do. So, for me, it's just a really fun thing. There's pressure certainly to perform – not the same pressure that I take out on stage every night, when there's a lot of people who are there to hear me or see me. The voiceover thing, in order to be good at it, you have to have a laugh at yourself. I mean, you're doing funny voices. We're larger than life here. So you have to throw your seriousness away and be able to laugh at yourself. You have to throw out your ego. The more I do it, the more I realize that you have to approach it that way – and then you get super involved in the moment. I think that's what the job requires. You have to think “Oh, no, here comes the meteor storm. We’ve got to go.” When I'm doing something like that, believe me, I'm really in that moment. When you can throw away your self-importance and have fun with it, that’s when you really deliver.”
We took votes, we debated those votes, we butted heads. But in the end, all that's left standing is the Amazon.com Movies & TV editors' picks for the 
