Here we are, coming up on the end of yet another year. Another notch in the grand ticking clock of life. On the whole I think we can call this year “pretty good.” There weren’t any huge surprises, in either direction, but overall things seemed to go well. So what earned my awards this year? Read on to find out!

BEST NEW SERIES

There really weren’t any huge standout new series this year, but I guess I’d have to give it to DRRRRRR. It was a fun ride, and the twist ending of Dullahan actually being an advance AI manifesting a holographic projection was really clever. To be expected from the people who brought us Baccano!, I suppose. I also quite enjoyed the cameos from the Baccano! characters–no reason for them not to be a shared world. I realize a few people found it distracting, but they were only there for a handful of scenes, and didn’t do anything significant.

BEST CONTINUING SERIES

Fullmetal Alchemist, no question. The finales (in both animated and manga form) were just as spectacular as we’d all been hoping. The month-long hiatus from the anime to give the manga time to get that last chapter out was perfectly fine (and well-timed, set to the actual in-story timeskip!) and thoroughly preferable to filler. Unsurprisingly, the english dub is also pretty good, and has garnered absurd amounts of critical praise and so on. Whoo!

BEST MOVIE

There were some pretty solid movies this year, with Evangelion 3.0 taking the series in a RADICALLY new direction, but I’m going to have to give this to the second Eden of the East movie. (Yes, those are both technically continuing series. Go fuck yourself.) It did a brilliant job of tying up all the loose ends, and left everyone who watched it with a lot to think about. There’s a reason it inspired so many introspective blog posts.

BEST BLOG (overall)

I’m going to have to give this one to 21stcenturydigitalboy. He’s really stepped up his game this year, holding to his various promises and ideas. He started off the year right by finishing off his Don’t F This Up series, and carried that momentum in an almost-daily string of posts on anything and everything. He didn’t break any new ground, and the majority of his posts weren’t particularly memorable, but overall this was a very solid year for digiboy.

MOST INTERESTING BLOG

The OEG! These guys set out to stir up trouble, and boy did they succeed. The eventual reveal that it was actually LovelyKitsune (the original LK!) and Baka-Raptor working together wasn’t a huge surprise, but it didn’t diminish from their goals. They haven’t been entirely successful, as there are still assloads of people claiming to be “true otaku,” but they certainly made everyone think.

SADDEST ANIBLOGGING MOMENT

Lelangir getting hit by a car. As we all know, he’s recovering, and according to his recent posts should even get functionality back in his legs eventually, but… seriously. Our hearts all go out for him.

HAPPIEST ANIBLOGGING MOMENT

Nothing topped the birth of BusterBeamSlice. Ghostlightning kicked the year off right, with an incredibly adorable baby. Ongoing congratulations to him for everything!

So overall, this wasn’t a half-bad year. We had some fun new series, some good endings to old ones. The occasional spat of aniblog dramu, but nothing we couldn’t handle. The industry is fairly stable, and con attendance continues to rise. It looks like next year could be another fun year, with things continuing their gradual upwards slope! So here’s to that, kids! To 2011!

.lolikappa