The Best and Worst of 2008....

[taksraven]

The Best and Worst of 2008

Here we go, the list of lists for this year. Even though we still have a few weeks to go its time that we started to pick 2008 apart. Feel free to disagree with me and feel free to add your own choices. So, lets have some fun with this.

Best Anime Series – Macross Frontier – Without a doubt. Despite some whiney criticism of this series, all in all there is nothing wrong with it. Lots of mecha porn, cool action, romance, lots of mystery to keep us guessing, a brilliant soundtrack, interesting characters and most importantly, lots of fun. A fine addition to the Macross Saga, here’s to the next 25 years.

Worst Anime Series – Ok, a bit of a confession. I have not taken the time to watch any other anime series this year. (so maybe its unfair that I consider MF to be the best anime, but I don’t care, nyaaah!) So fill in your own worst here.

Best Anime Film – Rebuild of Evangelion: 01 – Its been a great year for Evangelion fans and next year promises to be even better. A great film that enhanced the first part of the Evangelion story. It shows how remakes SHOULD be done. Lets hope that the rest of the films in this series meet our expectations.

Worst Anime Film – Um, see worst Anime series and substitute ‘film’, sorry.

Best Non-Anime TV series – Media Watch 2008 – A series only available in Australia (unless you watch it online at www.abc.net.au ) It was the only show on TV that I watched on a regular basis all year. Great stuff, as always.

Worst Non-Anime TV series – Dr Who 4th series – Ok, not really the worst but certainly the most disappointing. Some of it was ok but overall it was a very downbeat effort. The last two episodes really sucked, with the cast of thousands not helping. A very poor finale compared to the previous ones.

Best Non-Anime Film – The Dark Knight – I personally think that this movie had more flaws in it than a lot of critics and fans were willing to admit, bit it was still a great film and easily the best one of 2008. Great direction and good performances all round, even if it did seem that some cast members had to struggle for enough screen time (one of the films major flaws) but the pencil trick was great.

Worst Non-Anime Film – Cloverfield – If I want to watch a bunch of preening, narcissistic morons do stupid things I will go to work where at least I will get paid to see it happen, rather than pay to see it in a cinema. It might have been a great idea on paper but on the screen it was a huge letdown.

Best Album – The combined Macross Frontier soundtrack was the best music I heard this year, simply awesome.

Worst Album – Chinese Democracy – More of a disappointment rather than the worst album. Few were surprised that after such a loooooonnnnngggggg time in the works that the album turned out to be overblown and overproduced. Maybe if it had been released the better part of a decade earlier, people would have been more impressed. My advice to Axl, start writing now and release your next album in 18 months. I would bet any money that the results should be more impressive.

Best Game – Fallout 3 – Finally a game that lives up to the hype.

Worst Game – Lost – What a bunch of crap.

Honourable Mentions – Shoji Kawamori, Yoko Kanno and everybody else whose input went into Macross Frontier. Also, Shawn & Graham, all their mods and everybody else who has contributed to make this website and forum fantastic. And finally, thanks to Mr March for his website, an invaluable resource of Macross info.

Dishonourable Mention – All those in Hollywood who think it’s a good idea to take great films and make unnecessary remakes. Please stop it. Also, those in Australia who are trying to introduce and implement the national internet censorship scheme. If successfully implemented it will mean that Australia will be either the third of fourth country in the world to have ALL of its internet content screened by Big Brother. It has been estimated that download speeds could be slowed up to 80%.

A sobering thought for all Australians to contemplate this holiday season.

Taksraven

[Ghost Train]

I don't feel I have enough time to comment on best/worse anime stuff. This year I only kept track of Bleach, M. Frontier, Geass, and Gundam 00. I'd say Code Geass deserves either the Best or Worst award simply because the story progression is so wacky... or at least a mention somewhere.

The one category where I disagree with you is Cloverfield. I think the viral campaign really over-hyped it, but attempting to do something semi-novel (yea yea blair witch, but Cloverfield is much more refined) gets points on my book. I wouldn't rate this as the best movie either though. My top film picks are either Dark Night or Bond.

[taksraven]

The one category where I disagree with you is Cloverfield. I think the viral campaign really over-hyped it, but attempting to do something semi-novel (yea yea blair witch, but Cloverfield is much more refined) gets points on my book. I wouldn't rate this as the best movie either though. My top film picks are either Dark Night or Bond.

I think that Spielbergs War of the Worlds did a better job in attempting to create much the same effect. (Invasion seen entirely from the viewpoint of the littlepeople, rather than constantly cutting to politicians and soldiers trying to deal with the problem)

Taksraven

[Mr March]

Awww...*sniffle* I feel so loved

I honestly don't watch nearly enough anime to come up with a best or worst list. I have watched several series this year including a dabbling of anime movies, but some of them are really old. For example, only just this year did I actually give the totality of Evangelion a chance (seen parts many times before, never got into it, but became intrigued due to the upcoming movies; end result, the series turned out awful. oh well). I watched Planetes which was good, Macross Frontier which was very good, Afro Samurai, which I didn't like and some Tytania and Gundam 00, neither of which have I watched enough to form an opinion as yet.

Best films this year have been The Dark Knight, There Will Be Blood, and Iron Man. I avoided most of the turkeys this year, so I don't really have a worst list

[ruskiiVFaussie]

I'd have Ironman and Dark Knight equally as first, watching Dark Knight like 5 times on the big screen and only seen Ironman the 1 time might cloud my judgment, i am thinking they should be equal....

I'm like you guys, don't watch enough of anything to make up even 30% of the list.

Macross Frontier being the best anime is a given.

[taksraven]

Macross Frontier being the best anime is a given.

You'd think, but the way that some people got stuck into it.........

Taksraven

[Vostok 7]

I'd have Ironman and Dark Knight equally as first, watching Dark Knight like 5 times on the big screen and only seen Ironman the 1 time might cloud my judgment, i am thinking they should be equal....

I'm like you guys, don't watch enough of anything to make up even 30% of the list.

Macross Frontier being the best anime is a given.

TDK was great, but honestly Iron Man wrote the book for how all superhero movies (that aren't Batman) should be done in the future. It was 126mins of pure awesomeness.

Unfortunately, TDK is going to have a majorly hard time living down the death of Ledger. You can't create such an iconic villain and then write him out of future releases, or even worse, replace him with an actor completely not capable of bringing to the screen what Ledger did. I'm sure anything with Bale as Batman will be good, but it will never be better or even as good as TDK.

Vostok 7

[Uxi]

TDK was better than Iron Man and best non-anime of the year IMO.

As far as Joker, it's best to just leave him in Arkham mayb and not have the next one with him at all. By Bale Batman #4, there will be enough of a gap to try to recast it. Ledger stunk up enough movies that I have a hard time believing he's irreplacable.

[GobotFool]

TDK was better than Iron Man and best non-anime of the year IMO.

As far as Joker, it's best to just leave him in Arkham mayb and not have the next one with him at all. By Bale Batman #4, there will be enough of a gap to try to recast it. Ledger stunk up enough movies that I have a hard time believing he's irreplacable.

I did not get to indulge in much entertainment this year, but this is what I got around to watching.

Best video game: fallout 3, though in fairness, that's about the only one I've played all year.

Best Movies: Wall-E and the Dark Night in that order. Yes, Dark Knight was awesome and great, but Wall-E was a cartoon and still managed to be, for lack of a better word, transcendent in my book

TV: Terminator Sarah Conner Chronicle, not the best, but the most surprisingly good show, or the show I expected to completely suck but actually does not. It has a lot of potential if it manages to not get canceled.

As a fairly avid fan of the New Dr. Who series I gotta half disagree and half agree with TakRavens pick of Dr. Who Season 4 as the worst. Because there were some truly great individual episodes, and a bunch of pretty good ones, mixed in with mediocre to flat out horrid episodes. I think as a writer Russel T. Davis has run out of ideas, so I'm really happy that Moffat will be taking over for the 5th season.

Best of Who Season 4: Silence in the Library, Forest of the dead, and Turn Left were great.

The Library 2 parter: A really creepy and really sad but managed to pull of a rather clever surprise happy ending.

Not unlike The Dr. Dances in that respect, another one written by Moffat.

Turn Left: Really made me feel for Donna as a character and really let us see what she was made of in the end.

Honorable Mentions: Fires of Pompei, Doctors Daughter.

Good stories marred by lackluster supporting actors.

Awe inspireingly mediocre episodes: The Sontaran Stratagem,The Poison Sky, planet of the Ood.Partners in Crime,

Midnight.

All of these episode left me with one reaction, That's it?

Flat out bad: Unicorn and the Wasp.

The season final was acceptable, but it leaned to heavily toward the standard blockbuster mentality of lets

make everything explosive to distract people from noticing that we took a 45 minute story and expanded it into

2 hours.

Yes, I love Dr. Who way to much.

[hal9000]

Ok Macross Frontier Best Anime all year but come on were a little bis.

Best Anime Film Rebuild of Evangelion

Best Video Game hands down Metal Gear Solid 4: The Guns of the Patriots.

Fallout is good MGS is better.

Best Non-Anime TV series The Big Bang Theory / TopGear I can't chose.

The only worst goes to animated movie Wall-E from a technical standpoint it was great they built in lens imperfections for there cameras thats just cool. But a cute old robot that was made because we can't clean up our own mess, Humans become fat and incapable of social interaction. Its a social commentary on the Wal-Mart Mind set that I did not care for but like I said it was pretty to watch. and as one of my favorite comedians likes to say "of course that's just my opinion I could be wrong."

Edited December 8, 2008 by hal9000

[Vostok 7]

The only worst goes to animated movie Wall-E from a technical standpoint it was great they built in lens imperfections for there cameras thats just cool. But a cute old robot that was made because we can't clean up our own mess, Humans become fat and incapable of social interaction. Its a social commentary on the Wal-Mart Mind set that I did not care for but like I said it was pretty to watch. and as one of my favorite comedians likes to say "of course that's just my opinion I could be wrong."

Hit a little close to home, eh? j/k

I didn't mind the social commentary in Wall-E. I'd rather watch a couple hours of getting told we're all fat and inept socially than get a couple hours of "ZOMG, we can't kill ants, they have a whole human-like society!" or other similar ideals Disney tries to cram down our throats. That's probably why I enjoyed Cars and Wall-E so much, because their social commentary was much more palatable to me than the usual drivel Disney pushes.

Vostok 7

[taksraven]

Hit a little close to home, eh? j/k

I didn't mind the social commentary in Wall-E. I'd rather watch a couple hours of getting told we're all fat and inept socially than get a couple hours of "ZOMG, we can't kill ants, they have a whole human-like society!" or other similar ideals Disney tries to cram down our throats. That's probably why I enjoyed Cars and Wall-E so much, because their social commentary was much more palatable to me than the usual drivel Disney pushes.

Vostok 7

Corporations telling US that we are a bunch of fat pigs. I don't think so.

Taksraven

[eugimon]

Corporations telling US that we are a bunch of fat pigs. I don't think so.

Taksraven

yeah, because it wasn't crazed shoppers that killed a guy to score a deal at wal-mart... oh wait.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

TDK was better than Iron Man and best non-anime of the year IMO.

As far as Joker, it's best to just leave him in Arkham mayb and not have the next one with him at all. By Bale Batman #4, there will be enough of a gap to try to recast it. Ledger stunk up enough movies that I have a hard time believing he's irreplacable.

Totally, i'm sure there is another Joker out there that's just itching to have a go at it.

What about Hamel??? He's already got the voice and practice.

Problem is Hedger has set the bar high for the next joker.

Edited December 8, 2008 by ruskiiVFaussie

[Noriko Takaya]

Can I say best of the year for me is finally getting to watch the entire Farscape series from beginning to end? Never saw it until now. I've been locked up in a cave.

[taksraven]

Can I say best of the year for me is finally getting to watch the entire Farscape series from beginning to end? Never saw it until now. I've been locked up in a cave.

How was it, it always looked a little bit too much like a cross between the Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock for me.

Taksraven

[Uxi]

Oh yeah, I put Kung Fu Panda as best animated movie of the year. Love the Blu-ray and have watched that way more times than I thought I would.

[baronv]

My 2cents.

Best Anime Series – Macross Frontier…of course it’s the only Anime I watch. Though the news installment of MS Igloo was good.

Best Non-Anime TV series – Terminator: The Sarah Conners Chronicles. The pace, storyline, acting and various story structures keeps on pumping up even though it is on the bubble for a renewal. Good solid series.

Worst Non-Anime TV series – Heroes. Had a good chance to step-up after a couple ok episodes in the beginning of the season, sadly the storyline is ending up looking like the boring Season 2. I end up playing it in the background now.

Best Non-Anime Film – Iron Man. Just a fun film with no real bad sections that bog down at all. I also did like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, that and the foreign film Mongol were the only DVDs I bought this year.

Worst Non-Anime Film – Meet the Spartans. I’d beat my brains against a rock than see that movie again.

Best Album – Chris Brown. MS Frontier was the one I played the most though.

Best Game – Didn’t play any new games this year, did enjoy the Flash zombie game, The Last Stand and its sequel.

Worst Game – Kinda old, but I bought Need for Speed: Most Wanted for my PS2 (old school that way) and it was totally unbalanced racing against the computer.

Dishonorable Mention – Jacked up prices for little gashapons (gundam character figures and the upcoming Frontier figs) that should cost only $3-$4 going for $9-$15 a piece for little 3” items.

[Uxi]

Totally, i'm sure there is another Joker out there that's just itching to have a go at it.

What about Hamel??? He's already got the voice and practice.

Problem is Hedger has set the bar high for the next joker.

I think Hamel could be a very good choice.

[Noriko Takaya]

How was it, it always looked a little bit too much like a cross between the Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock for me.

Taksraven

Loved it! Henson's company did a good job with the animatronics. I'm just sorry I never caught the series when it was making its original run on television. Now that Sony owns the rights, I'll probably buy it when it comes out on Bluray.

By the way, best anime this year was Macross Frontier. Gurren Lagann came in second.

[akt_m]

I guess it was only me that thought Ironman wasn't that great movie... just a good one..

But batman was awesome.

[Excillon]

Ok, I'm going to chip in here:

Best anime series: Mac Frontier (of course)

Worst anime series: Code Geass. I tried to like it, I really did...

Best anime film : Appleseed Ex machina

Worst anime film: Evangelion rebuild. I love evangelion, I do. I just didn't like this, I thought they should have left it alone. Move forward, don't rehash an already great story.

Best non-anime series: Fringe. Highly addicting, the only series I follow right now. I was worried it was an X Files knock off at first, and while it's not as good, it's the best damn thing on TV right now next to South Park.

Worst non anime series : 24 redemption. Can't this just die already?!

Best non anime film : Dark Knight. hands down. Everyone says that I know, but it's true. Though I hold out hope for the day the earth stood still. Honorable mention : Quantum of Solace

Worst non anime film: Oh crap, that HAS to be Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've watched it 3 times, and I tried to like it, I really did...

Best album: Imperative Reaction - Minus All. Gotta love moody dance music.

Worst album : Jason Mraz. My wife has driven me NUTS with him for months! I hate that #(*$&)$ bastard!

Best game: Gears of War 2. DESTROYED, ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED Halo 3. Here's to the new king of carnage! Honorable mention: Fallout 3, Silent Hill Homecoming.

Worst game: Dynasty Warriors Gundam. I own it. I don't know why...

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Indy Kingdom of the Cyrstal Skull wasn't all that bad for mine, considerring all the bad press. I rate that above Narnia 2. The actor or character

provided for the actor that is Prince Caspian was so f'n boring, bloody predictable, and stupid. Bloody fairy.

However seeing the two brothers (forgot the names , uhh Peter and Edward?) especially the eldest taking on whatshisface in the duel was cool!

Edited December 9, 2008 by ruskiiVFaussie

[taksraven]

Ok, I'm going to chip in here:

Best anime series: Mac Frontier (of course)

Worst anime series: Code Geass. I tried to like it, I really did...

Best anime film : Appleseed Ex machina

Worst anime film: Evangelion rebuild. I love evangelion, I do. I just didn't like this, I thought they should have left it alone. Move forward, don't rehash an already great story.

Best non-anime series: Fringe. Highly addicting, the only series I follow right now. I was worried it was an X Files knock off at first, and while it's not as good, it's the best damn thing on TV right now next to South Park.

Worst non anime series : 24 redemption. Can't this just die already?!

Best non anime film : Dark Knight. hands down. Everyone says that I know, but it's true. Though I hold out hope for the day the earth stood still. Honorable mention : Quantum of Solace

Worst non anime film: Oh crap, that HAS to be Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've watched it 3 times, and I tried to like it, I really did...

Best album: Imperative Reaction - Minus All. Gotta love moody dance music.

Worst album : Jason Mraz. My wife has driven me NUTS with him for months! I hate that #(*$&)$ bastard!

Best game: Gears of War 2. DESTROYED, ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED Halo 3. Here's to the new king of carnage! Honorable mention: Fallout 3, Silent Hill Homecoming.

Worst game: Dynasty Warriors Gundam. I own it. I don't know why...

Sounds like you tried to like a few things, you really did.

Taksraven

[Graham]

Here's my no punches pulled look at the best and worst of 2008.

Best Anime TV Series: Macross Frontier, without a doubt. Simply blew away all the competition. Awesome in all areas, i.e. action, story, music, animation, mecha and character design).

Worst Anime TV Series: Hmm....a toss up between Gundam 00 (simply crap) and Golgo 13 (hugely disappointing). Dishonorable mention also goes to 'Code Gay-Ass the Douche of the Rebellion', for having the ugliest mecha and silliest looking characters.

Best Anime OVA: Only watched 1 this year and it was crap (see below).

Worst Anime OVA: VOTOMS Pailsen Files. I'm a huge VOTOMS fans, but this sucked. Boring story and horrible, horrible CG that looked like it came from a PS1 cut scene.

Best Anime Movie: Resident Evil Degeneration. The only anime movie I've attached this year. Thought it was OK, so it wins by default.

Worst Anime Movie: Nil - only watch one this year (see above).

Best Live Action TV Series: Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Worst Live Action TV Series: Brothers and Sisters - my wife loves this, but I run screaming from the room whenever it’s on.

Best Non-Japanese Cartoon Series: Star Wars - The Clone Wars.

Worst Non-Japanese Cartoon Series: Transformers Animated - boring and ugly, ugly mecha designs. Even my 4 ½ son who loves classic transformers doesn't like this. Thankfully, he has good taste like his dad.

Best Non-Japanese Animated Movie: A tie between Kung Fu Panda and Star Wars - The Clone Wars.

Best Live Action Movie: Wanted. I actually enjoyed this more than Dark Knight Returns or Iron Man.

Worst Live Action Movie: Didn't watch many this year, so no comment.

Best Album: Macross Frontier OST 1.

Worst Album: didn't buy any new albums this year, besides the Fronier OSTs. Bought lots of old stuff though.

Best Game: Macross Ace Frontier (only game I've played this year).

Worst Game: No Comment, only played 1 game (see above).

Graham

[Vostok 7]

Best Live Action Movie: Wanted. I actually enjoyed this more than Dark Knight Returns or Iron Man.

:blink: :blink:

Vostok 7

[Ghost Train]

Can't believe hasn't been mentioned, but worse game in 2008 is: SW Force Unleashed.

The game has its moments, but the sucks outweigh the wins. Not only did it not live up to its overhyped expectations, but it's just a poorly designed game that could have benefited from a few more months of polish

- Crap targeting system

- Lots of bugs (at least in 360 version) - I had my character disappear from the screen quite a few times... also in the destroyer pull-down sequence if you follow the directions on screen you will never get it done, I mean that whole scene was supposed to be the iconic moment of the game, yet they blew it.

- Characters are not particularly memorable

[taksraven]

Can't believe hasn't been mentioned, but worse game in 2008 is: SW Force Unleashed.

The game has its moments, but the sucks outweigh the wins. Not only did it not live up to its overhyped expectations, but it's just a poorly designed game that could have benefited from a few more months of polish

- Crap targeting system

- Lots of bugs (at least in 360 version) - I had my character disappear from the screen quite a few times... also in the destroyer pull-down sequence if you follow the directions on screen you will never get it done, I mean that whole scene was supposed to be the iconic moment of the game, yet they blew it.

- Characters are not particularly memorable

Sure, it had some problems, but enough to qualify it for worst of the year?

Taksraven

[Roger]

Sure, it had some problems, but enough to qualify it for worst of the year?

You can ask the same thing about everyone else's "best" and "worst" choices in this thread.

A few people here have chosen Macross Frontier as the best anime series of the year, but how many new anime series did those people actually watch this year? Twenty? Ten? Five? One?

[Ghost Train]

You can ask the same thing about everyone else's "best" and "worst" choices in this thread.

A few people here have chosen Macross Frontier as the best anime series of the year, but how many new anime series did those people actually watch this year? Twenty? Ten? Five? One?

Your post is made of win, was going to say the exact same thing. This thread is hardly meant to be (I hope) a scientific approach to determining the best/worse of 2008. I'm not surprised at all either that Macross Frontier wins the MWF academy awards lolz...

Edited December 10, 2008 by Ghost Train

[taksraven]

Your post is made of win, was going to say the exact same thing. This thread is hardly meant to be (I hope) a scientific approach to determining the best/worse of 2008. I'm not surprised at all either that Macross Frontier wins the MWF academy awards lolz...

Well, as the first post says, its meant to be fun, not scientific at all. Are you saying that Macross fans are wearing rose-coloured glasses when it comes to frontier??

Taksraven

[ruskiiVFaussie]

well it's true for some of us, not many have the time to watch more than one anime series a year, like me.

[taksraven]

well it's true for some of us, not many have the time to watch more than one anime series a year, like me.

What is this thing 'time' that you talk about, and how do I get some??

Taksraven

[Morpheus]

Hmm...

Best Anime Gureen Lagann followed by Macross Frontier

Worst Anime Kurogane no Linebarrel (thanks to GONZO for butchering a great manga series) and all the card-battle anime

Best Album Hitomi Angel Feather

Best Anime character Kamina followed by C.C.

Worst Anime character Alto

Best Cartoon Clone Wars TV series

Worst Cartoon -never saw any other cartoon beside Clone Wars-

That's the only things that I have in my mind right now.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

What is this thing 'time' that you talk about, and how do I get some??

Taksraven

Uhh, i think it's a rare delicacy that people (well, guys mostly) have who aren't married.

My weekends are forever lost!

Been watching the old TV Monkey series though.