This is A3 2006, where the underdogs, the unknown and the bizarre gets their place in history!
All right, instead of writing witty comments, I will throw you with charts to illustrate each section’s results. I believe that is the easiest way to make totally unintelligent ways to make the results a bore. I mean, have you ever seen a result post that is in fact exciting, great and reveals tons of revelations? Well, perhaps this one might. Anyway, presenting to you the results of A3 2006! The graphs are generated with SPSS, so they are not formatted by anything beautiful.
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1. Best “Good premise gone totally wrong”
It seems that most of you out there believe that Coyote Ragtime Show had been the best selection on the “Good premise gone totally wrong“. I can fully understand why, what if the great graphics and nice storyline turning into total junk, I gave up after episode 3, if you ask me, so I might be shallow in my interpretation but I really felt that Coyote Ragtime Show could be a classic but as it is, it fails. if I might say that outright. I must admit that I am surprised not many people voted for Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge since to me, it will win the 1st runner up for this category due to the extremely disappointing graphics and great premise falling into non-funny comedy folder. Pumpkin scissors is a very distant second.
Winner: Coyote Ragtime Show
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2. Worst Graphics
This is almost a no contest, but Yoake Sen Yori Ruriiro na ~Crescent love~ destroyed the opposition choices in this “Worst Graphics” category. Blazing all the categories silly with its manly Feena graphics, totally juvenile face depictions and face distortions that are not even 1/100 as good as the great Higurashi girls, this show is the hot favorite and won the contest hands down, with other competitors like Naruto and Soul Link thrown far away. I speculate that Soul Link did not win this due to the lack of recency, considering how fitting it will be in this category. I am not taking the honors away from Crescent Love though, it wins this category with convincing evidence.
Winner: Yoake Sen Yori Ruriiro na ~Crescent love~
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3. Best loli
For “Best loli“, many of the judges are very different in their choice of their favorite loli, as well as the kind commentors. It seems that lolis of all shapes and sizes are all very popular. However, the loli in a bag, or Kyon’s sister has just about piped Iroha of Sumomo momomo fame as well as Gretel, the male/female goth loli that can cut you up with his/her gun. I must personally admit that I was disappointed that Karada of Asatte no Houkou did not win because she’s a fricking 2 in 1 loli. She not only plays a ZOMG adorable 12 year old girl but a 12 year old girl stuck in a 21 year old hot body. I mean, what in the world do you want other than that? Still, the votes are still votes.
Winner: Kyon’s sister from Haruhi Suzumiya
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4. Best loli-infused series
Wow, I expected this to be a really close fight, but I did not expect that close of a fight like this. Sumomo Momomo narrowly kungfu-ed their way against the weaponry and torture chambers of the killer girls in Higurashi in the “Most loli-infused series” category. With the hot love and blatant fanservice of Sumomo momomo, with Momoko and Iroha happily showing flesh and compromising positions all the time, it is probably more imprinted in the minds of our voters. Recency in the series might be another possible bias in this series, even though Rika, Rena and the rest of the girls are pretty loli-licious. A great battle nevertheless.
Winner: Sumomo momomo
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5. Best trap
This is another straight fight, even though I am slightly surprised that it is not as close as expected. Jun, famous even before Happiness! showed, won this race of “Best trap“, beating “her” closest rival, Mizuho of Otoboku by a pretty comfortable margin. Takeuchi’s sister from Bokura Ga Ita also got some decent votes in this clear two horse race. Even though Happiness! the series is not considered to be anything more than average, Jun’s rising popularity is not dampened and it is clearly shown here that Jun has won over all “her” fans with her antics. The “Fap first, think later” group will have some good comments on this, I am sure.
Winner: Jun from Happiness!
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6. Best “This should be hentai”
I guess most of you are wetting in your pants (pun intended) when you voted Sumomo momomo in the “Best this should be hentai” category. With lines such as “I rock you senseless” and the hot yuri sex between Momoko and Iroha in Episode 8, there is hardly any contest. Yet, there is. Strawberry panic, with the amount of gratifying yuri sex, has popped out from the ashes, only to be pipped by the end by Sumomo momomo. Still, it was clear that Sumomo momomo is the proud winner of this category. Even Impz agrees.
Winner: Sumomo momomo
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7. Best slice of life
This is perhaps the closest fight, with 4 anime fighting intensely for ironically the “Best slice of life” category. Asatte no Houkou, Welcome to the N.H.K, Aria the Natural and Mushishi are all wonderful series that came into this list. Without a shadow of a doubt, the lead was changed several times in this A3 2006 and eventually, Mushishi pulls through. Dekkai honto desu. I am at least happy that Aria managed to battle these gigantic powerhouses and that the slice of life genre gets a bit of love from the voters. Cheers, all the series are great stuff.
Winner: Mushishi
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8. Best shounen/action
With the words of Darkshaunz ringing in my head, it is little wonder that the category is won by Black Lagoon and rightfully so. It is a total piece of art and there is nothing really that can beat Black Lagoon in this category. Still, it faced a decent competition in the form of Blood+, with Saya pushing the votes a little to their side. Still, the charm of Black Lagoon and the hot Revy makes this show a total success. Worthy winner of this category.
Winner: Black Lagoon
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9. Best mecha
When you have three top contenders for the series, it is painful that you can only give the prize to one. This prize goes to Code Geass (sponsored by Pizza Hut) as they have bribed their way through with tons of good Hawaiian pizza and Seafood Pan-crest pizza. Still, Eureka 7 and Zegapain are worthy contenders for this prize as well, both being the premiere of this genre. I swear that even an anti-mecha anime watcher thinks that these 3 series are in fact a decent watch. That should show enough about how good they are. Demonbane, on the other hand, is so bad that it’s good. Don’t ask me why, go watch it yourself.
Winner: Code Geass
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10. Most under-rated series
I am geninuely shocked at the results. Ghost Hunt in fact wins this category, even though all 6 contestants are worthy winners of this category. Still, I expected Simoun to put up more of a fight, since it is one of the best series that I have seen. Of course, I am very pleasantly happy that Saiunkoku Monogatari is 1st runner up but Ghost Hunt winning by such a great margin is perhaps the shocker of this A3 2006.
Winner: Ghost Hunt
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11. Best “Most hyped but fails”
Ouch to Fate Stay Night. With the promise of a totally wonderful game, Fate stay night came out with a lot of hype, with every action fan waiting for it. It started rather decently, with good music, graphics and the likes. However, as you watch on, you realize something is seriously wrong with this series. That is why it won this category, and rightfully, what with Saber being a very strong lead and yet could still fail to reach any of the hype that it has. It must win this. Notable mentions include the ever-popular Soul Link and Tsuyokiss.
Winner: Fate Stay Night
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12. Most “Huh, there is such a series?”
…
Winner: _summer
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So, what do you think of the results. Are the voters correct or not? You comment and you discuss.
Thanks everyone, including the judges for their votes. I really appreciate it. Cheers!
Additional site news: T.H.A.T anime blog welcomes our final writer in this blog, aka Aezie. Go check out her profile in the About-members page! Cheers! Yes, this also means that Impz has found his lucky 7 for the blog and will not look for any more bloggers for the blog until he has to kick out someone from here. However, by the looks of it, he will not do so in the near future. Hence, the roster is fixed!
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Comments (16)
pretty good summary of the series of past. I’d have to agree with you on the general overview, but.. all…. except mecha. imo Zegapain had a much more intricate plot + well formed world =P but that’s for everyone to decide on their own 
and yes, fate phails =(
gj impz!
Might I add that Suzumiya Haruhi is what marketers call an overly successful marketing campaign?
Key, TYPE-MOON, heck, even KID tried to break into the international market, but with varying results. This, on the other hand, was one smash hit after another.
Nobody cares about the source material anymore. It’s all about marketing and branding, and nothing says “I wanna be a goddamn fanatic” than Suzumiya Haruhi.
Like it or lump it, this girl has been elevated to ‘brand name’ status. An unprecented first. An international phenomenon. A REALLY hot potato. It’ll stick into minds for a few gewnerations to come, not because of witty tactics, great story, or awesome animation, but for the sheer fact that it is quite possibly, the first, and the only, series to become a brand name.
Enjoy being fleeced, my fellow men. Logic and reason will still welcome you when you are done.
DrmChsr0 added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 7:05 amI think I’m the only guy who ever wrote anything at all on Hanoka…lolz, talk about an unknown series…You guys were just plain lazy? The filesize is barely 50mb and viewing time roughly 5 minutes…
rdrake added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 8:12 amahahahaah~ is it that bad? I guess i overkilled this post a little @_@;;;
But ahahaha~..Me, on one hand, enjoyed Fate Stay night winning overhyped series, as it made my wonderful SAber look like…what a waste.
Impz added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 8:18 amI too have watched hanoka a few months back. It wasnt too bad for a flash anime. I actually enjoyed it. But, didnt enjoy how short it was.
Endz added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 8:24 amNice job impz. Even the results are pretty good.
Kurisu added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 10:24 amI’m pleased that Ghost Hunt won the under-rated category. But I’m surprised it won by such a large margin. Makes me wonder: if Ghost Hunt is under-rated, how did it win by so much? (Maybe the award in this category should have gone to the anime with the fewest number of votes. LOL) I guess the fact that so few persons are blogging GH (present company excepted, of course) is why its fans feel the series is under-rated.
LKK added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 11:26 amNah, Simoun should have won that category easily. Ghost Hunt is by far a much worse series than Simoun.
After ep 1 you already had an idea about how good or bad Ghost Hunt will probably be. But I bet there was no one who believed SImoun was THAT good after seeing the first ep. I even didn’t finish the first ep of Simoun when I first tried that show. But after seeing so many positive reviews I picked up the title again.
The fact that Chevalier was even nominated for worst graphics scares me, since some episodes have graphics that easily rival the best of the year. :O
Hopeless added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 11:38 amit’s a very bad joke by lupus, and i decided with some wicked humor that it will be in 
Still, I believe that there are way other series much better equipped in that category. In fact, i wanted to be totally sarcastic and put haruhi suzumiya in that category but decided against it.
It will be too mean of a joke
I did write about Hanoka ages ago (and in the mammoth Annual Round-Up) but I’m afraid even five minute instalments of that series were too much for me.
Karura added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 11:47 amAmazing, there are so many winners I have voted for O.o I’m very pleased with the results of this poll *g*
Sasa added these pithy words on Jan 04 07 at 2:14 pmPersonally, I think you guys totally forgot about the overhyped series of .Hack//Roots. I was so very disappointed with that series especially being so excited about it before it aired. Honestly, the horribly animated fight sequence killed the show for me right off, the animation of .hack//sign was sooo much better *sob*.
I actually voted for Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. But I imagine, many ppl didn’t vote for that show because they simply didn’t even watch it. Seriously, with art like that the show is not very watchable. And to think… the manga was actually decent and pretty funny.
The slice of life one is very hard to pick. I like both NHK and Mushishi very much. In the end though my pick would be Mushishi, so I am very glad it won in the end despite being out for so long (so any hype around the series died a long time ago).
Ori added these pithy words on Jan 05 07 at 3:07 amnice list
also in the trap section who is Toru and Genba?
and what’s _summer?
@commentor: i think when u asked what’s _Summer, it’s apparent why it won that category. It is an OVA for some harem-like series. Nothing too great in it. Toru is from princess princess while genba is from ayakashi, i think.
@Ori: Arr, ya, but we had to fit only 6, and i guess there are always choices that will be forsaken in favor of others. Sigh, awards are always like that right X_X;;; I so agree that Yamato is disappointing because the manga is in fact pretty decent but the…anime was. Well u know.
@Karura: poor you. I can understand the pain COMPLETELY.
@Sasa: it’s people power!
Impz added these pithy words on Jan 05 07 at 8:38 amI dont agree with #11
Fate Stay Night rules. First anime I have watched where the ending is not what I expected to happen. The music and art are beyond any other anime I have watched also. Being only 24 episodes and the depth they put into the plot, you have to give them some credit..
Please explain what is wrong with the series. I loved it. Maybe you didn’t watch the entire series? They explain everything far more than some other anime does, and the plot gets a lot deeper than I expected.
Rick added these pithy words on May 22 07 at 11:22 pm