HH Hashi rolls out her year-end summary, and opens it with:

Another great year. Maybe not as great as 2006, which produced three classics: Simoun, NANA, and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. But 2007 was full of interesting shows.

What can I say. "Thanks for the warning" would be most appropriate, I guess, and then of course tastes differ.

That said, here are a few highlights:

ef ~a tale of memories~ was a complete surprise. The preview made me fear that the voice actors -- who came over from the game -- might not be up to the task. How wrong I was. This show is true art, made by Shinbou Akiyuki's protege Oonuma Shin from an ero-game by minori.

Once again, many animephiles were put off by the show's style. Its visual complexity seemed pointless and confusing. In fact, every one of those odd angles and strange palettes has an emotional purpose. This show is great romantic melodrama, underpinned by powerful music from Tenmon, who does background music for Shinkai Makoto's work (e.g., Byousoku 5cm). The interwoven romances are fascinating, and the characters really have individual character.

How true. I was fortunate to come into ef cold, and so I am here to tell everyone that Natsumi Yanase's work is top notch. She adds more meaning beyond reading the script and I appreciate that.

It's a little early for final judgments, and Blue Drop and ef could yet end badly, but I have come to trust the people making them, and I don't think that will happen.

Same here. I saw enough shows screwed by their endings, too. But the above sounds encouraging indeed.

Manabi Straight -- Here's another show that I loved at first, but that seemed to dry up as it went along. The emotional bonding of Nonaka Ai and Hirano Aya's charcters in episode 4 made that one of the year's outstanding episodes for me. The animation was sharp, bright, and attractive.

We can see that the first paragraph warning was not pro forma only. I thought that Manabi suffered from a poor start (relatively speaking, of course; it is one of only three series ranked "Masterpiece" on my ANN list, and it what is poor for Manabi may be outstanding for Stellvia level show).

Dennou Coil -- Outstanding animation from Madhouse, and every so often an episode stands out, but in general I don't find the show very interesting. The seiyuu cast is stunning, particularly with Kuwashima Houko and Paku Romi (as in Claymore).

Fair enough and tastes differ again.

Sketchbook ~full Color'S~ -- I love some episodes of this gentle slice-of-life comedy, but sometimes a pall of sameness seems to descend. Being fairly calm already, perhaps I don't need further calming. However, Hanazawa Kana's moeness is off the scale at all times.

Ouch, pall of sameness. My word, she is brutal.

Minami-ke -- I didn't really get the first episode. I thought it was too imitative of Ichigo Mashimaro, especially with Inoue Marina's wholesale theft of Orikasa Fumiko's Miu voice. But since then, the show has grown and grown.

Was I too quick to drop?

But since then, the show has grown and grown. Inoue-san, Chihara Minori, and Satou Rina are doing very well. There are a couple of LOL moments in every episode. And now we have warm, humane, rather loony versions of both the trap and the reverse trap.

I guess not, maybe even not soon enough. Interesting choice of words though.

The review ends with a panegiric to 5cm, but not very quotable. I haven't seen the movie anyway, and do not plan on it.