Not the hardest match-ups yet, but I guess this is a enough to get us all warmed up for the cringing later on.
Wolf Children
Persona 4 was actually pretty lucky to get this far, so I tip my hat to it. I'm actually surprised at how many people saw it. Sure, the game was way better, but out of all video game adapted into anime, P4 did a pretty excellent job at it.
Plus great music~ (*A*)
But why am I voting for Wolf Children? I don't necessarily want it to win in the long run, but I believe it deserves the recognition it's receiving, so I'm going to continue that.
While not quite to the epic proportions of any Miyazaki films, Wolf Children was a movie stepping in the right direction of story telling. Leaps and bounds ahead of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time but not quite as awe inspiring as Summer Wars, Wolf Children was a softer side of Hosoda's (the director) story telling style, but also one that contained harsh yet rewarding lessons about growing up, but more importantly, learning to adjust to change.
One small thing I liked the most in the movie is that the story focused more on the mother than the actual wolf children.
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!
Now this one was a hard choice. I'll shoot for the underdog this time since while I'm sure Tsuritama is going to win, I don't think it has such a commanding presence to overshadow Chuu2 by too much.
Tsuritama was magnificent, least anyone thing otherwise. XP It's animation style, color palette, and even "water stained" texture added an atmosphere you seldom find in any other anime. It was a wild variety of colors in the show, but none of them were too overpowering. The story was solid, but I sadly didn't find much of it overly remarkable. But it was a gorgeous show to watch.
But now, onto why I'm voting for Chuu2. I pondered at Vii's comment for "not enough cutesy romance" as the reason for not voting for it, but that's actually one of the reasons I really enjoyed Chuu2 (and other KyoAnim shows!), the lack of outright romance. O:
I mean, hey, I like shoujo romance (see: Sukitte ii na yo), but Chuu2 was not a love story, it was about growing up (man, if this had gone against Wolf Children, that would have been an interesting battle), but more importantly, learning to accept yourself and changes that come along the way. And what I enjoyed about this series was that each character had to come to terms with who they were, who they are now, and who they may become in the future.
Overall, it was an adorable and heart warming series.