Best Anime Year of the Past Decade

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Make your case for the best year in anime of the aughts (2000s). Most will probably cite a number a good TV shows/films that came out a certain year as their evidence, but feel free to cite other events (industry, personal, etc.). I have been thinking about this a lot and already kind of have an idea, but I'd like to think about it a little more and read some other peoples' views.

[crusader88]

2004 witnessed both the beginning of the still-ongoing hit Bleach, and the entirety of the short-but-sweet DearS, the first anime based on a Peach-Pit manga.

[Atria35]

...and the entirety of the short-but-sweet DearS, the first anime based on a Peach-Pit manga.

Isn't that the anime which makes the women alien slaves, and has them complete over doing housework?

It was an honest draw between 2004 and 2007 for me. Seriously, who can choose between the airing of Monster, Samurai Champloo, Rozen Maiden, and Paranoia Agent, or the airings of Bamboo Blade, Baccano!, Ghost Hound, Mononoke, and Sword of the Stranger?! SOOOO HARD!

[Tancos]

2007:
Dennou Coil
Oh! Edo Rocket
Moribito
Mononoke
Baccano!
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann

[Nate]

2004 witnessed both the beginning of the still-ongoing hit Bleach, and the entirety of the short-but-sweet DearS

So what you're saying is, 2004 is definitely the worst year of the past decade.

ONORE DECADE!

[blkmage]

In terms of shows and movies, I'd say any one of the years from 2006-2009 had about the same amount of works of high quality. Moving on to external factors, I'd say either 2008 or 2009 for the incredible growth of things like the visual novel translation community (Witch Hunt, for instance, finally catching up to current Umineko releases) and the various communities that spawned through Nico Nico Douga (the Touhou and VOCALOID communities).

Ultimately, what these things mean is that the Japanese and overseas fan experiences became much, much more similar to each other, with various translation projects and other initiatives continuing to bridge the gap even more.

[Cadence]

I’m going to have to go with 2007, though 2005 and 2008 are not far behind. 2007 saw the release of a lot of my personal favorites, including Dennou Coil, Seirei no Moribito, Ookiku Furikabutte, Bamboo Blade, Ghost Hound, Sketchbook~full colors~ and the end of Kanon, as well as shows like Hitohira, Lovely Complex and Hidamari Sketch. We got the ever so popular Lucky Star from 2007; Clannad and Shugo Chara! began their runs. A lot of other popular and/or highly acclaimed shows that I haven’t seen came out in 2007 as well, such as Baccano!, Mononoke, Romeo x Juliet, Nodame Cantabile, and Gurren Lagann. The Clannad film was released, and Shinkai gave us the classic 5 Centimeters Per Second. And, though it is pretty obscure, 2007 also saw the release of my favorite OVA, Tokyo Marble Chocolate.

I could go on, but let’s just say that 2007 was a good year for me and for anime lovers in general. =)

[CrimsonRyu17]

Hard choice but with the release of..

- Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0
- Kara no Kyoukai 7
- Hellsing Ultimate VI and VII

.. 2009 was definitely the best year for me.

Not to mention with several series like FMA: Brotherhood, Eden of the East, Bakemonogatari, and K-On! being released it certainly made it more interesting even if you didn't have time to follow all of them.

[crazypackersfan]

I don't know when anything came out. I usually end up seeing something 2-4 years after it first aired in Japan. So I'm just going to say the year I got back into anime, 2007. I watched the majority of the InuYasha series, which at the time was running 2 eps a night on adult swim. The majority of the best Bleach eps were also shown that year on adult swim, as well as the ending to the first FMA. Plus, I went to my first anime convention and made my first friends from anime. No clue what actually came out in Japan in 2007 but for me it was a great anime year.