I wasn’t quite as down on 2014 as I thought I’d be. It didn’t have the highest heights of 2011, and it gave us the likes of Mahouka and Rail Wars, but it also gave us the above screenshot and at least ten great shows. While there were plenty of other good shows, with the Denki-Gai’s and Silver Spoons nestled safely among them, these are the ones that I liked just a bit better. Whether that’s damning of my sensibilities or not is up to the reader.

10: Mikakunin de Shinkoukei

Cute girls doing cute things is a difficult concept to keep fresh. Mikakunin de Shinkoukei doesn’t necessarily threaten to freshen it up, but it comfortably stays the course with the help of a colorful cast, some modicum of direction, and a little Japanese girl collecting cryptid figurines in the vain hope of getting Mokele Mbembe. It’s a show that pulls together just right into something consistently pleasant with actual success at being funny. That’s more than most cute girls doing cute things-centric shows can manage.

9: No Game No Life

Speaking of shows that I find near-shameful joy in, No Game No Life was pretty alright. Well, as pretty alright as something that’s probably caused me permanent retinal damage can be, in any case. It fills itself to the brim with borderline-skeevy fanservice, and has leads that can ultimately do no wrong, without compromising its ability to deliver on engagement. It’s otaku-pandering without being utter filth. The only reason why it doesn’t rank higher is because I keep intermittently forgetting about its existence, which probably isn’t a good thing.

8: Amagi Brilliant Park

KyoAni and I haven’t been on speaking terms for awhile—not to the extent of outright hostility, but get-togethers are still pretty awkward. Even though I’ve respected what they do, none of their shows since FMP Fumoffu have really resonated with me in a way that makes me excited for what their future might bring. While Amagi Brilliant Park doesn’t quite shake my stance, it’s probably their most inspired effort in years that doesn’t involve an annoying girl with gleaming purple eyes. Amagi Brilliant Park is of the breed of shows that only pays lipservice to its overarching plot, in favor of zany character moments and wacky (but not overbearingly so) situations that encapsulate. It would be the best show of this kind, if it weren’t for…

7: Witch Craft Works

Witch Craft Works is just a bit better than Amaburi in the category of having a grand plot that’s neglected so we can watch side characters get hurt in well-crafted environments. Content aside, Witch Craft Works is a show that’s just so lovingly put together that it could just be Nicolas Cage’s Wickerman, and I’d still be awed enough by the pretty colors to put it in my Top Ten. The fact that effort actually went into the content, particularly with making the Tower Witches one of this year’s most enduring monuments, only further solidifies it into a comfortable middle-position.

6: Sekai Seifuku

On the opposite end of the comedy spectrum from Witch Craft Works sits Sekai Seifuku, a show that takes itself 100% seriously, but is unrelentingly silly enough that this seriousness is carried with a solid feeling of surreality. It’s about the ages-old battle between Zvezda, an organization aiming at world conquest, and White Light, a counter-organization bent on wiping them out. Except Zvezda is headed by a little girl, who probably isn’t actually as young as she looks and acts, whose acts of conquest amount to either petty acts of do-goodery, or acts so petty that they wouldn’t ordinarily even register as nuisances. And White Light doesn’t really have a promoted goal past stopping Zvezda’s not-so-dastardly deeds. And… really, these are just about the only jokes, told cleverly and with variation, but Sekai Seifuku tells them with enough of a straight face that the effect never wears off.

5: Hunter x Hunter

I don’t usually stick with long-running shows for longer than a single cour, but most long-running shows aren’t Hunter x Hunter, something so broad in scope yet focused in action that it can draw what’s essentially 10 minutes of action into several episodes and still be utterly captivating. The way that it ended, with an intrigue-filled election plot that’s both satisfying and leaves me wanting, is about the best sendoff that I could ask of it. It wasn’t my favorite show of the year, but it made me stick through nearly 150 episodes without making me question why. That’s saying something.

4: Mushishi Season 2

Mushishi being good is one of the universal truths of this world, like ARIA being even better and me being really terrible about putting off Top 10 Lists until the last minute. While I don’t agree with Scamp that it’s remained just as good as the first season, it still manages to hit the general high notes of life affirmation and sorrow, with the occasional disquieting moment to break things up. There’s nothing weak about it as a whole—not as good as earlier Mushishi is still good.

3: Ping Pong

Back when I was in high school, I had a friend who was REALLY into ping pong at a competitive level. I don’t know where I was going with that, but it felt like a perfect opening for this entry, and I didn’t want it to go to waste. In any case, Ping Pong is a great treatise on the nature of competition, and the benefits and disappointments that it can bring to those who pursue success. It acknowledges the make or break importance of talent, but also doesn’t discount the practice and passion necessary to put this talent to good work, or the many things that this talent can manifest as. It’s sympathetic without sugarcoating the harsh realities surrounding competition, but not too cynical to put the viewer off. Though seemingly an odd choice, Yuasa’s eccentric tendencies benefit the show greatly, never letting the artistic ugliness be an excuse for laziness.

2: Knights of Sidonia

2014, despite not being the best year for anime, is probably my year for shows that I expect nothing of that utterly surpass those nonexistent expectations. Where Ping Pong gives its piece on competition, Sidonia does so on military glorification, and the psychological and emotional effects that the constant threat of indiscriminate slaughter at the hands (tentacles?) of cosmic monstrosity can have on both the general population, and those forced to defend them. It manages to have something of a detached perspective, without sacrificing the terror and existential dread of being pitted against beings strong enough to pop mechs like melons, or the sense of satisfaction gained from successfully defeating them.

1: Samurai Flamenco

I’ll be the first to admit that Samurai Flamenco will be off-putting to a significant population of potential viewers. It’s oftentimes incoherent, poorly animated, and prone to conflating gimmickry with gripping development. Worst of all, trying to explain the appeal without spoiling is near-impossible, since most of what I enjoy happened after several uh… eventful moments. Even knowing that though (and it does know) Samurai Flamenco just does not give a fuck, and the way that it doesn’t give a fuck endears it to me in a way that no other show has done this year. Nothing else had me downloading the episode as possible, so I could see what the staff gave up on making sense of during that particular week. It’s not for lack of effort or ability that Samurai Flamenco is borderline nonensical—it just cares more about making something fun, and paying homage to decades’ worth of material ostensibly aimed at children, than applying consistency or foreshadowing to its writing. And goddamn is it fun.