Normally each year I throw up a Reader’s Choice poll on the sidebar for Anime of the Year without any fanfare or introduction. It doesn’t need any because it’s self-explanatory. However this year with split-cours anime being all the rage, I thought I’d put up a little notice first so people don’t choose the Other Not Listed Here option for non-eligible titles.
All anime series that ended in 2014 are eligible. This includes OVAs and anime that started airing before 2014, like Gundam Unicorn and Hunter X Hunter. No movies because they’re hard to pin down when people can actually see them. Anime not yet finished like Parasyte are not eligible. So far so straightforward. Now comes the tricky part.
Split-cours anime are counted as one single series. Split-cours are defined as any TV anime that had less than a 5 month waiting period between seasons. This means is only one entry for the likes of Space Dandy and Chaika. Anime with the second cour already set to air next year like Tokyo Ghoul, Stardust Crusaders or Unlimited Blade Works are not eligible.
Anyway, now you understand the criteria. Poll comes after the jump:
POLL CLOSED: Come back on December 31st to see the result.
The thinking with split-cours is to prevent there being too much splitting up. It doesn’t make sense to include 2 seasons of Chaika in the year-end poll and splitting its voting base. If something like Parasyte isn’t eligible for this year then neither should Unlimited Blade Works since they’re both basically 2-cours series where one just happens to be taking a 3 month gap.
There are a few weird things that pop up because of this. Silver Spoon was on 2013’s poll when according to the new rules it shouldn’t have been. I’m still leaving it eligible here because we had to make the break sometime. There will be anime like Gundam Build Fighters and Log Horizon that are eligible despite the second season currently airing. Again this comes down to having to set that limit at some point. Anime on this poll that are set to end in a week or 2 might right at the end announce part 2 coming in Spring, in which case we’ll just have to curse the anime gods because there’s little we can do about that.
The Cart Driver 
I wonder which poor shows will end up with zero votes this year?
Hopefully SAO.
If only we had the power to give negative votes. I’d love to see how far SAO would go.
Who’s the motherfucker who voted for Mahouka?
Scroll down to my next comment, you’ll know 😛
EDIT: Holy shit, it has 2 votes! Is there someone who seriously voted for it? o.O
I don’t like these rules, they’re too artificial and arbitrary. There’s no reason why a show can’t be the best thing in a given year just because it wasn’t done yet.
Yes, but an ending that completely ruins everything that came before could turn a magnificent show into one not worth remembering or bringing up in polite conversation. I can understand the idea of wanting to only worth with that which is finished or nearly so.
we’re just a bunch of savage hairless monkeys without rules my friend.
Any rules are arbitrary to a certain degree. And yes I feel there is good reason to not give something an award when it’s not done yet. You would get Hunter X Hunter competing in a year when it was still in its early shitty period.
Hey! There was no early shitty period!!!
Ha ha… Just kidding… Saw your comments on HxH… I am that anime fan who had never seen a long-running shounen so that any overused elements of that genre were entirely novel for me. Loved every minute of it…
I chose Barakamon, Tonari no Seki-kun, and Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun.
All three made me laugh a good deal, which doesn’t happen frequently with anime. Barakamon was heart-warming and the message did work with me; I can be a perfectionist and that is not a good thing. Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun worked so well because it played with and subverted a lot of the shoujo tropes we have come to know being fans of anime. Even just changing the normal genders of personalities but keeping the rest straight trope-wise was hilarious. Tonari no Seki-kun promised us a bored boy doing ludicrous things to pass time in class and his desk neighbor with an overactive imagination angry at him but not being help to help being sucked in. It was everything it promised itself to be and left me wanting more but happy with what I got. There were other shows on this list I loved: special mention to GBF, Kill la Kill, Amagi Brilliant Park, and Space Dandy.
Had to go with Hunter x Hunter, Space Brothers, and Ping Pong.
I voted for Ping Pong, Hunter and Space Dandy. If I was able to, I would put Parasyte over Hunter.
Edit: I completely forgot about Tokyo Ghoul -_-
Tokyo Ghoul aint eligible under the split-cours rule. It will be eligible next year.
I went with Hunter X Hunter, Nozaki-kun & Space Dandy S2, although it pains me not to include Ping Pong, Tonari no Seki kun, Kill la Kill & Mushishi. Despite the high number of disappointments from Terror in Resonance, Psycho Pass S2 & Aldnoah Zero (S1) it’s been a pretty great year for standout shows.
Yeah, I was very surprised by how many great shows there were. Cutting my list down to a manageable top 10 was a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be.
And I totally forgot about Barakamon, too! Now I need to figure out which show gets the axe so Barakamon can get on…
It’s testament to how many great shows there were this year that Barakamon was might not even fit into my top ten. Outside of my top 7 above, I have a mass of shows (Witch Craft Works, Noragami, Gundam Build Fighters, Bahamut, Sidonia, Barakamon, & Amagi Brilliant Park) that I generally consider to be around the same quality. Barakamon might not make the cut mainly because, as fun as its cast was was, it tended to repeat the same conflicts a little too much &, as a character arc, would have worked better as six-part ova, rather than a 13 ep series. In terms of comedy, I still think Nozaki-kun & Seki-kun edged it out, while as a slice-of-life depiction of country life, last year’s Non Non Biyori left more of an impression on me, despite how moe it was.
Kill La Kill, Nozaki, and Magi. I really wanted to put in Kuroko 2 for enjoyable, laughable, stupidly overpowered moves though.
Hunter x Hunter, Space Dandy S2, Mushishi S2 it is.
Top 3 were easy to determine, further down it gets more difficult, plenty of decent shows this year.
Voted for: Mushishi, Ping Pong and Silver Spoon. Things EVERYONE should see.
Ping Pong must win this. Hopefully no Hunter x Hunter overtakes it.
Space Brothers were pretty dope, so I voted for them too.
And last I voted Magi because no one will vote for its awful adaptation.
S2 of Magi was decent, though.
It was better than the first, I will give you that.
However, the adapatation of Magi still is very weak.
Space Dandy – HxH – NGNL
Those are the shows that I watched and really enjoyed this year
If Nozaki-kun isn’t at least in the top 5 for best anime this year, I give up.
Barakamon
I feel like nobody watched Barakamon. Most underrated anime of the year. The characters feel like real people. These aren’t anime characters anymore they are real people. And all of them are really entertaining to watch. One of the best anime I have ever seen. I really like slice of life anime in general. I’m also really dependent on my computer and internet, but while I was watching this anime I really wanted to go to this town and just hang around with all the different people. I really REALLY liked the characters. Second season please?
Sakura Trick
Yes. Sakura Trick. I love cute stuff and this is the cutest anime I have ever seen. It’s amazing how cute it is. The yuri in it isn’t hot. It’s really fucking cute. I had such a stupid fucking grin everytime I was watching this anime.
Nozaki-kun
Best comedy of the year by far. I laughed many times. I’m also a huge sucker for romance and there exists 3 really good potential couples in this series. At least it’s ranked high right now so that makes me happy. Second season?
Aw man I completely forgot Sakura Trick would be eligible. It feels like so long ago.
Hunter x Hunter, Mushishi and kuroko play’s with his balls
Am i the only one who liked that anime?
also hunter x hunter’s ending was epic
I’m surprised at how little votes Kuroko is getting. I guess its fans don’t visit The Cart Driver Dot Com?
I loved Kuroko but I wouldn’t claim it’s some kind of great anime. Certainly not worth a top 3 vote.
Women know that you are already taken 😉
You’re not alone,I enjoyed it too. They don’t make shounen sports anime like it anymore.
You mean other than Haikyuu!! & Yowamushi Pedal this year?
Forgive my narrow mindedness,I haven’t checked those out but I’ll be sure to do so.
ZanTero and Barakamon are pretty easy picks for #1 and #2, but third place was a three-way tie between Zvezda, Chaika, and Log Horizon.
I went with Zvezda because reasons.
Whatever those reasons are, they are good reasons.
Why is Kingdom S2 not on the poll?
My top 3 of the year would be HxH, Kingdom and Hajime no Ippo in that order.
anon no see ore no twintails
anon flips table
anon rage
Time to explain my choices, basically it’s those series that did something new this year:
Tonari no seki-kun: Best 5 minute series this year.
Log Horizon: For perfectly capturing mmorpg mechanics and then translating it into anime form, not to mention that it’s very much like a fanfic I once tried to write about the origins of the Travian universe.
Space Dandy: Scamp already pointed out that it wasn’t the first series that had a musical episode in it, but it was the first one i’ve seen, and it looked like they were still trying to get the hang of what makes a musical work.
notable mention because i cant vote more than three, would be kill la kill.
I always limit the poll to between 50-60 so it doesn’t get completely unwieldy on the sidebar and including everything gets silly after a while. By all means tell me about the ones I’m missing though. I skip the ones I think will get very few votes.
HxH, Kill la Kill, and Knights of Sidonia…
Sidonia simply because I haven’t watched much of anything else, including Mushishi S2, Space Dandy 2nd, and Ping Pong, which I really should rectify.
Why there is no love for Noragami …
I like Noragami quite a bit.
Just not “best of the year” liked it.
Who do I have to blame for the fact that fuckin’ Mahouka is in this poll and two of my three picks aren’t? Since you only offer one “other” vote I’ll just have to pout here in the comments instead.
Are you not even going to tell us which ones?
Yah really, tell us which ones you want.
I was going to say
Sora no Method
Love Live Season 2
Sakura Trick
but after the last two episodes, Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru might be jumping up to take one of those three spots. That’s another one you don’t have on the list though so my point stands.
Shout outs to gundam unicorn, hunter x hunter, and mushishi!
Hanayamata very nearly made my vote, but I’m very biased on the last few episodes.
I’m relieved Unicorn and Arise are getting some votes. I would have felt very silly letting OVAs be voted for and then they got no votes whatsoever.
For me it’s Hunter X Hunter, Mushishi S2, and Ping Pong.
HXH is my top pick for making me feel a strong sense of excitement and wonder. Heck, it made me feel a roller coaster of emotions and it never let up. Mushishi S2 could be on here for episode 3 alone, it was that impactful for me. Ping Pong did such a superb job with its characters that I was literally cheering for them.
Honorable mentions are Gundam Unicorn, Gundam Build Fighters, Nozaki-kun, Chaika, and Silver Spoon. There was a lot to feel good about this year!
Going through this list, I realized “HOLY SHIT! I haven’t even SEEN most of these, and the only one I’ve watched to the end is NGNL.” So I decided to troll you guys and vote for the worst ones in the list. No one gets zero votes now 😛
What the…someone else voted for SAO. That’s a surprise.
Not enough of you fuckers appreciate Haikyuu!
Ping Pong, Silver Spoon, and Kill la Kill. Space Dandy was also great. And I haven’t gotten around to watching Mushishi yet.
Baby Steps has a second season starting up in the spring I believe. I think that means it shouldn’t qualify for this vote? Not that it’s getting many votes anyways.
My three:
HxH
Space Dandy
Baby Steps
Yeah, HxH is the winner is you want to count it in any year. Mushishi comes next and then Ping pong. My other favorites are Baby Steps, Seki-kun and Space Dandy. Samumenco and KlK twists were hilarious. Hoozuki no Reitetsu and Sidonia were okay. Gave no time to watch Silver Spoon and gave up on Space Bros.
HxH is winner in any year*
I just had to vote for HxH. It was amazing for three years, never dropping out of my top 3 most weekly anticipated shows, and half of the time it was clearly the best thing airing.
Only based Shinmaru knows about this shit though.
Inushinde watched it, too!
HxH, Mushishi 2, and Bahamut
Well, the top 5 shows (for now) are as expected. I really want to put Ping Pong, Space Dandy 2, or Kill la Kill, but ultimately, I went with Bahamut because of surprise factor. Who would’ve thought an adaptation of shitty card game could be this good?
It’s nice to see there are considerable amount of thecartdriver readers who appreciate an anime where the MC stripped naked and proceed to propose a police officer in front of a middle schooler.
Hunter X Hunter, Kill la Kill and Silver Spoon here – with Nozaki-kun a very close 4th. Really, it’s almost unfair to count HXH since it lasted for three years and it just happened to end now, compared to the other shows, but such is the fickleness of chance. Too bad for you, non-HXH shows.
Parasyte and Tokyo Ghoul would have been massive contenders if they’d been available, will be interesting to see if either can remain in memory for the 2015 polls given half the show will be 18 months old by the time they come around.
Wow Ping-Pong is high, is that a cart driver thing or was it actually fairly popular/good. Akame ga Kill with zero votes made me laugh.
My Votes
HxH, Silver Spoon, Mushishi 2
I forgot that Nagi no Asukara ended this year until I looked at the poll. Underrated little gem right there. Also voted for Nozaki-kun and Haikyu! (Because I have fallen deep into the hole of sports anime and can’t get escape. Yowapeda would have replaced Nagi if it wasn’t a 2-cour.)
HxH,Kuroko 2 ,and Kill la Kill for me. I wish I could’ve voted for Tonari no Seki-kun as it was a great fun comedy that I enjoyed from week to week. I liked Magi S2 but it really lost a lot of steam for me in the middle focusing on Magnostadt and that crappy war,plus Morgiana was tossed out the series until the last few episodes for some reason.
Space Bros and HxH were easy choices, but Ippo: Rising was a horrible adaption of Ippo due to how much was skipped/out of order/kinda meh-ly animated so I can’t just use it as my third…
Magi, Silver Spoon, Nozaki-kun, and Haikyuu are probably some of the most solid choices…then there’s Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou which I love for personal reasons even if it’s not a top of the line show. I guess I’ll give Haikyuu the slot as it’s the best new sports anime I’ve seen in a while.
HxH easily takes the #1 spot, even though I stopped watching it very early in the Chimera Ant arc due to my impatience and moved to the manga. Kill la Kill also takes #2.
I… didn’t really watch much else. I dropped Silver Spoon and didn’t feel like studying up on a ton of Japanese culture to fully understand Hoozuki no Reitetsu’s jokes. I’ve watched about six episodes of Nozaki-kun and while I /love/ Kashimi and Hori’s relationship it’s not really enough for me to get invested in the series as a whole.
That left Witch Craft Work’s and Zvezda, and while WCW was surprisingly very entertaining (and has Girl of the Year Tanpopo Kuraishi; Mako is overrated), Zvezda had so much more going for it, winning the #3 spot.
Really, I’m sorry Zvezda only got 10 votes so far. I left it out because I consider it #4 or #5, but maybe I should have thought more ‘strategically’ (both Silver Spoon and Nozaki-kun aren’t as devoid of supporters) and given it my third point. It really doesn’t get much love, but it was hilarious and adorable at times.
Spoiler: It will get lots of love from my top 10 list!
And I voted forma mahouka because something THAT bar must not be forgotten, or forgiven
PING-PONG THE ANIMATION!!!! cant say enough about how freaking exceptional it was – week to week i loved it, and couldn’t believe how it wrapped up so perfectly into 11 episodes. where is yowamushi pedal? YP is super-excellent too, i just never hear anybody talking about it. kill la kill and space dandy (S1!) were also very entertaining. i liked terror in the REZ – it wasn’t that bad and it sure was pretty. also thanks to you guys for all your reviews, previews, etc on this site this year – I’m somewhat new to the anime genre and this site, and entravity.com are my top one and two sites i go to for reviews, recaps, AND SEASON-PREVIEW’S! good stuff.
Voted for Ping Pong, Shingeki no Bahamut and Mushi-shi. It’s POSSIBLE that Bahamut could have a crappy ending, but the quality has been consistently high so far.
I’m pretty surprised to see Kill La Kill being neck-and-neck with Mushishi. I liked KLK, but all the gratuitous fanservice (and, you know, sexual harassment) makes it hard for me to choose it quite a few of the fantastic shows that aired this year that WEREN’T uncomfortable to watch. If it’s in my top 10, it’ll definitely rank near the bottom.
Space Dandy
Mushishi 2
Samurai Flamenco
…I’m not apologizing for that last one.
Wow, makes me realize what a terrible year this was for anime
I’m happy to see Samumen pretty high up there.