Anime.About.com 2011 Readers' Choice Awards

A truly creative series, one which has received relatively little attention, turned up in this category. Set on a terraformed Mars some centuries into the future (now known as “Aqua”), Aria deals with the ambitions of three girls who are determined to become gondoliers in the city of Neo-Venezia. The emphasis isn’t on action, but rather atmosphere and gentle character interactions—the anime equivalent of an herbal tea, and a nice change of pace from so many other shows where blowing things up or trading insults are used to hold our attention.

In a way, this isn’t a surprise at all. The “new” version of Alchemist didn’t just stick that much more closely to the comic’s storyline (and was all the better for it); it’s also a perfect example of a must-see show for both existing anime fans and newcomers alike. If anything, it may well be one of the most fruitful ways to get into anime generally: it’s great fun to watch; it requires little, if any prior anime experience; and it’s as solid an example of anime at its best as you are likely to find.

Yes, Brotherhood cleaned up in this category too, beating out long-running die-hards like Bleach, One Piece and Naruto Shippuden by a wide margin. Why? My guess is that while Brotherhood does run long—64 episodes total—it’s not so long that it becomes a burden to keep up with it, and therefore makes it all the easier to get into and finish in a timely fashion.

Competition was a bit tighter this time, with Eden beating out other fan-favorite contenders like Fruits Basket and Durarara!!. But this is another case where the attributes of the winner stand out all the more: Eden was an entirely original project, not an adaptation of someone else’s work (as was the case with every single other series in the running). Its biggest flaw is how much of what unfolds will only be resolved in a pair of feature films (the first, King of Eden, is due out in English this April). But the ambition, scope and relevance of the show are hard to beat, and fans seemed to pick up on that.

The timing of this couldn’t be better: FLCL was just re-released on DVD and Blu-ray, ripe for rediscovery by a new generation of fans. And for a show that’s a little over a decade old it still has the fresh, wild attitude it exuded when it first appeared. Part slapstick, part science fiction, part surreal allegory, part production showcase for the innovative anime studio GAINAX, it defies easy categorization and just demands you sit and watch it. So sit and watch it, already. There’s a first time for everything.

Mamoru Hosoda’s follow-up to The Girl Who Leapt through Time gives us a head-on collision between Old and New: traditional Japanese family and community values banding together in the face of imminent cyber-apocalypse. It lionized the attention of critics and audiences alike at many film festivals, and was in the running for (although failed to be accepted as) a candidate for Best Animated Feature in the 2010 Academy Awards. And it far outstripped the Evangelion 1.0/2.0 films and even fan-favorite Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children as a readers’ choice.

Make a list of the best English anime dubs of all time and Cowboy Bebop is almost guaranteed to show up in the top five. Our readers agreed: this is a near-textbook example of how English dubbing should work in anime, not just a fan’s favorite but a model for others to follow. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, another excellent dub, very narrowly lost out but that’s no reason to think any less of it: the dub was one of the reasons my first viewing of the show was in English.