AAA'07 Awards - Memorable Moments

While watching anime in my comfy floor sofa at home, some scenes would move me to tears (almost; never happened except for Fox and the Hound many years back), make me break out in sweat or laugh like a sorhai alone (to the annoyance of my mom).

The following five anime moments of 2007 are what I consider most emotionally moving and most memorable. Do note that I would award Lucky Star for the most memorable scenes in one anime, but each and every one can't belittle the following five, imho.

Of course, I have enabled the spoiler tags for these scenes, but if the tags are not working, at least you've been warned ^_^ And, although there are not many comments in this blog, please refrain from spoiling the others as well. Now, on to the list!


Click here to read about Moment #5

Makoto transforms into... Mako-chan!



Usually, I don't like trap characters (guy acting like girl, vice versa?). This stereotype is dated way back into anime history. The first anime trap I knew was Ranma 1/2's Tsubasa.

But in Minami-ke, the trap setting had too much comedy value for me to hate it! :D Makoto is a classmate of Chiaki, the youngest of the Minami sisters. When he followed her to the Minami house, he got very friendly with Chiaki's oldest sister, Haruka. Because Chiaki is highly affectionate with her sister (and because Chiaki hates Makoto's guts anyway), she planned to never invite Makoto again!

Makoto was saddened, but Kana (the noisy Minami middle sister) had an evil (but moe) plan. With her clothes and hairdryer in hand, she (forcefully) transformed Makoto into Mako-chan!

Kana, being very proud of her plan, always invites "her friend" Mako-chan to the house. Mako-chan had to act cute and feminine (too convincing at times) and at one time, his classmate saw him shopping for girl's clothes! His attraction to an older girl is seriously entertaining.

Minami-ke is very well-known for superb spot-on jokes (from the author of Kyou no Go no Ni), so as typical or cliche this setting may seem, each scene involving Mako-chan was well-executed in super hilarious fashion, spanning a few episodes. And that's why this scene deserved the no.5 spot. See the birth of Mako-chan here.

Click here to read about Moment #4

To push or not to push?!



From the author of the great Mahjong anime of 2006, Akagi, comes another anime about probability and chance: Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji.

For a great deal of episodes, Kaiji was in a gambling match on a cruise ship. After being betrayed THRICE by team mates, he barely passed the match, though he now owes the Yakuza millions of yen.

After that, he was invited to yet another match, this time promising an instant 20 million yen reward. Little did he know what he was up against: the human derby race. In this race, each group of threes had only one thin beam to walk across. Naturally if they fell, bones would be broken (it happened, wasn't pretty at all). Of course, they couldn't use their hands. The first one to reach the other side would win the 20 mil.

Here's the sickening part: a bunch of rich buggers were down there cheering them on. Why? They betted money on them, like as if they were horses!

All the contestants got disgusted, but eventually one of Kaiji's challengers walked the beam first. Kaiji then followed suit, then the last challenger behind him. The catch is that the beam gets thinner as you reach your goal, so the guy behind can catch up. If the beam is thin, how do you overtake, right? Easy! Just push the guy in front!

Ok not that easy. The contestants hesitated, then felt guilty for pushing their competition down to the hard floor below. Eventually, Kaiji reached the guy in front.

It was a question of "pushed or be pushed", as the guy behind him catches up. He reflected on the time he was betrayed, and society's way of pushing others to attain higher positions in life. This long train of thought moved me, thanks to the great editing of Madhouse. It's such a simple decision, yet it was really hard to make; Heck, I wouldn't know what to do either!

So what did Kaiji do? You watch yourself la! Click here to see Kaiji episode 12.

Click here to read about Moment #3

Fuuko disappears from memory



Being a product of Key Visual, you would expect the girls to have really deep health or psychological problems. Clannad is definitely not an exception.

Fuuko-chan has a sister who's going to wed, so to make her sister happy (awww), she passed wedding invitations to all the students (her sister is a retired teacher), in form of a plain carved star-shaped wood. Almost everyone thought that it was just a plain star, but Fuuko-chan insisted that it was a starfish, much to the disagreement of the main cast.

The truth is that Fuuko-chan is in a coma for 2 years, and that the one we see is the physical manifestation of her thoughts in people's minds. Because of this, as she gets sicker, people eventually would forget about her, resulting in some not being able to see her at all (really sad, this one).

It was so bad that when one student picked up the invitation from her, the student questioned why she was holding the wooden carving in the first place.

Nearing the date of her sister's wedding, even the main cast started to forget her. But, in short, miracles do happen, and suddenly everyone turned up for the wedding anyway, much to her sister's surprise (her sister didn't know about Fuuko-chan "being outside" the hospital). In a very happy teary moment, she appeared for the last time, giving the wooden carving to her sister.

My favourite moment, however, is what happened after that. The whole cast had already forgotten her. In class, one of them was holding on to the wooden carving, then another got curious as to what is that. Suddenly, everyone shouted "It's a starfish!". Small scenes of Fuuko-chan skipping appeared after that. The impact was beautiful!

This simple moment showed that there are still memories of Fuuko-chan locked up in everyone's hearts, that's how important she was. And in the end, everyone somehow remembered this earnest innocent girl strongly wishing for her sister's happiness. Very touching indeed.

Way to go, Kyoto Animation! Click here to see the segment.

Click here to read about Moment #2

The breakup of Chihiro and Renji



Chihiro couldn't live her life like a normal girl. Due to a car accident, she has a memory problem where she would forget what happened 12 hours ago. To counter this, she would write any important details in her diary. Once she wakes up, she would read her diary to understand her "yesterday" self.

Then she met Renji. Both of them fell in love, but Renji was faced with a problem. He knows that he's dating a "new girl" everyday, so he had to accept the reality of the situation to continue the relationship. Chihiro also felt sad because it's like as if she's living another life through reading another person's diary.

Chihiro continued writing about Renji in her diary; what he has done for her, how good he is, etc. She also told Renji that she dreams of writing a novel, in which Renji supports her. On one fateful night, Chihiro passed the final manuscript to Renji.

Inside, she wrote of a princess who was alone in this island. The princess saw a drawing of a boy. She decided to draw pictures of them together. However, every painting that was drawn got blurer with each passing day. It was frustrating, so in the end the princess burned all the paintings.

Renji was frightened and chased after Chihiro immediately, who was waiting on the school rooftop. Chihiro explained that the novel is based on her way of living, and that she wants to spare Renji of any torture that the relationship has brought to him. In the end, she said "Let's break up".

Renji was in tears, and he refused to accept the breakup. To see it to its end, Chihiro tore the papers of her diary containing her experiences with Renji, and threw them into the air, in a wonderfully rendered cinematic scene, accompanied by beautiful soundtrack.

Knowing that she would wake up the next day not knowing anything about Renji, she said "With this, we have completely broken up." The credits rolled.

Beautiful, simply beautiful! Shaft has made my mouth gape all year around in 2007! Click here to see the scene (it cuts into the "final manuscript" part).

Click here to read about Moment #1

Kamina's final farewell



And this one made my mouth gape so big, the gurren lagaan can fit through it!

Kamina is the leader of a resistance band called the "Great Gurren Brigade", trying to overthrow the monsters that forced them to stay underground. He's this really awesome dude that spouts out incredible so-called nonsense like "Don't believe in yourself. Believe in me who believes in you!". He's the energy of the group, motivating and touching the lives of many who wish to attain freedom.

Beneath Kamina's wing is Simon. Because Simon is your typical lame low-spirited Gainax male lead, he looks up to Kamina as a big brother (calls him Aniki). Then we have Youko, another high spirited resistance band member who has some chemistry going on with Kamina. She too wouldn't have gone far without Kamina's support.

Then the day came to fight the Human Eradication Army. They saw this really big ship they wanted to steal, so everyone got their mechs and guns ready. It's such a sight to see the trio fight, with Kamina shouting energetic nonsense to Simon, then having them combine their mechs, and Youko shooting from far.

But this battle is different. Kamina was lethally pierced from below. Simon panicked, and lost control of everything. Then Kamina said:

Can't I even rest in peace?

With the little bit of strength left with him, he knocked some sense into that wimpy boy! Kamina, for the final time :( combined with Simon and pierced the heavens with their drills.

With the boss out of the way, Kamina muttered:

Goodbye my comrades.

Here's the scene: Click here.

SUPERB! BEAUTIFUL! SUGOI! Gainax took the bold step of taking out the legend himself! It was nuts! And just look at the production value! The quality was like something taken from an anime's final episode! I was at the edge of my seat, then I was shocked, then I got depressed. A scene with such a powerful impact!

And that's not the only impact that this scene has. It took a lot of episodes, but eventually, Kamina's death has made everyone stronger, and Simon no longer becomes the wimpy loser of the show! It's true what they say: Once a great hero dies, his legacy continues.

Thank you Gainax for such a great scene!

Phew, that was a lot of writing. Hope it was worth it. Next up: Top 5 best anime characters of 2007.