Let’s do this for US cartoons too.

Adventure Time - head and shoulders above everything else this year. May be my favourite TV show of 2010 animated or otherwise.
Batman – The Brave & The Bold – Went to the superheroes dying nobly well a little too often this year, but it also made me exclaim that it was better than Batman TAS at various points this year.
Chowder – sadly this drew to a close in 2010, and even with Adventure Time now overshadowing it in my affections, it was still a good show.
Venture Bros – second half of season 4 cemented what the season had been about, namely developing Hank and Dean as characters (and Gary to a lesser a degree). And it had the added bonus of the gags being less hacky than first half. There’s probably one more season in it before it reaches its natural end.
Regular Show – Took a while for me to get into its rhythm, but by the final episode “Ello Guv’nor” I was a firm fan.

Again, I shall write more on these at a later date. Certainly a Chowder series review at the very least is due now that it’s over. Plus there’s the fact that it (and Violence Jack) are the main search hits this site gets so I should play to that audience once in a while.

Honourable Mentions:

Flapjack - another show that went away. A bit hit and miss for me, but the hits like “Lost at Land” were great.
Mad – Uneven mix of parody and toilet humour comes across as a modern, American version of Round the Bend.
Robotomy – the underpromoted member of Cartoon Network’s PG rated shows, this is a lot of fun, even if it feels a little like Superjail-lite.
Archer – if it wasn’t for the cast I’m not sure I’d bother, though I do find it a big improvement on earlier Adam Reed shows.
Ugly Americans - like Robotomy, the involvement of Augenblick Studios give it a Superjail-lite feel on occasion, but the mix of grotesque animation sequences and its warped version of sitcom moralising paid off eventually.
Sym-Bionic Titan - Enjoyed the 70s robot homage to begin with not to mention Brian Posehn as Octus, but my interest waned. Might go back to it later.
Young Justice Pilot – A bit too self-serious coming off Brave and the Bold, but certainly a solid piece of work.

There’s one show I caught that I thought really stunk and that was The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. And I’m not alone as its ratings in the US have tanked. I know Disney in part bought Marvel to have something to sell to young boys, but rushed, cheap looking Film Roman shows aren’t going to cut it in a market with Ben 10, Generator Rex, Batman The Brave and the Bold and soon Young Justice. The only folks who seem to like the show are ageing Marvel zombies whose fandom blinds them to the shoddy animation.

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If you liked 5 or more anime TV series in a given year and still think that year was a bad year for anime then you are probably watching too much anime.

Here’s my five:

Durarara!! – despite a second half with a serious writing problem, this was a great mix of offbeat urban fantasy and energetic animation.
Kuragehime – Takahiro Omori’s second show of the year might be even better than his work on Durarara!!, and displays the diversity of his talents with this josei comedy.
STAR DRIVER – finds the common threads in magical girl and mecha shows and sews them together in a slick looking package.
Panty & Stocking w/ Garterbelt - Imaishi steamrolling chumps. If you don’t like this, then maybe cartoons aren’t for you.
Tatami Galaxy - Clever fleshing out of novel into a jigsaw puzzle of a cartoon from Masaaki Yuasa.

I shall write about these at length on a later date. Well, apart from Durarara!! as I’ve done that already. Really should have had something up for Tatami Galaxy already but got distracted by Red Dead Redemption and then Fallout New Vegas. Shame on me.

Honourable Mentions

Giant Killing - the strengths of the manga shine through DEEN’s perfunctory animation and some serious mangling of foreign languages.
HEROMAN – Great looking animation and concept hampered by pacing problems.
Hetalia World Series - The gay innuendo is becoming an obvious crutch now, but when it sticks to historical comedy its great.
Gag Manga Biyori + - No one’s translating, but looks like its keeping the high standards set in the first three series.
Squid Girl - bursts of Tsutomu Mizushima brilliance show up (spot the obligatory Sam Raimi shots in episode 1), but it’s a little too safe and the characters too bland for my tastes.

There’s a bunch of other shows that might be just as good as the ones I’ve mentioned that I’ve not seen due to either time or waiting for the DVDs. And there’s a load I’ve seen a couple of episodes of that were mediocre to terrible, and they don’t deserve a mention. Or were so odd they might get a post of their own in the future.

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Yumerio Patissiere/Yumerio Patissiere SP Professional, Battle Spirits Shonen Gekiha Dan/Battle Spirits Brave, The New Three Musketeers, Heartcatch PreCure!, Beyblade Metal Fusion, Dragon Ball Kai

Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri, ONE PIECE, Romance of Three Kingdoms, Naruto Shippuden, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Chibi Maruko-chan

Sengoku Basara Two, Sazae-san, Star Driver, Shimajiro, Animal Detectives Kiruminzoo, Gin Tama

Tamogotchi, Fairy Tail, My Three Daughters, Bleach, Bakugan Battle Brawlers: New Vestroia, Thriller Restaurant

Digimon Xros Wars, Stitch, Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s, Kaasan – Mom’s Life, Inazuma Eleven, Marie & Gali

HEROMAN, Anpanman, Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan, Gokujō!! Mecha Mote Iinchō, Shugo Chara Party

MAJOR, Jewelpet Tinkle, SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors, Sgt Frog, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Elementhunters

Gokyoudai Monogatari, Detective Conan, Beast Player Erin, Letter Bee/Letter Bee Reverse, Bakuman, Pokemon Diamond & Pearl/Pokemon Best Wishes

So, pretty much what it looked like last year.

The main changes has been less nostalgia. Dragon Ball Kai is the remains of that mini-trend of recent years, as we’ve not had a real Yatterman replacement and no classic characters showed up in the evening slots that Mazinger and Golgo 13 occupied last year. The shows occupying those slots were the two Letter Bee shows and reruns of MAJOR.

There was also a lack of traditional worthy/literary anime from NHK. Rather than being replaced by a like-minded series, Beast Player Erin was replaced by Star Wars Clone Wars. Instead we got the puppet adaptation of the Three Musketeers filling that role of wholesome entertainment. Other notable US cartoons showing up this year included Transformers Animated and Dora The Explorer (which had replaced Soul Eater in ’09).

One Piece had a big year as it hit the previous year’s huge events from the manga. Looking back now its feeling more like an attempt to move the series’ protagonist Luffy into adulthood as the usual cast was sidelined and the screen time was given over to the adults in the series. There’s another big shift due next year, and it will be interesting to see if there’s any effect on the show’s audience figures.

Sengoku Basara returned, but in a daytime slot. Unfortunately it, nor its successor Star Driver managed to equal the success of the previous occupier of the slot, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The failure of new and new-to-daytime shows to make any impact is probably the tale of 2010′s new before-midnight anime. Heroman and Romance of Three Kingdoms are the other genuinely new shows (if being based on a 14th century novel counts as new) that didn’t really do anything of note. Both underperformed compared to what they had replaced – Gin Tama in Heroman‘s case and Jewelpets (!) in Romance‘s. Everything else “new” was either a continuation, sequel or a franchise show.

Oh, wait. I forgot Lilpri. That did OK for a magical girl show that wasn’t called Pretty Cure. Synopsis sounds like a throwback to 80s magical girl shows where they basically magically transform into a light entertainment career.

And the debut of Bakuman did decently as a MAJOR replacement. So its not all doom and gloom. A modest success can still be eked out, just not one that creates a decent buzz like a FMA or Code Geass has in recent(ish) years

And it is hard to say what could break through in the ways the Yatterman revival, Kaasan and Thriller Restaurant did. A lot of these shows aren’t going to run out of material any time soon and it seems like every “big” current manga is already on TV. And even if you replace a successful show that ends, you aren’t necessarily going to hold that audience.

There’s one big gun that no-one’s pulled the trigger on yet, for a number of sensible reasons. But if we get a full change of cast and if the specials see a drop ratings after that change, I think we will get a full blown Lupin III revival in the way Yatterman did. When? Who knows, but it will be fascinating when it happens.

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