Ah, the day after Christmas. The year is winding down and the countdown lists are at full force. So, here’s another one for you! The top 10 Anime of 2012 is as follows.
10. BTOOOM!
Ryōta Sakamoto is an unemployed 22-year-old who lives with his mother. In the real world, there may be nothing really special about him, but online, he’s one of the world’s top players of the combat game called Btooom!. One day, he awakes in what appears to be a tropical island, though he has no memory of how or why he has come to be there. While wandering around, Ryōta sees someone and calls out for help. The stranger responds by throwing a bomb at him. Ryōta soon realizes both that his life is in danger and that he has somehow been trapped in a real-life version of his favorite game.
9. Inu x Boku SS
The Maison de Ayakashi, better known as the Ayakashikan, is a high security apartment building where humans with demon ancestors, or youkai, reside, each guarded by their own Secret Service bodyguard. A youkai girl named Ririchiyo Shirakiin moves into the Ayakashikan hoping for some peace and quiet. Instead, she finds herself with the service of the Secret Service agent, Sōshi Miketsukami.
8. Say “I Love You”
Quiet and unassuming Mei Tachibana is 16-years-old, but has spent her high school years without making friends or getting a boyfriend because of a childhood incident that left her believing that people will betray each other sooner or later. When she encounters popular boy Yamato Kurosawa, he becomes interested in her and it is through their tentative friendship and blossoming relationship that Mei ultimately begins to branch out and befriend others.
7. Another
In 1972, Misaki, a popular student of Yomiyama North Middle School’s class 3-3, suddenly died partway through the school year. Devastated by the unexpected loss, the students and teachers behaved like Misaki was still alive, leading to a strange presence on the graduation photo. In Spring 1998, 15-year-old Kōichi Sakakibara transfers into Yomiyama’s class 3-3, where he meets the peculiar Mei Misaki, who is seemingly ignored by her classmates. The class is soon caught up in a strange epidemic, where its students and their relatives are caught up in mysterious deaths. Learning these deaths have something to do with the Misaki of 1972, it is up to Kōichi and Mei to discover the cause of these mysterious deaths and figure out how to put an end to it before it puts an end to them.
6. Magi
Aladdin, the primary protagonist, is traveling a desert land, with a magic flute that summons a djinn named Ugo. The djinn has a huge and muscular body, but cannot remove his head from the flute, giving him a headless appearance and frequently causing even people he is trying to rescue to mistake him for a monster. The two meet Alibaba, a seemingly aloof young man who is trying to get rich, and together they explore a nearby treasure-filled dungeon. Aladdin and Alibaba eventually become true friends, along with Morgianna, a slave girl from a distant land that they free from her master. Together, the three encounter other djinn along their masters, and are forced to take sides in an imminent conflict that will decide the fate of the entire world.
5. Blast of Tempest
The story revolves around Mahiro Fuwa, a teenager whose family was mysteriously murdered one year before, and his friend Yoshino Takigawa. Mahiro is contacted by Hakaze Kusaribe, the leader of the Kusaribe clan who was left stranded on an unknown deserted island by her followers, and agrees to help Hakaze in exchange for her help to find out the culprit for the death of his family. Upon learning of his friend’s intentions, Yoshino joins him on his quest to stand against the Kusaribe clan who intends to awaken the “Tree of Exodus” whose power can bring ruin to the entire world.
4. Total Eclipse
Set in an alternative timeline, Earth is invaded by an alien species known as BETA. Overwhelmed by the BETA’s superior numbers, mankind develops a jet/mecha hybrid called Tactical Surface Fighters or TSF to counter them. The series follows the members of the UN Project PROMINENCE, a corp of international pilots testing and improving TSF to help Earth’s war against the BETA.
3. Can’t Take my Eyes Off of You
A fateful phone call shakes up the normal routine in the Sanzenin household. Is it an invitation from outer space? Area 51 is a military base that routinely attracts gray/secretive missions, UFOs and other un-worldly things. Nagi is intent on going there, but Maria says it’s too dangerous to go. Hayate laughs at Nagi who knows very little about the world. And so the story begins…
2. My Little Monster
My Little Monster focuses on the relationship between Shizuku Mizutani, who has absolutely no interests except in studying and her plans for the future, and a boy named Haru Yoshida, who sits next to Shizuku in class but rarely attends school. After Shizuku is tasked with delivering class printouts to Haru’s home, she meets Haru, who immediately greets her as a friend, starting their new relationship.
1. Sword Art Online
In the year 2022, the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Sword Art Online (SAO), is released. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user’s five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.
On November 6, 2022, all the players log in for the first time, and subsequently discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game’s tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world. The story follows Kirito, a skilled player who is determined to beat the game. As the game progresses for two years, Kirito eventually befriends a female player named Asuna.
And there we have the top 10 anime of 2012. Which were your favorites?