Board 8 > Save My Favourite Anime Series 9: Results [SMFAS]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Grand Final Results:

A Place Further than the Universe: 143
Odd Taxi: 98

Last year, Legend of the Galactic Heroes became our oldest champion.
This year A Place Further than the Universe achieves victory as the youngest, although this would have applied to either series.

Sometimes a show does need a few more years to mature and build an audience through positive word of mouth.
A Place Further Than the Universe has been recommended on a steady and constant basis as more than your typical cute girls doing cute things show.
It offers one of the strongest coming of age stories, with four likeable main characters each dealing with their own reasons to achieve this challenge.

But what might have set this show apart was the direction. The narrative is solid, they build up to each moment, the best scenes pull you in emotionally.

In Odd Taxi it beats what could be considered the new hotness, but that series may not have had the time to reach an audience just yet.
It's a strong neo-noire series, it follows the beats you would expect from a tightly directed thriller plot.
The animals are cute, but the intrigue levels are high, it's a clever show, but it doesn't beat you over the head with how smart the characters are.
Plans are set in motions, sometimes they work out, sometimes they go horribly wrong.
But like with Antarctica, this is the type of series where the one cour is enough to tell its story.

Next year, I think 60 is good for the number of participants.
We have many shows to look forward to, among the expected rookies Spy x Family is something that could perhaps tap into that Kaguya audience.
If shonen is to make a comeback, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen flopped, but perhaps Chainsaw Man will attract a crowd.

It could of course also be time for some vets to have another shot, Steins;Gate came closest but it's not like a Madoka, TTGL or Jojo can't put a run together.

Final Results:

01. A Place Further Than the Universe
02. Odd Taxi
03. Steins;Gate
04. Dragon Ball Z
05. Shaman King (2021)
06. Baccano!
07. Monogatari
08. My Dress-Up Darling
09. Beastars
10. Legend of the Galactic Heroes
11. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
12. D4DJ
13. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
14. Haikyuu!!
15. Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
16. Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World
17. Shining Tears X Wind
18. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
19. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
20. Mushishi
21. My Hero Academia
22. Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight
23. School Rumble
24. Monster
25. Yu Yu Hakusho
26. Chihayafuru
27. Mob Psycho 100
28. The Quintessential Quintuplets
29. Non Non Biyori
30. Dennou Coil
31. 86 Eighty-Six
32. Mushoku Tensei
33. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K
34. Hibike! Euphonium
35. Trigun
36. Hyouka
37. Lupin the 3rd
38. Black Clover
39. Armed Girls Machiavellism
40. My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
41. Fate/Zero
42. K-On
43. Black Lagoon
44. Haibane Renmei
45. Ascendance of a Bookworm
46. Violet Evergarden
47. SK8 the Infinity
48. Azumanga Daioh
49. Aggretsuko
50. Death Parade
51. Kanamemo
52. Toradora!
53. Paranoia Agent
54. FLCL
55. Attack on Titan
56. Kaiji
57. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
58. Speed Racer
59. Ranking of Kings
60. Tokyo Revengers

Ah, would have loved seeing Oddtaxi win with its debut year but that's a bit of a hard obstacle to overcome. Antarctica while still being new definitely had a decent amount of build up years to get here. And it's a good show so all is well.

best winner so far, and completely unexpected. of my top 5 shows only one I'd less expect to win would be Hibike!. great job to everyone who saved it throughout the contest, and props to Odd Taxi fans for getting it to the final as well. for me it was top 5 vs top 25 or 30 probably so both great shows!

thanks for running it voltch. 60 entrants definitely better than 100

Would have loved a win, but 2nd is way higher than I ever expected Oddtaxi to get, and it has lead to some people watching it, so I'm more than happy with this result!

I stopped watching Antarctica about halfway through, but I can't remember why. I know I was enjoying it, at least. I'll have to give it another go.

Kinda looking back, I'm a tad surprised Komi couldn't get any Netflix traction but Shaman King did.
Sonny Boy I saw do well come award time, but it never got in, that's happened a lot in the past though.
I half expected Heike Monogatari to have at least one backer as that studio's made some cult hits.

No one went for the Star Wars: Visions anthology, but from what I watched, lot of misses in there.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/5/0/AAC56kAADNs2.jpg

Congratulations to the Antarctica backers for breaking through this year!! Trying to recall its top supporters in the past, pretty sure the top 2 were Xeybozn and Koala? Maybe Sheep as #3? In any case, good job all!

I actually have it as #2 on my "to watch" list (dating back to its performance when it finished 6th in SMFAS... 5? Good lord. Just shows how slow I am at watching shows?). So, good timing for a win for it, for me to finally watch it. Though it's following my watchthrough of Baccano so tough act to follow, if it also lives up to the hype.

Also, congrats to the Odd Taxi backers, I remember somebody (Bane?) hyping it up last year? Pretty great showing for a debut so congrats to whoever helped get it so far!

Interesting top 10, mix of regulars and out-of-nowheres (DBZ? Shaman King 2021 when original series was a hardboot last year iirc?) Shortened contest caught me off guard from doing an endgame pop-in but that's what I get for not reading the nomination topic or any rounds thereafter. Probably for the best, just looking at those early results...

53. Paranoia Agent
55. Attack on Titan
56. Kaiji
57. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

https://i.imgur.com/4Hq2hNK.gif

If that's what happens when I don't participate, get ready for the SMFFFC slaughter, lol.

So, everybody's on the Spy x Family train next year, right?

MartinFF7 posted...

So, everybody's on the Spy x Family train next year, right?

It probably won't be my top priority at the start of the contest, but I have a feeling it will be by the end.

Too bad Odd Taxi came up short, but A Place Further than the Universe is also good. Congrats to its supporters.

Thanks for running the contest, voltch.

The shonen crowd here just wants to spam old things

It kinda all boils down to how much of a hit Chainsaw Man's adaptation is.

Other mangas may be popular but that one has an incredibly hardcore fanbase, so could see that translating over to the anime.

Could also see it getting backlash.

Odd Taxi is the first thing we've ever had make a final that I had absolutely no prior experience with... so I ended my two year anime hiatus and watched it before voting

thank goodness it was only 13 episodes

I didn't actually start saving it until Dress-Up Darling went out, but A Place Further Than the Universe has been my favorite remaining ever since we lost Revue Starlight. I watched Odd Taxi before the final three and it came ridiculously close to Antarctica in my personal ranking. The girls won out in the end, and I'm glad they got the ultimate victory. I'm betting Odd Taxi will be back again, too!

If I show up for nominations next year, I might try to get Ya Boy Kongming a run. Spy x Family isn't the only hit of the season!

I'm still kind of in shock that Antarctica actually won. It just isn't the sort of show that usually has a chance in this contest. Thanks everyone who started supporting it towards the end.

(Not that Odd Taxi would have been a bad winner, though. Both finalists were amazing this year, and anyone who hasn't watched them should give them a try.)

Well I do have to say, I watched Girls Last Tour recently, I thought wandering a post-apocalypse landscape would appeal to me but it sadly didn't!

(though I also did the dub, maybe I just can't do dubs. I forget if I have Antarctica dubbed or subbed, guess we'll see)

th3l3fty posted...

so I ended my two year anime hiatus and watched it before voting

So what I'm hearing is you never watched the LotGH Gaiden series after last year like you said you would...!

I only said maybe!

The final was really even about 3/4 of the way through, but Antarctica pulled away at the end. Great result! I started watching it because of this contest - I think Xeybozn unintentionally convinced me to give it a try after I noticed every other show they saved was one that I loved. I think it tends to be one of my second or third priority series, since I'm usually focused on keeping KyoAni shows going, but it'd always get enough votes to outlast them and I'd come back to voting it before the end (usually split with something else, admittedly). And this time it got to the finals, while I don't think I traded for it more than once! Shows how it's really grown in popularity over the years, while other cute girls shows like Non Non Biyori and Girls' Last Tour have dropped off a lot after high rankings in the past.

Next year I'll hopefully be back to human sleeping times and be able to reliably save more than once a round. I'm already wondering what I'm gonna back: I think I'll give Hibike and Tatami a break, just so I don't make things awkward again for Koala and Lefty in the cases I'm unavailable. Maybe Revue Starlight? Or maybe it's time for Madoka to have a proper run again.

Regardless, I'm gonna go finally watch Odd Taxi now.