Before I get into my rave of this show, let me tell you one thing: Cha Cha is much more than a good anime for me; it represents my heyday in anime. It represents the time when I truly had fun waiting for my fansubs in the mail, reading reviews of shows now considered old and passé, and just enjoying the loving anime community as a whole. Now, with the commercialization, digitalization, and Americanization of anime, the "love" is gone, and thus I look at Cha Cha as a great reminder of that time. In reality, Cha Cha is just a fun mahou shoujo series about a witch in training who becomes a super hero version of herself whenever a monster-of-the-week shows up (albeit the show did have a wicked sense of humor). But it's exactly the warmth and humor I look for in anime, not to mention the top-notch characterization. Yay.

While some state that Otaku no Video has never been matched in its examinations of the world of the anime/manga fan, anyone who has seen ComiPa will tell you that it not only has, but it's been beaten. The true joy of ComiPa is its ability to bring to life the conventions, the doujinshi, the cosplay, and all the other facets of the anime world and put human faces (well, drawn human faces at least) on them. Thus, we learn about these subsets by way of characters we know and care about, and we truly get excited with their success in their favorite field. Seriously, if an anime can actually make me want to dress up like Miyu and head down to a convention, it deserves a spot on this list. Period.

Another entry on the comedy front, Kodomo no Omocha is not one of those shows that simmers its characters in slowly building relationships while delivering subtle but amusing jabs of comedy. No, Kodocha instead acts a manic whirlwind, blowing away any viewer with its spastic insanity and killer cast. Never has any anime character been so caffeine-crazy as Sana, and the rest of the cast do much to add their own absurd jolts of humor every time they can. And not only that, the more dramatic scenes are handled expertly, and all of the characters are as interesting as they are crazy. Oh, and Babbit-chan. We mustn't forget Babbit-chan!

I don't really think there's an adequate way to describe the brilliance of this little surrealist splash we all call Lain in one paragraph. This was the anime made to prove you are dumb. An infinitely layered and extraordinarily well-planned series, though I've met some who don't like it, I've never seen to a person to not hold it in high respect. And though sometimes it doesn't always pull it off perfectly, in such a world of copycats as ours, Lain will always be top dog in originality.

As a "Lord of the Flies" clone, Ryvius proved to be just OK, but when taken on it's own there's almost nothing that can stop it. One of the most interesting factors in the anime is that not only does it have a humongous cast, but it also takes the time to personalize and develop each of 30+ (important) crewmembers in a brilliant manner I have never seen before. And with each episode the tension builds on the Ryvius, leaving the viewer to not only care about the soap operatic relations of the characters, but also about their very survival. Add in a bit of political conspiracies and one cute mascot, and we got ourselves a winner!