There are certain scenes in anime that are simply the best. Of course, it is just my opinion but there are sequences that have never been equaled. Thought I’d share a few of them.

Best Kiss

The best kiss scene in all of anime? There’s a lot to choose from. Toradora has a great one. I picked this one because it resonated with me. A bittersweet kiss full of love and passion and pain for what might have been and will never be.

Best Confession

This one never fails to leave a tear in my eye. A boy and a girl are more than friends and clearly something less than lovers. He’s immature and full of psychological issues. She is brilliant, yet emotionally scarred. Somehow he has learned to love and respect her and she fights to overcome her trauma. Together they grow.

Please continue to love me. If you wait for me to heal a bit more, you’ll like what you get.

Best Fight – female

Anime is full of fights. Spectacular battles that rend the heavens and shake the Earth. My favorite is on a smaller scale. One woman with eyes of death against a small hoard of undead. Nothing special. But the fluidity, the grace, and the aesthetics of it are more satisfying to me than demigods and superhumans shattering mountain ranges.

Best Fight – male

Cowboy Bebop delivers. A brutal battle to the death between two brothers choreographed to perfection – while Spike watches his life flash by to the gentle sound of a children’s choir.

Best Internal Dialog

Becoming old myself, a whole new world of doubt and fatalism opens up before me. This particular snip describes the loss that comes with age perfectly. Whether or not the speaker redeems his aging friends, as seems his intent, his heroism and iron will in the face of declining ability reminds me of that poem in which an aging Ulysses seeks to move on to a final adventure.

Best Single Musical Performance

A couple of kids on piano and drums rock their school with their improvisational jazz.

Best OST

And the winner for the best original soundtrack is… Nana! Every song in the series is brilliant, whether it be Rose or Wish or A Little Pain or any of the other great songs.

Silliest Shower Scene

When it comes to cringe-worthy behavior, Shinji never fails to deliver.

Yeah, there’s a lot more bests I could do. But this post would be a hundred thousand words and thousands of images and video clips. Might as well save them for later. Ciao!