A KURUTTA decade

This time of the year it is customary to list stuff so here is some stuff I thought was good in the noughties. I'll probably regret everything on these lists in two months...

Things I thoroughly enjoyed in the noughties part manga

1. Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi
2. Blue Spring by Taiyō Matsumoto
3. Blue by Kiriko Nananan
4. Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms by Fumiyo Kōno
5. Museum of Terror by Junji Ito
6. New Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama
7. MW by Osamu Tezuka
8. The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
9. Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezu
10. Est Em's manga

Things I thoroughly enjoyed in the noughties part movies

1. Battle Royale
2. Nobody Knows
3. Kaïro
4. A Snake of June
5. Vibrator
6. Visitor Q
7. Electric Dragon 80000V
8. Eureka
9. All About Lily Chou-Chou
10. Twilight Samurai

I think Battle Royale's immense popularity and the awful sequel has made people denounce it but hot damn it is the tightest film Fukasaku ever made. Fun fact: the first time I fell asleep in a movie theater was during a screening of Kitano's awful Glory to the Filmmaker. Yuck!

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Things I thoroughly enjoyed in the noughties part anime

1. Mind Game
2. Now and Then, Here and There
3. Interstella 5555
4. Metropolis
5. Cat Soup
6. Spirited Away
7. Kemonozume
8. Paprika
9. FLCL
10. Planetes

But the absolute best moment in anime was the opening of Cowboy Bebop: Knocking of Heaven's Door. The POV shot of the first guy getting knocked out. The mid-air doughnut. The use of fisheye perspectives. Spike's grumpy eyes when the fourth robber comes out of the bathroom. The can of soda that rolls a bit further than the rest. "Just a humble bounty hunter, ma'am". And then the title sequence. Everything is just so perfect and goose bump-y. Too bad the rest of the film never manages to evoke the same feelings the first 6 minutes does. Two other favorite scenes: The "I can't stop loving you" climax in Metropolis and the sex scene in Mind Game.

The most technically impressive things I saw: Innocence and Tekkonkinkreet. Actually Studio 4°C's entire decade was one long animation tour de Force.

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Things I thoroughly enjoyed in the noughties part visual kei

1. DAS:VASSER - Over (Song)
2. 新興宗教楽団NoGoD - アトリア (Song)
3. 人格ラヂオ - バンギャルラヂオシアタァ (DVD)
4. MUCC - 絶望 (Song)
5. Dir en grey - The Final (Song)
6. √eight - illational of the people (Album)
7. Viored (Group)
8. D'espairsRay - TERRORS (Album)
9. La'Mule - ナイフ (Song)
10. exist†trace - JUDEA (Song)

人格ラヂオ - 姥捨て山
Jinkaku Radio - Ubasuteyama