The Spring 2011 anime season is winding down, and the inevitable debate has begun about the best show of the season. Considering that the season had more than forty new series, the candidate list is surprisingly small: basically just Ano Hana and Hanasaku Iroha, both of which have vocal proponents. Denpa Onna started out strong but petered out. A few fans hold out for Deadman Wonderland, C, The World God Only Knows S2, or Steins;Gate. However, they're all wrong. The best show of the Spring 2011 season is... Fireball Charming.
I can hear the cries of outrage already. How can a two-minute CG-anime starring two very strange robots outshine the moe cuteness of Ano Hano or Hanasaku Iroha, the violence in Deadman Wonderland, or the complexity in Steins;Gate? The answer is simple. Fireball Charming is funny, side-splittingly funny. Its humor isn't based on gross-outs, like Hen Zemi or Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san, or whimsy and nostalgia, like A Channel or Nichijou. No, the humor is based on sharp dialog, great repartee, and inventive gags. In short, Fireball Charming is verbally funny. Each episode is like a miniature 1930's screwball comedy. I'm an editor, after all, and nothing appeals to me more than great dialog.
I can't comment on the accuracy of gg's translations, but the editing is tight, and the puns and references have been localized with great ingenuity. The voice acting is superb. The episodes look great, with high-def CG animation, and they're over in two minutes. What's not to like?
So if you haven't watched Fireball Charming yet, check it out. You can marathon the whole season in about the amount of time you'd waste on one episode of Naruto Shippuuden. You have nothing to lose (except, perhaps, your mind).
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