So here are the first five years form a 2019 perspective (those are the ones where I disagree with my "classic" choice the most).
I forced myself to select a single anime from each year as the top pick.
And I added some comments too!
2000: Seikai no Senki
Still one of my favourite space-travel-focused science fiction animes. A great mix of action, character building, and development of the setting/story. This was by far the easiest year for me to make a choice in.
2001: Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu
I had considered
Millennium Actress, but Guu is too funny. I have to admit that I have a big soft spot for bizarre comedy (and that's one thing about my taste that hasn't really changed over the years).
2002: Juuni Kokuki
I want to give a shoutout to
Azumanga Daiou, for basically doing the high school girl group comedy thing before it exploded in popularity -- and arguably doing it better --
Haibane Renmei and
Princess Tutu for being real art (it's hard to articulate), RahXephon for being the best NGE clone, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for being GitS:SAC. What a stacked year.
So clearly, the selection was hard to make. Then why Juuni Kokuki? Because it's a serious 45 episode anime that I still adored by the time it was over, and tried to find a way to learn the rest of the story several times through the years. That's really rare. It's a huge shame they couldn't complete this adaptation.
2003: Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World
This one might be even more difficult than 2002. I ultimately chose Kino no Tabi since it stuck with me the most on an emotional level out of all the options. But there are many of them:
Tokyo Godfathers was perhaps the strongest contender, together with
Planetes (which I think someone else chose) and the somewhat-too-esoteric for it's own good
Texhnolyze.
Also, I still cite Battle Programmer Shirase's
double compile from time to time.
What's really interesting about this year to me from a contemporary perspective is the number of action/drama series I consider at least
decent: Uchuu no Stellvia, Scrapped Princess, Last Exile, R.O.D: The TV, Narutaru, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, Mujin Wakusei Survive, Gungrave, Gunslinger Girl, even Chrno Crusade. None of these are true standouts, but they exist in a single year
in addition to the several truly excellent picks I mentioned before.
Did I get much more picky or did the quality/amount of such middle-of-the-road-but-not-bad animes drop precipitously compared to 2003?
What do you all think?
2004: Monster
Monster is a really noteworthy anime, as one of those rare beasts of a series that is more than 50 episodes long but manages to fill those with quality -- and even more rare, while not being a comedy.
I distinctly remember both
Gankutsuou and
Samurai Champloo being triumphs in terms of style, and in fact both are pretty good in other aspects too. Soukyuu no Fafner deserves a mention as the
other NGE clone that doesn't suck. School Rumble was really funny, and Mai-Hime's plot development was unexpected.
... this took a lot longer.
