The Organization has made its decision. There isn’t enough Dr. Pepper in my fridge. And my banana’s not jelly enough. That only means one thing. Steins;Gate needs to be discussed as 2011’s best anime. El Psy Congroo. 

If you told me at the beginning of the year that I’d be picking a manga about agriculture as the best manga of 2011, I’d probably have laughed at you, turned around and gone to bed with a huge grin on my face at such a notion.

Well, I still can’t believe it myself, but I can’t deny just how much I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the series since it began its run. 

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I had a really difficult time picking my Game of the Year this time around. It was down to a handful of different games: Uncharted 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, etc. In the end, it came down to entertainment value, which left only a single worthy candidate: Portal 2.

Sacred Seven was one of those action anime that attempted to do everything possible in just twelve episodes. At first I was disappointed that it would only get twelve, but when watching it, I cast aside those thoughts and enjoyed the ride. It was an excellent ride, indeed.

2011 was a pretty big year for comics. Most of it was DC’s whole relaunch, but we also had a good share of awesome stuff from Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, and everyone else.

All of that said, it’s a bit hard for me to narrow this down to a single “best of 2011” item, so I’ll be doing this as a series of five categories with one winner and four runners-up. 

• Best Writer
• Best Art Team
• Best Collection/Graphic Novel
• Best New Series
• Best Continuing Series

So go ahead and read on to see my choices for the best comics of 2011!

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For my Best Manga of the Year post, I tried to pick a manga that started in, improved, or covered a lot of ground in the year in question or any combination of the three.  

I found that the closest manga that fit my criteria actually started in late 2010 — Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!

Hit the break to read more about my pick.

Hit the break to read why Skyrim was my game of the year.

I was fairly late to the Madoka Magica party.  I remember sitting on Sankaku Complex reading the weekly reviews at what I thought was just another cutesy magical girl show. The art was notoriously horrible at places, and I tried to watch the first episode when it came out, but the art was so inconsistent that I couldn’t stomach it.

In retrospect, 2011 was a really great year for geek-related films. Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots and comic books were the overall general theme for the cinema this year—has been and will continue to be the theme of Hollywood blockbusters for the next few years.

So with a market that is beginning to become overly saturated with these types of films, it was really refreshing to have The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo stand out as my favourite film of the year.

2011 has been an interesting year in the long running shonen battle manga series. In this year we journeyed to Fishman Island to take on the New Fishman Pirates, followed the entrance of Naruto into the Great Ninja War (as well as met old revived fan favorites), and experienced Ichigo regain his Shinigami powers.

But none of the arcs mentioned above were part of the best manga of 2011 — Fairy Tail. Read to find out why.

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Unlike last year, I’ve decided to go for a more broader focus this time round. And I struggled, since there are so many great comics currently running right now.

However, one ongoing stuck out as being just that bit special – Lemire and Foreman’s Animal Man.

Since the September relaunch, this has been a surprisingly (or perhaps not that surprising) good read. As someone unfamiliar with the character and the Baker family, this series has been a really accessible and engrossing read, with each issue just as strong as the previous. And #1 was personally my favourite #1 of the New 52 titles.

So what’s so great about Animal Man? Read on to find out.

I submit this thought from the northern plains.

North Dakota is a very bleak, very gray state. One of the things I immediately noticed is that almost all of the trees are dead. It’s also very cold, clocking in with an average midday temperature of about 28 degrees (without wind chill, which is uncommonly warm I’m told). The college has a liquor store in it, the liquor store has a bar under it, and my girlfriend’s father bet fifteen dollars on a game of Dungeons & Dragons pinball that he immediately lost after tilting the machine in the first round. The internet is also nearly unusable, giving me a lot of time to think about what I would consider my pick for game of the year. It has also given me a lot of time to think about seedless grapes, The Super Mario Brothers Super Show and my own mortality, but that’s a post for another day.

If I had to choose (and my editor tells me that I do), the pick would have to come down to three main titles: Skyrim, Saints Row the Third, and Arkham City.

Skyrim, while it boasts more life-sucking power than any other game on the market, is extremely glitchy to give Bethesda the top slot. Saints is awesome, but a little too shallow in the content department to get the GOTY pull. Which of course leaves Arkham City, an amazing feat of nerdiness that also looks great in heels.

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I seem to be of the unpopular opinion that there were not a whole lot of outstanding anime this year. There was of course, Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica, but I haven’t watched that (yet). And others, like Tiger & Bunny were disappointing, to say the very least.

The only definitively good anime that I’ve watched was AnoHana.

Find out why.