It’s been said before that Haruhi raised the bar for moe anime, being as it was an ultra high-budget, far-reaching, excellent TV series that was probably the first thing to be all at once so thoroughly moe-centric, so well-produced, and so successful. Haruhi came out in 2006, and since then, there have been many well-produced moe series, especially from the likes of Kyoto Animation, A-1 Pictures, and J.C. Staff (not that everything they do looks as good as Raildex or Toradora). But this post isn’t about how moe anime have gotten all nice-looking and big—it’s about how moe anime are becoming the best-looking stuff on TV, period.
I watch a lot of monthly sakuga AMVs—that is, collections of all the awesome animation tidbits from each month of currently-airing anime. Usually, sakuga AMVs are pretty dominated by shows from studio BONES, which hasn’t been true this season as their only show, No. 6, contains minimal sakuga moments.
So, what shows are putting up the strongest sakuga showings this season? The Idolm@ster (A-1 Pictures), Nichijou (Kyoto Animation), and Hana-saku Iroha (P.A. Works), all moe-heavy shows. The only action show putting up a lot of great sakuga moments is Sacred Seven (Sunrise), which is right up there with The Idolm@ster in quantity of sakuga scenes. But when you watch the videos for July and August, there’s definitely more moe shows with awesome sakuga scenes than anything else. Not to mention all those Usagi Drop scenes of Rin doing cute shit… those count, right?
My Sword Is Unbelievably Dull 
So in conclusion, studios are putting their money in moe, because moe is where the money is. Capitalism.
So then the best thing for an anime fan to do is try to find a moe show with a good storyline, so he can get stimulated both visually and emotionally/intellectually…something like ef.
ef is rather short on sakuga, like most SHAFT anime. That’s why they make up for it with style.
Idolm@ster looks frickin’ gorgeous. Ughhh, so tempted.
I have no idea how you’d take the show but it’s IMO the best thing this season (besides the carry-overs Steins;Gate and Iroha which I haven’t watched).
Going to second this. Penguindrum has somewhat squandered the hype, while I went it with very dim expectations of idolm@ster and it has raised the bar with every episode. Like Iroha, it comes off as heartwarming rather than pandering, and the pacing and characterization hits the ground running.
The strength of Idolm@ster I think comes from the fact that the director genuinely loves the source material, so he’s not treating it like “some moe shit project I got stuck with” and more like “this is an amazing franchise that I have to do justice.”
It’s a great adaptation of a video game done with love. The first episode is a good litmus test whether you’ll like the show or not.
comment threading fail, I was replying to ghostlightning