Buddy Complex

Author: Hiroki Obara

Aoba returns for another year of school. On his first day, he's attacked by a mecha, saved by a classmate, and taken from 2014 and placed firmly in the loving grasp of 2088. That's the start of a wonderful anime series that explores similar themes to Star Wars and The Matrix, while giving a rip-roaring good time with some of the finest animation of the last few years. The way that Aoba is presented, as a fish out of his own timestream, gives the entire series life, especially in the way that he is presented as something of a Harry Potter-level natural at being a coupling pilot. This is a theme in so many classic science fiction films, and here it feels so natural, and Aoba is the kind of hero you want to find in scifi – amazingly likeable, almost joyously human, and the way he interacts with the others, specifically with Hina, that we see how the characters in Buddy Complex are far better realised than in most series. Why it's on the list: Buddy Complex can't be beat for re-watchablity, nor for discovering the depth of anime characterization and the massive combination of story, animation, and sound design.