B Gata H Kei and Arakawa Under the Bridge

While Durarara and Angel Beats were both among the best shows I've seen in a long time, B Gata H Kei demonstrated how easy it is to have an interesting/entertaining concept, but not really go anywhere. B Gata H Kei started out as an attempt to turn the "Guy trying to get laid falls ass-backwards into true love" stereotype on it's head by replacing "Guy" with "Girl". While this kept it interesting, the "trying to get laid" part served only to provide humor, and really didn't make for believable situations or good storytelling. The show really shined in it's characters. While there were a few cliche characters, such as Kyouka, the ridiculously wealthy antagonist that was disturbingly similar to Martina from "Slayers", the rest were pretty well done for the most part. All in all, it was an enjoyable show to watch, but is by no means an amazing work of art.

Arakawa Under the Bridge isn't really comparable to any other shows, mostly because it seems like an anime adaptation of a 4-koma manga. It has an incredibly weak storyline, and was chaotic enough that any storyline that did exist was nearly impossible to follow. Like B Gata H Kei, Arakawa was all about the character interaction, which made for a very funny show, due mostly to the sheer insanity that seemed to permeate the cast. Unfortunately, it got somewhat boring near the end, as it got to the point that it was just repeating jokes to keep itself going. It attempted to have some sort of conclusion, but the storyline was already so weak it didn't really make much sense. Much like B Gata H Kei, it was fun to watch, but not much else.