Damn...2009 was a good year. Darker than Black, Fairy Tail, K-on!, Eden of the East...
My pick has to go to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood though. For anyone that isn't aware of it (somehow), it's a story about two brothers who practice alchemy. I'd go on...but I suppose there's already a synopsis on the first page, so I'll leave it there.
Brotherhood is the second anime adaptation of the original manga, which ended up diverting from the original story due the source material moving at a much slower pace than the anime. The first was fantastic, but with some faults...and a very odd and (imo) contrived conclusion. Brotherhood, following the story of the original manga, fixed all these flaws...and told a much more cohesive story overall. The characters were fantastic, the story remained interesting the entire time, and every plot twist felt natural, as if it was planned out well ahead of time.
I watch a lot of anime in this genre, and one of my biggest issues is how eventually most of the cast becomes pointless in order to build up the MC. In Brotherhood...that wasn't the case at all. Every character had a huge impact on the end, and the final fight absolutely blew my mind for that reason. I really got the impression that every member of the cast mattered...I get excited just thinking about everyone joining together for that epic fight. Any character death had a huge impact on the overall story, and wasn't done purely for shock value, and the characters that lived were all indispensable to the plot. That in particular is why I have such a high opinion of this anime...among plenty of other qualities that I've already mentioned.
It also has one of my favorite anime openings ever...I still listen to it now and again.
NNID: Zephyr25 / PSN: Zephyr--25 / Switch: SW-4450-3680-7334
