Written by one of Funimation’s Brand Managers, Jennifu
Ready to feel old? This year, we’re kicking off a lot of new 10-year anniversary editions of some really iconic anime, including the just-released The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and the just-announced Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya collector’s editions.—and more 10th anniversary editions are on the way! To mark these, here’s a rundown of what life was like in 2006—a great year for anime!
In anime:
We can’t stress enough that 2006 was A REALLY GOOD YEAR for anime. 2006 is considered the height of the anime “bubble” in both Japan and the US with a record high (at the time) number of new anime series being created, before the industry took a decline.
Tons of series that still impact us today were born this year:
Ouran High School Host Club and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya both debuted in spring for a season of double Haruhis. Everyone’s learning the Hare Hare Yukai.
Code Geass
Death Note
Nana
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time wins the first Japan Academy Prize (the Japanese equivalent of the Oscar) for Animation of the Year ever awarded
Detective Conan/Case Closed celebrates its 10th movie release
In North America:
Anime is still released in single-volume releases with only about 4 episodes each.
The last volume of Fullmetal Alchemist is released, as well as the movie The Conqueror of Shamballa.
Toonami is on Saturday nights and features the first Yu-Gi-Oh! spinoff, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Toonami also launches their online video service Toonami Jetstream
Other headlines
Twitter is founded in March 2006
Wii and the PS3 living rooms
Motorola Razr phones are still popular, and the Zune debuts
Pluto is demoted to not-a-planet
“You” is Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, celebrating creators of user-generated content
Movies: 300, Da Vinci Code, Cars
What were some of your favorite moments from 2006? Let us know in the comments!
WOW I’M OLD. O_o
Yeah I know, but I love Black Lagoon to this day.
Really dont miss the 4 episode volume releases. Thabkful for the current way they are doing it.
For the love of Haruhi, please update us on when you’re going to do a blu-ray release of code geass already Funimation!!
xxxHolic and D. Gray-man deserve to have the rest of their episodes licensed and released. You said it yourself, these are great shows that left an impact. It would be perfect if you could dub the the entire series for both of these shows and release them as a special 10 year anniversary edition!
Yeah, I was bummed to see xxxHolic on there knowing that they didn’t license the second season.
They really need to redo Air Gear since the manga has ended. That was a great series.
I feel so old haha, I remember all of these events/shows as they happened. Wow, already 10 years gone 🙁
Sadly, this is the realization I’ve been having a lot lately.
Yay Case Closed!
OMG! That was such a good year! Lots of great anime that still holds up after 10 years!
Ha! I still have so many “box sets” of 6 singles filling up my collection.
For some reason, this feels like some kind of Golden Age in my life. 2006 was full of so much possibility, and there was just something in the air around Haruhi. Good times, thanks for the trip 🙂
Hopefully this means Funi will release Code Geass LE soon. (:
I still find myself re watching Haruhi every year and its great every time
Hey Funimation,
The Strike Witches series is 10 years young too you know…
I hope that there is at least a release schedule for the Movie (I have been waiting 4 long years for this one to be dubbed) & 3 OVA’s dubbed & official subbed for this year.
A special edition wouldn’t hurt either after waiting so long for the movie!
I always thought that you were the best & I even had a sigh of relief when you acquired the rights to the Movie. It’s been 2 long years!
Without Imports I would be dead.
I’m guessing the decline in the anime industry was heavily due to the Great Recession of 2007?
There are a lot of great shows from that year, but Holic had the biggest impact on my life of any anime I’ve ever watched. Not only was it the first anime I ever watched, it was also the first manga series I bought. On top of that, it was directly involved in my decision to start learning the Japanese language. Prior to any of that, any animation was just another cartoon.