Keep in mind that this is a personal list, this isn't what I believe is the best anime of all time. It's in no particular order.
Midori Days (click to showhide)
A quirky story about a street punk who is always rejected and just wants a girlfriend (any girlfriend) and a shy girl who just wants to get close to him and express her feelings. The wishing star has an awful sense of humour because she becomes his right hand.
This isn't exactly a true favourite of mine, but it's more like a representative of all the incredibly retarded popcorn muncher material I enjoy. The feel good, wacky, no brains cartoon comedies to watch with my sister and take a break from an epic. They're like a desert after a hefty meal. School Rumble, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Sargent Frog, Hetalia. You know, things like that! That would be cheating to give them all a spot, so Midori Days is the face and identity of them because it represents what they all are.
Midori Days is intense gross-out humour and awful pandering. Only three episodes with no nudity!! If this idea was to be done in America (heaven forbid), that's exactly how it would turn out in the long run. Surprisingly enough, Midori Days turns out to be an oddly moving, sweet little comedy. There is a lot of nudity humour, but it's in pretty good taste and the series itself is not really raunchy despite that.
I feel weird defending it because it's a dorky love story about a guy and his right hand! I can't say I fully understand why I love it so much (much less all the rest), but it is a very funny show no matter how many times I watch it with my little sister. I still think it's dumb and simple, but dumb and simple doesn't have to be a bad thing. Check out the other four I mentioned, but I would have to put Midori Days above them.
Kino's Journey (click to showhide)
The collective adventures of a young woman (named Kino, duh) who travels the world searching for life's beauty in the strangest of places. Country to Country, they act more as parables than real places.
This is a favourite based solely on my love for the main character. I'm no feminist by any stretch of the imagination, I don't think the female gender has half as much to bitch about as the activists pretend they do. I will say, the portrayal of women in both American, Canadian, and Japanese media does bother me in that it's so narrow. I know I'm not like any women I see in the movies, I never meet any girls like them ether and it must be a gender thing because there's a terrific variety of men in film that I do recognize as being like real people I know. If we're not dealing with generic feminine bullshit #2037 in the movies, then we got to deal it's advertizing, etc. For some reason, the opposite examples of "Tomb Raider" and the monsters from "Sex in the City" and "Golden Girls" are even worse! The difference here is that Kino is a character first before she's "just a women". In fact, she's not trying to be masculine ether. She's smart and usually disconnected, but she can also love and care deeply. There's good reasons for doing everything she does without ever coming off an unemotional. This is one of the best female characters I have ever seen, seriously.
Like Kino herself, the series is understated. Her world is thought provoking from the way people think and live, to what we think of it and saying a lot of what we think and believe as well. I'm one of those people addicted to thinking, so I love a thought provoking series.
Thanks to being thought provoking, and having a relatable and lovable female main character, it earns it's spot on my list.
Trigun (click to showhide)
A space western starring a pacifistic outlaw and his companions. They make their was across a desert planet in the search of the man who ruined Vash's life and threatens humanities lingering existence. And yes, every old anime has space associated with it at some point.
What saves this series for me despite the skippy budget and a few story flaws is that it has one of the strongest beating hearts I have seen in any story I've run across. Plus, there's the striking characters. Yes, the unexplained plot curveballs are simply discomforting, but the comedy at it's strongest is good stuff, and the best dark moments are true shockers.
Trigun was stupidly popular in America and with good reason, but like everything on this list, my reasons for liking it are personal. This is the only piece of entertainment that actually got me to change what I think or believe about something. I still am, but I was really into violent stuff as a preteen and for different reasons. Peace was almost like a bad word to me and I saw pacifists as losers with no principals. Vash makes it clear how strong you have to be to stand down from a fight, but it's also important to put others lives ahead of your own (just how it is important to love yourself first). I still enjoy violent entertainment, but I actually wanted more than cliche after this.
The deeper themes are unmistakeably Christian and this was weird for me, I don't know why. Christian films are down there on the totem pole with pornography, so I'll take any positive example of Christianity (or religion in general) I can get, be it belief system or whatever.
Digimon: Tamers (click to showhide)
A franchise reboot about children who are drawn into a new world of danger and excitement that becomes real. The monsters come to life and the government sits up and takes notice.
Much like the anime under it, my nostalgia goggles are on tight enough to kill all oxygen to my brain. I obviously saw this kind of young, specifically 10-12 years old. This was around the same time I was watching "Medabots" and "Big wolf on Campus" for point of reference, but unlike those other shows, Tamers still holds up well as an adult. Only Tamers, not the other Digimon series.
A big reason why I love this show, is that I'm not 100% sure that I am too old for it. In fact, I think the target age range might be too young. The show starts out a lot like E.T. in this quiet, kind of weird and distant observation of a kid finding a monster (one he created in this case), and taking it home trying to hide it from his family and strangely inquisitive authorities. I thought it was cute, so I kept watching and very quickly had my mind exploded as the show became meta, referencing the past two Digimon series as a toy franchise in it's universe, introducing some low-key and downright complex kids with some interesting problems over the boring cliche's I was used to. Of course, the reason Tamers is famous amongst Digimon fans, the unnaturally dark turns two-thirds into the show that pile on relentlessly to the powerful conclusion. The story gets so intense that it seriously scared me as a pre-teen, but I couldn't stop watching it!
From my perspective now as an older anime fan, I can't help but shake my head at this a little. What were they thinking? There's this tricky juxtaposition of cute childish monsters and collectable trading cards, with a deeper conflict I now realize is now WAY over the heads of the target audience. A large portion of the show is spent with the stuffy adults as opposed to the children. I seriously have to question who this was for.
I think it made missteps in being as adult as it was, but I can't bring the show down too much for it. Even though I was afraid of the show, I was enjoying it every step of the way. Not only is there a show finally giving kids some credit and treating them like they possess brains and can handle something a little more mature, but there exists a marketing ploy to sell toys that turned into something with heart and effort put into it. This is my favourite kids anime.
Cased Closed: Detective Conan (click to showhide)
The adventures of the world's greatest teen detective becomes the worlds greatest child detective after being drugged by a mysterious syndicate. Jimmy/Shinichi (whether you're watching dub or sub) must keep his identity a secret from his girlfriend while solving cases for her dumb detective father in order to solve his age reversal problem.
This is defiantly a serious case of nostalgia for me because this isn't normally the kind of anime I would try watching all the way through. It is one of the longest running series in Japan with over 600 episodes, 14 movies, the whole package and my favourite length for an anime is 26 episodes. It also doesn't go anywhere as Jimmy has been a little kid long enough to have grown up again twice and you know he is never going to find a way to reverse his shrinkage because the show must go on. But, this was one of my first anime (even being my gateway at a time when I was really into mystery novels) and even though I remember the exact moment that it became apparent for me that this show was never going to end (it was not a happy moment), what kept me catching up with the show again and again were the characters. You can sit down and watch any episode from 4 to 400 and have a good time. Instead of many mysteries where the fun lies in guessing the culprit (even though that is a big part of it), the spark in Case Closed lies in it's lovable characters. The movies are fine as well, sort of being like a long episode of the series with better animation and more explosions.
I have my favorite episodes, cases, and moments perfectly memorized and I still love the characters. This is why it is one of my favorites.
Bamboo Blade (click to showhide)
A story about a starving Kendo instructor who adopts a brilliant player onto his team in the hopes of winning a bet and unwittingly makes them into an unbreakable group.
One of the most common entries on favorite lists (at least when it comes to favourite comedies or slice of life) is Azumanga Daioh. While I can understand this and I do think the show is funny, I never really connected to it at all in any way. I think it's because the characters are living in a utopia or heaven, nothing all that bad really happens. I know people love that series because over time, it begins to feel like the characters are your friends that you've known for years and even find themselves in tears by graduation day. For me, I got closer to that reaction in Bamboo Blade. Bless their hearts, they never catch a break.
I don't really like sports anime. I think of them like sports video games in that if you really like a sport, why don't you just play it or watch it? Making a cartoon about is extraneous. But despite the trappings of the genre like explaining the rules of Kendo as it goes and running off the passion for the sport the creators clearly have is totally different for me. This poor Kendo club starts out small and keeps having troubles day in and day out. Things move slowly as well, there aren't very many big tournaments, but that doesn't matter because the friendship between the girls and how it keeps them going is what's captivating. It's not a serious show much like Azumanga Daioh, but when it has its moments, you sit down and listen. The comedy is incredibly well done, it never gets predictable like Azumanga Daioh can get. I never plan on learning Kendo, but any story about people who are super-passionate about something is usually a winner in my book.
It is my favourite sports anime.
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad (click to showhide)
The story of a shy kid who finds new life through Rock music and learns to play guitar and sing through his new friend's band.
Like another anime on my list, this is an example of something that encapsulates everything that I love about Indie movie fodder, which is admittedly not very much. The indie circuit is not one of my favourite places
, but there are things I love about it and Beck has them. It would be difficult to find an anime that feels more "real" than Beck. The pacing, the sound design, the terrific dialog and acting especially in the dub. Not just a moment, but the entire thing is like a weird experience of how true to life it is. It's all about presentation, the art and animation is extremely minimal, but it feels so visceral. A lot of people feel Beck is boring, but I was never bored for a second watching it. I love watching the characters from all the huge jerks to...the slightly less huge jerks in the story and relating to Maho in particular. I was a lot like her when I watched this, but I only wish I was as cool.
The main focus of Beck is something that I don't understand. The total admiration of rock music which is absolutely a gearhead fantasy. I was just in love with Beck's portrayal of being a teenager. Since that aspect of the series strikes me as well, Beck strikes high enough to be on my list.
Welcome to the NHK (click to showhide)
The dream-like rambling adventure of Sato. A shut in, Otaku, Hikikomori (acute social withdrawal, never goes outside), all around psychopath. He refuses to leave his apartment until a strange High School girl promises to save him from his antisocial condition, getting him tangled up with a few more weirdo's in the process.
Now, isn't this an exercise in screenwriting for you? Come up with a 26 episode series about an unlikeable human being who is terrified of anything, even leaving his room. Oh, but they deliver. Like Beck, this is a no-thrills view of the sparking reality of adolescence/young adulthood. Hardly the conventional slice of life, I cannot call it that without quotations. Unlike Beck, NHK is gallows black. I guess this means I'm an awful human being because this show can be nothing but schadenfreude and I think it's the funniest thing ever.
I like how the show goes out of it's way to explore every niche of the most problematic, addictive subculture in Japan. Otakudom, porn (Even underaged porn. This is Japan, people.), MMORPG's, etc. That's just the common stuff, I don't want to spoil the really juicy nonsense he gets sucked into. Since all the lead characters are certifiable, it's fun watching them bounce off each other and learning how their minds work. I can't pretend I just watched this show for the cold psychological analysis and the morbid laughs, I do feel for these people and I know where they're coming from. We've all had those dark days where we curl under a blanket and decide we just want time to stop so we can never leave the house again and deal with what haunts us. NHK is a series about people who can't escape that, ever, but it's willing to have fun at their expense along with extending a hand of benevolence now and again.
It's a harsh story, but not too mean spirited. I adore it.
Mushi-shi (click to showhide)
Episodic tales documenting the mysterious behavior of Mushi, mystical organic spirits. The Mushi master helps the common people coexist with these phantoms.
This series is very relaxing, perfect to watch before you go to sleep. There is no visual experience quite like this show. A series much like Kino, but a more ambitious wonder to it all. I could gush forever about the visuals and how every episode brings new marvels and techniques to the mix, but it's important to keep in mind that the stories themselves are pretty marvelous.
This is the single most purely eastern anime I have seen in it's presentation of world view. A lot of people don't realize just how western anime really is, much like how the Japanese has borrowed conventions and belief systems from America as well. This is natively Japanese in it's lessons it has to teach, if you can call them that. Not every episode is a cautionary tale, even the ones where terrible things happen to the people who interfere with Mushi (and there are a lot of those). Many are just observations on the nature of nature and our place within it. For those (by which, I mean no one) who are confused at me saying this with the knowledge that I'm Christian, I think it just makes it all the more interesting because it's so different. I see how western a lot of anime is, so I'm fascinated to see something more eastern in it's presentation.
Mushi-Shi is pretty, and it's captivating. That's all you need to know and that's really the only reason I love it. It doesn't hurt that the main character is adorable.
RahXephon (click to showhide)
A saga of the residents between two worlds brought about when our hero finds a mech-like golem and escapes from his time into another one just outside the city he's known all his life. War and crazy imagery ensues.
If you bring it up, you will know my distaste for Neon Genesis Evangelion. I can respect it in many ways and still recommend every anime fan to watch it, but I personally have an intense hatred for it and always will. I can literally write my own 250 page book on everything that is wrong with that show. I was told by 94 369 328 billion people to watch RahXephon ether because they thought I would find it to be an improvement, or they thought it'd alarm me to criticize Evangelion after seeing it's "lesser ripoff". To my surprise, my reaction was neither of these extremes. RahXephon is partially inspired by Evangelion (I don't think it would have been made without it), but it is still absolutely it's own thing and presses it's own issues. I won't go into detail, but a simple look between our protagonists should tell you that RahXephon is not trying to answer Evangelion. It just comes up with it's own answers about some really profound issues and it defiantly succeeds.
Like another anime on my list, RahXephon is a mature fantasy with a lot of symbolism and analog and holds it close to it's chest. This makes it an incredible joy and an incredible frustration to analyze. The science fiction is the weakest element here, I'm convinced it makes zero sense, but it's that consistency of metaphor that holds it together to say nothing of the incredibly complex characters. They're not all horribly unlikeable like Evangelion's cast, but they're just as layered and intricate, able to carry entire scenes with just one or two lines of dialog and still say volumes more than some entire series ever get across. It can still be heavy handed and...those parts don't work at all, they didn't work in Evangelion ether, but it's almost more beautiful for it's flaws.
Berserk (click to showhide)
A tale of a warrior's fight for survival, a young woman's thirst for meaning, and a general's quest for glory.
Oh Berserk, you glorious mess! I would've enjoyed you so much more if they had bothered to give you a fucking conclusion! What's frustrating is that it would be incredibly easy to do! I could write one, I know exactly how the anime should end as a standalone story, not a commercial for the goddamn manga.
It's lack of an ending really hurts it, but everything else about Berserk is great. I was really into astrology and mythology when I first watched this, and it's a mythology fan's dream. This may be a European themed fantasy, but the delivery is pure Roman tragedy and I loved every perfectly panned moment of it...except the ending which doesn't exist. Don't tell me to read the manga, I get told that all the time and I'm not going to because I don't want to melt my eyes reading the thing on the computer. When I heard the rumour that we're getting a remake, I nearly cried, I just love these characters and this series so much, I hope that it's true.
The concept is great and the plot churns forward deliberately like it was faded, instead of just tossing around the concept of fate like many other anime do. This almost has no budget to speak of and the animation is crap, but what you can do with a good story, strong archetypes, distinctive art, and perfectly placed music...well...you can make an epic and Berserk is nothing less.
Haibane Renmei (click to showhide)
A group of angels in purgatory. Really young girls who adopt wings, halos, and have little to no memories of their previous lives. They must never leave the sanctuary before their day to heaven arrives.
There is no good way to promote Haibane Renmei. You can kind of tell people what it's about, but what you see for most of the series is little girls talking and sometimes crying in darkened rooms. It's not the kind of thing you would expect much out of, but there's a reason as to why it is on my list. It's simple on the surface, but it's anything but upon closer inspection. The series is overflowing with subtext about human nature and the concepts of sin, death, and (it's a purgatory story after all) forgiveness. It never comes right out and says "we're in purgatory", though. Once again, it's a mature fantasy with a lot of hidden symbolism that it places close to it's heart that requires you to make the effort to piece out. Unlike RahXephon and another anime on this list, you can shrug off every scrap of symbolism and still understand the base and emotion perfectly.
We never know how they die and I'm not sure if they ever find out, but that's really not the point. The shelter provided for these broken angels takes more out of them than any journey outside the walls that reveals cold facts about how they died could ever do. The lives they built inside of it turn out to be far more invaluable.
All I can do is talk in abstracts now because there really is no way to promote this anime. It's beautiful, powerful, it's a favourite.
Paranoia Agent (click to showhide)
A horror tale of what happens when a young woman loses her mind to fear, and what happens when a whole city falls right along with it. This proves paranoia has many faces, but not all of them are uninviting.
Like Ouran and maybe NHK, I like this anime because it's subversive but not entirely mean spirited. While some people would take whatever weird imagery he came up with and stick it in his work whether it made sense that it should be there or not, this guy would seemingly take whatever weird visions he came up with, stick it in his story, and then back-write so that it only better illustrated the theme and gelled with everything surrounding it. Nothing displays this better than Paranoia Agent, his only series work. It's not so much one big story, but as it is variations on the theme that have weird connections to each other, but that's great as it is also a mystery story. This is a lot kinder to us than some of the more obtuse shows on this list because it gives us all the answers right at the end. It's the journey that really makes this a powerful experience like nothing else out there. We question what is real right alongside our characters.
As for the theme, it's a theme with many sides. Paranoia is both destructive to sanity and totally necessary for maintaining it. Equal parts a healthy fear and a gateway to mistakes. The best part of it all, is the story's dry sense of humour. Even in and especially during the most intense moments of hysteria. It has hiccups, the story basically sacrifices the mechanics of reality to make the point, but it works so well that it can be easily forgiven for it.
Great Teacher Onizuka (click to showhide)
A self-proclaimed great teacher, in truth, a delinquent chasing high school girl tail who turns out to be a better man than he thought he was and changes the school that hates him (despite having hired him) for the better, despite also turning it completely upside down.
The more you read this list, the more you're going to hear me say that I love the concept and GTO is no exception. GTO more than delivers in execution as well. Just the very idea of a teacher not showing kids to value their education and become good students (as in so many other shitty teacher flicks), but to basically screw their education if it's keeping them from being good people and responsible adults which is far more invaluable. GTO doesn't teach Math or Science, he teaches to live a good life and he's a juvenile delinquent. I love that concept! Of course, GTO is hardly inspirational as much as he's retardedly goofy. It's not my favourite anime comedy, but it's probably my favourite comedy in loving the sense of humour first for foremost. It's simple, it's irreverent, it's dirty, but it's not stupid. The entire thing runs on personalities and comedy of error setups, and that takes smart writing to pull off.
This is only anime in which I love the downright horrible dub. The voices are over the top and three people are playing half the parts, but you couldn't say they didn't have a blast coming up with these jokes and it doesn't hurt that I love hearing Steve Blum. This and Guilmon are probably my favourite roles he's ever done.
GTO is hilarious and moving all at the same time, and the best part? It's comedy that evolves. The story and characters never play status quo on you and all our players (along with the school) are constantly changing. This makes the occasional tonal shift completely natural.
The Vision of Escaflowne (click to showhide)
The saga of a girl who falls down the rabbit hole into another world where there are dragons, magic, a war with the empire, and she can control it's future with the power of her pendant (or can she?). It's not nice to play with fate, that is, if fate is really the force at play.
Can a series be great on execution alone? Can perfect pacing, top delivery, and gripping tension save the most unoriginal anime in existence when it comes to story and characters? Whatever it does, it does it well enough to be a favourite. I watched this series simply because I remembered it's incredibly short run on the now dead Fox Kids. Something about that
theme stuck with me and I was extremely curious as to what that show was. Usually when I explore the curiosity of my memories and find a classic, I'm usually impressed but I don't latch onto it personally. That's certainly not going to happen with Ghost in the Shell or Macross, not for me. With Escaflowne, I was hooked from the first minute to the last.
This series does not waste ONE FRAME of it's run time, I am dead serious. The story is always moving, every conversation is fulfilling, there are many characters but they all fill their roles well, just bless whoever the fuck wrote this! The premise is tearfully unoriginal and carries with it every since fantasy cliche you can name, but the execution is unforgettable and you can rewatch it a million times. I kind of disparaged the fantasy tropes, but they're not bad tropes. Are there any original concepts? I've watched this show several times now, and I can safely say that this is the most unoriginal fantasy story in existence, nothing new is done here and everything old is as old as dirt. Maybe I'm blinded by how good the writing is and I guess that's all that matters.
Another blinding aspect is the animation, though. It's just so beautiful! There are so many examples of outstanding animation in Escaflowne, it has aged more gracefully than anything I have ever seen.
The only thing actually bad about the show is the ending, which is sad. The pacing was so perfect throughout and they thought they were going to have more episodes for some reason, but the ending was kind of rushed. Not bad, but when everything else was so perfect, a little shoving forward near the end is really noticeable.
This is a series that will be orgasmic if you're a fantasy lover, and it's another series I can watch with my little sister and that's always a huge plus.
Revolutionary Girl Utena (click to showhide)
The saga of a preteen girl while feminine, desires to be a prince after her life was saved by one shortly after being orphaned. She gets her opportunity when she wins the hand of a girl named Anthy that a group of duelists fighting for her possession call "The Rose Bride". That's not really what it's about, but that's the best I can do for a short summary.
I'm a big fan of mythology, fantasy, and folktale. I thrive on complicated symbolism, double meanings, extended metaphors, and big sweeping classical epics. I do my absolute best to interpret as close to it's original intent as possible with any difficult material you give me along with alternate interpretations and get great joy from doing so. I think I'm good at it, I've had good experience with it in the past... then along came Utena. I give the fuck up! You win, you have beaten me Utena!
Some people say all anime is art and I think that's retardation, but Utena is pure art. This is as close to an anime will ever come to it and it's quite overwhelming. If heavily symbolic anime is a Rubik's cube, then Utena is a Rubik's dotetrahedron in the 5th dimension. Every shot, every bit of body language, every stray line was deliberate. By no means was everything symbolic. Some of it's there for a quick visual pun and some of it's there to be silly and screw with you, but the trick is figuring out which parts of those are. Most of Utena is symbolic and once you've figured out some facet of what the story is hiding, you will have spent so much time on it that you've missed another side lurking on the other side of the screen.
It's a story about every human foible we face in middle school and adolescence in general, what growing up really means, and what it really does not mean. It subverts and deconstructs Magical Girl (think Sailor Moon), Shojo, and good old fashion fairy tales. It's effort is to wow us, make us laugh, make us think, and confuse and shock your brain out until it slithers out of your skull. Through it all, the characters are still relatable and the complexity of such characters is the point of such deep analysis. That humanity is what makes Utena a masterpiece well worth it's spot on my list.
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (click to showhide)
A tale of revenge exacted by an insane count on the nobles that wronged him. From the perspective of his target's son who is beguiled by the count, but refuses to believe that their friendship was all a means to an end. Leading to some ripples in the counts seemingly perfect plan.
This anime is so good that it scares me, specifically because I'm under the suspicion that it's perfect. I'm not sure I know how to deal with that as someone who likes to complain. How do you address perfection? How do you critique that? Can it really be attained in a narrative? It comes so close that it's both gorgeous and frustrating, but thankfully it's second to last episode (and just that episode) gave me more than enough flaws to lift my fears. Still, that was a close one.
Gankutsuou is more than just a pretty face. The story is crafted so well and it's not just because it's based on a great novel. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favourite books ever written and is notoriously hard to adapt. There was a British series which was fairly faithful to the book, but it was dull and soulless. The American movie was a fine movie in it's own right, but had to take such liberties with the material that you can't call it the same story. Then there's this Japanese animated series. Fans of the book always complain that the "heart of the story" was removed, but Gankutsuou tells it's own story. They took the focus away from the Count as protagonist to Albert and his comrades as the focus, making the count more untouchable and vampiric than previous adaptations which is ironically closer to the original novel despite being further away. It somehow manages to offer a completely different take from the book while having most of the same events. I can easily call this the most faithful and unfaithful adaptation to date. It is it's own entity and masterful bit of work.
Wolf's Rain (click to showhide)
The tale of the divine White Wolf and his companions search for paradise in a post-apocalyptic world who no longer believes they exist. The winter closes in and the cold freezes over.
Wolf's Rain is excellent, I hold it to be one of the best anime ever made, but I'm not sure if anyone likes it nearly as much as I do. It's well known and doesn't have any haters, but it's not on many top favourite lists, especially not in Top 5 lists (it being in my top 5). I am biased toward this story because it covers all my favourite themes in fiction. That, and it has it's own fantasy world not quite like anything I've ever seen before.
Some people say that we only learn who we really are when the world is coming down our ears and Wolf's Rain illustrates this literally. These Wolves are not furries, they act like Wolves and are used to illustrate some deep points about humanity. But, you really have to be paying attention. The show comes across as cold and confusing, but it's so passionate about it's message, but it holds it's cards so close to it's chest that they catch fire and it's a challenging thing to interpret.
Do you know what my favourite animal used to be when I watched this? Wolves and this has hot, sexy wolves in it! It's a good idea in theory, but it kind of confuses me when I think about it. I guess this might be an expressly personal thing, but I love the thing.
Cowboy Bebop (click to showhide)
The episodic adventures of a pack of bounty hunters looking for some quick cash and a decent meal. Told through various music and film styles.
Cowboy Bebop is one of the most popular and respected anime in existence in America. Right up there with Miyazaki movies. I think you can call this series overrated solely based on the popularity, it's hard to call something so masterfully done truly overrated. Is it overrated if it deserves all the attention it gets?
Although, I think I might like Bebop for slightly different reasons than most people. I do like the quality of the animation, the near perfection of the dub at a time when most dubs sucked, the soundtrack, there are reasons most people love it. I too love Bebop for how cool it is as well, but the reason it's a favourite is because it's not just style. It is also surprisingly subtle and a lot of substance behind it. Of course there are also times Bebop simply gets high on shrooms, but it's a give and take. It never feels forced and inappropriate, that's just another huge part of it's charm. It may be style over substance, but it still has a ton of substance to offer.
Baccano! (click to showhide)
A tale of immortal gangsters and the common schmoes and the lives they surround. Prohibition era, New York City. It brings us along three separate timelines as it goes until they blend into one gleefully messy story with no beginning and no ending.
Holy shit, there are no characters that I love more than Baccano characters, and no series I have more immature nerdy love for than this thing. That's not to say I don't love other anime more...maybe, it is a contender for the top. This show makes me feel like a little boy watching ancient Looney Tune cartoons again...which is weird considering all the adult content (Blood, Language, Heavy Gore), but it's all in good fun!
Baccano is one of the most rewatchable...things in existence! There are so many funny moments, bad ass moments, tearful moments even and because the whole story is told ramshackle and out of order, you're going to have to rewatch a good deal to find all the good spits anyway. Like Fullmetal Alchemist, it technically has way too many characters to function at all. But, every last one is memorable and likeable in their own regard (even if you just love to hate them)! They all serve their role in the story to a perfect degree. The author of this story certainly has some interesting opinions and funny ideas about humanity and I would like to know where he got the idea for a lot of these weird characters. I'm sorry that I can't shut up about the characters, but they are the entire joy of this show! There's a story here too and it's a great one at that, but they're all delightfully unique.
It relishes being shallow. Not that this story doesn't have a theme and it's not a very well written one at that, but the whole philosophy is "Why so Serious?" kind of in the vain of "Always look on the bright side". It's irreverent, wild, violent, heart felt, full of twists and turns, remarkably quotable, it's exactly what I have been looking for in animation since I got into it. I can recommend this to everyone (anime fan or not) provided that they can handle content.
Chobits (click to showhide)
A Romantic Comedy about a university student in a world of computers who finds a discarded personal computer in the trash, and decides to take care of it as he struggles through prep school completely oblivious to the robot's true purpose.
I did not know this about myself until very recently, but I really love Chobits! Weird. I'm not a CLAMP fan and there are honestly parts of this series that made me want to claw my face out, but they pale in comparison to the moments in the series that kept me coming back to it and actually turned out thought provoking. I am absolutely convinced that this is the only Magical Girlfriend/Harem series that delves this deeply into complex themes without preaching to the audience. In every Clamp series, they are always trying to reinvent how we think about romantic love and I think that this is their best and most convincing attempt at doing that, shocking us and warming our hearts at the same time.
I always hate the retarded male lead in these things, but I really like Hideki! I always detest the perfect harem girl, but I really like Chii! Something about Chobits is trying to make this now dead sub-genre (Magical Girlfriend), the bottom of the barrel in anime to begin with into something more, the very best of itself. It takes conventions from other ecchi series and tears holes in them without ever calling attention to it and without going as far as being a satire or criticism ether. Some escapade will happen like it's every other harem out there, but later you'll find out the reason for it and be stunned quiet for a moment.
I really like shows that I can consider subversive to genres I hate and that's why I love Chobits.
YuYu Hakusho (click to showhide)
An action epic starring a street punk who is hit by a car after attempting to shove a little boy out of the way and is brought back to life on the condition that he work for the spirit world as a demon killing detective. Here's a secret, the fighting heavily outweighs any detective work.
Do you know what the most fan adored genre in anime is? Shonen tournament fodder. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Dragonball Z, Rurouni kenshin, Hunter x Hunter, Toriko. If you're an anime fan, you'll need to have a favourite in this genre and for me it's YuYu Hakusho. In fact, I have never felt strongly to any other shonen fight series. All the rest I ether dislike or am completely apathetic towards. I liked the Kyoto arc in Kenshin and what little I've seen of One Piece has my attention, but YuYu Hakusho is the only one I've seriously enjoyed on a level more than "meh".
I first saw the show on YTV during an ungodly hour for my age group, in pieces and mostly the Saint Beasts arc. It makes me question why I kept watching, I did not like that arc, but I was younger and less picky. Time passed and I forgot about it completely until someone recently reminded me that it existed and I should watch some of it. Since Shonen is like potato chips, I consumed all the episodes in two weeks. This isn't just nostalgia, I like the show for what it is now and the same can be said for the other old shows on this list.
I love that our hero isn't a loser that everyone admires, he is literally a pain in the ass to everyone around him and has to man up quickly to stay alive. I love that he's not a "good guy", the real moral center of the group is his friend. His apathy towards doing what's right is actually used to his advantage when the blacks and whites of the series become as gray as think I've ever seen Shonen get down the line. I love that there are so many bizarre spiritual superpowers. I love that Funimation's old and crusty dub plays so fast and loose with the script that is has a positive effect rather than negative. Blah Blah Blah, this is my favourite fighting series.
Ouran High School Host Club (click to showhide)
The colourful adventures of an ambiguously gendered girl, an unwealthy honour student attending a school for debutantes because of a free-ride scholarship. She is mistaken for a boy by Ouran's host club and after finding herself in debt, she decides to pay it off by playing the part of a host herself much to the confusion of the "king" as he has no idea why she would want to pretend to be a man.
Do you know the best and worst part about satire? It's biting and hateful. That can be great if you're poking fun at something that could also be mean spirited and deserves to be taken down a peg. But, there is another way to do it that is more difficult to pull off, but it's much more rewarding. Create something that both celebrates and embraces the genre while parodying the heck out of it at the same time. Nothing does this so well or as gleefully as Ouran High School Host Club. It targets Shojo and Harem (for girls and gays) in particular with both fangs and kisses. It's hard to tell where the mockery ends and the love begins as this series is one big joke that always works. The comedic timing of this thing is masterful, every episode is a great setup full of laughs, unless of course it isn't and they're shooting for drama instead. The drama is a little cheesy, but it's genuine and sincere in the melodrama and that honestly makes it moving in the process.
I have my guilty pleasures in anime, and many of them involve hot guys exhibitioning themselves for my horny mockery; Manservice. Ouran serves up some delightful manservice, but there's nothing guilty about it. The show is honestly cleaver and I really care about these characters underneath the skin. Haruhi is the opposite of the clumsy Harem protagonist girl. She has no interest in the men crying out for her attention and that makes the show seem subversive to me. Tamaki is the lead and the perfect man, but absolutely isn't where it matters, he's a floundering woman-child who is hoping his status as lead character will get him the girl, but is horribly insecure about it and the problems go on and on.
It's like a big, pink, frilly explosion of tasty ideas. It doesn't hurt that I can watch it with my sister as well.
Fullmetal Alchemist (click to showhide)
A story of two brothers committing a great taboo in an attempt to raise their Mother from the dead and join the military in an effort to make things right and repair their bodies which were shattered in the event. They are drawn into something much larger than they ever wanted.
FMA can be enjoyed by so many people on so many different levels. It's no wonder it became insanely popular; it's silly and sophomoric, but it's also mature and commutative. It's fantastical and comic booky, yet the characters and world are incredibly earthy and familiar like these are real people in some world we've never discovered before. I'm not going to say anything, but the Godwin. It never bothered me because I never felt that it was just thrown in the last second, but it is built up and foreshadowed from pretty early on in the story.
The movie is an entirely different issue altogether, but that movie is all your fault, fans. You asked for it. Brotherhood, "the faithful remake" is also your fault and you asked for it. I remember saying that you loved FMA was fine, when praise was not followed with the question of "What about Brotherhood you person of clearly poor taste?" I'm not going to talk about what Brotherhood did or didn't do wrong/right (Catered almost exclusively to prior fans; using the fanbase to get away with a rushed, noisy, and tactless presentation) in defending it, I'm just going to talk about what it did right.
It took 6 volumes in change of a manga, avoided the traps of filler arcs and a gecko ending, and back-wrote and tweaked what they already had to fit into a show that stands strong as a standalone story. Best of all, it bothered to give it an ending when there was none available, and a good one at that which I can't say for many other anime. The original author approved of it, and the fans used to approve of it as well. You may like or may not like brotherhood, but that doesn't change what the original series was and still is. A future classic that I hope will still be around for new fans to enjoy for a very long time.
This post has been edited by Dazmi: Jun 4 2011, 04:58 AM