| Seen some▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! (TV 2/2000) | Awful | -Insupportable, visually snotty commercial filled with never-ending poser-babble that takes the last bit of suspense from the already flagrantly brummagem premise. |
| Haibane Renmei (TV) | Bad | -Lazy execution by every contributor. Not slowly haunting, just plain boring! |
| Ikki Tousen (TV) | Bad | -The bullshit-to-time ratio provided in this series is a real achievement: laughable setting adaptation, implausible premise for a non-pastiche story and characters too stupid for being sexy or badass anymore. |
| Black Lagoon (TV) | Weak | -Unfunny harmonization to trivial American action flicks, that puts too much confidence in its pallid heroine and smug balderdash. |
| Captain Future (TV) | Weak | -The lamest crew in the universe, but still good for a laugh with the buddies. |
| Chobits (TV) | Weak | -Good premises in characters and direction, but ultimately boring and worthless. |
| Full Metal Panic! (TV) | Weak | -Loads of military crap, a dead serious tenor despite some lame humour attempts and an obnoxious female lead make this uneven and clichéd genre-mix inedible. |
| SaiKano (TV) | Weak | -Great original idea and concept, wasted by narrow-minded, unappealing characters and dull monologues. |
| Afro Samurai (TV) | Not really good | -Besides showing off some enjoyable action sequences, "Afro Samurai" has nothing to offer but the most sucked out anime clichés. While pretending "Ninja Scroll", "Samurai Champloo" and the whole shōnen-genre never existed, it additionally waves about a nasty "intenational appeal"-banner with its black male iconography borrowed from some of the most hollow enclaves of American popular culture. |
| Baccano! (TV) | Not really good | -If they think that being generally merciless by throwing a huge cast, an incomprehensible story and callous gore at my face right from the start is "fun", well, they're wrong. |
| Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear (movie 12) | Not really good | -Vapidly made solfège-mystery. |
| Excel Saga (TV) | Not really good | -Tiresome, exceedingly self-referential parody-roundabout. Not that funny. |
| Gantz (TV) | Not really good | -Wannabe provocative social commentary with dumb characters, bad animation and oh so gratuitous sex and gore. And then there's the bad German dub... |
| Love Hina (TV) | Not really good | -I fortunately only needed a couple of episodes to see through this stark and stiff pseudo-romantic comedy that's as romantic as it is funny – namely not at all. |
| Magic User's Club (OAV) | Not really good | -This stupid and cliché-ridden magical girl/sci-fi-ado with most cardbordish characters earned praise where like-minded titles are being bitch slapped. Nice animation, though. |
| Maya the Bee (TV) | Not really good | -The stories and characters may be cute sometimes in this so-called classic, but the production values are often atrocious. |
| Mezzo (TV) | Not really good | -Well, I remember watching a slightly better version of this... |
| Pokemon Advance (TV) | Not really good | -At this point at the latest, it starts to get old, though. |
| Samurai Champloo (TV) | Not really good | -Mildly entertaining, but not half as hip, friggy and innovative as it wants to be. |
| Tenchi Muyo! (OAV 1/1992) | Not really good | -Sci-fi-romantic-chaos-comedy blend that may have been interesting back in the days when it was a pioneering title, but all of its trumps have often been seen funnier, jauntier and more explored since then. Special mention for the extra cheap synthi-music! |
| Angel Blade (OAV) | So-so | -Over the top nude-heroine-flimflam, sometimes a bit to hardcore, but the camp always wins! |
| Blue Seed (TV) | So-so | -Mythological urban fantasy with some cool monsters, but not as gloomy and intense as other Yuzo Takada works. |
| Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (TV) | So-so | -Seems to be a pretty classic supernatural mecha-story with a fascistic undertone, that merits only through its notable character designs and for having a female target audience, which isn't that common for the genre. Maybe for those who found "Escaflowne" too fantasy-ish and "Gurren Lagann" too freaky. |
| Cyborg 009 The Cyborg Soldier (TV) | So-so | -If it had kept its pep and animation quality beyond the first episode, no one would have complained about the bathetic nature of the enterprise. |
| Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (TV) | So-so | -As a consensus between Masamune Shirow's manga and Mamoru Oshii's movies, the series rarely reaches their visual artistry and level of introspection, while remaining similarly confusing. You get a solid sci-fi-crime-thriller with some existential pokes. |
| Initial D (TV) | So-so | - While not being completely trivial, simply pasting the shōnen formula onto street racing without conceding more to the non-initiates won't convince me that this sport isn't completely stupid. Ugly characters and CGI don't help. |
| Last Exile (TV) | So-so | -Technically superior adventure based on spectacular air combats in a meticulously designed neo-retro-sci-fi-universe that is hard to cling to. After 11 episodes, characters were still pale and the story little appealing, so I quit. |
| Magical Witch Punie-chan (OAV) | So-so | -Little focused, but decently funny magical girl parody, that could have been a bit snappier and more elaborate. I prefer the manga, or, in the same genre, "Dokuro-chan". |
| Michiko and Hatchin (TV) | So-so | -Road story with unconsumed setting. Tries to be fun, serious, affected, exotic and foremost edgy, but it remains stuck in its ambitions. |
| Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit (TV) | So-so | -This adventure with a very light fantasy touch may offer somehow spectacular battle scenes and sleek production, but why bother to begin with considering its bland premise, setting and drawings? |
| Ninja Nonsense (TV) | So-so | -Not too funny pervert comedy with a lame, hysterical, if peculiar supporting character. |
| Oh! Edo Rocket (TV) | So-so | -The lunacy of "Gurren Lagann"-creator Kazuki Nakashima's source material can only be presumed in this somehow glib and tame adaptation. |
| Three Little Ghosts (TV) | So-so | -For kids only. |
| Alps no Shōjo Heidi (TV) | Decent | |
| Alps Stories: My Annette (TV) | Decent | -Classic drama in pure Nippon Animation tradition. Enjoyable direction and narration, topped by an unusually deep reflection on friendship. |
| Bible Black Origins (OAV) | Decent | -Almost satisfying prequel. |
| Bible Black: New Testament (OAV) | Decent | -Yay! More of everyone's favorite satanistic high-school-bombs! But why did the production values go down? |
| (The) Big O (TV) | Decent | -Well animated medley of detective story and giant-robot-action in occidental style, that helps itself by snatching up its components every here and there, mainly from the '92 Batman animated series. |
| Chiisana Viking Vicke (TV) | Decent | -Nice Viking-adventures with an appealing lead, but the animation is scurvy-infecting. |
| Digimon Adventure (TV) | Decent | -Nice "Pokémon"-ripoff with some real interest in character and story depth. Pretty background art. |
| Dragon Ball (TV) | Decent | -The quintessential adventure series as a manga, corrupted by an insolent amount of filler sequences in the TV version. |
| Dragon Ball Z (TV) | Decent | -Humour and imagination somehow got drowned in endless combats and comment scenes, while animation improved greatly. But hey, who am I teaching, it's DRAGON BALL!! |
| Godannar (TV) | Decent | -I'd love to like this series for its sometimes impressive momentum and well done boob jokes, but it just can't get me hooked. Lack of suspense? "Evangelion" tropes? Characters with idiosyncratic designs, but up to no profile? Who knows! |
| Jungle Book: Shounen Mowgli (TV) | Decent | |
| New Getter Robo (OAV) | Decent | -Unusually gory giant robot brawl with a rough-textured style of its own and a mythological touch, but no subtext whatsoever. |
| Ojamajo Doremi (TV) | Decent | -Sugary magical girl shoujo with a flashy style of its own, maybe a bit to hectic sometimes for its young target audience. |
| Pokémon (TV) | Decent | -Surprisingly good children entertainment, which would have been way better as a shorter concept-series. |
| Red Garden (TV) | Decent | -Flowers as well as weeds run riot in this Red Garden, where nice shōjo sensibilities (including some realistic dialogue dynamics), great character designs and a reasonably distinct premise get choked by hysteria, limited animation and the trademark soulless Gonzo treatment. |
| Requiem from the Darkness (TV) | Decent | -An often macabre atmosphere and great art style are haunted by piffling character designs, bad animation and odd pacing. |
| Saint Seiya (TV) | Decent | -The definition of stamina. |
| Welcome to the NHK (TV) | Decent | -Intriguing look on a modern recluse phenomenon, whose goofy – but not really funny – treatment of the subject as well as some animation issues prevent from taking off. |
| Ahiru no Quack (TV) | Good | -While more ambitious than almost any other children's show through its imaginative designs, awe-inspiring character development, sometimes feature-quality animation and by imparting notions of the social problems of our time, it still disappoints by being occasionally repetitive, preachy, elliptic, sloppily executed or even plain dull. It still deserves its place in animation history for transcending the cartoon genre of anthropomorphic animals with its commentary and epic form. |
| Anime Sanjushi (TV) | Good | -"The Tree Musketeers" and "The Man In The Iron Mask" put together to a suspenseful anime adventure without rough edges. |
| Bible Black (OAV) | Good | -One of the best choices for grown-ups with darker (if silly) preferences. |
| Calimero (TV 2/1992) | Good | -Calimero with some balls, good animation and a trendy setting - Whadda ya know! |
| Captain Tsubasa (TV) | Good | -Soccer isn't that much a sport than an adventurous quest in this innovative nekketsu-anime with clever, over the top direction, but dated, pretty bad animation. A bit tedious due to many repetitions, but cool and suspenseful nevertheless, even for soccer-haters. |
| Case Closed (TV) | Good | -Burdened with slow pacing (less than one case per episode), unaccomplished art (odd coloring and character design adaptation, limited animation) and the boundaries of tv broadcasting (censored corpses, emphasis on the more childish "Detective Boys" chapters), these in their core still ingenious detective stories just can't surpass the reading pleasure of its source manga. |
| Dragon Ball Z Kai (TV) | Good | -The shōnen prototype goes on a healthy diet that does it the greatest good. The reframed and remastered visuals and the well done edits benefit to the rhythm and epic feel of the self-indulgent brawl opera, while the bits of humour and more elaborate animation get a chance to shine. Even if it still isn't the fastest moving series, it manages to keep up a rare level of intensity. (Note: I saw most of the series in the edited Nicktoons version, standard definition fullscreen. It's probable that the original unedited high definition widescreen version would earn a "Very good".) |
| Fight! Kickers (TV) | Good | -Smoothed "Captain Tsubasa", with better animation, quick matches and a lot more time and effort invested in its characters, unfortunately lacking its model's epic proportions. |
| Flint: The Time Detective (TV) | Good | -Unpretentious time-travel comedy for children, enhanced by its wacky dub. |
| Kimagure Orange Road (TV) | Good | -Romantic comedy with a fantasy touch and greatly appealing, but apparently endlessly stupid characters, since they don't evolve any little bit until the very end. Best enjoyed at early teen age, although not to be taken as an example! |
| Ohayo! Spank (TV) | Good | -Very sympathetic pet-comedy with a charming central couple. |
| Oruchuban Ebichu (TV) | Good | -Nicely funny and raunchy, but sometimes difficult to catch for non-japanese viewers. |
| Robin Hood no Daibōken (TV) | Good | |
| Tao Tao Ehonkan (TV) | Good | -Disarmingly cute anthology of fables of wavering appeal, but with a style of its own. |
| Taro the Space Alien (TV) | Good | -1 joke concept, 1000 variations, 500 laughs. Good score, I'd say! In the end, you have a slightly more psyched "Doraemon" with quirky humour and situations. |
| When They Cry - Higurashi (TV) | Good | -The contrasting facial expressions will scare you outta ya socks! |
| Yakitate!! Japan (TV) | Good | -Acceptable adaptation of a shōnen favourite, which doesn't betray the manga's surrealstic nature, but doesn't add too much flashes of genius, neither. Design and rhythm take a step down, while animation and layout meet the standards of long-running series. |
| City Hunter (TV) | Very good | -Thriller with highly charismatic "sweeper" Ryo Saeba. His transitions from crazy pervert to deadly serious professionnal – and back – are irresistible. |
| Dark Love (OAV) | Very good | -Sometimes on the limits of the sufferable, this lavishly produced adult title surely is one hell of a ride! And admittedly my favourite. |
| Miimu Iro Iro Yume no Tabi (TV) | Very good | |
| Shin Mazinger Shōgeki! Z-Hen (TV) | Very good | |
| 80 Days Around the World With Willy Fog (TV) | | |
| Adventures of Tom Sawyer (TV) | | |
| Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari (TV) | | |
| Ai Shoujo Pollyanna Monogatari (TV) | | |
| Astro Boy (TV 2/1980) | | |
| Attack No. 1 (TV) | | |
| Attacker You! (TV) | | -Despite hating volleyball, I was somehow obsessed with this dynamic show as a child. But that was another time... |
| Fist of the North Star (TV) | | |
| Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (TV) | | |
| Gu Gu Ganmo (TV) | | |
| Hai Step Jun (TV) | | |
| Hakushon Daimaō (TV) | | |
| Little Lord Fauntleroy (TV) | | |
| A Little Princess Sara (TV) | | |
| Magical Angel Creamy Mami (TV) | | |
| Maple Town Stories (TV) | | |
| Mister Ajikko (TV) | | |
| Nanako SOS (TV) | | |
| New Maple Town Stories (TV) | | |
| Ox Tales (TV) | | |
| Sailor Moon (TV) | | |
| Spoon Oba-san (TV) | | |
| Swiss Family Robinson (TV) | | |
| Transformers (U.S. TV) | | |
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