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Akira (movie) So-so This had great animation for its time, and surpasses some animation that comes out today. However, the story was fragmented and I didn't care about any of the characters. Sounds like the manga is the way to go with this, but the movie failed to interest me enough to bother with the manga.
Alien Nine (special) Weak Good: Realistically depicts how a child would act if forced to fight scary, violent aliens with an alien partner/symbiont. Good animation. Bad: Realistically depicts how a child would act if forced to fight scary, violent aliens with an alien partner/symbiont. I wanted to throttle the main character for being such a whiny crybaby. Many questions left unanswered.
Angel Sanctuary (OAV) Bad Another series that suffers from characters that aren't likeable. The huge theme of incest really bothered me, and the story of warring angels and demons didn't interest me at all. Basically it came off as poorly written and disgusting.
Animation Runner Kuromi (OAV) Excellent This little OAV manages to be entertaining and informative.
(The) Animatrix (OAV) So-so Good and bad shorts combine to make a mediocre OAV.
Appleseed (movie) So-so This movie was very pretty...and suffered from uninteresting characters, a dragging second half, and all around mediocrity in everything but the animation.
Aquarian Age the Movie (OAV) Awful Good: It's over and I never have to watch it again. Bad: Randomly introduces characters, has their friends die off, doesn't develop them, has reeeeeally weird inclusions such as Dracula, Hannibal, Lancelot, and completely lacks a coherent or interesting plot.
Barefoot Gen (movie) Bad Good: The depiction of the Hiroshima victims is horrifying. Bad: Fails completely in making you care about the characters. Has inappropriate comedy that doesn't seem to fit with the purpose of the movie at all. The cartoonish style of animation makes it hard to feel for the characters or take the movie seriously.
Bastard!! (OAV) Good I rated this good because it can be a lot of fun to watch, not because it has a quality story line. The main character, Dark Schneider is hilariously arrogant, and the supporting characters are either amusing because they're there to make fun of stereotypical fantasy characters or for their over-the-top qualities. If characters magically regrowing limbs and coming back to life with little to no explaination isn't your thing...you probably won't like this. But if you like heavy metal, fan service for both sexes, and fantasy-comedy, this is great.
Black Lagoon (TV) Very good Good: Slick animation, over the top action with guns, Revy is amazingly hot and cold-hearted, Dutch is cool and amusing. Basically just a lot of fun to watch. Bad: Style over substance. Not for someone who wants to watch an anime that will make them think. Bullets miss the main characters even if they're standing perfectly still.
Boogiepop Phantom (TV) Excellent Good: The character designs, color palate, and blurring of the edges of the frame combine with the music to create a wonderfully creepy mood. Figuring out what's going on can be a huge amount of fun. The characters are interesting, though many are pretty much contained to one episode. Bad: Some people may not like that the story doesn't make sense until the end. You basically have to watch it in one sitting to understand it properly.
Buso Renkin (TV)
Castle in the Sky (movie) So-so Good: Ghibli's high animation standard is met. The idea is interesting. Bad: I simply couldn't connect with ANY of the characters. The story is pretty character driven, so I couldn't get into the story.
Cowboy Bebop (TV) Excellent The loveable crew of the Bebop just draws you into this series, and the stylish animation, fights and wonderful music, keep you entertained. It only doesn't rank as a masterpiece because its episodic nature meant that some episodes weren't as good as the others, and there are two which I won't be watching again.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Weak The animation was gorgeous, to be sure, but to me it lacked some things that made Bebop so wonderful. The characters seemed stiffer than usual (emotionally, not visually) and didn't seem to behave quite like themselves. The music didn't seem to be quite as good as the series. Electra was uninteresting and her character was poorly fleshed out. Vincent failed to interest me at all. Overall, I came away feeling very dissatisfied and felt that the movie was worse than my least favorite episodes (Boogie Woogie Feng Shui and Wild Horses).
Descendants of Darkness (TV) Decent The animation is nice enough for the time, and the bad guy is appropriately evil, but none of the stories it tells are really compelling and I didn't get attached to any of the characters.
Dragon Half (OAV) Good This series is silly. Wonderfully, amusingly silly. When the plot revolves around a half-dragon, half-human teenager who's going to see her favorite singer, Dick Saucer, (who happens to also be a dragon slayer) along with her friends, you can't go wrong. To top it off, the ending theme is called My Omelet and is set to Beethoven.
Excel Saga (TV) Very good This show is best seen in small doses, so that you don't go crazy or get sick of it. If you enjoy parodies, this show is one of the best, with each episode dedicated to a different genre, including: sentai show, school drama, shonen anime, shoujo anime, scifi show, and a parody of itself. And that's just scratching the surface. However, as is typical of episodic shows, a number of the episodes just fall flat compared to the others.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (movie) Very good This is pretty much just eye-candy. I'm a die-hard FFVII fan, and I'll be the first to say that this is just a feature length piece of fanservice for people like me. You get to see most of the characters from the game again, in gorgeous CG. There's a bit of humor, flashy fights, and a plot that won't make sense if you didn't play the game (though some people I know who have played the game still think it's utter BS).
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (US CG movie) So-so This movie was visually amazing when it came out (though I felt that the movements were clunky at times, the faces were astounding), but the plot was pretty cheesy, and all of the interesting characters are under-developed or killed off. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it didn't have Final Fantasy tacked on to the title, since I'm a fan of the games, and it simply didn't live up to most of them.
FLCL (OAV) Bad I honestly never understood why so many people seem to think that this show is so amazing. To me it was disjointed, visually unappealing, and filled with characters that I actively disliked. It seems the sort of thing that you'd be forced to read in English class if it were a poem or a novel. The teacher would go on and on about how brilliant the symbolism was. Meanwhile, you'd be sitting there, wishing that you could read something that was more straightforward, and that your teacher would stop pulling meanings out of his bum. I'm not trying to say that there isn't symbolism or meaning behind FLCL, but it seems that too much is read into it, too much credit is given to it, and that watching it is more of a chore than an enjoyable experience.
Fullmetal Alchemist (TV) Decent Good: The first half was amazing. It combined drama with comedy better than any other series I can recall seeing. Many of the characters are likeable. Bad: The second half became convoluted, and less interesting. The ending was simply weak, and angered me. After hearing that the manga is different, I picked that up, and am currently reading it.
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie - Conqueror of Shamballa Bad I hated what they did to Al's character. I hated how he dressed like Ed. I hated that Ed was in our world to begin with, since I disliked the end of the series. And I hated the ending and the fact that it didn't deal with a bunch of loose threads. Oh, and Hughes' other self...I'm not even going to go into how much that pissed me off.
Ghost in the Shell (movie) Not really good This literally put me to sleep. I don't know if I've seen an anime I found more boring than this one.
Grave of the Fireflies (movie) Masterpiece This was the saddest anime I've ever seen, and I cried for most of my first viewing of it. The use of silence really helps the emotional impact of the story.
Haibane Renmei (TV) Masterpiece This is another anime that made me cry. The show was beautifully done with well developed and believable characters.
Haunted Junction (TV) Good This may not be quality...but it is pretty funny. The laughs are mostly cheap, but it entertained me enough to finish it.
Hellsing (TV) Not really good Good: The main characters are stylish and powerful. Alucard is fun to watch. Bad: Inconsistent animation, when it diverges from the manga the characters that are introduced are bland and stupid, and the story goes down the drain.
Howl's Moving Castle (movie) Good Howl may be the most unappealing main male character of any Miyazaki film I've seen. Sophie's faith in him bothered me to a degree.
(The) Irresponsible Captain Tylor (TV) Masterpiece Amazing characters, comedy, space action, everything a space opera fan could ask for.
Kiki's Delivery Service (movie) Good This is a nice children's movie that I would show to my younger relatives (if the English dub weren't so bad). However, I didn't feel that it had as much for the adults as some Miyazaki films do.
Kill Bill Chapter 3: The Origin of O-Ren (movie segment) Good
Kino's Journey (TV) Excellent When I first heard that this involved a talking motorcycle and towns based around one theme, I was skeptical. However, this anime has a quite beauty all its own.
Kino's Travels: Life Goes On (movie) Excellent
Last Order Final Fantasy VII (OAV) Weak Not only does this change facts known from the game, it's just not interesting. As much as I like seeing the characters animated, I was very disappointed with this.
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (movie) Masterpiece The best Miyazaki film in my opinion. Epic.
Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (movie) Decent Your average Lupin III episode is better than this, sadly.
Master Keaton (TV) Excellent Looked like I might like it even before I saw Monster and decide that I had to see/read everything by Naoki Urasawa. It's very laid back, and Keaton can do pretty much anything, so this isn't for everyone.
(The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV) Not really good Part of my disappointment may have been because of the hype, but I didn't like this at all. The episode order struck me as pretentious and gimmicky. Haruhi was downright annoying, with the other characters being annoying moe stereotypes (this was probably the point, but it didn't pull off the parody well). Kyon's sarcasm was slightly redeeming, but only because he was annoyed with the elements of the show that *I* was annoyed with.
Mermaid Forest (OAV) Very good Enjoyable horror in which the bad guys have interesting motivations.
Mermaid's Scar (OAV) Not really good The motivations of the main villain in this were sketchy at best, making the whole OAV tedious to watch.
Metropolis (movie) Weak I HATED everyone in this.
Monster (TV) Masterpiece
My Neighbor Totoro (movie) So-so I was bordering on bored when watching this. I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone.
Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV) Excellent I actually enjoyed the "whiny" characters for their development and mainly ignored the mish-mash of religious mumbo jumbo. I thought that the ending of the show could be interpreted from a psychological point of view, so I was satisfied with it.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (movie) Decent
Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective (TV) Decent This is really mediocre, and is like an anime version of Anne Rice's vampire novels. The main redeeming features are the main character's blood sword and the opening theme.
Ouran High School Host Club (TV) Excellent Every episode (except for the last few) are chocked full of laugh out loud moments. The characters are lovable. There's nothing to dislike here other than that it only got 26 episodes.
Outlaw Star (TV) Very good Good: It's a fun ride with decent animation and some fun characters. Bad: It's nothing outstanding, and the end seemed abrupt and a bit inconclusive.
Paranoia Agent (TV) Good This would be better...if it weren't so pretentious.
Perfect Blue (movie) Very good
Pet Shop of Horrors (TV) Good Good: The stories are pretty creepy, the people get what they deserve, and watching D and Leon interact is highly amusing. You can get more of the same by reading the manga. Bad: Animation a bit dated (didn't bother me), there isn't enough of it, the episode with Evangeline Blue falls short of the others and has an annoying song that repeats itself.
Pokémon 2000 - The Movie (movie 2) Decent
Pokémon 3 - The Movie (movie 3) So-so
Pokémon: The First Movie (movie 1) Good
Princess Mononoke (movie) Excellent This would be a masterpiece if it were a tad less preachy.
Record of Lodoss War (OAV) Decent Bad animation and annoying main characters drag this show down. The secondary characters (especially Orson and Woodchuck) are the only redeeming parts.
Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal (OAV) Very good This is the sort of Kenshin I wanted in the TV series! Wonderful animation to boot.
Scrapped Princess (TV) So-so This struck me as being rather generic: none of the characters were anything new and interesting, and the plot wasn't enough to drive the show by itself. I was basically MST3King the show by the end.
Seikimatsu Darling (OAV) Good Adorable!
Serial Experiments Lain (TV) Decent It took me 3 tries to finish this series. I think it had potential, but it's incredibly pretentious and ends in a mess of psuedo psycho babble that hurt my mind...
Shinesman (OAV) Decent This is pretty campy, but just isn't as funny as it could have been.
(The) Slayers (TV) Very good Aside from Amelia being a tad annoying, this is amazingly fun, and the dub isn't half bad.
Slayers - The Motion Picture So-so This feels like a lackluster extra-long filler episode.
(The) Slayers Next (TV) Very good Amelia is far less annoying than previously, and this has all the good elements of the first series.
(The) Slayers Try (TV) Very good Philia takes over the annoying bit from Amelia, but it's still a good time.
Sorcerer Hunters (TV) Decent This should have just stuck to it's slapstick comedy formula instead of trying to get all dramatic at the end. It sort of ended on a sour and bizzare note.
Spirited Away (movie) Very good While I enjoyed this film, it doesn't live up to some Princess Mononoke or Castle of Cagliostro.
Steamboy (movie) So-so The movie that never ends! It could have had a nice conclusion somewhere near the middle, but the director had to have it drag on to show off the fancy animation. I wanted to escape the theater, but I was with a relative.
Tokyo Godfathers (movie) Very good One of the few xmas movies I can watch that doesn't come off as too saccharine...though it is kinda sugary.
Trigun (TV) Weak Good: Wolfwood and Legato were interesting. Had some comedic moments. Bad: Vash's idealism was flawed - he'll destroy your town, but won't kill you...killing is never the answer. I disagreed with this, and his adherence to it and general immaturity annoyed me. The series was riddled with pointless filler and lame, uninteresting minor villains.
(The) Twelve Kingdoms (TV) Very good I know that this got cut short and that the ending isn't that great, but it sounds like up until then it's better than any non-comedy fantasy anime I've seen. So, while I'm not going to buy it, I'd like to see it.
Vampire Hunter D (OAV) So-so
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (movie) Good This only gets a good rating because it's one of the prettiest anime I've seen to date, and the action is pretty good. The story isn't particularly compelling, D and Meier are the only likeable characters, and the ending is just cheesy. I'd say read the novel instead, unless you just want to see some flashy action.
Voices of a Distant Star (OAV) So-so
When They Cry - Higurashi (TV) Decent Overall, the idea was great, but some of the story arcs/retellings were far more interesting than others. The mystery and suspense does a good job of reeling you in, but then the super-deformed depictions of the characters faces when they're being violent is off-putting. Because of that fact alone, it truly suffers. I felt that the show lacked closure, as well. If I'm going to watch a mystery, I'd prefer that [i]most[/i] of the questions are answered.
Witch Hunter Robin (TV) Decent I don't know if I would have finished this if I weren't watching it with friend. Which is saying something, since I was the one who bought the boxset. It starts off monster of the week, gets a little more serious later, and fails to produce any interesting or sympathetic characters. It seems that the whole point was having serious looking people in black be boringly serious. Completely failed to grab my attention, I haven't been so squirmy while watching an anime since the second half of Hellsing or Trigun.
X (movie) Bad This anime had pretty character designs and animation. It had no character development, a condensed plot, and made very little sense due to being condensed. I didn't latch onto any of the characters, so the movie was a complete waste of my time.
Yu Yu Hakusho The Movie: Poltergeist Report (movie 2/1994) Good Sort of like a condensed story arc from the main series...and not a particularly good one. My main beef with it was that the character designs were different from the series, and the way that their noses were drawn made them look like they were sunken into their faces instead of coming out of their faces. Overall, it was nice to see the character in action, but it wasn't anything great.
Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files (TV) Excellent This is the anime that got me into anime. Before I would casually watch what was airing on TV, but when I happened across the first episode the first time it aired on Adult Swim, I was hooked. I love the majority of the characters in it, villains included. I really need to like the characters to latch onto an anime, and with such an appealing and varied cast, it was no problem with this series. I enjoy that the fights are quicker than in DBZ, and that the characters never become as ridiculously powerful as in DBZ. Basically this is my feel good, all around favorite. It doesn't rate masterpiece only because the animation is sub-par for it's time.