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Your Top 10 / Worst 5 things. Why? (w/ index).


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Heishi



Joined: 06 Mar 2016
Posts: 1314
PostPosted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 2:05 pm Reply with quote
Oh dear, oh dear.

A top 5 I could do, but top ten?
That's a bit tough. Laughing



So I shall try top 5 best ones for me.




1. Karas
Loved both volumes, but I think they were better as an OVA. An epic series with veru well done CGI and fight scenes. And of course, a story about an armored swordsmen who reminds me of Batman and Guyver. Can't get better than that! Tatsunoko's best work ever.


2. Kannazuki no Miko (Destiny of the Shrine Maiden)
Underrated as hell. People like to mention Strawberry Panic alot, among others but never this one and that's just bizarre and disappointing. A yuri story unlike any other. The whole story about Himeko and Chikane defeating an evil god whilst trying to find out about each other blew my mind. Of course, I could talk about other things such as the music and the other characters but that would kinda take me awhile. But all in all, Best Yuri EVAH, bar none!


3. Attack on Titan
Do I need to even explain this one? Do I? No, not really.
Great story, great characters, great everything.


4. Casshern Sins
This, THIS I should explain because like Kannazuki no Miko and Karas, this is another underrated gem of a show. Tatsunoko's collaboration with Madhouse gave us this reboot of one of Tatsunoko's old school heroes: Neo Human Casshern. Here, Casshern is not the Casshern you knew. Rather, he is someone the world hates and wants to kill and he doesn't know why and at the same time doesn't know about himself or anyone around him. Not only does this show look so unique, but the story has a interesting blend of sadness, action, and post apocalyptic drama. Such a thrilling series.


5. Dragonball Z
Ah, you gotta love the classics. And of course, what better one than a childhood favorite of mine. One that almost everyone should be familiar with at this point.
Just a badass show full of badass and funny characters.


Last edited by Heishi on Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
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Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:14 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the list, Heishi - I've added you to the index with one small edit to help people recognise your #2 choice. Speaking of which, you may wish to check out this thread. (The first post was more extensive but, sadly, the OP took her bat and went home.)

Edit: fixed link. Thanks, Touma.


Last edited by Errinundra on Mon Apr 11, 2016 5:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Touma



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2651
Location: Colorado, USA
PostPosted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:41 pm Reply with quote
Heishi wrote:

2. Kannazuki no Miko (Destiny of the Shrine Maiden)
Underrated as hell. People like to mention SP . . .

I am guessing that you are referring to Strawberry Panic here?
If so it might be better to spell it out.

Errinundra wrote:
. . . Speaking of which, you may wish to check out this thread. (The first post was more extensive but, sadly, the OP took her bat and went home.)

I think that you pasted the wrong URL in there. Wink
You probably wanted the Yuri / Shoujo Ai recommendation thread.
I think.
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Heishi



Joined: 06 Mar 2016
Posts: 1314
PostPosted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:31 pm Reply with quote
Touma wrote:
Heishi wrote:

2. Kannazuki no Miko (Destiny of the Shrine Maiden)
Underrated as hell. People like to mention SP . . .

I am guessing that you are referring to Strawberry Panic here?
If so it might be better to spell it out.

Errinundra wrote:
. . . Speaking of which, you may wish to check out this thread. (The first post was more extensive but, sadly, the OP took her bat and went home.)

I think that you pasted the wrong URL in there. Wink
You probably wanted the Yuri / Shoujo Ai recommendation thread.
I think.



Fixed for everyone's convenience.


Also, I already knew about that and I already posted there.
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ugh_hey



Joined: 05 Sep 2016
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 10:38 am Reply with quote
1. Gunbuster
Even this early on Gainax was already bending rules and blurring the line between the show itself and its production circumstances. It’s hard to tell how seriously this space opera/mecha yarn is taking itself, since it was initially meant to be a sports show parody, but of course it became something much more than that before conceptually and monetarily going off the rails in the final episode. A surprisingly manly and hotblooded show for having a pandering cute girl cast (pandering was done better back in the day, ok?), and even those little superfluous science lessons at the end of the episodes prove what a labor of love it was. I really like FLCL and I kinda like Evangelion (an overanalyzed and flawed franchise that still has a lot of virtues), but to me this is the studio’s triumph.

2. Project A-ko
One big ultra-80s excuse for hungry animators to do what they liked doing. Completely brainless, but it radiates the joy of animating, something said to be a slave-like, thankless job, especially before the digital era. And what happened to anime character designs? They were so good back then. Even the jokes that aren’t that funny sell themselves through the simple but expressive art.

3. Dominion: Tank Police
What I really like about old OVAs is how they were sort of an excuse to experiment. This one is at once science fiction, action, police procedural black comedy, satire, slapstick, and it doesn’t really settle on any of those or find a sensible balance between them, and I’m fine with that because it’s such an embarrassment of ideas. Despite its divergences from the manga, it’s much more faithful to Shirow’s lighthearted take on sci-fi than his other adaptations (particularly GitS, which Oshii turned into his own portentous vehicle).

4. Bubblegum Crisis
A triumph in style-over-substance: doesn’t do anything but wallow in cyberpunk cliche until you get to the excellent action set to 80s metallized jpop, but I happen to like cyperpunk cliche, so there you go. Interesting to watch the art style evolve as the years roll on, from the beautifully rough early animation to the almost film-like directing/animation of the last episode.

5. Dirty Pair: Project Eden
Smartly written cheesy thriller--likeable characters, setups and payoffs, a great Chekhov’s gun, y’know, actual screenwriting stuff! But it’s really about the lavish visuals and the feeling of drowning in 80s ephemera for an hour. Just watch that pop art James Bond homage intro sequence to see what a lost art traditional animation is.

6. Apocalypse Zero
Crystalizes the bizarre “otherness” of the medium, everything that made anime so striking to my developing mind in the early 90s--all the perverse violence and stunted sexuality--and takes it to 11. Seedy, morbid, complete trash... Highly recommended!

7. All-Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku (OVA)
Its hilarious title prepared me for something horrible, and I have a high tolerance for bad 90s anime, so I wasn’t deterred (I mean, I debated putting Devil Hunter Yohko and Galaxy Fraulein Yuna on this list!). But no: I got some charming and well animated fluff with a perfect balance of comedy, mecha action and... child custody drama? Possibly the most 90s 90s anime that ever 90s anime’d. Recommended even if you’re not nostalgic about the decade, but the nostalgia helps.

8. MD Geist
Because self-awareness is overrated. Because exploding heads are cool. Because cinema was all downhill after Schwarzenegger.

9. Akira
The motorcycle scene set against the skyline of that impossibly huge neon metropolis will forever be etched in my brain as one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Critics who complain about the differences from the manga don’t understand that film is a very different medium, and that faithfully adapting the original tomes would result in a cluttered unwatchable mess.

10. Nichijou
The diamond in the rough of modern slice-of-life--smart, quirky absurdist comedy thinly veiled as moe. Worth re-watching as some of the low key humor becomes funnier the more you understand the characters’ personalities. KyoAni usually embody everything wrong with modern anime, in my eyes, so this one's an anomaly. They still had to market it towards moe fans though, so, it may induce diabetic shock.

(Some honorable mentions it would pain me to exclude: Iczer-One, Ranma 1/2, Macross: DYRL, Kimagure Orange Road...)

Least favorite:

Lucky Star
This show doesn’t really have any jokes, does it? The average “joke” is something like this: schoolgirl mentions a dating sim or some anime. End scene. That’s it. No joke, she just says something about “flags” or Full Metal Panic or something, and that’s supposed to be funny. Then I guess the audience is supposed to suddenly feel reassured for sharing questionable habits with a “cute” character whose social ineptitude is played off as an endearing quirk. No humor, no real characters, ugly art design where cuteness enters uncanny valley and becomes grotesque, patronizing, pandering, bad bad BAD.

Death Note
I should mention that this is my least favorite, not “objectively worst.” I just hate the whole Hot Topic/Jhonen Vasquez/emo aesthetic it draws from. This is one of the first shows that kinda made me realize that I’ve outgrown anime, or vice-versa--that it’s not for my generation anymore.

Akame ga Kill
Impossibly generic. It’s like some AI procedurally generated an anime based on a checklist of what modern otaku want. At first I wasn’t sure if it was a real anime or some spoof of anime adult swim came up with.

The Evangelion remakes
Just leave well enough alone. Eva doesn’t need soulless digital animation or edgy new Mary Sue characters or action scenes that trade suspense, spatial awareness and sense of kinetic movement for CG effects and “more awesomer explosions”. A cynical retread that adds unnecessary confusion to an already jumbled mythology.

Spirited Away
Sorry, I’m convinced Miyazaki can’t tell a good story to save his life. Throws clunky plot devices and conveniences at you a mile a minute, and it doesn’t steer away from expository dialogue and embrace pure visual storytelling enough for me to overlook that. Spirited Away is the equivalent of some middlebrow indie rock namedrop: it signals that your taste is “classy,” that you eat your cultural vegetables, but I’d rather listen to Metallica. And I'd rather watch MD Geist than Spirited Away.
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Errinundra
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 5:11 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the great list, ugh_hey, and welcome to ANN. I've added you to the index on the front page. Not too many people, beyond you or me, would have two Koichi Mashimo titles in their top ten, although my choices would be Hyouge Mono and Noir.
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peter a



Joined: 21 Nov 2016
Posts: 45
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 5:06 pm Reply with quote
[Edit]: Sorry to be a killjoy. This is thread is stickied and has an index. We expect more than just lists. Please provide short (or long, if you prefer) explanations of why you chose your titles.

I'll PM your lists to you so you have something to work from. Errinundra.

(By all means, delete this message when you've updated your list.)
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2016 10:05 pm Reply with quote
peter a wrote:

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi ( Sunday without god )


Duuuuuude, you ROCK for that. Anime hyper I am a HUGE fan of this series. Bought all the novels too ♥

Wish it got more love. :<
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 6:53 pm Reply with quote
@ugh_hey, that list was really cool although I might slightly disagree on your evaluation of Miyazaki's work or even the criticism levied on Lucky Star (not a masterpiece but still highly enjoyable). My favorite Ohata work is Genocyber and I would consider it for a top 10 if I made it now, true brutality in animation.
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Spawn29



Joined: 14 Jan 2008
Posts: 550
PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2017 10:13 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
So...I hear Violence Jack is a God-awful abomination of an anime. Has that made anyone's 'top 5 worst' list? Bennet the Sage refuses to review it because it's so tasteless and offensive that he can't even make fun of it and just by reading one written review of it, I am all kinds of disturbed.


Violence Jack never had a bad rep until recently. Back in the old days, it was nowhere as hated as now. People these days are too weak to watch blood and gore, so they got shock by it and think it is the worst thing ever. However for some reason, people find Corpse Party and Elfen Lied to be okay for them to sit through. I guess pretty animation and cute looking girls makes it 100% better for them Rolling Eyes .

Not to mention, most old violent OVAs also never had a bad rep until people on Youtube and Channel Awesome review them. So people base their opinions from them and hate them without watching meanwhile they treat Pokemon as the greatest thing ever.
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XOtaku90



Joined: 18 May 2017
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Thu May 18, 2017 10:14 am Reply with quote
Hello and you guys could call me a oldtaku (I'm 37). Here is my top 10 and bottom 5.

My Top 10

1. The Super Dimension Century Orguss - One of my first anime that I saw in Japanese back in 1990. It is hard for me to hate this anime because it holds a nostalgic spot in my heart. The show is very good too because the characters and the drama in the show are fantastic. I found myself really wanting to see what happens next after each episode.

2. Berserk - The best anime of the 1990's and I read the manga around two years before the anime started. What can be said about Berserk that has not been said already? Berserk does deserve the title being epic in the history of anime.

3. Armored Police Metal Jack - What happens when you mix Kamen Rider and Patlabor into one? You get this really kick ass show. I saw this fan subbed and RAW in 1991-1992 and love it since then. While the animation is cheap, the anime has an interesting story, kick ass fight scenes, and some things happen in the second half of the show you didn't see coming.

4. Lupin the Third Part 1-3 - All parts of Lupin are great and the show is a great classic that is even love by fans today. I'm glad that Cartoon Network air Lupin the Third or otherwise it would have been buried into obscurity. The action, characters and the humor is timeless for me. I can watch any episode of Lupin and still love it.

5. Infinite Ryvius - I saw this one when I was in College on a fan sub VHS tape and really enjoy it since then. The character development is fantastic and the plot has great unpredictable twists. I highly recommended it to any Sci-Fi anime fan.

6. Record of Lodoss War OVA - A old otaku favorite of mine as well and I love it since 1991. I remember waiting for fan subs of the new episodes before CPM had the rights to the series. The characters and the story is timeless in my opinion.

7. High-Speed Jecy - A old school favorite of mine that I saw as a teenager in the early-mid 90's. It still holds up very well today and it is a must watch for anyone who likes action anime.

8. KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! - This one is new and may be too soon to put on my list. I do love it a lot for the funny character and interesting world building.

9. xxxHolic - Funny, creepy, dark, interesting and clever. The animation is very solid too. I watch this anime many times and never got bored with it. One of the best anime of the 2000's.

10. Robotech: The Macross Saga - My first anime and still holds a special place in my heart. Great action and cool characters. A timeless classic.

Bottom 5.

1. Crimson Wolf - This anime makes the other anime on my list look good because I pay for this awful garbage when it came out. The anime wants to have a political and philosophical message in this awful mess. This anime is so goofy that I can't take any of it seriously. The voice acting is laughably bad and the animation makes Yogi Bear look like Spirited Away.

2. Bavi Stock: Time for Action - The animation is nice and the story dreadful. This was the first anime that made me regret watching. I can't believe they put so much time and money into this anime. I hated the characters and the story is filled with terrible plot holes.

3. Pupa - A newer anime on this list and I turn it off after the 5th episode. Everything about this anime is awful. The story is really confusing and wants to be edgy by being disgusting as much as possible. The characters are paper thin and the animation is dog shit.

4. Super Doll Licca-chan - This anime was so bad that it made my eyes and ears bleed. The anime is filled with annoying characters, bad storytelling and bad voice acting. Be happy that this anime never got released in the United States. This and Pokemon made me feel like the anime industry jump the shark after 1997.

5. Hyper Police - Cliche anime with awful characters and terrible humor. I can't believe people pay for this garbage.
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Unicorn_Blade



Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1151
Location: UK
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:56 pm Reply with quote
My last post here was done a while ago (7 years??? Im a bit too lazy to check) and it was not a great writeup, and some things would have changed since then, I thought I will do the write up first and then go back to the previous post. SO anyways, here comes an update.
Top10, in no particular order, series
1. Fullmetal Alchemist – this one will forever hold a place in my heart, as it was the very first anime series ever I have seen. I loved it from start to finish, and although upon rewatching and after having read the source material I found some bits not that necessary, I still think it is great, and it has got an beautiful soundtrack. It had a big emotional impact on me those 13 years ago, I can’t actually believe it has been 12 years already! So yeah, it has been the beginning of my anime journey really. I love Brotherhood just as much, I can’t quite understand why so many people had to like one OR the other, for me they are two sides of the same coin.
2. Cowboy Bebop – I have recently rewatched a few episodes including the finale and it made me think what a shame that Shinichiro Watanabe cannot get back to that form (although I do love Samurai Champloo almost equally, Kids on the Slope was a bit of a disappointment, and Terror in Resonance never hit the same spot and none had the same impact on me)… Funnily enough was not fond of the first few episodes and almost dropped it, and then came back to it and got hooked. It has great characters, great music, a mix of serious and fun episodes.
3. Wolf's Rain- there is something captivating about the journey into the unknown. I think in general I tend to gravitate towards these sort of themes, but here they have been done particularly well. Yoko Kanno’s score is stunning as well. I like this sentimental atmosphere, the mystery, the complexity of the story, the mythology behind it, and liked every single one of the characters. The series is so beautifully made and so heartbreaking
4. Eureka 7 – forget the second season (AO)- which was far from good. Eureka is a great adventure, and despite me hating on the kids characters, I really fell in love with it. It’s a great adventure with enjoyable characters-minus the kids. I liked how it plays with our expectations of the characters, and how they evolve throughout. What made me really like it is once Charles and Ray appeared. From indifference to dislike (“why would they want to attack Gekko?) to actually feeling sorry for them- and admire them for sticking up for each other. A sign of a good show, if even the background characters are interesting.
5. Paranoia Agent – I was thinking whether I should not put another show in top 10. But admittedly, Paranoia Agent has an edge over anything else I put down in honourable mention- mainly because I love all stuff done by the director. But also, because of one particularly amazing sequence in the last episode which combines creative visuals with amazing score by Susumu Hirasawa, and on top of that, it is one of the most touching scenes in anime ever.
6. Mononoke (TV). – A few things really stand out for me. The unusual, but stunning animation for one, the festival of colours and textures, all resembling traditional Japanese painting. It’s a slightly difficult show to watch at times, full of unpleasant and dark things life is made of. Each little story is little piece of art, including my favourite, which involves a group of travellers trapped in a sea full of evil spirits.
7. Attack on Titan- I liked season 1, I loved season 2. The fight of humanity against flesh eating titans has kept me interested from the beginning of episode 1. It’s probably the most recent ‘fav’- we shall see if it stands the test of time.
8. Psycho-Pass – An interesting concept, which kind of refers, coincidentally or not, to Philip K Dick’s Minority Report.
How do you approach creating a perfect judicial system, protecting the citizens from crime? How soon do you have to pluck them out from the society before they become dangerous- if they even ever will? Who should judge- and is the system not bound to have some faults along the way?
It’s an interesting concept, and supported by a really good array of characters. I was not blown away by the first episode (there is something annoying seeing obnoxious characters riding on their high moral horse trying to prove everyone wrong, cough cough Akane)- but I must say, was I proved wrong. The development was kipping me on the edge of my seat until the end.
9. Shiki- Vampire show done right. The animation was a bit bizarre and took time to get used to for me. Everything else- I could not fault. From the eerie ambience, to the slowly developing nightmare of families disappearing from the world of living and literally inviting the danger in. I remember it was a pretty controversial show, sparkling many interesting debates, such as to what extent Toshio Ozaki’s actions were justified, etc.
10. Now and Then, Here and There – a dictionary example of “Don’t judge the book by the cover”. The animation does not look spectacular and kind of seems like something for younger viewers- nothing more misleading, but the show approaches a range of really mature themes. War, use of child soldiers, rape, abuse of power. For me, the show will forever held a very, very special place in my heart- because of the execution of the themes, but also one of the most bittersweet endings of all times. And a beautiful ending sequence. I must say I have stared at the panels accompanying the ending song (which I also love) many times.
Honourable mention: Kaiba, Monster, Planetes, The Twelve Kingdoms, Stein’s Gate, Rahxephon, Space Dandy, Last Exile, Dennoh-Coil, Fate Stay Night UBW


Top 5 Films
Your Name
Whisper of the Heart
Vampire Hunter D:Bloodlust
Metropolis
Paprika

Worst 5.
Not necessarily worst, but a mix between not great/least memorable.
Arakawa Under the Bridge, High School of the Dead, The Wallflower, Xenosaga, Plastic Memories
I either can’t even remember seeing these, or have not finished them. Apparently I watched the whole of Plastic Memories, but can’t remember anything from the second half of it. Had to check wikipedia’s plot to actually figure out I DID watch It until the end, but it completely slipped from my mind.
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Abb4d0n



Joined: 05 Aug 2017
Posts: 6
Location: Northern California
PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 12:56 am Reply with quote
My Top 10/Bottom 5 List. Apart from the first two, the Top 10 are in no particular order. Bottom 5 are on a scale ranging from merely bad to borderline unwatchable.

On to the Top 10!

#1: Tie: Outlaw Star/Gurren Lagann
This list does not define quality by objective standards of how well a particular show presents itself to the viewer; "quality" is how much I got from this series in terms of emotional and intellectual stimulation and pleasure. And by both of those metrics, these two shows are the best anime that I have ever experienced.

Gurren Lagann is the epic story of a boy becoming a man, featuring giant robots and culminating in battles on a literal galactic scale. Outlaw Star is the ultimate adventure story, touching on all genres while still telling an original and engaging story of its own. Both of these shows have casts filled mostly with archetypes familiar to anime storytelling, but the narrative in both cases serves to engage with these archetypes in a way that deepens the archetype into a full-fledged character. It's a testament to these shows' strengths that they can still entertain even modern-day anime fans.

#3: Cowboy Bebop
Because no Top 10 Anime list is complete without Cowboy Bebop. A jazz- and blues-fueled Space Western mixed with classic Film Noir, featuring some of the most entertaining and engaging characters in any anime series.

#4: Trigun
The third piece of the Anime Space Western Trifecta. A Space Western that initially fools you as to its tone, Trigun explores the morality of taking the life of another in a world where human life is considered cheap. Wolfwood is one of my favorite anime characters ever.

#5: Fate/Zero
Despite what the first four entries on this list might imply, I have seen anime made after 1999. Fate/Zero is an amazing action series set in a very compelling world, with a multi-promoted conflict where there are few true heroes. Saber is my favorite female anime character, and I really need to get around to watching the latest adaptation of Unlimited Blade Works.

#6: Ghost in the Shell
The original GITS movie is in my opinion the most pretentious action movie ever made. That doesn't mean that it isn't beautifully animated with amazing action sequences, or that it doesn't explore serious issues about what makes us human in a technology-dominated age. I started Stand Alone Complex years ago, but had to drop it due to real-life issues; I need to finish both seasons, as the world of Ghost in the Shell is one of the best examples of cyberpunk storytelling ever.

#7: Puella Magi Madoka Magika
The show that taught the world that Maho Shojo series can be as dark and grim as any other stories. The animation by SHAFT is what really sells this series, with its stark disjunctions between the subdued lighting of the human world and the chaos of the Witches' realm. This is the show that convinced me to read the Sailor Moon manga, where I learned that a girly series does not mean a story without depth or serious drama.

#8: RahXephon
Evangelion TV series, but done right. The main theme of questioning one's own identity and place in the world is handled far better, especially since the main character is actually likable. While it's a tie between this show and Eva as to which has the best fight scenes, RahXephon's overall plot is stronger and is consistently handled though the series. Also, the ending is far better.

#9: Princess Mononoke
I have not seen all of Hayao Miyazaki's films, but of the ones I have Princess Mononoke is by far my favorite. Combining Miyazaki's themes of feminism, environmentalism, and moral relativism with excellent action scenes and beautiful integration of 3DCG and traditional animation, Princess Mononoke is a film that every anime fan simply must experience.

#10: Inuyasha
Why is the show in this list, when there are other clearly better shows out there? Because Inuyasha was the first anime series I ever sat down to watch from beginning to end. Because while the story isn't paced to fill over 300 episodes (if you include The Final Act), some of the stories Rumiko Takahashi tells in that time are some of the most fun I have had with anime. Because while the comedy is hit-or-miss and the romantic drama can be stretched thin, when the comedy works it can be genuinely funny and Kagome's love triangle with Inuyasha and Kikyo is alternatively heartwarming and heartbreaking. Inuyasha has had more bad episodes than any of the series on my Worst List, but the quality episodes are endlessly entertaining and watchable for me.

Honorable Mentions: Fullmetal Alchemist (the original anime), Death Note, Macross Plus, Kill La Kill

And as for the Bottom 5...this list is worth a preface. I follow the advice of the old THEM Anime site: Life is too short to watch bad anime. I haven't sought out bad anime to watch, with some exceptions. It should be noted that none of these shows are unwatchable, save some exceptions.

#5: Full Metal Panic
I know there are plenty of people out there who like and enjoy this show. I'm not one of them. The mecha action was occasionally decent, but devolved into DBZ-style Ki attacks that made me completely tune out and are completely at odds with the serious tone the show attempted to strike with its action scenes. The comedy fell painfully flat for me. Worst of all, the male lead was socially inept to the point where I suspected he had sustained a debilitating brain injury that made it impossible to engage socially with other human beings. I know there's another season with more action and a heavier emphasis on plot, but th first season so turned me off to the show I can't currently be bothered.

#4: High School DxD
High School T&A is fundamentally a very confused series. On the one hand, it tries to be a serious supernatural drama. On the other hand, the show also really really wants to be softcore pornography with standard anime romantic comedy elements. At no point does this series strike a balance between these two tones. Also, the male lead is unlikable albeit in a funny and interesting way.

#3: Another
Or, as I like to call it, Masterpiece Death Theatre. A "supernatural" "mystery" where the plot takes quick turns into sheer nonsense, the characters have all the personality of cardboard cutouts, and it's never a mystery as to who will die in a given episode. Watchable only because the death scenes can be enjoyably gruesome, particularly one involving a flight of stairs and an umbrella. All in all, a bad setup for a joke.

#2: Uppotte!!
Now this is unwatchable. Tedious antics based solely around obscure references only firearms enthusiasts would get (I feel bad that I do get this show's references) relating to girls representing anthropomorphic automatic weapons, the show doesn't even have decent action scenes to make up for it's almost total lack of plot. The ending is terrible, and cemented my distaste for this pile of trash.

#1: The Skull Man
This series would qualify as "So Bad It's Good", except for how tedious and boring the plot is. The show handles its narrative like a toddler throwing crayons: completely haphazardly and without any care for the nonsense it creates. It's also incredibly dumb in how it handles its main themes, both in execution and in its presumption of the audience's intelligence. An unwatchable pile of discarded ideas from far better shows you could be otherwise experiencing.
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Abb4d0n



Joined: 05 Aug 2017
Posts: 6
Location: Northern California
PostPosted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 2:56 pm Reply with quote
Unicorn_Blade wrote:
(snip)

I really enjoyed Space Dandy too, but not as much as Cowboy Bebop. I think a lot of people (including myself) went into that show thinking that Watanabe would do much the same as he did with Cowboy Bebop, and Space Dandy is a completely different show. It can be serious and thoughtful at times, but its far goofier and more light-hearted than Bebop.
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Unicorn_Blade



Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1151
Location: UK
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 7:57 am Reply with quote
Abb4d0n wrote:
Unicorn_Blade wrote:
(snip)

I really enjoyed Space Dandy too, but not as much as Cowboy Bebop. I think a lot of people (including myself) went into that show thinking that Watanabe would do much the same as he did with Cowboy Bebop, and Space Dandy is a completely different show. It can be serious and thoughtful at times, but its far goofier and more light-hearted than Bebop.


I did not really have an expectations that anything could get as close to CB... Samurai Champloo was pretty good, but also not quite there. Space Dandy was crazy and fun, but the story was of a different calibre so I did not think it had the same potential.
The big disappointment for me was Kids on the Slope, I really could not get into it and Terror in Resonance in which he did quite a few if not most episodes, also was a bit disappointing. CB would be difficult to top off anyways Smile
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