Forum - View topicThe List - My 5 Favorite Anime Works by Kyoto Animation
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Gurren Rodan
 Posts: 263 |
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I don't think any other studio/creator/team in anime has come close to consistently endearing me with their works as Kyoto Animation has. I'm not saying I love all of their shows unequivocally, but when they have a winner, they have a WINNER.
5. Love, Chuunibyo and Other Delusions! was the first anime I really liked, a lot, as I began trying out the medium. The show delivered a balance of humor and heart with a charming aesthetic and strong animation, that just clicked with me in a way nothing else I'd tried had quite yet. While the 2nd season was a disappointment, the 1st season is special to me for opening the door wider to the studio as well as the medium at large. I still need to see the movie! 4. Hyouka, oddly enough, actually didn't "wow" me the way I expected it to - but without a doubt, it's a finely made, thoughtful show that deserves attention. This title kind of got built up in my mind while I awaited an official release stateside, but I'm pleased to have my own copy of the show on my shelf, and I hope more anime fans continue to discover this title now. Can we get the novels translated, please? 3. Sound! Euphonium seems to be the studio's biggest flagship title right now, and I'd say it's for good reason - Violet Evergarden might be the prettiest KyAni show, but Euphonium is probably their most polished franchise to date, both in general design and storytelling. Each new entry to the story has been a delight, and in the wake of this ongoing tragedy, I'm especially glad I didn't miss out on seeing Our Promise in theaters. It says something that a theatrical work can look "no better" than its TV predecessor and still look worthy of the big screen. 2. Nichijou ended up being my second KyoAni title after Chuunibyo, and oh, man, what a ride this show is! Nichijou is one of the most hilarious, lavish TV productions I've seen, and it's a rare title I'd want to show anyone who'd give it a try, because it's just that crazy and funny. It certainly doesn't look like a typical KyoAni production, but the core DNA is certainly there. If KyoAni makes it back on their feet, I dearly hope we can get another precious absurdist comedy like this one in the future. 1. A Silent Voice - I said KyoAni has endeared me and "wowed" me like no one else in the anime industry has, and right now I think A Silent Voice has wowed me like even no other KyoAni title has. Poignant, tender, unflinchingly painful and beautiful, A Silent Voice is one of the studio's best examples of "show don't tell" storytelling, and one of my all-time favorite movies, period, now. A Silent Voice is a stalwart testament to the abilities of animated film, and the of music and sound in cinema as well. Honorable mentions go to the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise and Lucky Star, which were delightfully unique and eccentric experiences that I'm overdue to revisit. Actually, it occurs to me that, although I set out to see all of KyoAni's work after my impressions of Chuunibyo and Nichijou, there are still several titles of theirs I haven't seen at all yet. This will be remedied aggressively over the next several weeks or so. Here's to hoping and praying that this wonderful studio will make wonderful works again someday. |
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Joshua Zarate
Posts: 2061 |
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No amount of words I can come up with will ever fully convey how much affection I have for this studio. In no particular order, here are my favorite works by Kyoto Animation.
Clannad/After Story The Melancholy/Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Sound! Euphonium Kanon Hyouka Honorable mentions include (Air, Lucky Star, FMP Fumoffu/The Second Raid, Amagi Brilliant Park, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, and Violet Evergarden) From the bottom of my heart, I hope that they can recover and come back strong. |
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MarthKoopa
Posts: 272 |
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I've loved almost everything KyoAni has done. Haruhi, Kanon, Clannad, and K-ON are what got me into watching anime. Nichijou got me to stop being a "dub only" person and appreciate the original work more.
The only stuff I hated from them were Dragon Maid (too much pedo crap), Phantom World (inconsistent, boring) and A Silent Voice (Shouko is treated as a plot device rather than a character) |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5528 |
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A top 5 is way too hard...hell, a top 10 is way too hard for me.
AIR I generally place at #1 because it was the first anime, and one of the first things in fictional media as a whole, to make actually FEEL emotion. This is a rare thing because I have autism (aspergers). Kyoto Animation means so much to be partially because they're one of the few studios that managed to make me feel emotion in basically all of their shows. I don't know how, but they do it somehow. They touch me. Kanon 2006 I've watched every winter since I first saw it in 2007. The characters. music, atmosphere, story... everything about it I love very much. It's easily the most rewatchable anime to me, I love it so much so I put that at #2. K-On! (and s2) I guess should be my # 3 because as a wanna-be musician, this anime inspired a significant amount of my life. I had given up on music due to lack of skill but K-On! inspired me to try it again and I haven't quit again since I first saw it. Whenever I feel like giving up I ust watch the girls of HO-KAGO TEA TIME and it's like a holy light is shined down around me and I slowly am healed. Similar to that, Haruhi basically solidified anime as a hobby for me back in summer of 2006 when I binged it. It changed how I viewed anime. I pretty much still viewed it as just "Cartoons" until Haruhi and AIR convinced me it was more than that. AIR with it's story, Haruhi with it's characters and insanely amazing animation. Haruhi has very obviously inspired dozens of later anime that I've enjoyed and it will inspired many more until the end of time. It's influence on my life will be never-ending. So I guess I can do a top 4, but not really a 5th. Hibike! Euponhium (all of it), Clannad (and After Story), Nichijou, Munto, Hyouka, A Silent Voice, Lucky Star, and Maid Dragon. Liz and the Blue Bird. Those are my other favorites that I gave a 10/10 score. I can't really pick between them but they all mean a lot to me. Either for making me laugh (Also a rarity from media), making me FEEL, or just being a joy to watch.. Kyoani has helped me get through nearly 20 years of awfulness. I really hope the studio can be revived someday. But if they can't, I full accept that and thank them for what they have done. I wish the best to the survivors and I hope those that passed may rest in peace. |
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Florete
Posts: 363 |
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It's hard to make a definitive top 5 because they have a lot of good stuff but Clannad (both seasons) and Liz and the Blue Bird are the ones I look at the most fondly.
I wouldn't wish what happened to KyoAni on my worst enemy. What a horrible thing. |
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Barciad
 Posts: 130 Location: St Andrews |
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I watched a few episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya last night, just to see if it still held up. I ended up watching a few more, which kind of answers the question. Utterly sublime and one of those rare occasions where the end product matched the initial hype.
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Sekaro
Posts: 350 |
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Oddly enough, I've never watched much of the MOST popular and talked-about shows Kyoani has made aside from a few recent ones like Violet Evergarden and A Silent Voice. However, Kyoani has made one of my most favourite animes of all time - Hyouka. If I were to make a top 10 list of my favourite anime, this would definitely have a confirmed spot on it.
Seriously, there are very few shows that resonated with me and this is one of those few. I remember seeing a commercial for this in Animax on TV and thought nothing much of it. When I actually went and tried it, I was instantly hooked. Its like I found my soul mate. Thank you Animax for airing this at the time and a MASSIVE thanks to Kyoani for producing such a splendid masterpiece. Now, if only there were any vendors selling official English translated novels of Hyouka in my region since I don't believe there is ANY hope at all that a second season of Hyouka will be made. 
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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I suppose for me it's Hyouka and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. I watched The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya once, and never got the hubub about it. I've also seen Full Metal Panic, Fumoffu, and some of Nichijou.
I've heard A Silent Voice is good, but I could never really get past the extreme bullying and the fact that from a meta perspective, you KNOW they're going to be friends or something because otherwise there'd be no manga, so it feels like she's railroaded into being nice to her former bully. In real life, she'd had every right to tell him to piss off if that's how she felt about it. |
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Actar
 Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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1. Lucky Star
2. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu 3. K-ON! 4. Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon/Nichijou/Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu & TSR 5. Clannad/Kanon/Hyouka/Koe no Katachi 6. Kyoukai no Kanata/Amagi Brilliant Park/Chuunibyou/Tamako Market/Hibike! Euphonium (Haven't seen Air, Free! or Violet Evergarden yet) Their shows were absolutely influential in my development and growth as a person and an anime fan. While I prefer their light-hearted comedies as opposed to their heavy-handed drama, I loved every single one of their works. Kyoto Animation provided me with some of the best memories of my life. I love Lucky Star, Haruhi and K-ON! so much that I actually paid a visit to all three real-life schools during my various trips to Japan. |
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consignia
 Posts: 392 |
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I love A Silent Voice. I wasn't prepared when I watched it, but was completely taken aback by it. But it really is far more nuanced than just the Shouko accepting Shouya. And there's also the fact Shouya get's pretty horribly bullied as well and suffers from it badly. There's a lot of character study into a thorny and not often well told story of childhood and adolescence bullying. No one is easily forgiven or changed. As much as I love it, I do think it's a very hard watch as the graphic realism of the bullying can cut really close to the bone. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4576 |
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It struck me when the horrific news broke that I've never actually seen a KyoAni series, since the genres that I always viewed as their bread and butter (lighthearted moe comedy and heavy slice-of-life drama) aren't really in my wheelhouse. Even so I've definitely appreciated them from afar, both for the technical mastery of their animation and for what they represented as a sustainable employer. Haruhi and FMP are both on my backlog, and I'd like to watch them sooner than later to honor the talents of those lost in some small way.
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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I had never intended to post a link to a monograph regarding family trauma and community in an ANN public forum; but daaamn, this horror calls for an exception.
The only metric of success that really matters is the one we ignore by Jenny Anderson |
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danpmss
 Posts: 768 |
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I've watched all of their shows, but I can only declare my top 1 for certain, and that's Clannad AS. Completely changed my way of seeing some things in my life and made me far more approached towards family in general as I would ever dream of before watching.
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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The Haruhi Suzumiya franchise is the only KyoAni work I was able, or even willing, to get into, because of its unique attitude and framing that reminded me a bit of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, albeit on a smaller scale. But it could be beautiful, funny, and poignant in its weird way and I was fully swept into the phenomenon. I still watch The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya every December.
Even though I've cared little about their other output, I can acknowledge their beautiful, detailed art and animation and the tragedy of this travesty of an act from both an industry, fan, and human perspective. I hope they can recover someday. |
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Gurren Rodan
Posts: 263 |
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Thanks for that link; besides being a good read in general, I feel like this is definitely relevant to KyoAni. Everything I've read about the studio suggests or outright states that KyoAni has successfully developed a healthy and still-improving environment for it's employees, amidst an industry in which almost everything ELSE I've read suggests incredible stress and poor dividends. KyoAni created a community of their own, and looking at all the responses to the tragedy, they've created a greater, indirect community abroad. I, for one, am typically disconnected from the news, largely because I know how much strife and unpleasantness is out there, and I don't want to exhaust myself on issues I have no part in. This, however, hit me hard, despite having no connection to KyoAni besides being fond of their work. KyoAni matters to me, and it matters to a lot of other people, and I'd say it matters dearly to the industry at large. I wish and hope and pray the studio and fandom communities can bring KyoAni back, no matter how long it takes. |
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