Author Topic: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)  (Read 77555 times)

roujin

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #270 on: September 16, 2019, 08:46:34 AM »
What’s another good slice-of-life anime I should watch (akin perhaps to Kids on the Slope)?

pixote

You can try something like Honey & Clover - it balances the everyday aspects with wonderful melodrama.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #271 on: May 02, 2021, 03:57:00 PM »
Paranoia Agent
Kids on the Slope
Cowboy Bebop
Girls' Last Tour

Psycho-Pass
Death Parade
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
The Tatami Galaxy
Devilman Crybaby

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Samurai Champloo
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for an Otaku
FLCL
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Death Note
Land of the Lustrous

Steins;Gate
Last Exile

I'm still keeping this list up to date. I'll probably finish another anime this week so I'll have to decide what to watch next.

oldkid

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #272 on: May 03, 2021, 08:45:39 PM »
I finally feel that I have watched enough anime series (35, including Speed Racer) to fairly come up with a top 10.

1. Paranoia agent
The surrealist, most intelligent of anime series, this is an equal in tone and psychological mystery to Perfect Blue and Paprika by the Great Kon.

2. The Ancient Magus' Bride
This is an edit, because for some reason I failed to put this one one because it wasn't on my larger list.  I only watched this is the last month, but it is phenomenal. First, the art is stunning, it melts my core-- while the fantasy world is pretty common, the presentation of it is continuously gorgeous and eye-popping.  The original manga's line drawings are even more detailed and beautiful, so I have been collecting those.  The characters, however, is what makes this series.  Each person is broken in some way and we get enough backdrop to understand why.  Their interactions with each other, however, is generally gracious, even generous, even when some characters seem always upset.  Elias Ainsworth-- the Ancient Mage of the title-- is my favorite.  He is at least 300 years old, and full of ancient wisdom and power, but he is still naive, especially socially, ignorant of some of the most important matters of how the world works.  He is an oldkid, and I identify with him.  The story as a whole is a gentle bloom, gradually opening more and more and the only conclusion is how they all continue living and continue growing in love.  I am certainly taken by this series and hope they add another season, but I will be reading the manga whether they do or not.

3. That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime season 1
A hilarious time, and the entire season is part world-exploring and world building.  The Minecraft of anime series.

4. Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
The king of anime popularity, it deserves the acclaim, despite a terribly weak ending that they couldn't fix with a follow up film.  Still, the characters are great and the highs are very high.

5.My Hero Academia, seasons 1-3
I am a fan of the superhero genre, and what this series has above most superhero worlds is character building and a fully human Superman clone.
 
6. I don’t Understand what my husband is saying
This will be a personal favorite.  it is a great description of a newly married couple and how they don't understand each other at all.  The unique aspect of this series is that each episode is only about five minutes long, so it gets right to the point.

7. Eden of the East
A great adventure begins with a man suddenly appearing in front of the White House, naked.  A fun adventure story.

8. Fruits Basket, 2019 season 1 and 2
The first season is too light and frothy, but it turns out to all be a foundation for the deeper emotional work done in the second season.
 
9, Food Wars
So many questions-- how do the competitions work so well? Why do drawn replicas of food make a person so hungry?  And who would have thought that food-orgasms could be so entertaining?

10. Promised Neverland, season 1
Put children in danger and make it last for a season, and you have a fine horror premise.  Each episode is it's own kind of intense.  (I hear season 2 is awful, but it doesn't matter because season one is a complete story)

Honorable mentions:
Tonikawa: Over the Moon for You-- A very strange premise provides a backdrop for a newlywed couple who never knew each other before the ceremony. 
Yuri on Ice-- A truly romantic gay romance between ice skaters. I cried.
Toradora -- A funny slow-burn romantic comedy between unlikely highschoolers. I really warmed up to the characters.
The Way of the Househusband-- A former gangster becomes a househusband to his profesional wife. It doesn't deserve to be as funny as it is.

« Last Edit: May 05, 2021, 09:05:01 PM by oldkid »
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #273 on: May 05, 2021, 10:56:25 PM »
Love that we have the same #1. FMA:B is just hard to go wrong with. I gave it a rewatch early last year and it's just a damn fine story from beginning to end. Academia is one I know I need to watch. Same with Eden. I've heard good things about Slime so I'll have to put that on the list.

oldkid

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #274 on: May 07, 2021, 11:30:47 AM »
Paranoia Agent subverts all expectations, breaks all the rules.  The viewer is the detective, and is forced to draw strange conclusions to the mystery.  Yeah, it stand above all the others.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

1SO

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #275 on: May 07, 2021, 12:59:41 PM »
Paranoia Agent would be my No. 1 followed by Cowboy Beebop, followed by the rest.

oldkid

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #276 on: June 04, 2021, 07:29:14 PM »
Kamisama Kiss, seasons 1 and 2 and four follow up episodes

Nanami finds out one day that her house has burnt down and her father abandoned her at 16.  That same day she meets a god, who kisses her, gives her god-like powers and tells her to live at the shrine, as the shrine's god. The series is about her developing her god powers, the shrine's community and an unlikely developing romance.

It is a comedy and it is entertaining enough. The characters are shallow, but they seem to be heading in a direction that still had a long way to go by the time the show ends.  The plot of Nanami developing her god powers is well developed.  When the show just stops after two seasons, it is clear that they assumed that they would be given another season to finish off the story and especially the romance.

Instead, they had to stuff more than a season's worth of plot in four poorly-produced episodes that are no longer available outside of some unsavory streaming sites. Although there is some in this show that is worth watching, the ending... or lack of one... makes me hesitate to recommend it.

3/5
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #277 on: August 14, 2021, 10:02:56 PM »
I finally realized the other day what the art from Kaiba reminded me of which is the old granddaddy of Anime TV: Astro Boy. I would watch the odd episode as a kid from time to time. I should probably watch some of those again.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #278 on: December 17, 2023, 08:56:10 PM »
Paranoia Agent
Kids on the Slope
Pluto
Cowboy Bebop
Girls' Last Tour

Kaiba
Psycho-Pass
Death Parade
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
The Tatami Galaxy
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
Eden of the East
Vinland Saga
Devilman Crybaby

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Samurai Champloo
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for an Otaku
FLCL
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Death Note
Land of the Lustrous

Steins;Gate
Last Exile

Berserk (1997)


Still watching stuff.

oldkid

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Re: Your Top Ten Anime Series (with words!)
« Reply #279 on: January 15, 2024, 11:00:25 PM »
So glad you enjoyed Eden of the East and the new Scott Pilgrim

The old-timey style of Pluto is off-putting to me, but I'll try it again.

My main discovery in the last few months is Keep Your Hands off Eizouken! A group of school kids love anime so much that they begin a school club to create an anime themselves.  The conflicts are very real to life, without any romantic entanglements, but plenty of school politics. It is hilarious and it has my favorite opening song.

RWBY I think I would adore, except that the animation is so awful.  Maybe a better animation studio will remake this one.

Bocchi the Rock! Cute girls starting a band.  The best part of this wonderful anime is the focus on Hitori, aka Bocchi (the lonely girl), who is dealing with severe social anxiety to such a degree that they have to pull out a variety of animation styles to express her deep depression, fear and seizure-like anxiety.  Yet her ambition is to be a popular rock star, which seems ill-suited to her.  I've watched it twice.  I will watch it again.  It isn't laugh-out-loud funny, but it makes me smile every minute it's on.

Two top-notch isakai I've been watching is RE: Zero about a hero whose power is resurrecting each time he dies.  Kind of a violent Groundhog Day.  Also, Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon?, which is probably the worst title ever.  It has nothing to do with picking up girls, in fact, the male protagonist might very well be aero ace, for all we know.  Instead, we get an excellent D&D story, with gods and great monster characters and decent action.  The fan service is awful, and completely unnecessary, but as long as I ignore that, it's a good time.

Sam, what did you think of FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood?
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky