Straight from the Rising Sun: 50 Anime you should see before you die

[Angus]

Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (Rumble Hearts) on a bucket list? That's like adding Titanic for a cruise ship movie night.  Same with Kanon - most of the episodes concern a character dying or in a hospital.

[gunswordfist]

This list only further convinces me of how warped the anime community of Japan has become. Now, keep in mind that I don't mean Japan in general (for some reason people have the common misconception that everyone who lives in Japan watches anime, when honestly less than a third of the population actually does, from what I've heard), but still, I mean that part of Japan that actually watches anime regularly.

Anyways, I noticed one thing on this piece of trash list that actually kind of surprised me in a good way, that's the inclusion of "A" Zoids series on this list. Granted that, I haven't seen more than an episode of Genesis so I can't comment on it, but its actually kind of nice to see such an underrated franchise getting some recognition from anime fans, even the ones who were warped enough to create this list.

But, seriously, any list that has Kanon on it at all (let alone at #1) has already lost all of its credibility. All of the other terrible choices on this list just make the people involved with it that much more idiotic.

I love me some Zoids. I need to finish the games and war series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

There's still the matter of Ookami Kakushi, though. Not only is that show unpopular, nobody liked it. Similarly, the Umineko anime was almost universally panned by Japanese anime fans.

Oh, so it's the American anime fans I get to blame for this stuff being popular?

Because Umineko seems to have more tie-ins than Higurashi, by far.

[Foggle]

Japan hates the Umineko anime because it makes a complete mockery of the visual novel, but they looooove the original VN. So the tie-ins and fanart are probably a 50/50 split.

[talonmalon333]

I haven't seen everything there. But everything there that I have seen sucks... except Higurashi. And for the stuff I haven't seen, I'll trust what you guys say that it's probably not very good anyway.

... So I'll give the list an 8/10.

[Pharass]

Someone really need to explain to me what's so great about Haruhi. I watched the first show and why I can't say it was the worst thing ever, it didn't do anything for me. I found most of it's characters rather unlikable without being interesting enough to compensate for it.

The lack of Legend of the Galactic Heroes on this list is a god-damn travesty and where's Monster? Not to mention Cowboy Bebop?

Come to think of it: Perhaps, I'm wrong but Bebop is one of those anime that was more popular in the West than in Japan, right? Same thing with The Big O unless I'm mistaken.

Glad to see a Zoids series on this list. I've been watching Chaotic Century lately and it's great fun; one of those shows that makes me feel like a kid again, despite the fact that I never saw it the first time around. Have to check out Genesis some day.

I also like what I've seen of Gintama so far, it does a good job balancing goofy comedy with more serious moments.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Someone really need to explain to me what's so great about Haruhi. I watched the first show and why I can't say it was the worst thing ever, it didn't do anything for me. I found most of it's characters rather unlikable without being interesting enough to compensate for it.

The lack of Legend of the Galactic Heroes on this list is a god-damn travesty and where's Monster? Not to mention Cowboy Bebop?

Come to think of it: Perhaps, I'm wrong but Bebop is one of those anime that was more popular in the West than in Japan, right? Same thing with The Big O unless I'm mistaken.

Like I said, this is a "popularity" list by otaku. It can in no way be taken seriously as an honest list of the top 50 best anime of all time, especially since most of these choices are from the last 5 years or so which just shows that most of the people who helped compile this list barely remember anything from before the last decade aside from obviously popular stuff like NGE and such. Also, if this list were made by any people besides hardcore otaku, there would be a lot of classics on here like there should be, such as Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Lupin III, Doraemon, and so on (especially since the latter 2 are still highly popular in Japan). And, even though Cowboy Bebop is far more popular in the West than in Japan, I do believe it still has a lot of respect over there from the people who have watched it. Unfortunately it seems as though not that many people in Japan have actually watched it to begin with, given how it never became very popular over there.

Glad to see a Zoids series on this list. I've been watching Chaotic Century lately and it's great fun; one of those shows that makes me feel like a kid again, despite the fact that I never saw it the first time around. Have to check out Genesis some day.

Zoids: Chaotic Century and Guardian Force are great (Guardian Force is a continuation of Chaotic Century). You could say that its a glorified shonen series with a little blend of Gundam and Pokemon thrown in, but its executed really well and the main characters are all pretty likable. There are some throwaway filler episodes in there, but for the most part the series is pretty solid. My only gripe is that it got a really rushed ending, but it was still a good and appropriately climactic conclusion to the series.

Zoids: New Century Zero is a fun little tournament style show, but its nowhere near as memorable or entertaining as the first series (or first 2 series if you count CC and GF separately).

Zoids: Fuzors is complete garbage. Never bother watching this piece of crap.

I have only ever seen a single episode of Zoids: Genesis, so I can't really comment on it. I'd like to check out more of it at some point in time, but I will say that the fans I know that have seen Genesis would still say that CC/GF was the best Zoids series.

[Foggle]

Shut up retro-elitists. You know nothing of good anime.

[Angus]

Someone really need to explain to me what's so great about Haruhi. I watched the first show and why I can't say it was the worst thing ever, it didn't do anything for me. I found most of it's characters rather unlikable without being interesting enough to compensate for it.

Hmm, I actually thought the first episode (Mikuru as a magical girl with really crappy amateur filming) was genius but the rest of the series was average. They do a Pulp Fiction-like sequencing of the episodes, and it's got all that Kyo-Ani style that people seem to love, but might as well watch Full Metal Panic Fumoffu for that.