Favorite Anime

[talonmalon333]

That reminds me, what did everyone think of Wolf's Rain?

A bit of a downer. But I liked the ending.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If only we could get an anime of the prequel series. That was always a shame that they never made it.

If you're referring to Shounan Junai Gumi (because I'm not exactly sure if you were referring to my GTO post or not), then we DID at least get a 5-episode OVA for it. But, yeah, that series definitely deserved a full adaptation.

[Spark Of Spirit]

If only we could get an anime of the prequel series. That was always a shame that they never made it.

If you're referring to Shounan Junai Gumi (because I'm not exactly sure if you were referring to my GTO post or not), then we DID at least get a 5-episode OVA for it. But, yeah, that series definitely deserved a full adaptation.

Yeah, that's what I meant. A full adaption would have been great. I'm sort of surprised they didn't try to make one during 'GTO-mania' in Japan.

[Avaitor]

Wolf's Rain had some really cool ideas and sequences, but it didn't really stick out to me as a whole.

[Rynnec]

Speaking of those bad guys... they are REALLY bad, the kind of bad that makes your back shiver. Considering the almost family-friendly superheroic territory it starts in, Fullmetal Alchemist goes to dark, dark places, like governmental corruption, war and genocide.

The fact that he couldn't say anything else about the villains says a lot.

Dragon Ball gets blamed for being really shallow but both Piccolo and Vegeta have better motives than any villain in FMA. Every one of them is bad because they want to be and they know it. That's basically it.

It's hard to articulate exactly why I don't really rank it much these days, but I've never much been a fan of the villains.

Kimblee's pretty much the only real standout villain in FMA. Wrath was cool too, but that's pretty much it to him.

Honestly, modern anime in general tend to have incredibly lame and underwhelming villains.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Maybe it's predictable, but I really like it when anime have those chessmaster villains like Gendo, Kyubey, Kotomine, and Johan who pull the strings and let others do the evil for them in order to get things done. And despite what Rynnec said, there are still some decent villains of that type. Berg Katse from Gatchaman Crowds is the one of the few shining lights in that show because of that, for instance.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Dragon Ball gets blamed for being really shallow but both Piccolo and Vegeta have better motives than any villain in FMA. Every one of them is bad because they want to be and they know it. That's basically it.

To be fair, he isn't consistent into what he goes in depth on. His doesn't analyze the villains in his Dragonball review either.

Most of the Hommunculi do what they do because they are simply loyal to Father, and, to be honest, this is really all there is to Lust's motivation in Brotherhood/the Manga. But I don't think you give the rest of them enough credit, since a lot of the villains do have motivations beyond that. Let me try and run through them with what I know about them on the top of my head....

Shou Tucker: His career defined his life, and he was obsessed with making a perfect chimera, willing to sacrifice his loved ones if it meant being able to continue his research. In the first anime, his guilt consumed him into making him desperate to revive Nina, and deluded himself into thinking he could.

Barry the Chopper: He's not really a villain in the manga/Brotherhood, but anyways, Barry liked to chop stuff up, because the act gave him a sick thrill that made him feel alive, and later, gave him an identity when his soul was fused with an armor. A lot of FMA villains actually are obsessed with having an understanding of their identity, such as...

Lust (first anime): She went along with Dante's plans because she was pretty much in her debt since she was responsible for helping her survive as a Hommunculus and all. Lust didn't have second thoughts about killing people because she's pretty self-centered for the most part, and most of what she does in the series is motivated by her own self-interest. As we all know, Lust struggled to understand whether the memories and feelings she had towards Scar made her the same person or not. When she decided she wanted to be properly human again, she betrayed Dante without a second thought to help Ed beat Sloth. Really, she wanted some understanding as to who she really was in some way, and her death gave her peace because a part of being human was death, or something. I dunno, it's been two years since I watched the show, that's what I remember. Moving on...

Gluttony: Gluttony is loyal to all the rest of the Hommunculi, as they are all "family" to him. His reaction to Lust's death and anger when he found out Mustang was responsible shows that he was the most emotional of the Hommunculi, but also the most simple-minded, as he did not question the motives of his peers or even understand the ramifications of what he was doing. Essentially, he was like a naive child trying his best to help out his family in any way he can. This is true in the first anime as well.

Envy: Envy had self-esteem issues because of how pathetic his true form was and how monstrous he became after consuming the souls of the city of Xerxes. He couldn't understand how 'lowly' creatures like human beings could persevere, forgive, and find happiness, as those were qualities he himself lacked. He mocked human beings, basically, because he didn't want to admit he was, in many ways, weaker than most of them. This made him take immense pleasure in seeing the downfall of humans, which is why he took so much pleasure in starting the Ishvalan Civil War, twisting and manipulating emotions, and also killing innocent people like Hughes. However much he liked to hurt and toy with the emotions of human beings, he was only superficially good at doing that and could only accomplish that with easily-fooled/confused people and with an element of surprise, which is why when he hesitated to face opponents he knew he couldn't beat head on, and all his bluffing was (literally) blown right back in his face when no-nonsense, pissed-off Roy got a hold of him. In short, Envy went along with Father's plan and did despicable things because hurting other people made him feel better about himself. This is true in the first anime also, with added Daddy/abandonment/sibling rivalry/rage issues thanks to Hoenheim poisoning him with mercury when he was human and then abandoning him and Dante afterwards, with the other notable difference that he was smarter at using his mind games in that series as well, particularly well-illustrated when he used Ed's emotions against him and almost killed him in the second to last episode.

Greed: I actually don't consider Greed a villain myself, but since everyone else does I'll discuss him. Greed just wants to have everything. He's simply obsessed by living up to what his name insinuates, and doesn't care about anyone else's problems, only for himself. Greed doesn't care about Father or Dante's plans, nor does he give a damn of the other Hommunculi, and isn't even concerned with what means he uses to get what he wants as long as he gets it. Greed wants things, more or less, because he doesn't feel fulfilled and satisfied with what he does have. He isn't necessarily committed to that end, willing to take it slow, entertain distractions, and just have fun with life, even though he insists he's heavily ambitious and goes to great lengths to prove it. When he regains his memory after killing Bido, he starts to realize that he was happiest when surrounded by his loyal friends, the chimeras, and that losing them was like losing a part of himself, and his identity, which Father corrupted when he revived him in Ling and tried to suppress. In Ling, Ed, Heinkel, and Darius he gained new comrades and found people he would sacrifice his life for, which he does to help Ed kill Father in the final battle, and realized in his final moments that the reason he never went to any extraordinary amount of trouble is because he was perfectly content simply having true friends to recognize him as a person, and not a pawn or instrument like Father and the other Hommunculi did. In the first anime, he allowed Ed to kill him because he realized that his ambitions were just a cover for his his inability to find emotional happiness with Dante, who didn't see him as who he was but who she wanted him to be, and thus he could never be fulfilled no matter what he did.

Sloth (first anime): Basically Lust 2.0, except less developed. Honestly never cared for her. She has less of a personality than Gluttony, and is more important in terms of relation to other characters than as a character herself.

Sloth (Brotherhood and manga) - He really doesn't understand what Father's actual plan is, much like Gluttony. All he knows is that he has a job to do, and if he doesn't do it he'll suffer a painful punishment, so the only way he'll be able to do nothing is to finish digging the tunnel under Amestris. He basically is just doing his job, and doesn't really think much of it or it's consequences since all he cares about is being able to not do anything when everything's over with.

Wrath (first anime) - Um...I dunno. Wrath's whole motivation is kinda stupid. He has mommy issues or whatever I guess, due to being trapped in the gate when Izumi gave the revived him up, which messed him up pretty bad. I guess he finds a surrogate mother figure in Sloth, which is supposed to be symbolic of something I guess, and then basically does Dante's dirty work for Sloth's sake out of misplaced, messed-up feelings of love. I never liked Wrath, he was annoying, and it made no sense as to how a talk with Envy suddenly made him want to betray Izumi like he did. Bah.

Lt. Col. Archer (first anime) - Politically ambitious and willing to do dirty work in order to climb the ranks.

Other Bad Military Guys (both versions): Corrupt, got promised immortality by the Hommunculi, selfish, and immoral.

Zolf J. Kimblee (first anime) - A crazy bastard who liked to blow shit up. Legitimately bad to be bad, and he knows it. 

Solf J. Kimblee (Brotherhood and the Manga) - Enjoyed his job, and enjoyed having power, which is why he was obsessed with the philosopher's stone and betrayed the military to keep it. Honestly very professional about his work as a solider, which is why he was interested in terminating Scar so he wouldn't leave a job undone, and mainly worked with the Hommunculi more or less because he was just interested in seeing who would prevail in the end. When he saw that Pride was hypocritically willing to steal Edward's, a human's, body to save his own life, an affront to his pride as a Hommunculi, Kimblee got his answer and prevented Pride from doing so, gladly contributing to his defeat.

King Bradley/Pride (first anime) - Loyal to Dante. That's it.

King Bradley/Wrath (Brotherhood and the Manga) - Forced to work for Father, since he has no other identity besides being the Fuhrer, a title, life, and purpose he could only keep if he followed Father's orders. However, he had conflicting ideas of whether hommunculi were truly superior to humans, as the bulk of his strength comes from his human abilities and not simply his Ultimate Eye. In addition, he legitimately loved his human wife, and even if it was a facade, he found true happiness in his family life. His position, authority, and his philosopher's stone power were all due to being a Hommunculus, though, and he was proud of his identity as a Hommunculi, and by fulfilling Father's plan he would validate his purpose, and that he chose the right side. However, he was interested in giving the humans a fighting chance, be it arrogance like Father who let them off easy because he didn't think they could do much, or true interest like Kimblee who honestly wanted to see who would ultimately prevail, which is  why he let Mustang and the Elrics off leniently, to see what they, mere humans, could accomplish against the full might of the Hommunculi.

Pride - Again, ...loyal to Father, but this is more because he desperately longs for a true family and not the facade of one the Hommunculi group actually is, which is why he loved his "mother" for loving him unconditionally, and enjoyed his pleasant life as a family with her and Wrath. Basically did Father's bidding to gain his love, and finally feel like a part of a genuine loving family, which, ironically, is what he gets at the end of the series after he lost all his memories and was re-raised as a normal boy.

Dante: Wanted to stay young. That's it, she's just selfish enough to kill and manipulate other people in the hopes of staying young forever. At least she's got great theme music. 

Father - Obsessed with the idea of freedom. To him, being free was equivalent to being truly godlike. Even after he escaped the flask and gained a body, he still felt trapped, since he was not truly flesh and blood. It was just a new container. So, in the hope of "breaking free," he desired to sacrifice the lives of countless people in order ot generate enough power to forcefully combine with "Truth" and gain a true, limitless body of his own. Really, he wanted to have things that humans had, like family (which is a part of the reason for why he created the Hommunculi), a goal to live for, purpose, but also he wanted to be "better" than humans and lack their vices and limits (which is another reason why the Hommunculi exist, since creating them took away from him what he considered undesirable qualities in his personality), and be free to do whatever he wished.


I'm not going to talk about Scar because in both versions of the show he has very obvious and well-defined motives and character development that I don't see how you can argue with it. Plus, he's also more of an anti-hero...or is it an anti-villain? Hmm....

Ehehehehe, But on a more serious note, it loses a little bit of steam in the final arc of the manga, but I think that the excellent ending more than makes up for it.

Hmm...I though the final arc was an excellent conclusion to the story, and a great culmination of all the the character development and themes in the series.

To be honest my least favorite part of Great Teacher Onizuka was the arc where a student of Onizuka's lost the fieldtrip money because of Miyabi's trickery, so he had to raise to money himself for the entire class to go to Okinawa. I was starting to get burned out on the series around that point and that arc just felt dragged out a somewhat uninteresting, choice moments aside. I was getting bored with the series during it. It picked right back up for me once they actually went to Okinawa and then everything after that I really, really loved, so I'm glad I stuck through it, but I can't deny I was really getting tired of the series and wanted to be done with it during that arc, though.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

To be fair, there's still a butt load of (supposedly) really good anime I haven't got around to watching yet, and of those that I had haven't stuck with me enough to be "favorites".

I was talking about Spark's list. 

Well you did quote both our lists.

I definitely recommend you finish it. I've only really watched the anime, but for some reason I usually prefer watching anime over reading manga, so that's just me. I also suggest at least seeing if you like the dub. It seriously made it more enjoyable for me.

Well, I actually prefer reading the manga for most of the manga-adapted anime I've seen. Yu Yu Hakusho, Trigun, the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise, and Maison Ikkoku are really the only series where I've seen both the anime and the manga that I outright prefer the anime. As far as Great Teacher Onizuka goes, I've read the entire manga, so I already know the whole story, so I doubt they'll be too many surprises when I watch the anime besides the different ending. But yeah, I enjoyed what I watched of the anime, especially the parts I watched dubbed, and when I commit to watching it again I'll go through all dubbed as you suggest. 

Fair enough. And yeah, while it is "so bad, its amazing", it does have some legitimately good parts to it. Onizuka is one of my favorite Steve Blum roles.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well you did quote both our lists.

Check again. I actually quoted Spark's first posted list from three years ago and his newest list. You might've gotten mistaken since both your lists share 4 of the same series. 

[gunswordfist]

Besides the first series' Greed, I never really cared for the Homunculi and was actually hoping that villain group would get replaced in the first series (I knew better than to think that in Brotherhood). Out of all the others, Envy was my favorite.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Well you did quote both our lists.

Check again. I actually quoted Spark's first posted list from three years ago and his newest list. You might've gotten mistaken since both your lists share 4 of the same series. 

Well.

[LumRanmaYasha]

http://www.hulu.com/ranma-12

LEGAL RANMA 1/2 STREAMING! YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY! 

Goddamn does Hulu have pretty much all the anime I'd ever want to watch. All they need now is Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, GTO, Evangelion, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Big O, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, and have 'em put back Monster and I'll be set for life! 

[Grave]

Looking at all that talk about FMA makes me want to rewatch Brotherhood again, but I'll put off on it for now. I will say that I actually like the Homunculi though, all except maybe Wrath (original FMA) and Gluttony. Honestly, if you took out Ed and Al and just left the rest of the characters in the show I'd say it would be the best series ever (or 2nd to GitS: SAC).

Anyway, since people are throwing in random favorite stuff I figured I'd give it whirl with my favorite characters (top 10 is actually a hard thing for me to do), just so everyone can see where I come from when I say I don't like ______ character.

01. Alucard - Hellsing/Ultimate
02. Itachi Uchiha - Naruto
03. Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood
04. Byakuya Kuchiki - Bleach
05. Ulquiorra Schiffer - Bleach
06. Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop
07. Legato Bluesummers - Trigun
08. Vicious - Cowboy Bebop
09. Seijuro Hiko - Rurouni Kenshin
10. Aoshi Shinomori - Rurouni Kenshin

That's just male characters alone, and even that was pretty hard since a lot of those characters I like equally, and I'm just trying to keep it at 10 since I don't feel like listing more at the moment (Lust, Olivier Armstrong and Riza have spots). I left out characters like Kimblee (even though he most certainly deserve a spot), Kurama and Hiei. Eventually, I'll come and arrange the list again and make "tied for" spots and whatnot.

Anyway, you can certainly see a pattern in the type of characters I prefer (I know, I'm a dull kind of guy right? lol). So when I say something along the lines of not liking say, Kuwabara or Naruto,  it's because I prefer the opposite (silent/calm or demented types).

[Rynnec]

Pretty solid list of "Badass" characters, if nothing else. About the only ones I disagree on are Itachi and Ulquiorra, and that's mostly because the poor handling of their characters by their respective mangaka really soiled them for me.

[Grave]

That's definitely understandable, and I don't particularly care for how they turned out in the long run, but in the end the way they were handled was not enough to deter me. However had I taken your stance, Talon, Kimblee would be on there along with Kenshin/Saitoh.