Favorite Anime

[Spark Of Spirit]

I also probably would have rated FMA back when I first saw it but it just really didn't stick with me. It might be because I didn't notice the flaws in it, but somehow they bother me more than they do the superfans. I just can't get into it these days.

[Foggle]

Are you gonna try FLCL again next, Foggle?

Yep - it's next on my list, in fact. I have a feeling I'll probably love it this time. Will probably give Death Note another shot later, as well.

Word of the wise to you guys who haven't seen Nadesico yet (and I bet Cartoon X and Lord Dalek will back me up): DO NOT watch the movie. It will not answer any questions you might have and goes nowhere worth going.

I've heard. I think I'll still watch it while keeping in mind that it's not very good and should be considered non-canon (like BSG: The Plan).

I also probably would have rated FMA back when I first saw it but it just really didn't stick with me. It might be because I didn't notice the flaws in it, but somehow they bother me more than they do the superfans. I just can't get into it these days.

There was a short time where I loved FMA as well, but for some reason I just can't get back into it and don't think much of the franchise anymore.

[LumRanmaYasha]

TTGL represents everything I love about animation as a medium.

. I should rewatch the whole series sometime, since my opinions on it warped around a lot after I finished it, and now that I have a positive outlook on it again I should take the time to see the whole show again and confirm how I feel about it. However, after watching the post-Kamina to defeat of Lordgenome episodes recently on a whim, I've really grown to love how passionate the series is. The animation is really lively, energetic, and well-directed, and the story is a thrill ride start to finish. You can tell that Gainax put a lot of love into making the show great, and it really does come through in the end. Granted, like a lot of shows, the fanbase does tend to overrate it a little bit, but I feel it's also one of those shows that deserves to be overrated. It's a high quality show, and it's passion makes it all the more lovable. 

Monster gets in purely because of the story. I could never rank it lower because of how excellent it is even if it doesn't change much of anything from the manga it's still one of the best stories in anime.

That's why the Monster anime makes my list too. The story is just phenomenal, and the anime is about as perfect as an adaption as you can get. Granted, when it comes to the manga, I actually rank it lower than the One Piece and Hunter X Hunter mangas, but when comparing the animes, the Monster adaption is just so high quality and addicting that I like the anime better than the animes for those two series, love them them though I do.

Word of the wise to you guys who haven't seen Nadesico yet (and I bet Cartoon X and Lord Dalek will back me up): DO NOT watch the movie. It will not answer any questions you might have and goes nowhere worth going.

To it's credit, I would say the movie isn't god-awful. What I mean by that is that it's watchable, has some good moments and production values, and is not a terminally boring slog to sit through like, say, the Dragonball Z movies. However, it's... just really poorly plotted, explained, and executed, and the whole middle of the movie is really, really slow. It feels like what could've potentially been a good plot for a short anime series crammed into one movie, and the characters and story in the film suffer for it.  After seeing it, I felt like it was more like a waste of time and a depressing ending rather than an enjoyable epilogue to the story. I too like to pretend the movie is non-canon and the story ends with the end of the anime, so yeah, it's not really worth watching the movie, but if you do watch it, well...there's worse ways to spend your time.

I also probably would have rated FMA back when I first saw it but it just really didn't stick with me. It might be because I didn't notice the flaws in it, but somehow they bother me more than they do the superfans. I just can't get into it these days.

My problems with the flaws of both series are what have pushed it down a lot on my favorites list, but I still really do like the franchise. Brotherhood is still an addicting watch whenever I manage to catch it on Toonami, and "The Promised Day" arc is still one of my favorite story arcs in animation. I think the problem with both is more how they've been so overrated over the years that I've become a little disenfranchised with them, and begun to treat their flaws a lot more negatively than I would. Neither series is great with it's philosophy, and both have story and character development problems, but as overall experiences they still manage to entertain me, and I think they both deserve their good reputations.

Are you gonna try FLCL again next, Foggle?

Yep - it's next on my list, in fact. I have a feeling I'll probably love it this time.

I think you will. 

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Wow, your opinions are remarkably consistent! Even with just the top 5, my favorite anime list looks radically different than it was when I first posted it in March....

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".

This reminds me that I should watch more of the Great Teacher Onizuka anime. I've watched the first 4 episodes before, and while they were good adaptions of the material, I preferred reading the story in the manga, and so I ended up forgetting to watch the rest of it.  Even though I've finished the manga, I should go back and watch the anime, if only because that early material was probably some of the funniest GTO material, although it was really the last half of the manga that cemented it a place in the top 15 of my favorite manga list.

I defiantly 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.

I also probably would have rated FMA back when I first saw it but it just really didn't stick with me. It might be because I didn't notice the flaws in it, but somehow they bother me more than they do the superfans. I just can't get into it these days.

There was a short time where I loved FMA as well, but for some reason I just can't get back into it and don't think much of the franchise anymore.

This is exactly how I feel.

On another note, I'm also taking a crack at Gurren Lagann

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As far as Death Note goes, just don't think of it as a deep psychological series like Monster or such. It never was that, and it's just prepubescent fans who don't know a thing about psychology who think that. Death Note is a completely self aware shrunken series that is about a shallow yet really addicting set of mind games. In that regard, it's much more comparable to something like Kaiji.

Also, I recommend the manga for Bakuman. It's by the same creators, and also got me to realize that shounen mangaka are actually, to their credit, a lot smarter than the series that they actually write. What the manga does great is to get you really interested in the whole process that goes behind writing a shounen manga in the first place.

Oh, and here's my current top 10:

1. Yu Yu Hakusho
2. Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid
3. Trigun
4. Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
5. Great Teacher Onizuka
6. Hunter X Hunter (1999) + first OVA
7. Cowboy Bebop
8. Digimon Tamers
9. Black Lagoon
10. Dragon Ball

I took Trust and Betrayal off of my list because I can never make up my mind whether to rank it as a series or a movie.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was never a fan of FMA. I pretended to be for a while, but now I feel comfortable admitting that I never got what people found so great about it. I do like the original anime more than the manga and Brotherhood, personally, but I don't find any of them to be particularly endearing series. Don't get me wrong, I think that FMA is a good series. I just don't find that it holds up all that well in terms of re-watch value.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Most of my love for the show's nostalgic. I watched a few episodes of the first series a few months ago, and thought it was decent but not the magnificence I remembered when I was 13. Been meaning to rewatch the show for a while, but knowing that it'll be nowhere near as good as I thought it was back then holds me back.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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. 

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. 

Also, I recommend the manga for Bakuman. It's by the same creators, and also got me to realize that shounen mangaka are actually, to their credit, a lot smarter than the series that they actually write. What the manga does great is to get you really interested in the whole process that goes behind writing a shounen manga in the first place.

I second this recommendation! 

I was never a fan of FMA. I pretended to be for a while, but now I feel comfortable admitting that I never got what people found so great about it. I do like the original anime more than the manga and Brotherhood, personally, but I don't find any of them to be particularly endearing series. Don't get me wrong, I think that FMA is a good series. I just don't find that it holds up all that well in terms of re-watch value.

Ugh, why do have to ask this question when I'm too burned out to structure a decent article? If this was a saturday afternoon I would've written a lengthy article on my opinions on the series, much like how I did for Dragonball in the Dragonball thread (and I could've gone on even longer and more in depth with that, but I was lazy so I focused on the more personal stuff)

Eh, for now settle for the following retrospective/review of the manga. It's by the same guy who wrote that article on the Hunter X Hunter manga that you agreed with. I have some differing/additional opinions, but he sums up why people like the series at least:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/house-of-1000-manga/2013-06-06

[Spark Of Spirit]

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

GTO is awesome. I think it might be a bit too long in the tooth

No it's not! Fuck you!

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.

and the dub could really stand to be better

I like the way that JO says it better: "It's so bad, it's amazing."

[Spark Of Spirit]

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

Sort of like how they never made Please Save My Earth into a series. So much potential.

[gunswordfist]

1. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
2. Fullmetal Alchemist
3. Samurai Champloo
4. Yu yu Hakusho
5. Heat Guy J

[Spark Of Spirit]

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

After Cowboy Bebop the writing staff went on to make that while the director and animators went on to Samurai Champloo. How do you guys think Wolf's Rain compares to those?

[gunswordfist]

That show put me to sleep. I gave up on it.

[Foggle]

Wolf's Rain is okay. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it, either. The most memorable thing about it is the four recap episodes.