Your Top Favorite Animated Shows

[LumRanmaYasha]

I love a lot of shows, so I'm going to have to seperate my anime and american cartoon lists, and expand the anime one to 25 shows since I feel that strongly about those.

Favorite American Cartoon List:
15: Black Dynamite
14: Batman: The Brave and the Bold
13: Ugly Americans
12: Space Ghost: Coast to Coast
11: Dexter's Laboratory
10: Harvey Birdman: Attourney at Law
9: The Venture Bros.
8: Looney Tunes
7: Home Movies
6: The Boondocks
5: Futurama
4: American Dad
3: King Of The Hill
2: The Simpsons
1: South Park

I'd explain my choices, but it would take a long time explaining why these shows mean so much to me and how they've impacted and influenced me, and I'm feeling kind of lazy right now. Besides, no one else really explained their choices, so I think I'm good.

[GregX]

Okay... how do I feel this minute?

1. Gargoyles
2. Batman the Animated Series
3. Spectacular Spider-Man
4. Cowboy Bebop
5. Venture Bros

Still feel the same way, but may as well add:

6. Daria
7. Pinky and the Brain
8. Young Justice
9. Berserk
10. Avatar the Last Airbender.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Recently, I have just finished watching all of Ranma 1/2 and Lupin the Third (2nd anime, dubbed episodes only) start to finish for the first time ever, as well as my fourth run through of Cowboy Bebop. In addition, I have rewatched several episodes of my other favorite anime series and compared how I still feel about them. Hence, my favorite anime list has been changed accordingly:

Favorite Anime List: (ranks 14-25 have remained the same)

13: Lupin the Third (1st and 2nd anime series)
12: Cowboy Bebop
11: The Slayers (Franchise, although my favorite among them is still Slayers NEXT)
10: Baccano!
9: Gun X Sword
8: Dragonball (Still counting the entire franchise, although I still prefer the original Dragonball to the others)
7: School Rumble
6: Yu Yu Hakusho
5: One Piece
4: Ranma 1/2
3: Trigun
2: Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo
1: Fullmetal Alchemist/Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (although I prefer Brotherhood by a tiny margin)

Making lists of shows you like is hard...

[gunswordfist]

List subject to change.

11. Avatar/Korra
10. Baccano!
9. Cowboy Bebop
8. King of the Hill
7. Yu Yu Hakusho
6. Futurama
5. The Spectacular Spider Man
4. Pre-movie Spongebob (bite me)
3. Ed, Edd, n Eddy
2. Trigun
1. Batman: The Animated Series

Honorable Mentions: Warner Brothers (Looney Tunes/Animaniacs/TTA/Freakazoid!), Avengers: EMH, Death Note, Gravity Falls, Gargoyles, Evangelion, Tron Uprising, and Rocko's Modern Life.

Very nice list.

[Grave]

Hmm... This is going to be real hard for western cartoons.

1. The Batman
2. Spectacular Spider-Man
3. Justice League/Unlimited
4. Looney Tunes (Toons? It's been so long)
5. Batman Beyond

Despite the criticism's of The Batman I really enjoyed it. Perfect blend of action that I was looking for along with great animation. If only I can get a chance to tune into Young Justice. That might be what I'm looking for when it comes to great action along with great animation (and artwork to boot). The artwork/animation looks exactly like Under the Red Hood and that's probably the best thing I've seen thus far when you consider what I look for (in anime and cartoons)

1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
2. Samurai Champloo
3. Ghost in the Shell: SAC/2nd Gig
4. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
5. Rurouni Kenshin/ Samurai X

The more I think about how Ed annoy's me (in both the 2004 anime and Brotherhood) the more tempted I become in bringing the series down a notch. He's not nearly as bad as he was in the 2004 anime, but his bratty nature really brings the series down a bit for me, but the other characters keeps me from doing so.

Gonna update this a bit.

1. The Batman
2. Justice League/Unlimited
3. Legend of Korra
4. Spectacular Spider-Man
5. X-Men (90's)

As corny as I think the 90's X-Men is now, and I don't think it holds up well at all it still holds a place in my heart. If I'm ever going to be nostalgic about an old show from my childhood this will be the one. Legend of Korra was added (despite the ho-hum ending) because I really enjoyed the fights and animation. For Justice League, Superman is really pushing this series through for me. By the time I'm done watching the entire series I can see it coming out with the #1 spot.

1. Samurai Champloo
2. Ghost in the Shell: SAC/2nd Gig
3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
4. Rurouni Kenshin/Trust and Betrayal
5. Cowboy Bebop

I can easily bump GitS up to #1, and chances are it probably will go back to it when I re-watch it. It just does so many things right for me. When it comes to anime I compare everything to that, especially when someone tells me ______ has the best animation (which is probably unfair on my part, but hey, don't tell me such things). The only reason I have Samurai Champloo at 1 is because of my love for samurai's. I just love me some samurai action, especially when the animation/fights are nice and crisp. There's nothing to really say about Cowboy Bebop, although, I probably could've replaced it with Gungrave, but then again, they're probably tied for me. Spike and Brandon are great main characters.

[gunswordfist]

I love 90s X-Men too.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Watched/Re-Watched a couple of shows recently, so my list has changed a bit and I expanded it to a Top 25 to match the anime list (although I really feel the strongest about the top ten, whereas the reason my anime list was a top 25 in the first place was because I felt really strongly in my appreciation for all the series and couldn't not mention them, but whatevs).

I didn't include Looney Tunes this time because honestly it's not an animated show produced for television but a title under which a collection of theatrical shorts are rebroadcasted on television, which wouldn't be a problem except that the Disney, Fleicher, MGM, and Paramount cartoons are left out on my list as a result because they were never really rebroadcasted on television the way the Looney Tunes brand of shorts were. Consider all of them prestigious honorable mentions, and if Looney Tunes was put in my list, it would be between Daria and The Venture Bros..

25. Sym-Bionic Titan- Yeah it's got it's problems, but I find it highly enjoyable everytime I watch an episode and Octus' character arc really moved me.
24. The Secret Saturdays - A great action cartoon that is sadly underrated. 
23. Black Dynamite
22. Megas XLR
21. Ugly Americans
20. Space Ghost: Coast to Coast
19. Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law
18. Dan VS. - The Hub's best show hands down
17. Dexter's Laboratory
16. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
15. The main DCAU shows (Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League) - I like all of them about the same, more or less, so I'm just gonna rank them in one spot on the list
14. Batman: The Brave and the Bold
13. Ed, Edd, n' Eddy - Dexter's Laboratory used to be my favorite Cartoon Cartoon, but after going through this show again I feel it is a lot more consistent in it's humor and quality throughout it's run.
12. SpongeBob Squarepants Seasons 1-5 - I have a renewed appreciation for this show after revisiting the early episodes again. Back when it was good, it was REALLY GOOD. There's a reason why this show stuck with kids and adults alike back in it's prime, and it's because it was well written and wonderfully funny with instantly memorable characters. I'm glad I rewatched it at it's best.
11. Gargoyles - My favorite "action" show produced and written in the U.S.
10. Drawn Together - It's hilarious, dammit. H8RS Gonna H8 
9. The Venture Bros.
8. Daria - Immensely relatable. Glad I finally got around to watching it.
7. Home Movies
6. The Boondocks
5. Futurama
4. American Dad
3. King of the Hill
2. The Simpsons
1. South Park

[gunswordfist]

I'm glad to see another Dan Vs fan I saw the Johnny Bravo episode with Curtis Armstrong himself in it a day or two ago

[talonmalon333]

I had no idea where to post this. I didn't think it warranted a new thread, and I felt that this thread is probably the closest to just being a general animation thread (though if anyone thinks otherwise, feel free to let me know).

Between episodic shows and shows with long running story arcs spanning across multiple episodes, does anyone here think either one can be considered "better", or more rewatachable, or more well written, etc? I've heard this debate elsewhere, but I personally just feel that there is no answer. I guess the better question would be if anyone here has a preference between the two types of shows.

[gunswordfist]

Well I think episodic series have more replay value seeing as I can't just sit down and rewatch an entire arc.

[Silverstar]

I prefer shows with stand-alone episodes to ongoing arcs. Episodic shows have more replay value, since they can be watched and re-watched in any order (usually) and you can catch a single episode or 2 without being lost. Also, like Gunswordfist said, it's hard for me to try and re-watch a story arc. I'm lazy and I have a notoriously short attention span, so once I'm done with an arc, I'm truly done with it. Plus I tend to lose interest in plots which take more than 2 or 3 episodes to be resolved.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't agree at all with the notion that episodic shows are inherently more re-watchable than shows with story arcs. There are plenty of shows with ongoing stories that I still have favorite episodes in that I can re-watch, even if they are in the middle of an arc. This includes shows like Gargoyles, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball, Trigun, Digimon Tamers, and so on. To me, a show with a continuing story can still be really fun and re-watchable in small chunks if it does a good job of still maintaining a nice level of quality and coherency to each individual episode.

That said, I really like the types of shows in which you have episodic plots that can be watched and enjoyed as individual vignettes, yet at the same time you have multiple episodes like these linked together by an overarching plot that comes to a climax in the story arc's finale. To me, that's pretty much the best of both worlds, if it's done right.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

I don't agree at all with the notion that episodic shows are inherently more re-watchable than shows with story arcs. There are plenty of shows with ongoing stories that I still have favorite episodes in that I can re-watch, even if they are in the middle of an arc. This includes shows like Gargoyles, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball, Trigun, Digimon Tamers, and so on. To me, a show with a continuing story can still be really fun and re-watchable in small chunks if it does a good job of still maintaining a nice level of quality and coherency to each individual episode.

That said, I really like the types of shows in which you have episodic plots that can be watched and enjoyed as individual vignettes, yet at the same time you have multiple episodes like these linked together by an overarching plot that comes to a climax in the story arc's finale. To me, that's pretty much the best of both worlds, if it's done right.

I agree with all of this.

[Avaitor]

I dunno, I like when certain shows have ongoing storylines, but don't have each episode be a direct continuation of the next, and allow for most if not all episodes to be able to be seen on its own without much context of the whole story. Basically like the Cadmus era of JLU is my ideal.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

I dunno, I like when certain shows have ongoing storylines, but don't have each episode be a direct continuation of the next, and allow for most if not all episodes to be able to be seen on its own without much context of the whole story. Basically like the Cadmus era of JLU is my ideal.

That probably is my favorite type of storyline, since it allows for overarching stories while being easier to watch.