let's do this gimme your top 5 animes and WHY

one punch man - probably the funniest thing i’ve seen in recent memory while also being THE HYPEST. SHIT. OMG. that opening too
azumanga daioh - original slice of life, still the best. no gimmicks, just cute girls doin cute things for 3 years of school. i still cry at the finale every time
kill la kill - just a beautiful show. functions really well on a couple different levels. basically gurren lagann for girls. super intense i love it
death note (season 1 only) - incredibly tense and exciting thriller like sherlock holmes fighting himself. i like how the show sets up and is super careful about the rules of using the death note and uses them for big reveals, that kinda stuff is cool to me
hajime no ippo - watching ippo’s arc is incredible. it’s a slow burn and definitely a bit predictable sometimes but the fights are so hype (especially once they get a budget). yo sendou let’s fuck

honorable mention: neon genesis evangelion - i hated it the first time i watched it, because i was so teenagery it hit too close to home i guess. it’s a classic. tv ending best ending, congratulations

i’m surface as hell, sue me
gimme your top 5s, zoners. show me your credentials

Jojo part 1
Jojo part 2
Jojo part 3
Jojo part 4
Bible black

samurai flamenco

just that

2017 was a good year

Flcl
Gurren Lagann
Ping Pong
Scryed
Oban Star Racers

Everybody ITT so far besides applebappu SUCKS. I think I’ll leave out comedy and monster anime since those are just automatically good. Or maybe I can list them separateely. Also, there are animanga I have yet to experience, which I know I’ll like.

Kaiji
Basically if Yugi dropped out of high school and grew up. I love games, and this one makes even simple games exciting. The cliffhangers forced me to watch it all in a few days back around 2009. I think this show would benefit greatly from a dub, and it would be more popular. I can see it being difficult to follow everything via subtitles. No, I don’t like Akagi; too much unfamiliar terminology at Sonic speed.

Mushishi
Only read the manga, but I tried an episode and they did possibly the best job converting a manga to an anime. In the vein of “slice of life”, this anime is not ambitious, has aspects of paranormal and weaboo. I like hanging out with Ginko and traveling around finding yokai ghosty things.

Naruto
I was reading fan translations around 2005, and stopped around Jiraiya showing up. This is such a fun premise of a show, and the lore and battles are so fun. The art in the background while reading really brings the world to life. Recently I read some more and then stopped again for no real reason. Gaara just turned into a monster during a fight in the trees. Something that really struck me re-reading it: This world is freakin fatal. Yeah I knew they were looking to recruit new ninjas but they’re literally assassins with fascist leaders. When Avatar came out years later, that really bugged me. It’s literally just Naruto, like when A Fistful of Dollars copied Yojimbo. People should have just watched Naruto.

Trigun
Nostalgia. It has a lot of tropes but I love it and enjoy rewatching it. Vash’s positivity and attitude align with my own, indeed influenced my personality. I love the western combined with science fiction, the lore really works. Closest other thing are the Vampire Hunter D novels (the movie is worthless).

Death Note
I was reading fan translations before it became a Hot Topic meme. It’s really intricate and builds on itself well. I didn’t like the twins.

Runner up:
Paranoia Agent
This series surprised me. I’ll probably never watch it again, and I’ll re-watch/read the other stuff here. But I enjoyed watching this the first time. Also, I do not like the creator’s other works.

see that’s what i’m talkin about, gimme them words

fan translation respect also. bootleg VHS animes, 90s life

i especially appreciate the naruto/avatar hot take btw

i agree that yojimbo is better than fistful of dollars

and also btw, gyakkyou burai kaiji is amazing. i liked the first season of the anime a lot more than the second, and haven’t read the manga fwiw

but like, goddamn. the games are so cool, and the stakes are insane. i wanna play e-card irl. hyoudou is a fantastic villain, and i love the class commentary stuff

Ashita no Joe - It has more soul than any other show I’ve seen. Men come from nothing and return to nothing, but their desires shine so brightly that it’s blinding. It almost plays like a 20th century retelling of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, but in boxing format - a friendship forged in rivalry and what follows in its wake. It made me feel emotions I didn’t think could exist, and made me thankful for what I have in my life.

Maison Ikkoku - If I could climb into a world portrayed in anime, it would be this one. It encapsulates mid - late 80s Japanese living in such perfectly flash frozen nuance that it makes me nostalgic for a time and place I never even experienced. It’s a lazy melancholy world where nothing happens, the weird but well-intentioned neighbors bother you constantly, and you can’t help but love them. Rumiko Takahashi’s masterpiece. Sort of like Seinfeld, but with heart and soul and a romance arc on top.

Mahou Shoujo☆Madoka Magica - I grew up on mahou shoujo like Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Minky Momo. It was largely my gateway into anime. While this show was largely all familiar elements to me, the narrative structure peeled back in successive layers as if unfurling a beautifully wrapped cocoon. The story had all been done before, but never presented in this way which made the gem at its center shine all the brighter when finally appearing.

Takarajima - The 70s was a true renaissance of anime that few people today still understand. It gave rise to a series of anime series adaptations of classic western literature (many of which belong to the World Masterpiece Theater anthology). It was not uncommon that such craftsmanship would be lavished upon these works that they could actually surpass their source material: shows like Anne of Green Gables and Nobody’s Boy Remi. 1978’s Takarajima especially stands out to me because it is the absolute greatest adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. It humanizes John Silver in a way never portrayed before, painting him as a more relatable character, which makes the moral and narrative conflicts between him and Jim Hawkins all the more interesting. Director Dezaki and the production team could’ve so easily fallen into the trap of stereotyping the most iconic literary pirate of all time, but they chose the harder path and made the legend all the greater in my eyes.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - It’s the kind of show where if I rewatch one episode, I’ve watched a dozen of them before I realize it. It really is the perfect shounen, as it has all the build-up and absurd twists, but none of the disappointment, filler, or lack of resolution typically associated with battle shounen. I had a falling out with anime in 2005, and came back to find this show waiting for me in mid 2010. It brought me back, and restored my faith in the medium I’d forgotten I loved so much earlier in life. For that I’ll always love this show.

fma brotherhood
the tatami galaxy
turn a gundam
gunbuster
texhnolyze

Pro post, Requiett. You should write for an anime site. I was just learning about Gilgamesh yesterday, but once again fell asleep doing so. Based on your descriptions, Maison Ikkoku sounds most intriguing. I’ll take a peek at it. Takarajima also sounds fun.

From: grim? at 2019-12-23 18:51:38
fma brotherhood
the tatami galaxy
turn a gundam
gunbuster
texhnolyze

I think you’d really like Ashita no Joe and Maison Ikkoku.

ooh do me

From: A Talking Pokemon at 2019-12-24 13:05:19
Pro post, Requiett. You should write for an anime site. I was just learning about Gilgamesh yesterday, but once again fell asleep doing so. Based on your descriptions, Maison Ikkoku sounds most intriguing. I’ll take a peek at it. Takarajima also sounds fun.

Thanks. You’d probably also like Hunter x Hunter, because Togashi seems to model so much of his writing style around games with real consequences.

From: weed king at 2019-12-27 02:09:53
ooh do me

Fist of the North Star is the original JoJo.

hokuto no ken is like if phantom blood was 100 episodes

Then I guess you’ll have to settle for Sakigake!! Otokojuku.

Gurren Lagann
Gurren Lagann
Gurren Lagann
Gurren Lagann
Anohana: the Flower We Saw That Day

Whoa, they made 4 Gurren Laganns?

Gurren Lagann
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Gunbuster Gurren
Super Galaxy Gurren
Gurren Lagann Parallel Works

That’s 5 but I’m sure there are more

Cowboy Bebop / the classic “most liked anime” I think I get something a little different than most. This show is unique in how it paints on a dual front - through both visual and audio stimulation - in a cohesive manner I’ve never seen replicated. It’s interesting to see it age - the deceptive episodic feel is less impactful than it once was.

Death Note / while I truly only love the first two thirds of this, I do love it. Watching the main character think through his discovery and lean into his decision was fascinating and a cool delve into the human psyche. Top tier twists and intensely captivating.

Attack on Titan / i compare this in some ways to the 3D drama Lost, but it’s loose… this show seems to have a much better comprehensive vision. I have some issues with execution but overall this is a powerful work that entertains on a variety of fronts, all well. I don’t think I truly LOVED it until its final season, but I’m rewatching now and I think I just did not give it enough respect on watch 1, it was already a top 5er

JoJo part 1 / I wrote a review that I thought expressed my thoughts very well on LL, I’ll transpost it here when I get the chance. The other parts did not have the same level of effect on me as part one did (though I still enjoyed them). I’m a few eps into Golden Wind now and have good hopes for it.

Code Geass / I’ve only seen this once and don’t have a perfect memory of its full plot, but I did enjoy watching it. I remember being annoyed at times, but I also remember metaphorically cheering and clapping at the screen

From: weed king at 2017-12-30 04:48:41
Jojo part 1
Jojo part 2
Jojo part 3
Jojo part 5
Jojo part 6

🤠 beep boop
jjba part 4 the twin peaks of anime
little witch academia (unironically)
nge
berserk

ive never really gone too in depth with anything bc as with most things i want to watch the greats. the stuff everyone talks about - i just wanna understand. but these 5 are the ones I’ve watched multiple times because they evoked enough feeling(s)