Your Top 10 Greatest Anime Series

Other Fiction
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[quote=“simsatit”]Which I think are very good:

Now and then, here and there
Haibane Renmei

Also allright:

FLCL
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Vision of Escaflowne

Nice anime movies: Paprika, The girl who leaped through time, Millenium actress, Naausica valley of the wind, Totoro, Castle in the sky.[/quote]

Wow, just finished watching Haibane Renmei and it was great! It had an original story which sort of played out like a Hayao Miyazaki movie. It was very charming, not too long, not too short. I guess it left open a perfect opportunity for a sequel as well.

On a more darker note: watched Kino’s Journey as well. It was original but very deranged and well: very weird in a sort of good way.

22

I still can’t believe Nemoide is the only one to have mentioned Cowboy Bebop. Fantastic series.

/lovingly caresses the hand drawn signed portrait of Spike on his desk…

23

Yeah the Cowboy Bebop series was great. I really enjoyed the movie too. I’ve just noticed there’s an entry on imdb for a new Cowboy Bebop movie, slated for 2011. I wonder if it’s a live action movie, there’s not much info.

By the way, do you guys prefer watching anime subtitled or dubbed?

I’ve always hated subs. They’re distracting and make it difficult to enjoy the animation. However there are some great English dubs out there: Full Metal Alchemist, Black Lagoon and Full Metal Panic are some of the best dubbed anime I’ve seen and really set the standard.

Edit: Abadd I’ve just realised you know Japanese. You’ve got the best of both worlds when it comes to dubs…I’m a bit jealous to be honest! Have you seen any anime where you’ve preferred the English dub over the original Japanese dub?

24

Yep, it’ll be an American live-action movie. IMO it could be cool or it could be terrible. I’ll have to wait to find out more?

As for dub vs sub, I’ve long been a big fan of subtitles. I took Japanese in college and am very fond of the way the language sounds and the way certain expressions work. Although I admit my skills in the language are about on par with a second grader.
But I don’t think it’s a crime to watch dubs, subtitles can indeed distract from the animation and there are some things that would probably just go over the heads of folks unfamiliar with Japanese.

My absolute favorite dub is Pioneer’s job on the second Lupin III TV series. One of the few dubs that improved on the Japanese version. Fullmetal Alchemist, Hellsing, and Cowboy Bebop are all pretty great dubs as well. (Although I will still tend to watch them in Japanese.)

25

I prefer either Dubs or Subs, depending on how they are done.

Metal Gear Solid, for example, while not an anim00 is a definate example of where the English dub just “fits” better with the entire image.

Hearing an American Colonel scream in Japanese does not look or sound right.

Some people prefer the Japanese dub because certain scenes have more emotion, but fuckers, where as the script writers had to modify the dialogue to match the lip-flaps. But let’s face it, this is war:
Snake is a badass, no emotion, thx.

My only quip with the remake of MGS and subsequent sequels is the loss of accents for characters.
Mei Ling is WHITE in MGS 4 and has a standard American Accent, nothing about her seems remotely Chinese at all!

In some cases the original Japanese is somewhat laughable itself - in such cases though the English dub is usually not much better.

Some people like Cantonese acting over English, all I can say is: no. lol.

As for my earlier comment about Anime VS Animation, I guess my argument is not so much to do with Anime as a “Genre” but rather the fact, that “Anime” itself is a word that really only implied “Animation” in its original definition. I do not like how the word has evolved with time.
In the same way “Hentai” doesn’t make sense any more.

But I guess words evolve.

Not all Japanese animations are “anime”
“Anime” itself can be a cartoon, afterall, the definition of Cartoon is just a drawing/animation of drawings that contain a humorous gag. So stuff like Haruhi-Chan, Nyoron Churuya-San and Lucky Star defiantly fits that bill.

And not all “Cartoons” are cartoons, either! :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway getting back on topic (kind of)
Some of my favourite Anim00ts are:

Clannad (Series) and Clannad: After Story
The Girl Who Lept Through Time

Has anyone here seen Clannad?

I think I “got” the ending, without reading any of the crappy fan-theories that litter the net (I did look at one but I pretty much disagreed with the entire thing) Surprisingly!

26

I prefer subs or nothing, but that’s probably because I speak Japanese :wink: But in all seriousness, I watch regular movies with subs on anyway, just so I don’t miss any of what anyone is saying.

The CB movie is live action, and it’s being pushed by Keanu Reeves, apparently. He’s currently slated to play Spike. He looks great for the role, but goddamn, he will screw it up. He just doesn’t have the duality that Spike does.

27

I have the Hong-Kong (probably not a counterfeit, based on the store I bought it from) VCD of the animated Cowboy Bebop movie, which has Japanese audio on LEFT and English on RIGHT (just switch the L/R to change language)

And I must say, watching it in stereo is quite awesome as you get the Japanese in one ear and the English in the other and can’t understand that the f*ck anyone is saying.

Most VCD releases are like this although I’m not sure if VCDs still get pressed?

Anyway yeah, Mr Reeves + X + Y < Z = Oh shit, I didn’t come.

My theory is that there is sometimes an element of “grass is greener on the other side” when it comes to discussion about subs and dubs and other shit nobody cares about.
Yu Suzuki was very fond of the English voice acting in Shenmue and Hideo was very very fond of David Hayter. So much so that Mr. Hayter moved state and went ex-directory to avoid contact.

When it comes to Shenmue, I am not really fan of either Dub or Sub:-
Ryo sounds like “It was black… and it could talk, was it a cat or a dog?”, mainly because that is his character. Ryo is supposed to be a knuckle head.
Besides, that line is just asking for someone to come out and say “THAT’S RACIST!”

Surely though Abbad,
you would be watching your Japonez movies with Japonez subtitles in squiggle language, rite?

28

Heh… actually, it depends on how lazy I’m being. Most of my anime DVDs don’t offer Japanese subtitles, but I’ll leave them on even if they’re in English. And to be honest, a lot of times reading Japanese is just tiring (I’m near-fluent, but there are still a lot of kanji that I don’t know/have forgotten).

Oh, and I have to agree about the grass is greener. There are a lot of great voice actors both in English and Japanese… you just have to remember that when something is penned/animated/etc in one language, it will always be a bit of a force fit to translate it into another language. Even more, not being able to actually understand what is being said makes it difficult to judge the acting.

Case in point - Onimusha. People talk about how horrible the English acting was, so it’s so much better in Japanese… but Kaneshiro Takeshi CAN’T ACT WORTH CRAP. My god, his voice over for that was horrendous.

29

I just watched all of Shakugan no Shana (both seasons, the movies and the specials) and I was quite impressed, I can see why a lot of people like it.

My only complaint was the pacing of the second season, only the credit sequence of the last episode do we actually see the love triangle that features prominently throughout the entire series come to a conclusion, and it felt like they were dragging it on a bit just for the sake of hitting the 24 eps mark, but the credit sequence was a nice conclusion overall and managed to resolve it without even an ounce of dialogue from any of the characters.

A good story, but one they could have told over 12 eps rather than the 24 they used, which is a shame as although I’ve never read it, apparently the novel the second season is based on is paced much faster than the anime.

Still I am looking forward to the next season if they make it, and if not I will have to read the novels.

The Movie was pretty good, for the first 15 minutes or so it was pretty much a frame for frame dupe of the first episode, then went off on its own path… but continuity wise it didn’t seem as coherent as the series (well when you are cramming 13 episodes or so of an anime into a 1.20 hours movie you would expect that to happen I guess).

I also watched the first new episode of Haruhi!
I love it, reading the books, I can’t say I could have hoped for a better adaptation it’s going in my head pretty much how I imagined it.

Although I was somewhat confuzzled by one of the lines of dialogue after the scene where time is “frozen”, involving a watch. I’m sure you’ll be able to point it out if you watch it though!

30

Shakugan no Shana is great, a totally solid series. I have the first TV series and OVA. I feel “Shana-tan” deserves mention as well for being hilarious.
It isn’t a perfect series but I found it entirely satisfying. Also it makes me want to try melon bread?

Somewhat recently I saw Paranoia Agent, which was great. Satoshi Kon just can’t do bad, can he?

I’m currently on a Tenchi Muyo kick (due to rightstuf.com having a ridiculously awesome sale). I think it’s unfortunate that the series has kind of been forgotten in the US. I love all the characters and it never fails to amuse.

31

You should all watch Kaiji. It’s about a guy who finds himself in immense debt and has to go through nerve-wracking, life-or-death gambles to get out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz2lo_smhqI) for a taster.

32

Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. (both seasons)
I even liked the english dub, never had that happen before. (used to be one of these arrogant “I watch them only in japanese with subtitles” purists)

33

The subtitles thing can only really be applied to 4kids.

Case in point:

“There’s only one King, and that’s me! Jack Atlus!”

vs.

“Are you people ready to kick this duel into overdrive!?”

34

I never got into the Ghost in the Shell TV series or sequel movie. The original movie was one of my early anime experiences and I remember being blown away by the animation. But I found the story and style fairly dull and the animation quality no longer shines as it used to, compaired to other animated works.

The argument for subtitles is that the audio element is part of the original work and changing it changes the art by extention. There is definitly something lost when the theme song is no longer sung by the seiyu of a main character.
The dub argument is that unless you are fluent in Japanese, the subtleties of hearing the original language are lost, that an English dub can actually more accurately reflect the original moods/feelings that would be lost on a non-Japanese audience. Generaly, a large portion of Japanese folks seem to have actually been proud of the fact that their media gets changed overseas because it shows how Japan’s culture is so advanced and great that other cultures just cannot understand it in its pure form.
JAPAN HAS SOME WACKY RELATIONSHIPS WITH FOREIGN CULTURES!

Also an incredibly amusing thing is that the series Excel Saga hides jokes in the English version that only make sense if you are already familiar with the Japanese version. HIDDEN HILARITY!

35

It wasn’t my intention to generally criticize people that prefer subtitles over dubbing. Like it has been pointed out, the translations you find in subtitles tend to be more accurate. However the point I tried to make is that in many cases (perhaps it was only valid a decade ago?) I found the voices, the dialogues and the way people spoke to be ludicrous and irritating.
Are they trying to translate the rather harsh sound of japanese into their english dialogue, or do they apply the “if it’s animated, you have to exagerate emotions”-rule to the extreme?

Concerning subs in general, I watch every movie in it’s original form, however, in the case of movies in languages I don’t understand, I wonder if it’s not just some form of snobbery. I have had people reacting in a weird way in the past concerning this habit of mine and it makes me insecure. I just want to hear the original thing, even if i don’t understand the words being said, it is part of the actor’s performance I would miss out on…

The Ghost In The Shell tv-series were the first time where i actually enjoyed the dub for what it was.There may be other positive examples out there that i just have yet to try out, i’d be thankful for tips. And perhaps the translation differs widely from the japanese original, ultimately negating my appraisal?

Concerning Ghost In The Shell as a franchise, I am sure that it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. Especially in the case of the movies, there is tons of philosophical blabla, yet everytime they barely scratch the surface of all the subjects they touch. So it may come across not only as full of boring technobabble, but also pseudo-intellectual and ultimately shallow.
The tv-series has so much more time to develop it’s characters, delve more profoundly into many subjects and is also just plain good cyberpunk.
I for once loved it and there are many critics loving it too.
If you are even slightly into cyberpunk or sci-fi in general, I suggest you give it a try.

36

And now add Clannad to the same list

hug

Clannad was excellent, gonna watch after story soon.
Halfway through Claymore too at the moment

37

Yeah, After Story is pretty good too, it’s clearly been animated as one series then split in half as a lot of After Story is actually in the OP for Season 1.

I played the game a while back although for some reason I could not unlock After Story in the game? There is also a parallel sequel to the game that tells the ‘after story’ of the Tomoyo arc (Tomoyo After: It’s a wonderful life)
It is available in a hentai and non hentai version. Where they grow up together and adopt Tomoya’s father’s bastard child (cause you know how illegitimate children are just unacceptable these days)

Recently I’ve been watching the anime ‘Darker than Black’ on the UK DVD release.

Very cool stuff! A breath of fresh air from all the Moe stuff.

DO NOT READ THE NEXT PART UNTIL YOU HAVE WATCHED AFTER STORY

I believe that the deus-ex-mechina we see at the end of After Story is actually infering that the Ushio we see in the ‘illusionary world’ is actually the soul of the world in which they lived prior to her death.

In essence, we are seeing the arc of the story that had to take place for this situation to come to be (relating to the wish that Nagisa’s father made in the woods).

38

Ok so I just got done watching Darker than Black series 1 and am now moving onto the second season broadcast rip. Great stuff! I wish I had time for the light novels.

I also watched Negima?!‘s PAL release, I was interested to see that they dubbed the theme tune using the respective character’s English voice actresses, very good job too! I might actually say that the English voice actresses are much better singing than the Japanese ones ^^’'
Or at least I like the sounds of their voices much more.

Negima?! doesn’t follow the manga at all though, it just goes with an original story with the same characters, unlike Negima!. :anjou_happy:

39

Oh holy shit!

Darker than Black Season 2 is fan-fucking-tastic!

It’s about a loli who is a photographer who becomes a contractor/sniper when she sees the boy she has a crushed on killed by a contractor (her initial motivation being that she wants all other contractors to just die).

Then the hero of season 1, who killed her father :x and has become an alcoholic (as you do), agrees to train her in martial arts and such.

It’s like Leon the Professional but with a more interesting story and magic super villains and government conspiracies.