EVA Unit 100

An opposite thread of The Worst Anime, I want to know what anime series/movies are your favorites? Here's my Top 10 series: 1. Cowboy Bebop 2. Neon Genesis Evangelion 3. Fruits Basket 4. Rouroni Kenshin 5. Gundam SEED 6. Ranma 1/2 7. Azumanga Daioh 8. .HACK//sign 9. Trigun 10. Kino's Journey And my Top 10 movies/OAVs: 1. Spirited Away 2. FLCL 3. Princess Mononoke 4. Millenium Actress 5. Castle in the Sky 6. Castle of Cagliostro 7. The 8th MS Team 8. Tenchi Muyo! OAV 1 9. Kiki's Delivery Service 10. Several Animatrix segments (Osiris, 2nd Renniasance, Kids' Story, Detective Story)

[quote name='The Pro']Well, anyone who has a parent who wont let them watch anime probably has one of those single-minded types of parents, who is all bitchy and concerned about you wasting your life on somthing like anime... but waht, honestly, do they expect you to do in its abscence.... BTW, i wouldnt consider Inuyasha a Kiddie anime, first of all, it has alot of swearing, second of all, it has a stronge romantic and perverted backround, so i dont tihnk kids would be interestind, and third, there is so much violence, blood, gore, and close-to nudity that it is only shown at 11 o'clock in Canada. Doubt its a kiddie show, same with Gunndam, at least most of the Gundam series were totally violent with thigns that most kids-younge teens wouldnt understand allto well. Not all of them, mind you, but alot of em.[/quote] Well, here are some points: 1. Japan has much looser censorship 2. Swearing and violence do not make a show more mature 3. Serious plotlines and themes do make a show more mature, but the Japanese producers have higher expectations of what mature stuff kids can comprehend 4. Being made for kids doesn't make it kiddy. Batman: TAS had mature plotlines, but it was still a kids/young teens show. Animaniacs had tons of jokes kids would never get, but it was still a kids/young teens show. 5. Remember, with most of the animes, such as Inu-Yasha or Gundam, certain things are added in to make it work on different levels, with young teens being the prime level, but also some stuff for the young kids, some stuff for the older teens, and some stuff for adults

[quote name='junkobakaiba']okay I take it you like Duel Masters... well I didn't mean to offend anybuddy I was just expressing my veiws I know Duel Masters is supposed to be a satire of it but I'm such a loyal Yu-Gi-Oh! fan any show that tries to poke fun at Yu-Gi-Oh![/quote] Well, I love Cowboy Bebop. However, when MEGAS XLR and the Excel Saga does a CB parody I just can't help but laugh. Then again, those are more loving parodies whereas Duel Masters is basically bashing Yu-Gi-Oh. However, I still think that at least the English version of Yu-Gi-Oh sucks (I want to check out the uncut version FUNi is releasing, that looks pretty cool). And thus that explains why I'm fine with DM bashing dubbed YGO.

[QUOTE=junkobakaiba]My least favorite anime? Diffidently Duel Masters. I can't stand that show me and my friends think it's just a cheap copy of Yu-Gi-Oh! (Which in our opinion is the best anime on earth!) There are a few other Animes I don?t like I highly dislike Dragon Ball (Z/GT) I have some of the Shonen Jump magazine things and Dragon Ball Z is the only Manga I don't read... I don't much care for the Megas XLR show that Cartoon Network (I think) just started showing on Toonami. I don't much like any of the shows on Toonami except Gundam Seed and Yu Yu Hakusho (at first I thought YYH was a bite ...odd it just took some getting used to!^^) and then there?s that Astro Boy show I've seen advertised that doesn't look all that great... and last Pokemon I liked the first season of it but I mean who didn't at the time?^^ but gosh there probably almost as long as the Dragon Ball series ~Wow I didn't know I disliked so many Animes! (And in case your wondering I?m a newbie this is my first post... tell me if I screwed up or something!)[/QUOTE] Well, let me get something straight. Duel Masters is not a Yu-Gi-Oh copy. It is a Yu-Gi-Oh SATIRE. If it was a copy, it would try to be serious. However, it is an extremely silly comedy poking fun at Yu-Gi-Oh. And it's a pretty funny satire as well. What other kids' show has a villain doing a "wardrobe check" or the characters commenting on when the next commercial break is? And sorry, but Yu-Gi-Oh sucks. It tries so desperate to be serious, but the pure stupidity of the plot prevents it from being serious, and it tries to be an action show, but 99.5% of it is talking about the action and only .5% of it is the action. Duel Masters doesn't try to be serious and instead decides to poke fun of Yu-Gi-Oh's pitiful attempts at being serious while throwing in pop culture gags, inneundoes, and current events humor at the same time. And thus, Duel Masters is a higher-quality show than Yu-Gi-Oh. MEGAS XLR isn't an anime series. It's an American satire of the anime, video game, and action genres with a few extra anime flavors courtesy of the seyiuus of Cowboy Bebop doing the voices and animation from Studio Madhouse. And it's a very funny satire so far. The first episode alone made fun of Gundam, Escalflowne, The Big O, Transformers, Street Fighter, and Dragonball Z all within the same plotline. Since then, the episodes have been genre spoofs, with a Dance Dance Revolution battle, a Star Wars parody with some satire on professional wrestling, a Matrix spoof, a Power Rangers/G-Force/Voltron triple-spoof, a Halo parody, a Godzilla parody with a few Pokemon and Smurfs jokes, a Cowboy Bebop/Evangelion double-satire, and several random comedy episodes. Astro Boy is a legend. It's not the best thing in the world, but you just can't hate it! However, I agree with you that Dragonball/Z/GT and Pokemon both suck.

[quote name='Blackjack]1) Anime is made for an older audience than Western cartoons. They are not cartoons at all, they are [I]animated series[/I'].[/quote] That is mostly innacurate. About 90% of anime is aimed either at kids, young teens, or families. This includes Inu-Yasha, Ranma 1/2, Kenshin, Lupin 3rd, Detective Conan, Gundam, Naruto, etc. Most of these are still good shows, and have enough crossover appeal to let adults watch, but adults are just the icing on the cake for these shows' audiences (although in some cases, which I didn't list here, there's no icing). They have more violence and nudity than American cartoons for the same audience because censorship is much looser in Japan than in America. A few shows, such as Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Hellsing, and Ghost in the Shell, are aimed at older teens and young adults, but they are in the minority. The only animes that EVERYONE watches are the Miyazaki movies. Meanwhile, over here in America, adult-oriented animation is starting to make it big. Such successes as The Simpsons, South Park, Futurama, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Aqua Teen Hungerforce, and even the serious show Spawn are all American cartoons with teen/adult targets. We may be a bit behind Japan as far as how long we've had successful adult animation on TV, but quantitywise we'll probably close in on them in about 10-20 years. So in both Japan and America, there's stuff for kids, stuff for teens, stuff for adults, and a few cartoons for everybody. And the word "cartoon" is just another term for animation. It's not a degrading term for animation, it's just another term. Batman:TAS, a serious cartoon, is fine with being called a cartoon. South Park, an adult cartoon, is fine with being called a cartoon. So cartoon=animation. Case Closed... er, Detective Conan, uh, Conan the Barbarian, WHATEVER!

Aburame, One Piece is going to the FOXBox. Expect CN to buy the cable rights if it does well. Now I'm rooting for Naruto to be on CN. And that's a better series that will likely be even more popular, so that would more than make up for CN not getting One Piece in the first place. I've figured out an easy way to guess what channel an anime will be on depends on what company gets it. Things seem to go like this: FUNimation: Cartoon Network Bandai: Cartoon Network Geneon: TechTV or Cartoon Network ADV Films: The Anime Network 4Kids: The FOXBox or Kids' WB, with optional cable airings on Cartoon Network Tokyopop: Showtime or Cartoon Network Viz: Cartoon Network Right Stuf: The Anime Network

[quote name='Darktigerpack17']What is the best old school anime? For me it would have to be either Fist of the North Star or Dirty Pair. Some of those old anime like that have like a rough look to them like the artist smeared their pencil or something, so I usually disregard some but there are a few that are pretty good.[/quote] Assuming you mean the '80s and before, definately Laputa. Serieswise, Zeta Gundam wins.

Two words: Fighting Foodons. Come on! It's a Yu-Gi-Oh (an already bad show) rip-off with FOOD for the monsters! How low can you get? I'm glad it was canceled quickly in both Japan and America. If I need to watch anthropodmorphised food, I'll stick to Aqua Teen Hungerforce. Now THAT is a funny show!

Evangelion I'm not so sure would be appropriate for a "Christian anime." It has lots of bible refferences, that's for sure, but due to lots of violence, the "Angels", some shonen ai stuff, and an extremely cynical attitude concerning religion and basically humanity in general, I'm guessing most extremely religious people would be offended by it, possibly even going to the extent of banning it depending on how zealous and crazy they are. And that's a shame since it's a damn good anime with lots of meaning to it.

I'll give "anime-esque" shows a chance, and I even like some (i.e. Teen Titans, MEGAS XLR), but I won't call them "anime". Anime isn't about the art style, it's just a term to reffer to animation that originated in Japan. Heck, some shows that don't even look "anime-esque" (i.e. Samurai Jack) have more directional similarities to anime than shows that do look "anime-esque." Also, you should keep in mind that anime has a variety of art styles, so if you classify anime by the art, does that mean The Big O and The Super Milk-Chan Show AREN'T anime? And if they are, does that mean that Batman and The Powerpuff Girls (American shows drawn in the styles of Big O and Super Milk Chan) ARE anime? No and no (unless you go by Japanese definition, in which case the 2nd no is a yes). So anime means "Japanese animation". Anything done in America, regardless of quality and style, isn't anime. And that's fine. Case closed.

Well, I'd go with Rena/Black Rose from .HACK//Legend in a second! Then again, I'd have too play too much video games to avoid seeing her as a boring real kid. So to avoid losing all contact with the non-World world, I'd go out with Faye Valentine. Why? Because she's sexy, strong-willed and enigmatic. I used to have a huge crush on Rei Ayanami but after Episode 23 I'm not so into her anymore. Lacus Clyne is very pretty and very nice so I'd definately like her as a girlfriend but I'd really get sick of all those Haros.

I was 9 when I first saw Spirited Away. Now I'm almost 12 and I'm already a full-fledged Otaku! (although maybe I'm a bit too young for that title, in which case just call me The Anime Kid)

Personally, the thing is that if Ranma COULD go to Adult Swim at all, it could go anywhere, and personally, Ranma on AS would just hurt the block. Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome show, but it just doesn't feel like an adult show. The only thing really innapropriate in it is the nudity, and that isn't even real nudity and if AS could air that with a TV-PG/14, then Toonami could do the same just as easily and take the show, and since they aim at teens instead of adults, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Personally, I think Ranma isn't AS material. Inu-Yasha isn't AS material. Case Closed isn't AS material. Full Metal Alchemist isn't AS material. So what IS AS material? Cowboy Bebop is AS material. Trigun is AS material. FLCL is AS material. The Big O is AS material. Witch Hunter Robin is AS material. Wolf's Rain is AS material. Lupin is AS material. Samurai Champloo will be AS material. Ghost in the Shell will be AS material. And sadly, no matter how terrible it is, Reign is AS material. So I just feel BS&P should grow a backbone and let Ranma air on CN outside of AS.

[QUOTE=Semjaza AzazelI also really love Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (the series people claim Disney ripped off for Atlantis... There are simliarities, but they are quite different).[/QUOTE] You know I found proof somewhere that Disney riped-off Laputa when making Atlantis. They decided they wouldn't release any more Ghibli movies after Mononoke but they still had the rights to them so they decided to make their own crappy remakes of them. The first of these crappy remakes, and the only one that got anywhere, was Atlantis, which was made to be a crappy remake of Laputa. Luckily, Atlantis bombed bigtime and John Lasseter forced Disney to release Spirited Away and things went back on track after that. As for why I like anime, I can't say I like everything. In fact, 90% of anime is crap. So how do I determine what anime to watch? I use the following criteria: 1. Style: Does the anime look cool? Does it have high-quality animation and music? Is the action well-directed and choreographed? 2. Characters: Are the characters interesting and/or funny? Do they have multiple sides to them? Can I feel for them? 3. Originality: Is the plot original and clever? Does it captivate? Is the presentation so radically unique it makes up for minor cliches (if any)? 4. Emotional Impact: If it's a comedy, will it make me laugh? If it's intellectual, will it make me think? If it's a drama, will it hold up any suspense, fear, or sadness? If any anime I watch matches this criteria, I consider it to a great show. And the lucky thing is that a lot of anime follows this (not a whole lot, but more follow it than series on currently in American primetime).

[QUOTE=Solo Tremaine][COLOR=#503F86]Oh, I know it's not meant to be serious. I couldn't quite find the right phrasing for what I wanted to say ^_^; But it reminds me too much of Totally Spies with the overblown facial expressions, and I didn't like Totally Spies at all. I guess I'm just wary of animations trying to encorporate anime visuals into themselves when they aren't strictly speaking 'native' animes. I'm not elitist; sometimes it just doesn't look too right. Although it's probably the style of the rest of the animation that adds to that, too.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Well, yes, Totally Spies does suck, but American animation using anime-esque styles doesn't. Seriously, the Disney style is getting bland, the WB style lost a lot once the studio moved from using full animation (on the classics, Tiny Toons, Batman, Animaniacs, and Freakazoid) to using limited animation (on everything after Freakazoid with the exception of Justice League), the UPA/H-B style has been put to good use by some series such as Samurai Jack but put to bad use on others, and CGI is either blocky or too freakin' expensive for TV. I'm OK with the traditional "anime" style used on American shows. Besides, anime has used a multitude of styles as well (the typical style, the bubbly Tezuka style, the soft-edge Miyazaki style, the sketchy Dragonball/One Piece style, the freak-crazy FLCL style, the half-digital half-drawn style, etc.). And the nice thing is is that most of these anime-style shows put their own spin on the style. Teen Titans does this, MEGAS XLR does this, Avatar seems to be doing this, and overall I'm OK with anime-styled American productions. What bugs me is when these shows actually start declaring themselves "animes". That is absolutely annoying (although since MEGAS is directed in Japan that could be considered a hybrid show).

An official sub of Nausicaa has appeared at several film festivals. The uncut dub was just finished, and it will be released in January along with the Disney dub of Totoro and Porco Rosso to coincide with the American release of Howl's Moving Castle. And please forget that "Warriors of the Wind" ever existed.

[quote name='Sol-Blade']Does anyone know if AS is going to be getting any new episodes of Case Closed (or Detective Boy Conan, however you know it by) soon? FUNi seems to be pleased with the ratings, calling them a success. But then again...they called Blue Gender a success so I don't know bout that one. Since we have entered re-run hell, I figured they might nab another 52 episodes by the time Fall came around. I think I heard that the series is now around 300+ episodes in Japan...you might need to correct me on that.[/quote] Sorry, but at this point I'm pretty sure Case Closed has gone the way of Lupin, a fan favorite that bombed and never got a 2nd episode order. Unless CN gets a backbone and decides to put it at 10.5 in primetime. But that seems unlikely (I doubt we'll see anything TV-PG on the general network until the final episodes of Gundam SEED, Naruto once it comes, and perhaps the occasional risque episode of Justice League given they're obligated to show it uncut and it can get a bit political or innuendoic).

[quote name='Solo Tremaine']Going back to Teen Titans, I find their use of anime expressions more of a parody than a tribute. Sometimes they just look a bit... out of place to me, and even though it shows that anime's influence is spreading there's something about them that just doesn't sit right. The show itself isn't too bad, that just irks me a little.[/COLOR][/quote] For me, I find it mostly a tribute, but there are some flat-out parody moments in the series. I remember 2 episodes spoofing FLCL, and I'm sure there were others that were spoofs. But overall, TT is more of an overdone tribute than a spoof of anime (although it does spoof the DC Universe quite a bit).

[QUOTE=Spud_Hed]maybe this has already been discussed but i was just wondering what people thought of the new style anime that mixes 3d cgi with animation, i much prefer the old full animation stuff, which was part of the reason i liked spirited away, i just wondered how others felt about it. also if anyone has any recs for decent old style anime (or the better new stuff) i dont tend to see as much as i used to because nowhere round here stocks any (cornwall sucks!) [COLOR=Navy]Since your thread revolved around animation, I merged it with EVA's pre-existing animation topic. Happy posting. :) ~Dagger~[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Actually, Spirited Away was about 90% traditional, 10% digital. The animation was done by hand and most of the backgrounds were hand-painted, but the cel painting was done on the computer and occasionally there would be a background CG effect, such as the flower bushes when Chihiro and Haku were running through them or the waves in the water and the passing stops in the train scene. Even Mononoke had about 2 or 3 3D-assisted backgrounds. So at this point nearly everything has at least a few computer effects. However, it is more prevalent in some cases than others. Personally, I like the 3D-2D combos in the works of Studio GONZO and Ghost in the Shell. Sometimes, it's a mixed bag. The computer painting in Gundam SEED provides an amazing and unique look the show IMO, but when they actually do 3D stuff such as the Archangel, it looks bad. But quite a lot, it's completelyu terrible. I hate the 3D cell-shading process (although in a few cases, it's done right like in Futurama and the Zelda games). The latest SD Gundam series, a huge showcase of cell-shading, looks terrible. In Zoids, the 3D looks way too blocky and also uses bad cell-shading. And the 3D in the Kenshin OAVs (which were mostly beatiful) was ugly.

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]From what I know, you're basically right. The majority of adults watch little or no anime, but just about everyone loves Miyazaki. I don't think it's correct to assume that OVAs automatically skew older--although Hunter x Hunter is aimed at the same audience as other Shonen Jump anime, it's currently being continued as a series of OVAs. ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] Well, OAVs are open for a wide range, but the majority of OAVs tend to be more adult-oriented than the majority of series. A good example would be the Kenshin saga. The series is a romantic action-comedy aimed at pre-teens, the OAVs are darker, sadder, more serious, and more violent than the series and obviously aim quite a bit older. Another example would be Ranma 1/2, where the OAVs are a bit more naughty than the rather innocent series. That, and stuff such as FLCL, Otaku no Video, The Animatrix, etc. are considered to be more for older audiences than most series.

Can someoner help me figure out the demographics different animes have in Japan? I know it's different from America because America has more censorship so I need help with this. From my understanding... Your average successful anime (i.e. Gundam, One Piece, etc.) is aimed at kids/pre-teens, but might have a bit of cross-over appeal Commercial animes (i.e. Pokemon, Sonic X, etc.) are aimed just at kids "Art" animes (AKA Evangelion, Bebop, and all their inspired shows/rip-offs) are aimed at teenagers. Anime on cable TV is made specifically for older teens/adults. OAVs aimed older as well. Movies range depending on the case. Kids flock to see the latest Draognball movie, teenagers will go crazy for Akira, adults might check out the latest Satoshi Kon film, and the whole family bundles together for a Miyazaki flick. Ecchi is aimed mostly at pre-teens/teenagers. Hentai is made for adults only. Is that pretty much how anime demographics work in Japan?

[quote name='Hittokiri Zero']To be honest I was somewhat avoiding this thread because EVA Unit 100's opinions seemed a little unfair. While raving about the animation of series such as Gundam SEED he talked about how "bad" the animation for series such as Gundam 0079. Now what's the major difference between the two series listed above? Well the one series with the the "bad" - let's not use "bad" but instead use "lower quality" - lower quality animation in EVA Unit 100's opinion being Gundam 0079 was created in 1979 where Gundam SEED (a series which EVA Unit 100 likes the animation) was created in 2002. Just look at the gap in time and it becomes pretty obvious to those naive enough not to realize it already that a series created 25 years ago just cannot hold up visually against a series created just a whopping two years ago.[/quote] Well, certainly some older animes hold up better than newer ones. Akira from 1988 still looks awesome, but DBGT in 1996 looks like crap.

Is this for movies, series, or both? Just want to check, because if movies are included, Studio Ghibli pwns most of the list.

The best animation in anime (or basically any cartoons) is anything animated by Hayao Miyazaki. His backgrounds are detailed, his characters are unique and expressive, his designs for machines, monsters, and spirits are inventive and creative, and whenever he touches a piece of paper you know you're in for a work of art. In particular, his artwork in Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke was extremely great, even for him. Ghost in the Shell and Akira have amazing animation as well. The Wantanabe bits from The Animatrix are great looking, and the Kenshin OAVs are beautiful. The animation in FLCL is totally awesome, switching between multiple styles and doing each style uniquely. TV-wise, I'd have to give props to Stand Alone Complex for mantaining the visual quality of the original Ghost in the Shell movie, if not slightly improving apon it, and translating it to the TV screen. Gundam SEED has great artwork. Who thought you could addapt a nice, soft, emotional, brushstroke-y feel to a mecha series, especially since past Gundams have looked less-than-stellar? And anything by Madhouse is great as well. The worst animation in anime is definately Peter Chung's stuff. His art style is very ugly and odd-looking. Dragonball/Z/GT and Sailor Moon are definately the sloppiest looking animes. The animation in the first few Lupin TV series was rather weak. Several early things such as Gatchaman and Speed Racer look extremely stiff. The jump between the terrible animation of 0079 Gundam to the good-enough animation of 0083 and Zeta is such a huge leap that it isn't even funny. Evangelion is definately stuck in the middle. The designs are great and the actual animation they do is smooth-moving, but they also use so much stock footage and pause shots, not to mention the last 2 episodes' style to prevent it from being considered 100% greatly animated.

[quote name='Queen Asuka][color=hotpink][size=1]Freakazoid? Are you sure? I never remember that show poking fun at anime. Maybe I missed something...[/color'][/size][/quote] With a show so jam-packed like Freakazoid, EVERYONE misses something. The actual jokes about anime were scarce, but there were several jokes making fun of stereotypical Otakus.