Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > General > The Lounge > Your top 5 favorite and least favorite anime series

[Vermachtnis]

Favorites

1. Azumanga Daioh
Go Team Seaslugs! It's just so completely epic. Everything about it.

2. Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Who doesn't want to meet an alien, time traveler, or esper. I love how it's done too, it seems real.

3. Fate/stay night
A serious anime on my list o_0. I love the animation style and the characters. Archer caught me guard.

4. Saber Marionnette J
Again, I like all the characters. Except for Faust, I hate him. I feel bad for Tiger too.

5. Full Metal Panic!? Fumoffu
Can't have an anime list without a mech anime. And Bonta-kun counts as a mech! I love how the well trained Sergent gets taken down by a paper fan.

Honorable Mentions: Tenchi Muyo!, Excel Saga, Elfen Leid, Digimon, FLCL

Least Fav.
1. Blood +
Just couldn't get into it. Too gorey for me (if you ignore that Elfen Leid made it to honoable mentions)

2. Cutie Honey
Way way way way too pervy! From the name I thought it was a parody like Pretty Sammy, but I was wrong. Never ever watch Cutie Honey.

[Roto13]

*jabs Summoner of Leviathan with a pitchfork*

Favourite:

1. Serial Experiments Lain

This was the first anime I ever saw that made me take anime seriously. It's amazingly deep and leaves a lot for you to think about later.

2. Neon Genesis Evangelion

I like it for a lot of the same reasons I like Lain. :P

3. Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

It's hard to explain why I like this anime to people who haven't seen it. It just has a certain charm that's impossible to resist. All of the characters are so likeable. Also, there's a Phoenix Wright parody scene, so instant win.

4. Texhnolyze

See Serial Experiments Lain. :P (It shares a lot of the same key creators.)

5. Vision of Escaflowne

Giant fighting robots, schoolgirl love, swords, dragons, alternate worlds. It has something for everyone, really.

Honourable Mention: Hellsing

The soundtrack is awesome, the animation is cool, the characters are badass, but it gets kind of ridiculous later on.

Elfen Lied

OMG BOOBZ N BLOOD!!!1!!! Yeah, it has a lot of intense violence and too many giant boobs, but when you get past that there's a very sad story to be told.

Least Favourite:

5. Dragon Ball GT

I actually liked most of Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball GT is where it hits the fan, though. Prolly cause Akira Toriyama didn't have a whole lot to do with it.

4. Sailor Moon

The number of apparently-heterosexual adult males who obsess over this show scares me.

3. Sonic X

Stupid, stupid show. Takes the Sonic Adventure games and makes them more cheesey. Also, I dunno if it's just in the dub (probably) but the music is GRATING!

2. Kirby Right Back At Ya

It has almost nothing to do with the Kirby games. Why can Kirby only say his name? Is he a Pokemon?

1. Naruto

I EAT NARUTARDS!

[NeoCracker]

Least Favorite.

4. Blue Gender (Can't really remember why actually :P)

3. Gundam Seed - I'm not really a big gundam fan, but damn, this one is horrid. I didn't like any of the characters, and it seemed entirely to unoriginal.

2. Divergence Eve - This show only has one thing going for it, Fan service. And it even fails in that department, as your only fan service is unattractively large breast.

1. FLCL - Yes, this is easilly my most hated anime. The jokes were dull, the character designs dulled me, and even the plot was lacking. It never seemed like a very well told coming of age story to me either. Overall, there is not a single thing I liked about this show, except for the fact its only 6 episodes.


Favorite: (This ones HArd)

5. Azumanga Daioh - Close call for number 4 for me. Kimura and Osaka are by far my favorite Characters. Much love for Osaka.

4. Ouran(SP?) High School Host Club - Those twins were awesome. Also, I loved all of the characters, and I found the humor to be just a notch above Azumanga.

3. Welcome to the NHK - IF every there was a great show that delved into how messed up a human mind could get, this is it. Great characters, realistic Situations (Well, that last scene is kinda pushing that a bit though, :P), and when its funny, it is freaking Hilarious. She tried to coax him away from an MMO by dressing as a Cat Girl, lol.

2. Paranoia Agent - This is a perfect example of using surreal concepts. Spoiler: A serial Killer born out of shear Paranoia and fear, how can one get more surreal then that?. But yes, the Ideas behind lil slugger and that little pink doggy, Mamori (SP?) were simply genius.

1. Cowboy Bebop - The greatest anime of all time. Amazing Characters, awesome stories, and a perfect ending. Even the Bebop movie was simply spectacular. In addition, the music in show goes perfectly with every scene, and is equally amazing outside of the anime.

[qwertyxsora]

Favorite

5: Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
After years of crap, the pokemon anime actually gets good again. 4Kids losing the dubbing rights also helped improve the quality of the dub.

4: Full Metal Panic!? Fumoffu
This anime is great. I have yet to meet somebody who has watched it and not find it funny.

3: Princess Mononoke
I love this movie. It is beautifully written, and has a great story.

2: Digimon Adventure
I grew up with this one, and still watch it today. And patamon is so cute. Boom Bubble!

1: Katekyō Hitman Reborn!
I love this anime. It has a great balance of plot and humor. Watch it!


Honorable mention
All of the other Miyazaki Movies. I love his work.

Least Favorite

5: InuYasha
The end was way to abrupt in the anime. The manga is great though.

4: Dragonball series
The series is good, but it feels too drawn out and repetitive for me.

3: Naruto
The fanbase is ruining this series for me. I hope the series ends soon before the quality begins to slip and become repetitive. The dub also has an annoying voice for Naruto.

2: Mach GoGoGo (Speed Racer)
The dub is horrible. It makes a 4Kids dub seem good in comparison.

1: Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
This anime makes absolutly no sense. Some random is good, but this is too much.

[NeoCracker]

I like Bobobo though. Whats with all the hate?

[Spatvark]

Haibane Renmei:
By the guy who came up with Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze (god that show was depressing) and NieA Under 7, Yo:skull::skull::skull::skull:oshi ABe, it's more akin to a lighter-hearted Lain. From the awesome music, the great animation, the lovely characters and the slowly developing but wonderful story, but not forgetting the overarching sense of mystery as to the true nature of the Haibane, it's just a series I can't understand anyone not liking.

Monster:
Naoki Urasawa is like, the greatest mangaka alive, I swear, and Monster is his magnum opus. This anime adaptation of the hit series is virtually a scene-by-scene recreation, just as it should be, and as such, while it isn't exactly better than the manga, it's no worse either. I guess it just comes down to which medium you prefer. I love this kind of story, something that gets me going "Holy :skull::skull::skull::skull:!" at all the plot twists and revelations, and I can't recommend this highly enough. Both the anime and the manga are what I'd recommend to someone who is somewhat sceptical about either as a mature storytelling medium. The only problem is that it's 74 episodes long.

Fullmetal Alchemist:
When you compare FMA to Monster, they're really quite different in their adaptations. While Monster is absolutely faithful, Fullmetal Alchemist (which is no relation whatsoever to the Full Metal Panic series) is slightly different from the get-go, and only diverges further as the series goes on. While I'd definitely say the manga is better, that's not to look down upon this. Awesome animation, especially the fight scenes, a nice and twisty plotline, and the true nature of the homunculi is just utterly fantastic (better than the manga's version, I think). Again though, this is a fairly long series; 51 episodes and a movie, and to be fair, while the movie is gorgeous, it's a poor cap to an awesome series.

Kaleido Star:
And now for something completely different. Kaleido Star is very much a feel-good anime, one of those "Chasing your dream" stories that the Japanese do so love. One of the things I did enjoy about this show so much is that they totally pushed romantic relationships aside for the main characters as they press onwards with their hopes. The animation is gorgeous, especially in the surreal acrobatic scenes, and while there are distinctly daft scenes that sometimes bug the hell out of me, I can't not love this show. There are 51 episodes and 3 OVA's (though the third can, and probably should, be utterly discarded), with the second OVA, "Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari~" probably being the best part of the entire series.

Seirei no Moribito:
Production IG animation, mock-feudal Japan setting, awesome martial arts fights, and an engaging plot. What more could you ask for? Seirei no Moribito is probably the best series to air in Japan in the last three or so years, by quite a margin. Just seriously, watch it. You won't regret it.

Hajime no Ippo:
I don't like sports anime or manga very much, and boxing in general doesn't hold much interest for me. But Hajime no Ippo just crapped over all expectations I had for anything based on the sport. The animation isn't always great, Madhouse sensibly saving it for the fight scenes, and the voice acting took a little while to get used to, but once I got to grip with those, I found this to be an incredibly faithful adaptation of the excellent manga. My only issue with it is that at 75 episodes and two OVA's, it's not even close to up-to-date with the manga, where so much more awesomeness has happened after where the anime finishes up. Still, this series is most definitely worth watching.

Honourable Mentions: Ai:skull::skull::skull::skull:eruze Baby, Aria, Azumanga Daioh, FLCL, Scrapped Princess, The Twelve Kingdoms

As for the worst, I honestly couldn't say, since I tend to give up on series very quickly and push them out of my memory, so I don't really remember them very well.

[Roto13]

I watched Haibane Renmei just before Christmas because it's another Lain/Texhnolyze team anime. I thought the atmosphere was great. It relaxed me. xP Still, I kind of wish they had Spoiler: eventually gone beyond the walls like in Texhnolyze when they leave Lux. I'd like to have a better idea of exactly what the Haibane are.

[JKTrix]

Way too hard for me to pick overall favourites. So, I'll just pick my favourites for 2007!

#1: Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann

Left: Driving force of the show.
Right: Huge exploding ship on the left was just KICKED by the huge ship on the right. In mid-air. Huge Kicking Ship does not fly. INSANE.
Insane, ridiculous mecha action. A show so bold, so over-the-top, so epic it practically forces you to type in caps lock when you type about it. (This post has been edited.) Since I first saw Dragon Ball Z many years ago, I have never been so pumped while watching anime. And even beyond the outrageous testosterone and physics-breaking antics of the cast, there is a continuous theme to the show with an ultimate message. Even with TWO major shifts in the direction of the show, the core element remains the same and is strengthened throughout. What starts as the smallest point on the tip of a drill grows exponentially by the series' end. It's an awesome turn-your-brain-off anime, but if you leave it switched on just a little you'll catch a lot of the underlying themes.

#2: Dennou Coil

Left: Bunch of kids with cyberbeards. One chick's cheek declares war on the other cheek and launches a nuke.
Right: 'No Data'. Strange, dangerous things can happen if your cyberbody is separated from your real body.
If Gurren-Lagann wasn't so off-the-charts awesome, this would definitely be at the top of my list. The basic premise is that this city that the children live in exists in two forms: the real world and the Cyber world (though they don't call it that. They rarely, if ever, distinguish the difference between the two with labels--part of the plot development). The Cyber World is an exact replica of the real world and in fact exists as an overlay. In order to access the Cyber world, you use special glasses. You can probably see it in those pics. The kids are not visally impaired, they're all wearing these glasses. This Cyber world in conjunction with the glasses basically renders cell phones and computers obsolete (though they still exist). Through the glasses you can call other people Inspector Gadget style, access e-mail, internet and basically anything else you can do on a computer today. Much more than a novelty, they're even used for school classes. Additionally, having cyberpets is very popular. Of course with computer-type things, you have hackers and other mischievious people. And with an entire city that is basically one huge living wireless network, things can get interesting.
Anyway, I'm not really supposed to be explaining the show, but perhaps you have an idea of just how imaginative this series is. It has excellent world-building which makes some things later on easier to understand (like the girl's cyber facial hair launching a cyber nuclear missile targeted at her other cheek). As things get more serious later on, it touches on some issues like distinguishing what is real and what is fake, and what each is worth to the individual. This draws some parrallels to today, where a lot of us grew up with videogames, the internet, cel phones etc, we get somewhat detached from reality. It's quite interesting throughout the show when we see Adults--they're rarely wearing the glasses. But every single kid has the glasses, and even sleeps with them on. To them it's their life, and it's all real. This show has a very 'Ghibli/Miyazaki' feel to it, with a little bit of Lain. While it feels a little like those two, it is entirely unique. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. I think it's an instant classic.

#3: Ookiku Furikabutte

Left: Never having pitched 'properly' in his life, the uncannily talented Mihashi loses his balance when being taught 'properly'
Right: Momoe Maria, the team's coach.
A baseball anime, based off a fairly popular boy's manga. I only started watching it a few weeks ago and I haven't finished it (unlike the rest of the shows on my list), but it has really charmed me. I prefer the more realistic sports anime like this or Hajime no Ippo as opposed to stuff like Prince of Tennis. There are no annoying characters, there are no 'evil bad guy teams'.

#4: Nodame Cantabile

Left: The main crew.
Right: Instruments!
College life/Comedy/Drama/Light Romance/Music anime! Based off a very popular women's manga (don't run yet!) that's actually in print in the US now. Colourful cast, great classical soundtrack (to be expected of a music anime), plentiful comic situations that are genuinely funny, it's a very heartwarming story. My only complaint is that a couple of their epic musical scenes have truncated music. The show is actually sponsored by Yamaha, a Japanese instrument maker, so the various instruments themselves are lovingly recreated in both 2D and CG. I'm a semi-professional musician myself, so this show tickled my fancy then gave me more than just the music hook.

#5: Serei no Moribito

Left: She uses a spear. And gorgeous clouds!
Right: Balsa's quite a bit older than your average anime heroine, but she's up there with Motoko when it comes to awesomeness. And she's gorgeous!
I kind of struggled with this one. It was either this or the anime 'Baccano!', but Seirei no Moribito won out. The show is gorgeous, which is to be expected from the animation studio. It's a fantasy anime based off a series of novels, though I think this only covers the first book. As such, the story and environment are very fleshed out. At times it seems a little slow, and some character developments I would have liked to see (such as Balsa and Tanda) never really go anywhere (favourite line of the show, "Why don't you just sleep with her?"), but taken in the context that it's a long, long story it's a little forgiveable. Though in the context of a single season of anime, it's disappointing. However, the story remains its strong point when the incredible action sequences die down. It probably won't be for everyone, but for a Fantasy sucker like me, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Enough to be in my top 5 for the year. Perhaps it can be compared to 'The Twelve Kingdoms', which is one of my all-time favourites.

Honorable Mentions:
Baccano!, Darker Than Black, Moyashimon, Minami-ke, Ooedo Rocket

Every now and then, there's a show that reminds me why I love anime. This year I had two: Gurren-Lagann and Dennou Coil. Last year was Haruhi Suzumiya, before that was Eureka 7/Mushishi and before that was Gankutsuou. There are several other excellent shows, but some stand above everything else and re-ignite the love in me. I tend to drop shows I don't like instead of suffering through them since it would dull my impression. I'm glad I have the luxury to do so, because if I was stuck with the stuff that's on TV, I'd probably not be an anime fan.