Anime Thread of Doom

[Gelsamel]

Welcome to xkcd's Anime Thread of DOOM

Introduction:
Some type of Introduction, possibly talking about what anime is or something.

Before asking for recommendations:

Spoiler:

1232058429568.jpg (552.33 KiB) Viewed 61125 times

xkcd's Proper Anime Thread recommends:
<Stuff>



This thread OP is going to be updated heaps more to look shiney and nice.

[Kas]

Not a big fan of anime, but Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo are both pretty amazing.

[Gelsamel]

Not a big fan of anime, but Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo are both pretty amazing.

Samurai Champloo is cool

[TheTankengine]

Sorry, I'm not really into pokemon.

I'm pretty sure pokemon is anime, and I love love pokemon.

[Kizyr]

Samurai Champloo is at the top for me as far as anime series go.
For movies, Jin-Roh is at the top of the list--very incredible in every respect.

Though, I've been out of the anime scene for a while, so I have no clue what's up-and-coming, or what's popular these days. KF

[Lani]

I don't have a TV or cable. I have to watch DVDs on my computer, so I'm always at least a season behind on any show.

I like Cowboy Bebop (what I've seen of it), and I'm waiting on DVDs of Samurai Champloo. Beyond the classics though (Ghost in the Shell, etc), I haven't seen a whole lot...

[Gelsamel]

Samurai X isn't all too popular, well at least not enough to be shown on TV or Cable (in Australia). But it's still a really good anime. Only 4 episodes though.

After Samurai X is Rurouni Kenshin which is heaps longer but it loses it's realism and becomes more quasi-dbz, but it's still really good.

[SpitValve]

I have to confess to watching Dragon Bal Z.

Although I must say it would be way cooler if they squished a week's episodes into one...

[LE4dGOLEM]

I have to confess to watching Dragon Bal Z.

Although I must say it would be way cooler if they squished a week's episodes into one...

No! Then there would only be one hour screaming per series!

[Peshmerga]

Cowboy Bebop is the only anime I enjoy.

[Jack Saladin]

Damn, can't type much, balancing breakfast everywhere.

But yes, yes Samurai Champloo is incredibly awesome. Hip hop AND samurai! Oh me yarm.

I'm also a DBZ fan. I think the key thing to realise is that it's not about each individual episode, it's about the universe, the legacy, and the characters. Yeah, if you watched just one episode it would suck, maybe even if you just watched 10, but that's not what it's about.

[Hawknc]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Neon Genesis Evangelion yet. It's practically the seminal anime series for people who aren't Japanese. That, along with Cowboy Bebop, is one of my definite favourites. I don't watch much anime anymore, so anything released in the last few years I probably have no idea about, but back in the day I also liked Full Metal Panic and Serial Experiments Lain (which was the first anime I ever watched...freakin' mind job, man).

[Jesse]

I want to get the Platinum Edition Boxset of NGE. It looks so unbelievably sexy.

Martian Successor Nadesico also holds a special place in my heart.

[Gelsamel]

Lain was gay, honestly I watched the first 10 mins of the first episode and I'm like "This is gay" and I turned it off ahah.

NGE is awesome, but I still prefer Samurai X, the fighting is just too good.

[Mister 4]

Berserk: Awesome. Violent. Unfortunately was produced before the manga finished (by a long shot).
Elfen Lied: See above. Also has some nice sub-themes of acceptance. Is quite disturbing, really.
NGE: It's Neon Genesis Freaking Evangelion. It's awesome, and full of pseudo-Judeochristian references. And giant robots!
Bleach: Pretty good, when not in filler arcs.
Naruto: Not quite as good, and has been in filler for like a year straight now.
Hellsing: Pretty cool. Also produced before the manga finished, so the story is quite different.
Noein: Distilled awesome.

[Gelsamel]

Bleach is good, I'm watching it atm. But I hate Naruto, I watched some 180 episodes and every 2 episodes or so was this big emo storyline about a characters past, and EACH character had a big emo storyline. And the thing is Naruto thinks he knows how people who had their family killed feel like because he didn't have any friends as a kid.

Elfen Lied I didn't really like, it was basically an excuse to have people exploding and blood going everywhere.

Yeh, the references in NGE were all cool too.


Also, one anime movie that is awesome.... FFVII:AC

I still stand by Samurai X, you guys should check it out some time

[Jesse]

AC is technically CGI, not Anime.

It is still awesome though.

[Hawknc]

Just as a sidenote, this community has some very smart people in it. I'm sure we all have better vocabularies than that which necessitates us to use "gay" as a derogatory term. It's one of my few pet hates.

Back on topic, I think it was Berserk that I was watching some outtakes on the DVD...one of them was the main character walking away saying "there ain't nothing in life but bitches 'n' money". It's just hilarious hearing that from an anime character.

[Gelsamel]

As if I'd actually use the words I know.

[ferretbot]

I went to a all night Cowboy Bebop screening awhile ago, and discovered I really liked that show. Right now I'm trying to watch FLCL, but I cant seem to get past how Japanese the humor is.

[Gelsamel]

Talking about humorous anime, Excel Saga is pretty funny.

[Fluff]

I love anime, though I don't watch it all that often.

Used lo love Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell, and a bunch of other older ones I've forgot the names of.

One of my favourite cartoons ever: Aeon Flux

[Kizyr]

I really enjoyed Lain. I thought it was trippy, but overall a very good series.

NGE I felt was way overrated. The references seemed shoved in just for the sake of making references that, ultimately, fell flat. Sure if you like mecha anime I'm sure it's enjoyable, but mecha isn't my thing, so I found it rather drab. All the angst in Shinji made me want to kick him in every scene, too. Misato was the only character I could remotely stand. KF

[Air Gear]

Ahhh, geeking out...there are just so many animes I like...let's see...

Some that I've started buying include Martian Successor Nadesico, Excel Saga, Samurai Champloo, GTO, Samurai Deeper Kyo, and...well, there's a list of stuff I want which goes all over the place. Oh yeah, I have Golden Boy, but that doesn't quite count the same way...

Let's see, used to like DBZ quite a bit...and I've always hated Eva (NGE). Shinji is a little bitch that I want to kill and the references, as said by Kizyr, were totally pointless. Mecha also isn't quite my thing, except I didn't mind the mecha in things like Nadesico. Zegapain also seemed decent, but I'm not sure thanks to not having seen much.

And then there's animesuki and their anime torrents. Ahhh, the torrents. The magic of torrents. Some of them I've been on lately:

Air Gear, Sexy Commando "Sugio yo, Masaru-san", Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Jyu Oh Sei, Gintama, Welcome to the NHK, and a variety of guilty pleasures such as a bunch of the ecchi or shounen-ai stuff that comes up (strangely, not shoujo-ai) as well as things like Eyeshield 21 and History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi which...well, don't know why I'm watching those.

[Gelsamel]

Haha, I have to say my 2nd favourite anime is Zoids: New Century Zero, go the mecha!

[Hawknc]

LOL at Golden Boy. They showed that at the anime club in high school. Freakin' classic.

[Misc]

Paranoia Agent, by Satoshi Kon.
Kino no tabi, a story about a child and a talking motorbike, by Keiichi Shigusawa.

Lain, NieA_7 and Haibane Renmei, by Yoshitoshi ABe.

[yy2bggggs]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Fullmetal Alchemist.

[Gelsamel]

FMA is pretty good, but not one of my favourites.

They break the laws of thermodynamics

[yy2bggggs]

FMA is pretty good, but not one of my favourites.

They break the laws of thermodynamics

Have you seen it all?

[Gelsamel]

FMA is pretty good, but not one of my favourites.

They break the laws of thermodynamics

Have you seen it all?

Yes.


I was about to say technically they don't, but that would be a semi-spoiler. It's sorta cool how you don't really know what is going on right till the very end. But at the start I was just like 'wth? they could at least make this plausible through some magic shit, or they could've just left it unexplained, but they've started getting scientific about it so they better have a good explination.

[yy2bggggs]

Well, it's my favorite show--and I do mean show, not just anime. I don't really have a clear second favorite show, but the "contenders" aren't anime.

Anime in general has its moments, but it seems to me that the great animes are great due to great writing and performance. There are a lot of junk animes out there as well, and from what I know, the English speaking world gets a filtered set that tends to include more of the quality work.

.hack/* (SIGN, dawn, etc) and Reign the Conqueror are among my other favorite animes (Reign perhaps is one of the more "personal" favorites--that is, one that's not popularly ranked as high, but the general historical references, plus the mathematical mysticism, really works for me).

Oh, your original question was more about the animes people watched. I watch a lot (mostly what comes on TV--too busy to get into the torrent scene), including the entire set shown on Cartoon Network on Saturdays (Naruto through GITS), but though these seem interesting, I don't consider them my favorites.

Regardless, GITS does have my favorite sound tracks.

[Gelsamel]

.hack freaked me out... it wasn't scary or anything it's just I can imagine myself stuck in a game and feeling everything that happens in it. I used to listen to this song by some band I can't remember but I couldn't listen to it after because it sounded like .hack music and it reminded me of it and made me feel uneasy.


Edit: Extol was the band, Christian Death Metal me thinks.

[yy2bggggs]

I used to listen to this song by some band I can't remember but I couldn't listen to it after because it sounded like .hack music and it reminded me of it and made me feel uneasy.

LOL! For the record, I'm a big fan of .hack sound tracks too.

[Gelsamel]

Not sure what song it was that sounded .hackish, because I can't remember the .hack music anymore but it might have been the start of "Undeceived".


Edit: It wasn't the techno stuff, it was like the calm stuff in the background during a lot of the scenes if I remember correctly.

[rockintom99]

Wait, people actually *liked* FF7:AC? It was terrible

Anyway, yes, of course, Bebop, Champloo, and NGE were all great.

Anyone here seen Ergo Proxy? Very awesome show, from what has been subbed so far.

[Babbler]

One day, I am going to buy the entire box set for Cowboy Bebop.

The rest ... meh. It's like any other genre: 90% sucks. The weirdest anime I seen was Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. It's like Alice in Wonderland, but with an all lesbian cast.

[Peshmerga]

Meh, Full Metal Alchemist is the downright worst anime I've ever seen. Sorry but that kid's voice dives into the most forbidding places in my brain, takes a chainsaw, and starts shredding the very fabric of my mind in thirty different excruciating ways. It's omigosh so obvious that his "rage/calm/rage/calm" swings are appealing to the people who actually watch that show on a regular basis, who probably consider themselves some sort of special entity with flashing emotions, somehow signifying their own superior spirituality and intelligence.

/rant

[yy2bggggs]

It's omigosh so obvious that his "rage/calm/rage/calm" swings are appealing to the people who actually watch that show on a regular basis, who probably consider themselves some sort of special entity with flashing emotions, somehow signifying their own superior spirituality and intelligence.

You type too much.

[Gelsamel]

I can't even remember some rage/calm thing. And I don't think his voice is annoying. Which version did you watch?