As I said in my first post Honey & Clover is my favorite anime ever. The combination of storyline, realism, great characters and production quality has yet to be matched in my opinion and its possible it never will be. I was completely taken in by this series and even though it's been more than three years since I first watched it I still think about it almost daily. It has also become the stick by which I measure all other series. I can honestly say that this anime changed my life but I won't go into too much detail as I'll probably make a dedicated Honey & Clover post later.
2. Cross Game (currently airing)
Cross Game is the best thing anime/manga-wise to happen to me in a while. It combines two of my favorite things: Baseball and romance. And it doesn't just combine them, it combines them masterfully. If H&C is a 10 in my book, Cross Game is a close 9.9 and in many ways it is a much more enjoyable series than H&C but it hasn't had the same impact on me the way H&C did so it can never surpass it. When I first started it I didn't like the art style but it has completely grown on me. I was unable to control myself and after 3 or 4 episodes of the anime went forward and read up to the present on the manga. This was probably last April or May, and let me tell you it's been a frustrating summer (and fall). Waiting for chapters not only sucks, but it sucks even more than waiting for anime episodes because you get less and Adachi likes to take long breaks (like his current one). Regardless I love the combination of slice of life, sports and romance. The subtleties of this series are almost without bound and it is by far the best manga I have read. The pacing is wonderful, the characters deep and likable, the plot feels infinitely believable even though it is pretty much impossible. It is hard to describe exactly how much and why I love this series but I do. I just hope Adachi doesn't screw up the ending, because if he does I don't know what I'd do.
3. BECK:Mongolian Chop Squad
Beck is one of my favorite series because it is so enjoyable. I think the thing I love about it the most are the characters, especially Koyuki. He's just so endearing and I can relate to his sorta lame beginnings, but I'll never be as cool as him because I have no musical talent. The KoyukixMaho pairing is also one of my favorites, its a tough decision for me between KoyukixMaho and KouxAoba from Cross Game and I'm not willing to make a decision. And of course the music can not be understated, it is enjoyable and fun, certainly a lot better that most JPop, especially when they bring in things like the Beetles. This is probably one of my favorite shows to rewatch, especially the last few episodes at Grateful Sound, few things get me more amped up than seeing Koyuki sing 'I've got a feeling'.
4.Ookiku Furikabutte
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Oofuri is possibly the most addicting and painful anime I've ever watched. Addicting because almost every episode is a cliffhanger and I need to know what happens next NOW. Painful because I watched ever episode as it was fansubbed. Second semester of my freshman year of college I would visit Central Anime's site multiple times a day to check on the status of the next episode. When they finally came out I would watch them download, which would always take forever because there would only be one seed because I was one of the first to download. It was unfortunate, but oh so worth it. I love Oofuri, I love the games, I love the underdog aspect, I love Tajima (no homo) and I love the earnestness of the series. Once again the characters are compelling, believable and realistic. And while pretty much everything Shiga-sensei said was total bull Oofuri really expanded my knowledge about baseball, especially small ball. I've found this great as it deepened my love for the game and I can apply the knowledge when I watch actual baseball.
5.Natsume Yuujinchou
Natsume Yuujinchou is another series that I really only discovered this summer. I had downloaded a few episodes when it first aired but I never made it though the first episode and was turned off by the supernatural aspects of the series. Boy am I glad I came back to it. First off the Seiyuu for Natsume is also the seiyuu for Takemoto. Great start. Plus Natsume really reminds me of Takemoto, he has the same characteristics which are probably why I really love both. To me honestly all the plotlines were secondary to watching Natsume, I love characters and Natsume is one of the best. I get very attached to my characters, and always wish for good things to happen to them even if it would destroy the show, because without angst and conflict the shows wouldn't exist but this was one of the best examples of that. All I wanted throughout the series were for good things to happen to Natsume, and slowly they did as he ended up pretty happy.
6.Kare Kano
Kare Kano is a classic in my eyes because it defined a generation of romance anime following it. It is the standard in terms of how school life manga and anime are judged, and in my opinion there is no better in this specific genre. Now you might say 'Hey douchebag you just rated both Cross Game and BECK higher' well I say to you 'Hey Jerkoff they aren't the same genre' I can count on one hand the number of school scenes there are in Cross Game and BECK is a music anime. The Kare Kano anime does everything right for the first half, and I pretend the second half never even existed. Then the manga picks up where the anime left off and is massively enjoyable and quite touching in my opinion. I liked the ending even though it has been ripped off a number of times (*cough* SUZUKA *cough**cough*) and I especially liked how the focus of the series was mainly on watching the couple's relationship develop instead of indecisiveness, angst and stupid misunderstandings.
7.Planetes
Planetes is what most science fiction should be: believable. I can pretty much see everything that happened in Planetes playing out in real life eventually. For me it was a fascinating look into what the future holds. But thats not really why I love it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a sucker for good characters. Tanabe and Hachi are two great characters and a great couple, which when I started the series I would never have predicted that I would say. At first I absolutely hated Tanabe, I hated her naivete, her penchant for doing stupid things and getting into awkward situations, did I mention her really really annoying naivete? But it gets better, much much better. I found the whole series facinating but the one moment that stands out for me is when Kalim realizes that you can't see country borders from space and that the earth is one large community. However I realize that this is incredibly idealistic but it was touching none the less.
8.Nodame Cantabile
Nodame Cantabile was a very fun series from my point of view, it wasn't the deepest story, it didn't have the best characters, it didn't have the best plot. But the combination of good music (made me listen to classical again), well placed comedy and likable characters made it very enjoyable. I really wished that they had developed the relationship between Chiaki and Nodame more but it was a great series none the less.
9.Initial D
I love Initial D because I love cars. Or do I love cars because I love Initial D? Initial D certainly jumpstarted my love for cars in high school, which eventually might become my profession, so it certainly influnced me. Once again, Initial D isn't going to win any awards for plot, characters or depth but it's on my list because it's enjoyable to watch/read. It does win two other awards though: Worst Dub ever, which I'm really glad about because it was probably the turning point in me switching from Dubs to subs and Worst ratio of manga chapters to anime episodes; 63 episodes and a movie take up more than 400 manga chapters! I guess this is the result of having a manga chapter which because it's all shots of cars driving can take up less than 20 seconds of airtime.
10.Patlabor
Patlabor will always hold a special place in my heart because it's the first 'real' anime I ever watched and really opened my world up in terms of anime. Sure I had watched Pokemon, DBZ and Toonami as a kid but Patlabor was the real starting point. I saw one of the Patlabor movies on a cable channel and wanted to see more, so I found them on netflix and convinced my parents to get a subscription. This opened the floodgates for me and anime, which eventually led me to Animesuki, fansubs and right here. Patlabor is a great show, especially for a mecha show. It's probably the most realistic mecha show I've seen in demonstrating how mechas would probably be used if they were ever made. But calling it a mecha show is doing it a disservice, Patlabor is a great example of premium slice of life and helped define the genre. The characters were great and while I always hoped for more of relationship to develop between Noa and Asuma and the final 'battle' was a little weak in my opinion it doesn't detract from an otherwise great show.
Apologies to Aishiteru ze Baby, 5cm per second, Last Exile, Clannad:AS, Black Lagoon, Overdrive and Kurenai. You all just missed, better luck next year.
Comments appreciated!
I would call Oofuri the ultimate "drama of normalcy". Every single moment of the show feels believable to me, like something that could have and probably did happen to me when I was in teams or clubs in high school. Not once does it succumb to the temptation to have a hero moment or anything of that sort. I've been watching Major recently and I just find it hard to appreciate the baseball there having watched Oofuri first. Maybe all my baseball anime have been spoiled.
ReplyDeleteKare Kano is always hovering around my top 10 somewhere but I just can't bear to put it in there because of the extremely poor second half. There are some moments of greatness there but they just messed with the formula too much. The best moments of Kare Kano were the two main characters awkwardly getting to know one another, it did that brilliantly, but when the supporting cast started to grow, IMO the show started to weaken. So while the first half holds a special place in my heart, there are so many other consistently good anime from start to finish that they have priority.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Planetes, underrated and one of the best anime out there. Sadly the first time I tried it out, I put it on hold because while I liked it, it didn't captivate me. Maybe I was too young, because I picked it up again a few years later and was glued to it right until the end. Really one of the most gripping climaxes, especially that scene with Tanabe on the moon at the end. Something very touching about it.
Nodame is a safe bet for me, though there are other anime that hit me harder and so it has to be pushed out of my own top 10. Though Japan has to realize that Beethoven wrote symphonies other than the 7th.
The trick to Kare Kano is to ignore the second half and focus on the manga, which I'm not sure if you've read. Since I consider them to be pretty much the same medium it made my top 10 but if it were judged solely on the anime alone then I agree that it probably wouldn't make the cut.
ReplyDeleteHmm... interesting, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and watch Honey & Clover and also Planetes.
ReplyDeleteSince people who share my tastes seem so favorably bent towards them.
Have you watched Maison Ikkoku or Crest of the Stars yet?
I really enjoyed Crest of the Star because it was hard sci-fi but it wasn't limited to ideas that are near future real world developments (like Asimov or Verne had ideas that are possible, but far beyond anything most people then could imagine).
Maison Ikkoku on the other hand is my measuring stick for romantic comedy. Despite a few flaws I still consider it the gold standard.
Considering all the press about Maison Ikkoku and Crest of the Stars I'll make a post about why I haven't watched them.
ReplyDeleteKare Kano is an interesting anime, in terms of how the show gradually degraded. When I finished watching the show, I was extremely surprised by the quality by the end of it all, since Gainax usually has pretty top-notch animation...Though Kare Kano was a very strange pick for them since it isn't usually the kind of genre they put out. A quick search revealed that they were running out of budget throughout halfway of the anime, so it is apparent as the series was nearing the end, the quality was going down alongside the budget. I believe there was supposed to be more to the story that they wanted to incorporate, but because of failing budget issues I guess they just left the end as it was without considering how to wrap it up.
ReplyDelete