Anime/Manga Week Eight: The best anime of all time

[Palamon]

For Shoujo

Ouran High School Host Club - It manages to break every single type of shoujo stereotype there is and makes it very hilarious.

Shounen

Neon Geneis...

Durrarra!! - For being able to weave such a complicated story into a great one. You can't trust anyone, and it was an extremely fun watch!

Seinen

Hard pick. I love seinen
[Black Rock Shooter.

Serial Experiments Lain - It forces you into questioning yourself as well as the narrative. The film noir aspect is very well done as well.

Josei

Usagi Drop - You got to admit that watching a story about 30 year old caretaker who doesn't know anything about kids evolve into being able to take care of a little six year old girl is great and not common to see in anime. The manga falls into disturbing territories after the anime ended, though, so the anime ends in a great place.

I'm so glad Love Live hasn't been mentioned yet... it's a nice anime, but...

 

[Akiba]

At least four SEL lovers in this thread. Faith in humanity restored.

 

[KingRin]

Josei

Usagi Drop - You got to admit that watching a story about 30 year old caretaker who doesn't know anything about kids evolve into being able to take care of a little six year old girl is great and not common to see in anime. The manga falls into disturbing territories after the anime ended, though, so the anime ends in a great place.

Depends on the point of view. I personally haven't read the manga, but I do have a basic understanding of what happens. I also had the same as opinion as you. Until a user on Reddit changed it with an interesting piece on how to interpret the second part and ending. It just isn't that bad.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Animation is almost unbearable by today's standards]

Posts like this really do make me feel old.

 

[Akiba]

Posts like this really do make me feel old.

8 years is a lot.

 

[Nagi]

how the heck have none of you mentioned FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood yet? now THAT is the only anime i've seen that deserves the title of Best Ever, thank you.

i'll forgive you if you happen to think the original was better, but otherwise there is nothing that tops this for me. really. wat. the animation was great, the story is amazing, the characters, the action, the FEELS, even the ending was so well thought out and put together and fitting and ARGH
it was beautiful. the end.

also personally i adored Katanagatari. and Eden of the East and Durarara!! but i can see why those wouldn't be eligible for 'Best Ever' title.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Oh, gotcha. It isn't that great as a stand alone on that area. I would go for an ufotable production if we were purely talking about good animation or whatever.

Shinkai can be considered on par with ufotable actually.

I'm so glad Love Live hasn't been mentioned yet... it's a nice anime, but...

RaRa is more like fanservice, more than being best anime as itself...
It's definitely emotional if you love the girls, but it's still fanservice for RaRa fans.

At least four SEL lovers in this thread. Faith in humanity restored.

Didn't almost all of us see that? =D I thought it was pretty obvious =D

how the heck have none of you mentioned FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood yet? now THAT is the only anime i've seen that deserves the title of Best Ever, thank you.

We wanted to avoid mainstream, I guess?
And... Brotherhood > original, no competition here.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

We wanted to avoid mainstream, I guess?[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]

Go and read the first reply again. lol

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Go and read the first reply again. lol

Considering FMA, maybe Madoka and EVA are on par, I wouldn't say other mentioned anime are on par with it.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

All of them, well perhaps all that aren't in my set, are super popular. u mad.

 

[KingRin]

Considering FMA, maybe Madoka and EVA are on par, I wouldn't say other mentioned anime are on par with it.

Ehh Fate/Zero and Cowboy Bepop are kinda in the same boat.

 

[Nagi]

i don't know, aren't nearly all of the anime mentioned in this thread mainstream? a good bunch are anyway. definitely Black Butler, Steins;Gate, Bakemonogatari, 5 Centimeters per Second... i think Death Note was mentioned somewhere too...

but yeah in that case my non-mainstream nomination would be Katanagatari (｡ ＞艸＜)

 

[Akiba]

Spoiler:

Often, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word "mainstream" is DRAGONLOL C/BLITCH/NARUTOAD. Other times I think of Monogatari/Angel Beats/Steins;Gate. I guess there's just a discrepancy between the two usages, depending on the context.

But yeah, if we're doing non-mainstreams as well, I'd put out a word for Dantalian no Shoka.

Even though there wasn't really a central plot, the character design and development were great. The art and music were excellent, in general, too. Few notable flaws, and it gave OTGW feels, so that's a plus. It should get a lot more recognition than it does.

 

[Kenchiin]

Brotherhood > Original. Indeed. I don't know if I would say masterpiece, but great for sure.

 

[Melody]

I actually haven't watched all those 'best' anime.
E.g./ Steins Gate, UBW, FMA, Gurren Lagaan, Code Geass etc..

But what I have watched is Serial Experiments Lain.
Its an oldie, but I think it still holds up today. It's quite psychological with symbolism everywhere. Probably more than Utena, and like, more confusing. The main character of Lain is definitely my favourite part of the anime. She portrays an awkward child that

Spoiler:

slowly becomes...god?
Also the alien. Its pretty cool

The opening is also pretty good.
'And you don't even understand', you got that right.

This is so true; I have both of the OP and ED songs by Boa...pretty crazy anime but it was an amazing watch.

YES. A THOUSAND TIMES YES.

Spoiler:

Animation is almost unbearable by today's standards, but that's because SEL is a second millenium show. Can't be blamed.

The animation for Birdy the Mighty 1996 was mighty good for its time, on the other hand.

I really love the afterfeels that this show gives off. Also yeah, I think this was a forerunner to many of the Sci-Fi anime today.

This is was a really good show and I've seeded over 20 TB of this over the years.

Overall a masterpiece.

I second this; I marathoned Birdy the Mighty when it was on Netflix and enjoyed it. Honestly I find some of the older animes are just better...they don't overdo the fanservice bits.

As for myself personally I'm going to recommend Shugo Chara for shoujo. Now this one tried to mainstream; but it really didn't outside of japan. Now I'm a die hard fan of this series; well as die hard as I can get; but I do recognize that it's surface puts some off. But boy oh boy; just watch it. It's got a PLOT! A real, actual, clever and very interesting plot. If you can't find a character to relate to; you must have forgotten much. Needless to say this series has a LOT of feels. There will be at least one episode that makes you cry from feels. I followed this one as they were airing it; man it helped me through some very dark times.


Now for mainstream anime; I'd have to side strongly with CardCaptor Sakura. It's a classic; must see anime. You can't even get your weeb permit without seeing this one. If you haven't seen it; don't even say anything; just go download and watch it all immediately; and let your first comment to me be about what you thought of it.


For an off-the-wall pick I have to say that Lucky Star is probably the best pure slice of life. I will say I've seen Azumanga Daioh, and it has honorable mention


Last but not least is Ah! My Goddess! If romance is your cuppa; you'll enjoy this one.

 

[Winter]

Fate/Zero: Yeah yeah, we all know ufotable has combat animation all down (but give it some credit that they managed to appeal the majority, it means that they did at least one thing right), but the storyline of Zero was what distinguished it from Stay Night and Unlimited Budget Works. From the characterization (I'd say flawless simply because that was no Emiya Shirou and the youngest ones were a bunch of kidnapped kids, sans Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Tohsaka Matou) to the suspense enhanced by the fighting and strategizing involved just hit my soft spot for action + brains.

Paycho-Pass: Criminal psychology, philosophy and law? Yes please to max all three fields. I'm not that into the dystopian craze but Psycho-Pass impressed me. It's the only dystopian anime I'm willing to watch, on multiple occasions.

Baccano!: It's an acquired taste imho. You either love it to death, or dislike it because you have an opinion, just like how everyone has a butt, and it just happens to stink.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: I could hardly care less for the magical girl genre so the fact that I put it here it did something that the other shows haven't done to catch my attention and interest.

Another: You cannot call yourself a horror fan unless you've watched AND liked Another. This shows that you don't need mincemeat gore made by alien parasites to make a good psychological horror anime.

Mushishi: Should be self-explanatory.

Monster: Childhood bias.

 

[KingRin]

Another: You cannot call yourself a horror fan unless you've watched AND liked Another. This shows that you don't need mincemeat gore made by alien parasites to make a good psychological horror anime.

Did we watch the same show? It was basically Final Destination: The Anime. It's deaths were comical. I have watched only like 6-7 episodes of Higarushi and it handled creepiness and suspense way better. It's thing was the gore and the pie.

 

[Kenchiin]

Another is fine, far from being masterpiece...

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Did we watch the same show? It was basically Final Destination: The Anime. It's deaths were comical. I have watched only like 6-7 episodes of Higarushi and it handled creepiness and suspense way better. It's thing was the gore and the pie.

Talking about Another?

All of them, well perhaps all that aren't in my set, are super popular. u mad.

Ehh Fate/Zero and Cowboy Bepop are kinda in the same boat.

Dunno, just speaking from my point of view, from what I see.
I see FMA being mentioned more times than the other mentioned anime.

 

[Kenchiin]

It isn't a bad show either way, but for example, compared with Higurashi, it has nothing to do.

I'm surprised Death Note has still not popped up. Not that I care anyway.



We can say Fate/Zero and Cowboy Bebop are kinda mainstream lol. I mean, ufotable is uber mainstream at this point.