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Olyvia Saylor



Joined: 29 Apr 2014
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:04 pm Reply with quote
Hi, I am not really that familiar with Anime but what I heard with my daughter to be worth seeing are Sailor Moon Crystal, Love Stage, Hanayamata, Glasslip and Barakamon. I have not known any worst anime from her.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 3:10 pm Reply with quote
Olyvia Saylor wrote:
Hi, I am not really that familiar with Anime but what I heard with my daughter to be worth seeing are Sailor Moon Crystal, Love Stage, Hanayamata, Glasslip and Barakamon. I have not known any worst anime from her.


Do not watch Glasslip........unless you're looking for a good sedative. Laughing
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TsunaReborn!



Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Posts: 4713
Location: Cheltenham UK
PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 4:01 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
Olyvia Saylor wrote:
Hi, I am not really that familiar with Anime but what I heard with my daughter to be worth seeing are Sailor Moon Crystal, Love Stage, Hanayamata, Glasslip and Barakamon. I have not known any worst anime from her.


Do not watch Glasslip........unless you're looking for a good sedative. Laughing


Oh dear, I gave up after maybe 4 epsodes; I take it doesn't improve Anime smallmouth + sweatdrop
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 12:05 pm Reply with quote
It does not. You'll just be wishing you had those 6 hours of your life back. You were wise to give up, Tsuna. Anime hyper
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AnimeTenchou



Joined: 25 Dec 2014
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Thu Dec 25, 2014 7:03 pm Reply with quote
Kill la Kill- An awesome parody anime, tearjearkingly epic, absurdity at its finest.
Gurren Lagann- An incredible adventure, in a genre of its own.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure- Indescribable, wonderfully addictive and indeed, bizarre.
Fate/Zero- Urobuchi and Ufotable's masterpiece, what more to say?
Kyousougiga- A hidden gem, makes you cry but it's not tragic.
Monogatari- Written as cleverly as a stage play; the show that is fast paced, but goes nowhere.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood- Alchemy, philosophy and fight scenes, need anything else in an anime?
Azumanga Daioh- Funny as sh*t, a classic everyone needs to see, one of those 'Seinfeld-esque' shows.
Psycho-Pass- A gory, deeply interesting, spectacularly animated cyberpunk crime thriller.
Madoka Magica- Dark and trippy, everything you would expect in a magical girl show...
Clannad- Well, you must have heard about Clannad.
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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 25, 2014 10:49 pm Reply with quote
AnimeTenchou--
Happy Holidays and welcome to the fora!
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AnimeTenchou



Joined: 25 Dec 2014
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Fri Dec 26, 2014 5:20 am Reply with quote
nbahn wrote:
AnimeTenchou--
Happy Holidays and welcome to the fora!

Thanks, hope you have a good one!
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:18 am Reply with quote
I've now watched over 400 anime titles and made over 2700 posts so I think it's about time to contribute a new list to the thread.

Errinundra's Top 10 Anime Directors

The criteria for making the list is straight forward. Directors qualify if I've seen a minimum of six of their anime (the Satoshi Kon Limit), whether movie, TV series, OVA, ONA, special or short movie (the shortest being one minute). I mark each anime according to the rating I have given them in My Anime, with 10 for masterpiece and 1 for awful. (I've never given a worst ever rating.) Each director is given an average score for their six best rated titles with tie-breakers in favour of the director with more viewed titles. You can see the full list of qualifying directors by clicking on the My Anime link on the bottom of the post and checking out the categories I've created with the headings Director Pantheon.

In some ways this list is fraught with problems. I may only have seen half of a director's ouvre. Is ranking them any better than scoring a TV series if I've only seen half the episodes? For those directors where I've only seen a bare minimum, have I only seen their best work? Their worst work? For those I've watched a lot, is the inevitable crap going to bring them down in my mind? Some have a reputation as auteurs, others are journeymen - how easy is it to compare the two? The questions aren't easy to resolve. The list is highly subjective, of course. Some directors will be on pretty well anybody's list, other choices will be more eccentric.

(Note: highlighted titles indicate I've rate the anime as masterpiece.)

1. Satoshi Kon
Best: Paprika; Millenium Actress; Perfect Blue - see images below
Also seen: Tokyo Godfathers; Paranoia Agent; Ohayo!

Of all the visual arts involving motion (movies, TV, theatre, opera, video to name some) animation stands out as the art form where viewers are most willing to suspend belief. There's a Warner Brothers cartoon where Sylvester the Cat, while chasing Speedy Gonzales, unknowingly runs through a wire mesh fence, dicing himself in the process. The Sylvester cubes re-assemble themselves and the chase continues. This sort of caper works best in 2D animation yet Japanese animators rarely take full advantage of the possibilities on offer. One of the great exceptions is Satoshi Kon who used the powers of 2D animation to disorient and deceive but also to amuse and stimulate viewers.

He didn't do this simply for effect. In Paprika he uses the technique to play metafictional games: the heroine jumping into TV screen during a live news broadcast and coming out of the camera at the scene is not only surprising but provides an ironic commentary on the hyperreality of modern day media. Blurring the lines between reality and fantasy in Millenium Actress allows a multi-faceted analysis of the actress Chiyoko Fujiwara the way a cubist painting gives us mulitiple versions of a person's face. Three out-of-sync bodies in Ohayo! show us a young woman recovering from a hangover. The shenanigans of Paranoia Agent provide a satirical critique of Japanese kawaii culture. Our inability to easily determine what is really happening in Perfect Blue is symptomatic of Mima's breakdown.

It's a level of sophisticaton rarely found elsewhere in anime, yet it is never less than highly entertaining. Often in anime I feel that I'm being treated simply as a consumer - just a dupe for selling product. Like most of the other directors here I don't get that feeling with Satoshi Kon. With him I always feel that I'm having a conversation with someone highly intelligent, who's treating me as also highly intelligent and who's saying, "well, what do you think and feel about this?"



2. Koichi Mashimo
Best: Hyouge Mono; Noir; Irresponsible Captain Tylor - see images above
Also seen: .hack//SIGN; The Weathering Continent; Phantom ~ Requiem for the Phantom; Madlax; El Cazador de la Bruja; Blade of the Immortal; Dirty Pair - Project Eden; Ai City; .hack//Intermezzo; .hack//Unison

Koichi Mashimo is something of a poison of mine that many other anime fans find indigestible. And I've easily seen more of his stuff than any other director's. Mind you, given his characteristic languid pace, people might say that one hour of Mashimo is equivalent to two hours of anybody else. Oddly enough, that's one of his many qualities I like. He has something of a European cinematic sensibility about him, where not much appears to happening outwardly but internally characters and relationships are shifting subtly and steadily. When it works, as in Hyouge Mono and Noir, the outcome is intensely moving, even shattering. Mood, music, style, imagery, mystery, character development and psychological scrutiny prevail over action or plot structure. Typically he sets up a scenario where the viewer has little understanding of what is really happening, parsimoniously revealing snippets of information whose import isn't always apparent. While it can be frustrating a re-watch can be a revelation. (On the subject of music, Mashimo gave Yuki Kajiura her big break in anime - Noir and .hack//SIGN contain some of her best work still.)

He is, admittedly, quite variable in quality. Sometimes his creative judgement is completely out of whack - the first ten episodes of Madlax; the third arc of Phantom; the abrupt ending of Blade of the Immortal come to mind. In parts of El Cazador I get the feeling he's just going through the motions, that his mind is elsewhere.

There is something else going on, though. Mashimo has the most po-faced, absurd sense of humour in anime. It's no wonder that two of his most successful works are out and out piss takes on militarism - Hyouge Mono and Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Once you become attuned to his droll, pull-your-leg approach you may see a richness in his work that isn't otherwse in the foreground. I love it.

There is another factor that is a clincher for me. Mashimo has fantastic, strong, memorable female characters. They are the best. Have you ever heard of the Bechdel Test? It looks at gender bias in media by specifically measuring how much time two named female characters talk with each other about something other than a man. Shows like Noir and El Cazador would blow the test away. For sure their designs are frequently fetishy - they are intended for a male audience after all - but, you know, some men like clever, independently minded women with agendas that don't involve men (other than shooting them). Odd that his best work hardly has any women in it at all.



3. Hayao Miyazaki
Best: Spirited Away; Porco Rosso; My Neighbour Totoro - see images below
Also seen: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind; Princess Mononoke; Laputa - Castle in the Sky; Lupin III - the Castle of Cagliostro; The Wind Rises; Ponyo; Future Boy Conan; Kiki's Delivery Service; Howl's Moving Castle.

I won't spend much time here as everyone knows about Miyazaki. A great visual artist and story teller, I've yet to see a single work of his that isn't at least decent while most are exceptional.



4. Takahiro Omori
Best: Koi Kaze; Baccano!; Princess Jellyfish - see images above
Also seen: Durarara!!; Natsume's Book of Friends (season 1); Hotarubi no Mori e; Hell Girl (season 1)

That's quite a range of material - from taboo busting romance to sumptuous gothic horror via comedic violence, Irish legends, hippy communal living and garden variety Japanese demons. I guess the shared quality here is that Omori has an acute sensitivity for nuance that makes pretty well everything he tries come off. (I haven't seen Samurai Flamenco yet.) He's stylish, smart, inventive and above all, very humanistic in his approach. His work is suffused with wit. You'd need all these qualities to get something like Koi Kaze to work. And it does - magnificently. Most other people would have hacked it. Easier subjects are grist for his mill; only the formulaic Hell Girl disappoints.

5. Junichi Sato
Best: Princess Tutu; Aria the Origination; Junkers Come Here - see images below
Also seen: Aria the Natural; Aria the Animation; Aria the OVA ~ Arietta ~

Given that 2/3 of Sato's titles here are part of the Aria franchise he may be be a little overrated. I love his stuff, though. Mind you, I have seen the first episode of Sailor Moon - I couldn't stomach it or her. Give me Duck, Sakura and Homura any day. At his best Sato's animation is beautiful in the watching and in the stories being told. They're leisurely, refreshing, entrancing and surprisingly emotional. Eleven episodes into Aria the Animation I suddenly started crying. I'm still not sure why. It wasn't particularly sad. Somehow Sato can just press the right buttons. And, in all the sweetness, the shows can generate an enormous amount of emotional power, as the conclusions to Princess Tutu and Aria the Origination demonstrate.

I think one of the reviews here of Aria described how Sato has a sort of dirty old man's appreciaton for young women. I get that. It's not prurient or nasty or grasping, just an appreciation of their sweetness. Princess Tutu goes beyond sweetness with one of the most awesome heroines in anime - voted as such by fans here at ANN.



6. Kenji Kamiyama

Best: Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit; Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig; Eden of the East (TV) - see images above
Also seen: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man; Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex; 009 Re:Cyborg; Eden of the East - Paradise Lost; Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society; Eden of the East - The King of Eden; Eden of the East - Air Communication; Xi Avant

Kamiyama was undoubtedly lucky getting the gig (yuck! yuck!) for the first Ghost in the Shell TV series. Not that he didn't deserve it but it subsequently set him up with big budget support from Production IG. His shows are a visual treat, with outstanding production values. His scripts are clever, with numerous twists and memorable characters. He not only inherited one of anime's most iconic female characters in Major Motoko Kusanagi but he improved upon Mamoru Oshii's version (a lack of familiarity means I can't compare her with Masamune Shirow's manga original). Not satisfied with that Kamiyama then gave us what I believe is the best action/fantasy/adventure heroine ever created in any medium - Balsa from Moribito. Mind you, he blotted his copybook with Eden of the East's Saki Morimi, though she is more than compensated for by the enigmatic and wondrous Juiz - the voice on the other end of the phone. And that brings me to one of the best and most characteristic aspects in Kamiyama's ouvre - the concepts that, particularly in Eden of the East, can be more interesting than the story or characters. Despite all these qualities Kamiyama can be prosaic at times. When the stars are aligned, however, his work oozes quality.

7. Masaaki Yuasa
Best: The Tatami Galaxy; Kaiba; Ping Pong - see images below
Also seen: Mind Game; Kemonozume; Kick-Heart; Happy Machine

The first anime director to have his work funded by Kickstarter. Yuasa and Satoshi Kon are the stand out auteurs of my top ten. Like Kon he uses animation to upend expectations. Whereas Kon makes us see things in altogether new ways, Yuasa is utterly besotted with how animation allows things to move. And I'm not just talking about the normal movements of objects or people. With Yuasa nothing ever stays still. Outlines are fluid; faces constantly mutate; everything fidgets; a change of scene can mean a change of style; the viewer's perspective zooms and rotates around the subject. It's grotesque and beautiful, bewildering and insightful; stimulating and refreshing, sometimes simultaneously. Nothing is ever static as these four images of Yuka Kamitsuki from Kemonozume attest:



His most recent work, Ping Pong, shows a greater discipline, maturity and visual coherence than ever before. I think it is a step forward and a sign perhaps that he can meld his unique vision to more conventional anime productions.



8. Isao Takahata
Best: The Tale of Princess Kaguya; Only Yesterday; Gauche the Cellist - see images above
Also seen: Grave of the Fireflies; Panda! Go, Panda!: Rainy Day Circus; Panda! Go, Panda!; From the Apennines to the Andes (TV); Pom Poko; Little Norse Prince Valiant

The other - less famous - half, with Hayao Miyazaki, of Studio Ghibli and thus, unfortunately, prone to comparison: folksy rather than epic; sentimental rather than exciting; thoughtful rather than boistrous. Every bit as clever, though. Indeed, the manipulations are more obvious at times. Further, there's a traditional, conservative political voice in his work that won't always appeal to modern audiences, although he does couch his arguments appealingly. He is a master animator and a master of constructing a shot. His style may be old fashioned but it can be extraordinarily beautiful as his last, and greatest work, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, attests.

9. Yasuhiro Yoshiura
Best: Time of Eve; Patema Inverted; Pale Cocoon - see images below
Also seen: Harmonie; Patema Inverted: Beginning of the Day; Aquatic Language; Kimi no Iru Machi (OAV); Kikumana; Noisy Birth

I'm not sure he fully deserves to be here yet but he has become a favourite of mine. Part of my reserve is that he gone from a cryptic ideas director to the unexpected artistic and popular success of Time of Eve where the ideas are nicely balanced with the story telling, the characterisations and the emotional content, to productions where the ideas have been secondary to characters and story telling that are rather lame. Still, the hooks are clever; he's just got to find that balance again that he got so right in Time of Eve. So, why do I rate him so highly. Easy, he's an ideas person and you may have guessed by now that I like cerebral anime (among other things).



10. Ryutaro Nakamura
Best: Serial Experiments Lain; Kino's Journey; Ghost Hound - see images above
Also seen: Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World; Colourful (TV); REC

Another outstanding visual stylist but who adds an uncanny ability to create an unsettling mood with sound effects. What Koichi Mashimo does with music to set a mood, Nakamura does with pure sound. Watch and listen to the first episode of Serial Experiments Lain and you see and hear him at the height of his abilities. There's more though. Nakamura had a quirky approach to his subjects. His works are like no other, even when compared within his own ouvre. The problem is that, beyond Serial Experiments Lain and Kino's Journey his output falls away in quality, even if it is distinctive stylistically.

This list is bookended by two directors who died before their time. Both left a tantalising legacy that suggested so much more was possible. It's a shame.

***

Here's the rest of the list. Directors towards the end made the cut mainly because they fulfilled the requirement of having seen 6 of their titles, not because I think they're especially good.

11. Tatsuya Ishihara - rates thanks to the monstrous but fascinating Haruhi and the cynical Kyon.
Best: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (season 1); The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya; Nichijou – My Ordinary Life
Also Seen: The Melancholy of Haruhu Suzumiya (season 2); Clannad After Story; Clannad
12. Makoto Shinkai - gorgeous visuals more than make up for flimsy story lines and weak female characters.
Best: The Garden of Words; 5 Centimetres per Second; The Place Promised in Our Early Days
Also Seen: Voices of a Distant Star; A Gathering of Cats; Children Who Chase Lost Voices; She and Her Cat; Other Worlds
13. Shinichiro Watanabe - quirky humour and a distinctive style; I suppose I have to get around to watching Space Dandy.
Best: Cowboy Bebop; Cowboy Bebop: The Movie; Kids on the Slope
Also Seen: Baby Blue; Samurai Shamploo; Kid’s Story; Detective Story
14. Morio Asaka - subtle, thoughtful director who can make the most of his material.
Best: Gunslinger Girl; Chobits; Chihayafuru 2
Also seen: Chihayafuru; Cardcaptor Sakura; Mermaid's Scar; Chibits
15. Koji Morimoto - thrilling and surreal visual stylist
Best: Magnetic Rose; Dimension Bomb; Beyond
Also Seen: Eternal Family; Connected; Four Day Weekend
16. Mamoru Hosoda - Has now established himself as the heir to Miyazaki as an anime movie maker who can appeal beyond the core market.
Best: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time; Summer Wars; Wolf Children
Also Seen: Digimon Adventure: Born of Koromon; One Piece: Omatsuri Danshaku to Himitsu no Shima; Superflat Monogram
17. Mamoru Oshii - visuals and mood dominate the story telling while his philosophising can be hit and miss.
Best: Ghost in the Shell; The Sky Crawlers; Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Also Seen: Patlabor 2: The Movie; Patlabor: The Movie; Patlabor The Mobile Police (OAV 1); Project Mermaid; Dallos; Angel’s Egg
18. Mahiro Maeda - another great visual stylist.
Best: Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo; Second Renaissance; Gala
Also Seen: Blue Submarine No.6; Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo; Princess Onmitsu
19. Osamu Tezuka - his influence probably exceeds the quality of his anime output
Best: Jumping; Legend of the Forest; Pictures at an Exhibition
Also Seen: Cleopatra; Murumasa; Push; Astro Boy (TV 1963); Mermaid; Male; The Genesis; Broken Down Film; Drop; Self-portrait; Memory
20. Kazuhiro Furuhashi - At his best there's some great story telling and visuals but he can be brought down by intrusive shounen elements and some dubious structures.
Best: Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal; Zipang; Rurouni Kenshin (TV)
Also Seen: Chevalier D’Eon; Rurouni Kenshin: Reflections; Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc
21. Hideaki Anno - I loved his work in His and Her Circumstances but he makes the list mainly because I've waded through the mostly tedious Evangelion franchise.
Best: His and Her Circumstances; Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance; Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth
Also Seen: Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone; Neon Genesis Evangelion; Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion; Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
22. Katsuhiro Otomo - visual master with a sour view of humanity.
Best: Steamboy; Combustible; The Order to Stop Construction
Also Seen: Akira; Cannon Fodder; Gundam: Mission to the Rise
23. Rintaro - Galaxy Express 999 is my favourite pre-1990s anime but beyond that his work is clunky; I loved Kimba as a child in the 60s.
Best: Galaxy Express 999 (movie); Metropolis; Labyrinth
Also Seen: Adieu Galaxy Express 999; Kimba the White Lion (TV 1965); X (movie)
24. Yoshiaki Kawajiri - I've always found his style grotesque without much else to compensate for it.
Best: Running Man; Highlander: The Search for Vengeance; Ninja Scroll
Also Seen: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust; Program; Wicked City

***

Other directors with masterpieces
Kanta Kamei - I've only seen Bunny Drop - there are three recent shows that I could look into.
Kazuto Nakazawa - While I loved Comedy, I loathed Moondrive and was indifferent to his AniKuri15 effort.
Tomokazu Tokoro - directed the wonderful Haibane Renmei and also the first four episodes of Hellsing Ultimate, which I didn't like much. I may get around to watching NieA 7 one day.
Tomomi Mochikuzi - I've only seen House of Five Leaves. Do I really want to see Pupa?
Hiroshi Nagahama - I've seen 4 of his 5 directorial efforts and rated them all, including Flowers of Evil, at least excellent, with the original season of Mushi-Shi getting a maximum score. I must get on to Detroit Metal City and, with the next Mushi-Shi special there would be a good chance he would break into my top ten.
Akiyuki Shinbo (I see ANN has recently changed the spelling to Simbo.) While I think Puella Magi Madoka Magica is marvellous his other works I've seen have left me cold. They are Petite Cossette, the first season of Maria Holic, Puella Magi Madoka Magica Rebellion, and the first episodes of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, Bakemonogatari, and Dance in the Vampire Bund. Hey! I've tried. I think he his fundamentally misanthropic.
Takeo Takahashi - I've only seen Spice and Wolf 1 and Spice and Wolf 2. I've ordered MAOYU from Madman after recently enjoying the first episode.

That's 31 directors. I have too much time on my hands.

***

My most recent anime top 10 is here. Now I'd probably replace Bunny Drop, Aria the Origination and Comedy with Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Hyouge Mono and The Tale of Princess Kaguya.


Last edited by Errinundra on Wed Feb 25, 2015 5:52 am; edited 1 time in total
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 4:39 pm Reply with quote
Now that I have the ability to do so, I'll update the indexes at the start of the thread. I'm only adding or updating where people have made a new list in this thread since the previous update, ie I'm not making any changes to the indexes otherwise.

Finished #-E.
Finished F-O.
Finished P-Z.
Completed.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar


Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16935
PostPosted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:34 am Reply with quote
errinundra wrote:
Now that I have the ability to do so, I'll update the indexes at the start of the thread. I'm only adding or updating where people have made a new list in this thread since the previous update, ie I'm not making any changes to the indexes otherwise.

Finished #-E.
Finished F-O.
Finished P-Z.
Completed.


Thanks buddy, it's nice to have a big master list all fresh and updated. Wink Your director list is a nice idea too. Never considered one for myself. Might have to sit down and think about who mine actually are. Never really paid attention to most per se. I'll have to check all my favorite series and see which have the same director.
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Zethus_Thorne



Joined: 28 Jan 2015
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 4:10 pm Reply with quote
The Best

5. Dragon Ball Z

Series Director: Daisuke Nishio
Studio: Toei Animation
Year: 1989-1996
Distributor: FUNimation (U.S.)
Based On: Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama

Great start up the anime chain. Action, Adventure, Comedy, and more.

4. Attack On Titan

Series Director: Tetsuro Araki
Studio: W.I.T Studio
Year: 2013
Distributor: FUNimation (U.S.)
Based On: Attack On Titan by Hajime Isayama

A big jump in the Modern Anime Industry. Graphic, Violent, Gripping, Epic.

3. Cowboy Bebop

Series Director: Shinichirō Watanabe
Studio: Sunrise
Year: 1998-1999
Distributor: FUNimation (U.S.)
Based On: Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star by Cain Kuga

Almost every Anime fan has seen this show. Not just Anime fans watch it but people who enjoy Westerns, Science-fiction, and Neo-noir.

2. Akira, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

Directors: Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), Hayao Miyazaki (Nausicaä), and Hiroyuki Yamaga (Honnêamise)
Studios: Kodansha (Akira), Top Craft (Nausicaä), and Gainax (Honnêamise)
Years: 1988 (Akira), 1984 (Nausicaä), and 1987 (Honnêamise)
Distributors: FUNimation (Akira), Walt Disney Company (Nausicaä), and Maiden Japan (Honnêamise)

This 3-way tie of 3 great Anime films made it on the same spot because they made such a huge impact of the Anime Industry as a whole.

1. Gurren Lagann
Series Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi
Studio: Gainax
Year: 2007
Distributor: Aniplex USA
Based On: Original Story

This is, by far, the best anime I've ever seen. As epic as it could be, the show has heart. I highly recommend this show to anyone.
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nobahn
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 4:34 pm Reply with quote
Connor Waltman--
Welcome to A.N.N!
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 4:45 pm Reply with quote
Damn! Ninja'd by nbahn!

Yes, welcome, Connor Waltman. I've added you to the front page of the thread. Thanks for the list.
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RogerLP



Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Posts: 99
Location: San Diego, California, USA
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 12:42 pm Reply with quote
Here, for better or worse, are the anime that I replay again and again. Note that there are no tragedies or tear jerkers on this list, though I have many and cried through each and every one. Why depress yourself more than once? Going to work everyday is sufficiently depressing. Laughing

1. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu - funniest anime I have ever watched and I continue to laugh each time I replay it. You really have to have watched the original Full Metal Panic series to get all the humor.

2. Haibane Renmei - Redemption. This is a heavy topic, yet the anime explores it extremely well. At the end you cry because of the 'loss' of Reki but you have renewed hope in life and the world.

3. Honey and Clover - An incredible coming of age story of 5 college students. You live with them, laugh with them, and cry with them. It teaches some interesting lessons about life. Wish I had seen this when I was in college.

4. Mysterious Girlfriend X - Of all of the High School Romance Comedies I have seen, this one affected me the most. While watching it I have flashbacks to my days in high school and I can identify with the feelings and thoughts of the male protagonist.

5. Angel Beats - Great story that skillfully mixes slapstick comedy with tragedy, death, and hope. The music is pretty good too. Girl Dead Monster rocks.

6. Noein - A gripping and intelligent story. When was the last time you heard "Schrodinger's Cat" discussed intelligently in a movie or anime? The animation designs are incredible or as we said in college "man, he had to be stoned out of his gourd". The soundtrack is to die for. The US$70 that I spent for the two Japanese pressed Noein soundtrack CDs was some of the best money I have ever spent.

7. Summer Wars - Incredible animation. Fast paced like the first 20 minutes of Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark. Great story. An eccentric cast of characters who actually behave sort of like real families do. Mushy high school romance, but all in good fun.

8. Serial Experiments: Lain - What is Reality, Identity, or Being Alive? These are terms that the philosophers have debated down through the millennium and are asked again in Lain. After watching Lain you are left with more questions than you started with. Similar to Texhnolyze in the posing of the question "What is Real and What is Not". Lain is the more comprehensible of the two.

9. The Wallflower - Hilarious comedy. Somehow I can never removed from my mind the scene where Sunako enters the host club to rescue Kyohei. She enters dressed as the picture perfect yamoto nadeshiko and upon locating Kyohei she rips off her formal kimono and is instantly transformed into a Nazi SS officer with a six foot chainsaw who proceeds to demolish the club (with a little help from her aunt at the end). Likeable characters.

10. Cromartie High School - A parody of the yankii (juvenile delinquent) movies of the '60s and '70s. Tons of references to western music and rock stars. A gag a minute. There is no real way to describe this anime other than theater of the absurd and/or bizarre. You really have to watch it yourself. If you do you will either hate or love it.
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
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Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 5:01 pm Reply with quote
#829074,

Thanks for the list. I've added you to the front page. In fact, you have top billing. (Using the hash earns you the top spot.)
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