the other anime + manga thread inspired me to open a new thread, where you can post your top 5
anime series, anime films and manga series.
here is mine:
Anime (series):
1. Dragon Ball (Z)
2. Hokuto no Ken
3. Saint Seiya (+ Omega)
4. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters + 5Ds
5. Detective Conan
1. Z Gundam
2. Utena
3. Black Jack OVA
4. Gunbuster
5. Monogatari Series (Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari, Nekomonogatari Kuro, Monogatari Series Second Season)
Manga (series):
1. Mugen no Junin
2. Freesia
3. Oyasumi Punpun
4. 20th Century Boys
5. Genshiken
Series:
Dirty Pair
Yamato
Bubblegum Crisis
Evangelion (especially End Of)
Gundam Wing (maybe I watched it at an impressionable age, but always felt this was a cracker)
Ouran KouKou
Films:
Wicked City
Assorted 80's schoolgirl with swords OVAs
Akira (obv)
Ghost in the Shell
Mango: (mainly in to authors who do one-shots rather than series)
Shintaro Kago
Suehiro Maruo
FLCL (I think this blows the cartoon out the water, but I seem to be the only person in the world to think this.
Movies:
End of Evangelion
Spirited Away
Mind Game
Grave of the Fireflies
Time of Eve
Manga:
Welcome to the NHK
Great Teacher Onizuka
Legend of the Strongest Man, Kurosawa
Liar Game (I prefer the drama)
Azumanga Daioh (I prefer the anime)
I'm more interested in movies than television or manga, so that was the hardest category for me. I also haven't read much manga, so those five are pretty much the only series I've really liked so far.
I don't know if I could keep up with all the romanization to donate to this thread. I had to google half this shit. Did everyone half-learn Japanese all of a sudden?
BIL wrote:
"Small sack, LOTS OF CUM" - Nikola Tesla
Lesseehere. Bolded are #1, the rest are not in any particular order because I'm not always 100% sure how I want to order them. And I can probably always think of more than five so yeah.
Animu series: Legend of Galactic Heroes
Pani Poni Dash!
Azumanga Daioh
Lupin III (nearly all of it, really)
Gunbuster + Diebuster (they totally count as one)
Princess Tutu
Animu movies:
My Neighbour Totoro
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
Princess Mononoke
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
Kiki's Delivery Service
...okay that was silly, and I'd do a list of my favourite non-Ghiblis, but honestly, I can't remember many notable full-length animu movies I've seen that's not Ghibli, Lupin III or One Piece, so, eh. Well, Akira, but it'd still be a dumb list. (I'm sure Grave of the Fireflies would be on that Glibli list, but I haven't actually seen it yet! I own it on DVD, but it feels like a thing that needs to be given one long serious watch through the whole thing in one go)
Mangos: Blade of the Immortal
Azumanga Daioh
Yotsuba&!
One Piece (in no small part thanks to the absolutely amazing Swedish translation)
My 1CCs so I can find the list easier myself <Despatche> you've been a thorn in the shmups community since the beginning, you're largely responsible for the horrible face of modern speedrunning
Series:
Dirty Pair
Fist of the North Star
Maison Ikkoku
Space Adventure Cobra
Space Pirate Captain Harlock
Movies:
I'm excluding Dirty Pair: Project Eden, even though it should be here.
Golgo 13: The Professional
Windaria
Wicked City
Dagger of Kamui
Castle in the Sky
Manga:
Nausicaa
Violence Jack
Ode to Kirihito
Black Jack
Dororon Enma-kun
BIL wrote:
"Small sack, LOTS OF CUM" - Nikola Tesla
Can I get an apreesh for Fukumoto Nobuyuki? I just cottoned on to him in the past years and I really love all of his series.
Kaiji is so suspenseful. It's a feeling that I've haven't gotten since seeing Clouzot's _Wages of Fear_ Akagi got me really into mahjong, plus one of the best anti heroes. Legend of the Strongest Man Kurosawa is one of my favorite manga of all time...Tobaku Haouden is similar to Kaiji but has it's own charm.
Please check them out and I hope enjoy them as much as I have.
From best to "worst", the ones I find to be the cream of the cream.
Anime:
Ashita no Joe Uchu...Harlock (the first series, the others were garbage: SSX was written by Reagan and Hitler, likely) Galaxy Express Mirai shonen Conan ...
I cannot decide on only one fifth series. At least for anime, I do think that there were truly outstanding series from the '80s onwards, but this quarter was simply better than anything that come before and after them. Please keep in mind that I only saw re-runs of the aforementioned series (I was born in '81, in fact), so a purist would claim that I am just a pretender trying to praise the past, or something to that effect. Well, my father said that it's his merit that I did not watch only shit when I was a child, as a matter of fact. These series were also helped by representing well the Zeitgest/esprit du tiemps/spirit of the age in a masterful way. I can't recall series that were effective at all in this regard, from the '80s onwards. Thank you, Reagan and Tatcher.
Movies:
Honneamise Ghost in the shell
... Akira Hotaru no haka/Grave of the fireflies
...and others, but these three must be head and shoulders over every other movie. I also find Akira to be a 9,99, rather than a perfect 10, with respect to the other two movies.
Sorry, but Miyazaki/Ghibli never reached the ultimate pinnacle of quality, except for fireflies, a movie that is simply too harrowing for me. Once was enough.
I would actually argue that there tons of movies that could be sixth/seventh in the list, as several works in the last 20 years or so are superb, but lack a good milieu that gives them the extra amount of content/punch/whatever. To an extent, I think that the four movies above were among the last movies the swan's song of intellectually and socially committed works in japanese animation. Mononoke hime is a bloody fairy tale for tree-shagging luddite hipsters, it makes me wanna dump a quadriton of concrete on everything.
Manga:
Nausicaa HIstory of the three Adolfs Ghost in the shell Akira
...
I cannot put my finger on another one, right now, but it would not be anything newer than '91-92 or so. I stopped liking (and reading) Manga very early on, as I felt that western authors such as Moore, Morrison or Gaiman were simply on another scale, in terms of narrative skills.
Also: I can't believe that something like Dragon Ball popped up in your lists, people. Actually, I can't believe that your lists are not exactly like mine, dammit.
Actually, I could start another thread on the "why modern X sucks?" theme, judging by what I listed. I promise to troll anyone who praises the Pat Labor movies because they are too new, you tasteless simpletons!
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
Randorama wrote:
I cannot put my finger on another one, right now, but it would not be anything newer than '91-92 or so. I stopped liking (and reading) Manga very early on, as I felt that western authors such as Moore, Morrison or Gaiman were simply on another scale, in terms of narrative skills.
You are missing on lots of great stuff. People like Inio Asano, Jiro Matsumoto, Naoki Urasawa, Taiyo Matsumoto, Makoto Yukimura and many others are no worse than the elite Western authors.
By the way, I don't like Akira (movie). It's technically wonderful, but rather poor compared to the manga it's based on.
Hagane wrote:
You are missing on lots of great stuff. People like Inio Asano, Jiro Matsumoto, Naoki Urasawa, Taiyo Matsumoto, Makoto Yukimura and many others are no worse than the elite Western authors.
True, in fact I think that we need a separate Manga thread, possibly very seinen/josei-oriented.
By the way, I don't like Akira (movie). It's technically wonderful, but rather poor compared to the manga it's based on.
I agree on the second part, surprisingly enough. I have the same feeling about Nausicaa, as both also had one key feature: the mangas came to their conclusion years after the movies were produced.
Last edited by Randorama on Sat Oct 12, 2013 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
Genshiken (really enjoying Genshiken Nidame, too)
Mysterious Girlfriend X
Naruto
Kimagure Orange Road
Yakitate! Japan
Manga (series):
A Drifting Life by Tatsumi Yoshihiro
Kaiji (well, anything by Nobyuki Fukumoto)
Sumire 16 Sai!!
Ashita no Joe
Lone Wolf and Cub
(I really could go on and on...)
Anime (films):
Spirited Away
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.11, 2.22, 3.33
Memories
Makoto Shinkai's oeuvre
Hajime no Ippo: Mashiba vs. Kimura OVA
Honorable mentions: Happy! by Urasawa Naoko, Ryuu no Michi by Ishinomori Shotaro, Killer Stall (Manwha), Uzumaki by Ito Junji, Nobunaga no Chef...
Last edited by Frenetic on Sun Oct 13, 2013 4:18 am, edited 2 times in total.
Hagane wrote:
By the way, I don't like Akira (movie). It's technically wonderful, but rather poor compared to the manga it's based on.
I treat Akira the movie and the manga as two independent beasts, the same way I treat Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 novel independently to Kubrick's film.
They're like retellings of similarly themed stories as opposed to adaptations, which in both cases would be impossible considering the wealth of content in the novelisations.
Picking a king of each genre; plucky shonen/gorny seinen/horror/romance/sci-fi/giant robot/children's... I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility.
Time of Eve is one that doesn't have much advertising behind it; it gets its attention from viral internet word of mouth. It's a labor of love by its studio, for certain. Boring series/movie about robots who start having feelings, and the entire show is about people sitting in a cafe drinking coffee and talking about robots and their feelings. Recommended for sure as a single watch.
