Anime, what a horrid little thing you've become.

[StarStruckStrumpets]

Hey hey hey...don't knock Digimon. It's awesome. I use my five year old brother as an excuse to watch the movie.

Damn it, gotta love Cherubimon.

 

[Anggul]

I do like anime, well actually I usually read the manga, I'm too impatient to wait for the show to do it's thing, whereas if #I read it, I can go as fast as I like.

The main thing to realise is that manga/anime is a huge media, and there are a lot of good ones. Unfortunately, there are a /LOT/ of really sucky ones which shouldn't even be allowed to exist. Also unfortunately, the ratio of good-to-bad is massively tipped towards the bad side. As long as you can dig through the layer of crap to the gleaming treasure of awesomeness buried within, anime is good. Stuff like Akira, Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, etc. Those are good. Just avoid the crap.

 

[wilted_orchid]

L's my favorite fictional character of all time, so I had to work something in there.

Anyway, I have to respectfully disagree with naming Kamina the manliest, Jagdedge. Berserk's Guts is the manliest, possibly tied with Hellsing's Alucard.

The thing is, you have to die a manly death in order to even qualify for the manliest being in exsistence. Punching a kid in the face, having the obligatory hot girl waiting for your tender loving, killing upwards of twenty people in giant mechs, and then killing their General, all while sustaining injuries resulting from a giant laser to the chest and a glaive 20 times your size being stabbed into your back are all awesome and manly things, and all things that made up his death sequence. Kamina was the embodiement of everything GAR.

Counterpoint: You know what it took to kill Alucard? They had to bloody erase him from existence in a paradox. He survived mutilation, decapitation, hundreds of bullet wounds, even crashing an SR-71 into an aircraft carrier's deck.

Guts: Where do I begin? The fact that his sword as more than a foot wide and between 6-7 feet long? The fact that he sliced off his own hand to get it free to protect the woman carrying his child? The fact that he's taken out demons twice his size? That his hand was replaced with a fake one that conceals a cannon? HOW MUCH MANLIER CAN YOU GET?!

You could be Chuck Norris.

But back to the subject at hand, anime is far too chummy with paedophilia in many circumstances, and for that it falls foul with me. The subtle suggestions in Kuroshitsuji of Sebby and Ciel (Sebby being of unknown age and Ciel a ripe old TWELVE) were nearly enough to put me off, but that was really nothing compared to Loveless. Loveless just took the cake and all my desire to watch anymore and threw it out the bloody window asap.

 

[PurpleRain]

Heh, people are starting to assume that I hate all anime (the nazi worshiper especially). But as I recall, I was posting ones I love. I guess at the time I wrote this, I didn't get the point across to well.
So, I'll try and powerphrase what I may have meant:
'You can't say that you like anime or you hate anime. It is a big genre with both great, good and crap, just like all genres. I do like many anime shows, but there is also many many that I just can't bare to watch. Sadly, the latter outweighs the former and it is because of people who say "I love all anime" I feel is the cause of this. It's a big market with lots of money. So of course, there will be lots of churn out products. As long as they still continue to make money on crap, shows and movies like Ghost in the Shell and Spirited Away will be drowned out by anime shows about roller skating while gaining power animals of some shit like that.'

 

[Shadedblade]

The gorgeous emotional drama that is Neon Genesis?

Actually a LOT of people all over the world really hate Evangelion, but I do see the point you're trying to make here. Although I myself like many Anime series/movies of old and new such as Eva, Lain, GitS (movies and the series), even Ergo Proxy, I always shudder at the bastard half-breed (mainstream?) Anime such as Naruto that feels like it was essentially manufactured for American seventh graders with learning disabilities.

I'm imagining there's a lot of hate over NG:E because everyone expects it to be a giant robot duel thing. Then the ask questions like: Why are the robots bleeding? Why do 14yr olds pilot them? Why does everyone have shields? Why don't they just blow the angels up with big lasers instead of making robots?

I've heard them all.

Every one of those questions is answered either in the show or the outrageously MA-rated movie that takes place during the psychological bit at the end of the show.
Edit: While I whole-heartedly reccommend the show, I wouldn't reccommend the movie.

Spoiler

Every one of the characters that you may have liked is butchered in the movie. Everyone either turns into an evil bastard, or is killed off.

 

[Diablini]

Short and Simple - Animay has become Eay.

 

[boyvirgo666]

Watch Death Note then come back

iv seen it. not only did it run out of good story about 7 episodes in its pretty much yaoi. its a bad story marred even worse by a writer who wanted to milk the money as long as possible

 

[Shadedblade]

Watch Death Note then come back

iv seen it. not only did it run out of good story about 7 episodes in its pretty much yaoi. its a bad story marred even worse by a writer who wanted to milk the money as long as possible

Why do you say that? Saying something has a bad story or bad writing is not sufficent nor particularly intelligent criticism.

 

[PurpleRain]

Spoiler

Every one of those questions is answered either in the show or the outrageously MA-rated movie that takes place during the psychological bit at the end of the show.
Edit: While I whole-heartedly reccommend the show, I wouldn't reccommend the movie. Every one of the characters that you may have liked is butchered in the movie. Everyone either turns into an evil bastard, or is killed off.

Spoilers would be great. And I loved the ending. The movie was fantastic. As for people becoming evil, it was really built up throughout the show. It gives the hard ending and shows the truth in all the questions made.

 

[Captain Lag]

But Death note takes the cake.

I think you mean it takes the chip. AND EATS IT

 

[Shadedblade]

The gorgeous emotional drama that is Neon Genesis?

Actually a LOT of people all over the world really hate Evangelion, but I do see the point you're trying to make here. Although I myself like many Anime series/movies of old and new such as Eva, Lain, GitS (movies and the series), even Ergo Proxy, I always shudder at the bastard half-breed (mainstream?) Anime such as Naruto that feels like it was essentially manufactured for American seventh graders with learning disabilities.

I'm imagining there's a lot of hate over NG:E because everyone expects it to be a giant robot duel thing. Then the ask questions like: Why are the robots bleeding? Why do 14yr olds pilot them? Why does everyone have shields? Why don't they just blow the angels up with big lasers instead of making robots?

I've heard them all.

Every one of those questions is answered either in the show or the outrageously MA-rated movie that takes place during the psychological bit at the end of the show.
Edit: While I whole-heartedly reccommend the show, I wouldn't reccommend the movie. Every one of the characters that you may have liked is butchered in the movie. Everyone either turns into an evil bastard, or is killed off.

And that is precisely what makes the ending so good. Its hurtful and it fills you with rage and depression.

Spoiler

I guess I would agree with you for the most part. Shinji was a completely innocent character; however, in the movie he instantly turns in to an evil bastard. Also, in the show he became more and more brave until at the end he was actually almost heroically brave. It just felt like all the character development was thrown out the window in order to kill off all the characters except for one/two. Also he gets in a relationship with who is essentially his foster mother? You have to call fanservice on that one. I personally think that the creator (who was a strong believer in having only one ending to a seires) just said 'screw it' and got his revenge on the fans who wanted him to make a new ending. I thought that the original ending was very interesting, and definetly sufficent unlike most fans.

 

[Robert632]

it's ironic that anime is very popular over here, but japan(the creators of anime.) are pretty xenophobic.

 

[FoxyStig]

It's all gone wrong!! The shows are bad, cheesy, horrible, and complete %#$@! But their movies are fine.

 

[Shadedblade]

Spoiler: snip

The gorgeous emotional drama that is Neon Genesis?

Actually a LOT of people all over the world really hate Evangelion, but I do see the point you're trying to make here. Although I myself like many Anime series/movies of old and new such as Eva, Lain, GitS (movies and the series), even Ergo Proxy, I always shudder at the bastard half-breed (mainstream?) Anime such as Naruto that feels like it was essentially manufactured for American seventh graders with learning disabilities.

I'm imagining there's a lot of hate over NG:E because everyone expects it to be a giant robot duel thing. Then the ask questions like: Why are the robots bleeding? Why do 14yr olds pilot them? Why does everyone have shields? Why don't they just blow the angels up with big lasers instead of making robots?

I've heard them all.

Every one of those questions is answered either in the show or the outrageously MA-rated movie that takes place during the psychological bit at the end of the show.
Edit: While I whole-heartedly reccommend the show, I wouldn't reccommend the movie. Every one of the characters that you may have liked is butchered in the movie. Everyone either turns into an evil bastard, or is killed off.

And that is precisely what makes the ending so good. Its hurtful and it fills you with rage and depression.

I guess I would agree with you for the most part. Shinji was a completely innocent character; however, in the movie he instantly turns in to an evil bastard. Also, in the show he became more and more brave until at the end he was actually almost heroically brave. It just felt like all the character development was thrown out the window in order to kill off all the characters except for one/two. Also he gets in a relationship with who is essentially his foster mother? You have to call fanservice on that one. I personally think that the creator (who was a strong believer in having only one ending to a seires) just said 'screw it' and got his revenge on the fans who wanted him to make a new ending. I thought that the original ending was very interesting, and definetly sufficent unlike most fans.

I think it is best to watch both endings at least once, regardless.

I wouldn't really call that a "relationship" either, she new she was going to die, it was just like a "goodbye kiss".

I really loved End of Evangelion though, I honestly think I have watched it more than any movie I own. I don't know WHY exactly I love it so much, its just a true work of art in my eyes. I would attempt to explain why but anything I say will be written off as "teenage pretentious pseudo-intellectual bullshit", so I will just say both endings need to be experienced.

As popular as Evangelion is, I rarely hear from anybody outside of fan forums who actually liked it.

Spoiler: Minor spoiler

Well, I did like the movie a lot, but I just didn't think it belonged with the rest of the series, if you understand what I mean. It was definetly an excellent movie, but the way the story resolved just felt weird in my opinion, although it could make sense if you factored in the main characters depression over an event that had happened just before the original ending. The only problem was, that I just couldn't see him being that depressed as he had only actually known the guy for maybe a week? Anyway, just my opinion here but don't get me wrong I did like EoE.

 

[Foolishman1776]

Sigh, okay, here's the thing. Japanophiles pay attention. It's not better just because it's from Japan. Japan has a history of ritualizing everything they do. As a result, everything they do takes on an almost religious quality. This does not make it better, it just means that people are less likely to question and therefor improve upon it. Japanese martial arts are no better than any other country's, Japanese Animu and Manga are no better than any other country's, and their culture, other than being a hodgepodge of elements of other cultures, is no better than any other. Stop worshiping the country, it's just another place. Also, Poky is just cookies dipped in chocolate, if you want the same thing without paying the import fees buy some animal crackers and a Hershey bar, same thing.

 

[NuclearJonJon]

But Death note takes the cake.

I think you mean it takes the chip. AND EATS IT

I'll give you this strawberry if you don't tell anyone.

 

[nicholaxxx]

-epic snip OF DEATH-

a gree with EVERY anime you put up there, I just finished burst angel like 2 weeks ago and it is AWESOME... of course that's because I just finished watching a few of those romantic anime with a bit of action sprinkled on top (rosario + vampire and Karin... a lot of fanservice, but I'm apparently just one of those freaks who works around it) so the epic action scene at the end was greatness, also the story does get pretty awesome at the end.

Spoiler: On topic

OT: not every anime is everyones cup of tea, of course if you could get me the name of that anime, I'll watch it, partially due to curiosity but mainly becase it actually sounds badass (the fanservice can go to hell though...) just so snooping around otakucenter and you can find something that works for you (guaranteed or your money back) I personally recommend:

rozen maiden (I've heard good things and have it in my favorites for when I get bored again)
Karin(chibi vampire, only a few scenes of fanservice from what I recall, save for the opening)
Rosario + vempire (fanservice every couple minutes... a LOT of panty shots... it's kind of irritating, but it's a good anime overall)
Burst angel (decent story near the end, great action and LIKEABLE characters)
Death note (already recomended TO DEATH here)

yeah, nothing else I can recommend with a good conciense(sp?) due to the fact that this is entirely the anime I have watched (a bit of trigun, Inuyasha and whatever you can find on the tube nowadays) or care to recommend (not what you're looking for and what I REALLY wish I could forget)