Anime's You Find Overrated

[OldNewNewOld]

Elfen Lied.
OMFG this is probably one of most boring and _cliched_ anime i ever saw, yet there are legions of people who say "maaaaan, this is probably one of most f*cked up, goriest, scariest anime i ever saw"... ;]

Elfen Lied wouldn't have been so bad if the young female characters weren't naked at every opportunity.

and that really confused me as to why they did include so much nudity; it didn't seem like they were doing it for fanservice, in fact most of the time it seemed like severe fan-disservice. I like it when a show feels comfortable to show uncomfortable themes, such as nudity, but most of the times the nudity was just completely pointless; although personally i loved the anime overall,

Because adding nudity in a non-sexual context makes you deep.
Movies suffer from the same problem. Almost every movie I've watched that had full frontal nudity felt forced and try to hard to be "deep".

And while I'm talking about "trying to hard t be deep", Neon Genesis Evangelion.
It had nothing that interested me and the ultra bad German was what totally killed the show for me. They even managed to make mecha's bad.

 

[V8 Ninja]

Code Geass.

I don't care what people say; Code Geass was just not that good. While slightly generic, the first half of the first season was pretty decent. Yeah, the characters were pretty stock, but I could live with that for the fact that their stock-ness was used well. However, the moment it hits the halfway mark is when things start really getting stupid;

Spoiler: Code Geass spoilers ahead. Like you care...

A small chunk of the episodes are just stupid school celebrations where 95% of the episode doesn't really matter, there's that stupid other victim of the Geass that I feel doesn't fit well, the plot behind CC is vaguely explained to the highest degree, the last-minute God-people plot had too much ham-fisting, and the story DOESN'T ACTUALLY END. It stops right before the deciding moment. And shut up you people who think the story was about the ride! THE ENTIRE STORY WAS ABOUT HOW LELOUCHE WAS TRYING TO GET REVENGE ON BRITANNIA!!! We need to know if he succeeds or if he fails! True, the story was not going to end well either way, but abandoning the story at the last minute is not the solution!

 

[Mr Companion]

and has the most bland, mary sue-ish, pointless villain ever.

Oh yeah I forget to fit that into my rant too. I was like: whats this? A creepy looking guy who smiles all the time? I WONDER if he would ever BETRAY everybody? Heaven forbid, because if I see another anime where the traitor can be effortlessly identified because they smile all the time (Full Metal Alchemist) then I might just start killing agai- oh there he goes betraying everybody, and none of the people in the soul society even planned ahead for this obvious circumstance making me not care about any of them. Oh well hopefully the next story arch is more compelling.

And then the next story a girl gets kidnapped by shady people, second time in a row. (yeah I know it was just training it still counts >>)

 

[Brad Calkins]

Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and really deconstructions in general. Now, I didn't watch it, but I've heard all the spoilers and frankly it's the perfect example of what's wrong with deconstructions, NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THE WORD MEANS. Not even the directors, from what I can tell the shows that are praised as decontructions really just pull random crap out of their asses to torure the protagonists. There have been exceptions, like early Gunslinger Girl, but the rule is they know about realism about as much as the shows that play all the tropes straight

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Suzumiya Haruhi has been mentioned enough times. Nichijou for me, randomness can be executed right, but to me the show tries too hard. Oddly enough, it was more popular over here than in Japan (it barely profited).

Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and really deconstructions in general. Now, I didn't watch it, but I've heard all the spoilers and frankly it's the perfect example of what's wrong with deconstructions, NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THE WORD MEANS. Not even the directors, from what I can tell the shows that are praised as decontructions really just pull random crap out of their asses to torure the protagonists. There have been exceptions, like early Gunslinger Girl, but the rule is they know about realism about as much as the shows that play all the tropes straight

Madoka as a deconstruction is something that people took off on when it hit popularity, it holds no meaning. Shinbo never claimed the series as a deconstruction, and I can't find any major directors who claim such. It's something the overly rabid fans took off with (thanks to TV tropes). Same with Evangelion.

It's one of my favorite series (I had been in love with the Shinbo's style since Ef~a tale of memories~) but it doesn't need to be what people claim it to be. Anyway, watch it. It may be overrated, but it's by no means a bad series.

 

[TheVioletBandit]

I remember people loving Inuyasha when it was on adult swim, so I tried it out. Honestly, I thought the show was terrible. It was like a cartoon soap opera with demons and huge swords. I thought the show was boring, and the characters were annoying. I never understood the hype.

 

[CODE-D]

Death Note part 2 haters just cant handle the Sidoh

 

[370999]

snip

Naussicca was a little crude in it's message but I think you are being overly harsh as it is allowed to have creative license. A the end of the day what Miyazaki found most disappointing (and I agree with him) was how the end had to be resolved by a miracle, he made Princess Mononoke to fix that so all is forgiven.

Yes it is allowed to have creative license. However the problem is this film is trying to have a parable which is at least somewhat applicable to the real world. And in it's current form the film isn't. Nature is not divine, it is not something which is a caring paradise that looks after everything.

So by misrepresenting it, I feel the film fails at getting it's message to be at all useful.

Still it's a really really good film, the world is fascinating and I'm particularly fond of the dirty bulky aesthetic of the Tolmekians.

Edit:

snip

As a quick side discussion you're comments drove me to think about the anime that have actually given insights into the human condition. I guess it is Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell at first thought. Ghost in the Shell is quite open with the idea having the characters dicuss humanity often whilst Evangelion let's actions speak louder than words. What will shinji do today as he is subjected to yet another thing no psychiatrist is capable of helping him with?

If you haven't, check out Jin-Roh wolf brigade. It's a hard watch but a really good film that does try and say something about the nature of man. Mot something nice but it does do it quite successfully IMHO.

By the same director of Ghost in the Shell

 

[xXGeckoXx]

snip

Seen Jin-Roh. It was a good movie but a hard watch and this comes from someone who thinks that texhnolyze was fast paced. Ohh yeah add texhnolyze to the list of human condition anime.

I am getting kinda close to completing my anime list so yeah.

snip

Early gunslinger girl was surprisingly good. It died the instant the second season started. Action music, seriously? Overall I think of it as a pretty mediocre watch but the opening to the first season is awesome.

 

[Tartarga]

Outlaw Star.

So many people said that if I enjoyed Cowboy Bebop that Outlaw Star would be right up my alley. But it wasn't, I didn't hate it mind you, I was able to finish it after all. It was just dull.

The characters were boring, the action was boring, the spaceships were boring, and in the end there wasn't a single problem the main character couldn't solve by shooting it with his Caster gun or whatever.

 

[gigastar]

One Peice is considered the most popular manga and anime in Japan. Obviously this is not so outside of Japan, so that can be considered overrated.

And of course, Bleach after it caught the Seasonal Rot [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeasonalRot].

I remember people loving Inuyasha when it was on adult swim, so I tried it out. Honestly, I thought the show was terrible. It was like a cartoon soap opera with demons and huge swords. I thought the show was boring, and the characters were annoying. I never understood the hype.

This but what especially pissed all over the show for me was all the filler that went into the anime.

 

[KingCrInuYasha]

Some of the filler was nice, but what really killed Inuyasha was that the plot during or after the Band Of Seven arc just dragged along pointlessly.

Also, IMO, Kikyo's death scene has become the anime equivalent of the Conway Twitty gag from Family Guy.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Insert flame shield.
I never really get what's the big deal with Neon Genesis Evangelion and this is coming from a mech fan.
Yes I never get the whole religon subtext in the show and I just hate the depression that oozing out of it. If I wanted to watch a emo kid and a girl that went deeper and deeper into depression I would just go back to High School.

Agreed on Evangelion. Also, all the religious symbolism is akin to Americans getting random Kanji tattoos, there's no actual intention or meaning to it, just an attempt to seem cool and mysterious (this is admitted by the writers of Evangelion, apparently). Shinji is just such an unlikeable character, and none of the other protagonists are really any better, that I couldn't bring myself to enjoy even the mech fights.