Lets Talk The Big 3 (Anime shows)

[RJ 17]

First as a primer: here's the inspiration for this topic:


Yes yes, old youtube video is old. Still, I think it does bring up a fun topic of discussion.

To start things off, I'll go ahead and declare myself as a non-fan of these series. The problem that I had with these shows is that they never frickin' end (exaggeration). They just keep going and going and going and oh look it's another 30-50 episode filler arc. I had my run with both Naruto and Bleach (never got into One Piece), but I just got impatient. It takes 60 frickin' episodes to finish a conversation and two fights (more exaggeration). I won't deny that I REALLY liked the fight scenes in Bleach, but just when you thought the story was FINALLY going to get to the good stuff: insert filler-arc for three months!

Naruto was decent, I mean who doesn't like ninjas, right? But it suffered from the same problem: it just dragged on and on and on. And really I just ended up coming to the conclusion that I liked shows that have a decent run-time (maybe 30-60 episodes) but ultimately have a very clear and defined end. That's why shows like Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: SAC appeal to me. They don't need to stretch themselves out for 10 million episodes just to tell a story that another anime could tell in 70 episodes.

That, and I just came to the realization that Naruto and Bleach were just DBZ with ninjas and death-gods, respectively.

So, my fellow Escapists, what are your thoughts on The Big Three?

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

I don't watch any of them, so I can't say I have a definite opinion on them. I neither love them or hate them. I've seen a bit of each show, though. I saw the first couple of episodes of Naruto a long while back when it was on Toonami and I didn't really get into it. Same with Bleach, but whenever I see a random episode on Toonami I find them hilarious, as they seem to sum up every stereotypical long-running shounen show. I did recently watched the first couple episodes of One Piece and thought it was alright.

Seen a bit of them but not enough to have any opinions on them. They could suck or they could be brilliant, I don't know, I just avoid long-running anime. I've been hurt by those before with Inuyasha, which caused me to stop watching anime for several years before picking up again with Death Note. So yeah, I don't care one way or another whether they "never end" or not because I just don't care for those shows in general, and chose not to pay attention to them. I've got my own anime to watch. If others enjoy them, that's great. Doesn't make them any less of a human being.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yup I watched the big three well former with Bleach (it went downhill after the recuse Rukia arc). Out of the two, I prefer One Piece over Naruto. I'm not going into specific on why I favour One Piece the most, all I can say is that I find that universe more indept compared to Naurto.

Yeah I know all three are extremely long but hey, that what I like about those shows are for the journey not the end, as you watched the characters progresses, so do you.

Sure it will end eventually but I can't denine it has been one hell of a ride getting there!

EDIT- Geez what with all these naysayers? Am I one of the few on here who liked the big 3 animes?

 

[Angie7F]

I watched and read all of them. I dislike One Piece the most. Naruto is OK, and Bleach is ok.
I never liked mainstream shonen with extroverted characters.

 

[madwarper]

I like Bleach, am warm toward Naruto, but feel that One Piece is directionless and far too juvenile for my tastes.

I started watching them on the years ago, when Toonami was prime time. After missing a few episodes, I turned to the manga to get caught up and never looked back. No filler, no god awful English voice actors.

Naruto is already fighting the battle of its last arc, and Bleach is gearing up for the fight of its last arc.

I just has a sad because both Deadman Wonderland and Soul Eater have just ended.

 

[Legion]

I have seen one episode of Bleach and it had all of the typical anime conventions that irritate me (shouty main characters, over the top reactions to everything and so on). I watched it to test the water as people on here mentioned it was good but it did nothing for me. The other two I have never watched any episodes.

Apart from being curious about Bleach, I have simply never had any desire to watch any of them. They just aren't my kind of thing from what I can tell. I am also put off watching long running shows if I haven't been with them from the start in general.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I regard the 'Big Three' with extreme ambivalence...

I watched about 100ish episodes of Naruto and it was OK... but the fact that there was a hundred more to go and Shippuuden to get through as well, I thought, how fucking much can they get out of one IP?! OK, dumb question, but given how much of a time investment it eventually becomes, I'd rather watch a whole load of shorter series that... y'know, actually have a final resolution.

So... I, by and large, avoid anything that lasts for more than a year (in release schedule time). Some people think I've shot myself in the foot for missing out on Fairy Tail, but I don't give a damn. I've watched a load of series that I reckon I've enjoyed a helluva a lot more in the interceding time, and FT hasn't ended yet.

 

[Pyramid Head]

Naruto is complete garbage, the anime answer to Call of Duty in that it's devoid of intelligence, creativity and it's pacing is bad, though admittedly for different reasons on the last one.

One Piece sucks as an anime, but the graphic novel wasn't THAT bad. Still, fuck Luffy, Luffy sucks. Even before i found One Piece years ago i was getting to be sick to death of stupid protagonists.

Bleach... i quit following it a long time ago. It had some interesting ideas but it was brought down by bad execution and horrible art for the humans. I mean Jesus fucking a zebra, were we actually supposed to find Orihime attractive with that absurd rack?

 

[roushutsu]

I used to be a huge fan of Naruto, but roughly around Deidara and Sasuke's fight in Shippuden was when I gave up on it. I'm all for progression and all, but after the first arc in Shippuden, it just slowly went downhill because things were going all over the place, characters were being introduced only to be forgotten (cough cough Sai), and while I expected Sasuke to play a big role, he went from being a decent anti-hero to a boring, generic, god-modding villain.

I tried to get into Bleach, but I just couldn't get invested in it. Even when I got to the Soul Society Arc in the anime, I was just like "eh," and that's arguably the best that Bleach has to offer. I've heard that it went downhill after a while, so I guess I'm not missing much.

I haven't kept up with the One Piece manga in a while (last bit I read was the whole Mermaid Island arc after the timeskip), but out of the 3, OP is the one I still genuinely enjoy. Now that it's on Toonami, I try to watch it. I really like Funimation's dub for it.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I was super into Naruto from 2006-2008, I fell out of love late 2008, not because I didn't like it anymore, but I guess my tastes changed. There were lots of great arcs in Naruto, all the stuff with the chunnin(not sure I spelled that right) exams was very exciting. It started to get ahead of itself and got way too complicated. I recently went to the Naruto wiki to skim through everything that has happened since I stopped reading the manga, and wow did it sound messy, kinda interesting, but messy. I am curious to see how it ends, but for the most part I don't care enough to get back into it.

I liked Bleach a little, but my interest died pretty quickly, I guess it never clicked with me. I never read or watched One Piece so I have no opinion either way.

 

[Elfgore]

I haven't watched any of the big three, but I do plan on watching Naruto and Bleach at some point. One Piece really has nothing that interests me, not into pirates much.

I do feel the bug three may become four in a year or two. Fairy Tail has a good chance with it's rise in popularity and with it in arm's reach of 200 episodes. And yes, I do watch and enjoy Fairy Tail. Only anime over 100 episodes that has held my attention.

 

[DrRockor]

Never read or watched One Piece. I still like Bleach but I haven't read it in a long time and Naruto makes me angry when I think about it.

Naruto makes me angry because not long ago I started to realise that there is no character development. I think specifically a recent story development

MAJOR SPOILERS

Spoiler

When Sasuke came back

It really pissed me off for some reason and then I started thinking about all the characters and I just got more and more annoyed. I then went and ranted at my friends who now use it to mess with me.

I don't hear big 3 so much anymore. I always hire big 5 with Fairy Tail and Hitman Reborn in there. Related to them I've never read Hitman but my friend says its really good and Fairy Tail is pretty much the only anime I watch on a regular basis

 

[The_Echo]

I watched all of the original Naruto, and all of Bleach's non-filler anime. Only watched about 30 episodes of One Piece.

Naruto has, basically, no plot. It's essentially Fight Scene: The Anime. I don't know if the plot improves in Shippuden, but I honestly don't care.

I could see One Piece being good; it's got a pretty decent premise but unfortunately it's set up to focus on the characters exploring their world, so it basically tells you "this will never end" from the get-go. I bear no ill will toward it, though.

Bleach is my favorite of the three. When you strike the filler content, it's <200 episodes, and has a pretty good pace. While I do think the series could have ended with the Aizen arc, I did really enjoy the Fullbringer stuff. The villains and powers were pretty awesome throughout the whole series.

What you have to understand about these series is that they're shounen anime. Aimed towards young men and focusing on comedy and combat. DragonBall Z is no different. The protagonist is stuck in the progression of "someone stronger came along, now I need a new ability." The plot is set up so that whenever the bad guy gets killed, a new one shows up out of nowhere. This is done so that they can continue if the series is still making money, and easily end it if the money stops.

These are the anime equivalent to potato chips. Little substance and designed to make you eat a lot of it.

I don't hear big 3 so much anymore. I always hire big 5 with Fairy Tail and Hitman Reborn in there. Related to them I've never read Hitman but my friend says its really good and Fairy Tail is pretty much the only anime I watch on a regular basis

Reborn! is really good. Lots of cool ideas and I'm pretty sure the anime doesn't even have filler. I didn't know it was that popular, though. Especially since it ended quite a while ago.

 

[Saxnot]

I agree. the reason you like Bebop and GitS may also have something to do with those being better shows. There is more complexity and depth in them than 'main character cannot win! Main character gets very determined/angry/uses the heart of the cards! main character wins!'

In general, i grew up with DBZ, so i pretty much know how these shows go. Whether they use kamehameha's or swords, they're just not that interesting in the long term because they have no beginning, middle or end. just more and more episodes until the next manga arc is finished.

 

[Frankster]

Mm im not that fond of the big 3 then, the following is strictly "imo".

Naruto: I liked it at first when they were all ninja in trainning, the show just went downhill rather quickly after the sand people invasion imo, the fights in particular went from being rather exciting to dull contests of who can pull out the most overpowered super secret technique.
Oh and lack of character development as some here already pointed out.

Bleach: Bad writing and terrible plots killed this anime in my eyes. Oh and how arcs would drag on and on... Also obnoxious side story arcs that tended to interrupt better more exciting story arcs (probably to give the manga time to carry ahead?).
At this animes best, it looked to be this generations dbz but utterly blew it as the anime steamed ahead. The worst part is if the anime had been released years after the manga it would have been much better for it, as i understand it the worst of bleach comes from the anime catching up to the manga too fast and having to shoe horn in crappy stories to stall for time until the manga continues.


OnePiece: I've never been attracted by this show nor have i wanted to give it much of a chance. The visual style i find rather displeasing and the extracts ive seen didn't really tempt me. Might be decent for all i know.

 

[Seishisha]

I have no experiance with either one peice or bleach, somthing about both shows put me off even trying them, i did however watch a fair amount of naruto.

In regards to that, i feel the show started off with an interesting premise, reasonably diverse if not a little cliche characters and reasonable pacing between episodes, however the longer it went on even discounting all the filler episodes the pace of the show just ground to a halt, spending anything from 5-15 minuets on conversations that'd supposed be happening during battles, and then having flash backs to the same conversation the very next episode, that became the real turning point for my loss of interest.

Not to mention the fact that all the characters go from using tools/weapons in combat, to just pulling out the super powers, i thought they were supposed to be ninja's not super saiyan's.

I could probably go on but i wont bore everyone with ranting.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

I watched all of Bleach, really like that show, one of my personal favorites. I have watched up to about 74 of Naruto, watching when I have time for it, but going somewhat slow. Good show. I tried One Piece, it was alright. Little weird. Might try it again, once I am done with other series.

 

[vashthblackseed]

I've read the mangas and watched all the important fights and have to say I liked them. None of them get even close to my top 10 Action anime/manga, but they where good at what they intended. Their biggest flaws are the same flaws that video games have today. Trying to milk a franchise and appeal to the largest demographics possible.

 

[lord canti]

Out of the big 3 One piece is easily the most enjoyable one for me. Simply because Oda still seems to enjoy making it unlike Naruto and Bleach where it seem where Kishimoto and Kubo just seem tired of their creations.