Unexpectedly good anime

[SGT_Noobnuts]

(My first ever topic post to the Escapist forums )

Have any of you had any anime that you expected to be a standard checklist show but then discover something of a hidden complexity that is embedded in the show during the time you took to watch it?

For me it would have to be last years surprisingly good Gatchaman Crowds.

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/6d1a9b1753f1f77d461eaf6e89f2fee21373401835_full.jpg

What I thought was going to be a by-the-numbers sentai show really surprised me with the subject matter that it was exploring around 3 or 4 episodes in. With its portrayal of a world heavily influenced by social media, excellent soundtrack, a truly unique female protagonist who carries the show really well and a great villain who is the perfect manipulative puppet-master that I just love in shows like these.

Despite the less than stellar ending It was definitely my standout anime for me last year. (Yes! I liked it more than Attack on Titan!)

So what's your surprise anime that you've seen lately?

 

[tippy2k2]

Good topic...but you have failed the test. I'm afraid that you will have to be escorted off the grounds...with extreme prejudice. *Aims gun (you put your topic into the wrong area FYI; you can PM a Mod to have them move it to Off-Topic or if you leave it alone, a Mod will probably eventually notice naturally)

As to the question at hand, I had been skimming Netflix looking for a random anime for I was bored and Netflix skimming is a form of art. I stumbled upon a weird premised anime but this one DIDN'T have a bunch of half-naked ladies on the cover so it automatically caught my attention (have you seen Netflix anime selection? Fan service central)

Gunslinger Girl

Now unfortunately it is no longer on streaming but that was one hell of an accidental find. The premise is that little girls are taken from orphanages and then given cyborg-type upgrades and good old fashioned brain washing to turn them into assassins. Each girl gets a handler and watching how the handlers deal with each girl and the nature of the job was fascinating. I feel like the show wasted a bit of the potential (especially with the main character and the interaction she had with her handler) but all in all, that was a really cool find.

The other anime I stumbled on was Soul Eater but that was based on a recommendation so I don't know if it counts. That was an excellent show.

 

[SGT_Noobnuts]

I realised my fuck up

I don't know how to delete my threads

 

[tippy2k2]

I realised my fuck up

I don't know how to delete my threads

You can't.

You can either EDIT your thread (top right of your post), state "DELETE ME" or something similar for the Mods to see and recreate your thread in the correct spot or you can just leave it be and a Mod will eventually notice the wrong spot (or PM one directly if you want it done faster) and move you themselves. Or another trick is to add "Please move me to Off-Topic" in your original post and then flag yourself; a Mod will then check the flag, see your message, and move you.

 

[Lilani]

I realised my fuck up

I don't know how to delete my threads

You can't, but no worries. A mod will spot it and just move it to the right section for you :3

Anyway, I guess I'd have to say Toradora. I feel like I talk about it way too much in anime threads around here, but it's just got a very special place in my heart. I first watched it in my university's anime club. That same semester, we were also watching Clanaad. I really didn't like Clanaad, for a number of reasons. The characters were way too moe for me, I never could get into the supernatural aspect of what was going on, the "tragic backstories" just felt so contrived when I saw them...it really just felt like my worst imagining of how romance and relationships are portrayed in anime. In our show order that semester, we'd watch Clanaad first and then Toradora. Most days, I only stuck around through Clanaad because the guy who I had a crush on liked it, and I'd leave when Toradora started.

But then halfway through the semester, I started noticing it again. I stuck around a couple of days, and realized it was nothing like Clanaad. The characters weren't moe and actually behaved like real people, at least as real as they can get in anime. They had realistic relationships with the people around them, and when these relationships broke down or had trouble it was for plausible reasons which had been previously established to be a part of their character (such as a personality flaw, or some bad fixation, or family troubles). Yeah some stuff is overly dramatic and sometimes perhaps a bit contrived, but not to a point where it felt like the show's structure relied upon these things. And of course it's anime we're talking about so of course stuff is going to get dramatic. It just felt like a show about young people figuring out life and love, where Clanaad felt like a show about young people and a whole bunch of other unnecessary shit that was thrown in to try and make them more interesting.

After anime club ended that year, I borrowed Toradora from its owner so I could rewatch the first half of the series. And now I am beyond excited to learn it's getting an ENGLISH DUB~

 

[SGT_Noobnuts]

Thanks so much for the advice :'D

I'm fairly new to the whole forum culture in general. (My remarkably huge number of posts on this site being the key evidence to this fact)

But yeah I don't really like school focused shows that are more interested in thrusting the characters in bizarre situations and focus on more on how they react to situations rather than how it can develop characters.

Realistic characters are quite hard to write. But seeing them on screen with relatable conflicts make the stories overall more engaging

 

[SGT_Noobnuts]

Ooooooh!!!

The show looks really cute :3

The English cast doesn't seem too bad either

 

[FPLOON]

Gunslinger Girl

Now unfortunately it is no longer on streaming but that was one hell of an accidental find. The premise is that little girls are taken from orphanages and then given cyborg-type upgrades and good old fashioned brain washing to turn them into assassins. Each girl gets a handler and watching how the handlers deal with each girl and the nature of the job was fascinating. I feel like the show wasted a bit of the potential (especially with the main character and the interaction she had with her handler) but all in all, that was a really cool find.

And to think, on a different thread, I was mentioning this series, both the anime and manga... (More of the anime, since it's been a while since I've read the manga, which went further than the anime series...)

OT: It's kind of a tie between .Hack//Quantum and Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, more so the formal in this case... despite buying them both blindly, basically...

Quantum continues the .Hack mythos with it's own little story... while Rin has a lesbian orgy scene deals with immortals and angels...

Then again, it has been a while since I've seen either of those series, despite them both staring at me on my DVD shelf right now...

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

Kaiba [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/Kaiba]. Not a standard anime by a long-shot and that was exactly what I expected. I expected it to be a smart, somewhat careful look on a distopian future. What I did not expect was how good and sometimes how bleak that particular look got, how many interesting topics that series discussed and how it actually managed to include a (okay somewhat abstruse and convoluted) storyline at the end that also made for some good drama. Need to rewatch this thing soon. However, as it stands it will end up pretty high on my all-time favourites list.

 

[SGT_Noobnuts]

Kaiba [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/Kaiba]. Not a standard anime by a long-shot and that was exactly what I expected. I expected it to be a smart, somewhat careful look on a distopian future. What I did not expect was how good and sometimes how bleak that particular look got, how many interesting topics that series discussed and how it actually managed to include a (okay somewhat abstruse and convoluted) storyline at the end that also made for some good drama. Need to rewatch this thing soon. However, as it stands it will end up pretty high on my all-time favourites list.

I've had a look at the link. The visual design looks really fascinating. It kinda reminds of Steven Universe in a weird way. Is there any legal ways to stream this show?

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Gatchaman Crowds.

Yes. I was coming here to say that exact show. Probably best anime of 2013.

Besides that, though...Kokoro Connect, probably. I started it on recommendation from somebody, but it was so good. Let me drink in your sweet, melodramatic tragedy...

Other than those two, I dunno, maybe Mekakucity Actors, only because the first couple episodes were really weak but with the most recent few I think I'm beginning to get a handle on what the series is trying to do, and I'm on board.

That's all I got. Now if you want unexpectedly [bad] anime, I could be here all day.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Kill La Kill. At first I was just like 'Eh, they get nude and fight and stuff'

Well yeah, that does happen BUT IT GOT SO FREAKING AWESOME.

 

[SGT_Noobnuts]

Hmmm I might take you up on that offer

 

[Ultress]

Diabolik Lovers,from the bad spelling to the utterly generic premise,I was expecting a shit Vampire Knight cash in. What I got was a nasty and dark show about vampire rapists which acted as a massive take that to modern female oriented vampire stories. Taking those types of stories to their darker conclusions and examining how one can become trapped in the cycle of abuse.It's sort of lacking in deeper characterization but it's a show I felt icky watching and loved it for that.

 

[SGT_Noobnuts]

Kill La Kill. At first I was just like 'Eh, they get nude and fight and stuff'

Well yeah, that does happen BUT IT GOT SO FREAKING AWESOME.

That definitely was another surprise anime for me. Mostly because of the sheer passion and batshit insanity of the show that it became really hard for me to stop watching

.............Aside for the obvious reasons of course

 

[Scarim Coral]

I guess that would be Tiger and Bunny for me.

From what I've read (a bunch of sponsor superheroes do heroes stuff to earn points and a old style hero is team up with a new cocky hero therefore a buddy cops situation) so I had low expectation of it (especially when I loathe the idea of them being selfish if they're only saving people for the points) so I started watching it, I was blown away by it by how good it was.

The characters were good and complex, interesting concept and best of all, the anime itself felt very Western like due to the setting, characters and the plot!

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

For me, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. I went in expecting fanservice schlock but with ghost, which is sorta what I got from the first episode, but the rest of it I found kinda amazing. I was stylish, the music was great, the characters likable, and the supernatural elements very interesting. Hell, even the fanservice had a bit of context to them. By the end I had more feels than the entirety of Ano Hana, which was the tearjerker anime about a ghost.


Also, a CG anime film called Oblivion Island. I'm not a fan of CG anime, and I fully expected this to be crap, but I was incredibly charmed by it. While it was very predictable, and was undeniably a children's movie, it was cute, the characters were charming, and it was overall a very likable movie, and again, it gave me more feels than Ano Hana (Just to put it out there, I didn't hate Ano Hana, but I didn't care for it either.)

 

[SGT_Noobnuts]

] I didn't hate Ano Hana, but I didn't care for it either.)

I agree with you about Ano Hana as well.
Technically it wasn't a bad anime but if it were trying to jerk any more tears from me my eyes would have been pulled out and rolling in the salty lake that I've created in my living room.

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

Is there any legal ways to stream this show?

Can't say. As a German I'm pretty much fucked when it comes to getting animes. There was an Australian DVD release iirc, although without a dub it seems. Crunchyroll might do, perhaps?

EDIT: also before ANYBODY mentions it, the most obvious example for this ever: Puella Magimadoka Magica. Looks like a standard magical girl anime and is to some extend one - until it starts tearing the genre apart, bit by bit in one big glorious, glorious tragedy.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Gunslinger Girl

Now unfortunately it is no longer on streaming but that was one hell of an accidental find. The premise is that little girls are taken from orphanages and then given cyborg-type upgrades and good old fashioned brain washing to turn them into assassins. Each girl gets a handler and watching how the handlers deal with each girl and the nature of the job was fascinating. I feel like the show wasted a bit of the potential (especially with the main character and the interaction she had with her handler) but all in all, that was a really cool find.

Quoted For Truth. Haven't watched the anime myself, but have read the entirety of the manga. I can confirm that it doesn't have much in the way of normal anime tropes outside of the whole "teenage girls" thing. It's really more akin to a slow-burn military/political drama(sorta like Ghost in the Shell without much of the sci-fi elements. It's more about character development and world-building instead of action (although there's still enough action scenes).

Honestly, it's probably the reason why there won't be a continuation of the series. It doesn't really appeal to the target anime demographic because of its slow pace, realism, and focus on character development over action.