What is your all time favourite anime?

[w00tage]

And that shows both why Black Lagoon is a cutting-edge, adults-only anime, and why the dubbing industry seriously needs better casting. Those voices are omg terrible compared to the originals

You think Black Lagoon has terrible dubbing? I think it's fantastic, though I will be honest in saying that I've only sat through Black Lagoon, Ghost in the Shell, and Grenadier. I've seen a worse job of dubbing before.

Sadly, yes, I think it's horrible. Imagine a good TV show or movie in your language. Now imagine it dubbed, in the same language, by different actors who are just reading from scripts (as best they can, of course), and the lines even rewritten somewhat on the dub. How much difference do you think it would it make to the characters and story?

My answer is, pretty much everything. And the dubbing industry has a very, very small base of actors to draw from, so there's almost no hope of even getting similar voices for the characters.

I discovered how great the difference was by accident, when I somehow got subtitles enabled watching an episode of FMA - the graveyard scene where Ed finds out about the war in Lior from Scar. The dialogue is actually substantially different and changes the way the scene comes across. That piqued my curiosity, so I decided to check how the original characters sounded in that scene.

Edward Elric, the arrogant, incredibly annoying stereotypical "prodigy driven by a guilt complex", who was whining and crying at Scar about how he didn't mean for any of this to happen in the dubbed version, who I HATED and really only watched the show for the rest of the characters, turned into a SYMPATHETIC character for me right then. You could hear in the original voice how gutwrenching this revelation really was to him, and the dialogue in the subtitles was far more in tune with that than the dubbed dialogue. The scene was way, way better with subs than dubs, like by half again, maybe more.

I started rewatching the series right then with subs and original voices, and have never watched a dubbed show again other than to quickly check the quality against the original. And dubs always lose badly. Even Cowboy Bebop, which I think has the best dub ever, is substantially better with subs and the original voices.

whoops wrote a chapter of a book, sorry lol.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I've had this conversation before and it went on for a long time.
I think the best analogy I came up with was imagine what it would be like if there was an extra scene at the end of Romeo and Juliet where they had a completely out of left field time reversal back into an alternate history where Romeo received Juliet's letter on time and the plan went off with out a hitch and they lived happily ever after. That wouldn't be better, that wouldn't even be good. Some thing are better if they're tragic and Clannad is one of them.

Personally, I liked the ending very much.

Spoiler: Spoilers, because I would feel like such a dick if I accidentally ruined Clannad for someone

It made a great point of Tomoya's growth as a character. Throughout the entire last five years he had been depressed, feeling guilty for the death of Nagisa, thinking everything would have been better if he had never met her in the first place. Then, when Ushio(&Tomoya?) dies, he gets a chance to change history. He was able to make it so that he never met Nagisa, but then he realizes how much he loves her and Ushio. He realizes that he would have talked to Nagisa that day, even if he knew that it would lead to her death. His depressed self would have never talked to her, in order to avoid the pain; but in the last months he had spent with Ushio, he had grown as a character and changed his attitude to that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. He realized that he wanted to be with Nagisa in spite of all the pain it would bring, both to him and others, and for that he was rewarded with a new chance.

Or at least that's my two cents.

Spoiler

I left a really long reply on another person's comment so you can read that one if you want but I'll try to bullet point my thoughts quickly.

Tomoya never intended to be happy which is why he married Nagisa who was very obviously living on borrowed time, If Nagisa's death came as a surprise to him that would imply that he's dumb and that would imply that all of his other calculated decisions through out the series were all luck and that's bad writing. I refuse to believe that Clannad was written poorly.

In the last episodes he slowly started giving up on all his self destructive tendencies. He finally decided that he did deserve to be happy.

Ushio was the last product of his self destructive nature that he had to let go of in order to finally move on. He wouldn't let go of her. He tried to save her, so he got punished for not learning his lesson and accepting the consequences.

BUT THEN... The last episode happens. he decides on repeating his self destructive course even knowing the consequences then he got rewarded by Nagisa not dying.

The last episode negated ALL of Tomoya's character development for the sake of having his story end happily. Now don't get me wrong Tomoya was a good man he deserved to be happy. but by retconing out his depression and recovery Clannad lacks any emotional weight. making anything you were feeling for the characters seem irrelevant. Tomoya grew for nothing (nothing that happened in real life anyway)

 

[mandaforever]

Cowboy Bebop

Clearly amazing in every way! Not even a question its my fave.

 

[PaladinofGuns]

Cowboy Bebop. The great dubbing, the high quality animation, and the well written characters and plot make it my favorite.

 

[John the Gamer]

Either avatar: the last airbender (it counts)
or Fullmetal Alchemist (either one)

anime = japanese animation no it doesn't its just japanese influenced

Well whatever. I still like it. Alot. I've watched it like, 3 times. Then I'll go with this one: It's origionally Dutch, but it was made in Japan. I grew up with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_J._Kwak

 

[00slash00]

It's got two full seasons completed (I own them) and the 5th OVA is out (raw, in translation now). So the video has caught up to all of the published manga that I have seen.

oh. someone at the con told me the studio that made them went under or ran out of funding and never got to finish the anime. i may have to check this out now

 

[Devornine]

This was what got me into anime! And it will always have a place in my heart! A new favorite of mine is


Brotherhood kicks the original anime's ass!

 

[TheFederation]

anyone ever see soul eater, the begin couple episodes and the finale aren't that great, but i think the rest is pretty good

EDIT: if we count avatar: the last airbender, then that, definitely

 

[dudeman0001]

I'm torn between FLCL and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
I don't know anyone who watches Haruhi

I have all the episodes of Haruhi, I just haven't gotten around to watching them yet. I have a lot of anime I haven't watched yet, just sitting there waiting for me to find the time.

Anime hoarder?

 

[Dr.Killinger]

Definitely "Tank Police", only the first two episodes however (or is it 4 episodes and 2 chapters?), then they changed the style and atmosphere entirely... Oh,well that's all in the past now. The disturbingly distant past... p'_'

 

[Krinku]

My favorete anime has ti be avatar the last airbender i know its kinda a kids anime but still it used to make me laugh and cry all the time glad they finished it.....took awhile but they did

Dude! Animation and battle scenes are amazing in the last air bender.

 

[RollForInitiative]

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni / Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai. No questions asked.

 

[JonnyQuickShot]

Macross 7. No contest. Basara is just such a boss.

 

[Dapper Ninja]

It's a tie between Baccano! and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

 

[Baconmaninspace]

By far, Akira. Though I must admit, the manga is exponentially better.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

My all time favorite is no doubt Bakemonogatari. I like all that Shinbo has done but Bakemonogatari is definately first. I've seen people mention FLCL and I agree, that shit is pretty much unequaled.

Now please don't hang me for what I'm going to say, but Dragonball Z is, without the nostalgia factor, pretty horribad. It is mostly screaming and panting for 5 episodes and.. aw hell this is turning into a rant so I'll stop here.

On a side note, I think Steins;Gate which is currently airing to be pretty interesting, to the point that the last few episodes' suspense made me pull some hairs out of my head. I like it so far =D

 

[DSK-]

OT: Gintama. It is simply amazing and everyone should watch it.

I read the manga religiously (my favorite manga of all time) but haven't gotten to the anime.

I haven't read the manga, although in my opinion it would completely ruin the experience for me because the voice talent for all of the characters is amazing. Also I don't want to spoil the various story arcs that are going to happen

 

[Amberella]

This was what got me into anime! And it will always have a place in my heart! A new favorite of mine is


Brotherhood kicks the original anime's ass!

Wonderful picks. I loved Cardcaptors as well! And Brotherhood is amazing so far!!!! Haven't finished Brotherhood just yet though. :3 But soon I will!

 

[ZiggyE]

I have a problem with this sentiment and I always have. If Clannad was never supposed to be a tragedy the writers are very bad at their job. People saying that holds just about as much credibility as someone saying Human Centipede is supposed to be a feel good comedy.

Translation: It didn't turn out the way I expected and/or wanted it to thus the writers are bad.

Does not compute, sorry.

snip

Tomoya's actions are not self destructive, by doing things for others and helping out others he's rebuilding his image in himself. Also, by leaving the decision whether to have Ushio at the hospital or not shows his value for her opinion. Also his actions throughout the series in each of the heroine arcs help him acquire the relevant light orbs which become a major plot device in the finale.

It isn't a retcon and it isn't a deus ex machina, as everybody's memories from the other timeline are still there (in the Visual Novel, at least( with Ushio being left ambiguous)) and they have learnt from their past mistakes which allows them to move onwards. Also, the concept of the light orbs is explained in Sanae's and Yukine's arc and the concept of Multiple Worlds is delved into in Kotomi's arc and parts of the overall arc in After Story.

And secondly if Clannad was supposed to be about redemption they would have showed him fall into his depression rather than skip strait to him being accustomed to his depression.

They dedicated two out of the remaining five episodes to show his depression in episodes 17 and 18, albeit during this time he was redeeming himself.

I never actually read the Manga, so let me get this strait. Those episodes are actually canonical in the Manga? There is actually part of the main story where he falls for Kyou and Tomoyo? I never got that impression from watching the series.

The manga is irrelevant. The source material for Clannad is the Visual Novel, which is different from the manga. But yes, the Kyou and Tomoyo arcs are canon in the visual novel, as are all the other heroine arcs which are seperate from Nagisa's arc (most of which are included as part of Nagisa's arc, minus the romance for obvious reasons, in the anime). These are allowed to be canon as both the anime and the Visual Novel explain the concept of Multiple Worlds. Each individual heroine arc allows Tomoya to collect an additional light orb and the Visual Novel cannot be completed until all of them have been achieved which allows you to unlock the True End.

Yes Clannad is not an archetypical tragedy. that's why it's so good. But if you're trying to convince me Clannad isn't a tragedy why not also try and convince me that Star Wars isn't a SiFi film.

If something isn't an archetypical tragedy then it isn't a tragedy at all. Somethings need to be there for it to be a part of the genre. Clannad lacks most, if not all of these things. You're confusing archetypical with stereotypical.