Author’s Note:
I had a lot of fun doing this, nerdy I know, but I got to watch a ton of awesome anime and some not-so-awesome. It was a pretty fun summer project. I tried to give a little summary and my personal opinion. If you don’t like anime (in which case I have to wonder why you’d be reading this), then I suggest you give it a try. Saying you don’t like anime is like saying you don’t like tv, there are a million different genre’s and always at least one that you enjoy. Often times the people who say they don’t like anime are those that have been deprived enough to only have seen the Kids WB, Toonami, Adult Swim, or Fox Family versions, in other words, the versions that Americans deemed baby proof (no fun). If you don’t like my opinion, oh well, you can just ignore it. Every one has the prerogative to have an opinion of their own, these are mine. My favorite genres are romance, comedy, action, and a little supernatural and my opinions reflect it. If you know of an anime that isn’t common (in other words, not Inuyasha, Cowboy Beebop, Naruto, Paranoia Agent, Chobits, DearS, or other anime that have been on Adult Swim and the like) than PM me its title and I’ll check it out and add it. Since I can only watch the anime on youtube.com and Toonami’s jetsream, I may not be able to view it, in witch case it will go in the last category. If you have another website you use to watch anime send me that too ^^. Anyways, I used a bit of slang that you may not know if you don’t have anime-crazed friends like I do. Here are some, but if I forgot something feel free to PM me and ask! ^-^ Comments loved and appreciated.
I had a lot of fun doing this, nerdy I know, but I got to watch a ton of awesome anime and some not-so-awesome. It was a pretty fun summer project. I tried to give a little summary and my personal opinion. If you don’t like anime (in which case I have to wonder why you’d be reading this), then I suggest you give it a try. Saying you don’t like anime is like saying you don’t like tv, there are a million different genre’s and always at least one that you enjoy. Often times the people who say they don’t like anime are those that have been deprived enough to only have seen the Kids WB, Toonami, Adult Swim, or Fox Family versions, in other words, the versions that Americans deemed baby proof (no fun). If you don’t like my opinion, oh well, you can just ignore it. Every one has the prerogative to have an opinion of their own, these are mine. My favorite genres are romance, comedy, action, and a little supernatural and my opinions reflect it. If you know of an anime that isn’t common (in other words, not Inuyasha, Cowboy Beebop, Naruto, Paranoia Agent, Chobits, DearS, or other anime that have been on Adult Swim and the like) than PM me its title and I’ll check it out and add it. Since I can only watch the anime on youtube.com and Toonami’s jetsream, I may not be able to view it, in witch case it will go in the last category. If you have another website you use to watch anime send me that too ^^. Anyways, I used a bit of slang that you may not know if you don’t have anime-crazed friends like I do. Here are some, but if I forgot something feel free to PM me and ask! ^-^ Comments loved and appreciated.
Bishonen: hot/pretty boys, aka bishies (singular: bishie)
BL: “boys’ love”; yaoi
Kwaii: cute
Shinigami: Think of them as angels of death that have to travel in pairs. They hang around people, usually kids, and take their souls from them when they die. They aren’t necessarily bad though.
Shonen: guy anime/manga
Shonen-ai: yaoi-filled anime/manga
Shoujo: girly anime/manga
Shoujo-ai: yuri-filled anime/manga
Slashible: not-so-blatant yaoi references or jokes
Yaoi: guy x guy relationships
Yuri: girl x girl relationships
Awesome Anime
(Alphabetical Order)
1. Absolute Boy: You know how people always complain about how things translate really weird? Well this title is the perfect example. In Japanese it’s called Zettai Shonen, meaning more that he’s a boy who knows what he believes in than “absolute boy,” stupid literal translations. Anyways, Ayumu’s the main character who’s visiting his dad’s home over summer. He’d been there in Tana before, when he was 4, but doesn’t remember anything from then. The plot’s about how he, being a taciturn city kid, gets involved in this hick town’s strange occurrences, namely: UFOs. I know it doesn’t sound good, but I personally thought the story was pretty good, the only thing that really pissed me off was how the artist has everyone’s eyes one color then the pupil, a pet peeve of mine. All-in-all, it was an anime worth watching.
2. Aishiteruze Baby: When I first saw the title, I thought “’Ashiteruze Baby’ that has to be either really perverted or made for first graders” and the way they show the title in such kiddy colors didn’t help the later impression, but I have to say, it really was one of the sweetest anime I’ve ever seen. It’s about a complete playboy bishie, the kind with one girl in the morning, three at lunch, and a few after school, who comes home one day to be told he has to take care of his sister’s kindergarten-age girl while the sister’s away trying to cope with her husband’s death. It’s a cute story about how this playboy becomes a complete softy and learns how to take care of people who mean the world to him. A definite must-see shojo anime.
3. Akazukin cha cha:
4. Angel Sanctuary: One word for this anime: incest. Personally, it was a bit too weird for me, ‘cuz they didn’t just ease into the relationship with good reasons like in Hot Gimmik. Anyways, when their parents divorce, brother and sister are separated, only seeing each other when they meet on their own time, outside of family and school. The brother’s a punk always getting into fights and secretly a rebellious (female) angel and the sister’s a goody two shoes who seemingly always needs his protection but doesn’t want him to fight, so, of course, they fall for each other amidst all hell breaking loose, litterally.
5. Ask! Dr. Rin: The art may be nothing special, and the story isn’t exactly what you may call original, but this anime, I though, was another thumbs-up so far as romance comedies. It’s about a high-school girl who, to practice her magic, has a web page called “Ask Dr. Rin,” which tells people what lucky items they should carry on certain days and the likes. Of course, it’s not all that easy. While her predictions for others come true, they get a little more…complicated when it comes to her own love life. Add that to how her dad’s also in the magic business, which is steadily dying thanks to “Dr. Rin’s” competition, and you get hilarity in the form of Ask! Dr. Rin.
6. Black Cat: One of my new favorites, Black Cat is about a teen assassin who works for a powerful organization. Given the alias “Black Cat” and having XIII on his chest, Train is believed to bring bad luck to everyone he’s involved with. He’s an angst-filled bishie wondering who killed his parents and why he’s stuck killing others. With side characters not unlike Spike from Cowboy Beepbop, this anime is pure awesomeness and highly recommended.
7. Bottle Fairy:
8. Bubblegum Crisis
9. Chance Pop Session
10. Chrono Crusade
11. Comic Party
12. Cooking Master Boy: Like the title implies, this is an extremely corny anime, not necessarily in a bad way though. In normal shows, sparkly backgrounds are saved for bishies, but here it’s used behind green peppers, onions, and fried rice. Overall, it’s a fairly good anime, it makes you laugh when the main character says “I will defeat you with my skills as a chef” and a giant aura comes out of him.
13. Death Note
14. Descendants of Darkness
15. E'S Otherwise: E’s Otherwise is about a bunch of kids with psychic powers who are being manipulated by a company to obtain control of the government and power in general. Once the new-comer of the group, and our main character, is told this he leaves to live with non-psychics on the “outside” after being there a year so that his little sister could get the best medical treatment. I really enjoyed this one, and think it has a good mix of angst and comedy. Good for all genders, I give this anime two thumbs up!
16. Fatal Fury
17. Flames of Recca
18. Full Moon: Also known as Full Moon wo Sagashite or Searching for the Full Moon, this was a really good anime about Mitsuki, a girl who has a tumor in her throat preventing her from fulfilling her dream to become a singer. Shinigami come to her one day and tell her that she will only live to next spring, and, in return for her giving them her soul when she dies, help her become a singer and contact her long lost love and childhood friend, Eichi. Of course, as the story progresses, Takuto, the male Shinigami, gets mixed feelings about Mitsuki, wanting to keep her alive, even if it means that he’ll get fired and doomed to being a ghost for the rest of eternity. While Mitsuki only has eyes for Eichi, the female Shinigami’s constantly confessing her love to Takuto, creating a cute little love triangle.
19. Gakuen Alice: Also known as Alice Academy, this anime is the typical bunch of kids go to a school that helps their “special abilities” become more powerful while not allowing them to leave. Of course, the main character is a hopeless optimist (not unlike Toru from Fruits Basket) goes there in search of her best friend and ends up being accepted, without her knowing what the school really was and falling for the punk of the class who is able to control fire. It’s a pretty cute anime, focusing on comedy with hints of teen angst and romance, but the main girl’s hair was a personal peeve of mine. Also, it’s been about year since anyone’s subbed the new episodes, so those of us whose Japanese is sorely lacking are stuck with a cliff hanger at episode 17.
20. Gakuen Heaven: In the middle of the school year, the total bishie of a main character transfers to the prestigious all boys Bell Liberty Academy, nicknamed BL Academy (note: remember in yaoi slang, “BL” stands for “boys’ love,” which really suits this anime). With seemingly every guy at school either making moves on him or secretly crushing on him, this anime is filled with slashible while maintaining a sort of innocent kwaii-ness. Very cute, but more geared as a shojo/shonen-ai type.
21. Gestalt
22. Good Witch of the West
23. Gunslinger Girl
24. Hikaru no Go: I’m sure most people reading this have heard of Hikaru no Go through Shonen Jump, but have you seen the anime? I’ve never bothered to watch it because I couldn’t see how an anime about a board game could be remotely interesting, but it is. The story revolves around Hikaru, who, after getting possessed by a ghost obsessed with Go, starts becoming obsessed with it himself. After meeting a rival in Touya Akira, he decides to take Go seriously and begins his journey to become a pro for fun rather than for the money. The only thing I have against this series is that the ending (episode 75) not only leaves the plot unresolved, but creates more branches, branches that just end out of the blue. Other than that, I would definitely recommend to watch it, it’s worth it.
25. HunterXHunter: I really enjoyed this action anime, it kinda reminded me of Naruto... The story revolves around Gon, a kid whose mother died when he was little and his dad left to become a hunter shortly after he was born. Gon decides the only way to find his dad is to become a hunter himself and track him down. While taking the hunter exam, Gon befriends a perverted teen doctor, an angsty but logical bishie, and the youngest son of a family of assassins. All in all, I thought this was really good, with the perfect balance of action and…well, life.
26. ichigo mashimaro
27. Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne: This anime reminded me a lot of Sailor Moon/ DNAngel mix, but with less bishonen. The main character is the complete girl version of Dark Mouse, she transforms into a character who steals artworks to destroy the curses they spread before they are gathered as a source of power for the Devil and his minions. Also like DNAngel, the main character’s best friend is determined to catch her other self, being the daughter of the case’s leading detective and quite skilled at making traps of her own. The only real difference is that instead of Wiz, Jeanne has a fairy-looking angel to help her.
28. Karakuri Zoushi Ayatsuri Sakon: Also known as Ayatsuri Sakon, this is a great murder-mystery/fantasy anime. It’s not like some mystery shows where each episode works on its own mystery, some take longer to solve than others, but you do have the typical complete explanation at the end. The only difference is that the main character is explaining it to his puppet that becomes alive when ever a hand is in him and the puppet can channel the souls and emotions of the people who were murdered. The main character travels and makes his living as a famous puppetter and murder/mystery detective. It has great art and characters as intriguing as its plots and bishonen.
29. kodomo no omocha: if you’re looking for a anime where everyone’s too hyper with rubber mallets and toy cars, this is the one for you. For me, it was cute enough to watch at first, but then I just couldn’t take all the excessive energy in it. The story revolves around a television star elementary school girl and a kid who comes from a broken family and, consequently, hates how she seems to be always happy. Needless to say the two fall in love. Again, this anime’s alright, it’s just too crazy for my tastes.
30. Kyou Kara Maou: Kyou Kara Maou is definitely one of the funniest anime I’ve ever seen, with every kind of comedy, from awkward situations to just plain stupidity. As a comedy, I’d say it’s second only to Ouran High Host Club because this one also has some angst and action instead of focusing just on humor, which isn’t a bad thing at all. The only reason that someone may not like it is that it has some guy x guy stuff, nothing remotely “bad” though. It’s about Yuuri, a high school student who finds himself being sent into another world after having a run-in with some bullies at getting sent to another world in the most unique way I’ve ever seen >-<. Of course, in this world he's the king of all demons just as they’re about to fight a war to kill all humans. He’s a nice kid, though a little obsessed with baseball, so, well, let’s just say war isn’t high on his priority list, in fact, he’s dead against it. A lot of humor comes from the customs of the demon world colliding with ours. This isn’t one of those anime that you can just let off, it keeps you hooked and always wanting some more!
31. maho-sensei negimma
32. Midori no Hibi: Midori no Hibi (aka Midori Days) was really good, but it was only 13 episodes long *sobs*. It’s a not-so-classic romance comedy about this punk-guy who can’t get a girlfriend because everyone’s afraid of him until one day sitting in his room he realizes his "devils right hand" he uses for punching has become a girl who has secretly had a crush on him since middle school. This anime's a little pervy, but it’s not as bad as Chobits and definitely not DearS, there is a bit of nudity though.
33. Mai Hime
34. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: If you’ve seen Fooly Cooly, than you’ve already been exposed to the kind of randomness and hilarity this anime has to offer. It’s about two kids living in a market-type place that discover a passage to some-kinda-crazy alternate world, or I should say “worlds.” They jump from world to world with everything from RPG .Hack/-type dimensions to ones like Gundam. If you’re looking for insanity, that look no further than Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.
35. Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok: This is one of the very few mystery series that I actually like. Mythical Detective Loki has great art, plots that span the whole series instead of just a few episodes (as is so typical of the mystery genre), the mysteries aren’t always murders, it involves supernatural occurrences too, and effects that are used to change the art style to stress different scenes in a way that’s hard to understand without having seen it. Usually when artists change their styles to point something out, I find it distracting and, in short, really annoying, but when it’s used in Mythical Detective Loki, it really is placed well and not overused at all. This is definitely a mystery-must!!
36. Neoranga
37. Nightwalker; midnight detective: I usually can’t stand vampire anime because they’re usually filled with blood, boobs, and sluts, not that this doesn’t have that, but there’s a story too (imagine that). There’s the typical “I wish I wasn’t immortal” angst issues, but it was still alright, not one of my favorites though. In my opinion it lacked originality.
38. Ouran High Host Club: OMG, if you can only watch one anime, it has to be Ouran High Host Club! It has to be the best one I’ve ever seen, its freaking hilarious!!!! It’s about Haruhi, who comes from a poor family, going to a rich-kid high school. On the first day of school Haruhi tries to find a quiet place to study and ends up in an abandoned music room on the third floor, but, of course, people are already there. These people host a club where cute guys "exist to make girls lives better". Even though it seems like it would be really perverted, it’s surprisingly clean and still totally hilarious. Anyways, Haruhi breaks a vase worth a few million yen and has to work there to pay the debt off, becoming known as the "natural rookie." You have to go to youtube.com and check it out!!! ~wall to wall bishies~
39. Outlaw Star
40. Please Teacher: Aka Onegai Sensei,
41. Ragnaron Online Animation
42. RahXephon
43. Revolutionary Girl Utena
44. Read Or Die: aka Read or Dream: Alright, so this is a movie, not a series, but whatever. I really liked this one, and extra points for creativity in super powers if you will. The main character is a teacher who’s obsessed with books by day and a secret agent by night. She controls paper, which leads to a couple funny scenarios. Anyways, she has to pair up with a taciturn agent who can go though solid objects (okay, so that’s not so original) in order to save the world.
45. RG Veda
46. Saint Seiya
47. Saiyuki: This anime was alright. It’s about a group of guys that have to look into why demons are suddenly going out of control and into killing sprees. Oddly enough, all but lead guy are demons, go figure. The art’s good overall, but the main character could be drawn better I think. I didn’t find anything that really set this anime apart from the others though, I can’t say it’s one of my favorites, but it was decent enough.
48. Samurai 7
49. Samurai Deeper Kyo: A bit confusing at first, this anime has found a place in my heart, lols. It has humor, blood, guts, gore, samurai, demons, and one confused guy with dual personality and acceptance issues.
50. Scrapped Princess
51. Shakugan no Shana: This was a pretty cool anime. It’s about a boy who meets an almost shinigami-like girl who tells him he’s already dead, what’s left of him is just there to make sure that no one notices when he dies so that the future isn’t drastically changed. The story is about him and how he deals with wanting to stay alive, and actually does.
52. Serial Experiments Lain
53. SiN - The Motion Picture
54. Sorcerer Hunters, The
55. Star Ocean
56. Steel Angel Kurumi(Kotetsu Tenshi Kurumi)
57. Strange Love
58. Sukisyo {aka Sukisho }: Sukisyo’s a funny anime about three childhood friends, one of which doesn’t remember anything since he fell out of a window of a school building soon before the anime begins. He, like one of his friends, is possessed by another being, though he refuses to believe it at first. The guys that posses the two friends are lovers, and lead to some funny instances. With two angsty bishies and one money-hungry one, this anime is hilarious and highly recommended. Once again, this has a yaoi warning, beware, the first five minutes of the first episode are the worst, but it’ll explain that soon enough. Be strong ; P
59. Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran
60. Tales of Eternia
61. Tsubasa Chronicle: This anime revolves around Tsubasa, a commoner who was secretly the boyfriend of his countries princess, before she lost all her memories and they both got sucked into another world that is. Now Tsubasa must collect her memories, restoring them at the cost of having her remember everything and everyone but him.
62. Ultra Maniac
63. Uta Kata:
64. Utawarerumono
65. Vampire Princess Miyu
66. X
67. Xxxholic
68. Zenki
69. Zero no Tsumaki
Chrono Cross(PSX)
Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
Perfect Blue(Drama Anime Movie)
Urusei Yatsura(Lamu,The Invader Girl)
Vandread
Kazemakaze
Tsukikage Ran
Serial Experiments Lain
Da capo
Ultra maniac
Sister princess
Mermaid melody
Haibane Reimei
I My Me..Strawberry Eggs
Jungle wa itsumo hale nochi guu
Kanon
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyou
Kono Minikukumo Utsukushii Sekai
Lum
Mahoromatic
Monster
Pita Ten
Plastic Little
Please Save My Earth
Pretty Sammy
Puni Puni
Rumic Theatre
Samurai 7
Scrapped Princess
Someday Dreamers
Tenjyou Tenge
To Heart
Ultra Maniac
World’s Worst Anime
(In order of horribleness…)
1. Di Gi Charat: You know those anime where the colors are a little too bright, everyone says “pyu” and other meaningless things at least five times each sentence, and the characters’ eyes are even more freakishly large and sparkly than most anime’s? Well that’s Di Gi Charat, which is, in my opinion, the worst anime I’ve ever seen. A friend loaned me a DVD and I had to force myself not to commit suicide after struggling to watch two episodes. It has not plot, no point, isn’t funny, and is just plain annoying. Only watch this if you have a death wish or a prep who needs to have some dark thoughts of murdering its creator.
2. Azumadigo: Azumadigo is the anime series version of Napoleon Dynamite. If you liked Napoleon, you’ll like this, if not, you won’t. Personally, I hate the long lapses of nothingness and the lack of plot.
3. Burst Angel: aka Bakuretsu Tenshi, I personally didn’t like this anime. The main story revolves around a kick-a**, gun genius girl, who looks freakishly like Riku from Kingdom Hearts and takes various jobs to complete with her other (female) comrades, and the good-for-nothing scaredy-cat guy who cooks for them. If you like Tenshi Muyo-type anime where there are like 5 girls per guy, which bugs the crap out of me, and Noir, where two female assassins go gun crazy, then you may like it, but it bugged me. I’d say it’s definitely more shonen than shojo type.
4. Magic Users Club: I wasn’t a big fan of this anime. It’s a bit too much like Magical Do Re Mi in that a group of friends can use magic to help others out and the main character is a can’t-do-anything-right-klutz who tries to save her city and ends up making it almost worse, which is where the story begins. The only difference is it’s perverted too. They did a really bad job explaining what she saved it from though, they did it as though it was a recap of a previous season so that everything went by so fast it just leaves you confused. The art’s nothing to speak of either. The leader of the Magic Users Club looks like a squash.
5. Earth Girl Arjuna: Before I first saw this show, I thought Tokyo Mew Mew was bad with the “we have to save our environment” crap, but at least that show had additional plot lines and humor to it. With this show, it really is all about a girl who gets these magic powers that she has to use to save the environment. She moves to hick town with her boyfriend and some random old guy she meets and gets lectured on how pesticides and factories are bad and destroying the world we live in to the point that when she comes back home she can’t eat hamburgers or our equivalent of V8 Splash (that tomato health juice). Personally, I hate environmentalist “causes” (how I survived AP Environmental Science I’ll never understand), so I’m pretty biased on whether the anime’s good or not. I hated the story, but I gotta say the art was really good.
Other Anime
Here are some other anime I’ve had recommendations to watch, but as to whether they’re any good or not I have no idea. My anime viewing is limited to youtube.com, so if it’s not uploaded there, I can’t watch it, sorry! If you have them, upload them!! ^-^
1. A+ For the Fashion Boy: OMGosh, I REALY wanna see this one, it sounds so freakin’ funny . Fate, you are cruel. While looking for new anime to check out over the summer since I’d exhausted all the normal ones, I stumbled across this title. I’d never heard of it before, but it sounded really funny and I was wondering if anyone else’d heard of it or had it. PLEASE PM ME IF YOU KNOW WHERE I CAN GET IT!!!!
2. Adventures of Kotetsu
3. Amazing Nurse Nanaka
4. Babel II
5. Bakuretsu Hunters
6. Boys Be
7. Burn Up W
8. Devil Hunter Yohko
9. Iczelion
10. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (movie)
11. kaitou saint tail
12. Kono Minikukumo Utsukushii Sekai
13. Legend of Himiko
14. Nin Nin ga Shinobuden
15. Ninja Cadets
16. Saber marionette
17. Saiyunkoku Monogatari
18. Shamanic Princess
19. Spriggan
20. Last Exile
21. Flag of Blue Sky
22. Gunsmith Cats
23. Haunted Junction
24. Saint Tail