Okay, now you won't see me advocating a whole lot of animes nowadays, because I basically believe Anime as a genre has gone to the pooper (that's right, I said poop!). The last one I really enjoyed was, of course, Cowboy Bebop.

So here I am, looking through the craptacular new animes (some of the ones on CN, almost all of them on TechTV), and I see an ad for an anime I had heard about, but never seen. Samurai Champloo--from the creators of Cowboy Bebop and Kill Bill (the anime portions, of course). I think back to when my friend was trying to force me to get all of the episodes that were out back when it was legal. So I think on it for a while, then I decide "What the hell."

So I acquire said anime and...wow.

Awesome. Absolutely amazing. I watched 4 episodes in one night, glued to the TV set.

The voice acting (even the dub) is spot on. The story is fairly original, and quite intriguing, and the art itself...amazing. It's got style and panache like nobody's business, really similar to Cowboy Bebop in that respect, and the action is second to none.

Seriously, if you're into anime at ALL, check this one out.

my current favorite Anime is Read or Die, so wonderous...

Samurai Champloo is awesome, I have the first 17 episodes.


Another good anime is Berserk, I finished watching that recently. Watch it if you haven't seen it.

Escaflowne
Bebop
Trigun
Hellsing
Record of Lodoss Wars
Iria

I don't watch popular anime...I watch damn good popular anime.

Only 3 titles on that list I deemed non-crappy or better.

So I guess I just have higher standards.

Movies:

Ghost in the Shell
Metropolis
Northern Star (i think that's the name)
CB - Knocking on Heaven's door

Shows:

Parts of Escaflowne i enjoyed but its kind of bleh
Witch Hunter Robin
Noir
Lain Omnipresence - artistic but i still don't get the plot very well
Trigun - hmm, might not meet your high standards Yoshi

oh and can't forget

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES( ITS JAPANESE THEMED AND THEIR MOUTHS GROW REALLY BIG SO SHUT N00BS!!!)

Or just, you know, different ones. I thought Champloo was a hunk o' junk. But as well all know, some days, some nights, some live, some die by the way...

I won't digress into their horrid theme song. Then again, I get my anime from the 'net, so I get a wider selection than seems available to you (via the TV). Therefore I can afford a more discerning taste than yourself. That, and the main characters are pricks. In any case, different strokes for different folks man.

Addendum: I don't think anime should be called a "genre". It's like calling American movies a genre.

Oh yeah, that and Trigun is awesome. It may not be incredibly stylish, the art isn't as crisp, but the story and characters are what sets it apart for me.

Fav Anime:

.hack//SIGN
.hack//DUSK
Naruto
Evangelion
Rah-Xephon
Love Hina
Fullmetal Alchemist
Hellsing
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Rurouni Kenshin
Witch Hunter Robin
Get Backers
FLCL

Good Anime:
Gundam Wing
Inu Yasha
Gundam 008 or whatever it was
Blue Sub #6
Ranma 1/2
Noir
Serial Experiments Lain
Escaflowne
Berserk
Samurai Champloo
Akira
Princess Mononoke
Metropolis
Record of Lodoss War
Ah My Goddess
Read or Die
Spriggun
Spirited Away
Yuu Yuu Hakusho (borderline bad)
Dragonball (Just Dragonball, and again, borderline bad.)

Bad Animes:
Tenchi
Chobits
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien
Pilot Candidate
DBZ
DBGT

Animes no one should ever see:
Cool Devices
La Blue Girl
Dragon Pink



I've watched a lot more, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. What's my "crap" rating, oh almighty anime god Yoshi? :p

the only anime I have ever liked was Hellsing, and I've only watched a few episodes.

The best I've seen is MSG 0080: War In The Pocket. Together with MSG 0083: Stardust Memories, it's an unstoppable force!


Listing Gundam Wing as "good" is questionable. It's just stupid.

Is Noir any good? I've been meaning to watch it.

Also you've got great taste, CM.

Simbachu: No, the midget Gundam show was stupid. :p

Noir is good, the action is awesome, but it moves slowly, so beware. There is a lot of plot information in each episode, but the show leaves you second guessing every time. (You'll change your mind about who is the bad guy about 520253 times in the show)

Gundam Wing is the first anime I ever watched that I thought had a deep storyline, compelling characters, and an expansive and interesting universe. I'd list it in my fav's.

And I'm not an 'anime god' CM, that's the point of this thread. I barely watch anime anymore because I can't stand the ****ty quality. And trust me, some of those you've got on that list are, to me, extremely craptaculatastic (new word!).

Also, a manga that I seriously hope they port to an animated series soon is Vagabond. Talk about pwnsome. Samurai Champloo reminds me a lot of it.

So, CM, you're pretty much anti-hentai, eh?

Been a while since I thought about my favorite series... I'm enough of a fan of Kenshin that I have scanslations of the entire manga. I fell in love with Slayers (the series) a while back, so it's found a place in my heart. And Hajime No Ippo is great, despite being an anime about boxing. It's full of comedy, character development, and great fights.

I am a bit surprised nobody's mentioned One Piece yet. And I don't mean the travesty that's shown on Fox, but the "real" show, with the drama and the soundtrack and the guns and smoking. I swear, censors have gotten way too anal lately. I've seen bugs bunny cartoons with more "questionable material" than the stuff they've cut out of this. Sure it's long, but it's got great comedy, characters, and Luffy vs. Crocodile = beatdown of the year.

What's so crappy about them is what I want to know. What's so low quality?

On my fav's list alone:

.hack//SIGN - Looks fine to me...
.hack//DUSK - same people that did SIGN, and fine.
Naruto - Great use of CG, not so freakin obvious like in some shows. Definately well done.
Evangelion - Great for its time. It's pretty old, so it is showing its age.
Rah-Xephon - Looks fine, high quality animation.
Love Hina - Looks fine to me....
Fullmetal Alchemist - This one is done well also.
Hellsing - This one was great.
Cowboy Bebop - This one is showing its age also, but still awesome.
Trigun - Is also aging, but fine.
Rurouni Kenshin - Sometimes takes too many liberties during battle scenes. Samurai X was better. But still fine.
Witch Hunter Robin - CG a bit too obvious, but everything else was fine. Had a unique style also.
Get Backers - This one was really good animation, and creative storyline.
FLCL - Say a bad word about it's animation and I laugh at you. Any bad animation in this show is completely intentional.

Antestarr: One Piece! Damnit, gotta add that one to favs.

Been waiting for a thread like this one (too lazy to start my own).

My fav list (as i havn't seen a huge ammount of Anime) includes:

Mobile Suit: Gundam Wing (had a great all-around plot and some of the best mecha designs i've seen)

Mobile Suit: Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (technically its both a miniseries and an OVA, but it lets you see Katoki's original designs for the Gundam (excluding Wing))

Mobile Suit: Gundam Seed (series doesn't actually get good until episode 29, when one of the main characters dies. Also fails to explain how Phase-Shift armour doesn't defy the laws of physics.)

Mobile Suit: Gundam Seed: Destiny (a major improvement over its predecessor, Destiny has better characters, better Gundams, and still doesn't explain why Phase-Shift armour works)

Space Knight: Tekkaman Blade (Americans would know this as "Technoman", which appeared on UPN almost 7 years ago. They patched it in through Fox and people in Canada could pick it up for a while)

Zone of The Enders: Dolores, I (ok, I only saw one episode, but i've heared that its as good as the rest of the series, which is pretty damn prommising. Cockpits on the Orbital Frames still freak my out though)

Patlabor 1/Patlabor 2: The Movie (great storyline and mecha design. Also funny as hell)

*EDIT: Forgot to mention the aforementioned "Witch-Hunter Robin" (absolutely great series. Concept is somewhat unique (magic isn't done in a fantasy format), and the colour-palate is a departure for Sunrise)

I'm not just looking at the animation. I'm looking at the story, the idea, the VOs, the music, the essence, the personality, every part of the anime. That's why I hate most animes today. They're all far too similar for the most part, the CG put in them usually sucks (except for Blue Sub #6, which I really enjoyed). The VOs in animes usually suck the big one too. I know, I know, "WATCH THEM IN JAPANESE OMG!!!". Well I like english, and I like animes that have voice actors that put EFFORT into their roles. Sure, in every anime there will be cheesy parts, but that's because they have to try to match english words to japanese mouth-movements, and still keep the original meaning behind it. Sometimes it's just insanely hard to do. But Cowboy Bebop, Gundam Wing, Samurai Champloo, Trigun, Outlaw Star, and Akira (probably my list of favorite animes) pulls this off rather well. That, to me, puts them far, far above the rest of the cheesily acted out parts of most animes today.

You do realize that the fact that an anime has a bad voice over had nothing to with the original creators of that anime?

Totally different companies buy the license to produce the anime in America (or wherever it is going.). It is literally that pick of the litter that decides whether an anime is going to have a good voice over or not.

To say an anime is crap simply based on the fact that a third-party company doesn't know what the hell they are doing is BS. If the original company had control over the voice acting, it would be a hell of a lot better.

As for uniques:

Love Hina - Yet to find a show anything like. Able to pull of that much comedy and still get romance involved.

Full Metal Alchemist - Totally original design there.

FLCL - Even if someone else tried, they couldn't pull a show off like this.

Witch Hunter Robin - Storyline is crazy

NEW ONE I FORGOT ABOUT:
Spiral - Totally original. It's like Sherlock Holmes. It's frakkin awesome.

Except for the cookie cutter mech shows, anime is rarely alike. They strive for the exact opposite. And be careful not to generalize too much. Because then you'll become a hypocrit. ("All the animes have some girl who is in trouble and needs to be saved by this guy!" "Wait, isn't that exactly like 3/4ths of Hollywood movies?")

And MUSIC?! Oh my good lord! Many of these anime have some of the best soundtracks ever, a lot of which have best-selling CDs! I suggest you take another look at the music used in these anime. Stuff like Witch Hunter Robin, Evangelion, Naruto (not the opening/closing, i mean the actual music in it. It's quite beautiful. Although some of the ops/ends are awesome too.), Rah-Xephon had good stuff, Kenshin also. Maybe it's not that the music is bad, but that it's not in your taste?

Note: I'm not saying all the animes you list are bad, or that I've even seen them all, so think about what you're saying before you defend all your anime favorites.

And, to me, if someone was going to represent MY creation I'd want to have a say in how they were going to. I'd make them give me a screening of their selection for voice actors, and if it was good, and I liked the VA's, then I'd let them have it. They do have control--they just don't exercise it.

CM is going to kill me, but I hate Witch Hunter Robin.

Not if I find you first

*EDIT* Forgot to tack Inu-Yasha onto my list.

I'm currently following: Naruto

My favorite series: The first Robotech series

I also enjoy but don't know where to get: Inuyasha

I also kind of like: Ruroni Kenshin (but the sound seems poor)

well me...
im watching (and finished watching)

Chobits (1/2 done)
Chrono Crusade (1/8 done)
Hellsing (done)
Gundam Wing (done several times)
Evangellion (done)
X (done)
Witch Hunter Robin (start watchin it next week)
DB/ DBZ/ DBGT (all in one go) (done several times)
Lupin The 3rd (omg tis old) (1st episode done)
Naruto (episodes 1-26 done)
Saiyuki (manga)(volume 1 done)
Perfect Blue (done many many times)
Akira (if you haven't seen it.... you die)
Roecords of Lodoss War (done)
Ghost in the Shell (is god.. i mean done)

And there would be no anime in America, and they would lose about 1/4th of their income.

I'm not defending what I consider good anime, I'm defending anime in general. I'm just pointing out the flaws in your argument, since you state that the voice actors was their fault, which they really have little choice. If you just don't like anime, fine, lots of people don't, nothing wrong with that. But don't go blaming the wrong people for why you hate it. I don't blame the artist for a crappy CD, I blame the publisher. Kinda see what I mean?

I am going to kill you. Just let me get my Guymelef so I can kill you in an ironic way. :p

Maybe it was the fact that I'd had a 6-pack of beer before starting it, but after the first dvd of WHR, I was not impressed enough to continue.

I lack money, so TV is my best source for anime. The anime at the local Blockbuster is just a step above animated porn. I love Adult Swim, because they don't stick to one style. They're not always good, but they're different. They also funded the second season of Big O. It wouldn't have been made if it weren't for them. Hopefully they'll do the same for a third season, because there were a lot of unanswered questions.

I do, but you're still wrong. Just because they'd lose money in the beginning doesn't mean they'd lose money overall.

Eventually, people would realize that this anime's dialogue is much more bearable than the rest of anime's, and would partake in it. And it's not like they'd be losing any money off of the deal if they found better VA's, it'd just take more time, and (maybe) a bit more cash, which would be made up later, easily.