Jaxel
Administrator
God damn... most anime watchers are complete morons. Don't ever listen to ANYONE who reviews anime (and ONLY anime). People who have anime podcasts or review websites don't have the taste, or the critical nature needed to give proper reviews. They tend to like anime because they are anime, not because they are genuinely good stories (in which most are not). Because of this, most (if not all) reviewers who review anime exclusively let big plot holes, poor direction of photography and plain old continuity problems go. They tend to care more about things being "bad ass", rather than care about any sort of character progression or build up.
But my favorites:
The Record of Lodoss War OVA (TV series was meh)
The Vision of Escaflowne TV Series (movie sucked)
Rurouni Kenshin OVA (also called Samurai X, TV series sucked)
Marmalade Boy TV Series
Hikaru no Go TV Series (frame by frame accurate to the Manga)
RahXephon TV Series
Avatar: The Last Airbender (water tribe!)
The Slayers TV Series (especially season 2)
Tenchi Muyo OVA (also called Ryo-ohki)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes (all of it!)
Azumanga Daioh TV Series
Bleach is crap. Naruto is crap. The original version of Akira was crap, the director's cut that added 30 minutes to it in 2001 actually made it decent. Akira is one of those animes that are popular because it advanced direction of photography in anime (often called art direction); even if before the director's cut the story had major plot holes and made little to no sense. Evangelion is much the same way, the only reason people talked about it so much was because of how little sense it made. RahXephon was far superior, with just as good art direction; but the story made sense and wrapped up neatly at the end, so no one had anything to talk about.
In the end, you can't really take ANYONE's reviews when it comes to anime; the medium just tends to garner a lot of unearned love and attention than even narnar films (at least narnar film fans KNOW the shit they are watching is bad). Really on these forums, the only one I have seen with any taste is Page. He tends to feel the same way I do about anime and he stated it already on this thread. "Good is good, bad is bad". Just because something is anime, doesn't make it good and isn't an excuse to ignore the obvious flaws that you would normally complain about in another medium.
For instance, lets take what Animefreak6969 said in another thread:
Oh, and as usual... Archangel has no taste.
If you ask me though, the best anime you are going to find came out in the 90's. The 90's were basically the golden era of anime. This is still the time before digital graphics were the norm, and almost all anime was still being produced on hand drawn chroma cells, instead of computers. Lower quality animation meant that production houses had to focus more on story to make up for the animation faults. As well, when there are literally only 30 new animes produced a YEAR, you know you'll have an easier time of actually finding quality productions.
Now I think anime is starting to hit close to 100 new animes a year and because of it, funding is being spread too thin within shitty anime out there to simply make a buck. Everything is so concerned about graphics, "epicness" or "randomness" that story is often being ignored. Its so bad now, that often I look for anime with BAD graphics, because then I know the story will be good.
But my favorites:
The Record of Lodoss War OVA (TV series was meh)
The Vision of Escaflowne TV Series (movie sucked)
Rurouni Kenshin OVA (also called Samurai X, TV series sucked)
Marmalade Boy TV Series
Hikaru no Go TV Series (frame by frame accurate to the Manga)
RahXephon TV Series
Avatar: The Last Airbender (water tribe!)
The Slayers TV Series (especially season 2)
Tenchi Muyo OVA (also called Ryo-ohki)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes (all of it!)
Azumanga Daioh TV Series
Bleach is crap. Naruto is crap. The original version of Akira was crap, the director's cut that added 30 minutes to it in 2001 actually made it decent. Akira is one of those animes that are popular because it advanced direction of photography in anime (often called art direction); even if before the director's cut the story had major plot holes and made little to no sense. Evangelion is much the same way, the only reason people talked about it so much was because of how little sense it made. RahXephon was far superior, with just as good art direction; but the story made sense and wrapped up neatly at the end, so no one had anything to talk about.
In the end, you can't really take ANYONE's reviews when it comes to anime; the medium just tends to garner a lot of unearned love and attention than even narnar films (at least narnar film fans KNOW the shit they are watching is bad). Really on these forums, the only one I have seen with any taste is Page. He tends to feel the same way I do about anime and he stated it already on this thread. "Good is good, bad is bad". Just because something is anime, doesn't make it good and isn't an excuse to ignore the obvious flaws that you would normally complain about in another medium.
For instance, lets take what Animefreak6969 said in another thread:
He's commenting on another user who was complaining about Highschool of the Dead (I've only read the manga myself), and how its nothing new or original. Its a through the paces, by the numbers zombie story. To which Animefreak defends the series, as even though it has obvious flaws, its never been done in anime form. Which is just wrong. The fact that its in anime form shouldn't be an excuse to a shitty story, shitty art direction and just plain being a shitty anime. Is it shitty? I don't know, as I haven't seen it... and I have no interest in seeing it because the manga was shitty. And if the source material is shitty, chances are the manga is also shitty as well.
Oh, and as usual... Archangel has no taste.
If you ask me though, the best anime you are going to find came out in the 90's. The 90's were basically the golden era of anime. This is still the time before digital graphics were the norm, and almost all anime was still being produced on hand drawn chroma cells, instead of computers. Lower quality animation meant that production houses had to focus more on story to make up for the animation faults. As well, when there are literally only 30 new animes produced a YEAR, you know you'll have an easier time of actually finding quality productions.
Now I think anime is starting to hit close to 100 new animes a year and because of it, funding is being spread too thin within shitty anime out there to simply make a buck. Everything is so concerned about graphics, "epicness" or "randomness" that story is often being ignored. Its so bad now, that often I look for anime with BAD graphics, because then I know the story will be good.
