What is your favorite anime? What is your least favorite anime?
It's hard to choose just one but I would have to go with Neon Genesis Evangelion. Not only was it the first full anime series I owned (on VHS no less), but I watched it several times when I was first getting into the medium. So it has nostalgia value but it also helped form the basis for my taste for the next decade (sci-fi, psychological, dark). These days I'll happily watch pretty much every genre if the show is good, but my first love is still sci-fi and psychological shows. Rounding out my top ten, not that anyone probably cares.
I'm generally pretty good at filtering out shows I won't like, but 2014 was my year of watching everything that aired that showed any promise and the worst show I watched was probably Tokyo ESP. Bland, insipid and uninspired it took what should have been a sure win, Japanese X-Men, and somehow managed to make the most boring and lifeless show I've ever seen. I'm much quicker to drop shows these days, and this one would have been a goner after a couple episodes, but I stuck it out of some weird sense of obligation to the creators. I stopped being so nice after I finished it.
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I have to say I think Death Note is not just the best anime, but for me it's the best series I've yet to see. The first 24 episodes were so captivating that I couldn't stop myself from watching. I didn't move an inch for the whole final episode, kept staring at the screen and hoping something dramatic will change the normal course of things.
Call me crazy, but I couldn't get in sync with One PIece. Everyone is telling me that it's the best shonen series, but I have watched over 100 episodes and it was still not entertaining me in any way, so I finally decided to just drop it.
I enjoyed the first 16/17 episodes of death note, I struggled after that and stopped a couple of episodes after the time skip, I do plan on finishing it at some point
Definitely agree with you Seb! I really loved the first half of Death Note. I found the second half to be average though and always had a feeling that "more" was going to happen. Still a really good series overall and worth watching.
I have nothing to do today so I might finish it
One Piece has been one that's been hard for me to get into as well, that and Naruto and Bleach, I guess it's not that I don't want to watch them, it's more of the number episodes and movies is overwhelming for someone new with limited time and a huge backlog already.
Don't worry. I've seen over one hundred anime, and I still look at long running shonens and think about how much trouble it is to catch up. Probably why I've only seen few shows with over one hundred episodes, and most of the ones I have seen I watched when I fit the shonen demographic better.
I have been recommended Death Note on a couple occasions now. I will need to give it try sometime this month.
Favorite : Shinsekai Yori. Great sci-fi / psychological anime all around, plot, characters, soundtrack. No filler, just a great story.
Worst : Chaos;Head. I just finished Steins;Gate and thought it would be similar... I was dead wrong.
Tough decision, but if I actually have to choose one, my favorite show is probably Ano Hana. It's the only anime I've ever rated a full 10/10, which on my scale means that I have no complaints about it whatsoever. There's quite a few runner-ups, though. Steins;Gate, Perfect Blue, Nichjijou and Welcome to the NHK are up there.
My least favorite is easy: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. I absolutely loathe that show. It's not even close to the worst anime I've ever seen in terms of quality, but I find it so repulsive on a moral level that I couldn't stomach sitting through more than, I think, five episodes. The way this show handled the topic of abuse is wrong in so many ways that I don't even know where to begin, and seeing how popular it is confuses me.
I liked Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso overall, but it was manipulative and heavy handed in parts. The only part I really liked was in the middle when the MC mentors a younger piano player. I thought the abuse was over the top and weird, and even worse it was just a plot device, but if you stopped at episode 5 you didn't even see the worst of it.
Favourites: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Bakemonogatari, and Shinsekai Yori In no particular order because I love all three of these series. They had great openings, OSTs, animation, characters, and plot.
Least Favourite: Sword Art Online Too hyped, and I love the LN a lot more than the anime.
I would say that my favorite is Steins;Gate. There are a lot of other series that I really liked, but this one really stood out. My least favorite, of the ones I've seen is probably Kampfer. It was pretty bad. I guess I could see how someone could like it, if they cared very little about substance, and just liked it for the weirdness, but it does not fit anything close to my definition of good.
Absolute favorite is a tough one, I guess I would have to say Macross. It's like you said though, it has tremendous nostalgia value, I've got a lot of favorites though now that my 'genre palate' has expanded over the years.
Least favorite is a lot tougher though, I usually won't watch something I'm not fairly interested in. I guess it would mostly have to be Dragon Ball GT, it's the bastard child of the series and what they did to Vegeta and Gohan kind of ruined it for me.
Don't be afraid to say Macross. My older brother bought it in a DVD box set some years ago and showed it to me. I thought it was great and I am not old enough to have the nostalgia goggles for it. It is absolutely the best mecha anime I have seen and honestly one of my favorite series. I have watched and watch all the newer macross entries that come out after it.
FMA : Brotherhood was my favorite, the right amount of drama, comedy, and a wicked story line that kept me enthralled from start to finish. I found myself actually caring about all the "good" characters and not just Ed and Al.
I could never get in to FLCL, no matter how many times I've tried.
This is random but... I grabbed a random invite code and it's from you! Thank you so much!
Also, where should I start when it comes to Dragon Ball?
It goes Dragon Ball > Dragon Ball Z > Dragon Ball GT.
I personally did not hate GT. But it wasn't nearly as good either.
My favorite would definitely be Samurai Champloo. It has an amazing soundtrack, the story is awesome, and there is a perfect mix of comedy, drama, and fighting. I'm a sucker for more mature animes. Whether that be through the style or the content, I just like animes geared towards a more adult audience.
My least favorite is a bit tougher. I would say Naruto but it's been so long since I've last seen it, it's hard to tell anymore. I would have to then say, Attack on Titan. I just couldn't get into it. It was badass in the beginning but then it slowly got more dramatic (and not in a good way). I also didn't really connect with any of the characters.
I couldn't get into Attack on Titan either, but I do have it to thank for getting me back into anime. I hadn't watched any anime for about 5 years, aside from new Ghibli and re-watches, and there was so much chatter about it I decided to try it. It wasn't for me, but after that I watched Steins;Gate and Durarara!! and I was hooked all over again.
Yeah, I almost blame Attack on Titan for making me take an anime break. I need to browse through Netflix again soon and see if I can't find any new series to watch. I've heard some good things about Knights of Sidonia, so maybe I should go check that out.
I really liked Knights of Sidonia. The CGI throws some people off but I got used to it pretty quickly. It gets pretty weird but in a good way. The space battles are great, there's lots of intrigue, and the characters are all interesting.
Another recent addition to Netflix you might want to check out is the movie Expelled From Paradise.
Awesome! I'll be sure to check it out! Thanks!
My favourite anime would be Planetes and Hunter x Hunter (the 2011 version). They're pretty different shows in some aspects and similar in others; I couldn't pick which I like better since I like them for different reasons but they both send chills down my spine whenever I watch it.
Planetes can lack action at times but it still gets really intense but it's best parts are in its character development and the way the characters interact with each other and evolve through the series. I also like how it makes you think and feel about their situation.
Hunter x Hunter also has amazing characterization and has a lot of thinking and planning going on even though I kept putting it off because it I thought it was just some stupid shounen (it isn't). It's probably the smartest and best thought out shounen out there with a really great plot progression and unforgettable characters (there's a lot of characters but they all have their motivations for doing what they do).
I don't know if I really have a least favourite anime since I usually drop the ones I don't like or wouldn't bother watching them in the first place. I guess I can say that there was some disappointing anime I've seen recently like Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (Idk what they were thinking), Tokyo Ghoul (it started off pretty strong then dropped off) and Terraformars (I didn't read the manga but it can't be this bad).
Worst thing I've seen is probably Glasslip. I came in expecting a nice and calm slice of life, which I got for about 3 episodes. Then things tried to get deep and wow did it get bad. My name is now cursed to be associated with a chicken.
That show acted like something was gonna happen the whole way through. Like there was gonna be this huge reveal to this mysterious power. But it just never happened. Such a weird show. I think it's PA's worst. Red Data Girl was lame but it at least had a purpose in mind.
I thought it was going to go all School Days on me when the main girl started to hallucinate. I was ready for a massacre and was very disappointed.
Hahaha. To be fair she was seeing the possible future (or alternate future? it was weird), not going mad. But anything woulda been a better ending then it just... ending. Man it was bad sigh
I haven't been a big fan of anime for very long but my favorite has been K-ON. It's such an adorable little anime that brings a smile (okay more like a smirk) to my face every time. If you're a fan of light-hearted, slice of life animes then this is definitely the one for you.
My favourite is probably Kaiji, I really enjoy psychological series like that and as a character kaiji was more human than the main characters in similar series.
My least favourite series is hellsing ultimate as I found it quite dull and cartoonish (cartoonish probably isn't the best word).
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood! I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned it yet.
One of the things I really loved about it was that it was captivating all the way through; I didn't feel like there were fillers or that part of the series suffered from a dip in quality.
The characters, the humor, the action, the storyline... I was genuinely sad when it was all over.
Favorite is DBZ
I don't have a least favorite but probalby animes like Neon Evangelion and AKame ga Kill
I suppose my absolute favourite would be Mawaru Penguindrum. That show was absolutely fantastic. All the symbolism and just Ikuhara's whole style really stuck with me. As for least favourite, that's a pretty tough one. I guuuueeeesss Bleach, I've never really been one for super long shonen's that aren't hunter x hunter.
I have an obsession with Japan's idol culture and I'm so far deep into the Love Live franchise. I was more ecstatic about the movie coming West than I was for Madoka Rebellion (which was a LOT of hype for me). I have my ticket ordered already and everything!
I like cute girls doing cute things in general, but I haven't really tried many idol shows (the two I watched both seemed like non typical ones: Wake Up Girls! and Locodol). Next time I get the itch for a cute show I'll try Love Live.
Love Live is currently the current anime juggernaut in Japan right now. I think a lot of it's appeal comes from how much it cares about its characters as well as how even in the obligatory beach episode, the girls never feel objectified. Season 2 is even better than season 1 because there's no need to focus on getting the band together.
My favorite anime is Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I can't really think of a least favorite anime to be honest so I'll mention an anime that disappointed me. I loved Toradora and expected Golden Time to be as good but found the characters (especially Kouko) to be annoying.
I think it's hard to choose my absolute favorite anime, but I think Kyoukai no Kanata would probably be it. I usually just watch slice of life or light-hearted anime, but KnK really had me enthralled. I really enjoyed the supernatural/fantasy setting and the action scenes were super amazing for me to watch. I was also totally rooting on the romance subplots by the end of it!
As for least favorite anime, that's even tougher to decide. If something doesn't catch my interest, then I don't watch it after 1 or 2 episodes, so it's kind of hard for me to judge something I've barely watch if that makes any sense.
Kyoani can make some beautiful animation, I think it really shines here. The atmosphere is what pull me in for this one.