Anime Anyone? (Top Ten List and General Discussion)

[Rob]

Hmm... favorites? Well... if I had to rank a top 10, it'd go something like this:

10. Tenchi Universe
While I like both the OVA version and the TV version, with their little differences, I tend to favor the TV series slightly more, as my favorite character is Kiyone.

9. Cowboy Bebop
A great action series, and it has some of my favorite moments in anime.

8. Martian Successor Nadesico
Gai Daigoji! Gai Daigoji! Gai Daigoji! Hey, it's just a fun series.

7. Dominion Tank Police
One of the earlier animes I got into, and even though it's a short series (4 episodes), I still love to revisit it from time to time.

6. Love Hina
Poor Keitaro. Poor, poor Keitaro. It's weirdly funny to watch him get tortured by the girls of Hinata House...

5. Excel Saga
It's just too messed up. And besides, where else do you get the series' director inserting himself into the series, usurping creative control from the original manga artist?

4. Mobile Suit Gundam
The original battle of the One Year War... as aged as the series is, it's still a compelling story of conflict.

3. Mobile Fighter G Gundam
While radically different from traditional Gundam series, I gave it a chance, and I found that I liked the story, so much so that the tragic figure of Kyoji Kasshu ended up becoming my "signature character", supplanting the title character of my number 1 series (see below).

2. Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
The greatest of the Gundam series (at least, through the *gag* SEED era; I've yet to check out Gundam 00).

And finally, my top pick:
1.The Irresponsible Captain Tylor
For some eight years now, this has ranked as far and away my favorite anime. Justy Ueki Tylor (age 20), a guy who joins the military seeking an easy life, manages to become the focal point of an intergalactic conflict. I guess one way to look at it would be, what if a 20-year-old Ron Stoppable was a starship captain? He'd probably be a lot like Tylor... confounding his enemies, irritating his superiors, frustrating many of his own crew, and making the unlikeliest of friends.

Honorable mentions:
The Big O - Post-apocalyptic giant robots meet the art-deco style of Batman: The Animated Series, with a little bit of Evangelion-type mind games thrown in at the end.
Robotech (Macross) - Some good stuff from the '80s
Azumanga Daioh - Recently got into it, pretty funny stuff
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Tenchi Muyo! - Ryo-Ohki (OVAs)
Trigun
Inuyasha
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Detective Conan ("Case Closed")
Battle Of The Planets - I watched it when I was as young as 4!
Speed Racer
Dragon Ball Z - it got me reinterested in anime in the late '90s
Sailor Moon - ... Ah, Mako-chan. Still my favorite senshi, and the inspiration for a couple of my old usernames...

[Mike_Industries]

Hey Rob! Welcome Back!

Naruto Shippuuden =

Naruto Shippuuden Movie =

Seriously, it was HORRIBLE! I thought it would be a great Anime movie, instead I got a super happy happy joy joy ending! I was so dissapointed. I thought Naruto was going to actually die! I wanted a sad ending, but no... Take away the one thing I want the most in an anime...

[Sir Sebastian]

I've been trying to find an anime I used to watch as a kid, but as I don't remember the name of it, it's pretty hard. It was about racing - they drove these F1 looking cars, some of which had six or eight wheels. Does anyone know the one I'm talking about?

[canuck31003]

No idea. The only thing I can think of is Speedracer.

Another anime I liked is Touch. It followed closely the manga version. At its most basic, it's about a high school baseball club trying to make Koshien - a popular Japanese baseball tournament. It's main characters are twin brothers, and their neighbor, a girl they both like.

[Sir Sebastian]

I found the one I was looking for: Grand Prix. Too bad the only torrents for it are in Italian.

[Mike_Industries]

I'm sending you a PM now, but I found a show called Immortal Grand Prix, And I wonder if it's the same show. I'll give you a link to see...

[Mr Birthday]

I happend to find this some time ago and now that I remember it, I think it would be appreciated here. Thanks to TheGreenMagic for suggesting that I post it here.

[Mike_Industries]

Ahh the old Alternate reality DBZ... There's 20 something episodes of that out there, right? Good video Mr. Birthday.

[canuck31003]

A couple more anime I recommend is Hitohira and Hayate no Gotoku (or in English, Hayate the Combat Butler).

The former is a comedy/drama about an extremely shy high school girl "forced" to join a drama club. The first half or so is mostly comedy and very good, the last half is more drama - I didn't like it as much but it was still good.

Hayate no Gotoku is a comedy and very funny. It makes numerous references to other anime/manga/video games. I don't recognize most of them. So how do I know they're references? Because the anime *beeps* them out due to copyright issues. :P The story starts with the poor, hard-working Hayate, who is forced to take on his fleeing parents' enormous debt to yakuza. To save his organs from being harvested (and form going into forced labor), Hayate decides to kidnap a rich girl for ransom but ends up rescuing her, instead.

[TheGreenMagic]

This is all but completely random on my part, but this little devART comic does involve an anime character. Doesn't hurt that it left me laughing with youthful abandon... Old school villainy trumps some handy dandy notebook any day of the week.