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I have been more active on MAL lately than I have ever been. I started in 2011 but didn't read reviews, write them, or anything of that sort. I was referred to this sight asking a question on Yahoo. So why now? Well I just finished getting an IT degree at night school, so I now need a hobby since I am not in class. Anime/Manga has been the only hobby I had time for while in school at night while working all day.

I was a victim of my favorites. Yes, I said victim. I loved my favorites so much that I repeatedly watched them over and over again. This went on for a couple of years. I tried watching series/movies from top 10 lists all over the web but I couldn't get into them. I dropped a lot of "favorites" which I will revisit now that I don't have limited time. I wanted a certain level of "enjoyment" seeing as though I had no time for myself.

That brings me back to the title of this entry. "why are my favorite anime my favorite?" When you're fried from long days of work and studying you need to shut down. That's why I chose "adventure" and "shounen" because they provide fun, exciting, and simple entertainment. As you watch the longer series you are given more and more "depth" as they evolve and grow. It's the slow feed of "depth" that made me fall in love with them. The stories grew so large that as I would explain them to other people I began to realize that they were far more complicated than some of the elitists will ever give them credit for.

Now to address the "victim" comment. I became an "anti-elitist" in that I started to hate the comments from the elitists so much that I started to shun their recommendations. They are not always right, and quite frankly, they are dead wrong too often. I think it comes from taking such a cynical/critical view of everything they watch. Entertainment at it's finest isn't "new" and "different" but rather it's relatable in one way or another. It has to "touch" you somehow. It's as simple as that. I don't care if the artwork isn't perfect, and the music isn't something I would put on to listen to. I need something that makes me laugh, cry (yes I know), or feel anything for that matter. It has to touch you emotionally somehow. If at the end of it you feel anything other than boredom (that is obviously the exception) then it was worth watching, even if just once. I found anime/manga that touched me somehow and stuck with it. I didn't need anything else.

In my "about me" section of my profile I explain how I write my reviews, recommendations, etc. etc. I have a note about me restarting my lists as of January of 2013. I finished school in December of 2012 so this is no coincidence. I had a lot of anime on there that I hadn't seen since the 90's. In the mid to late 90's I watched a lot of anime that a teenager would. There were things I had rated a 7 or 8 that I will never watch again. I tried, and I can't finish them. I may make another attempt in the future so I can at least put them on my "dropped" list. That being said, I took a good look at my list and scores and made adjustments. I started reviewing things I had seen in the last 2-4 months. I made a decision to only write reviews on things that I have "completed" and there are things not on my list that I have seen and will probably re-watch to do a proper assessment, but I have some things on my "plan to watch" list that I have seen. Why the rambling? Well it's relevant to what I am about to write.

Let me say that from about 1999 until 2008 I was on an anime break. Naruto was my gateway series back into anime. I even started Shippuden when it was still very "young" meaning it had less than 100 episodes. After watching the series a few times (3 or 4 full runs I think) I questioned why it got so bad towards the time skip. I then went and read the manga and EUREKA! it was amazing compared to the anime. I learned about "filler" from that experience. From there, whenever I tried a new anime I would see if there was a manga for it and try to read that first if I could. This is an important point because this affects my score on everything I watch that is based on a manga series.

Next there was Bleach. A recommendation from all of the fanboys online trolling the naruto spoiler forums. One piece had come up a few times, but Bleach sounded better. The anime started out promising, and there are plenty of good parts of it. Then I struggled through filler. I reluctantly watched all filler the first couple of times I saw the series. The manga was amazing, and that's what kept me watching the anime. Shortly before Bleach was cancelled I took the number of filler episodes and derived a percentage of total episodes released to find that the filler was 42% of the anime series. Ouch. That is why it was cancelled. PERIOD. After my first experience with Bleach (I watched the entire series up to whatever episode it was up to at that time) I was hesitant to take any more recommendations.

I know I made an elitist comment earlier and I am not counting naruto or bleach in those elitist comments. Mostly non-shonoun recommendations come from the elitists I am referring to. Bleach and Naruto were not referred to me by elitists, but by fan boys. (I felt it was important to add this point)

And then there was One Piece... I felt there was no rush watching this series. The artwork was difficult to get used to at first, and it was quite simply a funny adventure story. There were plenty of mini-arcs where the crew got together. Then their first few mini adventures on the Grand Line led to the first major arc in Arabasta. After Arabasta you get the Sky Island Arc, and I was a little disappointed in how slow it was in the anime series. Lo and behold the Water 7 arc that immediately leads to the Enies Lobby arc changed how I felt about One Piece completely. I had never been addicted to any kind of television series, movie series or anime like One Piece. It became my basis of comparison for everything else I watched after that. Again, I want to point out that I am in the realm of simple adventure anime that slowly grows into something bigger. One Piece is the king of that. The manga is amazing and the anime is a "good" adaptation. My addiction with the manga drives my love of the anime, plain and simple. One Piece holds the throne on my anime list and I don't see that changing any time soon. The simple delivery filled with overall complexities combined with masterful delivery week to week is difficult to beat. If I ever find something that dethrones it (assuming the quality remains consistent to the end) then I will dance in the street with joy (not literally).

All others below One Piece on my list of 5 favorites have done exactly what One Piece has. They have slowly developed into a grander story while being fun and simple adventure/action stories. I compare everything's quality to the delivery of One Piece in these genres. The exception is SAO which earned it's place for a completely different reason. I play and have played several MMORPGs and SAO really hits the nail on the head in it's delivery. It's not for everyone, but it is for me. AO No Exorcist (aka Blue Exorcist) falls into the adventure/action category but it earns it's place for the shear repeat value it has. I can watch that anime over and over again despite it having a completely "filler" ending. Every time I watch it I enjoy it. That's all I want from an anime series. Hunter X Hunter (2011) was a difficult one to put as 4th on my list because it is nearly at One Piece caliber, but I chose my top 5 based on how likely I am to watch them due to my level of enjoyment for the series. Each and every one of my top 5 have been repeatedly watched in my spare time.

If you've read this far then you may be asking "what happened to Naruto" ??? It's a simple answer and that is that I love the story so much that I am agitated at where it has gone. I love the Manga and I am so mad at what they have done with a couple of the characters. The anime isn't as far (obviously) and it's filled with almost as much filler as Bleach, but I rate it "filler-free" on my list so do not mistake it's rating. If the story recovers as it appears to be attempting to do, then it will retain it's score that I gave it. If it ends in a way that I cannot except having dedicated so much time to the story, then do expect my score to drop a couple of points on shippuuden. The Manga retains it's 10 score because I have hope. It is a foolish reason to score something as a masterpiece, I know, but I cannot fluctuate my score on something that is released weekly without giving it an opportunity to redeem itself.

I hope I have explained my reasoning behind my top 5 anime on my list, again, it's not based on their scores, but it is based on my enjoyment of them. If it's on my top 5 list then do assume that I highly recommend it. Please do not assume that it's 100% from a critical viewpoint. I could pick apart each one and say some pretty negative comments, but if I were to write a good and bad list then the good would heavily outweigh the bad.

Thank you for reading.