Akai_Shuichi's Blog

Feb 20, 2015 4:57 PM
Anime Relations: Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven, NHK ni Youkoso!, Death Note, Toradora!, Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven: Pocket ga Niji de Ippai, One Outs, Shiki, Shiki Specials, Fate/Zero, Kyousou Giga, Fate/Zero 2nd Season, Zetsuen no Tempest, Kyousou Giga (2012), White Album 2, Kyousou Giga (TV), Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works Prologue, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works 2nd Season, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works 2nd Season - Sunny Day
Third entry of my top 100, this time, positions 80-71.

To be honest, I did expect my top to change with time, but I didn't expect it to change this much, and definitely not this quickly... of course, I consider that to be a good thing. I don't think my taste has change that much or anything of the sort, it' just that 2015 has been a great year for me in anime. Not because of the anime that aired in this year (which was actually kinda mediocre) but because of all the great completed stuff I've seen.

Who knows, maybe one day I end up extending this into a top 200.

Now without further ado, let's go with the top:




80. Welcome to the NHK



Hilarious series about a NEET. Some great humour thanks to some great characters.

There are very few series out there that have managed to make me laugh as much as Welcome to the NHK. The series has a great sense of comedy, but the most impressive thing is that it does it in a legitimately interesting story with some huge character development involved.

The series really portrays very well this NEET character, Sato, who is exactly that. A guy who does absolutely nothing and spends all his days (literally speaking) inside his apartment. This guy managed to get to know two persons, Yamazaki and Misaki, the first being a high school friend and the second being a girl with which he will develop a strange relationship that it's even hard to call a romance.

You won't be seeing this series for the romance anyways. While the series does go into some serious themes, it is definitely comedy centered, actually, tends to make comedy out of serious situations; and does it very well.

This is an extremely funny series that may make you think a little bit about the life of legitimate hikikomoris, people who have a real psychological problem about approaching people.


79. White Album 2



Another school romance? Well, yes. There are thousands of school romances out there, most of them mediocre or even bad, but with so many, a few are bound to be pretty good, and White Album 2 is one of those. This is a drama romance, not a romantic comedy. Let me be clear, I'm not really a fan of romantic drama, at least not a whole series of it (I do like it for moments though), but White Album 2 is good, seriously good.

The premise of the series is nothing new, nothing we haven't seen. Your everyday high school romantic triangle. But this romantic triangle has an incredible evolution thanks to three very well written characters, and great development and portrayal of difficult feelings... Also, as far as jpop music goes, I think this series had some pretty good stuff.

Something important to know is that YOU DON'T NEED WHITE ALBUM 1 TO WATCH THIS. While both series are from the same universe, one story has pretty much nothing to do with the other. Just a few mentions in White Album 2 that affect absolutely nothing. This series work for itself, and it's actually much more highly regarded than the first one.

No character in this triangle is perfect, but I think none of them are demons either, they're a great trio, were they each care for the other, including the two women between themselves, they're good friends. But love can seriously make a relationship more difficult, specially between three people. There is no series as good as White Album at doing this. Characters are believable, drama is entertaining and the series quickly hooks you without letting you go.

I actually skipped this series when it was airing, but I'm definitely glad I ended up watching it. Also, while the series does have an ending by itself, there is a second part for White Album 2, which is considered even better than this first part (White Album 2 is based on the Visual Novel White Album 2 ~Introductory Chapter~ and there's also a ~Closing Chapter~ which has not been animated).


78. Ufotable's Fate



I'm a big Fate fan. I read the Visual Novel many years ago, I read the Fate/Zero light novel before the series actually aired and right now I'm about to start Hollow Ataraxia. I enjoy it a lot, and what can I say, Ufotable did one heck of a job animating Fate/Zero. It was faithful, it had an amazing soundtrack, the action was impressive, and well, the animation was flawless. Actually, probably the best animation I had seen in a series up to that moment (then UBW came, which is probably even better).

Fate/Zero was great as a prequel, and was great as a stand alone. As many may know, this is the story ten years before Stay Night. I won't go into comparisons, and just say that I love both of them.

For me, what really shines in Fate/Zero are the servants. While the Masters are not bad (Kirei and Kiritsugu are great), it's the servants the ones that steal the show. I still remember that conversation between Saber, Iskandar and Gilgamesh about kings... A great dialogue between three very different yet, at the same time, similar characters showing different points of views about being a ruler.

The Holy Grail War at its purest form. That's what Fate/Zero is.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works finally had a good adaption, fixing that horrible DEEN movie doing a two season series with a few one hour specials.

While I can understand many people disliking this adaption (sometimes because they directly didn't like the source material, and sometimes because it was really slow paced), I can't agree with that, though it might be because I've never really cared about slow pace (sometimes I do with fast pace, I admit, but that isn't the case here).

Unlimited Blade Works had some outstanding visuals, which makes this worthy of having the nickname "Unlimited Budget Work". I think it's fantastic that there are some works with really high budget because then things like UBW and Zero are born, which I think looks absolutely fantastic.

Unlimited Blade Works happens to be my favorite route in the Visual Novel, and of course, Rin happens to be my favorite girl, so there's always those fan stuff involved here. While I'll never be a fan of Shirou, his at his best in this route (and yes, even if I'm correct here doesn't mean I'm right) and so were Archer, Saber and arguably Rin (Rin's fantastic also in Heaven's Feel, I have to admit), besides other a bit less important characters from the Stay Night franchise.

Something I particularly liked about the adaption is how the linked it a bit more to Zero with things like the Illya episode (and other little things) and also to Ataraxia with the epilogue.

Again, it had a fantastic OST and it was overall pretty entertaining, and while yes, source material will always be superior, I think this series made justice to the Visual Novel, even with the radioactive dolphins.


77. One Outs



Let’s make ourselves a really weird question: What would happen if Yagami Light and Itou Kaiji fused together and began… playing baseball? Well, that’s pretty much what Tokuchi Toua, the main character from One Outs is.

Let’s start by saying that I don’t like baseball one bit. I mean, the only reason I would watch a real baseball match is if I can’t sleep one night and they’re putting that on the TV. It would work better than any sleeping pills. That said, I absolutely loved One Outs, and the games were absolutely fantastic, to the point that if I hadn’t watched baseball in the past, this series would’ve deceived me into thinking that baseball was actually fun (I mean this as a personal opinion of course, hopefully no one who likes baseball takes offense from this).

The main point about this series is letting Tokuchi Toua be awesome. The plot and every other character in the series exist mainly for that reason, but I don’t mean this as a bad thing because One Outs does a pretty damn good job at it. Tokuchi Toua really is one of the most awesome characters I’ve ever seen in anime. He’s extremely good at reading situations, making plans so that his team can win, and countering plans from the opponents, all while winning a whole lot of money thanks to his unusual contract that gives him 5 million yen for every out he’s responsible for, but loses 50 million for every run he gives.

Because of this, this is one of those series of characters making plans, being countered, then cross counter, etc. Kind of like Death Note, Kaiji or even Code Geass or Legend of the Galactic Heroes, only here is all about baseball. Some really crazy things happen during the games, to the point you’re almost wondering if you should call that playing baseball.

And with such nature, this series is, of course, quite addicting, the kind you want to watch the next episode and see how Toua will get through some difficult situations.

The only real shame about this series is that it doesn’t really have an ending, and while we’re not left on a cliffhanger, the series does clearly finish in the middle of the story, without really resolving some of the main goals of it, which is a bit of a shame, specially because it’s unlikely that we’ll ever get a second season.


76. Kyousou Giga



Here's what I call a hidden gem. One of the best animes from 2012, and one that went really unnoticed from what I've seen. One of the best works I've seen from Toei Animation, which is actually amazingly animated and has some great OST.

What I loved the most about this series was that in the midst of a pretty alternative artstyle, and lots of abstract things, the series was really good at showing the concept of family. That's definitely the main topic of the series, and through the 10 episodes (plus an OVA) the family bonds between various characters are explored and developed in a great, crazy way (yes, crazy).

The characters in this anime are very likeable, and Rie Kugimiya does a great job as Koto, the main character (no, it's not a tsundere). Koto is a very energetic character, she's really a kid that likes playing around, and while she tends to be a bit destructive (well, this goes for pretty much all kids) she's extremely kind, enough to change the people around her. Her development, for a 10 episodes series is quite amazing, as she little by little starts feeling "at home" in this magical world with this people she got to know.

This series is bizarre in many ways, it' just not like every anime out there, it uses a lot of colors, and a kind of fantasy world full of things, a lot of things are always happenings, but it never feels like it's excess. It's a fun experience. The whole setting, plot and characters are all very crazy, but the inner message of the story couldn't be more coherent.

The series incorporates a lot from buddhism and japanese folklore, sometimes in literal forms and sometimes in more symbolic ways, and it puts everything together, seemingly without order, but that somehow makes complete sense. Again, the animation helps a lot in this. Toei truly made a magnificent job animating this series, definitely being the best work I've seen from this studio in terms of animation quality and, more importantly, creativity. This show is just incredibly creative in every aspect, something innovative, something that gets a little bit away from the clichés and tries (and succeeds to) bring something new to the table.

Kyousou Giga was a fresh experience, an amazing series that's only shame I've rarely seen it even mentioned. Damn, it's so rarely mentioned that even I forgot including it in the first edition of this top.


75. Death Note



The most popular show in MAL. Is there anything I can say about this series that hasn't already been said? Probably not, but I suppose I doesn't kill anybody to talk even more about it (unless I'm actually writing this in a Death Note and I mention someone, that is).

I think my anime life has a lot of incredibly important steps that made me the fan I am today. Like probably most people my age, I began watching dubbed anime on TV with things like Dragon Ball and Detective Conan, among others, and many years later developed into subbed anime, in my particular case because of some episodes I missed on TV (from Blood+ and Getbackers) which I ended up watching subbed in Youtube. I loved it, and quickly discovered there was a whole anime world out there waiting for me. Next step was a pretty common one, and got myself into the big shounens of the time: One Piece, Bleach and Naruto, but that was it for my anime knowledge. I knew what I had seen on TV and that was it. So when I asked a friend who I knew watched anime, the very first recommendation I received was Death Note. It was almost a religious experience. I went and watched Death Note, started with episode 1, and maybe except for a bathroom break, I don't think I stopped until I was done (ok, maybe I did watch it in two days with a sleep in between). I'm calling it a religious experience because the thrilling sensation Death Note gave me became a very big reason of why I then began searching for anime, googling things like "anime similar to Death Note" and began watching series after series. Because of this, Death Note is special for me.

And what else can I say about Death Note. If someone has a taste that at least similar to mine, I can't imagine that person not enjoying Death Note, I just can't. The concept of the Death Note is very fun, the whole mind games is thrilling and the series makes sure to have you on the endge of your seat from the first episode until the end. Good concept with great execution, even if the series does lose a lot after the one famous event midway through the series.

Kira and L became a rivalry to be remembered. These two guys formed a rivalry that was incredibly fun to see, both when they were fighting in the shadows without revealing themselves and even when they were doing some seemingly harmless stuff like playing tennis on their free time, so to speak. The anime revolves around this rivalry, and both Kira and L serve as the pillars that hold de series together. It's them just thinking and trying to be one step ahead of the other what's always making Death Note and incredibly entertaining series full of twists and turns.

The anime also happens to have some really nice production values. Madhouse did a great job animating this series, which even though it's not the action packed kind of series, it needed creativity from its developers, which I can definitely say it was greatly done. Artsyle looked good, music was great and scenes were very well directed.




74. Toradora!



One of the best, if not the best, romantic comedies out there. Toradora really shines above others when it comes to characters, comedy and ultimately romance.

This is an overall very well written story about this couple that slowly goes from "coworkers", to friends, to couple in an interesting progression.

Something great about Toradora is that it's not just about this two characters. It has a whole cast of characters that are all really interesting by their own. Though, of course, the best are the main characters, the dragon (Ryuuji) and the tiger (Taiga).

These are two characters that really had no interest in each other, but by working with each other to conquer other people, they little by little start caring for each other. This progression, the events that lead to this, are all very well done, and I thought it was very good how our characters, little by little began realizing how much the other was caring for them, which of course, is no real spoiler to say they end up getting closer and closer.

Comedy is also an important part here, and Toradora does it right. Doesn't force too much, but puts a lot of great comedy here and there, making the trip much more interesting.

This is a story about more than two characters, and little by little, the two main characters affect a lot of characters, their feeling become conflicted, and becomes quite a thing, where friendship and love collide.

Finally the series concludes with one of the better endings I've seen, and one of the best moments I've seen from a romantic anime.

Some people hate a lot on Rie Kugimiya, but I think Taiga wouldn't have been as good with another seiyuu. Her role was great, and did a lot in the character that probably had the biggest development in the series.


73. Zetsuen no Tempest



I remember watching this weekly without much expectations, but ended up being probably the best of the season (To be honest, I don't remember what else was in that season).

What really made this anime so good were the dialogues. There were some impressive dialogues, mainly about logic, that made this series special. The incredible OST and the use, but not abuse, of Shakespeare helped too.

There's this episode at the end of the first half of the series that really impressed me. The whole episode was talking, it was all about theorizing about certain event and making sense out them. It was pure applied logic (I studied logic) in the way of dialogues and events. That episode, the best in the series, was absolutely outstanding. Just by itself can make this series worthy of watching.

But that, by no means, means that the rest is weak. While I can agree the second half was weaker, it was good, and still followed this principle of acting in accordance to logic. There is a lot of mystery in this series, and lots of things that need to be resolved, everything follows around the death of the little sister of one of the main characters (who also happens to be the girlfriend of the other main character, but he doesn't know that).

Action, while not the forte of the anime, is solid and the animation is pretty good.... Oh, and almost forgot... YOU HAVE TREES FIGHTING HERE! TREES!


72. Eureka Seven



Eureka Seven had absolutely everything to make itself unappealing to me. Mechas aren't really all that interesting to me, character seem like your typical shounen brat, story didn't seem that appealing and I didn't even like the heroine by looks (well, that really doesn't amount to much, but it was a negative point anyways)... But you know what they say: "Never judge a book by its cover".

Luckily, lots of people I know watched this and eagerly recommended it to me. I listened, and I definitely don't regret it. This is definitely the best mecha/romance anime out there.

This series is all about character development, it's no exaggeration to say we really do start with brats as main characters. They are actually young and have little to no experience in life. In Eureka's case, there's even more to it, but I won't go through that here. Eureka Seven is a coming of age story about Renton and Eureka, though even some of the adult characters have to grow up a bit from different events. Eureka Seven really does shine in the whole process of growing up that is centered around Eureka and Renton. By the end of the series, you'll have completely different characters because of their development, and I mean it in a good way. Renton and Eureka will be more mature, yet they will still be quite young, and that will still show.

While I'm not a big fan of mechas, I have to admit that making them surf the skies (literally speaking) was kinda awesome. Maybe the only time were I've liked the mechas by themselves. The surfing thing is original, different, effective and interesting. The whole production values were pretty good, which obviously helped in this area. Music also helped, there was a detailed work done with the music in this series, and while it probably doesn't use my favorite style of music, I can't say it wasn't effective, it worked very well, so I can only praise the soundtrack, even if it's not the kind of sountrack I'm constantly going back to.

Finally, along with the character development, or connected to it, what's most impressive about this series its the conclusion. There are very, very few series with such a good conclusion. It was pretty much perfect. One of the best I've ever seen, one of those endings that bumps the series value a lot. I still haven't watched Eureka Seven Ao basically because... why would I? Things ended up so well, why make more?

Sometimes I loved the characters actions, sometimes I wanted them to hit them, but even that was part of them growing up. At the end of the journey I found myself appreciating everything about it.


71. Shiki



One of the best horror anime has to offer (admittedly, there is not much competition, but this is really good), the best story about vampires/zombies (ghouls?) I've seen.

Shiki's formula is not something new to the horror genre, but if I think about it, there's not much anime of the style to choose from. Higurashi and Ookami Kakushi come to mind, but even those feel a bit different. Shiki has the classic isolated village were strange things starts happening. People starts turning into some kind of vampires/zombies (ghouls?) as mysterious deaths start happening throughout the series. Contrary to most anime, I feel Shiki is quite graphic, and that's something not that usual in anime, from my experience, some shots can be very gore, to the point it will probably bother some people. The use of both image and sound is very well executed to cause the horror effect in that regard, which is not something I can say for the vast majority of horror anime.

Now the series really stands out because the city pretty much becomes a battlefield between the humans and these zombie/vampires. And the series is not as simple as to have mindless zombies vs humans or anything of the sort. On the contrary, these zombie/vampires have personality and feel very human, save for their very different basic necessities, and the series really puts an emphasis on that point. Humans can be much more cruel than these creatures, and through the series you start to wonder who's really the bad guy in this series. No side here is innocent, and no side is completely guilty either, which makes for an engaging plot.

While you don't get particularly attached to any character (at least I didn't) the progress of the different things happening through the cities is very engaging, sometimes seeing some events from different points of view even. The way they work showing different perspective is very well done, and it's probably the main attraction of this series.

There's not really a lot of serious horror to choose from in anime, but if you're a fan of the genre, or want to try some good anime horror, then Shiki is probably your best choice.




That would be for the third entry of this Top 100. We're now at the beginning of the core of the series I've most enjoyed, but there's still a lot left, as we're not even halfway through.

Feel free to leave a comment in my profile or in this entry, it would actually be appreciated, as it's always nice to see that someone's reading what you write (at least when you put some effort in it).


History:


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Posted by Akai_Shuichi | Feb 20, 2015 4:57 PM | 1 comments
Awesomecake | Feb 24, 2015 8:24 PM
Lol Usagi Drop. The Manga haunts me too. The Anime is so fucking amazing and heartwarming. Easily makes my top anime of all time. But the manga made me want to puke. It traumatized me so much I haven't been able to watch the show again. Which sucks because I love it so much.
 
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