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Fifth entry of the top. The halfway mark of the top

To think there's still 50 things ahead of what's in this group is almost hard to believe even for me. At this point, we've already gone through some series that at one point of my life, they were most likely top 5. That's pretty incredible.

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




60. Black Lagoon



Women can be scary.

If you like action, guns, some sexy girls, explosions and some more action then this is your series. Black Lagoon is Hollywood, but better.

Black Lagoon has a simple plot about a group of mercenaries that take on different jobs in a very dangerous city (fake). There is not much to it, but gets the job done. Interactions between the characters are not what you would call deep, intellectual or anything of the sort, but they're very well done, they're fun, and they do look like the kind of interactions people of that kind would have (maybe with a little spice of extra comedy).

Black Lagoon does have some memorable characters (specifically the women in the series), and some awesome fights, some of the finest I've seen with guns. One of the best pure action series out there. Oh, and the comedy in there is very good.

Also, something that can't fail in a show like this, and definitely doesn't, is the OST. Black Lagoon has some great OST to go along with the action and the different scenes.

Finally, there's also the OVAs about Roberta, which again, have some pretty awesome action based on the best maid in the world (and the most dangerous also). Roberta's Blood Trail is pretty much Roberta going on a frenzy, which is, of course, awesome.


59. Samurai Champloo



When talking about samurai anime, I don't think there's something that comes to mind to me before Samurai Champloo (maybe Rurouni Kenshin). That said, as other Shinichiro Watanabe works, there is also something more western included in his series. In the case of Samurai Champloo, contrary to Cowboy Bebop, for example, is less aparent, but you can still feel the western influence there.

This is a fairly simple story, where our main characters are looking for a certain samurai for various reasons. They fight a lot along the way, bond together through the whole series and eventually reach an end point to their journey. Samurai Champloo is not, nor it intends to get overly complicated, and succeeds in a fairly simple formula. For starters, fights are fun, among the better fights I remember in anime, partly because I like sword fights without super powers. Samurai Champloo display great samurai fighting each other, sometimes in more polished ways, sometimes not, but using human capacities, so to speak, something that's fairly rare in anime, which is to be expected since the medium will obviously like to abuse not having some limitations live action cinema has, and the fact that animating superpowers can actually be easier than animating a good "real" fight.

It's impossible to talk about Samurai Champloo and not talk a bit about its soundtrack. We all know Yoko Kanno by now, and if you don't you should if you're even bothering reading this. Samurai Champloo is one of her many works, and it's wonderful, mixing some classical japanese style music with things like hip hop and, as a Yoko Kanno trademark, some jazzy tunes here and there. One of the biggest tools Yoko Kanno used to make this OST possible was Nujabes, a fantastic composer that sadly passed away too soon. I'm not even a hip-hop fan, but the Samurai Champloo is one of those I go back fairly frequently. It has a relaxing style I absolutely love, I feel at peace while listening to some of the tunes the series has to offer.

A very good animation quality that accompanies the OST makes up for an incredibly producted series, that even though it's now almost 15 years old, it can still feel freshly animated, having aged fantastically.

Again, this is a fairly simple series, so I can't really go into much detail about the plot of it, but I can say the execution doesn't fail (which it does happen even in simple plot series) and it does a good job with the characters, not because of development, but more because of charisma. The main trio is likeable, their interactions are fun and only get better as the series progress.

Samurai Champloo, if not already, will go down as one of the classic anime in the future. While the best known Shinichiro Watanabe work is Cowboy Bebop (which is also fantastic), don't miss out on Samurai Champloo if you haven't seen it already.


58. Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom



This is the best (and first) Gen Urobuchi work for me, without question.

There are a few anime out there about one or two assassins (Noir, Madlax, Canaan), but none of them are even close to Phantom, which is the best in action, story, development and characters (OST can make an argument in others, even if Phantom's great).

This is one of the best action thrillers out there, and that's thanks to a very interesting (though far from perfect) story about this normal guy who ended up being an extremely talented assassin. The show is full of plot twists, and characters are always in a process of development.

We don't get the typical good guy as a character here, and like Urobuchi likes, this isn't a story were everyone is happy and there's no casualties. On the contrary. Phantom is a story were things usually don't go as planned, and the main characters have to adapt to the situations at hand, which is sometimes done better than others.

The plot of this series is the kind that's full of betrayals, people manipulating others and that kind of stuff, as I stated previously, there's a lot of plot twists that, while sometimes dubious (if you want to critically evaluate them), were honestly very entertaining.

For being some emotionless assasins (most of the time), the main characters were pretty likeable, and they did have a lot of development. Slow, but steady development.

Another thing worth of mentioning is the unusual ending of the series, which gave a clear, and for me, satisfying conclusion to the story. But I have to highlight the "for me" part, as it is not your everyday ending, and I wouldn't be surprised if some people didn't like it.

Phantom is a series that's just made for me. I simply love this kind of shows, and while I would imagine they should be more common, they aren't, and they're usually not that good. But Phantom was fun, Phantom was really fun.


57. Cowboy Bebop



Cowboy Bebop is already one of those anime you could easily call "classic", being one of the most popular and well considered anime from the 90s. And for good reason, as Cowboy Bebop really is an amazing anime with one of the most memorable characters out there in the anime world, and some incredible action scenes that still look great even after all these years.

Cowboy Bebop is a series that really took a lot of things I love and put them together to create one awesome thing. I'm a jazz lover, I've been one for many years, and I'm a fan of action with guns, something that's also been that way for many years. Add that an amazing main character in Spike and a great heroine (voiced by a personal favorite Megumi Hayashibara to boot), and this becomes a series that just can't go wrong with me... and that's exactly how it was.

If I have to mention a flaw here, is that I think Bebop would've had much more potential being a continuous series instead of an episodic one, but even so, it was still amazing, and every single arc here was vere enjoyable (of course, the ones with Vicious went to a whole other level).

Cowboy Bebop was not an anime with a really deep message, an intricate plot or a big psychological complexity, it was just a show made for entertaining purposes, and it did just that, and did it perfectly well.

Last, but definitely not least, this is another of those anime that leaves us with a memorable ending. Cowboy Bebop has probably one of the most famous endings out there, and deservely so, it is one of those endings that you just don't forget.

Bang!


56. Now and Then, Here and There



Anime and dystopia together is nothing new in the world of anime. We've seen a lot, and of different types, usually the kind that more of a fake utopia.

Well, "Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku" is what the very definition of dystopia represents, and I've yet to see an anime that comes even close to it when talking about dystopias. This series created and impressive setting, a fucked up world were no one would ever want to live. A real nightmare.

Something I liked about this series, is that to puts things in better perspective, they used this dystopia as an alternative world, and our main character is just a normal boy from the most common Japan who ends up in this fucked up world because of getting involved with a a girl with creepy eyes.

The series doesn't restrain itself in showing us how this new world is, immediately showing us how they treat children, some torture stuff, raping just for the sake of creating new children and clearly, and most importantly, a very big lack of water.

It is pretty interesting to watch our main character, who starts like your typical idiot with lots of energy develop into a much mature character, but that's without never losing his essence. While I usually don't really like these idiot main characters, this one was actually quite good.

The series takes a lot of effort in continously developing its setting (which is obviously its major strength) while developing both, Shu (main character) and Lala Ru (girl main character). The latter can be quite special. While she's a main character, she has very little dialogues, yet it's really interesting seeing how she develops. She starts as a girl who really lost all possible love for human beings, and while holding the key to save the world from its drought, she doesn't really want to because she already knows that people, after sometimes, tend to take good gestures as given and eventually start demanding said things (she also happens to weaken each time she creates water, and saving the world would mean self sacrifice). It's an interesting point of view, and it's interesting to put yourselves in the shoes of this girl.

Another big strength of this series is its BGM and use of sounds, which was masterfully done by Kazuya Tanaka (he was also sound director in Mushishi), the OST, along with some pretty good art (though not a fan of character design) helped a lot in depicting the beautiful (or horrible) setting that this anime has.

The series may not be out of flaws, specifically, things like how the heck can a worthless being like Hamdo have so much power, and how can a girl like Abelia actually keep with him and not betray him (pretty sure she could do it easily, and run things much better), but then again, while there is a war going on in this series, the series is not about the war itself or about politics, so that is quite minor, and those characters do help in making this hell of a world even worse.

The series made a perfect use of its 13 episodes, and managed to convey a lot in the limited time it had. Something that's quite rare to see, and I've probably seen just one series do it (and by the time I first made this top, this was probably the only one).


55. City Hunter NEW!!



City Hunter is episodic, repetitive in most stuff, unrealistic, old and simple, but that said, City Hunter is one of the most fun experiences out there. It’d be hard to argue against someone pointing up negative traits of the series, as there are a good number of things to point out, but at least for me, the good stuff far outweigh the bad.

The day City Hunter first aired was the day one of the most charismatic characters in the anime industry was born (in anime format… you know, since the manga obviously existed already). Ryou Saeba is the typical anime pervert, except he’s also the coolest guy when the going gets tough. This profile is not exactly new, but it has probably never been more effective than in City Hunter. It didn’t take me much to become a fan of Ryou Saeba.

One of the biggest strengths of the series is having an outstanding music to accompany the action of it. Think a bit of Cowboy Bebop or something of the sort (of course, this is much older). City Hunter made the OST a priority and it paid well, as it really help setting the mood and making better action scenes which, by the way, as unrealistic as they are (like cutting a bomb red thread with a gunshot), they are extremely fun.

Pretty much every episode is the same thing: Pretty girls seeks help from the City Hunter, and Ryou and Kaori (who will always hit Ryou with a hammer a couple of times per case) have to help this girl in her situation, which always ends up needing the use of a gun or more. Something pretty noteworthy is that the author was actually really creative making all these “pretty girls” as they tend to be quite different from one another, both in appearance as in personality. Probably most tropes are present here, and this series aired before “tropes” were actually a thing.

City Hunter is at its best during season 2 though, were contrary to season 1, most cases take two episodes to resolve, permitting much more development in them, and usually bigger things at stake, and of course, more time to get familiar with the characters exclusive to that case. The series also gives a bit more development to the main characters which, while simple, it’s always appreciated.

Because the series is mostly episodic and formulaic, I would highly recommend thinking of it as something to watch little by little; one case per day, two at most. If not it is likely than the formulaic aspect will have a negative aspect. For me, watching my one or two episodes every morning became something almost sacred. It was always fun, and I ended up missing them once I was done with the franchise.

You won’t get any philosophical enlightenment while watching City Hunter, but you should have a ton of fun.


54. Banner of the Stars



Took me long enough to actually watch this space opera. But at least I did, and it was really worth it. I actually watched this just a little before closing my top 100, so I always felt it was kind of a shame that I couldn't include it in the first edition, but it was just a little too late. Anyways, better late than never, and it was thanks to this series that I thought to myself "I definitely need to update this the moment I'm done with the first version."

If it's about romance in space, I've yet to see a series that's better than this one (not even Yamato, at least in that regard). Our main characters, Jinto and Lafiel are what this story really is about. As a difference from other space operas, here romance takes the center role of the story, yet at the same time, it nevers feels to invasive. That's because the couple feels natural, the progress of this relationship is never forced and the series never gets way too romantic. It's a main topic, but it's served in a good dosis.

The story starts with an OVA (Crest of the Stars: Birth/Seikai no Danshou: Tanjou), which is about Lafiel parents. This OVA was okay, but nothing really special. To be honest, it lowered my initial expectations of the series. But then Crest of the Stars/Seikai no Monshou began, and my opinion of the series quickly changed for the better. Crest served as an introduction to our characters and the beginning of their relationship. They're certainly different in many senses, but little by little they begin caring for each other. This whole first season is mainly centered in the forging of their relationship, and works as an introduction (a very good one, I must say) to what comes next.

The first Senki season is when things get really serious. There's a war going on, and the series focuses on the ship (led by Lafiel) our main characters are. The whole season is mainly centered in warfare and the actions our characters take during said war.

Senki II is probably the strongest part of the series, this time more focused in the political aspect of the series, as well as developing the relationship between Jinto and Lafiel much more. Our characters need to act as ambassadors in a prison planet that's divided in three factions, and where a war could easily break out. A lot of political stuff here, and eventually some really interesting events that lead to the relationship of our characters clearly acquire some kind of shape.

Finally, Senki III serves pretty well to give some kind of ending to the story. While obviously much shorter than the others, the story is pretty good.

Only shame with this series is that it leaves you wanting more. While it's not like it finishes with a cliffhanger or something like that, it is pretty clear that there's a lot more in that universe to be explored. And it couldn't be any other way, as the original source is a series of ongoing (to this day) novels. There are five in total and only three have been adapted (and again, they're not finished). Hopefully one day we get more of this series.


53. Nana NEW!!



It took me quite a while to actually decide to watch Nana. Not because I thought I was not going to like it or anything of the sort, on the contrary, I was pretty sure I was really going to like it since all I had heard about the series was fantastic… except the fact that it was never finished and that even the original source was abandoned. That really killed all my intentions to watch Nana for many years, until after a lot of anime watched, I couldn’t run away from watching it any longer. I’m glad I finally did watch it.

In this case, let us start by the ending. I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that even though the original source is unfinished, and being completely ignorant towards the manga, I have to say the anime actually ended in a pretty conclusive manner. I always feared it was going to leave everything without resolution, but the main conflicts presented all have a resolution by the end, and while the ending in itself is not fantastic, at least I do feel it has a conclusion, which is honestly better than having an unfinished product without any way to actually finish it (unfinished anime is pretty common, but at least you’re usually able to just go to the manga, game or whatever to complete the story). So that’s the first thing I wanted to make clear because nobody actually made that clear to me. Don’t be afraid of the unfinished status of the manga… at least not for the anime. You’ll get a full course experience by watching Nana.

You could say Nana is the ultimate josei anime out there (even though it’s technically a shoujo). Nana is a love rollercoaster with triangles and everything, which is nothing really new in anime or any medium really. But what makes Nana great is how the characters feel real. They’re a mess, but that only makes them more human. The way the characters and their relations are handled is what makes this series so good, so unique. Of course the style of the mangaka and the job that was done with the music helps a lot in the presentation of the series. The story that follows both Nanas is engaging from start to finish, the narration of it is really well done, and it’s one of the few romance dramas out there with a more mature approach, using characters that are part of an adult world instead of a high school and that shows all the things that come with romance. Of course, you can forget about trope characters here, or the whole typical anime things were couples can’t grab each other’s hand. This shows the best and the worst of relations (a lot of the worst, actually).

The development the different characters have through the series is nothing short of amazing. Characters grow a lot from the beginning of the series until the end, and when I say grow, again, it’s not a perfect growth. A lot of things happen to our main characters and as the gain things through their journey, they also lose a lot of stuff, sometimes they have real regressions and sometimes the make a great showcase of maturing. Things are not always great, but they’re not always bad either, which is probably what makes this all so human. There is definitely no series of this kind as good as Nana at portraying the romantic chaos in which these characters are involved, at least not that I have watched.

When you combine that great character execution with the fantastic artistic sense of the mangaka and the stylish music that went so well with the series, then you find yourself with one of those anime that any anime fan should probably try at one point during their “anime career”. Nana is a one-of-a-kind show that should probably be watched even by those that are not that fan of this kind of stories. If anything, it helps gaining a new perspective in the anime medium, which in the long run will be very helpful if you’re a person who really enjoys anime and plans to be watching anime for a long time, and of course, chances are you will actually enjoy the series… a lot.

So in the end, we can forgive the ending for being relatively lackluster in comparison with the rest of the series, but it is by no means an impediment to watching the series.


52. Turn A Gundam



While I knew Turn A Gundam was one of the best regarded Gundam series out there, it was still quite a surprise for me, not because of how good it was (I had high expectations which were met), but because WHY it was that good.

Turn A Gundam is really different to every other long Gundam series, and because of this, it gives a feeling that might be close to some of the Universal Century OVAs (except here we have 50 episodes). While pretty much every Gundam focus mainly in the sci-fi, mecha and action element, Turn A Gundam is much more focused in the political, drama and even some nice comedy element. For starters, when we begin the series we're not presented with a futuristic setting, we're presented with more of a historical setting from the times of WWI. This series is about trying to stop war from happening instead of actually fighting in a full fledged war. There's a big focus in the negotiations between the moonrace and the earthlings and all the things our main characters will do to reach an agreement between both sides and, of course, stop people who wants war.

You'll read this pretty much anywhere related to Turn A Gundam, but I'll still say it: This is an alernative universe from Gundam, and because of that, you don't need to watch anything before, but it's definitely recommended to watch at least the Early Universal Century stuff before, as it will most definitely increase your enjoyment of this series, and also the understanding of the Dark History (an element that's very present throughout the whole story). Turn A Gundam might be an alternative universe, but it's supposed to be a distant future from the other universes.

You'll see a lot of elements from other Gundam series, which you will easily recognize if you've seen them before (again, mostly from Universal Century), and of course, that's something you'll appreciate if you're a Gundam fan.

By many, this is considered the last great Gundam (I do believe Unicorn, which came afterwards is great also though), and I can say I think it's definitely the best Alternative Universe Gundam, fighting for the spot of best overall Gundam with Zeta.

One of the biggest strength in this series resides on the characters. The story is told from various perspectives (though there's a clear main character), and a lot of characters go through a lot of development, but begin and remain likeable through the whole series.

Turn A Gundam is great at shifting between comedy and seriousness. The series knows perfectly well when to mantain which atmosphere, and knows how to make smooth transitions between them.

As you can expect from Yoko Kanno, the music element is just fantastic, probably my favorite from all the Gundams, definitely among the top with Unicorn and Zeta's soundtracks. I'm not a fan of the Turn A (the mecha) design, but to be honest, I've never cared much about it, as I'm not really a mecha fan (I like a good number of mecha series because of other elements involved in the series), character expressions where really well done and I liked the overall art of the series.

Finally, there's the ending here, which is quite a memorable one. The best ending of any Gundam (along with War in the Pocket, maybe), which will give a mixed bag of feelings in a way I'm not sure I had ever experienced before.

(spoiler contains, yes, spoilers of Turn A Gundam's ending):

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I've heard people call this slow paced, but I think it's far from it, as it is a series that is supposed to go into more detail with the daily life of the characters, and isn't just focused on the climax points of the story. This anime is one of those you could almost consider a journey, and each an every stop in that journey is necessary (except the one recap episode, that is).


51. Shoujo Kakumei Utena



If you’ve been watching anime for a little while, at least enough to go into a website like MyAnimeList, and even more, enough to somehow venture into my profile and my blog and read this, then I think it’s a safe bet that you’ve at least heard of Shoujo Kakumei Utena or Revolutionary Girl Utena. Utena managed to become one of those series we now call “classic from the 90s”, and it actually did it with a horrible budget. And that’s a much deserved title, as Utena became a different show; it is unique, it is entertaining and it is one of those works you know had a lot of work behind.

It’s probably from the low budget from where Ikuhara came up with using a technique of repetition for the series. The anime recycles a whole lot of things, and while I can’t say it is totally perfect (yes, it can be a bit too much at times), Ikuhara did a great job at making it look as good as possible. He actually gave meaning to the repetitions, didn’t actually try to hide it, and instead it gave use to that recycling. In this case, by using a whole lot of symbolism, more symbolism than you’ll probably ever see in anime. I’m not one of those who has blind love for symbolism; I can enjoy it at times, but I can actually consider it bothersome when there’s abuse of it, and I don’t think it’s a contribution, when I think it’s there only to look more “intellectual” or something like that (what people commonly like to refer as “pretentious”). Utena can have some of that, but for the most part, symbolism is there for a reason, and symbolism is the theme of the series… oh, and it doesn’t actually delve into actual complicated things that might need some knowledge beforehand. You won’t see some big references to some philosopher’s idea or anything of the sort. This is meant to be understood by pretty much anyone if a little thought is put (most of the time I’m sure most people will quickly get most of it). When talking about symbolism by itself in anime, for me, there is no doubt Utena reigns above all.

Utena is mainly a coming-of-age story, and more specifically, a story about girls becoming young women, going through that difficult stage of preadolescence when their bodies and their way of thinking tend to go to a big change (that’s much more noticeable than for men). This is a story that starts with an Utena who’s pretty much a child, which I think can partly be seen from the idea of having her act a bit more of a tomboy, and little by little becoming more of a girl, which can be seen in her development after each duel, and eventually the way the series starts moving with the appearance of Akio. Along with Utena, the story itself becomes more adult. And the symbolism about it is even in the most comedy-filled episodes like Nanami and the egg, which is clearly a symbolism to menstruation.

While the animation quality through the series is pretty low, it more than makes up for it with what became one of my favorite soundtracks in anime. Utena has some fantastic theme that are repeated a lot through the whole series, but also a big variety of pieces that play in different moments, and help us get more immersed in the different moods the series tries to project as it progresses. Also, I can’t help but applaud Tomoko Kawakami’s role as Utena (it is truly sad she died so young).
Utena is also a story about feminism, with most of the male characters being jerks who are somehow extremely popular with women by sweet-talking, though eventually doing things that are clearly wrong. While this is highlighted through the whole series, it becomes especially memorable in one of the most famous scenes from the series, particularly in episode 33:

Spoilers from episode 33:


Then there’s the movie, which isn’t really a recap or a sequel, but it is some kind of alternate version that meshes very well with the series. The movie gives you a bit more insight on the series and the series is definitely necessary to understand the movie. It takes the symbolism thing even further, making this very abstract, to the point of becoming part of the dementia genre (but is very well done), but it has some differences that I really appreciated from the series. As a character, I loved Utena even more, and Anthy was much more likeable character. Gave a really different look to Touga, where they actually took something that had to do with Juri, but kind of took it from her and gave it to him and Utena. The final 30 minutes of the movie were one of the weirdest moments I might have seen in anime, but by the end, I could definitely understand the meaning behind all of it… and whatever, it was awesome and gave us a nice little surprise at the very end.




And with that, the fifth entry of this top is done. We've finally reached the halfpoint mark! Anime in this group was really special to me. All of them were great show, and the thought of one day seeing them out of the top can't even cross my mind right now. They're all great shows in their own ways.

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).


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