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Ok, last minute change of mind, instead of making single entries to each of the top 3, I'll just do it with the #1, which means this entry includes #3 and #2. This is because we're already about to finish March, and I wanted to finish this before April (though I can't promise).

I think I've said this before, but the top 3 was a given thing for me. They were probably the only thing in this top that more clear than water. To this day, #3 has been the series that has been my #1 for the most time (it was for about 11-12 years), and it was replaced by #2, which managed to be the number one for about 6-7 years, so in many ways, both of this series are extremely special to me (and #1 will probably become something like that with time).

So yes, while with many entries before I could say something like "this could perfectly be X spots behind of ahead, this ones are set in stone (for now), and in their corresponding order.

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


3. Mushishi



Mushishi is a series that is just unlike absolutely anything I've watched before. For about a month, Mushishi became a bit of a ritual for me. My day just had to end with an episode of Mushishi and a good cup of tea. It was the perfect way to relax myself, to think a little bit about life and to have a great time.

Contrary to a lot of series that have been at the top of my ranking, this series doesn't keep you at the edge of your seat and doesn't have a deep character development. I didn't really feel a necessity to watch the next episode. Almost sounds like a boring series, but make no mistake; Mushishi is one of the most compelling series I've watched, I was completely hooked to every episode, without exception.

I'm usually not that much of a fan of the episodic format. I can definitely enjoy an episodic series, but I'll pick a continuous series any day. For example, while I enjoyed Cowboy Bebop a lot (as you can see from it being very well ranked), I would've love it even more had it been something continuous. But I admit my thoughts changed after watching Mushishi. I wouldn't want Mushishi to be continuous, I want Mushishi as an episodic series. I just want to see many different cases involving Mushis for Ginko to resolve (or not).

Mushishi has a total of 48 stories (26 episodes in S1, Hihamukage, 10 episodes Zoku Shou S1, Odoro no Michi and 10 episodes in Zoku Shou S2); One would think that of 48 of them, at least one would fail to be good, but that's far from the case. While obviously some are better than others, every single episode in this series managed to be inmersive, each story managed to be fresh and explore different things. At least for me, that's absolutely astonishing.

Mushishi obviously has a fantasy setting, where this infinite kind of mushis coexist with life itself, but at the same time, it's one of the most realistic series out there. The story is set in a feudal Japan, around the 1800s, and because most humans can't even see and aren't even aware of the mushis existance, it really shows the way of life of that time. The characters seem extremely realistic, and the way they react to the adversities caused by the mushis is just... very human, sometimes for good, and sometimes for bad.

With every episode being a different story with totally different characters (except for Ginko), the series can explore completely different things depending in the story. Sometimes it may be some of the human relationships, the worst aspects that a human can show, such as greed, jelousy, envy or temptation, or some of the best traits like support, trust or love. Even more so, we can see how the good traits can become bad, and how the bad traits can be fixed.

Sometimes Mushishi can even dwelve into philosophical or psychological aspects (probably more of the former). Sometimes questioning life itself, as humans can seem like just such a little existance compared to this magnificent mushis that dwelve in the world, and sometimes going to a more psychological aspect involving the main characters of different episodes. Most of the times, Ginko is not really even a protagonist, he's just a witness, he's almost like the eyes (well, the eye) we use for learning about the different stories around this world, about how the mushis are heavily influencing the life of many, which sometimes can make for some really tragic situations.

I'm the kind of person who can really get hyped over series. Eventually, that hypes goes down for many series, though a few are able to maintain it, and there are even fewer that instead of dying down, they actually grow with me over time. Mushishi is one of those very few cases. As time passes since I watched the series (hasn't been much, I admit) I feel like the series keeps growing in me. I have such a good memory of it, and was so unique, that my opinion of it actually grows, even as it already was extremely high.

I have a hard time imagining me finding something like Mushishi, probably ever (I can't guarantee, but it's beyond the realm of my imagination). The series was so special. Though I do appreciate watching it while being a bit older. Had I watched it in 2006 when it aired, when I was just 16 years old, I don't think I would've enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. I don't think I've seen anything as thought provoking and as relaxing as Mushishi before. It really is a great work. A real masterpiece. Even writing this makes me appreciate it even more.

Finally, I would just love to praise the job done by the studio Artland and Hiroshi Nagahama, the director of all the series. Without them, this wouldn't have been the same. The impressive, soothing visuals combined with an impressive background music provided the absolute perfect atmosphere for this series. They weren't there simply helping, they were actually key elements. I just can't imagine this series done better. It really was an impressive work.

I just can't wait for the movie. We've never seen a Mushishi story to last more than the 45 minutes, and a 2 hours story could really become something beyond special. Could make this franchise become something even better.



2. Monster



Wow. Just wow. This is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Monster.

This is one of those series that really makes you reevaluate the anime medium for the better. This is what every psychology, mystery and thriller anime should aim for. Monster is a very detailed work that spans 74 episodes to go through some gigantic character development, oftenly dwelving into their minds and questioning what's good and what's evil, how evil is born, and how it's not that easily beaten. The series does this while going through a thrilling ride full of twists and turns that leaves the viewer just craving for more, without ever even getting close to becoming just a trainwreck. This is Naoki Urasawa at its best (yes, even better than in 20th Century Boys, which is no easy feat) when writing. Thinking about each and every aspect of the story, which is then magnificently brought to life by Madhouse.

While I have nothing against Japan, on the contrary, I think it has a lot of great things, I always appreciate when a series doesn't use Japan as setting when using non-fantasy settings (space, magic world, etc). This is not because I think the rest of the world is better, but because pretty much everything is set in Japan (which is pretty normal), so getting something somewhere else, and even better, a series that uses a lot of settings, well that makes it even better. Even better if you use some beautiful cities of Europe and at a very important time, as the Cold War has a very big impact in the events of the series, which story is mainly focused in the 80s and 90s, but also has events from the 60s and 70s. The Cold War, without even being directly mentioned, will be key in forging the most interesting personality in this series, which would be that of Johan Liebert, the villain of the series, which, to this day, it's still the best villain ever in my book.

And here is when we have to talk about the characters, which, in the end, are what make Monster so spectacular. We first have our main character, Kenzo Tenma, a guy who starts living the perfect life. He's got enough money, he's an extremely talented doctor, his engaged to the daughter of the hospital's director which meant he would eventually become the director of an extremely important hospital... until, out of morality, he ignored an order to perform surgery on an important guy and instead saved a little boy named Johan. Things would just get worse and worse from this point on for him. Tenma is an outstanding character, and there are not many main characters with a development such as his. While he was a genius surgeon, Tenma starts as a pretty innocent character, a very innocent guy with high values, a doctor that thinks every life weights the same and of course, is a guy who wouldn't hurt a fly. That will soon change because of Johan. After some events, he will begin learning about how cruel society can be, about the injustice that there's in this world, and he will make a mission of his ending the Monster's life (I'll keep talking about Tenma in the next spoiler).



There is a long cast of characters in the series, and each can have a very important role in different moments of the series, but Anna Liebert is clearly specially important, as along Tenma, she'll also give the mission of killing Johan to herself, creating an interesting relationship with Tenma, who she really gets to appreciate a lot (and vice-versa), but there's also some kind of competition to killing Johan, as none of them wants the other commit murder. Here's another really interesting character in psychological development. Anna (Nina from now on, as it's more commonly used in the series) is obviously Johan's twin sister, and while she (luckily) skipped the (probably) worse part of Johan's upbringing, they both shared some pretty dark moments making quite psychologically troubled (I'll continue talking about Nina in the next spoiler).



I was actually going to go into detail with more characters and expand more on these ones, but I feel I'm extending way too much, maybe one day I actually write an entry dedicated to Monster

Let's end this character talk with Johan, because it's impossible to talk about this series without going into Johan. Johan is probably the most unrealistic character in the series, but he's portrayed in a very realistic way, at least as realistic as an anti-christ figure can get. Just like Nina, Johan had quite a hard upbringing, being born from Eugenics experiments, though up to some point, he was actually lucky... or he should have been, as that luck cost him quite a lot. A lot of events, through his past (see the Anna/Nina text above), made Johan quite messed up. To add up salt to the wound, when he was separated from Nina, he ended up in Kinderheim 511, where he really became a Monster, almost like the book he so much liked to read (A Monster Without a Name). The series uses Johan to explore a number of philosophical and psychological stuff, all while using a lot of historical things to make the story a bit more realistic, while providing a much better background to the creation of this monster (I'll continue talking about Johan in spoilers).



I feel bad not talking about guys like Grimmer, Lunge or Eva (among others), but I'll have to leave that for another occasion (maybe should've done like originally planned and make one entry per series for the top 3).

Monster explores a lot of psychological problems (dissociative fugue, dissociative identity disorder, brain washing or selective mutism) along with philosophical questions about identity (yes, identity is the main theme in Monster), nihilism and idealism, and all of this while treating with social parties like communism, socialism and totalitarism, which has even more impact considering the period of time in which the series is set.

Now, because Monster explores all those seemingly complex themes, the series is far from being that complex. It's actually enjoyable to pretty much anyone (I do admit you'll probably enjoy it more if you actually have a little bit of knowledge in the historical, psychological and philosophical themes treated by the series, but it's not a must, as the series does explain things). It's, by no means, done in an abstract way, and things are pretty direct. Let's not forget this is a thriller, and a very good one. A perfect combination for me, at least.

I think Monster was probably the series that made me start looking for a bit more in anime. The series that actually made want to get a bit more informed about series and look for more things than just action, drama or plain stuff (mind you, I can still enjoy plain stuff quite a lot). For long time, I thought I would never again find a series that would impress me more than Monster (but I actually did, which is why this is #2 instead of #1)


Well, the goal is on sight already. There's just one spot remaining, which will probably be done by tomorrow. I've written about 99 animes, while I just wrote a few small paragraphs for some of them, it's still pretty impressive, never thought I'd end up writing so much, but I'm honestly glad I did.

Like at said through the text, I probably should've made three entries like originally planned (while both texts here are fairly long, I held back quite a bit, specially with Monster), but anyways, maybe in some future I make updates, separate the entries and extend myself to my hearts content with each series.

For over9000th time, I will post an update not much time after finishing the top 100 (I actually recently finish arranging the top 100 with the new things and changes. I think I prefer how it looks now, and you guys can judge that after I make the updates (every change in the top will be recorded in the history at the bottom of every entry).

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:
25/3/2015 04:39: Entry created
25/3/2015 4:43: Added link to previous entry
26/3/2015 3:15: Added link to next entry
27/3/2015 2:22: Changed link to next entry
08/6/2015 4:??:
- Detective Conan taken out.
- Mushishi added.

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