Forum - View topicYour Top 10 / Worst 5 things. Why? (w/ index).
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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If you are going to do a 5 worst anime trying thinking in terms of quality and execution, not just whether you liked them or not. After all it is a worst anime list not a didn't like anime list. |
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Ness_Success
 Posts: 18 |
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Im sorry but I don't really understand. Its all a matter of opinion. An anime you think is in your bottom 5, could be in my top 10.
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ArsenicSteel
Posts: 2370 |
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Then it's for the best that you don't list some anime you consider to be the worst examples in anime if you think it's remotely possible for your worst anime to also appear on someone's best list. I am looking through this thread for anime consider to be the worst and only appear on people's worst list because that would fit my idea of an anime being the worst, no one likes it.
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joels344
Posts: 6 |
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Anime's that I have given a perfect 5/5 stars:
Legend of the Galactic Heroes - This is by far my favorite anime series of all-time. I've seen it all the way through twice and I'm working on my third viewing of it. This series literally blows all other space operas away in terms of character complexity, plot, visuals, battle sequences and for being a true epic. People often ask me that question "Star Wars or Star Trek" and my answer will always be LOGH. Cowboy Bebop - The characters in this story are so incredibly human that it is easy to get lost in the reality of Cowboy Bebop. The show is at times brutally honest, but this is what makes Bebop incredibly human. Character development, the soundtrack and a truly brilliant story are the elements that make this one of the finest series ever. Zeta Gundam - Darkness is the one word which sums up the general theme in Zeta Gundam. This was easily one of the most depressing anime series I have ever watched. The balance of the story between action and character development are nearly perfection, though. No other Gundam can compare to this magnum opus. Princess Mononoke - Miyazaki is probably the visual mastermind in the world of anime and he really shows his craft here with this film. The first time I ever watched this film, I was floored with how immensely beautiful it was. Princess Mononoke will always rank among the all-time greats for me. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - I love the depressive anime, but I also love the anime that makes you feel good about existence. After watching Gurren Lagaan, you feel as if you can take the universe by storm and spiral to the top. It's a feel good anime with an original plot, wacky moments, beautiful animation and charming characters. |
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WhiteHairGirls
 Posts: 4713 Location: New York City |
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Code Geass Easily the best anime I have watched, and I highly doubt will ever be dethroned on my list in the future. I watched both the sub and dub versions, and enjoyed both of them. Boesh did a great Lelouch. The action scenes, the strategies, the constant cliffhangers made the anime worthwhile.
Clannad A very touching anime with a great story and good cast of characters. While the spoiler[Fuko arc] was boring, it got much better later on and season 2 was great. This is the only anime that had me crying, althought I have not watched that many depressing animes. Fairy Tail Bleach and Naruto would have been on my list last year since I really only started watching anime this year. But their constant fillers ruined it for me and I stopped watching both. Fairy Tail doesn't fall under that criteria because it has very little fillers. Even when they do have fillers, they are HILARIOUS, spoiler[Change ring episode was just LOL]. Comedy is also the reason Fairy Tail made my top 10. It might be your typical shonen anime, but the comedy sets it apart in my opinion. Its funny how the main main character, Lucy, is the weakest in the main group. Also unlike Bleach and Naruto, Fairy tail has some BadAss characters. Erza is just a godly character. Death Note This was first anime I watched, if you don't count english dub animes I watched as a boy such as Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z. I sort of found this anime by random, and boy did I make an excelent choice. I don't think I need to explain why this anime is on my top 10. Blue Exorcist This is just a great anime. One of the few anime this season that I just have to watch when it comes out. It has one of the better soundtracks. Hanbun no tsuki go noboru Sora While it was a short anime, I feel it was good enough to be on my top 10 list. It was great watching both characters spend their time and deal with the issues they were faced with. Cromartie High School I think its safe to say this is probably the only anime in which the dub version is better than the sub version, unless you know Japanese. Seriously the Dub cast was great. A few characters had dull voices, but Kamiyama, Purple Mohawk and Mechazawa had great actors. The comedy with no face expression (forgot the name) was pulled off brilliantly. Some of the episodes were just downright hilarious. Dance in the Vampire Bund This is a love/hate anime and I loved it. While to be fair I did not read the manga so if the manga is as great as everyone says I might have been dissapointed myself. But I loved the politics, romance, and action scenes here. The animation was done well with the close up on eyes to show expression. I watched other anime but I don't think they deserve to be on a top 10 list. I will edit this later if I come across a great anime. |
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braskez
 Posts: 26 |
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1. High School of the Dead. Great anime. The action aspect was phenomenal. Very intense, and the story moves along really fast. Although there was a lack of backgrounds for the main characters, it is still my favorite anime.
2. Steins;Gate. Mindfuck. It starts to get really good at the end of episode 9, I love this anime so much. Also, the protagonist`s personality is awesome and really unique. Definitively hooks you into wanting to watch more and more of the show. 3. Naruto and Naruto Shippuden Naruto is good... I guess. Although he is a huge weakling, and it annoys me how much he sucks at life. But, once you get to Naruto Shippuden the show gets soo good. Im all the way up to date with that show and Im still watching it. The only thing I dont like about it is the fact that it is really slow. It takes 5 episodes for something to happen that could have fit into 1 episode easily. 4. Full Metal Panic! and Full Metal Panic! Second Raid Pretty good anime. Loved the action scenes. As well as the comedy aspect of the show. It was kinda slow getting started but it got really interesting once you got far enough into the show. I enjoyed the protagonists personality also. 5. Bleach Bleach was great. Really good actually. But, after the most recent arc of the show Ichigo spoiler[lost all his powers] which has made the show a whole lot less interesting. I mean, they kinda took away that shows whole thing. One of the best parts of that anime was how badass Ichigo was. Its never fun when the main character spoiler[loses his powers]. That just kinda sucked. |
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battousai47
 Posts: 26 |
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Before I write down the super awesome list of my favourite anime I'd just like to say that it's great to see the amount of non-generic posts people are putting up, I would consider a lot of people's top fives to my bottom. That aside, let us begin the uberness...
Top 10 Favourite Series 1. Samurai X - Rurouni Kenshin. I would stop there but the rules stress that I elaborate sooo. This anime is without a doubt my most favourite anime of all time. The art is very well done, the animation is perfect when need be and the soundtrack, goodness. To be honest with all the news of an OVA coming out and what not all I would like to see is just a remastered version, this anime is perfect as it is. 2. Naruto. I don't think this needs much elaboration. Romance / Action / Drama / Comedy it's got it all. There is only 2 reasons why people would dislike this anime. One is the fillers which people should really either learn to avoid or just not complain. Second is just because it's popular and some people always beg to differ. 3. Death Note. A common thing you find in entertainment (movies, tv, anime) is that most situations are predictable. You always have a general idea about what's going on, but the amount of times the pure genius of this anime has slapped me in the face (by that I mean the twists) is just unprecedented. You say Prison Break, I say Death Note, you say nothing. 4. Hunter X Hunter. This is anime crazy! It's similar to Naruto in a sense that it's set in a different world with what they call "Hunters" and there's all these strange fighting techniques. Although it lacks as much action as Naruto, the protagonist, "Gon", is probably the most perfected anime character I have ever seen. The character build up of this anime is just beautiful, unlike Naruto with the big amount of characters that you eventually end up seeing nothing of, Hunter X Hunter takes its time giving all the characters an equal chance in the anime which eventually results in you being really sucked in. 5. Code Geass. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. This anime is just exquisite. It's almost the perfect combination of Death Note and Gundam, and in that sense I mean, the genius thriller with the awesome mecha. This anime will really have you on the edge of you seat and spoiler[the ending is just] perfect. 6. FMA+II. I thought I should put these 2 anime together since they compliment each other soo well. To me the second was only so good because of the first, and this is why. FMA1 as anime was excellent, and as with all excellent anime you just want more. FMA2 is the "more" I'm referring to but even better it is the true version, that being the case the experience was just fantastic. 7. Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is anime was great. Based on a mecha but focuses more on the drama factor. A generic anime with a frightening dark side to it making the watcher stay on edge. Of course the series didn't end very well, but I as many others believe the ending to be in the movie "The End Of Evangelion". That is where it really shines, and being one of the only anime out there where spoiler[everything in the end just goes wrong] it's one of the best and most unique experiences out there. 8. Mobile Suit Gundam 00. As mentioned before, I won't be mentioning any movies in the list, I'm only mentioning them where I think they are a completion to a series. Gundam 00 is an amazing anime, the animation, the action and the mood it creates is just delicious, but the series alone didn't quite cut it. It's thanks to the "Awakening of the Trailblaser" movie that it was able to out shine the other Gundams. The movie creates the perfect spoiler[ending to the anime where for the first time It wasn't about the mecha or the fighting or the awesomeness, in the end the message was just PEACE.]. I should also mention that it's set in the AD era making it feel in a sense quite realistic... 9. Hajime No Ippo (Fight Spirit -_-). Aaaawwwwww YYeeeaaahhh. This anime is by far the best sport based anime out there, and what makes it even better is that it's a combat sport! Of course it being an anime there was a decent amount of exaggeration but none the less, it does good sticking to the science. I never thought I'd be this into boxing, you can thank Hajime No Ippo for that. 10. Nodame Cantabile. Stunning. Glamorous. Beautiful. The best reflection of classical music IF NOT the best reflection of any music I have seen in an anime. If you really don't get all that Mozart and Beethoven mumbo-jumbo this anime will end all your worries in a mere 23 episodes. After number 1 I'd say the rest of the list was one of the most difficult things I had to think about and as a result I am now brain dead. I'm also positive that on another I'd give you different order from 2-10, oh well... I would just like to mention that the soundtracks for each one of the top 10 are amazing! Each one a champion in it's own respect, Rurouni Kenshin, a champion in all. Oh, I didn't intend on writing about dissappointments since I don't have much, buuuut... Disappointments... NO! DisappointMENT - Samurai Deeper Kyo. Starts off, awesome deep guitar soundtrack, sets a really cool mood, great character design and art and then... Disaster. Pretty much all the fights are in the form of still images, and I'm fine with that, I LOVE MANGA, but nooooo. These were disastrous, I can't... Aargh F%@£ IT! |
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smilewolfy
Posts: 28 |
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Top 10 Anime:
1. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: The anime that got me into anime, my favourite off all time, every time I watch an episode it puts me at peace with the world, this is actually true, spoiler[The Endless Eight arc was, well, everyone should know, but I admire them for having the guts to do it.] This also includes the disappearance and the spinoffs haruhi-chan and nyoron churuya san. I love everything about this show and I'm wanting a third season 2. Ao no Exorcist: Yep, the only other show besides Haruhi that makes me happy just by watching it or thinking about it. The characters are all unique and work together really well, except spoiler[that puppet kid, who the hell is he?] either way this show is really enjoyable and i look forward each week 3. Angel Beats!: OMG. The only anime besides Ano Hana to make me cry, if you didn't cry at Ano Hana, you have no soul, but this show, it's got comedy, action, and tear jerking moments through all of it, I hate how it's so short and the rumors of season 2 last year really got my hopes up. 4. Shakugan no Shana: This was my third anime, when I only watched english dubs. I hate how season two didn't get a dub, coz the terms like mystes were different in the sub and confused me. spoiler[the first half of season two, for me, was boring, i did like it, but I kept hoping for some action to appear, it was still really good though] and I can't wait for season 3 5. Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?: One of the four animes I actually kept watching in January-March, it's really good. The comedy actually makes me laugh, which is hard for an anime to do, since i'm not really the laughing type. this reminded me of a more comedic-less romantic version of Shakugan no Shana, and who knows, this may someday move up higher than shakugan no shana, when it gets more episode that is, January, can't wait 
6. High School of the Dead: Seriously, why is it called this, it's only in high school for three episodes -.- I guess I like this coz I am in LOVE with zombie Apocalypse shows, and is the only anime I can find like it. The characters are kind of shallow though, and the fanservice, more like very soft core hentai, has made me immune to all fan service now :0 though I was inspired to start doing kendo after watching Saeko do it in the show lol 7. Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts - I know this is the english name, but I can't be bothered remembering the japanese name. I can say this is yet another funny show, funnier than Kore wa Zombie and Angel beats, but it was put down to seven because spoiler[sometimes the people piss me off, I mean, why do the guys do whatever the girls say, just be men and stand up for yourselves -.-] but I don't get angry at it that much, still really nice 8. Beelzebub: Pure Awesome. It reminds me of what a 90's anime might be like, but I've never seen one before lol, with the concept of fighting and everything. I love how they keep getting new people to fight, and Baby Beel is so cute, but I wish it would wear some clothes though. 9. Clannad: This show hasn't made me cry like other people, but it's really well made. Each episode I watched made me want to watch the next one right a way, even though I just started after story :3. I also really like since it was based off of a dating sim, they spoiler[made episodes for different scenarios] 10. Sekaiichi Hatsukoi: Probably the only weak anime on my top ten list, as in not that popular. but I like Yaoi that doesn't go too far, and this went right to the border, but didn't take the final step of perversion, though maybe the fact that HOTD has desensitized me too anything is why I don't mind this show? Bottom 5 list: I really can't remember right now, I'll edit this later, since I remember some anime that has pissed me off by watching it, but I didn't bother with the names, but I can say gakuen art academy or whatever it's called makes it to my 5 worst shows |
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Lil Kis
Posts: 163 |
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[EDIT: No listing. Put reasons. -TK]
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Anime_freak4000
Posts: 3 |
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To me my favorites are
1. Bakura ga Ita and Nana: These anime series changed the way that I viewed anime. The stories are so real that people can actually relate to the love and suffering that the characters go throught. They are a real masterpiece 2. Peach Girl: To me this anime shows the real meaning of love and the struggles of friendship. 3. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: The art is amazing and the way that all the different characters are portrait is great. 4. Sailor Moon. (A classic): This was one of the first animes that I ever watched and I loved the story, the characters and the romance in the show. 5. Clannad: I actually cried watching this anime. It was so touching 6. Death Note: It is very unique and thrilling. 7. Air Gear: The characters and the setting were different than any other anime out there. 8. Black Cat: I found it really funny and at the same time it had such a deep meaning. 9. Blood +: The story was amazing, the setting, characters and artwork were the best. 10. Gantz: I just loved how different it was and all the action in the show There are so many that I like that it is really hard to choose |
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asakura.Shinji
 Posts: 2 Location: Indonesia |
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My 10 favorites :
1. To Aru Majutsu no Index : I think there aren't many who made this anime their most favorite one like me, but after watching the anime and read the light novel, I can't help but think that this series has the most epic story of all. 2. Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai : Honestly, I didn't expect much from this anime at first, but now I have made the main character my favorite of all time...
3. Angel Beats : Awesome graphic, awesome story. If only this is a 24-episode anime... 4. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu : Simply the most and funniest anime I've ever watched. 5. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun : Side story of my favorite will also be my favorite. I think many people prefer this than Index, but at least I don't think so. 6. Steins;Gate : I have just finished watching this and its already number six on my list. The time travel concept was great, too bad the ending is rather disappointing... 7. Gosick : One of the few mystery anime that I liked, it has high-quality story, especially nearing the end. 8. Shakugan no Shana : Most people already know this one. I don't think I need to explain it. 9. Code Geass Lelouch of The Rebellion : Great mecha, character, and story, i personally like this more than the Gundam series. 10.Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood : The 'Alchemy' concept of this anime is simply interesting, and this series has much better story and animation than the first anime. |
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vegetatown
 Posts: 23 |
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My Top 10--rankings based on how much long lasting impact each work has had on me over the years (which should really be the criteria for how a work is judged on an individual level):
1. Dragonball-Z- Sorry this series is a classic. Even acknowledging the fact that the show is nothing more than an endless crescendo of grunts and groans with a relatively sparse plot and very few twists, there is something magical about this show that still gets me pumped all these years later--the show literally makes ou feel like you can conquer the world. Its like a Big Mac I know its bad for me but everytime I have one it takes me back to the best times of my life-- ahh sweet nostalgia. I honestly think there is a good majority of people that hate the show just because it has the stigma of being "mainstream"--or because they're into girly anime 
2. Cowboy Bebop: quirky,funny, cool, dramatic--this anime has it all. The epitome of hip. 3. Berserk: if someone ever wanted an answer to the ol' immemorial question what is a man supposed to be I could sum it up in one word: Guts. 4. Great Teacher Onizuka: take guts from berserk put him in the modern era and have him live as a broke school teacher helping out twisted kids and you would have GTO. it manages to be the funniest anime i've ever seen (other than Sayanoar Zetsubou sensei) while still being moving. 5. Gurren Lagann:a manly show with original character designs a great sci-fi plot about man's struggle with the heavens--how we are our own salvation and destruction but we should ultimately choose to rise over traditionalism--topped off with crazy twists and hilarious moments. kamina alone is worth watching this for. 6. One Piece--another highly detested show that I find inspiring (at least when there isn't any filler) 7. Hajime No Ippo: a slightly dim peter parker meets a boxing legend instead of an irradiated spider and somehow this ends up being loads more fun than spiderman ever was. how the show conveys strategy and the psychology behind competition is really staggering. 8. Mononoke: amazing art and some of the eeriest characters in anime. the highlight of this show is that it shows true horror, even the supernatural kind, has a very human component-- all the atrocities arise from a very real human tragedy. 9. Hokuto No ken: this is the bible of manliness. Enough said. 10. Tie between: Ninja Scroll (the movie) and Hellsing (I know thats cheating but I needed hellsing in here) which are both disturbing but breathtaking visual feasts of gore and mayhem. If I could have an 11. Mushi-shi-- one of the most serene and captivating series I have ever seen (and I'm usually into action that gets your blood red hot) Honorable Mentions (wish I could put them all): Monster (f'in awesome), Baccano, Detroit Metal City, The Twelve Kingdoms, Sword of the Stranger, Samurai Champloo, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (hilarious), Death note (before L died), FMA brotherhood, Elfen lied, Ashita no joe, Nodame Cantabile, Soul Eater, and the little I have seen of Ano hi mata and Black Lagoon. |
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HEAD-HUNTER
Posts: 3 Location: usa but now N ireland |
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[EDIT: No listing. Please put reasons for each of your choices, even if they're just a couple of sentences. -TK]
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White Lightning Alchemist
Posts: 51 |
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Top five worst:
5) Pokemon: Jirachi Wish Maker Okay, so Pokemon movies aren't high art by they are pretty spectacles, and I'm a big fan of the games, so I get some enjoy out of them. This one on the other hand just felt really dull, most of themes were reused to better effect in a later movie as well. 4) Pokemon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon I'm not sure if I'm just railing on the really bad dub this anniversary special got, or if it's because it felt like a bad DBZ movie, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. 3) Strait Jacket I caught this on Sci-Fi's Ani-Monday (Back when that existed) and it couldn't really hold my interest. A pretty generic, forgettable film. 2) Sonic X Take everything bad about the Sonic the Hedgehog games and then make it a show! Oh, and have 4kids dub it! 1) Beyblade: Fierce Battle Take out what little plot Beyblade had and you get this. Top ten best: 10) Ponyo Forgive me for I haven't seen every Miyazaki movie, but of the ones I've seen, I rank this one high. An adorable movie with beautiful animation. 9) My Neighbor Totoro More Miyazaki! I basically love this one for the same reasons as my last choice. 8) Spirited Away Clearly I'm just trying to get all the Miyazaki movies out of the way in the beginning. I think I've seen this film more than any other anime movie, and I love it even more each time. 7) Kiki's Delivery Service I got all the Miyazaki movies out of the way now. This one's my favorite, but that might just be because it's the first one I ever saw. Or I just love Kiki's story of coming into adulthood and living on her own. 6) Gurren Laggan How can't I love this one? One day I want to inspire someone but saying "Believe in the me that believe's in you", although I have no idea why anyone would believe in me. 5) Ghost in the Shell Anime Blade Runner, that's all I need to say. 4) Cowboy Bebop You know, the show everybody always says we need to see more shows like? That one. 3) Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal This was one of the first anime I ever owned, and it holds up with each re-watch. I still tear up a little at the end. 2) Paprika Inception before Inception, and my favorite Satoshi Kon movie (I probably should have put his other movies on this list, but for some reason I've ranked them lower than Miyazaki's on MyAnimeList). It really takes on a new meaning after Kon's passing, which makes me pretty sad when watching it. 1) Baccano! Mobster's, alchemists, cool guys, Issac and Miria, what more could I want in an anime? From the amazing dub to the jazzy score, this may be my favorite anime. I'm not sure why I was compelled to type those out, I hope someone reads my worthless post, lol. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6584 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I've recently watched my 250th anime title and thought I might post something here. Since my previous post in this thread there hasn't been a huge change to my overall top ten. There'd be a minor order change and ranks 9 and 10 would drop out and I'd have to squeeze in two of these three into the list: Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit; Aria the Origination and Comedy.
That last anime is a ten minute short film. I find it very hard to rate short films. Is ten minutes of Comedy really as good as 26 episodes of Moribito? With that in mind, here are my top ten short anime films. My criteria are that the film be stand alone (that is, not produced in episodes) and be less than one hour long. I don't care what media it was released via (whether OAV, TV special, theatrical or streamed) and the titles can be part of an anthology. 1. Comedy (2000, 10 minutes, Kazuto Nakazawa) In this supernatural tale set in an Ireland terrorised by English invaders a small girl enlists the aid of the elf king to protect her village. Nakazawa uses atmospheric artwork, glorious music (Schubert's Ave Maria and Der Erlkönig), exquisite dramatic pacing that explodes briefly into violence, and a couple of unforgettable characters - the droll, scheming girl ("I am a genius.") and the violent but vaguely comic black swordsman - to give the viewer ten minutes of distilled magnificence. 2. Jumping (1984, 6 minutes, Osamu Tezuka) This is a wonderful example of content and structure complementing each other. Not only that, but its technical merits are astonishing. The camera point of view is first person: through the eyes of a leaping child with each jump larger than the last. There are no cut aways from the point of view and, with the child eventually reaching jet speed and leaping into the stratosphere, the animators were unable to take the usual short cuts of having a moving character against one or multiple backgrounds. Every frame had to be drawn in its entirety. There are about 4000 completely drawn frames for the six minutes and it took almost 2½ years to complete. The result is an exhilarating trip that concludes in the cauldron of an atomic bomb. As Tezuka himself put it: “You can’t keep jumping forever. But this one does and it can’t stop till it jumps into a nuclear explosion. It’s like mankind and its technology. They don’t know when to stop.” It's as if he's commenting on his own ambition. 3. Dimension Bomb (2007, 20 minutes, Koji Morimoto, from the Genius Party Beyond anthology) Morimoto is the master of juxtaposing opposites in an image. His surrealism is usually hit and miss but the lavish production and a barrage of amazing images works a treat here. Two examples illustrate well what he achieves. In one scene a body floats through a skyscraper landscape. The feeling is of overwhelming vastness while the body's defiance of gravity is unsettling. If that weren't enough, in this post 9/11 age, the image of the body viewed against a skyscraper makes the scene downright unnerving. Another scene brings together two moving images: one is a person struggling to move at all thanks to restraints while the other is a face moving at supersonic speed. The film brings them together and they are caught in suspended motion together. The effect is an astonishing sequence that shows how our brains can accomodate wildly contradicting images simultaneously. Dramatic music and a deliberate emotional build-up enhance the freakery on display. 4. Second Renaissance (2003, 20 minutes, Mahiro Maeda, from the Animatrix anthology) Twenty minutes of narration without any characters to provide a point of view may seem a recipe for boredom but Maeda is at his entertaining best in this segment that provides essential backstory to the Matrix franchise. Epic images and a wry sense of irony provide just the right tone for this tale about the demise of the human race at the hands of the machines, although, as the narrator demonstrates, it's our incurable shortsightedness that is really responsible for the tragedy. 5. Tales of the Street Corner (1962, 38 minutes, Osamu Tezuka) It's almost fifty years old and the artwork and animation are primitive by today's standards but the visual style, the satirical wit and its emotive story come together into a memorable whole. In a sequence of vignettes we observe the lives of a girl and her teddy bear, a family of mice, a moth with attitude, a spluttering street lamp and a tree losing its leaves. All the while a set of posters on a wall of the lane provides amusing editorial comment. The posters take on a life of their own, culminating in a poster dictator plunging the world into war, bringing misery to the inhabitants of the street corner and to the other poster characters. There is no holding back Tezuka's optimism, however: "What I try to [say] through my works is simple… just a simple message that follows: "Love all the creatures! Love everything that has life!" I have been trying to express this message in every one of my works." 6. Magnetic Rose (1995, 44 minutes, Koji Morimoto, script by Satoshi Kon, original idea by Katsuhiro Otomo, from the Memories anthology) I'm not an admirer of the jaundiced worldview of Katsuhiro Otomo who produced the Memories anthology based on his own manga and who directed one of the segments (Cannon Fodder). Here his material is transformed by the surreal sensibilities of Morimoto and the schizophrenic perspectives of Satoshi Kon, giving us one of the more successful attempts at horror in anime. The images are startling, perfect for the tale of a proud diva whose career was cut short but whose memory has taken on a terrifying life of its own. Add in some wonderful music from Madam Butterfly and I'm left wishing there was more anime from these two very individual creators (Morimoto and Kon). 7. Beyond (2003, 13 minutes, Koji Morimoto, from the Animatrix anthology) Clearly I'm a fan of Koji Morimoto as a creator of short films. As in Magnetic Rose his surreal but opaque visions are helped immeasurably by his collaboration with other people and by the discipline imposed by the Matrix story line. This segment tells the story of a girl who, while searching for her cat, finds an error in the matrix that allows children to defy the laws of physics... until the authorities arrive to return things to normal. It's a perfect vehicle for Morimoto's peculiarties. The girl, with her orange and aqua hair and her demeanour that moves from pouting, to defiant, to astonished, to terrified, has one of my favourite character designs in anime. 8. Good Morning (2007, 1 minute, Satoshi Kon, from the Ani-Kuri 15 TV specials) In just one minute Satoshi Kon distills his vision of the world from multiple perspectives, a la Picasso and his cubist paintings. A young woman pulls herself together (she starts with three disconnected bodies) the morning after her birthday party. The background artwork is amazing and this tiny slice of life is so true it almost hurts. 9. The Weathering Continent (1992, 54 minutes, Koichi Mashimo) Has all the qualities I love so much in Mashimo but can be off-putting for some: an emphasis on atmosphere over action, obtuse humour and understated emotional development. It works partly thanks to the brevity of the film but also because, being a hit or miss director, Kashimo sometimes gets it very right, as he does here. The watercolour background art is beautiful and his effective use of music to heighten the mood points to his later work with Yuki Kajiura and others. 10. Hotori - A Simple Hope for Joy (2005, 40 minutes, Takashi Anno) This TV special tells the story of an android boy who is having the memories of a dead boy inserted and who befriends a girl who, through illness, is losing hers. With the loss of her most precious memories imminent she instructs the boy to shoot her with a gun they found while playing. The anime shows how events build up to this moment and what the outcome is. This film is notable for its sensitive handling of a difficult topic, not for its technical merits. It's not easily forgotten. |
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