Forum - View topicTop 10 Weirdest Animes
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OsamuTezuka
Posts: 51 Location: Metropolis |
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First of all, this list is based on anime that I have personally seen, and I'm sure there are still some pretty bizarre stuff that I have yet to see. Also these animes are NOT ranked by which is the best anime, they're ranked by which is the WEIRDEST anime. So without further adue, lez go!
10. Soul Taker Kyosuke Dante is stabbed to death by his mother to awaken his special powers and he learns that his mother did the same to his sister which caused her to split into a jillion sisters which Kyosuke must search for in hopes of finding the one true sister that is the real mccoy (all the rest are just small fragments of her.) Joining him on his quest is a loony teen nurse that seems to have a thing for him, and an older fighter guy that sort of guides him. So what makes this anime weird? Well aside from that odd plot, the animation of this show is very strange. Alot of times the camera view is from a very odd perspective from which you cannot clearly see the characters. I admit this perspective annoyed me at first, but eventually I appreciated it for the creativity and artistry of it. 9. Interlude In this 3 episode OVA a boy, who is never named, daydreams about an alternate universe where no one is around except one girl in an empty suburbes and a city full of monsters. Eventually worlds collide and the boy finds himself in this alternate universe and from there the storyline just gets weirder and weirder (I don't want to spoil how it ends.) The story alone, and the fact that the main character remains nameless makes this anime pretty weird, but there are also bizarre monologues from various female characters of the story at the beginning and end of each of the 3 episodes. I never completely understood what they were talking about in the monologues. 8. Paranoia Agent People with problematic lives get struck with a mangled gold baseball bat courtesy of a serial assailant known as "Little Slugger". After a person is attacked, they become at peace for some reason. What makes this anime weird? Well the opening credits show every single character throughout the series standing and laughing at you, and the end credits show them all asleep around a giant stuffed dog. Besides that is the unusual way the show tells its story. Each episode follows a completely different character, showing their problems and leads up to them getting whacked by Little Slugger. Eventually very loose connections between these characters are revealed, but I'm not going to spoil anything. 7. Neo Tokyo This little anthology film shows two short films weaved together in a bizarre story showing a little girl wander into a circus tent where the two stories are told to her by a very odd clown. What makes this anime weird? The story used to tie everything together is just plain weird. I still don't completely understand what the heck was going on there. 6. Magnetic Rose This short anime film shows a trash heap of a space ship respond to a distress signal. Two crew members go onboard a space station/asteroid/whatever to investigate it and what they find is an illusion world based on the memories of a female singer who lost her lover. What makes this anime weird? As the story progresses the line between reality and illusion becomes less and less clear until you have no idea what is going on. It's finally capped off with a big reveal ending that's pretty weird as well (I won't spoil it.) 5. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi A boy and girl who live in a shopping arcade (think market) suddenly get swept off to an alternate universe. In each episode just when they think they've found a way out of this parallel world, they've just been taken to ANOTHER parallel world. Each time they're in Abenobashi, but different twisted versions of it inspired by video games, movies, etc. What makes this anime weird? Each episode goes way over the top with the boy and girl fighting and zany things happening to them in each reality. (One episode finds the girl losing her panties to a little goblin who runs around the whole episode with them on its head with her chasing it trying to get them back.) Eventually things are revealed to make things even weirder but I won't spoil anything. 4. FLCL Why don't we just skip to why this anime is weird? crazy possibly alien girl whacks boy in the head with guitar and pulls gigantic weird looking robots out of his forehead. Is that weird enough for you? How about the factory that looks like a gigantic iron? Each of the 6 episodes of this little OVA makes hardly any sense as it goes way over the top with parodies and the like. I probably couldn't explain the plot of this show even if I tried! 3. Robot Carnival This is another anthology film, but a very strange and abstract one. It starts out with a big earthquake which we learn is being caused by a insanely huge movie fortress that launches robots like missles. There is hardly any dialogue in the film, and imo it's mostly pure art. 2. Serial Experiments: Lain A loner girl all of a sudden knows alot about computers and starts upgrading hers like crazy. She goes onto the internet or "Wired" and strange things start to happen as virtual and reality become blurred. [B]1. Boogiepop Phantom [B] From the makers of Serial Experiments: Lain, this is arguably the weirdest anime I have ever seen. So bizarre I couldn't begin to tell you what the plot was. So I'll let the Anime News Network Encyclopedia explain it: A light in the sky, followed by a strange aura and grisly murders. Each character tells there own connection to the event and to a similar murder spree 5 years ago. All of the different stories are slowly tied together by seemingly minute similarities and the story of Boogiepop is unraveled. Last edited by OsamuTezuka on Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Dranxis
 Posts: 591 Location: Ohtori Academy |
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Yeah, I'd have to agree with you on most of these. Ever seen Excel Saga? One bishonen, two teenage interns and an edible dog try to take over the world... erm, city. One girl talks a mile a minute, and the other dies every episode. Parodies everything from yaoi and dating sim games to American action flicks and homicidal little girls.
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EggyToast
Posts: 3 |
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While I'd agree that most of the anime you mention are definitely "weird," I think your description falls short of really explaining the series in any depth. In most cases, you seem to just dismiss them as "weird" and because the stories weren't obvious or didn't make sense, they're automatically weird.
FLCL is weird, but it's definitely telling a story, and that story isn't that weird. Instead of asking a million questions a minute, just watch what happens and take it at face value. Far more confusing anime would do weird things with dream sequenes, alternate universes, etc. In FLCL's case, after being hit by Haruko, who causes essentially "odd bio-mechs that are just stupid robots without their 'users'" to manifest from a chosen child. A child who just wants to be left alone. It just so happens that there's another kid he knows who has the same ability. You know it's real and that it's not just psychological technobabble because all the stuff is consistent between episodes. Canti hangs around, Haruko interacts w/ everyone, etc. it's "different," but it's far from being incomprehensible. I feel that Lain is in a similar boat. it's slow and it doesn't spend a lot of time explaining everything, but what happens is pretty straightforward. Her life is in the wired and that crosses over into real life. it's a "what if the internet and non-internet started to mesh" type of question. While I feel that some aspects didn't really work, the story itself isn't hard to understand. |
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Iemander
 Posts: 443 |
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So...
Are you saying that all films with not-confusing storylines can't be weird? That's a really shortsighted view on things, there's alot more to them next to the storyline. |
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OsamuTezuka
Posts: 51 Location: Metropolis |
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Of those animes the only storyline I didn't understand that well was Boogiepop Phantom. I admit I simplified the plot descriptions, but that was because I didn't really want to write a big essay on each of them.
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OsamuTezuka
Posts: 51 Location: Metropolis |
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I wouldn't say that. Soul Taker is "weird" more due to the animation style than the storyline. To be fair the majority of anime have storylines that can be deemed unusual. |
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Seanb
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 73 Location: RI, but Colorado is still home |
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After letting Soul Taker percolate in my mind for a few days after the end, I came to the conclusion that it's not really that weird. For the most part, the plot is really simplistic - even the flicker thing isn't all that complicated. I think what makes people think Soul Taker is weird is the rather visually exhausting animation style. The dark backgrounds and bright, solid colors just get hard to watch for long stretches at a time. It's not that weird or unique either. I remember the Adolescence of Utena using this for brief stretches, and that's another show that I know people consider to be "weird". |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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The point of the opening and ending, strangely enough, was to wake people up when the show started so that they could pay attention to it (seeing as it aired at 1:00am or so in Japan), and then lull them back to sleep once it was over.
A boy in a town where nothing happens, who is insecure about his own maturity, is suddenly thrust into various circumstances involving a fugitive alien, a government agency, and a disembodied spirit which ultimately force him to come of age, become more honest with himself, and, basically, grow up and be a man.
I think you forgot to explain why you thought this one was strange. And now, the fun part...
FALSE! Not even close. Lain was created by visionary artist Yoshitoshi ABe, while the entire Boogiepop continuity (novels, manga, movie, TV series) is all the brainchild of author Kouhei Kadono and artist Kouji Ogata. They both had some animation production done by Triangle Staff (though Boogiepop Phantom is more Madhouse's territory) and share some lesser technical credits, but that's about it.
"Following the events of Boogiepop and Others, the ominous Pillar of Light begets a distorted rainbow that heralds a series of mutations, murders, and mysterious disappearances around the area of Shinyo Academy and Hijiridani High School. As Boogiepop and vigilante student Nagi Kirima investigate this new rash of bizarre occurrences in their own separate ways, they find themselves confronted with a secret society, children with psychic powers, a mute girl bearing butterflies of light, a storybook character come to life, and the ghosts of past enemies, all of which connect to each other, to the Pillar of Light, and to the serial killer from five years ago." I dunno, personally I managed to pick up on Boogiepop Phantom just fine after the first go, and pretty much had it all down by the second and third (this being before I went and researched the novels). Basically, you have to keep in mind that it's really just a part to a much larger whole that was, to some degree, produced in order to link a few subplots from the books together. The events from the first and sixth books in particular play especially important roles in the series, but don't really get explained in full in Phantom (specifically, I'm referring to the parts of the show making reference to the serial killer, the Manticore, Echoes, Masami Saotome, and even the all-important Pillar of Light). Of course, the fragmented storytelling carried over from Kadono's novels doesn't make grasping the series any easier, and is really the biggest hang-up people tend to have with it when all's said & done. Last edited by Nagisa on Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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The Future-kun
 Posts: 46 |
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"Wierd" is, of course, a relative term.
"Wierd" and "difficult to fully comprehend" are not synonyms 
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11447 Location: Frisco, TX |
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One of the strangest anime I've seen thus far is probably Speed Grapher. They portray a lot of strange... fetishes that would probably be stranger if not for whatever TV standards they have in Japan.
I don't know, I guess it just seems a little perverse at times, though I'm sure there are many hentai titles that are probably much worse  .
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trackstar1013
 Posts: 179 Location: Canada |
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I dont agree that Serial Experiment Lain was weird if you watch it, it ends up explainging everything it is just a very difficult anime to follow... you have to pay attention 100% of the time or it doesnt make sence and seems weird. But then again everyone is entitled the their opinion
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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I agree that Speed Grapher, Excel Saga, and Beat-to-Death Angel Dokuro-Chan edefinitely belong on the list. I'll also ante Puni Puni Poemi, which is an OVA by the creators of Excel Sage that pushes well beyond the boundaries established by that show. Rah Xephon was pretty trippy too.
Also, in terms of general oddness, I think that Photon, Bandit King Jing, and Kino's Journey deserve honorable mentions, although Abenobashi, Paranoia Agent, and FLCL are much worse. One last entry, Yakitate Japan, which only gets in because it's a show about making bread. |
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Iemander
Posts: 443 |
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Yeah that was what I was trying to say. |
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Jadress
 Posts: 807 Location: Seattle. It purdy and nerdy! |
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No one's mentioned Cat Soup? Cat Soup and Noiseman Sound Insect are probably the weirdest anime I've ever seen. They both are very abstract, surreal, dreamlike and mostly nonsensical. Cat's soup is about a little boy (cat) trying to get his sister's soul back.. at least that's what I remember. I can't remember Noiseman too well.
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6902 Location: Kazune City |
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Let's not forget about Texhnolyze, either. Confusing storyline, bizarre/horrific visuals, depressing themes, and of course, the famous 10-minute dialogue-free first half of the first episode.
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