Forum - View topicWhen anime series brings something new to the table.
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Kiffy James
Posts: 4 |
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The first time I started watching anime I thought; “wow, how is it possible that I have missed out on this great stuff for so long”.
After watching a few series that leads to a lot of series, I started to observe similarities. This similarities makes up a “formula” that is abused over and over again, and suddenly every anime out there seems related to each other – but than you got those anime series that are groundbreaking and adds new content to genre. Post those anime series that “took you by surprise” when it comes to originality in both story and form. My three favourites now is (I’m only mentioning anime for adults by the way): Cowboy Bepop Without spoiling anything, I can say that all the characters are exceptionally interesting, some may seem easy at start, but they all got complex and appealing sides that we don’t fully understand before later on. The anime also have some of the COOLEST bad guys you will ever encounter in a anime. Berserk The share bloodshed alone doesn’t make Berserk a great anime – the reason is character development, eye-catching environment and awe-inspiring storyline. The manga has a lot more substance - but the anime version has, in my opinion, been perfectly converted in to the “movie” format. Claymore A story about hot skinny chicks that are wielding gigantic swords and killing monsters in a gigantic bloodbath. It seems interesting enough but there is a lot more to it like; character development, unpredictable storyline and a attention-grabbing “universe”. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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Welcome to anime. You're in for quite a surprise regarding new ideas brought to the table.
My unique list consists of: Azumanga Daioh: - no plot, harem, or whining male leads trying to express their love. Made up of small stories, this series took a new step by detailing the events of 6 high school girls throughout their 3 years without a plot. Masterfully done. Starship Operators: - I just finished this last week, and it's surprisingly well done. No mechs, not much action, but a good story involving cadets taking over a battleship funded by a news station. If this was done before, I've yet to see it. Those are the only two which stand out in my collection. The rest is pretty common stuff. Full Metal Panic does add an interesting spin on the "high school genre" and well worth a view. Right now, I'm on a sugar and magic high, so looking for interesting new stuff is on the back burner. I did get Elfen Lied, but know nothing about it. I'm at TRSI right now for another wave of purchasing. Must have more magic and sugar. 
Welcome to the forums and have a great day. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24034 |
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Well, I haven't watched a ton of anime, but so far Eve no Jikan and Eden of the East are two series that stand out in terms of originality. Of course, somebody who has seen more anime than myself might be able to cite, like, 20 series that are reminiscent of those two, I dunno.
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6896 Location: Kazune City |
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We normally frown on self-promotion around here, but since you've put some effort into this, I'll allow it.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24034 |
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For me, Eve no Jikan stands out in terms of story originality even though some of its ideas and themes obviously owe a debt to Asimov and Blade Runner. What makes it a different spin is that Eve no Jikan is almost like a slice of life drama crossed with androids. Normally, any story that has androids in it would probably have a lot of action as well, but Eve goes in a different direction. Heck, most of the what goes on is conversation in the cafe. It amazes me the show can exert such powerful interest (at least for me) despite the fact that very little actually happens. I would also say the camera work and editing of the animation is somewhat unique, even though the character designs themselves are not.
With Eden of the East, the originality comes through in the plot. I just haven't seen an anime, nor am I aware of one, that tells a story like it. But again, that might simply be a function of not having seen a lot of anime. |
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Kiffy James
Posts: 4 |
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Thanks a bunch Zalis116.
I forgot to mention Neon Genesis Evangelion; I wouldn’t even be watching anime right now if it weren’t for those series. It’s way to deep for a review right now, simply to multi-layered. ^^ One thing I have to say; from the first time Shinji Ikari finds himself forced to pilot EVA-01, a giant organic mecha, I couldn’t stop watching. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7991 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Well, there aren't many other anime like Gunslinger Girl. Both in story concept as well as the sheer depth of quality of animation, music, and character drama. Lots of style and effort was put into this one to make it really excellent.
Black Lagoon was pretty original. You don't see too many anime about pirates let alone modern pirates who use PT boats and guns. It also has really excellent characters, innovative action, and a cargo hold full of style and ass-kicking coolness. Rideback seemed like it would be a generic mecha racing anime, however, it turned out to be anything but. Instead it was a character driven political drama. It had a great cast and original mech designs too. There's more I'm sure but those were a few that came to mind right away. Last edited by Kruszer on Thu May 28, 2009 2:51 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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David.Seth
 Posts: 453 Location: near SF |
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One series that comes to mind would be Haibane Renmei. Yoshitoshi ABe slowly builds up the story and relationships between the characters, while giving you bits of information about the world they inhabit. While a lot of anime endings tend to be vague or open ended, I felt that this ending really concluded the series well.
Now and Then, Here and There would be another example. I have never seen such a dark and bleak anime. Its tragic on Shakespearean levels. It does a great job in showing what war does to people (and, what it doesn't do to others). |
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nagato316
Posts: 306 |
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First of all, welcome aboard...it's always good to see new and budding otaku entering the fold.
While EVA continues to polarize the anime community to this very day, one cannot deny how its breaking and deconstruction of the "giant robot" mold would, ironically, help jolt said genre (and indeed, enthusiasm for anime in general) back to life (arguably Gurann Lagann would neither exist nor work as well had EVA not preceded it--at least that's the vibe I get from a lot of the frequenters on these forums; I've yet to see GL myself). Actually, a place that would better discuss EVA's impact on the Giant Robot genre (or for that matter whether it belongs in there because it was/is so out of that genre's box) would be the "Hitchhiker's Guide to Super Robot Anime" thread, which goes into way more depth and detail...somehow the participants manage to expound upon the mecha genre in a manner that is meticulously academic yet still very fun to read. To some extent, one could say The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya also brings "something new to the table." Or more accurately, resets the table in a manner not previously imagined, as it transplants familiar and fantastic elements of science fiction into the setting of a "typical" high school comedy. As a result of the more light-hearted flavor and irreverent undercurrent of the series (the simultaneous homaging and sending up of anime and manga tropes, and the satirizing of the appeal of various moe traits to different otaku, for example) that consequently ensue, there's never that "OMG it's up to us to save the world!!" tone that a typical sci-fi series would give you. Well, that's not _exactly_ true. spoiler[Actually the fate of the universe is indirectly shouldered by four-fifths of the SOS Brigade of TMoHS, but at least said group accepts this task without the angst that a "serious" sci-fi action series would typically give viewers. This task, while inconvenient, is treated with a cool and collected matter-of-fact c'est la vie attitude by the SOS Brigade]...another refreshing aspect of TMoHS. Yet the science fiction elements that propel the main story arc(s) are treated with the utmost seriousness. Hell, I actually went library hunting for cosmology books because I was interested in spoiler[learning more about the anthropic principle, or as Koizumi referred to it, the human principle of observing the known universe.] It's this unique melding of concepts--thanks to Tanigawa-sama and his series of light novels that inspired the anime--that IMHO makes TMoHS another series that thinks "outside the box." I'd also throw in Kino no Tabi...this series has more of an anthology/episodic feel than most anime series of any genre. Heck, I'd be hard pressed to assign Kino to a genre. I'm almost tempted to call this series Twilight Zone-esque. Not necessarily because of sci-fi or fantasy elements, but more because of how each episode or story can make the most scathing statements about "the human condition" without coming off as preachy. That's a rare gift for anyone involved in any multimedia venue these days. Last edited by nagato316 on Thu May 28, 2009 3:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2634 |
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I agree that Haibane Renmei is a very unique title and I still have not seen anything quite like it. I am not sure about some of these other titles and while I think character development is important I don't think it makes something unique. All good stories should have it.
But anyways I will try to add my own suggestion: Mononoke Tells the story of an unnamed Medicine Seller who travels Japan defeating demons on the human plain. Yes I know on one hand it sounds like your typical action story but nothing can be further from the truth. In fact the real crux of the story is not defeating the demons at all but discovering what they are and why they are there in the first place. Even what is more unique about Mononoke is its style. The art for the series looks like traditional Japanese style woodblocks. While watching you feel like you are following a Kabuki or Bunraku puppet theater instead of an animated feature. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15546 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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May I be right in saying Inukami, you might usualy expect it to give you fan service, but instead it gives you realy awkward manservice in a pretty funny way. Also It often makes huge deviants from others in that the evil magician spoiler[wants to make naked], the ancient locked up evil being spoiler[ is just a doting father] and almost every other enemy somehow invlolves things that some would consider to be unnatural (elephant).
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Ah, I think I get what you mean by this topic.
Well, the first two that immediately came to mind for me were Princess Tutu and Interstella 5555. Princess Tutu Well, here we have an anime about ballerina and magical girls that sounds like a big huggy bunch of stuff I'd never watch in ever. But then I tried it and if I wasn't in tears by the end of it not just because of story purposes but also because it just redefined what would actually be done with the magical girl genre. Gone was the monster of the week episode with masked villains and whatnot and here was a captivating tale common of fairy tales of tragedy and romance, fate vs fee will, and a lovely heroine to tie it altogether. If any series earned its happy ending, it's most certainly this one. Give me more of this any day because I've yet to encounter another magical girl show that 1) I could take seriously and 2) made me totally adore it. There aren't too many other magical girl or shojo series on my anime or manga lists because I've to encounter one that should go on the the status of completed, this is the sort of genre defying thing that I think everyone owes it to themselves to check out no matter how disgusting it sounds. and the manga adaptation of it should be burned at the stake. I have spoken! Interstella 5555 It was just something I randomly checked out on youtube, probably saw some back on Toonami in the say, but whatever. The entire thing feels like a giant AMV exclusively made to Daft Punk's Discovery Album but with an actual plot and conclusion and the action is clear and it really makes me wish someone else might try something like this. It's incredibly difficult to describe. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann My friend insists that this show doesn't do anything new. He might be right about that, but it brings back some things that have been missing from anime for quite a while, namely over the top mecha action where everyone is cool. Maybe it's because I don't watch a lot of mecha, but this really brought something new for me. I notice Basquash! seems to be taking part of this idea of a simply fun mecha series and running off in a different direction with it, which I like, I think the clones that ran off of Evangelion were much more samey to it (with the plot being usually more comprehensible at the end). So I can see why this didn't do anything new for some people, but for me it showed me what a simply entertaining series can be like and brought back some elements from older anime. Of course, I saw Evangelion afterwards and after some of its clones, so by comparison, it didn't bring anything new for me at all, but to each his or her own, if I'd seen it back then it might've. Maison Ikkoku It's weird because the romance aspects in all of Rumiko Takahashi's other series do absolutely nothing for me. Some of the things I say here may be wrong because I've not seen the series but read the manga through at least 5 times, so apologies. I find it odd that no other romance has quite copied this the same, which is nice because this stays original. First we have supporting characters that do not form a harem, next the main character is a guy who is usually B or C in the following diagram of: B<-->A<-->C in which most romance shows seem to want to put the main in the position of A be the main character male or female. Another thing I liked was that some moments of Maison Ikkoku were practically painful to read because the character development was so good that it made me feel like real people's feeling were being crushed. And perhaps one of the biggest shockers considering who wrote it is that it has a conclusive ending. I notice that yeah, a lot of romantic comedies don't like to leave things 100% resolved, just speculate that it is and leave it at that. But no, spoiler[at the end, we do get to see the mains get married! and they have their first child together! And wow on that proposal!] and see what happens to the other not the main couple characters because the series doesn't just leave them in a ditch, we liked them a lot too. Also, it's a romance that takes place during college and not high school like everyone else seems so smitten with. I've found few scenes in any manga painful to read, but MI pulled it off for me, and more than once too. Also, 95% of the jokes don't revolve around a pervert-slap, god I'm sick of those. |
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eyeresist
 Posts: 995 Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney) |
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Isn't this just another recommendations thread?
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24034 |
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I don't see it as such. I think the OP brings up a valid point:
I guess you could argue any thread that attempts a survey of a certain kind of anime is a back door recommendation thread, but that seems unnecessarily restrictive to me. |
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MironBiron
 Posts: 39 |
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I'm surprised that nobody mentioned FLCL yet
one big mind trip filled with new and really crazy stuff, cool characters, comedy, amazing over the top action it's science fiction mixed with weird comedy and weird action + some drama and a beautiful coming of age theme |
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