Forum - View topicMost Underrated Anime ever?
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Alucard27
Posts: 45 Location: the seat in front of my comp |
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What do people think is the most underrated anime ever made?
What I mean by underrated is an anime that has not gotten the attention it deserved. I mean an anime that came into the USA (or Canada, as the case may be) with very little or no fanfare, if it appeared on TV, it didn't last, no big-name licensers, under-the-radar DVD release, if any, stuff like that. I don't think I have any anime like that. However, if I could put forth a vote, it would be for Street Fighter II V. Lots of action, true to the SF2 game storyline. |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11446 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Tekkaman Blade. It's somewhat vintage being made in 1992, but the story has a kind of 70s sci-fi feel to it. The animation is alright, but the artwork makes up for it.
However, the story and characters are what make it so enjoyable for me. It's a great title with mecha, action, science fiction, military, and even a little romance. This title certainly deserves more exposure, and big thanks to Media Blasters for re-licensing and releasing the two versions (eventually). |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Except SF II V wasn't really underrated. It sold well due to the hype of being a anime about Street Fighter. Heck, non anime fan were checking this title out. |
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Alucard27
Posts: 45 Location: the seat in front of my comp |
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See, I didn't know that, lol. I hadn't even heard of it until late last year when I saw it on a premium channel (I forget the name).
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Kin7cato
Posts: 99 |
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I'd actually have to agree with this. Street Fighter Two V is probably the most underrated anime ever.
Suprisingly the story was pretty good throughout most of the anime. The characters were also developed well. This is extremely rare for a video game gone anime. Another thing is that this anime is not based on a manga. There was no source material to follow. Meaning that they actually had clever ideas and good writers when you include this fact. A rarity to say the least. Street Fighter Two v has some excellent fight scenes. This is one of the animes definite strong points. It even has better fight scenes than most other animes. This is a huge contribution considering that it did not have a large budget. The techniques and abilities of the characters were very well done. Unlike other animes where the characters learn a move in one episode. Or rely upon a special attack throughout the entire series over and over again. Street Fighter 2 V is different. Ryu trains to use the Hadoken. It takes multiple episodes of him practicing the technique to finally learn it. Some people might consider it repetitive. They are wrong. Out of all the animes with special abilities and super powers Street Fighter 2 V is by far the most beliveable. It takes training to gain an ability, you cant just pull some ridiculous special ability out of your ass and win a fight. Even though the abilities are impossible to do in reality. The anime is convincing enough to make it seem real. Making the anime seem more realistic ( This is a good thing). The animation was done well. Of course some of it varied. But as a whole it is actually done quite well. Especially with the resources that they had available. The art work is good. It looks better than a majority of the animes that I have seen. The deigns are defintely above average. Much better than other animes in the 1990's. The music. I have to be completely honest but the Japanese opening to the anime is by far, by far the worst opening I have ever seen. The music is terrible. But the visuals are so bad that it makes the music sound worse. Ken and Ryu run for the entire opening. Like the two of them are on Baywatch or something. I don't think I need to explain anymore. But the japanese opening is not shown on the dvd opening. Thats a really good thing. Throughout the anime the music is a mixed bag. It sounds as if they got some of their music from a casio keyboard. Remember the show does not have a high budget. Some music is decent. Some is horrible. And some is pretty good, it can match the scene appropriately. During most of the fights or more serious moments the music fits the themes well. In conclusion Street Fighter 2 V is not popular, it is not over hyped. It does not have a large budget. It doesnt sale many copies. Its the best game to anime adaption I have ever seen. The fight scenes are very well done. The animation and art work is good. The characters are developed. And the story is pretty good. Its a good anime especially when you consider the limits and constraints that were placed on it. They really worked with what they were given. And they did quite an exceptional job. But imagine how good the anime would have been if they had the equivalent support, budget, time, writers, designers, and everything else that the Biggest titles possess. Street Fighter 2 V is the most underrated anime ever. |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Sue me on this one.
Sailor Moon Yes I know I've said that I like this alot on previous posts but I do feel that it is underrated these days. I was first drawn into anime by Sailor Moon and at time, people seemed to praise it alot. Then, suddenly it seemed like, people began making nasty comments about it. I think that it is great as a starter anime. It has everything you need: Action, Comedy, Drama and Romance. SM is an anime that not only attracts girls but it can bring in boys as well. Since there are buckets of blood and raging sex, it doesn't cause parents to freak out too much. Certainly my tastes have grown and changed but there will always be affection for Sailor Moon. I just wish that Sailor Stars would be released here. |
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Digital Dreamer
 Posts: 287 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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Samuria Pizza Cats - Really funny show that only got aired once down here in Australia. Not many people know about this show. But the people that do know about it are ready to do any thing to see it again as it was hell funny.
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TranceLimit174
 Posts: 962 |
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In terms of US fans I can think of two that at least from what I can tell have been shafted.
Gunbuster: I'm a little late on discovering this great little gem. It accomplishes so much in only 6 episodes. It tells a story that many other series would take 26 or possibly even 50 episodes to tell. Also the bittersweet ending has quite the emotional punch. I had no idea this OVA series was licensed until I had heard about the license expiring. Gunbuster is just pure quality, and considering it's a Gainax series I'm kind of surprised that this series wasn't at least pulled out of obscurity in the US and into the limelight a little. Maybe it's a little too old but I've never heard anyone talk about it and when another cookie cutter harem anime gets more attention than this I can't help but feel it's not being as well recieved as it should. Lupin The 3rd: Once again this is in terms of a US audience. Lupin just simply works. Every character is very distinct, and there's always a new caper to tackle. Not only that but the MAD magazine inspired style gives it a bit of a stylish look, and Lupin is all about style. One thing that I think hallmarks this as a great show is that Lupin (at least to me) never gets old. Even the marginal Lupin adventure provides some entertainment and I never feel like I wasted my time. Makes me angry that the majority of anime fans only care about photoshop pretty cels nowadays (I prefer old school hand drawn). This is a great series that for whatever reason didn't catch on in the US. Also while it isn't neccessarily in terms of being underrated, Lupin in terms of being distributed is a little screwy. I thought Pioneer did a great job with their dubbing of the series. Everyone nailed their characters to the T (Zenigata's voice is perfect). Then FUNimation got a hold of most of the movies, and I feel that while it's a nice effort FUNimation's dub tries to imitate Pioneer's leading to a rather subpar product. Also I agree with Tony K. about Tekkaman Blade. It's good to see the show's finally getting some recognition. Not to complain but I'm kinda disappointed that Blade won't be getting a dub treatment. |
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Keonyn
Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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Well, a similar thread was done awhile back and my answer hasn't changed since then.
It's a hard call really simply because an underrated anime generally means it's a title most people haven't heard of or didn't give a chance. So it's a safe bet due to that I'm likely not aware of the most underrated of all time. Of course, there's many titles I've seen that most haven't that I enjoyed, but I wouldn't say they were underrated simply because I recognize they're not the type many would appreciate. You've got to go with what you know though and with that I still say now what I said the last time a thread of this nature appeared and that's Figure 17. It's a truly beautiful and well done anime with a great story, a little bit of everything and some of the best and most well developed characters I've seen. Everything in the anime just works so well and feels so natural and believable and while it does a terrific job as a slice of life title with a lot of depth it also has an underlying sci-fi action element which blends in flawlessly despite the fact the two genre's are near opposites. The characters though are what make the show and the events and trials they face and how those trials effect their lives. It's just such a beautiful and well done story, but yet it's not all that well known and came and went with hardly a notice from the fanbase despite the great reviews in most every instance one was done. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I agree, and am shocked at how little attention Gunbuster gets. This OAV series hit me as hard as Nadia and Evangelion, yet it seems to have been forgotten. The film that I always mention is the old Kadokawa film Toki no Tabibito. Following the wake of Dagger of Kamui (another underrated film) this Madhouse film was fairly popular in Japan, yet only a couple of people on this forum have seen or heard about it. The animation was way ahead of its time. The complex time traveling plot comes together in the end. The music is amazing. Oda Nobunaa and Ranmaru are characters in the story. What's not to love?
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PantsGoblin
Subscriber Encyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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Looking through "My Anime" I've found a few titles that don't seem to be that high on the popularity list here. Doki Doki School Hours came to mind before I even looked. It's sad that this great title doesn't seem to be selling well at all. The DVDs at my local Best Buy are still sitting there and have been since it first came out. They don't seem to be getting the next volume in either, I'm guessing they probably decided to not order anymore seeing how I think I was the only person who bought the DVD at the store. This anime is just as good as Azumanga Daioh IMO and does manage to have a slightly different feeling then AD also (partually because of the addition of male characters into the school mix). Very much like AD yet nowhere near as popular. Maybe people just see it as a rip off of AD, which is unfortunate.
Looking at Nurse Witch Komugi's profile, it seems to even more unpopular then Doki Doki School Hours. That absolutely sucks because NWK just is one of the best, if not best, comedy/parody anime I've seen. It was just awesome that Tatsunoko out of any company did this anime cause that opened up the doors to so many direct and obvious parodies of many well known old school anime. Took me a while to look all of them up and recognize them though, but don't worry they do parody a lot of more known anime such as Speed Racer and Gatchaman. NWK is the comedy anime that has it all, great music (written, composed, and preformed by the same awesome music duo, UNDER17), a great cast of well known and talented seiyuu, great artwork and character designs (done by one of my favorite artists, Poyoyon Rock) and it's funny and crazy as hell with some really great parodies. There's not much of a story, but as Excel Saga and Azumanga Daioh have already shown us, it's not needed to make an absolutely great anime comedy. I extremely recommend this title to any fan of comedy anime. Does require tolerance to fanservice as well as cuteness too. The anime doesn't live off of fanserice though but a liking of cute characters and themes is slightly needed. The "cuteness" of this series is what I'm guessing that has caused it to not be that popular. It sucks, people are so uptight... |
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Colman
 Posts: 13 Location: Sydney |
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yeah, i remember that, that was long ago, over 7 or 8 years i think, though i don't really remember about it, i remember it |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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I think the most under-rated anime is Hunter x Hunter. I haven't seen much of this series yet, but what I have seen has been very good and addictive. Despite being a Shounen Jump series, hardly any of these characters are stereotypical. Gon doesn't care about becoming the strongest fighter in the universe, he just wants to have fun in life. Leorio may want money, but he's not really greedy nor is he a bad person. He's actually one of the first friends Gon makes and is a very comical character who tries to act tough but is really a kind guy. Kurapica is angsty and out for revenge but isn't Gon's rival (the angsty characters are almost always the main character's rival in Shounen Jump anime) and is actually another one of Gon's friends. Then, you have Gon's "rival" Killua who isn't angsty at all and is in fact just as much of a kid as Gon is, only a bit more mischevious at times and their rivalrie to me feels more like a competive type of rivalrie than the usual "I hate you and want to be better than you" rivalries you typically see in these types of anime. The challenges Gon and .co face are all very creative and actually challening. In most Shounen Jump anime, the characters seem to just breeze through the challenges by lots of fighting, but in Hunter x Hunter, they actually have to use more strategy or one mistake could cost them their lives. The battles in Hunter x Hunter have so far been more realistic than most other Shounen Jump anime. What I mean by more realistic is that most other Shounen Jump anime series usually have their heroes fight with incredible super powers where they throw energy beams at each other and whatnot, but there haven't been any incredible superpowers used yet at least from what I've seen of the series so far. The characters use their fists or other more conventional weapons to fight and this makes the battles more interesting to me. I think this may be one of the reasons Hunter x Hunter isn't as popular as other Shounen Jump anime because the fight scenes aren't as flashy or fantasy-like as other more mainstream titles. It's just a shame that other more mediocre anime series like Yu Yu Hakusho or Naruto gain more popularity in the U.S. yet classic series like Hunter x Hunter seem to go by unnoticed. Of course, this could also have something to do with the fact that Hunter x Hunter hasn't been licensed yet. I think that if somebody like Funimation or Viz licensed it and aired it on Cartoon Network, Hunter x Hunter would do excellent on television and could even be a strong competitor with Naruto. Gon's seiyuu is even played by Takeuchi Junko-san, the same seiyuu who played the ever popular Naruto and the series is based on a manga by Togashi Yoshihiro-san, the same creator of the famous Yu Yu Hakusho. It's just kind of sad that not so many people know about this series at least when compared to other Shounen Jump anime and if you think all Shounen Jump anime are the same, you should really give Hunter x Hunter a try.
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coolGAL
Posts: 358 Location: Saskatoon Sk Canada |
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Super GALS! Based upon Mihona Fujii's fantastic Manga GALS! This show was picked up by ADV (Thank God) And it lasted for 2 seasons tho the sceond season was not even released in on DVD in Japan I think This Show is very underrated Because it Hilarous it's charicters are well plotted and the episodes get better and better.
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Angelcake
Posts: 74 Location: Just South of Heaven |
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As far as the U.S. goes, I'd pretty much say anything by Go Nagai.
I know, I'm a hopeless Go Nagai fanboy.....but seriously, I think he'd be alot more popular in the U.S. if someone would give him some friggin' exposure in the U.S. market. However, there is one in particular that I really do think is underrated. Devilman Lady, known in the U.S. as Go Nagai's The Devil Lady. Even Chris Beveridge from AnimeOnDVD.com, who is a longtime detractor of Go Nagai, was shocked at how good this anime was.......so good in fact, that the entire DVD series on average had a grade of A. |
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