20-Azumanga Daioh
When I think of a school anime, this is the first that comes to mind. And in my opinion, one of the best comedy school anime ever.
I think what made it so great was the characters. The cast maybe small, but they are so different from each other; you have Chiyo the smart kid, Tomo the crazy girl, Yomi the sarcastic girl, Sakaki the shy girl, Osaka the strange girl, Kagura the athletic girl, Kaori the lesbo girl, Yukari the selfish teacher, Nyamo the responsible teacher, and Kimura the creepy teacher. The chemistry and interactions between them are always entertaining because one character can be the opposite of the other and it create great conflict in opinions.
The other thing worth mentioning is the style of the humor. It's "normal" if I could say. Not too cartoonish, doesn't have out of the ordinary scenarios (unless it's a dream), the characters aren't special (unless you count Chiyo), so these things make the setting more "realistic". This series doesn't have a love story either. The cast is all girls, but at the same time it doesn't have "hot girl on girl action" and the girls do not show romantic affection toward each other. Kaori may appear to be a lesbian, but according to her, it's more of admiring a role model than a romantic feeling.
Now, comedy school anime are not rare and there's always at least one for a season. But they don't tend to follow the same setting. For example, Lucky Star (that used to be called "The new Azumanga Daioh") got a cartoonish feel and not as diverse in characters. And you have Nichijou that relies heavily on absurd humor and out of the world slapstick, and the rest is harem or love stories. So in my opinion, Azumanga Daioh will always be the best for me.
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19-Lupin III
How do you make bad guys likable? By making them fun.
I haven't watched much of Lupin III, but I acknowledge that he's an iconic character in Japan. And just watching few episodes made me instantly love it! Now here are the rules I follow when starting a new series:
1- If the plot is good, watch it even if I hate the characters
2- If there's no solid plot, watch it if the characters are fun.
3- If both plot and characters are unlikable, drop it.
Lupin follows the second rule. The series doesn't have a solid plot and it's episodic, but Goddammit the characters are SO good!! And like I've said before, I love the relationship between Lupin and Fujiko and how awesome it is. Jiken and Goemon are bad
@$$ and really fascinating, and Inspector Zenigata who doesn't give on his goal to catch Lupin. And when he does, he gets even happier when he escapes.
Even though it's episodic, each episode got an interesting story and the challenges between the characters are always something to look forward to. The writing just amazes me. I don't think I was able to figure out their plans or how they'll do it. They are just so damn smart! It's even better when it's a four-way challenge (Lupin, Zenigata, Fujiko, Episode antagonist).
I know there are some imitations like Magic Kaito who try to capture the same spirit as Lupin, but let's face it, those knock-offs don't stand a chance against who made an impact and left a huge legacy in history of Japanese media.
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18-Mazinger Z
I'll say it now. Mazinger Z is my most favorite Super Robot of all time since I was a little kid. The dub wasn't great, but it's all about the iconic robot.
The original Mazinger series was the pioneer of the Super Robot genre. Mazinger Z was the first giant robot to be piloted from inside his body and uses multitude of destructive weapons against other robotic monsters and save the world from evil organizations. And being that is what made me choose it for this list.
Now the anime wasn't that sophisticated. It was mostly a "Monster of the Week" formula where there's one enemy or two to fight the good guys. But as kids, we didn't care for the plot, all what we cared is giant robots kicking the metal out of each other with a bang. The 2009 remake on the other hand, focused on the plot and was more closer to the original manga and that iced the cake for me. Was it better, in terms of the plot, I say it was. The epic twist at the end was unexpected.
Of course, following that we got plethora of Super Robots and the genre evolved creating and developing new concepts with each one, but Mazinger Z still got place in my heart.
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16-Tie between
One Piece and
Dragon Ball
Some big names here. I couldn't decide which one I like better so I put them together. If you're a fan of shonen, those are probably the most well known: One Piece and Dragon Ball.
Dragon Ball was my favorite shonen shows and one of the earliest that I followed as well as one of the few series' that I know the most of (Special thanks to
Kanzenshuu (formally DaizenshuuEX & Kanzentai)) and this series is considered to be father of the modern day shonen and there are a lot of authors who drew inspirations from it as well as one of the mostly parodied series' ever. It left a huge impression around the globe (usually for the Z portion rather than all of the series) and it's still one of the most famous anime of all time.
But unlike the majority of the fans, my favorite part is not Z, but it's the first part. As mentioned before, I like little Goku and his early adventures. They were more interesting than the straight out fights of the Z part. I also prefer the fights for being a mixture of martial arts and Qi attacks and how Goku was still strong but he did get enemies that gave him a challenge. Back there, he was still fairly strong but undeveloped at the same time. He didn't have strong attacks and mostly he went with physical attacks, the Nyoi-bo, the cloud, and kills his enemies!
And of course, the first part focused a lot on collecting the Dragon balls and weren't a chore completed within a moment and there were enemies who wanted them. The series is called "Dragon Ball" for a reason, right?
And lastly, I want to give thanks to the series for introducing "
Journey to the West" for me. I became a fan of the famous Chinese legend thanks for Dragon Ball.
As for One Piece, what can I say? It's One Piece! The current powerhouse of JUMP! Call it "The next Dragon Ball" or whatever, but it's still one of the best in terms of the writing. Long time followers of the manga know damn well how Oda cares so much for his story. The structure is amazing and the constant use of foreshadowing just shows us that he's a genius and knows where he's going and he always put a lot of work in just one chapter to the point that an anime episode can barely cover a single chapter because they can't cover all the scenes and information Oda puts.
But as much as I like them, there are some issues. With Dragon Ball, since Toriyama suffered from a weak memory, there were a lot of plotholes and errors because he forgot some of the small details. There are even some characters that he totally forgot about. Not to mention the over-usage of the balls to make death cheaper and focused more on the battles. As for One Piece, all what I could think of is it's length. The manga is just too long to keep track of. And for new followers, this could cause a lot of problems and it may turn them off from the series and go to something shorter rather than this super long series. If it was an episodic series it could be possible. But since it's a series that you can't skip an event in fear of losing an important fact that it's crucial to the plot then it's nearly impossible to read it all till the end without getting tired.
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15-Black Cat (manga)
Yeah, it's that title again, but I'll try to sum up everything here. I talked a lot about it, but I still don't think I said enough about it. As mentioned before, I've always considered Black Cat to be an example of a perfect shonen or at least a shonen series done right. It got everything: Adventures, actions, comedy, drama, romance, past, spiritual powers, science fiction, teamwork, friendship, secret organizations, antiheroes, lovable characters, villains you love as much as the good guys, great artwork, smart battles, great character development. Maybe I missed something or two but whatever it is this series did things right and the cliches weren't that grating or forced.
I'll get down to the characters. I like them all. Even the villains. They can be either liked for being interesting or liked for being damn evil. But as time goes on, you don't most of them to be completely evil, but they are rather misunderstood and once you get to know them, they aren't that bad. The good guys on the other hand are fun and enjoyable and they get good development. Most noticeably Eve. She grew up from being a mindless death machine to a child discovering what being human and experience all kind of things including fear. Train and Sven got an amazing partnership and they are a great team aiding each other. The anti-heroes on the other hand... they need some time to get to know them, but that doesn't make them bad characters.
The stories are also fun to read. They don't focus on the Good vs Evil plot like the dreaded anime, but rather on different missions and events that may not even related to main plot. However, they are not pointless filler and they are used to expand the characters and universe which is something the anime completely ignored.
Now why is it at #15 if I like it so much? Simply, because there are other better titles.
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14-Digimon Tamers
My all time favorite Digimon series.
Often referred to as "Neon Genesis Evangelion for kids" and thankfully that what made me interested in Eva, this is the darkest Digimon series ever made and possibly one of the most complex of all. I can't remember an episode without someone feels depressed on something.
On the series, I liked the changes made compared to the previous two seasons. I liked how the action was in the "real" world and not the Digital World. I'm a big fan of the concept of collision of the worlds and how the real world gets affected by these alien invasions. The other thing I liked about is the main hero isn't the strongest from the start. Unlike every other series where the main hero is usually the one who get the power at first, Takato wasn't, and they dealt with it like it's wasn't that great of an idea and they had to go through consequences like the digimons go berserk or they can't revert to their original forms.
Another concept that I liked was using the card games to give various power-ups for the digimons, and that in my opinion made the fights even better because the capabilities are unlimited and not short to the main attacks of the digimons.
And speaking of characters, I like how this series made the original team equally in strength, especially Ruki. She wasn't the support that sits back and let the boys do the dirty work nor she was the weakest one and had to be left out of the battles. Ruki was as strong as the boys and she and Renamon reached the highest levels along with Takato and Jenrya. The supporting cast wasn't as strong, but they did their parts and helped on several occasions.
As for death, this series took it seriously. Normally, a digimon dies and reverts back to an egg. But here, when they die, they die for good when their data get absorbed by their killers. And the D-Reaper arc was cruel and creepy for a kid show! It didn't just deal with digimon death, but the trauma of a human death which played a big part in the arc.
I know the fans didn't like it because the cast is different from the previous two, but in my opinion that's one of the reason that made Digimon a better story in my opinion. There's always something new for us and doesn't stick to the old characters like let's say, Pokemon. How many of us are sick of Ash and Pikachu being the main characters all the time? At least the manga series changes the characters with each new region.
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13-Death Note
After reading physical battle stories one after another, the psychological battles were something new to have and enjoy.
Despite it being a JUMP series, it didn't feel much like one (Que 'Death Note is a seinen and not shonen' arguments). For instance, it's a battle of the wills instead of muscles and fighting abilities which made very interesting to read and figure out how can they win their battle.
The other interesting thing about it, it's starring a dark protagonist. Despite Light being the main character and you should root for him for being that, the more you know about him the more you hate him. At least, that's how I felt. This one of the few stories where you root for the enemies over your "hero". Yeah, Light wanted to clean the world of crimes, but he ended up creating his own evil, twisted, dark justice and saw himself as the new age's God! Light is that messed up of a character. But he was smart enough to last that long, but not smart enough to live till the end.
Although... I should say that to me, Ryuk is the main hero of the story. He's the one who started all of this because he was bored! And at the end, he was the one who stood while Light fell. It was all for his excitement.
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12-Treasure Island
Even though I love One Piece, but let's face it... it's not a
real pirate story like the ones we grew up with as children.
Treasure Island was based on the famous story by Robert Louis Stevenson. We've see a lot of movies, but in my opinion, a TV series is better to flesh out the plot and the characters and to cover as much as possible of the book. The Arabic dub of the anime was one of the most popular old-school anime back at the 70s and 80s and still today praised for the story and the vocal performance and it's still today. The most famous quote from the series was " 15 men have died, for a box!" That sums the story. The lives you pay for a small amount of money, or even worse, nothing. The other famous moment and considered one of the strongest was when Jim pointed his rifle at Silver and he had the choice to kill what he thought was his friend to avenge his dead one.
I didn't get the chance to grow up with it, but Disney's Treasure Planet sparked my interest on the original story and had the chance to catch some episodes on TV, and I really liked it. But my interest sparked again in the recent months when I saw the life performance of the vocal performer for the opening theme song at April's Middle East Film and Comic Con 2012 and I was like "Wow". Just the amount of passion every other fans who are as old as I am and they are dying of joy and it made me wish that I was a big fan of the series to get the same feeling.
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11-UFO Robo Grendaizer
Even though Mazinger Z is my favorite Super Robot, Grendizer brought a better story in my opinion.
Unlike Mazinger Z which was basically robot fights with young and rash characters, UFO Robo Grendizer focused on having a serious and dark plot with serious characters. It had a lot of back-stories and dark past and much more sophisticated characters instead of just a hot-headed lead character who enjoys his battles.
This show was very popular in the Middle East and part of that is because it came in a time when there wars in the regions and the audience were able to relate to a war story and children were fascinated to have a heroic figure who defends his land against the invaders that they could look up to and cheer them during their darkest hours and war aftereffects. Duke Fleed/Daisuke Umon is on par with John Silver as one of the most charismatic old-school male characters.
Even when it's not about the series, Grendizer on it's own is considered one of the most powerful Super Robots in history. To this date, the fans still can't decide if it's stronger compared to Mazinkaiser. There were a handful of fights that it got damaged (most famous one getting his arm ripped off) but he didn't get severely damaged with cracks and leakage all over its body like the Mazingers. And its special weapons are very well known and fans like today's with current animes love to shout 'em out. Oh, and the vocal performer is the same one for Treasure Island.
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09-Tie between
Hunter x Hunter and
Fullmetal Alchemist
What I personally think the best written shonen series' ever. When the shonen world is filled with stupid cliche's that treat their audience like idiots who buy anything as long it's for the protagonist's favor even if it defies logic, Hunter x Hunter and Fullmetal Alchemist stood out as the shonen series' that didn't go that route.
For Hunter x Hunter, I was fascinated by Togashi's methods to break the norm. He treats almost all the characters equally. He doesn't give free passes, but if he does that, the logic behind it was already set from a long time ago.
Togashi is not one of those who follows the rules of shonen despite writing a shonen series. For example, Gon is not always the main focus and for the most part he's not the greatest figure ever. Plus, Gon isn't the one who follows justice and morals, he's not the one who cares if something is morally right or wrong, he's a one who does what he thinks is right even if it was totally selfish or sounded evil, and this was hinted a lot during the series. A lot of characters saw him as a dangerous being for his way of thought and the latest events showed to us how insane he can got for his own wishes.
The fights in the series are also more complex than the norm. The nen system got a lot to it and not just inner strength and the characters fight in a smart way and not idiots who follow fight cliches like telling their opponents their skill and do they need to do in order to defeat them, and don't go to the protagonist favor all the time.
Hunter x Hunter tops it for having what I think the best villains ever; The Phantom Troupe. Those are not your typical villains who do things evil for just being evil, and they treat each other with respect and care as if they are a family and they don't throw each other and treat them like trash. They are a well-formed organization and their relationship is the best for being what they are. Even their leader is not an
@$$hole who treat his minions like pawns that he can get rid of em anytime he wants, you kill one of his members and he'll destroy your city for the fallen's memory.
For Fullmetal Alchemist, it's another series that took itself seriously. When you start reading it, you think it's like a typical start. The protagonist comes to town and saves the day. But few stories later, OMG that was dark! A little girl turned into a freak and nothing to save her?! And worse yet, killed her?!! If it was any other shonen series they'de go to the "Happy Ending" route and restore the girl to be human again. but not here! They couldn't save her! Even as the story progress' we find out that the main goal of our protagonists is actually made of human lives. Which causes a great challenge of thought for them... do they use something that was made by sacrificing human lives for their own selfish reasons that were caused by their foolishness?
I also like that the characters are not invisible. Ed and Al broke a lot and had to go for repairs from to time and had to go for upgrades depending on their missions. That makes battles more intense and you know when something goes wrong it can be a bad thing and our heroes need to use their brains to work it up.
Extra points for this series for not using "
Calling Your Attacks" cliche. I read the whole manga but I don't remember any of the characters shout their attacks at all. All in all, I think not being a weekly shonen manga
can make a good or even a better story than usual.
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08-Elfen Lied
Let's get sad. This was my first anime that is heavily based on drama and sadness and not just a small part. Elfen Lied is a show full of sadness and grasping what means to be a human or is it best to be a monster when everybody else sees you as that.
I'll be honest here, I first watched it for the gore. I was one of those who kept watching mild battle mangas and then someone came along and says "Elfen Lied got a lot of blood and gore AND IT'S AWESOME!!" And that wasn't the whole story. It was about Lucy's conflict between her hatred to humanity and her regrets toward someone she loved but felt betrayed afterwards.
The plot was incredible. The story of Lucy and her past was really sad and I did mention that I could relate to. But dear God those kids are really messed up! Killing the puppy just like that?! And that girl was the worst... Lucy gave her her trust and she double-crossed her for her pleasure!
"The real monsters, ARE YOU!!" She got mistreated since birth just because she looked different than a normal human. But as seen with Kouta, she can be a nice person once you treat her nicely (and tell her the truth or she'll kill your family)
These inner conflicts are always interesting. We all know it's not about the look, but the heart. However, reality can be harsh and it's not easy to convince that idea when the world is full of jerks who only judge by look and call anything different than them an animal, monster or a freak when they are the ones worse than these things. It's always interesting to see what each story thinks what makes a human from a monster.
But with all that, there are two main problems about it: The first is the anime is only half the story. The story in the manga was unfinished where the anime ended and there was more of it, and the real ending was much more painful and more devastating.
The second is the nudity. If it wasn't for the absurd amount of fan service this show could've gain more popularity and appealed to a wider age audience. I even went ahead to edit the whole 14 episodes to censor the nudity scenes and uploaded it Youtube till they got removed due to copyrights.
And if there's a third problem, it would some characteristic changes. Lucy in the manga was more sadistic than the anime Lucy and Kouta does not forgive Lucy as easily as the anime. There was also an omitted character that wasn't brought up in the anime at all despite being a main one in the manga. These changes may have affected the series, especially the first one. The anime adaptation wasn't bad. Don't take it the wrong way, it's not as bad as let's say "Black Cat", but it's incomplete. If you haven't read the manga and you liked the anime, then I say go for it.
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07-Akira
One of the best post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies I've watched.
The story of Akira may sound simple, but it's rather complex. The future is messed up with a lot of violence and lack of government authority. Things I like about these settings. Among that, you have kids with psychic powers (including some creepy looking kids).
Now, even though the film is called "Akira", it is famous for the mighty Tetsuo. Tetsuo shined big time compared to the others. He goes into great development from Kaneda's friend to his arch nemesis after awakening his powers along with his desire to be a supreme entity. Speaking of "Akira", I thought that was a good twist. You expect him to be someone, but turned out to be something else...
But I think the selling point of this movie is the animation. If you've watched this movie you would not believe that this was made back in 1988. The animation is very great for a hand-drawn movie and super smooth. The casual movement, the lib movement, the action scenes, it's just so damn great that it puts recent works that are "supposed" to be better in terms of art with all the technology available to shame.
Now, the only reason I'm not having it higher on the list is because I've read the movie differs from the manga it was based of. As a movie as its own thing, I say it's amazing. But compared to the original work? That may take a while till I get the answer.
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06-When the Cicadas Cry
This is a bizarre show, and I mean bizarre. First time viewers may not get the grasp of the story from the first time.
The anime is known mostly for the gore, but there's more of it. The series got a bigger story than you could imagine, but it's cleverly hidden to keep you guessing the truth. The setting is unusual. You can't tell which one of the character is the main one until you go deeply in it. The story keeps playing with your knowledge. When you think you understood what's going on, something else pops out and changes that idea.
The first season may seem like random what-if scenarios with different conclusions, but the second season is where it gets better. We now have the real main characters that the story is focusing on, we know who are the main antagonists, and we know why the first season was so random in events. It may not as heavily in gore as the first season, but that's the main point. It's figuring out the situation and try and prevent more death from the series. First season was the problem, the second is the solution.
Issues I had with the series and I think there are other who had it... The first and I think the important one is not grasping the story at the start. For the first time viewers, they may not get into how the plot keeps resetting over and over, and therefore they think it's just a mindless violence and nothing solid. Characters are dead, next story they are alive. But if they decided to keep watching till the end, they'll discover the true meaning behind the setting.
The second issue is the artwork in the first season. It can really get bad and it kinda distracts from the intense scenes and loses the seriousness of the situations. Again, the viewers may take the wrong impression that the whole series is like this and they can't take it seriously. Luckily, the second season got better art.
And third are the spin-offs Rei and Kira. Coming of such dark series, these spin-offs are really terrible and out of place if you take them seriously. I was turned off by them when I first watched them, but then I came to accept them as a sort of self-parody of the series. But again, there are fans who may take them very seriously and consider them a huge insult and a bad image of the series.
But for the main story, I say this one is one of the best stories I've ever watched and it kept me guessing and guessing.
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05-Spice and Wolf
Even though I'm not into the Middle Ages/Medieval Europe theme, this series is an exception.
The concept of the series was interesting. Economy. Something you don't see get used that often. But it didn't focus that much onto it despite it still being a major part of the plot. And when it does, it can be mind boggling and complicated and not many can get it from the first try.
But besides that, the story is about the relationship between Holo and Lawrence and how they get along in their journey till they reach their final destination. I like their conversations and how each one of them try to up the other with their words. Mostly Holo wins for her wisdom and persuasive manner of speaking. And when they work together, that's their best moment. But to me, the thing I enjoy the most about the series is Holo. My God, she's one of the most charming female characters ever and I really didn't like how she was underused in the second season.
The visuals in the anime can be astonishing. And even though there are some nudity scenes, they don't focus on them that much or even try to point them out. Like in their first meeting, Lawrence didn't seem to care that he's seeing a naked woman, but a demon hijacking his carriage.
Another thing I liked is the music. The anime had one of the best soundtracks that I've heard in my life. The theme songs are all my favorites including the apple song.
Now that the novel series is over, I really wish that they could produce more episodes.
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04-Puella Magi Madoka Magica
You know when they say "Don't judge the book by its cover"? The series is a prime example of this.
It caught my attention rather lately, but not too late. It was during the hiatus before the finale, but I was able to watch it till what it reached and got a good idea about it. From what I could tell, this anime caught the world by surprise. It was first promoted as a generic fluffy magical girl show full of fun and giggles, but that was just a cover to hide its true nature...
As of the third episode, the show starts to remove its cover. It's not a happy series, its a freaking dark series with despair and losing hope. That certain moment is what changed everybody's mind about it and decided to put it higher above any other Magical Girl show. The darkness in the series was cruel. When you thought there's something good is going to fix things up, it only gets to worse. Characters are dying one after another, hope for living goes away as the time goes on.
The characters are all suffering. Mostly because they did not know what they were getting themselves at. Kyubei is considered one of the worst characters ever because he played with the girls' minds to make them think the magical girl business is all fun and games when in fact he had a great dark secret. But there are other who say the girls were stupid for being delusional on the magical girl and were too naive for falling to his trap without knowing the truth behind it.
And the ending... it was so damn depressing and a strong tear-jerker. Especially when you know who the real main character of the series and how she suffered for all her life to save her dear friend.
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03-Anything by
Ghibli Studio or
Hayao Miyazaki
To me, Chibli Studio and Hayao Miyazaki are the Disney Studios of Japan. When you hear a movie made by them, you know it's gonna be a masterpiece. The movies are so damn charming to the point I couldn't pick one end decided to group them all, including the ones I haven't watched yet.
The general opinion of the movies is they are charming, great, excellent, amazing visuals, etc. and no one dares to say a bad thing about any of them. For some reason it's not allowed to dis any of Ghibli movies or fans will call you names and say you have no taste in anime. That goes even for the ones that considered boring like
Castle in the Sky (The one I keep hearing it was a boring movie).
What I also liked about the movies is how they don't stick with one style of story telling. The movies can be either light full of joy to dark full of sadness.
Spirited Away is what many sees as a kids movie and almost harmless, but
Princess Mononoke got some grim and dark imagery. This contrast is one of the things that makes this studio good to me and not like Disney who try to keep things "safe" for the general audience.
Ghibli movies are not just for kids. They tend to be full of morals and messages to all ages and everyone can sit back and enjoy them for what they are, kids or adults.
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01-Tie between
Neon Genesis Evangelion and
Zeta Gundam
Why did I choose those two as my #1 spot? Simple. Because those two shows are the ones that changed my tastes in anime forever!
Even though I've watched some dark shows before (ex. Elfin Lied), Evangelion and Zeta Gundam are the first truly dark anime that made me ask for more serious stories, stories that take themselves seriously, stories that do not spare anyone from death, stories that follows logic, you get the idea.
First of, Neon Genesis Evangelion. One of the most controversial animes of all time. The story was messed up. The characters are all messed up. Every one of them got faults. They are selfish, ignorant, only care for their own benefits. Even Shinji, although he's more understandable, but everybody else got their own bad traits for ones who are supposed to be the world's saviors.
And End of Evangelion was disturbing. It was more psychological than action. Everybody wants the Armageddon to happen for their own reasons. And when it ends for Shinji of all of them to make the ultimate decision, that's really problematic when it's someone who loved through traumas after traumas and lost hope of living let alone wish for everyone else to live. And it didn't end with a happy one. Lots of creepy imagery and creepier philosophy. As for the ending, to be exact, we don't know what exactly happened. Are they going to live again? Are Shinji and Asuka the only people alive till the end? We're not sure.
The Eva units are very interesting. For starters, they are not real robots, but rather giant cyborgs. And they don't have their own energy sources, but they use cables attached to their backs to supply them with necessary power. And when the cables detach, they got 5 minutes left till they run dry. The designs are also unique. The aren't bulky or boxy like most giant robots, they are rather sleek and agile and very human looking. The angels were also cool looking and I liked how they didn't look the same or rather they were totally different from one to another.
For Zeta Gundam, it's a special case when I prefer the sequel over the first part. The first part had a good story, but the animation wasn't that great and the story did suffer a bit from some executive meddling, while ZZ Gundam had a lot of silly humor and an underwhelming ending. Zeta Gundam made it best by having great story and decent animation along with mature characters from the previous installment.
On the story, it was really dark. When they called him
"Kill 'Em All Tomino", they really meant it that way. It doesn't matter who you are or how important of a character you are or how close to a main character. In the battlefield, anyone can die and I mean anyone. Even fan favorite characters who we loved for a long time ago are not exceptions. Some death scenes were quite shocking to me and it showed how Tomino was ballsy to dare kill them in the first place! And for that, I take him as one of the best anime directors ever.
Zeta Gundam was in my opinion a semi-perfect production. The animation is good for its time, the plot was complex, the characters were interesting, transforming mechs were awesome, the setting was interesting, the soundtrack was cool, the battles were breathtaking in thinking who's going to die....
I think I find myslef liking Zeta Gundam more than Eva! But they both had the same impact on me and so I'm keeping them both in one place. I think Zeta Gundam done better because it was a longer series and it had some establishment prior to that compared to Evangelion that was shorter and didn't have much of memorial events except the beginning and the later parts.
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And those were my top 20 anime and manga of all time. I hope you enjoyed or got bored my long list.
Runner-ups (Not in order):
-A Certain Magical Index
-Astro Boy
-Bobobob-bo Bobob
-Busou Renkin
-Chobits (Manga)
-Digimon Xros Wars
-Dragon Quest: Dai's Great Adventure
-Fist of the North Star
-FrankenFran
-Genshiken
-Gon (Manga)
-Kurogane (Kei Toume)
-Naruto
-Nichijou
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Originally Posted by SHINOBI-03
Two of my favorites copped it. Didn't think Pluto's art looked generic seinen per se, it's actually pretty distinctively Urasawa style. The World's Strongest Robot were the two most memorable episodes of the 1980s(?) anime series for me. IMO I liked it for completely different reasons compared to Pluto. One was for the (at the time, and still) badass fights and touching moments, the latter was more for the engaging plot. As for Trust and Betrayal, I'm probably a bigger fan of it than of the original, enjoyed the gloom and how it brings out the harshness of the time period. The art style was slightly more appealing too.
