Agora Road General Anime Thread

[pressC4caius]

I can't believe we are four pages in and no one has said a word about Aria the animation and it's sequels.

 

[幽邃森林]

View attachment 149413
I am not seeing enough love for romantic dramas in this thread. Perhaps because everyone already knows that they are the best anime? Clannad is objectively* the greatest anime ever made. Many such cases: Your Lie in April, 5 Centimeters per Second, Fruits Basket (not my really my jam but I understand why others love it so much), Skip and Loafer, Kimi ni Todoke

*Source: me

Would you recommend the visual novel or the anime if I were to choose one?

 

[knowyouareloved]

Would you recommend the visual novel or the anime if I were to choose one?

I've only watched the anime so unfortunately I can't make an informed recommendation, but I don't think I would personally enjoy the VN.
There's three purposes that a romance story (or sub-plot in a larger story) can have:

1. Give the reader/viewer the opportunity to imagine themselves in the place of one of the characters
2. Add drama to the story
3. Make the reader/viewer happy by letting them see the characters find and experience happiness

I don't like the first one, which rules out reading romance VNs for me. I think an anime adaptation greatly reduces the extent you are expected to personally identify with the main character, which fixes my main problem.

 

[sulkytencent]

By the way, currently watching it on your advice. It's pretty good (at ep. 16/24) but I don't really understand the intense hype it got in the 2010s. You sometimes feel quite distinctly that it came from a VN, and not in a good way.

It is unfortunate that so many VN adaptations FEEL like adaptations rather than stand alone works. I'm about half way through the Steins;Gate VN and it is phenomenal, if a bit long winded to start. I've resolved to not watch the anime until I finish the VN, so I can't personally comment on it, but I've heard that it falls short of the source material. Fate Stay Night had some of the best fight scenes I'd seen at the time of its release, but the protagonist is so poorly written it was clear he was originally intended as an audience stand in. Angel Beats was good, but I remember thinking something felt off about that series too. Only recently found out it started as a VN since I only ever dabbled in visual novels.

Chaos;Head is my favorite entry as well!

I just started Chaos;Head. Still pretty early in it, chapter 3 I think, but its set up is pretty interesting so far even if the MC should be nicer to his sister.

 

[polar_coyote]

miruro.tv

just thought i should come back here to say thank you! ive not checked it out entirely yet, but it had the first anime i was looking for! and website looks sleek, no fuss, no nonsense as far as i can tell! :3

 

[灰の男性]

I have been watching Gurren Lagann and the sheer incompetence of the Capital's military is astounding.
They have zero recon and intelligence efforts. Their commanders are downright incompetence with the height of their brilliance being an overly obvious trap that only worked due to the human leadership also being tactically retarded.
The entire usage of gunmen in the flat terrain of the planet against the dispersed human tribes is downright idiotic. Speaking of which the gunman themselves are a complete design enigma being both extremely durable yet lightweight. The Dai-gunman's design is downright impossible with those massive legs. A combination of drones, IFVs and chemical weapons would have been more effective while being much more cheaper.
There are also a lot of downright impossible things in Gurren Lagann like the Dai-gunman being able to float with bloody flippers having a conversion rate of 300% which is impossible according to the second law of thermodynamics. Also the entire mental weaponisation of gunman is enigmatic.

 

[internet_userr1]

No one mentioned Demon Slayer.


Good, keep it that way.

I liked demon slayer at first, but after the first season I was bored with it and quit.

I always see this type of pattern in most anime's. I don't know how to explain it but it's so good the first few episodes and eventually just spirals down into something boring and predictable. Only anime I've watched that broke this cycle was: Death Note.
Every other anime I've watched, it follows the same sort of idea or it's just the main character going on a shittttt ton of side quests until they reach their ultimate goal and all the side quests are long and excessive and boring (one piece....) like I understand sidequests here and there but holy shit. You do not need 99+ seasons.

And if the anime isn't predictable, it's confusing, like JJK. Pure and utter confusion, just gives me a migraine to even think about it. Literally what the fuck was happening in that show? Quit at episode 5.

I've found that I really enjoy shows that are just... about life. Like there's drama, there's stuff that happens obviously, but literally just watching a show about peoples lives, it's fun. That's something I'd watch 99+ seasons of, but that's just me. Never been a fan of action and especially in anime's--they just don't do it for me.

Spoiler: just a stupid rant about how i hate action films

I remember watching SPEED with my dad for the first time and I literally just... couldn't. I could barely sleep that night. Movies that stressful stick to my mind so fucking bad and I just can't sleep or stop thinking about it and it pisses me off. There was another movie called Kidnapped that my parents forced me to watch an unbelievably young age to scare me into the whole "stranger danger" shit and let me tell you it worked. I refused to leave the house for the next week, even for school. I just hate movies/tv shows that label it as "action" when it's actually just a person in a very dangerous situation trying to solve it and is then met with literally every possible bad thing that could ever happen in said situation to finally escape free and alive with 16 broken bones, head injuries and trauma.

Recommend me some actual interesting anime's where the plot isn't just a group people killing random creatures or going on 15000 side quests to become the worlds greatest pirate. And here's something to make this even harder: recommend me an anime where it has all of this and ISNT a romance anime. Because the only anime's that are the way I describe, are romance.

 

[幽邃森林]

I liked demon slayer at first, but after the first season I was bored with it and quit.

I always see this type of pattern in most anime's. I don't know how to explain it but it's so good the first few episodes and eventually just spirals down into something boring and predictable. Only anime I've watched that broke this cycle was: Death Note.

I've found that I really enjoy shows that are just... about life. Like there's drama, there's stuff that happens obviously, but literally just watching a show about peoples lives, it's fun. That's something I'd watch 99+ seasons of, but that's just me. Never been a fan of action and especially in anime's--they just don't do it for me.

Recommend me some actual interesting anime's where the plot isn't just a group people killing random creatures or going on 15000 side quests to become the worlds greatest pirate. And here's something to make this even harder: recommend me an anime where it has all of this and ISNT a romance anime. Because the only anime's that are the way I describe, are romance.

This entire thread is piling on @Andy Kaufman and his beloved shonen genre lmao. Those predictable action packed side quest animes are called shonens.

Show about simply life? Well we got news for you: Slice of Life is a nice genre to put in the background or to wind down the day. The first one I tried was Nichijo and enjoyed it.

There's also the iyashikei (healing) anime. I've yet to try one out, but my friends say Mushishi is nice and I'm hearing a lot about Frieren.

As for Death Note - that genre is a Seinen which is for more mature audiences. Not mature as in sex/gore but as in themes that appeal mostly to older men. The women's version of seinen is josei, but that genre is even more obscure.

Also please keep dumping on shonens. Maybe it will encourage @Andy Kaufman to continue his crusade and come back to the board. He makes threads more fun.

 

[pressC4caius]

There's also the iyashikei (healing) anime. I've yet to try one out, but my friends say Mushishi is nice and I'm hearing a lot about Frieren.

Mushishi is a banger in my opinion. I rate it.
I'm about to shit in alot of people's cheerios, but so be it. I really don't like Death Note. That in it itself is not super special, the part that get's me is why do alot of people recommend it to people who have never watched an anime? This happened to me it was the second or third anime i watched. The first half was very alright, like a 6/10

Spoiler

The tension of the will they, won't they, find out who kira really is was it's great strength, after they killed L you were left with half the show with light being insufferable

and by the end of it, all i just wished was to refund the time i had put into watching it. Maybe it is a good representation of an average anime? i really don't understand the thinking behind reccomending it people looking to get into anime? Is the popularity the only defining factor?
If it was me and i have been in this situation i would put people onto ghibli films, and progress from there.

 

[幽邃森林]

I'm about to shit in alot of people's cheerios, but so be it. I really don't like Death Note. That in it itself is not super special, the part that get's me is why do alot of people recommend it to people who have never watched an anime? This happened to me it was the second or third anime i watched. The first half was very alright, like a 6/10 and by the end of it, all i just wished was to refund the time i had put into watching it.

I'm with you on DeathNote. The story dragged on for far too long. If it were cut in half, it would have been a more enjoyable.

Spoiler: DeathNote Spoilers

It became stale once L was dispatched. Usually killing off a character like that makes a story much more engaging but they completely whiffed their chance by introducing new characters who I did not give the slightest damn about. Imagine dropping the ball so hard that killing L did nothing to add to the story. They just replaced L with "mini L". Why bother?

The ending did make it worth watching to the end so I'll give it that.

 

[Holy]

As for Death Note - that genre is a Seinen which is for more mature audiences. Not mature as in sex/gore but as in themes that appeal mostly to older men. The women's version of seinen is josei, but that genre is even more obscure.

Death Note isn't a Seinen, it's a Shounen. It was published in Weekly Shounen Jump, the same magazine that publishes stuff like Dragon Ball and One Piece. The Shounen/Seinen label isn't a genre, they are demographics. Whatever magazine a manga is published in will tend to favour a demographic which is how a show receives that label. There are definitely shounens out there with mature themes, Death Note is one of them. Anime-original works or anime sourced from non-Manga won't have a demographic label at all.

Also please keep dumping on shonens. Maybe it will encourage @Andy Kaufman to continue his crusade and come back to the board. He makes threads more fun.

Old school shounens are awesome dude. I'm not exactly a fan of the modern stuff Andy was talking about earlier, but you can't go wrong with the classics. Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter (the superior 1999 version of course), Rurouni Kenshin, Ashita no Joe, Slam Dunk, I mean cmon now.

Spoiler: Death Note Spoilers

It became stale once L was dispatched. Usually killing off a character like that makes a story much more engaging but they completely whiffed their chance by introducing new characters who I did not give the slightest damn about. Imagine dropping the ball so hard that killing L did nothing to add to the story. They just replaced L with "mini L". Why bother?

The ending did make it worth watching to the end so I'll give it that.

I do not agree that Near is merely a mini-L. They have some similiarities but I think those mostly begin and end at them being detectives from the Wammy house who probably both have high functioning autism. Near in general is a lot more judgemental and typically doesn't resort to any means necessary to get his way like L did. He's also generally more prone to emotional outbursts too. Their detecting styles are completely different.

Also, the ending was fantastic. Without killing L and bringing in a new cast, the ending couldn't have happened in the same way. Seeing Light just totally and unequivocally consumed by power to the point of negligence and ultimately contributing to his own downfall at hands of detectives inferior to L (partially because of the complex he'd built up of 'if L couldn't catch me, nobody can') was a great plot beat.

Another thing I want to add is that the Near-Mello vs Kira portion of the story in the manga took up half of the runtime of the story, while in the anime it took a third. They really butchered that part of the adaptation and it shows. Lots of details missing. I haven't read the manga myself, but one of the worst examples of this I can remember seeing is that in the anime at the end after catching him Near just screams at Light for being a serial killer and offers no real rebuttal for his actions beyond moralfagging whereas in the Manga he drops this fire ass quote.

With that being said, when I was newer to anime and watching Death Note I remember feeling very similarly to you, I was angry that L had died and dismissed Near as a mini-L and disliked the 2nd part of the story like most did. It was only upon rewatching it that I somewhat changed my stance. It is for this reason that I think I somewhat agree with PressC4 about it not being a great entry-level show. I can see why it's recommended to beginners in that the main cast of characters is very likable and it has plenty of action with a premise that is novel for the viewer.

But I think that even were the 2nd half better adapted, the slower and more deliberate pace would probably put some viewers off. The fact that it wasn't properly adapted is a travesty though. You have one of the most popular anime ever and you can't even be bothered to adapt half of the story correctly? It should've been like 50 episodes. Ugh.

 

[sulkytencent]

There's also the iyashikei (healing) anime. I've yet to try one out, but my friends say Mushishi is nice and I'm hearing a lot about Frieren.

I really like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. The original two OVAs have such a cozy pastoral vibe despite it being set in a post-apocalyptic world. The old phone lines poking out over the flood waters is iconic.

Old school shounens are awesome dude.

I have so much love for the shonen series I grew up with. Don't find myself watching shonen as often (except One Piece), although I've really been enjoying Dan-Da-Dan.

 

[pressC4caius]

Idk about you guys but i enjoy spooky stuff. So, this is my big question. What are some of your guys's favourite anime that have horror themes or contain elements that are supernatural or unsettling?
This genre or theme seems to be a bit of a void, alot of the discussion i see online on places like plebbit seem to suggest the medium is uncapable of being genuinely scary or unsettling. I disagree although i will admit there are very few anime that have genuinely scared or unsettled me, and frankly there is alot of bad anime that sit in this category. I still think the themes are worthwhile and are something i really enjoy.
If i were to reccomend some stuff it would be
perfect blue
mononoke (not the ghibli film)
lain
shiki
Flowers of evil
ghost hound
Another

 

[Waninem]

I'm gonna have to warn y'all right now; I have plebeian (and childish) tastes when it comes to anime. I apologize in advance. With that said...

Where Ghost in the Shell at? I know it's a film, but it does count as anime, right? It's so much of a classic that American executives tried to rip it off and make their own version, to everyone's chagrin. Paprika's good too; very surreal and well animated. Those two I'd definitely recommend. I'll also join the people shilling Steins;Gate and Welcome to the NHK; husband recommended we watch them together as a date, and it was a gripping and fun experience. It was really fun picking out all the time travel tropes I was familiar with and speculating.

I'd recommend the following as well, since I had a fun time watching them (though there's some I haven't finished: )

Spoiler: smol list of recommendations

- Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun (Husband said this anime was literally us, and I do see the resemblance but it's pretty funny especially if you like manga a lot.)
- Kino no Tabi (apparently only the 1st season is good though according to husband; the 2nd is CGI-filled and not as good. Nice anthrology series, showcasing different places. Have not watched all the way through though.)
- Serial Experiments Lain (of course!)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica (this one's a more situational pick, since it gets dark quick and not everyone's a fan of magical girl stuff. Wouldn't recommend watching if you're depressed or are suffering from severe mental health issues, but the Blu-Ray edition is ornate and well-animated, and it's got a killer soundtrack.)
- Azumanga Daioh (best high school slice-of-life anime there is. Hilarious throughout, and comfy.)
- Lucky Star (possibly the 2nd best high school slice-of-life anime there is, but it's much more geeky and the first few episodes are slow. Haven't watched this since school honestly but I loved the manga.)
- Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (very, very comfy. Love has been lavished on every single frame of this anime, and it has nice vibes.)

Now for the stuff I like but I'm not sure I'd recommend... I'm half-ashamed to admit, I still watch magical girl anime as an adult. I missed out on it as a kid since I didn't have access to it. Thus, I've (at least partially) watched Sailor Moon Crystal, the OG Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, and Tokyo Mew Mew New. SMC, I remember liking at the time because I'd read the manga only up until that point and I thought it was really cool seeing it animated, but it's pretty much everything that's currently wrong with anime at this point (cheaply made, rushed, changes styles several times, changes format, etc.) They even made the last two arcs into 4 feature-length films, which I haven't gone out of my way to watch. I'm not sure I'd like it as much today after I watched the original Sailor Moon.

Which speaking of; I do like Sailor Moon, at least the first season (especially the fan sub version!) Comfy, a lot of the stuff they added for padding wasn't detrimental, knows when to get serious. Second season is kinda split into 2 parts; an anime only arc where everybody gets back into fighting shape and the actual manga adaption, which I don't think was done quite as well here. Still ok though, even though it's starting to get formulaic at this point. Season 3 was where I started losing interest; it really embraced that monster-of-the-week formula where protagonists are looking for macguffin, rando gets targeted and attacked, Sailor Moon blasts problem away with toy-ish sounding animation. I know people like Uranus and Neptune but they just come off as ornery for no reason here to me, while in the manga they didn't want to cooperate initially but they weren't outright staging a coup at the end. Haven't touched seasons 4 or 5, I heard those are the worst and most formulaic ones. May get to them someday, but I'm not gonna be playing a drinking game with those.

Now Tokyo Mew Mew itself is a pretty niche property that went out of style ages ago, but it's different enough from Sailor Moon as a whole that it's not just a blatant rip-off. It's environmental themed! The whole show focuses on stopping just 3 antagonists! And the antagonists can actually be scary (and are for a good chunk of the show.) It expands on the manga in very nice ways, showing the characters doing things that aren't fighting bad guys. Does have flaws though, with one of the characters not being utilized that well and there's a romance that kinda falls flat at times (and I hear the ending isn't as dramatic as it should be but I haven't got that far yet; I'm only partway through it and I quit watching it ages ago.) I still like it though, and would like to finish it one day.

Tokyo Mew Mew New though.... no. They could not have made it feel more generic. I made it 4 episodes in, but I just didn't like it at all. It felt so rushed! They skip some things, but add in others, and I've heard people complain about everyone that's not the MC and her boyfriend feeling flat (and they kinda do!). And the made the sassy character (that I really liked) boring! And the soundtrack kinda sucks as well outside the opening and ending themes. I don't know if I ever want to pick it up again. That kinda dampened my enthusiasm for the whole series for a bit, which is a shame because I've been a fan of it since I was just a kid. It's part of the reason I haven't even finished the original anime yet. It's a real shame too, because there was a sequel manga that never got adapted, and it probably never will (and it could really use the adaption too! It's only 2 volumes long and isn't given time to really do anything.)

But hey, if it you read all that, thanks for getting through the sperging. Would like to watch more anime someday, especially the older ones. They just have a very nice vibe to them.

 

[幽邃森林]

Death Note isn't a Seinen, it's a Shounen. It was published in Weekly Shounen Jump, the same magazine that publishes stuff like Dragon Ball and One Piece. The Shounen/Seinen label isn't a genre, they are demographics. Whatever magazine a manga is published in will tend to favour a demographic which is how a show receives that label. There are definitely shounens out there with mature themes, Death Note is one of them. Anime-original works or anime sourced from non-Manga won't have a demographic label at all.

Old school shounens are awesome dude. I'm not exactly a fan of the modern stuff Andy was talking about earlier, but you can't go wrong with the classics. Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter (the superior 1999 version of course), Rurouni Kenshin, Ashita no Joe, Slam Dunk, I mean cmon now.

I never thought of those as demographics rather than genres, but it makes sense since it's literally in the name. Funnily enough, I think that Shonens, new or old, are fun to watch. But I don't hype over them since many (particularly the newer ones) are formulaic. That doesn't make them bad, they're just giving the fans what they want.

 

[UltramarineWeather]

Old school shounens are awesome dude. I'm not exactly a fan of the modern stuff Andy was talking about earlier, but you can't go wrong with the classics. Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter (the superior 1999 version of course), Rurouni Kenshin, Ashita no Joe, Slam Dunk, I mean cmon now.

Most of these had either an expansive universe or actually interesting villains (even from an adult PoV). Though I found HxH quite overrated and too "power-level-y" after some point (don't judge the whole by the few awesome moments) and Kenshin started quite good but was quickly ruined by the Baki-tier characters and mostly the strange mix of slapstick comedy and seinen darkness that gave us the Tsuiokuhen OAV masterpiece; wavering between Vagabond and Crayon Shin-chan is weird, man.
Ashita no Joe may have been published in a shonen magazine, but it wouldn't be nowadays. Shit is dark.

 

[SparkyWilson]

Some of my favorites:

- Ghost in the Shell
- Appleseed
- Pat Labor
- Hellsing
- Love Hina
- Elfen Lied
- Black Lagoon(I recommend watching it with the English Dubs)
- Eurgo Proxy

 

[UltramarineWeather]

Some of my favorites:

- Ghost in the Shell
- Appleseed
- Pat Labor
- Hellsing
- Love Hina
- Elfen Lied
- Black Lagoon(I recommend watching it with the English Dubs)
- Eurgo Proxy

Patlabor: which work is your favourite? Second movie for my part; third is very underrated. By Appleseed, you mean the manga, right? How did you manage to make a typo in the work your avatar is from, lol.

 

[knowyouareloved]

Regarding people discussing what is/isn't shounen/seinen:

I don't put much stock in target demographic categories anymore. I have heard it explained that guys will only read manga magazines targeted for guys, while girls will read a manga they're interested in regardless of the magazine where it is published. So if a manga is from a shoujo/josei magazine, it's targeted at women, but if a manga is from a shounen/seinen magazine, who really knows.

 

[1999MazdaMiata]

I mostly prefer older anime like the Kyo ani classics