Best Anime EVER

[slowpoke999]

Spoiler

I don't know that anime, nor do I think I could ever remember it's name.

Mine would be DragonBall Z. It's just awesome in its own way.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Gantz ; Berserk, perhaps? HBI2K Abridged Series on youtube?

 

[the1ultimate]

Code Geass. I hate to say this, but I pretty much just won.

This wins for "Best so far".

The best anime ever however, is probably yet to be made.

You have to be careful with absolute definitions.

Code Geass isn't even close. It's ENTERTAINING, and from a production standpoint (art, music, animation, voice acting) it's actually quite good.

But the most important part, the writing, is quite lacking. Don't get me wrong, I do love the series (except the ending, fuck that), but it's overly dramatic, and some events are downright stupid.

The best part of the series is probably that even Sunrise itself doesn't take it seriously. The side material ranges from Sayoko's diaries, wherein she believes that everyone is trying to out Lelouch as a cross-dresser, to a visual novel where you can date any character with more than three spoken lines. Also R2 12 basically condenses every aspect of the series into one episode.

"Best anime ever" is an opinion.

There will never be a general consensus that everybody agrees on.

More than that. Greatest anime ever in what genre? Comparing, say...Paranoia Agent or City Hunter to Slayers or Berserk isn't just down to opinion, it's downright silly.

Everything good about the Kenshin anime is entirely outbalanced by how dull the fillers (and even some badly adapted canon arcs like the Raijuta arc) are. And let's not even get into Reflections.

As you say, it depends on what you are judging the Anime by. Code Geass was entertaining to me, and that's the main thing I judge forms of entertainment by.
It's why I'm glad the show isn't 100% serious.

[flamesheild] That's the difference between Avatar and Back to the Future. They both make heavy use of stereotypes and cliches, but one doesn't expect to be taken seriously, and lets the viewer have fun watching.

Oh yeah, and while the flameshield is up, Code Geass is animated.[/flameshied]

So yeah. I guess we would have to define what defines "anime" before we could properly come up with a "best".

 

[Georgie_Leech]

Death Note

 

[Soushi]

Um... Black Lagoon. That is the one anime that A: Made me think that real life pirates may be just the teeny tiniest bit cool. B: the only anime were i ever developed a crush on a character (over it now). Great action, cool story, not original story material but whatever it works.

 

[Jing the Bandit]

Spoiler

I don't know that anime, nor do I think I could ever remember it's name.

Mine would be DragonBall Z. It's just awesome in its own way.

It can be remembered by the shortened name, Gurren-Lagann.

 

[Lewieroo0]

I have two choices which would be Black Lagoon and Azumanga Daioh.

Black Lagoon for being such an entertaining action show with great characters and Azumanga for being one of those shows which has such a happy feel to it (Also for being great without any supernatural themes needed e.g. magical girl gerne) Also the characters from Azumanga are very likable ^_^

 

[LeonLethality]

I liked Seto No Hanayome but I know it is far form the best... I honestly can't decide maybe because there are so many great anime in so many different genres I can't hold one above another.

 

[Discord]

Just because of the situation and story it's self

 

[escapistraptor]

I think maybe the thread should be changed to best anime besides the ones on adult swim.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Neon Genesis Evangelion, or Soul Eater.

I can't believe I just spelled out Eva's whole name, but I know there's probably a lot of new otaku reading this.

 

[vorlors]

neon genesis still my fav I cant help but smile ever time I hear that intro

 

[masher]

My favorite is tied between Azumanga Daioh, Minami-ke, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. All wonderful comedies.

 

[JRCB]

Cardcaptors is the only one I've watched, so that one.

 

[Gauntes]

Cowboy Bebop and Trigun are probably among my favorite
...
though I've watched less than 10 series of anime in total, 6 of them, I really can't stand

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well for me it would be a hard choice, especially seeing as I haven't watched a lot of the more recent stuff over the last few years (spending more money on games than Anime).

Overall though I have to give it to "Neon Genesis Evangelion", the reason being that it's pretty much what catapulted Anime into it's American fandom. A lot of people even make a divide in discussing anime as the pre-EVA, and post-EVA anime generations. NGE also rode in alongside some other pretty solid titles ADV like "Blue Seed" at the same time which helped a lot.

That said I wouldn't consider that a personal favorite because of the ending, and the fact that for all defenses of it the bottom line is that the creator had a fight with the studio, didn't get a second season, and was trying to wrap everything up very quickly, and I also think he was pretty upset with everyone and the world when he did it. It's amazing how good it was despite that though.

My most frequently re-watched series are probably "Lost Universe" (which was never especially popular), "Outlaw Star", and "Escaflowne" (though my uncut VHS tapes for this are dying).

 

[El_Lazor]

And out of left field comes Cromartie High School. Put's most of these shows to shame.