Don't Recommend Me an Anime

[Silvershock]

I think I'm going to have to throw another vote for Elfen Lied in here. Recommended to me by multiple friends, and I now value their opinions less because Elfen Lied is nothing more than thinly disguised stroke material for teenagers.

People act like it's some kind of masterpiece in storytelling when it's absolute dross. Bioweapon escapes from military lab, goes Tetsuo on some folks, disappears. Bad guys try to track down bioweapon, who now has amnesia and joins - of all things - a harem anime. And the series has literally no ending. Confrontation is set up, no resolution, end.

Think of an irritating trope, because it's in here. Socially awkward boy suddenly surrounded by girls continuously acts like a moron. Multiple misunderstandings between him and his primary idiot love interest (who I seem to remember he is related to). The "discovery" that Amnesia Bioweapon Girl and Moron have been linked since birth - OMG FATE. The show's constant poor excuses to take these underage girls and remove all their clothing.

The most egregious example of Elfen Lied's real objective comes during a heartfelt (read: sickening) conversation between Moron and Idiot. The entire scene is inter-cut with a scene of the girls taking a bath together. How does the conversation resolve? The door behind Moron and Idiot flies open and ABG appears, completely naked, to throw her soap-covered breasts onto the screen. End scene. Absolutely purile.

I ended up rooting more for the bad guys, because they were actually kind of developed and not infuriating. They are genuinely trying to contain a species that is demonstrated time and time again to be extraordinarily dangerous. They have horrible things happen to them, and part of the series shows them trying to cope, or not coping as is far more likely. They're not great people, but they're a thousand times easier to relate to than the protagonists.

TL;DR - Elfen Lied is everything that non anime fans tell me anime is. If you want to watch porn, just watch porn. If real folks don't float your boat, there's hentai out there better written and far more enjoyable than this. If you want to mix the two, get yourself an uncut copy of Kite and have some fun. Elfen Lied is pandering of the worst kind, enjoyed by knuggle-draggers everywhere. I hate it for squandering all its potential in the name of making a skin flick, and I hate it for making me respect my friends less.

Great theme music, though.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I just find the anime far too despressing for my taste and I never get all of the religon subtext either. Honestly those past Critial Miss bash on the show explain it better on why I didn't like it.

Fate/stay Night: Read the visual novel instead.

It's getting a remake by the guys who did Fate/Zero. Shirou even looks a bit less like a shithead. Could be really good. And while I enjoyed the visual novel, it is reaaaaally goddamn long, I have yet to get very far into the second route. I know it's supposed to get better (though I enjoyed Fate, for what it's worth) but it is still really a lot of the same goddamn dinner scenes.

 

[GabeZhul]

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I just find the anime far too despressing for my taste and I never get all of the religon subtext either. Honestly those past Critial Miss bash on the show explain it better on why I didn't like it.

Fate/stay Night: Read the visual novel instead.

It's getting a remake by the guys who did Fate/Zero. Shirou even looks a bit less like a shithead. Could be really good. And while I enjoyed the visual novel, it is reaaaaally goddamn long, I have yet to get very far into the second route. I know it's supposed to get better (though I enjoyed Fate, for what it's worth) but it is still really a lot of the same goddamn dinner scenes.

Yeah, the Food Discussions (this is actually a thing, we even have a tag for it over at VNDB) are one of the two major flaws of F/SN (three, if you count Shirou starting out pretty unlikeable at the start because of character-development purposes), the other being the H-scenes, which were not only silly but they were also completely botched by the forced reasoning behind them (mana-transfer is still a bit of a meme among the TM fan circles for a reason, alongside of DOLPHINS! ).

And yes, even though the new anime will probably be better than the original (which is not hard at all), reading the actual visual novel is still better because I say so.

 

[Raziello]

I would not recommend the 07 ghost anime. The anime ends with a massive "to be continued" mid way through the slow paced storyline and then is never continued, giving no resolution at all.

 

[FPLOON]

On Another. Another, unlike Final Destination, has an undeniably incredibly well done atmosphere, where Final Destination is just a terrible horror movie with very predictable and gory deaths. Of course, Another has one of the shittiest endings after so much build up I've ever seen, nailing it down to "She let dozens kill each other because she didn't want to make him depressed even tho she'd have to eventually anywho, and he's probably already depressed from EVERYONE FUCKING TRYING TO KILL HIM"

Yeah... Despite the overall setup of Another being the main factor of me buying the series on DVD, the ending could have been done differently or, at least, less "shitty" and, to me, less "anti-climatic"... Then again, I feel like changing the ending would have created a "Final Destination"-type ending, which would have "killed" the whole series for me...

 

[shintakie10]

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I just find the anime far too despressing for my taste and I never get all of the religon subtext either. Honestly those past Critial Miss bash on the show explain it better on why I didn't like it.

Fate/stay Night: Read the visual novel instead.

It's getting a remake by the guys who did Fate/Zero. Shirou even looks a bit less like a shithead. Could be really good. And while I enjoyed the visual novel, it is reaaaaally goddamn long, I have yet to get very far into the second route. I know it's supposed to get better (though I enjoyed Fate, for what it's worth) but it is still really a lot of the same goddamn dinner scenes.

Yeah, the Food Discussions (this is actually a thing, we even have a tag for it over at VNDB) are one of the two major flaws of F/SN (three, if you count Shirou starting out pretty unlikeable at the start because of character-development purposes), the other being the H-scenes, which were not only silly but they were also completely botched by the forced reasoning behind them (mana-transfer is still a bit of a meme among the TM fan circles for a reason, alongside of DOLPHINS! ).

And yes, even though the new anime will probably be better than the original (which is not hard at all), reading the actual visual novel is still better because I say so.

While I may want to watch animes of certain visual novels (why you no anime Princess Waltz!?!), I have yet to see an anime that is superior to its VN counterpart. Even excludin the strange problem I have where I absolutely detest the primary love interest (fuckin Clannad man. Tomoyo's chapter was my shit) in nearly every VN, they're usually just not paced very well compared to the VN.

 

[Tony2077]

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I just find the anime far too despressing for my taste and I never get all of the religon subtext either. Honestly those past Critial Miss bash on the show explain it better on why I didn't like it.

Fate/stay Night: Read the visual novel instead.

It's getting a remake by the guys who did Fate/Zero. Shirou even looks a bit less like a shithead. Could be really good. And while I enjoyed the visual novel, it is reaaaaally goddamn long, I have yet to get very far into the second route. I know it's supposed to get better (though I enjoyed Fate, for what it's worth) but it is still really a lot of the same goddamn dinner scenes.

Yeah, the Food Discussions (this is actually a thing, we even have a tag for it over at VNDB) are one of the two major flaws of F/SN (three, if you count Shirou starting out pretty unlikeable at the start because of character-development purposes), the other being the H-scenes, which were not only silly but they were also completely botched by the forced reasoning behind them (mana-transfer is still a bit of a meme among the TM fan circles for a reason, alongside of DOLPHINS! ).

And yes, even though the new anime will probably be better than the original (which is not hard at all), reading the actual visual novel is still better because I say so.

While I may want to watch animes of certain visual novels (why you no anime Princess Waltz!?!), I have yet to see an anime that is superior to its VN counterpart. Even excludin the strange problem I have where I absolutely detest the primary love interest (fuckin Clannad man. Tomoyo's chapter was my shit) in nearly every VN, they're usually just not paced very well compared to the VN.

i agree with the waltz that would be an awesome one they would be able to expand the story a lot

 

[Xisin]

Do not watch the Qwaser of stigmata. I originally started watching because I thought the male lead had an interesting look. Spoiler(I mean it's a first episode spoiler) - The Qwasers get their powers by drinking breast milk. Not the kind of thing you should just stumble into...

 

[stroopwafel]

Well, I think there's a difference between an anime being genuinely bad or just not your cup of tea. For example I loved Attack on Titan as it's one of the few modern animes that reminded me why I like anime in the first place. Cool story, creative set-up, slightly melodramatic and archetypical characters, awesome action scenes. I found it thoroughly enjoyable. Now I can see reasons why some won't like it, but calling this an example of a bad anime is a bit ridiculous. For example I hate(well that's maybe slightly exaggerated) Evangelion as I think its pretentious and overindulgent up to 11 but I can see why this anime speaks to certain people with eg. anxiety issues. I don't like it but its not poorly made, there's a difference.

Anyways the most recent anime that disappointed me was Sword Art Online. Disappointed b/c there were a lot of things I liked about the anime in the initial episodes, such as the premise of the story and the intriguing plot elements about what it meant living in a world governed by the rules of an MMO with people trying to exploit this situation. However by ep. 7 there was way too much harem and moe in it for my taste, which really ruined the show for me.

 

[MorganL4]

School Days. Yeah...... don't. Just don't.

Well no, actually you kind of HAVE to watch that just to understand that a show could be THAT bad. I mean, it is kind of like Napoleon Dynamite being course viewing in film studies classes nowadays, because it is so bad that it is good. Except that School Days must be seen simply to understand that it is possible to harbor so much hate and vitriol towards a show that even the ending (as redeeming as it was) did not actually accomplish its goal, and forced one to retain their hate.

Also... Nice Boat.

Anyways the most recent anime that disappointed me was Sword Art Online. Disappointed b/c there were a lot of things I liked about the anime in the initial episodes, such as the premise of the story and the intriguing plot elements about what it meant living in a world governed by the rules of an MMO with people trying to exploit this situation. However by ep. 7 there was way too much harem and moe in it for my taste, which really ruined the show for me.

If SAO disappointed you, you should check out Log Horizon. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[[REDACTED]]

Wow, so many people butt-hurt about Eva.
TBH, I love it.

Please never use the word "butt-hurt" again.

Not only does it not mean what you think it does (which appears to be "Not liking a show I like") it makes you look like a 12-year-old even when used in proper context.

 

[Lugbzurg]

I wouldn't recommend Cardcaptor unless you watched it growing up, but man is it awesome.

Loved Cardcaptor when I was younger. I haven't watched it in a while but I can imagine it would be through rose tinted glasses if I did now.

I just watched it somewhat recently for the first time. No nostalgia whatsoever. It was fairly enjoyable.

There is however another series that must be addressed...
http://www.animelike.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Sword-Art-Online-Wallpaper.jpg
Remember the first boss? Remember how that one dudeguy died? Kirito tried to give him a healing potion. But the dudeguy's all like "Heck, no! I don't want yer damn potion! I'm just gonna sit here and die for no reason!" And then Kirito's like "Oh, no... This guy's counting on me to lead everyone to victory. I'm not sure if I can do it. Maybe I should explain to them how the boss was different in the beta version or... Wait... I've got it!" *turns to the other players* "I'M EVIL! I KILLED HIM! MUA HA HA HA HAA!!!"

Remember Yui's death? Yeah, that made no sense. First of all, she had amnesia. How the heck does a computer program get amnesia? Or fall unconscious? Oh, and she was just so focused on two out of the 10,000 players she was supposed to watch over. Out of EVERYONE in the entire game, she really wanted to meet Kirito and Asuna. "Why?" No explanation given beyond "Because... THE PLOT DEMANDS IT!" So then the game decides to delete her after she fights an extra boss, even though she's an immortal object (so why didn't Kayaba ever get deleted?) and she's a VITAL PIECE OF THE GAME'S CODE. Like... SERIOUSLY! That's the worst security system ever! That's the equivalent of AntiVirus software deleting your System 32 files! Yeah, she gets deleted because the game gets confused and thinks she's a forgeign object somehow, DESPITE HOW VITAL SHE IS TO THE CORE GAME'S CODING. And yet 10,000 foreign objects popped into the game on Day 1. Why weren't they deleted? But don't worry! Kirito has magically learned how to hack for some unexplained reason. And he's so good at it, he doesn't even need a monitor for the first several seconds! He doesn't even need a mouse! And he's managed to retrieve Yui's Heart, which contains her encrypted code. So she can still be saved! Asuna decides to wear the heart as a necklace, while she and Kirito promise they will never ever forget he- WHOOPS! Asuna is suddenly not wearing the necklace in the next episode (nor any others that follow) and Yui is never mentioned again!

Now for Asuna's death... It's $&#@%^ing STUPID! So, our heroes are on Floor 75 and they just killed the boss. Well, just another 25 to go! Man, I can't wait to see what Floor 100 looks like! COP-OUT! Suddenly it's revealed that Kayaba, the creator of the game, has been playing SAO with them all along! And it just so happens that if anyone can defeat him in a PvP duel, then everyone can go home... for some reason. Kirito agrees to the duel, on the condition that if he loses, Kayaba must recode the game so that Asuna can't kill herself. Asuna kills herself. Ok, ok, so he didn't have sufficient time to fix that. But we've seen PvP duels in the game before. And in none of them did the loser end up dying. What's more, SINCE WHEN CAN SOMEONE WHO ISN'T PARTICIPATING IN THE DUEL RECEIVE DAMAGE FROM IT!? Seriously! If she got hit, she should have received absolutely ZERO damage, because she wasn't part of the fight!

But enough about deaths. Let's talk about some of the other stupid crap this show tries to pull. At some point, we see that Kirito has somehow possessed regenerating health. REGENERATING HEALTH. And it regenerates so fast that he can now stand seven dudes into submission. Seriously, he just needs to STAND THERE and their attacks are useless, because his regenerating health kicks in faster than they can deal damage. And quite a lot of time has passed at this point. I don't care if he got to play the beta version for a while before launch. After THIS much time has passed, pretty much EVERYONE should have this. Especially since the beta testers have been giving out those books with all the information they've been gathering to ALL of the players. But it gets worse. As stupid as a deus ex machina as this is, what makes it even MORE stupid is that IT'S NEVER USED AGAIN. Seriously. That regenerating health sure would've come in handy in various other situations. Like when fighting Kayaba?

You seriously need to unlock a unique rare skill to be able to hold two pieces of bladed metal at the same time? This is about as stupid as the fact that you need to PURCHASE the ability to throw things while running in [Prototype]!

Oh, wow! Kirito has just gotten his own personal blacksmith! And she promises to help him out in the game as much as she can, sharpening and upgrading his weapons, forging new ones, and should keep coming back whenever he can and... she's just going to be dropped out of the plot entirely, isn't she? Yep. This show does that sort of thing a lot.

Yeah, yeah, nice try, Sword Art Online. Kayaba is clearly insane. He just tried to murder 10,000 people and he doesn't even have the foggiest idea why, nor does he even care. Stop trying to convince us that he's really a nice guy. Oh, and why is the ENTIRE GAME BEING DELETED NOW!?
---~~~---
Also, while this isn't really a plothole, it's still extremely stupid. The scene where everyone draws out those mirrors and their avatars are changed to look like their real-world bodies killed SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

I'm sure anyone who's familiar with the internet is also familiar with the idea of "Wow, I know this person so well, and yet I don't even have the foggiest idea what he/she looks like!" I know that feeling all-too-well. Sword Art Online was well on its way to doing just that within the first episode. BUT THEN IT JUST RIPPED IT ALL AWAY! If everyone was able to remain in the avatar bodies they customized, it could've allowed for some very interesting characters and sub-plots, such as...

Someone playing as a kid because they want to live a second childhood. Nothing wrong with being a kid again, and this game could give them the chance to do it.

Someone wants to know what it's like to see the world through the eyes of the opposite gender; to see firsthand how certain people act around them.

Combine the first two, and we have someone who lost his little sister in an accident and now plays as an avatar in her exact image in remembrance.

Internet predators.

Dude, there could totally be a MASS MURDERER who is killing off other players, and he can't be arrested because he's in the game and can't go to an actual jail (and he can just teleport out of one if there was one in-game as well), nor can he be identified, because he's using a fake body! That would be so awesome and suspenseful!

I've been preparing to write a lot of doujinshi manga sometime next year. I'm thinking I should write one about a virtual reality MMORPG myself, with all of these ideas intact! I mean, come on! The concept of Sword Art Online is brilliant! BUT YOU SCREWED IT UP, ANIPLEX! DO IT AGAIN!
---~~~---
Oddly enough, I seem to be of the unpopular opinion that the Alfheim Online story arc was actually better. Not GREAT, but a major improvement over the first story. The game is more creative, the new plot is much more interesting AND clever, there are fewer/smaller (though not non-existent) plotholes, and Gary-Ste- I mean, Kirito, actually has character flaws now! Therefor, making him a much more interesting character! When I saw him get beaten easily by his "imouto", I knew his character had been tweaked to improvement. As for that first story arc, I thought the best part was the murder mystery sub-plot. This was because we got to learn a LOT more about the in-game mechanics and the writing was might tighter for some reason. It was more engaging, clever, and frankly, Kirito and Asuna didn't have anything to do with it! It would've been just fine without them, since those two didn't even do anything!
---~~~---
Alfheim Online's story has just a few plotholes. For one, WHY IS ASUNA STILL ALIVE!? She's dead! DEAD! Deadder than dead! It wasn't even an offscreen thing like "oh, well she could've survived..." NO! She was MURDERED onscreen! Her entire body was shattered; obliterated; completely disintegrated entirely! They don't even TRY to explain it! They just brush it under the rug in the hopes that you simply forgot. Oh, and even though she's been sleeping for more than two years, her body looks completely normal. Kirito looked all pale and frail, so why isn't Asuna?

All of Kirito's items have gotten their data corrupted in the transfer from Sword Art Online to Alfheim Online... except Yui's Heart. Pretty convenient. So, what's he gonna do? Is he gonna download her onto a flash drive, log out, upload her to his computer and use his magical, still-as-of-yet-unexplained hacking skills to unzip her files and bring her back? Nope! Instead, all he has to do is... is... POKE HER!? POOOOKE HEEEEER!?!?!?!?!? THAT'S IT!? This entire time, after two years and a couple months or so, he NEVER tried to fix her when it was THIS PISSIN' EASY!? He never tried poking her back in SAO!? Why should we even expect it to work in THIS game!?

Kirito is also supposed to have illusionary powers in this arc. However, the one time he actually uses them, he LEGITIMATELY transforms himself into a giant monster (and never bothers to use it again). He even explains that it WASN'T an illusion at all. He DID turn himself into a monster! But his class is supposed to only be able to cast ILLUSIONS. That was no illusion! The only time we ever even see an illusionary spell cast, it isn't even from the same class!

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Time to roast a sacred cow here:

Dragon Ball Z. Good Lord, what a boring show.

The plot moves at a glacial pace, with way too much pointless filler between fights. Even the fights themselves are tedious. The combatants spend most of the time floating in place while grimacing and yelling like they're suffering from a chronic case of constipation. What's worse, when one of them starts charging an ultimate-bullshit beam attack, the opponent does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to prevent it, instead opting to stay in place and stand there all idiotic and slack-jawed. Just fly up there and punch him already, dammit!

Go watch Team Four Star's Dragon Ball Z Abridged instead. It covers the main plot points more succinctly and is way more entertaining to boot.

Indeed.

This is one of the rare instances where the fan made material is funnier, better edited and better written than the professionally produced product.

What always turned me off about shows like DBZ was the ridiculous power creep. It's one of the worst sufferers of what I like to call "Anime Fighting Syndrome," where characters do things to each other that make no sense that they aren't dead. Like, for example, how Freeza manages to take a Spirit Bomb the size of Manhattan to the face and only lose a piece of his tail. It ruins the impact and puts a huge welt in the work's verisimilitude.

 

[Kevon Huggins]

I won't recommend Xam'd. It had a interesting plot line some genuine character development but the love triangle it painted was not bad , it just forces you to root for the girl who has very little impact on the plot and development of the mc and the ending just tries to hard to be tragic but if you going to kill someone dont bring them back because fuck logic.

 

[FPLOON]

On Another. Another, unlike Final Destination, has an undeniably incredibly well done atmosphere, where Final Destination is just a terrible horror movie with very predictable and gory deaths. Of course, Another has one of the shittiest endings after so much build up I've ever seen, nailing it down to "She let dozens kill each other because she didn't want to make him depressed even tho she'd have to eventually anywho, and he's probably already depressed from EVERYONE FUCKING TRYING TO KILL HIM"

Yeah... Despite the overall setup of Another being the main factor of me buying the series on DVD, the ending could have been done differently or, at least, less "shitty" and, to me, less "anti-climatic"... Then again, I feel like changing the ending would have created a "Final Destination"-type ending, which would have "killed" the whole series for me...

Spoiler below is of Anothers ending, and I have no idea how to insert text into that box.

Spoiler

I think the truly silly part about the ending is that she refused to tell him just because it was his Aunt. I mean, the fact she'd hesitate that much for such a simple thing, letting dozens of kids die and probably putting the kid through even more emotional trauma likely to cause PTSD down the line.

Then, how about if it went like this:

Spoiler: Almost rewiring half of the series right here...

Let's say during the time they both were talking at her place... She goes up and whispers something to him that makes his anime body curl up in shock... (or just have her still talking, but muted and/or having the creepy music playing instead or something...) What does she tell him? We spend the rest of that series trying to find out what he knows, which would have made the whole series probably as short as FLCL basically (only keep the homeroom teacher's suicidal death in there as the second-to-last death... because that was, to me, the second death-related scene that justifies how serious everyone's taking this curse in the first place...). Now, we come up to a scene where the dude meets up with his aunt at home later after the homeroom teacher's death or something and begins to hesitate trying to kill her... This is followed with flashback to that original conversation between him and the girl where we hear what was being whispered to him, so we understand why's he's even hesitating about killing his aunt...

Or, even while knowing, he takes too long to react fast enough... More deaths happen... He does tell the two guys he teams up with about it, but of course, one of them (you know which one) ends up spilling the beans, thus causing the whole class to go all "witch hunt" on the aunt/teacher assistant(?)... The dude does man up and kill her himself... Curse lifted... No one remembers a damn thing about the aunt/teacher assistant except the girl who told him about her because of her "ability" or something like that...

And yes, in both of those scenarios, the girl's the only one who would not hesitate to kill the aunt before the dude does... and probably does tell him that during the whole "whispering in his ear" part...

I don't know... Horror is never something I was good at writing for... (even if the pieces to create it were right in front of me...)

 

[gim73]

I wouldn't recommend Cardcaptor unless you watched it growing up, but man is it awesome.

Loved Cardcaptor when I was younger. I haven't watched it in a while but I can imagine it would be through rose tinted glasses if I did now.

I just watched it somewhat recently for the first time. No nostalgia whatsoever. It was fairly enjoyable.

There is however another series that must be addressed...
http://www.animelike.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Sword-Art-Online-Wallpaper.jpg
Remember the first boss? Remember how that one dudeguy died? Kirito tried to give him a healing potion. But the dudeguy's all like "Heck, no! I don't want yer damn potion! I'm just gonna sit here and die for no reason!" And then Kirito's like "Oh, no... This guy's counting on me to lead everyone to victory. I'm not sure if I can do it. Maybe I should explain to them how the boss was different in the beta version or... Wait... I've got it!" *turns to the other players* "I'M EVIL! I KILLED HIM! MUA HA HA HA HAA!!!"

Remember Yui's death? Yeah, that made no sense. First of all, she had amnesia. How the heck does a computer program get amnesia? Or fall unconscious? Oh, and she was just so focused on two out of the 10,000 players she was supposed to watch over. Out of EVERYONE in the entire game, she really wanted to meet Kirito and Asuna. "Why?" No explanation given beyond "Because... THE PLOT DEMANDS IT!" So then the game decides to delete her after she fights an extra boss, even though she's an immortal object (so why didn't Kayaba ever get deleted?) and she's a VITAL PIECE OF THE GAME'S CODE. Like... SERIOUSLY! That's the worst security system ever! That's the equivalent of AntiVirus software deleting your System 32 files! Yeah, she gets deleted because the game gets confused and thinks she's a forgeign object somehow, DESPITE HOW VITAL SHE IS TO THE CORE GAME'S CODING. And yet 10,000 foreign objects popped into the game on Day 1. Why weren't they deleted? But don't worry! Kirito has magically learned how to hack for some unexplained reason. And he's so good at it, he doesn't even need a monitor for the first several seconds! He doesn't even need a mouse! And he's managed to retrieve Yui's Heart, which contains her encrypted code. So she can still be saved! Asuna decides to wear the heart as a necklace, while she and Kirito promise they will never ever forget he- WHOOPS! Asuna is suddenly not wearing the necklace in the next episode (nor any others that follow) and Yui is never mentioned again!

Now for Asuna's death... It's $&#@%^ing STUPID! So, our heroes are on Floor 75 and they just killed the boss. Well, just another 25 to go! Man, I can't wait to see what Floor 100 looks like! COP-OUT! Suddenly it's revealed that Kayaba, the creator of the game, has been playing SAO with them all along! And it just so happens that if anyone can defeat him in a PvP duel, then everyone can go home... for some reason. Kirito agrees to the duel, on the condition that if he loses, Kayaba must recode the game so that Asuna can't kill herself. Asuna kills herself. Ok, ok, so he didn't have sufficient time to fix that. But we've seen PvP duels in the game before. And in none of them did the loser end up dying. What's more, SINCE WHEN CAN SOMEONE WHO ISN'T PARTICIPATING IN THE DUEL RECEIVE DAMAGE FROM IT!? Seriously! If she got hit, she should have received absolutely ZERO damage, because she wasn't part of the fight!

But enough about deaths. Let's talk about some of the other stupid crap this show tries to pull. At some point, we see that Kirito has somehow possessed regenerating health. REGENERATING HEALTH. And it regenerates so fast that he can now stand seven dudes into submission. Seriously, he just needs to STAND THERE and their attacks are useless, because his regenerating health kicks in faster than they can deal damage. And quite a lot of time has passed at this point. I don't care if he got to play the beta version for a while before launch. After THIS much time has passed, pretty much EVERYONE should have this. Especially since the beta testers have been giving out those books with all the information they've been gathering to ALL of the players. But it gets worse. As stupid as a deus ex machina as this is, what makes it even MORE stupid is that IT'S NEVER USED AGAIN. Seriously. That regenerating health sure would've come in handy in various other situations. Like when fighting Kayaba?

You seriously need to unlock a unique rare skill to be able to hold two pieces of bladed metal at the same time? This is about as stupid as the fact that you need to PURCHASE the ability to throw things while running in [Prototype]!

Oh, wow! Kirito has just gotten his own personal blacksmith! And she promises to help him out in the game as much as she can, sharpening and upgrading his weapons, forging new ones, and should keep coming back whenever he can and... she's just going to be dropped out of the plot entirely, isn't she? Yep. This show does that sort of thing a lot.

Yeah, yeah, nice try, Sword Art Online. Kayaba is clearly insane. He just tried to murder 10,000 people and he doesn't even have the foggiest idea why, nor does he even care. Stop trying to convince us that he's really a nice guy. Oh, and why is the ENTIRE GAME BEING DELETED NOW!?
---~~~---
Also, while this isn't really a plothole, it's still extremely stupid. The scene where everyone draws out those mirrors and their avatars are changed to look like their real-world bodies killed SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

I'm sure anyone who's familiar with the internet is also familiar with the idea of "Wow, I know this person so well, and yet I don't even have the foggiest idea what he/she looks like!" I know that feeling all-too-well. Sword Art Online was well on its way to doing just that within the first episode. BUT THEN IT JUST RIPPED IT ALL AWAY! If everyone was able to remain in the avatar bodies they customized, it could've allowed for some very interesting characters and sub-plots, such as...

Someone playing as a kid because they want to live a second childhood. Nothing wrong with being a kid again, and this game could give them the chance to do it.

Someone wants to know what it's like to see the world through the eyes of the opposite gender; to see firsthand how certain people act around them.

Combine the first two, and we have someone who lost his little sister in an accident and now plays as an avatar in her exact image in remembrance.

Internet predators.

Dude, there could totally be a MASS MURDERER who is killing off other players, and he can't be arrested because he's in the game and can't go to an actual jail (and he can just teleport out of one if there was one in-game as well), nor can he be identified, because he's using a fake body! That would be so awesome and suspenseful!

I've been preparing to write a lot of doujinshi manga sometime next year. I'm thinking I should write one about a virtual reality MMORPG myself, with all of these ideas intact! I mean, come on! The concept of Sword Art Online is brilliant! BUT YOU SCREWED IT UP, ANIPLEX! DO IT AGAIN!
---~~~---
Oddly enough, I seem to be of the unpopular opinion that the Alfheim Online story arc was actually better. Not GREAT, but a major improvement over the first story. The game is more creative, the new plot is much more interesting AND clever, there are fewer/smaller (though not non-existent) plotholes, and Gary-Ste- I mean, Kirito, actually has character flaws now! Therefor, making him a much more interesting character! When I saw him get beaten easily by his "imouto", I knew his character had been tweaked to improvement. As for that first story arc, I thought the best part was the murder mystery sub-plot. This was because we got to learn a LOT more about the in-game mechanics and the writing was might tighter for some reason. It was more engaging, clever, and frankly, Kirito and Asuna didn't have anything to do with it! It would've been just fine without them, since those two didn't even do anything!
---~~~---
Alfheim Online's story has just a few plotholes. For one, WHY IS ASUNA STILL ALIVE!? She's dead! DEAD! Deadder than dead! It wasn't even an offscreen thing like "oh, well she could've survived..." NO! She was MURDERED onscreen! Her entire body was shattered; obliterated; completely disintegrated entirely! They don't even TRY to explain it! They just brush it under the rug in the hopes that you simply forgot. Oh, and even though she's been sleeping for more than two years, her body looks completely normal. Kirito looked all pale and frail, so why isn't Asuna?

All of Kirito's items have gotten their data corrupted in the transfer from Sword Art Online to Alfheim Online... except Yui's Heart. Pretty convenient. So, what's he gonna do? Is he gonna download her onto a flash drive, log out, upload her to his computer and use his magical, still-as-of-yet-unexplained hacking skills to unzip her files and bring her back? Nope! Instead, all he has to do is... is... POKE HER!? POOOOKE HEEEEER!?!?!?!?!? THAT'S IT!? This entire time, after two years and a couple months or so, he NEVER tried to fix her when it was THIS PISSIN' EASY!? He never tried poking her back in SAO!? Why should we even expect it to work in THIS game!?

Kirito is also supposed to have illusionary powers in this arc. However, the one time he actually uses them, he LEGITIMATELY transforms himself into a giant monster (and never bothers to use it again). He even explains that it WASN'T an illusion at all. He DID turn himself into a monster! But his class is supposed to only be able to cast ILLUSIONS. That was no illusion! The only time we ever even see an illusionary spell cast, it isn't even from the same class!

I really don't see these things as plot-holes. The only thing that bugs me is the guy has the potion in his hand and doesn't drink it, even though he knows death in the game is real. Pretty much that guy commits suicide. He didn't really want to live in the game world, and you see that with a majority of the players.

Regenerating health IS a high level skill. It's not that much of a factor in the later fights where the bosses just start ONE SHOTTING everyone.

The timeline of the last few episodes of season 1 is rather short. After they meet Yui and lose her, they go to the boss fight on 76 and win the game. There is also some indication that there is something like 15 seconds between character death and the electric shock that fries the brain, due to that ressurrection item Kirito gets and gives to his friend (who is at that fight). After the game ends, a few months pass while Kirito and the others do physical recovery before season 2. While Yui was disabled in SAO, Alfheim has the same interface and Yui is able to get installed there because no program deletes her as an anomaly.

I found Sword Art Online to be worth watching and am looking forward to the next season, but not everyone loves anime that is appreciated by a large population. Some hate for hatings sake, and others just really don't like anime. There may be a litmus test for if you really don't like anime. If you say, "I hate Cowboy Bebop", it might be time to just give up watching anime all-together. As for the other highly popular anime that people have hated on in this thread, most are worth watching.

I might hate every child character introduced in One Piece, but the show is worth watching (except for the Davey-back fight).

I might hate all the filler arcs in Bleach and can't watch it anymore because they completely screwed the pacing by alternating seasons of content and filler, but that doesn't make the good episodes bad. I just pretend the series ends when they save Rukia from Soul Society.

As for Naruto, I just stop it at episode 130 or so, when he fights Sasuke. Sometimes I watch the filler episode where Sakura admits she's a worthless burden. That's the only naruto filler worth watching. Naruto filler is bad, naruto content, when it's not constantly flashing back, is usually decent.

Now actual BAD anime.... hmmm...

Violence Jack is pretty BAD. Bloody, offensive and ugly. But then again, there are quite a few very sexually explicit and violent anime out there. If you want to stay away from stuff that will melt your brain, there are several genres of anime you should avoid. Generally, anything with a tentacle monster or, well, ANY type of sexually enhanced monster.

Some people don't like Harem anime. Or reverse Harem. I find that there are too many of these to even mention.

You shouldn't watch anything with giant robots. Or man sized robots. Or planet sized robots.

Don't watch anything with maids. Or androids. Or android maids.

It's gotta be bad if they are fighting with swords. Or guns. And if they are all girls fighting and they have huge boobs despite being japanese, it's crap. Or if they have very small boobs and no personality it's crap.

You know, I think I might actually hate Cowboy bebop... I guess I'm done watching anime forever.

 

[Tanis]

Chrono Crusade:
It starts off kind of good, and then goes all 'grim dark' for no reason and ruins what was otherwise a fine series.

 

[Moderated]

Chaos;Head
It starts out really interesting, but it quickly just goes retarded. Whether it's twists that make no sense/have no impact, ignoring things and changing subject, unrealistic characters, it's just bad. It can't focus on anything, makes up random terms and then keeps repeating them, it's just a mess. Also the OP spoils some things.
I'm about to spoil one of it's legendary twists:
The murderer is the nurse you don't know the name that appeared during one hospital scene. This is treated like a huge twist, when you know nothing about her and don't care. She does appear in the OP though, looking evil.
There is a better twist, but it's spoiled by the op:

Spoiler

The detective's assistant is evil, for some reason. At least you know him and see him repeatedly. He even has a name, I just don't remember it

 

[FPLOON]

Another is not a horror anime

Now, that I will kindly disagree with considering the overall atmosphere the series creates for itself... It's a horror anime in the more traditional/metaphorical sense... (except the last few episodes, which are basically more "suspenseful" than "horror"...)

 

[Moderated]

Oh yeah, also school days is boring. Anyway, here are my replies to everyone:

Gonna get hated for this but Full Metal Alchemist it is just sooo melodramatic. There's nothing lighthearted about it, so you eventually just get numb to the endless barrage of drama.

to the point where someone cut up their own daughter for an experiment and all it got out of me was just a "meh"

The original or Brotherhood?

Welcome to the NHK -

There's a story in this what I assume was drug induced trip fest, but honestly I have no idea where it was. The first episode was confusin, the main character established himself as an annoyin fuck within the first 3 minutes, and the weird ass imagery was just...well weird as fuck. I couldn't sit through the first episode before I got out while my brain was still intact. Maybe I missed the greatest anime ever because of that, but honestly I'd rather keep my sanity instead.

Give it a couple more episodes, it gets pretty good.

Hellsing

Oh god that was shit. Good opening though.

I am going to go with Death Note. It starts off just fine but the last half of it felt like filler that was written but a completely different person.

Yeah, but the first half was great.

Tengan Toppa Gurrenn Lagann
Grotesquely overated, overhyped, overpromoted crap.
It mocks, mimmicks, and references other, much better anime constantly. But has zero peronsality of it's own.
One of the stupidest animes ever made!
Clannad
Boring, pathetic, trash that goes absolutely nowere.

I don't like you as a person.