No Right Answer: Best/Worst Anime Ever

[Ishal]

This was pretty entertaining.

I really can't remember if DBZ was the first thing that got me into anime. It was definitely part of it, but I think there were other shows that contributed more that were airing on Toonami. Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, and Kenshin being a few.

I don't know if it's the worst. I'm sure there are many things out there that are worse than DBZ. But DBZ does have some of the things I dislike most about anime. Awful pacing, nothing happening for episodes at a time, worthless side characters who contribute nothing. OTT dialogue that sounds awful even when it's dubbed. The list goes on. It's tropey, like so much else. And if you don't care for the tropes, you're gonna have a bad time. Luckily I discovered that lots of anime used the same tropes, and so stopped myself from becoming an anime fan.

DBZ had it's moments, it's just most of them were bad rather than good.

 

[Auron225]

It sure as hell isn't the best! I wouldn't call it the worst either though.

This is why I find it hard to compare Naruto or Bleach to any other anime with a sane duration. There can be so much goodness in something that seemingly never ends, but that means... that it never f*cking ends!

I've personally never watched it. I watched the abridged series for a while, and was astounded at how even in an abridged series it can take so damn long to finish Namek. I couldn't bring myself to watch it.

 

[Super Cyborg]

when i saw the title of best/worst anime ever i assumed they would talk about the best anime ever which is Bleach and the worst anime ever, Attack on titan.. but dragon ball z? it's not very good from what little I've seen.. maybe you can call it average at best

In what bizarro world do we exist where a shitshow like Bleach can even be considered to be anything but mediocre shounen dreck?

The same world that shippers in Naruto were completely depressed that their shipping pairs didn't happen, and the 100's of thousands of word length fanfics mean nothing now. Also, just that this world has shippers in general.

I would argue about best and worst anime, but the ones I would most likely put up are because I read the Manga, and often times the anime form can change opinions (according to many, One Piece animation is so bad at times that it can really ruin the show). If I was to say best and worst of anime shows I've watched, I would say Clannad (both seasons) as my favorite, and Ah! My Goddess being the bane of my existence.

 

[ExileNZ]

Personally I only saw a couple of eps here and there before actually getting into the story - and I got into the story around the beginning of the Cell Games.

For me, that's also the best place to end the story. The Bojack movie made a nice little epilogue, with Gohan realising that if he really wanted to defend anybody he was going to have to step up his game and take fighting seriously, fully assuming Goku's mantle.

 

[PapaGreg096]

when i saw the title of best/worst anime ever i assumed they would talk about the best anime ever which is Bleach and the worst anime ever, Attack on titan.. but dragon ball z? it's not very good from what little I've seen.. maybe you can call it average at best

Friend you need to watch more anime, because there are anime that literal crushes Bleach in terms of everything

 

[Conan_Edogawa]

"Is DBZ the best or worst anime ever?"

yes.

watch DBZ abridged instead, because it's funnier, faster, and, in my opinion, even manages to fix parts that kinda stunk about DBZ itself.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

Dragon Ball Z, the best...

in a universe where Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann exists

does not compute

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't really understand what you are trying to say. It feels like you are not contradicting me while trying to do so.

That would be weird, onsidering I just agreed with the poster you were disagreeing with. That would mean that you agree with the person that you've been contradicting.

...I do say "some American cartoons", if I'm not wrong that is a a way of saying "not all". I also do say "usually" which, as far as I know, that there exist exemptions. I do believe my English is good enough to use both those correctly, which would mean you didn't really read my post. Because yet again, you are not contradicting me while not actually doing so.

But again, these statements are worthless, which is the exact wording I just used. I tackled your exact wording, even.

I sort of get the feeling you're "not understanding" intentionally. But, for a moment, I will entertain the notion that you are actually very confused about your own argument or something.

The vast majority of cartoon shows in the US last a season or two. This is actually fairly equivalent to the run times of anime. For big name, popular shows the target is 56, considered the minimum for syndication packages. But these shows are almost always the equivalent of Shounen anime in Japan, so any comparison to the show length discounting shounen anime is dishonest (you do this later). Shounen anime tends to the long-running side, which parallels well with those western cartoons you're trying to compare to the whole of Japanese animation.

No, a fair parallel is these long-running shows the long-running equivalent.

You don't know Shakespeare very well it seems...

We hang around regularly.

Anyway, in anime this occur much more often then in manga, true.

You mean, the subject in question here?

It also occur much more often in dubbed anime then in the original. Take DBZ, some of the things the dub did is just stupid. In one episode more then a third of the dialogue would be added and if not added, changed in weird ways.

Yeah, before I made that statement, I watched some DBZ clips on YouTube in their original Japanese. And while you might insist on it being a dubbing issue, my collection is full of anime that do this in the original language.

Even then I will still hold that there is a difference in how western culture and eastern culture tell a story.

You can hold to that all you want. Your examples are still bull.

A story that know how to breath and doesn't depend on a lots of fights to move forward is something quite good. There are plenty manga and anime that isn't shounen. People should check it out.

Well, that totally wasn't condescending.

But again, you seem to be comparing all anime to the equivalent of Shounen to reach this conclusion. That's dishonest.

 

[Fox12]

It was neither.

It had funny and likable characters, a serviceable plot that could border on decent from time to time, and, balls to the wall, some of the best action ever portrayed on a television screen, period. For a five year old kid, that's enough, especially when he's shown something like this:

for the first time. Shakespeare it was not, but anyone who claims that DBZ lacked a certain narrative flair is a liar. It was certainly something new to a generation of 90's kids who were used to Disney Channel, and it showed us a new way to tell stories. People died, or were maimed, or were injured. Even if the affects weren't long lasting, it was a wake up call. It also served as an introduction into a medium that none of us had ever seen before, but which many of us would come to love. Afterwards, many of us would continue to explore the genre, and find great intellectual material for an older audience, most of which was superior to DBZ in almost every way.

It doesn't have the soul of Miyazaki, the brain of Satoshi Kon, or the internal meditation of Anno, but it certainly has its place in anime. It's the best in the world at what it set out to do, and it deserves to be respected for that.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Couldn't we just settle that it was "ok" or "average" anime at the most?

Maybe a little less than average (there was so much wasted time in the filler . . .). It's certainly not anywhere close to great, but worst? Oh, gods, no. There is a hell of a lot of anime that are worse. Way worse.

 

[Nurb]

I've never seen a full episode of DBZ, but every clip I've seen involves shakey faced people smirking and insulting each other for 20 minutes, SCREAMING ALL THE TIME, and moves that can be seen from space but don't do anything to anyone involved.

I've never seen a reason to actually watch it.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

It's not the best and it's not the worst, by a large margin in both cases.



An argument could be made it's one of the most important anime, however. It is responsible for millions of people getting into anime more deeply than people normally get into tv programs. It transformed people from normal people into anime fans more than most other anime have. Each generation has one such series and for us 20somethings or older DBZ is likely it while for the younger audiences there's stuff like Naruto, One Piece or even Attack on Titan for current era teenagers.


Also, the original Dragonball wasn't all jokes. It didn't get serious just in Z. Just watch the Daimaou Piccolo ark. It just had a larger ratio of jokes to serious stuff than Z does (Z barely has any jokes) and it has a lot more sexual humor.

 

[Norithics]

If you've never seen anime, it's the best.
If you have, however, it's the worst.

 

[Ikajo]

snip

I don't have the energy to argue about this, the winter darkness is sapping me, so I will just condense it down.

I, very literately, didn't understand what you were trying to say. Probably because my English skills isn't perfect, some subtleties do go me by at times. And maybe you weren't expressing yourself properly, the combination doesn't sound promising. Trying to argue with someone you don't understand properly is quite difficult wouldn't you say. Oh, and just so you know. English isn't my native language so I do have proper reason for somewhat lacking skills.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Well... That was... Weird...

Gotta give a guy some credit though for managing to have such a heated argument... With... Himself... XD

I mean, that takes some doing...

Arguing with another person is easy. But arguing with yourself?

Anyway... Dragonball Z... That show annoys me. Like Naruto. In fact, what annoys me about both is basically the same thing. They draw things out SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO long at some point you just wish they'd get over it and continue with whatever was actually going on...

 

[Souplex]

It's the most Japanime Japanime.
It has everything that's good and bad about Japanime cranked up to 11.
If you like Japanime it's good. If you don't it's bad.

 

[47_Ronin]

At first it was awesome and then it became awful. What happened in between? You grew up (more or less). Most Anime, much like DB(Z), is drawn out and tedious for one simple reason: It has s been produced by/for kids and young adults(of all ages). You know who else agrees about that? Most of the grown ups in Japan. This has nothing to do with Japanese culture in general.

 

[Torque2100]

Honestly, I have no trouble with DBZ. I never watched it as a kid because I've always felt that Akira Toriyama's art style is incredibly ugly but it's just something that I don't care much about either way.

Now the series I would argue is the worst anime series ever is Neon Genesis Evangelion. I hate this show. I hate this show. I hate hate hate Hate HAATE this show. I hate the crappy writing. I hate the one-note characters. I hate the assumption that if you just make somebody a really horrible person, or completely insane that it is an acceptable substitute for real, serious character development. I hate the borrowing of names and symbols from mythology with no real attempt to understand the meaning behind those names and symbols. Most of all, I hate Eva for birthing the mishapen tumor that would one day metastasize into Moe fan culture.

The corrupting influence of Eva on just about every Anime series or movie since is part of what made me lose interest in Anime. It literally ruined an entire genre for me just when I was really starting to appreciate the good stuff (Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Armitage III, ETC).

 

[Something Amyss]

Trying to argue with someone you don't understand properly is quite difficult wouldn't you say.

I wouldn't know. But if you do, and you find that to be the case, perhaps you shouldn't do it. Perhaps you also shouldn't try and instruct a native English speaker on said linguistic subtleties.

I don't actually believe language is the issue here. I pegged you as a non-native speaker based on your diction. I'm familiar with linguistics issues and gaps and am often happy to help people with them. But the issues with your posts don't seem to be based on linguistics failures (save, perhaps for the definitions of anime) unless your native tongue involves saying the exact opposite of what is intended.

Further, your arguments on Western animation appear rooted in a lack of understanding of either the material or the fundamentals of comparison, neither of which should have anything to do with either your native language or mine. I know of no culture where the language makes such comparisons valid, though perhaps you could educate me on that front.

You don't speak English as a primary language? Fine. I didn't nitpick your diction or grammar anyway. But don't use it as a dodge for not knowing what you're on about.

 

[Something Amyss]

Arguing with another person is easy. But arguing with yourself?

Bah! I do it all the time!

It's the most Japanime Japanime.
It has everything that's good and bad about Japanime cranked up to 11.
If you like Japanime it's good. If you don't it's bad.

I'm confused. By that logic I have to either like it or stop liking Japanime!