What is your all time favourite anime?

[Mike Laserbeam]

Impossible question.

I want to give an answer... But if I say Clannad, Baccano! might think I don't love it...

 

[itsausernamewhatofit]

Code Geass, no question. I could not stop crying at the end of that series, though I'm one of the fans who is still hopeful for R3.

Keep that hope alive, it's coming (I hope)

 

[SanguineScale]

This show's good too, if you can get past the whole weird, ecchi concept of the entire thing.

Spoiler

Also, for some weird reason, I love hearing Japanese people curse in English. And this show does not disappoint in that regard

Plus, the art style's kinda refreshing, in a way.

 

[itsausernamewhatofit]

OT: Gintama. It is simply amazing and everyone should watch it.

I read the manga religiously (my favorite manga of all time) but haven't gotten to the anime.

 

[rhodriharris]

Probably Last Exile.I realy enjoyed the story and general premiss plus it's steampunk the value of that can not be understated.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Clannad was a tragedy (Don't say it wasn't)

It's a story about the importance of family and about moving on. It isn't a tragedy. If it was a tragedy then Okazaki wouldn't have gone about redeeming himself in the last five episodes, as a tragedy is a story that shows a fall from grace due to the actions of the protagonist, who is usually of high status. If anything, Clannad is a story about redemption, not tragedy.

I have a problem with this sentiment and I always have. If Clannad was never supposed to be a tragedy the writers are very bad at their job. People saying that holds just about as much credibility as someone saying Human Centipede is supposed to be a feel good comedy.

Okazaki doesn't want to be happy, which is why all of his actions have no positive effect on his life whether it's wearing himself out to fix up the violin girl's yard, or helping Fuuko, giving up on his promotion as soon as his dad got arrested, or most of all marrying a girl who everyone knew was going to die.
When I watched the series Tomoya's character was deep enough for me to believe these actions stemmed from his own self-destructiveness. Especially that one part of After Story after Nagisa gets pregnant and Sanae pretty much strait up tells him that She's not going to survive the pregnancy, and if he can't live with that he should probably say something (wink wink nudge nudge). If you expect me to believe that he wasn't deliberately trying to self district for the entirety of the series than his character becomes shallow stupid and unlikeable. He's can't allow himself to be happy for some reason, but he's still a good guy at heart so he's decided that he's going to spend his life making his friends happy personal costs be dammed. It was in those last episodes after he met Ushio that he decided that he was going to try to be happy. But he built up such a self destructive back catalog of bad karma that he couldn't out run it by one last minute decision. Ushio was the result of his self destructiveness. She had to die for him to fully be able to move on and he couldn't accept that so he died trying to save her. He learned what he did, he grew as a person but in the end he remained true to himself, his self destructing self.And the last episode is the story rewarding his last ditch decision to be happy by removing all the experience lead to him to his decision in the first place. He went back in time and got his reward before he did the thing he's getting rewarded for. So they effectively retconed the most significant moment of character growth I've ever seen. That's why the end sucks, it doesn't suck because Tomoya gets to be happy.


And secondly if Clannad was supposed to be about redemption they would have showed him fall into his depression rather than skip strait to him being accustomed to his depression.

this was also driven home by the "In Another World" episodes that showed that he would have been much happier in the long run if he had fallen for one of the girls who was more physically and emotionally stable.)

Except that isn't the purpose of the Another World OVA stories at all. The Another World stories are adaptations of arcs from the Visual Novel where the romancing of the girl in the arc is important to plot of the arc and therefore wouldn't fit into Nagisa's arc (unlike Kotomi's and Fuko's, where romance doesn't play a major part and isn't a factor in the progression of the arc and thus can be included in the main story while retaining Nagisa's role as the main heroine). It also further shows us the existence of multiple worlds and the collection of the orbs of light, which are both important plot devices in both the visual novel and the anime.

I never actually read the Manga, so let me get this strait. Those episodes are actually canonical in the Manga? There is actually part of the main story where he falls for Kyou and Tomoyo? I never got that impression from watching the series.

Clannad never set up to be a tragedy, it lacks all the typical archetypes of a tragedy. It is clearly a redemption story, our protagonist starts off as a delinquent and the story is about him rebuilding his life and learning the importance of love, family, friendship and change. It is not a tragedy, not at all.

Yes Clannad is not an archetypical tragedy. that's why it's so good. But if you're trying to convince me Clannad isn't a tragedy why not also try and convince me that Star Wars isn't a SiFi film.

 

[I am only a man]

Cowboy Bebop- The characters, stories, music, voice acting (english dub is one of the best ever in any anime imo)Love it.

FLCL- weirdest/awesomest coming of age story ever

Dead Leaves- stylistically speaking, basically all the action and insanity of FLCL in about 70 minutes... x10

Karas- This is hard to explain but it's really quite awesome

Afro Smaurai- Beautiful fight sequences, but violent as hell(not sure if the anime commmunity considers it anime, but it's made by Gonzo.)

And pretty much anything by Studio Ghibli.

 

[Jonluw]

Clannad, FLCL or Welcome to the NHK, I think.
TTGL gets a runner-up spot.

Also: I hate threads like this because I keep hearing of tons of anime I want to watch but can never get around to.

 

[BrownGaijin]

My personal favorite is a little nugget called El Hazard:

Spoiler

Then there's the original Ghost in the Shell:

Spoiler: What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face...

 

[Jonluw]

I've had this conversation before and it went on for a long time.
I think the best analogy I came up with was imagine what it would be like if there was an extra scene at the end of Romeo and Juliet where they had a completely out of left field time reversal back into an alternate history where Romeo received Juliet's letter on time and the plan went off with out a hitch and they lived happily ever after. That wouldn't be better, that wouldn't even be good. Some thing are better if they're tragic and Clannad is one of them.

Personally, I liked the ending very much.

Spoiler: Spoilers, because I would feel like such a dick if I accidentally ruined Clannad for someone

It made a great point of Tomoya's growth as a character. Throughout the entire last five years he had been depressed, feeling guilty for the death of Nagisa, thinking everything would have been better if he had never met her in the first place. Then, when Ushio(&Tomoya?) dies, he gets a chance to change history. He was able to make it so that he never met Nagisa, but then he realizes how much he loves her and Ushio. He realizes that he would have talked to Nagisa that day, even if he knew that it would lead to her death. His depressed self would have never talked to her, in order to avoid the pain; but in the last months he had spent with Ushio, he had grown as a character and changed his attitude to that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. He realized that he wanted to be with Nagisa in spite of all the pain it would bring, both to him and others, and for that he was rewarded with a new chance.

Or at least that's my two cents.

 

[gunmun]

Black Lagoon, hands down

 

[Irridium]

Haibane Renmei

Just such a beautiful anime. I actually started tearing up during certain scenes.

 

[theguiltyone]

Current favorite has to go to D.Gray Man.

All time favorite is harder. I started with Sailor Moon, so that's got nostalgia working int its favor...but I think as far as an anime goes that I could happily watch over and over and over again without getting sick of it?

Goes to an American Anime-Style Cartoon. Sorry, Japan.

 

[Kakujin]

Chrono Crusade, if I have to pick just one

 

[YYZed]

GOD TIER:
The World God Only Knows
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Detective Conan

GOOD TIER:
FLCL
Paranoia Agent
FMA
Cowboy Bebop

BAD TIER:
EVA (so over-rated)
in all likelihood P4A (but i'm still gonna watch each and every second of it )

 

[w00tage]

Of all time? Black Lagoon. Because of shit like this:

<youtube=ZTQSBm5A_FI>

Revy is badass incarnate. She could scare a Space Marine.

i saw a few episodes of this at a con once and it looked really good but i heard they never finished the series

It's got two full seasons completed (I own them) and the 5th OVA is out (raw, in translation now). So the video has caught up to all of the published manga that I have seen.

 

[Roganzar]

Outlaw Star or Louie the Rune Soldier

 

[SausageAssassin]

It really is a difficult question. I have a favorite for each genre but if i was pushed for an answer is would probably go with Code Geass.

 

[NiceLord]

Fushigi Yugi or Inuyasha

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Because a classic is a classic is a classic.
EDIT: I highly recommend this anime for everyone. It's still going with over 600 episodes and over 12 movies.

Yes, now if the US copyright holders didn't attack every fansub they put up and just release those last 10-15 seasons, it would probably be my favorite too. I had to work my ass off to get ~100 questionably legal episodes out of southeast Asia on DVD.

Anyways, I can't say no to Hayate no Gotoku (Hayate the Combat Butler).