Only takes shows I've seen into consideration, so maybe one day I'll do another, more comprehensive one. Make it a collaborative effort maybe?
Whatever, it was fun to make this afternoon.
Cowboy Bebop is Banime while Kaguya sama and shiteXfamily are worth watching
:tito-laugh:
A leftist reading of Cowboy Bebop is that it's a story about atomized existence amongst the disenfranchised under capitalism, produced in the 90s after history ended with libshit world domination. It's S tier kino animation and plot wise, Spike is also a Literally Me character.
spy x family is good
also cowboy bebop is pretty good politically, but i do not think the 'plot' is good. vicious makes every episode he appears in worse, the shows only really good as an episodic thing. many of the individual episodes have great plots though, i'm not trying to shit on it too much
also i think banime means it's aimed at anime skeptics, and cowboy bebop is an infamously good gateway anime
It's very episodic, bounty of the week. The weak episodes are okay, but the strong episodes are some of the best stories I've ever encountered. And it runs through lots of different genres. There's some horror, some drama, some romance, some police procedural. Nerds of a certain age consider the sound track one of the best albums of the 90s, if not our lives. Like the music alone is a major artistic achievement and worth listening to.
absolutely. it's a great show, it looks great, the ost is incredible, it's got some really amazing episodes of television there. i just think it's worth putting it in context, and i don't think it's true that the plot (which generally refers to the overarching narrative) is "S tier kino"
The Banime category is for "I hate anime and weeb tropes, but I am willing to give something a shot"
Very well I thought you meant it's B tier as opposed to stuff that is "worth watching"
See kids world peace is possible
And Dirty Pair is doubly hilarious to us Star Trek TNG fans. The TNG writers were themselves fans, so there’s a ton of subtle references throughout the show. For example, in the Star Trek universe there is canonically an element “keiyurium” which is, as one might expect, highly explosive.
Dirty Pair has references to TOS in it!
It's quality Sci-Fi, but the authors being Star Trek fans makes it even better. They probably went :soypoint-1: :soypoint-2: over seeing the show they worked on referenced in TNG.
The art director, Micheal Okuda is of Japanese descenet if the name didn't tell you and was an 80s weeb. That's why there's an Akira class starship and a a bu.ch of other little names from anime here and there which was unusual as hell for a late 80s early 90s American Sci fi shoe
Oh, yeah, Akira should definitely be on this list. As a story it's iconic, as art the hand drawn, 24 fps frame rate in important scenes is beautiful.
Red Line is another one that's worth seeing as art. It's a wild labor of love personal project that took like seven years to finish. The animation is just incredible. Highly stylized, creative, energetic, and gorgeous.
Check the CW on both; Akira is very violent and emotionally heavy, and Red Line has some cheesecake nudity and exaggerated, cartoon violence.
As of a few years ago the whole thing was on Youtube. The only thing I can even think of to compare it too is Speed Racer with the energy of Gurren Lagan.
I know speed racer and not the other thing. I'm not really that anime
gurren lagann is a mech show that ends with the main characters fighting on a level where galaxies are exploding and they're firing omnidimensional missiles to hit their enemies in the past present and future, and they almost destroy the universe with the explosion that comes from the final battle. the whole thing is animated in a very stylized and exaggerated way, it's pretty fun if that's what you're into
so redline is a car race with gadgets and stuff (like speed racer) except hyperkinetic and absurdly stylized on a level that puts gurren lagann to shame. if you watch the trailer you'll be able to tell if it's for you or not, the whole thing looks like that. it can be exhausting if you aren't in the mood, but it can also be a blast
So, a deconstruction of a deconstruction? Is it a reconstruction or something else?
My two favorite anime are Mushishi and 3 gatsu no lion.
Mushishi is a wonderfully directed episodic show about traveling witch doctor who cures ills caused by spirits
3 gatsu no lion is about a 16 year old chess prodigy trying to live on his own that struggles with depression caused by dysfunction in his adoptive family, and the loss of his bio family. Realistic depiction of overcoming depression by letting good people in. I absolutely adore it. It's funny, cute, artsy, with great character development.
3-gatsu is the GOAT, I wish I could convince my friends to watch it. The best I've gotten through is explaining that it portrays the emotions and thoughts of the characters in a very visual way.
Pitch it to them by saying that 3gnl is what your adolescence would've been like if you got the support you needed. Tell them that watching the show is like watching a friend heal.
Or just say that it does the best job of blending drama and slice of life out of any show.
:cat-trans:
After commenting, I was thinking yesterday about how I always called it a drama and that didn't feel right and had thought "Dramatic slice of life" fit perfectly. Came back now and saw your observation line up perfectly lol.
Mushi-shi is great. It's very chill and reflective. You can just sit back and relax and enjoy the MC wandering around being helpful.
my favorite anime of all time is revolutionary girl utena, and mobile suit gundam is also great. i'll recommend 2 anime not on here to check out
hellsing ultimate is about vampires hunting down vampires, with massive amounts of nazi's being brutally killed. only 10 episodes, though they're all like 50 minutes as opposed to standard tv anime length. content warning for sexual assault, both threatened and enacted
keep your hands of eizouken is a great slice of life about an anime club that's made with so much love for animation as an art form. it's got a unique artstyle and setting and it's just really neat. only 12 episodes
You gotta it's so fucking good. Over throwing a fascist society against insurmountable odds just feels good
My critique is it's basically forgiving the IJA/IJN for their crimes. It's a great story, great characters, great world building. But once you've watched it you should consider it in the lens of post-war Japanese nationalist politics.
this is a fair critique, but i do think the 'doing a coup against the fascists and (implicitly, it's their stated goal but we don't see it happen) setting up a war crimes tribunal that judges themselves as well as others' is something that would be cool and good irl
not to say that it makes it not apologia, i just think it is more complex than that
That's totally fair. I just want to put the idea in people's heads. I think the show fits in to an important and interesting place in post-war Japanese culture, and the way Japan reckons with, and doesn't reckon with, it's actions during the war.
It really is great, though, anyone interested in urban magic, alternate history, occultism/alchemy/esotericism, martial arts, diesel punk, or inter-war clothing should check it out!
it's absolutely something that needs to be brought up in any leftist discussion of the series, so i'm glad you did
It goes harder into the horror aspects that appear in the early parts of brotherhood while brotherhood kinda steps away from that and goes for its grand narrative. 2003 isn't as good a story but it's way cooler
I'm going to hate myself for asking, but what's reddity with Dr. Stone? I haven't watched it, but I hate myself enough to figure out why.
Also, seconding Spy X Family, even if it does the whole "west good east bad" thing, but I don't think that's entirely the point of the anime and it can easily be switched around with no interference to the story.
In Spy x Family, Ostania has some of the aesthetics of East Germany, but it's not really supposed to be the GDR. The show's politics are basically limited to "war bad".
No Akira or Metropolis? These are some of the best anime movies.
Also, no Osamu Tekuza? Most of his mangas suffers from ignorance and racist caricatures towards native americans, africans and some asian people due to the American influence on Japanese culture and media. But the anime adaptations are usually quite innocent and enjoyable.
Akira is good - I would have placed it had I more space. I haven't gotten around to watching Metropolis yet.
As for Tezuka, I've read some of his manga but the only anime I've seen of his works are Belladonna of Sadness (psychosexual 70s arthouse about witchcraft and morality - good movie, but hard to recommend) and Rain Boy (1983 - pretty good but is a kids' tale in its core and I kinda forgot I watched it until now)
If you want comedy, I recommend Konosuba. It is a little raunchy at times, but it's pretty funny.
I've seen it. It takes a while to get good IMO but eventually it does.
It's basically a spiritual successor to Slayers, if it were an isekai and more NSFW.
It's funny, just don't ask how old Megumin is. For some godawful :libertarian-alert: reason they took three or four years off of the age of all the characters in the anime compared to the origin web novel.
Back in the before times, when media was encoded on clay tablets, large stone plinths, and VHS tapes, my parents used to rent Slayers for us at the Blockbuster. It was one of probably like three animes that were officially released in the US in the early 90s. I remember lots of jokes about Lena being borderline evil and blowing up half the country side with ridiculously over powered spells.
Good chart.
If you liked Lain, you might like Paranoia Agent.
I also always recommend Naoki Urasawa's Monster, and I have a soft spot for Gankutsuou (even though its pretty goofy).
Cool, been on a bit of an anime kick lately so nice to have recommendations broken down like this. Looking at your list I think you would really like Odd Taxi, it felt really unique I haven't seen anything else quite like it. Quite funny and kinda cute with really good story telling, Whole thing is only 13 episodes.
Yeah, I started it back when it first aired but got distracted by other stuff and never got around to finishing it, which is why I haven't included it here.
The antrophomorphic animal thing put me off, but the story was good.
The antrophomorphic animal thing put me off, but the story was good.
Don't know how to say anything without giving spoilers but you shouldn't let that aspect of it turn you off.
Major end of show spoiler
Seriously this will ruin one of the coolest parts of the show.
The world isn't athropomorphic at all, the main character is dealing with basically a psychotic break and maybe a tbi and just sees everything around him that way.
I dont like furry stuff at all but there are some good anime with animal chars like Odd Taxi or Aggretsuko or Beaststars with some caveats.
I would personally recommend: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - probably the most I've ever laughed at anime, a high-school rom-com with added jokes about manga industry. Each character is fantastic, they are hillarious. Hataraku Maō-sama! - reverse-isekai, Devil from the other world ends up in contemporary Japan and has to work in McDonalds. Great art, great characters, very funny, and most importantly - finally, an anime about actual working people. The hero sent to stop the MC works as tech support, and they have to schedule their fights so it doesn't interfere with their work.
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
I've actually watched the first two episodes today. It's quite good and the MC gives off major aroace vibes, which is an uncommon plus.
I just finished Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-Kun.
I kinda loved it. It's like Hinamatsuri, where a great show won't get a second season is it?
Ah well, Manga time it is.
As for The Devil is a Part Timer: E1 was kinda mid, I thought, but by the second episode it improves a lot and actually introduces an interesting plot.
I've only included shows I've watched, as I mentioned and none of these are on my list 😔
And Dr. Stone is undoubtedly Reddit , even if it is not the worst show to exist.
