Okey sorry for late reply of why? part
Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R1 and R2 total 50 episodes
Really good drawings, Incrediable plot and unbelievable plot twists. Once can immediately drawn in by the Story Line. And the ending... it is incomparably the best ending in any anime I have seen ( I think first anime which made me cry). I don't like mechas. But the story make me ignore them. It is an epic story of good vs evil, and man vs world.
Citation:
"This anime starts off with a war between Japan and Britannia. The Japanese are defeated and are now called Area 11. A young boy named Lelouch Lamperouge who is a pure genius despises his country Britannia, where he currently lives. He is an "ordinary" student who attends Ashford Academy as a part of the Student Council. He has a younger sister named Nunnally who is blind and crippled from seeing their mother die in front of her eyes. She wishes for a more peaceful, gentler world with no war/fights going on everyday and he aims to make her wish come true and will do whatever it takes to make it come true... He then obtains a power called the Geass from a girl named C.C and uses it to make that wish come to reality"
And if you are going to watch it, I recommend you to watch in Japanese not English dubbed version.
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I started watching only for the boobs, I wasn't expecting a story of this magnitude
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Great Teacher Onizuka
First thing first, i hate sappy love stories where the OP gets hitched to some big-plot girls. So ecchi shows like Rosario Vampire and To Love Ru always rubbed me the wrong way. I know they're done for the sake of comedy, but most of the time I'm just rolling my eyes when it happens, and in the end I lose interest in it.
So when the first chapter opens up with the MC doing panty shots, I was completely turned off. In fact, I delayed reading this for quite some time, reading other stuff (Trigun most notable). I'm glad to say that I gave it a second chance.
If you managed to look past the initial ecchi stuff, you'll find out that it's actually a pretty good series, with all the rave reviews being pretty much spot on. On the shallow side, having a OP MC kicking ass and taking names is always fun to watch, and bugger the consequences that would appear.
But that's not what this series is about. This series focuses on showing a teacher who literally goes all in to help his students. Sure the methods are unorthodox, and half the time logic does not apply, but it's a nice thought to read about a righteous teacher who looks out for his students. Let's just say, I was (100%) not expecting to become hooked onto it, to the point whereby I was wishing for more.
The man is indeed, as the name says, a Great Teacher.
(I've done my best to not spoil the series for any potential reader, so vagueness is a must. All I can say is, go experience it yourself)
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+1 for Madoka Magica - I hesitated to watch it for a long time because I thought "oh, no, not another Magical Girl anime that's just happy happy fun fun" and then got the exact opposite - definitively worth watching it, especially since it doesn't take too long with its 12 episodes.
Another Anime that really surprised me - especially the last episode was Cute High Earth Defence Club LOVE!, but I guess that Anime is just surprising all in all and just meant as a joke - but I liked it and had a lot to laugh. :D
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I couldn't finish SAO. It just got too sappy the moment it began focusing on Kirito and Asuna's relationship.
Like, I don't have anything against romance. I love romance. When it's interesting and entertaining. But this didn't interest me at all.
Kokoro Connect interested me though, and also kept me entertained. Same with the Monogatari series, Inou-Battle, Eureka Seven, Steins;gate, Madoka Magica, Girl Who Leapt Through Time and hell even Amagami, which was pretty much just light hearted fluff.
I guess it all comes down to personal taste. Just to be clear I'm not trying to criticize anyone for liking their favorite show, just stating my opinion on the show mentioned in the OP. I guess if I had anything positive to say about the show's romance is that the story doesn't end once (or even before) the couple gets together, which often happens in anime.
Now that I got that off my chest, hot damn was the Nanoha series surprisingly entertaining once it got to the end of it's first series. It started out as just a kids show about a young girl becoming a magical girl and making friends, but by the end she's kicking ass, making friends and making friends BY kicking their ass. In StrikerS she's become so powerful she's a captain in a militarized defense organisation. Her win against Quattro was brutal!
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Mine was a movie, Heaven's Lost Property the Movie: The Angeloid of Clockwork. It was a movie nights, we were like 10 people and only 4 people voted for 2 out of 5 movies which was Battle of Gods and Heaven's Lost Property. so i used my D4 to pick which movie. odds was one and even was the other. so it got to HLP. At first everyone was like WTF is this sh*t. but at the end i was almost to tears (kinda sad endings like most anime movies), along with every one else, it also got me intrested into the anime, which also surprised me. so yeah. oh and the why? It started with flying panties (not kidding) and ended with an intense fight where the protaginist/antaginist sacrifice herself for everything. so yeah
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Hunter X Hunter. Without a doubt. I'd consider it WAY better than other animes, TV shows, and movies out there. Its too in depth to be even compared to any other form of entertainment. Starts off really childish, but then becomes amazing after the first 4 episodes. I'd suggest you give it a shot. 148 episodes that you will not regret after watching.
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I summarized SAO in my reply, below. The posted question was "Which anime surprised you, and why?"
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No, I don't agree with you Khalaq. I believe that what you said, that SAO being a "examination of the human experience" is purely your interpretation (similar to how all those Eva fans deduct that Eva has religious symbolism in it - it doesn't).
When you try to analyze a work, you must always be aware of the author's ideas and purposes that were put into it, or we'll stray into the land of delusion. From the view of an anime viewer only, it was quite obvious to me that if that's how the series is supposed to be conducted, then Reki Kawahara never planned for it to go that far. Because if it was the author intention to create a deep, philosophical, thought-provoking work, he'd had put numerous hints, forwarded intricate questions, and trimmed off if not all, then most of the unnecessary. unrelated gimmicks that distract viewers from the problem at hand. (Also, these - they doesn't sell.)
There's a variety of work that asked the same questions, dominantly from the cyberpunk genre. The atmospheres are usually dark and menacing. Society is fucked up (mostly in a subtle way). Morality is in peril. Machines - our creation - push us down the test chamber, make us doubt the validity of our own definitions, values, beliefs, and existence. Now, you are prepared to get your brain twisted.
But was SAO good? I think it was. The actions and animation are great, and the music is awesome. The story is entertaining too, as I'm also an MMORPG fan.
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"Because if it was the author intention to create a deep, philosophical, thought-provoking work, he'd had put numerous hints, forwarded intricate questions, and trimmed off if not all, then most of the unnecessary. unrelated gimmicks that distract viewers from the problem at hand. (Also, these - they doesn't sell.)"
And yet the writer chose to do all of that. (I use the word "writer," here, because the original author does not necessarily have control over what is presented in the anime.)
The SAO series continues in the Japanese tradition of being formulaic, didactic, and (in many instances) contrived. The overall theme of SAO is exploration of the question, "What is the difference between the real you and the virtual you?" Each episode explores a different social and psychological aspect of this question. The writer of the anime has, in your own words, "put numerous hints, forwarded intricate questions, and trimmed off [most---if not all---unnecessary distractions.]" (sic) While the quality of the writing in the first season (Aincrad arc) was sufficiently polished to hide the philosophical skeleton of the series, it fell off in the second season (Alfheim arc), leaving the theme exposed. While the theme continued to be explored, the story was so paper thin as to be unpalatable. People like meat (story) on their bones (theme), and many viewers were left unsatisfied. Good art involves making the story so engaging that the audience barely notices the theme. The final episode of season two was so blatant as to actually have Kazuto say, "He is the same in real life...!" (sic)
Still, you are correct when you point out that what really matters is the author's intention. As a writer, I know very well how things can be "read into" what I write by critics and academics. I took the time to do some research, and the theme I mentioned above is the main focus of Reki Kawahara's work. One thing you will learn about writers is that they tend to keep telling "the same story," over and over, until they feel they have "made their point."
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similar to how all those Eva fans deduct that Eva has religious symbolism in it - it doesn't
But Eva HAD religious symbolism in it, and I'm not saying this just because I'm a fan of it. Maybe, as you said, it could be interpreted in different manners by the viewer but the anime actually used some religious references in it and this is a fact.
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i would have to go with Honey and Clover
Most of the stuff i watch has either violence or horror in it, so i wasn't all that interested in an anime for women, it didn't take long for this to become one of my favorite anime series.
Its the perfect little slice of life and came at the right moment of my life.
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Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, the founders of Christianity and Buddhism, are living together as roommates in a Tokyo apartment while taking a vacation on Earth. The comedy often involves jokes about Christianity, Buddhism, and all things related, as well as the main characters' attempts to hide their identities and understand modern society in Japan.
Wouldn't have thought to ever see something that fun, with religious figures being
involved - its well drawn/animated, has lots of subtle and not so subtle jokes. 7.5/10
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I hate anime so i would say Angel's Egg by Oshii was a big surprise for me. The movie feels more like animated Tarkovsky with some new age bullshit and i actually quite adore this.
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For me that would be Steins;Gate.
As for why.. well it's basically time travel done right (which is a really hard subject to write a story about) I don't know how else to describe it... It is the one anime that will always be on the top of my list. I could also recommend the VN of the anime because it's way more detailed in the story and makes things even better!
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Every now and then, the topic of anime recommendations comes up. People's tastes vary, of course, but there are a lot of SG users who watch a lot of anime, so long lists of excellent titles are sure to follow. What we don't usually delve too deeply into is why certain titles are worth watching. I thought I'd broach that subject.
If you could pick only one, which anime (movie or series) surprised you most with its quality? Whether it was the story that traveled in unexpected ways, the characters which were unexpectedly real, or the message which was unexpectedly deep, this anime surprised you by being on an entirely different level. It not only entertained you, it broadened your understanding of what the medium could achieve. Tell us which anime surprised you, but more importantly, tell us why.
For me, it was Sword Art Online. It wasn't until the last, frigging episode that I finally realized I'd been missing the point entirely.
I had heard other people recommend it, and I had read the blurb for it, but it had sat on my "to watch" list for a long time. When I had finally gotten around to viewing it, it seemed to be pretty much what I expected. "Yet another action-oriented anime.* Guy fights stuff; guy gets stronger; guy becomes a hero. Oh, and throw in some females for the romance angle. It was OK for what it was, but the pacing was a bit uneven for an action series, and the second season wandered all over the place. "They seem to have turned this into a joke," I thought. "How many cliches and fetishes can they stuff into the remaining episodes?" I pretty much wrote off the entire series as a 'sellout,' and continued watching only to get to the end of it. I sure am glad I did, though, because it turns out I was totally wrong. Judging by the feedback of some others, I wasn't the only one, either.
SAO is not an action series. Nor is it a fantasy series, either. To be honest, it's not even 'entertainment.' Sword Art Online is Art, in all its uncompromisingly critical---and often uncomfortable---examination of the human experience. SAO is a deep, penetrating look at the meaning and depth of interpersonal relationships through the lens of online gaming. What does it mean to play a game? Where is the line between who you are online and who you are in real life? How does virtual reality affect the real relationships we forge between ourselves and other people? Does it even matter? To put it even more bluntly, what is the difference between the real you and the person you are online? Is there one?
These are questions psychologists have been discussing ever since the birth of the internet. Before that, a written letter was considered an expression of who you were, an extension of your personality. With the introduction of internet anonymity, however, all of that went out the window. SAO explores this subject in depth, exploring the entire breadth of human relationships. This anime is so much more than 'entertainment.' I highly recommend you check it out.
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