Best anime of the noughties
Jan. 7th, 2010 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat_sochoThere's a thread in ADTRW going right now challenging goons to list their favorite anime released between 2000-2009, but I know a lot of the anime fans on my f-list aren't goons and I want to see what people think. Anime Detour peeps are not excused just because you people have no time to watch anime. ;)
Babbling about magical girls, ducks, slaughter and awesomeness behind the cut.
Best Anime of the Noughties
1. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
It's a grim, very noir combination of police war, bureaucratic infighting at its most deadly, and a Japanese romance. I think it's one of the most overlooked anime movies ever, probably because most anime fans don't know shit about Japanese history and don't get the references.
2. Azumanga Daioh
This is what Peanuts would have been if Charles Schulz was actually funny and droppedmore acid. One of the best slice-of-life/junior high school anime series ever, with some great, great characters. The guy responsible for Azumanga Daioh is currently doing a manga cy the name of Yotsuba&! which you absolutely should be reading. Go. Now. You can finish this post later.
3. Oh My Goddess! Movie
I hadn't seen very much of the OMG OVAs when I saw this, and it still blew me away. Just an amazing fusion of fine art, beautiful music, and great storytelling, a wonderful example of what the anime industry can accomplish when it wants to. Yowza.
4. Read or Die OVA
One of the first DVDs I bought when I was getting into anime and still one of the best things out there. Paper magic is the most awesome thing ever.
5. Yawara
The fashionable judo girl finally comes to America, thanks to AnimEigo. I think this may be my favorite sports anime ever, since all the characters are so much larger than life but still vastly entertaining for being such outrageous stereotypes. Sayaka Honami is *this* close to replacing Kodachi Kuno as my favorite crazy rich girl in anime. :)
If I'd Finished Them, I Might Have Rated Them Higher
Ayashi no Ceres
This is one twisted series, revolving around the incarnation of gods/spirits in teenagers and the desires of those gods for revenge on to mortals who trapped them on Earth. Love triangles and other polygons, aggravated by violence and incest. Brrr.
Ai Yori Aoshi
My favorite soap opera ever. Avoids the stereotypical cliches of most harem comedies by 1) not being a comedy and 2) not having a complete shithead for a main character. Otherwise, it sort of acts as a harem comedy with the main character living in a mansion with his fabulously rich fiance (who is pretending to be his landlady because her family insists) her tutor/bodyguard (who's kinda cute in a hardcore way) a couple of classmates, one of whom is ridiculously over-endowed and clumsy besides, and the other of which is your stereotypical drunken American.
Noir
I want to see the rest of this so badly. Two female assassins team up to find out the truth about the younger one's past, and then it starts getting weird.
Full Metal Panic!/Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
Great fish-out-of-water series about a UN soldier assigned to play bodyguard for a high school girl who has Secrets Man was Not Meant To Know locked up in her head. Since our hero has spent all his life in combat, his reflexes are completely wrong for Japanese high school, but when the class gets hijacked on the way to Okinawa he comes into his own. Fumoffu, the second season, is a lot less serious but more romantic as the heroine begins to think this guy might be her type after all.
Princess Tutu
Sailor Moon, Utena, and a duck walk into a private dancing school...and yeah, it's kind of like that, you know? Another series I want to see the rest of, though I know it doesn't end happily for our heroine.
RahXephon
This looked like Neon Genesis Evangelion might have become if Hideki Anno hadn't gone utterly batshit crazy.
Check this out!
Jin-Roh, hands down. I don't think the hobby is well served by catering exclusively to the teenagers, or by pretending adult anime is the same thing as porn, and movies like this are exactly what older fans should be watching IMAO.
Most Overlooked
Princess Tutu. Need more Duck love in the fandom.
What I'm Looking Forward To
Having more money or more local friends with anime I can borrow...oh, you mean series. I want to see the rest of the series noted above (to say nothing of FMA) and get a look at Rozen Maiden, desu. I also hear Gurren Lagann is the bomb. Most of all, I want to see the anime version of this.
Babbling about magical girls, ducks, slaughter and awesomeness behind the cut.
Best Anime of the Noughties
1. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
It's a grim, very noir combination of police war, bureaucratic infighting at its most deadly, and a Japanese romance. I think it's one of the most overlooked anime movies ever, probably because most anime fans don't know shit about Japanese history and don't get the references.
2. Azumanga Daioh
This is what Peanuts would have been if Charles Schulz was actually funny and dropped
3. Oh My Goddess! Movie
I hadn't seen very much of the OMG OVAs when I saw this, and it still blew me away. Just an amazing fusion of fine art, beautiful music, and great storytelling, a wonderful example of what the anime industry can accomplish when it wants to. Yowza.
4. Read or Die OVA
One of the first DVDs I bought when I was getting into anime and still one of the best things out there. Paper magic is the most awesome thing ever.
5. Yawara
The fashionable judo girl finally comes to America, thanks to AnimEigo. I think this may be my favorite sports anime ever, since all the characters are so much larger than life but still vastly entertaining for being such outrageous stereotypes. Sayaka Honami is *this* close to replacing Kodachi Kuno as my favorite crazy rich girl in anime. :)
If I'd Finished Them, I Might Have Rated Them Higher
Ayashi no Ceres
This is one twisted series, revolving around the incarnation of gods/spirits in teenagers and the desires of those gods for revenge on to mortals who trapped them on Earth. Love triangles and other polygons, aggravated by violence and incest. Brrr.
Ai Yori Aoshi
My favorite soap opera ever. Avoids the stereotypical cliches of most harem comedies by 1) not being a comedy and 2) not having a complete shithead for a main character. Otherwise, it sort of acts as a harem comedy with the main character living in a mansion with his fabulously rich fiance (who is pretending to be his landlady because her family insists) her tutor/bodyguard (who's kinda cute in a hardcore way) a couple of classmates, one of whom is ridiculously over-endowed and clumsy besides, and the other of which is your stereotypical drunken American.
Noir
I want to see the rest of this so badly. Two female assassins team up to find out the truth about the younger one's past, and then it starts getting weird.
Full Metal Panic!/Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
Great fish-out-of-water series about a UN soldier assigned to play bodyguard for a high school girl who has Secrets Man was Not Meant To Know locked up in her head. Since our hero has spent all his life in combat, his reflexes are completely wrong for Japanese high school, but when the class gets hijacked on the way to Okinawa he comes into his own. Fumoffu, the second season, is a lot less serious but more romantic as the heroine begins to think this guy might be her type after all.
Princess Tutu
Sailor Moon, Utena, and a duck walk into a private dancing school...and yeah, it's kind of like that, you know? Another series I want to see the rest of, though I know it doesn't end happily for our heroine.
RahXephon
This looked like Neon Genesis Evangelion might have become if Hideki Anno hadn't gone utterly batshit crazy.
Check this out!
Jin-Roh, hands down. I don't think the hobby is well served by catering exclusively to the teenagers, or by pretending adult anime is the same thing as porn, and movies like this are exactly what older fans should be watching IMAO.
Most Overlooked
Princess Tutu. Need more Duck love in the fandom.
What I'm Looking Forward To
Having more money or more local friends with anime I can borrow...oh, you mean series. I want to see the rest of the series noted above (to say nothing of FMA) and get a look at Rozen Maiden, desu. I also hear Gurren Lagann is the bomb. Most of all, I want to see the anime version of this.
