Last year, I did two back-to-back posts on my Top 10 Favorite Moments From The Star Wars Saga and SW Expanded Universe. And since then, I’ve wanted to do more lists like that, and since I watch a lot of anime for the sake of this blog, I’ll do my (at-present) Top 10 Favorite Anime.
10. Noir
What It’s About: Two female assassins in Paris attempt to unravel a centuries-old religious conspiracy and their ties to one of the assassins, a sixteen-year-old girl with instinctive fighting skills and no memory.
Why I Love It: Besides the intriguing and subtext-laden relationship between the two main characters, I love the beauty of the show itself. It treats Europe with a lot of dignity, paints a beautiful picture of Paris, and has some pretty cool action scenes made better by the “Salva Nos” theme music. The show isn’t afraid to slip in a few educated references either, so at least it respects the intelligence of its audience. It’s both good for the mind and good for the eye.
What It’s About: An OVA series remaking the original Hellsing anime, which details the three-way war between the vampire-hunting Hellsing Organization, the Catholic Church’s Iscariot brigade, and the Nazi revivalist Millennium group. Also, the powerful Alucard turns young Seras Victoria into a vampire and helps her and the Hellsing Organization fight other vampires and slaughter minions. A lot. In lovingly rendered gore and brutality.
Why I Love It: For the most part, it’s the animation of this series matched with the raw charisma of its voice acting (at least as far as its English dub goes). You have the bloodthirsty Alucard voiced by Crispin Freeman, an equally good match in the Major (voiced by Gildart Jackson), and lots of epic scenes of Catholic priests quoting Scripture as they slaughter Nazi vampires (and with a sentence like that, who wouldn’t love it?).
What It’s About: A college dropout and shut-in tries to come to terms with his bleak reality through the help of a seventeen-year-old girl, gets into some antics with his old friend from high school, and struggles in reconnecting with society and the outside world. And occasionally hallucinates a conspiracy that’s holding him back.
Why I Love It: This is one of the first slice of life anime I ever watched, which took some getting used to, but was well worth it. I really sympathized with Saito’s plight and liked how he slowly matured over the course of the series. I like a lot of the atmosphere in this show, shifting from comical to tragic in less than a heartbeat. And ultimately, even its ending is a bit strange but enjoyable all the same. No big dramatic resolution, but a series of small and meaningful changes for everyone involved.
7. Samurai Champloo
What It’s About: An ex-samurai, a part-time bandit, and a young girl travel across Edo-period Japan in search of destiny, trying to survive and succeed in a world where samurai and their prestigious way of life have all but died out. The story is told is an anachronistic fashion, allowing for such modern things like rapping, graffiti art, and gangsta fashion to exist alongside the traditional scenery.
Why I Love It: Besides the fact that it was made by Shinichiro Watanabe (the same guy who made Cowboy Bebop), the show is well-animated, with vibrant colors, quick-paced action scenes, and some clever blending of historical and modern images and styles. The show is also nicely blends some comical and tragic elements, with more emphasis on drama toward the end as we get into Fuu’s heritage and the power held by the Shogunate. Also, the fact that Steven Blum was the English voice actor for Mugen sold me on the series right away.
6. Black Lagoon
What It’s About: Both this show and its sequel (Black Lagoon: Second Barrage) detail the adventures of four thieves and gangsters in the fictional island of Roanapur. An ex-salaryman lives among the criminal element of East Asia, trying to maintain his integrity and his sanity despite his surroundings and the very sinister people his crew encounters during their travels.
Why I Love It: The entire show is an affectionate homage to the crazed action films of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, full of epic gun battles, comedic psychopaths, and non-stop swearing (Revy, as voiced by Maryke Hendrikse in the English dub, provides most of the above just by herself). But beyond the devil-may-care attitude of the show, there is also a lot of serious thought given to the price people have to pay for power and success, especially when it means leaving behind the “light” and entering the darkness of corruption and war.
5. Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex
What It’s About: In future Tokyo, a team of government security agents attempt to curb acts of terrorism and cyberbrain-hacking by an elusive figure known as the Laughing Man, while attempting to tie him to a conspiracy between government officials and medical corporations.
Why I Love It: I got into GITS: SAC because, at the time, I had finished reading Neuromancer by William Gibson and was really getting hooked on the whole cyberpunk genre (which has become a huge inspiration for my writing). Essentially, what Neuromancer started for me, GITS delivered on. It gave me a very complete world of the future, looking at so many issues regarding cybernetics, data security, and the evolution of the Internet and society. It also delved into some fantastic philosophical issues about identity and social progress, which I like in anime when it’s done well.
4. Death Note
What It’s About: A young Japanese student receives a supernatural notebook that allows him to kill people by writing down their names in it. He begins a campaign to cleanse the world of evil and become its benevolent god, which turns into a fierce duel with the world’s greatest detective, an enigmatic character named L.
Why I Love It: Death Note is very dark, very bloody, and very good. It’s rich for its ethical questions about power and the nature of justice, its haunting score and Gothic visuals, and its brilliant struggle between Light and L for supremacy. I also liked Brad Swaile‘s voice acting for Light Yagami and the entire character of L, although not as much toward the end. This series both horrified and enchanted me, and still does to this day.
3. Fooly Cooly
What It’s About: A young kid in Mabuse thinks his life is boring and the adults in his life are morons. Then he gets run over by a madwoman on a Vespa, hit in the head by her electric guitar, and now has to deal with both her and the giant robots that emerge from his forehead to terrorize the city.
Why I Love It: For six episodes, this show is packed to the brim with insanity. From guitars that double as weapons to giant robots, from a J-pop soundtrack to epic baseball games and high school conversations, this show is all about coming of age in the most colorful, anarchistic, and melodramatic way possible. It’s a coming of age story on steroids–coated with raw sugar. Not to mention, the animation is fantastic and the characters are likable in their own quirky, somewhat pathetic way.
2. Cowboy Bebop
What It’s About: In the future, a trio of bounty hunters, their resident kid genius, and a sentient dog explore the solar system in search of hot new bounties and easy money. However, they all have to come to terms with their past sooner or later, and for some, the ending is bittersweet.
Why I Love It: Besides the fact that it’s another Shinichiro Watanabe product and features Steven Blum as the English voice actor for the lead character, this show was the very first anime series I ever watched (thanks to my college roommate and WordPress colleague, DJ McNaughty). The show is a brilliant blend of science fiction, Westerns, and jazz, giving us slapstick comedy with some very dark storylines involving Spike’s past. It’s a series I can watch over and over again and never once get tired because it’s just so damn cool.
1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
What It’s About: Two brothers study the science of alchemy in the hopes of restoring their original bodies after a failed attempt to resurrect their mother. However, their journey brings them to the heart of a terrible conspiracy that puts the entire country of Amestris in peril, as the brothers and their friends must find new ways to fight an enemy older than their own civilization.
Why I Love It: This show is just brilliant. The characters are not just fulfilling, but there’s also a large number of characters and they all have something to contribute. The use of alchemy–and science in general–is both clever and consistent, meaning there’s less chance of plot holes and random contrivances for the benefit of the heroes. The story is epic in scale and delivers a monumental impact by the end. The themes of redemption and atonement are powerful and handled very well over the course of the series, and by the end, you’ll feel proud to be a human being, no matter how small we might seem as individuals. It’s a big story, a rich story, and a wonderful tale of hope in the face of adversity.
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I originally wanted to split this list between my favorite anime and manga series, but in all honesty, I haven’t read a lot of manga (although Fruits Basket would totally be on that list). Needless to say, as time goes on, I will hopefully one day be able to compile a “Top 10 Favorite Manga Series” list. But I hope this list was satisfactory enough and I’d be more than happy to hear what kind of anime my readers enjoy, too.
Mr. Rhapsodist 