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The Masterpieces of Anime

Johan Liebert

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Johan Liebert Newbie

Johan Liebert

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I'm sure a lot of us anime lovers have watched a few series that we thought were stunning and amazing in many ways. And there are also series that some of us may have watched and not enjoyed as much, but appreciate and admit their impact on the industry as a whole and their good qualities. I'd like to talk about all of this. I hope this makes sense; I'm not great at explaining things. XD I'll throw out there a few anime series that I consider to be "masterpieces":

 

Monster

Cowboy Bebop

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Fullmetal Alchemist (either series)

Now and Then, Here and There

Berserk

Serial Experiments Lain

Hunter X Hunter (2011 series)

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

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Susie Newbie

Susie

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I can agree on Evangelion and Lain but I cant agree on Madoka Magica or Cowboy Bebop. Madoka Magica has some good ideas in it but its execution is insanely flawed and Bebop while I did like it a lot I always failed to see how its such an essential classic, dont get me wrong its a great show but I dont get why its considered to be "the best".

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Susie Newbie

Susie

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That's a funny way to spell Gurren Lagann :^)

Gurren Lagann was just meant to be a kick to the more fun side of mecha, I dont get how that counts as a masterpiece, it was my introduction to mecha but I feel that there are better ones that people push aside.

 

Also, Steins;Gate. And while it's not everyone's kind of show, definitely Mushishi.

Loved Steins;Gate but I found Mushi-Shi boring, good concept but it felt like it was going nowhere.

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Susie Newbie

Susie

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Well, Mushishi doesn't have an overarching plotline or anything, the main character just travels around interacting with people and Mushi.

Yeah thats my problem with it, it gets very boring to see nothing but a guy interacting with people and weird creatures.

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Johan Liebert Newbie

Johan Liebert

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With Fullmetal Alchemist I disagree on both series, I'd only consider Brotherhood a masterpiece.

 

Also, Steins;Gate. And while it's not everyone's kind of show, definitely Mushishi.

Brotherhood loses points for me because it rushed over everything with Hughes, and that hurt it even more because everything surrounding him was more important in Brotherhood's story. I was hesitant to include Mushishi and Steins;Gate, despite that I really enjoyed both series.

That's a funny way to spell Gurren Lagann :^)

In my opinion, despite that it was good, I felt that Gurren Lagann is very overrated. To me, it was an 8/10 series. I was never fond of the characters, the soundtrack is good, the story was great, and I loved the animation/art-style, but I never saw it as being a masterpiece. I should re-watch it though. Evangelion was included more so for its impact on the industry as a whole.

Haikyuu's definitely a masterpiece for me. I fail to find any flaws in this anime (other than not having ufotable-quality animation, but who many shows have that?).

In terms of sports anime series, I've only finished the original Hajime no Ippo. I considered including it in my topic post, but I think my personal love to for the series would out-shadow my critique of it.

Would it be wrong to say One Punch Man is a masterpiece? (It is to me!!)

As for Neon Genesis... It's a classic, had a huge impact... But I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, per say. I dunno...

One-Punch Man really impressed me so far, but I can't really give my opinion on that until it gets a second season.

Monogatari.

Texhnolyze.

I can't wait to start Texholyze. I'm going into it without knowing anything about it, though. It's the same thing with when I get to Denno Coil and Noein, two other science fiction series I'm getting to soon.

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Mr. Hyde Newbie

Mr. Hyde

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I can't believe the chances that Cory in the House had taken would go unnoticed here....so disheartening

 

In all seriousness, I think the Monogatari Series is quite the masterpiece...so far.  Once it's complete it should earn a spot in the halls of animoo fame.   

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Fusion X. Denver Newbie

Fusion X. Denver

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I find masterpieces amongst anime to be mostly subjective and I'd go so far to say the actual number of masterpieces are little to none.

But that's no fun discussion-wise and there are lots of amazing anime, so I'll set that notion aside.

 

Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood of course. If I had to pick one answer out of anything I've watched, it'd probably be Brotherhood.

Cowboy Bebop

I've heard amazing things about Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

I'm not a huge fan of Evangelion, but it is so seriously rooted in anime's history that it might stand as a masterpiece on impact alone. 

Monster

Apparently Gintama's hot stuff too, though I heard the first 50 episodes are a bit tough to get through.

Studio Ghibli movies go without saying.

And any Mamoru Hosoda or Satoshi Kon movies are pretty solid as well.

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Shradow Newbie

Shradow

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As much as I'm a fan of One Piece, I have to disagree that it's a masterpiece if we're talking strictly anime. Toei's adaption of the manga is honestly quite awful. The animation is typically lazy and the pacing of adapting chapters to episodes is atrocious.

 

The manga is, of course, fantastic. That goes without saying.

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Fusion X. Denver Newbie

Fusion X. Denver

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As much as I'm a fan of One Piece, I have to disagree that it's a masterpiece if we're talking strictly anime. Toei's adaption of the manga is honestly quite awful. The animation is typically lazy and the pacing of adapting chapters to episodes is atrocious.

 

The manga is, of course, fantastic. That goes without saying.

Actually, I'll have to agree with you here on those points and take that back. I was thinking of the story itself and how Oda constructed this universe and cast of characters so well with incredible imagination and attention to detail. But I'm not a fan of Toei and their approach to One Piece either. 

At least they didn't mess up the debut of that one power-up.

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Johan Liebert Newbie

Johan Liebert

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I forgot to bring up Boogiepop Phantom; I think it's worth mentioning when talking about masterpieces. Oh, and Welcome to the N.H.K. is a series that I love but I'm not sure if I'd consider it a masterpiece. In terms of anime movies, Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro are masterpieces, in my opinion. I didn't quite enjoy Spirited Away as much as most people did. I think that if Parasyte's writing was better and the characters were more interesting, I'd consider it a masterpiece. I wanted to also bring up Code Geass and Death Note, because in relation to this topic, I don't know what to say about those two series. They're both slightly overrated, but they earn a majority of the high praise they get. Death Note, at least for the beginning of the series, executed thriller aspects so well. I also wanted to bring up Eden of the East; I think that if it had more episodes, I would consider it to be pretty up there. Also, Clannad: After Story is worth a mention as well, but I couldn't say what I think about it because I haven't watched it in years. And maybe Yu Yu Hakusho should be mentioned as well. And possibly Fate/Zero. As for anime series that I haven't finished yet, I've heard that Trigun, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Noein, From the New World, Baccano!, Future Boy Conan, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Haibane Renmei, Mononoke (I'm really excited to start watching this one), JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Elfen Lied are masterpieces from various resources. If anyone could give their thoughts on those series in relation to this topic WITHOUT spoilers, that'd be nice. Oh, and some of the Gundam series are supposedly masterpices as well.

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Nicο Newbie

Nicο

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Also, Clannad: After Story is worth a mention as well, but I couldn't say what I think about it because I haven't watched it in years.

No. I think it's pointless to mention After Story without the first season for this kind of thing (because you really need to know it to bond with Tomoya and Nagisa, among other things that would be helpful), and most people don't think the first season is nearly as sad as I do. Maybe because they really didn't focuse quite so much on that aspect, including some of the most memorable comedic scenes I've ever seen in anime for a bit more of mood whiplash I probably felt compared to others, idk.

 

From what I heard, could have also had better writing had they decided to include the one route they didn't adapt, [spoiler=therefore would have probably]taken one of the "harem members" out of the equation for good, although compared to ones actually in the harem genre, it wasn't so bad, it definitely had more than 2 girls liking Tomoya at one time.

 

Though it seems to be the most notable make-you-feel adapted from a visual novel, so maybe it deserves more definite mention than I'm making it out to be, but I still think it doesn't make sense to just mention After Story, when the whole point is kind of severely mitigated if so.

 

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

I've only seen the more recent TV stuff, and only halfway into Stardust Crusaders, but here we go. Oh, also from what I've heard the older stuff really isn't worth mentioning for this anyway. So it takes very old shounen tropes and goes absolutely nuts playing them straight. You'd think it was a parody with how David Production is handling it, but then you see that it's based on an incredibly old manga in the first place. That's where I think it shines. Using something you wouldn't think would be such a hit in this day and age, and proving that it can be truly successful, and damn straight it is. It's nothing too special writing-wise but it still works sooooo well. 

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