Overated/underated anime's

Originally Posted by Yarbles

However, the most underrated anime over here in America is by far Hokuto No Ken(Fist of the North Star). Just about every martial arts-based anime/manga is somehow descended from Hokuto No Ken, even if it's just a little. Of course, Hokuto No Ken owes something to Mad Max. Great story, great characters, gand by far the most grotesque and interesting fights ever. There's also a prequel manga called Fist of the Blue Sky.

Amen. The recent OVA of Shin Hokuto no Ken was pretty badass to see a more updated version of Kenshiro. Now we're blessed with a new movie every year til 2009 I believe.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Another underated is gotta be crest of the stars and series. The story may be boring for some but the character development was great as long as the music

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Overrated? Bleach, Naruto, DBZ, yadda yadda. To me, if a series spans more than a typical season - 24 to 26 episodes - without making much actual progression (insert Soul Society/random ____ Country filler/'Are they still on Namek?' lines here) then it's probably filler. And filler doesn't taste good when you've had the real stuff (content).

Underrated...well, I'm an old-school guy. The first thing that comes to mind is Maison Ikkoku. It's a college-type romance, sure, but it's not lovey-dovey to the point where you wonder why they haven't just hooked up yet. It's got some length to it - if I'm correct, I have at least episodes in the 90s on CDs - but it's not filler-crazy, either.

I was speaking idiomatically.

There have been enough posts about the overrated anime (*ahem* Naruto), so let's talk about the good anime that just doesn't have enough publicity:

Mahoraba. I have met few people who have watched this series, although it is one of the best anime I have ever seen. However, many may disagree with me, since that is just my opinion.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I think Gantz is overrated or at least highly exaggerated. I think Infinite Ryvius is underrated, but maybe it's too obscure. The same can be said about Gungrave, although people know the game.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Erisu Kimu

I think Gantz is overrated or at least highly exaggerated. I think Infinite Ryvius is underrated, but maybe it's too obscure. The same can be said about Gungrave, although people know the game.

Are you talking about the Gantz anime or manga? If it's the anime then I don't know how you can say it's overrated when so many of the manga fans bash it to death. I actually liked the anime and found it very engaging. Only real negative were the final few episodes which just seemed super rushed.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Foshi

Are you talking about the Gantz anime or manga? If it's the anime then I don't know how you can say it's overrated when so many of the manga fans bash it to death. I actually liked the anime and found it very engaging. Only real negative were the final few episodes which just seemed super rushed.

I was talking about the Anime. The reason why I think it's overrated/exaggerated is because I've come across a lot of people on forums and boards talking about it like it was amazing. I just don't see the greatness in it as so many others do. The concept is cool. It's this 'game' after you die where you must collect 100 points in order to return to the real world. But, it just really doesn't go anywhere beyond that. All I see are a bunch of characters dying and not much progress as far as surviving goes. It just gets boring, because it's just more of the same old thing IMO.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Overrated: Naruto and Bleach, their are good, but i feel that the two series got something that "i already saw in other series"

Underrated: Monster, its a absolutely masterpiece, i cant understand why is so underground

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I think gundam is a bit overrated, I really couldnt understand why people fuss all about it, maybe it's only me who dont enjoy mecha-themed anime other than macross though.

Dragon ball and naruto are obviously overrated. Dragon Ball manga is quite good, but the anime is just too much and the dragon ball GT is not even supervised by Toriyama. And about naruto... sorry to say, everytime I read the new volume of the manga, I lost in confusion about who is who and what is the main plot in the manga.

Jing, King of Bandit (Yuichi Kumakura) is very underrated. This is probably the best surrealistic manga you could find out there. Jing consists of two part, the first part spawned of 7 volumes which character design is similar with Toriyama's. The 2nd part, the Bottle, consists of (so far) 8 volumes and each volume is just very amazing, I praise the mangaka to think something very original and surrealistic. I have all the manga, and either the story is too hard or the manga translation at my country is bad. I feel the conversation in the manga is quite bizarre and not really flowing.

But the worst of all, people underrate Fujisaki Ryu's works (Hoshin Engi, Waq-Waq). I find it's a bit sad since his works are truly refreshing and out of main stream (He is hated by fans for killing a lot of characters in the manga). I enjoy every drop of Fujisaki's works, I hope he will be more popular in the future.

Other underrated mangas: anything done by Urasawa, probably because his genre mainly seinen. 20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Monster are even better than Da Vinci Code.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I totally, totally agree with you, eriol, on both Jing and Houshin Engi. It kinda pisses me off that HE gets published in the Japanese Shonen Jump, but never got translated over here, even though they did do the anime.

The manga's sweet though -- I got a chance to read a scanslation.

I've never read the Jing manga, but the anime is superb. Great voice acting, hilarious characters, and a cool story to boot. Only thing that botherd me about the anime was the utter lack of a true introduction and true conclusion. The anime is basically the middle 13 episodes.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I wonder if you can really call stuff like Naruto or DBZ overrated (all the time). Sure, there are hordes of narutards and bleachtards and ssj4gogetatrunks, but there are also (seemingly) equal amounts of anti-fans. It may just be that the anti-fans are more vocal in their opinions, but I just really don't see much unadulterated praise for these series.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Sakabadger

I wonder if you can really call stuff like Naruto or DBZ overrated (all the time). Sure, there are hordes of narutards and bleachtards and ssj4gogetatrunks, but there are also (seemingly) equal amounts of anti-fans. It may just be that the anti-fans are more vocal in their opinions, but I just really don't see much unadulterated praise for these series.

Then, I'll praise them for giving me and incredible childhood full of thought. DB, DBZ, YYH, and RK filled my mind with wonderous thoughts and kept me anticipating the next episode on Toonami. At the time, I loved all of these shows and thought nothing could be better. I'm older, wiser, more intellectually independant now and can't watch shows like this anymore; Naruto, and Bleach are just boring, repetitative, and filler controlled. But, for the kids these shows are great.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

At least in America, I think Legend of the Galactic Heroes is supremely underrated. I am consistently surprised to meet people who haven't heard of it, even though it was a pretty big deal in Japan (to my knowledge, it hasn't been officially localized, which is probably a large contributing factor). To anyone who hasn't seen it: I know the name sounds cheesy, but Legend is one of the most sophisticated and spectacular things I've ever seen, and I cannot recommend it enough.

Like many others, I am also quite partial to Monster, and I find it strange that a show with such intelligent writing and excellent production values manages to elude the mainstream. It seems to be picking up popularity as of late, though, and I suspect it won't remain strictly "underground" forever.

Undoubtedly, I think that Evangelion is the most overrated anime. The creators of the show itself acknowledge that all the religious "imagery" and literary references that were squeezed into its production were done so arbitrarily and for no reason other than to make the show seem cool. Really, the show is a great big bowl of bullshit--nothing about it is intended to actually mean anything. It's a dysfunctional exercise in postmodern deconstruction, and its supposed depth is simply pretense inflated to bursting point.

How ya doing, buddy?

A very underated anime is called Yamato Takeru, it was on a channel called TVB about 10 years ago. Its fantastic if your into mecha and robots.

heres a clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trypG8RwvKY

P.S. Dam youtube removed all the episodes the other day.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Pretty much EVERYTHING Hayato Miyazaki has done since Kiki's Delivery Service.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Taisai

Pretty much EVERYTHING Hayato Miyazaki has done since Kiki's Delivery Service.

... is overrated? Underrated?

What?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Taisai

Pretty much EVERYTHING Hayato Miyazaki has done since Kiki's Delivery Service.

Howl's Moving Castle was the shit though.

I've found that stuff becomes overrated the second they start selling its merchandise at Hot Topic. Incidentally, Death Note is one of my favorite animes. It's just starting to cross into overrated territory, though. Rather than jump on the DBZ/Bleach/Naruto/EVA bandwagon, I'm also gonna go with Akira. I will acknowledge that the movie is a classic, and I own it myself, but it's certainly not the ULTIMATE anime.

For underrated stuff, I almost never hear about Gungrave. Shitty as the game is, the anime has one of the best stories I've seen. They took characters that had little to no background in the game and fleshed them out so well you actually gave a shit about the guy who turns into a motorcycle with fists. (Glad they changed that for the show.) Grave vs Bunji stands as one of my all-time favorite anime fights for this very reason.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Sakabadger

... is overrated? Underrated?

What?

Of course, overrated.

I really don't understand why, the more his anime gets boring, the more it fares well. Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke attracted a vast number of viewers (and now Ponyo is outpacing all of them), while Nausicaä and Laputa not.

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As John Lassenter once said regarding Miyazaki, he enjoys having alot of quiet moments for his films. Whereas American animated movies tend to have more action going on in just about every shot. It was an amusing interview cause Lassenter goes saying this is how directors in US movies do "Oh jeez, quick keep the action going, they're reaching for their pop corn , we gotta stop them! Keep the entertainment and energy high! But no, Miyazaki san celebrates the quiet moments in film."

I never felt any of his movies was boring, and I've been watching them since I was like, 3 years old. Maybe it's just not your cup of tea, but that doesn't make it less beautiful and enchanting.

My overated animes is the same old DBZ, Naruto and Bleach crowd, but I also think alot of good or decent anime ends up getting more hyped or bad exposure then it needs. Haruhi Suzumiya, I loved it, the concept was kinda new and interesting, but goddamit, try explaining to someone who hasn't actually SEEN the show about how it goes into philosophy, bit of religion or psychology in certain parts of the show, when they would go to anime sites and see Haruhi and the girls dressed in Bunny Suits and various lolita or Eroge outfits.

Death Note was great as well, but now we can probably get all these hot topic shirts and everyone who hasn't seen the show will assume L is some emo punk, when he's just a mad genius who probably never slept, hence the eyelids.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Miyazaki films have a charm about them that isn't emulated anywhere else :[ Boring to some, beautiful works of art to others. Kairi pretty much nailed it with "beautiful" and "enchanting". Almost all of his anime are in alternate worlds, and they all feel incredibly alive. Plus, I love how he abhors CG usage and insists on hand-drawn technology 99% of the time.

Mushishi is much the same; many folks hate it because, well, it isn't an exciting anime to most. Still, every episode feels like a work of art. I absolutely love it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Regarding the CG, Miyazaki does occasionally use it, sometimes for things that would have killed the animators hands, (like Prince Ashitaka's curse arm), but sometimes he uses it for shots that don't really need it. There was a CG background shot used, a panning shot, when Howl and Sophie were walking together after they first met. Or the shot of the flower patch where Chihiro and Haku walk through to see her parents in the pig farm. Personally I find those shots interesting, and shows that his use of CG is either something that's too hard to animate by hand, or to do panning shots that live action do easily, whereas animation is much harder, which I can respect.

And I personally think that alot of people respond more to action oriented shows, that's why Naruto etc are popular, but when it just comes down to an action show, and people seem to have this misconception that anime has to be supernatural or action or some insane punk sci fi show, and anything that's quieter is "boring anime".

What they don't realise anime is not a genre, its a medium. Technically any type of show can be animated, and alot of shows in anime can be shot live action, especially the ones that are down to earth and have no supernatural or sci fi elements. You can't just see a few "top ten animes" like Bebop or Ghose in a Shell and assume that anime is always gonna be stylish and unique with alot of hot action. It's like saying you expect most movies to look and feel the same as Spider Man or Lord of the Rings all the time.

If people don't like Miyazaki, then its just their taste in films. Not all anime is required to have insane action.

Personally I think it's because to Westerners, Anime is "niche and different", and never been seen before, whereas everytime I hear about some morons going on how DBZ is cool, I just wanna scoff and tell them the show is so old is like enjoying 80's music and saying it's the hottest thing ever. To most Asians, anime is a medium that has been with us before I was born. My own mother saw anime when she was young. It's not something niche or different unless a particular anime tries something that hasn't been done before.

But that is not to say that the Japanese are immune to the whole preferring action over art, apparently Ponyo was reported to have "reported empty seats at "Ponyo" screenings in Tokyo and elsewhere -- a sharp contrast from previous Miyazaki pics that drew long lines and packed theaters from day one."

Possible reason? The new Pokemon movie was out on the same weekend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponyo_o...Sea#Theatrical

It's a sad day when kids rather see more generic Pokemon crap, a show that is NEVER GONNA END, over something beautiful like Ponyo.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Foshi

Are you talking about the Gantz anime or manga? If it's the anime then I don't know how you can say it's overrated when so many of the manga fans bash it to death. I actually liked the anime and found it very engaging. Only real negative were the final few episodes which just seemed super rushed.

Could you explain what's so great about the Gantz anime? I don't mean that to sound accusing, but I've just never understood it. I remember watching the first 13 episodes with my brother and it was laughably bad in almost every way possible. The dialogue was ridiculous (ie the girl asking to stay at the main character's apartment by asking if they allowed pets) and there were so many pointlessly long pauses that the action wasn't engaging at all.

Yet despite Gantz being one of the worst series I've ever seen, most people seem to tout it as being incredible and edgey.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Kairi Li

... is like enjoying 80's music and saying it's the hottest thing ever.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS, MADAM.

Yeah, I know Miyazaki uses CG at times, but it's rather begrudgingly. He uses it to make some incredibly hard things easier.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

As for overrated, I'll jump on the Naruto/Bleach train.

Underrated on the other hand, I still hold Piano as one of my favorite animes, and I don't think I've ever discussed that anime with someone else :\

Anyone saw it?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Oh woops. I didn't check the posting dates beyond the July 11th one, and didn't realize that had revived the thread after 2 years. Guess I won't be getting an answer on Gantz.

I've always thought that Escaflowne was a pretty overrated anime as well. Sure the mechs and airships are spiffy, but the plot has way too many ridiculous twists. They may have been cool in practice, but the idea of "enhanced luck soldiers" remains one of the silliest weapons I've ever heard of. Then of course there was the ending that made no sense at all and was essentially sad for the sake of being sad, and rendered half the show pointless. I didn't hate the series, but it certainly doesn't deserve all the praise it receives.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.