I have been watching anime since almost 3.5 years now. I remember the very first anime that I saw- DBZ- at the beginning of my second year in IITBombay. Technically speaking, Beyblade was the first anime I saw. It featured on Cartoon Network during Cartoon Network's heyday. Almost every kid in the school I knew watched the channel. I liked Beyblade then, because of the intensity displayed by every character. I didn't understand that until very recently. DBZ was something I wanted to see because I had seen Goku and his gang feature on the popular compass sets we got in the stationary shop near my home. I must say the first 100 episodes were gripping but soon it all became formulaic and boring and I started skipping through the anime since each fight took atleast 10 episodes to finish. This anime introduced the now cliche' concept of increasing strength of the heroes via training to fight increasingly stronger villains. Nonetheless, I somehow couldn't rest until I had completed watching the series. Every anime manages to keep the interest of the audience by finishing its episode on a cliffhanger. No exception. That's one of the reasons why anime are successful. It is like Ruffle's Lays- no one can watch just one (episode). Also the length of the episodes is generally 20 mins, which makes the series more entertaining when watched in one go.
I have come a long way since my infant days in anime and I have watched more than 70 anime shows and read more than 25 manga. I cannot deny that anime, however childish it might be, has deeply influenced me. After DBZ, I didn't watch another anime till the end of my second year at IITB, for the fear of being disappointed again. I also wasn't doing well - I was utterly bored and was nearing clinical depression for I hated mechanical engineering- my undergrad department. I gradually lost motivation to study as the second year progressed. I found myself dangerously devoid of any motivation at all at the time of finals. I couldn't help it though. My room-mate happened to have a few episodes of 'Naruto'- a teenager's anime on a boy who is shunned by his village and made out to be a loser. A few episodes in I was completely hooked on (I know this is a cliche' statement made by most anime lovers found in anime reviews). I was somehow impressed by the boy's tenacity and intensity in whatever he did and that he had an unwavering will and goal. Something clicked inside of me and I knew...
I scored maximum CPI in those final exams, despite watching the anime during the exam. It was also then that I started making plans of making it to Stanford- to get rid of mechanical engineering from my life..
That is only a part of how anime has influenced me. At this stage, I cannot mention all the anime I have seen and all the characters that I like, but here is a list of some anime I definitely recommend to anyone. I have #tagged keywords related to each entry to keep the descriptions generic and short. Most of them have the following in common: music score, intensity, plot, characters. So I won't mention those 4 unless any particular attribute is extraordinarily impressive for the anime under consideration. While it is really hard to rank the top 10 anime in any particular order, there is a definite order for the remaining. An anime show is as good as its characters + plot, roughly speaking. So it should not be surprising that my all time favorite characters stem from these anime. I have included the characters that I liked in each of the mentioned anime in paranthesis. Some of these characters are italicized because they have been included just for being bad-ass!
Anime:
1) Full Metal Alchemist- #fun, emotional, bravery, family, issues, action {Elric Brothers, Roy Mustang, Riza Haweye}
2) Death Note- #intelligent, psychological, mindgames, morality, ethics, good vs evil, anti-hero, dark {Kira, L}
3) FLCL- #craziness that is growing up, coming of age, scifi, comedy, random ride {Haruko Haruhara}
4) Monster- #dark, mystery, psychological, realism, horrors and sins of man, serial killer and chase, intense, can't miss even 1 second- plot {brilliant doctor Tenma, Johan Liebert}
5) Code Geass- #anti-hero, bravery, heroism, morality, logic, good vs evil, plot, responsibility {Lelouch, CC, Suzaku}
6) Clannad, Clannad After Story- #romance, family, hometown, coming of age, comedy, incredible drama, character growth, mature issues like depression, alcoholism, responsibility and tragedy, music score #grown up men have cried {Nagissa, Ushio, Tomoya}
7) Great Teacher Onizuka- #downright most comic thing I have ever seen, brilliant characters with dimensions {Kanzaki, Onizuka}
8) Cowboy Bebop- #style, attitude, drama, scifi, amazing characters, music score {Faye Valentine, Spike Spiegel}
9) Neon Genesis Evangelion- #scifi, psychological, characters, music, the perfect anime {Rei Ayanam, Ikari Shinji}
10) Gintama- # entire cast of characters, antics, dialogues, situational comedy at its best, attitude, breaking the 4th wall, outrageous{Gin, Kagura, Okita, Tsukuyo, Madao, Katsura, Hijikata}
11) Naruto- #dedication, intensity, amazing plot, dealing with issues like loneliness {Uchiha Itachi, Naruto, Minato}
12) Hikaru no Go- #intense, rivalry, friendship, historical, mindgames, coming of age, professional life {Touya Akira, Shindou Hikaru}
13) Katanagatari, Bakemonogatari- #dialogues and more dialogues, drama, intense, characters {Senjougahara, Togame}
14) Darker then Black- #scifi, plot, dark, mystery, psychological {Yin}
15) Nodame Cantabile- #music, coming of age, romance {Nodame}
16) Rurouni Kenshin- #romance, historic, sword fights, heroism {Kenshin Himura}
17) Toradora- #romace, sweet and bitter ending
18) Samurai Champloo- #historical, sword fights, plot, fun, animation quality {Mugen}
19) Gurren Lagan- #intense, coming of age, inspirational, spirited, sacrifice, responsibility {Simon}
20) Ergo Proxy- # scifi, dark, futuristic, music score, psychological {Pino}
21) Bleach- #attitude, action, sword fights, power-ups, mystery, supernatural {Ichimaru Gin, Urahara Kisuke}
Special Mentions: Elfen Lied, Blood+, Full Metal Panic, Black Lagoon
Current Anime I am watching: Lupin III- #pure fun, comedy, adventure, romance, robbery, chase {Fujiko Mine, Arsene Lupin, Zenigata, Goemon, Jigen}
There are still a handful good anime which I haven't seen yet, prime examples being Ghost In The Shell, Fruits Basket, Mushi-shi, Haruhi Suzumiya, etc... I don't want to finish off all the good anime, do I?
(wink)
Not to mention, I haven't even started with anime- movies and Western animation... :)
I have come a long way since my infant days in anime and I have watched more than 70 anime shows and read more than 25 manga. I cannot deny that anime, however childish it might be, has deeply influenced me. After DBZ, I didn't watch another anime till the end of my second year at IITB, for the fear of being disappointed again. I also wasn't doing well - I was utterly bored and was nearing clinical depression for I hated mechanical engineering- my undergrad department. I gradually lost motivation to study as the second year progressed. I found myself dangerously devoid of any motivation at all at the time of finals. I couldn't help it though. My room-mate happened to have a few episodes of 'Naruto'- a teenager's anime on a boy who is shunned by his village and made out to be a loser. A few episodes in I was completely hooked on (I know this is a cliche' statement made by most anime lovers found in anime reviews). I was somehow impressed by the boy's tenacity and intensity in whatever he did and that he had an unwavering will and goal. Something clicked inside of me and I knew...
I scored maximum CPI in those final exams, despite watching the anime during the exam. It was also then that I started making plans of making it to Stanford- to get rid of mechanical engineering from my life..
That is only a part of how anime has influenced me. At this stage, I cannot mention all the anime I have seen and all the characters that I like, but here is a list of some anime I definitely recommend to anyone. I have #tagged keywords related to each entry to keep the descriptions generic and short. Most of them have the following in common: music score, intensity, plot, characters. So I won't mention those 4 unless any particular attribute is extraordinarily impressive for the anime under consideration. While it is really hard to rank the top 10 anime in any particular order, there is a definite order for the remaining. An anime show is as good as its characters + plot, roughly speaking. So it should not be surprising that my all time favorite characters stem from these anime. I have included the characters that I liked in each of the mentioned anime in paranthesis. Some of these characters are italicized because they have been included just for being bad-ass!
Anime:
1) Full Metal Alchemist- #fun, emotional, bravery, family, issues, action {Elric Brothers, Roy Mustang, Riza Haweye}
2) Death Note- #intelligent, psychological, mindgames, morality, ethics, good vs evil, anti-hero, dark {Kira, L}
3) FLCL- #craziness that is growing up, coming of age, scifi, comedy, random ride {Haruko Haruhara}
4) Monster- #dark, mystery, psychological, realism, horrors and sins of man, serial killer and chase, intense, can't miss even 1 second- plot {brilliant doctor Tenma, Johan Liebert}
5) Code Geass- #anti-hero, bravery, heroism, morality, logic, good vs evil, plot, responsibility {Lelouch, CC, Suzaku}
6) Clannad, Clannad After Story- #romance, family, hometown, coming of age, comedy, incredible drama, character growth, mature issues like depression, alcoholism, responsibility and tragedy, music score #grown up men have cried {Nagissa, Ushio, Tomoya}
7) Great Teacher Onizuka- #downright most comic thing I have ever seen, brilliant characters with dimensions {Kanzaki, Onizuka}
8) Cowboy Bebop- #style, attitude, drama, scifi, amazing characters, music score {Faye Valentine, Spike Spiegel}
9) Neon Genesis Evangelion- #scifi, psychological, characters, music, the perfect anime {Rei Ayanam, Ikari Shinji}
10) Gintama- # entire cast of characters, antics, dialogues, situational comedy at its best, attitude, breaking the 4th wall, outrageous{Gin, Kagura, Okita, Tsukuyo, Madao, Katsura, Hijikata}
11) Naruto- #dedication, intensity, amazing plot, dealing with issues like loneliness {Uchiha Itachi, Naruto, Minato}
12) Hikaru no Go- #intense, rivalry, friendship, historical, mindgames, coming of age, professional life {Touya Akira, Shindou Hikaru}
13) Katanagatari, Bakemonogatari- #dialogues and more dialogues, drama, intense, characters {Senjougahara, Togame}
14) Darker then Black- #scifi, plot, dark, mystery, psychological {Yin}
15) Nodame Cantabile- #music, coming of age, romance {Nodame}
16) Rurouni Kenshin- #romance, historic, sword fights, heroism {Kenshin Himura}
17) Toradora- #romace, sweet and bitter ending
18) Samurai Champloo- #historical, sword fights, plot, fun, animation quality {Mugen}
19) Gurren Lagan- #intense, coming of age, inspirational, spirited, sacrifice, responsibility {Simon}
20) Ergo Proxy- # scifi, dark, futuristic, music score, psychological {Pino}
21) Bleach- #attitude, action, sword fights, power-ups, mystery, supernatural {Ichimaru Gin, Urahara Kisuke}
Special Mentions: Elfen Lied, Blood+, Full Metal Panic, Black Lagoon
Current Anime I am watching: Lupin III- #pure fun, comedy, adventure, romance, robbery, chase {Fujiko Mine, Arsene Lupin, Zenigata, Goemon, Jigen}
There are still a handful good anime which I haven't seen yet, prime examples being Ghost In The Shell, Fruits Basket, Mushi-shi, Haruhi Suzumiya, etc... I don't want to finish off all the good anime, do I?
(wink)
Not to mention, I haven't even started with anime- movies and Western animation... :)
