I call these the rejects but there are good reasons why these didn’t make it into my Top 15 list. I’ll try my best to give proper reasoning as to why they didn’t make it as well as praise them for what they do well.
Studio Ghibli
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Grave of the Fireflies
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Porco Rosso
Whisper of the Heart
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
The Cat Returns
Howl’s Moving Castle
Tales from Earthsea
Ponyo
Makoto Shinkai
Voices of a Distant Star
The Place Promised in Our Early Days
5 Centimeters Per Second
Satoshi Kon
Tokyo Godfathers
Paprika
The Mamoru movies
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii)
The Sky Crawlers (Mamoru Oshii)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda)
Summer Wars (Mamoru Hosoda)
The movies. Oh the movies. If I had included movies, it just wouldn’t be the same list. These movies, all of them, deserve a note of their own. And I’ll get on that eventually. Stay tuned for a Top 5 anime movies list. These movies, in most cases, are the perfect gateway anime for new viewers. Even casual viewers or non-viewers will like most of these movies.
Clannad
Plot Summary: Tomoya Okazaki is a third year high school student resentful of his life. His mother passed away from a car accident when he was younger, causing his father to resort to alcohol and gambling. This results in fights between the two until Tomoya’s shoulder is injured in a fight. Since then, Tomoya has had distant relationships with his father, causing him to become a delinquent over time. While on a walk to school, he meets a strange girl named Nagisa Furukawa who is a year older, but is repeating due to illness. Due to this, she is often alone as most of her friends have moved on. The two begin hanging out and slowly, as time goes by, Tomoya finds his life shifting in a new direction.
Key did something with visual novels that, as an American, I hadn’t previously seen. With Air, Kanon, and Clannad, they made a good anime out of a visual novel. For those of you who don’t know, a visual novel can range from a dating simulation to an eroge. A dating sim is just that, you play as a main character and date the pretty girls in the game. And eroge is that with sex. Like literal sex. And they’re usually bad. At least, all the anime adaptations I had seen before had not wowed me like Key’s shows did.
The reason why it’s not on the list is because all the other shows are better than Clannad. Now, After Story is, well, a different story. But that’s the second anime. I’m not going to suggest you start with After Story and I’m not going to put it on the list because, without its predecessor, it isn’t as good. You need to get to know the characters and the brevity that the other shows provide is just better. I have only good things to say about Clannad and After Story, but it just doesn’t make the cut.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Plot Summary: On the first day of high school a beautiful girl named Haruhi Suzumiya introduces herself as having “no interest in ordinary humans.” She asks for any aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers to join her. Watching her weird behaviour is Kyon who sits in front of Haruhi and is the only person who talks to her. When Kyon comments about Haruhi’s joining every club in school and then quitting he unwittingly gives Haruhi an idea to start her own after school club. Thereafter Kyon and several others find themselves dragged, literally, into the Save our world by Overloading it with fun Haruhi Suzumiya’s Brigade (the S.O.S. Brigade for short).
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is one of the greatest anime movies I have ever watched. And the series ranks up there with the rest of them. But it’s niched toward an anime audience. A casual anime viewer won’t want to pick this up, but would probably love Disappearance. But there are so many subtle nuances and references to the two series’ that I can’t suggest watching the movie without watching the series.
What the series is lacking is appeal to a bigger audience, as I said. Their main selling point is that you want to see an over-the-top science fiction/fantasy story with pretty girls (aka Haruhi, Mikuru Asahina, and Yuki Nagato). Which is great, if you’re into that (I am and I just ignore the obvious fanservice shots). What’s really great about the series is that Haruhi Suzumiya is a God, but she doesn’t know it. She basically controls the world, according to the three different factions in their own way, and the only thing keeping her in check is Kyon. That’s the appeal, to me.
But the downfalls of the series include a very strange episode zero, a little slow pacing, and the niche content. It’s good, it’s really good. Trust me when I say that. But it’s just not great.
Ouran High School Host Club
Plot Summary: Haruhi is a poor tomboyish student at a school for the ultra-wealthy, able to attend because of a scholarship, and unable to even afford a uniform. One day, she stumbles across the decidedly peculiar but very popular Ouran Host Club. She tries to leave, but accidentally breaks a vase, and unable to pay for it, she’s told that she'll have to stay and do odd jobs. That is, until they decide she would be more valuable as a club member. Not realizing she’s female due to her appearance, they fix her up and give her a male uniform. She’s an instant hit, so they decide to have her keep up the charade even after they find out the truth. Haruhi, being average almost to a fault, doesn’t know what to make of the unconventional activities of the Host Club (or of the even more unconventional members), but having little choice, she plays along. Before long, real bonds are formed, friends made, and Haruhi finds herself accepted in a way she could never have been otherwise in this affluent school.
Oh Ouran. What can I say about you? If you really want over the top, go for Ouran. Because it is so over the top (Tamaki Suou, enough said). And each and every one of the main characters are unique in their own way.
So why didn’t it make it? The ending. The anime ending just…it ends things, but it doesn’t finish them like the manga did. It left a lot of things to be desired. That’s really the downfall of anime adapted from manga (of which over 70% of anime are). They stop at 13 episodes or 26 episodes and make their own anime endings. Which, in almost every case, is worse than the manga ending (I can’t think of a case where the anime ending was better than the manga ending, but I’m sure there is one out there).
Code Geass
Plot Summary: The Empire of Britannia has invaded Japan using giant robot weapons called Knightmare Frames. Japan is now referred to as Area 11, and its people the 11’s. A Britannian who was living in Japan at the time, Lelouch, vowed to his Japanese friend Suzaku that he’d destroy Britannia. Years later, Lelouch is in high school, but regularly skips out of school to go play chess and gamble on himself. One day, he stumbles on terrorists 11’s who’ve stolen a military secret and is caught by a member of the Britannian task force sent after them, who is Suzaku. As the rest of the squad arrives, Suzaku is shot for disobeying orders, while the military secret, a young girl, gives Lelouch the power of Geass, which makes anyone obey any order. While Suzaku is secretly made the pilot of Britannia’s brand new prototype Knightmare, Lancelot, Lelouch becomes the masked Zero to lead the rebellion to destroy Britannia once and for all.
Code Geass is really good. I haven’t watched it in quite some time, but from what I remember of it, it was awesome. Especially Johnny Yong Bosch’s performance and Lelouche Lamperouge. It just doesn’t have that final piece of the puzzle. It’s great, but it’s just not great. It gets itself really caught up in its own narratives. A lot of episodes are Lelouch exposition. As a big anime fan, I’m fine with that. But it’ll turn off newcoming viewers because they’re not used to people talking so much. Death Note has this flaw as well, but the rest of the story is done just so well.
Code Geass was done well, and I loved how it wrapped up everything, but there was a pretty sketchy transition between seasons and a lot of unnecessary filler/fanservice episodes. I think it would have been a lot better had they took out some of the content and made it a 40 episode series or a 30 episode series. It just isn’t tightened to the amount the first 26 episodes of Death Note were. It felt like there was no filler in those episodes, as I recall. But I can recall specific instances in Code Geass where there was definitely filler. With a series not based off a manga, they shouldn’t have to put those kinds of episodes in.
Darker Than Black
Plot Summary: In Tokyo, an impenetrable field known as “Hell’s Gate” appeared ten years ago. At the same time, psychics who wield paranormal powers at the cost of their conscience also emerged. Hei is one of the most powerful of these psychic agents, and along with his associate, Yin, works for one of the many rival agencies vying to unlock the mysteries of Hell’s Gate.
Darker Than Black’s biggest downfall is that it’s episodic. The thing I liked about the second season is that it had an overarching story. Darker Than Black is really 13 episodes. One one episode arc (the OVA), one three episode arc, and 11 two episode arcs. So by the end I was left wondering why they couldn’t have just a few more overarching story arcs throughout the series.
But despite that downfall, I still think Darker Than Black is an exceptional series. It presents tons of new and interesting things (aka the contractors and their payment) and it does it in a very interesting way. Just, for it to be really good, it needs to tell me something more than a really awesome science fiction story.
Fruits Basket
Plot Summary: Tohru Honda is 16 year old orphaned girl who gets invited to live in the house of her classmate, Yuki Sohma, and his cousins, Kyo and Shigure. However, these young men and parts of the rest of their family (both close and distant) hold a curse; if they are hugged by the opposite gender, they transform into animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Every day is an adventure for sweet Tohru, as she gets to know everyone in the large family better (especially Yuki and Kyo), in both common and bizarre situations. But, the Sohma Family curse is certainly no laughing matter. It also holds horrible cruelty and heartbreak.
The big reason why this didn’t make the list is because it’s just so niche. I mean, I’d love to show There Are No Memories It’s OK to Forget and It’s Because I’ve Been Loved That I’ve Become Stronger to people because those were amazing episodes. But someone jumping straight into the series won’t like those episodes because they require an amount of backstory that they might not be able to get through in the first part of the series.
Another reason is because it’s weird. It’s extremely shojo-y. I mean, these people are cursed by the zodiac to change into their respective animal when they’re hugged by the opposite sex. How much more shojo-y can you get?
But beneath all that shojo, and beneath all that niche content, is a very good story about the relationship between Tohru and Kyo and Yuki and Akito and every other character. If you like the over-stylized animation that anime is known for, than go for it. If not, then stay away.
Bunny Drop (Usagi Drop)
Plot Summary: Going home from his grandfather’s funeral, thirty-year-old Daikichi is floored to discover that the old man had an illegitimate child with a younger lover. The rest of his family is equally shocked and embarrassed by this surprise development and not one of them wants anything to do with the silent little girl, Rin Kaga. In a fit of anger, Daikichi decides to take her in himself. As Daikichi nurtures Rin, he started to understand the struggle while at the same time the joy of parenting.
What Usagi Drop doesn’t do is give me more. I ended this little series wanting to see more of Rin and Daikichi’s lives. This is a particular case where there are cute things and it is in no way sexualized. It’s just there to be cute. And it has such a sad, telling little story in just the first episode. I mean, who would imagine what it would be like as a five-year-old to hear all these strange adults arguing over who has, not wants to, take care of you? Do you know how disheartening that would be? I certainly don’t and I never want to.
What bugs me about this series is that, while it is a really good show displaying the relationship between Daikichi and Rin and their troubles, it doesn’t really resolve anything. I’m left wanting to know more about the characters and how they’ll end up. This is a big downfall of anime that are based off of manga. They go to a certain point and then stop.
Katanagatari
Plot Summary: This story takes place in the Edo era where Yasuri Shichika is the seventh head of the Kyotou school of Japanese sword martial arts living in Fushou Island with his sister Nanami. With the order from a female samurai general Togame, he sets out for a trip to collect the twelve treasured swords created by a legendary sword smith, Shikizaki Kiki.
I’m going to be very honest with you people. Katanagatari is great. It’s sort of formulaic, as each episode is the tale of Shichika and Togame getting one more katana, but each fight is very unique and usually unlike most others I’ve seen. That’s what lets me down, though. I wanted to see a bit more out of this show than just the formulaic and episodic format.
What really let me down was the ending. I’m not going to say anything about it in particular, since I don’t want to spoil the goddamn ending for you people, but I’ll say that I was disappointed. That doesn’t mean that you will be disappointed and that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t watch this show. Because this show is great and I do love period pieces.
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