What's your favorite anime?

[Snowcrafta]

I'm terribly bored, so I'll go through and explain each genre and my favorite.

Best Drama: Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.
-Runner up: Gunslinger Girl

Hands down this drama was incredible. What started off as a light, fluffy high school romance quickly turned into one of the most depressing, heart wrenching things I've ever seen. Torn apart on weather or not to like or hate a character happened nearly every episode, and I never felt so toyed with upon completing it. Everything about KimiNozo just blew me away, and I was never so shocked at an anime in my life. This is easily the most serious anime I've ever seen, as the only 'comedy' that would come up was with two girls working at a restaurant, and I never laughed much at them anyways. I was so torn through this whole series that I was ready to cry during several moments. This was also watched in one sitting, and I'd advise everyone who takes the time to watch it to only do a few episodes at a time. It's just too heartbreaking if you watch it all at once.

I also have this as my #1 favorite anime ever.

Best Harem (Many girls, 1 guy): Shuffle!
- Runner up: Love Hina

Shuffle! was just incredible as a harem, a drama, and a comedy. As a harem, I just simply like harems. They're funny, fluffy, and usually have a cheesy love-romance plot to them that I just drool over. 5 gorgeous girls in love with one guy, and I thought it was pretty obvious who the winner was going to be just by following the rules that the childhood friend always wins, hands down. Of course, Shuffle! did indeed change that for me, which was a pleasant surprise. This show was fair to all the girls in respects that they all got their share of screentime, and it was fairly hazy who would come out on top (or bottom, I've seen the H-game art) for a good portion of the show, and when there was a fairly clear victor I was still unsure if she'd win. Of course, Shuffle! is debatable among those whom I speak of anime with. I loved the resolution episode where the winner was unmasked, and everyone else who saw it at the time I did were all heavily disappointed. I didn't care, because I was too in love with the show to care.

Best Love/Romance: Eureka seveN
- Runner up: Onegai Twins/Teacher
I know, I know. Eureka seveN is a mech show, correct? As one view, yes. However, after the whole mech thrill is over, the second half of the series is some serious relationship building between two couples that play out just beautifully. I can say I was sincerely surprised when I saw it as a relationship and love story over extremely stylish mech fights. So mech anticipation kept teasing me in scenes with Renton and Eureka that it just drove me nuts at times. This anime took their time to fully develop the two couples rather than skip to the stuff I melt over early on. I was pleased with the Eureka – Renton relationship, but the Anemone and Dominic one played out much more dramatically, and I felt so in love with the episode when it was all revealed. This also counters a bad habit of mine, which is once someone is bad I can't stand them and shun them away (a la Nanoha A's), with the whole Anemone thing. However, I just simply loved Anemone because I got to see her grow and realize feeling which is something I melt for in anime.

Best Action: Samurai Champloo
- Runner ups: Eureka seveN, Gunslinger Girl.
Samurai Champloo from the very first episode is an edge-of-you-seat thrill ride. Near every episode has extremely well designed and delivered action scenes, and a nice spice because there were two styles of sword swinging being shown – the professional, proper style of Jin's, and the sloppy, hip-hop style of Mugen's. Being drawn on a journy by a random girl they picked up on the first episode to find a samurai that smells of sunflowers, I was treated to an excellent story, which included some light romance, assassins, humorous plots, and even a taste of horror. Throughout this all, however, the sword fights never got old. I ate them up like a fat kid would twinkies, and always got a rush out of them. As a bonus to the mix, this anime also has one of the best endings I've ever seen, which is quite the accomplishment. Most anime tends to only have sub-par endings because they are too rushed or just plain awful, but this one actually had a logical ending that left me say: What? Wow.


Best Magical Girl: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha & Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's
- Runner up: Card Captor Sakura
I admit it; I downloaded this anime simply because Kefit sent me the OP theme. It's cheesy, but it is the truth. Innocent Starter was just too beautiful, and I couldn't resist after he said the show was alright. Like most fantasy anime, it starts off hard to follow with a confusing plot. However, this show quickly sorted itself out, and by the third episode everything made sense. Starting off as a typical Magical Girl show, I was entranced by it simply because I don't see major fantasy anime often. It was fun to watch Nanoha find and attack random enemies, and her limit breaks, per say, were just awesome. Although I will admit I fell victim to 'I hate the antagonist' which happens to me often, I quickly found myself falling in love with Fate, Nanoha's rival. By the end, however, I loved Fate and was eagerly awaiting Nanoha A's.

Nanoha A's was just awesome all around, even though I once again fell for 'I hate the antagonists'. I simply couldn't deal with the Cloud Knights at all. It was, however, a good chance for me to get my fill of Fate + Nanoha magical attack limit break omg awesome. I ate those up like ice cream on a hot summer day, and was thrilled every timethey got screen time. This show could be a nice competition with Samurai Champloo when it came to action scenes, but unlike Champloo, this also had a fair ammount of drama. Overall, this was just a nice ride the whole time, and it actually sparked some deep emotions in me, which resulted in 15 minute debate about why I hated the antagonists so much. I still have the conversation saved as well :P


Best Comedy: Dokuro-chan
- Runner ups: Green Green TV, 2x2=Shinobuden.
Wow. I don't care what people say, this anime was brilliant. Massive slapstick humor, blood and guts that left me in stitches, and a legendary opening song that, when translated, has the best lyrics ever written to a song. Ever. Although this anime was short, it was with no doubt a golden moment in my anime career. Everything dealing with this strange angel never ceased to make me laugh. For some reason, this anime managed to do the SAME FREAKING THING several times an episode during its whole duration, and it busted me up in laughter so badly that I was forced to pause this show on several occasions, and even managed a legendary ROFL during one moment. Anyone who didn't like this comedy said the humor in it was stupid or overdone, but taking into account it lasted all of two hours, it's impossible to say that Dokuro chan was overdone or repetitive.

Best Horror/suspense: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
- Runner up: Elfen Lied
The opening 10 seconds of this anime and you already know what you're in for. You are treated to a pleasant scene of a silhouette holding a club of some sort swinging at two bodies on the ground that is complimented by blood splattering on the floor and walls with a nice melody of bones crunching under the power of the bat. Cue the spooky opening theme song, which sets the mood of the series quite well. After a fluffy first episode, I was treated to one of the greatest games of mind-trickery I've ever gotten to enjoy. I've had my mind played with so much for only 11 episodes that have aired it drove me nuts. Eerie, suspenseful atmospheres compliment the equally as creepy characters which even I grew frightened of. As if being frightened of every character in the story wasn't enough, the story keeps restarting every 4 or 5 episodes, depending on the arc, meaning that all characters come back to life and everything plays out as if what you just saw didn't happen at all. This is also the only anime... no, the only non-real life thing to ever make me panic. The end of the eighth episode shocked me so bad that I actually had a pseudo panic attack that left me breathing in a paper bag for almost 15 minutes.