It's double list time, and we kick off with a best and worst villains in an anime, let me clarify that this is based on all villains within an anime not just one individual, with that out the way lets begin.
Dishonorable Mentions
Black Butler: Alois Trancey is one of the worst characters ever made but one bad villain isn't enough to put a whole series on this list, especially when he isn't canon.
Negima: Fate Averruncus was overused but really the show didn't have enough villains to justify it being listed.
Shaman King: Hao Asakura is a scary guy but I find him annoying, again one villain isn't enough for this list.
10. Trigun
My issues with Trigun's villains come from the fact that the early ones don't live up to the standard the series set out. Trigun is an excellent series and it should really grab you straight away and the first few episode villains fail to do that.
9. Digimon
Digimon has a problem with originality, the villains are either obviously dark looking devils or goofing comedy villains such as Elvis impersonator Etemon. The sad thing is, Digimon can do terrifying the villains, it's just that the creative team don't seem to use them often and their really good ones like Machinedramon don't last five minutes.
8. Dragonball
The franchise has a history of some goofy looking villains, the picture of Majin Buu says it all, but the real problem with Dragonball's villains from the original to GT is that older villains are made to look redundant very quickly; considering how terrifying many of them were built up to be only for them to be utterly humiliated later on is a very sad way to go, even Broly gets it bad and he's utterly terrifying.
7. Bleach
Bleach has some utterly terrible villains, couple of stand out ones include a professional wrestler and "Mr Self Insert Character" such a horrific standard for a series that started with some great characters only to fall from grace so horribly.
6. Naruto
Saying that Naruto isn't any better, for a while now, especially recently, they've made the villains completely boring, I can't pick out anything from Madara, Obito or Kaguya that I actually enjoyed, what's worst is that these are main villains, I'm not even going to begin on the filler ones.
5. Fairy Tail
I love Fairy Tail but my god are some of their villains really bad, I remember finishing Edolas arc thinking "There's a villain called Sugarboy?" other than the Oracion Seis, female villains and big name villains, the rest are really bad and stops me naming Fairy Tail best anime.
4. Panty & Stocking
In a series this colorful and crazy, you stick with complete opposites to the main cast, you kind of expect a series named Panty & Stocking to have a bit more too it than that but you'd be quite shocked to find that under it's anarchic sense of humor it's very grounded.
3. Attack on Titan
I can't help but laugh at the Titans these days, they look so goofy. A series with such shocking imagery fails to have ever lasting impact when another episode depicts the same creatures looking stupid. I remember one Titan running to the Benny Hill theme music in one AMV.
2. G Gundam
In a series so used to playing stereotypes, it can't make a decent villain other than Master Asia who you could argue isn't a full villain. The Devil Gundam doesn't look any better and side villains such as Gentle Chapman, Michelo Chariot & Prime Minister Wong can be best described as an aging drug addict, a rejected Street Fighter II character and an arrogant movie star respectively. Seriously this is billed as a fighting anime, you can do better than this Gundam.
1. Needless
Take your pick from these villains, either clones of Adam Blade or moe girls. Any other choices are quickly killed off. Again this series is crazy yet this is the best you can do with villains? Clones and little moe girls? My God do you lower the standards in anime Needless.
I knew I was going to come round to this remake eventually, especially when the franchise in question is so high up in the anime hierarchy, yes it's Sailor Moon.
For those who are new, Sailor Moon is a Magical Girl franchise about Usagi, a princess reborn on the Earth following the destruction of the Moon Kingdom, but when the same evil threatens Earth, Usagi is given the powers of Sailor Moon, and along with her fellow Sailor Scouts, set out to stop the evil of Queen Beryl and her henchman. Also that this franchise is 20 years old and is the first choice Magical Girl and Shojo series of many Generation X anime fans.
From an opinion of a Generation X fan like myself, the remake is absolutely beautiful, it's clear the amount of care was taken to make the show standout and how closely it follows the Manga plot instead of recycling the long 200+ episodes of Monster of the Week. Four episodes in and already it's made a decent impression on it's fanbase.
So why does it feel so underwhelming?
Well for many reasons.
1. The Legacy of the original series despite it's flaws, still holds a special place in the hearts of it's fans and still holds up very well despite looking somewhat dated.
2. The Market is saturated with Magical Girl shows including the powerhouse Precure, Aikatsu and Pretty Rhythm franchises.
3. The format chosen to release the episodes is twice a month which isn't ideal when rival shows release every week.
4. Early showings relegated the Male fanbase within it's native Japan which makes up a surprising amount of the fanbase.
5. The show is a little too well done, which makes it too safe.
The hype generated by the Marketing for Sailor Moon Crystal didn't produce the same level of hype upon release; the same issues befell Dragonball Z Kai which came out to huge praise but disappeared very quickly afterwards, and unless Sailor Moon Crystal picks up a momentum later in the series it's going to face the same fate and we may not find that out for well over a year.
Finally the format of release is not ideal, no fan wants to wait too long for their favorite character to appear on screen and considering the target audience which would consist of young girls and preteen girls as it's primary focus, it doesn't take very long for an episode to lose impact during a two week gap.
Word of mouth within schools is how a show becomes popular but it doesn't take long for an episode to lose impact and if you're the unfortunate kid who missed the episode, by the second week your school friends will be talking about Precure or Aikatsu instead of the episode you've only just caught up with, this is especially important for a female audience who can switch focus onto another product very quickly; the format isn't as bad as Gundam Unicorn's whose air times were random, but bad enough that it can't hold it's fanbase for very long.
Final Verdict: It's strikingly beautiful but struggles to maintain a solid fanbase among a sea of strong rivals, legacies and poor format choices. It still has time to fix these issues but for now it doesn't do enough to keep my attention as well as it's millions of viewers.
Yeah I had to follow through with this one, it wouldn't feel right if I didn't, so lets go. *Updated 30th August 2014 - New picture, honorable mentions and new entry*
Honorable Mentions
Professor Layton & the Eternal Diva: This film was surprisingly good and mixes in the video game elements surprisingly well.
Fatal Fury: Somehow manages to be half decent despite being extremely cheesy
Variable Geo: An anime about fighting waitresses, nuff said. Still too cheesy for an actual place in the top ten.
10. Sakura Wars
This would've been so much higher if the dubs weren't so terrible. Steampunk mecha with a set of lovely ladies in the most fashionable military outfits ever made, stay tuned later on as reviews of the OVAs, Film & Series are to come.
9. Viewtiful Joe
The animation style is very Americanized yet it works like a charm very much in the same way as Gainax do with Panty & Stocking. It wasn't perfect but offered new art direction than the typical anime style used since the 90s & 00s.
8. Final Fantasy Unlimited
Sadly Advent Children is disqualified for technically not being an anime, sorry I just don't count it as one; however Final Fantasy Unlimited makes up for it being missing. It makes a change to see a Final Fantasy that doesn't involve pretty boys or a link to Final Fantasy VII, it deserves to stand on it's own. Now if I can just find a boxset, I'll be in business.
7. Anything by Key
Not my cup of tea but every series adapted from the games is still a beautiful watch and highly emotional and will leave a mark on your heart for years to come.
6. Inazuma Eleven
I never thought an RPG based on Soccer would do so well as an anime series, I still really enjoy watching those killer moves and if I see one I usually see all of them. This series is a good lesson in spectacle.
5. Fate/Stay Night
Apart from a few lines of terrible dialogue, Fate/Stay Night can definitely stand up to the big wigs of anime. With a host of memorable characters and some interesting bits of history it's more than enough to satisfy the shonen crowd.
4. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Never has a franchise gone through so many changes in fortune, but Street Fighter's animated film is the best were ever going to see for a fighting game adaption, it gives us exactly what we expect and it only takes the first few minutes of Ryu & Sagat's battle to get us hooked.
3. Persona 4
New entry for this old list, an array of intense story telling with equally intense character writing mixed with one of the finest art styles in recent years makes for a near perfect anime.
2. Sengoku Basara
Capcom has far too many awful habits for my liking but Sengoku Basara was the dark horse of my anime watching last year, it's over the top, historically skewed and awesome, enough to make you want to cry "Your Lordship!"
1. Pokemon: The 1st season & the Diamond & Pearl series
How can I not put Pokemon down, it's anime perfection and built the lives of so many otaku. A natural blend of endless art set in a universe of unique creatures; Pokemon will remain with anime fans until the end of time. A lot of people will argue that Pokemon has not been good since Johto, but Diamond & Pearl was the only saga that came close to the original formula.
So that's your lot, some surprises and some no surprises, you be the judge.
When I last did an OVA, it was rubbish, a putrid mess of an anime that should never have been made, but with this one, despite being in the same category of anime about Motor Racing as previous entry Circuit Angel, this one comes out as actually half decent. This is my review of Goddamn.
Gen Todoroki is a Rally driver with some terrible luck, he pretty much crashes every Rally Car he drives and some how walks away from it, however a big conglomerate known as Seiou hires Gen to be one of their Rally Drivers for the Safari Rally in Kenya, with no money to travel home, Gen reluctantly accepts the contract and proceeds to training in the Mountains of Monte Carlo.
During his test runs he comes across a renegade woman named Cotti, who escapes her school and nearly gets run off the road during a race with Gen.
After completing the test he then goes to the Safari Rally but crashes in the first stage, this leads to a change in Co-Driver as he requests African Rov Lowe over the other co-driver Dick Van Dyke. (Yes those are the real names)
After a few hairy moments later on including a plunge off a cliff and surviving a potential car pile up, Gen and his teammate achieve 6th & 3rd place respectively but their Rallying is over when the higher ups pull the plug on the Rally venture leaving Gen with nothing, the OVA ends with some words of encouragement from Gen to his ex boss.
So that's Goddamn, named for the curse words Gen uses when he crashes and it's actually half decent. The attention to detail along with the research that went into the subject matter was plain to see. As a fan of motor racing, I researched the actual 1990 World Rally Championship to see how many mistakes were made and to my surprise not one was made, every Rally Car that was drawn in this anime was actually used for that year's championship. I shouldn't really be surprised, Noboru Furuse is used to drawing cars having done art directives for Ex-Driver and Initial D two more prominent car anime.
While I can appreciate the racing and the high attention to detail on the cars, I can't get into the politics that goes alongside the main story, it's distracting and doesn't add anything to the spectacle, other than that, Goddamn is quite entertaining and fills a gap between major series or as a taster at an Anime Society.
There is no dub as licensing issues on the cars and advertisements would've been a problem in the west, even in Japan you can only find a VHS release.
That's a video tape for those currently younger than 20 years old.
It's relatively easy to find on Youtube as well.
Final Verdict: Goddamn is fun and the attention to detail can easily be well appreciated by the most avid car fanatic but poor plot structuring and over reliance of politics to drive the story spoils it. I still recommend a watch though.
Journey to the West is a classic of Chinese Literature and anime has been known to adapt it into many forms, today's review is one of these forms as I review Saiyuki as written by Kazuya Minekura.
The story is about a monk named Genjo Sanzo who through fate is joined alongside three demons consisting of the Monkey King Son Goku, the half demon Sha Gojyo and the man turned demon Cho Hakkai; their mission as ordained by the heavens is to travel to India to stop the resurrection of the Demon Ox King Gyumaoh, along the way they must fight numerous malevolent demons along with dealing with their tragic pasts and in some of the slower episodes just general goofing off; the journey would normally be on foot but for some reason Cho Hakkai's Dragon, Jeep can become an actual road worthy Jeep, so the entire series is one big road trip and that's where it loses it's value.
Don't get me wrong, this depiction of the Saiyuki four is by far the most Badass to ever be conceived but after so many episodes they still haven't sorted out Gyumaoh, not Minekura's fault as health has been an issue but the franchise has faded somewhat in popularity in recent years, in fact I became too exhausted watching the series to warrant continuing beyond the Gensoumaden and Reload series.
For what it's worth, the fact that the cast in this Saiyuki is led by a chain smoking monk, a womanizing kappa demon, a pig demon with a drivers license and a Monkey King with a serious meat bun addiction, does make a change from the alternatives we've had over the years which also includes Dragonball, and that's what makes this series special, it had the balls to take a classic story and give it the anime makeover it really deserved in an era (Late 90s, Early 00s) desperately needing some originality beyond taking a well known warrior class like Pirate or Ninja and making it awesome.
Yeah it's too long, the drama gets too heavy, the so called final boss is never actually fought and having two different dubs is relatively off putting, but you still enjoy what's on offer regardless.
Final Verdict: Saiyuki is lots of fun and by far it's best depiction in anime but it's length is intimidating and can be tiring to watch after a while, so only watch/read to it's current chapter if you're committed to finishing the story.
