I spoke in length about the best anime but what about one of the worst?
This one is a doozy, teenage boy Sakura is destined in the future to create a miracle tech that stops women aging after the age of twelve, this has the unintended side effect of creating immortality in humanity as well as the more disgusting implications, leading god to order his assassination at the hands of Angel Dokuro, but Dokuro doesn't want to thinking he can be redeemed leading god to send someone else, putting Dokuro at odds with heaven's will, unfortunately Dokuro has a habit of killing and reviving Sakura due to her unnatural other worldly power as well as her spiked club, leading the hapless Sakura to wonder if death is a better option.
First off, the premise alone is exactly the kind of thing Twitter should be complaining about, not the popular stuff that has nothing offensive at all, just thinking about this premise is uncomfortable.
It would've been more redeemable if it wasn't a one joke series that out stays it's welcome, none of the other elements help much either, there's an attempt to give students photo realistic animal faces but it's just flat, it's over reliance on excessive comedic violence in the same vein as Itchy and Scratchy loses it's value after a while, it's really not a good series.
Dubbing, I don't care, it's probably terrible.
Also Helluva Boss does a better job of killing terrible people, next time call them for a series that does the death agents from heaven or hell a million times better.
Final Verdict: A deeply uncomfortable premise with nothing to offer other than the same joke every episode.
Now to show why I consider Black Lagoon top anime.
In the South East Asian town of Roanapur is a lawless zone where any world renowned criminal group resides, free from international laws, the many mafias, cartels, triads and yakuza all look to a group of pirate mercenaries for smuggling called the Lagoon company led by Dutch who along with crazed gunslinger Revy and hacker/mechanic Benny acquire a salaryman from a botched negotiation, pretty much abandoned by his employer the Salaryman takes the name Rock and becomes Lagoon's negotiator and professional, with no shortage of jobs on offer and as much action as swear words, welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games.
So why do I consider this the best anime of all time? Because it perfectly encapsulates the entire anime experience.
Think about when you first saw anime, and I mean a real anime; for me, anime when I first discovered it felt like a different world, there was more violence, there was swearing, the women actually kicked ass, it was funny, it looked amazing, it felt like the next stage up from cartoons.
Everything that Black Lagoon does matches all those feelings in spades.
It's setting provides a violent paradise where any amount of gun play and fighting is common, send in Roberta and that goes up to 11.
It's dub is perfect mainly because they do speak English in universe, and it wouldn't nearly be as good without Maryke Hendrikse's portrayal of Revy.
All the women are terrifying and it kicks ass.
It even has omake to lighten the mood.
The story is pretty much told through an audience surrogate in Rock which keeps the chaos in check.
It's just built to perfection, there's a lot to enjoy so go watch it.
Final Verdict: It will take something monumentally special to kick Black Lagoon off my number 1 spot.
Next up is Trigun, another I'm surprised I haven't done before.
Set on a Western stylized planet, Trigun is an anime of two halves.
The first half follows Vash the Stampede, a tall blonde man dressed in red who can out shoot anyone but is goofy, cheerful and a pacifist; he's followed by Meryl and Milly who are trying to piece together the destruction Vash leaves in his wake for their Insurance company not really piecing together that said tall blonde man they keep running into is actually Vash expecting someone more destructive to match the image of a 60 Billion Double Dollar bounty for destroying a town.
The second half features Vash crossing paths with the Gung-Ho Guns, a group of assassins led by Vash's brother Knives, revealing the terrible powers hidden inside Vash and the tragic past he had forgotten.
While largely forgotten today, Trigun stands the test of time far better than most anime, it's a Western epic that sees a more human side to the often tumultuous Western genre of constant bandits and gun slinging, the fact that Vash didn't even draw a gun until episode 5 is a testament to how well Vash is written as a character, the series has an insanely good cast that you can easily find yourselves rooting for even one episode characters, it's a rare anime that can envoke every emotion, something that only a few anime can match.
But I did say it was largely forgotten today, that's because of a few factors.
1. Westerns are hardly popular in the medium in Japan but often do better in the West.
2. Other media surrounding it has failed to make it relevant (time will tell if the reboot will succeed)
3. It's rivals were Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star making for an already inflated market at the time.
4. It worked just fine the first time.
One of the strengths of 90s anime was getting it right first time in the 24-26 episode limit they were given, all the endings of Trigun, Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop were perfect and wouldn't continue in a sequel, spin off or remade in a different format, looking at you live action Bebop.
But one thing all three have in common, was none of them had any real problems bar nitpicks, 1998 was arguably the best year in anime history.
Dub is top tier especially with Jonny Yong Bosch as Vash.
Final Verdict: A western epic that deserves high praise in the same category as the best anime of all time.
Another dime dozen OVA from a game no one played.
Spun off from the Graduation franchise, Tanjou Debut revolves around a group of four girls, Aki, Kumi, Sachiko and Saori; with only two episodes to work with, I can summarise both pretty easy.
Episode one focusses on red haired girl Aki who daydreams of becoming an adult imagining herself in a beautiful red dress leaving behind school, but her current life is full of disappointment as a misunderstanding leads to her being rejected by the boy she likes.
Episode two centers on Saori with Kumi and Aki recovering a time capsule from ten years ago but the girls discover that something was left behind by a forth girl, after discovering who it is, they set her spirit free with the item she left behind, if you're wondering why there is no continuity, it's because they showcase in the opening that they are just actresses for a drama show, so what we see isn't even real in universe so the investment is lost instantly.
The 90s anime aesthetic is strong with this one, the characters are interesting enough to want to know more but nothing they star in is interesting, if they had more episodes I'd be more tempted to give it a pass but as it is, not really selling it well.
No dub but I doubt it could acquire any decent voices.
Final Verdict: It feels like it could work if given more episodes especially if it kept to the same themes, there's alot to like for the character designs but sadly the two episodes we did get failed to deliver.
Spoiler warning is in effect, you have been warned.
Mitsuha is bored of her rural life and oddly wishes to be a boy in Tokyo, what follows is an out of body experience as Mitsuha switches bodies with a Tokyo boy named Taki, they somehow communicate through phone and written messages as both attempt to adjust to their new lives, this continues for some days until Taki stops switching into Mitsuha's body, with only clues of an Autumn Festival from Taki's last body switch, he tries to find the town of Itomori only to come to a tragic discovery that the town was destroyed by a fragmented comet and Mitsuha was killed with the entire town three years prior, not only was Taki switching bodies but switching times, praying to the shrine for a chance to prevent Mitsuha's death, he is able to switch again in order to evacuate the town before the comet arrives. They succeed only for Taki not to leave his name for Mitsuha to find him when the body switching ends for good, the ending several years later finishes with them crossing paths again in a very touching ending.
This film looks stunning, it's like a constant canvas of all the most beautiful images of Japan, the story is very fatally flawed.
If this was just a simple body switch story, I honestly think it would've still been highly acclaimed but adding a time travel element just muddied the waters too much, it's a plot point that cannot easily be done without serious plot holes and here are just a couple.
1. Considering how often they use phones, on all phones with any screen the first thing you see when you look at it is the current time and date, how they didn't click that it was a different time is beyond me.
2. A disaster on the scale of what happened in Itomori would be world news and would resonate in Japan for much longer, Taki should've witnessed it heck even felt it as it would likely cause a nation wide quake. There's no way he wouldn't know, the gap is only three years he wasn't that young when it happened.
The plot is so over complicated and melodramatic that the first half of the film quickly gets overshadowed by everything that happens in the second half, this only gets more noticeable and exhausting with every viewing.
Dubbing is fine, stick with Japanese for full effect.
Makoto Shinkai even said himself that the film was rushed and under funded, you can only imagine what could've been if he was allowed what he needed to finish it.
Final Verdict: A beautiful canvas like world let down by over complicated writing riddled with plot holes and melodrama.
