Tuesday, January 20, 2015

My top 6 favorite animes...because I'm SO indecisive!

Hi everyone! Yes, I'm back so soon! Did you miss me? It's been a whole few hours! Hehe. I decided to put this up quickly so that you will have a legit first post (my other two don't really count much) to read! Today I will be discussing my top 6 favorite animes (because I can't choose just 5). This is in no particular order.

                                                 1. Sailor Moon




This was the first anime I ever watched, I have watched it since I was a little kid further back than I can recall. I am a huge fan of it, it is very dear to my heart. I remember running home from the bus stop that I would get dropped off at after school every day to catch it at 4:00 on Toonami. I'm pretty sure I ended up falling and rolling down the hill I live on quite a few times but Sailor Moon was worth it! 

I literally cried when I heard that it was making a comeback, I had waited SO many years to have my beloved show back. I'm so happy to have it back as well as to have Sailor Moon Crystal ( I can write about that show too if anyone is interested).

Sailor Moon is an anime based on the manga by Naoko Takeuchi. It's about a young girl named Usagi (Serena if you watched the 90s DIC dub) who comes across a talking cat named Luna. Luna reveals to Usagi that she is Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon along with her friends of the Sailor Senshi (or scouts) uses her powers of love, justice and the moon to defeat their evil enemies, protect the moon, and the earth. It is the essential magical girl show and truly started the craze.

There are 5 different seasons or series to Sailor Moon, they are:
  • Sailor Moon
  • Sailor Moon R
  • Sailor Moon S
  • Sailor Moon Super S
  • Sailor Moon Sailor Stars
Each season has its own villains and storylines. What I love so much about this show is it isn't a typical "damsel in distress" show. In this show, the women are the strong ones! Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Moon's boyfriend and "super hero" friend to the senshi usually is the one that has to be saved. He is kidnapped or captured at least a few times and the girls have to save him. Tuxedo Mask also doesn't always interfere; he many times has stood on the sidelines giving Sailor Moon the encouragement to realize that she does have the strength to get out of a bind on her own.

Sailor Moon pushes girl power, that friendship is worth more than gold, that it's ok to be different, to stand against discrimination and to fight for what you believe in.


                                              2. Black Butler

 


I fell in love with this show at the very first episode, the very first time I watched it. It is based in Victorian London (which I have a major obsession/love for). Black Butler or Kuroshitsuji is based on the manga by Yana Toboso. It is about a young orphaned earl named Ciel Phantomhive. He is the queen's guard dog. He has the job of solving macabre mysteries that the queen would rather have cleaned under the rug. His butler who also happens to be a demon that he made a contract with named Sebastian Michaelist assists him.
This show has so much that I love. It has the Victorian setting, which is a time period I have always been fascinated with. It has a beautiful gothic design. It also has a horror element. A lot of the storyline is dark and deals with the occult, such as demons, cult sacrifices, ghosts and Jack the Ripper. There is also a good deal of comedy to balance everything out.

Black Butler has 3 Seasons: Black Butler, Black Butler 2 and Black Butler: Book of Circus. The second season unless you truly enjoy the show isn't really worth watching. It has nothing to do with the over all plot and wasn't even in the manga. Many fans despise it. Season 3 also ignores everything from season two, leaving the poor anime only fans very confused. I do have to point out there are subtle yaoi undertones here (and I love it!). Yana was originally going to publish the manga as a yaoi, but her publishers would not let her thinking it wouldn't sell. She actually does make her own yaoi doujinshi (fan made manga) and from what I've heard sells them at conventions. Way to stick it to the man, Toboso-sama! 

I do read and keep up with the manga, it is my favorite manga. I really hope they develop more story arcs into anime. Book of Circus stayed very true to the manga.


                                               3. Sword Art Online



The show that everyone loves to hate! As a heads up, please don't comment about how much you hate this show. I really don't care.

Sword Art Online is based on the light novel series by Reki Kawahara. It is about a boy named Kazuto Kirigaya who is known by his username Kirito. He is a beta tester for the virtual reality game called Sword Art Online. He enters the game on the first day it is online to the public and realizes something startling: he can't log out! The gamemaker has trapped every single player in Sword Art Online. They can not log out and if they die in the game, they die in real life. Although Kirito is a die hard solo player, him along with his friends Asuna (Also his eventual girlfriend), Klein, Liz, Agil and the many people they meet along the way must beat the game to free everyone before it's too late.

I love this show so much, it has a lot of action but also some romance and a little comedy. The characters do have layers to them. It also has a beautiful and kickass soundtrack. I love the whole Sword Art Online world - the whole sort of medeival setting where you fight monsters with swords. I'm a sucker for a good sword fight.

I also love that SAO has strong female characters. Asuna is one of my favorite anime characters of all time. She fights for herself and is a badass at it! She isn't always hiding or waiting for a man to save her. She's even had to save Kirito before. I do however dislike what they did to her in the 2nd half of season 1, about Alfeim Online. They turned her into the damsel in distress. I really wish they had done the opposite and made Kirito the damsel.

There are 2 (technically 3) seasons of SAO - Sword Art Online and Alfeim Online (AKA the fairy arc) are both in season 1, but feel like two seperate seasons. Then there is Sword Art Online II, which features the Gun Gale Online arc, the Calibur arc and Mother's Rosario.

I do in fact read the light novels! I am currently on volume 9, Alicization Beginning. These books are amazing and even better than the anime. If a lot of the haters (especially the ones bitching about Kirito and Asuna's relationship being rushed) read the books, they wouldn't whine so much!


                                 4. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood



Pretty much every big anime fan has seen some form of Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the re-do of the original anime, Fullmetal Alchemist. The original FMA anime veered drastically from the plot of the manga, so Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was born! It's based on the manga by Hiromu Arakawa, the whole point of the show was to do what FMA didn't...follow the plot of the manga! I haven't read the manga but I've heard it follows it to a T. 

FMA: Brotherhood is about two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric. Their beloved mother died when they were young boys, so Ed decided to use Alchemy to try to bring her back. In this show, Alchemy is the art of magic combined with science to manipulate and alter matter using energy. However, Ed failed drastically. Alchemy law calls for equal exchange and it is taboo to try to bring the dead back to life. Ed looses an arm and a leg in the process and Al losses his body. Ed happens to bind Al's soul to a suit of armor just in time.

As a result of the tragedy, Ed becomes a state alchemist to use his talent to help his and Al's quest to find the philosopher's stone to get their original bodies back.

This show is a masterpiece. The artwork is beautiful and so much better than the original FMA. When watching this show, it feels like you are watching a movie. It has such a rich plot as well as a fantastic score.


                                               5. Hellsing Ultimate 

 

 

     "The bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame."

Hellsing Ultimate is like FMA: Brotherhood, another show doing what the original failed to do. Hellsing Ultimate follows the manga plot, by Kouta Hirano. It is a 10 episode (all episodes being about an hour long) OVA series.

Hellsing Ultimate is about the Hellsing Organization, which keeps England safe from supernatural threats. The Hellsing Organization is headed by Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing (who is a woman, despite being called sir) and she has a deadly tool - Alucard the rogue bloodthirsty vampire. She also has the badass police girl - turned vampire (by Alucard), Seras Victoria. In Hellsing Ultimate they fight their threat of the Millennium Organization  - a group of Nazis that transforms humans into vampires and their leader is obsessed with war, wanting war just for no other reason than to have a war.

This show is another masterpiece. Each episode is like a movie. It has so much horror in it. Very gory, which I love! Though is has very disturbing moments involving rape (I luckily was warned and able to look away from such scenes). This is the perfect show to any idiot that believes anime is just for kids. Alucard is a very badass character that is not to be messed with. He is also a sexy beast voiced by (the swoon-worthy vocal talent of) Crispin Freeman. I had always liked the original Hellsing, as soon as I saw this on Toonami I was in love. Right after Christmas I got myself volumes 1-8 (just need 2 more!!).

                                               6. Code Geass

 

 

Code Geass (or rather Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion) is about a teen named Lelouch Lamperouge. He is a Brittanian prince in hiding in a place called Area 11 (formerly Japan), after his mother was assassinated. His real name is Lelouch Vi Brittania. Brittania invaded Japan and surpessed the Japanese people forcing them to live in poverty while they live a grand lifestyle (Hunger Games anyone?).

Lelouch had become very bored of his life and not only wants to do something meaningful but he is tired of what the Brittanian Empire has done. He wants to make the world a better place for his blind and disabled sister, Nunnally. As well as find out who killed their mother and take revenge on them.

On one of his gambling trips he stumbles upon C.C. (or C 2), who gives him the power of Geass. With this new power, Lelouch can command anyone to do whatever he wants. He uses this power to become Zero and starts a rebellion against Brittania. He has to juggle school, his secret identity as Zero and keep his best friend Suzaku, a member of the Brittanian military from discovering who he truly is.

This show is another masterpiece. It is very grand and has a rich plot which is extremely well written. It has a lot of suspense and action. It has a season two called Code Geass R2, but the first season is highly superior. In my fangirl mind I like to imply slight yaoi undertones between Lelouch and Suzaku, I love that  pairing.




Wow that was a long post! I hope you enjoyed it though ^_^! Would anyone else like to see 4-5 more of my favorite animes? Seriously, there are a lot I love.


Anyone watching this season's winter anime? I'm watching Sailor Moon Crystal, Tokyo Ghoul, Durarara 2 and Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! (AKA the magical boys anime). I also really want to check out Death Parade, but I haven't gotten to it yet. It's kind of nice not to be watching a ton...I watched so many (for me anyway) over the summer O___O. 

If you liked that post, want me to review anything else mentioned in this post or simple just want to talk to me, please leave a comment below! ^_^ <3 

xoxo
 Moon prism power makeup! 

No comments:

Post a Comment