The Energon Pub

What is the most overrated anime around?

I choose Naruto, the plot isn't that inspirirng, I really don't like the characters, and further more I find it rather to be stale bread at best and flat out uninteresting.

I agree with you on Naruto.

Dragonball(+Spinoffs), Bleach, and similar series also tend to be grossly overrated as they are little more than endless posturing fests.

The same goes with Harem type Anime. They're funny the first time, but there is a limit to how many times the "geeky nerd, winds up living in a house full of hot girls" can be regurgitated without being sickening.

I agree also.Naroto (spelling) is so over ratted.I love seeing all the 20 year old slobs that go around wearing those dumb headbands that might as well read:I give up any attempts at finding a girlfriend

Gundam Wing and G Gundam.

I hate Wing because so many fansites give it much more exposure over the good series, like MS Gundam, or Zeta Gundam. I watched five episodes before not caring anymore. What the hell was going on? Five Gundams trashing stuff, but to what end? Don't watch this, go for the remake, Gundam 00.

Then there's G Gundam. I can't even begin to explain how much I hate this series. My three main problems are 1. A fighting tournament instead of an actual war, 2. Instead of Gundams being a massively powerful weapon compared to other suits, and also rare, Gundams are the standard, and everyone and their grandmother has one. And 3. Absolutely hideous Mobile Suit design.

Neon Genesis Evangelion. Eurgh. Twenty episodes before I gave up.

InuYasha. One major problem with this: It's a story dealing heavily with time travel, and yet it avoids one thing that every time travel story should do: Paradoxes! Ontological, predestination, Grandfather paradox, not even so much as a butterfly effect!

Wow, Shadowman. I'm inclined to disagree with you, though I did find your argument both reasonable and well-informed.

I enjoyed Evangelion. I was particularly intrigued by the heavy use of Judeo-Christian lore. I did find the entire series to be very heavy to at times difficult to watch, but to watch it in its entirety is a religious experience, as well it should be!

Inuyasha. You know, I didn't think I would like this one, but a friend of mine loves it. I guess part of its appeal is how long it has been running. You're right though, I too would like to see the time travel aspect in the spotlight. Although, the fact that they've avoided this does say a lot. It's really easy to make time travel your only major plot device. The threat of destroying the universe only works for two seasons (Beast Wars).

Ah yes, Gundam Wing. The same friend mentioned above (hitherto referred to as Flint) is obsessed with Gundam Wing almost as much as I am with TransFormers. He's made me sit through the entire series and Endless Waltz on several ocassions. I found most of the individual episodes cheesy and boring, but I found it all told a beautiful and sad story in the end. It should be noted that Flint's gay, and there's a lot of gay Gundam Wing fanfiction floating around on the net.

Having said all that, most annoying anime?
Dragonball, DBZ (never saw the others)

My ex got hooked on Inuyasha so I ended up watching it as well. My only major complaint about it was that it didn't have an actual ending.

Personally I think anything Dragonball is overrated. I didn't get into it all, didn't care for the character design, and didn't care for the story as well. The only entertainment I ever got from it was from watching it broadcast in spanish. Even then I could only stomach about 15 minutes of it.

I can see how Evangelion isn't everyone's cup of tea. For me it will always remain one of my favorite shows. Once you start analyling the story it gives you a lot to think about.

Dragonball Z: It was great when it came out, the animation is well done(since it's Akira Toriyama, this is obvious), but it's corny beyond corny.

Inuyasha: It's Dragonball Z for girls

Gundam Wing: Aside from the Tall-geese I & III, the only thing to come out of this series was pre-teen spandex wearing homosexual tension from a bunch of emo kids who for some reason were given Gundams, but ended up blowing them up on more than one occasion.

G Gundam: Aside from the Gundam designs and the names (Tequila Gundam pwns), this really was just Power Rangers: Tournament Fighter

Evangelion: Angels turned into robots to fight other angels who like to destroy crap for some reason. Also, relied heavily on the "we need chicks in spandex bondage gear" in order to sell another Mech anime.

Naruto: OK, first off, I do enjoy watching it. But it really is Dragonball Z: Jr

So, the general consensus that seems to be forming here is "Anything that's ever been shown on Cartoon Network."

Savage wrote:Ah yes, Gundam Wing. The same friend mentioned above (hitherto referred to as Flint) is obsessed with Gundam Wing almost as much as I am with TransFormers. He's made me sit through the entire series and Endless Waltz on several ocassions. I found most of the individual episodes cheesy and boring, but I found it all told a beautiful and sad story in the end. It should be noted that Flint's gay, and there's a lot of gay Gundam Wing fanfiction floating around on the net.

Anyone who wants to get into Gundam, listen to this: Don't Start With Wing. If you want to start, start with Mobile Suit Gundam (Also referred to as Gundam 0079, Gundam '79, First Gundam, or many other names), then move onto Zeta. From there it's your own move. I suggest ZZ Gundam, then Char's Counter Attack, (Which is a movie) but there's also Gundam X, Turn-A Gundam, and Gundam SEED. (SEED is a remake of 0079), Gundam 00 is exceptionally good, (It's what Wing should have been) but it's still got about a year before it's finished.

Savage wrote:Having said all that, most annoying anime?
Dragonball, DBZ (never saw the others)

Dragon Ball Z is very good, right up until you discover torrents, and then realize that there's so much anime out there that's so much better. Higher animation qualities, better storylines, better art, better characters. Then you go back to DBZ, because it's running on Cartoon Network again. And it's okay, it passes time until Adult Swim starts. But it's just not as good as it once was.

Naruto.

It takes forever to tell nothing, seriously the first "half" of Naruto could be surmised is about 3 lines. Surmising the same amount of Dragonball (from the beginning to Goku vs. Tien) would take alot longer than that.

One Piece is also a very slow moving series, yet it has characterisation and a decent plot.

Also not a fan of Love Hina and such, its the same story told in the first 3 or so chapters repeated over and over again. At least Ranma 1/2 made it somewhat different each time.

I used to like Gundam Wing, but then I realized that's what started the disease of fan-girl pairings. What began with that awkward music jam between Trowa and Quatre has led to Hannity & Colmes slash fiction, pretty soon were going to see fan pairings of myspace profiles.

Evangelion, along with most desconstructionist fiction, I loathe. I can't understand the appeal of taking the worst aspects about people and progressively making them worse; albiet if it wasn't for deconstructionism we wouldn't get reconstructionism and therefore wouldn't have had GaoGaiGar or TTGL.

By the worst offenders, by me are Bleach AND Naruto. I can't stand shows that force you to learn a whole new set of terminology just to understand the show. Dammit, I've got a Geology test in a week, and all I can think of is zanpaktou and chakras and all sorts of useless nonexistant trite. Dammit Japan.

i_amtrunks wrote:Naruto.

It takes forever to tell nothing, seriously the first "half" of Naruto could be surmised is about 3 lines. Surmising the same amount of Dragonball (from the beginning to Goku vs. Tien) would take alot longer than that.

I'll take that challenge!

Three ninjas-in-training take a mission to a very wet nation, where they beat a rouge ninja and his frighteningly effeminate, possibly gay sidekick.

They come back to take their exams, but then Orochimaru (Who is part of an actual Japanese legend) attempts to take the place over. He also has a disturbing obsession with Sasuke, who, even more disturbing, reciprocates that.

Also, their's a mysterious group called Akatsuki, who likes to kill things.

Okay, so far so good, now Dragon Ball:

Goku comes to Earth, only to kill his adoptive grandfather after basically turning into a were-ape.

He teams up with a blue-haired chick named Bulma to find the Dragonballs, which will grant the user one wish.

He also gets training from a hermit, who teaches him to harness his inner kickass, and also shoot lasers out of his hands.

uh...I've past the three-line mark here, so I'll condense it as best as I can: crazy imp named Pilaf, Red Ribbon Army, Dr. Gero, Androids (Which leads into both the Cell Saga in DBZ, as well as the Super 17 Saga in DBGT), some kind of cat thing, crazy mercenary guy, Power pole, flying cloud, and tri-clops with a weird midget sidekick.

And I missed a lot of stuff there.

i_amtrunks wrote:One Piece is also a very slow moving series, yet it has characterisation and a decent plot.

The 4Kids dub sucks, but that's to be expected. The FUNimation dub (Like everything they do) is kickass. I attribute this to Chris Sabat, (Zollo in One Piece, as well as Piccolo, Vegeta, and Yamcha in DBZ, and Alex Louis Armstrong in Full Metal Alchemist) who is pure awesome.

Dr Buffalo wrote:Hannity & Colmes slash fiction

Thanks, you just killed my hope for the future of humanity.

Don't blame me, blame Gaby53190 on devaintart.

I dont care for Naruto. I tried to get into it, but can't.

As a longtime One Piece fan, I cant honestly say the anime is overated. Besides, they finally started Thriller Bark arc yay! Yohoho!

Thanks for proving me right Shadowman!

Although I was going more for all of Naruto (since Shippuden is technically the 2nd half) took about 130 chapters. The same amount of time in Dragonball goes to the end of the King Piccolo Saga (so I was off a bit).

Even summarising DB as you did Naruto (3 ninja instead of names etc) would take far longer.

I have yet to hear Sabat's Zollo, but I hope he sounds different, his Vegeta, Piccolo and Yamcha (not to mention Zarbon) are all too similar sounding to my liking in the re-dubbed Saiyan and Namek arcs.

Shadowman wrote:InuYasha. One major problem with this: It's a story dealing heavily with time travel, and yet it avoids one thing that every time travel story should do: Paradoxes! Ontological, predestination, Grandfather paradox, not even so much as a butterfly effect!

Personally I just think of it as Kagome traveling into an alternate reality. I saw the series, thought it was cool, but the lack on an ending is kinda dumb. Hopefully they finish it up in an OVA someday.

As for Gundam Wing, I will never say anything really bad about it, as it was the first Anime' series I ever started watching, and my first introduction to the world of Gundam. However, upon a complete viewing of it years later, it turns out it wasn't as good as I though.

DBZ also hasn't aged that well(story and impact wise, animation still holds up), but it's still one heck of a fun series if watched in marathons. I wouldn't want to watch it on a once a week basis, that would be pretty annoying, specially since the Buu season exceeds 100 episodes.

G-Gundam I found to be very entertaining, but that's because I don't put it in the same category as other Gundam. It's flashy, it has crazy designs and fights, but it's pretty fun .

Ok, I can agree that Evangelion is a bit overrated. I can see some of the influence it had, but it's merely an ok anime' for me.

i_amtrunks wrote:I have yet to hear Sabat's Zollo, but I hope he sounds different, his Vegeta, Piccolo and Yamcha (not to mention Zarbon) are all too similar sounding to my liking in the re-dubbed Saiyan and Namek arcs.

It sounds like Piccolo, but a bit higher. Kind of like Yamcha trying to do an impression of Piccolo. It's actually really good, and it fits him well.

I really hope FUNimation takes on the parts of the series 4Kids did, and also the ENTIRE STORY ARCS 4Kids cut out.

I tried to get into Naruto...several times. I really did. I like how they got into the technical aspects of fights. Rock Lee, weird design aside, was also quite likable, partially because of his crazy, off-the-wall fights. (He becomes some kind of GOD OF DESTRUCTION when he's drunk) But I hated how, very quickly, fights degraded into drawn-out DBZ lengths.

Naruto and Bleach by far.

Gundam 00 I feel is also overrated, as well as Haruhi suzumiya no yuutsu.

G Gundam was a nice twist on the long lived Gundam genre and it was nice to see something new, I feel its more underrated rather than overrated.

Gundam Wing I also liked, but it on the other hand is very overrated.

Nekoman wrote:Gundam 00 I feel is also overrated, as well as Haruhi suzumiya no yuutsu.

Personally, I'm not ready to judge Gundam 00 yet. It hasn't hit the half-way mark, so it's still a bit too early to tell how it'll go. I'm still making prediction after prediction of who is going to turn out to be the Main Villain in the end.

Dragonball Z. Dragged on way too long. Seriously. We don't 47 episodes for namek to blow the hell up.

AutobotJazz wrote:Dragonball Z. Dragged on way too long. Seriously. We don't 47 episodes for namek to blow the hell up.

The only reason they did that is because Toriyama was writing the manga at the same time, and they had to stretch it out so they didn't get ahead of him.

That's why you wait until the series has finished!

Most Overrated-

Naruto- My asian friends swear buy it, I just can't get into it

Pokemon- ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Full Metal Alchamist- Just cause you put "Full Metal" in something doesn't mean it's good, once again, sworn by form my asian friends, it's just two whiny kids to me

That BoBo Show- Just, no

Inuasha- Any show that has people with cat ears, just needs to be erased, plus it's not that good.

Evangelion- Great story, but I don't think those guys liked to draw, seriously, there's a whole episode thats a picture of a cup and an ash tray.

DragonBall Z- I am a fan(looking forward to season 4 on the 19th), it's just to drawn out and with 7mins of recap footage per episode...

DeathNote- ughh, eat an apple and shut up!

The ones I like,

Gundam, yeah they're dragged out too, but it's always a great story, and well detailed wreckage.

One Piece- The cook, the Swordsman and the theme song make it for me, otherwise, I realy don't like the super deformed look.

Robotech- Come on, it's JetFire!!!

Scryed- Real underated, but great character development and awesome fights

Vampire Hunter D(the movies)- YEAH

I'm ending this with, yeah these more that I like, but realy alot more that I don't. Anime, back when it was "Japanamation"(I still have that catagory sign from BlockBuster), was something that was visualy stunning, with high levels of layered details. It's something some US series had in the 80s. However as it became cheaper to import and redub forien series, domestic animation sadly suffered and slipped which is sad because much of it had a charm all it's own.

The rising demand for new shows however also cause these once stunning imported shows to slip in quality too. They became simplified, with a more loony than serious feel, and even though well drawn, the levels in detail have slipped.

Some series try to remain true to these roots like Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy BeeBop, and so on...

However, demand, and computer automation, make this art to suffer.

Then again, truth be told, although I can apreciate it, I never realy cared for it. Even back in the day, splash backrounds and mouth movements got old quick.

I'd have to say Evangelion is like the most overrated anime ever. People went on about it so much, I bought a couple of videos of it to see what it was all about and I consider it one of the biggest wastes of 40 pounds (this was back when VHS was still the in thing).

Lately, I'd have to say Naruto and Bleach. I can't stand them. Then again, there's another one called DeathNote (I think?) that doesn't seem all that, either.

I've always prefered the animes that were made in the 80s and early 90s, myself.

I find that any anime that tries to take itself seriously or try to teach a moral lesson usually lends itself to sucktitude. After some heavy duty thinking, I have to wonder how Gundam Wing lasted on air as long as it did. Not just for boring plot reasons, but for the fact that it was aired early 2000-2003 and essentially follows the exploits of 5 TERRORISTS.

Optimus Convoy wrote:Then again, there's another one called DeathNote (I think?) that doesn't seem all that, either.

Death Note isn't an anime you can judge from the get-go. The entire situation changes quickly in a couple of episodes, and can change the entire face of the show. Starts out as horror, then it's detective, then it's romance/horror, then it's mafia, then it's espionage. Starts with J-punk rock, ends with scream-o metal. By the end of the series, giving it a specific genre takes quite a bit of thought.