Blog Talkback: Toons of the 2000s: Anime We Hope Never Come to America

School Days does deserve its position on the list. My anime club was going to show it this past semester, with one of the deciding factors being that the final episode traumatized our former club president. When the first episode was shown at the beginning of the semester, we were all immediately bored. Club leaders decided that all the club really cared about was the final episode, so the following week we watched the finale and replaced School Days on the schedule with Eden Of The east. The final episode, and its final several minutes, are crazy, insane, and was well received by the club. Yes, we saw it completely out of context, but we just wanted the money shots. We talked for minutes afterward in discussion of the scenes and the game itself. It's the series' only saving grace, much like Queen's Blade's ridiculous redefinition of what's tolerable on AT-X.
 
From what I remeraber...
One girl gets pregnant and announces it to the class. The guy breaks up with her, and decides to go with the other girl after the first one refuses to get an abortion. Pregnant girl kills him and then runs. Other girl finRAB the body, snaps, and tracks down/kills the first girl. She then SLICES OPEN the first girl's stomach to check her worab for evidence the girl was lying about being pregnant, and then flees in a boat with the guys SEVERED HEAD in her arms.
 
I am very aware that certain parts of the internet may want my head on a pike now. I also find that hilarious, especially since they think it's purely a moral thing. I gave glowing reviews to Gunslinger Girl, Strawberry Marshmallow and Koi Kaze. It's not the morality, it's the quality and intent. You can loli it up all day if you're really funny or genuinely dramatic, and the same goes for any other trope or fetish. However, when your fanservice can't get out of the way of the story and characterization when it counts, you're doing it wrong.



Thanks /a/!
 
Agreed - short and sweet.

I've cooled down since last night, but I'm still going to have to stick to my guns on this one. As a retrospective, it falls flat, because it's fixated on one (recent) trend that annoys you, but claims to represent a much larger topic. If your "5 greatest" included nothing but mecha or shounen beat-em-ups, you'd be getting the same reaction - if I don't happen to be as energized by this topic as you, there's literally nothing for me here.
 
School Days is actually free on Crunchyroll, though I won't say I recommend looking it up just for that last episode since one's time also carries value.
 
lol. When I saw this title, all I could think of was "School Days". And there it is on the list. =P

I really had to force myself through the series. The first few episodes were a total drag and really boring... And then the fanservice went way over the top. (It was really bad, IMO.)

Thankfully the amount of fanservice dropped towarRAB the end. And the last half was actually more entertaining. The very end, though, left me thinking "What?! Talk about over the top high school drama." Really, the characters must have been insane from the get go...
 
You know what, good. Their hate means that we are pretty much dead on correct.


You know I agree and I would have found it very difficult to overlook, but then Media Blasters had to go and license it.

Admittedly, School Days is not quite as severe a case...hence me wanting it at #5 and no higher. Still, I don't think uniqueness is enough. Innovating is great, but is it good if your innovations are maddening? I also found it a bit different type of entry from all of the moe stuff we took on.
 
Eh, Pilot and Happy aren't "Worst license" by far. One's an incomplete show while the other's yet another harem franchise.

You want really bad ones like MD Geist and whatever crap that's on Syfy's filler timeslots.
 
I don't mind the choices on this list. It's inevitable that people will disagree and make a big deal out of it. The big babies are the ones who can't take negative criticism.
 
I saw an episode of Bakemonogatari and I was left at something of a loss; I wasn't sure where it was going and what it was up to. Then I heard about production troubles later on, which didn't help my motivation to see any more of it. I may yet go back, but there's just so much new anime to try out that I haven't even touched....



Please don't be. I wasn't trying to make a criticism or draw any direct analogies, so my bad and sorry if you saw it that way. I was just trying to find the best example of something I've watched that has mature content that the harsher anonymous critics out there think I/we can't deal with.



That's fair, though I really would be interested to hear some other stuff that you think could have been on this. For my part I was racking my brain for stuff that wasn't a part of that trend, but it was tough to think of ones outside of it that were truly bad rather than merely disappointing.

Hmm, there's a discussion topic. How about it folks: what, if anything, could have deserved to be on this list that wasn't "skeezy"?
 
One: I would contend both are in fact that bad. Pilot Candidate's pacing is some of the worst ever in an anime (the fact the manga flows so much better is proof enough of that,) and Happy Lesson was easily one of the worst harems picked up this decade, especially since you can hold up so many shows as examples of how to atleast be funnier, if not more dramatic as well (to put it another way: Mike Toole and I are in agreement.)

Two: It'd be a top 10/5 bad pick ups from this decade since it's part of our round up of the past decade. MD Geist and the rest of the SyFiller is all stuff made in the 80-90s that was brought over to the in the 80s-90s. It's out of contention.
 
I agree with you, I was just wondering if it really was "bottom 5 worst of 2000s" calibre bad. Oh well. I honestly don't pay too much attention to the bad anime so I won't waste time splitting hairs over what anime is worse than another.
 
GW, go back to Bakemonogatari. I don't think you'll be dissapointed

(Though, yes, those production troubles show at times)
 
Its a fun list but... I think it would have been more fun and interesting to see bad shows that are bad for OTHER reasons you know? Its not like these shows don't deserve it but it would ahve been a more interesting exercise with more variety no?
 
Or just wait for the Blu-ray release, at this point. I wonder how it'll fare in the licensing arena. Probably not well if the most comparable Shaft productions are anything to go by.

--Romey
 
Truthfully, a lot of what might be considered worse made it over, oddly enough, almost exclusively because of Media Blasters. Queen's Blade, Eiken, etc. With Sentai picking up a bunch of the mediocre maid shows, the bottom of the barrel gets even thinner for unlicenced, horrible shows. A lot of faith has been put into "fanservice sells" in America, even though it doesn't if it's overpriced and/or poorly made.

I mean, I guess we could have traded it out for Sky Girls or Rizelmine, but the list is already 3/5 garbage loli titles. Plus, I atleast lol'd at Rizelmine. It knows it's messed up and runs with it for laughs. Messed up laughs, but rapid fire laughs. Sky Girls is sorta mute too since Strike Witches snuck over. The jarring rape and callous response from the male lead in Hand Maid Mai makes it a contender, but since the company that was making it went belly up, it can't come over, period.
 
I have never seen any of these shows, and have never heard of most of them, so I can't comment on agreeing or disagreeing. But it's certainly interesting!
 
Back
Top