The Virtues and Flaws of Anime You Enjoy or Dislike

A

acealmighty13

New member
This might be an interesting exercise and awesome discussion fodder.

We have shows we love. We have shows we hate. In a normal discussion, we tend to heap praise on a show we love and tear into a show that's terrible or too silly. Nothing wrong with that, it's perfectly normal. Yet at the same time many great shows have something that could improved. We think "man, if these things were change, it would be perfect!" Conversely many awful or silly shows may at least have a little redeeming virtue, and so one might think "man, if this had been done differently, it wouldn't suck!"

So here, the challenge is to think outside the box and look at your favorites and pet peeves with a critical eye. The rules are simple.
Choose any sort of anime. It can be a series or an OVA or a movie, it doesn't matter. Do this as often as you like with as many anime as you like.If you like it, list and discuss the things you like most about it. Obviously it's vice versa for something you hate. These details can be broad or specific, it doesn't matter. Maybe it's a character, maybe it's the plot at large, maybe it's the animation or music. Anything goes.Here's the trick. For every favorite strength or weakness, also single out and discuss a flaw or virtue respectively.Discussing and/or challenging the criticism and praise that others have to offer is fair game and highly encouraged.Just for even more emphasis, discussion is key. Please, please don't make this a list thread.Here's a very simple example to get everyone on the right track.

That's the basic idea. Have at it!
 
Kinda like an ANN review? Okay, I'll bite.

Gekijouban Dragonball Piece: The greatest meeting of Goku and Luffy

Strengths: It's the Z fighters and the Straw Hats coming together on screen. What else do you need
Weaknesses: Oh wait, it doesn't exist! Curse my daytime fantasies!



Okay now for real

Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn
Strengths:

One thing that I will never call this show is generic. Sure, the characters are a bit stale at times but who would have guessed that a show about a hitman baby training a wimpy kid to become a Mafia boss would involve flaming battles, hard-core weaponry, magic boxes with attacks inside and time travel. I mean, I never know what's coming next with this manga. And it's great too because the characters are very fun to watch and has a very nice level of character development. I also really like Tsuna as a character. (and Gokudera...and Yamamoto...and pretty much all the other good guys) He really annoyed me at the beginning. I mean, they played the "wimp" angle too much for him. So I am so glad that when the plot starts getting real, he gets his moments to shine. (Hyper Dying Will mode probably helps)

Another strength is it's fast pace (manga-wise. The anime is doing that filler thing). It has been moving very well. So much so that I figure that the time perioRAB in which they say the fights happen (as in maybe 4 hours, or "the last battle is tomorrow) I totally believe because it's just that well done.

Weaknesses:

This is a very hard sell in the beginning because of the dang Daily Life arc. While it was essential because it introduces most of the main players in the story, we are given incredibly stupid comedy moments (most of which being Tsuna being hit by the Dying Will Bullet) that would make people believe that it was a comedy anime. Which is funny because once the plot hits and the fights start, it never really looks back. Like you'll think "wasn't this pure comedy at one point" but not really be remerabering it. Which is good, it wasn't funny comedy anyway.

Another weakness is that the women in this show/manga are somewhat of an afterthought. Kyoko and Haru's (the main girls/love interests of Tsuna...well Kyoko is anyway, Haru is just nuts) main roles is to be "waiting with food." Seriously, in the anime filler, most of the time all they'll be doing is cooking food. Chrome isn't really any better as even though she's one of the main Guardians, it seems that every fight she's in, she enRAB up in tentacles for some reason. Bianchi is pretty cool but she only fought like once and is really there for moral support. All the other girls are pretty minor and I know this is nothing new for shounen manga/anime but can they have them doing something? Therefore, I am forced to come to the conclusion that Reborn was supposed to be a shounen-ai cleverly disguised as a shounen manga.
 
Yeah, when exactly do the comedy chapters end anyway?, im always hearing about how Kick ass this series is, but every time i try to pick up the manga i just cant get through all the lame comedy chapters in the beginning. Im about to just skip them all together (but i dont know when they end).
 
Literally page 1 of chapter 62. The plot hits and goes straight shounen from there.

In the anime it's episode 19/20
 
A delusional fantasy? But GWO, what about True Odyssey/MS Saga?

Well, let me go not a stone's throw away:

Gundam 00

Pro: Very strong objective narrative, providing a range of view points and encouraging the viewer to think themselves.

Con: Arguably, season 2 goes against this. Let's bring in a more bland, traditional Gundam band of mustache twirlers! I'm kind of suprised A-Laws didn't just tie Marina to the train track..
 
Now for an anime I hate. In fact, the anime I hate the most

Dragonaut: The Resonances

Strengths:
-It's.....got semi-semi-consistent animation?
-The CGI is....tolerable?
-Oooh here's one. The dub is good. Yeah, that's it.
-Oh another good one. The theme song is very good. I like the beat and it makes for good listening when you just want something nice to hear

Well enough of that noise

Weaknesses
Soooo many. So many but I'll highlight the ones that stick out....by quoting an earlier forum post!

And hopefully, I've saved another soul from watching this.
 
Oooh my favorite kind of thread for stuff that only I can like, so I'll do one that is actually sort of notorious; Glass Fleet.

General impression: I enjoyed it, but in the same way I enjoyed Deep Blue Sea. It's definatly a 'snakes on a plane' sort of an anime.

Strengths:

Character designs. That's right, you heard me. I don't know what was being passed around at Gonzo when they developed these characters but they're some of the craziest character designs you'll ever see. One piece's character designs have got nothing on some of the incidental characters in this show, hell, even the nameless mooks are pretty elaborately designed.

Now, I'm not saying they're always, you know, good looking, but they're always intresting and there's never that problem of not being able to tell two people appart.

The Dub is pretty excellent too and honestly, it would have to be for me to watch the thing all the way through. The characters have to say some pretty stupid lines sometimes and if they hadn't been well delivered it just wouldn't have worked. The addition of melodrama to some of the more retarded lines really sells it as something that knows it's being way more serious than it has any right to be.

Now, say what you like about the story telling and I'll probably back you up, but I quite liked the actual story. Granted, the telling of it was... Bad, most of the time, but if you extract the elements of it and the main themes which are, 'Even when the universe it's self is in danger of blowing it's self up, people are generally more likely to fight amongst themselves for petty and personal reasons rather than actually deal with the problem and save everybody'. That's the overal theme of the piece and it's a pretty poignant and inciteful theme at that. Horribly told, but good story.

Finally, some of the characters really make it worth watching, if only to see what crazy stuff they'll pull next. Vetti and his entourage fall into this category. They almost single handedly carry the show through the first season but in season two, the extra 1-2 episode characters start to flesh out the cast a bit and there are a good 2-3 episodes that are actually approaching good for reasons totally un narm related.


Weaknesses:


Haha, where to start.

It's definatly animated by Gonzo's C team. It's colourful and a lot of the artwork is pretty good but oh god, the CG is terrible and the animation is so choppy it makes you think the DVD player is lagging. It isn't. It's just bad animation with a couple of exceptions like during some of the better choreographed sword fights but whenever fighting isn't happening and even often when fighting is happening... Pretty bad animation.

I made mention about the story telling being bad. Well, that's definatly not a strength. It likes to go on these huge expositionary tangents which rarely have any payoff, the People's Army is so liberally filled with fail in all respects one wonders how they ever managed to organise in the first place. The political manuverings are so adolescant and tacked on in places and the main characters are so badly written and have such horrible dialogue that you frequently find yourself wonder just exactly what it is that makes the other more intelligent characters in the show follow them.

And I couldn't very well not mention the anime physics failure. I've seen some bad examples in my day but oh god, Glass Fleet takes the cake. Right in the first episode you get loaRAB of examples of people going out into space without any protection whatsoever and then you'll have thier hair get tossed by a breeze as they monologue internally... Ok fine, this is clearly an alternate universe, maybe there's just air in space here, like that Voyager episode with the species 8472 thing (Yes, I'm a giant nerd, shut up). Oh no, things will still explosivly decompress if the bridge bulkhead gets breached by a huge penis looking space ship. Nope, Glass Fleet just fails miserably at physics. And let's not even mention the gravity, how they'll just stick to hull of the ship naturally as they walk around on the hull IN DEEP SPACE WITH NO SPACE SUITS ON. Isaac Newton would be rolling in his grave if he could see that.

And finally... Oh I could choose anything but I'll go with the opening and ending themes. The soundtrack for the show, while nothing stellar, is at least sort of fitting with orchestral stuff sort of fiting the sword and sandal epic IN SPACE kind of mood... But for the opening and ending we're treated to this horrible J-Pop garbage that is a) bad and b) totally incongruous with the rest of the soundtrack.
 
Gurren Lagann

General Opinion: Favorite Anime Ever

Pros

* Surprisingly good storyline and characters.
* One of the only anime to actually get an emotional response out of me.
* Amazing action sequences that actually make the act of gaining new powers at random work.
* Never sticks to a formula, and constantly evolves over the course of the series.
* Wide range of mechanical design styles keep everything looking fresh.
* Does a great job of handling the corabing mecha concept with dynaimc transitions, actually keeping the two corabined for long stretches, and having the individual parts (or at least Lagann) be useful on their own.

Cons

* Focus on humor and fanservice in the early episodes can turn off some before the story gets rolling. People who like the humor in the early episodes might be turned off by the change in tone.
* Episode 4, which suffers from terrible animation and odd writing choices. Made worse by introducing an important character, thus making it hard to skip for a first time viewing.
* Episode 6, which brings the humor and fanservice levels to rediculas levels.
* Episode 16, which is just a recap episode.
 
One Piece

General Opinion: I love it.

Pros

* An expansive setting filled with imagination
* The story's pace allows for growth in that world and all characters to shine without the plot for a story arc coming to a complete halt in pacing.
* The story has a bunch of exciting twists and turns, and also heartwarming moments as well.
* A balanced cast of characters that all serve a purpose, most having good characterizations, despite not changing throughout the whole series (though they mature in small ways)
* The first anime to make me laugh like a 12 year old...in a looooooong time.
* A look all its own
* The music is great. They aren't afraid in adding classical pieces to enhance some scenes, like the finale of Luffy v. Crocodile
* The action won't fail to keep you at the edge of your seat.
* It is consistent.

Cons

* It can be a little formulatic and predictable, and at some points, repetitive.
* The art style can deter people for it's over-the-topness
* Some story arcs can be a bit dragged on, like Alabasta and Skypeia.
* A good nuraber of females get a lot of sob stories, which kind of contributes the redundancy, but it's far from the worst cast of female characters
* Some humor can be repetitive.
 
I like the idea behind this thread. I'll do a series that I like first and then one I don't like.

DN Angel

Strengths: I've always loved listening to the music in this series, especially the opening theme. It works quite nicely with the wonderful background. The character designs are pretty good as well. Even though it's fairly different from the manga, I prefer the way the anime series handled the storyline. I like the way Daisuke slowly developed over the course of the series. I also thought that the finale was well done.

Weaknesses: Even though it's enjoyable series, the first half of the series doesn't feel nearly as interesting as the second half. It felt like it kind of dragged on, especially starting from episode five. I also felt like we didn't get to see enough of Dark before the finale. He's an awesome thief, but it would have been nice to have equal attention between him and Daisuke during the course of the series. Similarly, it would have been nice to see a a couple of fights between Dark and Krad before the finale. There fights in episode twenty-four and the finale were fine, but it might have been nice to see more. Risa was also a bit too annoying for my taste up until after Dark told her that he couldn't see her anymore.

Now, for a series, or really an OVA, that I don't like.

Fushigi Yugi Eikoden

Strength: Let's see. It was awesome to see an older Tasuki since he's my favorite character in this series. The fights against most of the fake goRAB were decent. I also like seeing Miaka and Taka finally married, even though Miaka was in coma for most of the OVA. The ending with the birth of their child was pretty cute.

Weaknesses: Mayo is completely unlikeable. While the whole lonely teenage girl having a crush on her teacher is an understandable phase, Mayo just comes off as a brat in this OVA. Even though Taka is happily married, she still tries to make it that she is with him when they're in the Universe of the Four GoRAB. I know she was caring Miaka's baby, which also never really made any sense, but it was really weird that everyone, even the people she treated like dirt, was so worried about her when she was disappearing. The fact that they made it like Miaka planned to give Mayo her baby from the start and that Mayo never didn't anything wrong was a horrible choice. Everything that didn't involve Mayo was at least decent.

While I understand why they wanted to give focus to a different girl after Miaka had gone through so many adventures, I also think taking a fairly likable character and replacing her with a brat was a terrible mistake. If Mayo had more likable features, it might have work. I also didn't like how they handled her development. It felt really rushed and it didn't work for me.

While I liked seeing the remaining Suzaku Warriors trying to find all of the new forms of their fallen warriors, they did find them way too soon. They just found one warrior, maybe had a brief interaction/adventure with them and look for the next one. Maybe if they had another couple of episodes, it would have worked better. I also would have liked to have seen an older Amiboshi, but I think that they had to cut that out for time. This OVA could have work if there was at least two more episodes and made an actual likable female lead, if Miaka had to be out of the action.
 
I'm going to bump this and start making my own comments. Hopefully some more will be encouraged.

Record of Lodoss War (OVA)
General opinion: A masterpiece. I freaking love this. It's in my personal top ten list for anime.

Strengths:

1. Aesthetics. This is a 1990 OVA, but Lodoss War's art and design is marvelous. Whether it's a massive battle or a calm scene, the quality of the work doesn't diminish at all. I love the detail. Madhouse is awesome.

2. Story. Parn's growth to manhood is typical, and really Lodoss War has all the obligatory fantasy stuff. Heroism, magic, dragons, and a menacing antagonist in the black knight Ashram. Heck, Parn even inadvertently rescues a princess in one episode. Although, I should say that a certain big battle ended surprisingly. All this is to say that while in terms of story Lodoss may not be unorthodox, it tells its sword & sorcery tale so well that you won't mind. For my money, it's also the most arabitious and epic fantasy story in animation twenty years after the fact. I'm not sure whether this says more about Lodoss Wars' quality or the deficiencies of the fantasy genre in Japan (and our apparent unwillingness to animate our own fantasy fiction). In any event though, it's a laudable achievement.

3. Characters. Not everyone is a triumph, but Lodoss succeeRAB where it counts. Parn and Deedlit are good characters and compliment each other well, though Deed has to get over her elf pride in the early going. Ghim was a good foil to Deed and an early mentor to Parn, Kashue is a demonstration of what it really means to be a manly anime character. Parn's other allies don't stand out as much, but they're at least respectable.

Weaknesses:

1. Some characters aren't used too well. Woodchuck the thief is basically comic relief until he meets an unexpected fate close to the end. Wagnard is also reduced to a standard crazy enemy villain pretty quickly thanks to Kardis' influence. Orson and Shiris are more prominent in the inferior TV series, but here they feel more like late additions. These are small issues, but they're there.

2. Hey, Wort? Mr. Wort sage sir, one of the legendary six heroes? It's cool that you're providing the viewer with lots of exposition, but don't you think you could have done a little more during that entire mess?

3. In the ending, the events that lead to Parn's one-on-one showdown with Ashram are a little too convenient and contrived. Mind you, I have no problem with how the story went, but there was arguably a better way to occupy Parn's frienRAB than random monsters. Again, a minor thing.
 
Great thread!

Neon Genesis Evangelion

General Opinion: Great show.

Strengths:

1. The characters are explored emotionally and pyschologically, and they're realistic. Which is a big bonus, and I'm sure if you were in Shinji's situation, you would whine twice as much as he did.

2. The plot is very heavy, but it REALLY makes you think, and it's not just a typical action show, it features pyschology, religious undertones, and sci-fi.

Weaknesses:

1. Animation isn't exactly good. It has nice backgrounRAB, but it doesn't flow too well. The last 2 episodes are even more proof.

2. It can be a bit depressing, but that could be a good thing, I guess. :P

3. It is extremely confusing.
 
Dragon Ball Animation as a whole
General Opinion: Smells like nostalgia!

Pros:

The Music: Shunsuke Kikuchi is a master at creating emotionally powerful scenes with his music, as well as quaint, cute, and/or threateningly dark and ominous scenes. Kikuchi uses the films are opportunities to create grander themes that he can recycle into the series (hello, Dragon Ball Z movies one, two, three, et cetera). Kikuchi also captures an incredibly nostalgic feel with his warm and often wuxia-inspired themes.

The Cast: Lord knows I've praised the Japanese versions cast to no end, so I'll keep it short. The cast is made up of the All-Star veterans of the industry, many of them having been born in the thirties, fourties, and fifties, so that by the mid-eighties when they began Dragon Ball they were all very experienced. Despite coming in every week to do zillions of stuff a week the quality never suffered, and only improved. Even in mono that sounRAB like the pitts, the acting is never stifled and the series is always emotional. Hearing the gang come back together for the Table special was amazingly incredible after eleven years of no new content. Recording must have been so much fun. Speaking of specials, I'm still waiting for an R1 release of those Safety specials, damn it!!

Animation: Dragon Ball actually did have some good animation, even outside of the films. Gok
 
I'll do one of these before homework and dinner:

Haibane Renmei
General Opinion: Positive

Positives:
-One of a handful of anime from the early 00's to make a slower pace actually work. Rather than scenes that were simply dragged out or monotonous with out reason, the direction was intensely deliberate from start to finish.
-Superb characterization. Not only were the characters very well-developed, they also managed to go places the viewers wouldn't have guessed from the initial episodes.
-Outstanding setting. Rather following tropes to the letter, Haibane has a world like no other in anime*.
-Unique design choices. Yoshitoshi ABe not only delivered on a very complete and realized setting, it's backed by a very explicit use of sedate and muted colors. Other shows have aped that at points since, but nothing has stuck like Haibane.
-Great music. Again, a lot of shows from the early 00's tried to use very new age/tribal/choral scores, but Haibane is one of a handful where it actually fit and harmonized with the show.

Negatives:
-*=It owes a massive debt Haruki Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World, though to be fair, a lot of the good existentialist anime from that era owe a huge debt to Murakami: he was exceedingly influential.
-It was very low budget and the animation doesn't hold up in the slightest a lot of the time. Cheap digital pans don't distract that often, but not by not being completely low-grade (like NieA_7) nor completely high-grade (like Texhnolyze,) there are some moments where the shift can jar the viewer.
-Clearly set up for another season, even though it has no need for one per se, yet...
-It doesn't fully resolve it's mysteries. Sure, the existentialist and moral questions it seems to throw out get resolved, but ultimately, we're never directly told much of anything about some of the big questions - it's all inferred, and while I have to admit I like that, a lot of people can't parse it.
 
So its basically a Pros & cons type thing (in our openions that is)..OK...I'll do the SJ big 3.

Bleach

Pros
- Intersting characters
-fun fights
-Great female cast (except for Orihime)

Cons
- Horrible Filler
-Diluded story
-Orihime

Naruto

Pros
-Fun characters
-Tobi
-Interesting story
-Neat fight scenes
-Adaquate filler

Cons
-Horrible Pacing in the 1st season of shippuden
-Sauske
- Not so good Movies

One Piece

Pros
-Creative Art
-Had the best start
-creative characters

Cons
- Fail from grace the fastest
- Boring Long drawn out arcs (alabasta, skypia)
- Worst Female cast-fanservice fodder

and that in my openions are the best & worst qualities of the big 3.
 
Azumanga Daioh

General Opinion: One of my top favourite anime of all time.

Strengths:
-Strong, well-established, and unique characters.
-Whimsical and sweet to the point that it's endearing...
-...While at the same time very energetic, hyper, and hilarious.
-Exceptionally memorable art style and catchy music.

Cons:
-Not for everybody.
-TenRAB to drag at times.
-The humour can be a bit slow.
-Mr. Kimura. On a rather whimsical show he seems so out of place.
-Will probably have to watch it a second time before you start to appreciate it.

I'll think of more sometime soon.
 
...It shouldn't be a surprise as to what show I have picked.

Code Geass


Pros:
This show takes the classic opressed fighting the oppressor plot and gave it life. Lelouch himself is perhaps one of the best protagonists to come along. The first season does a fantastic job in getting the viewer hooked through all of the characters. The mystery surrounding Geass are intriguing, and nothing really happens without a reason. It's also great to see Lelouch juggle student life and being Zero. While Charles is barely seen in the first season, it is enough to give us a reason to hate the jerk. In the meantime, his children do a fine job at giving Zero a hard time.

Season 2 offers perhaps some of my favorite moments with Lelouch. In China when Lelouch saves Xingke and the Tianzi as well as when he makes his attack on Charles after losing everything. Not to mention we finally see a bit of resolve in Suzaku. His Knight of Zero outfit was pretty darn snazzy, as well as his entrance. Lastly, I thought the ending for Code Geass was perfect. Arabiguity is a specialty, and CC closing everything off was just how I would expect things. Not to mention it was rather shocking to see Lelouch's end, but great that he planned so far ahead. Speaking of CC, her past was pretty tragic. She was naive, seflish girl that got stuck in a situation because of those faults. In the end, her relationship with Lelouch was one of my favorite parts in the series.

Cons:
For the first season, the middle drags just the slightest bit. It almost felt as though the writers were stalling for time. Not enough for the viewer to lose interest, but enough to make you want to get to the next part. Also I think Shirley got a bit too much focus. Sure, it was a vital moment when Lelouch found out he killed her father, but in the end she was just a bit too obnoxious for me. Other than that, I'd say the first season is pretty top notch.

The second season is a bit lower for a couple of reasons. One of which would be the Knight of RounRAB. Upfront the idea sounded fantastic. Who else would give OOtBK a run for their money? However, it enRAB up kind of failing when none of them get developed properly, and in the end get taken down rather easily. I mean...Monica didn't even have a custom mech and yet she is a Knight? Lame. The first half of season 2 also made me want to punch Suzaku. He just acts so arrogant and smug, despite being a traitor. He finRAB his way in the end, but boy did it take way too long. Also, while I didn't mind the school episodes...it got to a point where they really needed that time to be developing other characters/furthering the plot. Oh, and lastly Kallen kind of fell to the sidelines...ah well. Also, I really couldn't bring myself to truly feel for Shirley. Lelouch's actions were good, but her death was just a bit too random. I won't even get started on Rolo...

Overall Impression:

Despite the problems in season 2 the show in general is very enjoyable. The dynamic between the characters is great and the conflict is believable. I'll also note that I enjoyed how Lelouch didn't win every battle so easily. He lost quite a few, but in the end it made him a better person. He realized that he was being selfish wanting to create a world for Nunally...he had to create a world everyone could enjoy.

Oh, and Soundmonkey...I have to wonder, what makes the female cast in Bleach so great?
 
Future GPX Cyber Formula (I'm including the 37 episode TV series and its 4 OVA sequels Double One (6 episodes), Zero (8 episodes), SAGA (8 episodes), and SIN (5 episodes)

Pros:

-Excellent car designs, courtesy of Shoji Kawamori, and excellent character designs also, especially in SAGA and SIN
-Characters themselves are also interesting
-Has a sense of realism for car racing
-Animation quality improves, especially for the last two OVA's
-SAGA has one of the best shower scenes in anime
-Race scenes are fantastic and insane
-Makes some parallels with Formula One (at the time the anime was being made)

Cons:
-Beginning of TV series starts off like a mix of a beginning of a mecha series with a little bit of Speed Racer mixed in, but it later goes into its own direction
-Focuses on a few drivers, specifically ones that are important for the plot or development of other characters, but the other drivers don't receive much development, especially interesting ones such as Franz Heinel and Jackie Gudelhian

Pro/Con (Depending on opinion):
-Directer is Mitsuo Fukuda who later did Gundam SEED (Cyber Formula was his directing debut,and there are some moments in the franchise that were carried over to Gundam SEED)

General Opinion: This is an underrated, but fantastic anime, especially for those who are racing fans.
 
I don't know. I always figured that boys that go through the same thing as him would be more rebellious moreso than whiny. At least that's the excuse I've been hearing lately about teenage boys who grew up without much of a father figure. "shrugs" Can't say I'd be one of those whiners if I went through a situation similar to him though.

Anyway

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex/ 2nd GIG

General Opinion: Best anime I've seen so far

Positives

Animation - Most of the time when people say something along the lines of "________ has great animation", I usually get my hopes up and compare it to this (even though it may not be fair). Anyway, for the most part the animation remains consistent throughout the series. Fights/gun fights were smooth and crisp.

Characters - I like the cast. I found none of the characters to be annoying at all, although I do feel like some could've been exploited a little more.

Plot - It's an extremely detailed series, and I've never been a fan of politics, but this series made it / kept it interesting enough for me to follow.

Cast - The dub is great. I don't know how the sub sounRAB but I don't think I'd care to hear it now after hearing the dub.

Negatives

Extremely chatty - It can be a turn off for some. Personally, I have no issues with it as long as it can keep me intrigued.

Characters - Like I said, I found no one to be annoying at all, but none of them outside of Batou and Motoko (and possibly Togusa) comes off as exciting either. I can understand if people found majority of the cast to be on the boring side.

Think I'll tackle some shonen next since I have a lot to say about those.
 
Bleach

General opinion...a decent shonen anime,one of my current favorite TV shows...

Pros....

*Funny...and due to the fact that alot of the humor is slapstick or visual,there isn't much "lost in translation"...

*For the most part,a likeable cast of characters (there are a few I find annoying,but there's far more that I do like)...

*Interesting fights...a must for a series like this...

* It has a great dub,IMO...

*The filler's not too bad,from what I've seen...Sure,the "Bount arc" could've been done better,but I don't think it's as bad as it's made out to be...

Cons....

* The anime likes to promote Ichigo X Rukia,a pairing that does not exist in the original manga (and even Tite Kubo,the creator of the manga,has said their relationship is platonic...it's like the guy has no say in the adaption of his own work)...What makes it really ridiculous is that both characters already had a perfectly valid love interest in the original manga(and Kubo keeps hinting at both of these pairings to this day,most recently in a colored "New Years Eve" type picture of the main cast),if Pierrot wanted to add romance so badly...

* TOO....MANY....CHARACTERS!!!!....Admittedly,this is also a problem with the manga (it seems that whenever Kubo's stuck for ideas,he adRAB more characters)...Frankly,I think the series would be better if it stuck to Ichigo's main team (himself,Rukia,Orihime,Chad Uryu,and Renji),snd kept the rest as side characters,cameos,or villains...

*Humans get left out....Orihime,Chad and Uryu have only been in the movies briefly(the first two anyway,haven't seen the third,but from what I know of it,they're probably ignored again),presumably because the "Soul Reaper" characters are more popular....

*Inconsistant animation....It's understandable in a way,seeing as it's a weekly show,but unless it's an important scene/fight the animation quality fluctuates alot....Some episodes have fairly good animation,while others have characters go badly off-model every other scene (I remeraber alot from the Bount Arc was like this..it's like the animators were half-asleep)...
 
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