What is your favorite "almost" anime?

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Okay, "almost" anime is a really broad and ambiguous term so let me clarify. By "almost" anime, I mean a non-japanese cartoon that resembles anime whether it be art style or story but was not made in Japan.

If your not sure if its anime(some american cartoons have japanese producers) you can either check if wikipedia lists it as an anime(but thats not too reliable), or try searching for it's title on animenewsnetwork and see if anything comes up(even if something comes up, take a closer look at it 'cause sometimes ann talks about non-anime things). And if you're still not sure, go ahead and post it and we'll decide later if it counts as anime.

Well anyway, my favorite "almost" anime is Xiaolin Showdown. It had some good fights and some nice comedy too. The characters were interesting(albeit very stereotyped) and the weapons(Shen Gong Wu) were cool with so many different abilities. Chase Young was a cool villian and Jack Spicer was a great pity villian. You couldn't help but feel sorry for him(kinda like Team Rocket in Pokemon. I wish they get Pikachu someday). The show was going really well and it kept things interesting with new powers and weapons.
When Omi turned evil was a big surprise and was really interesting.
Then all of a sudden it stopped after
Raimundo became the leader. I thought that was really cool. He's not my favorite character but I think he definitely deserved to be the leader. He showed signs of evilness but in the end, he always looked out for his friends. I also thought the last few episodes did a very good job of showing his skills and leadership abilities.
I thought the series was gonna go on but I guess it just ended there.

Well that's my favorite. I 'll be interested in seeing what non-anime shows you think have anime-ish qualities.
 
Those things are usually big steaming piles of crap that I turn my nose up at, but I thought Avatar: The Last Airbender was refreshingly watchable. It had some fun characters and action scenes, and while not "anime-like" in its storytelling, did a nice job with the story. So, I guess Avatar. Fun kids' show. ^_^
 
JesuOtaku said:
Those things are usually big steaming piles of crap that I turn my nose up at, but I thought Avatar: The Last Airbender was refreshingly watchable. It had some fun characters and action scenes, and while not "anime-like" in its storytelling, did a nice job with the story. So, I guess Avatar. Fun kids' show. ^_^
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I like Avatar also. it really is a good show. Other than that, I don't like it when American shows use anime art style or storytelling, but I also liked Xiaolin Showdown. It was entertaining. Beside those two, I don't watch anything that is "almost" anime.
 
Yeah I figured Avatar would be the first thing mentioned. There's only one other thing I can think of at this point that I would classify as "almost" anime. Well I'll leave it up to everyone else to decide.
 
It is true that a lot of western animation has latched on to the wave of popularity that Anime caused. In doing so, many of them have seemingly taken direct cues, perhaps because their animators were inspired by Anime or watched it as a child.

I would have to say that out of all the western animation I've seen, Avatar The Last Airbender is still my favourite work that was influenced by Anime. Of course, it took a whole host of other art forms as influences as well, Asian cinema for example. But the character designs as well as the narrative elements were clearly shaped by Anime.



Edit: wow, I got Ninja'd by three people no less. Cool.
 
Avatar: The Last Airbender, heck I put it in my top 10 list and said "screw it!" Great characters, awesome fight scenes that look a heck of a lot cooler and more realistic than I see in a lot of anime (DBZ flying around in the air while people still continue to believe Hercule/Mr. Satan to be stronger than that anyone?) and its just entertaining as most anime if not more.

Also, I count Robotech as an almost anime because it was pretty much mostly rewritten (although I think it was written well) and came off as an American cartoon animated in Japan to me. I'll be checking out the Japanese broadcast version soon enough, I love that series so much!

I also must admit to two guilty pleasures that I have that I almost wish I didn't for various reasons (like I know there are way better shows out there and this is totally episodic!), and those are Xaolin Showdown, which I watched every Wednesday when it aired on Cartoon Network a year or so ago and Code Lyoko, which I finished watching online this past summer. Ok, so they were both episodic and somewhat predictable, but darn it! I enjoyed them so immensely. I wasn't a huge fan of Domo, but I quite liked Jack and everyone else ok (not Clay most of the time though). And while I had to question how many, if any, of the Code Lyoko cast had ever played a video game in their entire lives because they were not terribly good fighters and I did not like the ratio of forehead to remainder of head, but I suppose I got used to it at some point. One of my friends referred to it once as "that forehead show" and I totally burst out laughing. But like I said, guilty pleasures and I totally dig them.

and would Invader Zim count as "almost anime"? It's on DVD from an anime company is the closest requisite it has, but either way, I just love the humor in that show and how the characters actually question plot holes sometimes ("Isn't anyone going to notice this abnormally large hotdog stand?" "The great thing about your people Dib is, they don't really notice!"). And always much appreciation for Gaz, she reminds me of myself, games for enjoyment and not for attention and is awesome at gaming anyway. I think Invader Zim and Fairly Oddparents are the two greatest Nick shows (at least what I've seen).

And, since its a spoof series by a British guy, Yugioh: The Abridged Series should count as "almost anime". Every so often I just watch an episode. I appreciate how its not actually entirely distant from the real storyline, but its also a lot funnier. Besides, the later 4Kids dubs of GX got lazy to the point where it sounds like LittleKuriboh wrote some of them (having a guy talk like Ben Stein for 2 eps with a Ferris Bueller refernce? awesome)
 
I would have to go with Avatar: The Last Airbender as my favorite "almost" anime. Unlike other titles I've seen which either overly depend on the comedic facial styles in anime or have episodic plots, Avatar has flowing plot development and knows when to add in comedy at the right moments. The artwork and animation was above average in quality with detailed character designs and battle scenes with plenty of fluid movement. It was quite obvious that this was a series Nickelodeon put a lot of effort into doing seriously and it shows. :D
 
Avatar is just one of the best animated series period, anime or not, so it's definitely the best anime-esc series out there. It's got animation fluidity that few anime maintain for more than 12 episodes, a well crafted story, great characters, a creative worldspace, it just does everything right.
 
I would still say, "The Last Unicorn," an animated film in 1982 based on a novel by Peter S. Beagle. Yes, it is a bit old for the hatchlings who still craves for Megas XLR, or what knot. However, there may be a few that could be in my list of favorite 'almost' anime, but I have chosen this to be my favorite because this is one of the first few animations in my childhood that I ever saw (concerning anime), and the only one that tops it off out of the rest in my mind.
I brought this classic title here, because even though the film is officially made by an American company, most of the animation work is done by a Japanese company, Topcraft.
 
I’m glad people are posting so much on this thread. Since there are a lot of Avatar posts I’m gonna throw out some other shows that you can think about.

Okay well since no one’s brought these up yet, another show I had in mind was Samurai Jack. I haven’t seen it myself but I’ve seen parts of it. It’s nowhere near anime but it looks like it attempts to ooze out an anime feel.(I use the word ooze because it is an unpretty word, much like this unpretty show.)

Teen Titans is pretty big on the whole imitate anime thing. They even have a theme song sung by Puffy Ami Yumi. So yeah, I would include them.

The other choice was Transformers, the original generation series. Those were actually good. There have been anime adaptations of Transformers too(I didn’t find those to be as good as the originals). I would definitely consider Transformer Generation 2 to be one of the best “almost” anime shows around.

The old Megaman cartoon series(which I have the whole set). It was coproduced by Japan and the U.S. It was even released simultaneously in both countries. I think that puts it on the border of anime.

Here’s a pretty obscure reference for you. Pole Position. I’ll leave it up to you to decide about that one. I’ll put a link for those that are unfamiliar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiEpTr5nJkM
I feel embarrassed to say I used to watch this.

While were on the subject of really old cartoons, Thundercats. Made by a studio that would go on to become Studio Ghibli but still completely American or at least considered to be.

Again, I’ll just leave it up to you to decide if there’s even a hint of anime in these old shows.

This makes me want to bring up the webcomic Megatokyo but it doesn’t really fit into this category(shows) so I’ll just making a passing mention. It’s a webcomic made by Americans but has a very manga style to it. Lots of anime references and it even takes place in japan too.
 
I quite like W.I.T.C.H. Does that count as almost anime? Though, I prefer the comic. The art style is pretty animeish, and I guess the storyline has a few things found in anime too - normal girls who get magic powers, have a transformation sequence, etc...
 
I quite like W.I.T.C.H. Does that count as almost anime? Though, I prefer the comic. The art style is pretty animeish, and I guess the storyline has a few things found in anime too - normal girls who get magic powers, have a transformation sequence, etc...
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Yeah I'd count that as "almost" anime. Thanks for reminding me, I also wanna throw Winx Club into the mix.

Oh yeah, I just noticed I made my hundredth post. I'm not sure if I should be excited or concerned.
 
Originality can be hard to find just by separating categories. Although, the concept of-- favorite "almost" anime, is still tinkering in my head. This topic can be stretch very far before anybody realizing that most of the animation can be referenced to past animation work. In the end, just looking at a piece of animation and comparing it to another may be too bias. Animation was pretty limited in matters of techniques and practices. So, animators can do their part in creating animation, but their work may relate from previous animations.
It is like calling Betty Boop an 'almost anime' because it originated in the US, but categorizing it to be 'almost' due to her big eyes and style of animation; which for instance someone may relate Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle to Hare+Guu. To what I have learned, Betty Boop's character is one of the inspirations or models in early Japanese cartoons. I just don't know where this is stretching anymore...
:oops: :|
 
JesuOtaku said:
Those things are usually big steaming piles of crap that I turn my nose up at, but I thought Avatar: The Last Airbender was refreshingly watchable. It had some fun characters and action scenes, and while not "anime-like" in its storytelling, did a nice job with the story. So, I guess Avatar. Fun kids' show. ^_^
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This goes for me, too. While I thought the first two seasons were really awesome, with only one weak episode (The Swamp), the third season was lacking and the way it was broadcast....ah well.
Still, I liked the idea of the four elements and the different fighting styles connected with them.
 
Teen Titans is my favorite, almost by default. It's the one "anime-influenced" show I watched religiously while it was originally airing, and I'm still really fond of it, even though I think sometimes it was a little too over-the-top. I thought the last season was a bit weak, too. But when it was good, it was really, really good--it did a good job of having a mix of really hilarious episodes and dark, brooding episodes.

(I've seen some of Avatar and like it--and really, I think it's a bit more successful at really imitating some of anime's best points. Better than Teen Titans. But I still haven't seen it all the way through, so I don't think I can really count myself as a fan of it.)
 
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