Wonderduck started this by posting his Top Four – 1, 2, 3, 4 – of these, I tried watching Noir but got bored, though maybe I should give it another shot (though, my anime queue is very long and barely functional nowadays. Is this still an anime blog? There’s an existential question for you…). The other three I probably should add to my list as well.
Steven weighed in as well and defined favorite in a slightly different way, which is of course the entire point of the word “favorite”. I think I’d have to qualify my choices by different metrics:
Most rewatchable: Samurai Jack. It’s actually amerime, not anime, but it blew everything else away. The plot is nonlinear and the animation astounding. If I had to choose an anime equivalent, I’d have to go with Kino’s Journey.
Most moving: Haibane Renmei, tied with pretty much everything by Makoto Shinkai. (By “moving”, I mean in a positive way. Graveyard of the Fireflies doesn’t count).
Most warm and fuzzy: Totoro. This also counts partially under most-rewatchable, though only partially because half of my repeat viewings are under duress. I’d put Someday’s Dreamers in close second place.
Most dramatic: Death Note. This is probably the most intense anime, or even television series in general, I’ve ever seen. It stands head and shoulders above everything else.
Most exciting: Cowboy Bebop. I was just hooked on this. intensity and energy of this series blew me away. The only thing that came close is the “sequel”, Samurai Champloo, which I haven’t adequately blogged about yet but definitely had a better ending.
Most philosophical: In a wierd way, I’d have to go with Dennou Coil. The modern mobile revolution is pushing us down that path to Augmented Reality much more quickly than I imagined back when I first saw it only a couple of years ago. The implications are astounding.
Unfortunately, if I were to measure my favorite by tallying the raw number of episodes watched, Ranma probably counts as my favorite. Curse you, Steven!
*grumble grumble* Do Want U.S. release bluray of _Dennou Coil_ *grumble grumble*
Might be another title I end up importing from Japan and keeping the fansubs around for.
Some nice picks here. Didn’t get to see all of Samurai Jack, and I’d quibble a some with Death Note (for some reason, I just couldn’t take the show as seriously as others did), but nothing else immediately comes to mind for “most dramatic” at the moment.
To be honest, I’m not sure anymore there’s any value in buying disc media for anything (apart from purely sentimental stuff, like original Star Wars, or the complete LOTR).
I’d happily pay the anime makers for pure digital, truly owned-by-me, copies of their titles – and “standard” copies would be ideal for fansubbers as well. I can easily envision a future where licensed anime is distributed without subs at all, using digital copies, and fansubbers charge modest fees for high-quality subs. I’d be happy to pay $10 USD for a given title, and $1 for a sub – I’d probably spend hundreds of dollars for anime every year if it were that cheap. And this would also be a boost for subbers as well, a true anime ecosystem.
Paging Steve Jobs!