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I've seen your thoughts about video games' storylines and OSTs. Now let's move into animated series.

Anime or not, it doesn't matter as long it's considered as an animated series.

New animes are disappointing for me nowadays. Boring and sh*tty plots and characters, scenes that made me cringe, etc. The Japanese have good styles, but Westerners do better in lores and plots overall IMO.

Aside from all the crappy animes, there are some good ones though. Such as Attack on Titan, Berserk, RWBY (it's American though), Fairy Tail, etc.

After watching ten episodes of Berserk, I fell in love with it. Dark Souls brought me to watch it since people said about how Berserk is one of the inspirations for Dark Souls and that the developers are fans of Berserk and Artorias the Abysswalker was their homage to Guts.

(Oh, yeah. Artorias is my favorite character in Dark Souls series. Probably my favorite from all fantasy games. Artorias is just so cool and badass. He looks great too. Also, I've always been a sucker for cool men and women in armors and helmets)

Berserk is a medieval-styled dark fantasy. It has mature contents though. You can see how some things became inspirations for Dark Souls. Capra Demon's model was seem to be based on Zodd the Immortal. Artorias was their homage to Guts. Throne Watcher's helmet looked like Griffith's helmet. An ultra greatsword (I remember it's the one that also does dark damage, and probably the only UGS that I liked) in DS2 kinda looked like Guts' big ass sword. And the list goes on...

So... Berserk became my number one anime, followed by Attack on Titan, RWBY, and Black Lagoon. Berserk is definitely worth watching despite being old. Amazing characters, doesn't make me complain about some stuff in it, amazing plots, etc. I can't wait for the second one to be launched on July.

Anime is for dorks.

Avatar is a fantastic animated series that is not anime. That or the classic Batman: TAS.

While by your standards I am apparently a dork, I do have to agree with you on Avatar on being a fantastic piece of anime animation. Though I should encourage you to watch a few anime'sm some of them are quite enjoyable(depending on your taste in genre) to a variety of watchers. 

Hey, some anime is really good! You can't sit there and honestly tell me that Corey in the House is a show for dorks!

Guess I'm a dork. *shrug* Also, Avatar is considered to have been made in the style of anime, and as far as Japan is concerned, it is anime. The fact that westerners make the distinction "it's only anime if it's from Japan" (or, if you're slightly less judgmental, "from the general area of east Asia") is really rather silly.

Whatever your own personal definition of 'anime', mine is that is has a very recognizable art and character style and certain common plot elements. I never said anything about it needing to be Japanese, either. There are many, many people out there who are seemingly only able to write or draw in an anime style, I'm assuming from overexposure to it at the expense of all else.    

Avatar was animated by a Korean studio but nothing about it really screams 'anime' at me, they seemed going for a realistic fantasy world and realistic characters without many of the usual tropes.

(Realistic in what way?) You're telling me you can see this: Link and link and link

And not be reminded of anime? xD Have you even watched much anime...?

Really, "anime" is a horribly vague term (and a term that actually comes from France, the first Western country that really developed a taste for Japanese cartoons).

Yes. That was one of the things I was implying.

Don't start this shit again. If it's not made in Japan/by Japan artists, it's not anime. Period.

Huh, then what are we supposed to call the art style? Pop-eye?

Except that Japan says you're wrong. xD

Anime, Mizal, is not for dorks, its for nerds and geeks. However, just like Raven said, There is some pretty crappy anime out there.

I tend to disagree regarding who has better plots. AOT is pretty good, I admit. I still have some older, less "mature" anime favorites that linger from my childhood, which I'd list as favorites mainly because of rose colored glasses I refuse to take off because screw that. (Most recently watched, though, was Kill la kill.)

I have to admit, I tried watching kill la kill, but I ended up not liking it. I did watch the entire Blue Exorcist series, and I watched a lot of Deathnote. 

Death Note was pretty great. (I am not actually Kill la kill fan, my sister-in-law and spouse were having a little anime marathon and I had nothing better to do. It was over-the-top enough with its silliness to entertain me, I suppose.)

"I will write a name in the book. Then, I will take a potato chip and...EAT IT."

xD Death Note was also over-the-top. Ahh, glorious ham...

Edit: Nevermind. I got confuzzled.

Fair enough.

I just finished watching Bakuman. It's done by the same people who did Deathnote, but it's got seventy five episodes. It's a really inspirational anime, if that's one your looking for. Probably made my top ten

Death Note was good for the first half, until they decided the hero would be an autistic 12 year old.

Really, you liked Deathnote? After you stated that "Anime is for dorks." XD

Blanket statements like that are generally accompanied by hypocrisy... unless, of course, Mizal meant to include herself among the ranks of said dorks. (Hero? I wouldn't call Near or Mello a hero by a long shot--or L, for that matter, even though he was better than both of them.)

The point here is that Light is awesome & near is horrible. 

I'm glad Kiel and Jimmy have joined forces to grimly defend the honor of anime against all who dare make a joke about it.

What the ra-ri-ru-re-ro did you just say about me, ara ara? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my kurasu in chuunibyou, and I’ve been winkingly oblivious to numerous secret raids on my pantsu, and I have over 300 confirmed fanboy nosebleeds. I am trained in cosplay fanservice and I’m the most popular character on the entire show. You are nothing to me but just another baka hentai. I will wipe you the uguu out with fanservice the likes of which has never been seen before in this time slot, mark my ra-ri-ru-re-ro words. You think you can get away with being that ecchi to me over the Internet? Think again, baka. As we speak I am contacting my himitsu network of spies across the classroom and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, aho. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your social life. You’re going to die of embarrassment, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can humiliate you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s before my transformation sequence. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the writers' zany plot devices and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable smirk off the face of the continent, you pervert. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have kept quiet, ara ara. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you triple baka. I will unleash moe all over you and you will drown in it. You’re going to sleep, kiddo. (Please don't actually go to sleep on me.)

Rovery day for it; My name Sir Ryugashi.

I am 27 year old Japanese Downtonian (fan of superior British Period Dramas for you dashed ignorant brighters!) I draw watercoror ships and impressionist randscape on my tabret, and I spend my day perfecting art and praying superior British video game. (Banjo Kazooie, Fabre, Rego Star Wars series.)

I train with Craymore every day. This superior weapon can cut crean through steer because it is quench over a thousand time and is vastry superior to any other weapon on earth. I earn sword ricsence two year ago, and I get better ever days.

I talk British fruent, in both Cursive and Cornish diarect, and I write fruentry as werru. I know everything about British history and their code of Chivarry, which I forrow 100%.

When I get my British visas, I am moving to Rondon to attend a prestigious boarding schoor to rearn more about their magnificent curture. I hope to become animator for BBC or a rock band!

I own severar dinner jacket, which I wear around town. I want to get used to wearing them so I can fit in easier. I say "Erro Guvanaru" to my errders and seniors and speak Engrish as often as I can, but rareru does anyone manage to respond.

Wish me ruck in Engrand!

(I know there's an American version of this, but it's funnier when it's an absurd stereotype moving from one weird island to another. It's also more original.)

Saying you were included among the dorks was a playful jab. (If you're gonna dish it out, expect it back.) However, suggesting people who say "this entire form of entertainment sucks usually have their own exceptions to it" is merely an observation. :P

(Edit: Dammit, Malk found Fazz's stash.)

Malk, holy shit

that was a work of art.

In all seriousness Death Note was introduced to me years ago as 'anime for people who don't like anime' basically, and I got very into it until it took a sudden screaming nose dive right into a hot bubbling vat of shit. No idea how it was originally aired or what snags it may have hit in production or if it was being faithful to whatever it was based on or what, but it's always going to stick out in my mind as a story that started out strong with so much going for it and then just went and did a complete 360, lost all momentum and never got it back. And I don't mean just killing L, but that was definitely the turning point. Felt like the writers became a bit lost after that point, like they had this cool impactful 'shit just got real' moment, and then no idea how to follow it up.

I sort of came to the realization years ago that it isn't anime that I dislike so much as it's the fans.

But that goes for fans of anything, and everything.

I'm not saying the internet would be better if we banned all fans, but I definitely think anyone who enjoys a copyrighted work should go.

@mizal re: death note

The authors' next series was about a writer/artist team of mangaka.  One of the story arcs is them creating a popular series with a light & dark hero, & the publisher/editors want him to stretch it out longer than he'd envisioned because it needs to be longer in order to get an anime. 

That explains so much.

I really look forward to the day when publishers are a purely optional thing, and independent artists of other kinds of media have the same chances at being wildly successful as indie game devs.

The problem with Berserk was that for the longest time, it ended really depressingly/suddenly.  Like, it starts off, then there's a flashback.  A really really long flashback. And we finally get to the end of the flashback . . . and it's over.

avatar was the kind of show that if it'd been live action on syfy, my dad in law would have been a huge fan. Since it was animated, he wouldn't watch it.

Most recent series I watched was Psycho-Pass. 

I really hardly ever watch stuff any more- reading's so much faster.

I prefer watching rather than reading though. Still, Berserk is great.

Akame ga Kill? It doesn't feel dark at all. Why the hell it's classified as dark fantasy anyway? More like a bunch of kids with ridiculously powerful weapons and shits. While it's better than SAO, Naruto, and some others, I still prefer Berserk for the better realism and darker theme. The fact that it's one of the things that inspired Dark Souls is also a bonus.

Prison school is my new fav.

The animated Batman series
The animated Superman series
Exo-Squad (I doubt if many even remember that one)

There are some other old series that I still don’t mind seeing an episode every now and then, but those three probably stand the test of time in general.

Justice League Unlimited. :p

1994 Iron Man (Yes, I actually like Season 1)

The plot of futurama is pretty good, not going to lie.

Rick and Morty is one of the few "mature" cartoons that doesn't gargle horse juice.  So, I guess it's my favorite. 

Doraleous and Associates by Hank and Jed on youtube. It's hilarious.

I would have to say that my favorite animated series is probably Deadman Wonderland. Don't know why, it just appeals to me.

I've seen all the episodes thus far. Reminds me of AOT, in that it's brutal, depressing, and about a kid who's trapped in a world that's out for his blood--and yet, he has a deep connection to it. The intro song's also catchy as hell.

Ive watched AOT as well, though I have a stronger preference to Wonderland. The reason for this, I have no clue at all.

God Eater: Kinda sucks they gave it some AoT vibes instead of capturing the appeal of the game, however that's the only negative thing I have to say about it. It's the best thing I've seen in quite awhile, and it's really good. Seriously, you've got plenty of shocking moments, an amazing animation studio behind it's production, a great storyline with a pretty good ending (though of course it's not perfect since they didn't reach the end of the game in the anime), lots of blood, an apocalypse with giant monsters, epic gun-blades (like RWBY but cooler), and the main character isn't a Gary Stu nor a depressing lowlife when he finds out he's shit! Oh, and did I mention this is one of the few anime you can watch nowadays where the theme is completely serious? 

Rick and Morty, too. Nuff said.

I'll check out God Eater once I'm done with Berserk. Guts and Griffith are really likeable.

And you referred God Eater as a "game" at the first sentence?

>Likeable

>Griffith

....

Heehee!...

What's funny?

He doesn't think Griffth is a likeable character.

I like Griffith's nature and personality. To the public, he's a hero for the kingdom his mercenary band working for. But on the other side... he's also a sly bastard.

If Griffith is still a hero in this part of the story, then explaining why I think that's funny would be spoilers.

Grr.  

(Don't listen to him Raven.  <3 Griffith 4ever)

I said that because there is, in fact, a game (which is it's source), however the anime feels rather different to it due to the AoT vibes towards the beginning. 

I recently watched this anime called Erased. It was pretty amazing, animation & story wise but then it became a downward spiral when it became obvious twelve episodes wasn't enough to properly cover the source material. Still, it had such a strong beginning.

Usually anything by Matt Groening. (Ei. Simpsons, Futurama)

Favorite anime: One Punch Man.

Favorite family show: Steven Universe.

Favorite Adult cartoon: Rick and Morty.

I saw this guy watching one punch man at a Seattle Airport. It looked pretty weird.

Favorite Anime: The first Naruto (and the second one too, I guess)

Favorite Cartoon: Spongebob (I don't know how they do it, but they fucking get me everytime. The new ones are starting to get sloppy, though)

Favorite ADULT cartoon: DBZ Abridged

Yeah, Spongebob is great. But my favorite adult cartoon is probably Family Guy.

I used to like Naruto. But then, I got bored and disliked it.

Legend of Korra > The Last Airbender

Fight me.

... I could, but you're allowed to be wrong. 

Another thing that I like about Berserk -- it's the only anime I've watched that shows semblance of military tactics...

Griffith is a cunning person and a good strategist/tactician. While Guts and Griffith are great warriors, I'm pleased that they showed clever strategies too. Not only combat prowess, but tactic also matters. I like how Band of the Hawk successfully captured that highly defended fort with Sir Adon and Purple Rhino knights in it. It was 5.000 mercenaries against 30.000 battle-hardened knights... and the 5.000 men won.

Other animes? Akame ga Kill is like "Fuck that, I can destroy an entire army with my ridiculously powerful weapon/secret capability!"

Berserk makes most other animes look like dirt...

Berserk is just as over-the-top weird as any shonen series.  Femto?  Puck the elf?  

Also:  5k mercs capturing a "highly defended fort" from 30k "battle-hardened knights"  is super realistic?

I'm not done with the series yet. It's a dark fantasy, so I'm not surprised if such things exist. Just showing my opinion.

Hey, I'm aware that there are unrealistic things. However... at least it's more sensible than most other animes I watched. I remember that Griffith had something with the governor, and the Rhinos were out when their general was killed by Guts and the castle was occupied by Casca's units. That screwed their fighting morale.

It's just as unrealistic as most animes, it just does everything with more "grit", violence, and 300 brown-filtering. Just like Game of Thrones really isn't that much less far-fetched than Lord of the Rings in concept.

I honestly wished Game of Thrones (at least the show) would've done away with the White Walkers, the Azor Ahai prophecy, and all of the supernatural elements and instead focused solely on political maneuvering and backstabbing. I'd love to see that.

I like the supernatural elements, they're violent and therefore at least interesting to watch for what worldbuilding and such that they provide. If I wanted plain political maneuvering and backstabbing for the whole show, I could go watch literally any other HBO show. The fantasy sets it apart and makes it a world I actually like learning about. However, the part with the most world-building per capita and the most supernatural elements are the Daenarys sequences, but Daenarys fucking disgusts me. She's just the biggest waste of space and potential entertainment value in any book, show, or film.

I understand Beserk is a very good anime and I myself can't find enough praise for it, however, the two last sentences of yours are bugging me. Yes, it had powerful items capable of destroying armies, but you can't say that just because of that the anime in itself was dirt... it wasn't perfect, but it was a good anime.

As for the last sentence, think before you type, as much as I give it praise, Beserk is not perfect, the most notable flaw is the sudden Gainax Ending. It is a good anime, but there are better anime than it.

I'm not sure why I got so invested in this...

Just because I said most other animes look like dirt doesn't mean I consider Akame ga Kill to be bad. It's actually a fine one. I just prefer more sensible and realistic shows. The "most other animes" I considered? One of them is Black Bullet.

You don't know what animes are listed in the "most other animes". I apologize for my shitty explanation though.

And hey, I'm not done with the series yet, and I'm trying to avoid any spoiler. 

If you like only realistic anime, then there won't be a lot of them you'll truly enjoy as many of them are not meant to realistic, but I'm sure you already know that.

Anyway, I'm sorry for getting worked up and for both the spoiler, just expect the unexpected at the end.

Aw.  no spoliers?  I had a whole rant about my favorite Berserk character, and how the ending is really just perfect. . .

I guess I'll come back to it when you've seen the whole thing.

Realism is good, but it doesn't always make a show more enjoyable. What I like if an unrealistic fiction can cover the "unrealistic parts"  with uhh... interesting things (that make up for the flaws) so that we forget about how unrealistic it is and enjoy it.

I'm aware that many things are unrealistic. But it did a great job to make me forget about how unrealistic it is. Thus, making me interested.

Black Bullet? Well... it failed to cover the unrealistic parts. So I didn't enjoy it.

I hope you guys understand what I mean.

As an anime, yeah, it has its flaws, but the Gainax ending is due to the fact that it's not just an anime. If I'm not mistaken, the Anime is a flashback or something that takes place before or after the manga that came before or after the anime itself, so the story came to better conclusions at some point. It has a better story than most animes, and the comic continues (I think?) afterward, so the Gainax ending might be justified in that respect, since, y'know, there might be an actual conclusion in the works.

Watched it till the end. You're right. Dat ending... the feel is kinda like watching MGSV: TPP ending or Mass Effect 3. But I can still accept MGSV's ending. The Berserk anime ending is rather confusing though, just like Mass Effect 3.

I guess I'm gonna check out the manga someday and see more about Berserk's universe. Still a good anime though. I can see how it inspired Dark Souls.

I've only seen The Golden Age movies, but I found them to be very overrated. I watched them because I'd heard a lot about how dark and mature Berserk was, and then when I got to the "dark and mature" part, it was actually just a pointlessly gratuitous sequence of shock value events. It had some good ideas, but the ending really killed it imo.

My favorite animated series is by far Spongebob Squarepants. Easily the best animated series ever! The plot is awesome, as are the characters. The moral is a valuable life lesson as well.

But in all honesty, RWBY is a very good show, easily my favorite. Though I can't watch much anime because my parents prohibit me from watching the more violent/sexual ones, I am starting to watch more anime, so this choice is probably not permanent.

Of course... Spongebob Squarepants will always be one of my favorites. I watched it a lot when I was younger.

RWBY... Most of the melee weapons are also guns, and most guns are also blades. Well-made female characters too.

I wish there are animes with themes or universes like Metal Gear Solid or Halo. That'll be enjoyable.

I don't know why I like Berserk a bit above Attack on Titan despite the gainax ending. Maybe it's because I like the setting/universe more I guess.

My favourite anime will have to be Inuyasha. I'm probably looking on it through rose-tinted glasses but here are my reasons:

• The soundtrack was amazing. It seemed to have a track that suited every scene; it's huge scale is amazing in itself, but the reason it worked was because of its overall unity incorporating recognisable theme tracks. As well as this, all of the OPs and EDs were really good. Overall, to me it's a shining example of what an OST should be.
• Pacing is the thing that drags Inuyasha down. It has a strong beginning and end, but since the anime goes for almost 200 episodes, there are one or two arcs that felt a little weak to me. The main plot is strong and the anime never really feels it goes on too much of a tangent. All the characters have different reasons for reaching that same goal (defeating the villain Naraku) but all of their motivations and seperate aims are fleshed out fully.
• I really love the characters. The number of main plot villains is almost equal to the number of protagonists but all of the characters feel fleshed out and conceptually, all of the characters are interesting and unique. Art style might drag it down here though, as the characters all kinda look the same so in the weaker sections of the anime it's easier to forget who's who.

For favourite non-anime animation (yes, yes I know): Calibash Brothers. Again the nostalgia is too much.

My favorite Anime is one of the following.....I just can't decide: Fairytail, Inuyasha, Bleach, One Piece, or Fullmetal Alchemist. It's probably Fairytail but I cannot figure it out. Everyone can decide!