[Phenom]

Wow, it's been a whole year since that last post. And since then my list has changed quite a bit.

1- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - (no surprise here lol) I've said it once before in some other thread (I think) that I think this is the best anime all around. Or rather, I've not seen any anime that has impressed me enough to de-throne this from the number 1 spot. Everything about this series is nearly perfect. I'm not one that normally cares about politics, but at the very least, this series made it all very interesting. All the characters are likable. The animation is prettiful. I normally compare all the anime people say have "great" or "superb" animation to this, and then I become really disappointed in that anime. (Perhaps I should stop that lol) The music and dubbed voices are great too. Although I don't know any songs by name, they do sound make it alot easier to tune people out.

2 - Cowboy Bebop - When I was a member at this other message board, I heard alot of talk about Cowboy Bebop. And I decided to check it out when it was on Adult Swim. The bad thing was, the 1st episode I caught was the very last episode. But the good thing is I was hooked from that episode and needed to see it from the beginning. Like GitS, all the characters are great. Each bring a different trait to the table. I like all the episodes that involves Vicious because those are the ones that're normally action packed.

3 - Black Lagoon - My fix for a Cowboy Bebop replacement lol. The only episode(s) that I don't really care much for (so far) is the one with the twins. Other than that I really like this series. The use of profanity is pretty amusing. The animation is prettiful, but then again, I don't expect anything less from Madhouse.

4 - Samurai Champloo - Now, I don't care for animes that're pure comedy, but if the comedy is in there with the action then I'll watch it. This is probably the funniest anime I've seen so far. Trigun has it's funny moments, but Samurai Champloo is just crazy when it comes to being funny. Mugen alone is my comic relief. That episode with the female ninja and then that baseball episode had me in tears because I was laughing too hard. The animation is nicely done too, although there are times when I question it because some of the characters look really ugly. (It's nothing major)

5 - Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit - While it's not GitS: SAC, it definately has that feel to it. The dialogue/conversations can be really long, but the way it's presented makes it interesting. The dub sounds just as good as GitS, although, I would've preferred that Balsa be voiced by the same person that did the voice of The Major. But who they have for Balsa sounds really good. The visuals are gorgeous. From the water to overlooking the towns from a birds eye view, that was some pretty stuff. The action.... I'm at a loss of words when it comes to the fighting. (I've only seen two fights btw.) The fighting is that good. Moribito has the potential to de-throne GitS: SAC from the #1 spot.

6 - Rurouni Kenshin/Trust and Betrayal(Samurai X) Explanation later.

7 - Scrapped Princess - While I'm feeling neglected that there's very little action in it, and when there are fights to break out they're pretty short, but well executed. I just wish some of the fights were a little more drawn out. Can't help it, I like watching great fights no matter how long they last. And it's gotta have nice visuals... None of that inconsistent crap that shonen/tournament titles put me through. Speaking of visuals, Scrapped Princess looks pretty good. It sort of reminds me of the animation clips that're in Tales of the Abyss. But the main draw for Scrapped Princess has been the characters. I've yet to complain about any of the characters so far, and I hope that continues. Shannon, Raquel and Chris are my favorites at the moment, though.

8 -
9 -
10 -

Manga
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Basilisk
One Piece
Black Lagoon
Bleach
Rurouni Kenshin
Death Note

I no longer like anything dealing with Naruto lol. While I thought manga was pretty decent when I first started with it (I just stopped watching the anime when the fillers started on CN), with the events that's been going on during this time skip just been extremely stupid and not making much sense. Characters not fighting the way they usually do. Jounin can't think for nothing. A lot of characters in the series yet the creator feels to focus so much time on 1-2 characters that I don't care for. Lots of characters, yet I only like 2 of the characters in the series... [/rant]

I was truly impressed with reading Basilisk, and it made me regret not continuing to watch the anime version. I guess it was because it was a little slow. Also, I'm not into the romance (which was real strong in here) and I felt like they were throwing it in my face for the first 4 episodes, I think.... Hopefully it'll come back on tv, or I just might buy the dvds to this one.

One Piece is something else. I originally started out hating One Piece. Luffy was quite the annoying one. (Shinji, Naruto and Shippo takes the cake though) I tried watching a couple of episodes here and there, but couldn't do it because I was not (still not really) into to pirates theme. (I only like Pirates of the Caribbean) One Piece blows Naruto out the water by a long shot. Majority of the characters are likable. It's actually funny. And while the friendship theme has been done to death, and I'm sick of it in everything, but it's presented very well here. The only thing(s) that really kills One Piece is the artwork which has been changing up quite a bit. The main characters look more human-like now instead of looking really slim and whatnot, and then the everlasting flashbacks. After reading so much of Bleach and Naruto, I've grown sick of flashbacks to the point to where I just don't read flashbacks anymore. But for flashbacks to last 5-8 chapters, that's just dragging things entirely too much. With that said, I still enjoy reading One Piece. With Funimation taking over for One Piece, I just might buy the anime now. I'm don't have high expectations for much, so it's all good. (Not reading fanboy/girl-ish comments so I can go in with no expectations set high. Unlike Bleach and Naruto )

Black Lagoon is just awesome. Both anime and manga.

Before this get any longer I'm gonna stop now lol.