Holy shit this post is overdue. And I’m going to delay it longer by wishing Lumi a happy birthday before I start. See Lumi was the first one to suggest that we all do Top Ten lists, so I thought it would be appropriate to post this on her birthday. Because I totally knew when her birthday was before Jay wished her a happy birthday on Twitter. Seriously, I did.

Anyway this is clearly the be-all, end-all list for anime, so if you haven’t seen all of these you should probably go and kill yourself. Because I am lord of the animes and I hath commanded it. So yeah, enjoy.

10. Gundam: 08th MS Team
08th MS Team is arguably the best Gundam series ever made. It is simply because it feels like the characters are actually part of an army. Shiro and company are fighting UC0079’s own Vietnam War. They actually worry about their lives. They talk about tactics, perform flanking maneuvers, and even shy away from 1-on-1 duels. Not only that, but rather than being a self-contained unit like White Base, Shiro’s team often acts in concert with other forces.

Shhh… be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting Wakus.

This is pretty goddamn awesome, but unfortunately the people behind Gundam just can’t leave well enough alone. In the last couple of episodes Shiro goes from ace pilot to average Gundam protagonist. He strides across the battlefield, felling dozens of enemies with each shot and destroying mobile armors with every sneeze. So basically Gundam’s version of business as usual.

9. Planetes
Planetes is the best example of character driven anime to date. After watching some of the show, the viewer has watched these space garbagemen react and grow to so many situations that the viewer can really empathize with the characters. When Tanabe is down in the dumps, the viewer not only know why, but they feel pretty bad about it. When Hachi is pissed off, the viewer is right there with him.

Even the temp chick gets a closer seat than Tanabe :(

To bad the last 1/3 of the series takes all that and throws it out an airlock. The show suddenly suffers an attack of plot around episode 19-ish in the form of a mission to Jupiter. And then the space terrorists get a major role and the whole thing goes to shit. Still, the first 18 episodes are more than worth the last ones.

8. Neon Genesis Evangelion
What is there to say about Eva anymore? It was crazy good for it’s time and has aged a whole lot better than a number of other shows. It was, at least to my knowledge, the original something else disguised as a giant robot anime. If viewers can forgive all the random religious nonsense = DEEP PLOT crap that got thrown in, this is a damn good show.

Personally, I’m one of the people who feels for Shiniji. He goes through so many And I must scream events that he can be as whiny as he wants in my book.

And, I mean, if nothing else Gainax is still making serious bank off of Eva almost 15 years later. 15 years! That is a decade and a half!

7. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Haruhi is a rare beast in the medium of anime. It is a sci-fi show where the sci-fi elements don’t necessitate that the characters go around getting into fights every episode or so. In fact the show could work without the sci-fi elements. At it’s core, Haruhi is a show about a group of high school kids who do what high school kids do.

On my signal, unleash hell.

The sci-fi elements take this core and build into it some of the silliness the show is known for. Not a whole lot tops watching Kyon try to deal with three of his friends telling him that they are not human, but a robot, an alien, and an esper each within a day of each other. Not to mention the secret that they are all keeping from Haruhi.

6. Great Teacher Onizuka
So yeah, GTO is one of the two completely indefensible silly animes on my list. It’s about as far away as you can get from deep while still talking about depth, though if you listen to the show it is all kinds of deep. And the first couple of episodes are less than good, what with Onizuka going around attempting to get arrested for pedophilia.

This. This is why Onizuka is the best teacher.

Once Onizuka figures out that trying to sex up his students is wrong, the show gets damn good. Because Onizuka is a pretty awesome character. An ex-biker who became a teacher for the chicks, Onizuka shows up to a class that has turned driving teachers away into a game. He has to endure increasingly sadistic attempts to get him fired from his job and show his students that he is here to stay. It’s just a feel good story to its very core.

5. Kaiba
Kaiba is an interesting show because of how the viewer’s understanding of the show evolves over the course of the series. The show starts off as the animated equivalent of a drug trip. The viewer is introduced to a world where no one but lucky poor people inhabit the bodies they were born in. The rich purchase new bodies as often as mood and fashion dictate. The unlucky poor people are those who have had their bodies harvested to keep the rich in new skin. These people commonly reside in computers or simply as chips with no awareness of the outside world.

The exploded chick and the blond guy are the same person. Doublemint gum made them do it.

But really, all of this serves as a backdrop for the themes the show chooses to explore. The main two being the question of the soul/nature of the self (What/where is it for those of you who’ve never taken a philosophy course) and the nature of love (Expanding on this would actually spoil the story, so yeah). The opening is crazy important once the viewer grasps the truth of the second theme, so make a note of that.

4. Banner of the Stars I/II
Banner is on this list because Lafiel and Jinto are one of the most interesting relationships I’ve ever seen in animation. It feels very true. The bumps and rough spots in their relationship don’t feel contrived the way like situations do in a lot of other shows. Watching the two go from friendship to lovers is very believable. The only thing that didn’t ring true for me was the fact that they go the whole series without banging, especially seeing as how Jinto is supposedly 20(!) at the start of Banner.

So I feel like I should make a Star Wars reference here. But fighters were a whole lot more useful in that than destroyers are in this.

The other thing to mention about Banner is that, aside from arguably Legend of the Galactic Heroes, it is the best space opera you’ll ever watch. The plot of Banner follows a massive Ahb fleet operation against the United Mankind Alliance. All manner of space business going down sets a very nice backdrop for this love story.

3. Nerima Daikon Brothers
The second completely indefensible silly animes on my list. Nerima Daikon Brothers is an homage to the Blues Brothers that runs on insanity and a good dose of Nabeshin. The localization team did an amazing job translating the jokes in this show. Not only that, but the voice acting in the dub is fantastic. The jokes just don’t have the same impact when read. A lot of the funny is in the delivery rather than what is said.

I’d embed this video, but that makes Firefox angry so click the picture! Also, this is funny because this song is completely different in the Japanese dub.

Seeing as how the show was made on a budget of about $5, only about six tunes got licensed for the show. But the lyrics change every time a tune is brought out and each time the lyrics match the tune and are funny. It’s the same with the repeated animation.. Despite the constantly recycled parts of the show, it is one of the funniest god damn things I’ve ever seen.

2. Xam’d: Lost Memories
Xam’d is studio BONES’ attempt to redo an earlier show, Eureka seveN, right. They reduced E7 to it’s base story, “can love blossom between two kids when one of them isn’t quite human?”, and then built a completely different world on top of it in order to do the concept justice. And they fucking nailed it.

The song is called shut up and explode and the show starts off with a suicide bombing. A match made in heaven?

BONES learned from the mistakes they made in E7. The pacing in Xam’d is great, Akiyuki has a whole lot more depth and likeability than Renton ever had, Xam’d’s world is thought out a lot better than E7’s, and the crew of the Zanbani get fleshed out as full characters unlike the crew of the Gekko Go. Considering how E7 was a very solid show even with all it’s flaws, Xam’d is sublime.

1. Baccano!
Baccano! tops out my list at the moment for a number of reasons. First off, it’s a period piece set in that magical time in American history where everyone wore suits, listened to jazz and carried their Tommy Guns around in violin cases. I love this time period because the only real difference between the gangsters of yesteryear and the gangbangers today is a thin veneer of Respectability. The Mafia had themselves and the public half believing that they were only providing a service. Baccano! knows this and puts it to good use.

The music in this show is so fucking good. Everyone should be better friends with Jazz.

Secondly, this show is quite possibly the best example a well-done large cast you will ever see. The series boasts something like 30 major and minor characters, with 20 featured in the opening alone. The reason the large cast works so well in Baccano! is because they put all their cards on the table right away. Within two episodes you have met everyone of importance. The show doesn’t rely on revealing a new character to keep you interested.

Thirdly, I’ve seen this show about three times through and I still can’t decide who my favorite character is.