Get to Know Your Guyver: My Top 25 Favorite Anime (#15-11: Harems, High Octane, and Hilarity) · 5:22pm Jun 15th, 2014
I'm sorry about the delay in putting out the rest of this list. As with many projects, Real Life commitments and work demands often get in the way of my putting energy into more creative works. Still, I am committed to completing this list of my personally favorite anime for all those out there who remain interested. 
That being said, here we go with #15 through #11! 
"Those unforgettable days; for them, I live."
If you haven’t noticed by now, I tend to like anime series with strong ensemble casts. Such shows tend to work by virtue of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts; it’s the dynamics and interactions between the various characters that give the story a richness and vibrancy that would not be possible if the focus were just on individuals. Martian Successor Nadesico is a prime example of this effect, as it’s the trials and tribulations of the cast as a whole that we become invested in, as opposed to the journeys of individual characters, though they too definitely get their moments to shine. While all of them are familiar archetypes—from carefree captain Yurika and beleaguered nice-guy Akito to sex-bomb navigator Minato, hot nurse with a mysterious past Inez Fressange, snarky loli (and early moe icon) Ruri, and hot-blooded pilots Gai and Ryoko—the portrayals are so genuine and the relationships that develop so well established that any weaknesses individual characters might have are largely nullified.
But what is Martian Successor Nadesico about? Well, in the far future, Earth and its colonies are under attack from mysterious invaders called “Jovian Lizards.” Among the many ships deployed to combat this threat is the Mobile Battleship Nadesico, captained by the ditzy but tactically brilliant Misumaru Yurika. Privately owned and launched, the Nadesico is helmed by a crew of various misfits and gadabouts, including chef’s apprentice Tenkawa Akito, who would like nothing more to spend time perfectly his craft as opposed to getting shoved into a giant robot to fight space battles. The fact that the majority of the female crew seem variably smitten with him doesn’t help matters much, and as the battles the crew faces escalate, they’ll find there’s more going on than they were led to believe . . .
What the description doesn’t really convey is how Nadesico is yet another series that doesn’t take itself too seriously and blasts about with tongue firmly in cheek (one of the many reasons why it’s movie sequel, Prince of Darkness, was such a let-down was due to the loss of this tone in favor of serious business). At varying times silly, epic, dramatic, poignant, and romantic, Nadesico somehow manages to run the emotional gamut without ever seeming overwrought or unbalanced—it’s entertainment, pure and simple. Not bad when you part of the plot involves encountering a civilization that based their entire culture around an old 1970’s mecha anime, which is played both seriously and for laughs depending on the particular scene. The strong dub job also adds to the quality and hilarity of the series, as a good amount of meta consciousness is brought to the script due to the inclusion of Spike “Shinji Ikari” Spenser as Akito and Tiffany “Asuka Langley Soryu” Grant as Ryoko. Hearing the various Evangelion in-jokes never failed to draw a laugh from me, and just served to make this series a long-time favorite for years afterwards.
#14: Dragon Ball Z
"ROCK THE DRAGON!!"
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last twenty years, you’ve likely heard of or know about Dragon Ball Z. Among anime series, it has achieved a legendary status second only to Mobile Suit Gundam as an exemplar of the medium and representative work of Japanese culture. In the west, Dragon Ball Z was one of the first series in the modern era to be released to the mainstream, making it one of the pinnacle “entry-series” during the anime boom of the 1990s and early-2000s. Its impact is both undeniable and inescapable, and for me and many others, DBZ will always hold a special, nostalgic space in our hearts.
Dragon Ball Z tells the story of Son Goku (continuing where its predecessor, Dragon Ball, left off), a dim but kind-hearted martial artist who loves nothing more than to push his skills to the next level. The main story kicks off with a bang as Goku is attacked by his previously unknown older Raditz, who reveals that both he and Goku are space aliens tasked with the subjugation and/or destruction of planet Earth. What follows is the archetypal shounen anime story, full of never-ending battles, constantly escalating power levels, hours’ worth of screaming, ridiculously over-the-top attack calls, and heaping dozens of filler episodes that serve no purpose other than to drag out the threadbare plot.
It’s hard not to overstate the impact that Dragon Ball Z had on me. Along with Sailor Moon and Gundam Wing, DBZ was my main introduction to what anime had to offer, and was one of the initial sparks to a flame that still burns brightly to this day (for instance, my avatar, the Mares Guyver, was initially created as an OC for a DBZ forum round-robin fanfic). That’s not to say my interest in this series is as great as it once was—I can distinctly remember beginning to lose interest in DBZ during the unending Planet Namek/Frieza arc, in part due to the fact that new episodes were delayed for months as the license changed studios. Though I continued to follow the series when it picked up again, the appeal was never quite the same, and after the Cell Saga I dropped out of DBZ in favor of newer, more interesting series. However, even after I stopped watching the show, a need for newer, higher quality DBZ material eventually led me into the realm of fanfiction (much like Sailor Moon). The rest, they say, is history.
#13: Love Hina
"Let’s go to Tokyo University together!"
I think you have to be in the right frame of mind in order to enjoy a series like Love Hina. Yes, the level of violence brought down on Urashima Keitaro throughout the anime and manga (most notably by love interest, Narusegawa Naru) is both excessive and unjust, and would likely land most of the Hinata Inn’s residents in prison for a very long time. And yet, if you can accept the fact that things work, a little differently, in this universe where turtles can fly, girls can age under the light of a red moon, and a hapless ronin can survive multiple trips into the stratosphere, then you might be able to understand this series’ unique charm.
Love Hina is the story of a promise; specifically, a promise made by 5-year old Urashima Keitaro to a childhood friend that they would both attend Tokyo University when they grew up, fall in love, and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, the grown-up Keitaro’s grades are not even remotely up to par, such that he already failed twice to enter the prestigious institution. Broke and homeless, he entered his grandmother’s hot springs hotel hoping to beg a room, only to find to his horror that it had been converted into an all girl’s dormitory, a fact made abundantly clear when he accidentally encounters a naked girl in the springs! Before the various residents can boot Keitaro out the door though, he receives a message from his grandmother declaring him the manager and landlord.
One of the arguably most divisive elements of Love Hina is also the part about this series that I love the best: its characters. I love each and every member of the Love Hina cast, from pathetic but well-intentioned Keitaro to shy wallflower Shinobu, energetic foreigner Su, repressed swordswoman Motoko, sexy trickster Kitsune, airheaded but maternal Mutsumi, and yes, even the hotblooded and nerdy Narusegawa Naru. While all of these characters (plus the many, many I have not mentioned) may belong to familiar archetypes, watching and reading their interactions and gradual character development is a joy few series can match. These characters are flawed, to be sure, but in my mind it is their flaws that make them more attractive, as they allow for a greater level of three-dimensionality and fertile ground for the imagination outside of the stories portrayed in the anime and (much stronger) manga. While both the anime and manga do eventually grow a bit tiresome by their respective ends (do the constant tug-and-pull of “will they or won’t they?”), it’s the wild ride itself rather than the destination that makes this series so special. Add in the gorgeous animation work and memorable soundtrack, and you have an anime unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon.
#12: Excel Saga
”HAAAAAAAAAAIIILLL, ILPALAZZOOOOO!!!!!
If it takes a certain perspective in order to enjoy Love Hina, then you have to truly be off your rocker (or horribly, horribly drunk) in order to fully appreciate the insanity that is Excel Saga. As a laugh-a-nanosecond parody series, there’s never a moment when humor, visual and verbal, is being thrown your way. Even though most of the jokes will undoubtably go over the head of many a viewer due to being lost in translation, the sheer deluge of Luks occurring means that there’ll always be something on screen to make you laugh, whether you understand it or not. To put it in perspective, when you have main character tasked with killing the original manga's creator and succeeding twice in the first episode, only to have said creator reappear and fight the anime's creator/avatar for creative control of each successive episode, you know you're dealing with a massive dive into the surreal.
Summing up the plot of Excel Saga is an exercise in futility, as it's incidental to whatever jokes, satire, meta-references, and parodies can be portrayed within a given episode's running time. Broadly speaking though, Excel Saga is the story of hyperactive teenager Excel Excel and her efforts to fulfill the world-conquering plans of secret organization ACROSS and its enigmatic-to-the-point-of-obtuseness leader, Il Palazzo. Trouble is, the organization only consists of Excel and Il Palazzo, and they only have dominion over their underground lair beneath the "horribly corrupt" F City in F prefecture. As such, it is up to Excel to fulfill a new scheme (based on some genre-parody) each episode, later with the assistance of the "only mostly dead, most of the time" Hyatt. Their misadventures often cross paths with the subplots of several handfuls of other characters, from the ineffectual Department of City Security/sentai-team Daitenzin, to anime director Nabeshin's spy-esque pursuits, to Columbian laborer Pedro's efforts to save his "sexy wife" (who is really the reality-resetting Great Will of the Microcosm) from the clutches of the villainous That Man.
As previously stated, the plot of Excel Saga is not the main selling point of this series, but rather its the insane and spastic humor, meta-awareness, sharp wit, and memorable cast of characters. Since the plot rarely matters, each episode can be watched independently of one another without too much fear of getting lost or feeling as if you've missed something important. It's a lot like Family Guy, in that each event that happens is just a set-up for another joke or reference, and while some things carry over most happenings don't affect the episodes that follow (up to and including character death). And like Family Guy, Excel Saga likes to push the envelope of what's considered appropriate and acceptable for television viewing, such that their Final Episode, "Going Too Far," was banned from Japanese television to the extreme amount of raunchiness and obscenity involved. In sum, this is a series that has to be seen to be believed, and at the end you'll wake up wondering just what kind of drug cocktail was your drink spiked with . . . and why you suddenly have a craving for a dog sandwich.
"The heartwarming story of a boy and his cat . . . and a major military equipment manufacturer."
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (try saying that three times fast!) is an example of how you can take a very silly and ridiculous premise and somehow end up creating one of the most endearing characters in all of anime. Natsume “Nuku Nuku” Atsuko is perhaps one of the sweetest, most innocent, and most courageous female anime leads I have ever seen. And considering that within the story she’s basically just a cat’s brain stuck in an android body (without any additional explanation as to how that could possibly work), that’s pretty damn impressive!
I have only seen the original 6-epsiode OVA (and not the follow-up series, Nuku Nuku TV and Nuku Nuku DASH), so the story as I know is as follows: Scientist Natsume Kyusaku is on the run along with his son, Ryunosuke, after quitting his job at his wife Akiko’s mega corporation and stealing an android prototype he developed. While dodging gunfire from two of his ex-wife’s “Office Lady” lackeys, a stray cat Ryunosuke adopted gets caught in the crossfire. To spare his son’s feelings, Kyusaku implants the brain of the dying cat into the android and models it after a teenage girl; thus, Nuku Nuku is born! The rest of the series is devoted to the increasingly hilarious and destructive attempts by Akiko to require both Nuku Nuku and her son, with off-the-wall humor being interspersed with at times poignant examinations of the emotional impact of parental separation on all involved.
As I said previously, one of the primary attractions of this OVA is Nuku Nuku herself. She’s just nice, and actually fairly nuanced if you really pay attention to her portrayal. More than just a ditzy, naïve everygirl, Nuku Nuku has a zest for life that could only come from a character voiced by Hayashibara Megumi, and every time I hear her belting out the opening theme "It's My Happy Birthday!" I can't help but smile. However, Nuku Nuku's moments of carefree living are often interspersed by glimpses of just how aware she is of what’s going on around her, despite occasional lapses of distraction (she is a cat at heart, after all). Her moments of acting as surrogate mother, sister, and companion to her “brother” Ryunosuke are heartfelt and never overplayed, and when the chips are down, you know some epic destruction is in order as soon as Nuku Nuku’s cat ears pop up from beneath her rose-colored hair. Like Slayers, this is an anime series you can pop in anytime you feel the need to relax and get re-acquainted with an old familiar friend. The only reason it isn’t ranked higher is that the OVA itself is dragged down by two episodes I simply cannot stand due to the presence of the exceedingly annoying and insufferable Emi, an android “rival” to Nuku Nuku who always manages to grate on my nerves whenever she’s on screen.
Honorable Mention: Ai Yori Aoshi
"Those scars . . . with time, Aoi will heal them."
If RahXephon is “Evangelion done right” in my eyes, then I would express the same feeling regarding Ai Yori Aoshi towards other harem anime like Love Hina. Part of the reason Ai Yori Aoshi works so well is that, despite having the trappings of a harem series, it really isn’t one. The main couple, Aoi and Karou, form a strong bond early on, and it’s their budding romance that drives the series forward even as they’re forced to hide it beneath pretense, both in-story and metatextually. Watching these two gradually fall in love is pure delight, and carries both a wonderful innocence and sense of verisimilitude that is incredibly endearing.
So what’s the story? Well, while walking home from one day, college student Hanabishi Karou stops to help a young women in a kimono with directions. When they don’t find her destination, he takes her to his house where it’s later revealed she was looking for him all along—she’s his betrothed, and she’s here to marry him! And thus we're introduced to Sakuraba Aoi, daughter of a major retail-chain operator who has been raised her entire life to be a perfect bride and yamato nadesico, the Japanese ideal of grace and beauty, for the heir to the Hanabishi clan. Trouble is, Karou was kicked out of the Hanabishi family on his accord, due to his disgust with their emotionally abusive and stifling practices, and the fact that he was heir only because no legitimate offspring was available. Undeterred, Aoi declares her love for Karou and her desire to become his wife, no matter the cost, and so to save face Karou is asked to move into a boarding room at a Sakuraba estate, with Aoi posing as his landlord. Keeping up appearances, though, means allowing for the possibility of other tenants, and not long afterwards several other girls begin moving in . . .
The core of Ai Yori Aoshi is undoubtedly the blossoming relationship between Karou and Aoi. Though they both knew one another as children and Aoi had been holding a torch for Karou all her life, you really do get to see the slow, occasionally awkward, but genuinely sweet growth of their emotional bond over the course of the series. It helps that both leads are interesting characters in their own right, with levels of depth beyond mere archetypes. Karou is an earnest but damaged soul, haunted by past emotional hurts, abandonment, and physical abuse at the hands of his grandfather. Ai Yori Aoshi is in part the story of Karou's redemption, and his learning how to love and trust in others again through the relationships he gains over the course of the series. Aoi is an equally layered character, who might seem like a fragile, acquiescing doormat to Western eyes, but actually hides a core of fire beneath her calm and serene exterior. The other characters who gravitate around Karou and Aoi are all equally well portrayed and never overstay their welcome. Though on the surface they resemble typical harem anime character types, they are given the chance to evolve beyond their base characterizations. It helps that, unlike many a harem anime a la Love Hina, the other girls at the house actually respect Karou and listen to him when misunderstandings occur, rather than resorting to slapstick and cries of "Pervert!"
If I like this series so much, you might ask, why isn’t it higher on my list? Well, as much as I adore Ai Yori Aoshi, the anime unfortunately feels incomplete to me due to it having overtook the manga and never finishing the story. So while I can certainly appreciate the slice-of-life elements of the episodes that exist, the fact that the main narrative just dead-ends kind of ruins the series for me. This may in some ways be to the anime’s benefit, as the manga itself took a nosedive into stark melodrama at the end before making one last huff to the finish line, leaving me feeling less than fully satisfied with the eventual conclusion. In addition, the juxtaposition between the incredibly detailed artwork of the manga and the less distinctive, simpler designs in the anime are a bit jarring to me, though both are very well done and work well within their respective mediums. These are only minor quibbles, to be sure, but when creating a list of one’s favorite anime, the little things start to matter.
Previous Entries
#20 through #16
#25 through #21
Mares Guyver, signing off.
