IMPORTANT!

[Scourge]

I'll give credit to all those cartoons for adults like The Critic all the way down to the Simpsons, even though I never got into any of it except Futurama. I just find it interesting that many of the top animated US series have bad animation. But their scripts are what make them special I guess. So even though I'm not the guy to ask about those shows, I'll put them in my list.

US:

*The Simpsons
*The Critic
*Futurama
*South Park
*Batman The Animated Series
*Ren & Stimpy (the original series)
*The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse (this needs a dvd release stat)
*Tom & Jerry
*Chuck Jones, yeah ok an exception to the "series" rule, but the shorts were always presented as a show like The Bugs Bunny/Daffy Hour, so...
*Spawn

And that's where I start having trouble. I liked Doug and Hey Arnold plenty, but best ever? I don't know if I can attribute that moniker to them...

Maybe:

*Pinky & The Brain

Invader Zim was good, but again, best ever? I liked Dexter's Laboratory too, but wouldn't put it on a best of all time list probably.

Japan:

*Bubblegum Crisis: Hard to call it a series as it's an OVA, but the animation in this show is phenomenal and the really dark subtext and atmosphere is pulled off as good as any dystopian future in anything ever. Seriously.

*Cowboy Bebop: It's an homage to the old and a slick packaging of the new. Good action series well directed and animated with two lead characters that are now iconic in their own right.

*serial experiments lain: I realize this show put a lot of people to sleep and made little sense to even more people, but its eerie presentation and extremely well directed vision are as good to me as it would have been live action. Take that as you will I guess. There was some trippy philosophy in this show and some well pulled off mind fucks. At the end of the day, think of it as a mecha series, seriously, and then think over its entirety from that perspective; it's a very interesting take on that genre in my opinion. I've never seen Boogiepop Phantom, but switch them out if you feel it necessary as plenty seem to.

*The Vision of Escaflowne: What makes this series really special to me is how incredibly alive the world of Gaia was made, from politics to religion, ethinicity, race and species, regional attributes... It was a fully formed world. One of the better fantasies in either hemisphere. Reminded me a lot of a series of books I read by Guy Gavriel Kay years ago: The Fionavar Tapestry. I think Escaflowne was pretty literary.

*Macross (Robotech): It's a space opera/soap opera. The main backdrop of the show (the war) pales in comparison to the relationships between the characters. Sure it has its fair share of corny stuff, but the characters that start off seeming to just be archetypical really develop and show three dimensions. This is something I really appreciate when something animated can pull it off successfully which goes to my next few shows as well.

*Kimagure Orange Road: Certainly not without its share of filler eps, the episodes that do drive the series forward are touching and it ultimately comes to a rewarding conclusion. It's a romantic comedy with some Ranma-esque shenanigans (the main character's family are ESPers) but there's something really melancholic about the three way relationship of the principles. It's all couched in what it was like to be 15 years old and is narrated somewhat, in a way that the main guy is looking back on those years and it moves me. This show also provided one of the funniest moments I've ever seen in anything (spoiler warning just in case: the first time one of the girls sees a penis it's done in such a true but absurd fashion that I nearly died laughing).

*Maison Ikkoku: I have the same feelings about how the relationship is handled in this series. Mostly because the main woman is a widow who loves her dead husband still and is having trouble coping. But throughout the course of the show she gradually is moving on. It's a kooky comedy that's trying at times because the residents of the apartment building are pretty much assholes when it comes right down to it, but the relationship is compelling enough to want to keep up with it.

It's late so I'll continue this at another time. I need to go read.

[ChaoofNee]

Sorry this thread interrupted your superior, intellectual lifestyle, Scourge.

[Finch]

"And now, we must bring this episode of Anime Theatre to a close. It's late and I need to go read. Good night children!"

Good night papa Scourge!




Hey Arnold and Doug are most certainly up there! Not the Disney Doug.

[Chux]

It's posted here feel free to add your support, or for the three of you that said no, your disdain.

[Scourge]

Sorry this thread interrupted your superior, intellectual lifestyle, Scourge.

lol. I go bed at 1am on week nights and wake up about 6am to go to work. I have a 2.5 hour round trip commute to work, work 8 hours, get home and have to do my 3 or 4 mile exercise, then watch some tv. If I don't try to read at least a half hour before I call it a night I'll never finish the books I'm reading so I have to kind of have it scheduled that I read right before bed, just like I read during breakfast. Wasn't trying to sound uppity.