Animes that amazed/disappointed you.

[RYOUKI]

Usually we have first impressions, but what anime has exceeded your first impression expectations and made you thankful that you stuck to it and continue watching it?

I was amazed by Saki. I was only watching it due to its story being interesting, but it really made a complete 180 in episode 5+. If you know me, I'm sure I have recommended this anime to you. ^^; Oh, and Toradora and Nyan Koi also comes in my mind.

The anime that greatly disappointed me is Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. The light novel was great, but the anime just finished it in 2 episodes out of 13. The art is nice, I must admit. Oh, and don't forget The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009). For obvious reasons.

 

[Miz en Scène]

Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini
At first I thought that with Hei gone, the second season of DTB would be a lot less dull. Instead, Bones amazed me with Suou and the awesome plot(well DTB: KNK was still better.) befitting of a confusing Darker Than Black. And, Hei returned. :D

Code Geass
After Bay finally inadvertently persuaded me to watch it, I've been loving it ever since. At first, with the sequence of Lelouch playing chess and the giant robots, I assumed it was a crappy Death Note/Gundam corssover. Instead, I was amazed and then it was an awesome Death Note/Gundam crossover.

Kuroshitsuji
It struck me as boring at first. Kind of like the tribulations of a master and his butler in the Victorian era. However, after watching a few episodes, it was awesome. Rich plot, excellent characters, and the occasional comic relief in the form of Finny and Grell Sutcliffe. :3

Fantastic Children
I admit, it was a bit boring at first, but the plot soon caught up and I found it an extremely worthwhile watch. Actually, you have to watch it to love it. :D

Blood+
Originally, I would've been like, "Yea right I'd be caught watching that...", but I quickly changed after watching the amazing premise in which the characters were in. A truly amazing anime. :3

 

[Hagumi]

Kuuchuu Buranko / Sky Swing / Trapeze
And here I was thinking that it would end up just being some random, colourful anime with no plot or interesting characters whatsoever. I was wrong. Perhaps the show didn't have a super awesome and complex plot, but that doesn't matter. I enjoyed it very much so, and I was disappointed to see that it only had eleven episodes. But all good things must come to an end. Despite the fact a new character comes up in every episode, almost all of them are memorable in one way or another. The art style… well, I personally loved it. But I think it may be a love it or hate it type of thing. For me, it was a unique and engaging art style. The voice acting was good too. And I overall enjoyed it; I enjoyed watching every episode. It's a shame that nobody really knows about it.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni / When the Seagulls Cry
I think majority of Umineko visual novel fans had a feeling that this would be kind of terrible. After all, it was being produced by Studio DEEN! :| But it was still disappointing to watch… and I hadn't even played the visual novel of it yet. Umineko VN >>> Umineko anime any day. I was kind of hoping DEEN wouldn't screw up on this, but I was wrong. They missed out a lot of important bits from the VN, and… yeah. I know that they couldn't follow the VN exactly but come on. Episode 24 was a super-major and lame way to finish off the series. But dragon!Kinzo did make me laugh a bit.

 

[Taichi]

I'm more into manga these days but Anime that amazed me were:

Gurren Lagann - 120% Pure Testosterone and manliness packed into a epic anime.

Anime that disappointed me was:

I''s - I'm not a purist but the manga was way better because the OVA was 6 episodes, cut out some great storylines, major characters, and damn near everything I liked about the manga I''s. The anime was 6 episodes of 5 characters (2 who were even more minor than the characters cut out of the anime) and flashbacks.

 

[Ibuberu]

I was very impressed with Durarara! and Toradora! as well as Soul Eater. Initally all were just animes I decided to watch out of boredom, I didn't expect myself to get hooked on them, and proceed to become a fan. Admitedly, the factor that all three share in common, the factor that caused me to fall head over heels for them, were the astonishing characters. All three anime have such unique/quirky characters. I loved it.

Not-as-impressed with The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya and K-ON!. For two of them, the starting seemed promised - and then we got to Endless Eight and the Azusa period, respectively. (I've no hate on Azusa, she's a cute character, but the series sort of went downhill after she appeared 8/ I mean, they inserted a second summer episode, where the only main difference was that Azusa was there.) Yeah.

 

[Jordan]

Clannad, Clannad ~After Story~,and Kanon (2006) are three animes that I hold near and dear to me. I started Kanon and Clannad around the same time out of pure boredom with the Shounen series I was into a few years ago, and they changed my tastes in anime completely. Recently, I was surprisingly struck by how humorous Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was, since I knew pretty much nothing beforehand going into it. The ARIA series was also a pleasant surprise to watch, and by pleasant, I mean very fun and relaxing. |D

I was a bit disappointed with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009), mainly for just one arc. However, the remaining arcs weren't too exciting compared to the first season either. Air was an anime I had high expectations for, though unfortunately that was a mistake. I watched Kanon and Clannad prior to Air, so Air was just too rough of a piece of work for me to enjoy. Speaking of Key, the Clannad movie, though not horrible, pales too much in comparison to the anime series, it hurts. ;;

 

[thedestinedblade]

Monster is one anime that thoroughly impressed me. Not something I'd usually watch, but I decided to watch it out of the blue and it's one of my favorite to this day. The plot is really mind blowing. :D A doctor's choice to save a child causes the deaths of many, and he still believes he did the right thing in saving him.

Disappointed a bit with Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini. It had it's a moments occasionally, but I felt it was somewhat of a letdown compared to the first. Plus, the ending had me going wtf? Suou was great though. :D

 

[Taemin]

I don't have a lot of time, so I'm gonna narrow it down to three, that surprised me. :3

Baccano!;
It took me a couple of years to watch this series, and I would've NEVER watched it on my own. From glancing at the pictures, and seeing icons, it seemed like something that I just wouldn't be into. 'Always try everything once', though, and while I was bored one day, a friend of mine was ranting about it's awesomness. That's just it, though.. my friend tends to like more comical things, were as I'm more into drama. He kept telling me how funny it was, so I STILL thought I wouldn't like it. Yeah, I was wrong. xD; I watched the first two episodes, and it hooked me. Definitely had the drama in there with the humor, very original characters, and also an original (if not weird..) plot line to boost. Glad I gave it a go, even if it took some pushes. It's similar 'Durarara', and if you like one, you'll like the other.

Monster;
This series has been out since 2004 in Japan, it ended in 2005, and I didn't watch it until 2008 - but mygod it's awesome. I watched it out of boredom, and wanted something different than the typical, upbeat, cutesy anime. I definitely found it, and Monster makes every other srs bsns series I've ever seen look like a Disney movie. Series that are typically seen as 'omg, so hard to understand' are nothing in comparison to Monster. It makes Death Note, and Stand Alone Complex look like Tinkerbell, and I've never stuck with such a long series until the end. It has.. 74 episodes, I believe. I got through them all in a pretty fast amount of time. It's still one of my favorite series, and I'd watch it again.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann;
I'm not gonna lie, I was totally turned off by this series when it first came about. Back in 2007, I hardly gave it a second glance. I watched the first two episodes, found it sort of dull, and never looked back until.. aaah.. two weeks ago? Because it's nearly three years later, and people are still going on about it. I gotta say, I do understand why now. I find it's characters to be really likable, the plot is.. very different, and the entire concept is something I've never seen before. Well, there's the mecha's, but other than that. Wow, just wow. I know a lot of people criticize this series, and pick at all it's flaws, but if you watch it with a positive outlook on it.. I see nothing wrong with it hardly at all. I'm really disappointed that I didn't try it again sooner, and I'm honestly not sure why I didn't like it back in '07.

 

[Okami Chi]

Good=Old Pokemon Bad=New Pokemon. Yup. Go away Ash and evolve you're Pikachu.

 

[Daeva Okami-Luca]

Good: Until Deoxys Movie. That is all.

Oh and Darkrai was good. But shaymin was annoying as hell.

 

[Harmonie]

An anime that amazed me is/was One Piece. I first saw it on CN with the 4Kids dub, back then I thought of it in the same way as Naruto: Not my thing. For some reason I gave it a second chance with subtitles. Then I realized that it's the perfect kind of anime for me. It's awesome!

Anime that have disappointed me have been FLCL, Gintama, and Katekyo Hitman REBORN!. The three of them have a large amount of hype surrounding them. None of them are as good as that hype says they are.

FLCL is ridiculous and random, and while I can appreciate that in other series, FLCL does it wrong. Gintama, well everybody makes it out to be the funniest thing ever. It isn't bad, but it really isn't all of that funny. I'd put it on about the same level as Family Guy. And Family Guy is only occasionally funny for me, but the rest of the time it misses, and the failed humor drags it down. Gintama does exactly the same thing. Plus it has very little consistency, seriousness and not much of a story at all. There are a few serious arcs here and there, but with all of the hit and miss humor it's hard to even get to them. Katekyo Hitman REBORN! is another not so bad series, but it has a bunch of people everywhere to say it's the best Shounen ever. In all truth it is about "average" along with Naruto and Bleach. Annoying characters reallly drag the series down, plus the plot just isn't interesting. The artstyle is a bit "Meh." (I don't like to judge with that, but a lot of the fangirls talk about how 'hot' the males are, and let me tell you it's very hard for me to see that with the artstyle...) REBORN! can be quite entertaining when there is action, which is kind of the flip of what I enjoy in a Shounen. The light-hearted, non action parts of REBORN! rarely entertain me, and there is a lot of that... Including the first twenty episodes. D:

 

[Luck]

Hajime no Ippo: I'm not the kind of person who cares about unknown anime, so I didn't think I would like this, especially after hearing it was about sports. I regret thinking that way. The style it was drawn in was/is really great, and the show had a lot of character development with plenty of hilarious moments. I can't even remember watching a filler that made me lost hope for the show. It's amazing, and it's still going strong with over 800 chapters, showing no hint at an ending any time soon.
Gantz:Granted, it was only a few episodes long, but it was great. Quite possibly the coolest anime since it features lots of blood, nudity, and gore, while still keeping the story interesting.
Aokie Densetsu Shoot!: Or however it's spelled. Basically like Hajime no Ippo, but with association football instead of boxing. They have a great plot twist right in the middle of the story, which is always a good thing.

Now for the wall of shame.
Naruto: I don't see what people like about it. The battles are lame and way too drawn out, and they put fillers all over the place, most of which have little to no character development, and has no point for anything other than entertainment. Oh, and they're ninjas. It isn't the fact that it's way too cliche, but what bothers me is that they aren't ninja like at all. When you think of ninjas, at the very least you think of something like this, just with smaller weapons and sleeves. Since when was a blond ninja in an orange jumpsuit stealthy at all? Thankfully, it looks like they plan to end it soon, seeing as how that godforsaken sequel seems to be nearing its end.
Bleach: Just no. The idea wasn't the most overused, but it still has the most drawn out battles of all time. The anime could've done without Hueco Mundo and ended it's life before it passed its prime, but they just had to ruin it. The battles are absurd(seriously, they barely live against one enemy at one time but get a huge burst of power just a few days later. This isn't Dragon Ball.) and drawn out, if I didn't already say that. The Hueco Mundo arc isn't finished because for every one episode there, they seem to have 10 filler episodes. I don't see why they had to do it at the worst time for flashbacks. Why couldn't they do it at a time that made sense? Oh, right. They're fillers.
To Love-Ru: Honestly, it's quite terrible. I only watched it for the cheap laughs they gave, and that's all. It's plagued by innuendo and awkward moments, which is good when used in moderation, but the overuse of it just made me have a bad taste in my mouth afterwards.

I know a few others, but I can't be bothered to remember their names.

 

[twocows]

I have been impressed by everything CLAMP has ever done (especially Cardcaptor Sakura, which is my favorite anime/manga), excluding the anime adaptation of Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, which apparently CLAMP wasn't impressed with, either. My current avatar is from "Kobato." (EDIT: I've since changed it), a currently airing anime adaptation of the CLAMP manga by the same name. I just started watching it, and I'm extremely impressed so far. I started watching based on a plot summary, but the characters and atmosphere really drew me in; they even played part of Dvorak's "New World Symphony," my favorite classical music piece, in episode 2. Plus, the closing credits song is by Megumi, who has done, among other things, the voice-work and songs for Ranka from Macross Frontier (I'm a big fan of her work).

Also, many of KEY's works have impressed me (Clannad, Kanon, and Planetarian to name a few). Kanon 2006 is one of my favorite anime, and the visual novel of Planetarian had me crying for a really long time.

I also really liked 5 Centimeters per Second, though I won't watch it again because it was actually too powerful for me. Especially at the end... ;_;

 

[Finnel]

Disappointed:
Code Geass. Recommended to me by a friend, made it out to be this epic political war full of giant robots and mind****s.
It's certainly full of badly designed giant robots, and retarded plot twists made out to be mind****s, but epic political war it is not.

Amazed:
Princess Tutu. A friend burned the whole series to a DVD and gave it to me for my birthday. Thought it would just be a regular happy-go-lucky cute magical girl show. Oh god was I surprised.
Slayers. Another friend recommendation. I saw the very first episode at her house, and it looked a bit interesting but generic and not particularly amazing. God was I proven wrong when I actually got into the series.

 

[jigglyppuff8]

Amazing:
Baka to Test to Shokanju
After everyone was going on about how "OMG, WINTER 2010 SUXORZ", I was kinda skeptical about this one. The "cliche" humor and gg's translations, however, erased any doubts I had from my mind about this being a funny show.

Bacanno!
An anime set in America with a noir overtone. How everything connects together at the end is simply amazing.

Kuchu Buranko
If you've seen it, you know.

Disappoint:
CLANNAD (Not afterstory)
I blame Jordan for building this one up too much. I was expecting more tear jerking moments and humor. :<

Black Cat
This anime seemed really rushed plot wise. I'd imagine an anime like this to be longer than 23 episodes. Also, Train's character was a big mope while I was expecting more of a really laid back guy who suddenly turns into a bad ass at certain points.

K-ON!
ENOUGH WITH THE TEA PARTIES. LEARN TO PLAY MUSIC ALREADY. щ(ﾟДﾟщ)

 

[Okami Chi]

My favourite anime shows of all time are these:

1. .hack (all series)
2. Wolfs Rain
3. DBZ (all series)
4. Pokemon
5. Gundam Wing
6. Pokemon

I hate:

Yu Gi Oh

Monster Rancher (Though I love the game.)

And crazy disappointed by Blue Dragon.


....Oh and person that said Code Geass failed, Code Geass is awesome sauce.

 

[Finnel]

....Oh and person that said Code Geass failed, Code Geass is awesome sauce.

That's nice. I don't think so though.

 

[Esper]

I have been impressed by everything CLAMP has ever done (especially Cardcaptor Sakura, which is my favorite anime/manga), excluding the anime adaptation of Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, which apparently CLAMP wasn't impressed with, either.

Tsubasa was really disappointing. It had a good story, but they paced it badly. It had good music, but it was played at awkward times. It was done so cheaply I wish they hadn't made it at all.

I was also not impressed with Darker Than Black, which I thought was slow and lacked interesting characters. I don't know why exactly, but I went into that show expecting something... more.

As for what has impressed me, Macross Frontier was a big surprise. I've seen a lot of the other Macross incarnations so maybe that's part of it, but I was expecting a little more of the same: silly characters, decent (but not great) music, a rehash of the old plot. Everything went way beyond that. The story just kept getting better, the in-jokes only the old fans would get, the music! And it was super-high budget and it shows. Loads of fun.

I also really liked what they've done with the new Evangelion movies. I expected they would be generic retellings in movie format like many other shows have done. I've seen the TV show, and it's okay, but the movies did away with a lot of the unnecessary angst (they left in enough) and added some badly needed character development. It's much better this way.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Two titles that completely took me by surprise (in a good way):
Saki: Despite knowing absolutely nothing about mahjong and not being a real fan of tournament-style shows, I enjoyed this one. Might be the cute girls, might be the fact that they make the game look so exciting and intense, but starting with the tourney episodes, I was hooked.

Hitohira: This is one of those shows that seemingly comes out of nowhere and takes you by complete surprise. I was thoroughly impressed. The show achieves a balance of comedy, drama, and romance into a short but sweet package. An action series it's not, but if you're looking for a heartwarming show about building self confidence and changing who you are, give it a try.

Two titles that completely took me by surprise (in a bad way):
Seiken no Blacksmith: Where do I start? The storyline here asks that very same question, as this show is mostly people hanging around, a couple battles, and an entire side-arc that played no role in the actual storyline. and all this for the first 8 or 9 episodes. And considering thi is a 13-episode show, you do the math.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Purezza: I enjoyed the first season of Nogizaka Haruka and was looking forward to the new season. Little did I know that the second time around, Haruka's otaku-ness (yeah, that's a word now) was put on the back burner, Haruka herself was put on the back burner (pretty sad when she's the title character), and half the episodes were devoted to Yuuto's harem, including characters who only have one pr two episodes and are never seen again. Most of what worked first season was cut out second season. And call me crazy, but in the 12 episodes, I don't think the relationship between Yuuto and Haruka took a step forward at all - they're at the same place they were at the end of first season. What was the point again?

(Note: I've omitted series like Naruto, DBZ, most recent Pokemon seasons, and the like because, although I didn't care for them, I had low expectations for them anyway and so I wasn't really "disappointed" by them.)

 

[Kai Yamato]

Eh. I haven't been too interested in anime lately. But most of it is disappointment due to my cynicism toward the industry.

Darker than Black: Ryusei no Gemini was just disappointing. It wasn't much of a trainwreck as Code Geass R2 but damn, what the heck did they do to it? It disappoints me that this anime decides to follow the trend much like every other anime. By having a loli as a main character instead of Hei from the previous season. Hei is still there and all. But... He become depowered in order to not overshadow Suou who was then suddenly turned into a Contractor. >_> And do they always have to use that stock footage of a naked Suou summoning her weapon over and over? My lord. The anime use to be unique by not being like every anime, no big busts or fanservice-y scene but this... just make me facepalm. Heck, look at what they did to a badass like Hei. Not to mention the pacing is... just terrible. As well as the writing. Characters they introduced just get killed off. And the ending was like "lolwut?" Also, what happened to everything from the first season? Aren't they supposed to be still fighting the Syndicate or what? What the heck happened? Surely, the budget killed it for only having 12 episodes but I doubt the writing would've been better. Especially with Suou as the main character. It's definitely not the story of the previous Darker than Black cast.