When anime series brings something new to the table.

KiffJames · (#1 (**permalink**))

The first time I started watching anime I thought; “wow, how is it possible that I have missed out on this great stuff for so long”.

After watching a few series that leads to a lot of series, I started to observe similarities. This similarities makes up a “formula” that is abused over and over again, and suddenly every anime out there seems related to each other – but than you got those anime series that are groundbreaking and adds new content to genre.

Post those anime series that “took you by surprise” when it comes to originality in both story and form.

My three favourites now is (I’m only mentioning anime for adults)

Cowboy Bepop

Without spoiling anything, I can say that all the characters are exceptionally interesting, some may seem easy at start, but they all got complex and appealing sides that we don’t fully understand before later on. The anime also have some of the COOLEST bad guys you will ever encounter in a anime.

Berserk

The share bloodshed alone doesn’t make Berserk a great anime – the reason is character development, eye-catching environment and awe-inspiring storyline. The manga has a lot more substance - but the anime version has, in my opinion, been perfectly converted in to the “movie” format.

Claymore

A story about hot skinny chicks that are wielding gigantic swords and killing monsters in a gigantic bloodbath. It seems interesting enough but there is a lot more to it like; character development, unpredictable storyline and a attention-grabbing “universe”.

Reavyn · (#2 (**permalink**))

5 Centimeters Per Second

This anime is real life. It doesn't bring the zaniness that almost every other anime has atleast a little of.

Peach Girl

You know, I can't pinpoint any one thing about this one that just didn't seem different than anything I've seen before.

Voices of a Distant Star

Yes, it has mecha and battles, but it is nothing at all like any other mecha anime. It's about nothing more than emotion.

TheLastFortnight · (#3 (**permalink**))

Yeah, Japanese Animation has a lot of cliches and formulas.

The most common ones I know so far includes the Pokémon formula, where there are children with monsters or pet friends which fight instead of them so you can't see the violence among the children themselves.

You can see this formula reproduced on many animes since Pokémon became a success like Digimon, Monster Rancher, Medabot and Jibaku Kun.

The other common formula is the romantic comedy formula where a huge bunch of cute girls suddenly fall in love with a very stupid and nerd guy. It includes series like Tenchi Muyo, Love Hina, Hand Maid May and many others.

The series that I think innovated the industry somehow are:

Neon Genesis Evangelion: It took the Japanese cliches like mechas, cute girls, school life and turned it into a realistic human drama with philosophic and religious references and many mysteries.

Cowboy Bebop: It brought the American cliches from the films and put them in the anime world where for some reason it sounded new and fresh, maybe because it was extremely well done. The lonely cowboy, the tough middle aged retired cop, the underworld's tough and smart girl etc., they're all there.

Serial Experiments Lain: I'm too tired to describe this one, sorry! But I think this series brought something new too to the world of the anime cliches and wasted formulas.