Guaporense certified great TV series

You should note that a film buff that's able to select 100 great movies probably watched twenty times more films than TV series. So it's natural for such film buff to not find more than half a dozen series great.

I personally can say to have watched about 7 five star TV series and about 80 five star movies.

Note: this was edited in July 31, 2014 into a more informative review.

14) Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996)



I have added a movie from the rebuilt tetralogy to my list of certified great movies. But I find the TV series even superior to all the associated films (4 of which are all in my top 100 favorite animated movies list). In terms of artistic ambition no TV series I ever watched can claim to come remotely close to Evangelion. That's because it was the personal product of someone who was suffering from deep depression while trying to make a giant robot cartoon aimed at teenagers into a personal work of art. And no other series has produced a strong set of zealot hardcore fans as NGE did, who consider it the greatest thing ever. I can say that no other TV series appear to be as aggressively ambitious but one could say that it's because

The main flaw of this show is its complete lack of subtlety: it is a sledgehammer. Nothing I ever watched (either film or TV) comes close to it in terms of raw aggression, specially the last 10 episodes and nothing I ever watched on TV comes close it's level of pretension. Some say it's like David Lynch directing Gundam but differently from Lynch's uncanny work, it's more emotionally aggressive, not in a melodramatic way but in it's representation of suicidal depression as applied to teenager characters.

Interestingly, Hideaki Anno, to make his thematic points crystal clear, choose to even abandon the entire fictional narrative by the last couple of episodes. Something he did not plan to do at the beginning though the tone of the series and all main thematic elements were defined from the beginning but the series evolved as a work of art during it's production, as Anno said, it was like a live jazz performance involving a great deal of improvisation. What are the main thematic elements? Social alienation, depression and coming of age as well as the sexual awakening of early teen years. Basically the main elements that characterize the world of a socially dysfunctional teenager in depression. As a result, socially dysfunctional teenagers suffering from depression who watched this show became it's legion of lifelong ardent zealots. The degree of personal identification that can arise combined with the emotional power of suicidal depression during the emotionally turbulent times of adolescence makes it the material that eventually resulted in a new religion.

Evangelion remains also perhaps the single most influential work of TV animation of all time. Why? Before NGE OVA's dominated adult Japanese animation (hence, OVA were most adult animation up to 1995), after NGE, several thousand TV cartoon series were made focused on the anime nerd market instead of children and young teenagers and most animation made in the world today is composed of these otaku oriented TV series. Indeed, by 2007, 12 years after it first aired, it was voted by a pool organized by the Japanese ministry of culture, as the single greatest animation of all time.

I watched Princess Tutu through in June-August of 2013. It's indeed a very sophisticated series and I would rate it as , it's not as exciting as Madoka though and it's very different in tone and execution, very subtle as well, and among the Princess Tutu's director's works, his best is Aria: The Origination in my opinion, it's very slow paced and very calm, almost "boring" in fact, but it's great all around and widely regarded as one of the best slice of life anime of all time (some might claim it's better than Only Yesterday and Whisper in fact).

Also, to call PMMM sadistic and twisted would be perfect characterizations of it. I would say that "astonishingly cruel" would be the best two word description of PMMM (first given here http://www.isugoi.com/puella-magi-madoka-magica-review/).

14 series so far and only 3 animated? As an animation buff this is disappointing considering that I have watched more adult animated series than live action series over the past decade (that is, from the point when I was about 15 as my tastes haven't changed that greatly since). Let's add some animation to this list. I will only include stuff that I have watched at least a year ago, so that they have proven themselves memorable works of art. I will also not add my personal moe guilty pleasures but only the series that I perceive to be works of substantial artistic value. This way I can add to my forum profile

I also noticed that my reviews previously here are lacking in terms of providing information for the people who haven't watched any of those series. I will correct that mistake over my next few

15) Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988-1998)



Despite it's goofy title (combined with the fact that this is an animated series may imply that for people who are not into ) this represents perhaps the single most complex example of world building in the history of screen fiction, being easily superior in that regard to any other TV series or film that I have so far watched over my lifetime. The depth of character development is also greatly impressive, rivaling works of classic literature. It's greatest weakness in my opinion would be the relatively uncreative direction and lack of visual audacity, being very conventional looking. Though this may be said to add a touch of maturity in the sense of the director not being seduced by the juvenile attraction of aggressively violating the standards of anime direction (such as Shimbo did from Hidamari Sketch to Bakemonogatari, Nisekoi and Puella Magi Madoka Magica). The animation also suffers from the super low budget and combined with the highly complex character designs and background art resulted in super low framerates of 4-5 frames per second in some scenes.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes was originally conceived as a series of seven science fiction novels by Yoshiki Tanaka, being one of the very few writers with a PHD in literature whose work was adapted into an animated series (if not the only one). The name of the series is derived from the main theme of the novels which is the concept of hero in the historical sense as being single individuals whose actions become so influential that they shape the course of world history. Obvious examples of such individuals are Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Adolf Hitler. Hitler, for instance, is the single greatest "hero" of the 20th century because he is responsible for changing the course of history from a world culturally and scientifically dominated by Western Europe, as it was before WW2, to a world culturally and scientifically dominated by North America (to a great extent at least as Western Europe still remains influential). Hitler managed to achieve this great feat by taking control of Europe's most powerful country, Germany, and declaring war on most other European countries, effectively destroying the continent in the process of war that followed, leading to the move to the US of the cultural and scientific center of gravity in the world.

In Legend of the Galactic Heroes we have the depiction of similar process as the two main characters, among a cast of nearly a hundred well developed characters, Yang Wen-li
and Reinhard von Lohengramm have the potential to change the history of the galaxy. The galaxy of LOGH is divided into two great superpowers, The Galactic Empire and The Free Planet Alliance, which are in a war of attrition similar to WW1 and in a state of stalemate which has lasted for centuries. Over the course of 50 hours of this cartoon we gradually witness the process by which Reinhard von Lohengramm, thanks to his exceptional military genius, breaks the stalemate in this war, leading to the victory of the Galactic Empire, takes personal control of the now galaxy spanning Galactic Empire (thanks to it's autocratic nature, it is a regime that can be easily controlled by any single individual after a coup) and establishes himself as the ruler of the galaxy and finally getting sick and dying at the age of 25 (in Alexander the Great style). Wang Wenli actually appears to have been endowed with greater tactical genius, but being a historian who become a military officer due to lack of job prospects in civilian academia, does not possess any ambition and by being employed by the democratic government of the Free Planet Alliance, which does not allow any single individual to achieve autocratic power, is unable to take personal control of most of the Alliance's military forces and the Alliance is hence unable to use his military genius to it's full potential. The cartoon series appears to make the case that autocratic governments can possess an important advantage over democracies in war though this can backfire by

Yang Wen-li:


Reinhard von Lohengramm:


Boasting it's incredible array of fictional battles (http://gineipaedia.com/wiki/Category:Battles, of which http://gineipaedia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Rantemario was the most decisive) and focus on strategic warfare and politics in an extremely rich fictional but internally consistent world, LOGH has attained great popularity among military history buffs and science fiction fans in general.

Although originally conceived as a TV series, LOGH was regarded as commercially unfeasible, being a strictly serious series without any elements of mass appeal (unlike, for instance, the thematically similar Game of Thrones who exploits many mass appeal elements to be commercially successful while heavily simplifying on the politics and strategy aspects). LOGH it was made commercially viable as a Original Video Animation satisfying the tastes of Japan's population of hardcore anime nerds, who make these series possible by dedicating their lives, and most important, income in purchasing anime and manga related products.

I would rate it as (hence, lower than Babylon 5), why? Because it is, well, boring in some parts and also it lacks emotional depth, working on a strictly intellectual level. Being perhaps the cartoon equivalent of War and Peace, similar in size, thematic scope and character development, it also required some patience to be watched, as it is a single continuous plot that encompasses 110 episodes (each is longer than usual animation episode at about 29 minutes, making the whole series almost like a 3000 minutes long continuous cartoon movie featuring long dialogues of strategy, history and politics). It also boasts some of the worst comedy I ever witnessed. The writer, while greatly skilled in character and world building, doesn't appear to have a good sense of humor.

If one compare with PMMM, which is 10 times shorter, it's completely different in many ways. PMMM is characterized by super concise exposition and dialogue while LOGH is characterized by super complex exposition and interminable dialogue. PMMM is characterized by audicious visuals and music, LOGH is characterized by super conservative visuals and music.

It's on youtube as well, episode 1:
. I have already posted two of the associated movies in my top 100 cartoon movies thread, one of these is a prologue to the series while another serves as substitute for the first two episodes.

+rep because it looks interesting. I've never actually heard of it.

16) Haibane Renmei (2002)



In my opinion, Yoshitoshi ABe's masterpiece, although he was also deeply involved in the creation of Serial Experiments Lain and Texhnolyze, Haibane Renmei is very different from any other cartoon series so far in this thread, being more like an art film rather than TV series. Although still incorporating a linear plot, it's use of symbolism is much heavier than usual in TV shows (being in this sense exceptional like Legend of Galactic Heroes is exceptional in the complexity of world building and it's focus on the elements related to the fictional world being depicted), as much of what's shown lacks clearly defined meaning and allows the viewer to form his/her own perceptions of their significance.

Basically, the plot begin which Rakka, a young haibane, being born from a giant cocoon inside an old building into the rather uncanny town of Glie, It's told that she existed before though she doesn't remember who she was and who knew her also wouldn't recognize her if they saw her again. While the series leaves some clues to what all this represents it is all left ambiguous. Being completely different, for instance, from Puella Magi Madoka Magika, which I regard as a masterpiece for the exactly contrary reasons, as being a very elegant and concise work that carefully and beautifully explains to the viewer the fictional world being depicted in all of it's important elements. While similar in elegance (and in fact, far more subtle and mature), it is as of now my second favorite animated series (or TV series in general).

Being a work of visual art, as Yoshitoshi ABe is essentially a painter with a MA in Fine Arts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitoshi_ABe), Haibane Renmei possesses visual qualities that make it very different from conventional anime series. ABe said that he consciously choose to mute the colors to give it a rather "rusted" and old appearance to the world in which the haibane lived, the town of Glie:



Definetly a series, this 300 minute long series is among the shortest series on my list of great TV and also the one that I found the single most aesthetically impressive, indeed, being the only one that was written and directed by a graphic artist among the series on this list.

Also has my favorite TV series soundtrack featuring emotional romantic style chamber music: Similar in emotional power to Hisaishi's best scores.

17) RahXephon (2002)



Written and directed by Yutaka Izubuchi, RahXephon was his personal project as an artist who worked for his entire life in giant robot cartoon art, as his attempt to raise the artistic bar of giant robot cartoons that was set by Evangelion seven years earlier. He indeed succeeded in my opinion, creating a giant robot cartoon that can be characterized as serious art and of mature sensibilities (as opposed to the juvenile antisocial angst that mainly characterizes the tone of Evangelion). Being a very rare gem among TV series.

While usually compared to Evangelion they are extremely different. RahXephon is logically consistent in terms of narrative and thematically focused but not heavy handed, opposite to Evangelion. In fact, like Madoka, it's main appeal is how beautifully the plot is portrayed, though, unlike Madoka, it is more subtle and require some cognitive effort from the viewer in assembling the narrative structure whose parts are given by the 26 episode cartoon series. It is also, differently from all other TV series on this list, in being at it's core a very beautiful and poignant heterosexual love story, being a very traditional work in that regard but using "giant robot symbolism" in representing the emotional states of the characters, one of the most obvious cases:



Also characterized by an incredible soundtrack and some great voice acting (like Madoka in that regard) and the fantastic incorporation of CGI in 2002 in a subtle manner that enhances the hand drawn animation instead of sharply contrasting with it. Interestingly, later animation series and films failed to incorporate CGI in this subtle manner which I found admirable and much better than the crude mixture of CGI and hand drawn animation in contemporary animation (either made in Japan or outside of Japan).

Also, like Haibane Renmei it makes heavy use of angelic symbolic elements which I always tend to like. While I am not religious I like the emotional purity achieved by religious fervor and so I like "religious" art such as Heavy Metal music (yes, it's a very religious type of music if you think about it) and screen fiction characterized by these elements. Although the visual symbols mostly used in the series are mesoamerican in origin rather than christian. It's certainly a great work of visual art.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Saikano. Did you just forget to?

For anime series my favorites are Saikano, Hellsing, Claymore, Yu Yu Hakusho, Otogi Zoshi, and Flag.
For live action I love Freaks and Geeks, and Halt and Catch Fire.



Saikano really surprised me. It was probably the first cutesy anime that I actually enjoyed. But it captured me right away, unlike PMMM which took a while to grow on me. I couldn't explain it but for some reason I was instantly blown away by Saikano. It was just cutesy in an adorable way and not an annoying way. Also I just loved the quality of its animation, the dialogue, and the characters.



Otogi Zoshi is set in ancient Japan before the dawn of the Samurai. The coloring is exceptional and the motion of its animation is very fluid. The plot and characters are very well developed. It's just a great series.



Flag is extremely well drawn. The story is told from the perspective of a photographer like an outsider observing events. It's a very interesting approach.

18) Aria the Origination (2008)



While I say I wouldn't include moe guilty pleasures on this list that wouldn't mean that I wouldn't include any elements of the CGDCT genre (cute girls doing cute things), specially considering that such a genre has a masterwork such as Aria the Origination. Directed by Junichi Sato, one of the finest animation directors of all time, and quite possibly his masterwork (and I am comparing it to other very important works of his "animeography" such as Princess Tutu), Aria the Origination is a short 300 minutes long TV series characterized by a serene and contemplative mod, snail pacing and a dose of drama (which make it superior to earlier iterations of the same manga adaptation: Aria the Animation and Aria the Natural). It's also very beautiful if not slightly aggressive in it's vibrant colors (including the color coded characters).

There isn't any actual plot in Aria, as Sato said in an interview, this is a character driven work not plot driven: Also features the voice talent of Chiwa Saito, who also acted as Homura in PMMM, who is among the most talented voice actresses in the industry. Although her work here is very different than in PMMM, which was more serious. Here voice acting tends to focus in sounding very mellow, very softly to reflect the overall tone of the show. Although during moments of more serious drama the more "natural" voices can be perceived.

There isn't anything more relaxing in terms of TV cartoons than Aria the Origination, perhaps you could compare it to Miyazaki's lighter films such as Totoro and Kiki's Delivery service in those regards. The whole series is on youtube as well, episode 1:



Though watching the earlier (but weaker) The Animation and The Natural would be best to understand well the world of Aria before watching The Origination, which sort of serves as a climax to the whole Aria franchise.

19) Serial Experiments Lain (1998)



One of the works of the triad of Yoshitoshi ABe, Chiaki J. Konaka and Ryutaro Nakamura. It is indeed one of the greatest of their works and also their most cerebral work. Lain behaves as if it is a very self important and artsy thing, being obviously something that cannot be mistaken for low brown entertainment (as usually happens with some Miyazaki's films for instance). Dealing with themes such as social alienation, difference between perception and reality and the consequences of the internet, being itself a title from 1998 it managed to predict well the severe consequences that the internet would have on modern globalized society.

While featuring similar character designs to Haibane Renmei and perhaps many similarities in tone, as well as similarities in both being serious dark "seinen" titles, it is also very different from it. Incorporating horror elements and the way in which it distorts your own perception of reality make it a very disturbing watch. In fact, it is among the scariest things I ever watched. And the human drama is a bit more subtle than usual, since you almost never see characters burst into emotions during it's duration but it is existent and can be very affecting.

Visually it is also a very sophisticated piece, like Haibane Renmei, being a very interesting work of visual art:

I know dozens of animated series that can be considered great. Here I am including only the ones among my favorites which I regard as being the most successful as pieces of art besides being ones that touched me on a personal level.

I watched 3 of these, all are very good indeed.

I wouldn't regard either Saikano or PMMM as cutesy anime. Real cutesy anime is like Aria, that's a hardcore CGDGT title.

Haven't watched those two. I will try to watch in the future. Thanks for the recommendations.

20) Texhnolyze (2003)



And talking about TV shows that succeed as art, Texhnolyze is certainly among the most impressive on a visual level. Part of the same creative collaboration that resulted in another two titles on this same thread (Haibane Renmei and Lain), Texhnolyze is the most visually impressive of the 3, being perhaps also the least instantly engaging (i.e. "entertaining"), as Haibane Renmei is endowed with great emotional power while Lain is full of interesting concepts, Texhnolyze is much more violent than both and also more "masculine" being a show featuring yakuza gang war but in a cyberpunk environment (it occurs in an underground city and many yakuza gang members are cyborgs) and also dealing with a sort of pseudo-post-apocalyptic philosophical themes.

However, the best thing about it is is visual qualities. It's the best among the 20 shows I listed here and the best among shows I have watched. Instead of depending on my lacking skills in writing about art I would rather link to some more skilled description of some of it's visual qualities:

http://guriguriblog.wordpress.com/20.../texhnolyze-2/

I started watching Haibonei Renmei. It's really good so far. I'm really looking forward to seeing where the story goes. It's one that has been on mt to watch list for a while.

Woah, this song gave me goosebumps. It's so good! I don't normally like Anime music, but wow, this song is mesmerising.

Normally anime music is just j-pop, which I find mediocre music though not really bad and the score tends to be generic. Haibane Renmei music is something very different from other TV anime music, it's composed by Ko Otani who is a major composer of music for films and videogames. So far my favorite in terms of scores for TV series.

21) Shinsekai Yori (2013)



Based on a speculative novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_New_World_(novel)), it's one title that I was in doubt in including here but reflecting on how deeply I was affected by it after finishing watching it, I decided to include it here despite being the mostly flawed series on this list (in terms of featuring problems related to pacing: I think it was a bit too slow in parts and to fast in others).

Like the best science fiction, From The New World is something that worked on a mostly cerebral level and not visceral level in dealing with the social consequences of some fantastic concept: what if 0.2% of the human population gained telekinetic powers making it possible for these people to murder others just by thinking about it.

The show follows the lives of six characters, from childhood to their mid 30's, during a period in the far future by the time when human civilization regressed from our urbanized industrialized culture to an agrarian society, it allows us to see how society changed to adapt to this change from the perspective of these characters. Overall I would say that in terms of pure character development it is not among the best but instead the characterization here serves a different purpose from the usual in literature. I found all the concepts dealt in the series to be fascinating though so these weakness were more than compensated by the thematic power of the series.

Visually it's quite interesting as well. Beautiful in many ways but sometimes the use of CGI (as common in animation of 2013) hurts the visuals in some parts. It appears that more powerful computing software decreased the quality of the use of CGI in animation because now they use it too much instead of adding subtle touches like they did with Haibane Renmei and RahXephon in 2002. Despite this problem it remains one of the most visually interesting animated series I watched. Direction is also interesting though not particularly daring.

22) Saikano (2002)



Contrasting with Shinsekai Yori, a mostly theme driven series, Saikano is mostly character driven. Instead of being cerebral it is visceral, emotionally charged to the maximum. Some even say it's melodramatic and forced though I can understand where that comes from it still deeply affected me. Similarly to Shinsekai Yori is the presense of science fiction/speculative themes, this time about the effects of loss of humanity and it's effect over a relationship.

It's a love story featuring some of the best characterization I ever encountered in fiction, The two main characters feel more real than most fictional characters I know and which lends some depth to the tragedy being depicted as the world is in a state of total war, as result the emotional intensity of the show does not feel forced. The show is basically about the relationship between Shuuji and Chise and it's effect when Chise is chosen by the government to serve as a human test subject to cyborg military experimentation and as she struggles with the nature of her loss of humanity. Like Ghost in the Shell, Robocop and Gunnm it's one of the classics of the "cyborg genre" in exploring the meaning of being human under the perspective of the existence of technology to severely modify the human body. However, here the focus is not mostly on the science fiction aspects but on the human aspects, it is first and foremost a tragedy war story (similar in many regards to Grave of the Fireflies in that sense) and second is a work of science fiction.

The art of this series is not exactly on the same level as the other 10 animated series above but the muted color palette adds to the general bittersweet feeling the series evoke. The direction is also conventional and these two factors combine what I could call "standard seinen anime visual style".

I have Shinsekai Yori on my Crunchyroll queue and I'm not sure whether to watch it because of the ''hentai'' aspect. Is it subtle or full of fanservice?

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I do not speak english perfectly so expect some mistakes here and there in my messages

I didn't notice much fanservice. It has a lot of gay kissing though showing the male characters getting into each other a lot. But it doesn't show anything actually.

I'm going to have to check out Shinsekai Yori, it sounds interesting.

I recently started watching Tower of Druaga. The first episode was really funny so I got the impression it was a comedy, but the second episode was more serious. The premise reminds me a lot of Wizardry. There's a mysterious tower and people try to get to the higher floors where the monsters get stronger but the treasure is more rewarding. At the top is rumored to be the demon Druaga whom heroes long to defeat.