Anime guys are annoying

[Guest Always Good]

Has anyone ever noticed how the (main) guys in anime are always some random combination of stupidity, sexism and rudeness? Seriously, I had to stop watching Zero no Tsukaima after that freaking jerk Saito drugged Louise at the end of the Albion war. And don't even get me started on Tenchi! His two most likely matches are his great aunt and the woman who tried to kill him. And why the heck does it need to be a juraian emperor and two wives? Why can't an empress take two husbands?

If I really need to explain what is wrong with Naruto then I've vastly overestimated the intelligence of the human race.

Seriously, what the heck?

[Guest lostflower]

I've been an anime fan for nearly 20 years I was an anime fan before most of the current fandom could dress feed or even go to the bathroom by themselve and the lowest common denominator is as low now as it was then then same type of male leads we have now we had then

want intelligent anime or ones that are even just a little better at representing women try these

3X3 Eyes

Akira

Armitage III

Beck

Black Lagoon

Code Geass

Cowboy Bebop

Genshiken

Ghibli (anything by them is amazing)

Ghost in the Shell

Geoarmor: Kishin Heidan

Hellsing

Iria

I, My, Me, Strawberry Eggs

Jin-Roh

Macross Plus

Princess Jellyfish

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise

Summer Wars

Wolf Children

I can probably come up with a few more if you need any more listed

Hannah

[Guest ~Emmie~]

I LOVED 3X3 Eyes! It was one of the first anime I ran across in Middle School. Bizarre, but somehow very likable. Akira and GitS are classics, I'd pick Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away (from Studio Ghibli) as masterpieces out of the newer crop of anime. I've also heard Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is terrific.

For me, Cowboy Bebop, HANDS DOWN, is my absolute favorite show, animated or otherwise, of all time; the incredible music, the hip style, the thoughtful and simultaneously break-neck plots, the animation, the depth of its characters and the superb dubbing still blows me away, especially when you consider it first debuted 15 years ago. Edward is irritating and childish the first few episodes- and Faye acts like a manipulative, trashy bimbo- but as the show progresses you get actual logical back-story as to WHY life has made them that way, and I really came to care about them as people, even if they were fictional. I cried more than once, especially after the final episode. (Julia, Spike's mystery-girl, even though she's only mentioned infrequently, is pure unadulterated kick-butt when she finally reveals herself.)

Trigun is another series from the same year (1998) where the characters are goofy and somewhat irritating at first, but you come to like them. Vash in particular grows in scope, from dorky nerd to lovable, tragic hero. Another anime from that era (late 90s) that I liked was Outlaw Star, a pretty groundbreaking show for its time. It was featured on Cartoon Network's Toonami- an after-school block of memorable programming that exposed an entire generation of kids to Eastern animation- it had EVERYTHING, from Sailor Moon, to Gundam Wing, to Voltron, to Dragonball Z, and eventually the previous title I mentioned, a crazy space-western that featured a cast to rival 'Bebop's, and which had on its crew the most bad@$$ fictional female to EVER wield a samurai sword, Twilight Sazuka, who rips apart buildings and people like they were confetti, with a weapon made entirely out of wood.

Newer stuff I've liked (with good examples of both female and male leads) are Trinity Blood, Boogiepop Phantom (don't watch it at 3am, it will HAUNT YOUR DREAMS), FLCL (mind-melting goodness) and Full Metal Alchemist, IMO easily the best animated show of the last ten years, with lovable, flawed heroes, a great cast of villains, and tons of plot twists that you will NEVER see coming.

Anyways, I know it's a long list. but I hope you find something you like. I <3 good anime. You have to dig for it a little more, but the effort is totally worth it!

-Em

[Guest Always Good]

Well my first two anime were Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura. They were fun but the PSAs in Sailor Moon were somewhat annoying. Plus only americans would turn the show's lesbian couple into *ahem* "kissing cousins". On the plus side Zoicite can probably be called anime's first MTF transsexual. I'm rather excited about the relaunch of Sailor Moon.

After that my cousin Crystal got me interested in Dragonball. My mother eventually banned it due to the violence directed towards my evil, toy stealing brother. Ironically, Crystal taught me violence too. I'm not really sure why I watched it, I don't really like it that much.

I could never stand mecha anime but Inu Yasha was probably my all-time favourite. It was definitely the perfect mix of romance, violence and tear-jerker moments. That scene where Kagome is stuck in the future during the first movie still gets to me. Yeah, Inu Yasha's still pigheaded like the other anime guys but somehow he makes it romantic.

And then there is Slayers. Lina is my idol.

How did thi turn into a discussion about our favourite anime anyway?