The Unavoidable Animes

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

You know the type. You want desperately to hate them, you avoid them at all costs, and see them only under threat of death, and yet, they suck you in and you become obsessed and end up loving them. Which animes have done this to you?

[Amano Ginji]

Lots of people will say DBZ........

edit: congrats on 2300 posts Mackenzie! :cool:

[Conan-san]

this would be what beyblade was made for...

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

Originally posted by TidusDaniel54

edit: congrats on 2300 posts Mackenzie! :cool:

::squeak?:: .... :: blinks:: I didn't even notice. ^^;;;;;

Anyway, I forgot to put mine:

Hikaru no Go- You have NO idea how much I wanted to hate this show. I thought it was gonna be another overrated, insanely dull gaming anime, and I wanted NO part of it. But a friend of mine forced me to watch several episodes of it, and I realized something: "I KNOW these people!" I could seriously tie the personalities of almost everybody in that show ('cept Sai, can't say I know any wandering spirits) to friends, acquaintances, enemies of mine. After that, I was addicted. I adore that show now, after spending so many months hiding from it.

[Ben]

Hmmm... Sailor Moon, DBZ and Pokemon were the worst. Two weeks each I was sucked into them. Fortunately I managed to pull myself out, though.

[Ajax]

There was Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Card Captor Sakura, and Yugi-oh. Sure I like most of them know but at first I would of rather of died slow then watch them.

[Parallax]

Sailor Moon. I hated the show but then some how started to get up at 5AM just to watch the show.

[serenitymoon]

Digimon, Pokemon, and Beyblade for me. Now I actually llike Digimon pretty well, the other two are just ok, but then again I don't hate them...

[Will Sturnick]

For me: Digimon and Zoids

[pabcool]

Well... There's animes I wonder WHY I ever liked, such as Beyblade, (Got over it in 2-3 weeks) but as for animes I discovered I actually liked and didn't hate, I don't have any. It sorta happened to me with anime as a whole, (I saw all of them outside Pokemon as "DBZ clones" but was able to get over it)

[StrangerAtaru]

-Digimon: Went from being a "Pokemon clone" I was forced to watch one Saturday morning to an underrated classic (well, the first and third seasons) that, while I have somewhat slowed down with, I have not stopped.

-Serial Experiment Lain: At first I didn't think I would like something I had heard was "slow" and "cerebral", but when I finally saw it last year, it became one of my favorite shows of the year.

[Masamune2052]

Ugh, I caught drug into Hamtaro. I'd watch it in the afternoon on Toonami in the summer and it also came on at 7:00 AM EST. Like many other faithful, I'd wake up to watch the morning run of Zoids: Chaotic Century, so I just went ahead and was awake to see Hamtaro as well. I know this is sad, but I think I memeorized the neding theme, word for word, and can recite it on the spot, without hesitation.

[hs232]

When I first heard the name of Cowboy Bebop, I thought it would be stupid. Then I saw it and realized it was one of the greatest animated (other than Simpsons and Family Guy) shows ever.

[All-Star 1.5]

Ultimate Muscle: I thought this show was going to be stupid, but in the 1st 5 minutes I was pulled in and loved it.

Digimon: I thought this was going to be the first Pokemon clone, but after the first 2 episodes I was pulled in.

Medabots: I thought this was going to be so Stupid, but in the end ened loving it.

Cowbo Bebop: I was young and I didn't know what the show was about, but after I gave it a try I ended up loving it, but it's too bad that when started watching the show it was already about to end with TRFB part 2

Inu Yasha: I didn't like the way amping the show up I tought it was going to be something it wasn't, but I gave it a shot and have watched it ever since.



These animes taught me a lesson that I shall never forget which is never judge a show by the prview alone and to always give a show a chance.

[Evil Dr. Reef]

DBZ, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Digimon. When I started watching DBZ, I was in 7th grade, and it still hasn't lost its grip on me.

[Arxane]

"Noir".

Everyone I saw hyped this show up like hell, calling it the best series of the year. I gave it a try, even watching the entire series through one of my friend's fansubs. Afterwards, I thought, "...that was it? That's what everyone thinks is so good? That was crap! Complete crap!"

Ever since, I kept telling myself I hated "Noir" (even though the music kicked ass). Then ADV announced its upcoming release, and I thought, "Was it really that bad?" So I tried watching the first couple of episode again...and lo and behold, I actually like it! I like now in spite of myself! Who would've thought? :moon2:

[Elven Moon]

Pokemon. When it first came to the states, around '98, I absolutely HATED it for even coming over! I thought, without ever even seeing one episode, that it was an abomination to the anime fandom and gave anime a bad name. Well, about a year after it's arrival, I started to watch it... and I liked it. I became obsessed, taping it off the WB and watching it after a day at college. Suprisingly it really helped me through some stressful times (college first-timer, evil boss, etc) and for that I am grateful :)

[Anime_girl]

Originally posted by ssjgogeta4
Sailor Moon. I hated the show but then some how started to get up at 5AM just to watch the show.

I did that that too, when the dub sailor moon was on at 5:00 am on wb 39.

Hate it on the first time it came on,but grew to liking it the second time around.

[Umino]

Sailor Moon: Known to me as the "Chinese sex cartoon" when I was little, I thought "How girly" and well now I'm the biggest Sailor Moon Fanboy.

Excel Saga: Saw pictures and thought okay that's stupid. And now I sleep in front of Suncoast for every release.

[RogueMartian]

DBZ, Pokemon, Zoids...any of the pointless kiddie ones. I hated them, but mostly because I never watched them. Soon as I actually watched them i suddenly realized how cool they were. So now I'm a big, DBZ, Pokemon, and Zoids fan. Couldn't be happier about it. I love nothing better than defending pokemon to my anime club. Its a lot of fun.

Best day of my life was seeing the expression on my non-anime friends faces as I logically pointed out that the pokemon world was actually a blueprint for a utopian society.

[pabcool]

Oh, yeah, Hamtaro. Turned off by the cutesy look and "it's for pre-schoolers' thing. When my little sisters watched it, I watched along and now i'm hooked. I tune in most Sundays at 6:30 for Hamtaro, Boss, Oxnard, Bjou and all those other Ham-Hams. I think the ending is so cute and bouncy...

Can't wait till' it comes on at 3:30 in March.

[JDNobodi]

Originally posted by ssjgogeta4
Sailor Moon. I hated the show but then some how started to get up at 5AM just to watch the show.

It's amazing how this show is hated by a lot of people then after they give the show a chance, they love it. I'm one of those people. I think the problem is the show looks too girlish to the point where a male viewer thinks his gonads are going to fall off just by watching one episode of Sailor Moon. But, the mini skirts have the opposite affect. The show is still underrated in my opinion.

[Karl Olson]

I thought I wasn't going to get along with Gravitation at all, but I was hooked with in the first few episodes. Same for Fruits Basket, Cardcaptor Sakura, Arjuna, Onegai Teacher and Mahoromatic. Mahoromatic and Onegai Teacher caught me particularly off guard, because I wasn't a fan of fan service series, but both shows have a lot of plot to back up the fan service, especially Onegai Teacher. For something that sounds almost disturbing when condensed to a one line synopsis (high school boy and space alien teacher get married and hilarity ensues), it's got a lot of depth, plot and drama. It's also a surprisingly complete world when it comes to the scifi side of the series too. Just goes to show that something has to be watched to be properly assessed, or rather, prejudice bites.

[Conan-san]

I dunno, I hate PSSM with a passion and To be blunt (imho) there's a whole load of better Magical Girl anime *coughCCScough* and I'm not a fan of LONG repetive scenes. (Digimon Evolution and Sakura's Summonings nothwithstanding)

[Npxmen2k]

Gundam Wing. I liked the show at first, but it got old. However, when I watched it again and again (mostly Endless Waltz) I enjoyed it for some reason! Sure, the droning on about politics can get on peoples' nerves, but the battles and events are compelling. I like most of the character designs, the mecha are extremely powerful (save for the Leo), and the tension builds up in every episode. Gundam Wing: My guilty pleasure.

[Animation Otaku]

Zoids and Digimon. I originally thought Digimon was going to be a Pokemon clone(for the record, Digimon was first actually, but 4 months or so) and my friend kept saying "No, it isn't like Pokemon, it's different" and I'm all like "Yeah, right" Then he shows it to me and I became hooked, started drawing fan art, writing fics, going to websites, finding out about the stupid changes to the dub.
As for Zoids, I figured anything with that bad a name must suck, and I kept seeing the very end of it and hearing lame quotes and bad music. Eventually I saw the entire show and am now a bigger Zoids otaku then you. Funny thing, Zoids and Digimon are around the top of my lists. *points at custom title*

[Lunacat]

1.) Digimon: At the time I was going through a Pokemon-craze and was mad about this show. I now do not watch Pokemon any more and never miss and episode of Digimon (I love every season).

2.) Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO): When I watched the first episode of this show I thought "here we go again, perverted young man out looking for girls." I then borrowed the rest of the series from a friend and WOW! I love it, very amusing series.

3.) Excel Saga: It didn't sound like my kind of show, but I gave it a try and loved it. :D

4.) Shinzo: Wasn't too sure about this one, but gave it a shot and I learned to like it. I really miss this show!

5.) Reign: I saw the character designs and almost decided not to watch it because they were so weird. Glad I did though, and excellent series.

[R Chocolate]

Originally posted by Mackenzie Rainelle
You know the type. You want desperately to hate them, you avoid them at all costs, and see them only under threat of death, and yet, they suck you in and you become obsessed and end up loving them. Which animes have done this to you?

Cowboy Bebop, I wasn't much eager to see it and couldn't believe all the hype and praise for an animated cartoon show from Japan (the coolest show ever! all my acquaintances called it)
and I just didn't watch it.
Then one day, I decided to check it out and since then I'm been a huge Bebop fan. It has drama, action, adventure, comedy, some romance even and the coolest jazz soundtrack ever, plus an ending that blew me away and felt so perfect and yes got me feeling sad.
Plus how can you not love that opening sequence ? I hold it as a highpoint of how anime can be more entertaining than most live-action Hollywood "entertainments."

Dragonball (both the original and Dragonball Z), this show was always on Cartoon Network and I never much cared for it.
It was boring, the plots went nowhere and the fights seemed to take an eternity. Yet, over time I watched the original Dragonball series and found it to be quite funny, amusing action adventure. As for Dragonball Z, I still dislike parts of it (The Freeza saga) but other parts such as Garlic Jr and Majun Buu were quite good.

Pokemon, I dismissed it as a fad for the kiddies and I felt I was too old (in my 20s) to get into such stuff anymore. My experience with Pokemon started on November 1999. I was at the movie theaters and one of the screens was showing Sleepy Hollow. After the movie was over, I saw The First Pokemon Movie was playing in one of the other screens next to me. So I decided to check it out and see what all the hype was about.
While, I didn't much care for the 1st movie, I liked what I saw in the premise. Here was a cartoon unlike anything I'd seen and yet felt very much like how those old cartoons I used to love from the 80's were like, Rainbow Brite, Transformers, G.I. JOE, and yes even the Care Bears.
It had the action of being with good friends, cool battles scenes and goofy comedy plus some very cute creatures. I was hooked and became a fan of the anime series watching it whenever I could as well as watching and enjoying the next two Pokemon movies which came out. I even watched the Mewtwo Returns home video special and enjoyed it a lot.
I was in a difficult time in my life, I had just left an Usenet newsgroup where I'd often been harshly attacked and I was just realizing I had flunked college and had to go back to high school to earn my mathematics degree. I needed a picker-up, something yes nostalgic to get me feeling good again.
For a while Pokemon yes did just that. I never did play the card game though I did play the Pokemon Stadium NES 64 game and loved it, I even won some of the stadium battles.
Plus Pokemon introduced me to anime and from then on it was onto Bubblegum Crisis (both versions), Cowboy Bebop, Miyazaki, Lupin The 3rd, Metropolis, Akira, Noir, New Dominion Tank Police, Ninja Scroll, Dragonball, Yu-Gi-Oh, Monster Rancher, Gundam, Tenchi In Tokyo, Ranma 1/2, Dr. Slump, Sailor Moon, and yes even Digimon (which I enjoyed watching but to be honest I never got into the show as much as I did Pokemon).
I don't much care for Pokemon nowadays. I hardly watch the anime except in re-runs on Cartoon Network and couldn't care less about movies 4 and 5. I view it and its ilk as mainly garbage, swill, just stuff to make money and sell toys.
Still I'll be grateful for Pokemon for the whole experience of watching that show along with the friendships I had with other people on the Pokemon websites, fanfictions and such. Those were some very good times.
Plus, it was my first official introduction to anime (both kids and adult anime) so yeah I guess I'll always remember it even if I think it's pretty inane swill garbage nowadays.

[Epyon999]

Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Robotech, Gundam Wing, Pokemon, Yu-gi-Oh!, Digimon, Zoids.

[Ultra8]

For me it was Tenchi(any series) and El-Hazard(any series).
Though I can't say I hate any anime, I usually put them in either of 2 categories-
Those I like from the start
&
Those I'll probably never watch ,unless there's nothing good on tv, or they're selling them in a store for a very cheap price.

[Ssedrey]

I may get lynched for this but the one I really thought was overhyped and ended up loving is Slayers. I saw the first few episodes of it. Thought it was kind of cool, but my friend kept going berserk telling me how it was the best series ever made. Eventually I got so sick of it that I began blasting the series. Until finally DVD box sets came out and I bought them. I found the series was still just pretty cool, but then the end of Slayers Next hit me. From then on I've been in love with it.

And another one that granted I liked more than I thought I would but I still think it's given more credit then it necessarily deserves is (here comes the lynching) Evangelion. Another series which everyone told me was the greatest thing since oxygen. My friends continually praised it like the holy object from Photon, which got my nerves to the nth degree. I finally did see it. I liked it, but I think the damage I suffered at the hands of too much hype was just too great and Eva's never reached the levels with me as it does many others.

[Mackenzie Rainelle]

Originally posted by Ssedrey
I may get lynched for this but the one I really thought was overhyped and ended up loving is Slayers. I saw the first few episodes of it. Thought it was kind of cool, but my friend kept going berserk telling me how it was the best series ever made. Eventually I got so sick of it that I began blasting the series. Until finally DVD box sets came out and I bought them. I found the series was still just pretty cool, but then the end of Slayers Next hit me. From then on I've been in love with it.


Although anyone who knows me ('cept Mal-chan) would never believe it, Slayers fangirl that I am, I had the same experience with it. One of the guys I knew drove me INSANE abut how good it was, and I'd had a bad experience with the first few episodes, but once Mal-chan got me to actually sit down and watch a good deal with it, I started enjoying it. Then NEXT came, and I absolutely adored Xelloss, but particularly loved the hell child (I have a fascination with psychopathic evil incarnations that look like little kids) and I was hooked....

[Watagashi]

For me, I guess Zoids Zero. :rolleyes: I can barely stand the series and some of the episodes are sort of annoying, but I end up watching it anyway. -_-; :p It's a fun show although I can't stand it... I don't know. :harley:

[Lord Trunks]

Pokemon...I was glad when I stopped watching it after 2 years

[Fayina]

Mine are basically the same as everyone elses

DBZ- This just seemed so stupid to me for years and I refused to watch it. I watched everything on Toonami BUT DBZ until my friend forced me to watch more than five minutes of it. I don't know how it happened, but I became hooked after watching just two episodes of the Cell Saga. I still even now watch it on occasion.

Reign- After seeing the commercials and character designs, this show did not seem very appealing. However, after watching the first two episodes I really began to like it and I currently can't wait to watch every week night right now. It is very interesting and I am quite surpised about how much I have come to enjoy it. :)

[Proteus3]

For me it would have to be Ghost in the Shell. Along with Akira, this is one of the most well-known anime movies and one of the most hyped. I finally swallowed the pill and watched the movie and found myself enjoying it. I loved the complex plot, the ambient atmosphere surrounding the movie, and even the philosophical questions the movie brought up. Since then, I've watched more anime by Oshii, including Patlabor 1 and Angel's Egg (somewhat obscure film, but highly recommended).

[Midou Ban]

I would have to say Golden Boy, Love Hina, Inu- yasha,.hack//SIGN,Samurai Deeper Kyo, Shaman king, Spiral, GetBackers(very stupid name but good show). Somehow I thought I would hate most of these shows but I ended up liking them. I liked Golden Boy and Love Hina from the first episode I saw though, I just seemed not to want to watch them for some reason.

[Conekiller]

I would have to say Digimon, it's the only anime I cna think of that I started out not likeing but eventually grew to liking it.

all others I either like or don't like and if I don't like I don't watch