Anime you think can compete with Akira for title as "Best Ever"

[Project Akira]

Seeing how a lot of peopple have other ideas let's discuss the films we think can compete with Akira for title of best anime or best anime movie ever.

For me the only film that does and can come close is Grave of the Fireflies. No other film I have ever seen comes even close to emotional power that is film does. If you don't cry or at least hate humanity after watching this film, you have to be dead.

[DARK]

I liked Wings of Honneamise better than Akira.........But, that's just me.

Grave of the Fireflies, while it is a powerful movie, it did not make me cry or hate humanity....For it is just a movie :)

[Safer-Sephiroth]

I liked perfect blue better than akira, but only slightly....

[Foxxe]

Endo of EVA for me. Akira gives me a bigger headache.

[monolith]

Umm, I still think Evangelion is the best anime.
But opinions change, so i'll probly be liking something else later.
oh, btw, i haven't seen many anime movies...:P
the most recent would be EoE, but then there is a great huge gap between that and Laputa and Ranma 0.5.
I would really like to see Grave of the Fireflies though.
Akira is the classic film that all other animes are compared with it seems. Katsuhiro (i think?) did a great job, and I also enjoyed some of his other manga as well.

[SephirothTG]

The Cowboy Bebop Movie :P

[Rulakir]

What is it with all these Akira threads...????

I think that any full length anime movie is a good competetor of Akira. Sci-fi anime films are even better competetors.

[The cruel angel's thesis]

Here are some, in no particular order:

FLCL
Evangelion (series and movies)
Cowboy Bebop (series and movie...although I haven't seen the movie)
Kare Kano


Uhhnn....Yeah.

[Fatal Outlaw]

project akira, please try and put all the akira threads into one thread. and im sorry, but i dont even consider akira to be 'one of the best', i mean, theres just so many great series, id list them but it might take up the whole server, i know AB has financial problems in the past so im not gonna.

[EVA fiend]

Hmm...., anything by Studio Ghilbi...., Perfect Blue..., Ghost in the Shell..., Evangelion..., to name but a few...., :)

[Nokari]

Perfect Blue
Ghost in the Shell
Princess Mononoke

I hear Wings of Honneamise is good too.

[TradeMark]

from what i've seen of them, those Lupin movies may take the cake for the funniest ones

[raymojo]

I liked Nausicaa... and Wings of Honneamise... and Akira... and GitS... and Grave of the Fireflies...

but I'm not picking favourites :D

[Neo Evangelion]

Neon Booyaka Evangelion.

[Bomberman00004]

We're talking better than Akira right? lets see... Eva... FLCL... X... Pokemon: The Movie...

[raymojo]

Originally posted by Bomberman00004
We're talking better than Akira right? lets see... Eva... FLCL... X... Pokemon: The Movie...

:lol:

I sense you didn't really enjoy it... :D

[KiLLeRs_aRe_QuIeT]

i really have no basis for comparison...because i havent really seen alot of anime...all ive seen is really is anything bomber plays at his dwelling >_>........Akira is my favorite tho.......but Pokemon is rght up there too..lol ^^

[orochi X]

Princess Mononoke,End of Eva and Ghost in the Shell

[Evangelion-00]

Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll, NGE, Laputa.......

[silverwind]

Princess Mononoke. I watched it basically everyday when I got it on dvd.

[aREIzing]

eva crushes akira any day in my books

[Ichitaka Seto]

Grave of the Fireflies is up there...and Nausicaa.. basically most of Ghibli's films, and Macross DYRL..

[Sylvan]

Actually almost ALL anime beats Akira imo. I don't like the movie at all...

[ClefFSChan]

I think Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is better than Akira, for once, Nausicaa aplies to me more. The ending is spectacular, and it gives you one of those "Feel good" feelings after watching it.

[mtyoo]

I think Akira is better than any other anime movie (especially scifi ones), with the exception of some Ghibli films (which are completely different and shouldn't be compared).

[Westlo]

Lots

Macross Do You Remember Love Movie (An anime and Kawamori classic! Damn you Harmony Gold!)
Ghost In The Shell Movie
End Of Eva Movie
Ah My Goddess Movie
Cowboy Bebop Movie
Rurouni Kenshin OVA
Oh My Goddess OVA
Read Or Die OVA
Macross Plus OVA
Vision Of Escaflowne
Rurouni Kenshin
Cowboy Bebop
Scryed
RahXephon
Berserk

Lot's of animes IMHO are better than Akira which wfrom what I've heard was terribly compressed from the manga, so no wonder why I didn't like it that much to consider it one of the best.

[Marius]

I'm with Westlo, Akira was very good but there is still heaps of anime that are better than it.

[NeneMaxwell195]

Akira was just weird(in a bad way) and wasn't that interesting. Hence why I don't own it. I find Gundam Wing: Endless Walt more interesting, and that ain't a great movie (the sound track is really repetative and some scenes are quite silly/cheesey).

[thedarkmarine]

Akira was Fantastic. That Tin it comes is damn sweet too. However, there are far better movies: Laputa, GotF (as mentioned), Jin-Roh, EoE.

[Spike 558]

If we are going to compare anything to Akira, then we should at least take into account Akira's significance as an anime title.
Lets see now, it opened up lots of doors of the anime industry, it got a lot of interest overseas, showed the world that anime is like nothing else. The perception that Akira is the perfect starting point for any otaku, is a testament for it's achievement.

So what other anime possess such a milestone status?
Eva. Eva challenged our perceptions, gave us characters worth caring about, and presented us with issues we had never even considered. Moire importantly, it emphasied on the success of a series alone. Eva's impact on the industry is evident: mecha anime today all bear trademarks of the might Eva.

But recently Eva has been surppased by a newcomer. It's name: Vandread. While CGI is but a new science to Japanese animators, Vandread is proof that this craft has been mastered. With use of both 2D and 3D, the result is at once both flawless and seamless. Along with an intriguing plot, characters that grow on the audience and a fascinating take on enemies, Vandread is truly an excellent series and worthy enough to make GONZO an anime company to be feared.
Ultimatly, Vandread is glimpse into the future of anime.

Where, there's my two cents. What do the rest of you think?

[heerogf]

is it just me or no one mentioned Utena: the movie

;_;

[thedarkmarine]

Originally posted by Spike 558
If we are going to compare anything to Akira, then we should at least take into account Akira's significance as an anime title.
Lets see now, it opened up lots of doors of the anime industry, it got a lot of interest overseas, showed the world that anime is like nothing else. The perception that Akira is the perfect starting point for any otaku, is a testament for it's achievement.

So what other anime possess such a milestone status?
Eva. Eva challenged our perceptions, gave us characters worth caring about, and presented us with issues we had never even considered. Moire importantly, it emphasied on the success of a series alone. Eva's impact on the industry is evident: mecha anime today all bear trademarks of the might Eva.

But recently Eva has been surppased by a newcomer. It's name: Vandread. While CGI is but a new science to Japanese animators, Vandread is proof that this craft has been mastered. With use of both 2D and 3D, the result is at once both flawless and seamless. Along with an intriguing plot, characters that grow on the audience and a fascinating take on enemies, Vandread is truly an excellent series and worthy enough to make GONZO an anime company to be feared.
Ultimatly, Vandread is glimpse into the future of anime.

Where, there's my two cents. What do the rest of you think?

Ah yes. Akira is amazing in what it did for the NA anime industry. However, as an anime movie itself, it's not all that.

I don't think Vandread is all that. It's an average plot but does introduce the new art form. However, that was done by FF:TSW. Then again, it does combine 2D and 3D but as an anime, it's not that great.

I don't think there's a new landmark yet.

[PenPen2]

I'm not saying what I'm about to type applies to all of you, as I'm sure a fair amount of you have...

BUT READ THE MANGA.

If you think the movie is horrible, at least read the first manga. You know, when I saw Akira, I thought it sucked huge donkey balls. It made NO SENSE to me. Absolutely none... I kept hearing that the manga clears up everything. I've read just the first two, and I already understand the movie a lot better than I did before the manga.

I want to ask all of you people to try and make a good anime out of 2000+ pages of manga... And I want to see your finished result. Because I bet you ANYTHING it will be worse than the way the Akira movie turned out.

The only other anime films I think are any good... (Mind you I haven't seen many films, mostly series.) ...Are... End of Evangelion, Tenchi Forever (Tenchi in Love 2, it was REALLY good, believe me), Jin-Roh, and Armitage the III; Poly-Matrix...

Ghost in the Shell? PLEASE. The manga is at least five times better than the anime.

[Perentie Fan]

To be frank I was quite put off by Akira, I watched it expecting the wonderful film I'd heard it to be but it was nothing like what I expected. I couldn't really care about any of the characters, just about everyone killed people for next to no reason in very gruesome ways, and the main character's best friend expresses no remorse over having to try to kill him. Then just about the only character I liked at all (the sweet little sister of the main guy) goes and gets squished into a bloody pulp. That about ended it for me. Then there was the fact that I had no idea what was going on, just about everyone died and it wasn't apparent if anyone actually accomplished anything.

I know, and like, that characters in anime are often not two dimensional but I still like them to have some ethics, most of the characters in Akira seemed to lack them entirely. The movie had beautiful animation I'll give it that, and it is probably much better if you've read the manga but the lack of likable characters renders it low on my list of favorites. I mean absolutely no offense to those who do like it and am willing to listen if you care to post reasons why you enjoyed Akira, it just might change my mind.

These are all anime that effected me on such an emotional and psychological level (or were just plain cool and/or hilarious) that I find them better than Akira (note just because I put the Pokemon movies first doesn't mean I think they're better than the other things I list):

Pokemon 3: Spell of the Unkown. For a usually fairly immature anime this movie had a very deep message about choosing reality over fantasy. Plus the art was a whole lot better than in the series.
Mewtwo Strikes Back: I personally loved the development of Mewtwo's character in this and the sequal "Mewtwo Returns." He is quite likely the deepest character in all the Pokemon anime.

Evangelion: Thouroughly thought provoking, likable, and beautiful. Truly deserves to be called "one of the best anime of all time."

Princess Mononoke: Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Also deserves to be near the top I think.

Below are oens that are just plain enjoyable to watch, any deep psychological, moral, or social meaning you get from them is a bonus!
Tenchi Muyo
Outlaw Star
Cowboy Bebop
Sailor Moon
Digimon Tamers

I haven't even watched it yet but I know I'm going to love Ah! My Goddess! :)

I have only recently begun to seriously watch anime so it will be a while before I can say I've seen enough to really judge.

[Westlo]

Eva. Eva challenged our perceptions, gave us characters worth caring about, and presented us with issues we had never even considered. Moire importantly, it emphasied on the success of a series alone. Eva's impact on the industry is evident: mecha anime today all bear trademarks of the might Eva.

Um no watch some Tomino series like Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), Space Runaway Ideon (1981) and Aura Battler Dunbine (1983) and tell me Evangelion did them first, Evangelion is given far too much credit for apprantly being the first series to do those things.

Vandread is truly an excellent series and worthy enough to make GONZO an anime company to be feared.

It's not that good and i don't think many anime companies would be losing sleep over Studio Gonzo if Vandread was anything to go by.

Ultimatly, Vandread is glimpse into the future of anime.

I seriously hope not.

If you want my opinions on what are anime landmarks than i'll name some series

Mazinger Z
Mobile Suit Gundam
Macross

[Pengi_Ken-Ohki]

Westlo I was waiting for someone like u to come along, someone who's SEEN anime.

Proj. Akira there seriously is far greater anime out there. You might like to attribute the success of anime to movies like akira, but in all honesty I dont believe Akira did much at all. Astroboy established the genre, followed up by transformers. Pokemon, Evangelion and Gunsmith cats prolly has more to do with anime's popularity in the west (though NGE is the only of those I like).

You others been basically mentioning the names of the only decent anime released, which is fine, but you see most of the released anime is actually released more for the demographic appeal rather than the content.

But PA asked for examples so here we go:

(released anime first, in no particular order)

1. Rurouni Kenshin OVAs (aka Samurai X). It would be unfair to rate a movie up against a series, but the OVAs are very much like a movie. The OVAs explore ethics, emotion, history and a bit of philosophy. Add beautiful artwork in with that, an a series u can follow it up with and u have a fantastic watch.

2.) NGE . Neon Genesis Evangelion has a distinct advantage in that it has 26 episodes in which to ease the audience through the storyline, but it suffered on the budget side as a result. NGE is a perfect representation of the various genres of Anime. While not actually the best, nor easily slotted into a specific genre, it is a perfect stepping stone for others. Everything from conspiracy, action robot fighting, emotion (love, fear, hope, rejection) and ideas on humanity.

3.) Macross Once again, a series. Macross explores war. The hope, the suffering, all of it. Macross is a very moving anime, although it's easy to mistake it for 'just another show' if you watch it in dubbed form and dont give it a chance.

4.) Trigun. Another anime that explores violence, human nature and throws humour, drama and sci-fi goodness in with it. While maybe not as 'in-depth' as Akira, that is an advantage. Akira went in too deep, too fast and thus removed itself from the true potential.

5.) Princess Mononoke. This anime is beautifully drawn, and sums up the problem of man neatly: without expansion we have little and suffer, with expansion we destroy. It does something not seen often enough in america, but quite common in the world of anime: show both sides viewpoints in a manner that makes it difficult for the audience to easily pick a 'bad guy'.

(unreleased anime now)

6.) Ayashi No Ceres omg, I wont even TRY explaining this one..

7.) Argento Soma niceeeeee. Argento Soma just plain old rules. =)

8.) Black Heaven is that the name of it? It was nice anime..

9.) Initial D . OMFG, not a deep anime, but shits on Akira anyday!

10.) Saber Marionette J . This anime is deeper than it looks, not loving it, is not an option.

few added mentions that may not neccesarily be better, but I'd recommend.

Hand Maid May
Love Hina
Gasaraki
DNA^2
Escaflowne
Excel Sage
Fushigi Yuugi
Inu Yasha
Furi Kuri
Dual
3x3 Eyes
Cowboy Bebop
Angelic Layer
Flame of Recca
Ranma
fruits basket
winds of amnesia

that's enough for now.

Akira is a nice anime, but ranks far from the best. The anime I've listed above (the 10 + mentions) are not neccesarily my favourite picks, but rather the ones I could remember without looking at a list of my anime (which is a large list).

oh and the re-made akira is ------- ----.

[thedarkmarine]

Originally posted by PenPen2
I'm not saying what I'm about to type applies to all of you, as I'm sure a fair amount of you have...

BUT READ THE MANGA.


A good anime needs to be self sustaining. I don't want to spend extra money on something I have no interest in.


If you think the movie is horrible, at least read the first manga. You know, when I saw Akira, I thought it sucked huge donkey balls. It made NO SENSE to me. Absolutely none... I kept hearing that the manga clears up everything. I've read just the first two, and I already understand the movie a lot better than I did before the manga.

I do believe you. However, I understood Akira pretty well after the 2nd viewing.


I want to ask all of you people to try and make a good anime out of 2000+ pages of manga... And I want to see your finished result. Because I bet you ANYTHING it will be worse than the way the Akira movie turned out.

Course it'll suck; we aren't paid to think and write manga material. I'd like to see the creators get into CS with their high school marks.


The only other anime films I think are any good... (Mind you I haven't seen many films, mostly series.) ...Are... End of Evangelion, Tenchi Forever (Tenchi in Love 2, it was REALLY good, believe me), Jin-Roh, and Armitage the III; Poly-Matrix...


Like we've been all saying.


Ghost in the Shell? PLEASE. The manga is at least five times better than the anime.

GitS was easy to swallow. I understood the entire movie the first time I watched it.

[Project Akira]

I'm sorry but if any of you bothered to look at the date, this thread is more than a year old. So newbie brought it back looking to start something I think.

Yes while I still do admire Akira as a benchmark of anime, I had not yet seen Cowboy Bebop which I found to be the film's true successor and the anime I hold against all others up as the standard :)

Also if you'll note I did say that I thought that there was one that was better, Grave of the Fireflies, so while I do recognize Akira's relative importance, I know that some anime exceeds the film's importance and craft :)

[Petezilla]

I'm a bit surprised to see so many people dont like akira. Sure its not the best anime but saying pokemon the movie, digimon the movie is better Jesus. There must be more 5 year olds then i thought on this forum. Anyway you are all intiteled to your opinion but to me the best is berserk nothing else comes close. When i saw the first episodes of evangelion I thought I was gonna witness the best series ever but i was quickly disappointed. Macross is also a top series despite its age.
One last time berserk is the best

[PenPen2]

Project Akira-kun:
I'm sorry but if any of you bothered to look at the date, this thread is more than a year old. So newbie brought it back looking to start something I think.*smacks herself with a bokken*

The one time I didn't look at readlize the dates... :heh:

But hey, I actually had something good to say. ;) Methinks.

But since I'm still here...

Westlo:
...and tell me Evangelion did them first, Evangelion is given far too much credit for apprantly being the first series to do those things. I haven't seen any of those other series... But, I'm not so stupid as to think that Eva is the first thing of it's kind and such. Everything in any genre of music and film is mocked and repeated in other forms.


TDM:
GitS was easy to swallow. I understood the entire movie the first time I watched it.You only liked it because Kusunagi is naked a lot.

And one more thing, TDM-dearie...:

I believe *I* said:
I'm not saying what I'm about to type applies to all of you,...

[hGh]

:confused2 Pffft, there is alot more to the GITS movie then naked Kusanag.

The cold urban landscapes, the dark soundscape provided by Kenji Kawai, the cool and mean looking technology, the prepetual night (exept for a few daytime scenes). The overall bladerunnerish doom'n'gloom factor of the movie is simply exhilarating for me :D.

[thedarkmarine]

PenPen2, I thought that statment means "I'm sure a lot of you have read the manga, but for those who haven't, READ THE MANGA."

[Spike 558]

Said Project Akira:
I'm sorry but if any of you bothered to look at the date, this thread is more than a year old. So newbie brought it back looking to start something I think.

Well, in that case how about we stop this thread right now? If we continue debating like this, we probably end up at each others throats.
Everything is good. I guess we retreat to our corners of the universe and enjoy what we love so much :thumbup:



And one last thing:

Said Westlo:
Ultimatly, Vandread is glimpse into the future of anime.

I seriously hope not

Sheesh, you say something intelligent and profound, hoping it will knock down some walls and then what happens? Some git comes along and cuts you down to size (I wonder if Gandhi ever had this much trouble?).

**screams at Westlo** Why are you so MEAN to me?!?!? :bawling: :finger:
**Spike runs off into the land of paranoia**








:joke:

[Drizzten]

Compete with Akira for best anime ever?

FLCL, Cowboy Bebop, the Kenshin OVAs, and oh screw it. :lol:

However, I have a special place for Akira because it was the first time I had watched animation that had more meaning than some simple episodic repeating theme set to weak and uninspiring animation with no serious "point" to any of it.

Yes, it was my introduction to the serious side of anime.

[Baka unit01]

I may not know what is best but i thought the Akira movie...well stunk...there wasnt enough movie to cover the story. I was confused the whole time and then the ending left me scratching myself.....Now the manga...that was good i actually understood what was going on :(

[Sigurd Fatima]

Well, I am only putting Akira up to anime movies since anime series expand upon their plot much more (unless you've read the Akira manga). Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was one rowdy sucker by my book. Akira will always be a classic though, and no one can take that away from it. I just wanted D to win the award he deserves so much, best vampire anime... duh. :p

Peace. V