Anime Your Unpopular Anime, Manga and J-Pop Opinions

[Daenerys]

I tried watching the original Digimon and the current series and I found them both boring. The original has them first entering the Digiworld and took too long to get anywhere. The current series starts with them fighting a super powerful virus Digimon only to unleash a stronger form...twice.

This is only for the two anime series I've watched, if anybody has any recommendations, I'm willing to listen. I got nothing against the rest of the franchise.

I don't understand the appeal of Dragon Ball. All I see is extremely ripped guys with generic super powers beating each other up. I especially can't say I find it amusing that they basically ripped it off a Japanese folktale. Although at least Goku has a likable heroic personality.

Well first of all I wouldn't recommended watching 2 Digimon series at the same time. I think you should've started with the first series and maybe watched the second one too before watching the current series. Also the third series (Tamers) is the best one in my opinion. The best thing about that one is that you can watch it without watching the others because it exists in its own continuity without relying on the first two series.

 

[Jet-black Zorua]

I think the Akira movie is actually kind of bad. Some consider it as the epitome of anime movies but I thought the manga was way better in terms of the story because it's more cohesive and makes more sense. The movie also does a poor job of developing the characters.

 

[Tactician Karina]

I think the Akira movie is actually kind of bad. Some consider it as the epitome of anime movies but I thought the manga was way better in terms of the story because it's more cohesive and makes more sense. The movie also does a poor job of developing the characters.

I liked the movie when I first watched it years ago, but I've been meaning to read the manga since some of my friends that have read it said it's way better (though to be fair the manga wasn't finished when they made the movie, so they had to take liberties with the story), and your post certainly reaffirms that I should get to it. Speaking of which, are you going to watch the Akira (Shin Anime) whenever it comes out? I hear it's supposed to be a more complete adaptation of the manga.

 

[Tactician Karina]

Reviving the thread again cause I got more opinions ofc:
CGI in Attack on Titan The Final Season part 1 wasn't that bad, while I also liked the animation from previous seasons MAPPA did pretty great with this one. (also I thought the manga's ending was pretty bad character and narrative wise and I feel it tried and horribly failed at pulling a Code Geass, but that's not unpopular, still wanted to say that I disliked the ending though)

Akame ga Kill! was kind of boring.

Cestvs: The Roman Fighter anime isn't that bad and it's low scores saddens me. No I haven't read the manga yet but for my first impressions of the anime, it's not even terrible as some are making it out to be. This opinion might change whenever I get to the manga, but for now it's a pretty good watch.

Pretty Boy Detective Club, Fairy Ranmaru, and Burning Kabaddi are terribly underrated anime airing this season (Cestvs too, see above). Seriously go watch them and give them a chance, they're good fun.

Baccano! deserves a second season. (wait did I say this one already? I can't remember, if I did oh well I still stand by it)

The Monogatari series absolutely does not interest me. This is mainly coming from some online and irl friends trying to push it on me, and it's annoying, but also after watching some clips of it from various seasons on YouTube it just doesn't click with me; cool if you like it, but it looks boring to me. Also the main character is kind of annoying (even though I love his VA). I also find the opening songs to be mediocre.

Chinese anime is getting up there in quality, lately I've been more excited wanting to watch some upcoming (and already aired) Chinese anime.

Speaking of Chinese anime, The King's Avatar is great and it's also underrated. (gotta get to it's prequel movie and two sequels soon)

Samurai Champloo is just as overrated as Cowboy Bebop.

Assassination Classroom was pretty boring and I don't really get it's appeal, it also got repetitive pretty quick. My brother recommended me on watching season 2 anyway, but I feel if I didn't like the first season much I probably won't like the second, but I'll give it a shot still and see if it changes my mind.

While I still liked and enjoyed Re:Zero season 2 part 1, I think season 1 was slightly better. (no I haven't gotten to part 2 of s2 yet)

One Piece's anime pacing is not the best.

Manga/LN's aren't always better.

That being said, The Way of the Househusband getting a second season honestly surprises me. The fact that it's essentially a slideshow killed it for me and didn't do the manga justice, I'm hoping the second season will actually be animated, but my expectations are low.

BLEACH anime coming back is absolute hype.

Chikan Otoko manga was boring and I didn't think it was that great of a seinen.

Bloody Kiss should get an anime adaptation, while the manga was pretty okay I think it would look great (maybe even better to me) as a anime.

 

[prog rocker]

One Piece's anime pacing is not the best.

Not helping the fact is that the manga has been getting breaks recently. Hopefully it doesn't mean anything bad...

 

[Tactician Karina]

Not helping the fact is that the manga has been getting breaks recently. Hopefully it doesn't mean anything bad...

I know Oda has the occasional health issue, so it's understandable for the breaks. But yeah hopefully it's nothing serious, we don't want to lose another mangaka so soon after Miura.

 

[Tactician Karina]

i think that sao is an okay-ish starter anime. i started with sao. looking back on it, maybe it wasn't the best, but i do think it got me started with anime in general.

Yep I still stand by this opinion as well. I mentioned this a few pages back already but SAO really isn't as bad as most like to claim. It's not the best LN/anime, but not terrible either and I definitely had fun watching the series; yeah character development could be better, but it's not the worst, and Kirito isn't that bad of an MC.

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Another opinion I have that I forgot to put in my last post:
Hetalia also isn't that bad. Granted most of the hate towards the series is because of the fans, and yes there are annoying ones (and as someone who's been in the Hetalia fandom since the anime aired, it did have it's fair share of fandom problems), but the anime/webcomic itself is fine. It's also a fun satire to watch if you want comedy, and ignoring the bad apples of the fandom it provides some amazing works in fanart/fiction, games, extended fandom lore, etc. (so similar to Touhou's fandom, but not quite as big).

 

[Galactic_V]

Idk how much this is unpopular or not (which I believe it might not be since I've seen other people complaining about it). I'm a fan of Mashima Hiro's works, basically. I really like his drawing style, character proportions, and fantasy-based stories (to be honest he was one of my inspirations to achieve my current style), however in every manga series he creates there's a bunch of things I really dislike, that I keep asking myself why he continues doing it.

I'll base myself on Fairy Tail (his most famous work at this date).

I'm starting with something basic that is not really a nuisance for me, however he's known for overdoing it: Fan service. I'm not against fan service, at all, but I believe it needs to be placed well to not influence the rest of the plot! And he includes fan service where it's not needed! For example, during the Grand Magic Games arc (one of my favorites), why the heck he transformed Mirajane vs Jenny's fight into a bikini match? I mean, come on, that was ridiculous. It amounted to nothing and didn't go anywhere (worse, Mira defeated Jenny in a split second).

Second off, as*pulls (sorry, but I don't like cursing). It's funny how his protagonists usually achieve a level of power out of nowhere and defeats the Big Bad easily, with a punch or two, when said threat is presented as very strong. Natsu's battle against Acnologia was basically that. He is introduced as the most evil and powerful wizard ever, not even the strongest ones stand a chance against him, yet Natsu is able to pulverize him with a single punch. And this happens a lot in this franchise. Couldn't Mashima draw more fight scenes to show the character struggling to beat his opponent? Couldn't he make it more real or believable?

Third off, which is a follow-up of above, short fights that end very quickly. Some battles get somewhat a big hype but doesn't go even near how much it's expected to be. Again, in the Grand Magic Games arc, a bunch of the individual battles were too short and some characters presented as a thread (such as Bacchus) ended up having such ridiculous performances that watching them fight seemed like a waste of time (really, Quatro Cerberus didn't have a moment of glory in that arc, mostly serving only as the butt-monkey). Why have other characters call a certain one as "strong", a "threat", if he loses in pathetic ways? The worst case, I believe, is Laxus vs Alexei (Ivan). Wow, so much hype for such an awful closure.

And last off, it's not really major, might be more of a pet peeve, but I don't like how the main heroines are considered to be so strong and capable by other characters when clearly they are not (since they don't show it). Why was Lucy considered to be "one of Fairy Tail's most powerful members" when all she did was invoke Celestial Spirits and make them fight for her? Why is Rebecca considered to be strong when all she does is have a good aim at shooting (I mean, before her Ether Gear that is)? It's sorta ridiculous to hear Makarov say "I'm gathering the most powerful members of Fairy Tail to build the best team ever" for the Grand Magic Games (even if I ignore Team B, which did have better members than Team A) and the name "Lucy Heartfilia" coming up. In my opinion Elfman is already stronger than her, for eg. Idk, if I were in Mashima's place, I'd give those heroines more moments to show their capacity, and perhaps do it in a better way so they don't come off as cheap.

I know it seemed like I'm just hating on Fairy Tail, but trust me, I'm not. This was one of my favorite anime back in the day, it has a lot of good moments, I really love the message of union and friendship it passes and how it works so well (not all time, but most of them), and me adoring it so much is the reason I find those negative points about it. Like I said, my current style is a lot inspired by FT and other Mashima's works, and that's saying a lot imo.

 

[Juliko]

These two shows aired around the same time, and having seen both...I think Fancy Lala is a better magical girl anime than CardCaptor Sakura. I mean, I like the latter, but I don't have the same attachment to it as others do, whereas Fancy Lala blew me away and really hit me in the feels.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Yu-Gi-Oh (the Duel Monsters stuff) is a good series and is certainly nostalgic but I feel as if both Seasons Three and Four kinda let it down a bit.

The last half of Season Three (continuing the Battle City stuff) is just as fantastic as Season Two buuuuttttt the first half is just awful... I can't imagine just how many people got irritated when it aired on TV thinking that we'd see them continue on with the winning streak only to have both Noah and those Big 5 clowns hog half the season with their Virtual World crap that not only wasn't interesting but didn't matter in the end. Yes, we did get to see some of Kaiba's past but it's not like it matters much because not once does Kaiba bring any of it up afterwards.

Season 4 was mediocre. Interesting ideas and it does have some pretty cool moments but the villain Dartz was super boring (spending most of his screentime away in the shadows and only really coming out for the final battle). Rafael was pretty cool though.

I also felt as if Eric Stuart also got a little too shouty as Kaiba as the show went on. He was still good but I feel that this was a problem with voice direction if anything else (James from Pokemon would also fall victim and end up worse for it).

 

[prog rocker]

I liked the mini-Tournament arc after Dartz, but I would have liked it to be longer. In fact, I would have loved to see Rebecca, Zigfried and Leon's other duels.

 

[Tactician Karina]

Isekai LN/anime/manga aren't that bad and I don't mind that there's a lot of them produced.

AIR and Kanon >>>>>>> Clannad and Angel Beats!

I know a lot of people prefer the OHSHC manga, but I think both the manga and anime are equally good.

MHA manga is getting pretty boring, instantly dropped and might get back to it once it finishes. And Katsuki still isn't a great character.

K-ON! manga was kind of boring, not even gonna bother with the anime.

Black Clover and Dr. Stone are two of the better new gen shounen series running.

While I have yet to watch the specific anime he's in, and the actual exposure I have of him is the Fate/Grand Order game and my brother and friends, but Astolfo is a highly overrated character within the Fate fandom. He's cute, and I have used him as a pfp before on MAL before I switched to AniList, but I don't think he's that amazing of a character. (also manly Astolfo fanart > super feminine Astolfo fanart)

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! was another meh to boring anime.

Edit:
Forgot one more, I unironically liked Big Order, BTOOOM!, Kaiyari/Redo of Healer, Gravitation, and Rosario + Vampire.

 

[Neo Blaze]

In my opinion, most battle shonen anime are fastfood shows and not much more than that. They're the anime equivalent of big action blockbuster films; fun to sit back for and shove popcorn in your face, but if I'm looking for something more substantial and emotionally fulfilling I often find them severely lacking. And most of them should definitely not be considered among the greatest anime of all time.

 

[Emmy]

"Nadesico of the Valley of the Wind" is easily the weakest Studio Ghibli movie. I don't understand why Goro Miyazaki gets so much flak when his father created that travesty.

 

[Tactician Karina]

Since it's been a while that I've posted an opinion on Japanese music itt, here's another one: I don't think BABYMETAL is all that great. They're not terrible but not the best either; I do understand and appreciate their legacy in the industry over there and them being the creator of kawaii metal though, so good on them for that.

Also I still prefer and like Gackt when it comes to J-Pop and Rock.

Speaking of Ghibli movies above, most of them are overrated. They're generally good and I don't dislike them, but sometimes they're overpraised.

There is nothing wrong with liking the Killing Stalking manhwa, I don't know why some people are still trying to dissuade others from enjoying it.

SoL anime are only moderately okay to me. It has to really catch my attention for me to fully enjoy it and stick with it.

Mo Dao Zu Shi season 2 only having 8 episodes is a crime. It genuinely should have had at least 15 episodes like the first season; it's weird that Q, a chibi spin-off, got 30 episodes but well I guess that's spin-off's for you. (hopefully season 3 gets a good amount of episodes)

I prefer Hestia over Ais for Bell in DanMachi, nothing against Ais cause I like her as well, but Hestia and Bell have my favorite chemistry.

Knight of the Ice, The Cain Saga, and Beast Master should get anime adaptations.

For shounen, I really hope Spy x Family, Nine Dragons' Ball Parade, and Mashle: Magic and Muscles also get anime adaptations. (they seem to be doing well so far, but I'm still hoping)

 

[Neo Blaze]

"Nadesico of the Valley of the Wind" is easily the weakest Studio Ghibli movie.

Out of curiosity, may I ask what makes it worse than Tales from Earthsea and Earwig and the Witch to you? I don't love Nausicaä myself but I personally think it still has a lot going for it. My issues with it mostly lie in the story, which is a mess. I've heard the manga (also made by Miyazaki) is better and makes a lot more sense, so I'm curious to check that out sometime.

I don't understand why Goro Miyazaki gets so much flak when his father created that travesty.

Short answer: because Nausicaä is critically acclaimed by a lot of people, and Goro's films aren't.

That aside however, Miyazaki Sr. made a good number of films that are critically acclaimed and I think his overall influence on anime and film in general is significant (John Lasseter of Pixar has even kind of admitted that Pixar wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't for Miyazaki). Nausicaä specifically is often credited for its influence on other anime and setting the foundation for Ghibli (quite literally, as the studio was founded by Miyazaki with the money that Nausicaä made in theaters - so Nausicaä only retroactively became a Studio Ghibli film). Whether that's deserved or not is wholly subjective of course, but I personally don't think it's hard to see why there's a difference in praise between father and son. Although From Up on Poppy Hill was good, Goro has yet to really prove himself as a filmmaker of his own.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I couldn't get through more than about twenty minutes of Tales of Earthsea. The pacing was completely wrong, I'm not sure what story Goro thought he was adapting, and I don't think he really got the point of some of the key themes in Earthsea.

I forget whether I've voiced this opinion here, but I can't stand Grave of the Fireflies. I think it's cynically manipulative

 

[Juliko]

I think the Pokemon: Yume no Tsubomi short and Twilight Wings are both better than the entirety of the Pokemon TV anime. Yes, I said that. Fight me.

 

[Neo Blaze]

I never understood the hype for Twilight Wings and I still don't. It was alright, but I genuinely don't see what's so special about it. I just couldn't really bring myself to care about any of the characters and the stories that were told. I personally don't think it holds a candle to some of the best individual episodes/movies of the Pokémon TV anime. Not even close.

 

[Emmy]

Dear lord, did I really muddle up the titles of Nausicaä and Nadesico? I am ashamed and must commit ritual sudoku...

Out of curiosity, may I ask what makes it worse than Tales from Earthsea and Earwig and the Witch to you? I don't love Nausicaä myself but I personally think it still has a lot going for it. My issues with it mostly lie in the story, which is a mess. I've heard the manga (also made by Miyazaki) is better and makes a lot more sense, so I'm curious to check that out sometime.

Earwig isn't available here yet so I can't comment on that one. But as for Nausicaä, I really didn't care for the story, the characters or the setting. Earthsea may have had plenty of flaws but it was still decent.