Japanimation, Japanese Cartoons, Anime, perhaps you’ve heard these terms before. These terms are used to describe/identify a certain type of artistic style and/or form of story telling, Japanese Animation. At first glance one might assume that it’s merely a cartoon, much along the lines of The Lion King or Doug. However, don’t be fooled. While some anime seems directed towards children (Pokémon & Yu-Gi-Oh!), there are others that have intricate and compelling stories that rival some of Hollywood’s greatest films.
Perhaps you’re interested in Anime, but unsure of what’s ‘good’? It’s all a matter of personal opinion really. I asked around PTI and compiled a decent sized list of titles, and proceeded to narrow it down based off their opinions and input. So, here you have it: the Top 10 Listing of the Greatest Anime Films/Series of all Time (According to the Students/Faculty of PTI).
#1. Gungrave – Yasuhiro Nightow – Action/Drama 18+
Description: Former assassin for a mafia crime syndicate, Millenion, Brandon Heat is brought back to life by science to avenge the death of his friends and former-love. The city now lives in terror and fear of the once respected mafia organization. Who’s the man responsible for all this? It’s Brandon’s former best friend, Harry MacDowel.
#2. Monster – Naoki Urasawa – Drama/Psycho Thriller 18+
Description: Dr. Tenma is a Japanese man working in Germany. He has it all, incredible medical skill, a great job, a beautiful fiancée, until strange murders begin to occur.
These murders benefit Dr. Tenma greatly, making him the #1 suspect in an ongoing investigation. On the run from the police, Dr. Tenma investigates the bizarre murders himself in order to prove his innocence.
#3. GANTZ – Hiroya Oku – Action/Mystery 18+
Description: Kurono Kei, a high school freshman, doesn’t have a care in the world. But one day, while in attempt to save a homeless man’s life, he ends up dead. Now he finds himself in a strange room, with others who have recently died, being ordered to fight strange creatures by an even stranger black sphere. Did he really die? Is this Hell? Is this the work of Aliens? Is there another chance at life? What will happen to him? What is the mysterious sphere that orders him, "Gantz"? “Gantz” has the key to all of these mysteries…
#4. Robotech – Harmony Gold – Mecha/Sci-Fi All Ages
Description: The year is 1999, high above Macross Island a phenomenal event occurred in the skies: a spaceship came crashing towards the earth. Years later the earth finds itself in battle with a race of aliens known as the ‘Zentraedi’. Utilizing the alien technology from the ship, the humans develop ‘Veritechs’ (planes that transform into robots) to fight the aliens. But this is only the beginning of an epic saga that spans over the course of many years.
#5. Berserk – Kentaro Miura – Action 18+
Description: Guts, an incredibly powerful warrior, is a lone swordsman in this medieval-fantasy world. He loses in a battle against a mysterious swordsman named Griffith, who holds a powerful pendant called the Eye of God. As the story progresses, they soon become good friends and secrets are revealed and the darkest depths of combat, survival, and political intrigue are explored.
#6. Trigun – Yasuhiro Nightow – Action/Comedy 13+
Description: The World is a Desert Planet and there is a notorious outlaw named Vash the Stampede, who is wanted for 60 Billion Double-Dollars. However, this notorious outlaw doesn't seem so notorious at all. He's a bumbling comedic fool of a man. Is it all a ruse, or is he actually a skilled gunman worthy of the bounty placed on his head?
#7. Spirited Away - Hayao Miyazaki - Family All Ages
Description: Spirited Away is a fantasy adventure with a ten year-old girl, which starts in everyday Japan but goes somewhere very different. For young Chihiro and her parents, a mysterious tunnel and haunted town lead to the Land of Spirits, inhabited by gods and monsters and ruled by the greedy witch Yu-baba. Chihiro's parents are transformed into pigs; to rescue them, she must surrender her name and serve in this world. Luckily she finds friends and allies, including the handsome but mysterious boy Haku. Initially sulky and listless, Chihiro (or Sen, as she's now called) finds inner strengths and establishes an identity in this strange world. But can she win back her name and return home?
#8. Vampire Hunter D - Hideyuki Kikuchi - Action/Horror 16+
Description: 10,000 years in the future, the world has become a very different place; monsters roam the land freely, and people, although equipped with high tech weapons and cybernetic horses, live a humble life more suited to centuries past. Count Magnus Lee, a Vampire rules over the land with an iron fist. However, his life is threatened once a Vampire Hunter, named D, is commissioned to kill the evil count by a young girl named Dorris, whom the Count wants to forcefully take as his wife.
#9. Hellsing - Hirano Kouta - Action/Horror 18+
Description: Hellsing Agency is a group of fighters that protects Great Britain and the Anglican Church from vampires and their ghouls. Led by Sir Integra Hellsing, the heiress of the legendary Hellsing Family, the agency sets on the crusade with Ceras Victoria a police woman recently transmogrified vampire and her master Alucard a renegade vampire caught by the Hellsing Agency.
#10. Cowboy Bebop - Shinichiro Watanabe - Action/Comedy 16+
Description: The year 2071 A.D. That future is now. Driven out of their terrestrial Eden, humanity chose the stars as the final frontier. With the section-by-section collapse of the former nations a mixed jumble of races and peoples came. They spread to the stars, taking with them the now confused concepts of freedom, violence, illegality and love, where new rules and a new generation of outlaws came into being. People referred to them as Cowboy Bebops.
It was a hard job picking and choosing, and it’s safe to say that there are more than just 10 great anime series out there. Some honorable mentions that were candidates for the list were Millenium Actress, The Animatrix, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Ranma 1/2, Rurouni Kenshin, Boogiepop Phantom, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Appleseed (2004), and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
