I don't really agree with the "we only get the best" notion. Maybe it's because I grew up when anime was first getting a foothold and companies were so desperate for exposure that they would force potential licensors to pick up crap nobody wanted, but I've had to sit though complete travesties like Big Wars, Macross II: Lovers Again, Transformers the Headmasters, Vision of Escaflowne, Record of Lodoss War, Birth, and Legend of Crystania, while seeing absolutely awesome and utterly deserving anime like Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru, Aura Battler Dunbine, Saint Seiya, Sailor Stars and the original Mermaid Scar OVA get the shaft. Also, we don't get everything that was popular: where's the English version of Doraemon? Not to mention how Detective Conan and Lupin the Third got screwed in their western releases.

Not really. What happens is WA tends to get one show that stands out compared to its contemporaries and people tend to forget all the other crap that came out around the same time.

Though admittedly, that sounds almost exactly like the "we just get the good/popular anime" argument in reverse.

@story Yup. They made Lelouch clairvoyant for that scene. That's the only explanation

In a certain game series I love, you can destroy the Damocles with Lulu in it.

Yeah, it was more or less a rehashing of the way Mao was defeated the first time, which is made especially silly by the fact that Schneizel is far too smart to fall for it, and Lelouch should not have been able to predict their conversation so perfectly.

Urobuchi presents: My Little Pony. I wonder what that would be like

My god its hot. I have drunk at least four cans of pop and a couple of bottles of water and I am still freaking thirsty! I wonder if Unicorns know an Air Conditioning spell.

I am gettign really frustrated with Open JDK right now.

My biggest problem with anime is usually it's large tendancy for Mood Whiplash, many shows switch between ridiculously saccharine and silly to morbid and dramatic and back again in the blink of eye. I think this is why so many get edited in dubs, since trying to find a consistant tone for a western audience is hard to find (compared to most western shows which usually do a better job mixing drama and whimsy together).

To be honest, if Batman and Gargoyles are examples of "good" WA writing, then WA probably just needs to give up.

Not saying those shows are bad, but come on... one's about a guy who dresses as a bat and fights crime and whose most notorious enemy is a clown, and the other is about scottish warrior-demons who apparently hate killing, who were menaced by TV actors, and whose villain makes his reputation by basically showing up at the end and saying "yeah, I planned that."

[WMG] That wasn't really a video - he was actually talking live but used CGI to disguise it.

@Ace: Eh, could be worse. It could be Mohiro Kitoh presents My Little Pony.

Besides it would probably a vaguely covered up rehash of Madoka Magica anyway.

Well I'd suggest holding off on the soda. I've heard it just makes you thirstier

@Moe Dantes: To be fair a lot of animes have that kinda context as well. If someone told you the storyline in a basic sense for some shows would you take to them in a flash? Some of them sound completely non sensical (and some admitedly don't seem much better in context).

edited 9th Jun '12 7:57:51 PM by Psi001

Sym-Bionic Titan. Now that was a masterpiece!

edited 9th Jun '12 7:57:10 PM by Chadaman99

@Moe You do realize that you're sounding really elitist right now, right

There's also Cyber Six and Darkwing Duck and Reboot and DuckTales and Transformers Animated .

@Moe Premise means nothing when it comes to quality. I would think that the very thread we are having this discussion in would stand as a testament to that.

@Ace YAY, SOMEONE ELSE WHO SAW TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED!

Darkwing Duck and DuckTales may be good but they aren't really dark. DWD is maybe darker in comparison to usual slapstick shows but still it's a funny superhero cartoon first.

Sonic Sat Am goes in and out with this. A lot of it is decent but there's a lot of follies in writing and it goes in and out whether the dark undertones make it better or worse.

edited 9th Jun '12 8:01:08 PM by Psi001

I liked Vision of Escaflowne... but then again I was a teen girl when I watched it and was actually into all that romance crap back then.

That statement is the most ignorant statement I have heard in a long, long time. I am almost angry at this.

@ginger I'm not making any promises on whether you're going to like it.

edited 9th Jun '12 8:01:51 PM by crowlover

ATLA has some pretty dark moments.

@Moe: And some of the most popular animes have been about a highschool with a magic notebook that kills people, A pirate made of ruybber who can't swim, martial artists screaming at each other before throwing giant lazer balls in fights lasting 50+ episodes.

It's easy to be dismissive of a series based solely on concept, Particularly if you work the wording. Batman was also a deeply moving show about deeply scarred and flawed villains and heroes, and more often than not focused on the damaged psyche's of ultimately pitiable villains, and Gargoyles was about ancient monstrosities dearly displaced due to an ancient curse and forced to pick up the pieces. Both sound quite interesting to me.

You know, I've noticed that about 95% of American cartoons that have a reccuring story get canceled. Any idea why this is?

edited 9th Jun '12 8:03:40 PM by marston