The ‘A to Z of Favourite Anime’ – Challenge

Hello Island Guests! This week is easy mode week for me! It’s so hot my brain doesn’t work so I will mostly just answer questions and tags and do ..that kinda stuff! Sending my brain to the repairman in this heat and these times is just awful, so we will take it nice and easy. Today I will be finally taking part in the A to Z Favourite Anime Challenge! And I am breaking rules to do so!  Why?! Well because I love some of these anime to much and this is the best way to insert them all! It’s not like I play by the rules of blog tags other times anyway?!

I was nominated by Irina Celestial Sparkles and Foovay for this one so a big shout out and thank you for them. This post is originally called Railgunfan75’s Anime Favorites A-Z Challenge as it was created by Railgunfan75 but I do not put another bloggers name in my titles. Do check him out if you have never heard of him before! But since I am late on this tag I doubt that you don’t. I used the title Lina from TIny Ugly Animal came up with because I really prefer to leave names out of the equation.

Nominating Three People here

Mallow: I do try to acknowledge him a lot! He is the heart valve of the aniblogging community! He is a bit hidden among us but he helps out so much and keeps us very much alive! I really admire what he does so let’s see if I can admire his taste just as much!

Blerdy Otome: I know like me you can sometimes experience a bit of gatekeeper behaviour so let’s show everyone how Otaku we really are!

Fred: I really like your general taste in anime! So by making you list 26 of them I might find a new gem or two! Up to 26.. so this one is more for me! He does deserve all nominations he gets a million times over though!

These are the rules

-Pick a favourite series/movie for each letter of the alphabet. For titles starting with “a” “an” or “the” use the first letter of the next word of the title.

Okay this one I rule I shall stick with, due note that my favourites do not necessarily mean the series I think are best.  They are my favourites that can be that they mean something deeper to me despite their possible flaws.Some of them I would not even like to rewatch again but I love them deeply.

-Since many titles have multiple names based on the language that you are using please pick one language for the entire list (Use all English titles or all Japanese titles) and let the readers know which language you will be using. If a title has the same name regardless of the language then it can be used in any list.

This is the rule I am going to break as I find it a bit of a silly rule. I should show my favourites here, if I had to classify them all in the same language I would have to pick anime I like significantly less in their favour?! Nah! I will give both titles to the japanese ones as I tend to stick to the English ones, but I love these shows dearly they deserve the shout out instead of other in favour of naming consistency.. I haven’t seen THAT much anime so I am not going to limit myself even further. This is my island and here:

-If you don’t have a title that fits under a particular letter, you can name another favourite from a different letter in it’s place, just indicate which letter spot you are using for that series. This can be done up to three times. If you can’t fill a spot then you can leave it blank. No more than 26 total series are allowed.

No more than 26 series are allowed? That I will determine myself. I will probably stick to the rule but shoutouts of love should never be limited! I will mention a few other names that did not make the cut though more so that I can explain myself on why I did break the language rule.

-Including a picture for each series is encouraged

Now that I can agree on!

-Share who tagged you for this challenge and nominate 3 more to try it themselves and include links to their blogs.

That is totally normal I did that by instinct!

-Just have fun with this challenge. 

Now that I have stated I will break some rules to make it more fun for me, I will thank you very much! Now onto the actual list!

A: Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers

So I start with a Japanese title right away, while I do prefer English titles, this show is just way better than Air Gear or Akame Ga Kill so I am going with the Japanese one..so I can highlight my actual favourites It’s just a beautiful small story that had such relatable characters. I identify with Fumi , the series main character a lot and Achan is just a great little bubble of energy. I hate Yasuko because she is very much like a person I know in real life.. someone I could never hate and Yasuko became the perfect vent. So this show helped me deal with stuff as well! Cute and very human!

B: Bloom into You

This series gave me a semblance of a Waifu but also made me identify with a main character a lot. While Sayaka definitely was the strongest character for me in the second half, this story about a girl who can not fall in love is very in line with my Demi-Sexual nature and while I do crave some affection, I always understood her mindset perfectly. The soft animation is also something that really called out to me. B is a really good letter anyway. I could think of a lot of candidates. Few however resonate so strong with me as a person! A lot of these themes feel like a bit of my life.. and it is the series that made me want to have a phonestrap. Those are Super cute!

C: Cardfight Vanguard

I like card games, I like Card Game anime and I really liked this card fighting anime.   Sure quality wise it can’t hold a candle to Clannad, but this show I watched with my friends to teach ourselves how the Card Game worked.  We played a lot of matches with decks we got for no money at all oftenly after a few episodes of the show. That experience really trumps anything other C anime could throw at me. This gave me more than just a show. It gave me a pleasant experience with friends. So while I could easily discredit this show as just a Yu-Gi-Oh knock off  this is my favourite despite any quality problems. Misaki is the female on the team and I really liked her as a character as well. Very different from your usual girl. 

D: Digimon

The Adventure series was a big part of my childhood but even well after that Digimon remained a large part of my life. I hosted a digimon roleplay, I played a lot of the Digimon games, I read a lot of Digimon lore and I love series that have fictional evolving creatures battle each other. The music of this show  up until that series with the guy who punches digimon to make his evolve was great. The series also showed a more grim world than Pokémon.  So I am not specifying the series, each part up until rescue squad had a memory to me! Tri and the new series are pleasing to me as well.. yes it has all the rights to be called my favorite. Once more.. it’s not the best D I have seen.. but it is the one I will keep coming back to.

E: Earth Defence Club Love

I know the show is actually called Cute High, Earth Defence Club Love.. but I had no serious contestants for E otherwise I would have to give this to Elfen Lied. I haven’t seen any other shows with an E and I am not the biggest Elfen Lied fan. The first episode is nice to experience but after that the quality just dips! Cute High Earth Defence Club Love however is amazing! I like how it’s a genre spoof but does it really well.. (in the first season)  I can watch their transformation scene over and over again and still roll on the floor laughing satisfied.  The whole concept of the monsters being stuff and people there are unloved is so amazing and resonates with me really well.  I deeply love this show! Just for it’s silliness.

F: Flip Flappers

I haven’t even finished this show yet but I love it so much already that I am very sure that at the end of the run it will beat out FLCL for me. Flip Flappers is well on it’s way to make it into my top 10 of all time. This show is cute, sweet, weird, colourful and completely surreal. There is a level of depth in all the antics too and much like Kyousogiga it has this Alice in Wonderland feeling I really appreciate. Even the character names are super cute which make me not mind that the shout each others name all the time. Their weapons are cute, and Uexkull is adorable. This show makes me giddy to get up every Saturday. The show has a very girly energy, bright but also somber at times at it makes me smile the biggest of smiles.

G: Gakkou Gurashi (School Live) 

This one will make rule sticklers pissy because not only is it a Japanese name in a list with English names.. I also switched Gurren Lagann to the T also giving that it’s Japanese name. I use names mixed and the Mecha Anime I have always called Tengen Toppa so that’s where it will go! Gakkou Gurashi is my favourite thing to recommend to people who want an anime to watch, just because of the mind games this show plays if you at least avoid spoilers. I can’t talk about it to much but just know it is one of my absolute favourites!  This is an experience! It’s certainly weird but it’s sheer concept is something I really REALLY like! So much that it is one of my all time favourites. Sure it got a bit bland in the end but nothing gave me a viewing experience like this one.

H: Hunter x Hunter

My Favourite Shounen show should definitely make this list, I could not get into the volleyball anime everyone talks about so even while I am not a big fan on Gon, this show itself is very amazing. In part because it doesn’t rely on it’s main character that much. I love the whole set up of the main character more living through the story then setting it. Gon gets caught up in events rather than be a trigger.  He has to deal with the world instead of the world dealing with him. This results in the world feeling so much more alive and real! The way Nen is fleshed out really appealing to me as well and with people like Hisoka they and Killua they have such a strong line of slightly creepy characters.

I: Is this a Zombie?

Switching back to the English title, for the same reason as I always switch.. I love this show and want it to be features.. but the population in great anime in the K department is very dense for me. It’s Japanese title is Kore Wa Zombie Desuka.. and I feel like that’s the name it’s more widely known as as well? Yet the letter I had no noteworthy contestants to how great this show is! It’s funny and has some amazing characters! It’s colourful , it’s weird has magikewl girls.. and magikewl girl guys!  What more can a girl loving random anime want! The end credits are amazing as well.  There is a bit of a trend visible to what I like and I do require a certain does of whackyness in my anime in general.. that or being really heartfelt. So yeah Intial D would not make the cut even if it tried.. bitchin soundtrack though!

J: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures

I usually am not that big of a fan of very male energies in anime so I would have thought I hated Jojo’s. I watched it reluctantly because a friend really wanted to watch it fully expecting to despise it.  But it has one thing going for it that apparently is a bigger pull for me. It’s Bizarre.  I love Battle Tendency a lot and most of the other parts I really enjoy as well. There is just this thing to me about it! The music, the colour shifts into unnatural pallets for no reason at all. It glues me to the screen and each time we see a new Stand I adore how this weird thing works again. If I need to pick a part it would be part 2, but since that is included with Part 1 which is my least favourite part.. I am not sure if I could pick Season 1.. in that case it would go to the Stardust Season 1.. but for me Jojoj’s is Jojo’s so I nominated them all in one.
I might have cheated here and there with my list but I can definitely STAND by this pick!

K: Kill la Kill

Man if I had to use Kore Wa Zombie Desku Ka this would have been a four way tie.  What pushed Kill la Kill to this top spot is the memories it has given me besides the anime itself.  Just listening to Before my Body Runs dry with friends and singing along at a super hot convention day. Rewatching Mako Dialogue and try to speak like her as some form of game.. and of course, this is a show featuring a Magical Girl (close enough at least)  taking on weird people..and of course the weirdest alien life form you might have seen. The plot is bonkers with organisations such as Nudist Beach trying to protect the world from evil clothing company Revocs.. and a girl fighting with half a scissor What’s not to like!

L: Love Live School Idol Project

Love Live has a special place in my heart! I discovered it through a free rhythm game on my mobile and I just fell in love with the songs.  When I saw gundam toys mimic  dances of some cute anime girls I just had to check the show out and it did not disappoint. Love Live is just an energy boost for me. The original more so than the newer series as I like the music a lot better, but Start Dash and Snow Halation and Aishiteru Banzai are songs I sing regularly.. this show gave me those so it goes on the list. Kotori would be my favourite person from the group.. but admittedly also the one I’d strangle first if she is in a talkative mood! This show has taught me how to be an idol as well.. so since I want you all to love me.. and this post here goes! NICO NICO NIIIIII!.. please don’t unfollow!

M: Madoka

I know Madoka isn’t the official title and it’s actually Puella Magica Madoka etc.. but no one calls it that. The Japanese name is Mahou Shouja Madoka Magica I think so at least one of the official titles starts with an M but if I call  Madoka I don’t think there is ANYONE here.. who is confused to what show I mean. While I do find this show to be overrated by my friends who say it’s the best thing ever.. I love the surreal worlds, the dark undertones,  and the magical girl aspect of it.  There is a gravitas around Madoka that you do not expect and it has weird elements, yuri elements, it has  pink protagonist, cute looking monsters? Speaking of Monster.. barely missed the top spot! Madoka did so much more for the anime and copsplay community Do I even need to explain why it’s here?! It’s Madoka!

N: No Game No Life

By now I bet you can imagine  why this makes my list. It’s a weird, colourful show that has some magical elements a lot of amazing characters and it’s the one place where it can seem people have already won a game of Rock Paper Scissors before the game is played! Take the explanation from Yu-gi-oh and put it in a more Yu-Gi-Oh season 0 like jacket.. then add a pinch of Madoka and a dash of Jojo and you have No Game No life. Season Zero Yugi was super murderous as well and some of these battles in this series really resemble that. It all adds to the bizarrity of it which makes it so amazingly watchable to me. The whole idea that the main character is actualy two seperate characters trying to achieve godhood.. by putting the Win before cest..was very creative and slightly disturbing. I could have done without the family love..but I can appreciate the anti social tone it is presented with.

O: Oban Star Racers

I am not even sure this is anime but it is a French Japanese production so I decided it counts. Now that Mangwha can become anime.. I think if Western folks try to make an anime it still should be called anime! It looks anime enough and is super heavily anime inspired. There is a beautiful story on how this show was a passion project and that shows in the series itself. There is not a lot of money or amazing talent involved but people loved what they made it and it shows so hard. One of the things I haven’t told you I liked yet. is Tournament Arcs…This series I could describe as Madoka meets Star Wars  Podracing Meets Tournament Arc. There is a bit of Zoids in there as well I guess! I saw this on western tv and noticed how different it was .. in a way I like to think this is the serie that rekindled my love for anime. Also the hair of the team boss.. is amazing! They don’t design anime characters like that anymore.

P: Pokemon

I mean those who follow me for a long time probably could see this one coming. Again this is not the one I’d rank as the best. However this show and in particular the first series had such a great and in the end positive impact on my live I can hardly say it’s not my favourite. Without this anime I would not be writing this post. Without the series I would never would have asked for Pokémon Blue for the fest of Sinterklaas. Without the adventures of Ash I would never have fallen in love with the geek communities. I would have never bonded with some of the geeks that made my life the way it is now. I didn’t even follow the series anymore but when I read and saw that Ash finally became a champion after so many years, I shed a little tear of joy! It’s also why I cant bring myself to watch the new season. I love this series for what it did for me.. more so than what it is..but this definitely deserves a spot.

Q: (Q)Kyousogiga

Did you know that Kyousogiga is written with a blind Q.. ? A silent Q would be a Q you can not hear so a blind Q is a Q you can not see. Just stare at the title for about an hour you will see! It’s a story about a man who paints a bunny and due to a special power he can make it real.. but then the bunny falls in love with him and begs a female Buddha to borrow her body so they can be in love together.. the Buddha allows this and the two deside to found a new world inside a painting. A perfect little family with a boy who killed himself. A buddha and a demon girl.  Yet then both mother and father disappear leaving behind a world that is full of weird colourful things with amazingly weird  rules and things get weirder when a girl with a giant Hammer filled with colorful orbs shows up! This girl shares the name of the lost mother.. and a weird battle to find family in this new world begins… Weird colourful and a girl protagonist using semi magical powers and a schoolgirl outfit to ward of evil.. no surprise why I pick this.

R: Reborn

This is the English title of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.. but well K  was taken a few times over. By a lot of clever swapping around I was able to put this little treasure of mine onto my list. Reborn does a lot what Hunter X Hunter for me does as well. It shows a perpetual growth in it’s character. Where Naruto just gains new techniques, Hunter x Hunter and Reborn show that the fighters actually enter new stages of fighting.  From doing random tasks naked Tsuna learns to control his zero flame, uses to learn his rings, which can unlock box weapons, which can fuse with their main weapons. It’s great! Add in a bunch of babies, colourful pacifiers, a tournament arc and really great characters and yes this show is right up my alley.  Of course you have to get trough quite a large amount of bad episodes at the start but it’s worth it.

S: Samurai Flamenco

This is another show I haven’t finished yet but deeply love so far. I really love Sentai shows, they are colourful..weird and you know where I am getting at with this.  Samurai Flamenco is not exception to this preference of mine. Yet it also is extremely down to Earth at the same time. It explores territory that I have not seen before.. Anime weirdness..with real life Logic.. and I adore it for that.  The characters , while I have my grips with some all feel pretty real and if you are a geek who ever imagined having super powers  they are pretty relatable, this is also a show about being a fan of something a lot! There is a lot of Meta humor in there which pleases me as we.. like characters recognising Sentai patterns.. but by stating they are aware of it thir enemies can then adap! Just a very clever and fun show.

T: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Just Gurren Lagann in English apparently.. I thought it was Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann there as well.. is my favourite anime show of all time.  So obviously it would make this list.  It did so by the name I know for it. For those who don’t know what it is about. Humanity is driven to live underground. When a young boy with a drill finds a head like thing.. he discovers it’s a big mecha! He takes his best friend to the surface with this Mecha and discovers it’s ruled by beastman! They steal another Mecha and the best friend decides to slam the head mecha into the tinier one to see if they can combine.. from there on out their adventure just becomes weirder and more colourful with the plot going so insane that in the end people end up throwing galaxies at one another!  This show made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me sick with grief. 

U: Unko-San

This show tells the adventures of a little brown fairy that lives in the bowels of a certain island. For those who do not speak Japanese .. Unko being a brown fairy means it’s a log of poop! A log of poop that has the ability to grant luck to the unlucky. So for example when one little poop commits suicide because he can no longer pay his father’s hospital bills, it sinks into a clam farm..because they do not want a poo resting between them they give it a pearl which it can use to pay of it’s fathers depth.. Who keeps getting gored by a bull. This show had like 7 or 8 episodes each of 2 and a half minute long. It’s hard to find nowadays but back in the day I watched them all. So since it is the only anime with a U I ever finished .. it’s on the list. But you can put Konosuba here instead if you really want.

V: Vampire Princess Miyu

Not a great show but a very solid middle of the roader that made for an enjoyable watch in my vampire phase. It was one of the first random anime I ever watched..except for the word vampire and was one that really introduced me more and more to Japanese culture. I do not have a ton to say abot this one as even considering Unko San this is the my least favourite of the list and there are better Vampire shows out there.. but if you  really want  to watch a show starting with a V you can do a lot worse as well! It has a nice mysterious and tormented main character, a plot that is a bit retro but still quite engaging and interesting visuals.  There is also a lot of pretty music in this show!

W: Wixoss

I thought the show was called Card Selector Wixoss but apparently it can be called Wixoss as well.  This show is something I really like a lot more than what it’s worth! This is a mix between the grim elements of Yu-gi-oh and the grim elements of Madoka.  What seems like an innocent cardgame ends up being the most sick and twisted game I have ever seen. If you win, you lose , if you lose you lose.  There is SOOO much darkness in this show and it is amazing.  It also has Card Battles? Heck yes! It seems like a weird but fun game and the fact that the characters are all female prevents that super dominant male energy I dislike from sneaking in. This show takes a little to get started but once it has you by the lady parts it doesn’t let you go until it is done. Since the original run of the show more content has released with new rules.. but just as dark of implications! I should really continue it sometime.

X: X- men Anime

For a little while there was a small project where western products got remade into anime. I think it was X-men, Blade and Wolverine, possibly Iron Man as well.  I watched the X-men show and really liked it. It had a grit about it and a interesting story about secondary mutation that tied into Jean Grey’s phoenix origins but this time influenced characters like Emma Frost. It was nice to see a different take on the western show and it really felt quite anime like. I loved the visuals and the colour usage. Maybe because I compared it to the 90’s cartoon but still… It is a nice quick watch and if you are an X-men fan it surely is worth a peek. Again I am sure there are purists that say “this isn’t anime” but to me it very much is! I experienced it AS anime so it IS MY favourite anime starting with an X. Also my only one.

Y: Yu-Gi-Oh (5D’s)

Originally I planned to let GX win but then when I was writing why I realised I liked 5’ds Better. I do agree that playing cardgames on motorcycles is dumb but the entire world building with organisations like Arcadia, the way the slums in Satellite worked, the importance of the five dragons, the signers, the prison tattoos it all mashed so well with that holographic technique. Kalin’s zero hand deck was super special, the dark signers were great and I felt so bad for people dying. It had sticking deaths, duelists forcefully having to kill their own friends and of course death races. The Synchro Summon mechanic also made the cheating characters had to go through a little less noticeable..even if they could grow cards out of thin air. The way people dialogue when summoning their synchro’s was super cool and the music was very strong in both the sub and the dub!  YuYuhakusho was a close contender, but I did not care for the last arc.. and Yu-Gi-oh once more is just more than just an anime. 

Zetman

Not sure how I got to see this one but I think it is the only anime with a Z I have ever finished maybe even watched. The story of two friends being placed in a fight for justice on oposite sites of the spectrum has always facinated me, I also like in in Owari no Seraph for example.. but this one was really visceral.. deaths were messy.. Innocent girls turn into monsters with no way of returning then are slain by the hero of justice, while the hero of dark befriended her..As the monster is cut in half we see her soul be cut in half as well as she yells out as she begins to fade away into the abyss.  Stuff like this made me really respect this series. It  had a bit of a devil may cry vibe.. with a Dante versus Virgil feeling (not talking about the DMC anime in this case but the the games) . What is right might not always be the good and what is good might not always be right. This is a theme that was heavily dominant in this show and you could easily side with both parties.  Yet are also gently nudged to look at things from different perspectives from time to time.Not all to special but hey it’s a Z!

Editting was a lot more work than I expected! I hope my taste has not made you unfollow! So now that you know my favourite anime from A to Z i’ll just slink of into a cold shower and ponder about Oban Star Racer a bit more! Have a great day and see you all soon!