Noah and Scott Top Five Anime Collab: Part 1

Hello everyone and welcome to a pretty difficult collab to produce. A while ago, Noah from Blue’s Anime contacted me to do a collab and this list of some of our favorite anime is what came out of it. As you read it, you will notice that our tastes are quite a bit different which is kind of great considering that no one should have the same sorts of favorite anime lists. This is a just a small sample of that, which is great.  A world that has people with the same favorites is boring. After your down with this part, please go to Noah’s blog following this link to see the finale.

Click here for part 2

As we both discovered while working on this collab, it’s really hard to come up with a top five anime list. I’m pretty sure that these are the ones we would choose right now and who knows what they would be the day or even the second after this post goes live. But for now and once again, please enjoy this post and the next one that appear on Blue’s Anime.  Thank you for your time.

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Scott’s #5:Kino’s Journey (2003)

Maybe this is a surprise, maybe it’s not, but I really do love the original adaptation of Kino’s Journey quite a bit. If you haven’t ever heard of Kino’s Journey, it’s the tale of a non binary character named Kino traveling from country to country on their talking bicycle by the name of Hermes who is used to bounce off Kino’s thought patterns from place to place. Each country is different. Not just in a cultural sense, but each country represents a different level of human philosophy that is interesting to explore. Kino and Hermes are the only non changing elements of their story because they are our guides throughout this show.

So yeah, that’s the real appeal of Kino’s Journey for me. It’s not overly pretentious, it explores different aspects of humanity with Kino telling the audience their thoughts through talking with their motorcycle to help the viewer watching to understand what is going on here. That also leaves the viewer to come up with their own conclusions too. This anime isn’t that stunning on an animation level, but I really do live the somewhat fairy tale like art style because it really does give it a unique feel that not many other series have. Definitely recommend this adaptation over the newer one because this one is better written and put together in my eyes.


Noah’s #5: Inuyasha

Inuyasha was created in the early 2000’s. In my opinion Inuyasha was one of the pioneers of modern day anime. It follows the story of the reincarnated shrine priestess  kagome and the bad ass half demon Inuyash as they go around the continent collecting pieces of the sacred jewel witch was shattered into many pieces.
 
The jewel hast the power to significantly increase a demon’s strength with one shard when the shards are in one piece just think about the power they have. They make new friends and new enemies as they go on their journey and become strong enough to protect each other

Scott’s #4: Chihayafuru

I know what people are expecting from me when making this list, so surprise! A sports anime. Kind of. Well, it really is technically with all it’s sports tournament things and such. It’s just that activity doesn’t revolve around spheres being pushed from one side of the court to another into certain next based goal areas. Instead, it’s about characters slapping and hitting cards as soon as they can when they hear even a single syllable of a poem fitting the card spelled out. This is the world of competition that our tomboy heroine Chihaya and her friends live in as they seek out not only winning nationals, but titles over all of Karuta in the first place. Oh btw, the game is Karuta.

I first watched this anime in 2018 and I fell completely in love with it. I love these characters, the drama they faced while playing the game, and just the general sense of fun and flow the world has in it too. Karuta is not an activity that you can go professional and paid money for which leads to so many things our characters have to face. Chihaya can’t get paid for Karuta alone even if she is obsessed with it, she has to think of something else to do in the future which is all sorts of great and fun stuff. Plus, this show is the major example of doing a lot with a little. There isn’t any impressive anime cuts, but the direction and sound design are stellar. Gah, I can talk about this show all day and I might do that if someone won’t stop me.

Oh, season three is airing right now and it’s so good. Almost perfect. Almost.


Noah’s #4: Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon/Danmachi

This anime is about a world where the gods from mythology come down from the heavens, to endure the hardships and pain come with it. They live in the town of Orario and give the people that join them immense power. They are then known as god’s children. When obtaining these powers they are tasked with going in to the dungeon and leveling up. 

The story follows bell and Hestia as they grow stronger and meet new people. They start putting together a ragtag group of adventures to work together and gain strength not to mention become friends!! 

Currently 2 seasons

Scott’s #3: Crest/Banner of the Stars

Jinto Lin is a young boy that became a noble of the Abh empire without him every putting any sort of word on the matter. His father handed control of the Hyde system to the Abh, which in turn the Abh gave control back to him so Jinto became a noble. The show is about Jinto meeting an Abh Princess Lafiel who wants to become the empress of the entire Abh empire as he deals with his identity as being a human and an Abh while being apart of Abh’s military force. The first season is about the two meeting, then the first season of banner is the space battle arc, while the third season or season two of banner is a very Star Trek like arc that deals with planetary issues

There are so many things that called Crest/Banner of the Stars to me. Jinto and Lafiel are compelling characters that have a great chemistry together because they just bounce off each other so well. Also, there is the subversive elements that make this series incredible. In most series, the Abh empire would be the bad guys and that’s it. Here, we dig deeper into the Abh empire and learn about how it all works and everything. We do that through learning more about the admirals leading the space fleets and their assistants. I suppose we don’t know much about the other human forces, but that’s ok. There is always a trade off somewhere in these space operas. A fantastic anime from the early 2000’s.

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Remember, Click Here for Part 2.

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