Favorite Underrated Anime?

[Akira Takahashi]

There are a ton of really good shows that don't seem to get the recognition they deserve. There's also a lot of really good anime that get tons of hype, overshadowing the smaller gems. So, what's your favorite underrated animes?

1. Vampire Princess Miyu, both the OAV and the TV series. The OAV is much richer, but the TV series wasn't too bad, either. It's a shame that such an interesting idea didn't catch on to the masses. The only downside to the show is that they, namely the TV series, remind me of the Twilight Zone. I was never afraid of it, but I was always frustrated by the endings, and I hate feeling frustrated!

2. Haibane Renmei. What an amazing story that one was, and I wished that I would have found it so much earlier. Believe it or not, I feel that it actually helped me to grow as a Christian, much like Trigun did in high school (actually, Trigun opened me back up to the Word after I had slipped away a bit).

3. Last, but not least, Serial Experiments Lain, which kind of reminded me of Paranoia Agent for some reason. Not as good as Haibane Renmei, but it kept me guessing for a good long while!

There's plenty more, but I'd like to here you guys' input.

[bigsleepj]

Giant Robo the Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still

[Dr.Faust]

sgt. frog

[EricTheFred]

I'm pretty sure we did this before, a couple years ago. No idea what I said then, but "Now and Then, Here and There" was probably one of my votes. I'll stick with it.

To which I will add:

The original "Ghost in the Shell" movie (in the 90s, long before the TV series.)

"Dai Mahou Touge", an OAV that is the greatest parody of Magical Girls ever.

"witch Hunter Robin". One of the most well-executed story arcs in TV anime.

And I've always been very fond of "Dai-Guard".

Shoudl be interesting to see what some of the newer members not around the last time we did this say.

[Maokun]

I'd say that Lain is anything but underrated. Still, I agree is an excellent show, though Haibane Renmei is indeedly superior. (It seems to me that you'd enjoy the rest of the work by Yoshitoshi Abe-sensei, look into it.)

Anyway, my picks would be:

Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu. (I want to see if there's someone else who knows this) Best comedy anime IMHO

Monster Rancher. Seriously. It was underrated as yet another kiddy reject of Pokemon, but it is actually a very beautiful and compelling story.

Teknoman. One of the few mecha series that truly captivated me.

s-CRY-ed. I was almost surprised by how good this one turned to be after expecting it to be another run-of-the mill shonen.

Samurai Champloo. Why this doesn't enjoy the recognition of its older brother Cowboy Bebop is beyond me.

[Sheol777]

I agree cpompletely with Lain and Champloo

Also...

Beck - One of the few slice-of-life I can stand to watch. Ever wonder what it would be like to start your own band in Japan while still in high school? Beck is what it is like. The characters are individuals and likeable. The main drive of the story is their interaction.

Cromartie High School - A comedy about a bunch of delinquents in school who base their life more on their internal dialogue then actual events. So much so that no one speaks up when there is a gorilla, a robot and Freddie Mercury enrolled as regular students.....trust me, it's good.

[goldenspines]

I don't run into much underrated anime these days, since most of the stuff I watch is already popular among the masses/reviewers or soon becomes a hit after I fall in love with it.

As far as underrated goes, it really depends whose rating system you're observing.
For example, if you looks at the popularity rating of a certain anime (or rather, how many people talk about and fangirl over it), Baccano is one example that I haven't seen much hype of in the anime community, yet. Although, most site reviews of that series have been very high.
But, if we were going to go by site ratings only, like say, ANN, they greatly underrated Ouran High School Host Club, even though it is very popular among many anime fans.

[ShiroiHikari]

I would consider pretty much none of these titles underrated. XD Except maybe Dai-Guard, which I own but haven't watched yet. I've never heard anyone bring it up til now.

A title I like and DO consider underrated is Double Zeta Gundam. Most of the people who have seen it don't like it, but I think it's great.

[RobinSena]

+1 to Witch Hunter Robin and Serial Experiments Lain.

[Roz]

Figure 17.

Tsukikage Ran.

The Twelve Kingdoms.

Haibane Renmei.


Planetes.

All of these are HUGE favorites of mine.

*Edit: copied from below post*

"My educated guess is that some members are getting the word underrated confused with "not very well known"."



*facepalm*

Ack, that's exactly what I did. I'm so sorry!

[ShiroiHikari]

But Scrapped Princess was really popular with anime fans too.

I'm going to leave this thread now before I get myself into trouble. XD;

[goldenspines]

My educated guess is that some members are getting the word underrated confused with "not very well known". Title change?

Just to clarify, an "underrated" series means that not many people liked a series (or rather, it was "rated" poorly by a majority of viewers), but you personally would give it a higher rating because you liked it.

[Roz]

My educated guess is that some members are getting the word underrated confused with "not very well known".

*facepalm*

Ack, that's exactly what I did. I'm so sorry!

[Bobtheduck]

Underrated and overrated are loaded terms...

I wouldn't say Lain is underrated, but it is misunderstood. It takes an effort, and many just aren't willing to put that effort into it. It took me 2 complete viewings before I understood it.

I'll put in a vote for Haibane Renmei, too, and I would actively push Haibane Renmei to everyone, say, over the age of 13 (though Rakka in the fetal position is likely to drive some people away, like my parents, and the wing growing scene in episode 1 is enough to drive even more people away... Hopefully people don't get the wrong idea from those two things...)

I wouldn't know if Higurashi no Naku koro ni is underrated, but people tend to turn it off because they assume it's gorn (and watanagashi-hen / meakashi-hen come close, for sure...) but it's actually got a great story, and it's toned down by the second half of Kai (after minagoroshi- hen) By the end of the show, you'll forget it started out as horror (just like Jacob's ladder)

For how huge the following the very dark Gatekeepers-21 is, most ignore the original gatekeepers because it's light and cheery and everyone lives... I saw the light and cheery one first, then saw 21 on TechTV.

[blkmage]

Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!: People seem to be turned off because of the art style. Still, it's a fantastic slice-of-life story that made me feel good when I finished it in the same way Gurren Lagann did.

Toshokan Sensou: Lots of people complained about suspension of disbelief in this one and gave up on it. Still, it's a great combination of shoujo-y stuff and military action. Books and guns!

Negima!?: A lot of people aren't happy about this being completely different from the manga storyline. I agree that it's not as awesome and Negi definitely isn't as awesome, but it's still fun. And it could've been worse, like the Xebec anime that did follow the storyline but ended up having to throw together an original ending. I'd much rather have Shaft and Shinbo's crazy antics.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: There's a lot of things that aren't that great about this and a lot of people bemoan the fact that it's so different from Nanoha A's. I enjoyed it though, in spite of its flaws and I felt that it was a decent progression of the storyline.

[minakichan]

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo!

...

Whaaaaat?

[ChristianKitsune]

... Isn't underated also kinda unknown? ^^;

I'll also vote for Haibane Renmei...

And Aisheteruze Baby is also really underrated! Its the cutest/sweetest anime I've ever seen!

[RobinSena]

Most of the people I've heard talk about Lain hate it, because it was too confusing for them. To me, that makes it underrated.

[Maokun]

For me, underrated is, as opposed to overrated, those shows that pas under the radar of people and don't generate as much hype as a series of their quality deserved.

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo!

...

Whaaaaat?

I was so sure that someone would say this.

[MasterDias]

Keep in mind that just because a series doesn't generate hype now doesn't make it underrated. For example, Scrapped Princess and Samurai Champloo were indeed popular back when they first came out.
Anime fans, like fans of other entertainment mediums generally, are mostly going to be focused on new series. I'd limit the definition of underrated to series that weren't really ever very popular in the first place.

[Raiden no Kishi]

I don't know if it's necessarily underrated, but I'll mention Mobile Fighter G Gundam because I don't hear a ton about it, but still think it's awesome if you don't like srs bzns. Absolute silly fun and worth watching IMO.

.rai//

[GundamFan]

Samurai Gun is an underrated anime.

[EricTheFred]

And Aisheteruze Baby is also really underrated! Its the cutest/sweetest anime I've ever seen!

Agreed, but stuff that has never made it into our market (at least in Anime form) is probably underrated in the English-speaking world by default. I'll bet I could name a dozen cases of 'underrated' only because no distributor ever picked it up.

Some of these, you can sort of guess which issue in the anime that distributors were scared of, but in the case of Aishiteruze Baby, I really can't think of one, unless it was just the fact that throughout the series a kindergarten girl was sleeping in the same room as a teenage boy (in a very obviously parent/child style of relationship)

[Akira Takahashi]

I'll also put in a vote for just about anything done by World Masterpiece Theatre. It reminds me of an old American animation company that animated a bunch of really good stories, but hardly anyone looked twice at them.

[Fish and Chips]

[quote="ChristianKitsune (post: 1309505)"]... Isn't underated also kinda unknown? ^^]No, not really. A series' notoriety doesn't have much to do with how well it's received by whatever small cabal that does sit back to watch it. For example, I enjoy Fukumoto's works, something that essentially no one else here on CAA has even heard of, much less is familiar with (outside a couple people I've probably mentioned it to). But where it is more well known, in certain circles of the Internet, it's almost irrationally popular.

It's unknown, sure. I can almost guarantee it'll never get licensed in America. But as for underrated, it's actually almost the opposite.

The only Anime I've ever seen that could probably be considered underrated is Tetsuko no Tabi. It's a series about trains, or rather, it's a series about two men who are complete train nuts and the poor, frustrated woman who is *technically* paid to follow them around writing a travel Manga about the places they visit. It had a surprisingly charming first episode, but I'll never know where it went after that since absolutely nobody saw fit to sub it or talk about it or anything.

[~darkelfgirl~]

Hands down--Blue Submarine No. 6. I watched that over the course of a few days and finished it early this morning.

I just don't understand why this is shoved into the back corners of the anime universe. If you want a break from the cutesy, overreactions of overrated (?) anime, this would be a good choice if you're into sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, serious topics.

The concepts are pretty cool, too. Animation (CGI mix-in), voice-acting, and story-line are great (submarine warfare, also, hehe).

I demand that you watch it!!! xD (well, it's PG-13 as far as I know, though).

[Blitzkrieg1701]

My first answer would probably be Digimon. Sure, just about everybody saw it or at least heard about it, but it deserves to be remembered as MUCH more than just "that one Pokemon clone."

Also, this probably counts more as "unknown" and "underrated," but Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars is one of my all time favorite shows, yet most of my otaku friends have never even heard of it.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Well, there haven't been too many series that I've seen and actually like quite a bit that haven't garnered a lot of praise among viewers. Like, I wouldn't call Haibane Renmei underrated, because the only person I've heard who's seen it and didn't like it very much was my brother, because he thought it was too slow. Not everyone knows about Haibane, but nearly everyone who's seen it raves about it.

Wolf's Rain is a series that doesn't get enough praise, in my opinion. People who've seen it often don't put it among their favorites, and lots of people just haven't seen it at all. I think it's a wonderful tale about friendship, and should be mentioned much more often.

...and, because I just learned it's anime, Scamper the Penguin >_>

[Roy Mustang]

Hands down--Blue Submarine No. 6. I watched that over the course of a few days and finished it early this morning.

I just don't understand why this is shoved into the back corners of the anime universe. If you want a break from the cutesy, overreactions of overrated (?) anime, this would be a good choice if you're into sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, serious topics.

The concepts are pretty cool, too. Animation (CGI mix-in), voice-acting, and story-line are great (submarine warfare, also, hehe).

I demand that you watch it!!! xD (well, it's PG-13 as far as I know, though).

I'm not sure that Blue Sub No. 6 is underrated. I mean, it had a fan base here after it was showed on Cartoon Network years ago.

The only Anime I've ever seen that could probably be considered underrated is Tetsuko no Tabi. It's a series about trains, or rather, it's a series about two men who are complete train nuts and the poor, frustrated woman who is *technically* paid to follow them around writing a travel Manga about the places they visit. It had a surprisingly charming first episode, but I'll never know where it went after that since absolutely nobody saw fit to sub it or talk about it or anything.

Okay, I have to look around for this.


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[~darkelfgirl~]

I'm not sure that Blue Sub No. 6 is underrated. I mean, it had a fan base here after it was showed on Cartoon Network years ago.

Oh really? *shrug* I just felt that it just came and went, with no apparent impacts (well, on my side of the US). I asked several people if they remember it, and they're like "Huh?" Well, it's relieving that a few liked it, hehe.