The Best of the Genres You Avoid

[purplemo]

Yes, let's put a little bit of thought into it this time around. All those genres you listed, let's see you find shows in them that you actually liked, or see if you really just plain hate everything in it. For me, like I said, I tend to hate shows that come out of certain genres (that, according to marmar040, means I hate 95% of anime), but that doesn't mean I can't find stuff I like in it; it's just rare.

Plus, this is a good way to find hidden gems in genres you hate. Anyways, here we go.

Bishoujo harems
Da Capo: Season 1: One of the better romances in anime in the 2nd half, though the usual junk is here (stock girls, the cousin, etc)
Futakoi Alternative: A bit of a stretch, though this show can be almost all genres. Spawned from one of the worst bishoujo harems, this one's a true gem.
Final Approach: Short enough to not overstay its welcome (though it got pretty damned close with the cruise ship). Overall, a rewatchable quick watch.

Shoujo Fluff
Full Moon wo Sagashite: Fluffy as all hell, yet deep when it chooses to be. A true hidden gem masked in layers of fluff.
Princess Tutu: Stupid concept (ballet dance to the death?! WTF!!), but a truly good yarn.
Fruits Basket: See Full Moon.

Shounen action
King of Bandits Jing: Part Alice in Wonderland, Part Nightmare Before Christmas, this shounen succeeds where others fail because it never takes itself seriously, has interesting sidekick banter, and you can lose yourself in seeing how many cocktail drinks and booze references you can spot.
HunterXHunter OVA 1: Darker, and much more interesting than the other HxH, I'm glad I saw this first cuz I never would've seen it if I started with the others.
Gatekeepers: Boy, we've got harem AND shounen here. And . . . it actually works. Whodathunkit?!
Saber Marionette: See Gatekeepers.

Ecchi harems
Inukami: Pretty funny. I like it most probably because there's a lot of fanservice that is a slap in the face for those looking for naked girls. It gives me a cruel sense of happiness to imagine those drooling sad boys hoping to get a crotch shot of Nadeshiko and all they get is Keita. :p
GreenGreen TV: Same as Inukami.

Mecha
Fafner: Left of Right OVA: Quite well built story for such a short work.
Jinki Extend: Okay, so it was hard as hell to make sense of (luckily I knew the background from the manga). If you had my knowledge, it's pretty good, all things considered.
Divergence Eve: One of the best sci-fi horrors weighed down heavily by GIGANTIC ASS BOOBS and being as convoluted as Evangelion. (And yes, I'm aware I said earlier I don't really consider this mecha, but I'm digging deep here)

Yaoi
Kyou Kara Maou: Okay, so this is really more a light case of shounen-ai, but the show's not TOO bad if you're into light comedy.
. . . There was another that wasn't too bad (and more yaoi) but I can't come up with the name right now.

Yuri
Kannaduki no Miko: One of my favorites, yet I ABSOLUTELY cannot explain why because this show has just about everything in anime/manga I hate. And no, it isn't for the girl on girl.
Candy Boy: Not bad for its length and fluffiness. Makes me think of Morinaga Milk's short stories, which are good specifically because they are short and don't overstay their welcome.
. . . That's it. All the others (Marimite, Simoun, Kasimasi, etc) bored me.

Sports
. . . I've got nothing. This is probably the biggest miss for me.

Hentai
Front Innocent: Only because Satoshi Usushihara's artwork is among the most beautiful in all of anime/manga. Otherwise, I've no clue why anything is happening, and I find myself critiquing the hell out of the laziness and recycling of art instead of drooling over the sex.
Kite: Good concept, could've spent more time fleshing things out, and *shudders* edit out that big ugly guy's sex scene.
(In case you can't tell, I don't really watch hentai for hentai)
_______________

There are other shows that I liked (or as close to liking) that fall into the above categories, but I tried to pick shows that are squarely in them (unless otherwise noted). In other words, shows that don't just have a dash of the genre in them, but are squarely planted into it.

[teferi]

Honestly, I only avoid two Genres: Yaoi, and Lolicon (well, I guess Hentai to some degree, but I completely agree about Satoshi Usushihara). And of those, I'll only make an exception for some of the less extreme lolicon shows.

Like say, Manabi Straight. The character designs were disturbing on some level (the swimsuit scene in the beginning wrong), but the show is so darn happy, and well animated it's hard to give a damn. And apparently they're supposed to be high schoolers, but ya know...

Or, Ichigo Mashimaro. It's about grade schoolers, and the designs are again, pretty scary (The only way I'd get the DVDs is from amazon, and then, I'd hide them under my mattress or something). But the dry sense of humour is just too awesome (and they parodied Planetes ^^).

[Xennon]

The only true genre I avoid are the fighting school anime like Tenjho Tenge and Ikkitousen, and there are not many of those anime so I can't say there was a good anime in that genre.

But I guess the other one would be I don't watch anime if there is no romance in there, even if its just a little there needs to be some, but I did find Death Note to be on my top 20, despite there being no romance.

[Hurin]

Mecca
Neon Genesis Evangelion: You can watch these for the characters alone, and I am a sucker for psychology. The episode where Asuka gets mind-raped is nothing short of brilliant.

Harem
Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei: Again the characters.

High School Romance
KareKano: Characters.

Magical girl
Princess Tutu: This is a much more advanced show than you'd think, the only other instance of using meta-fiction as a plot device I know of, was an episode of Kino's Journey.
Puni Puni Poemy: Really a parody of magical girl.

Sport
Nothing.

[teferi]

Mecca
Neon Genesis Evangelion: You can watch these for the characters alone, and I am a sucker for psychology. The episode where Asuka gets mind-raped is nothing short of brilliant.

Typos ftw.

Kind of ironic since most of the religious BS in NGE is from Christianity ;p

[BTime]

Sports: Hajime no Ippo

and though calling it a sport is probably stretching things: Hikaru no Go

[PockyBebop]

YAOI: Normally, I try to avoid yaoi because of the fandom that surrounds it, but there are two shows that will always stand out in my mind:
1. Yami no Matsuei (Decendants of Darkness): It was my fist ever
shonen-ai anime even though it was incredibly soft (the BL hints were subtle). It was a fun show.
2. Kaze to Ki no Uta OVA (The Song of the Trees and Winds): I watched this anime while I was still watching Revolutionary Girl Utena, so I was in love with the whole "French-aristocrat" feeling. I loved it and it was worth my time.

HAREMS: Ah, yes, harems. I don't really need to explain:
1. Maburaho: From what I had seen, it was a funny show.
2. Mahou Sensei Negima?!: I only watched a few eps, but I thought it was cute.

[Hurin]

Originally Posted by teferi

Typos ftw.

Not all of us have english as our first language, asshole.

[wanryavka]

Mecha.
My #1 favorite anime FMP, Eureka 7, and RahXephon.

And well that's really the only genre I tend to avoid. Well except for of course yoai.

[teferi]

Originally Posted by Hurin

Not all of us have english as our first language, asshole.

Mecha is derived from english, but based off a Japanese term. You could've even spelled it meka and been right. But you went with the name of a city that everyone knows how to spell ... differentiating between Mecca and giant fictional robots isn't related to knowing English in the slightest degree. It's related to ... erm ... passing grade school geography. I mean come on ...
even the use of 'Mecca' when not used to refer to the city is derived from the city's significance. Lighten up a bit. And admit when you're wrong =\

Excuse making like that is pathetic.