THE ANIME TOP FIVETHE LAVISH WORLD PRESENTS

Cowboy BebopThe serie is set in the future, where people now live throughout space and Mars has become the new central hub of human civilization. Following bounty hunters Spike and Jet on their strugle for income, the story slowly developes with every new target they get. Through all these jazz filled episodes we get to know the two bounty hunters and see how they get confronted with the skeletons in their closets. Ending in a climactic two episoded finale, the whole crew of the Bebop have to fight for their lives to survive from the army of bounty hunters chasing their tale.

Why watch it? Although it’s an anime serie, the show feels mature and rich in atmosphere. The characters are developed and as you get further through the episodes you start to sympathize with their ways and understand what drives them. This combined with humor and mature dialoges, a thought out flow of episodes and perfect soundtrack make this a show any anime lover has to watch.

Top episodes 01 - Asteroid Blues05 - Ballad Of A Fallen Angel06 - Sympathy For The Devil12 - Jupiter Jazz Part 114 - Bohemian Rapsody20 - Pierrot Le Fou26 - The Real Folk Blues Part 2

Interesting facts

A live action movie was set out to be made with Keanu Reeves playing Spike. Due to budgeting problems the movie now currently languishes in “development hell”. It ranked #14 on the “Top 100 Animated Series” of IGN, #2 in the Newtype USA Poll of “Top 25 Anime of All Time” and #1 by Anime Insider in their “50 Best Anime” list. It is currently one of the most successful animes of all time.

Lavish Score 8/10

Fullmetal Alchemist: BrotherhoodHuman transmutation, the recreation of humans after they died, is a forbidden ta-boo that the alchemy brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric have paid for deeply when they tried to resurrect their mother. With Edward losing an arm and leg and Alphonse losing his whole body, the two desperately try to find the Philosopher ’s Stone to get their old bodies back. They apply to the State Military of Ametris, where they get lost in a web of deception and deceit getting dragged in a war that has been going on for a long time.

Why watch it? If not for the great steampunk influenced world that this story is set in, watch it for the well developed characters. As you get further through the show, you start to feel for everyone as if they were family. Although drawn, they feel real and vulnerable at times. There are multiple storylines, with surprising plot twists throughout the whole serie, with a great ending that will have you on the edge.

Top episodes 04 - An Alchemists Anguish14 - Those Who Lurk Underground19 - Death Of The Undying35 - The Shape Of This Country48 - The Oath In The Tunnel61 - He Who Would Swallow God62 - A Fierce Counterattack

Interesting facts

There has been an ongoing discussion about whether the original show or the remake “Brotherhood” is better. Where Brotherhood sticks to the manga and has a bet-ter ending, the original show wanders off in the end but has better character development. While Brotherhood is more of an action show with a good story, the original is an emotional story with a little action.

Lavish Score 8,5/10

Ghost In The ShellSection 9, a special-operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives. The series presents individual cases that Section 9 inves-tigates, along with two ongoing investigations that you will see in Stand Alone Complex 1 and S.A.C. 2. In four years you follow the crew as they solve multiple tasks, ending in an ending movie for one last mission. With great, inspiring sound-tracks and intriguing political missions in which the team covers up every scam by a politician, this is one of the best shows made.

Why watch it? If you like the mystery behind political cover-ups and en-joy an anime with a good soundtrack, this is the show for you. Great fighting scenes, smart plotlines through every episode and good variation between Stand Alone and Complex episodes, which vary from side missions and the more complex and longer ongoing missions. Although it has to grow on you, this show is intriguing.

Top episodes 1x02 - Testation1x10 - Jungle Cruise1x25 - Barrage2x01 - Reembody2x14 - Poker Face2x26 - Endless GiG3x00 - Solid State Society

Interesting facts

The whole show is filled with philosophies and refers to es-says on structuralism, evolution and the dangers with mer-ging body and machine. While intended to underscore the dilemmas that pezople face if they relied too heavily on the new communications infrastructure, the show even-tually represents a phenomenon where unrelated, yet very similar actions create a seemingly concerted effort.

Lavish Score 7,5/10

Kids On The SlopeBecause of his father ’s job situation, freshman high school student Kaoru Nishimi moves by himself from Yokosuka to Kyushu to live with relatives. Until then, Kaoru was an honor roll student who tended to keep to himself, but meeting notorious bad boy Sentaro Kawabuchi starts to change him. Through his devil-may-care classmate, Kaoru learns how much fun it is to play jazz and finds the first person he can call a “friend.” Upon meeting him, Kaoru also meets Sentaro’s childhood friend Ritsuko, the girl he falls in love with.

Why watch it? The show is filled with amazing jazz pieces, such as “Mo-anin” by Art Blakey and “Some Day My Prince Will Come” by Bill Evans. If you like compelling anime love stories with well-developed characters and great friendships, bac-ked up with an amazing soundtrack and a few playful fighting scenes, this is definitely the show you should be watching for this fall.

Top episodes 01 - Moanin03 - Someday My Prince Will Come10 - In A Sentimental Mood 12 - All Blues

Interesting facts

The show, which was created this year, won the 57th Sho-gakukan Manga Award for general manga. It is directed by Shinichirō Watanabe with music provided by acclai-med composer Yoko Kanno, reuniting the two who previ-ously worked together on Cowboy Bebop. This explains the similar sort of soundtrack and emotional character building for which both shows are well known for.

Lavish Score 7,5/10

Steins; GateThe story of Steins; Gate is a rather interesting one. A group of innocent teen-agers who create new inventions one day accidentally create a device that can send messages through time. As they experiment, they find out that everything they change has it ’s consequences creating a snowball effect. In time they get more careless, causing them to get hacked by an organization who has been trying human time travel for quite some time. As they hack the organization, they find out a shocking truth that will haunt them forever.

Why watch it? Time traveling has always been an interesting concept, but within this movie they really go through every theory that you could have, from parallel worlds to even sending ideas back to the past. The movie has a few scenes that might even freak you out, especially the one’s in episode 11. Being a horror/thriller with scenes like those, something you don’t see a lot in anime, makes this show truly unique.

Top episodes 02 - Time Travel Paranoia05 - Starmine Rendezvous09 - Chaos Theory Homeostasis II11 - Dogma in Event Horizon 16 - Sacrificial Necrosis 23 - Open The Steins Gate 24 - Achievement Point

Interesting facts

As far from reality this show might seem, the anime se-ries are actually based on real events that happened between 2000 and 2001. Both the story of John Titor and SERN, which in real life is known as CERN, actualy do excist. Titor claimed the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics was correct and surprisingly the details he presented were unfalsifiable.

Lavish Score 7/10