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Ranking of Kings is the underrated gem people need to go and watch. And is my pick for best anime of the last 5ish years. Its a bit of a shonen, but hitting sh

Ranking of Kings is the underrated gem people need to go and watch. And is my pick for best anime of the last 5ish years. Its a bit of a shonen, but hitting shonen tropes isn't necessarily a bad thing. And Ranking of Kings does it in a relatively fresh way, and absolutely nails the "Brothers Grimm" style to fairy-tale magic and lore. (Yes, kid-friendly on the surface, but then deep blood-magic involving the grinding of bones and drinking of blood to infuse deep magicks into the story and lore). Bonus points that the battle scenes are done by the venerated Studio Wit. ------- With regards to Gainax: their last big hit was Gurren Lagaan in 2007 IMO. But even Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 was Studio Khara, not Gainax. You're not wrong, but Gurren Lagaan is a great work, even if all those particular animators left Gainax shortly afterwards and started Studio Trigger. Most people consider Gurren Lagaan to be Studio Trigger for some reason but remember that group was still technically employed by Gainax when Gurren Lagaan came out.

jon_richards 2y ago
> that group was still technically employed by Gainax when Gurren Lagaan came out Huh, TIL. Gurren Lagaan is surprisingly meta. One of the big problems with the fight-focused anime formula is that they constantly one-up themselves, eventually power spiraling to unsustainable levels. So Gurren Lagaan's plot revolves around an energy literally called "spiral power" and how unsustainable it is.
- dchftcs 2y ago
  There's a physical limit as to how well one can fight, but competition and growth is just as limitless in the business world as in anime. The top people in early Dragonball make six figures, late Dragonball if you don't have 100 billion you don't qualify for screentime.
- gloryjulio 2y ago
  That's why you need jojo's route where it's not about who has the bigger number but who can use the skills better
  - red-iron-pine 2y ago
    or just who is weirder
etiam 2y ago
One of those so called 'nitpicks', but Lagaan is the successful Indian cricket musical drama from 2001, the mecha would ususally be transcribed Lagann. Thanks for the tips and thoughtful comments.
saagarjha 2y ago
Best anime of the last 5 years? Really? It seemed incredibly drawn out to me. Every character who was bad turned out to secretly be good. Every character who was good also was secretly bad in some way. It was incredibly predictable and drew out far too long.
PaulHoule 2y ago
On one level I liked Gurren Lagann but on another level it seemed frequently stupid to me and not covering any ground that wasn’t covered in other anime (I think Martian Successor Nadesico) ten years before. But it was a real success for Gainax but the authors of article don’t mention it.
- soundnote 2y ago
  Part of the fun of TTGL is that normally you'd stumble onto "Our friends' hopes and dreams are etched into its body, transforming the infinite darkness into light! Unmatched in Heaven and Earth, one machine equal to the gods!" "SUPER GALAXY GURREN LAGANN!" "We're gonna show you the power... of the human race." and be like "ehh, that's kinda silly". After 20+ episodes? Your brain is sufficiently gooey that you just go "wooow..."
  - chemmail 2y ago
    One of the main things that make TTGL so special is showing what happens after a revolution. Things don't just get magically better, rebuilding can be even harder. Even SW sequels don't really show what actually happens after, it just spins up another war.
- jmcgough 2y ago
  Yeah, that was Imaishi though who left to found Trigger - since then has directed Kill la Kill, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, some other great but lesser known stuff like Promare
- labster 2y ago
  Most fiction doesn’t cover ground that hasn’t been covered elsewhere, just like ice skaters rarely come up with new tricks — it’s all about grade of execution for both. TTGL is mainly dumb when its characters are dumb, which is often because they literally grew up in Plato’s Cave.
bossyTeacher 2y ago
I second RoR. It is really original which is really rare in the overcrowded and generic shounen world

jon_richards 2y ago

> that group was still technically employed by Gainax when Gurren Lagaan came out Huh, TIL. Gurren Lagaan is surprisingly meta. One of the big problems with the fight-focused anime formula is that they constantly one-up themselves, eventually power spiraling to unsustainable levels. So Gurren Lagaan's plot revolves around an energy literally called "spiral power" and how unsustainable it is.

dchftcs 2y ago
There's a physical limit as to how well one can fight, but competition and growth is just as limitless in the business world as in anime. The top people in early Dragonball make six figures, late Dragonball if you don't have 100 billion you don't qualify for screentime.
gloryjulio 2y ago
That's why you need jojo's route where it's not about who has the bigger number but who can use the skills better
- red-iron-pine 2y ago
  or just who is weirder

etiam 2y ago

One of those so called 'nitpicks', but Lagaan is the successful Indian cricket musical drama from 2001, the mecha would ususally be transcribed Lagann. Thanks for the tips and thoughtful comments.

saagarjha 2y ago

Best anime of the last 5 years? Really? It seemed incredibly drawn out to me. Every character who was bad turned out to secretly be good. Every character who was good also was secretly bad in some way. It was incredibly predictable and drew out far too long.

PaulHoule 2y ago

On one level I liked Gurren Lagann but on another level it seemed frequently stupid to me and not covering any ground that wasn’t covered in other anime (I think Martian Successor Nadesico) ten years before. But it was a real success for Gainax but the authors of article don’t mention it.

soundnote 2y ago
Part of the fun of TTGL is that normally you'd stumble onto "Our friends' hopes and dreams are etched into its body, transforming the infinite darkness into light! Unmatched in Heaven and Earth, one machine equal to the gods!" "SUPER GALAXY GURREN LAGANN!" "We're gonna show you the power... of the human race." and be like "ehh, that's kinda silly". After 20+ episodes? Your brain is sufficiently gooey that you just go "wooow..."
- chemmail 2y ago
  One of the main things that make TTGL so special is showing what happens after a revolution. Things don't just get magically better, rebuilding can be even harder. Even SW sequels don't really show what actually happens after, it just spins up another war.
jmcgough 2y ago
Yeah, that was Imaishi though who left to found Trigger - since then has directed Kill la Kill, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, some other great but lesser known stuff like Promare
labster 2y ago
Most fiction doesn’t cover ground that hasn’t been covered elsewhere, just like ice skaters rarely come up with new tricks — it’s all about grade of execution for both. TTGL is mainly dumb when its characters are dumb, which is often because they literally grew up in Plato’s Cave.

bossyTeacher 2y ago

I second RoR. It is really original which is really rare in the overcrowded and generic shounen world