Things you hate about your favorite series

[Player 0]

Thought of this after explaining to a friend over MSN what i currently hate about one of my favorite series Ah My Goddess, here's my rant from the IM, and please post your own as well.


Keiichi: I'll act and dull and dimwitted, barely making any advances on my girlfriend or any of the other women who live with me and are totally willing, who have lived with me for years now i'll just keep up being an adorable loser who inexplicably has lots of magical girls attracted to him

Belldandy: I'll continue to Mary Sue my way through the whole series, and my character's attitudes towards sex and intimacy has been somewhat broken and disjointed for comedic reasons, i shall always be with my Keiichi no matter what little progress our relationship makes because i luff him so

Peorth: I'm still going to be ambigious about my feelings towards Keiichi just keep the fanboys drooling to get a vicarious thrill out of living their fantasies through Keiichi. Sure i'll make various appearances in severl story arcs now and then, and when i do i'll make things much more interesting and improve the fan service a great deal since i always appear in a swim suit. In the meantime i'll just sit in heaven abusing my subordinated who for some reason think a meido costume is the curret earth fashion

Mara: I've lost all my sex appeal, am now totally subservient to Hild-sama, am no longer the sourse of implied yuri themes but will continue to be exploited for comedic reasons, losing all my previous deviousness and intiative, it's a wonder i achieved my 1st class rank at all

Skuld: I'll spend every chapter randomly inventing all sorts of gadgets, which will usually make problems worse when they aren't causing them. I'll continue to have emotional outbursts over the slightest provocation especially when it comes to Keiichi touching my sister even though i really should be over that by now and will still hold candle to my crush Sentaro who i barely ever see or mention and has only appeared once in ten volumes as a source of teen angst for me in a storyline that didn't really resolve anything or go anywhere, which basically defines my whole character up to this point

Urd: I'm still by far the most interesting character in the series, i'll still jsut be used as comic relief, still making dangerous and pointless potions and pills to get my sister's relationship with Keiichi on track with comical results. Sure i could be doing better things with my time like getting my own love interest or maybe delving deeper into my past and my relationship with my parents, but now, as it turns out my complex and dark character is caused by a desire to emulate my sister's mary suedom, of course i'm still comforted by the fact that the most interesting storyline this manga has had in recent times has been focused on me and was also used as the rationale for Peorth's longuing about that's been going on since vol 21

Hild: I rarely ever appear at all anymore even though i'm a popular character among the supporting cast, but when i do i never really delve into important character traits like my relationship with daughter and husband, i just go about doing wacky plans and making Maa-chan my bitch, focusing all my attention on Belldandy to unlock the secret of her Mary suedom when i could be focusing on my daughter and have some more interesting storylines, but then again that would take away from the wacky fun of being a loli demon on earth who has disappeared without explanation for over 10 volumes now

Human characters: we just want more face time and be featured in stories that aren't about racing and random mechanical objects

[Darth Joker]

Thought of this after explaining to a friend over MSN what i currently hate about one of my favorite series Ah My Goddess, here's my rant from the IM, and please post your own as well.


Keiichi: I'll act and dull and dimwitted, barely making any advances on my girlfriend or any of the other women who live with me and are totally willing, who have lived with me for years now i'll just keep up being an adorable loser who inexplicably has lots of magical girls attracted to him

Belldandy: I'll continue to Mary Sue my way through the whole series, and my character's attitudes towards sex and intimacy has been somewhat broken and disjointed for comedic reasons, i shall always be with my Keiichi no matter what little progress our relationship makes because i luff him so

Peorth: I'm still going to be ambigious about my feelings towards Keiichi just keep the fanboys drooling to get a vicarious thrill out of living their fantasies through Keiichi. Sure i'll make various appearances in severl story arcs now and then, and when i do i'll make things much more interesting and improve the fan service a great deal since i always appear in a swim suit. In the meantime i'll just sit in heaven abusing my subordinated who for some reason think a meido costume is the curret earth fashion

Mara: I've lost all my sex appeal, am now totally subservient to Hild-sama, am no longer the sourse of implied yuri themes but will continue to be exploited for comedic reasons, losing all my previous deviousness and intiative, it's a wonder i achieved my 1st class rank at all

Skuld: I'll spend every chapter randomly inventing all sorts of gadgets, which will usually make problems worse when they aren't causing them. I'll continue to have emotional outbursts over the slightest provocation especially when it comes to Keiichi touching my sister even though i really should be over that by now and will still hold candle to my crush Sentaro who i barely ever see or mention and has only appeared once in ten volumes as a source of teen angst for me in a storyline that didn't really resolve anything or go anywhere, which basically defines my whole character up to this point

Urd: I'm still by far the most interesting character in the series, i'll still jsut be used as comic relief, still making dangerous and pointless potions and pills to get my sister's relationship with Keiichi on track with comical results. Sure i could be doing better things with my time like getting my own love interest or maybe delving deeper into my past and my relationship with my parents, but now, as it turns out my complex and dark character is caused by a desire to emulate my sister's mary suedom, of course i'm still comforted by the fact that the most interesting storyline this manga has had in recent times has been focused on me and was also used as the rationale for Peorth's longuing about that's been going on since vol 21

Hild: I rarely ever appear at all anymore even though i'm a popular character among the supporting cast, but when i do i never really delve into important character traits like my relationship with daughter and husband, i just go about doing wacky plans and making Maa-chan my bitch, focusing all my attention on Belldandy to unlock the secret of her Mary suedom when i could be focusing on my daughter and have some more interesting storylines, but then again that would take away from the wacky fun of being a loli demon on earth who has disappeared without explanation for over 10 volumes now

Human characters: we just want more face time and be featured in stories that aren't about racing and random mechanical objects

Sooooo... why's this your favourite series again? ;) ^_^;

I do agree with you, though, that Keiichi and Belldandy's romance should have progressed more than it has.

Well, as for my own favourite series (it's hard to pick just one)...

El Hazard: The Magnificent World's ending could have been better, I felt. I think that it would have been better if they had went with villain vs. villain (Bugrom Empire vs. Shadow Tribe) for a while in the big finale for a bit of a change of pace. Then bring the heroes in to defeat whichever villain side is left standing... and leave at least one villain side defeated but still powerful at the end of it in case of sequels (this could have saved the 2nd and 3rd El Hazard OVAs, imo).

I also echo the major criticism of how Fatora was too evil.


Ranma 1/2 should have resolved some of the major romantic conflicts in it. I can understand leaving some open at the end, but to not resolve either of them is terrible, imo.


The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series tends to not handle the last few episodes well, imo (though A's wasn't too bad).


Edit: Hhhmmm... after re-thinking my comments here, it certainly does look like anime has a problem with having good endings.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

I just don´t have the courage to wish that Rumiko Takahashi solved my main gripe with Urusei Yatsura: the lack of advance in the relationship between Lum and Ataru.
Sure he could finaly realise he wants her and nobody else.
But then we´d lose the potential for the hillarious situations he gets himself stuck into due to his lecherous ways.

[OverMaster]

Edit: Hhhmmm... after re-thinking my comments here, it certainly does look like anime has a problem with having good endings.

Well, we always will have Saber Marionette J to X.

And Cowboy Bebop. Hey, sad and bad aren't the same thing...

Also, Re: Oh my Goddess- that's called 'Fujishima too afraid to kill the golden goose'. Which is a real shame. He should take a page from Ken Akamatsu and grow beyond standard romantic comedy to risk-taking high action combined with romance.

[Darth Joker]

Well, we always will have Saber Marionette J to X.

Yeah, that had a pretty good ending, imo. I actually never finished Cowboy Bebop, though I hear the ending was excellent, powerful, poignant, and sad.

Mai Otome also had a good ending, imo.



Also, Re: Oh my Goddess- that's called 'Fujishima too afraid to kill the golden goose'. Which is a real shame. He should take a page from Ken Akamatsu and grow beyond standard romantic comedy to risk-taking high action combined with romance.

I definitely agree.

[Apex Tech]

I hate how The Anti-Spiral from Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann obtained omnipotency, and had the power to go to war with the universe, yet couldn't step to the side to avoid a Lagann Impact.

Also, Hirohiko Araki of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure does not like America.

[OverMaster]

I actually never finished Cowboy Bebop, though I hear the ending was excellent, powerful, poignant, and sad.

What are you waiting for? Go see it now!

Mai Otome also had a good ending, imo.


The best part about Mai Otome's ending was... it ended the series. :D

[Apex Tech]

Yeah, that had a pretty good ending, imo. I actually never finished Cowboy Bebop, though I hear the ending was excellent, powerful, poignant, and sad.

Dyke Spies.

[Ghost]

Ranma ½: Takahashi's refusal to actually use her cast of awesome characters to their full potential, allow the to evolve and grow and take more space, etc. The usual.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The ending. The whole rest of the series kicks ass, but the ending... :(

Love Hina: Er... it was too short? The fact that it had to end at all?

I guess Kitsune deserved her own story arc, and it could have gone into the personal life of the characters more, showing their families, etc. And more of Seta's past would have been cool, and Keitaro could have spent some more time kicking ass

... Ah, screw it! It could have been even more awesome! :p

[Sanagi]

Why don't we just reduce all Rumiko Takahashi stories to one word: "END!"

[MKTerra]

Also, Re: Oh my Goddess- that's called 'Fujishima too afraid to kill the golden goose'. Which is a real shame. He should take a page from Ken Akamatsu and grow beyond standard romantic comedy to risk-taking high action combined with romance.I'm not sure mixing standard shounen into harem comedy is highly risky, but okay.

For this thread, I shall copy-paste my gripes about how Code Geass could've been greater, if it had sustained the first half of Season 1's quality and pacing.

(BTW, I believe Geass is coming to Adult Swim in the near future, so take that into consideration re: spoiler avoidance.)

1) Terrible-sounding second OP by Jinn, who also did Blood+'s last OP. You know the one. The one currently playing on Adult Swim.

2) Kallen got increasingly stupid, useless, and disappointing.

(When I say "useless," I mean against Suzaku. But of course, that's where it matters the most.)

She wasn't notably stupid until they started "developing" her character with ep 9. Then they just kept making her dumber at every opportunity.

They should've kept her at normal intelligence, and still suspicious of and/or interested in Lelouch, to keep him on his toes in school. Her breaking off interaction with him basically knocked her out of the harem race, leaving C.C. unopposed after Shirley dropped out too.

3) On that note, the harem-juggling largely breaks down after Shirley gets Geassed and Kallen gets stuck in a Zero-worshipping rut. You know how they hint at a C.C.-Kallen rivalry at the end of Narita? That never happens, again because they chose to send Kallen down the wrong track.

4) Mao shouldn't have survived the first time. Especially since he was an annoying git. It's like the writers came up with two story ideas for him, both ending with his death, but instead of picking one, they stuck both in end-to-end. Worse, this wrecked the near-perfect pacing balance they had going up to that point. If they were gonna bring him back, they should've at least spaced the eps out for pacing's sake, and to give him time to recuperate in-story. Overall, it felt like a detour from the main plot; An extended sidequest to improve the protag's "love score" with C.C.

5) On that note, the pacing bogged down starting with the Mao arc. Lelouch gets stuck on Level 2 of the game, so to speak, till the end of the season. There's good ingredients in there, like the Toudou jailbreak, but overall the progress of Lelouch's grand plan slows down as focus shifts from sacking Cornelia to dealing with Suzaku.

6) Oh, Suzaku. How some fans hate you. Over time, I've come to agree that his bullet-dodging wall-run was another sign of the writing taking a dive. They didn't need to make him superhuman in the flesh, on top of being a great mech pilot. Keeping him human would've made Kallen less useless, too. As it is, she can't touch him, can't sneak up on him, etc.

7) Then the season finale kicks into overdrive and everything happens at once, almost as if making up for lost time. That isn't necessarily bad for a finale, but then ARRGH, CLIFFHANGER. This after a months-long wait caused by the addition of two recap eps in the season (by Japanese fan demand) which ate up the time slots meant for the finale.

8) And judging by the season 2 trailer (http://youtube.com/watch?v=8eN1rvEz1cs) and related spoilers, some sort of memory-wipe timeskip took place after the S1 finale, putting Lelouch back at square one. Yay, we get to start all over!

Consider that by now, if it had kept up its initial pace and quality, Lelouch would be in control of Japan and be matching wits with Schneizel and the Emperor over continental America. (For pacing comparison, see also: Gurren Lagann)

It's still a good watch, but man, it could've been better.

[Wenatchee the Hatchet]

Per Sanagi, because at least with Maison Ikkoku Takahashi came up with an ending that arguably resolves all the character arcs in a basically satisfying way. Sure, she didn't do it with any OTHER series but there's, you know, that single aberration.

Darth Joker, you really DO need to see the end of Cowboy Bebop already.

[heretic]

Love Hina: Keitaro gaining confidence? Good. Keitaro gaining enough levels of Badass to supplant Seta? Bad.

[OverMaster]

Martian Successor Nadesico just needs to have an all new ending. And the movie retconned away.

[yeoman]

Also, Re: Oh my Goddess- that's called 'Fujishima too afraid to kill the golden goose'. Which is a real shame. He should take a page from Ken Akamatsu and grow beyond standard romantic comedy to risk-taking high action combined with romance.

Well, the series has always kind of rotated through "Romatic Comedy," "Racing Manga," and "Phenomenal cosmic powers!"

Personally, I don't mind their relationship because, right about the time it would start to get annoying, they added the rather bittersweet angle that both Keiichi and Belldandy are aware that she's going to outlive him, by millenia, assuming she *ever* dies.

So, one can look at it as she's just not willing to take their relationship to the next level of intimacy because it's just going to hurt more when he dies.

[yeoman]

Martian Successor Nadesico just needs to have an all new ending. And the movie retconned away.

I'd argue to replace the last half of the series, which is where it started going down hill for me. Preferably be replaced by 13 episodes of Gekigengar.

[OverMaster]

Well, the series has always kind of rotated through "Romatic Comedy," "Racing Manga," and "Phenomenal cosmic powers!"

Lately, it has stagnated more than usual though. The current memory loss arc is barely tolerable because of Megumi, and the photo mini arc before it was a dud.

Personally, I don't mind their relationship because, right about the time it would start to get annoying, they added the rather bittersweet angle that both Keiichi and Belldandy are aware that she's going to outlive him, by millenia, assuming she *ever* dies.

So, one can look at it as she's just not willing to take their relationship to the next level of intimacy because it's just going to hurt more when he dies.

Yeah, but that still leaves the matter of the plot not really going anywhere, despite the reasons.

That, and it brings a few interesting questions about afterlife in the OMG-verse that never are properly answered.

[OverMaster]

I'd argue to replace the last half of the series, which is where it started going down hill for me. Preferably be replaced by 13 episodes of Gekigengar.

Oh, we have had this argument before, :) ,so let's just leave it at 'I don't want to lose the Ruri Episode Origin, the Beauty Contest, and Yukina'.

[yeoman]

Lately, it has stagnated more than usual though. The current memory loss arc is barely tolerable because of Megumi, and the photo mini arc before it was a dud.

Wouldn't know, I stopped reading the stuff as it was coming out in over a year. I'm not sure I even know where to find it on the net anymore and pretty much am waiting for the US translation to get up to where I stopped.

And nothing with Megumi or Sora could suck. Man I would so read a spinoff about those two travelling around having wacky adventures and solving groovy mysteries.


Yeah, but that still leaves the matter of the plot not really going anywhere, despite the reasons.

Wait... OMG had a plot?

That, and it brings a few interesting questions about afterlife in the OMG-verse that never are properly answered.

True.

[Laughing Mask]

Trigun: why did they have to kill of wolfwood!?!?

R.O.D.: a lot of plot holes

Samurai Champloo: they only used that ninja chick once

End of Evangelion: we didn't get to see gendo pay for what he has done. i mean when you first watch the show your hopping he gets his really bad!! but all that happend in the movie was the EVA bit him in half! they should have had him get draged down to hell by all the people who died because of him and then the demons eat his face!

[OverMaster]

And nothing with Megumi or Sora could suck. Man I would so read a spinoff about those two travelling around having wacky adventures and solving groovy mysteries.


In case I phrased my statement wrong, what I meant was Megumi's appearance was the thing that barely saved the current arc, not the thing that ruined it. I actually like her too, and Sora even more.

Am I the only one seeing Keiichi eventually ending up with Sora if Belldandy never had shown up?

[sun tzu]

I love "Detective Conan" to death, but...it sometimes feel like the more the series progresses, the less the murderers' motives are credible.
Also, the criminally slow plot progression.

[Lester C.]

I really hated the endings of Trigun and Samurai Champloo.

[Ghost]

I love "Detective Conan" to death, but...it sometimes feel like the more the series progresses, the less the murderers' motives are credible.

Have the motives ever been very credible? I always though the fact that people in Detective Conan would commit grousome, ridiculoulsy contrieved murders for extremely far-fetched reasons was part of the concept. :p

Also, the criminally slow plot progression.

Conan: The culprit... is you! *points at Gosho Aoyama* The author himself!

Everyone: *gasp!*

[Ghost]

I really hated the endings of Trigun and Samurai Champloo.

I like the ending for Samurai Champloo, though mostly because all three of them actually survived.

[Arilou]

School Rumble: Suffers from the same golden goose problem. It really needs to get resolved. I love it from the very bottom of my heart, but it needs to be resolved.

[Tumbido]

Robotech: it being a pastiche of unrelated series is kind of troubling, in some levels.

Saint Seiya: nah even the filler is great. But the whole "Athena endangerment" plots repeat themselves and one can wonder what the series would be with some daring plot restructurations.

[Lester C.]

I like the ending for Samurai Champloo, though mostly because [spoil]all three of them actually survived.[/QUOTE]


Spoilers

The show just ended. We have no idea what becomes of the characters once they go their seperate ways.

[OverMaster]

School Rumble: Suffers from the same golden goose problem. It really needs to get resolved. I love it from the very bottom of my heart, but it needs to be resolved.

Actually, I get more and more annoyed by most of the characters with each episode I see. Only Harima, Eri and Yakumo still remain tolerable for me.

[sun tzu]

Have the motives ever been very credible? I always though the fact that people in Detective Conan would commit grousome, ridiculoulsy contrieved murders for extremely far-fetched reasons was part of the concept. :p

Eh, even so, I certainly wouldn't mind better motives.


Conan: The culprit... is you! *points at Gosho Aoyama* The author himself!

Everyone: *gasp!*

I Laughed Out Loud.:D

[Robotech Master]

RE: The show just ended. We have no idea what becomes of the characters once they go their seperate ways.

I personally don't like to think of those as bad endings, and conversly dislike the idea--or at least think it isn't necessary all the time--of letting a story end with a complete wrap up of what the characters will do. Plot wise I thought it was the end of thier journey, and there wasn't much need to go beyond that. I've always felt that was a particular strength of Watanabe's style.

[AllisterH]

For me, its the lack of teamwork in shonen fights.

To me, the greatest shonen fight is still the Vegeta versus Krillin/Gohan/Yajirobi which only just beats Krillin/Piccolo versus Nappa and Piccolo/Goku versus Raditz.

Yeah, yeah, why am I watching shonen fan given that this is the defining characteristic but I personally find teamwork fights the best.

[Dark Soul # 7]

For me, its the lack of teamwork in shonen fights.

To me, the greatest shonen fight is still the Vegeta versus Krillin/Gohan/Yajirobi which only just beats Krillin/Piccolo versus Nappa and Piccolo/Goku versus Raditz.

Yeah, yeah, why am I watching shonen fan given that this is the defining characteristic but I personally find teamwork fights the best.You should totally read the latest arc of One Piece. The big fight is basically all the straw hats against one guy.

[Froggy]

I like the ending for Samurai Champloo, though mostly because [spoil]all three of them actually survived.[/QUOTE]
thats one thing i liked about the show...and the coin trick