Well, this is just a page of my opinions on anime related stuff. Joy!

Favorite Series (Top Five):

1. Dragonball: Probably the most popular anime/manga series world-wide, there's just something I find very appealing about Dragonball. At first glance, some people brush it off as just another mindless fighting show, but if you sit down and watch a few episodes, you may realize that it can be complicated, hilarious, and even tragic at times. One of the most enjoyable things to me is to watch how the characters progress over the series; it starts out with Gokuu as a 12-year-old boy and ends with him being a grandparent ^_^ And Vegeta....it's interesting to see how my favorite Saiyan prince changes so much over the series, while still staying so much the same ^_^ This is a very lengthy series which has a lot of character development, great action scenes, and even some comedy thrown in. Because there's so much going on in it, it's pretty easy for almost anyone to find something to like about it (no matter how much they may deny it ^_-).

2. Gravitation: Ever since I got into anime, I've been a fan of the boy's love genre. Through most of my fandoms, the pairings I've liked have either been non-canon or just an small part of the story. With Graviation, though, I found a series that had a pairing I fell in love with as the main focus of the show. The characters are great, the story is interesting, and the music kicks ass! Though it sometimes falls into the traps of cheesy "OMG, Angst!", it's a very sweet and funny story.

3. Trigun: I like Trigun because it's one of those series that makes you think. It may seem like just a goofy comedy at the beginning, but as the show progresses, the characters are faced with intriguing philosophical and ideological dilemmas. Vash belives in Rem's ideals very strongly, but can those priciples really be upheld realistically in the world the characters live in? And the theme about who should have the right to decide whether people should live or die is quite thought provoking. Trigun is a very deep series that remains entertaining all the way through and contains comedy, tragedy, and even the obligatory evil twin brother ^_^ Great, great stuff ^o^

4. Kyou Kara Maou: For a seemingly silly series in which a boy discovers he's the Demon King of an alternate world after a swirly gone wrong, it sure managed to suck me in (Ha ha! Pun not intended). I mean, who wouldn't want to rule over a world where demons look like hot guys ^_-? Obviously the series contains a good dose of comedy, but it also develops a serious plotline (about 25 episodes in :P) that is just as addictive as the silliness. And, oh, the boy's love undertones! Yes, this series is one big tease in that none of the hot guys so obviously lusting for each other never actually get together, but it makes for great fanfic/doujinshi exploration of all the hinting ^_-

5. Sailormoon: Even though it's no longer my favorite, I still like it a lot. It will always have a special place in my heart for being the show that got me into anime....Well, enough of that sentimental crap, now you can read about how I got into it! It all started at my 13th birthday party on May 24th, 1996 (three days after my actual birthday ^_^;;). One of my friends was already into Sailormoon and I told her to bring one of her tapes to my party. The first episode I saw was "Bad Hair Day," and I was in love from the beginning. After my friends left, I rewound the tape and discovered that there had been two episodes before that on the tape, "A Crystal Clear Destiny" and "A Reluctant Princess." When I watched those, Zoisite instantly became my favorite villain ^_^ A couple months later, I discovered the Internet and the original version. Eventually, I started ordering the original episodes, and I now have all of them. Ah, nostalgia....and now with the pure-crack live action version, I get to enjoy the series all over again ^_^

Other favorites

Below are a few series that aren't in my current Top Five, but that I still enjoy very much. Listed in alphabetical order.

Full Metal Alchemist: I was thoroughly entertained by this series. It's one of the few things I've seen recently that I felt had a truly original story to it. Of course, sometimes in anime "unique" and "makes no goddamn sense" are often synonymous with each other, but I felt that most of what happened was logical (not all of it, mind you ^_^). The characters also felt very real and they all had their virtues and vices (sure, there was still clearly a "good" side and an "evil" side, but it was easier to swallow than the way some series hammer it in). Overall, a fantastic series.

Gundam Wing: Gundam Wing is a very good and somewhat complicated series about a war for freedom of the space colonies (In the beginning, at least). The main characters are five teenage boys who are from the colonies, and they fight using their Gundams (Re: big mechs ^_^). It's an interesting story with great characters....and of course, there's the bonus of plenty of bishounen ^o^ Most of the characters are easy to like, even though many of them seem to have various mental problems (Yes, Duo, of course you're the Death God...and let's not even get into Lady Une's multiple personalities ^_^;;). But overall, it's a very good series that's easy to like for many people, be they young or old, male or female, blah blah blah ^_^

Iron Wok Jan: The only series on this list that is only a manga and not an anime, I feel it's severely underrated, mainly because I don't think a lot of people know about it. It's one of the "only in Japan" genre of stuff that turns everyday tasks into fascinating action packed competitions, i.e., the game of Go in Hikaru no Go, card games in Yu Gi Oh!, and bread baking in Yakitate Japan. In the case of Iron Wok Jan it's Chinese cooking. Anyone who's enjoyed watching Iron Chef would probably enjoy this series since it contains an even higher level of absurdity ^_^ With the loving way in which the dishes are described, even vegetarians will be clamoring to eat dishes made of frog fallopian tubes and pigeon blood after reading this series!

Magic Knight Rayearth: MKR starts out with a well-trodden storyline that can be found in video games such as Super Mario Brothers: Rescue the princess and save the world. It seems that simple in the beginning, but the first season comes to a shocking and tragic end (Just what you'd expect from CLAMP ^_^;;), an ending I honestly never saw coming (because, for once, I was patient enough not to go out and read all the spoilers before I saw the end ^_^;;). And then there's the second season, which has cool new characters (Like Eagle and Lantis, yummy ^o^) and a lot of talk about the pillar system and its flaws. It's a very good story that has something for everyone: comedy, action, romance, mechas, friendship, tragedy and more.

Ranma ½: As you may have noticed from other titles on my list, I like titles with a little bit of absurdity to them, and that word pretty much describes Ranma in a nutshell ^_^ What with all the transformations, wacky martial arts, and multiple fiancees, the whole thing is just lovably bizarre and hilarious.

Favorite Characters:

Listed in alphabetical order, because I had a difficult enough time assigning numbers to my favorite series, and characters are even tougher for me to play favorites with ^_^;; (And note the total lack of women! I'm so biased against my own sex).

Akiyama Jan (Iron Wok Jan): Some of you may have read above that one of my favorite series is Iron Wok Jan and thought, "A cooking series? So what? What's so special about that?" Well, while the cooking is part of the fun, the main reason I love this series so much is the titular character. Why? Because he's a total asshole! His motto is that cooking is about competition, and he'll do anything to win, like sabotaging other cooks or using his skills to manipulate what tasters think of his food (like how he once made a hallucenogenic mushroom dish). He's always breaking out into evil laughter, another plus in my book ^_^ And he's kinda hot, in that totally psycho sort of way.

Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing): The great God of Death is definitely one of my favorite anime guys ^_^ He's just got a great personality, he can be very funny, and he's only slightly psychotic ^o^ Basically, he's just a great guy to have around in a serious show like Gundam Wing.

Ferio (Magic Knight Rayearth): Ahh, Ferio-sama...*ahem* Anyway, what do I like about the great prince of Cephiro? Well, he starts out as a kind of mysterious guy, but he quickly shows that he can be a very nice and likeable ally to the Magic Knights....and he has a cool sword....and he's pretty damn hot, too ^o^ He's also funny and flirtatious, especially when he and Fuu are around each other ^_^

Katsuhiko Jinnai (El Hazard): *Grins* I tell ya, this guy by himself is reason enough to watch El Hazard ^_^ The main reason I like him is simply because he's hilarious...he's just so obsessed with trying to beat his "rival" Makoto that he goes to really extreme lengths, which often end in laughs for the audience and failure for Jinnai (He is kind of a villain, after all). One thing that really helps him to be so hilarious is his seiyuu, Okiayu Ryoutarou. This guy really has the talent to make some of the characters he plays sound like mental patient escapees ^_^ (Hard to believe he also plays calm, quiet characters like Treize o_O;;).

Knives (Trigun): I originally had Vash listed here, but I just became so much of a Knives fan-girl that I couldn't deny it anymore ^_^ I don't really know why I like him so much. Perhaps it's just my natural penchant for villains...I don't know ^_^ Knives and Vash are total opposites philosophically, and I guess I just ended up coming down on the evil side of things.

Vegeta (Dragonball): Ahh, the great prince of the Saiyans (He's the second prince on this list...what is it with me and royalty?). Over the years, I've come to the realization that he is my absolute favorite character out of all of the series I've seen. I liked him almost immediately from the first time I got to see him in action in some dub episodes from the Namek saga (My first exposure to DBZ), but now that I know his whole story, I like him even more ^_^ I think it's amazing how one person can change so much in a series, while still trying to maintain the image of being an eternal bad ass ^_^ He's a great fighter, and he's very dedicated to whatever his motives are during his fights, whether they be revenge, feeding his already massive ego, or protecting his family (Although he'd never admit to that last one ^_^). He also has some hilarious moments; anytime Vegeta tries out his parenting skills...those moments are just classic (To young Trunks: "If you can hit me in the face once, I'll take you to an amusement park." Also: "If you don't enter the fighting tournament, I'm cutting your allowance in half." ^o^ LOL).

Wolfram (Kyou Kara Maou): Another prince?! I think he is, at least....he's the son of the former Demon Queen and engaged to the current Demon King, so he's some kind of royalty, right? Well, if nothing else he's at least a royal pain in the ass ^_^ And he's sooooo cute....after all, Yuuri's first thought at seeing him was "bishounen!" But anyway, I kind of see him as being the result if Eiri and Vegeta had a baby (OK, OK, stay with me here!) He's got Eiri's cute looks and Vegeta's snobby attitude ^_^ Since both of them are favorites of mine, Wolfram became a favorite, too.

Yuki Eiri (Gravitation): Oh, Mr. tragic romance novelist, how angsty ye be....OK, so if I'm annoyed by too much angst, how can I pick Eiri as a favorite character? I guess his "cool beauty"-ness makes up for it ^_^ Acutally, I do like his angsty backstory, what does sometimes irritate me is his coldness towards Shuuichi. I mean, he could definitely show his affection a little more (but I'm a sap, so that's why I say that....if he were all sweet and stuff there'd be no conflict).

Zoisite (Sailormoon): He was the first anime character I ever became obsessed with...what an "honor" ^_^ I liked that he was evil and bitchy. The main reason I became so enamored of him was because of his relatioship with Kunzite, which I'll go into more in my "Favorite Couples" section, coming up next (wow, what a segue!)

Favorite Couples

You'll probably notice that most of my favorite characters above end up in one of the pairings below. Usually my preferred seme will be listed first, but in most cases I prefer reversible pairings, anyway (these are alphabetical again....the alphabet is my crutch :P).

Eiri & Shuuichi: Yay for canon BL! Even though they're quite different from each other, they magange to make it work (obviously Murakami-sensei found a way ^_^). They're a very sexy pairing (as can be seen in the Remixes), and as the series continues on (yes, it's still going), I can't help but root for them to get over all their angsty problems and just be happy already! (Even though I say that, I'm also a fan of the angsty KitazawaxEiri pairing....meh, I can like what I want, when I want, and how I want to :P)

Ferio & Fuu: They're just so cute together ^o^ Their banter with each other is funny, and they have personalities that mesh together pretty well, even though in some ways they're opposites (he's a bit easygoing, while she's a bit uptight). And I think it's great that out of the group of the three main girls, the nerd girl was the first to get a boyfriend ^_^ NERD POWER!

Heero & Duo: This is one of the first non-canon BL pairings that I fell for (it was actually a bit confusing for me when I read some fanfics about them before I had gotten very far into the series....I thought they were actually going to get together!) I think it's another one of those opposites attract thing kind of like with Ferio & Fuu (though Ferio can kind of be equated with Duo, Heero and Fuu aren't really all that similar ^_^;;) But I see them working out well together, much better than the canon het pairings that were hinted at in the series (OK, maybe Duo and Hilde could work, but NOT Heero and Relena! More ranting about my thoughts on Gundam Wing relationships can be found here)

Kaji & Misato: A pretty cute couple, though their relationship was kind of messed up, especially in Misato's view ("I love Kaji...but he's like my father...and I hate my father...so do I hate Kaji? Or do I really love my father?" Etc. etc...). Even with his scruffy unshaven looks, I still think Kaji is pretty hot ^_^ I really think that Misato and Kaji were good for each other, as they seemed to be so happy when they were together...but, alas, Eva being the tragic series it was, none of the character's ended up very happy in the end...("I think I'm gonna be sick...")

Knives & Vash: Before Trigun, I never really "got" the whole incest thing that I often found in doujinshi. However, after seeing Trigun, these two jumped out as the most plausible yaoi coupling in the series. There was just some sort of tension between them that seemed like more than just their ideological differences or sibling rivalry, and so my love of Trigun twincest was born ^_^ Trigun is also one of the few series where I'm willing to mix and match the pairings (usually I'll have an OTP and ship that pairing exclusively). I'm not into WolfxVash at all, but I will read just about any other yaoi pairing (WolfxMiddy? Sure! VashxLegato? Start the party!). As for het pairings, my favorite out of the bunch is KnivesxMeryl (no, I don't think it's plausible at all, but I still like it anyway ^_^). VashxMeryl was my favorite pairing when I was first getting into Trigun, but now I hardly ever read fics based solely on that pairing.

Kunzite & Zoisite: Continuing from what I was saying in my Favorite Characters section, there's something I liked about Zoisite the first time I saw "her" in action, and it had to do with "her" relationship with "Malachite" (I saw the English dub first, after all ^_^;;). I thought it was amazing that I was finally getting to see something American cartoons usually lacked: Villains with emotions. In American shows, usually the bad guy is just the bad guy; they're pure evil, everyone hates them, and the only reason they're there is to give the good guys something to do. But in Sailormoon, it was different; there were scenes of villains in which they were shown as not just evil beings, but people who felt love and other real emotions, too. I can honestly say that the relationship between these two was one of the things that made me first realize how different anime was from American cartoons, and it was a difference I really liked. They also unwittingly got me hooked on yaoi. Like I said, I watched the dub first, so in the beginning I didn't know they were both guys, but after I started going on the Internet I found out the truth and still found the couple to be appealing, perhaps even more so than before ^_^

Wolfram and Yuuri: It's a cute overdose when you put two uke boys together! And this one's almost canon (if Wolfram has anything to say about it ^_^). When I saw the first episode of Kyou Kara Maou, the obvious pairing that jumped out at me was ConradxYuuri. However, in the second episode when Yuuri, in one of the most hilarious cultural misunderstandings ever, ended up proposing to Wolfram, this couple quickly became a favorite. A few episodes in when Wolfram seemed to start really liking the idea I started hoping that they might end up being canon, but as I said earlier, Kyou Kara Maou is just a big tease :P I do realize that Yuuri doesn't like Wolfram in a romantic way, but I can dream, can't I? That's one reason I think that WolfxYuuri is more likely than YuurixWolf. I don't care how girly he looks, Wolfram definitely has the more dominating personality (unless we're talking about Maou Yuuri, in which case he would pwn everyone's ass ^_^)

Vegeta & Bulma: I think Vegeta and Bulma are a great couple. Sure, Bulma can be bitchy (Though she's nowhere near Chichi's level ^_^) but, in some ways, she and Vegeta are a lot alike. Of course, some of their similarities could cause problems: How can two people who would rather give orders than take orders get along with each other? Well, I guess they manage, since they have two kids and get married somewhere along the way ^_^ They were also a pretty surprising couple (though I'm not sure how any fan surfing the Internet for Dragonball stuff could have missed all the stuff about Trunks and actually first heard about the relationship by seeing it on TV or reading the manga). Gokuu's whole reaction when Trunks comes from the future and says who his parents are still cracks me up ^o^