"Masterpieces"

The ending thing is debatable, but I agree that nether are masterpieces.




No. The fuck is wrong with you? The first episodes alone keep it off the list.

Noooooooo....

Fate/Stay Night as a series is great, but the Anime itself is not a masterpiece.

Clannad: AS is a masterpiece, without the second season, I don't consider Clannad to be a "Masterpiece".

Space Cowboy is as well. It dared to be different and put together so many different genres. There isn't really anything in mainstream media that is comparable.

And Gundam Wing. I don't particularly like this show, but it was really well done and complex for its time.

Death Note is not a masterpiece. It would of been if it didn't get so long in the tooth. At some point the series lost the ability to hold you in suspense. It is close, but not quite.

Pick your favorite Miyazaki film - it is probably a masterpiece. I don't know how, but they just each are ridiculously well done and each one can go toe to toe with any high budget disney film. Princess Mononoke is probably his most famous, but my favorite is "Spirited Away". Or is "My Neighbor Totoro"?. Wait! It's Kiki's Delivery service! ARRGH! I Don't KNOW ANYMORE!

WHAT ANIME?! I HAVE NOT HEARD OF THIS! THERE IS NO ANIME OF IT!

Clannad as a whole is a masterpiece indeed. Don't need to explain why.

Code Geass... hm, the first season definitely has that masterpiece feel... but the execution of R2 was so weak in comparison that it's hard to take it as a whole as a masterpiece. So yeah, it came close, but alas.

Fate Stay/Night. I used to think the VN is a masterpiece. But now that I'm reading Fate/Zero, it's like R2, I can't quite convince myself it is anymore. They gave it too powerful a prequel that F/SN pales out somehow.

The rest... hm. Digimon Savers. XD I'm such a sucker for Digimon so having a good season is awesome~

OP is "Anime" or "Manga" not Visual Novels. Anime is okay, Manga is worst because of the bad art.

Death Note: Light completely loses the plot after 'the death' for no discernible reason, foiled way too easily

Elfen Lied: 'you killed my family but I understand :3'

I still really enjoyed both of them, but yeah, far from perfect.

Gurren Lagann end of story.

Code Geass. Its like Death Note with Gundams. Plus all the twists and turns. Also the minor fact that the main character actually took over the goddamn world at one point.

My list
_ Death note
_Gundam series
_Code geass
_Darker than black
_durarara

Strawberry Panic
Code Geass
Death Note
FMA: B
Mnemosyne
School Days (even tho it traumatized me)

and...

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

edit: forgot the greatest of them all: CLANNAD

Anything by Hayao Miyazaki or Makoto Shinkai
ARIA
CLANNAD

For manga it would be Berserk.

Higurashi no naku koro ni (hooked me like nothing before)
elfen lied (epic tears on manliness)
K-on (Those creators know how to market)

Well I suppose in this discussion Clannad is the series as a whole, not just the first season. You perfectionist.

Well sure. As A WHOLE Clannad is a masterpiece. But if there was only one season of Clannad, I would think it would be somewhat unforgettable or at least blend in with the rest of school romances.

But since there was a second season, it made Clannad the unforgettable story that it was. I didn't cry in season one, but I did cry - a lot - for season two.

Going old school for me.
DNA^2
Video Girl Ai
Elfen lied
and
Ghost in the shell and Kite movies for a tie.

Exactly.

Of all the anime I've seen, I really only consider Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell to be "masterpieces".

I'm surprised that people say Elfen Lied is a masterpiece. The animation stunk, the acting in both English and Japanese was terrible, and if you read the manga completely you know the story gets completely shot to pieces at the end of the anime. I guess the people that list it just haven't read the manga or haven't seen much anime.

As for actual masterpieces? The list is pretty short:

Cowboy Bebop
Macross
Gunbuster
Revolutionary Girl Utena

That's pretty much it. I don't list Evangelion even though it is my favorite of all time because it is flawed to hell. It's flaws are actually what make it so good and it probably would not be nearly as memorable if it turned out like originally planned. As such, I can't call something that is accidentally good a masterpiece.

TTGL
Bebop
FMA (manga) --> I literally couldn't pull myself away from my computer for the last 30 or so chapters

Just about anything from Naoki Urasawa.
Monster, 20th Century Boys, Master Keaton, PLUTO.....how could you go wrong with him.
He is a master of story.

Also Legend of The Galactic Heroes which had the most realistic portrayal of a human being that I ever saw. That is Yang Wen-Li of course. It was also one of the few anime that actually made me depressed to see the death of a character.
It did not glorify the death in anyway. It was random without a warning.
Just a random guy breaking into the ship and being lucky to find my favorite character and shoot him.
It was no specially trained assassin, it was no glorifying battle to the death. It was just some "no-name" guy that is never mentioned again.
And that is how life really is. It does not favor you even if you feel like the main attraction.

Monster and Legend of the Galactic Heroes are my favorite anime of all time.

Monster was great because it felt convincing. The story was well thought out and the characters had depth and felt like real people. The anime had great direction too. Everything that happened added to the plot and there was no filler episode at all. It takes a true master to create such a complex anime without having it fall to pieces.
One episode in Monster can involve more of a plot than most anime series as a whole.

I hate most anime today because it all feels the same and bland. Creators are working to hard to be distinguished. They creator over the top nonsensical stories with unrealistic characters spread thin with one overbearing behavioral trait.
And they always seem to have smart kids in control while the adults are idiots.
They should start on a small scale story and build within it.
But instead they go for large scales and spread it thin with what little material they have.