Cell actually was part of a split arc, he came in during the Androids saga as a matter of fact. Cell was different because unlike Majin Buu and Frieza, Cell doesn't have anyone who works for him. Cell doesn't have allies or henchmen or a business to run like Frieza did.

Majin Buu had Babidi and all of his "M" men too, granted Babidi wasn't really a henchmen to Buu the point is there was still someone to deal with. Cell worked alone and so everything dealt around him singular, that's why it felt long although I didn't feel his stay was longer then any usual villain.

The fight though could be split between his Imperfect and Perfect stages, and all told, took up more episodes than many other anime series.

10. spiral- i like my spiral. nice theme, plus the characters are cool (espically the blade children.) very unknown in the US though..

9. astro boy (the 1960's version)- ive only seen maybe 3 episodes, but i am in love with this show. something really makes me happy when i see this. i cant explain it and i dont really want to.

8. DNAngel- i havent seen alot of it, but what i have was AWSOME.

7. one piece- pirates. enough said.

6. pokemon (only the first season though)- the first season was ok, but after that.. ew.

5. DBZ- great show, although i dont think i really ever saw the cell saga. this includes the original dragonball, which i like just as much.

4. detective conan (case closed)- same with 10. always loved it. i wish they'd show more in the states though.

3. yugioh- i dont know what it is but something about a bunch of high schoolers and older people playing a childrens card game so seriously cant help but bring me a smile. personally, i blame littlekuriboh for this.

2. FMA- ive only seen about half the episodes. liked the ending though.

and of course, number one:


1. Digimon! My first anime, and also just better than pokemon (in every way) The characters were always great. I have had many memories rotating around this. I loved all of the first four seasons, but my favorite is season two (i always seemed to like ken the most.) i could talk for hours about this, but i wont.

He had several fights in each form. He fought 4 people in his imperfect form, he fought 6 in stage 2 and he fought everyone as Perfect.

That seems about as wide spread can you can get.

The first season of Pokemon was great! The show has definitely simmered into the same formula it uses every episode, but I still watch it once in a blue moon. But it's really lost a lot of its charm since the original VA's were dropped.:(

Which, collectively, is my problem. With a little help from Anime News Network's episode databases, within the timespan between Piccolo engaging in battle with Cell to Cell's demise by Gohan, I could watch through 3 anime series that I find to be infinitely superior, including Cowboy Bebop (substitutable for Trigun), Paranoia Agent, and FLCL, as an example.

The same thing can be said about half the adventures in Pokemon how they end up staying in one area like Orange Islands for like 20 episodes. Different animes progress different things depending on the shows focus. DBZ is a fighting anime so naturally it makes sense they'd take a long time fighting a big villain.

Yugioh did the same thing fighting their "big bads". Every show can be usually measured by the villains in their arcs so it's no surprise it'd take them a long time to finish them.

True, except at least with Pokemon a lot of episodes are self contained and often enjoyable in their own right.

Trouble with shows like DBZ is how much time is taken with so little exposition at times.

just ordered "Akira" and "Jin-Roh: the Wolf brigade" on Amazon.

i caught the first few minutes of Jin-Roh on Starz and decided i should probably own this movie.

I'm not a huge anime fan either, but there's something catchy for me about Dragonball and Dragonball Z.. Yes DBZ takes forever for anything to happen, the characters stare at each other for ages like a foreign love film, and some of the translated dialog is terrible, but I still like it.

I like Fullmetal Alchemist as well, and even though it's fake-anime (anime-styled animation, although not Japanese), I like Avatar as well.