[Nathander]

There have been times I'm sure we've all been through were there was a television program or cartoon being made you were excited to see, either because you had liked other versions of it, or by word of mouth. I'm equally sure there have been times where those expectations have led to disappointment. I'm wondering what some of those are for everyone else. My own are:

Hellsing (original TV Series)-

I was a big fan of the original manga, so I was excited when I heard they were animating it. My excitement remained until I saw the second episode, where it became fairly clear that the authors didn't feel understand the characters they were working with, or what the tone of the story should be. Many of the characters personalities were changed drastically (primarily Alucard, Seras, Integra, and Anderson), and the incredible and ferocious villains of the manga were cut for a villain who was relatively lame in comparison. The animation also suffered, as four different anime companies worked on the animation at different times, as studios had to be kept switching out since they had such a small budget, leading to relatively poor animation after episode 7 in comparison to the early episodes. That's not to say that the anime was a BAD anime; it wasn't a fantastic anime, whether on its own or being compared to the original, but it was far from being bad. I prefer the OVA series, as it seems more familiar to me and to the manga, which I had read before seeing the initial anime, and I have a tendency to like the thing I see first more than other versions. The OVA also has better animation, though it lacks in soundtrack, which was the one fantastic thing the original Hellsing animation had.

Trigun -

I kept hearing about how great the series was and, honestly, it fell far below my expectations. Like the original version of Hellsing, it wasn't a bad anime (and I would say it's far superior to the original animated attempt of Hellsing), but it was nowhere near as good as a lot of friends had made it out to be to me. A lot of it was somewhat dull in my mind, and the basic premise of the series had been done before, and done better. A great anime, but I was ultimately disappointed in it.

Sonic Underground -

I had been a gigantic fan of the Sonic SatAM series, so I was pumped for this. I was also horribly disappointed by it, especially since I was a child at the time and had high hopes for it. It was kind of like a kick in the teeth almost.

Neon Genesis Evangelion -

I do think NGE is a great series, and that it is a work of art (as long as you exclude End of Evangelion). However, it is HORRIBLY overhyped, and overhyped for the wrong reasons to watch the show. While a great series, it doesn't deserve the amount of praise it tends to receive from most people, as there have been far better anime created, both in terms of depth (Hellsing Ultimate, Akira, Princess Tutu, D.Gray Man, Mind Game), and in terms of importance to anime in general (Akira, Dragon Ball Z, Tekkonkinkreet).