Thought you'd hate it and ended up liking it

[Rhodric]

So, have any of you walked into an anime thinking that you'd hate it, whether the anime goes completely against your normal genre taste or the premise just sounds crappy, but in the end loved it? And what brought you to giving the anime a shot?

Like my favorite genre is the action and phsychological genres, With the occasional harem comedy tossed into the mix. When I heard what madoka magica was about (magical girls) I pretty much ignored the very thought of watching it. It wasn't until I heard a review from the ANN podcast saying that it was one of the better animes in a long time did i decide to give it a shot, and even the first episode or two I had the same this is crap feeling, but once I gritted through it and watched the rest do I have to agree with their assessment, as it turns out it even fits into my favorite genres. Another one I thought I'd hate, if only for the title "bodacious space pirates", but this turned out to be a very decent show to watch.

So let's hear yours

[superplough]

Great Teacher Onizuka. I only watched it to stop Katie *****ing to me about him being better than Yukari, and it turned out not only is he better than Yukari but GTO is one of the best animes ever.

[KT Kore]

Originally Posted by superplough

Great Teacher Onizuka. I only watched it to stop Katie *****ing to me about him being better than Yukari, and it turned out not only is he better than Yukari but GTO is one of the best animes ever.

I said it like once.

[superplough]

Yeah well, you were right so it worked out in the end anyway

[DazarGaidin]

Madoka was one for me too..even like halfway thru i was still unsure, the last quarter changed it up though.

SGT Frog, watched some on netflix and its hilarious...its like squidgirl meets gintama or something. It looked like a pretty dumb kids show at first look, and the english dub is hilarious. They take the 4th wall thing to new heights.

Angelic Layer. This had several marks against it for me. Tournament style anime. No thanks. Little girls with dolls? Not really. The graphics were underwhelming. I ended up loving it in the end though.

CCS was one. I think it might have been hajime that convinced me to watch it, and im glad he did. I wasnt into 'magic girl' anime, and i really hated the cliches that go with them..like the transformation scenes etc. But CCS was different and really delivered.

Ika Musume, i thought this was a cheap moe grab. I guess you could say that she is moe, but it was seriously funny. I loved the humor in the show, that seems to bounce between very intelligent to silly. Im a total fanboy now

[ThePhillyFlash]

Kaleido Star: I've never liked the circus or anything about the circus, so watching an anime about one made no sense, but once I gave the show a try, I enjoyed it lots, mainly because of it's star, Sora Naegino, one of the spunkiest heroines I've ever seen. She made the show a real treat to watch.

When They Cry: I had watched the first volume (four episodes) and found it unpalatable enough to drop the show. But, almost a year later, I revisited the show, why I can't remember, but for reasons I can explain, the show suddenly clicked with me and I was engrossed by it and watched it all the way through.

[Arch-Defender]

-Coyote Ragtime Show: I heard it borrowed a lot from Bebop but turned out they have nothing to do with each other when it comes to the essentials.

-Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex: The movie of this series literally put me to sleep and even the first season of this show wasn't much to me but it clicked hard right at season 2 and then rewatching season 1 while actually paying attention made me like it as well.

-Naruto: Everyone kept bìtching about how much it sucks and turned out to be really good when I finally tried it out.

-Spirited Away: I hate Ghibli movies and I wanted to stay away from this one like the plague when I heard what it was about. Ironically its also the best one of all their movies so far.

-Gurren Lagann: I heard it was an homage to older mecha/super robot shows and the mech designs were awesome, this usually means for me it's gonna suck hard with horrible mechs. While I was right on the mech part the show was nothing short of awesome, took 8 episodes to really get into it but I wanted to finish it in one day after I finally got into it.

[Leader Desslock]

Cardcaptor Sakura - I expected an anime version of Strawberry Shortcake or Rainbow Brite, but since folks kept going on about how good it was, I rented the first disc. I was hooked by the third episode.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - Just another overhyped mecha show, right? Not so much. Every episode redefines 'going over the top'. I think I finally gave it a shot because the 'Be A Man' AMV had some cool shots.

[A Dead Spy]

Desslock getting into an anime thanks to an AMV... I can think of at least three things wrong with that post, never mind the fact that it's Gurren Lagann.

I went into Black Butler thinking it was going to be just another blatant fangirl bait show, but I continued onward anyway since practically everyone I knew was cosplaying from it. It turned out to be a rather interesting take on the whole "deal with the devil" concept; not just from Ciel and Sebastian's interaction together, but also from Ciel's surprising amount of acceptance over his ultimate fate as the story reveals just what kind of 12-year-old would willingly sell his soul.

Of course, season 2 was still all fanservice with little substance, not to mention entirely unnecessary.

[Levon]

Zoids: Chaotic Century - I really looked down upon this when it first aired on Toonami, but to my complete surprise after giving it more effort I ended up loving it and it became one of my top favorite anime. For me its like the Cardcaptor Sakura of mecha I can't really explain it, I just get the same vibe from both shows. Chaotic Century is just so fun with a great mix of action, comedy & drama and the characters are really charming with a lot of heart.

[Driver]

School Rumble-After barely making it past the first episode I thought that I would be able to hand the goofy, uninteresting characters but the more I watched the more funny it got and eventually I just forgot all about how the characters looked and acted.

Gurren Lagann- I watched the first episode, didn't really find it to be very entertaining. After that I stopped watching it, eventually after watching about a billion other shows, I finally came back, figured I'd give it another shot and eventually I liked it, not loved, just liked.

Yu Yu Hakusho Back when it was on Toonami, I would tune into it after DBZ ( I was a HUGE DBZ fan at the time, so therefore any other show wasn't as good. With the exception of Gundam.) I couldn't really get into it because it was on Toonami and One episode a day just wasn't quick enough. Also I thought it was just a lame copy Cat Attempt on DBZ. Eventually I saw it online and figured what the hell, I'll give a shot and I started watching around the Dark tournament. As anyone knows, The Dark Tournament is EPIC so naturally anyone who see's it will have to finish as I did. So now I'm a huge Yu Yu Fan and I'll tune into it every chance I get.

[superplough]

Oh, some more

Princess Tutu - A certain girl who mostly watched anime that I didn't like at all, recommended this to me, and I was really hesitant to watch it... until I saw this amazing AMV for it, called Hall Om Mig Nu which conviced me to try it... and it ended up being Ninjas Dueling With Guitars The Anime.

Gunbuster - I usually hate mecha. Only watched this to see what the hype was about. Loved every minute of it, especially the ending, and the main character is adorable.

[Haruhi]

Gundam Seed. I'm really not a fan of Gundam (but I like mecha) so I was pretty hesitant bout watching it.. but my friend let me borrow it and one Saturday afternoon, I was so bored I decided to play it. Probably the best decision I made on a Saturday afternoon.

Too bad Gundam Seed Destiny sucked so much tho...

[loplop]

Haruhi, Season 1. I didn't watch the series at first due to the whole thing about the random episodes being broadcasts. I was bored one day after a few episodes were out and I watched them. I was hooked pretty quick on the show at that point and became somewhat of a fanboy, especially of Mikuru for obvious reasons.

[Keroberos]

Have to be Sailor Mood. I thought after watching the American version that the Japanese version would be really just as bad. However, I was supprised when it wasn't. It was actually really good. I have to say it started slow but got better with every session.