Neophyte anime viewer requests suggestions

Cafe Society
1

Most of the anime I’ve been exposed to has come to me via Cartoon Network. While I appreciate their efforts in making anime accessible to people who otherwise may have never gotten to see it, a.) I realize it is very heavily edited (I’ve read a lot of edit lists on the web), and b.) I think I’ve sat through just about everything that is currently airing (at least on Midnight Run and Adult Swim, I regret that work has interfered with my ability to watch Toonami during the afternoon) and I’m ready to try something new from the video store. But where to begin?

First off, I think I like the supernatural/occult stuff the best. Sci-Fi is good, as long as it has a lot of humor and… erm… sex appeal. Yeah, I know, sad. I admit it, I’m a demented otaku with smelly feet.

The Dragonball and Dragonball Z I’ve seen are all right, I suppose–I can only take that series in small doses. The early stuff is kinda cute, but it really becomes tedious from the Cell Saga on, IMHO.

So, from Cartoon Network:

Likes:
Cowboy Bebop (I appreciate that it’s about the most intact series CN airs)
Tenchi Muyo and Tenchi Universe (I intend to rent or purchase the unedited versions of the Tenchi series and movies one of these days)
Outlaw Star (I have an unedited copy of this series on tape already)
Big O (wish there were more episodes)

Dislikes:
Just about anything with the word “Gundam” in the title. Sorry, call me a heretic, but the appeal escapes me. To be fair, though, I guess I’ve only seen 8th MS Team and Gundam 0083, but they don’t impel me to watch the rest of the Gundams.
See comments on DB and DBZ above.
Pilot Candidate (or Candidate for Goddess)
Haven’t seen enough yet to make a truly informed judgement, but I think I like:
Yu Yu Hasuko
Blue Sub No. 6
Sailor Moon (Again, that work thing has been a hinderance. I’ve also never seen a single episode of Card Captors, but I thought the art work I saw in the ads look very, very pretty.)

But my very most absolute favorite is something I stumbled across on my own, 3x3 Eyes. That little Sanjiyan has me under her spell.

So, given the above examples of my likes and dislikes, what should I try next? And what are the essentials I must have down to consider myself a full-fledged Otaku?

2

Of your likes, I’ve only seen Bebop, but it’s definitely goodly.

I’d recommend The Castle of Cagliostro to just about anyone–it’s a fast-paced, lighthearted, and just plain fun Indiana Jones-esque (it was apparently a major influence for Spielberg to create the Jones thing) adventure romp.

By the same director, I’m very fond of Princess Mononoke–a much more serious film. I’ve heard very good things about the director’s work in general; unfortunately, Disney swallowed the distribution rights necessary for getting a region 1 DVD release, so they’re effectively holding the other films hostage.

3

Thanks, Drastic! The Castle of Cagliostro sounds like it’d be good. I’ve heard of Princess Mononoke, but I haven’t seen it yet. That reminds me, though, I have seen Kiki’s Delivery Service on the Disney Channel, and I thought it was pretty cute. I’ve also seen Grave of the Fireflies on the Independent Film Channel. That one’s about as far away from the typical anime you can get. It’s beautiful and heartrending. Makes me cry every time.

4

If you like Bebop and Outlaw Star, try Trigun. I’m also told that Eat-Man 98 is in the same vein, but as I haven’t found it anywhere yet I can’t tell you anything about it, only that it’s been recommended to me, too.

5

You might want to try to get Card Captor Sakura. Cardcaptors is the horribly butchered version. Good enough to get the storyline, but a bit grating after a while. And they cut out all the good bits! Same goes for Sailor Moon. The DVDs for both shows are unedited, though subtitled only.

Sticking to the supernatural stuff, you could try Fushigi Yuugi and Escaflowne. One show that’s going to be released eventually this year is Yami no Matsuei (I think it’ll be called Descendants of Darkness in English.) It’s one of my current favorites. Basically, it’s about an agency in the afterworld that investigates mysterious deaths and such. More than a bit shounen-ai happy, though, if that’s a problem.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is a good series as well, if occasionally a bit too deep for me. (I’ve watched the movie four times now and I’m still not sure what’s going on.) Really trippy.

That’s all I can think of right now. I’m sure I’ll have five more suggestions by the time I post this, though. Ah, well.

jessica

6

Okey dokey, thanks for the suggestions!

Um… what does shounen-ai mean? It doesn’t have anything to do with tentacle sex, does it?

7

“Shounen-ai”, if I’m keeping up properly, refers to boy-love–specifically light romance, not sex (that would be “yaoi”, I think).

“Yu Yu Hashuko” is one of my current faves–you’ve got to love a show where the hero dies in the first episode. Princess Mononoke is a must-watch if you like fantasy anime. I also have a certain sentimental fondness for Vampire Hunter D, if only because it was the first anime I ever saw.

8

Oh, well, I’ve seen just about every special on ancient Greece the History Channel has to offer, I think I can handle it :wink:

**

I’ve heard of Vampire Hunter D. Is sentiment the only reason you’re fond of it or is it any good? I understand the recently rereleased version is a bit different from the original Streamline version. I’ve not seen either, but I was wondering if you have a preference.

I say 3x3 Eyes is my favorite, but to be honest I haven’t seen the recent Pioneer rerelease, so I don’t know if anything about the plot, dialog, or overall tone has been changed (or perhaps I should say restored). It’s on my birthday wish-list, though :slight_smile: Along with a stuffed cabbit from Cartoon Network on-line. hint hint 46 shopping days left But I digress.

I’m also incredibly fond of anything to do with cats. Has anyone ever seen All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku? I think it’s by the same guy who wrote 3x3 Eyes. Is it any good? Even though I haven’t seen it, I think I love it just for the name alone.

9

If I look at it objectively, I have to say that Vampire Hunter D isn’t really good anime. It’s schlock, which is a pity because it could have been much more. It has a sort of Sphagetti Western feel to it, but it’s less coherent than Sergio Leone’s worst nightmare. Of course, I’ve only seen one (dubbed) translation of it–a better translation might improve matters. If no one pipes up in defense of it here, you should probably skip it.

10

If you want some suggestions in the horror vein, here are two:

  1. Vampire Princess Miyu- The four originals, not the TV series. They are over ten years old but worth it, there are many texture rich scenes. The story line is fairly interesting and has just enough eerieness to be enjoyable.

  2. The **Doomed Megalopolis **Series- Warning, they do deal in mature topic matters (including assault and incest) and the overall story is fairly dark. However the story and animation are superb. It is extra-ordinarily moody and the sorcery scenes are great.

Just some suggestions…

11

Well, since you’re relitively new to anime, I’ll have to suggest (for starters); Legend of the Overfiend, Kite, Sins of the Sisters, Wild 7*…:smiley:

Seriously though, I’d suggest Ghost in the Shell (A classic techno-thriller with not a little sex appeal) and the recent Metropolis (semi-Steampunk with Jazz, what’s not to love?).

Ranchoth
*If you actually go and see these unprepared, don’t blame me if your psyche collapses in on itself. :wink:

12

That’s right…though I think some people’s definitions differ slightly. The girls’ equivalent is shoujo-ai and yuri.

jessica

13

Just about anything by Hayao Miyazaki is good. Castle of Cagliostro, Grave of the Fireflies, Laputa, El Porco Rosso (if you can find these last two–I doubt you will, if I understand your situation). Rurouni Kenshin and Haunted Junction are both pretty safe bets (neither are scifi, though–Kenshin is light-hearted fantasy with serious fighting bits, HJ is flat-out wacky comedy as long as you’re not easily offended). El-Hazard is worth a shot, if you can find it–it’s done by the same people who did Tenchi Muyo, except it’s fantasy. Very impressive soundtrack and great character designs.

For scifi, I’d go Ghost in the Shell, Bebop (the full version), Tri-gun, Serial Experiments Lain if you’re in the mood for something really complex and moody. Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust is good once or twice. Not something you’d want to buy (not enough staying power, IMO), though.

The best scifi not mentioned previously, though, is Irresponsible Captain Tylor. I can’t recommend this series enough.

14

Sci-Fi stuff, huh? I honestly don’t believe that nobody mentioned Neon Genesis Evangelion yet. Now available in a really cool DVD box set, it’s a must have. (Re-reading, you said it has to have humor if it’s SF, huh? NGE may not be your best bet after all - it gets kinda moody.)

A second nomination for Trigun and my obligitory vote for Kenshin (which is meiji era Japan rather than “true” fantasy). If you want “true” fantasy stuff, Record of Lodoss War is pretty much as straight an adaptation of D&D as you can find (though Dragon Pink is pretty funny in its interpretation of RPGs - it is hentai, though, FYI). For RoLW, either the TV series or the OVAs were more humor oriented, while the other was more serious; I obviously don’t remember which was which. Slayers, OTOH, is humorous all the way and quite good.

If you want some really funny stuff, even if they’re not terribly occult related, I strongly recommend Ranma (has some good action stuff too), Love Hina (for the horny adolescent in each of us), and Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl, which is hilarious stuff.

I also recommend, btw, searching CS and IMHO (I dunno how far back the moved threads go) for some of the older anime recommendation threads. I put all my real effort into the thread started by Silent Rob (most of my input was posted by AudreyK as this was before I was a member).

15

Thanks for all the suggestions. Sounds like a great variety :slight_smile:

I’ve considered just going to the video store and picking things off the shelf in alphabetical order, but then I thought, what if all the stuff that starts with A sucks and I get all discouraged about the time and money I’ve wasted?

Maybe a better question would have been what are the absolute worst, dumbest, must mind-boggling awful anime that should be avoided by EVERYONE as ALL COSTS?

16

They play this show on Internation Channel sunday nights with english subtitles. I’ve only seen it twice, but it was pretty good.

Do French-written, Japanese-animated childrens shows from the early '80s count? If they do, I guess my favorite animay is The Mysterious Cities of Gold. No legal copies of the English version have ever been released for sale though.

17

Mind-bogglingly awful? Well, X (the movie for the series X/1999) was pretty incomprehensible to me. Beautiful artwork, but the creators assumed everyone was already familiar with the story, so they didn’t really need to explain it.

If the women on the cover have a little CENSORED bar across their chests, you might want to double-check before you rent it.

Plus, if your video store is like mine, there’ll only be five tapes to start with, so no huge loss if you rent them all. :slight_smile:

jessica

18

Anything with “-mon” in the title.

If you want funny fantasy there are the Slayers series (Slaters NEXT is the best IMHO). I have yet to meet anybody who doesn’t like it.

Escaflowne is also very good. Yoko Kanno, who did the music for Cowboy Bebop, also did the music for this. (Of course, Bebop is a sci-fi action show about bounty hunters in space and Escaflowne is a bizarre fantasy show involving an angsty, psychic teenager and gigantic, sword-fighting robots, so the connection may not mean much. The music does kick ass though…)

19

Thanks again for the suggestions. To be honest, I’m not sure what the anime selection is like at our local video store, but I know the Hollywood Video in Salem has a large selection, so I may have to try there if there’s nothing better close by.

This is probably evidence of what a silly girl I really am, but is anyone else looking forward to the premier of Hamtaro on Cartoon Network? He’s just so cute!! I 'bout laughed myself senseless just watching the commercials. My husband wouldn’t tape Sailor Moon for me, and he wouldn’t tape Card Captors, but he’s going to tape Hamtaro, dammit!

20

Okay, I might come off as a snob or something here, but I’d advise that you stay away from (most) dubs!

Some, such as the Ninja Scroll dub, are alright, but most are bad. Especially if you know what Japanese words are supposed to sound like.

Dubs that make my ears bleed:
Samurai Shodown, the movie
Fushigi Yugi
Ranma 1/2
Yu Yu Hakusho

Ones that are okay/good:
Ninja Scroll
Most of the Gundam ('cept you hate it anyway, oh well)
Cowboy Bebop
Riding Bean

And that’s really it since I don’t watch many dubs.

I’ll also take this opportunity to add a few titles to my list:

Movies:
Ninja Scroll (samurai anime w/ supernatural elements and female nudity)
Riding Bean (cop genre - from the roguish criminal POV - quite hilarious)
City Hunter (cop genre - bodyguard/PI for hire POV - also quite funny; the movies are better than the OAVs (TV eps?) which are quite dated in a few ways; also, see the live action Jackie Chan movie)
Crying Freeman (assassin “genre” - beautiful animation)
Golgo 13 (another assassin - the first movie is decent)
Akira (quasi-supernatural SF - a classic)

OAVs (6 eps or less)
Video Girl Ai (a touching story of love and loss between an adolescent boy, his unattainable crush, and his “video girl” - read: porn actress come to life - better than it sounds, though the last ep or two (of six) suck)
Bastard (fantasy genre - D&D with a sense of humor, and one of the most mysoginitsic (sp?) things I’ve ever watched - in a good “Army of Darkness” kind of way)
Macross Plus (the mecha we remember from Robotech - season one of which was known as “Macross” in Japan - but with cooler animation)

And FTR, I preferred the first season of Slayers to either Next or Try.