AKIRA
[sub]He’s a neophyte, he needs to start with the Casablanca of Anime[/sub]
Ok, Joel and I have made a few trips to the video store in the last week. There appears to be a fairly large selection 
But a lot of what has been recommended isn’t there 
Or, a lot of what is there hasn’t been recommended 
So far we’ve rented Vampire Hunter D (I thought it was all right–I’m not smart enough to tell what is or isn’t schlock, but my main complaint was that the animation wasn’t as nice looking as some others I’ve seen), Vampire Princess Miyu (I was mightily confused after episode 1, but by episode 4 things made sense. Are there any more?), Ranma 1/2 (cute, in the same humor vein as Tenchi, I thought, but Joel didn’t like it. We rented 2 tapes, but Joel stopped watching after 1 episode and I don’t know if he’ll want to rent any more), Ghost in the Shell (wow–the animation was gorgeous, utterly mesmerizing), and Doomed Megalopolis (I didn’t realize this wasn’t a movie, so we only got the first volume. But I like what I’ve seen so far and want to see how it ends).
A few memories have come flooding back, too. I have seen Akira. At least parts of it. I got confused, then I fell asleep. I’ll have to give it another try. I’ve also seen NeoTokyo. I enjoyed the third segment the most. I also rented something called The Mermaid’s Scar and something else I can’t remember the name of, but the plot involved a man who is hired to rape women suspected by jealous lovers of not being virgins. That was when I decided it wasn’t safe to go to the video store without guidance. And, geez, call me dumb as a box of rocks, but I forgot I own Demon City Shinjuku. I’d never heard of it, but I decided to take a chance. It’s subbed, it’s handsomely animated, and there is little to no rape, so I consider it a lucky purchase.
Hamtaro is precious beyond words, but I’ll heed the warnings to beware Oruchuban Ebichu
Gosh, this is fun The store has Neon Genesis Evangelion and Princess Mononoke, so I think we’ll try those next.
As to sub vs. dub, I would prefer sub, but my options are limited. If it’s dub or nothing, I’ll go with dub. I’ll be pickier when it comes to actually buying any of these titles for my collection.
Is there more than one Rurouni Kenshin OAV? The only one I knew of (called, AFAIK, Rurouni Kenshin was about Kenshin’s youth and first battles (and first girlfriend), and was utterly amazing. Please let me know if there are others! (Note for all–the OAV is MUCH darker than the series. Fine with me.)
I second votes for Ninja Scroll. Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust is beautiful to look at but pretty plotless.
And for everyone baffled by Lain: it made perfect sense to me. What is everyone else so baffled about?
[sub]But I wouldn’t watch more than three episodes at once, though…[/sub]
Yup, four OAVs. No idea what they were named in the American release as I have the fansub versions of them. You think the first one was dark, just wait for the last one. 
FYI, there was also a terribly unremarkable feature length movie. Not quite sure if it was released in the US, but you’re really not missing much if you can’t find it. (IIRC, it more or less exists outside the continuity of the TV series - it neither references or contradicts any events, anyway - so feel free to watch it whenever you like.)
Phooey. 
Regarding VHD, the original is so highly valued by some as the character design was done by Yoshitaka Amano, who is worshipped as a manga (and anime?) god by some. Personally, I do prefer the way D, his hand, and a few other things are designed in VHD over what they are in VHD: Bloodlust.
No, I was able to make sense of it (it helps if you’ve read Douglas Rushkoff’s Cyberia and are open to concepts of the relativity of reality). I was just making comment about its intensity. You feel like your brain is broken after three episodes.
[sub]If I knew how to produce those little spoiler-boxes, I’d share my favourite moment of that series[/sub]
Hamish, I believe that the spoiler box is created just like bold or [sub]subscript[/sub], but using the word spoiler. In other words, write “bracket-spoiler” blah blah blah blah “slash-spoiler-bracket.” (Replase bracket and slash with the appropriate punctuation, natch.) Let me try it now, to see if I’m full of crap:
Lain is an awesome anime series! And soon Hamish will give us a spoiler!
Yep, it worked! (At least in preview mode.) So what’s your favorite part?
The second OAV series (Seisou Hen, two episodes) hasn’t been released yet on DVD/VHS but you might want to do yourself a favor and steer away from that one. (Great soundtrack though)
You really think the second OAV is going to be that bad? I mean, sure, the movie was terrible(well, maybe not that bad, so I’ll second calling it “unremarkable”) but that was just one mistake, give the people a shot. I do, however, think that the second Kenshin OAV should have been about the Enishi sequence (he was nucking futs and I loved him for it).
Oh, as for suggestions I think that Great Teacher Onizuka is a great show. The man becomes a teacher to ogle the girls, wonderful stuff.
Really? I bought the first DVD because it looked cool, and was extremely dissapointed. The thing about ogling the girls gave me the creeps- but it did have some good moments, does it get better with the second disk (I’m pretty sure that’s all thet has been realeased now)?
My favorite recent series (post Cowboy Bebop) have been Legend of Black Heaven and Niea [under] 7.
Saw the fan-sub a couple of months ago, thought it was depressing (which is not necessarily a bad thing but they rewrote some the manga and made it depressing) and the story (if you can call it that) weak at best.
That’s what you get when you don’t hire the original author to do the story 
God, I’m starting to sound like a Comic Book Guy :eek:
Grendel- I’ve seen maybe the first twenty eps of Onizuka and thought they were pretty funny. Perhaps our tastes are just a bit different. On the ogling thing: it didn’t bug me too (he’s what? 22?) and it’s not as though he ever actually does anything. I do see where you could be creeped out though.
Saitou- I guess I just haven’t been perusing enough fansub sites lately (or any at all), didn’t know it was available here yet.
Hmmm.
Until recently I thought I was the only person on these boards who watches anime. I’m glad I was wrong.
Most of my favorites have been named, especially Trigun, Jubei-Chan and Saber Marionette J. Oh, and Fushigi Yuugi, which for me was more addictive than caramel-covered crack.
::goes to survey her titles::
Some others you might enjoy, based on what you’ve liked so far, are:
Flame of Recca
(I especially agree with the review by JoChanE)
Battle Athletes/Battle Athletes V
Another title I really have to name is Perfect Blue, but it’s pretty dark, and the plot is moderately complicated. I had to watch it twice before I really caught on.
One I just ordered Friday and can’t wait to see is Excel Saga. Looks really funny!
I hope you find some anime you really like. I know I’ve had fun collecting them. I’d probably be an otaku if I didn’t have this thing about showering daily…
Whoo, that took forever. I’m off to watch some Devil Hunter Yohko, or maybe some Kodoma.