Ever since watching Evangelion I have been hooked on Anime and can’t get enough. I have a full summer break with nothing to do besides work and watch Anime … lots and lots of Anime. The only thing is I don’t know what to watch next. So far I have watched or am in the process of watching
** Berserk ** (in process)
** Trigun ** (completed)
** Love Hina ** (completed)
** Please Teacher ** (completed)
** Neon Genesis Evangelion ** (completed)
** Cow Boy Beebop ** (seen first couple of episodes and just couldn’t get into it)
If you would please help me add to my list of owning/watching animie
Escaflone (the movie - I haven’t seen the series so I can’t vouch for it) Ghost in the Shell Kite - The “director’s cut” is really quite pornographic, so if you’re not into that, I suggest you get the edited version.
If you liked Evangelion, try Serial Experiments Lain – it’s pretty complex, too.
Almost nobody gets into the first few episodes of Cowboy Bebop. Stick with it and it turns into a much better series.
I have a fondness for apocalyptic animé – not seeing Akira is like not having seen Casablanca. X – the series, not the movie – is fantastic. I also liked the little-known series that comes before X, called Tokyo Babylon, but it’s incomplete. If you don’t mind yaoi (animé built around a gay relationship), Yami no Matsuei is a really good entry into the dark-and-dsiturbing category.
One of my favourite series is Revolutionary Girl Utena, a very dark and intelligent project done (surprisingly) by the creator of Sailor Moon. The Utena movie is beautiful to look at, but impossible to understand if you haven’t seen the series.
Lessee, for light and comic, I’ll recommend Koko wa Greenwood (also translated as Here is Greenwood, and Gravitation (another YAOI).
For sweet and romantic, I’d go for Fruits Basket (which is built around the Chinese zodiac), and Ayashi no Ceres and Please Save My Earth (both of which revolve around reincarnation).
Well, I just finished watching Vandread, which is an interesting Sci-Fi series; think war between the sexes scenerio at the beginning, plus Voyager-eques being thrown months away from home, and a interesting invansion fleet appoaching. Lots of goofy comedy, and the CG space battles and cel animation look great.
There are so many high quality choices out there to choose from, but these are the ones that I would recommend:
El Hazard: The Magnificent World This is a fantastic series, it’s got a lot of the best elements of Anime. You’ll find plenty of adventure, humor, great characters, and apocalyptic danger.
Fushigi Yuugi Amazing characters, sweeping ambitious storyline with a focus on the humanity and complexity of the characters. ANNOYING shrill voice on the female lead though.
By the way, stick with the Cowboy Bebop if you can, it really grows on you after the first few episodes. The flow of the series picks up, and the surreal moments become cooler, and the finale is something that shouldn’t be missed!
As mentioned earlier stick with Cowboy Bebop. It gets better and better as it goes along and the last two episodes are fantastic. I also liked Crest of the Stars though make sure you see the sub rather than the dub.
As for movies almost everything by Studio Ghibli (where Miyazaki and Takahata work) is excellent. In addition to the above-mentioned Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away try Grave of the Fireflies which is one of the most moving films I have ever seen.
Among non- Ghibli films I liked Jin-Roh Wolf Brigade which is a norish thriller involving terrorists and special agents.
I’ve gotten on the Naruto bandwagon. Its a currently running series in Japan that gets fansubbed almost immediately. New episodes pop up around Thursday or Friday after airing in Japan on Wednesday. Its currently on episode 38.
The only real complaint is that its going to be a really long series and that the producers have gotten into the habit of doing lots of episodes in which recapping and inner reflection end up causing all the action to be drawn out much longer than necessary.
All the titles I have seen that have been mentioned I loved, especially Hellsing and Serial Experiments Lain.
I’m trying to think of titles that haven’t already been mentioned. I thought “Video Girl Ai” (six episodes, romance) was surprisingly good. Ranma 1/2 is pretty darn funny, but I mostly read the manga and haven’t seen that much of the anime.
I saw Haibane Renmei (fansubbed, from the creator of Serial Experiments Lain, I believe it’s now been liscenced but I don’t when it’s coming out) and thought it was great. Very sweet anime about angels.
I enjoyed what I saw of the Irresponsible Captain Tylor but I’m not sure how well it holds up in later episodes.
Oh yeah, you’ve got to watch Fist of The North Star. " You fool! You’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet." It’s both amusing and deeply disturbing.
Also somewhat disturbing yet entertaining in an Akiria sort of way(but with sex) is Wicked City (Yôjû toshi) ** http://us.imdb.com/Title?0098692
I really enjoyed Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away so I was happy to get to see My Neighbor Totoro and ** Kiki’s Delivery Service at a friend’s house this weekend. I’m glad I didn’t buy them before seeing them, like I had considered doing a couple of months ago. They weren’t what I was expecting. They were ok, but nothing special, and not as good as some non-Disney animated US movies I can think of. So… I’m not recommending them for adult viewers, if that makes any sense.
See Juuni Kokki (The Twelve Kingdoms), it’s pretty much my top recommendation in terms of anime at this point. Great storyline, character development… I could go on and on about it but I won’t.
Naruto is good too, though SouprChckn’s comments are appropriate.
" You fool! You’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet." It’s both amusing and deeply disturbing.