Really good Anime?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Things to keep in mind:

  1. STAY AWAY FROM DUBS! I cannot stress this enough. I don’t care what anti-subtitling reasons you might have, but they CAN’T be as bad as the god-awful ELD (English Language Dialog) dub-jobs that are in 99% of anime. ESPECIALLY stay away from anything that was brought to mainstream american television. <sigh> I haven’t known an anime presented that way yet to NOT get butchered. (Robotech is probably the best job thus far.) You have a CHANCE of finding anime you can cope with if you stick to non-TV-releases.

  2. Don’t limit yourself. You might find yourself drawn to one “style” of anime, but there are so many quality films/series’ out there, it’d be a shame to miss them because you just want to give them a chance. (Plus, there are PLENTY of multiple-genre, and genre-defying anime to boot.) And don’t judge a series by old-animation style, as there are anime “classics” that outdo most of the more-modern stuff. MAS*H might have old camera-techniques and worse filming-quality, but I’m pretty sure most of us would rather watch a re-re-re-re-re-rerun than the bulk of sitcoms and dramadies on television now.

  3. If you’re interested in content over conflict, go out of your way to pick up the manga as well. Most anime adaptations still can’t hold a candle to the original manga. Some are good carbon copies, and a FEW instances are better, but many are poor imitations. As good as Battle Angel Alita, Sanctuary, Nausicaa, and Akira (to name a popular few) are, the manga is AMAZING! (Plus, the art tends to be a lot better! Hehe)
    Special note: Pick up anything Masamune Shirow or Johji Manabe in manga form and ignore the anime adaptations entirely. You’ll be the better for it.

  4. Watch anything and everything previously mentioned in this thread! :slight_smile: (Well, except Dragonball Z. I’d feel bad if I recommended DBZ to anyone… Hehe)

42

I liked cat girl nuku nuku but not nuku nuku dash. If you’re into soap opera type stuff try marmalade boy. It’s good and I love Meiko’s song.

Another good show is Video Girl Ai, but it’s a romantic type of show.

If you want to watch something that doesnt make sense then watch elf princess rane, it’s really funny. Also try Haunted Junction, it’s funny and has (some sort of) a plot.

For something really on crack try Tenshi ni Narumon. You wont see anything stranger.

Now that I’ve gone off into lesser known anime titles I’ll shut up.

43

Holy doodle. I go away for school for the day and come back and my thread’s resurrected with many, many more answers. Cool. :slight_smile:

Ura-Maru beat me to the punch. I’ve checked out a lot of anime in the last little while, and Cowboy Bebop is easily some of the most entertaining, fun, action packed stuff to come out. There are too many more positive adjectives to add, so I’ll just say that it’s great. Too bad they all haven’t been released over here yet, though. Still two more tapes to go. :slight_smile:

I might have to order the Eva movies. The place I rent from has about a 1000 anime titles (that’s all they rent), but don’t have these in. They have the whole series, but not the movies. I’ve finished the series and now want to check out the movies, but am out of luck.

I have just finished the Outlaw Star series. A very fun series, with some great characters (very cool bad guys), enough intrigue, and some great action. The grappler-ship battles are at times amazing.

Hmmm, I’ve seen quite a bit of other stuff, but most of it has been mentioned in this thread. In fact, all of it has been mentioned in this thread.

I got to see X at the theater; very cool. Great imagery.

44

Haven’t seen the sequel, have you?

45

Cthellis, you said:

THis is not necessarily true.

Take Dragon Ball Z, for instance. The androgynous voice of Freeza is a hell of alot easier on the ear than the Japanese Androgynous voice of Goku.

The Dubs of Nazca are especially well done, especially the voice of the purple haired dude whose name I can’t recall- it’s not nearly as cool in the original. The dub of Serial Experiments Lain is as good quality.

In Record of Loddoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, though most of the show has a horrible dub job, the Lodoss Island sequences are alot better in dubbed format; without a thorough knowledge of Japanese culture and language, the subtitled Lodoss Island wordplay doesn’t make any sense.

In shows like Evangelion and Utena, the dub is pretty good, and preferable if the animation is important to you; alot better than watching the bottom of the screen.

And dubs as a whole are better for days spent dedicated to anime, because the subtitles get blurry after a while.

There are a few shows that I will always prefer subtitled, and go as follows:
Sailor Moon
Magic Knights Rayearth
Fushigi Yuugi (notice it’s the shoujo that tend to have bad dubs…)
Those Who Hunt Elves
and the main part of Record of Lodoss WAr: chronicles of the heroic knight (see, there is a shonen. It’s only because of the voices of Spark and Neese)

46

This was true five years or so ago. Things have gotten much better, though. The only major company that consistantly puts out terrible dubs now is US Manga Corps. Though what do you expect from a company that choses MD Geist as thier spokesman.

And maybe Animego. Though ADV is pretty erratic. Pioneer, Viz, Bandai, Manga and Software Sculptors all put out good stuff consistantly.

Don’t know what the hell happened with Perfect Blue, though. “We’re actually putting it out in theaters? Nah, don’t put any work into it.”

Well, Tenchi and Gundam Wing made it through with only minor injurys. And the occasional digitally added bathing suit. Sure the GW dub sounds amazingly pretentous, but not any more so than the sub. :slight_smile:

Those are for Cartoon Network, though, with their completly random BS&P. They’ve cut a gag in one episode, only to leave in the exact same gag two episodes later.

Has anyone been watching the Fox Kids version of Escaflowne? I only saw last weeks episode. I can’t belive they’re trying to cram that into a kids slot. All the major plot threads involve either murder or adultery.

Androgynous? I think you misspelled “8 year old girl.” Think he’s related to Mega Man? :slight_smile:

Horrible might be an understatement, but amusing in it’s own way. I crack up every time that adam west-voiced “blue meteor” guy says anything.

I don’t think FY actually has a bad dub, though the female lead is a bit weak. It’s just that without the buffer of subtitles, you realize just how whiny everyone is. :slight_smile:

Actually, I have. It was in a rental box labeled EVA 3. I was not amused.

The thing was, I was EXPECTING MDG2 to be beyond wreched. People had actually told me that the first one was good.

–
“Maybe they fell into the Magnifigant World?”

47

Well, I agree with Ura-Maru, about the different companies. I also agree with you that there are a lot of very good dubs out there; Eva being one that’s good, and Cowboy Bebop being one that is really good.
But Dragonball Z? No offence meant, but I can barely stand the dub. The first two seasons are edited to crap if you get the dub (20% is missing from every episode). The voice work is decent in them, though, and then the voice-work just gets ridiculous in the last few seasons. Specifically Kurrilin, Bulma, and King Kai (sp?). Everbody else I can stand, but it’s still pretty poor. Sorry, I didn’t mean to step on your toes, just MHO.

48

About dubs…

Yes, some are very good. Like in the later episodes of Eva,
the American actors surpass the Japanese ones. But, in the early episodes the Americans were horiable.
Also, most dubs sound infeior the the subtitles because with subtitles you don’t have as much comprehension of the feeling and emphisis because you don’t know Japanese. Whereas in dubs you know the language and understand the feeling on a greater scale then in subs. Also most fanboys go the to dubs trying to crtisise and catching stumbles that they would’nt notice in subs. I still say subs are better though.

About anime…

Giant Robo is very good, one of my favorite shows. Caratcters and action, can’t beat that. Get the sub if possible, it’s cheaper and the dub aint all that great.
Mahou Tsukai Tai. A good cute series about a magic club. Not commiersily relesed, but it’s the seoned most common fansub after Askukin Cha Cha.
Card Captor Sakura. A very girly magical girl show, it is fairly enjoiable by guys. Now being relesed by Pioneer on DVD, the only way to get it subtitled and uncut.
Babel II is an anime to avoid. I have not seen M.D. Gist but it can’t be worse than this.

49

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Ura-Maru *
**

::Blink:: Geist? Good? What in the world were these people smoking?

And I have to wonder whether the MDG2 in the EVA box was a mistake or a prank…

50

Silent_rob, you said:

Naw, you didn’t step on my toes; I was expecting someone to disagree. qUestion, though: have you watched any of the dubbed eps after teh whole freeza crap? Trunks voice is pretty good, and I still think Piccalo’s is awesome. Vegita’s is still annoying, but Bulma’s and Kurillin’s are both better. And Chi Chi…well, you hardly see her, anyway…

51

Yeah, it does get better after that, I agree, some of them get better. And I’m very glad Chi Chi was in it less after the Freeza Saga. She was getting on my nerves, to say the least. And yeah, Piccalo’s is very good. That’s the thing, though, some are really good and some are awful. It is easier to watch after Freeza, though. A couple of the voices in Garlic Jr. are so-so, though.

52

The only dubs that I think are tolerable/good are the Utena and Neon Genisis ones, actually though, video girl ai is not that bad either

sorry…I had more to say but teppei’s sig threw me off…

just have to comment on your new sig teppei:

ROFLMAO. Suuuuurreeeeeee you’re a sex god. When the sailor moon dubs are good.

Anyways, sorry bout that :slight_smile:

53

Yeah, I found the Neon Genesis dubs really good. The other series I have found to be great is Cowboy Bebop; very good character acting and it’s dubbed very well.

54

I’ve only seen the first episode of cowboy bebop, they showed it at my college anime meeting and then didnt show it again.

55

I grew up on “Battle of The Planets.” I’ve recently been seeing occasional episodes on the Cartoon Network where everybody’s name has been changed. Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop and Tiny became Ace, Dirk, Aggie, Pee Wee and Hootie.

Hootie?!?! Indeed.

I also remember seeing Force Five stuff as a kid. There’s a certain primal joy in watching giant robots beat the tar out of each other.