I have always liked anime, but have only recently really gotten into it. I was so annoyed that the Cartoon Network stopped showing anime on Sat. nights, because that was probably my only outlet for sampling new anime without making a commitment and buying something. Tech TV shows anime on Fri nights, but for the past month it’s been Betterman and I just don’t like it.
So I thought I would turn to you all. What’s your favorite anime series? What do you own or would like to? What would you recommend, and why?
Just to give you some idea of my tastes, my personal favorite is Cowboy Bebop. I like the stories and the way it’s drawn. I don’t have the series on DVD, but my sister bought me some of the manga (btw, how is that pronounced? Hard ‘g’ or soft?) for my birthday, and I stayed up all night reading it.
From the others I’ve seen, I liked The Candidate for Goddess/Pilot Candidate although I am not usually into giant robots. I have heard that it is very similar/based on Evangelion. I have seen a few episodes of that, but not the whole series.
I was following Inu-yasha until they stopped showing it.
I initially had a hard time understanding Serial Experiment Lain but went online for some back story and liked it better. I very much liked the artwork there. Artwork is important to me.
Consider the Humor/SciFi section–Lum/Urusei Yatsura is good, but No Need For Tenchi is easier to find. I’ve heard that Those Who Hunt Elves is fun. So is Project:A-Ko.
The Classics–
[ul]
[li]Star Blazers[/li][li]Robotech[/li][li]Astro Boy[/li][li]The Princess Knight (Ribon No Kishi)[/li][/ul]
Those Who Hunt Elves is pretty funny- where else can you find a 4 adventures riding around on tank randomly stripping elves?
I also reccomend Hellsing - very cool, set in England, with teh Hellsing Agency combating the rising Vampire threat. Of course, human forces aren’t that effective, but the Agency has the Vampire Alucard working for them, and he just oozes coolness.
Well, you mentioned Bebop and that’s my favorite series. Other than that I can only reccomend anime movies. Metropolis is recent, easy to find and simply amazing. It’s a sort of philosofical SF that is very tenously based on Fritz Lang’s movie’s city. It’s so beatiful to watch when I saw it in the theatre for the first time I had a hard time reading the subtitles. I didn’t want to stop watching the drawings.
Ghost in the Shell lost a lot of its appeal to me after I read the manga but it is still very nice. Also SF.
I second RealityChuck’s comment. Myazaki is a must see.
I’ve been watching Rurouni Kenshin lately, they show it on Cartoon Network but that isn’t the only place you can find it (especially if you know where to look online). It’s set in Meiji-era Japan and is one of the better anime series I’ve seen so far. A little slow at the start though.
I’ve spent all my energy replying to previous anime threads to reply with my usual verbosity, but, in no particular order:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
FLCL (aka, Furi Kuri)
Rurouni Kenshin
Trigun
Cowboy Bebop
X (watching that now; I reserve the right to rescind my recommendation )
If you can find (wich is kinda hard) I suggest One Piece
The art is realy difrent (wich not many pepole like at first) and the first few eps aren’t that great but by 10 or so you’ll get hooked by 50 you’ll be dieing for more
Trigun is debuting on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim next Monday at midnight (9:00 PM Pacific – I love living on the West coast :)). It comes highly recommended for those who enjoy Bebop and Outlaw Star, so I’m looking forward to it.
Other movies/series I recommend:
Metropolis
Akira
Grave of the Fireflies
Spirited Away
Ghost in the Shell
El-Hazard
Any of the Tenchi series
Serial Experiements Lain
.hack//SIGN
Inu-Yasha
Vision of Escaflowne
Card Captor Sakura
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Blue Seed
3x3 Eyes
Patlabor
Roujin-Z
Spriggan
If you have a DVD player, I recommend checking out Netflix.com. They have a HUGE anime selection with a lot of recommended series and movies. You pay a flat monthly fee, they ship directly to your home, you keep the DVD as long as you want and mail it back in a pre-paid postage mailer. So you can try lots of different things without making any kind of commitment (i.e., you’re not shelling out twenty or thirty bucks to buy something you’ve never seen before only to find out you HATE it).
For something weird
The last couple episodes of Evangelion - the giant robot show for when crack is not enough
FLCL(Foolly Cooly) The giant robot show for when Evangelion is not enough.
Excel Saga - The adventures of Excel and Hyatt as they try(and fail, often dying in the process) to take over the world for the organization ACROSS. Also has Nabeshin, with a machine gun laden Afro, and all sorts of strange associates, like Space Butler. And poor Menchi, a dog that doubles as Excel and Hyatt’s emergency food supply. This is also the only show I know of that dramatic relief, in the form of Pedro, a constrution worker from Latin America, and his trials in Japan.
Puni Puni Poemi- the single most insane anime I have ever seen, this is a spin-off of Excel Saga. It occurs 10 years after Excel Saga, and stars Poemi, Nabeshin and Kumi-Kumi’s daughter. She wants to be a voice actress and has the support of her friend,Futaba Aasu, who really really “likes” her. Poemi eventually becomes the magical girl Puni Puni Poemi, after Futaba and her sister’s super powers totally fail to save the earth from a giant robot. Not for the faint of heart, this show can get explict, and is a funny parody of magical girl shows, and hentai video games, among ever things. This show has the single highest WTF!!?? factor of anything I have ever seen.
I have to second the vote for Excel Saga. Just finished watching episode 20 of that, and the damn thing cracks me up -every- time. For the more adventure minded, Hellsing is a -must-. The first episode or three are a bit slow, but once the momentum kicks in, it’s amazing. Oh, and also in the humor category, look for ‘Golden Boy’. It’s good stuff.
OK - since you like Cowboy Bebop, and Serial Experiments Lain, and Trigun has already been taken, here is my anime advisement:
Fruits Basket: One of the silly/serious type. A young orphan girl moves in with a family that is cursed to change shape when they are touched by the opposite sex (usually, but not always) or are feeling weak (have a cold or whatever.) Wacky hijinx ensue.
Rave Groove: So, there’s these gems caled ‘raves’ that give magical powers/cool moves to their owners. The bad ones are called ‘Dark Bring’. Haru Glory needs to collect the raves, and defeat the Dark Brings. This is probably the most ‘Japanese’ series that I’ve ever seen. Especially the part of having little cartoon moons and flowers explaining about Carbonmonoxide deaths. I think that this might be a current series.
Darkside Blues: I thought that this was a very good movie. Dark, kinda depressing, doesn’t really tell the whole story, but very good. Set in the near future.
Kite: This one is…difficult. It’s one of those things that hurt me to watch, and depressed the hell out of me for days to come, but I thought that it was worth it. A guy is using a young girl as his personal assassin and sex slave. My wife very much didn’t like this movie. Very very dark.
I started watching Hikaru No Go. I really enjoy it. It is about a boy who gets haunted by the spirit of the best Go player of the millenium. It is very cool and reminds me of the Bobby Fisher story. It definately isn’t something that would normally be shown stateside. There are currently 67 episodes available and more on their way.
My favorite Animé is “Orguss 02”, which is a mecha story on the surface, set in a world with the technological level of earth’s 1930s.
However, there is so much more to it, the dub (yes, I like dubs…) is just wonderful and it was the best anti-war story I ever seen (forget about Stalingrad and saving private Ryan!).
In fact, “Orguss 02” is so good, I rate it as my second favorite movie of all time
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