Anime

[nightmare_gorilla]

i've only read really two mangas in my quest for closer, mahoromatic and berserk.

it's kinda hard to get into bleach with cartoon network showing the same 5 episodes every week, so i went and downloaded the whole freaking series from japan and have to say i love it.

berserk was and is still my favorite anime ever, it rocked hardcore on a level i didn't know was possible until i watched it.

naruto can go fuck himself for all the people telling me to try it, it sucks.

i just finished watching an anime i picked up kinda on a whim, samurai 7. so very very cool and funny too.

the mahoromatic anime is a great watch even if the ending is a little hard to get. once i read the manga however i understood it pretty well. but i'd recomend mahoromatic to anyone who thinks battle androids don't make good house maids.

Big O- i was surprised by how much i enjoyed this series, once they finished it, kinda fun, kinda weird, and overall not good enough to screw anything up royally.

evangelion i watched mostly because people treated it like the holy grail of anime when in fact it is a steaming pile of horse crap, no cool characters, maybe a couple good fight scenes and abcolutley no story cohesion.

FLCL-great 6 episodes of random craziness.

Ninja scroll-yep they made a tv show outa one of the best anime movies i've ever seen how could i not like it. there are plenty of things toned down for the sake of putting it on tv, no giant rock man rape in this one, but it pushes the line enough to make up for it. good story, good characters, great music, overall kick ass series.

that death note cartoon network picked up is actually kinda interesting, i don't really care about it but it's amusing overall.

yu-yu hakusho-great series i really enjoyed it and i'm mad they took it off thew air before getting to some of the really great fights.

dbz is still ok to me, sure there's alotta bad things about it but it's hard to dis the show that got me into anime to begin with.

tenchi- just about anything with tenchi in the title was really good, i ahvn't seen this tnechi gpx yet but other than that i liked all the other ones they made.

golden boy- quite possibly one of the funniest things i have ever seen, ever. it's such a great 6 episode series that not only did i buy it, all my friends bought it too so they could have a copy to watch when they wanted to instead of borrowing mine.

baki the grappler- surprising once i got fios i found the funimation channel where they play only the oldest anime they have to make you buy the new stuff, baki, blue gender, case closed, stuff like that, but baki is a great series thats all about ultimate fighting and really has some kick ass fights and good humor thanks to a color commentator.

i'm kinda an anime nerd though i don't say otaku or nothing like that so i know there's more i just can't think of any right now

 

[Rapid-Fire]

In my opinion, if you havn't watched at least one of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon or Air, then you've not watched enough great anime. I usually critisize films or TV series very sternly, but I really can't fault these Anime, they're just sublime.

 

[roo18]

Personally, I loathe anime with a flaming passion. I don't know what it is but I can't watch any of it apart from Pokemon, but that's just because it was a big part of my life when I was a sad, sad child.

I can't stand the anime games because they all feel the same to me. I can't enjoy the films either, mostly because I end up hating ever character as much as the ones in the Mary-Kate and Ashley movies.

 

[MagnusElden]

Pokemon is awesome

Get a life. I like anime alot. Not counting Pokemon, Digimon etc and various "hentai"s. I have 350 Gb of anime on a separated hardisk.^^

In my opinion, if you havn't watched at least one of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon or Air, then you've not watched enough great anime. I usually critisize films or TV series very sternly, but I really can't fault these Anime, they're just sublime.

And i have them all and finnished them. Twice. Or more.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

hey, don't dis hentai, hentai rocks, some of the hentai's i've seen are the funniest or just plain craziest things i've ever seen if you ask me you've not lived till you've seen a vagina take that kind of punishment, puts anything i've ever done to shame. hahahaha

 

[fnph]

In my opinion, if you havn't watched at least one of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon or Air, then you've not watched enough great anime. I usually critisize films or TV series very sternly, but I really can't fault these Anime, they're just sublime.

I haven't seen enough great anime then.
Having only seen three anime series and a couple of movies I don't have much background, but I really did like Cardcaptor Sakura (not the Nelvana dub, they raped and murdered it).
Also, Castle in the Sky by Studio Ghibli is just magic, as is Spirited Away.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

My advice would be, start reading up on different manga titles. You like the story/characters,etc go find out if there is an anime out there for it. The quality of the two is often very different with the fillers and fluctuating animation quality. Heck, take bleach which was awesome the first arc and has really gone downhill lately. Recently it started going back up in quality, but naruto really surpassed it atm imo. I'm sure you know of both bleach and naruto, two of the more famous fighting anime. Shippuuden is awesome and from reading the manga, it will get even better.

Death note, meh.. I've watched this for a while but then the actual storyline gets all weird and turned around, completely destroying the buildup after around episode 15-17. I honestly didn't get why the hell the writers did this instead of prolonging the first storyline which was pretty decent.

Some others to consider are gundam 00, giant fighting machines are always nice. It starts off a bit slow, with the emokids piloting the damn things but after a while you really get to know everybody and the story doesn't seem as shallow as before. Animation quality superb as well.

Rosario the vampire, I just found out the manga for this and it was an incredible fun read. The anime is well drawn but the animators seem to have a fetish for upskirt shots of the girls, don't ask me why. It's really distracting, but trust me the story gets better and some interesting things happen to TSukune. Currently tracking this one anyway.

Anybody else sometimes scared of trying out anime after reading the full manga? Alot of times the anime just stretches everything endlessly, shitty voiceacting ruins the characters and censorship kicks in so you get black blood and other crap. I doubt anybody here actually likes Rukia for instance in bleach, she's weak in the manga but she got plain annoying to watch after the anime.

 

[MagnusElden]

hey, don't dis hentai, hentai rocks, some of the hentai's i've seen are the funniest or just plain craziest things i've ever seen if you ask me you've not lived till you've seen a vagina take that kind of punishment, puts anything i've ever done to shame. hahahaha

Probobly not too hard.^^ One that kind of impressed me, for a hentai that is, was ENDLESS SERENADE. It got a actual good story behind it.

 

[Dectilon]

Nothing can quite compete with GITS. It's on a completely different level than anything else (that I have seen). One of the few truly intelligent series out there. And when I say truly intelligent I don't mean "as compared to" something or other (everything compares favorably to Bleach or Naruto in that regard for example), but in general. It fits with the times as well, discussing terrorism, moral ambivalence and the human condition, using the great philosophers as a basis for both the story and the arguments. What more can you really ask?

Trigun is unique in a way that makes it quite timeless. Every character is well-outlined and as absurd as they are sometimes they do not feel forced in any way (in contrast to Trigun clones like Trinity Blood). It also feels very complete, as compared to many other series that are riddled with plot holes. Also, it is one story being told, not a set of contrasting ones which sometimes get confusing when things are being summarized at the end of the story (Evangelion is an example of that, although I do like it).

Monster, which is clearly inspired by "The Fugitive" also tries to do something different, telling a story in its entirety instead of summarizing certain events. It stretches out to over 70 episodes, but it manages to keep your interest (mine at least) for the duration, although the finale was a little weak. The writers do, perhaps make a few too many assumptions about Germany, but that's okay ^^

GunGrave is based on a game originally, which is sort of hard to believe. The first episode is so bad that I considered to stop watching, but I gave it another episode... and then another and another and... Now it's one of my all-time favorite series, excluding the first and the last 5 episodes. The rest is a criminal drama about two friends living in a city where the only path to a decent life seems to be one of crime, and through chance they are allowed into the most powerful mafia in the city. Few series has well-told character development of this caliber.

As for Death Note and the type-moon stuff (F/SN and Tsukihime) I feel that Death Note shot itself in the foot trying to be "funny" and "cute" while simultaneously being a sort of Dorian Gray-story. It's very morbid and starts out asking some powerful questions about morality, but after a while it becomes ridiculous, with grown men acting like children, the national police elite not being able to figure out the simplest thing and the basis for Kira's tricks becoming more and more forced and illogical.

F/SN feels like a game and not much else. In the beginning it tries to fill the plot holes, but after a while it just doesn't bother, making the whole experience quite ridiculous. The characters are nothing one hasn't seen before and the narrative is very talky, as the writer is so impressed with his own thought-out system for magic and its workings.

Tsukihime is by the same guy, but far better in my opinion. It manages to remain dark, creepy and quite mysterious, revealing only enough facts you make you accept or question the next thing that happens. It is too short though, and much of what was interesting in the original game/novel is lost for no real reason.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is okay I suppose... Although it's more or less Philip.K.Dick's VALIS + girls with dinner plate eyes.

Cowboy Bebop is also one of those series that can't really be copied. It thrives on two things, attitude and atmosphere. The only thing I can really compare it to is Hellsing: The characters have coolness running out their ears, the backdrop is a gritty dog-eat-dog reality and the music is many steps above average.

 

[RavenAlegria13]

I watch a lot of anime, all in Japanese though. The American versions are so watered down because of the parents. Seriously, if you want to notice the difference the next time you watch the American versions, pull up the Japanese online. Some of you will know this already, for those of you who don't you will be amazed.

I haven't played any of the video game anime games. I just don't have the system or I don't see my friends often enough. Take your pick. Although, one friend says the Naruto games are awesome.

 

[Adnaan]

Looks like all my favorites have been mentioned. How about Haibane Renmei? I loved that one. Plus the music was great too and I think that that plays a very important role. I recently got Ergo Proxy but haven't watched it yet. Also trying to get my hands on Now and Then, Here and There.

Fate/Stay Night was nice too and Initial D as well.

 

[tamago]

Seeing as I am a huge anime fan I just had to respond to this.

Some of my all time favourite anime include:

Akira- This is the anime that got me, and probably a lot of other people here, into anime in the first place. It has all the anime staples: good soundtrack, plot that only makes sense after repeated viewings, young boy with mysterious power, cool graphic violence, tits and really strange children. Even anime haters often use the caveat "Well Akira's okay."

Otaku no Video- Think you know anime? Until you can name every anime referenced or parodied in this, then you got more learning to do. But don't fret. Just enjoy the adventures of two ordinary guys out to become the ultimate otaku and get your knowledge gaining on later.

Cowboy Bebop- The ultimate in jazzy cool. Everything about this show is perfect. Good storyline, awesome character development, perfect soundtrack and kickass action scenes of every stripe combine to make an anime worth every damn second of your time.

Excel Saga- Not only parodies anime, but many other aspects of Japan as well. It takes shots at everything, and leaves no sacred cow unbutchered. The final episode is the very defintion of "Going Way to Far," which also happens to be that episodes title. You'll probably have to watch several times to get all the parodies and references.

Beck- If you love music, this series is a must. The story of a young boy and his road to fame via rock and roll is filled with heart, humour and a tribute to the universal appeal of music across borders and generations.

Death Note- Awesome premise, and the story stays strong to the very end. Part moral drama, part detective story, part supernatural suspense, this show examines the themes of justice and morality in an intriguing way.

Azumanga Daioh- A lot of people write this off as silly, but this show has a lot of heart and has some genuinely funny moments. Do yourself a favour though, and avoid the dub version. Yes it's that bad. I hate dubs anyway, but the dub on this abysmal.

If you want a good mind fuck, try Serial Experiments: Lain or Boogiepop Phantom.

Also, you should check out anything by the following directors: Isao Takahata, Mamoru Oshii, Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon. All of them have proven themselves time and time again in the world of anime.

Honourable mentions go to Haibane Renmei, Elfen Lied, Chobits, GTO, Gunslinger Girl, FLCL, Noir, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Utawarerumono, Voices of a Distant Star, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Fruits Basket. There's lots of other good ones as well, but those should keep you busy for a while.

 

[Max-Vader]

Monster, which is clearly inspired by "The Fugitive" also tries to do something different, telling a story in its entirety instead of summarizing certain events. It stretches out to over 70 episodes, but it manages to keep your interest (mine at least) for the duration, although the finale was a little weak. The writers do, perhaps make a few too many assumptions about Germany, but that's okay ^^

I thought the finale was kind of ironic, I liked it. No, they didn't make too many assumptions - that's one of the things I love about Monster, they actually did their research. Every little fragment of german (in the manga, I didn't watch the series yet) was 100% correct. The cities were also portrayed very accurate (though I've never heard of a Neo-Nazi-Group in Frankfurt).

Code Geass is also quite good, mostly because of the protagonist. Sadly, near the end it was very much like evangelion, the ending itself was... good, but kind of unsatisfying. What almost ruined it were the horrible scenes (in one case an entire episode) in the school with unimportant, highly annoying characters, the kind of bland rival and the romance-subplot with a certain amnesiac. I'd recommend it, though.

 

[Shycte]

Yeah, Hentai is pretty cool...

OH SHIT!! You meant REAL anime... HE-HE-HE

I used to watch Anime, but then I started to read the manga instead. Good Shit.

 

[Sparrow]

Pokemon is awesome

This.

I kid of course. I liked the first series as a kid, but after that, meh.

I'm quite a Bleachtard. I really need to catch up with it actually. I'm a long time fan of both FLCL and FMA too.