Anime

[Murian]

Good to see a lot of good stuff has already been listed! Multiple times! Ghost in the Shell (all of it) and Full Metal Panic (all of that too!) are among my personal favourites.

SpiderLotus: If you love Samurai Champloo, definately watch Cowboy Bebop if you haven't already, it has the same director. Would definately be nice to know your preferences to genre as WW asked (obviously you haven't been back yet) as I don't want to reccommend something you'd rather do nasty things to your own genitals than watch (Kanon does that for me, I don't ever want to touch anything like that ever again...). Although if you don't like Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan (2007) there's something wrong with you.

Anarchemitis: That's...an interesting position to be in...although I do find it noticeable that anime has a much easier time suspending reality as we know it than other genres. If you're more here for just the good sci-fi I'd suggest Gunbuster (1989, aka. Aim for the Top!) since it goes nuts for crazy space stuff on a scale I haven't really seen elsewhere. Galaxy destroying crazy.

 

[Katana314]

I understand that anime is simply an art genre, but I find myself not liking most of what's offered.

Recently someone did listen to the grievances I generally have with anime, and recommended GunGrave. It's not bad so far; the first episode takes place a long way into the future, whereas the next 10-? episodes give backstory as to how things came to be.

 

[GloatingSwine]

As to Macross, the only Macross I liked was the two-part feature "Macross Plus". Never got into Robotech or the rest of the Macross stuff. Macross Plus however is quite awesome, and works well as a stand-alone that doesn't require the viewer to have seen any other shows. Wicked music too.

Robotech is not Macross. Not at all. Please erase it from your memory, and wash your mouth out with soap.

Re: Studio Ghibli. Seen comments to the effect of Ghibli being part of Disney, false false false. Ghibli does release in America with Disney's help, Walt Disney Corporation has been providing the voice talents for the english dubs of all but one show. Ghibli made all the shows, no involvement from Disney. The one exception that Disney didn't touch was Mononoke Hime, which had a full Hollywood lineup for voice talent, including my personal favorites, Keith David and Gillian Anderson.

Actually, Disney did do Mononoke, they just released it under the Miramax name. It was after that that they handed executive control over their translations to John Lasseter at Pixar.

 

[Iron_will]

I love anime, my personal favourite is Shuffle!, well at least until the second season of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya comes out.

 

[Lungo]

Hey
I just wondering, why havent any of you mention Iriya's Sky, Summer of the UFO or Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya when you are talking about "great" and "the best anime shows"? are people just ignoreing Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya since they are finding it to wierd and dont people know about Iriya's Sky, Summer of the UFO?
Its short 6 ep show, but its so great mayde, so when it reach its end, you will end up sitting with a very strange felling in your stormach.
And a question for those who have talked about My-Hime. Have you seen the follow up for the series? Mai Otome and Mai Otome Zwei? If you havent, seen them. But if its some time since you have seen My-Hime, take you time and resee it, since when your are seeing Mai Otome you will finde many little funny comparisons which put a question mark to alot of things.

 

[ayoama]

Everything by Satoshi Kon is amazing

 

[Iron_will]

Hey
I just wondering, why havent any of you mention Iriya's Sky, Summer of the UFO or Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya when you are talking about "great" and "the best anime shows"? are people just ignoreing Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya since they are finding it to wierd and dont people know about Iriya's Sky, Summer of the UFO?
Its short 6 ep show, but its so great mayde, so when it reach its end, you will end up sitting with a very strange felling in your stormach.
And a question for those who have talked about My-Hime. Have you seen the follow up for the series? Mai Otome and Mai Otome Zwei? If you havent, seen them. But if its some time since you have seen My-Hime, take you time and resee it, since when your are seeing Mai Otome you will finde many little funny comparisons which put a question mark to alot of things.

I wasn't one of them.

 

[LordOmnit]

[A]re people just ignoring Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya since they are finding it to[o] w[ei]d[...]

I specifically did not.

Haruhi Suzumiya- girl is God and doesn't know it. Keep girl entertained or not exist. Thumbs up x 10

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Everything by Satoshi Kon is amazing

Abso-frakkin'-lutely! He does the best psychological thrillers (for lack of a better term) in anime.

 

[Spartanspork]

Bleach is most definately the best anime show i have ever seen, its amazing.

 

[SpiderLotus]

Murian, saw alot of cowboy bebop. Took me a while to get into it but it blows my mind now. The movie rocked. (the real folk blues does something to me that not many songs can)

I saw a handful of Bleach. Liked it but stopped rather early as I couldn't find the next episodes.

Anyone wanna recomend an Anime where 16 year olds aren't ridiculously powerfull? Seriously, Japan has some wierd ideas about youth (some wieeeerd ideas)

 

[WW]

Anyone wanna recomend an Anime where 16 year olds aren't ridiculously powerfull? Seriously, Japan has some wierd ideas about youth (some wieeeerd ideas)

Seriously, you aren't helping us here... you only sad "Recommend me some cool anime".

Now shape up and tell us what you want in it, one thing you just mentioned:
1. No OVERPOWERD kiddies.
2...

What else?

Bleach is most definately the best anime show i have ever seen, its amazing.

I pity you.

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

Not really a fan of that...stuff, anymore. Sorry, really don't have anything nice to say about it. My recommendation is that you don't watch it; you've seen one, you've then seen pretty much the flow of anime from the specific genre:spiky hair, big swords, happy go lucky attitude. That's just my opinion though.

 

[Wildcard6]

The favorite Anime is probably Miyazaki's: My Neighbor Totoro (for the kids, mostly), Laputa (US Title, Castle in the Sky), Princess Mononoke, Porko Rossa, and of course, Spirited Away. In most cases, the dubbed versions are top notch.

I'm also a huge fan of nearly everything Ghost in the Shell. I found the first movie to be sort of so-so (too much of my favorite stuff left out from the manga) but everything else amazes me. The Stand Alone Complex series' are both crazy good. I will admit they spend a lot of time talking about the meaning of life, but then there'll be a nice cyborg helicopter battle to mix things up. Awesome.

 

[broadband]

i keep myself entretained with stuff like genshiken and naruto these days, i have to search for it so i dont have time for easily check all the options.

oh and the complains about long screams, talking and stuff... well i think the problem with that is that a good numbers of animes are based on a manga and most cases the agument presented in every issue isnt long enough for a 30 mins episode so they try fill part of the time, or at least thats whative percieved

 

[LordOmnit]

[...]they try fill part of the time, or at least thats whative percieved

Despite having no qualms about throwing in random actual filler stuff into the mix for little apparent reason.

 

[Baroque]

My problem with anime games is that if they are in 3d they look so ugly. Trying to make a 2d character in 3d its like fail at the beginning, but if you make a 2d game it will work in the most cases.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

One of the things to consider when looking for new anime is the production company, since the production companies tend to stake out a stylistic territory and generate anime accordingly. For instance, I would expect anime coming out of Gonzo to feature lots of eye-candy and action, Bones tends toward clean, fluid animation and solid storytelling, and Gainax is half experiemental, half commercial.

These are broad generalizations of course, but if you really like a specific anime, take a look at who made it. You will probably notice a pattern developing, and that will help you decide whether to spend your time (and maybe your money, to torrent or not to torrent) on a title you don't know much about.

 

[Zera]

Anime is quite a fickled thing to get into. Every series is different in a distinct way, even if they seem similiar. I like a handful myself, but I find myself an manga person. And dont think because you saw one you have seen them all.

Anime:
Midori Days- a slice of life anime with a twist. No major problems here.
School days- a high scholl romance story gone horribly wrong( but horribly right for me)
When they cry- suspense and frights galore. Just dont try to make sense of the story adaptation too hard.
Bleach- great presentation and action. Unfortunetly its too plot driven and you can care less for half the characters. Great openings too
One piece- usually when a series goes for so long, it goes stale. This is the exception.
Death note: most original series in a long time. A lot of talking though

Manga:
Ral Grad: just started reading but great so far
Dragon Drive: Pretty generic, but improves over every volume
Roji and Muyho's BSI: A somewhat villian of the week story. cool artwork too.
Zombie Powder: Great series that died before its potential was reached.
Eyeshield 21: DO NOT IGNORE BECAUSE IT IS A SPORTS MANGA! Great stories, interesting characters, great action. I cant find any problems with it.

Thats just a few for now.

 

[Count_de_Monet]

Never read manga but I've watched a few Anime series.

I enjoyed Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Samurai X.

Watching all of Naruto out of an obsessive compulsive urge to finish off the series was quite possibly the biggest waste of my life in my long history of wasting my time because of obsessing over stupid crap.

I recently gave up on Bleach and realized I should have quit a couple dozen episodes ago.

Kenshin was pretty good in the beginning then it really lost me and it took effort to finish off the series.

I just watched Evangelion all the way through and while it was pretty good it was also pretty disappointing and I ended up just skipping the last two episodes and reading about them online so I could tie the whole story off without being bored to tears watching that crap.

I generally just watch what people tell me to watch. The only time I strayed from that was to watch Ghost in the Shell and 2nd gig which I found completely by accident and quickly became entirely engrossed in.