First Anime (Sortof)

[Kuroneko97]

I know a few animes with characters that you should recognize.

Powerpuff Girls Z, which is basically the same as the american version, except they're three ordinary girls that can transform into Powerpuff Girls Z. There's also Sonic X, which is an anime for the Sonic series, and Hoshi no Kaabii(Kirby), an anime for the Kirby series.

Sonic X and Hoshi no Kaabii have been dubbed, but by the worst company for anime dubbing, 4Kids. The Kirby dub is O.K., but I haven't seen the Sonic X one. Another anime I saw while getting into anime is Tokyo Mew Mew. It involves aliens as the enemy, but they appear in a human-like form, so you might like it.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I've been meaning to watch Cowboy Bebop for a long time, but I can't find it anywhere with subs, and I can't stand the dub for it.

The region 1 dvds I have for it have the original soundtrack but I bought them a while ago so I have no idea if they are rare. I wouldn't want to watch any foreign show with english dubs now but when I first watched it, it did the job.

 

[Trivun]

My personal first was Elfen Lied, but although I loved it (and it still ranks as one of my personal favourites), it may be a little heavy for a first-timer, mainly because of the over-exposure of gore, and the rampant fanservice. Both of which I liked personally, but still...

As others have said, Death Note would be a good choice. Otherwise, depending on your favourite genre of TV show or cartoon, just pick the first one from your favourite genre that you hear about and go for it. There is no ideal place to start watching anime. Just go from wherever you want and wherever you feel okay with it. After all, anime is nothing more than the exact same as US or UK cartoons like Family Guy, The Simpsons, or the like. The only difference is the art style and the original language, after all (yet despite this hard truth my brother still makes fun of me for watching anime even though he loved Pokemon as a kid and watches various US animated series anyway...).

As far as subbed or dubbed go, I highly recommend you watch shows dubbed where possible. The reason is basically that subtitles mean you have to pay more attention to what's at the bottom of the screen than what the characters are doing, so you miss a lot because of having to read the subtitles. If I wanted to read the dialogue I'd go out and read manga instead. Seriously, dubbing is much better. People will complain that most anime has really bad dubbing, but that's something I've hardly seen, and in the very few cases I have heard bad dubbing it's still been infinitely preferable to missing half the action because of reading the subtitles...

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Well, depends what you're looking for I guess. You'll have to be at least a BIT specific, but for the moment I can offer you a range of suggestions:

*The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
*Cowboy Bebop
*Shakugan no Shana
*Last Exile
*Gankutsuou
*Neon Genesis Evangelion
*Vision of Escaflowne
*RahXephon
*Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
*Trigun
*CLANNAD
*Read Or Die TV series
*Vandread
*Fate/stay night
*Cromartie High School
*Full Metal Panic
*Paradise Kiss

Or if a full TV series is a bit much for you to commit to at once, I can suggest a range of EXTREMELY good movies and OAVs (Original Animation Videos, 2-6 episode series released straight to video, now more accurately called OADs):

*AKIRA
*Ghost in the Shell
*Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
*Project A-ko
*Millenium Actress
*Macross Plus
*KARAS
*Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
*Princess Mononoke
*Spirited Away
*Laputa: Castle in the Sky
*Castle of Cagliostro
*Memories
*Armitage III
*FLCL
*Read Or Die OAV (required viewing before you watch the TV series)

I personally guarantee that all of these anime are 8/10s on my personal scale. Many are 9/10s, several are perfect 10/10s. These are all available in official release too, so they're not hard to find.

Okay, good suggestions all, I think I'll start um... aquiring some of them... uhm..

What about the dubbed vs sub thing? Not really getting much feedback in that department.

Sub is almost always better, but there are a few anime that are decently subbed. From experience I know that Hellsing, Welcome to the NHK, Ghost in the Shell, Trigun, and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing have decent dubs, but I still prefer subs for all anime (a lot of the time Dubs in anime convey emotion incorrectly).

As a rule fo thumb, dubbing can work if the characters in the setting would be reasonably be expected to be actually SPEAKING ENGLISH. While it's fine for a series like Cowboy Bebop and in some cases BETTER than Japanese (Hellsing, for example is set in ENGLAND so it makes sense that people would be speaking in English) any series set for example in a Japanese high school should not be watched dubbed. Japanese is a funny language and plays a major identifying role in their culture- english equivalents to japanese honourifics ("-san" does NOT automatically translate to "Mr") simply don't work. Besides, only 1 in 1000 actors can sucessfully do an english voice for a japanese schoolgirl.

Personally I'm a sub purist, but that's just me.

 

[DSK-]

My first was Tenchi Muyo on SciFi way back when. It was me trying to look for that anime again that got me into watching anime actively (I didn't know it was anime until I looked it up).

I prefer to watch it in Japanese, with English subs. The amount of emotion that the VA's put into their at times is astounding. I cringe at the efforts of English dubs.

The only anime I have ever enjoyed watching in English dubs was Tenchi Muyo, Dominion Tank Police and Gundam Wing.

 

[Ossian]

edit. Wait a tick, you don't like spiritual stuff but you like Avatar: The Last Airbender?.........Hmmm.

Everyone dabbles in hypocrisy.
I always took to heart the first episode where Katara exclaimed how bending wasn't magic, so I never gave it much thought. Besides that it was just deep characters despite the targeting towards younger viewers, and just great fights without centering around them (see yogioh/pokemon)

 

[Naheal]

Okay, good suggestions all, I think I'll start um... aquiring some of them... uhm..

What about the dubbed vs sub thing? Not really getting much feedback in that department.

Subs vs dubs really depend on when it came out. In older anime, most dubbing companies would butcher the shit out of the localization (I'm looking at you three, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, and Pokemon). Also, some companies (4kids) have a tendency to dumb down the references to Japanese culture and gear it more towards children. Really, now, it makes little difference.

Ones I would recommend for your view, but work best as dubs, would be Code Geass, as it centers around the takedown of a British empire, and Black Lagoon, as the creators have specifically stated previously that it was intended to be in English, but was done in Japanese for convenience sake.

Recommended anime and reasons:

Black Lagoon. It centers around a small pirate company in modern day and their typical job undertakings when dealing with the Russian mob, Yakuza, and Triad.

 

[Satin6T]

man guys
FLCL is best answer ever cuz it's soooo randomtastic

i also would like to say Trigun, DBZ, Outlaw star, and Love hina(if ur into romantic bs)

If you're going to watch DBZ, you might as well watch Dragon Ball Z Kai. It's a remastered version of Dragon Ball Z which removes the filler, so you don't have to sit through 7 episodes watching a guy power up while screaming at the top of his lungs.

I disagree, i cant stand to watch it
the voices are too bad
but if you've never watched the original i guess it could be fine

plus the filler is epic sometimes

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Deathnote.
However the story starts to decline in quality about halfway through.

Or Bleach. The first few series are pretty good. It starts to get OTT though.

 

[Dapper Ninja]

man guys
FLCL is best answer ever cuz it's soooo randomtastic

FLCL isn't exactly something you'd recommend to someone getting into anime.

I'd suggest Cowboy Bebop or Trigun.

 

[Satin6T]

man guys
FLCL is best answer ever cuz it's soooo randomtastic

FLCL isn't exactly something you'd recommend to someone getting into anime.

I'd suggest Cowboy Bebop or Trigun.

again i disagree, with only 6 episodes in it you dont sink too many episodes into it, it has an amazing dub, and it has a quirky sense of humor

 

[fr3lance]

1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood would be a excellent place to start, both the sub and dub were excellent
2.Rurouni Kenshin would be good if you're interested in samurai, personally i couldn't stand the dub but found the subbed version to be enjoyable
3.Darker than Black if you want an anime set in modern day with sci-fi elements

 

[Satin6T]

man guys
FLCL is best answer ever cuz it's soooo randomtastic

i also would like to say Trigun, DBZ, Outlaw star, and Love hina(if ur into romantic bs)

If you're going to watch DBZ, you might as well watch Dragon Ball Z Kai. It's a remastered version of Dragon Ball Z which removes the filler, so you don't have to sit through 7 episodes watching a guy power up while screaming at the top of his lungs.

I disagree, i cant stand to watch it
the voices are too bad
but if you've never watched the original i guess it could be fine

plus the filler is epic sometimes

The voices are perfectly fine in the sub, I have no idea what you're talking about.

oh in the sub, i wouldn't know
i watched the dubbed version and gohans voice was soooooooo bad

 

[DarkBlaze6]

I recommend Cowboy Bebop, which is excellently voiced by both the Japanese and American voice actors so it's really a matter of whether or not you want to spend your time reading.

I also recommend Berserk, but only if you aren't easily depressed. Berserk does have fantasy elements to it, and the show is way shorter than the source material it's based on. Oh, and it does have extremely depressing moments to it, but I love the story of it a lot. Again, finely voice acted on both sides of the equation.

 

[Casual Shinji]

edit. Wait a tick, you don't like spiritual stuff but you like Avatar: The Last Airbender?.........Hmmm.

Everyone dabbles in hypocrisy.
I always took to heart the first episode where Katara exclaimed how bending wasn't magic, so I never gave it much thought. Besides that it was just deep characters despite the targeting towards younger viewers, and just great fights without centering around them (see yogioh/pokemon)

Well, as long as they don't use midichlorians, nano-machines or some other cop-out explanation for their power. That's the one thing I've always hated about anime and manga; the whole "I have no chakra/spirit power left, so now I am useless" shtick.

 

[Ossian]

Lol I'm plowing through wikipedia articles and summaries. I'm a huge Sci fi fan, things like Firefly and StarGate are of my favorite shows. Looking forward to cowboy bebop.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Just starting?
I'll go with everyone else and say Cowboy Bebop. Not just a great way to start anime, but a great anime PERIOD. Death Note is the same. At least one Gundam series. Personal recomendation; G Gundam. Probably the most simple of the Gundams, and very entertaining.

After a few series?
If you get into anime, I personally recomend One Piece. But avoid the first english dub AT ALL COSTS. The second/uncut dub is great, and get my highest recomendations, but not the first dub! Or just go subs, since dubs only go to certian point.

 

[DarkBlaze6]

To be fair, it's 4kid's dub of it that was terrible. When funimation got the rights to it and re-dubbed it, it ended up being pretty good.

 

[Blackality]

I started with Death Note and it's still my favorite.

But ALWAYS watch in Japanese!

 

[Talvrae]

Akira...