First Anime (Sortof)

[AugustFall]

Oh lord don't do dubbed, 90% of the time it has disgusting voice actors. Just watch the subs it's less painful on the ears.
Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Code Geass are all great.


Edit: Oh yeah, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Darker then Black.

 

[LightspeedJack]

Death Note, although I'm only a few episodes in but I don't think it's very action-packed so go elsewhere if you want balls to the wall action. I wouldn't start with a long running series like DragonBall Z because they are extremley long and they're are lots of filler episodes. As far as the subbed/dubbed debate I usually watch them dubbed because it's just easier unless the dub is particularly bad or if they change lots of stuff.

 

[wolf92]

See some dubs are good, Like FMA: Brotherhood and Rurouni Kenshin. Some are terrible, like Naruto (Shudders)
I recommend Death Note, G Gundam, and Bakuman, when it comes out later this fall.

 

[micky]

afro samurai is one of my favorites, you should try it out. (there was this one show about a rich guy with a giant robot but i cant remember it)

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

Gunsmith Cats is short but entertaining

 

[Altorin]

start at the beginning - Astroboy.

 

[Nannernade]

Well for action not relating to demons and such I'd say Cowboy Bebop or Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

For a comedy I'd strongly recommend Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl

 

[USSR]

Wait, did you imply you didn't want to watch bleach, or was it FMA?

Bleach I can understand, but FMA: Brotherhood..
That is a beautifully made anime.
(I put Brotherhood because it follows the manga strictly..)

 

[Lullabye]

Akira...

I concur.

BUt that's a movie, and he needs some long term exposure. May I suggest Soul Eater?

 

[drdamo]

I'd start with an anime that isn't a spinoff from a manga, simply because you'll end up watching 100-300+ episodes and counting.
I'd say take something like Samurai Champloo, Ghost in The Shell, Full Metal Alchemist, Trigun or Last Exile. But thats just me.

I tried watching DBZ, Bleach, Naruto & One Piece, but i got bored from the fillers (if an anime is based on a manga and the anime cought up on the actual story, they need to make up new stories untill the manga has a new arc and those fillers are usually not as good as the original story).

Just visit http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=genren and add or exclude what you want to see and you'll end up with animes of your liking.

 

[CosmicCommander]

I'm pointing you over to the only anime I've ever liked.

Paranoia Agent.

It's several hours of continuous, animated brilliance.

...So...

...Yeah.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Salior moon.

What? The theme song had me hooked.


"Fighting evil by moonlight..."

 

[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.

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

Don't get me wrong, FLCL is awesome, but it's also very, very insane, to the degree that it might be off-putting to people new to anime.

 

[Sentox6]

Cowboy Bebop is a good recommendation, although it's not as "fun" as ATLA. On the other hand, if you don't mind something somewhat darker, Black Lagoon is great. Both of those actually have superior english dubs, imho (you may think otherwise). My approach is usually to watch the english dub (if available) first and see if I can stand the voices or not. If not, I watch it subbed. I find the attitude of "sub is always superior" to be a little strange. After all, how do you know if the Japanese voice acting you're listening to is good or bad? It's more a case of ignorance is bliss, I think.

Even if you don't much go for the spiritual stuff, the first three seasons of Bleach are excellent. Can't stand the english dub on this one, though.

As far as movies go... Sword of the Stranger is a good one.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Hellsing Ultimate, Death Note, Bakemonogatari, Baccano! and Trigun are great to start.
Watch the dub for Baccano and (maybe) Trigun.
Also: Sword of the Stranger is a pretty good movie.
Edit: I forgot Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Shamploo. Both are great starters.

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

The question if what kind of movies do you like watching?

The mainstream anime are things like Pokemon, Yugioh, Dragonball, Naruto, Bleach

I guess an all rounder would be full metal panic - it's generally light love comedy with a storyline, gundams, action, and other stuff.

There are better ones, but you have to decide what you want. My ex I managed to get to watch School rumble and Ouran host club.

If you're for a love comedy from the point of a guy you can try Love Hina (that's what I really started watching as a first anime), though after a while you'll see all the things from it are repeated time and time again.

If you're for mystery go watch Death note or Code Geass.

If you're for gundam, go watch gundam or Evangelion. If you're for

If you're for extra creepyness/mindfuckery, go watch Higurashi no naku koro ni, Narutaru, Elfen Lied, Welcome to the NHK.

If all else fails, go watch Ebichu, the housekeeping hamster.

Edit: PS I prefer sub (no dub), because the voice actors sound more in character, enthusiastic and real in general. Plus they stay the same no matter which group subbed it, AND they come out earlier.

Edit Edit: Sure feels like /a/ in here.

 

[superline51]

One of my all time favorites is Cowboy Bebop. And I mostly always watch anime subbed, but the English voice acting for Bebop is top notch.

 

[CatsAttackAgain]

school days was my first anime (silently crys)

 

[EBHughsThe1st]

The original Dragonball.
*sigh* I miss the days when Launch existed and Yajirobe was important.

 

[Satin6T]

I'm pointing you over to the only anime I've ever liked.

Paranoia Agent.

It's several hours of continuous, animated brilliance.

...So...

...Yeah.

so much win