likalaruku said:
I grew up on anime with rampant nudity & gory bodily explosions. I just can't take the carefree nature & simplistic style of Naruto seriously. I've also had it up to here with moe.
I'm an oldschool anime veteran from back in the days when nobody watched anime, & Naruto brought in a lot of new fans who won't watch classics. For me, the series is representational of both the end of anime as an exclusionary little-known ultra geek interest, & just something that shows off how anime has not changed for the better since the 90s ended.
Lastly, most Naruto fans seem to be raging Weeabos; an embarrassing phase I went through myself. I know.....that sounds really shallow, bitter, & elitist.
I take it you're familiar with Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Or at least should be by what you're saying. And because everyone should see his movies for the sheer ludicrous nature of them.
Oh and everyone should look up the publishing company Discotek. Their entire business practice is to just pick up lapsed licenses of 70's and 80's anime, print them to dvd and throw them out there. Maybe clean up the video quality a bit while they're at it.
I don't even have much to contribute to the topic since it's been covered pretty well by everyone here, but I can give some recommendations.
The Holy Trinity of Shonen Grand-daddies - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Fist of the North Star, DragonBall.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - It's a bit hard to explain this series, the first and second parts concern the Joestar lineage doing battle with vampires using a fighting style that channels the life energy of the sun to melt them with their fists. Later on to separate itself from shonen it got a bit more grown up in style and changed vampires vs martial arts to the ludicrously specific powered Stands, psychic manifestations of the user's will. The most fabulous manga and anime ever made, it can fairly accurately be described as the metrosexual Fist of the North Star. Also, ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAAA!
Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken - Probably the forefather to every shonen ever since. Think Mad Max but Bruce Lee instead of Mel Gibson, the first twenty episodes were filler but there is something very enjoyable about seeing Kenshiro making people explode from his punches or kicking their thighs in in a way that makes them walk into lava.
DragonBall - Akira Toriyama's delightful and light-hearted take on the Journey to the West, also energy blasts, Bulma's boobs, and martial arts tournaments. Much better characterization and pacing than the followup series.
Gundam: The 08th MS Team - Romeo and Juliet in Vietnam with falling apart mechs. There are no enemy aces or gundams, only sweet sweet GM on Zaku action and the scariest Gouf in existence. Probably the best Gundam OVA ever made.
Space Pirate Captain Harlock - MOTHERFUCKIN HARLOCK! Literal space pirates, as in Spanish galleons that sail in space and there's guys with laser dueling pistols and rapiers. Fighting dictatorships and wooing the ladies with stoicism.
Ninja Scroll - Yoshiaki Kawajiri's most tame movie, it's about a wanderer named Jubei who winds up fighting a series of "ninja" (read: demons). It's... a little hard to describe, but if this movie doesn't phase you look up Wicked City, Doomed Megalopolis, and Goku the Midnight Eye.
Baoh - Another work of Hirohiko Araki (Creator of JoJo) it is about a young man infected with a weaponized virus that turns him into the fearsome Baoh, a humanoid monster that can melt faces with his hand, shoot lightning, eject blades from his forearms and, melt faces with his hair. He's helping a young girl with psychic powers from being abducted from the same organization that injected him with the bioweapon.
