No Right Answer: Attack on Attack on Titan

[Vigormortis]

I'll go with two for now. One that's recommended quite often and one that's not recommended enough.

1) FLCL

2) Shin Chan

Both are as madcap as you could possibly want. (probably more so) Both are incredibly stupid yet oddly endearing. Both have very good localizations. Both have a sense of humor that may appeal to Dan's tastes.

If I can think of another[footnote]That's not Cowboy Bebop.[/footnote], I'll edit my post.

Spoiler: For now, it's time to party!

FLCL has quite a few of those annoying typical Japanese anime tropes (saying someone's name and then pausing, like they were about to say something, but they don't, it's just STUPID, WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY GODDA-) However, it is so energetic, so varied and so short (6 episodes) that I couldn't help having fun while watching it. I don't know if the english dub is any good though, since the Belgian version only had the French dub (which I didn't listen to, because French dubs always suck, anime or no).

To be fair, FLCL was practically a parody of the standard anime tropes that have become so prevalent. It was making fun of them as it actively used them to further the narrative.

As for the English dub, it's pretty good. It's not perfect (what dub is?) but it's miles better than most.

 

[SilverUchiha]

Suggestions? I've said it before and I'll say it again: Deathnote and Bakuman. Two series made by the same artist/writer duo and both do enough interesting things where they still stand out as some of my favorite anime/manga. That said, Deathnote is probably the better of the two as Bakuman tends to have more of the common anime tropes. Both are still fantastic in a lot of fun ways, but Deathnote gets my recommend. And while I know it isn't "actual anime" I'm also throwing the entire Avatar Series (Airbender and Korra) into the mix because I still have yet to find an "actual anime" that I like better than that series in terms of characters, stories, and animation.

OT: I tried to like Attack on Titan. I got into it because of the abridged episode they did. But my issue is that once the anime ended, I wanted to know what happened next. And I saw the manga was well ahead of the anime. Like with Naruto, I just read the manga instead. But you know what? It's too long. I don't normally make a big deal about that, but each chapter and each exchange of dialogue or narration feels really long and tedious. The plot twists get old after a while and I just stopped reading/caring. It's a show with an interesting premise that I just got bored of when things slowed down... a lot. For a person who does not typically like anime or an anime newb, I would not recommend Attack On Titan.

 

[Strife2GFAQs]

Ghost Stories

They scrapped the original concept and just wrote whatever stupid comedy **** they wanted ala Shin-Chan

And DO NOT WATCH ENDLESS EIGHT! BARF!

 

[Pickapok]

Black Lagoon, Baccano, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gankutsuou: the Count of Monte Cristo, Ouran High School Host Club, MONSTER

But out of that group, Black Lagoon and Monster are absolute must sees. One for the crazy over the top gun fights and the other for the chilling psychological thrills.

 

[ImBigBob]

Alright, here are my anime recommendations:

Death Note - a high school student finds a notebook that will kill anyone whose name is written in it. Proceeds to start ridding the world of criminals.
Sgt. Frog - a kid's show about a squadron of alien frogs that try to take over the world (but they're really bad at it). The English dub is hilarious. Kind of a Japanese Invader Zim.
Spirited Away - My favorite Miyazaki movie, go see it.

 

[jaibryan]

baccano, it's like a tarantino movie in anime form.

 

[Keji Goto]

Attack on Titan was terrible in my opinion. It has a great premise then proceeds to do next to nothing with it and squanders all the potential the series has within the first season. 25 episodes and so little is accomplished that it is beyond irritating to sit and watch not to mention pretty much every character goes through the same internal monologue that somehow is justified as character development.

"Oh no the titans are here! I'm so scared! I'm gonna die! But if I die then everyone else will die too! I have to fight them! But if I fight them I could die..." And that continues on for a few minutes before they ultimately decide to go ahead and fight. I get that a lot of people would be going through the same thing but the audience doesn't need to experience it with every character to get the point, especially characters we spend next to no time with and don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Another massive issue is things happening off screen which completely change the situation the audience is watching. The characters all know what happened yet they pretend like it didn't happen (such as Eren mastering his transformation) only to have the writer suddenly pull the cover off the audience's head to reveal that the big build up was all for not. Typically this happens during the time skips and I learned that anytime there was a time skip something important happened that I wouldn't find out about until a few episodes later.

Then there is the issue of giving the audience something that is incredibly interesting and vastly important only to get caught up on minor things which don't matter at all. I want to know about the armored titan and colossal titan, I don't care about seeing what every single character is up to and how they are going to overcome their fear and fight just like everyone else. The season finale is a massive squandering because it reveals something that is so freaking obvious (the female titan), leaves everything else unanswered, and then raises even more questions with the reveal that titans are actually inside the walls.

After watching the first season I have zero desire to continue on with this series. The premise and world are interesting but the story telling, character development, and portrayal of action are so bad that it kills any interest I had. To this day I can't figure out what people see in this series and why it is such a massive hit.

 

[medv4380]

I can say definitively you're not going to like any anime ever because you're already in the business of localization, and you're going to be irritated that something wasn't localized "your way".

A lot of anime fans don't like your way of localizing. The biggest problem comes in when you arbitrarily drop the honorifics. English honorifics like Sir, Master, and Mister don't have the same logical connection that chan, senpi, and kun do. So you drop them, or you put Mister, or Mam in. It breaks a lot of the older dubs because there was no way to logically localize it, but it conveys important meaning between characters. It's a lot better when a writer creates a new word for his new world, like 3D Gear, to keep it. Localizing something to something we understand that wasn't something that was a real word in the original language breaks the localization. It's like localizing Supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus. You don't localize fictional words to real words.

That being said I would recommend some anime for Gamers, and people who like Attack on Titan.

Psyco Pass is good if you're into the more mature content of Titan, but also like the CIS style of story. You get some very well done procedural stories, and a very dark serial story. The first season is already out, and the second season is coming soon.

Sword Art Online is good. The novels are just coming out in English. The first one covers the main story, and has a lot of time skips to gloss over what most would consider filler. The second book covers short stories that would be that filler. The first half of the first season covers the first two books. The writer had to cut up the book into two books because of weird rules in publishing light novels. The second half of the first season covers a second ark that brings the original story to a stopping point. There is a second season that is now airing, but it's like the 5th book and has some of the old characters, but is a new ark. Kinda like watching the next James bond movie. You don't really need to have watched or read the past stuff to enjoy the second season. If you liked the premise of Dot Hack, but wanted something more believable and more mature this will cover it.

Log Horizon is like Sword Art Online, and Dot Hack, but completely different. The first season is good if you stop after the big reveal. Don't watch anything with the caravel until after the second season picks up. Which is soon. The carnival is like reading The Return of the King. The high points already been hit, but the author seems intent on drawing out the ending. It's not as dark as Sword Art, or Psyco Pass, but in some ways it's much better, and is better at hiding its hand to the audiance. I can't tell if Log Horizon is a bunch of people trapped in a game, or if they're trapped in an actual real world. In sword art and dot hack it was always clear that it was people trapped in the actual game servers.

Finally
No Game No Life. It's hilarious, and take the Hikikimori welcomed to a world run by The God of Games. I'm not sure if it will have a second season any time soon, but it does end at an acceptable high point in the story and doesn't drag things out too much. Watch up to Episode 7.

For the Empty Headed Academics I can only say I have nothing for you, but Combs Force.

 

[punipunipyo]

Localization? you mean Dub? I think Slayers(please ONLY watch the first/second series; rest are crap... few movies are good... I think...) I think... Tenchi is pretty nice, again... ONLY WATCH THE first series on this one; rest is crap... I don't watch dub... fansub is the ONLY way.... and currently, I watch Haikyuu!! (volleyball anime); it's soooooo good.... I don't even like volleyball! you should come to the fansub-way it's the ONLY WAY~~~

 

[Mister K]

You guys should try Cowboy Bebop and Baccano!.
First one was mentioned many times already, so I'll just briefly say that it's about bounty hunters in future in space. Quite jazzy.

Second one is a bit hard to describe without spoiling, but mix 1930s american mobs with alchemists, immortals and eccentric thieves and you'll get this mad coctail. Mind, that it went to Pulp Fiction school of storytelling and episodes aren't set in chronological order.

Oh, also Ghost in the Shell. Main characters costume in first season aside, it is pretty darn great cyberpunk series.

EDIT: also works by Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon.

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

Don't be honest, I didn't really like this episode, I thought you were going to talk about the actual criticisms of the show, although you did talk about the slow pacing, but it focused way too much on the localization which in my opinion, wasn't really a problem, sorry guys, it came across as too nit-picky.

In terms of anime recommendations, Hunter x Hunter 2011, yes it's a shounen, but it's more strategic and psychological in its fights, a solid and well developed battle system and likeable characters. Only problem is that the start is very slow, but after the first couple of arcs, the series really picks up, plus first 100 episodes are on Netflix to check out. In terms of sci-fi/romance, Steins;s Gate, another personal favourite and for a psychological thriller, there's Monster. Also should of went for Brotherhood instead of FMA, Dan, it's much better, plus I agree with Chris, Outlaw Star is better and to be honest, I didn't really like Behop, it's OK, but after hearing how great it is and finally watching it, I just thought, "Really, that's it?". I guess people just always recommend it, because it's got a good dub, but that's all it's got going for it, everything else about it is really...meh.

Watch the Endless 8 episodes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya if you want to really experience nothing happening in an anime.

*shivers* Can't believe I watched it all, biggest waste of my time.

 

[archabaddon]

I wanted a debate, not a six minute rant.

 

[And Man]

FLCL, Steins;Gate, and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt are all awesome. Steins;Gate has a bit of a slow start with the first few episodes, so it might not exactly fit your criteria, but it has a pretty great story and involves some of the best time traveling I've seen other than Primer. FLCL might be a bit too "anime" for you, but I have to recommend it. Just keep in mind that pretty much everything in it is a metaphor, and you might get more out of it.

 

[4rch1m3d35]

Baccano!

Let me sell it to you Dan.

1. It is short, that a lot stuff happens in less episodes so no wasted time.

2. It comes from a light novel instead of a manga, this means it is story focused and better writen.

3. It is well localized, it is steeped in 1930's Americana in the light novel and anime so when it was localized there was not a lot of weird Japanese stuff and the localizers took advantage of that.

4. It is not about High schoolers, I think that explains it's self.

5. The voice acting in the dub is good, I am assuming you want a dub.

6. It has an ending, too many anime don't have this and it can be annoying.

7. The animation is well done.

 

[Nero-Inferno]

The Devil is a Part Timer:
It's a great 13 episode anime that doesn't over stay it's welcome, each episode stands out and expands on characters or fleshes out the universe. It also doesn't throw the whole cast at you in the first episode, gives them all screen time to make you understand their motivations, their unique personalties and designs that you won't give you game of thrones syndrome. Lastly there are enough big events in the series that give the plot weight but balances out with the right amount of breathing room as to not overwhelm you. Also I guess if this helps the series was over shadowed when it first came out by attack on titan so please at least give it two episodes to see if it grabs you the same way it did me.

 

[firelightning1]

I recommend Black Lagoon. It has action in every episode good characters and it doesn't have characters walk for miles to have 10 second conversation about the fight they're going to have.

 

[Archmike]

Best localized Anime... Samurai Pizza Cats.

All of the yes! ^_^

Also Haiyore Nyaruko-san is a work of genius

 

[porpoise hork]

Mushi-shi is a good one, but it's more episodic and doesn't have a real overarching story. Each episode is very well written.

Mushi-Shi was just too repetitive for my tastes. It seemed that each episode was a glorified wash rinse repeat of the previous one with no real direction for Ginko. I am a huge fan of Ergo Proxy Very compelling story and each one serves to the final conclusion as Re-l and Vincent work to discover the truth about humanity.

 

[flying_whimsy]

I have so many things to say about anime and manga, but really I just wanted to throw in a recommendation that no one else has put out there:

Kino's Journey

Great dub, good story, good pacing, and surprisingly deep. It's a show I watch every once in a while to remind myself that anime can still be good.

 

[Ruisu]

Erm...

I don't think I got this episode point, the first two minutes or so kind of talk about why he didn't like the anime, but then he just goes on about localization problems. I didn't watch any episode on crunchyroll (or readed the manga in any similar legal site either), so I mostly got everything fan-subbed and didn't really noticed anything awful about that part.

But back in topic, Dan seems to have issues with the pacing of the second half? I could agree there are some, but I don't think it is enough to say the anime itself it's "terrible". If anything is somewhat overhyped I guess.

what I mean is that this episode felt too shallow.